Trithemius Sui Ipsius Vindex

Trithemius, His Own Defender, or an apologetic defense of the Steganography of the man Johannes Trithemius, first of Sponheim, [unclear].

Johannes Trithemius

Ingolstadt, 1616

[unclear]

Johannes Trithemius, first Abbot of Sponheim, and afterward Abbot of St. James in the suburb of Würzburg. Very learned in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters. Poet, orator, philosopher, theologian; most accomplished master of natural magic, as, among his other writings, the Steganography and the Polygraphy especially teach.

He was born in the village of Trittenheim on the banks of the river Moselle, in the diocese of Trier, in the year 1462. He died at last in the year 1516, before completing the fifty-fourth year of his age, on the very day sacred to St. Lucy, not without the grief and lamentation of nobles, princes, and all learned men.

Trithemius, His Own Defender, or an apologetic defense of the Steganography of the most reverend, most learned, and most ingenious man Johannes Trithemius, first Abbot of Sponheim and afterward most worthy Abbot of St. James in the suburb of Würzburg.

Collected almost entirely from Trithemius himself and made public.

By the most reverend and most religious father, most eminent prelate and lord, Lord Sigismund, Abbot of the celebrated monastery of Seeon in Bavaria, of the Order of St. Benedict.

At the end has been added a Fragment of Questions by the same Trithemius.

With the permission of the superiors.

Ingolstadt, from the Ederian Press, at the house of Elisabeth Angermaria, widow, in the year 1616.

On Trithemius, His Own Defender After Death.

Is this how we refuse to let the buried shades find rest, and do not allow the pious ashes to lie softly? Trithemius is said to have practiced the ill-omened arts of Erebus, and to have worshiped gods whom it is not lawful to worship. Yet mighty Trithemius stands with noble weapons, and himself vindicates himself from his own reputation. Surely uprightness has no need of foreign arms, for it holds strong weapons enough within itself. Most beautiful virtue has no need of raised camps; it is enough for it not to have lain too deeply hidden. Yet scarcely, Trithemius, do you wash away the arts falsely charged against you, nor by this art do you escape the stain of a dreadful name. For he whose ashes, whose urn, we have known, who now lies in his own tomb, an ancient shade, will he again go, as if alive, against hostile enemies, and wage posthumous wars with unconquered hand? Will he again stand, a bony Mars, in noble arms? Who would not say that this man was a great magus?

To the Reader.

It may perhaps seem strange to someone that I, entangled in domestic affairs, having long since drawn my mind away from the most beautiful studies of the liberal arts, should now suddenly set aside the throngs of business and undertake to defend the cause of Johannes Trithemius, a man long ago removed from human life, more than ninety-nine years ago. But if he weighs more deeply the reason for my plan, he will say not only that I am doing nothing foreign to my purpose, but also that for very just reasons I have descended into this apologetic writing.

In the year 1499 Johannes Trithemius composed, and then some years afterward dedicated to Philip, Count Palatine, Elector Prince and Duke of Bavaria, at whose urging and encouragement he had begun this work, or, as Johannes Duraclusius says, to Joachim, Margrave of Brandenburg, Elector Prince, that wonderful and laborious work, the Steganography. In that book he hands down a most certain art of safely and securely revealing the intention of one’s mind to absent persons through hidden writing.

And lest so great and important a secret should come to the ears of the unskilled common people or of wicked men, he assigns the offices, ranks, distinctions, properties, prayers, and various operations of spirits of every kind, through whose intelligences all the secrets of this science are closed and opened.

Some men were offended by such operations and names of spirits; among them there were also very grave, very learned, and very religious men, who, taking the words as they sound, conceived some evil and unfavorable suspicion of Trithemius, silently thinking that the said books had been written against the principles of natural philosophy, were utterly full of superstition, were packed with forbidden magic, and for that very reason should be reckoned among the books prohibited by the Church. To them I, so that charity may be preserved within the household

in familiar conversation, and in disputation I always resisted it with all my strength, I thought that I would do a service pleasing both to the sacred Benedictine Order and not foreign to my own purpose, if I undertook to defend so great a man, Trithemius, so well deserving of the Catholic Church itself, a religious man defending a religious man, an abbot defending an abbot, orally and in writing, from so great a stain and disgrace. Added to this is that for this apologetic defense I have taken nothing, or very little, of my own, but almost everything from Trithemius himself, so that so great and learned a man, Trithemius, might seem not to need my help, being sufficiently strong with his own sword and destined himself to be the avenger of his own innocence.

And so, that it may more readily appear who Trithemius was and how far removed he was from all superstition, I shall first bring forward the letter of Johannes Duraclusius, his disciple, to Nicolaus Hamerius of Emmerich, setting forth the life and writings of Trithemius; then a few words on behalf of the author of the Steganographia and its third book; finally, those things which Trithemius himself, as though not unaware of what was to come, published here and there throughout his books in defense of his Steganographia.

From all these things it will shine forth clearer than light that Johannes Trithemius was not a magician, but a most obedient, most submissive, and most humble son of the Church, and that all the things he wrote in the Steganographia are supported by physical and natural principles, and therefore are by no means to be condemned under the name of forbidden magic. Read, friendly reader; weigh, and judge. Farewell.

Apologetic Defense of the Steganographia of the Very Reverend, Very Learned, and Likewise Most Ingenious Man, Johannes Trithemius, Abbot of Sponheim.

Johannes Trithemius, abbot, was born in the village of Trittenheim, in the diocese of Trier, on the banks of the river Moselle, on the first day of February, at eleven-thirty in the afternoon, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 1462, in the tenth Roman indiction; his father was Johannes de Heidenberg, and his mother was called Elisabeth of Long Village, namely in the year in which the city of Mainz, captured in the defense of two pontiffs, lost its liberty and found servitude, with many of its citizens driven into exile; in the fourth year of Pope Pius, the second of that name, and the twenty-second of Emperor Frederick III.

But in the year of the Lord 1482, in the monastery of Sponheim in the diocese of Mainz, on the first day of February, the very day on which he had once been born, he laid aside the secular habit and took up the monastic habit under the rule of our holy Father Benedict, according to the observance newly introduced there. In the following year, 1483, after Johannes de Colenhusen, the abbot, had been transferred by canonical postulation to Seligenstadt, Johannes Trithemius, by the common election of the brethren, was promoted and adorned as abbot of the said monastery of Sponheim on the fourth day before the Kalends of July, and presided for twenty-three years, one month, and nineteen days. When these had passed, not without many labors, provoked by the rashness of certain rivals, he accepted the abbey of St. James at Würzburg, which was being offered to him, and of his own free will resigned Sponheim, which was full of useless cares.

In both places he wrote many little works, of which he recently gave me the following list in his own hand on a sheet. Since you, as a friend, ask me for their titles, I gladly agree to your wishes, so that from considering such great labors of his you may hold more closely the memory of our common friend and teacher.

And first I shall record the titles of those writings which he laboriously composed while he was abbot at Sponheim.

First he wrote:

The Constitutions of His Order, Which Were Made in the Provincial Chapters by Command of the Presidents, one book.

On the Visitation of Monks, one book.

On the Manner of Celebrating a Provincial Chapter, one book.

On the Rule of St. Benedict, two books.

Homilies and Exhortatory Sermons to His Monks, two books, which he dedicated to his predecessor.

On the Temptations of Cloistered Men, and Their Remedies, two books.

To Nicolaus, Priest of Mernica, on the Priestly Life, one book.

On the Vanity and Misery of This Life, one book.

A penthic, that is, mournful, work On the Ruin of His Order, one book.

Trithemius’s Steganography.

On the Illustrious Men of His Order, four books.

Praises of the Order of Carmelites, two books.

To Gerlacus, abbot of Deutz, Praises of Manual Scribes, one book.

To Johannes Dalburg, bishop of Worms, On Ecclesiastical Writers, one book.

To the Questions of Rutger Sicamber, canon of Dumetis, one book.

Chronicle of the Monastery of Sponheim, a not small volume, one book.

Chronicle or Annals of the Monastery of Hirsau, two large volumes.

Chronicle of the Succession of the Dukes of Bavaria and the Counts Palatine, addressed to Philip, Count Palatine and prince-elector, one book.

The Life of St. Hirmina, nun and first abbess in Oeren at Trier, one book.

On the Misery of Cloistered Prelates, two books.

Apologetic Defense.

Praises of St. Andrew the Apostle, one book.

Praises of St. Benedict, abbot, one book.

Praises of St. Joseph, foster-father of the Lord, one book.

Praises of the Monastic Life, one book.

Praises of True Penitence, one book.

Praises of the Study of the Divine Scriptures, one book.

Monologue of a Man Devoted to God, addressed to himself, one book.

On the Miracles of the Holy Mother Anne, one book.

To Ulrich, canon of Cologne, on Questions in the Gospel of John, one book.

To the same, on Questions on the Psalms, one book.

To the presidents of the annual chapter, on the Bursfeld observance, he abridged the statutes of that same union, one book.

Spiritual Exercise of Monks, one book.

Trithemius’s Steganography.

Epitome or Breviary of the same, one book.

On Ecclesiastical Computation, one book.

On the Illustrious Writers of Germany, addressed to Jakob Wimpfeling of Sélestat, one book.

Letters from Sponheim to various persons, four books.

Orations delivered in chapters and elsewhere, twenty-four in number, which make one book.

Sermons on feast days to the people, one book.

He wrote forty very beautiful sermons to his brothers of the monastery of Sponheim, one book.

Several supplicatory prayers to God and the saints, one book.

From the Greek language he translated into Latin Maximus the Abbot, On the Incarnation of the Lord.

Also the Anathemas of St. Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, promulgated against heretics at the Third Synod of Ephesus.

Apologetic Defense.

For the edification of monks, a notable work which he entitled On the Threefold State of Cloistered Persons, three books.

He also wrote certain other smaller works, whose titles he did not indicate to me.

These, dearest brother Nicholas, are the works of Trithemius which, while he was abbot for twenty-three years, he composed at Sponheim for the honor of God amid cares and the constant occupation of household affairs, reading or writing day and night whenever he could steal a little leisure for himself. During the years in which he presided, he brought into the library of Sponheim a very great treasury of books in every field, not only by the art of printing but also of manuscripts. For when I was with him for the space of one year to learn Greek and Hebrew letters from him, he counted two thousand volumes in the library, of which at least eighty had been properly written with the pen on parchment and paper. I often heard from his own mouth that he had spent more than two thousand florins on books; these he had not taken from the substance of the monastery, which was always very scanty, but, since he was both known and dear to many princes, he spent for the most part on books the gifts with which he was honored by them. For he is the greatest lover and cultivator of books above all whom I know living in the flesh today. It is said by many, however, that his successor, who is now abbot in Sponheim, has alienated very many volumes; whether this is true, I certainly do not know at all. In the year of the Lord 1504, when a fierce war had arisen between the Realm and Philip, Count Palatine, Trithemius, through fear of the enemy, withdrew with his library and the monastery’s possessions to the nearby town of Kreuznach, and I likewise returned to my own affairs.

But in the year 1506, in the month of October, Trithemius himself, stirred by the envy of certain men, accepted the abbey of St. James at Würzburg and resigned that of Sponheim.

Apologetic defense.

In his retirement he is writing various works; at my request he recently sent me these titles of them:

To Emperor Maximilian he published a marvelous work, which he entitled Polygraphia, in six books.

To the same, the key to the same Polygraphia, one book.

Replies to eight questions of the same emperor, one book.

To the same, On the Seven Intelligences Moving the Spheres, one book.

To Joachim, Margrave of Brandenburg, Prince Elector, Various Questions, Orations, and Propositions, twenty books.

To the same, On Foreknowledges Lawful and Unlawful for a Christian, two books.

To the same he wrote that marvelous and laborious work of Steganography, eight books, which that rash Bovillus, not grasping it, criticized most ignorantly and most falsely.

To the same prince, a book of letters, one book.

To the same, Against Malefactors and All Arts and Superstitions Forbidden by the Church, five books.

To the same, On the Causes and Cure of the Falling Sickness and of Malefactors, three books.

To Jakob Trithemius, his brother, an itinerary of his life, two books.

To Burkhard von Horneck, physician, On the Property of Nuns, one book.

He wrote a history, or annals, on the origin, kings, and deeds of the people of the Franks and Germans, three great volumes, beginning the narrative from King Marcomer, who in the four hundred and thirty-third year before the incarnation of the Lord led the people from the borders of Scythia into Germany, to the mouths of the Rhine, and continuing to the thirty-eighth and ninth year of Maximilian Caesar.

To Laurentius, Bishop of Würzburg and Duke of Eastern Franconia, he wrote an epitome or abridgment of those three volumes of histories, three books.

To the same, On the Dukes and Bishops of the Würzburg Franks, one book.

On the Miracles Shown in Memory of Our Lady St. Mary at Dettelbach, two books.

On the Miracles of the Same Shown in the Nettle-Grove near Heilbronn, six books.

An apologetic work against Charles Bovillus, who slanders the things he did not understand, one book.

On the Origin and Kings of the Franks, one book.

A chronicle of his monastery, over which he now presides, St. James at Würzburg, one book.

To Albert, of the Margraves of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, The Life of the Divine Rabanus, Archbishop, three books.

On the Translation of the Same from Mainz into Saxony, one book.

To the same, The Life of St. Maximius, Bishop, one book.

To Johann, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria, and Count in Sponheim, residing at Simmern, On the Origin, Kings, and Dukes of the Bavarians, together with the Counts Palatine and the Counts of Sponheim, four books.

He has in hand a laborious work On Demons and Profane Arts, Sorceries, and Superstitions, which will have twelve books; in them he rejects, confounds, and overthrows all the wiles of the diabolical arts.

Of Würzburg letters, which he wrote in that abbey, four books.

He also wrote several other smaller works suited to his own devotion and that of his friends, such as:

A course, rosary, missal, office, and various prayers, together with proses or sequences, on St. Anne, grandmother of our Savior.

He also wrote praises, prayers, and a rosary on St. Mary Magdalene.

A rosary on St. Joseph, foster-father of the Lord.

A rosary on St. Peter the Apostle.

A rosary on St. John the Evangelist.

At the request of Johann, Archbishop of Trier, a sequence on St. Anne, which begins, “Jesus of heaven, of the King,” to the melody “Ave praeclara.”

Another, to be sung on her feast, which begins, “Let them rejoice on this day,” etc.

A third, for the provincial of the Carmelites at Augsburg, and it begins, “Let us rejoice in honor.”

A fourth, on St. Hildegard, virgin, which begins thus: “Praise be to you, Lord, eternal king,” etc.

A fifth, on St. Rupert, Duke of the people of Bingen, which begins, “Let them rejoice on this day.”

A sixth, on St. Joseph, foster-father of the Lord, and it begins thus: “Let us sing, renowned ones.”

A seventh, on St. Rabanus, archbishop.

An eighth, on the wounds of Christ, which begins thus: “Let us adore Jesus Christ,” etc.

Steganographia of Trithemius.

A ninth on the compassion of the Blessed Mary ever virgin, and it begins thus: Eia ploremus mente pia B. Maria compatientes, namely to the melody: Ave praeclara.

A tenth on Saint Joachim, father of our Lady, which begins thus: Trinitatem adoremus, unitatem collaudemus, etc.

An eleventh on the good angel proper to each person.

A twelfth for the proper Mass of each priest.

A thirteenth on Saint Maximus, Bishop of Mainz.

A fourteenth on Saint Martha, hostess of Christ.

A fifteenth on Saint Mary Magdalene.

A sixteenth on Saint Mary of Egypt.

A seventeenth on Saint James the Greater, Apostle.

An eighteenth on Saint Andrew the Apostle.

A nineteenth on Saint Benedict, Abbot.

Apologetical Defense.

A twentieth, on all saints.

And for each of the named commemorations and saints he composed individual new offices of the Mass, conformable to the divine scriptures.

He wrote besides a little work of meditations and prayers on the Lord’s incarnation, nativity, life, passion, and death, suitable for devotion, in two books.

The Mirror of Heavenly Doctrine, of no little service to compunction of mind, one book, which begins thus: Salutis humanae principium, etc.

He also composed many most devout meditations and prayers on our Lord Jesus Christ, on his most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, and on various saints, with beautiful variety, together with very many other things, which all devout posterity will see and admire.

These, my dearest Nicholas, are the volumes of our Abbot Trithemius, which for nearly thirty-two years he worked over by continual study, besides those which, not yet finished, are still in hand and on the anvil, unknown to me. Farewell from my house at Duraclusia, on the fifth of October, in the year of our salvation one thousand five hundred and fifteen.

Thus far he. For my part, weighing the matter more deeply, I cannot sufficiently grieve that so great a man, who deserved so well of letters and learned men, and of the Catholic Church itself, should have fallen under such suspicion, as though he had written and published something contrary to the holy and orthodox faith, harmful to the Christian commonwealth, and unworthy of a religious conscience; since even from the very title prefixed to the Steganographia, as from the end which alone the Author set before himself, it is clear that nothing else is contained in that book than a definite art of revealing the will of one’s mind to the absent through hidden writing. For its use there is surely no need of magical and diabolical art, but only of physical and natural art, as is easily seen in the Key prefixed to this work.

And lest these secrets, or this art or science, should come to the knowledge of the commonwealth or the ears of wicked men, Trithemius thought it no small part of his duty to wrap it in mysteries, since it teaches mysteries to one who does not know how to understand them, so that there would be no one among the unskilled, no one except the most studious, who could by his own power fully penetrate the secret of this science, perfectly and according to the Author’s intention, unless through reception from a teacher. Nor would the knowledge of this most secret art, if made public to the wicked and reprobate, harm the commonwealth less, says Trithemius, than it would benefit the good. For just as good men and those devoted to virtues use all discoveries for good and for the common benefit, so the wicked and reprobate hunt out occasions not only from evil things, but even from good and most holy institutions, by which they may become worse. The like can happen to this most secret invention, otherwise useful to the commonwealth and entirely honorable: just as to good and most holy men it offers itself as an instrument for the best purposes,

For just as a good man and lover of honor can, for private or common good, secretly, safely, and without any suspicion from any mortal, whenever and as often as he wishes, make known the secret of his will to another who knows this art, perfectly, copiously, and completely, through letters visible to all, open or closed, so that no one, however learned or curious, can suspect anything of the sender’s secret, nor even, if he should suspect it, discover it, and can communicate and express it at any distance of places; so too any perverse, slippery, or malicious person, even one previously altogether ignorant of the Latin tongue, as soon as he has acquired this art, which he will be able to acquire from a master teaching him in two days at the very longest, will thereafter write letters in Latin, with suitable composition, open, beautiful, and sufficiently adorned in any narrative whatever, to a friend skilled in this art, in which he will wrap the secret of his will, accessible to that man alone, in such great mysteries that they cannot at all be penetrated by anyone, however studious or learned, without the aid of this art.

Thereafter the learned and the unlearned, man and woman, boy and old man, good and bad, chaste and rather wanton, will also write, in Latin or in whatever language is known to them, throughout all regions of the world, Latin, Greek, or barbarian letters free from all suspicion, in which he would show one thing openly to those who do not know the art, and another thing secretly to those who do. Nor, once this knowledge had been made public among the reprobate, would the fidelity contracted by sacrament between married persons henceforth remain secure, since a wife, though until then ignorant of the Latin tongue, now sufficiently instructed through chaste, honorable, and most holy words of any language or idiom, could very fully understand the evil and shameless mind and intention of an adulterous lover or fornicator, even while her husband carried the letters and praised them as excellent, and could in the same way most securely send back to him her own desire, as broadly and copiously as she wished, in the same or other letters, in a beautiful and quite sufficiently adorned sequence.

Indeed, although this knowledge is in itself excellent and quite useful to the commonwealth, nevertheless, if it were to come to the knowledge of the wicked, which God forbid, the whole order of the commonwealth could in the course of time be disturbed not a little, and public trust endangered; all letters, instruments, writings, and finally the very speech of men would be turned into the gravest suspicion. No one would any longer believe letters, however holy and honorable, without fear, but only rarely would anyone give credence to epistles. For however honorable and chaste the words might be, deceit, fraud, and deception would always be thought to lie beneath them, and men would become fearful in all things and, for the most part, no less suspicious toward friends than toward adversaries.

Therefore, to remove all these inconveniences which I have mentioned, and lest this science, in itself a physical, natural, and lawful science, if it came to the knowledge of all, should create such great evils and inconveniences, Trithemius not without reason used numbers, signs, and foreign names, as of spirits and of others, with which, as with mysteries, he wrapped that art, so that it should be easily accessible to none except one who knows that art, that is, to an honorable and pious man, but should remain forever hidden from the perverse and malicious. And we have learned that the most ancient sages, whom in Greek speech we call philosophers, once did this too; and it is the opinion of the most learned that, if they had discovered any secrets either of Nature or of Art, they hid them by various methods and figures, lest they come to the knowledge of wicked men. The more learned among the Jews also confirm that Moses, the most famous leader of the Israelite people, in the description of the creation of Heaven and Earth covered the ineffable secrets of mysteries with simple words. Hence in many places of sacred Scripture, besides the literal sense, the allegorical, tropological, and anagogical senses have also been received by theologians. Saint Jerome, one of the most learned among our own, affirms that there are almost as many mysteries hidden in the Apocalypse of John as there are words. The Greeks and Egyptians, indeed, in concealing their sacred and divine matters, always used figures and obscurities. Hence Socrates

Socrates in Plato gives this warning: the mysteries of sacred things must be veiled, so that they may be kept apart from the unworthy rabble. Plato advises elsewhere that it is utterly unworthy and foul for the mysteries of hidden things to be opened to the people, since those things are handled with polluted hands by mankind which may lawfully be treated only by men initiated into the rites of sacred philosophy. Nor do the Hebrews neglect this in treating their sacred laws.

And, to say something further about the marks of the ancients, they certainly used small signs, strokes, and single letters in place of writing, both so that they might write more compactly and so that they might depart from the common form of writing: as when they signified civem Romanum by C R, oportere by O P, duntaxat by D T, ab urbe condita by ABVC, and de isto lapide invenies aurum by DILIA. This obscurity of words and sentences may be seen in almost all the sciences.

In the books of the laws the ancients denoted calumnia causa by the two letters KK, dolum malum by DM, and index esto by IE. They also signified a condemned man by the letter K, and one acquitted by A. Thus, concerning a recuperatory judgment, in the ancient notes and formulas it was customary for the masters of abbreviations to write as follows: QERE, TPIRD, TQPDTDDPF. “For as much as the matter shall be worth, for so much money I shall grant a recuperatory judgment; I shall give power to summon witnesses publicly, only ten of them.” Although the Emperor Justinian later decreed that these legal notes should be abolished from the law books, nevertheless these figures still remain even now: § and ff., of which the one designates paragraphs, the other the Digests.

Mathematicians too, especially astrologers, preserve these remnants of obscurities and figures. For they depict the planets, and likewise their zodiac, or twelve celestial signs, with individual characters: for example, the Moon by its increasing and decreasing horns; Gemini by their embraces; Sagittarius by an arrow; and so on. So too they mark their aspects, triplicities, and the configurations of the eighth sphere. Thus [unclear] signifies a hexagon, □ a square, and △ a trine. The conjunctions of planets are expressed by this sign [unclear], and oppositions by this mark [unclear].

The chemical art also uses such signs, so that chemists may describe simple substances obscurely. For chemists mark sal ammoniac with the sign [unclear], and arsenic with ∞.

Likewise musicians, to denote time and measure, have devised various characters and notes, as may plainly be seen in their books. And certainly it is remarkable that by musical notes of this kind the feelings of the mind can be secretly signified to others.

In military art also, passing over the particular stratagems of our own men and their various ways of signifying things secretly, special marks are found among the ancients. For in the little registers that contained the names of soldiers, there were proper marks by which the commanders could see the number of soldiers, how many of them survived and how many had fallen in disasters. Those who survived were marked with T at the beginning of the line, but those who had fallen with Θ, theta.

Now what shall I say about the faculty of oratory and its practitioners, who, for the highest adornment, use this obscure manner of speaking not only in words but even in whole sentences and in the course of an oration? For what are metaphor, metonymy, amphiboly, allegory, and the like, to say nothing of the riddle, other than figures by which the sense is transferred from proper speech into something obscure and altogether hidden? The wise chemists certainly wove their writings with these coverings, I mean allegory, as we find that Hermes, Geber, Raymond, and all the ancient Pythagoreans spoke.

I pass over the most learned poets, who, devoting themselves to the writing of fables, by the skillful invention of a single narrative handed down one thing to the unlearned and another to learned men.

Since, therefore, as is clear from what has been said, almost all the sciences have adopted characters proper to themselves, by which the subjects of the sciences might be handed down, if not more briefly, at least more secretly, Trithemius too not undeservedly handed down his precepts in such a way that they would not be accessible to everyone, especially since an understanding of them would not be useful to everyone either. Nor does it matter that Trithemius

Trithemius used conjurations in almost every chapter to veil the secret. For in them nothing else is hidden than steganographic secrets; and Trithemius himself warns, in the threefold General Key which he wrote and communicated to lovers of this art who would show gratitude and keep it secret, that all these conjurations are to be examined at the outset by any of the steganographic methods.

The same must be thought about the arithmetical numbers. He used them not because he attributed any magical power to them, but so that, however many of them you found, you would know that they signified that many meaningful letters, while 0 denotes nothing. This is plain without difficulty to one who reads and understands those methods. Indeed, I freely and willingly admit that letters, whether Latin or Greek or written in any language whatever, can be read and understood in their own way; indeed, what is more, that they can also be written and composed according to rules and good syntax by one who, provided he knows the alphabet, has never studied either grammar or syntax. At first sight this is so astonishing a thing that it draws the sense and common understanding of all men into wonder. Yet Trithemius’s works, the Steganographia and Polygraphia, teach that this can be done by an easy procedure and without any forbidden and demonic magic.

For if forbidden magic is defined as a faculty or art by which, through the force of a pact entered into with demons, certain marvels surpassing the common understanding of men are brought about, while the most religious man and most perfect master of natural magic, Johannes Trithemius, in his steganographic work never entered into any pact with demons, as will later be clear from his own protestations, but used lawful, natural, and physical means as a lover of the more secret philosophy, it is readily plain that the Steganographia is not to be counted among magical books.

Only the third book causes difficulty. Because, for lack of the Key, we cannot understand it, many censure it as suspect under the mark of superstition, or at least as a spurious work. But precisely because we do not understand it, I judge that book should rather be approved than condemned, rather retained with all our strength than removed from the other books. For who is so unfair an appraiser of things that he would dare to judge something bad when in his own understanding he finds it neither good nor bad, and therefore does not understand it? Certainly moral theologians as well as scholastics teach that in doubtful matters the safer and better side is to be chosen. “For he shows himself a rash judge,” says Trithemius, “who gives sentence on a matter before he has known the cause and recognized the truth.” But if they assign a reasonable cause for their censure, if they certainly and evidently convict Trithemius of forbidden magic, if they produce from that book anything impious or anything contrary to the faith of the Roman Church, then at last I would believe it a spurious work and wholly unworthy of the name of Trithemius.

But they press the point and say: that someone far absent can be made aware of my thought within twenty-four hours, indeed without letters and without a messenger and at any distance whatever, far exceeds the powers of nature, since a physical agent does not act on what is distant except through an interposed medium; and therefore that book is not supported by physical reasons and means. I hear it. But do you not remember that we are here dealing with magic, which by its swiftness, dexterity, subtlety, and created, not supernatural, power produces marvelous and unusual effects, the reason of which surpasses the sense and common understanding of men, and that it is a certain part of the more secret philosophy, or, as Pererius defines it, a faculty by which men bring about unusual and admirable things by a certain hidden, that is, natural reason unknown to other men? Do you not recall the first two books, which, though certainly written according to natural philosophy, Trithemius nevertheless wrapped in such great and such dark mysteries and shadows that not even all the men in the whole world could understand them, if the Key left by Trithemius [unclear].

left behind, supplied them help? Certainly I would believe that I could more easily extricate myself from labyrinthine windings, meetings, and returnings than explain steganographic intricacies without the Key. Do you not think that, just as in the earlier books, he also used mysteries in this book? Could it not be that by “motion” he meant the operation itself, and by “the space of twenty-four hours” the twenty-four letters, or the alphabet? Thus the words must be taken not as they sound, but in a mystical sense; nor should one believe that a physical agent is here acting at a distance without an interposed medium, although that is plainly how it appears to those who do not know and do not understand the words.

For I pass over the fact that it is not necessary for an agent always to be present to the patient according to its substance, or by contact of the subject, but that it is enough if it is virtually present to the patient, or by contact of power. I say nothing about sympathies and antipathies. I pass over what some allege against this philosophical saying concerning the remora, or echeneis, and the torpedo-fish: the former, though small in body, nevertheless so stops huge ships that sometimes the sailors are wholly unable to advance, while the water meanwhile is by no means at rest, as Pliny reports in book 31, chapter 1, and others commonly say; the latter makes the hands and arms of fishermen grow numb and torpid, while the net itself does not grow numb, as Aristotle attests in book 9 of the History of Animals, chapter 37.

I am silent about the marvelous force and power of the magnet, which draws iron without drawing the medium placed between, as daily experience teaches. Finally, I pass over the fact that an agent sometimes acts more strongly upon a distant patient than upon one nearby, as is clear from fire, which heats water in the upper part of a vessel more intensely than water at the bottom; indeed, according to Aristotle, section 15, problems 4 and 8, the bottom of the vessel is much colder than the upper water, which nevertheless is farther from the acting fire.

All these things, I say, since they have little bearing on the Magic of which we are speaking, I set aside; and I firmly affirm that Trithemius, a man of proven virtue and highest learning, both in this book and in his other earlier books, used natural means, and therefore did nothing contrary to physical principles, however suspect he may seem to some.

For why did he introduce arithmetical numbers in this book? Why does he so carefully divide motion, that is, operation, into proper, direct, retrograde, mixed, confused, and so on? Why does he wish the operator to use encaustic? Are not all these physical and natural means? But, to say more: do you believe, reader, that it is contrary to physical reason that the thoughts of the mind can be made known without words, without books, and without a messenger to an absent friend? What are those reasons? I myself will show you by experience that, through the art which I have drawn from Trithemius, I can make known to a friend sitting at my table or standing by it whatever he wishes, and that through thirty, fifty, or a hundred words, even words fixed and prescribed by you; yet to that friend, or whoever he may be, I shall speak no word, send no messenger, and, if you wish, not even look at him, and this physically and naturally.

What of the fact that by showing torches at night I can signify the thoughts of my mind even for a whole mile or more, as far as sight can carry, and this not only in the space of twenty-four hours, but even in a single quarter-hour? But if this can be done, why not that also? Against what physical principles does it fight? Surely Trithemius himself explains clearly enough by what means the will can be made known at any distance without a messenger and without letters. For he intends that distance of places to be so established that it is nevertheless regulated by speech. But I can make my conception known without a messenger, that is, without one who knows, but by one who carries the secrets while being wholly ignorant of them, as Trithemius means in the same place; and this is very true and very easy. And understand “without letters” to mean without visible letters, but perhaps with invisible ones, namely either by the dermatic, hyphasmatic, or aleotic kind, as the same Trithemius will teach below, or by some other hieroglyphic sign.

Nor is there any reason why those conjurations set down in this book should be suspect to you. For entirely as with conjurations in

as he used them in the earlier books for veiling the secret, so he uses these in the same way. And so, if it were permitted, without prejudice to the judgment of others, to give my own opinion about this book, I would indeed say, supported by the preceding causes and reasons, that this whole third book contains in itself a method of revealing the secret of one’s mind to a friend, not indeed by open and visible letters, but either by arithmetical numbers, of which sort Trithemius has many numerical schemes in place of letters in his book on Polygraphy, or, as I would more readily believe, by those invisible methods of which he speaks in his Polygraphy when discussing arthrology and Bede’s dactylology, in these words:

“And who could set forth all the ancient methods of writing secretly? For some had owls as familiars in the service of the art set before them; some called them Philophoti, others Mysophoti, others both, in the practice of the art. Again, others transposed the known letters of the common alphabet; others devised characters of their own under the form of barbarian letters. Again, others used the service of visible letters, writing with minium or common encaustic; but others formed invisible characters at will according to their pleasure. The methods of visible characters for secret writing are exceedingly many and altogether innumerable; to make mention of them all belongs neither to our will nor to our ability. But of invisible characters there are three kinds more commonly used among mortals today. The first is called Dermatic, by which writing is made on the back of messengers by a certain artificial method, visible only through the washing with a certain liquid; no one can penetrate it who does not know the secret of the art. The second is called Hyphasmatic, by which something is written on cloth with certain substances; once dried it cannot be seen at all, until it is perceived when moistened in cold water. The third kind is called Aleotic, which is manifold and varied, both in form and in material, and has almost innumerable methods of writing secretly. Its writing is done on paper or without paper, with nemilua and cala, with raphocam lapolce, and with various other things. Letters are likewise written and hidden in various ways and places: under race tabulata, under rofiri lacubior, in leopi, in necoflas, in ceocali, locubat, in ratera, in lispilia, and in other similar things almost infinite in number,” etc.

See, reader, in how many ways you can report the conception of your mind to an absent friend, even without letters, and without the knowledge of the very person who performs the office of messenger. This perhaps is what Trithemius meant when in this book he says that letters can be sent without a messenger, as we also noted above. And hence Trithemius, in the said third book, on the varied motion of the planets and the interpretation of the tables, almost at the end, wishes the operator to use encaustic, not the common kind, such as he mentioned before when speaking of visible letters, but, as he says, “prepared for this purpose in our manner.” Calepinus reports from Apuleius and Pliny that encaustum or encaustice is a kind of painting done by the application of fire, that is, with burnt colors and wax dissolved by fire. Hence Trithemius says in his letter to Bostius, to whom he writes what steganography teaches, in these words; we shall reproduce the whole letter below:

Note well. Read attentively, you who desire to read these things with profit.

“The second book,” and I plainly think this is the third, for he began eight books on this subject, which now, changing his plan, he reduces to four, “contains many more wonderful things. By fire, namely, see, by fire, in this art I can make known the conception of my mind to one who knows my art, at whatever distance, at a hundred miles or more, securely, without words, without writings, without signs, through any messenger whatsoever; and if he is seized on the road, even if he is questioned under the harshest tortures, he can confess nothing about my message, because he knows absolutely nothing about it. Whatever happens, my message will always remain hidden, nor, if all the men of the whole world were gathered together, could they trace it out by natural power,” etc. See below in the letter to Bostius. And let this be the judgment concerning the third Steganographic book.

But if someone should say that this book was left to posterity by its author imperfect and incomplete, and that therefore it is no wonder if, for its

we cannot arrive at its understanding, especially without the key. Whoever has said this has in fact spoken neither beside the point nor contrary to Trithemius’s meaning. For Trithemius himself writes thus, among other things, to Rogerius Sicambrus, who had asked for the titles of Trithemius’s works:

“After this I began to write the great and exceedingly difficult Steganographic work, of marvelous invention, to be divided into eight books. I brought the first and second books through to the end; but the third I left incomplete, and all the rest I left wholly buried down to this day, persuaded by many considerations, since the labor is great and perhaps the recompense small. Therefore let it remain imperfect as it lies, until some other usefulness persuades otherwise.”

He says almost the same in his letter to Nicolaus Phorcelius, and elsewhere throughout his letters to friends. And indeed, how wavering he was, and how much persuaded by many considerations not easily to allow the Steganographic work to come forth into public, is clear not only below from the Polygraphic preface to Emperor Maximilian, but especially from the letter to Johannes Capellarius, the Parisian mathematician, to whom he writes thus:

“As for my Steganography, whose first two books you saw at Cologne, I do not know whether I shall ever publish it, for three considerations. The first reason that draws me back from its publication is consideration of the future, and a plausible fear of evil that might occur through the abuse of wicked men, since bad men would use my inventions for evil no less than good men for good. The second is the prospect of very great labor and a small return of reward. For, as you saw, the work is difficult and of the sharpest speculation, and it cannot be completed without very great labor. And what recompense is there for so much labor, unless perhaps some modest weight of gold, which is transitory, and therefore rather to be despised by a Christian monk? It was never my intention to labor for a temporal reward, since I see that I have been called into the vineyard of the eternal King. The third cause is the judgment of the unlearned common people, who ascribe to evil arts everything they do not understand. I have written nothing yet at which anyone could deservedly marvel; I have done nothing astonishing; and yet I suffer the opinion of the crowd, while very many think me a magician, asserting that I have raised the dead, summoned demons from the underworld, foretold the future, recovered thieves by charms, and bound robbers. All these things are contrived and fabricated; I have never done them, nor even thought of them.”

And a little later:

“What do you think the foolish rashness of unlearned men will imagine about me in the future, when I have brought the Steganography to light, since it has devised such lies about me when it has as yet seen nothing secret? Although, content with the testimony of my conscience, I do not make much of these chatterings of the ignorant, nevertheless I do not intend, so far as possible, to give occasion for evil suspicion.”

Behold how conscious his mind was of rectitude, and how much good Trithemius feared for himself, lest by this work of his he offend anyone, especially the unlearned and inexperienced, who dare to pass an unfavorable judgment on such good and holy studies, though they have by no means grasped them with understanding. But now let us pass to the uses of these books.

Indeed, what uses and advantages can arise from this kind of writing when rightly employed, Trithemius himself teaches very beautifully, though in part obscurely, in his preface placed before the Polygraphia and addressed to Emperor Maximilian. And although he refers most of those uses to the Polygraphia, they can nevertheless also be referred, not unsuitably, to the Steganography.

“The first usefulness,” says Trithemius, “is that the completed understanding of this work gives an easy method to one in need, for making known the secret of your mind safely, secretly, and without any suspicion on the part of any observers, to one skilled in the industry of the art, however widely it may be necessary, across any distance of places, by regulated speech. What lies hidden in these things, the work of Steganography brings forth: it requires neither letters nor a messenger to carry secret matters openly. Do not take the matter otherwise than it is. The second usefulness is that it threatens [unclear].”

Through the service of this work, in a short space of time you will teach a man ignorant of the Latin language, provided only that he knows how to read and write letters in his mother tongue, to write in Latin as ornately or elegantly as you wish, and to conceal and hide all the secret mysteries of his will, and to announce them to one who knows the art and science, as broadly as he pleases, safely, secretly, and without suspicion. Again I warn you: do not understand us as having promised anything other than what we promise.

The third benefit is that you will teach one unskilled in Roman speech, in a few hours, not only to write and read what we promise, but also to understand it, if you prudently apply the task of your office, which we have decided to reserve not without reasonable cause. For the disciple of the new art will write a language he did not know, and he will understand Latin speech composed under regulated instruction, and, if you command him, will interpret it adequately word for word. Finally, this instruction can be enlarged to all the affairs and business of the world.

How these things can be done, if anyone wishes to learn from me, let him first remember to show himself such that he deserves to receive it. For not all things are owed to all; rather, one person is to be preferred to another.

The fourth benefit is that, through the enlargement of the likeness of the thing received, all these things can be extended into any language, when the instructing binary has been reduced to unity. Yet not just any man can do this indiscriminately, but only he whom, by God’s special grace going before, art and nature have made worthy.

The fifth benefit is that, by imitation of likeness, we can communicate the art of our invention to one who knows it, whatever secrets of our mind we wish, as abundantly, manifoldly, and broadly as you please, in various ways that can be known or noticed by no one else. Here there is given a manifold speech without voice, through which, safely, securely, most broadly, and with all suspicion removed, we will be able to indicate fully to those who know the art all the conceptions of our mind, however difficult. And this wonderful invention has innumerable progressions, capable of all mysteries.

The sixth benefit is that, through understanding this work, you will be able to discover any regulated metathesis or transposition of letters, and nevertheless to form it in such a way that it serves only those who know the art, and absolutely no one else in the world. And great is the power of metathesis in both form and operation; it has many modes and is varied in many ways.

The seventh benefit is that, through understanding this volume, a very great faculty is given to those who desire to enlarge their memory without labor, whenever the seeds of minute details are set in their proper degrees. For the sake of goodness, all things lie hidden, wrapped in the secrets of words and figures; if anyone desires to understand them more fully, let him call to mind that relentless labor conquers all. For it will have been enough for me to have discovered the principles of the art, and to have handed down the method of writing symbolically in a rough and deliberately unformed way. For there was neither time nor reason for our inventions to be shaped in a more polished form, lest honey produce vomiting in the nauseated, or truth hatred in the indignant.

Every time must be valued according to its own merits; swine are not to be adorned with pearls, nor loaded with precious jewels. All things are untimely when they do not agree with the customs and the time of the mortals upon whom they are thrust. There have been many most noble human talents in unsuitable times, and almost every day many new things are discovered in times not their own.

What benefit did the wondrous invention of nautical art bring to the excellent sail-maker Bartholomaeus under Pope Innocent VIII, which, in a certain little book, he offered for sale for one hundred thousand ducats, when neither the Supreme Pontiff himself, nor the Venetians, nor the Genoese, to whom he proposed that they buy his work, deigned even to come to terms with him in a fitting manner? For he promised that, by his art, he could keep a ship unharmed in the middle of the sea for thirty months, repair it when broken, and recover without danger whatever had been cast into the depths. But no one cared [unclear].

Nor does it escape me that many, like Naso, have perished by their own genius. It is therefore better to set a limit to knowledge than to expose oneself fruitlessly to the hatred and slander of many, for whom it is more natural to despise any science whatever than to have learned it. Thus the author of the Polygraphia speaks concerning the uses of Polygraphy and Steganography.

But come forth at last, Trithemius, come forth, and, as your own avenger, defend your cause from so great a stain and so atrocious an injury. The most reverend and most learned man Johannes Trithemius, while still alive and before he gave the often-mentioned work of Steganography to the public light, began to be so bitten by the teeth of certain envious men, or rather of ignorant men, especially a certain Bovillus, that he even published an apologetic work in his own defense; would that it were at hand, for it would be of no small help to this apologetic defense. He also resolved to consign that work of Steganography entirely to darkness.

Trithemius relates the whole matter as follows in the preface to the Polygraphia addressed to Emperor Maximilian: “At the request,” he says, “of the aforesaid prince and lord elector, Philip, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria, I, Johannes Trithemius, now abbot of the monastery of St. James at Würzburg, but then of St. Martin’s at Sponheim, in the diocese of Mainz, began to write eight books of mysteries in Steganography. But while I was continuing my work on the third book of that same composition, there occurred something which I shall recount briefly, if I can. In the year of the Lord’s Nativity 1499, in the second Roman indiction, when Arnold Bostius, a Carmelite of the town of Ghent, asked me by letter what new work I was bringing forth, or with what studies I was occupied, on Palm Sunday I wrote back to him through merchants, as to a friend, that I had under the hammer a new and wondrous work of Steganography, and I disclosed in order what was contained in each book, in these words:

‘I now have in hand a great work, which, if it is ever published, which God forbid, the whole world will marvel at. The title of its first book is Steganography. There will be four books, each divided into at least one hundred chapters. I began this work at the request of a great prince, whom there is no need to name. You ask what this work teaches? It teaches very great things, astonishing and incredible to all who do not know them, things that have never been heard from the beginning of the world. For the first book contains more than one hundred methods of writing secretly whatever you wish, without any suspicion, without transposition of letters, without any fear, so that there is no man in the world who by natural skill could know or even suspect what is contained in my letters, except the one who knows the art from me, or from him whom I shall have taught. The words are plain and familiar, free from all suspicion, but no one without the art will ever be able to perceive my intention, however learned he may be; and it is a truly astonishing thing.

‘The second book will contain things much more marvelous. By fire, namely, in this art I can make the conception of my mind known to one who knows my art at any distance whatever, at a hundred miles or more, securely, without words, without writings, without signs, through any messenger whatever. If that messenger is seized on the road, even if, when questioned, he is subjected to the harshest tortures, he can confess nothing about my message, because he knows absolutely nothing about it. Whatever happens, my message will always remain hidden; nor could all the men of the world, if they were gathered together, trace it out by natural power, and so forth. I can also reveal my will to one who knows the art while he is sitting in prison, even though I am far away, however closely he is guarded, even if he were sitting three miles underground. And all these things, most broadly and universally, whenever and as often as I wish, I can do naturally, without any superstition or the aid of any spirits whatsoever. They are marvelous things, I confess; but hear things more marvelous.

‘The third book teaches an art by which I can enable an unlearned man, knowing only his mother tongue,”

For he who has never known a word of the Latin language may be taught in two hours to write, read, and understand Latin sufficiently elegantly and fluently, as much as he wishes, so that all who see his letters will praise his words and understand his Latin compositions.

The fourth book contains many astonishing experiments, but purely natural ones. That is, I can indicate my mind to one who knows my art while eating or sitting with others, without words, without nods, as extensively as I wish, even while speaking, preaching, playing the organ, or singing, without hindrance to any other action whatever; so that, while preaching good and holy things, I may indicate, not by words, not by signs, not by nods, to anyone who knows the art, as fully as I wish, whatever I wish, even with my eyes closed. And the fourth book contains many other secrets which must not be brought before the public.

All who hear these things marvel at them; among them are many noble and most learned men, who think these things either impossible or wholly supernatural. To them and to you I answer what I have answered to many: that many things are naturally possible which, to those ignorant of the powers of nature, seem impossible or even supernatural. And behold, I speak before my God, who knows all things: the wonders I have mentioned are far more excellent, deeper, and greater than I can write or you can believe; and yet they are all purely natural, without any deception, without superstition, without magical art, without invocation or service of any spirits whatever.

I have said this so that, if perhaps some rumor should ever reach you that I either know or can do marvelous things, you should not therefore think me a magician, but a philosopher. For what happened to Albert the Great, that most profound investigator of natural things, namely that because of the marvels he performed by the hidden power of nature he was regarded by the common people as a magician, I am certain could happen likewise to me. Behold, before God, for I do not lie: I have not yet taught these things to anyone, although many, promising great things, have often begged me, except one prince to whom I am writing, whom I have made certain of the possibility of the art by clear proof. Nor is it fitting that any but princes should know these things; otherwise many evils would be done by means of them: betrayals, deceptions, fornications, and whatever else wicked men might wish. But those using the art well could do much good for the commonwealth by it.

Moreover, I can teach all these things in every language of the whole world, even one I have never heard. I wanted to make these things known to you, Bostius, for this reason: so that you would not think me idle, and so forth.

But, Trithemius continues, before this letter of mine had reached Ghent, Bostius departed this life to Christ during the Easter days. The Father Prior of that place received the letter, opened it, read it, and, astonished, I suppose, by the novelty of the promises, shared it with many others who asked to read and copy it. Hence it happened that this letter of mine, in a short time published throughout almost all Germany and Gaul and repeatedly copied out by many people, brought many men, even very learned ones, into amazement and wonder, to such an extent that they hesitated as to what they ought truthfully to think about me.

Among these were some who firmly asserted that my promises in the said letter were frivolous, impossible, and false, and had been shamelessly invented by me for the sake of empty glory. Others, however, said: “This abbot Trithemius promises great and astonishing things; if he can do them, he can do them only through the service of demons, since he plainly seems to go far beyond the limits of nature. But if he cannot do them, who will doubt that he is a liar and deservedly to be refuted by all good and learned men?” But may both charges be far from me, since I promised natural things.

Of all those who rashly judged my unknown matters, the most rash and most unjust appraiser of things at last came forth openly: Carolus Bovillus, a Picard by nation. After he had traveled through the upper parts of Alsace and had come to me at Sponheim for the sake of lodging, on his way back to Gaul through Trier, I treated him with all the courtesy I could, and with every kindness of hospitality for as long as he was with me.

as long as he was with me, I showed him every kindness of hospitality with a cheerful face. And since, as often happens among friends, especially those devoted to the study of letters, I had displayed all my things for my most welcome guest to see, among the rest there was also offered to him for remembrance the work of the Steganographia, not yet completed at that time. Bovillus saw it and read it cursorily, his mind occupied elsewhere; he said that he admired the invention, praised it, and took no care to understand in what manner it was to be understood. Hence, since he did not ask for the key to its understanding, he deserved to hear or perceive nothing of what was contained in that lucubration of ours.

After returning to France, he repaid us evil for good, and shamefully violated the bond of Christian friendship. For when he was asked by Lord Germain de Ganay, our common friend, afterwards Bishop of Orléans, what he had found and seen with me at Sponheim, he repeatedly wrote back falsehoods for truths, lies for benefits, condemning and rashly judging things that he was by no means able to comprehend with his intellect. For since he believed that the palm of learning would be conferred on him through envy and falsehood, he wrote back to that most learned man a letter full of falsity, lies, many injuries, and insults, in which, making mention of the Steganographia that he had not understood, he falsely, mendaciously, and with exceedingly injurious rash presumption proclaimed me devoted to wicked arts, a magician, and a necromancer.

To his most lying injuries and blasphemies, God having mercy, I shall shortly reply in such a way that all posterity may understand both that I am innocent and that Bovillus, in this matter, is an impious, cruel, and rash liar. I steadfastly affirm, I truly say, and confidently swear upon my soul that I have never had any dealings whatsoever with demons or with wicked and pernicious magical or necromantic arts, but that each and every thing that I have either written or promised to write is pure, sound, natural, and in no respect at all contrary to the Christian faith. Therefore I do not fear to submit my promises to examination before good and learned men, whenever and as often as need shall arise, and I in no way intend to resist their determination.

There was a reasonable cause why I inserted this account of Bovillus’s rashness into this preface of mine: so that all may understand that it was done by mature counsel that the work of the Steganographia has hitherto remained buried in darkness, not because I fear Bovillus’s rash judgments, but lest I should seem to give many similar people cause to suspect similar things about me. For indeed, as far as I am concerned, I would rather appease my rivals by silence than irritate them with letters, or provoke them to madness by writings. For I judged it better to condemn all these wondrous inventions to perpetual silence than to incur the mark of harmful magical or necromantic superstition, even by the false estimation of men. Let the Steganographia, therefore, lie hidden in darkness, and let it not become common to the lying company of Bovillus, which is accustomed to judge matters unknown to it and to ruin the reputation of a good man from the mere lust of depravity.

Nevertheless, at the urging of friends, so that our rivals may understand, together with Bovillus, how rash and false an injury he has done us, while the Steganographia remains within its own bounds, we consent to publish the following work, which we call the Polygraphia, divided into six books. Let those who wish read it, and let friends read this volume without ill will; when they have understood all its hidden mysteries, let them themselves judge without envy whether these things are natural or superstitious. For I know and am certain that all things in it are sincere, pure, natural, and removed from every pursuit of evil superstition. And whenever the discourse is more obscure, this is done for the reason that a madman may not abuse the sword of defense to destruction, which a man sound in spirit and mind carries for his own protection. Yet nothing evil is contained in it on that account, since perverse men abuse even good things for evil. But whoever presumes to condemn this edition of ours is himself conscious and witness that he has never truly understood it. Mysteries are concealed under enigmas, lest the secrets of [unclear] be made in any way manifest to [unclear].

If anyone delights to know these things, let the reader approach with envy put far away. For I am a Christian, I am a priest, and a monk under the rule of blessed Father Benedict; I love Christ, and with whatever sincerity of mind I can, I always worship him devoutly. I have no dealings, have had no dealings, and, with God as my protector, will have no dealings with demons; no studies in magical, necromantic, or profane arts; no occupations in them; no teachings. Whoever thinks otherwise of me thinks wrongly, does me injury, and defends Bouillus’s open lie.

Likewise, in chapter 32, or the last chapter of the first book of the Steganographia, near the end, he says: Indeed, the great mysteries of this art can be penetrated only by the most studious men, namely those whom love of secrets and nature move to investigate, and who, from desire to attain knowledge, refuse no honest and possible labor. But sluggish men, dull in intellect, and those whom neither love stirs to the study of the secrets of wisdom nor nature assists, when they have been unable to understand this most secret art of our invention, should understand that this must not be imputed to us, but rather ascribed to their own sluggishness, laziness, and malice; for either they have their intellect immersed in fleshly pleasures and worldly cares, and cannot devote themselves diligently to examining these things, or, already considering themselves wise or most learned, they despise our compositions as unworthy of their reading.

There will also be some so accustomed to rely on old and others’ traditions that whatever they have not learned in them they judge either impossible or superstitious. Nothing is more unfit for the knowledge of this profound art than such men, who either do not wish or are not able to contemplate its highest matters. But those who are both apt and willing to study in this art, if there are to be any, we have resolved to admonish briefly at the end of this book, so that they may be able to make progress. First of all they must be warned to keep the art itself always hidden, lest it penetrate into the hands and knowledge of the depraved, who would commit many execrable crimes by means of it. For even if the art itself is truly good in itself, nevertheless its practice would serve no less for evil through the impious than for good through the good. Therefore let that remain a secret among the good which, if made public among the wicked, would do harm. Yet the good ought not therefore to despise this knowledge because it advances the wicked toward evil, just as one does not reject the sword because it strikes a man down.

And lest this great secret, he says in the preface to the key of the Steganographia, come to the ears of unskilled or depraved men, whoever you are who will be the reader, by our Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of faithful souls, I warn, ask, and adjure you not to disclose this knowledge of writing to anyone unworthy, immodest, carnal, or maliciously old, because many evils could be done among men through it: adulteries, fornications, murders, and betrayals, if, may it not happen, it were revealed. For just as a good and honorable man can safely, without any suspicion from anyone, notify and express the secret of his will to another man skilled in the art whenever necessary, for private or common benefit, so a perverse and immodest man, blinded by carnal love, could signify his evil desire to a consenting person as broadly as possible, however immodestly, foully, and lustfully, through honorable, chaste, and holy words, determining the place, time, and manner of meeting, without any suspicion.

Trithemius desires that his art not be rashly propagated.

But someone may object to me, Trithemius says in the same place a little before the end, and say: If you wanted this knowledge of yours to be hidden, why did you wish to commit it to writing? To this, if an answer must be given, I say that I neither ought nor could conceal this knowledge from an excellent prince, by which he may, if occasion should arise, be able to free his clients, of whose number I am one, from many dangers. Likewise, in the preface to the second book of the Steganographia, he says: But since I am again going to mention spirits, I again think it necessary for me [unclear].

The Steganography of Trithemius.

This must be said beforehand: there is nothing frivolous in this art of ours, nothing contrary to the evangelical tradition or to the Catholic faith, nothing at all handed down in a superstitious way. For all the things which we have either said in the preceding volume or shall say in the following ones rest upon natural, lawful, and honorable principles; and the mystery, veiled only by foreign usages, and the words wrapped in the names of spirits, require a learned reader. For we use the ministry of a spirit to veil a secret which, if made public, would harm the reprobate, and so forth.

You speak very well, Trithemius; you plead your cause very well; you defend yourself very well not only from the biting Bouillus, but also from every malicious tongue, whether present or future. But let us hear what you finally say in the preface to the first book of the Steganography.

“And lest anyone,” says Trithemius, “who is to be the reader of this work, when in its course he often meets with names, offices, orders, distinctions, properties, prayers, and any other operations of spirits, through whose intelligences all these secrets of this science are closed and opened, should believe or suppose me to be a necromancer and magician, or to have entered into a pact with demons, or to have used or be using any other superstition whatsoever, I have thought it necessary and fitting, by solemn protestation in this prologue, to preserve my reputation and name from so great a disgrace, injury, fault, and stain, vindicating myself with the truth.

“I say therefore, and before almighty God, from whom absolutely nothing can be hidden, and before Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, who will judge the living and the dead, I say, swear, and protest in truth: all and every one of the things which I have said or shall say in this work, all the things by which the knowledge or properties of the art, its methods, form, operations, traditions, receptions, formations, discoveries, institutions, changes, alterations, and everything that pertains, in part or in whole, to its contemplation, discovery, making, operation, and practice, and all things contained in this our volume, rest upon true, Catholic, and natural principles.

“All and every one of them are done with God, with a good conscience, without injury to the Christian faith, with the integrity of ecclesiastical tradition, without any superstition, without idolatry, without any pact of evil spirits, explicit or implicit; without fumigation, adoration, veneration, worship, sacrifice, or offering to demons, and without any fault or sin, whether venial or mortal. All and every one of them are done with truth, uprightness, sincerity, and purity, so that the knowledge and practice of this invention, when put to good use, may not be unworthy of a wise man, a good and faithful Christian.

“For I too am a Christian, voluntarily devoted to the monastic way of life, and I desire to live and conduct myself in no other way than befits a true Christian and a monk professed under the rule of the blessed father Benedict. This rule and the Catholic faith, according to the tradition of the holy Roman Church, I received from the cradle, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This faith I hold and believe with that same Church and with the universal Church of Christians; and as long as I live, with God’s help, I shall hold it firmly, always preserving it inviolate in heart, mouth, and deed, nor do I ever intend to depart from it on any occasion.

“Far be it from me, therefore, either to learn or to teach anything that is contrary to the Christian faith and purity, harmful to holy morals, or in any way opposed to my regular profession. I fear God, and I have sworn myself to his worship; from him, neither living nor, as I trust, dead, shall I be separated. I have placed this protestation of mine before this whole work of ours not without cause, because I know that there will be many who, when they cannot understand what we have written, will turn to insults and attribute our good and holy studies to evil arts or superstitious inventions.

“Since such men will exist, we earnestly beg them, and all who shall read these our tokens, that if they understand this secret tradition of ours, they keep it forever hidden and not pour such wonderful mysteries out into public view. But if they do not understand it...”

[If they have not understood] (which we know will be the case for many), let them learn before they censure. For indeed he shows himself a rash judge who gives judgment on a matter before he has learned the truth of the case. First learn this art, and then judge; but if you cannot understand it, condemn not the art itself, for it is good, but your own dull wits. For I know and am certain that no one of sound mind can censure this work of ours unless he happens to be wholly ignorant of it. As for those to whom it is more familiar to despise wisdom than to have learned it, I neither desire nor would wish them to penetrate these mysteries of ours. Thus Trithemius in his own defense.

You have heard, I believe, whoever you are who accuse Trithemius of magic or superstition, either silently or openly, this solemn protestation of his, plainly worthy of a Catholic man; you have heard his defense; you have heard how much he begs and how much he insists that you not believe him a magus or necromancer, or one who made use of any superstitions. Certainly he would not urge this so often and so anxiously if he had ever been devoted to wicked arts of that sort. Therefore let no one wrong the dead man, who, while alive, wronged no one. Let everyone consider that all and each of the things handed down by Trithemius in a more obscure manner were handed down for certain reasons, often named; and let him beware lest, with Bouillus and others who did not know this art and long ago condemned it rashly, he deserve Trithemius’s just censure. And let it suffice to have brought forward these things which Trithemius himself, as his own defender, had to say in his defense. From our cloistered home, in the year 1615.

Fragment.

Fragment from the book of Johannes Trithemius, Eight Questions to Emperor Maximilian.

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To the Reader.

The very reverend and most learned Father Johannes Busaeus, theologian of the Society of Jesus, laments, dear reader, in the dedicatory letter of his Trithemian volume to the most reverend and most illustrious prince, the Archbishop of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire through Germany and Prince-Elector, etc., that although, with his own help and that of others, he searched through many libraries, both near and remote, he nevertheless could not obtain all the works of Trithemius, which either Trithemius himself carefully listed in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, the Chronicle of Sponheim, and his Letters, or his disciple Johannes Duraclusius listed one year before Trithemius’s death in a letter sent to Nicolaus Hamerius. And certainly it is greatly to be lamented that so many and so excellent writings of Trithemius have, in scarcely a single century, been so destroyed and lie so buried that almost no trace of them any longer seems to survive.

Yet not very long ago I came upon a certain Trithemian fragment, which I call a fragment for this reason, that through the injury of time the whole does not survive: namely, the Answers to the Eight Questions of Emperor Maximilian, which Johannes Duraclusius, Trithemius’s disciple, also recorded in his catalogue of Trithemian books. Since this fragment is of rare and pleasant subject matter, and since neither Father Busaeus, who gathered Trithemius’s spiritual works in a single volume, nor before him Marquard Freher, Palatine councillor, who comprised Trithemius’s historical works in two volumes, added it to their volumes, I have decided to place it here for you, learned reader, to read and examine, so that I might rescue it from destruction and at the same time affect you with pleasant reading.

Farewell and enjoy it.

On the Reprobate and Maleficent.

The Fifth Question.

The fifth question of your most serene highness was this: Why can impious, evil, and reprobate persons concerning faith, such as those women whom we commonly call witches, command malignant spirits, when good men and the most zealous observers of the Christian faith can command neither good spirits, nor always malignant ones?

I remember that I formerly answered this question as follows. In all the works of the divine majesty, the sequence and order of beauty belongs to inviolable equity, by which individual things, fittingly arranged, persevere in the rank they have received. For without its proper order, the freedom of the will, which the Creator

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... gave [unclear] of all things to human beings, and it is driven by no violence of power so as not always to remain in the order which the first man received from the beginning of his creation. Hence no one among mortals is good unless, aided by the counsel of his own will, through the grace of the merciful God; and no one is evil unless, of his own accord, he is deprived of grace because of the obstacle of sin. By uprightness of will, however, we are made like the good spirits, if we prove by holy and necessary works the piety of the faith which we have in Christ. And just as the consummation of a good will makes good men equal to angelic spirits, so the perversity of the impious makes them like demons. Hence, the more evil and perverse men have been corrupted by the malice of their own will, the more like demons they become in disposition.

Through the likeness of friendship, familiarity is introduced; and from it there gradually arises the confidence of the lesser toward the greater, and command, whether it is true or feigned by cunning. Therefore, if wicked men seem to have any command over demons, it arises from the greatness of their depravity, when, that is, their disposition is corrupted to such a degree that by their reprobate will they either surpass or equal the malice of the demons who come together with them.

For demons are not all equal in malice or intelligence; rather, one is much more cunning than another in swiftness of understanding, and far worse in corrupted affection. For those who, having fallen from the high seats, are more closely joined to the earth and inhabit caverns and caves are certainly duller than the rest, even to such a degree that they fear swords and rods, and seem to be moved by the threats of men who terrify them, as may be observed in those whom we call demoniacs. But the demons who dwell farther removed from the earth are of a subtler nature and more rarely meet with human beings. Men full of malice, however, the more they advance in perversity of will, the more like demons they become; and, once admitted by them into familiarity, they thereafter become bold, and receive command over the demons whose familiarity they enjoy, not by violent power, but by feigned pretense.

For demons, in order to keep willingly in their depravity those men whom they have once received into surrender, gladly subject themselves to them as though moved by a simulated dominion; and what they do of their own accord, they pretend to be compelled to do in obedience. For no one attains true command over demons except one whom faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, through the merit of holiness, has made acceptable and a friend to God. For thus Scripture says of those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus: “And he gave them power over all demons.”

Therefore evil men command demons: malevolence has made them like demons, likeness has made them familiar with them, and familiarity has made them the demons’ own and subject to them. It is as if some servant, born in a humble station, were said to command a great prince, as often happens, because he is joined to him by daily familiarity and obtains from him, without contradiction, everything he has asked, so that he seems rather to rule his lord than to be ruled by him. According to this likeness, evil and reprobate men are admitted by demons into their familiarity, and through more prolonged confidence they become very bold; and they receive over them a simulated, not to say familiar, command, which they have earned by the likeness of a most depraved will.

Hence whatever they have demanded from demons who join with them by an implicit or explicit compact, they receive, except when, being forbidden by divine ordinance, the demons are unable to furnish what is asked. Yet they do not thus join indiscriminately with all reprobate and evil persons, but only with those with whom, through the intervention of some compact, they have entered into covenants, such as the female witches who have offered homage to the devil, and those summoners of demons whom the common people call by the usual word necromancers.

There are two kinds of people who may lawfully command demons. The first, indeed, is that of those who...

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of men who, beloved by God by merit of holiness, have received from him the power of trampling on the head of the ancient serpent, such as in the primitive Church were the Apostles and their followers and disciples; concerning them the Lord says in the holy Gospel: “In my name they will cast out demons,” and “they will take up serpents.” The second kind is that of men to whom, by reason of their order in the Church of God, it is granted that, by the power received in their ministry, they may drive demons from human bodies. And this ministry is entrusted to exorcists in the Church of God when they are ordained by the bishop.

Again, there are two kinds of men who desire to command demons, and the most wicked conditions show how unlawfully they presume to do so. The first and most pernicious kind is that of sorceresses, who enter into pacts with demons and, after first making a solemn profession, hand themselves over to some demon as his property and for perpetual service. How great are the evils that this most pernicious kind of human beings commits in your empire, most wise Caesar, no one can express. For first denying God, the faith of Christ, and holy baptism, they offer themselves in mind and body to demons; by their sorceries they make men and beasts sick, harm them, and kill them. There is no disease which, God permitting, they cannot bring on, because, when they present themselves as servants to demons in observance of the covenant they have made, in league with them they dare whatever they wish. Hence they are nowhere to be tolerated, but rather utterly exterminated in every place, as God, the Creator of all, commands: “You shall not suffer sorcerers to live.” Some sorceresses summon demons by charms, others entice them by prayers and sacrifices, and the rest, provoking them by unspeakable things and ceremonies, draw them into the aid of their impiety. It is therefore no wonder that sorceresses seem to command demons, to whom they have made themselves like by depravity of will, and with whom, by mutual intercourse, they are in agreement for evil against the human race.

The second kind of wicked men who wish to command demons is that of those whom the common people call necromancers. They profess arts full of execrations, by which they promise that they can summon demons into a circle, or show them openly visible enclosed in a crystal or other vessel. These most pernicious men, full of falsehood and superstitions, commit evils so great that no good man could imagine them. For, in order to entice demons into their service, they very often use most foul sacrifices, and enter into an express pact with them. They carry about many and various little books full of filth, impiety, and falsehood, falsely inscribed with the names of ancient philosophers and sages; by displaying these they deceive many incautious and curious people, and drag them with themselves into the pit of demons. They promise great and utterly incredible things, by the hearing of which they deceitfully hold men suspended in wonder. By rings, pentacles, images, exorcisms, and conjurations, they say that they can constrain malignant demons so that they appear visibly in a circle, or in a crystal or other receptacle, and answer distinctly to everything asked.

All of them indeed promise this, but in our times very few are found to whom malignant spirits, even for evil purposes, are obedient in this way, since God, for a most just reason, does not permit it, lest the curiosity of men, prone to novelties, should despise the religion of Christ and in time of need seek aid from demons. But all those to whom malignant spirits, when summoned by the conjurations of necromancers, are obedient have without doubt passed into their fellowship through an explicit or implicit pact. The greater number, however, are of those whom the malignant spirits disdain to obey, although they are never afraid to occupy themselves at all times in the profane arts of necromancers. And because iniquity has begun especially in our times to abound, and the charity of many has grown cold, those accursed and most deceitful men have grown very strong; and although

although they are despised by demons, nonetheless, by persisting in their pernicious doctrines, they deceive many.

Believe me, Caesar, this most mendacious kind of men is very harmful to your sacred empire, and therefore must be utterly exterminated no less than the source of witches. They promise great things, and they lie in everything. For truly, everything promised in their books is vain and false; and they provide those who believe them with nothing except tricks, frauds, and the most subtle deceptions. But if at any time they seem to deliver what they promised, it should be manifest to all that this happens only through the cooperation of demons, from whose company one must flee no less than from the most savage torments of hell. For demons very often attend these necromantic operations, and, in order to keep their invokers obstinate in the treachery they have begun, they grant them what they ask, if they can. At other times, however, when invoked by conjurations, they disdain to appear, and nonetheless they have led astray the minds of those invoking them.

There is also another kind of men, no less foolish than superstitious: namely, those who wish to have no commerce with demons, and yet nonetheless in vain operations use things appropriated to demons, and for that reason utterly unlawful. For they think that great and hidden power resides in characters, and therefore they commit various errors against the faith of Christ. But since this is not the time to recount their madness, let us pursue our subject.

Why good and just men do not obtain command over demons must be stated briefly. Just as likeness of wills makes wicked and impious men equal to demons, so unlikeness of wills renders good and just men wholly contrary to them. But between those who are contrary and unlike there can be no familiarity; rather, continual opposition and hatred prevail. Where, however, no familiarity contracted through likeness of wills is found, neither can there be trust of one toward another, nor mutual cooperation in the working of marvels.

Nor do you, glorious Caesar, though you are a man, the great ruler and prince of men, admit as familiar to yourself anyone wholly contrary and unlike you in character, and continually resisting your will. But good and upright men, because they always refuse the most depraved will of demons, can in no way pass into their company; they neither wish nor consent to be familiar with them, but with all their strength flee from and detest meeting them. And therefore they do not obtain over them that fictitious command of which we have spoken. For familiarity is nowhere safe when no likeness of wills has preceded it; nor can there be concord between contraries, nor does friendship stand between those unlike in will. Yet demons do not indiscriminately obey all the wicked and reprobate, but only those with whom they are bound by pacts and services; and when invoked, they willingly attend those whom they cannot otherwise keep faithful, although they falsely claim that they are compelled.

Therefore it is not to be wondered at, excellent Caesar, that malignant spirits sometimes seem to obey depraved and perverse men, whom, as we have said, both malevolence has made like to them and a desire for ruin upon the human race has made concordant with them. But far be it from every Christian to wish to command demons through a depraved likeness of will; for if anyone in this life has begun to have the company of malignant spirits, in the life to come he will burn with them without end.

But why can good and just men not command the holy angels of God, into whose likeness of good will they have passed? I think that from what has been said above the solution to this question would easily be given, if the difference of intellects is recalled to mind. For although there are many men established in the Church of God whose justice benefits many unto salvation, nevertheless in our times very few advance so far that, by reason of the merit of holiness, they are either feared by demons or received into the company of familiarity.

from the angels. Hence it comes about that the men of our age neither command evil spirits by the merit of holiness, nor deserve to be familiar with the holy angels. But if any have advanced to that degree of holiness by which, working miracles in the Church, the saints once advanced, then they can both command demons powerfully and have the familiar companionship of blessed spirits.

For it is certain that holy men beloved of God, in the primitive Church of Christians, once bestowed greater benefits on mortals through the working of good spirits than the impiety of wicked men could ever have inflicted through the service of demons. For whoever is a true worshiper of God, if he has become like the holy angels, can do many wondrous things by prayers.

ON THE POWER OF SORCERESSES

The Sixth Question

The sixth question of your invincible Majesty was: whence comes this so great power for sorceresses, who can perform so many, varied, and wondrous things even in a single hour, such and so great as no good person could perform in his whole life?

To this question, if we wish to answer briefly, we must necessarily say that all power is from the Lord God, without whom no creature can do anything. For Christ says in the holy Gospel: Without me you can do nothing. Hence it is plain that all power of doing anything is granted to human beings by the Lord God, and not from elsewhere, whether people do good or evil. Hence the most holy bishop Augustine says: The will of God is the first and highest cause of all bodily forms and motions, and nothing happens visibly in this most ample and immense commonwealth of all creation which is not either commanded or permitted from the inner, invisible, and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments.

Therefore there must be no doubt, Caesar, that that power of sorceresses, by which they produce wondrous and horrible effects through the cooperation of demons, is granted by the Lord God, whose will no one can resist, and without whose influence a man cannot even move his hand. For the holy doctors conclude that neither demons nor sorceresses can do anything, whether to harm a human being or a beast, unless almighty God wills, consents, and grants them the power to do what they have already resolved upon with a perverse will. Unless God consents and wills, no creature can do anything. Otherwise, if something could happen when he did not will and consent to it, it would necessarily follow that God was very weak, unable to prevent what he would be forced to permit against his will.

But since every human being, insofar as he is a creature, depends on God, he can do nothing without the will of him from whom he has both the will and the power. Therefore whatever sorceresses do is done with God permitting it; without his will they can do nothing, because unless God grants that they can do what they will, they will obtain it neither from themselves nor from demons. Thus all power is from the Lord God, in whom all things both exist and are moved, as in the first cause of all things; for from him from whom we have received freedom of choice, from him also we have the power to do what we will.

But since the understanding of sorceresses is very confused, they do not perpetrate the evils they do by human art, but by the cooperation of demons. These, being subtle by nature, long experience has also made swift in producing wonders. For the wondrous effects of sorceresses are not caused by the sorts of means they use for sorcery, such as the heads of the dead, toads, serpents, characters, images, and things like these, but by the devil who instituted these signs; and since he is most proud, he desires [unclear] God in

to be seen as comparable in all things. For indeed, just as almighty God has instituted certain sacraments in his Church which, when worthily administered and with his assistance, signify and produce a saving effect, salvation being worked by the very one who instituted them, so also the devil, who desires nothing more than to be judged equal to God, has instituted certain signs as though they were sacraments. By these, when he is invoked by those with whom the malignant worker is allied by pacts, he is present; and whenever God permits it, he brings about the evil that is requested. If God does not permit it, he does nothing at all.

For the devil is the worker of all necromantic effects and of the works of witches; through the application of the means which he himself first instituted, he produces the desired work upon the subject matter, sometimes really, sometimes only in appearance. The women witches, whose will is already corrupted and who by consent pass through pacts into fellowship with demons, receive from them certain marks and symbolic signs; when the demons are summoned by these, they immediately appear.

In these pernicious operations of the demon nothing is stronger than the foolish credulity of the witches, which is increased by pacts and vows; for the firmer the faith they place either in the demons or in their signs, the more swiftly they obtain the operation through the demons’ cooperation. For the excessively savage corruption of the witches’ will turns them in a certain way into frenzy; when this has seized the mind, the demons at once apply themselves to the raving women, and, invited by pacts and signs, with God permitting, grant to them in their madness the effect of their request.

Plato related something similar in his book on poetic frenzy, saying: Bacchant women, when not of sound mind, draw honey and milk from rivers, but when of sound mind they cannot draw them. Their mind, carried outside itself into fellowship with an evil demon, brings this about. We know by experience that witches have at times drawn butter from stirred-up rivers, which can in no way happen except through the ministry of a demon.

In the same way, when they have been drawn into hatred of some man or beast and long for his destruction, they are driven by a most grievous frenzy, thinking of nothing in their mind except revenge. They resort to the instruments of witchcraft known and familiar to them, invoke demons, display the signs instituted by them, and at the same time the characters; and what they cannot accomplish by their own power, they obtain through the demons’ ministry.

But another person, who is not subject to demons by pact and surrender, even if he knows the things suited to witchcraft and also the method of working, and although he displays the signs, nevertheless rarely obtains the effect, because he is not counted among those familiar to the demon. For the devil, swollen with pride, so far imitates the Church of Christ that, just as one who is not ordained cannot consecrate the body of Christ, however much he utters the words of consecration, so also the demon, however much someone invokes him and displays signs or characters, either never or only rarely cooperates with one whom he does not know to be subject to him by pact.

For if he were to appear indiscriminately to all who invoked him without pacts being made, he would not possess so many witches dedicated to him by right of ownership. Hence it is that many who are devoted to profane arts labor to summon demons to a circle, to a mirror, or to any other receptacles by dreadful conjurations, and yet obtain no effect, because either God’s command stands in the way, or the devil despises the curious man who has not been dedicated to him by homage.

For three things are required for witchcraft, without which it is agreed that none is perpetrated: the witch, raging in mind and with corrupted will; the cooperation of a familiar demon; and before all things, divine permission. If one of these does not concur, witchcraft cannot be perpetrated. For if God did not permit it, neither the devil nor the witch could do anything. And if the devil did not meet the will of the wicked woman, she would perpetrate no witchcraft. Again, if the witch is lacking, the devil will by no means complete the witchcraft. For the devil uses the will of the raving witch as

as a craftsman uses an instrument for working, without which he could not inflict the witchcraft. And just as demons differ from one another in power and in the keenness of their subtlety, so the power of witches is not one and the same in all of them, but differs in each according as they have as their cooperating demons those more subtle or grosser in nature. For there are many kinds of demons, and they stand apart from one another in fixed ranks, according to the places into which, when they fell at the beginning, they were thrust down.

The first kind of demons is called fiery. It roams about the upper air and never sinks down to the lower regions before the day of judgment, but remains continually beneath the lunar regions, having no dealings with human beings on earth. That they remain beneath the moon Saint Augustine bears witness in his work On the Christian Struggle, saying thus: Demons do not dwell in heaven, where the sun and the stars are, but all move about beneath the lunar region. Moved by this, as I think, Apuleius said that demons are fiery animals, because Aristotle affirmed that in burning furnaces certain small animals, fitted with little wings, have often been seen flying about, which spend their whole life in fire, since they arise with the fire and are extinguished with it, and, vanishing, return to their own place from which they had come. They have no partnership with acts of witchcraft, since, although they dwell in fire, because of their subtlety they cannot put on a gross or airy body. Perhaps, constrained by the bonds of divine judgment, they cannot do what they can by nature.

The second kind is called aerial, which, wandering in the air near us, dwells there. These indeed can descend to the lower regions, and, having assumed bodies from denser air, sometimes appear visibly to human beings. With God’s permission they often disturb the air, stir up thunder and storms, and all conspire together for the destruction of the human race. They are moved, like human beings, by the affections of passions, especially pride and envy, and are touched by continual disturbances; they are neither clothed in an accustomed body nor fixed in one place. Nor do they all have one form, but many, and these they change often, according to the variety of the affections with which they either present themselves when summoned by the spells of witches, or, driven by disturbance, move to do harm. For they have an altogether violent and furious character, full of agitations; hence, when greatly harmed and disturbed, they very often contrive sudden ambushes. And while they make their attacks, they partly wish to lie hidden and partly inflict violence. Witches supported by the cooperation of these demons are the more powerful in practicing witchcraft, the higher the order of the demon they have obtained as their cooperating demon. In the Life of Saint Antony, Athanasius said that the air is full of demons, which Mercury Trismegistus had said before him, namely that no part of the world is bereft of the presence of demons. The holy bishop Ambrose also says: The world is full of holy powers, because it is full of wicked ones. Hence the Platonists have handed down that demons flying in the air, like the thickest fiery snow, are visible to those who desire it, if for some time, with the sun shining, they keep their gaze fixed toward heaven with eyes not struck back by the light. But I do not know whether the object is caused in the air by a real consistency, or whether the arrested motion of the eyes represents false images, though not without some slight harm to the sense; I have undertaken the experiment of the promised things.

The third kind we call terrestrial demons, whom we do not at all doubt to have fallen from heaven onto the earth according to their deserts. Concerning these the most holy bishop and martyr of Christ Theophorus, once called Ignatius, wrote thus in a certain letter to the Ephesians: Nothing is better than to have peace, in which every weapon of the aerial and terrestrial spirits alike is made void. Of these demons, some dwell in woods and groves, laying traps for hunters; others live in open fields, making travelers wander at night; some dwell in hidden places and caves; the rest, less furious and disturbed than the others, delight to dwell with human beings in darkness [unclear].

[unclear]. They are not led by one single passion, but by various ones, since some are less depraved than others, although all are full of evil disturbances. Of these, some delight in terrifying human beings by illusions alone; others wish to draw their hearers into admiration of themselves by predictions of future things. Some, however, strive with the greatest effort to terrify, harm, or kill people troubled by irrational madness or raving with melancholy; and we know by experience that this has happened quite often. Hence Saint John Chrysostom says in the third book On Providence, to the monk Stagirius: “The greatness of sorrow is more powerful for doing harm than every diabolical action, because whomever the demon overcomes, he overcomes through sorrow. If you take it away, no one at all will be able to be harmed by a demon.”

This kind of demon is rarely familiar to witches, because of the inconstancy of its passions and the fickleness by which they prefer to delight in terrifying many people rather than submit to the command of one poor woman. Yet sometimes, as they promise madwomen, they remain in glass or crystal or in a mirror, and, roused by incantations, give answers to women; and if someone who is coming to them has spoken ill of them, they announce it beforehand on the way. This kind of witches sometimes differs greatly from the rest, because what the others make infirm by witchcraft, these promise to cure; but because they very often repel witchcraft by witchcraft, the Church forbids every Christian to approach them.

The fourth kind of demons is called aquatic, because, immersing itself in moisture, it dwells around lakes and rivers. It is full of anger, turbulent, restless, and deceitful; it stirs up storms at sea, and by sinking ships into the deep takes the lives of many in the waters. And these demons, whenever they assume a visible body, more often appear in the female sex, and are seen more rarely in the male, because they live in moist places and follow a softer way of life, nor can they easily assume a coarse or common form after the custom of the others. Hence antiquity long ago named the Naiads and Nereids, the nymphs of the waters, not with a masculine sex but with a feminine one. Among our people, however, they are commonly called aquatic women, that is, water-women. But those who dwell in drier and somewhat arid places, whenever they appear bodily to human beings, visibly transform themselves into men. They also assume the appearances of various beasts, according as they are touched by various passions.

Holy angels, however, because they never vary in passion, always appear uniformly in male form. For nowhere do we read in Scripture that a good spirit was seen in the form of a woman or of any beast, but always in male appearance. Demons, on the other hand, have often been seen around rivers and springs in the form of women, sometimes dancing, sometimes letting down their hair in the manner of women, and sometimes speaking with human beings and practicing various mockeries. And this kind of demons is not accustomed to have commerce with witchcrafts.

The fifth kind is called subterranean, because it dwells in caves and caverns and in the remote hollows of mountains. These demons are very wicked in passion, and they chiefly attack those who dig wells and mines, and those who seek treasures hidden in the earth, being most ready for the destruction of the human race. They make openings in the earth, raise flame-belching winds, and shake the foundations of buildings. Sometimes at night, coming out of the mountains in troops, they lead wondrous and astonishing dances in the fields; and, as if fearing the command of a single leader, they suddenly vanish at a signal and return to their hiding places. At times the sound of bells is heard among them, and sometimes they falsely claim that they are the spirits of men who have departed this life. They seek nothing more than human fear and admiration. Hence we have found by experience that they sometimes led certain of the simpler sort of men into their mountain hiding places, showing astonishing sights to those who marveled, as if the blessed were there [unclear].

[unclear] dwellings, and they falsely claim that they are friends of the living.

Among these demons, too, some are incubones of treasures, which the greed of mortals has hidden in the earth; and lest they should again come into human use, they remove them, steal them, guard them, and sometimes transfer them from place to place. And this kind of demon has no dealings with witch-women.

The sixth kind of demons is called light-fleeing, because they especially dread and detest the light: for they never appear by day, nor can they assume a body in any way except at night. This is the business that walks in darkness, an inscrutable and utterly dark kind of demon, stirred by cold passions, malicious, restless, and disturbed, which violently presses down upon the men it encounters in the hours of the night, and quite often, when God permits, kills them either by a certain breath or by touch. This kind of demon does not associate with witches, nor can it be constrained by charms, because it flees the light, human voices, and likewise every disturbance. The aerial kind is especially accustomed to attend women’s sorceries, since it is subtler than all the others and of the most daring rashness. Some of the terrestrial demons also, as has been said, serve certain witches; yet, being held to be of a lower rank, they can by no means bring about those greater sorceries. It is therefore plainly established that the whole power of witches, by which they do such astonishing things, is granted to demons by the Lord God within limits; and when He does not permit it, they accomplish nothing.

ON DIVINE PERMISSION.

The Seventh Question.

The seventh question of your Most Serene Majesty was this: Why does God, since He is just and the avenger of evils, permit such great sorceries to be done for the destruction of the human race, by which not only sinners but also many innocent people perish, grievously tormented? To this question I remember having answered thus some time ago, when I was placed before your Majesty.

The best God, just and upright, loving and merciful, whatever He permits, permits justly: because He is just, and there is no iniquity with Him, but all things, in true judgment, that are done He either does or permits. Therefore, when it is asked why God permits evils to be done, we answer: He permits them because He is just.

Now let your Majesty see, O Caesar, whether the answer we have given is absurd, since it in no way prejudices divine goodness that He permits evils to be done for a most just reason; rather, it would prejudice it if He did not permit evils to be done in the present world. For indeed, if He did not permit evils to be done, then man could not sin; he would certainly be impeccable, which does not befit his nature, since the Creator of all things gave him free will from the beginning. For man, since he is a creature and not the Creator, is necessarily capable of being turned both to good and to evil, since his being depends on the supreme Maker of all creatures, just as every caused thing depends on the cause of its being. But to create has been left to God alone, who is incorruptible and everlasting; everything corruptible, however, necessarily fails, yet is preserved by the goodness of the Creator so long as it does not lose the influence of its cause.

Hence it neither could nor ought to have been the case that man, by the condition of his nature, was created incapable of sin; for only God, the Maker of all things, naturally possesses this, being immutable and everlasting. But whenever it is granted to man that he seems unable to sin, neither is freedom of will taken away, nor is the possibility simply removed, but the will is confirmed in good. And whenever this gift is granted to a creature, it is a gift of grace, not of nature. For Scripture says: God created man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel. For, properly speaking, it could not be that mortal man, conceived in original displeasure, should both have free will and be unable to commit sin. For the most holy bishop Augustine says:

The first freedom of the will was to be able not to sin; the last, in glory, will be much greater: to be unable to sin. And so, if man could not sin, he would not have dominion over his own will. Hence, although Almighty God does not will sin, he nevertheless justly permits men to sin and to do evil, so that, while freedom of choice remains, both the virtue of a good work may receive its merit, and voluntary depravity may reap the evil it has done. For no one either does good or sins unwillingly. Therefore Almighty God justly permits men to sin and to do evil, to whom from the beginning he granted freedom of choice. Now there are many reasons, long ago assigned by the holy Doctors, why Almighty God permits such acts of sorcery to be done through the cooperation of demons; of these we shall briefly make mention in order.

The first is so that the excellence of the divine majesty may be made manifest, for he alone is unchangeable and far above every position. But every creature, being changeable, has no comparison with the unchangeable Creator. Hence it is read in Numbers: God is not like a man, that he should lie, nor like a son of man, that he should be changed. In Isaiah also it is said: God is faithful, without iniquity, just and upright. In the book of Tobit too it is written: You are just, Lord, and all your judgments are true, and all your ways are mercy, truth, and judgment. And in the book of holy Job we read: Far be impiety from God, and iniquity from the Almighty. For he will render the work of man to him, and repay each according to his ways. Therefore every man who rightly understands his own ignorance and weakness plainly recognizes what he is in comparison with his Creator. For God justly permits man to sin, so that freedom of choice may be continued and the excellence of the great God may be made known to men.

The second reason is so that the inscrutable wisdom of God may be made known to mortals, by which he knows how to draw good from our evils, when he makes the sin of one person become the merit of another for the increase of virtue. For if he did not permit evil to be done, who among us would understand good? For God makes and orders good things; evils, however, he does not make, but, when they have been done by the impious, he himself disposes them so that they may not come about in disorder. Nor does the malice of men hinder the will of God, nor can man do anything that God does not permit.

The third cause is that the Almighty permits acts of sorcery to be done in order to manifest his most merciful goodness toward those who have sinned and done penance; this he could in no way show if he did not permit the creature to sin. For if there were no sinner, neither could God be merciful. But since we all offend in many things, everywhere God finds something to forgive; everywhere God meets something in which, as loving Creator, he may show his mercy. Hence the holy bishop Augustine says: If the sickness were slight, the physician would be despised, not sought; the sickness would not be ended. Therefore, where sin abounded, grace also abounded, by which alone he distinguishes the redeemed from the lost, whom the mass of perdition, drawn from the origin of creation, heaps together into one. Thus the mercy of the Lord is over all his works.

The fourth reason for divine permission is so that the justice of the Creator may be declared toward those who have sinned and have not done penance; for if all did good and no one sinned, the justice of God would have nothing to punish. Therefore, so that justice may have a place, the creature sins by divine permission. For the Lord is just, and will render to each according to the works of his will.

The fifth reason is the dignity of the human condition: for if God did not permit man to sin, he would seem worse off than the brute beasts, which, with no violence compelling them, freely use the motions of nature. For even if brute beasts lack reason, they nevertheless have the free motion of nature, which they follow; in comparison with them, man would seem to be of a lower condition if he did not have free choice of the will. But God permitted man a free will, over which neither kings nor princes command.

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The sixth reason is the praise owed to the merit of constancy in human virtue, when we praise a just man for this reason: because, although he could have transgressed, he did not transgress, but, aided by the grace of God, remained steadfast in the constancy of a good will.

The seventh reason why almighty God permits demons to commit such great evils through the agency of witches is this: so that those who, having scorned the truth, take delight in falsehood may be seduced by the devil, the inventor of falsehood, and be utterly deceived. For it is fitting that enchanters and witches, who despise following the saving teachings of Christ, should all, deceived by demons, be plunged down to hell to be punished forever. They seek help from demons, the enemies of the whole human race, and despise the Savior of the world, whom alone they ought to have worshiped. For it is just that one who, by his own free will, abandons truth and clings to falsehood should be hurled by the devil into destruction.

The eighth cause is the manifestation of divine power, whose might and strength are above every creature. For when almighty God sometimes permits the devil great things and denies him certain small things, he makes manifest how weak the enemy of the human race is, and how subject in all things to the divine majesty. For the devil can do nothing of himself; but everything he does, he does by God’s permission. Therefore the first cause of all for which almighty God permits acts of witchcraft to occur is justice, by which he preserves in inviolable order the freedom that he once granted to his creature from the beginning. But since the power of every creature, dependent on its Creator, is restricted and limited, it is clear that the devil cannot do everything he wills, nor can a man, however depraved in will. The will is indeed free, but power is limited by fixed and necessary degrees. For if demons could do everything they wished, nothing in human affairs would remain safe, but they would bring everything to ruin. The history of holy Job clearly demonstrates by manifest example that the power of demons is bound: Satan did not dare to tempt him any further than had been permitted to him by divine dispensation.

For no one in this present world, however just or strong, could resist the fury of demons if they were always able to use freely, at their own discretion, their power to harm. Before the Lord’s Passion they used a greater freedom of power than afterward; but when Christ tasted death for us on the altar of the cross, from then on their power was greatly changed. The Savior says in the Gospel: Now the prince of the world will be cast out. For the humility of Christ and the perseverance of the saints have greatly restrained the boldness of demons, so that they can rightly be called kindlers of evils, but by no means compellers. Nor would the devil grow strong against us unless he received strength from our sins. Hence Scripture admonishes us, saying: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And again: Do not give place to the devil.

Therefore, in concluding the discourse for the understanding of the proposed question, why God permits so many acts of witchcraft to occur, I believe the reasons have been sufficiently made clear. For even if the will of demons is always wicked, their power can nevertheless never be unjust, since what they wickedly will they have from their own choice, but what they are able to do wickedly they have only from God. And these things have been said so far as they concern those who do evil.

But why does almighty God permit demons, through witches, to harm people who have been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and faithfully believe in his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? For if they were able to harm only the wicked, the perverse, and unbelievers in body and in possessions, but were restrained from approaching and harming the good and faithful, the permission would rightly seem to be a just judgment. But now, since good and innocent people are more often made ill by the witchcraft of demons, and sometimes are even deprived of life, to pass over in silence the loss of temporal goods which those bewitched often suffer, this has become a source of scruple for many.

why the Almighty permits these things, he who permits nothing unjustly.

Concerning this proposed question, I have received from none other than the ancient and Catholic doctors the necessary reasons, which I shall set forth in order as briefly as I can. The first reason is the testing of the faith of Christians and the proving of their integrity, so that, when scourged by the evil arts of demons, they may learn in the sufferings of the flesh what faith and love toward God they have hidden in the mind. In prosperity it is not difficult to be long-suffering; but in adversity, with humble patience, to await help from the Savior of the faithful belongs not to the soft, but to the strong and truly faithful Christians. Most holy Job learned in his tribulation how great a constancy of faith toward God he possessed, he who before, in tranquility, had kept piety without the dart of temptation.

Hence it must also be noted that those whom the evil arts of demons or men have in any way made sick, if for recovering health they approach or consult any sorcerers and enchanters, either personally or through others, act against the precepts of God and the Church, and have neither true faith in God nor love. For they prefer the health of mortal flesh to God, and seek health not from Christ but from the devil and his minister. They prefer to live healthy, but unhappily, in the name of the devil, rather than to suffer a little here for the love of Christ and afterward rejoice with him forever. But whoever does not approach sorcerers because God has forbidden it, preferring to live, with the observance of God’s commandments, in want and sickness rather than against God in riches and bodily health, truly loves God and rightly preserves the integrity of the Christian faith.

O most sacred Caesar, men corrupt in mind and reprobate concerning the faith must not be tolerated among Christians: those who cure the bewitched by sorceries, who reveal thefts and adulteries by the ministry of demons, and who foretell the future by inspection of stones or mirrors. I beg you, do not listen to those who, ignorant of the divine laws, think such ministers of demons useful to your rule, because one skilled in sorcery knows how to undo sorceries; for that pernicious cure of bodies brings death to souls, and makes men withdraw from God, the creator of all things, and cling to impious apostate demons, with whom after death they will be damned forever.

The second reason why Almighty God permits the innocent to be harmed by sorcery is the increase of merits, namely so that, once their patience has been tested in tribulation, they may deserve a worthier crown of glory in heaven. For, as holy Augustine says, a man is unknown to himself as to what he can bear and what he cannot bear. Sometimes he fears that he cannot do what nevertheless he can. When temptation comes, as though it were a kind of interrogator, a man is discovered by himself, who before, being hidden, did not know himself. The divine chief apostle Peter, before temptation came upon him, was hidden both from himself and from others as to how inconsiderate and weak he was. It came, and the weakness that had lain hidden appeared. Therefore temptation is the greatest proof of a man, as Sacred Scripture bears witness: The furnace tests the potter’s vessels, and the temptation of tribulation tests righteous men. Patience is easy in prosperity, because no adversities strike the mind. But many are the tribulations of the righteous, and from them all our Lord Jesus Christ will deliver them.

The third reason for divine permission is the preservation of humility, so that the faithful and righteous man may always fear God and never presume upon his own strength or righteousness. Hence Scripture says of the reprobate: They are not in the labor of men, and they will not be scourged with men; therefore pride has held them fast; they are covered with their iniquity and impiety; their iniquity has come forth, as it were, from fatness. It is of God’s mercy that he sometimes permits good and righteous men to be shaken by adversities, those whom he knows cannot be humbled in prosperity. For tribulation has made many men humble whom favorable circumstances would have made proud. Finally, the fearful imagining of sorceries makes a good man fear God.

his God and diligently invoke his help, so that, fortified by it, he may be able to trust that he is safe against the assaults of demons. But let no proud man, presuming upon his own strength, think himself safe from the evil workings of demons; for the man swollen with pride, whom God’s protection abandons, it undoubtedly lays open to the evil workings of demons.

The fourth reason is that there may be a distinction between the good and the wicked. For Scripture says of good men beloved by God in the Acts of the Apostles: “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.” And Saint Paul, lover of Christ, says in a certain epistle: “All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution.” The most wise King Solomon also says in Proverbs: “Whom the Lord loves, he corrects, and as a father he takes pleasure in his son.” It is a most glorious thing for a Christian to endure adversities patiently for the love of God, whether they are inflicted by wicked men or by demons. For power is given to the devil and his ministers to harm good and righteous men, not for their ruin, as the Petrones suppose, but rather for the greatest and sure consolation of the soul. Indeed, when a righteous man lives well, harms no one, offends no one, does injury to no one, loves, fears, and venerates his God with his whole heart, keeps his commandments with all care, and nevertheless is afflicted by evil workings, whether in body, in possessions, or in both, that man is truly blessed; for when he has been tested, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Everyone who lives rightly in the unity of the faith of the Catholic Church of Christians, and, receiving evils in this world, patiently endures them for the love of God, has a sure sign that he perseveres in the grace of God unto salvation. Therefore we read thus written of the wicked and reprobate: “Why do the impious live? They are lifted up and strengthened with riches. Their houses are secure and at peace, and the rod of God is not upon them. They spend their days in good things, and in a moment they descend to hell.” For it is a manifest sign of damnation if here one lives wickedly, contrary to God in sins and vices, and prospers in the goods of fortune and in bodily health.

The fifth reason why the Almighty permits good and righteous men to be afflicted by the wicked and reprobate is for the complete purification of the mind. For, as Scripture says: “There is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin.” But since God lets no sin pass unpunished, he appoints temporal punishments through mercy for righteous men because of their offenses, but eternal punishments through justice for the impious and reprobate. Therefore, out of mercy, he changes eternal punishment for the penitent into temporal punishment, which they must necessarily suffer either in this world or after death in purgatory. But because the torments of purgatory are dreadful and most grievous, merciful God is accustomed to purge in this life, in various ways, the penitents whom he loves, through the hardships of diverse tribulations in body and in possessions. For the evil workings of impious men serve good and righteous men as a remedy, but for those who inflict them they serve unto damnation.

The sixth reason is that a man harmed by the assaults of demons may be recalled to penance and may set in his heart the necessary amendment of life. For Almighty God does not at once, when we sin, send vengeance upon us, but waits for our amendment until the appointed time. But if we have neglected to do penance, the avenger of evils comes to us when we do not expect it; and we who, as sinners, scorned to acknowledge ourselves through repentance in tranquility will at last acknowledge ourselves in tribulation, though late. Hence the holy prophet speaks in the person of God, saying: “If his children forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their sins with scourges; but my mercy I will not scatter from them, nor will I do harm in my truth.”

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The seventh reason why almighty God permits the harmful works of demons to prevail against the good and innocent is so that an overly free occasion for sinning may be cut off from them. For there are many poor and infirm persons, pleasing to God, good, devout, and humble, whom poverty and bodily sickness preserve in the love of God; if they were rich and raised to honors, they would quickly flow down from their holy purpose into the depth of vices.

It is not expedient for everyone’s salvation to have honors and riches together with health, nor does a longer life always make a person better. Therefore almighty God, wishing to show his mercy toward those whom he has chosen, permits the good, just, and innocent to be subject to various calamities, and sometimes through demons, sometimes through evil men, sometimes by various other ways and means, he takes away from such persons riches and honors which he foresaw they would use badly, so that they may preserve in poverty and abasement the humility which, placed in wealth and high rank, they would by no means have preserved.

He also very often permits many and great sicknesses to befall them, when the glad health of the flesh would have brought the greatest sickness of mind. Finally, he permits someone to be driven to death by harmful magic, so that the license for sinning may be cut off from them, which they would have abused if they had been permitted to live longer. Hence Scripture says of the just man: He was snatched away lest malice change his understanding, and lest deceit beguile his soul.

The eighth reason for divine permission is that people may venerate the sacraments of the Church, which have great power against all the harmful works of malignant spirits. For one who venerates the sacraments and rites of the Catholic Church with due honor is rarely harmed by the harmful works of demons. And from the actual confession of witches we have very often heard that the hearing of Masses and the sight of things blessed by the Church greatly weaken the powers of demons. For they are not blessed in vain in the Church of God, but so that they may be fearsome signs showing demons the defense of divine protection.

Concerning boys and infants who, reborn in Christ, are sometimes killed by the harmful works of demons or men, we do not doubt that divine providence permits this to happen for their salvation, since it knows how to order all things for the better for mortals. Yet it often happens that infants perish by harmful magic because of the sins of their parents.

A Very Celebrated Medicinal Powder of the Same Trithemius

Many have up to now always praised this powder of Trithemius for the brain as very useful to students. For not a few, by using it, reached the point that they could easily disregard those examiners of urine, arteries, and scrapings from tongues. Many prolonged a sound life to nearly their hundredth year; and finally they gained such sharpness of memory that they easily surpassed anyone, even the greatest. And this without pills, clysters, plasters, ointments, poultices, electuaries, chewable medicines, gargles, sachets, fumes, preserves, syrups, waters, theriacs, and the like.

Take aromatic calamus, gentian, cumin, mountain siler, anise, caraway, ammi, parsley seed, and spikenard, of each half a drachm; red coral and unperforated pearls, five drachms; white ginger, bittersweet, senna leaves, and burnt tartar, of each five drachms; mace and cubebs, of each two drachms; cloves, seven drachms. Let a powder be made according to the art.

Its dose is half a drachm, to be taken morning and evening in broth or wine for the first month. In the second month, only in the morning; in the third month, in the morning three times a week; and so it is to be continued for life.

Indeed, it is useful against many illnesses and is a most tested and effective powder. It strengthens the stomach, purges the brain, clears the eyes and sight, sharpens the memory, consumes bad and superfluous humors throughout the whole body without danger, eases and opens constriction in the chest, drives away nausea, prevents excessive fatness, preserves from epilepsy and apoplexy, dissolves the matter of stones without pain and does not allow it to harden into stone, and does not permit gout of the hand, gout of the foot, or sciatica to prevail.

When Paulus Scalichius wished to give this powder for use to the Duke of Prussia, whose counselor he then was, the prince’s physicians forbade it. From this arose a dispute among them, in which the matter of this powder was contested in writing on both sides; that dispute is extant in the Philosophical Satires of Scalichius himself.

The End.

[OCR damage on the final leaves (pages 139–141): the scan stuttered, repeating the line "the lord, and the male servant and female servant of the mistress, also in service" dozens of times. The page images are the authoritative witness.]