Thaumaturgike, 1

Thaumaturgike is that mathematical art which gives a certain order to make strange works, to be perceived by the sense, and greatly to be wondered at by men. By sundry means this wonder-work is wrought: some by Pneumatithmie, as the works of Ctesibius and Hero; some by weight, of which Timæus speaks; some by strings strained or springs, by that imitating lively motions; some by other means, as the images of Mercurie, and the brazen head made by Albertus Magnus which seemed to speak. Boethius was excellent in these feats. To whom Cassiodorus, writing, says, "Your purpose is to know profound things and to show marvels. By the disposition of your art, metals bellow: Diomedes of brass blows a trumpet loud: a brazen serpent hisses: made birds sing sweetly. Small things we rehearse of you, who can imitate heaven, and so on." Of the strange self-moving which, at Saint Denys by Paris,

(Year 1551)

I saw, once or twice (Orontius being then with me, in company); it would be too strange to tell. But some have written it; and yet, I hope, it is there to be seen by others. And by perspective also strange things are done, as partly before I gave you to understand in perspective: as, to see in the air aloft the lively image of another man, either walking to and fro or standing still; likewise, to come into a house and there see the lively show of gold, silver, or precious stones, and coming to take them in your hand, find nothing but air. By this have some men (in all other matters counted wise) badly overshot themselves, misjudging the means. Therefore said Claudius Cælestinus:

(On those things that happen marvelously in the world. Chapter 8.)

Nowadays we see some men, yes of great learning and reputation, judge certain works to be marvelous, above the power of nature; of which works one skilled in perspective might easily have given the cause. Of Archimedes' sphere, Cicero bears witness.

(Tusculan Disputations 1.)

Which is very strange to think on. For when Archimedes, says he, fastened in a sphere the movements of the sun, moon, and of the five other planets, he did as the god who (in Timæus of Plato) made the world: that, with one turning, he should rule motions most unlike in slowness and swiftness. But a greater cause for wondering we have from Claudianus' report of this, who affirms this work of Archimedes to have been of glass, and discourses of it more at length, which I omit. The dove of wood, which the mathematician Archytas made to fly, is spoken of by Agellius. Of Dædalus' strange images Plato reports. Homere, of Vulcan's self-movers (by secret wheels), leaves in writing. Aristotle, in his Politics, makes mention of both. Marvelous was the workmanship, in late days, performed by good skill of Trochilike, and so on. For in Noremberge a fly of iron, let out of the artisan's hand, did, as it were, fly about among the guests at the table, and at length, as though it were weary, return to its master's hand again. Moreover, an artificial eagle was ordered to fly out of the same town a mighty way, and that aloft in the air, toward the emperor coming there, and followed him when he had come to the gate of the town.

(☞)

Thus you see what the mathematical art can perform, when skill, will, industry, and ability are duly applied to proof.

(A Digression.)

And for these, and such like marvelous acts and feats, naturally, mathematically, and mechanically wrought and contrived:

(Apologeticall.)

ought any honest student and modest Christian philosopher be counted and called a conjurer? Shall the folly of idiots and the malice of the scornful so much prevail, that he who seeks no worldly gain or glory at their hands, but only from God the treasure of heavenly wisdom and knowledge of pure truth, shall he, I say, in the meantime be robbed and despoiled of his honest name and fame? He who seeks (by S. Paul's admonition) in the creatures' properties and wonderful virtues to find just cause to glorify the eternal and almighty Creator by: shall that man be (in secret) condemned as a companion of the hellhounds, and a caller and conjurer of wicked and damned spirits? He who bewails his great want of time, enough (to his satisfaction) to learn godly wisdom and godly truths in, and sets all his delight only in that: will that man lose and abuse his time in dealing with the chief enemy of Christ our Redeemer: the deadly foe of all humankind, the subtle and impudent perverter of godly truth, the hypocritical crocodile, the envious basilisk, continually desirous, in the twinkling of an eye, to destroy all humankind, both body and soul, eternally? Surely (for my part, somewhat to say in this) I have not learned to make so brutish and so wicked a bargain. Should I, for my twenty or twenty-five years of study: for two or three thousand marks spent: for seven or eight thousand miles gone and traveled, only for good learning's sake; and that in all manner of weather: in all manner of ways and passages: both early and late: in danger of violence by man: in danger of destruction by wild beasts: in hunger: in thirst: in perilous heat by day, with toil on foot: in dangerous damp colds by night, almost depriving life (as God knows): with lodgings often to little ease, and sometimes to less security; and for much more than all this done and suffered, for learning and the attainment of wisdom: should I, I ask you, for all this, no otherwise nor more warily (or by God's mercy no more luckily), have fished with so large and costly a net, so long a time in drawing (and that with the help and advice of Lady Philosophy and Queen Theology), but at length to have caught and drawn up a frog?

(A proverb. Fair fished, and caught a frog.)

No, a devil? For, so, does the common peevish prattler imagine and jangle; and so does the malicious scorner secretly wish, and bravely and boldly face down behind my back. Ah, what a miserable thing is this kind of men! How great is the blindness and boldness of the multitude in things above their capacity? What a land: what a people: what manners: what times are these? Have they become devils themselves, and, by false witness bearing against their neighbor, would they also become murderers? Does God so long give them respite, to reclaim themselves from this horrible slandering of the guiltless, contrary to their own consciences, and yet will they not cease? Does the innocent forbear calling them to answer him juridically, according to the rigor of the laws, and will they despise his charitable patience? As they, against him, by name, forge, fable, rage, and raise slander by word and print, will they provoke him, by word and print likewise, to note their names to the world, with their particular devices, fables, beastly imaginations, and unchristian-like slanders? Well, well. O you who are such, my unkind countrymen: O unnatural countrymen: O unthankful countrymen: O brainsick, rash, spiteful, and disdainful countrymen. Why do you oppress me so violently with your slandering of me, contrary to truth and contrary to your own consciences? And I, to this hour, neither by word, deed, or thought, have been in any way harmful, damaging, or injurious to you or yours? Have I so long, so dearly, so far, so carefully, so painfully, so dangerously sought and traveled for the learning of wisdom, and the attaining of virtue; and in the end (in your judgment) have I become worse than when I began? Worse than a madman? A dangerous member of the commonwealth, and no member of the church of Christ? Is this what you call being learned? Is this what you call being a philosopher, and a lover of wisdom? To forsake the straight heavenly way, and to wallow in the broad way of damnation? To forsake the light of heavenly wisdom, and to lurk in the dungeon of the prince of darkness? To forsake the truth of God and his creatures, and to fawn upon the impudent, crafty, obstinate liar, and continual disgracer of God's truth, to the utmost of his power? To forsake the life and bliss eternal, and to cleave to the author of everlasting death: that murderous tyrant most greedily awaiting the prey of a human soul? Well, I thank God and our Lord Jesus Christ, for the comfort which I have by the examples of other men before my time: to whom, neither in godliness of life nor in perfection of learning, I am worthy to be compared; and yet they sustained the very same injuries that I do, or rather greater. Patient Socrates, his Apology, will testify: Apuleius, his Apologies, will declare the brutishness of the multitude. Ioannes Picus, Earl of Mirandula, his Apology will teach you of the raging slander of the malicious ignorant against him. Ioannes Trithemius, his Apology will specify how he had occasion to make public protestation, as much by reason of the rude and simple, as also in respect of those who were counted to be of the wisest sort of men. "Many could I recite: but I defer the precise and determined handling of this matter, being loth to detect the folly and malice of my native countrymen.

(☞)

Who so hardly can digest or like any extraordinary course of philosophical studies: not falling within the compass of their capacity: or where they are not made privy of the true and secret cause of such wonderful philosophical feats." These men are of four sorts, chiefly: the first I may name, vain prattling busybodies; the second, fond friends; the third, imperfectly zealous; and the fourth, malicious ignorant. To each of these (briefly and in charity) I will say a word or two, and so return to my Preface.

(1.)

Vain prattling busybodies: use your idle assemblies and conferences otherwise than in talk of matter either above your capacities for hardness, or contrary to your consciences in truth.

(2.)

Fond friends, leave off so to commend your unacquainted friend upon blind affection: as, because he knows more than the common student, that therefore he must necessarily be skillful and a doer in such matter and manner as you term conjuring. You think by that that you advance his fame, and that you make other men marvel greatly at your luck, to have such a learned friend. Cease to ascribe impiety where you pretend amity. For, if your tongues were true, then would that friend of yours be untrue both to God and his sovereign. Such friends and fondlings, I shake off and renounce you: shake off your folly.

(3.)

Imperfectly zealous, to you I say: that perhaps well you mean, but far you miss the mark: if a lamb you will kill to feed the flock with his blood. Sheep, with lamb's blood, have no natural sustenance: no more is Christ's flock duly edified with horrible slanders. Nor is your fair pretense any whit well graced by such rash ragged rhetoric. But such as so use me will find a foul crack in their credit. Speak what you know: and know as you ought: do not know by hearsay when life lies in danger. Search to the quick, and let charity be your guide.

(4.)

Malicious ignorant, what shall I say to you? Keep your tongue from evil. Refrain your tongue from slander. Though your tongues be sharpened serpent-like, and adders' poison lie in your lips:

(Psalm 140.)

yet take heed, and in time think to yourself: A man of loose tongue shall not be established in the land. Evil shall hunt the violent man until he is cast down. For I am sure that the Lord will do justice for the afflicted, and vengeance for the poor.

Thus I require you, my assured friends and countrymen (you mathematicians, mechanicians, and philosophers, charitable and discrete), to deal in my behalf with the frivolous and untrue-tongued, my envious adversaries or fond friends. And farther, I would wish that at leisure you would consider how Basilius Magnus lays Moses and Daniel before the eyes of those who count all such philosophical studies (as mine has been) ungodly or unprofitable. Weigh well S. Stephen's witness of Moses.

(Act. 7. C.)

Moses was instructed in all manner of wisdom of the Egyptians: and he was of power both in his words and works. You see this philosophical power and wisdom, which Moses had, to be in no way disapproved by the Holy Ghost. Yet Plinius has recorded Moses to be a wicked magician. And that of necessity must be either for this philosophical wisdom, learned before his calling to the leading of the children of Israel, or for those his wonders, wrought before King Pharao, after he had the conducting of the Israelites. As concerning the first, you perceive how S. Stephen, at his martyrdom (being full of the Holy Ghost), in his recapitulation of the old testament, made mention of Moses' philosophy, with good liking of it: and Basilius Magnus also avouches it to have been profitable to Moses (and therefore, I say, to the church of God, necessary). But as concerning Moses' wonders, done before King Pharao: God himself said: See that you do all those wonders before Pharao, which I have put in your hand. Thus you evidently perceive how rashly Plinius has slandered Moses,

(Book 30, chapter 1.)

of vain fraudulent magic, saying: There is also another sect of magic, depending on Moses, Jannes, and Iotape, and the Jews, but many thousands of years after Zoroaster. etc.

(1.)

Let all such, therefore, who, in judgment and skill of philosophy, are far inferior to Plinie, "take good heed, for fear that they overshoot themselves rashly," in

(☞)

judging of philosophers' strange acts, and the means how they are done.

Thaumaturgike is the mathematical art that gives a set order for making strange works, to be perceived by the senses and to make people greatly wonder. This wonder-work is made in various ways. Some by Pneumatithmie, as the works of Ctesibius and Hero. Some by weight, of which Timæus speaks. Some by tightened strings or springs, with which living motions are imitated. Some by other means, as the images of Mercury, and the bronze head made by Albertus Magnus that seemed to speak. Boethius was excellent at these feats. To whom Cassiodorus, writing, says: Your purpose is to know deep things and to show wonders. By the arrangement of your art, metals bellow; a bronze Diomedes blows a loud trumpet; a bronze serpent hisses; made birds sing sweetly. We tell of small things of you, who can imitate heaven, etc. As for the strange self-moving work, which at Saint Denys, near Paris,

Year 1551

I saw once or twice (Orontius being then with me, in company): it would be too strange to tell. But some have written it. And yet, I hope, it is there to be seen by others. By perspective also strange things are done, as I partly gave you to understand before, in perspective: to see in the air, high up, the living image of another man, either walking back and forth or standing still. Likewise, to come into a house and there see the lively show of gold, silver, or precious stones, and, reaching to take them in your hand, find nothing but air. By this, some men (in all other matters counted wise) have badly overshot themselves, misjudging the means. Therefore said Claudius Cælestinus.

(On those things that happen marvelously in the world. Chapter 8.)

Nowadays we see some men, of great learning and reputation, judging certain works to be marvelous, above the power of nature; of which works, one skilled in perspective could easily have given the cause. Of Archimedes' sphere, Cicero bears witness.

(Tusculan Disputations 1.)

This is very strange to think on. For when Archimedes, says he, fixed into a sphere the movements of the sun, the moon, and the five other planets, he did what the god who (in Plato's Timæus) made the world did: that, with one turning, he should rule motions most unlike in slowness and speed. But we have a greater cause for wonder from Claudianus' report of this, who says this work of Archimedes was made of glass, and discusses it at greater length, which I omit. The wooden dove that the mathematician Archytas made to fly is spoken of by Agellius. Plato reports the strange images of Daedalus. Homer leaves in writing Vulcan's self-movers, by hidden wheels. Aristotle mentions both in his Politics. The workmanship achieved in recent times by good skill in Trochilike was marvelous, etc. For in Nuremberg, an iron fly, let out of the craftsman's hand, would, as it were, fly about among the guests at the table and at last, as though weary, return to its master's hand again. Moreover, an artificial eagle was ordered to fly out of the same town a mighty way, high in the air, toward the emperor coming there, and to follow him until it reached the gate of the town.

☞

Thus you see what mathematical art can accomplish when skill, will, industry, and ability are properly put to the proof.

A digression.

And for these, and such like marvelous acts and feats, wrought and devised naturally, mathematically, and mechanically:

Apologetic.

ought any honest student and modest Christian philosopher be counted and called a conjurer? Shall the folly of idiots and the malice of the scornful prevail so much that he who seeks no worldly gain or glory at their hands, but only from God the treasure of heavenly wisdom and knowledge of pure truth, shall he (I say) in the meantime be robbed and stripped of his good name and fame? He who seeks (by Saint Paul's advice) in the properties of creatures and their wonderful virtues just cause to glorify the eternal and almighty Creator: shall that man be condemned in secret as a companion of the hellhounds, and a caller and conjurer of wicked and damned spirits? He who mourns his great lack of time, enough (to his satisfaction) to learn godly wisdom and godly truths in, and sets all his delight only in that: will that man lose and misuse his time in dealing with the chief enemy of Christ our Redeemer, the deadly foe of all humankind, the subtle and shameless perverter of godly truth, the hypocritical crocodile, the envious basilisk, forever desiring, in the blink of an eye, to destroy all humankind, both body and soul, for eternity? Surely, for my part, having something to say here, I have not learned to make so brutish and so wicked a bargain. Should I, for my twenty or twenty-five years of study, for two or three thousand marks spent, for seven or eight thousand miles of going and traveling, only for the sake of good learning, and that in all manner of weather, in all manner of ways and passages, early and late, in danger of violence from people, in danger of destruction by wild beasts, in hunger, in thirst, in perilous heat by day with toil on foot, in dangerous damp cold by night almost taking away life (as God knows), with lodgings often of little comfort and sometimes of less safety? And for much more than all this done and suffered for learning and gaining wisdom, should I (I pray you), for all this, no otherwise nor more warily, or by God's mercy any more luckily, have fished with so large and costly a net, so long in the drawing (and that with the help and advice of Lady Philosophy and Queen Theology), only at length to have caught and drawn up a frog?

A proverb: fair fished, and caught a frog.

Or a devil? For so the common peevish babbler imagines and jangles, and so the malicious scorner secretly wishes, and brazenly faces me down behind my back. Ah, what a miserable thing is this kind of people! How great is the blindness and boldness of the crowd in things above their capacity! What a land, what a people, what manners, what times are these! Have they become devils themselves, and by bearing false witness against their neighbor would they also become murderers? Does God give them so long a respite, to pull themselves back from this horrible slandering of the guiltless, contrary to their own consciences, and still will they not stop? Does the innocent person forbear calling them to answer him legally, according to the rigor of the laws, and will they despise his charitable patience? As they, against him by name, forge, fable, rage, and raise slander by word and print, will they provoke him also, by word and print, to set their names before the world, with their particular devices, fables, beastly imaginations, and un-Christian slanders? Well, well. O you who are such, my unkind countrymen. O unnatural countrymen. O ungrateful countrymen. O brainsick, rash, spiteful, and disdainful countrymen. Why do you oppress me so violently with your slandering of me, contrary to truth and contrary to your own consciences? And I, to this hour, neither by word, deed, or thought, have in any way been harmful, damaging, or wrong to you or yours? Have I, for so long, so dearly, so far, so carefully, so painfully, so dangerously sought and traveled for the learning of wisdom and the gaining of virtue, and in the end (in your judgment) have I become worse than when I began? Worse than a madman? A dangerous member of the commonwealth, and no member of the church of Christ? Do you call this being learned? Do you call this being a philosopher and a lover of wisdom? To leave the straight heavenly way and wallow in the broad way of damnation? To leave the light of heavenly wisdom and lurk in the dungeon of the prince of darkness? To leave the truth of God and his creatures and fawn on the shameless, crafty, stubborn liar who disgraces God's truth to the uttermost of his power? To leave eternal life and bliss and cling to the author of everlasting death, that murderous tyrant most greedily awaiting the prey of a person's soul? Well, I thank God and our Lord Jesus Christ for the comfort I have from the examples of other men before my time, to whom I am not worthy to be compared, either in godliness of life or in perfection of learning; and yet they sustained very like injuries to those I do, or rather greater. Patient Socrates' Apology will testify; Apuleius' Apologies will declare the brutishness of the crowd. Ioannes Picus, Earl of Mirandula, his Apology will show you the raging slander of the malicious and ignorant against him. Ioannes Trithemius' Apology will set out how he had occasion to make a public protestation, both because of the rude and simple and also in regard to such as were counted of the wisest sort of men. "Many could I recite: but I put off the precise and settled handling of this matter, being reluctant to expose the folly and malice of my native countrymen.

☞

who can hardly digest or like any extraordinary course of philosophical studies that does not fall within the compass of their capacity, or where they are not let in on the true and secret cause of such wonderful philosophical feats." These men are of four sorts, chiefly. The first I may name: vain, pratling busybodies. The second: fond friends. The third: imperfectly zealous. And the fourth: malicious ignorants. To each of these, briefly and in charity, I will say a word or two, and so return to my preface.

(1.)

Vain, pratling busybodies: keep your idle gatherings and discussions to something other than talk of matters that are either above your capacity for difficulty or contrary to your conscience in truth.

(2.)

Fond friends, stop commending a friend you hardly know out of blind affection, on the grounds that because he knows more than the ordinary student he must therefore be skilled and a doer in such matter and manner as you call conjuring, thinking that by that you advance his fame, and that you make others greatly marvel at your luck in having such a learned friend. Stop attributing impiety where you pretend friendship. For if your tongues were true, then that friend of yours would be untrue both to God and to his sovereign. Such friends and fondlings: I shake you off and renounce you. Shake off your folly.

(3.)

To you, imperfectly zealous, I say: perhaps you mean well, but you miss the mark, if you will kill a lamb to feed the flock with its blood. Sheep have no natural nourishment from lamb's blood, and no more is Christ's flock properly built up by horrible slanders. Nor is your fair pretense at all well graced by such rough, ragged rhetoric. But those who use me so will find a foul crack in their credit. Speak what you know, and know as you ought: do not know by hearsay when life lies in danger. Search to the quick, and let charity be your guide.

(4.)

Malicious ignorants, what shall I say to you? Keep your tongue from evil. Keep your tongue from slander. Though your tongues are sharpened like serpents, and adder's poison lies in your lips:

(Psalm 140.)

yet take heed, and think in time to yourself: A man of loose tongue shall not be established in the land. Evil shall hunt the violent man until he is cast down. For I am sure that the Lord will do justice for the afflicted, and vengeance for the poor.

Thus I ask you, my trusted friends and countrymen (you mathematicians, mechanicians, and philosophers, charitable and discreet), to deal on my behalf with the frivolous and untrue-tongued, my envious adversaries or fond friends. Further, I would wish that at leisure you would consider how Basilius Magnus lays Moses and Daniel before the eyes of those who count all such philosophical studies as mine have been ungodly or unprofitable. Weigh well Saint Stephen's witness of Moses.

(Act. 7. C.)

Moses was instructed in all manner of wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful both in his words and in his works. You see that this philosophical power and wisdom which Moses had was in no way disapproved by the Holy Ghost. Yet Plinius has recorded Moses to be a wicked magician. And that must of necessity be either for this philosophical wisdom learned before his calling to lead the children of Israel, or for those his wonders worked before King Pharaoh after he had the conducting of the Israelites. As for the first, you perceive how Saint Stephen, at his martyrdom (being full of the Holy Ghost), in his recapitulation of the Old Testament made mention of Moses' philosophy with full approval of it, and Basilius Magnus too attests that it was profitable to Moses (and therefore, I say, necessary to the church of God). But as for Moses' wonders done before King Pharaoh: God himself said: See that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. Thus you clearly perceive how rashly Plinius has slandered Moses,

(Book 30, chapter 1.)

of vain and fraudulent magic, saying: There is also another sect of magic, depending on Moses, Jannes, and Iotape, and the Jews, but many thousands of years after Zoroaster. etc.

(1.)

Let all such, therefore, who are far inferior to Plinie in judgment and skill of philosophy, "take good heed, for fear that they overshoot themselves rashly," in

☞

judging of philosophers' strange acts, and the means by which they are done.