pirit of salt, and taught how to obtain alcohol in
concentrated form. Altogether, this monk-alchemist, who was really the
{137} first of the chemists, left twenty-three treatises, some of them
good-sized books, on various subjects in chemistry. [Footnote 18] It
does not look, then, as though chemistry was much neglected during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

[Footnote 18: For a brief sketch of his career see my Catholic
Churchmen in Science. Dolphin Press, Philadelphia. 1906.]

One step more in the history remains to be taken, which brings us down
to a man who is more familiar to modern physicians--Paracelsus.
Paracelsus received his education just at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, before the Reformation began. He was not a man, as
those who know his character will thoroughly appreciate, to confess
that he had received much assistance from others. He does mention,
however, that he was helped in his chemical studies by the Abbot
Trithemius, of Spanheim; by Bishop Scheit, of Stettbach; by Bishop
Erhardt, of Lavanthol; by Bishop Nicholas, of Hippon; and by Bishop
Matthew Schacht.

We have been able to follow, then, the development of chemistry during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries down to the time of the
Reformation, and find nowhere any lessening of the ardor for chemical
studies, though most of the great names in the science continue to be,
as they were before the decree was issued, those of distinguished
ecclesiastics. John's decree, then, was neither intended to hamper the
development of chemistry, nor did it accidentally prevent those who
were most closely in touch with the ecclesiastical authorities from
pursuing their studies. Those, of course, who knew anything of the
character of the author, would not expect it to interfere with the
true progress of science. As we shall see in the next chapter, Pope
John XXII. was really one of the most liberal patrons of education and
of science in history.

{138}

A PAPAL PATRON OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE.

The question of the Papal bull supposed to forbid chemistry, or at
least its mother science, alchemy, has necessarily brought into
prominence in this volume the name of Pope John XXII. Few Popes in
history have been the subject of more bitter denunciation than John.
Writers on the history of the Papacy who were themselves not members
of the Catholic Church, have been almost a unit in condemning him for
many abuses of Papal power, especially s