Doctor Faustus: Precursors

The Reformation plunged northern and western Europe into a period of intense preoccupation with Satan, a preoccupation that did not begin with the masses but represents a deliberate attempt by the educated to mold public opinion. The devil's craze was spread to the people by preachers, popular stories, the Inquisition, and witch trials (Strauss 31) and spawned an entirely new genre of writing, the immensely popular Teufelsbücher (devil's books). Strauss notes that focusing on the devil's pervasive presence in the world had practical advantages to would-be culture shapers.

Seeing Satan lurking beneath the most trivial, everyday choices allowed "early modern opinion makers to brand every infraction as, literally, devilish" (32). Polarizing reality into simple blacks and whites would help eradicate "the sprawling network of cunning folk, spell-casters, and fortune-tellers" of what amounted to "an alternative religion, and to bond them firmly to the elite-determined obligation of church, court, doctrine, parish, law book, and catechism" (32). Strauss fails to acknowledge an essential historic factor, however. Until the Reformation, most of what he calls "alternative religion" had been tacitly integrated into popular Catholicism and medieval Faust figures are generally saved despite a pact with the devil

The first man on record to enter a pact with the devil in the Christian era was the servant of Senator Proterius of Caesarea who was reputed to have engaged Satan's help in order to gain his master's comely daughter in marriage. According to the 4th century legend, his soul was saved through the prayer of St. Basil (Wiemken xxiv).

Arguably the most famous of all ancient progenitors of Faust is Theophilus, immortalized in the thirteenth century by Jacobus de Voragine (1228-1298) in his Legenda Aurea. According to legend, Theophilus administrated an episcopal church in Sicily early in the sixth century. When the bishop died, the people of the region offered the position to Theophilus who turned them down because he did not feel qualified. He expected to continue as administrator, however. The next bishop fired Theophilus. In order to get his old position back, Theophilus consulted a Jewish sorcerer, en- tered a pact with the devil, and in writing renounced allegiance to Jesus, the Virgin, and the Church. The machinations worked, and he was reinstated. Eventually, he recognized his error and repented. After chastising him for his impiety, the Blessed Mother took pity on him, and eventually even Jesus forgave him. Mary retrieved Theophilus' I.O.U. from Satan, and put the scroll on his chest as he slept. When he awoke, he loudly proclaimed his guilt, and praised the Virgin for her loving assistance. He died peacefully three days later (Voragine 2 157).

There are countless versions of this legend, particularly after Paulus Diaconus of Naples translated the story into the lingua franca--Latin. One of the most important renderings is that of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim (c. 935-1000) in the tenth century. By the fifteenth century, the legend had spawned miracle plays across Europe, in France, the Netherlands, and in northern Germany. After the 16th century it disappeared, swallowed up by the Reformation and the more recent Faust legend (Theens 35-36).

Another early Christian Faust-figure in Jacobus' collection was the Magician Cyprian who had fallen in love with a pagan priest's daughter, Justina. The young woman had converted to Christianity and promised to remain a virgin. Hence, she rejected Cyprian's amorous advances, and he enlisted several demons of increasing power to change her mind. She would not be swayed even when the devil himself confronted her with God's command to "increase and multiply." As a last resort, the devil sent a deadly fever to Antioch, along with sooth sayers who announced that death would stalk the city until Justina was married. She still refused, and after seven years succeeded in driving out the plague with her prayers. Justina's success and steadfastness convinced Cyprian of the greater power of her faith, and, after duping the devil, he had himself baptized. He proceeded to live a holy life and eventually became Bishop of Antioch where he established Justina as abbess in a monastery. When the fame of Cyprian and Justina spread, the heathen administrator of the region ordered them thrown in a cauldron filled with boiling fat, wax, and pitch, but they emerged unscathed, only to be united in death by decapitation on 26 September (280) during the reign of Diocletian. Even in Jacobus' pious tale, Cyprian's relationship with the devil is at least partially motivated by yearning for knowledge, particularly insight into God's nature. Cyprian repents and is saved in the end. The legend inspired Calderón de la Barca's famous play, El Magico Prodigoso (Voragine 1 192-95; cf. Wiemken xxix and Theens 35).

The above mentioned medieval legends involving Faustian types reveal surprising continuity. Most of those depicted as having entered a pact with the devil are saved rather than damned. In almost all cases the pact with the devil is related not only or even primarily to gratification of physical desires. Instead, men--and they are males--of genius seek access to "secret" knowledge through the devil, and generally that knowledge falls into the category we now would consider scientific. Hence, there is clearly a long-standing association between "science" and the demonic, an association that focuses on the tremendous dangers inherent in understanding and controlling nature and is blind to the potential for good in the scientific enterprise.

These legends show that people's view of the devil (and science) during the Middle Ages was profoundly ambivalent and very complex. Theoretically, invoking the Lord in the process of calling up Satan was considered a sin. On the other hand, it was common knowledge that demons could be called forth in the name of God. If the ritual was performed properly, they would have to do the conjurer's bidding. After all, Light was more powerful than Darkness, and to bind the devil or his servants in Jesus' name could even be interpreted as an act of faith. Hence, there seemed no reason not to make use of Satan's special powers for a few months or even years, as long as one made sure not to die without having repented first. It was a gamble, but one with reasonably good odds. After all, God's grace was considered unlimited, and there were insurance policies ranging from intercessionary prayers to special masses and indulgences.

Not all pre-Reformation Faust figures, however, escape hell. The Polish Physician Twardowski made a pact with the devil in order to learn necromancy and enjoy the "good life." In the popular legend, Satan takes Twardowski's soul, paradoxically while he is on an errand of mercy and because he keeps his word as nobleman and refuses to save himself by sacrificing the innocent child of a Jewish innkeeper (Wiemken xxviii). Next to Spain, Cracow was one of the main academic centers for the study of the magical arts during medieval times and into the sixteenth century.

Late medieval traditions evolved the human archetype whose dissatisfaction with the limitations of earthly existence leads to a pact with the devil in order to use demonic powers for advancing the spectrum of earthly existence from erotic passion and physical comfort to philosophic wisdom and scientific knowledge.

The whole idea of a pact with the devil depended on the Christian understanding of life after death and specifically a devil as God's adversary and Lord of hell who emerged from of a combination of the Jewish Lucifer with northern personifications of darkness and evil (Wiemken xxx-xxxi). By the time of Luther, the devil was sufficiently "real" that he could be attacked with an inkwell.

Doctor Faustus: the Legend

The Faust legend first crystallized in the sixteenth century, an era of exploding scientific knowledge, polarization of good and evil, shifting paradigms, the fragmentation of Christian unity, the dying of the medieval world, and geometrically escalating uncertainty. Yeats sings of the falcon no longer hearing the falconer early in the twentieth century, but it is four centuries earlier that the abyss had first opened. Copernicus (1473-1543) had challenged the common-sense earth-centered Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology, and while good Christians (such as the popes and Martin Luther) considered him a heretic and a fool, change was in the air, and natural philosophy came to be seen both as threat and promise. Giovanni Pico, Count of Mirandola (1463-1494) celebrated the glory of humanity (and practiced white magic) while the reformers focused on human corruption and Machiavelli (1469-1527) turned duplicity into a formula for political success. Alchemists, herbalists, necromancers, and astrologers were laying the foundations for the sciences of chemistry, biology, physics, and astronomy, at exactly the time when their activities would become suspect first among Protestants and then among Catholics who did not wish to appear less pious than the heretics. Encouraged by hell-fire-and-brimstone preachers, the common folk saw demons, devils, and witches in every dark corner while Humanist scholars sought to recapture the brilliant past of the Greeks and the Romans. The authoritative text on witches and witch hunts, the Malleus Maleficarum went through twenty-nine editions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While the term would not be used for three hundred years, alienation was spreading.

In the early part of the sixteenth century a magician by the name of Johann Sabellicus also known as Georg Faust attracted notoriety all across the German speaking lands. During the same era, Johann Fust, Gutenberg's respected collaborator and successor, practiced his printer's trade in the city of Mainz. The earliest record we have of Faust's existence is a letter Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim wrote on 20. August 1507 to the court mathematician-astrologer Johann Wirdung of Hassfurt who had apparently inquired about Johann Sabellicus and was eagerly awaiting the magician's arrival. Trithemius called Faust a glib con-man and drifter who beguiled a gullible public for glory and profit and should be whipped for blasphemy. He mentioned that Franz von Sickingen had recommended Faust for a teaching position in Kreuznach, and that Faust molested several boys under his care. Faust fled when the affair became known. It is interesting that Trithemius links pederasty and black magic (Palmer 82-86, Theens 17) just as accounts in the 1990s link Satanism and child molestation.

From Kreuznach Faust may have gone the University of Heidelberg where a Johann Faust is mentioned in the 1509 records. Laurentius Wolff, one of that Faust's professors praises his brilliant mind. According to Johannes Weyer (1515-1588) and Melanchthon (1497-1560) Faust next studied the magical arts in Cracow. Next he surfaced in Erfurt in 1513 where he remained sporadically for seven years. In 1516, he was given sanctuary by Abbot Johannes Entenfuß (Duckfoot) (r. 1512-1525) in the Maulbronn monastery. A chronicler suspects that Faust endeared himself to the abbot by promising him gold produced in an alchemist's lab. A few years later, Faust had established himself as a popular lecturer on Homer at the University of Erfurt. He may have used such inventions as a magic lantern or camera obscura to project images to spellbound audiences in packed lecture halls. If he kept the true nature of such technological tricks to himself, his reputation as sorcerer would have grown.

Pointing both to God's wrath and grace, the Franciscan friar, Dr. Klinge (cathedral preacher from 1520-1556) tried to convince Faust of the error of his ways in 1520. Faust thanked him for his concern and admitted that he had signed a pact with the devil in blood. The monk asked Faust to repent and promised to say masses at the monastery for Faust's salvation. Faust rejected the offer, insisting that he had trusted the devil more than God and deserved damnation. The monk agreed that Faust would go to hell since he obstinately refused help. Klinge had Faust expelled from Erfurt (Theens 20-23). On 12 February of that same year, the accountant of the Bishop of Bamberg noted that Doctor Faustus was paid two guilders for charting a horoscope for the Bishop of Bamberg (Palmer 87-88). In 1523 Faust is supposed to have visited Leipzig where he entertained spectators by riding a full keg of wine out of Auerbach's cellar (Theens 25). There is also a tradition of Faust having wine flow from a table.

In 1527 Faust showed up in Wittenberg. His bad reputation preceded him, and he was expelled by John the Steadfast. In 1528 a Dr. Georg Faustus from Heidelberg was officially kicked out of Ingolstadt, and in 1532 he was refused safe conduct at Nuremberg. Obviously, both Catholics and Lutherans considered him a Satanist, blasphemer, and heretic. He appears to have encountered increased rejection and alienation, even though there continue to be references to his extraordinary gifts, and the great minds of the age sought his acquaintance. The papal legate writes that Duke Hermann von Wied, from (1516-1546) archbishop of Cologne (Theens 24), who eventually converted to Lutheranism, had studied with Faust. The legate does not indicate whether he holds Faust responsible for the bishop's apostasy. In 1583, Leonhart Thurnmeißer von Thurn, a fellow magician and physician, called Faust a true philosopher who had the ability to effect genuine transformations and to transport people across great distances and through time (Theens 24). Wied's endorsement of Faust may be biased by the fact that he himself was reputed to have demonic connections. On the other hand, there is ample evidence for a broad spectrum of interpretations of the character of the his- torical Faust during and shortly after his life time. The Spies Book represents only one perspective. Another favorable comment can be found in the Waldeck Chronicle which reports that "the famous necromancer Dr. Faust" had predicted that the forces of the Bishop of Münster (Franz von Waldeck) would capture the city of Münster, at the time occupied by the Anabaptists, on the night of 25 June 1535. As prophesied, the Bishop captured the city. He had the Anabaptist leaders executed by tearing their bodies with red-hot pincers (Palmer 90; the date is 23 June according to Theens 29).

In August 1536 the Humanist scholar Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574) who had been called to Tübingen to reform the university asked an acquaintance in Würzburg if his friend Faust knew if the emperor was victorious (Theens 29). In Martin Luther's (1483-1546) Tischreden, Luther is quoted as saying that he was not afraid of the sorcerer Faust because, "with God as my protector, I would have given him my hand in the name of the Lord" (Palmer 91). In 1539 Philip Begardi, City Physician of Worms, called Faust an arrogant swindler who referred to himself as another Paracelsus (Palmer 93-94; Theens 30). In January of 1540, the military leader Philipp von Hutten wrote to his brother that Faust had been correct in his dire predictions concerning the Venezuelan expedition under Philipp's leadership (Palmer 94-95). According to several sources (Melanchthon, Dr. Johannes Weyer, and a Count Froben von Zimmern), Faust died in 1540 or 1541 (Theens 31-32), probably in Würthenberg or Regensburg, even though the legend insisted that he came to a terrible end near Wittenberg.

Something about Faust's character and career lent itself to the process of myth-making and legend-weaving. Within a few decades the real person was invested with the fears and anxieties of his era. By the end of the sixteenth century "everyone knew" that Faust had studied at Wittenberg (a community intimately connected with Luther, Melanchthon, and even Hamlet), sold his soul to the devil in a forest near Wittenberg, and finally came to a terrible, unnatural end in a Wittenberg inn. It seems significant that the University at Wittenberg, founded by Frederick III the Wise (1463-1525, elector of Saxony from 1486-1525) around the turn of the century, was the first secular institution of higher learning in the German cultural realm. The above mentioned connection with Luther and the Reformation movement is even more important. Lutherans depicted Faust as a monk and assumed that the Pope was his follower. Catholics imagined him in the guise of Luther and other reformers. The Faust legend developed within the context of a pervasive, and rapidly growing, belief in demons, witches and sorcerers.

Doctor Faustus: the Volksbuch

In 1587 the Spies Volksbuch was published and became a bestseller. An English translation followed almost immediately (Marlowe wrote his Doctor Faustus at some point between 1589 and 1592 after reading the English version). The Volksbuch describes Faust as having been born from pious peasant parents. He moved to Wittenberg, where he lived with a wealthy uncle who loved him like a son. He studied theology but kept evil company and began to lead a godless life. Frustrated with theology he called himself a physician. Paracelsus comes to mind. Despite his success, Faust was still dissatisfied, and finally conjured up a member of the Satanic horde, Mephostopheles. Believing that he would be able to control the demonic forces he had unleashed, he entered a contract with that representative of Satan who promised to help him discover the secrets of the universe which up to that point had been concealed from his mind.

Faust signs the contract in blood, and proceeds to crisscross the land as travelling philosopher, lecturer, magician, astrologer, clairvoyant. Mephostopheles takes him on several major excursions--all across Europe, beyond the clouds to the stars, and through hell. The demon answers Faust's questions concerning the origin and destiny of the universe in purely materialistic terms and helps him perform such feats as building a castle in the mountains, flying, re-attaching severed body parts, growing flowers and grapes in mid winter, and siring a son with Helen of Troy. Toward the end of the twenty-four years, Faust installs his apprentice, Wagner, as his heir, and, on the final day of his life, accompanies a group of students to an inn in the vicinity of Wittenberg where the devil tears him to pieces and leaves the horribly mutilated corpse, limbs still twitching, on the dung heap.

Sources:

Primary Work:

• Wiemken, Helmut. Doctor Fausti Weheklang. Die Volksbücher von D. Johann Faust und Christoph Wagner. Bremen: Carl Schünemann, 1961.

Secondary Works:

• Bates, Paul. Faust: Sources, Works, Criticism. New York: Harcourt, 1969.
• Brown, Jane K. "The Prosperous Wonder Worker: Faust in the Renaissance." Peter Boerner and Sidney Johnson. Faust through Four Centuries: Retrospect and Analysis. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1989. 53-64.
• Butler, E. M. The Fortunes of Faust. London: Cambridge University Press, 1952.
• Henning, Hans. "Lessings Faust-Pläne und -Fragmente. "Peter Boehmer and Sidney Johnson. Faust through Four Centuries: Retrospect and Analysis. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1989. 79-90.
• Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition from Simon Magus to Lessing. 1936. New York: Octagon Books: 1966.
• Strauss, Gerald. "How to Read a Volksbuch: the Faust Book of 1567." Peter Boehmer and Sidney Johnson. Faust through Four Centuries: Retrospect and Analysis. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1989. 27-39.
• Theens, Karl. Geschichte der Faustgestalt vom 16. Jahrhundert. Meisenheim am Glan: Westkulturverlag, 1948.
• Voragine, Jacobus de. The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Trans. William Granger Ryan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

All German texts translated by the author.

Ingrid H. Shafer