the end of that time he had purchased a perfect knowledge of all
the highways and byways of alchemical rogueries, and was intimately
acquainted with an enormous variety of substances, mineral, metallic,
and otherwise, which did not apparently enter into the composition of
the stone philosophical. He calculates the cost of these experiences
to have been roughly six thousand crowns. He had laboured in vain
to congeal, dissolve, and sublime common salt, sal ammoniac, every
variety of alum, and copperas. He even proceeded upon ordure, both of
man and beasts, by distillation, circulation, and sublimation. These
experiments, based on the literal interpretation of the allegories
of the _turba philosophorum_, again resulted in failure, and at last
discouraged beyond words at the loss of his time and his fortune, he
betook himself to prayer, hoping to discover the aim of the alchemists
by the grace and favour of God. In conjunction with a magistrate of his
country, he subsequently endeavoured to compose the philosophical stone
with sea salt as the chief ingredient. He rectified it fifteen times
during the space of a year and a half without finding any alteration
in its nature, whereupon he abandoned the process for another proposed
by the magistrate, namely, the dissolution of silver and mercury by
means of aquafortis. These dissolutions, undertaken separately, were
left to themselves for a year, and then combined and concentrated over
hot ashes to reduce their original volume to two-thirds. The residuum
of this operation, placed in a narrow crucible, was exposed to the
action of the solar rays, and afterwards to the air, in the hopes that
it would crystallize. Twenty-two phials were filled with the mixture,
and five years were devoted to the whole operation, but at the end
of that period no crystallization had taken place, and thus was this
operation abandoned, like the rest, as a failure.
Bernard Trévisan was now forty-six years old, and at the end of his
experimental resources he determined to travel in search of true
alchemists. In this manner he met with a monk of Citeaux, Maître
Geofroi de Lemorier, who was in possession of a hitherto unheard of
process. They purchased two thousand hens’ eggs, hardened them in
boiling water, and removed the shells, which they calcined in a fire.
They separated the whites from the yolks, which they putrified in
horse manure. The result was distilled thirty several times for the
extraction of a white and red water. These operations were continually
repeated with many variations, and vainly occupied eight years more of
the toil-worn seeker’s life.
Disappointed, disheartened, but still pertinaciously adhering to
his search after the Grand Secret, Trévisan now set to work with a
protonotary of Bruges, whom he describes as a great theologian, and
who pretended to extract the stone from sulphate of iron (copperas) by
distillation with vinegar. They began by calcining the sulphate for
three months, when it was soaked in the vinegar, which had been eight
times distilled. The mixture was placed in an alembic, and distilled
fifteen times daily for a year, at the end of which the seeker was
rewarded by a quartan fever which consumed him for fourteen months, and
which almost cost him his life.
He was scarcely restored to health when he heard from a clerk that
Maître Henry, the confessor of the German Emperor, Frederick III.,
was in possession of the philosophical stone. He immediately set out
for Germany, accompanied by some baffled sons of Hermes like himself.
They contrived, _par grands moyens et grands amis_, to be introduced
to the confessor, and began to work in conjunction with him. Bernard
contributed ten marks of silver, and the others thirty-two, for
the indispensable expenses of the process, which consisted in the
combination of mercury, silver, oil of olives, and sulphur. The whole
was dissolved over a moderate fire, and continually stirred. In two
months it was placed in a glass phial, which they covered with clay,
and afterwards with hot ashes. Lead, dissolved in a crucible, was
added after three weeks, and the product of this fusion was subjected
to refinement. At the end of these operations the imperial confessor
expected that the silver which had entered into the combination would
be augmented at least by a third, but, on the contrary, it was reduced
to a fourth.
Bernard Trévisan in utter despair determined to abandon all further
experiments. The resolution was applauded by his family, but in two
months the Circean power of the secret chemistry had asserted its
former dominion over the whole being of its martyr, who, in a fever of
eagerness, recommenced his travels, and visited Spain, Italy, England,
Scotland, Holland, Germany, and France. Then, anxious to drink at
the oriental fountains of alchemy, he spent several years in Egypt,
Persia, and Palestine, after which he passed into southern Greece,
visiting remote convents and experimenting in conjunction with monks
of reputation in the science. In every country he found there were
alchemists at work, but of those who were successful he could hear
no account. The true philosophers declined to make themselves known,
while impostors, in search of the credulous, presented themselves on
all sides. Bernard expended in these travels, and in false operations
connected with them, about thirteen thousand crowns, and was forced
to sell an estate which yielded eight thousand German florins per
annum. He was now sixty-two years of age, and as he had been deaf to
the remonstrances of his family, he saw himself despised and on the
threshold of want and misery. He endeavoured to conceal his poverty,
and fixed on the Isle of Rhodes, wherein to live entirely unknown. Now,
at Rhodes he became acquainted with _un grand clerc et religieux_,
who was addicted to philosophy, and commonly reported to be enjoying
the philosophical stone. He managed to borrow eight thousand florins,
and laboured with this monk in the dissolution of gold, silver, and
corrosive sublimate; he accomplished so much in the space of three
years that he expended the funds he had raised, and was again at the
end of his resources. Thus, effectually prevented from continuing the
practice, he returned to the study of the philosophers, and after eight
years, at the age of seventy-three, he professes to have discovered
their secret. By comparing the adepts and examining in what things they
agree, and in what they differ, he judged that the truth must lie in
those maxims wherein they were practically unanimous. He informs us
that it was two years before he put his discovery to the test; it was
crowned with success, and notwithstanding the infirmities of old age,
he lived for some time in the enjoyment of his tardy reward.
The chief work of Trévisan is _La Philosophie Naturelle des Métaux_.
He insists on the necessity of strong and discreet meditation in all
students of Hermetic philosophy. Their operations must wait on nature,
and not nature on their arbitrary processes. Mercury is said to be
the water of metals, “in which, by a mutual alteration, it assumes
in a convertible manner their mutations.” Gold is simply quicksilver
coagulated by the power of sulphur. The secret of dissolution is the
whole mystery of the art, and it is to be accomplished not by means
of fire, as some have supposed, but, with the help of mercury, in
an abstruse manner, which is not really indicated by the adept. The
work of nature is assisted by alchemy, which mingles ripe gold with
quicksilver, the gold comprising in itself a well-digested sulphur,
by which it matures the mercury to the “anatide proportion” of gold,
subtilising the elements and wonderfully abbreviating the natural
process for producing the precious metal of the mines.
JOHN FONTAINE.
The life of this artist is buried in the obscurity of his closet or
laboratory, where he divided his time between attention to his furnaces
and the composition of curious verses. He was alive at Valenciennes
in the year 1413. His Hermetic poem, _Aux Amoureux de Science_, has
been printed several times. The author announces that he is an adept,
and describes in an allegorical manner, after the fashion of the
“Romance of the Rose,” and in the same quaint and beautiful tongue,
the different processes which enter into the art of transmutation. His
little work may be profitably studied by the neophytes of practical
alchemy, though its benefits are of a negative kind, but its paradise
of dainty devices and its old world nature pictures are better suited
to the poet and the poetic interpretation of symbols.
THOMAS NORTON.
The scientific methods of Ripley were followed by this alchemist, who
was born in the city of Bristol. He wrote anonymously, but the initial
syllables in the six first lines, and the first line in the seventh
chapter of his “Ordinall of Alchemy,” compose the following couplet:--
“Thomas Norton of Briseto,
A parfet master you may him trow.”
At the age of twenty-eight, and in the brief space of forty days, he
is recorded to have mastered “the perfection of chymistry,” obtaining
his knowledge from a contemporary adept, who appears to have been
Ripley himself. He describes his initiator as a person of noble mind,
worthy of all praise, loving justice, detesting fraud, reserved when
surrounded by a talkative company, quite unassuming, and if ever the
conversation turned upon the Great Art, preserving complete silence.
For a long time Norton sought him in vain; the adept proved him by
various trials, but when he was satisfied of his disposition, manners,
and habits, as well as of his strength of mind, his love yielded to the
fidelity and perseverance of his postulant, and in answer to one of his
letters he addressed him as follows:--
“MY TRUSTY AND WELL-BELOVED BROTHER,--I shall not any longer delay;
the time is come; you shall receive this grace. Your honest desire and
approved virtue, your love of truth, wisdom, and long perseverance,
shall accomplish your sorrowful desires.
“It is necessary that, as soon as convenient, we speak together face
to face, lest I should by writing betray my trust. I will make you my
heir and brother in this art, as I am setting out to travel in foreign
countries. Give thanks to God, Who, next to His spiritual servants,
honours the sons of this sacred science.”
Norton lost no time in undertaking a journey to his instructor, and
rode upwards of a hundred miles on horseback to reach the abode of the
adept. During the forty days already mentioned he received the advice
and directions of his friend. He was already to a great extent prepared
for initiation by a long course of natural philosophy, as well as by
the study of the occult and curious sciences. The “disclosure of the
bonds of nature” took place, and he became convinced of the truth
and certainty of the art by the rationality of its theorems. He felt
confident of success in the practice, but the adept, on account of his
youth, refused to instruct him in the process from the white to the red
powder, lest the divine gift should be misused in a moment of passion.
In due time, and after further proofs of his capacity and integrity, he
would communicate the work of the medicinal stone. This, the supreme
desire of the neophyte, was afterwards accomplished.
The chemical operations of Norton were destined, however, to meet with
two signal disappointments. He had almost perfected the tincture, when
his own servant, who was employed in the care of the furnace, believing
that the prize was complete, carried it away. He again undertook the
process and succeeded in making the elixir, but he complains that it
was stolen by the wife of a merchant, said to be William Canning, Mayor
of Bristol, who suddenly started into great wealth, and who built the
splendid and lofty steeple of St Mary’s, Radcliffe, besides enlarging
Westbury College.
It is doubtful whether Thomas Norton ever enjoyed the fruits of his
supposed knowledge. He does not speak of his own transmutations, and
if he is called by one of his contemporaries _alchemista suo tempore
peritissimus_, by others he is termed _Nugarum opifex in frivola
scientia_. The latter declare that he undid himself by his labours,
and that all his friends who trusted him with their money were as much
ruined as himself. According to Fuller, he lived and died very poor;
nevertheless his family appears to have been held in high repute under
King Henry VIII. There were nine brothers of the name of Norton. One
anonymous writer asserts that they were all of them knights. The tomb
of Sampson Norton, master of the king’s ordnance, and buried in Fulham
Church, was adorned with Hermetic paintings, according to one account,
but Faulkner, in his historical account of Fulham, describes it as
a rich Gothic monument, ornamented with foliage and oak-leaves, and
bearing an obliterated inscription.
Thomas Norton died in 1477. His grandson Samuel followed in his steps
as an alchemist, and was the author of several Hermetic treatises,
which are not very highly esteemed.
* * * * *
“The Ordinal of Alchemy” testifies that the stone is one. In appearance
it is a subtle earth, brown, and opaque; it stands the fire, and is
considered to be of no value. There is also another and glorious stone,
which is termed the philosophical magnesia. Alchemy is a wonderful
science, a secret philosophy, a singular grace and free gift of the
Almighty, which was never discovered by independent human labour, but
only by revelation or the instruction of one of the adepts.
“It helpeth a man when he hath neede,
It voideth vaine Glory, Hope, and also Dreade:
It voideth Ambitiousnesse, Extorcion, and Excesse,
It fenceth Adversity that shee doe not oppresse.
He that thereof hath his full intent,
Forsaketh Extremities, with Measure is content.”
A certain mineral virtue is said to be the efficient cause in
the production of metals in the bowels of the earth; it is in
correspondence with the virtues of the celestial spheres. The red stone
lengthens life, but it is vain to seek it till after the confection of
the white.
THOMAS DALTON.
The only account of this English adept is preserved by Thomas Norton.
He was alive in the year 1450, and is described as a religious man, who
enjoyed a good reputation till, upon suspicion that he had a large mass
of transmuting powder, he was taken from his abbey in Gloucestershire
by Thomas Herbert, one of the squires of King Edward, and being brought
into the royal presence he was confronted by Debois, another of the
king’s squires, to whom Dalton was formerly a chaplain. Debois alleged
that Dalton, in less than twelve hours, made him a thousand pounds of
good gold, and he attested the fact upon oath. Then Dalton, looking
at Debois, said, “Sir, you are forsworn.” Debois acknowledged that
he had vowed never to reveal the benefit which he had received, but
for the king’s sake and the good of the commonwealth he ought not to
keep his oath. Dalton now addressed the king, and informed him that he
had received the powder of projection from a canon of Lichfield, on
condition that he forbore to make use of it till after the death of the
donor. Since that event he had been in so much danger and disquietude
on account of its possession that he had destroyed it in secret.
The king dismissed Dalton, giving him four marks for his travelling
expenses; but Herbert lay in wait for him brought him from Stepney,
and thence conveyed him to the castle of Gloucester, where every means
were vainly tried to induce him to make the philosophers’ tincture.
After four years’ imprisonment, Dalton was brought out to be beheaded
in the presence of Herbert. He obeyed with resignation and joy, saying:
“Blessed art thou, Lord Jesus! I have been too long from you; the
science you gave me I have kept without abusing it; I have found no one
apt to be my heir, wherefore, sweet Lord, I will render Thy gift to
Thee again.”
Then, after some devout prayer, with a smiling countenance he desired
the executioner to proceed. Tears gushed from the eyes of Herbert when
he beheld him so willing to die, and saw that no ingenuity could wrest
his secret from him. He gave orders for his release. His imprisonment
and threatened execution were contrived without the king’s knowledge to
intimidate him into compliance. The iniquitous devices having failed,
Herbert did not dare to take away his life. Dalton rose from the block
with a heavy countenance and returned to his abbey, much grieved at
the further prolongation of his earthly sojourn. Herbert died shortly
after this atrocious act of tyranny, and Debois also came to an
untimely end. His father, Sir John Debois, was slain at the battle
of Tewksbury, May 4, 1471, and two days after, as recorded in Stow’s
_Annales_, he himself, James Debois, was taken, with several others of
the Lancastrian party, from a church where they had fled for sanctuary,
and was beheaded on the spot.[U]
FOOTNOTES:
[U] Stow, “Annales of England,” p. 424, ed. 1615.
SIR GEORGE RIPLEY.
This illustrious alchemical philosopher, whose works paved the royal
road to the initiation, in after times, of his still more illustrious
pupil, the sublime and mysterious Philalethes, entered, at an early
age, among the regular canons of Bridlington, in the diocese of York.
The tranquillity of monastic life afforded him a favourable opportunity
for the study of the great masters in transcendental chemistry, but he
found himself notwithstanding incompetent for their full comprehension,
and in considerable consequent disappointment he determined to travel,
persuading himself that he should discover in the conversations of
philosophers what he could not glean from books.
In Italy, Germany, and France he became acquainted with various men of
learning, and was present at a transmutation which was performed in
Rome. He proceeded afterwards to the island of Rhodes, where a document
is supposed to exist testifying that he gave £100,000 to the Knights
of St John of Jerusalem. He was dignified by the Pope, which fact, on
his return to Bridlington, excited the jealousy of his brethren, and
in consequence of their hostility he entered the Carmelite order at
Butolph, in Lincolnshire, and, by an indulgence from Innocent VIII.,
had permission to live in solitude, exempt from cloistral observances,
and in his now uninterrupted leisure he wrote twenty-four books,
some scientific, and others on devout subjects. The “Twelve Gates
of Alchemy” he composed in 1471, and he declares that any of his
experiments recorded from 1450 to 1470 should be entirely discredited,
as he wrote them from theory, and found afterwards by practice that
they were untrue. Hence it may be concluded that he employed twenty
years in mastering the secrets of the science. He died at Butolph in
1490.
* * * * *
“The Twelve Gates of Alchemy” describe the stone as a triune microcosm,
whence Ripley has been cited as an adept of the spiritual chemistry.
He insists upon the necessity of proportion in its composition,
and declares that the principle, or _prima materia_, may be found
everywhere. It flies with fowls in the air, swims with fishes in the
sea, it may be discerned by the reason of angels, and it governs man
and woman. An astronomical year is required for the manufacture of the
stone.
PICUS DE MIRANDOLA.
John Picus, Earl of Mirandola, was born on the 24th February 1463. He
is equally celebrated for his precocity, the extent of his learning,
his prodigious memory, and his penetrating intellect. As the pupil
of Jochanum, a Jew, he became early initiated in the Kabbalistic
interpretation of Scripture, and at the age of twenty-four years he
published nine hundred propositions in logic, mathematics, physics,
divinity, and Kabbalism, collected from Greek, Latin, Jewish, and
Arabian writers. In his treatise _De Auro_, he records his conviction
of the success of Hermetic operations, and gives us the following
narrations:--
“I come now to declare that which I have beheld of this prodigy,
without veil or obscurity. One of my friends, who is still living, has
made gold and silver over sixty times in my presence. I have seen it
performed in divers manners, but the expense of making the silver with
a metallic water exceeded the produce.”
In another place he tells us that “a good man who had not a sufficiency
to support his family, was reduced to the last extremity of distress;
with an agitated mind he went one night to sleep, and in a dream he
beheld a blessed angel, who, by means of enigmas, instructed him in
the method of making gold, and indicated to him, at the same time, the
water he should use to ensure success. At his awaking he proceeded to
work with this water, and made gold, truly in small quantity, yet
sufficient to support his family. Twice he made gold of iron and four
times of orpiment. He convinced me by the evidence of my own eyes that
the art of transmutation is no fiction.”
PARACELSUS.
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim was born in
the year 1493, at Maria Einsiedeln, in the canton of Zurich, in
Switzerland. He was descended from the ancient and honourable family
of Bombast, which had abode during many generations at the castle of
Hohenheim near Stuttgart, Würtemberg. His father was a physician of
repute, and in possession of a large collection of curious books. His
mother had been the matron of a hospital, and Theophrastus, their only
child, was born one year after their marriage. He is said to have been
emasculated in his infancy, a tradition which may have been invented to
account for his beardless and feminine appearance, and for his hatred
of women.
Paracelsus received the first rudiments of education from his father,
and, as he advanced in his studies and capacity, he was instructed in
alchemy, surgery, and medicine. One of the works of Isaac Holland fell
into his hands, and from that moment he was inflamed with the ambition
of curing diseases by medicine superior to the _materia_ at that time
in use. He performed several chemical operations, according to the
books of the celebrated Hollander, and adopted from his writings the
ancient principles that a salt, mercury, and sulphur form a trinity
in every substance. This system he enlarged and explained by his own
intellectual illumination. He imbibed much of his father’s extensive
learning, and then continued his studies under the guidance of monks
in the convent of St Andrew of Savon, afterwards at the University
of Basel, and finally devoted himself to the occult sciences with the
illustrious Johann Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim, for his teacher and
director. In this way he acquired “the Kabbalah of the spiritual,
astral, and material worlds.” He was afterwards placed under the care
of Sigismond Hagger or Fagger, to be improved in medicine, surgery, and
chemistry. At twenty years of age he started on his travels through
Germany, Hungary, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden,
and Russia. In Muscovy he is said to have been taken prisoner by
the Tartars, who brought him before “the great Cham.” His knowledge
of medicine and chemistry made him a favourite at the court of this
potentate, who sent him in company with his son on an embassy to
Constantinople. It was here, according to Helmont, that he was taught
the supreme secret of alchemistry by a generous Arabian, who gave him
the universal dissolvent, the Azoth of western adepts, the alcahest or
sophic fire. Thus initiated, he is said to have proceeded to India. On
his return to Europe he passed along the Danube into Italy, where he
served as an army surgeon, performing many wonderful cures.