Charles Mackay (1814-1889), from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
Germany also produced many famous alchymists in the fifteenth century, the chief of whom are Basil Valentine,
Bernard of Treves, and the
Abbot Trithemius. Basil Valentine was born at
Mayence, and was made
prior of
St. Peter's, at
Erfurt, about the year
1414. It was known, during his life, that he diligently sought the
philosopher's stone, and that he had written some works upon the process of
transmutation. They were thought, for many years, to be lost; but were, after his death, discovered enclosed in the stone work of one of the pillars in the
Abbey. They were twenty-one in number, and are fully set forth in the third volume of
Lenglet's "History of the
Hermetic Philosophy." The alchymists asserted, that
Heaven itself conspired to bring to light these extraordinary works; and that the pillar in which they were enclosed was miraculously shattered by a thunderbolt; and that, as soon as the manuscripts were liberated, the pillar closed up again of its own accord!
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