CHAPTER IX 



THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



HITHERTO we have taken little notice of the fame 

 by which Michael Scot is most widely known in 

 literature ; preferring to speak first of the authentic 

 facts and real employments of his life, so far as 

 these can now be ascertained. It would be im- 

 proper, however, to close our investigation without 

 taking some account of that darker reputation 

 which has so long represented him to the world 

 as a magician and dealer in forbidden lore. If we 

 have deferred so long the consideration of this 

 matter, the reason may be found in the fact that 

 there seems to be no truth in such stories. They 

 live only in legend, and in the literature of 

 romance, and must therefore be held apart by a 

 firm line from the domain of sober historical in- 

 quiry. 



This conclusion, be it observed, is not based 

 upon the prevailing opinion of the present day that 

 such arts are impossible, nor has it thence been 

 reached by way of the inference that because magic 

 is impossible, therefore Michael Scot cannot have 

 meddled in it. Such was not at all the view held 

 in the thirteenth century. Then scholars as well 

 as the unlearned, and clergy as well as laity, be- 

 lieved firmly in the possibility, nay, the reality, of 



