existence of such a body as the Rosicrucians, there was born in Italy a
man who was afterwards destined to become the most conspicuous member of
the fraternity. The alchymic mania never called forth the ingenuity of a
more consummate or more successful impostor than Joseph Francis Borri. He
was born in 1616, according to some authorities, and in 1627 according to
others, at Milan; where his father, the Signor Branda Borri, practised as
a physician. At the age of sixteen Joseph was sent to finish his education
at the Jesuits' college in Rome, where he distinguished himself by his
extraordinary memory. He learned every thing to which he applied himself
with the utmost ease. In the most voluminous works no fact was too minute
for his retention, and no study was so abstruse but that he could master
it; but any advantages he might have derived from this facility were
neutralised by his ungovernable passions and his love of turmoil and
debauchery. He was involved in continual difficulty, as well with the
heads of the college as with the police of Rome, and acquired so bad a
character that years could not remove it. By the aid of his friends he
established himself as a physician in Rome, and also obtained some
situation in the pope's household. In one of his fits of studiousness he
grew enamoured of alchymy, and determined to devote his energies to the
discovery of the philosopher's stone. Of unfortunate propensities he had
quite sufficient, besides this, to bring him to poverty. His pleasures
were as expensive as his studies, and both were of a nature to destroy his
health and ruin his fair fame. At the age of thirty-seven he found that he
could not live by the practice of medicine, and began to look about for
some other employment. He became, in 1653, private secretary to the
Marquis di Mirogli, the minister of the Archduke of Innsprück at the court
of Rome. He continued in this capacity for two years; leading, however,
the same abandoned life as heretofore, frequenting the society of
gamesters, debauchees, and loose women, involving himself in disgraceful
street quarrels, and alienating the patrons who were desirous to befriend
him.
All at once a sudden change was observed in his conduct. The abandoned
rake put on the outward sedateness of a philosopher; the scoffing sinner
proclaimed that he had forsaken his evil ways, and would live thenceforth
a model of virtue. To his friends this reformation was as pleasing as it
was unexpected; and Borri gave obscure hints that it had been brought
about by some miraculous manifestation of a superior power. He pretended
that he held converse with beneficent spirits; that the secrets of God and
nature were revealed to him; and that he had obtained possession of the
philosopher's stone. Like his predecessor, Jacob Böhmen, he mixed up
religious questions with his philosophical jargon, and took measures for
declaring himself the founder of a new sect. This, at Rome itself, and in
the very palace of the pope, was a hazardous proceeding; and Borri just
awoke to a sense of it in time to save himself from the dungeons of the
Castle of St. Angelo. He fled to Innsprück, where he remained about a
year, and then returned to his native city of Milan.
[Illustration: INNSPRUCK.]
The reputation of his great sanctity had gone before him; and he found
many persons ready to attach themselves to his fortunes. All who were
desirous of entering into the new communion took an oath of poverty, and
relinquished their possessions for the general good of the fraternity.
Borri told them that he had received from the archangel Michael a heavenly
sword, upon the hilt of which were engraven the names of the seven
celestial intelligences. "Whoever shall refuse," said he, "to enter into
my new sheepfold shall be destroyed by the papal armies, of whom God has
predestined me to be the chief. To those who follow me all joy shall be
granted. I shall soon bring my chemical studies to a happy conclusion, by
the discovery of the philosopher's stone, and by this means we shall all
have as much gold as we desire. I am assured of the aid of the angelic
hosts, and more especially of the archangel Michael's. When I began to
walk in the way of the spirit, I had a vision of the night, and was
assured by an angelic voice that I should become a prophet. In sign of it
I saw a palm-tree, surrounded with all the glory of paradise. The angels
come to me whenever I call, and reveal to me all the secrets of the
universe. The sylphs and elementary spirits obey me, and fly to the
uttermost ends of the world to serve me, and those whom I delight to
honour." By force of continually repeating such stories as these, Borri
soon found himself at the head of a very considerable number of adherents.
As he figures in these pages as an alchymist, and not as a religious
sectarian, it will be unnecessary to repeat the doctrines which he taught
with regard to some of the dogmas of the Church of Rome, and which exposed
him to the fierce resentment of the papal authority. They were to the full
as ridiculous as his philosophical pretensions. As the number of his
followers increased, he appears to have cherished the idea of becoming one
day a new Mahomet, and of founding, in his native city of Milan, a
monarchy and religion of which he should be the king and the prophet. He
had taken measures, in the year 1658, for seizing the guards at all the
gates of that city, and formally declaring himself the monarch of the
Milanese. Just as he thought the plan ripe for execution, it was
discovered. Twenty of his followers were arrested, and he himself managed,
with the utmost difficulty, to escape to the neutral territory of
Switzerland, where the papal displeasure could not reach him.
The trial of his followers commenced forthwith, and the whole of them were
sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Borri's trial proceeded in his
absence, and lasted for upwards of two years. He was condemned to death as
a heretic and sorcerer in 1661, and was burned in effigy in Rome by the
common hangman.
Borri, in the mean time, lived quietly in Switzerland, indulging himself
in railing at the Inquisition and its proceedings. He afterwards went to
Strasbourg, intending to fix his residence in that town. He was received
with great cordiality, as a man persecuted for his religious opinions, and
withal a great alchymist. He found that sphere too narrow for his aspiring
genius, and retired in the same year to the more wealthy city of
Amsterdam. He there hired a magnificent house, established an equipage
which eclipsed in brilliancy those of the richest merchants, and assumed
the title of Excellency. Where he got the money to live in this expensive
style was long a secret: the adepts in alchymy easily explained it, after
their fashion. Sensible people were of opinion that he had come by it in a
less wonderful manner; for it was remembered that among his unfortunate
disciples in Milan, there were many rich men, who, in conformity with one
of the fundamental rules of the sect, had given up all their earthly
wealth into the hands of their founder. In whatever manner the money was
obtained, Borri spent it in Holland with an unsparing hand, and was looked
up to by the people with no little respect and veneration. He performed
several able cures, and increased his reputation so much that he was
vaunted as a prodigy. He continued diligently the operations of alchymy,
and was in daily expectation that he should succeed in turning the
inferior metals into gold. This hope never abandoned him, even in the
worst extremity of his fortunes; and in his prosperity it led him into the
most foolish expenses: but he could not long continue to live so
magnificently upon the funds he had brought from Italy; and the
philosopher's stone, though it promised all for the wants of the morrow,
never brought any thing for the necessities of to-day. He was obliged in a
few months to retrench, by giving up his large house, his gilded coach and
valuable blood-horses, his liveried domestics, and his luxurious
entertainments. With this diminution of splendour came a diminution of
renown. His cures did not appear so miraculous, when he went out on foot
to perform them, as they had seemed when "his Excellency" had driven to a
poor man's door in his carriage with six horses. He sank from a prodigy
into an ordinary man. His great friends shewed him the cold shoulder, and
his humble flatterers carried their incense to some other shrine. Borri
now thought it high time to change his quarters. With this view he
borrowed money wherever he could get it, and succeeded in obtaining two
hundred thousand florins from a merchant named De Meer, to aid, as he
said, in discovering the water of life. He also obtained six diamonds of
great value, on pretence that he could remove the flaws from them without
diminishing their weight. With this booty he stole away secretly by night,
and proceeded to Hamburgh.
On his arrival in that city, he found the celebrated Christina, the
ex-queen of Sweden. He procured an introduction to her, and requested her
patronage in his endeavour to discover the philosopher's stone. She gave
him some encouragement; but Borri, fearing that the merchants of
Amsterdam, who had connexions in Hamburgh, might expose his delinquencies
if he remained in the latter city, passed over to Copenhagen, and sought
the protection of Frederick III., the king of Denmark.
This prince was a firm believer in the transmutation of metals. Being in
want of money, he readily listened to the plans of an adventurer who had
both eloquence and ability to recommend him. He provided Borri with the
means to make experiments, and took a great interest in the progress of
his operations. He expected every month to possess riches that would buy
Peru; and, when he was disappointed, accepted patiently the excuses of
Borri, who, upon every failure, was always ready with some plausible
explanation. He became in time much attached to him; and defended him from
the jealous attacks of his courtiers, and the indignation of those who
were grieved to see their monarch the easy dupe of a charlatan. Borri
endeavoured, by every means in his power, to find aliment for this good
opinion. His knowledge of medicine was useful to him in this respect, and
often stood between him and disgrace. He lived six years in this manner at
the court of Frederick; but that monarch dying in 1670 he was left without
a protector.
As he had made more enemies than friends in Copenhagen, and had nothing to
hope from the succeeding sovereign, he sought an asylum in another
country. He went first to Saxony; but met so little encouragement, and
encountered so much danger from the emissaries of the Inquisition, that he
did not remain there many months. Anticipating nothing but persecution in
every country that acknowledged the spiritual authority of the pope, he
appears to have taken the resolution to dwell in Turkey, and turn
Mussulman. On his arrival at the Hungarian frontier, on his way to
Constantinople, he was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the
conspiracy of the Counts Nadasdi and Frangipani, which had just been
discovered. In vain he protested his innocence, and divulged his real name
and profession. He was detained in prison, and a letter despatched to the
Emperor Leopold, to know what should be done with him. The star of his
fortunes was on the decline. The letter reached Leopold at an unlucky
moment. The pope's nuncio was closeted with his majesty; and he no sooner
heard the name of Joseph Francis Borri, than he demanded him as a prisoner
of the Holy See. The request was complied with; and Borri, closely
manacled, was sent under an escort of soldiers to the prison of the
Inquisition at Rome. He was too much of an impostor to be deeply tinged
with fanaticism, and was not unwilling to make a public recantation of his
heresies, if he could thereby save his life. When the proposition was made
to him, he accepted it with eagerness. His punishment was to be commuted
into the hardly less severe one of perpetual imprisonment; but he was too
happy to escape the clutch of the executioner at any price, and he made
the _amende honorable_ in face of the assembled multitudes of Rome on the
27th of October 1672. He was then transferred to the prisons of the Castle
of St. Angelo, where he remained till his death, twenty-three years
afterwards. It is said that, towards the close of his life, considerable
indulgence was granted him; that he was allowed to have a laboratory, and
to cheer the solitude of his dungeon by searching for the philosopher's
stone. Queen Christina, during her residence at Rome, frequently visited
the old man, to converse with him upon chemistry and the doctrines of the
Rosicrucians. She even obtained permission that he should leave his prison
occasionally for a day or two, and reside in her palace, she being
responsible for his return to captivity. She encouraged him to search for
the great secret of the alchymists, and provided him with money for the
purpose. It may well be supposed that Borri benefited most by this
acquaintance, and that Christina got nothing but experience. It is not
sure that she gained even that; for until her dying day she was convinced
of the possibility of finding the philosopher's stone, and ready to assist
any adventurer either zealous or impudent enough to pretend to it.
After Borri had been about eleven years in confinement, a small volume was
published at Cologne, entitled _The Key of the Cabinet of the Chevalier
Joseph Francis Borri, in which are contained many curious Letters upon
Chemistry and other Sciences, written by him, together with a Memoir of
his Life_. This book contained a complete exposition of the Rosicrucian
philosophy, and afforded materials to the Abbé de Villars for his
interesting _Count de Gabalis_, which excited so much attention at the
close of the seventeenth century.
Borri lingered in the prison of St. Angelo till 1695, when he died, in his
eightieth year. Besides _The Key of the Cabinet_, written originally in
Copenhagen, in 1666, for the edification of King Frederick III., he
published a work upon alchymy and the secret sciences, under the title of
_The Mission of Romulus to the Romans_.
INFERIOR ALCHYMISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Besides the pretenders to the philosopher's stone whose lives have been
already narrated, this and the preceding century produced a great number
of writers, who inundated literature with their books upon the subject. In
fact, most of the learned men of that age had some faith in it. Van
Helmont, Borrichius, Kircher, Boerhaave, and a score of others, though not
professed alchymists, were fond of the science, and countenanced its
professors. Helvetius, the grandfather of the celebrated philosopher of
the same name, asserts that he saw an inferior metal turned into gold by a
stranger, at the Hague, in 1666. He says, that, sitting one day in his
study, a man, who was dressed as a respectable burgher of North Holland,
and very modest and simple in his appearance, called upon him, with the
intention of dispelling his doubts relative to the philosopher's stone. He
asked Helvetius if he thought he should know that rare gem if he saw it.
To which Helvetius replied, that he certainly should not. The burgher
immediately drew from his pocket a small ivory box, containing three
pieces of metal, of the colour of brimstone, and extremely heavy; and
assured Helvetius, that of them he could make as much as twenty tons of
gold. Helvetius informs us, that he examined them very attentively; and
seeing that they were very brittle, he took the opportunity to scrape off
a small portion with his thumb-nail. He then returned them to the
stranger, with an entreaty that he would perform the process of
transmutation before him. The stranger replied, that he was not allowed to
do so, and went away. After his departure, Helvetius procured a crucible
and a portion of lead, into which, when in a state of fusion, he threw the
stolen grain from the philosopher's stone. He was disappointed to find
that the grain evaporated altogether, leaving the lead in its original
state.
Some weeks afterwards, when he had almost forgotten the subject, he
received another visit from the stranger. He again entreated him to
explain the processes by which he pretended to transmute lead. The
stranger at last consented, and informed him, that one grain was
sufficient; but that it was necessary to envelope it in a ball of wax
before throwing it on the molten metal; otherwise its extreme volatility
would cause it to go off in vapour. They tried the experiment, and
succeeded to their heart's content. Helvetius repeated the experiment
alone, and converted six ounces of lead into very pure gold.
The fame of this event spread all over the Hague, and all the notable
persons of the town flocked to the study of Helvetius to convince
themselves of the fact. Helvetius performed the experiment again, in the
presence of the Prince of Orange, and several times afterwards, until he
exhausted the whole of the powder he had received from the stranger, from
whom it is necessary to state, he never received another visit; nor did he
ever discover his name or condition. In the following year, Helvetius
published his _Golden Calf_,[46] in which he detailed the above
circumstances.
[46] "Vitulus Aureus quem Mundus adorat et orat, in quo tractatur
de naturæ miraculo transmutandi metalla." _Hagæ_, 1667.
About the same time, the celebrated Father Kircher published his
_Subterranean World_, in which he called the alchymists a congregation of
knaves and impostors, and their science a delusion. He admitted that he
had himself been a diligent labourer in the field, and had only come to
this conclusion after mature consideration and repeated fruitless
experiments. All the alchymists were in arms immediately, to refute this
formidable antagonist. One Solomon de Blauenstein was the first to grapple
with him, and attempted to convict him of wilful misrepresentation, by
recalling to his memory the transmutations by Sendivogius, before the
Emperor Frederick III. and the Elector of Mayence, all performed within a
recent period. Zwelfer and Glauber also entered into the dispute, and
attributed the enmity of Father Kircher to spite and jealousy against
adepts who had been more successful than himself.
It was also pretended that Gustavus Adolphus transmuted a quantity of
quicksilver into pure gold. The learned Borrichius relates, that he saw
coins which had been struck of this gold; and Lenglet du Fresnoy deposes
to the same circumstance. In the _Travels of Monconis_ the story is told
in the following manner: "A merchant of Lubeck, who carried on but little
trade, but who knew how to change lead into very good gold, gave the King
of Sweden a lingot which he had made, weighing at least one hundred
pounds. The king immediately caused it to be coined into ducats; and
because he knew positively that its origin was such as had been stated to
him, he had his own arms graven upon the one side, and emblematical
figures of Mercury and Venus on the other. I (continued Monconis) have one
of these ducats in my possession; and was credibly informed that, after
the death of the Lubeck merchant, who had never appeared very rich, a sum
of no less than one million seven hundred thousand crowns was found in his
coffers."[47]
[47] _Voyages de Monconis_, tome ii. p. 379.
Such stories as these, confidently related by men high in station, tended
to keep up the infatuation of the alchymists in every country of Europe.
It is astonishing to see the number of works which were written upon the
subject during the seventeenth century alone, and the number of clever men
who sacrificed themselves to the delusion. Gabriel de Castaigne, a monk of
the order of St. Francis, attracted so much notice in the reign of Louis
XIII., that that monarch secured him in his household, and made him his
Grand Almoner. He pretended to find the elixir of life, and Louis expected
by his means to have enjoyed the crown for a century. Van Helmont also
pretended to have once performed with success the process of transmuting
quicksilver, and was in consequence invited by the Emperor Rudolph II. to
fix his residence at the court of Vienna. Glauber, the inventor of the
salts which still bear his name, and who practised as a physician at
Amsterdam about the middle of the seventeenth century, established a
public school in that city for the study of alchymy, and gave lectures
himself upon the science. John Joachim Becher of Spire acquired great
reputation at the same period, and was convinced that much gold might be
made out of flint-stones by a peculiar process, and the aid of that grand
and incomprehensible substance the philosopher's stone. He made a
proposition to the Emperor Leopold of Austria to aid him in these
experiments; but the hope of success was too remote, and the present
expense too great, to tempt that monarch, and he therefore gave Becher
much of his praise, but none of his money. Becher afterwards tried the
States-General of Holland with no better success.
With regard to the innumerable tricks by which impostors persuaded the
world that they had succeeded in making gold, and of which so many stories
were current about this period, a very satisfactory report was read by M.
Geoffroy the elder, at the sitting of the Royal Academy of Sciences at
Paris, on the 15th of April, 1722. As it relates principally to the
alchymic cheats of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the following
abridgment of it may not be out of place in this portion of our history.
The instances of successful transmutation were so numerous, and apparently
so well authenticated, that nothing short of so able an exposure as that
of M. Geoffroy could disabuse the public mind. The trick to which they
oftenest had recourse was to use a double-bottomed crucible, the under
surface being of iron or copper, and the upper one of wax, painted to
resemble the same metal. Between the two they placed as much gold or
silver dust as was necessary for their purpose. They then put in their
lead, quicksilver, or other ingredients, and placed their pot upon the
fire. Of course, when the experiment was concluded, they never failed to
find a lump of gold at the bottom. The same result was produced in many
other ways. Some of them used a hollow wand, filled with gold or silver
dust, and stopped at the ends with wax or butter. With this they stirred
the boiling metal in their crucibles, taking care to accompany the
operation with many ceremonies, to divert attention from the real purpose
of the manoeuvre. They also drilled holes in lumps of lead, into which
they poured molten gold, and carefully closed the aperture with the
original metal. Sometimes they washed a piece of gold with quicksilver.
When in this state, they found no difficulty in palming it off upon the
uninitiated as an inferior metal, and very easily transmuted it into fine
sonorous gold again with the aid of a little aquafortis.
Others imposed by means of nails, half iron and half gold or silver. They
pretended that they really transmuted the precious half from iron, by
dipping it in a strong alcohol. M. Geoffroy produced several of these
nails to the Academy of Sciences, and shewed how nicely the two parts were
soldered together. The golden or silver half was painted black to resemble
iron, and the colour immediately disappeared when the nail was dipped into
aquafortis. A nail of this description was, for a long time, in the
cabinet of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Such also, said M. Geoffroy, was the
knife presented by a monk to Queen Elizabeth of England; the blade of
which was half gold and half steel. Nothing at one time was more common
than to see coins, half gold and half silver, which had been operated upon
by alchymists, for the same purposes of trickery. In fact, says M.
Geoffroy, in concluding his long report, there is every reason to believe
that all the famous histories which have been handed down to us about the
transmutation of metals into gold or silver, by means of the powder of
projection or philosophical elixirs, are founded upon some successful
deception of the kind above narrated. These pretended philosophers
invariably disappeared after the first or second experiment, or their
powders or elixirs have failed to produce their effect, either because
attention being excited they have found no opportunity to renew the trick
without being discovered, or because they have not had sufficient gold
dust for more than one trial.