Alchemical Writings (Stone of Philosophers)

It was in the latter referring to Lancaster, mentioned at the end of the previous page certainly that his troubles began. He was a skilful penmanA person with great talent in handwriting and calligraphy, who had gone to great effort to familiarize himself with archaic English, and, as a WorcesterA cathedral city in the West Midlands of England man, it is not unlikely he was acquainted with Welsh. By the help of these accomplishments, he was accused of producing forged title deedsFraudulent legal documents created to falsely claim ownership of land or property in the interests of a client.

The indictmentA formal legal charge or accusation of a serious crime is very vague and does not rest upon anything that can be termed solid evidence. He is said, however—though upon equally uncertain grounds—to have been pilloriedA form of public punishment and humiliation where the offender is secured in a wooden framework to be mocked or pelted by the public at Lancaster, and to have been also deprived of his earsA historical punishment known as "cropping," often used for forgery or spreading sedition.

There is no doubt that he fell into grievous trouble, for to his life's end he was always more or less in fear of English law, and sometimes seems to have preferred a foreign prison to the uncertain reception which was to be anticipated on his return home. But that the penalty which his biographers have meted out to him, whether deserved or not by his misdeeds, was in some way evaded, it seems more reasonable to think. The...