his researches in alchemy.

If self-sacrifice was not sufficient to secure the prize, crime would
naturally follow, for there could be no limit to the price of the
stakes in this game. The notorious Marechal de Reys, failing to find the
coveted stone by ordinary methods of laboratory research, was persuaded
by an impostor that if he would propitiate the friendship of the
devil the secret would be revealed. To this end De Reys began secretly
capturing young children as they passed his castle and murdering
them. When he was at last brought to justice it was proved that he had
murdered something like a hundred children within a period of three
years. So, at least, runs one version of the story of this perverted
being.

Naturally monarchs, constantly in need of funds, were interested in
these alchemists. Even sober England did not escape, and Raymond
Lully, one of the most famous of the thirteenth and fourteenth century
alchemists, is said to have been secretly invited by King Edward I. (or
II.) to leave Milan and settle in England. According to some accounts,
apartments were assigned to his use in the Tower of London, where he is
alleged to have made some six million pounds sterling for the monarch,
out of iron, mercury, lead, and pewter.

Pope John XXII., a friend and pupil of the alchemist Arnold de
Villeneuve, is reported to have learned the secrets of alchemy from
his master. Later he issued two bulls against "pretenders" in the art,
which, far from showing his disbelief, were cited by alchemists as
proving that he recognized pretenders as distinct from true masters of
magic.

To moderns the attitude of mind of the alchemist is difficult to
comprehend. It is, perhaps, possible to conceive of animals or plants
possessing souls, but the early alchemist attributed the same thing--or
something kin to it--to metals also. Furthermore, just as plants
germinated from seeds, so metals were supposed to germinate also, and
hence a constant growth of metals in the ground. To prove this the
alchemist cited cases where previously exhausted gold-mines were found,
after a lapse of time, to contain fresh quantities of gold. The "seed"
of the remaining particles of gold had multiplied and increased.
But this germinating process could only take place under favorable
conditions, just as the seed of a plant must have its proper
surroundings before germinating; and it was believed that the action of
the philosopher's stone was to hast