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, believed firmly in the possibility, nay, the reality, of what they regarded as an unwarrantable interference with the order of nature. This belief makes it a fair subject of discussion in regard to any one of that age whether or not he may have practised forbidden arts. The question in Scot’s case is a highly curious one, and, without further apology, we now proceed to examine it in detail. The most famous schools of magic in those days were fixed by popular tradition in the Spanish cities of Toledo and Salamanca, especially the former. Magic, indeed, was generally spoken of as the _scientia Toletana_. The _Morgante Maggiore_ of Pulci may furnish us with a fair example of the common belief:[257] ‘Per quel ch’io udì gia dir, sendo in Tolleta Dove ogni negromante si racozza.’ and again: ‘Questa città di Tolleta solea Tenere studio di Nigromanzia. Quivi di magica arte si legea Pubblicamente, e di Piromancia E molti Geomanti sempre avea E esperimenti assai di Idromanzia.’ Caesar Von Heisterbach, the anecdote-monger of the century, relates more than one diverting tale of necromantic prodigies, the scene of which he lays at Toledo. The most remarkable of these stories tells how some Germans came thither to learn magic.[258] Their teacher in this art called up certain spirits, who appeared first as armed men, and then in the form of lovely maids. One of the students was thereby allured and carried off. The others drew their swords and threatened the master with death, until, overcome by fear, he used his power to secure their companion’s return.