Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/154

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127 LBOKHDS

a on« «« have a well authenticatcd record from Italy ^^o^sd from his quiver, avows that hod Ue mjured the

in 1415, child he would have pierced the governor. He is put

Various namee are K>ven to the Waudering Jew in on board a ship to be traiviporC«d to Kttssnacht, but a

diSereitt countries. The Englisli chroniciea call him etonn coming up, he escapea, and eventually iiberat«

Cartapldlus. The Italian form is Bottadio, and this his country. This in brief ia the legend. As early as

correBpouds to Boudedeo in Brittany and Bedeua in 1607 ita truth was questioned on the ground that not

Saxon Transylvania. In Belgium he is known as Isaac the slightest documentary proof of Tell's existence

Laquedem, probably a name of Hebrew origin. In could be found. Swiaspatriotism, however, for a long

Spam his name has undergone the significant change time ailenced scepticism, until the work of scholars «

to Juan E«pera-en-Dios (John Trust-in-God). Why theninetcenthcenturj-separatedfact from fiction and

the German version calls him Ahaaverus is not clear, consigned Tell's exploit to the realm of fable.

This name is familiar from the Old Testament (Esther, ,^"-HJJ' '-" OrTin"«. drtaC«nfedfTai(«n Su-i.^. jli^ *

i, 1) aa the surname of a Persian monarch (written Aa- s^rSlf SJ^iVATTH^IblS^Si,; iS7T)Ta»Ui.. O^^^

suerua in Catholic versions). It is to be noted that (Bemr. 1805); DANDUKEn. OachithU drr ^cAmu. I (4th ed..

the Original wandererwaanotneceasarilya Jew; Carta- fh","£';vJ5S^U^P^iji™^SL.Ii"St^^a^*'i-^(NSS

nhilus, the door-keeper in Pilatc'smansion, must have York, 1900)34-43. >een a Roman.

a«Am» J>*r ronnJuluKr und drr ewiar J i^' (Brrsdra, 1661); Faiul. — The ongin and dovelopnient ot this famou*

CoMWi*. Tlu Wamlmnv Jtie ilfndoD and New York, IHSl): Jegend jg tolerably cleor. Ita hero ia an actual peraon-

t^^'lTsi^o 1-S" .i"/^i^"&B^'woirpIi " 2; «|e, aman who lived in Germany during the sixteenUi

Jui{ Brrant in Uumdesdu Uoum Agr CPoria. 1003). I4!t-1B0: century. To be sure, many of the exploits related of

i5L?H.''«'"' ™"«"^i'""i™aisc^a5ion of ihf! Iwmd i« the himaresomanifestlyfabulous thatsomescholarshave

work ol NicaAUn. Da Saae vam twwtn Jvaen (2DdeiI.. I*in- . i_.ji_' _ -i lu „ i.^i*u..

•ia. 18931. For s h<a^m7oi the Iwn.i ia litciitufe ace K*i- doubted his verj" existence and have regarded the

nxLi, AKantTuj in drr WcU-porsU (Berlin, 1906). Ic^nd as purely mythical. But against this view we

,, are able to adduce the itxplicit testimony of a number

The Flying Dutehmnn.—The theme of the doomed of contemporaries: Tritbemius of Sponheim, Mvifianus

Wanderer recurs in this legend of the sea. The super- Rufus, Johoon Cast, Agrippa von Netteahcim, and

Btitious belief m a spectre ship is widespread among others, who ckhn to have known Faust either in per-

mariners. _ But the I^nd springing from this belief son or by reputation. They all agree in representing

never attuned a fixed form; the vcraions given of it him asa charlatan, who wect about the countrj- under

rtry considerably. The most common wrsion as cur- asaumed high-sound iiyj names boasting of his skill in

rent among Dutch sailors relates how a capUin by the fortune-telling and nuigic, and praying on the credu-

name of Vanderdecken or Vanderstraaten from the lityandsuperHtiliousignoranceof tbciiooplc. PbiliD

Temeuse district, while on a voyage to India, is de- B^ardi, a physician of Worms, autlior ol an "Index

hiyed off the Cape of Good Hope by a calm or a storm. Sanitatis" (1539), knew a number of persona duped by

In his rage he swears a blasphemous oath to double the swindler. He mentions Fauet aa a man who was

tne Cape, if he were to sail until the Judgment Day. ^cll known, but of whom nothing had been heard

Offended, God took him at his word and he is doomed lately. Alclancltthon (aa reported by Manlius, 1590)

to sail the seas forever, an omen of ill-luck to all rnari- ^a Joliann Weyer (d. 1588) tell us that Faust wu

lers by whom his spectre-ship is sighted. l^im in Kundlingen (i. e. Knittlingen) in WOrtemberg

The legend docs not appear in literature before the and studied magic at Cracow; also that he came to a

nineteenth century. It was made familiar to Ameri- violent end, being found dead one morning with a

can readers b^ Washin^n Irving'a tale "The Storm- twisted neck.

ship", an episode in his "Bracebritlge Hall" (1822). The boasting of Faust did not seem so alwurd in an

But it became widely known through Heine, whoprob- age when the belief in demonology and magic was imi-

ably took it from oral tradition, and related it in his versal. What more natural than tliat his supcruat-

"Reisabilder aus Nordemey" (1826) and again in ural powersshould beascribcd totheaidof theDei-ilT

"MemoirendesHermvon Schnabelewopski (m his Stonesaboutmeninlengucwithlhc Evil Onehod been

"Salon', 1834). Heine mentions neither names currtint since earlv Chri-itian times. Zoroaster, Vir-

nor places, and in the second version the setting of gjl, Apolionius, Albcrtiis Magnus, Popes Sylvester H

the story is undignified, it not vulgar. Nevertheless and Paul II were some of the eminent men of whom

theltsendwasgivenamtichdeeperimportthroughthe such tales were related. Of especial significance in

introduction of the moti/af redemption. Every seven this connexion are the legends of Cyprian of Antioch

years the Dutchman may land and look for a woman ttnd Theophilua of Adaiui, in which we meet with the

whose self-sacrificing love will lift the curse. At type of the wicked magician, who, to gratify ambition

length he findsa maiden who pledges him her love, but or to accomplish some unholv purpo^', sells his soul to

at the last moment he refuses her generous sacrifice, the Devil. So, when Faust met with a sudden and

reveals himself to her and leaves. She heroically violent death under mysteriovw tirciiiHatances, ru-

insists on keeping her promise and casts herself into mour had it that the Devil had carried him off, and

the sea. This noble act of self-sacrifice removes the thus arose the story of his compact with Satan. Now

curse; the Dutchman and his ship sink beneath the the tales that were current concerning former sorcer-

waves. ers who had entered into such an unholv partnership

,^-,i'iiil?^-S^,f?-'^^^^1.fT'^S',Jj.'fi'?i^^ were repeated eonreming Faust, and gradually the

rad(18d4).imd<.tQo,.™.BuiSflA«.«ndIF^tl90i). ohaeure charlatan becante the arcl.-magTcian, ai^und whose name gathered a moss of fublc and tradition

WiBiam TeO. — The story of Tell, connected with dealing with black art. So the Faust legend gradu- the origin of the Swiss Confederation, until compara- ally took shape. Its fir^t appearance in literature tively recent times passed for history, but its fobulous da'tea from 1587, when the first Fuust l)Ook appeared character ia now universally reccmnized. Tell, a yeo- anonymously at FrankfortKin-t he-Main under the manofUri, famed for his skill with the cross-bow, liav- title "Iliatoria von D. Johann Faualen dem weitbe- ing refused to salute the hat, the symbol of Austrian schreyten Zauberer und Schwartzkiln.Htler". In a sovereignty which Oessler, the most notoriously cruel preface the publiaher, whose name was Johann Spies, of the Austrian governors, had caused to be placed on tJ^tls ua that he olitained the manuscript from " a good a pole at Altdon, is brought before the governor and friend in Speyer". According to the version of tbis ordered to show his skill by shooting an apple on tiie iMok. Faust studies theology at Wittenberg, but, be- head of his son. He successfully performa the feat ingof a "foolish and arrogant" turn of mind, and de- •od oa being aiked to explain why be had taken two sirous of searching " into all things in heaven «ad