“To-day, Wednesday after St. Vitus, 1528. The fortune-teller shall be ordered to leave the town and spend his penny elsewhere.” This is supplemented by another entry in the record of expulsions: “To-day, Wednesday after St. Vitus, 1528, one who calls himself Dr. Jörg Faustus of Heidelberg has been told to spend his penny elsewhere, and has promised not to resent or mock such summons of the authorities.”
It will be noticed that the same Christian name again occurs, in conjunction with the reference to Heidelberg.
There is then a gap of some eleven years before we meet the name again in the Index Sanitatis of the physician Philipp Begardi of Worms, published in 1539:—
“There is also to be found a renowned and bold man; I did not wish to have mentioned his name, but it will not be hidden or unknown. For some years ago he wandered through almost every province, principality and kingdom, made his name known to everybody, and boasted loudly of his great art, not only in medicine, but also in chiromancy, necromancy, physiognomy, crystal-gazing and more of such arts. And not only boasted, but also gave himself out to be and wrote himself as a famous and experienced master. He also himself acknowledged and did not deny, that he was, and was called Faust, and signed himself Philosophus Philosophorum, etc. There has, however, been a great number of people, who have complained to me, that they have been swindled by him. His promises were as great as those of Thessalus. Similarly his fame, like that of Theophrastus also; but the fulfilment, as I learn, was found to be very small and fraudulent; yet he was not slow in taking money, and at his departure many people were cheated. But what can one do about it, gone is gone.”
When Philipp von Hutten, the cousin of the more famous Ulrich von Hutten, was about to start on his first expedition to Venezuela in 1534, Faust prophesied that the voyage would be unfortunate, and he was right, for von Hutten, in a description of the voyage written in 1540, writes: “I must acknowledge that the philosopher Faustus divined it correctly, for we have had a very bad year.” A rival fortune-teller, Joachim Camerarius, who had declared that the voyage would be lucky, asks in a letter to a friend, written in 1536, what Faust can prophesy about the German Emperor’s next battle with the King of France.
Johann Gast, a protestant clergyman at Basle, relates two anecdotes of Faust in the edition of his Sermones Convivales which appeared in 1548:—
“Concerning the Necromancer Faust.
He once turned into a very wealthy monastery, in order to spend the night there. A brother sets before him ordinary, weak, not very tasty wine. Faust asks him for better wine from another barrel, which is usually given to distinguished guests. The brother says: ‘I haven’t the keys. The prior is asleep, and I may not rouse him.’ Faust replies: ‘The keys lie in that corner; take them and open that barrel on the left and bring me a drink!’ The brother refuses and declares that he has no permission from the prior to give the guests other wine. When Faust hears this, he says: ‘In a short time thou wilt experience strange things, inhospitable brother!’ Early next morning he went away full of bitterness, without taking leave, and sent a raging devil into the monastery, who made an uproar day and night, and set everything in motion in the church and in the rooms of the monks, so that they had no peace, whatever they did. At last they consulted as to whether they should abandon the monastery or totally destroy it. They therefore announced their misfortune to the Count Palatine, who took the monastery under his protection and sent away the monks, to whom he allows every year what they need, keeping the rest for himself. Some assert that even now, when monks enter the monastery, there arises such a tumult, that the inhabitants have no peace. The devil knows how to manage that.
Another Instance of Faust.
When I was dining with him in the great College at Basle, he gave the cook birds of various kinds, concerning which I did not know where he had bought them or who had given them to him, since at that time none was being sold in Basle, and they were birds such as I have never seen in our neighbourhood. He had with him a dog and a horse, which, as I believe, were devils, since they could do everything. Some people told me that the dog had sometimes assumed the form of a servant and brought him food. The wretched man came to a terrible end; for the devil strangled him; his corpse lay on the bier on its face all the time, although it was turned round five times.”