additions from the works of Raymond Lulli. A complete list of all the
published treatises upon the subject may be seen in Lenglet du
Fresnoy.

Pope John XXII.

This Prelate is said to have been the friend and pupil of Arnold
de Villeneuve, by whom he was instructed in all the secrets of
alchymy. Tradition asserts of him, that he made great quantities of
gold, and died as rich as Croesus. He was born at Cahors, in the
province of Guienne, in the year 1244. He was a very eloquent
preacher, and soon reached high dignity in the Church. He wrote a work
on the transmutation of metals, and had a famous laboratory at
Avignon. He issued two Bulls against the numerous pretenders to the
art, who had sprung up in every part of Christendom; from which it
might be inferred that he was himself free from the delusion. The
alchymists claim him, however, as one of the most distinguished and
successful professors of their art, and say that his Bulls were not
directed against the real adepts, but the false pretenders. They lay
particular stress upon these words in his Bull, "Spondent, quas non
exhibent, divitias, pauperes alchymistae." These, it is clear, they
say, relate only to poor alchymists, and therefore false ones. He died
in the year 1344, leaving in his coffers a sum of eighteen millions of
florins. Popular belief alleged that he had made, and not amassed,
this treasure; and alchymists complacently cite this as a proof that
the philosopher's stone was not such a chimera as the incredulous
pretended. They take it for granted that John really left this money,
and ask by what possible means he could have accumulated it. Replying
to their own question, they say triumphantly, "His book shows it was
by alchymy, the secrets of which he learned from Arnold de Villeneuve