Germany by underselling the copyists in the book market. All stories in
which necromancy is attributed to him or to any other printer; all
accounts of the opposition of the priests to typography as an infernal
invention; in fine, the whole popular idea of Faust and the devil, is a
modern contrivance, and originated in this manner: Some bookmaker, about
the year 1580, undertook to write a history of printing; he had an
indistinct recollection of Professor Faustus of the University of
Wittenberg, and in his book blended as many of his adventures as he could
remember with the memoirs of John Fust the printer; and from that day a
succession of ignorant chroniclers have considered two men, of totally
different characters, living at different times, as one individual.

Faust, the necromancer, was born in the duchy of Weimer in 1491,
twenty-five years after the printer is understood to have died. He is
mentioned by Melancthon, Wierus, and many other cotemporary writers, and
was probably in his time not less distinguished as a magician than Agrippa
or Albertus Magnus. It is related of him by Godwin, that he was in his
youth adopted by an uncle, dwelling in the city of Wittenberg, who had no
children. Here he was sent to college, and was soon distinguished by the
greatness of his talents, and the rapid progress he made in every species
of learning that was put before him. He was destined by his relative to
the profession of theology. But he is said ungraciously to have set at
naught his uncle's pious intentions. He went through his examinations with
applause, and carried off all the first prizes among sixteen competitors;
he therefore obtained the degree of doctor in divinity; but his success
only made him proud and headstrong. He disdained his theological eminence,
and sighed for distinction as a man of the world. He took his degree as a
doctor of medicine, and aspired to celebrity as a practitioner of physic.
About the same time he fell in with certain cotemporaries, of tastes
similar to his own, and associated with them in the study of Chaldean,
Greek, and Arabic science, of strange incantations and supernatural
influences, in short, of all the arts of a sorcerer.

Having made such progress as he could by dint of study and intense
application, he at length resolved to prosecute his purposes still further
by actually raising the devil. He happened one evening to walk in a thick,
dark wood, within a short distance from Wittenber