Lives of alchemystical philosophers To which is added a...

The second of these evidences was upon the Marivaux door of the Church of Saint Jacques-la-Boucherie, where on the left side at entering was the figure of Flamel, kneeling at the feet of St James, with a Gothic N. upon the pedestal. The figure of Perrenelle was represented on the opposite side, kneeling at the feet of St John, the pedestal bearing a Gothic P.

The third evidence was in the street of Notre Dame, at the portal of Genevieve of Arden. There Flamel’s statue was to be seen in a niche, kneeling with a desk at his side, looking towards St James. There was a Gothic N. F. below and the inscription, “This portal was built in 1402, by the alms of many.” Flamel is supposed to have concealed in this manner that he was the principal donor, but the figure may have been erected to his memory.

After the death of Perrenelle the bereaved adept is supposed to have prepared for posterity several works on the supreme science which had enriched him:—Le Livre des Figures Hieroglyphiques; Le Sommaire Philosophique, written in verse after the manner of the Roman de la Rose; Trois Traités de la Transformation Metallique, also in rhymed verse; Le Desir Désiré, ou Trésor de Philosophie; Le Grand Eclaircissement de la Pierre Philosophale pour la Transmutation de tous Métaux; La Musique Chimique; Annotationes in D. Zacharmin, &c.

Approaching near the end of his life, and having no children, he chose his burial place in the parish church of St Jacques-la-Boucherie, before the crucifix. To this end he made a contract with the wardens of the church, which is mentioned in his testament. He then disposed of his property and goods to the church and to the poor, as may be seen in his will, which is lodged in the archives of St Jacques. It is dated the 22nd November 1416, and begins thus:—“To all those to whom these present letters shall come, I, Annegny du Castel, chevalier, counsellor chambellan of the King, our Sire, Keeper of the Prevot of Paris, greeting: Know ye, that before Hugues de la Barre and Jean de la Noe, notary clerks of the King, at the Chatelet, was established personally, Nicholas Flamel, scrivener, sound in body and mind, speaking clearly, with good and true understanding,” &c. It fills four sheets of parchment, which are sewed one to the end of the other, like the rolls of ancient writing. It contains thirty-four articles; in the twentieth he bequeaths to his relations the sum of forty livres. He lived three years after making this will, dying about 1419.

Hostile criticism has endeavoured to destroy the testimony which the history of Flamel affords to the reality of transmutation, and has adopted various means. It has attempted to disprove his wealth by reducing his munificence, representing him simply as an honest bourgeois, who, thanks to his economy and his assiduity, acquired a comfortable competence, which a childless condition enabled him to devote to works of benevolence, and to the erection of public buildings on a moderate scale. The alchemical testaments and treatises attributed to him are condemned one and all as absolutely spurious. The chief expositor of this view is the Abbé L. Vilain in his Essai sur une Histoire de Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, published in duodecimo at Paris, in 1758, and again in a Histoire Critique de Nicolas Flamel et de Pernel sa Femme, Paris, 1782, &c.

It must be granted out of hand that all the alchemical compositions which have passed under the name of Flamel are open to more or less suspicion, and some are undoubtedly forgeries. The work on metallic transmutation, which is the earliest traceable treatise, was unheard of till a hundred and forty-three years after the death of its accredited author. It was published in the year 1561 by Jacques Goharry. Le Grand Eclaircissement first saw the light in 1628, when the editor, who apparently abounded in Flamel manuscripts, promised the publication in addition of La Joie Parfaite de Moi, Nicolas Flamel, et de Pernelle, ma Femme, which has not, however, appeared.

On the other hand, there are strong arguments for the genuineness of the Trésor de Philosophie. “There exists in the Bibliothèque du Roi” says M. Auguste Vallet, “a small manuscript book, grossement relié, according to all appearance belonging to the end of the fourteenth century, and which treats of alchemical operations. It commences with these words:—

“It teaches the manner of accomplishing the Magnum Opus by the aid of successive operations, which are termed Lavures in this treatise. On the last leaf of the manuscript is the following inscription written by the same hand as the rest of the text:—‘The present book is of and belonging to Nicolas Flamel, of the Parish Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, who has written and illuminated it with his own hand.’”

With regard to the extent of the scrivener’s resources, the genuine testament of Pernelle, dated 1399, and the endowments of hospitals and churches which undoubtedly took place on a scale of great munificence, are a sufficient evidence that he was an exceedingly wealthy man.

Other critics, including Louis Figuier, admit the fact of his riches, but enlarge upon the remunerative nature of a scrivener’s occupation previous to the invention of printing, and upon the careful frugality of the supposed alchemist; but in the teeth of their own theory they are obliged to admit that Flamel did become a student of alchemy, that the hieroglyphics, figures, and emblems in the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents are evidence of this fact; that, unlike most followers of Hermes, he was not impoverished by his experiments; and that he fostered the report that his wealth was in the main a result of his possession of the mysterious book of Abraham, by which he had been able to compose the philosophical stone.

Gabriel Naudé, who detested magic, and seems to have despised alchemy, vilifying the possessors of both of these sciences alike, accounts for the riches of Flamel by asserting that he managed affairs for the Jews, and upon their banishment from the kingdom of France, and the confiscation of their property for the king, “he, knowing the sums due by several individuals, compromised, by receiving a part, which they paid him to prevent his giving information which would oblige them to surrender it entirely.”

This explanation of the source of Flamel’s riches is a purely unfounded assertion. If we carefully examine history, there were three expulsions of the Jews from France between 1300 and 1420. They were banished in 1308, were soon after allowed to return, and were again banished in 1320. These persecutions occurred before the birth of Flamel. The Jews were re-established by Charles V. in 1364, and they remained in quiet until the riots which occurred in Paris in 1380, at the beginning of the reign of Charles VI., when the people rose up against the Jews, committing great outrages and demanding their expulsion. The sedition, however, was quelled, and the Jews protected until 1393, when, upon several charges preferred against them, they were enjoined to quit France, or else become Christians. The historian Mezeray says that some of them chose rather to quit their religion than the kingdom, but others sold their goods and retired. Thus it appears that the only expulsion of the Jews which could agree with Naudé’s surmise was without the confiscation of their property, and, therefore, could not give Flamel the opportunity alleged, if, indeed, it were reasonable to suppose that all the Parisian Israelites entrusted their affairs to a single person, when it does not appear that necessity required such an agency. There is, therefore, no reason to suppose that Flamel was enriched by the property of the Jews, or that those who owed them money compounded with Flamel, lest he should denounce them to the king.[Q]

Thus the theories of hostile criticism break down before impartial examination, and to whatever source we may choose to ascribe the wealth of Nicholas Flamel, we have no reason to question his integrity, nor to deny the explanation of the alchemists, except upon the à priori ground of the impossibility of transmutation.

The divine gift which was so fortunate a possession to Flamel is supposed to have been a curse to his descendants. He is reported to have given some of the transmuting powder to M. Perrier, a nephew of Perrenelle. From him it descended to Dr Perrier, and was found among his effects at his death by his grandson, Dubois. The prudence and moderation that accompanied the gift to the Perriers was not found in Dubois. He exhibited the sacred miracle to improper persons, says an anonymous writer on alchemy, and was brought before Louis XIII., in whose presence he made gold of base metal, and this gold augmented its weight in the cupel. The consequence of this generosity was an infamous death. The vanity of Dubois was in proportion to his imprudence. He fancied that he could make or augment the powder, and promised to do so, but without success. It seems that he was, consequently, suspected of withholding the art from the king, a circumstance sufficient in politics to justify strong measures, lest the possessor of the sinews of war should go over to the enemy.

Whatever were the charges against Dubois, he was hanged, and his fate should be a proof, says the writer already quoted, that a science producing unbounded riches is the greatest misfortune to those who are unfitted and unprepared to manage the dangerous trust with discretion.

After the death of Flamel, many persons supposed that there must be doubtless some buried treasures in the house which he had inhabited during so many years, and in which all his Hermetical triumphs had been performed. This opinion existed in all its strength, at least in the mind of one individual, so late as the year 1576, when a stranger applied to the Prévôt of Paris, and stated that he had been entrusted by a deceased friend with certain sums for the restoration of Flamel’s house. As the building was exceedingly dilapidated, the magistrates availed themselves of the opportunity, and repairs were begun under the direction of delegates of the works of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. The true object of the stranger soon became evident by the determination with which he sought to lay bare the whole foundations of the house, which was ransacked from top to bottom in search of the treasures it was supposed to conceal. No discoveries rewarded the zeal of the investigation, which ended in the sudden disappearance of the stranger, without paying for the operations which he had caused to be set on foot.

“I was at Bronosa, in Natolia, and going to take the air with a person of distinction, came to a little mosque, which was adorned with gardens and fountains for a public walk; we were quickly introduced into a cloister, where we found four dervishes, who received us with all imaginable civility, and desired us to partake of what they were eating. We were told, what we soon found to be true, that they were all persons of the greatest worth and learning; one of them, who said he was of Usbec Tartary, appeared to be more accomplished than the rest, and I believe verily he spoke all the principal languages of the world. After we had conversed in Turkish, he asked me if I could speak Latin, Spanish, or Italian. I told him, if he pleased, to speak to me in Italian; but he soon discovered by my accent that it was not my mother-tongue, and asked me frankly what country I came from? As soon as he knew that I was a native of France, he spoke to me in as good French as if he had been brought up at Paris. ‘How long, sir,’ said I, ‘did you stay in France?’ He replied he had never been there, but that he had a great inclination to undertake the journey.

“I did all in my power to strengthen that resolution, and to convince him that France was the nursery of the learned, and its king a patron of the sciences, who defrayed the expense of my travels for collecting notices of antiquities, drawings of monuments, correcting maps, and making a collection of ancient coins, manuscripts, &c., all of which he seemed to approve civilly. Our conversation being ended, the dervishes brought us to their house, at the foot of the mountain, where, having drank coffee, I took my leave, but with a promise, however, that I would shortly come and see them again.

“On the 10th, the dervish whom I took for an Usbec came to pay me a visit. I shewed him all the manuscripts I had bought, and he assured me they were very valuable, and written by great authors. He was a man every way extraordinary in learning; and in external appearance he seemed to be about thirty years old, but from his discourse I was persuaded he had lived a century.

“He told me he was one of seven friends, who travelled to perfect their studies, and, every twenty years, met in a place previously appointed. I perceived that Bronosa was the place of their present meeting, and that four of them had arrived. Religion and natural philosophy took up our thoughts by turns; and at last we fell upon chemistry, alchemy, and the Cabala. I told him all these, and especially the philosophers’ stone, were regarded by most men of sense as mere fictions.

“‘That,’ replied he, ‘should not surprise you; the sage hears the ignorant without being shocked, but does not for that reason sink his understanding to the same level. When I speak of a sage, I mean one who sees all things die and revive without concern: he has more riches in his power than the greatest king, but lives temperately, above the power of events.’

“Here I stopped him:—‘With all these fine maxims, the sage dies as well as other people.’ ‘Alas!’ said he, ‘I perceive you are unacquainted with sublime science. Such a one as I describe dies indeed, for death is inevitable, but he does not die before the utmost limits of his mortal existence. Hereditary disease and weakness reduce the life of man, but the sage, by the use of the true medicine, can ward off whatever may hinder or impair the animal functions for a thousand years.’

“Surprised at all I heard, ‘And would you persuade me,’ said I, ‘that all who possessed the philosophers’ stone have lived a thousand years?’ He replied gravely:—‘Without doubt every one might; it depends entirely on themselves.’ At last I took the liberty of naming the celebrated Flamel, who, it was said, possessed the philosophers’ stone, yet was certainly dead. He smiled at my simplicity, and asked with an air of mirth:—‘Do you really believe this? No, no, my friend, Flamel is still living; neither he nor his wife are dead. It is not above three years since I left both the one and the other in the Indies; he is one of my best friends.’ Whereupon he told me the history of Flamel, as he heard it from himself, the same as I had read in his book, until at last when Charles VI., who was then upon the throne, sent M. Cramoisi, a magistrate, and his master of requests, to enquire from Flamel the origin of his riches, when the latter at once saw the danger he was in. Having sent her into Switzerland to await his coming, he spread a report of his wife’s death, had her funeral celebrated, and in a few years ordered his own coffin to be interred. Since that time they have both lived a philosophic life, sometimes in one country, sometimes in another. This is the true history, and not that which is believed at Paris, where there are very few who ever had the least glimpse of true wisdom.’”

According to the “Treasure of Philosophy,” alchemy as a science consists in the knowledge of the four elements of philosophers, which are not to be identified with the vulgar so-called elements, and which are convertible one into another. The true prima materia is mercury, prepared and congealed in the bowels of the earth by the mediation of the heat of sulphur. This is the sperm and semen of all metals, which, like other created things, are capable of a growth and multiplication that may be continued even to infinity. The first step in transmutation is the reduction of the metals worked upon into their first mercurial matter, and this reduction is the subject of the whole treatise.

It does not appear that the alchemical works attributed to Nicholas Flamel have added anything to our knowledge of chemistry. On the other hand, it is perfectly clear from his history that the physical object of Alchemy was the end which he kept in view, and that also which he is supposed to have attained.