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Or: "Me and my big mouth"...

Of all the stories concerning medieval magician Henry Cornelius AGRIPPA von Nettesheim (1486-1535), the most famous reads something like "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" scene from Walt Disney's acclaimed cartoon, Fantasia... minus Mickey Mouse and the happy ending. The incident supposedly happened when Agrippa was living in Louvain, Belgium and renting out a room of his house to an overly curious young scholar; and it goes like this:

The enigmatic Agrippa being out of town for awhile, his young boarder couldn't resist the opportunity to snoop into the man's study. While there, he noticed a book of magic spells lying on a table and---without really thinking, apparently---began reading one of the spells aloud. It worked! A demon appeared, demanding to know why it had been summoned. And the terrified youth, who probably hadn't realized that he had been summoning a demon, could give no answer. So the demon grabbed him by the throat and strangled him.... End of Act I.

Act II: Agrippa arrives home to the bothersome sight of his boarder's corpse. And the even more bothersome awareness that he will undoubtedly be accused of the murder. What a pickle. He's not a man to panic, however. Summoning the demon, himself, he orders it to restore the corpse to life (or, at least, animation), and sends the magically mobilized body down to the marketplace to wander around a bit before collapsing in a seemingly natural death.

It was a slick try, but the strangulation marks on the young man's throat spoiled it. Agrippa was accused of murder anyway, and had to flee town. Fortunately, hasty departures were nothing new to him, so he made it safely away.

~*~*~*~

[Originally published in COYOTE - ©2002 by Mimi Riser]

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