A name that has in some way become famous in the annals of magic, is
that of John Trithemius, abbot of Spanheim, or Sponheim, in the circle
of the Upper Rhine. He was born in the year 1462. He early
distinguished himself by his devotion to literature; insomuch that,
according to the common chronology, he was chosen in the year 1482,
being about twenty years of age, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of
St. Martin at Spanheim. He has written a great number of works, and
has left some memorials of his life. Learning was at a low ebb when he
was chosen to this dignity. The library of the convent consisted of
little more than forty volumes. But, shortly after, under his
superintendence it amounted to many hundreds. He insisted upon his
monks diligently employing themselves in the multiplication of
manuscripts. The monks, who had hitherto spent their days in luxurious
idleness, were greatly dissatisfied with this revolution, and led
their abbot a very uneasy life. He was in consequence removed to
preside over the abbey of St. Jacques in Wurtzburg in 1506, where he
died in tranquillity and peace in 1516.
Trithemius has been accused of necromancy and a commerce with demons.
The principal ground of this accusation lies in a story that has been
told of his intercourse with the emperor Maximilian. Maximilian's
first wife was Mary of Burgundy, whom he lost in the prime of her life.
The emperor was inconsolable upon the occasion; and Trithemius, who
was called in as singularly qualified to comfort him, having tried all
other expedients in vain, at length told Maximilian that he would
undertake to place his late consort before him precisely in the state
in which she had lived. After suitable preparations, Mary of Burgundy
accordingly appeared. The emperor was struck with astonishment. He
found the figure before him in all respects like the consort he had
lost. At length he exclaimed, "There is one mark by which I shall
infallibly know whether this is the same person. Mary, my wife, had a
wart in the nape of her neck, to the existence of which no one was
privy but myself." He examined, and found the wart there, in all
respects as it had been during her life. The story goes on to say,
that Maximilian was so disgusted and shocked with what he saw, that he
banished Trithemius his presence for ever.
This tale has been discredited, partly on the score of the period of
the death of Mary of Burgundy, which happened in 1481, when Trithemius
was only nineteen years of age. He himself expressly disclaims all
imputation of sorcery. One ground of the charge has been placed upon
the existence of a work of his, entitled Steganographia, or the art,
by means of a secret writing, of communicating our thoughts to a
person absent. He says however, that in this work he had merely used
the language of magic, without in any degree having had recourse to
their modes of proceeding. Trithemius appears to have been the first
writer who has made mention of the extraordinary feats of John Faust
of Wittenburg, and that in a way that shews he considered these
enchantments as the work of a supernatural power. [198]