794 



CAGLIOSTRO CAIAPHAS. 



tunity to cultivate his talents for medical science, by 

 which he afterwanls distinguished himself. But he 

 showed, at the same time, a great love of dissipation, 

 and was, at last, compelled to separate from the or- 

 der. He returned to Palermo, where, among other 

 tricks, he deceived some credulous persons by his 

 pretended skill in magic and the finding of hidden 

 treasures. He also showed himself adroit in counter- 

 feiting hand-writing, and attempted to get possession 

 of a contested estate by means of a forged document, 

 but was discovered, and obliged to flee. He now de- 

 termined to go to Koine, and, in his journey through 

 Calabria, became acquainted with the beautiful Lor- 

 enza Felitiani, daughter of a belt-maker. She ap- 

 peared to him intended by fortune to assist his designs. 

 He formed an intimacy with her, and soon compelled 

 her to assist in the accomplishment of his purposes by 

 the loss of her virtue. They now began their travels, 

 in which he assumed the character of a man of rank, 

 first appearing under the name of the marquis Pelle- 

 grini, and finally under that of the count Cagliostro. 

 He travelled through many countries of Europe, 

 stopped in the capital cities, and, by his chemical 

 mixtures, by his tricks, and by the amours of his lady, 

 gained considerable sums. We find him in Madrid, 

 Lisbon, Paris, London, and many other cities. He 

 knew how to cheat with great ingenuity, and was 

 always fortunate enough to preserve himself by an 

 early flight, if men's eyes began to be opened, or wak- 

 ing justice threatened him with imprisonment. The 

 discovery of the philosopher's stone, the preparation 

 of a precious elixir vita?, c., were the pretences 

 under which he extracted from credulous people con- 

 siderable sums in ready money. Many had recourse 

 to his assistance, not, indeed, to be initiated into the 

 mysteries of magic, but to purchase, at a high rate, 

 different kinds of medicine, one of which was the 

 water of beauty. This profitable business employed 

 him many years ; but, with the fading charms of his 

 lady, many sources of wealth failed. His trade in 

 medicine also began to grow less lucrative, and he 

 determined to seek his fortune as the founder of a 

 new and secret sect. In pursuance of this plan, he 

 passed himself off, during his second residence in 

 London, for a freemason, and played the part of a 

 magician and worker of miracles, in which character 

 he drew upon himself the eyes of all the enthusiasts 

 in Europe. The countess C., on her part, did not re- 

 main idle. She was the first and most perfect scholar 

 of her husband, and played the part of a priestess to 

 this new order in as able a manner as she had before 

 played that of a priestess to another goddess. His 

 plan for reviving an old Egyptian order, the founders 

 of which he declared to be Enoch and Elias, contained 

 a mass of the greatest absurdities and nonsense. But 

 his pretensions to supernatural power, the mystery 

 with which his doctrines were enveloped, his pre- 

 tended ability to work miracles, his healing the sick 

 without pay, with the greatest appearance of genero- 

 sity, and the belief that, as the great Kophtha (this 

 name he had taken, as the restorer of Egyptian ma- 

 sonry), he could reveal the secrets of futurity, gained 

 him many friends and supporters. C. again travelled 

 through Europe, and attracted great attention in Mit- 

 tau, Strasburg, Lyons, and Paris. While in this last 

 city (1785), he had the misfortune to be implicated in 

 the scandalous affair of the necklace, and was banishec 

 the country as a confidant of cardinal Rohan. He 

 now returned to London, and sent many epistles 

 to his followers, wherein he bitterly complained of the 

 injury he had received in France, and painted the 

 French court in the blackest colours. From London 

 where he. could not long remain, he went to Bale, 

 and other-cities in that quarter. But, at length, lis- 

 tening to the repeated entreaties of his wife and other 



"riends, he returned (1789) to Rome. Here he busied 

 limself about freemasonry ; but, being discovered, 

 and committed to the castle of St. Angelo, he was 

 condemned, by a decree of the pope, to imprisonment 

 or life, as a freemason, an arch-heretic, and a man 

 very dangerous to religion. He died, in the summer 

 of 1795, in the castle of St Leo, a small city in the 

 States of the Church. A biography of madame vou 

 ler Kecke, in the Zeitgenossen, No. xi., contains an 

 account of C.'s residence in Riga, and his connexion 

 with madame von der Recke ; and in Casano va's 

 memoirs there is some interesting information con- 

 cerning him. See also One or two splendid articles by 

 Mr Carlisle, upon Cagliostro, in ' Eraser's Magazine.' 

 CAGNOLI, Anthony, astronomer, member of the 

 French national institute, and president of the Italian 

 academy of sciences, was born at Znnte, and was at- 

 tached, in his youth, to the Venetian embassy at Pa- 

 ris, where, after the year 1776, he showed more love 

 For astronomy than for diplomacy. Having settled 

 n Verona in 1782, he constructed an observatory in 

 his own house, by his observations in which he en- 

 riched the science of astronomy with many discoveries. 

 After the destruction of his observatory by the French 

 (1798), who, however, compensated him for his loss, 

 liis instruments were transferred to the observatory of 

 Brera, in Milan, and he was appointed professor of 

 astronomy in the military school at Modena. In 1814 

 he went back to Verona, and died there in 1816. 

 His best works are, Notizie Astronomiche adat. alf 

 Uso comune (Modena, 1802, 2 vols., with plates) ; 

 and his Trigonometria Pianu e Sferica (2d edition, 

 Bologna, 1804, with plates) ; translated into French 

 by Chompre (2d edition, Paris, 1804, 4to). 



CAGOTS ; an unfortunate race of men, resembling 

 the Cretins. They are found in the south of France, 

 near the Pyrenees. They are mostly poor beggars, 

 performing the meanest offices, and covered witli 

 leprosy, king's evil, and vermin; confined to the 

 coarsest food, wandering about without habitation, 

 without clothes or fire in the depth of winter, barely 

 covered with dirty rags, retiring, in the night, to barns 

 and hovels ; of a thin and pale aspect, generally mu- 

 tilated, lamed in their limbs, despised, insulted, or 

 pitied ; cast out of the race of men as unworthy of 

 life; given up to the most beastly excess, and ac- 

 cused of the most horrid crimes with which the human 

 race can be stained. In former ages they were shut 

 out from society as lepers, cursed as heretics, abhorred 

 as cannibals and pederasts; their feet were bored with 

 an iron, and they were forced to wear an egg-shell on 

 their clothes, by way of distinction. The very name 

 of Cagot, which Scaliger derives from canis gottus, is 

 a proof of the detestation in which they were held. 

 Opinions are much divided with regard to the origin 

 of this miserable race, living in the midst of a highly 

 cultivated people. The most plausible conjecture is 

 that which derives them from some northern barbari- 

 ans, who migrated into the south of Europe in the 

 third or fourth century. More accurate researches 

 have established the fact, that they are not without 

 capacity to become useful members of human society ; 

 and that, to accomplish this, it is only necessary to re- 

 move them from the condition in which they suffer so 

 much misery and contempt, which alone would be 

 sufficient to hinder them from developing their talents, 

 if, indeed, they are inferior to those of other men. 



CAHOES, or CAHOOS FALLS. See Mohawk. 



CAHORS WINE is that wine which is used to improve 

 the Pontac and other red French wines. It is con- 

 sumed in Bourdeaux and other places, where the 

 lighter and cheaper French wines find a ready 

 market. 



CAIAPHAS, a Jew, was the high priest at the time 

 when Jesus Christ was crucified by the Romans. In 



