THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 185 



The true criterion here must doubtless be sought 

 in the evidence furnished by contemporaries re- 

 garding the fact alleged. In the case of Michael 

 Scot such evidence is forthcoming, but v^e may say 

 at once that it proves upon examination to yield 

 a distinctly negative result. His fame in those 

 days was such that he is mentioned by several im- 

 portant writers of his own age, such as Bacon, 

 Albertus Magnus, and Vincent of Beauvais. None 

 of these has a word to say of Scot's reputation as 

 a necromancer. Some may urge that an argument 

 from silence is unsatisfactory ; but does it not gain 

 great force from the consideration that two of these 

 witnesses are decidedly hostile to Scot ? Bacon, 

 especially, seems to have lost no opportunity of 

 blackening his character. To these men Michael 

 Scot was a sciolist, a mere pretender to knowledge, 

 ignorant even of Latin ; the very charlatan of the 

 schools. He was a plagiarist too ; one who passed 

 off the work of another man as his own ; nay, darker 

 than all, he was a heretic, or so Albert would make 

 him ; a philosopher who interpreted and exceeded 

 the forbidden doctrines of Averroes. Is it not 

 certain that, if Scot had really practised magic in 

 spite of the prohibitions of the Church, we should 



sunt niultis penis ignis afflicti, et ex liac de causa nigromantici requirunt 

 studiose Puteum intueri, sive stellas Sacrarii, ut eorum auxilio plenius 

 operentur optata. Et dicitur a multis quod de illo exeunt lapides et 

 sagipte tonitruale, opere spirituum inferorum. Cum non sit ymago celi, 

 habet stellas pervisibiles quatuor, dispositio quarum sic certificatur : in 

 superfitie flammarum exeuntium sunt duo, et duo parum sub ore puthealis, 

 et hec est forma in celo aspectus sui.' Over against this we find the ap- 

 plication, as follows : Natus in hoc signo erit gratiosus habere experi- 

 menta et scire incantationes, const ringere spiritus et mirabilia facere, et 

 mulieres convincere artis ingeniosus erit, quietus, sagax, et plus pauper 

 quam dives, et uti metallis, et alchemesta, et nigromanticus et erit homo 

 quietus, ingeniosus, sagax, secretus, debilis, pauidus, timidus, etc' The 

 superstition of which Mirandola accuses Scot is very evident here, but it 

 is no less plain that the author's purpose was astrological and not magical. 



