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discoveries of hidden treasure, and to construct a brazen head, which answered the queries
addressed to it, like the Sphinx which Stodare exhibited a few years ago at the Egyptian Hall. On
one occasion, we are told, he obtained access, by magical arts, to an enchanted palace
underground. Its splendour exceeded that of any earthly palace, but it disappeared in a puff of
smoke on being touched.
The other triple-crowned magician was Gregory VII., who also studied astrology. Mornay says
that he could produce thunder and lightning by shaking his arm. Something of this kind is
mentioned by Roger Bacon in his Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature, and Magic; and the
solution may perhaps be found in the Chinese fire-works with which we have been made familiar
of late years, and which are used by the famous pantomimist, Fred Evans, in his demon ballets.
An interval of a century and a half separates the latest of the Pontifical conjurors from the first
English professor of the Black Art, after Merlin, of whom historians have preserved any
particulars. Robert Greathead, who became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235, and was one of. the. most
learned men of that age, was the son of very poor parents, so poor, indeed, that he was only
rescued from beggary by the benevolence of a wealthy citizen, who, observing his handsome and
intelligent looking countenance when he gave him an alms, sent him to school, and afterwards to
the University of Cambridge. From thence he removed to the famous seats of learning on the Isis
and the Seine, acquiring, in addition to the Greek and Hebrew languages, the fullest knowledge
of geometry, mathematics, astronomy, and optics that the professors of that day could impart.
Gower says that he was profoundly skilled in magic, and that he made a brazen head, to serve
as an oracle. This was a very persistent idea of the magicians of the middle ages, though none of
them seem to have worked it out very successfully. It was perhaps suggested by the oracles of
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Lives of Conjurors--Chapter III
antiquity, associated in their minds with the colossal head of Memnon, from which vocal sounds
were said to emanate at sunrise.
Michael Scot, who was nearly contemporaneous with Greathead, had the repute of a sorcerer,
and was held in awe by the ignorant and superstitions masses on account of his supposed
magical powers and communings with beings of the invisible world. Hence his inclusion amongst
the necromancers by Godwin; but he does not appear to have made any pretensions to magic,
his reputed proficiency in which arose from his knowledge of Greek and Arabic, the characters of
which were mistaken for cabalistic signs, and his addiction to the study of chemistry, astrology,
and chiromancy.
While Robert Greathead was pursuing his studies at Cambridge, there was born, in
Somersetshire, one of the most remarkable men of his time, if we judge him by the power of his
mind, but concerning whose life we possess very few particulars that are well authenticated.
According to the Famous History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, the earliest extant edition of
which bears the date of 1661, Roger Bacon was a farmer's son, who, became a Franciscan friar,
and, studying magic more than divinity, became so famous for his proficiency in the Black Art
that the king, being on a visit at a nobleman's house in Oxfordshire, sent for him, requesting an
example of his skill. We are not told what king this was, but it must have been either Henry III.
or Edward I.--probably the former. The friar entertained the king with the harmony of invisible
musicians, filled the apartment with the most delicious perfume, and introduced many strangers,
who came, none knew how or whence, and some of whom danced, while others, who wore the
semblance of Russians, Poles, Armenians, and Hindoos, presented valuable furs. The king was so
pleased with this entertainment that he presented the friar with a costly jewel.
While pursuing his studies at Oxford, Bacon became intimately acquainted with the friar Bungay,
who was almost as proficient in magic as himself, though he does not figure in the records of
scientific research. These two conjurors constructed a brazen head, concerning which we are
told, in the history just referred to, that "in the inward parts thereof there was all things like as is
a natural man's head." Unable to give their handiwork the power of speech, they resolved to
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