stamp upon the base metal the characters of {126} public money for
believing eyes, and it is only in this way that they deceive the
ignorant populace as to the alchemic fire of their furnace. Wishing
to banish such practices for all time, we have determined by this
formal edict that whoever shall make gold or silver of this kind or
shall order it made, provided the attempt actually follows, or
whoever shall knowingly assist those engaged (actually) in such a
process, or whoever shall knowingly make use of such gold or silver
either by selling it or giving it for debt, shall be compelled as a
penalty to pay into the public treasury, to be used for the poor, as
much by weight of genuine gold and silver as there may be of
alchemic metal, provided it be proved lawfully that they have been
guilty in any of the aforesaid ways; for those who persist in making
alchemic gold, or, as has been said, in using it knowingly, let them
be branded with the mark of perpetual infamy. But if the means of
the delinquents are not sufficient for the payment of the amount
stated, then the good judgment of the justice may commute this
penalty into some other (as, for example, imprisonment, or another
punishment, according to the nature of the case, the difference of
individuals, and other circumstances.) Those, however, who in their
regrettable folly go so far as not only to sell moneys thus made but
even despise the precepts of the natural law, pass the bounds of
their art and violate the laws by deliberately coining or casting or
having others coin or cast counterfeit money from alchemic gold or
silver, we proclaim as coming under this animadversion, and their
goods shall be confiscate, and they shall be considered as
criminals. And if the delinquents are clerics, besides the aforesaid
penalties they shall be deprived of any benefices they shall hold
and shall be declared incapable of holding any further benefices."
[Footnote 16]

[Footnote 16: The Latin text of this decretal will be found entire in
the appendix.]

It is evident that John's decree against "The Crime of Falsification"
did not directly forbid chemistry, nor alchemy in the proper sense of
the word, nor did it in any way interfere with the study of substances
to {127} determine their composition, or the synthesis of materials to
produce others, provided there was no pretense of making gold and
silver in order to obtain