Manuscripts: They
were surpriz'd at the Performance, and question'd _Faustus_ about it;
but he affirming they were Manuscripts, and that he kept a great many
Clarks employ'd to write them, they were satisfied for a while.

But looking farther into the Work, they observ'd the exact Agreement of
every Book, one with another, that every Line stood in the same Place,
every Page a like Number of Lines, every Line a like Number of Words; if
a Word was mis-spelt in one, it was mis-spelt also in all, nay, that if
there was a Blot in one, it was alike in all; they began again to muse,
how this should be? in a Word, the learned Divines not being able to
comprehend the Thing (and that was always sufficient) concluded it must
be the _Devil_, that it was done by Magick and Witchcraft, and that in
short, poor _Faustus_ (who was indeed nothing but a meer Printer) dealt
with the _Devil_.

N. B. _John Faustus_ was Servant, or Journeyman, or Compositor, or
what you please to call it, to _Koster_ of _Harlem_, the first
inventor of Printing; and having printed the Psalter, sold them at
_Paris_ as Manuscripts; because as such they yielded a better
Price.

But the learned Doctors not being able to understand how the Work was
perform'd, concluded as above, it was all _the Devil_, and that the Man
was a _Witch_; accordingly they took him up for a _Magician_ and a
_Conjurer_, and one that work'd by the _Black Art_, that is to say, by
the help of the _Devil_; and in a Word, they threaten'd to hang him for
a Witch, and in order to it, commenc'd a Process against him in their
criminal Courts, which made such a Noise in the World as rais'd the Fame
of poor _John Faustus_ to a frightful Height, till at last he was
oblig'd, for fear of the Gallows, to discover the whole Secret to them.

N. B. This is the true original of the famous Dr. _Faustus_ or
_Foster_, of whom we have believ'd such strange Things, as that it
is become a Proverb, _as great as the_ Devil _and Dr._ Foster:
Whereas poor _Faustus_ was no Doctor, and knew no more of the
_Devil_ than another Body.

Thus the Magistrates of _Bern_ and _Switzerland_, finding a Gang of
_French_ Actors of Puppet-shew open'd their Stage in the Town, upon
hearing the surprizing Accounts which the People gave of their wonderful
Puppets, how they made them speak, answer Questions, and discourse,
appear and disappear in a Moment