“I knew a man named Faustus of Kundling, a little town near my home. When he studied at Cracow, he had learned Magic, which was formerly keenly studied there and where public lectures were delivered about this art. Later he wandered about in many places and spoke about secret things. When he wanted to create a sensation at Venice, he announced that he was going to fly into the heavens. The devil then lifted him up in the air, but let him fall to earth again, so that he nearly gave up the ghost. A few years ago, this Johannes Faustus sat very downcast on his last day in a village in the duchy of Württemberg. Mine host asked him why he was so downcast, this not being his custom or habit; for he was usually a graceless rogue, who led a dissolute life, so that at one time and another his love affairs had nearly brought him to his death. He thereupon replied to the host in that village: ‘Do not be frightened to-night!’ At midnight the house was shaken. Since on the next morning Faustus had not risen and it was already noon, the host went into his room and found him lying beside the bed with his face twisted round, as the devil had killed him. During his life, he kept a dog, which was the devil.... This Faustus escaped from our town of Wittenberg, when the excellent prince, duke Johann, had given the order that he was to be arrested. In a similar way, he is said to have escaped likewise in Nuremberg. At the beginning of the meal, he felt warm; he immediately rose from the table and paid his scot to the host. He was hardly outside the door when the minions came and asked for him. This magician Faustus, an infamous beast, a cesspool (_cloaca_) of many devils, boasted that all the victories which had been won by the imperial armies in Italy, had been obtained for them by him through his magic, which was a most shameless lie.” This story is repeated by Andreas Hondorff in his _Promptuarium Exemplorum_, which appealed five years later, in 1568:— “Such a necromancer was Johann Faustus, who practised many tricks through his black art. He had with him always a black dog, which was a devil. When he came to Wittenberg he would have been arrested by order of the Prince Elector, if he had not escaped. The same would have happened to him in Nuremberg also, where he likewise escaped. But this was his reward. When his time was up, he was in a tavern in a village of Württemberg. Upon the host asking him why he was so downcast, he replied, ‘Do not be afraid to-night, if you hear a great banging and shaking of the house.’ In the morning he was found lying dead in his room, with his neck twisted round.” There is a casual reference to Faust in the _Table-talk of Martin Luther_, edited by Johannes Aurifaber (Johann Goldschmidt) in 1566:—