Treatise

...can be most easily resolved through knowledge by those who best know their properties.

Why then does that man Mersenne Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), a French polymath and friar who was a fierce critic of alchemy, magic, and the Cabala. despise and condemn both types of Cabala with such vehemence, as if they were a single part? Or why does he seem to reject the good along with the evil? We see this man has changed very little in his judgment here from his judgment on magic; for he condemns the whole of Cabala because of a single fault in one part of it, just as he condemns the whole of magic because of the false invention of a "pure essence" original: "puræ... essentiæ" — refers to the alchemical search for the quintessence. added to it by fake artists. But let us see what this author says in contempt of the Cabala and the Cabalists.

Truly, I leave these imaginings to the Cabalists and suchlike peddlers of trifles original: "nugiuendulos" — a derogatory term meaning "sellers of nonsense" or "triflers.", etc.

Where he seems to regard and value Cabalists in general as triflers,

As for the nonsense he talks about a sevenfold influence original: "septenarii influxum" — referring to the mystical power of the number seven in the cosmos. proceeding from a well, he received it, I believe, from those peddlers of trifles called Cabalists and Rabbis, against whom we have fought elsewhere. What if by "earthly well" he means God, the Greatest and Best, the very source of all goodness? But he should have explained that more clearly.

We do not need the trifles and errors of the Cabalists to understand Holy Scripture, whether literally or mystically; they obscure and infect it rather than interpret it. Therefore, the supramundane fountain original: "fons supra mundanus" — a source of wisdom or life existing beyond the physical world. belongs to the same trifles as many other things we have reported above.

It is clear from these passages that this monk calls the mysteries of the Cabala "trifles," without exception, and calls the Cabalists in general "peddlers of trifles." He fails to consider that he himself is the prince of all such triflers—indeed, an outstanding one—who, by failing to grasp the true meaning of the true Cabalists, seems to ignorantly contaminate the truth with his own fabrications. For the Venetian original: "Venetus" — referring to Francesco Giorgio (also known as Francesco Zorzi, 1466–1540), a Venetian Franciscan friar and Christian Cabalist who wrote "De Harmonia Mundi." talks nonsense (as Mersenne would have it) about a sevenfold influence proceeding from a well, taken from those "peddlers of trifles" whom Mersenne calls Cabalists and Rabbis. Then Mersenne continues: What if by "earthly well" he means God, the Greatest and Best, the very source of all truth? etc. Here, therefore, you see this man, with his premature judgment, condemning as a trifle that which he clearly does not understand, as can be perceived by his question, "What if...?" etc.

But to come to the point: why do you think, Mersenne, that God, the Greatest and Best, is meant by the "earthly well"? Do you wish to take the corporeal for the spiritual, or earth for heaven? Or did the patriarch Jacob say that the earthly stone which he set up as a pillar See Genesis 28:18, where Jacob uses a stone as a pillow and later sets it up as a monument. was God, the Greatest and Best, or the house of God? Was that material rock which Moses struck See Exodus 17:6; a famous miracle where water flowed from a rock to quench the Israelites' thirst. God, or was it the spiritual rock emerging from the material one, by means of which (as the Apostle witnesses Referring to 1 Corinthians 10:4: "and that Rock was Christ.") the Israelites were sustained in the desert? Is the "earth" God, which is to be opened so that it may bring forth the Savior, or the Savior who is to be produced?

Certainly, we understand the living waters, and the spiritual rock, and the fountain of life—which I most correctly call, along with the Venetian, Christ, the Word, and Wisdom; indeed, I call it the "supramundane fountain" of the Cabalists, even though you believe that the supramundane fountain belongs to the Cabalist trifles. That mystical and parabolic poet says:

There is a hidden stone, buried in the depths of a fountain,
It is despised by fools, etc.

Does not Holy Scripture original: "Pagina sancta" also speak in many places of the "stone rejected by the false builders"? But let us look into the words of the Venetian himself with a slightly more curious eye, so that we may see from them whether the Venetian or rather Mersenne should be considered a peddler of trifles. From Problem 156: And they came to Beersheba together, with the father...