As all the traditions agree in representing Faust as haying studied at Wittenberg, and there, too, exhibited a number of magical tricks to his good friends the students, it was natural to suspect that Luther or Melancthon should, somewhere or other, make mention of such a notorious character. And, accordingly, Stieglitz follows Horst (_Zauber-Bibliotheck_, vi. 87) in asserting that Melancthon actually does make mention of Doctor Faust in one of his epistles; but as neither of these writers cites the passage, or mentions in what particular part of Melancthon's work it is to be found, I barely mention this circumstance on their authority. There is, however, very great probability that the testimony of Joannes Manlius, in his Collectanea, the principal one relied on both by Heumann and Stieglitz, is, in reality, to be considered as a testimony of Melancthon. Manlius himself[*i11] says of his Collectanea, "_Labor hic noster collectus ex ore D. Phillippi Melanchthonis allisque clarissimis viris_," and might, on this account, as Heumann remarks, have fitly been named _Melancthoniana_, or Melancthon's Table-Talk. But be this as it may, Manlius' testimony is most decided, and runs as follows:--"I was acquainted with a certain person, called Faust of Kundling, a small town in Wurtemberg. He was a Cracovian Scholasticus, and read lectures on magic in the university there. He was a great rambler (_vagabatur passim_), and possessed many secrets. At Venice, wishing to amuse the populace, he boasted that he would fly up to heaven. The devil accordingly wafted him up a certain height, but dashed him down again in such a plight, that he lay half-dead on the ground. A few years ago, the same John Faust, on the last day of his life, was found sitting in the common inn of a certain village in the Duchy of Wittenberg. He was, indeed, a most vile blackguard (_turpissimus nebula_), of a most filthy life, so much so, indeed, that he once and again almost lost his life on account of his excesses. The landlord of the inn asked him why he sat there so sad, contrary to his wont? "Be not terrified if you shall hear anything on this night," was his short answer. And at midnight the house was shaken. Next morning, near mid-day, as Faust did not make his appearance, the landlord entered into his chamber, and found him lying beside his bed, with his face on the ground, having been so slain by the devil. When he was yet alive, he was accompanied by a dog, which was the devil. ... This Faust the magician, a most vile beast, and a common sewer of many devils (_cloaca multorum diabolorum_), was also a great boaster, and pretended that all the victories of the Imperial armies in Italy were gained by the help of his magic."[*i12] With this account agrees exactly that given by Wier,[*i13] the disciple and confidant of the celebrated Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim. Del Rio,[*i14] who wrote at the end of the sixteenth century, introduces him along with the same Agrippa,