“But when in the evening, at table, mention was made of a necromancer named Faustus, Doctor Martin says earnestly, ‘the devil does not employ the services of magicians against me; had he been able to do me hurt, he would have done it long ago. He has no doubt had me often by the head, but he never-the-less had to let me go again.’” In a chronicle concluded in the same year by the Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern, the scene of Faust’s death is given as Staufen in Breisgau:— “But that the practice of such art (of soothsaying) is not only godless, but extremely perilous, that is undeniable, as is proved by experience, and we know how it went with the famous necromancer Faustus. He, after many wonderful things which he did during his life, about which one could write a special treatise, was at last, at an advanced age, slain by the evil spirit in the province of Staufen in Breisgau.” And there is further a reference to his revenge on the inhospitable monks:— “About that time (i.e. after 1539), Faustus died at, or at least not far from Staufen, the little town in Breisgau. During his life, he was a strange necromancer, who in our times could be found in German provinces and had so many strange dealings, that he will not easily be forgotten for many years. He lived to be an old man, and, as is said, died wretchedly. Many people have thought that he was killed by the evil spirit, whom in his lifetime he only called his brother-in-law (_Schwager_). The books which he left behind have come into the possession of the lord of Staufen, in whose province he died, and many people have afterwards tried to obtain them, and in my opinion desired in them a perilous and unlucky treasure. He charmed a spirit into the monastery of the monks of Lüxheim in Wasgau, which they could not get rid of for many years, and which troubled them strangely; for the sole reason that they had once been unwilling to give him shelter for the night, that was why he had procured for them this turbulent visitor; at the same time, it is said, that a similar spirit was attached to the former abbot of St. Diesenberg by an envious wandering scholar.” The last considerable reference, before the publication of the folk-book, is in the edition of _De Praestigiis Daemonum_ by Johannes Wierus (Johann Weyer, or Wier), which appeared in 1568. A German edition of this book was published eighteen years later. Wierus was one of the most distinguished and enlightened physicians of his time, and he fought for years, at first with some success, against the fanatical persecution of witches which was providing human torches in every village in Germany. In this book on the illusions of the devils, he protests against the witch-burnings, and it is noticeable that he does not definitely refer to Faust’s alleged compact with the Devil:—