forced agreement, not to discover any thing thereof, whilst he was liv. ing, but was now free from the obligation of his oath, by the count's death; that he was very glad that the tincture was at length come into the hands of the right owner, his imperial majesty, for whom he had long before designed it; he did therefore now implore nothing more of his imperial majesty, but that he would afford him his protection, against the violence of Count Peter Paar, his post-master, and his adherents.

The emperor, perceiving the wonderful series of this affair, presently entertained Friar Wenceslaus at his court, and committed him to the eare and inspection of Count Wallestein, the imperial governor of Hatschirr.

About this time, the post-master abovementioned died also. Friar Wenceslaus, being thus received into the emperor's protection, had his lodgings assigned him by the imperial bowling-green, where he made some trials before the emperor and Count Austin of Wallestein, his guardian; and, in the palace of the Johannites in the Carinthian-street, he made one of fifteen marks, as they say, out of which transmutations the Count Wallestein made him a gold chain, to keep in perpetual memory of the thing. Moreover, he had deposited some of his tincture in the court, for augmentation, and, as far as I can judge, by the process delivered to me, he had a great desire to get the mercury of silver; how far he proceeded in it, I do not certainly know, but some affirm, that he had made some progress therein.

In the mean time, he both desired to be acquainted with some noted chymists and eminent artists, and several impostors and sophisters intruded themselves into his acquaintance; so that from thence resulted very frequent junketings, drinkings, and merry meetings, and many foolish trifling processes wrought by him, from whence Friar Wenceslaus learned rather several cunning and subtle impostures, than any real augmentation of his powder. But, the noise and multitude of so many importunate visitants being cumbersome at court, where Friar Wenceslaus had his diet, under the severe inspection of Count Wallestein, he thereupon pretended, that he had occasion to make some sorts of aqua fortis and other menstruums, which would be dangerous to the whole court, and cause such noisome fumes and odious smells, that they could not safely be prepared in that place; therefore a laboratory was built for him in the Carinthian fort, where the emperor's chief engineer did dwell; his name was Fischer, a great lover of alchymy, and who shewed himself very officious to him, assisting him to build strange and most nonsensical furnaces which can ever be seen; and besides, being not a little pleased with his good fortune of the neighbourhood and acquaintance of the owner of so rich a tincture. But this intimacy lasted not long, as the event soon made appear; for, when Friar Wenceslaus had scarcely well fixed his habitation, and settled his things in order, the engineer was forced to leave the splendid dwelling there assigned him by the emperor, and to go to Javarin in Hungary, to dwell there, his wife also, as some give out, being vitiated into the bargain. Friar Wen. ceslaus also fell very sick, and he, that waited upon him in his cham

ber, died suddenly, not without some suspicion of poison, and he himself also lay without any hopes of recovery. In this case, J. A. C. P. C. L. de S. who before had bought some of the tincture of him, and had paid him for it a thousand ducats, designing to take this opportu. nity of his illness, and decease so apparent, and so to get and enjoy his tincture without money, sent to him one Biliot, a French physician, to steal from him, under pretence of a visit, both the said thousand ducats, and the rest of the tincture. Fortune did favour him, as to the first part of his design, but in the latter she did fail and disappoint him; for Friar Wenceslaus had hid his tincture more carefully than his thousand ducats. At last, the sick man, contrary to all men's expectation, began to recover; and Friar Francis, who was sent to Rome to obtain a dispensation for him, to absolve him from his vow, having obtained the same, returned home. Whereupon, presently Friar Wenceslaus, laying aside his monk's habit, took a wife and was married publickly to one named Angerlee, who had ministered to him in his sickness, and had otherwise been very assistant to him when he wanted her. She was a very subtle and crafty woman, yet accounted at Vienna but little better than a common harlot; and she was the worse thought on, because her sister had been naught with B. D. L. and, by his advice and assistance, had caused her husband to be made away, for which fact, he the said B. D. L. was sentenced to death; but, though afterwards pardoned by the emperor, yet was deprived of all his dignities, degraded of his nobility, and cast into perpetual prison in the citadel of Gratz, where he died miserably; and his whore, Friar Wenceslaus's wife's sister, was the same day to be beheaded in open court, before the Judgment-Hall, the scaffold, and all the rest, being already prepared, but, by the intercession of the wife of Castell Rodrigo, the Spanish ambassador, she was set free; yet, afterwards, upon the account of her lewd life, and dishonest practices, she was killed with a pistol-shot.

Friar Wenceslaus, being linked by marriage into such a family, did then fancy for a time, that all the elements did conspire together to make him happy. For why? he was visited by persons of the highest rank, and withal was mightily respected by the most eminent ladies, countesses, and princesses. As for me, as spectator of this scene, I considered him in this fool's paradise; whilst it put me in mind of Cornelius Agrippa, who, in his book of the Vanity of Sciences, under the title of Alchymy, says, That, if he should be master of the tincture, he would spend it all in whoring; for, women being naturally covetous, he could thereby easily make them to prostitute themselves, and to yield unto his lust.'

And it seems, that not only Friar Wenceslaus was so mighty a proficient, and so stout a soldier in the school of Venus, that he was brought very low by the French disease, but also that his wife Angerlee died of it. After whose decease, Friar Wenceslaus exceeded all bounds of honest modesty, and daily let loose the reins to all sinful and voluptuous excesses; for, from that time he obtained the tincture, he spent in two or three years time more than ten myriads of crowns, in all man. ner of luxury; and he saw well enough, that it could not last and subsist long at that rate; for the tincture would not maintain him and to

turn it into gold, or sell it for a small price, would turn to no account, as he had always hoped it would by augmentation, and thereby to gain an inexhaustible treasure.

But, on the one hand, his want and necessity was such, and, on the other, the sollicitings of those, who would buy of his powder, were so importunate, that he could not resist so great temptations: and there. fore, between both, he resolved upon a dishonest shift, which was, to sell for great rates powdered cinnabar, red lead, and the caput mor tuum of aqua fortis boiled, and such other ingredients, instead of the true powder, mixing also therewith some few filings of copper, that foolish ignorant people might mistake the same for a gold-making powder. To some he sold it without any such cozening addition as copper: and, if they were not able to tinge with it, he would lay the blame on their impatience and unskilfulness in making the projection. To others, he pawned some of his counterfeit tincture for a great sum of money, which he pretended he had a present use for; but he was loath to spend his tincture in projecting, because he hoped to augment it with a thousand fold advantage: and, that they might see the tincture was genuine and true, he took some of it and wrapped it up in a little wax, with which he mingled a little of his right tincture, which he called his crocus, or powder of reduction, and so tinged therewith.

By this means, he got very many thousands of crowns, and, over and above, he got P. C. de L. and C. L. to be his assistants and partners in these mysteries. But the imprudent sort, amongst which, A. C. P. and his cousin C. B. are to be reckoned, he gave them whole ingots which he had cast, consisting of equal parts of gold and silver; then filing some of them, and dissolving it into common aqua fortis, which he brought with him, he affirmed, that now his tincture was ex alted into a menstruum, which would presently change silver into gold; and that, as soon as ever the price or value, which was to be paid for its purchase, should be put thereto, it would be converted into gold. It hath been also further related to me, that he grew to that degree of impudence, as to tinge some sort of coins, after this manner, into gold, before the empress dowager and the emperor himself. Yea, this fellow was so arrogant, as to cause his own effigies to be drawn on some of those false coins which he did attempt deceitfully to put off.

Yet this matter could not be kept so secret, but the more prudent began to smell the cheat, and to mutter something about it; which was very ill taken in the emperor's court. For he was in such credit there, that it was not safe to impeach him, as being received into the empe ror's protection, both against the clergy and the secular power, and even against the skilful in the same art. For great men are loth to acknow. ledge their error, but think themselves, though under a mistake, to be as infallible as the pope himself.

Those, who were not much concerned in the matter, suffered it so to pass, as taking little notice of it; but some true philosophers were very much aggrieved, that so infamous an impostor, after so many vows and protestations made by him to the contrary, and after such evident proofs of his former debauched life; after so many villainous crimes commit.

-ted, and his base prostitution openly of so noble an art of chymistry; should yet, notwithstanding that he ranted it up and down in his coach in masquerades, before the emperor's court, be maintained and protected by him. But others, who had been cousened by him of great sums of money, even to many thousand ducats, with his adulterate tincture, could not so rest satisfied, but brought in their actions against him at common law: where, after some time and much expence, they obtained judgment against him, but it was never put in execution, though all other means were tried.

Now the emperor, unless he would have left his favourite Wenceslaus to the jurisdiction and power of his judges, and rigour of the law, must needs interpose; for the complaints, made against him for his insolent and abusive practices, were so many, and the fame of them was spread so far abroad in the world, that his imperial majesty thought it more convenient to have the noise of it altogether suppressed.

To be short, the emperor paid all his debts, and, that he might prevent his farther opportunity of cousenage, he got from him the rest of his tincture, and then advanced him to the most ancient order of barony in Bohemia, by the title of Baron Seyler of Seylerburgh, and after. wards made him hereditary master of the mint of Bohemia. And, hav. ing thus preferred him, he sent him away from his court to Prague, where he now lives very gallantly, and hath made Friar Francis the steward of his house: having married a second wife, called Waldes Kir. cheriana, a handsome woman, and of a noble family.

In the mean time, a rumour was spread all over Germany, That the devil had carried him away soul and body.' Which report, though it might have some good grounds, yet, for this time, it was not true. But he hath very great reason to fear that it may prove true, at last, if he doth not amend his life; and the event thereof we must expect.

I have described the series of this story, both to vindicate the truth, and also to satisfy so many curious, who have despicable thoughts of chymistry. If I have mistaken in any passage, Friar Wenceslaus is yet alive, and I earnestly desire him to amend and rectify my mistakes, and to vindicate himself, by giving the world a more exact account thereof, that he may no longer lie under any unjust reflexion.

For a conclusion; I heartily wish, that, if God should bless any lover of this noble art, with such-like treasure, he would use it better than Wenceslaus hath done; for the glory of God, the benefit and advantage of his neighbour, and the furtherance of his own everlasting salvation.

THE INCONVENIENCIES OF

A LONG CONTINUANCE

OF THE SAME PARLIAMENT.

PRINTED IN 1680. FOLIO, CONTAINING FOUR PAGES.

THAT

HAT there is a necessity of a government among mankind, is admitted by all wise men; but to convince mad men and fools of this, is too great a task. Johannes Woolebius, in his Compendium, Theolo. Christ. says, "That it is unworthy in a Christian so much to seem to mistrust the divine authority of the scripture, as to make any question of it: it being a principle, so necessary to be believed, that it ought not to be brought into doubt, by disputes.' To the like purpose, it may be said, that it is unworthy, in an English commonwealth'sman, to bring it into debate, whether, or no, the sovereignty of this realm be in the king alone, disjoined from any other persons? And true it is, there are as yet but few, if any, that dare be so hardy, as positively to say otherwise, whatever their thoughts be, and though their actions seem to look that way. And forasmuch as the word, commonwealth, hath been of late years, for the most part, applied to the go. vernment, when it is in the hands of many: it might not be impertinent to insert here, what a commonwealth is. A commonwealth, therefore, is a lawful government of many families, and that which unto them, in common, belongeth; and the end and design thereof is, < That the wicked be punished, and the good and just protected.' So that it is as much, nay, rather more a commonwealth, and tends more to common good, when the government is in the hand of one man, than in the hands of many; and, for this, we have the general consent of all great politicians, in past ages, who, after the trial of all sorts of governments, and comparing the conveniencies and inconveniencies of each, have con. cluded that government best for the generality of the people, when the sovereign power to command was in one man, and not in many. For oftentimes, even where a tyrant hath reigned, and he removed, and the commonwealth changed into a popular state, the people have been soon sensible, that the change hath been much for the worse, and that, instead of one tyrant, they had a multitude of tyrants, to oppress them. Yet the dissolution, or prorogation of a parliament, hath been of late looked upon to be so high a violation of right, and so great a point of misgovernment, as if thereby our liberties were lost, and our lives and estates subjugated to the arbitrary power and pleasure of our king; or else we falsly conclude it impossible, that the king can be so wise, as to govern without their counsels. To remove which mistakes, and to quiet the minds of men misled, these following considerations and collections