Trithemius on Faust and Mercurio

"...Johannes Virdung de Hassfurt was in correspondence with Johannes Trithemius, to whom he apparently wrote about magical issues. As Virdung had the text of the Liber runarum copied by his own hands, this intellectual contact can provide an explanation regarding Trithemius' source when he condemned the Liber de compositione nominum atque characterum malignorum spirituum that is, the text on the magical use of runes. In a letter written to Trithemius, Virdung inquired about another practitioner of magic, Georgius Sabellicus. His letter is not extant, but we have the addressee's critical answer, in which he calls 'Magister Sabellicus Faustus iunior" a charlatan and impostor. Faustus - writes Trithemius - dared to call himself the foremost of the necromancers, and he even composed a calling card in order to send it to the important personalities of his time: "Magister Georgius Sabellicus Faustus iunior, fons necromanticorum, astrologus, magus secundus chyromanticus agromanticus pyromanticus in hydra arte secundus". Trithemius further suggests that Faustus is not only an unstable character and a vagabond, but also an active admirer of young boys. These words have enjoyed great scholarly attention, because this is the first mentioning of the historical Faust. Trithemius mentions Virdung's name once more, when he describes the arrival of the magician Johannes Mercurius (another charlatan, in his view) to Lyons, and his success at the French royal court. In these lines, Virdung appears as a "mathematician of the County Palatine, who is living today agreeably at Budoris with his prince Ludwig'. The foolishness and arrogance of Mercurius is not less than that of Faustus: he wishes to be called Mercury, he, his wife and his children are clothed in linen, and he wears iron chains around his neck. He claims not only to possess all the science, mystery and arcana of the ancient sages but also to surpass them. The parallel of the descriptions of these two magicians and the common hatred Trithemius expresses when writing about them are manifest. It belongs to the background of this attitude that Trithemius himself was accused of practicing magic as a result of a confidential letter written by him and read by hostile eyes instead of the actual addressee. As a consequence of this accident, Trithemius spent the rest of his life in defending himself against hostile rumors. His low opinion of Faustus and Mercurius should be situated in this context where it appears as a pure and well-known argumentative technique: 'what I do is serious philosophy, what you do is foolish magic"