Inviolable sanctity of the priesthood—Accusations of false adepts—Groundless charges against Pope Sylvester II—Scandalous story of Polonus reproduced by Platina—The legend of Pope Joan—Its derivation from ancient Tarot cards representing Isis crowned with a tiara—Further concerning Sylvester II—Opinion of Gabriel Naudé—The Grimoire attributed to Pope Honorius III—The anti-pope Honorius II as its possible author—An excursus on the content and character of the work 291 CHAPTER II APPEARANCE OF THE BOHEMIAN NOMADS Their entrance into Europe early in the fifteenth century—Their name of Bohemians or Egyptians—An account of their encampment near Paris, drawn from an ancient chronicle—A citation from George Borrow—Researches of M. Vaillant—The Gipsies and the Tarot—A conclusion on this subject—Communistic Experiment in 1840 306 CHAPTER III LEGEND AND HISTORY OF RAYMUND LULLY Story of the _Doctor Illuminatus_ on its mythical side—Raymond Lully and the Lady Ambrosia—His immortality and liberation therefrom—The historical personage—Lully as an alchemist—The Rose Nobles—His philosophical testament—Colleges for the study of languages founded by his efforts—The Great Art—He appears at the Council of Vienna—Lully a disciple of the Kabalists—But the tradition in his hands had become Christian 319 CHAPTER IV ON CERTAIN ALCHEMISTS Nicholas Flamel and the book of Abraham the Jew—Mysterious figures of the work—A tradition concerning Flamel—Bernard Trevisan—Basil Valentine—John Trithemius—Cornelius Agrippa—The pantacle of Trithemius—William Postel—Illustrations of his teaching—The story of Mother Jeanne—The renewal of Postel—An opinion of Father Desbillons—Paracelsus—His doctrines of occult medicine—Mysteries of blood—Narrative of Tavernier—The _Philosophia sagax_ of Paracelsus 331 CHAPTER V SOME FAMOUS SORCERERS AND MAGICIANS _The Divine Comedy_ of Dante and its Kabalistic analysis—_The Romance of the Rose_—Luther and anarchical theology—His disputes with the devil—His sacrilegious marriage—Sorcerers during the reign Of Henry III—-Visions of Jacques Clément—Mystic symbolism of the rose—Union of the rose and the cross—The Rosicrucians—Henry Khunrath—His _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ_—It’s pantacles—Oswaldus Crollius—Alchemists of the early seventeenth century—A Rosicrucian manifesto 345 CHAPTER VI SOME MAGICAL PROSECUTIONS