258 JEROME CARDAN 



on the human frame, an aspect of the question which, 

 by reason of his knowledge of medicine and surgery, 

 would naturally engage his more serious attention. He 

 tells of the birth of a monstrous child a most loathsome 

 malformation at Middleton Stoney, near Oxford, during 

 his stay in England, 1 and gives many other instances of 

 the disastrous effects of untoward conjunction of the 

 planets upon infants born under the influence of the 

 same. He accuses monks and nuns of detestable vices 

 in the plainest words, words which were probably read 

 by the emissaries of the spiritual authority when the 

 charge of impiety was being got up against him. In the 

 Geniturarum Exempla the horoscopes of Edward VI., 

 Archbishop Hamilton, and Cardan himself have been 

 already noticed ; that of Sir John Cheke comes next in 

 interest to these, and, it must be admitted, is no more 

 trustworthy. It declares that Cheke would attain the 

 age of sixty-one years, that he would be most fortunate 

 in gathering wealth and friends around him, that he 

 would die finally of lingering disease, and involve many 

 in misfortune by his death a faulty guess, indeed, as to 

 the future of a man who died at forty-three, borne down 

 by the weight of his misfortunes, neglected and forgotten 

 by his former adherents, stripped of his wealth and 

 covered with shame, in that he had abjured his faith 

 to save a life which was so little worth preserving. 



Naud6 does not neglect to censure Cardan for his 

 maladroit attempts to read the future. He writes : 

 " This matter, forsooth, gave a ready handle to Cardan's 

 rivals, and especially to those who were sworn foes of 

 astrology ; so that they were able to jibe at him freely 

 because, neither in his own horoscope, nor in that of his 

 son Giovanni Battista, nor in that of Aymer Ranconet, 

 1 Page 266. 



