Johann Faustus made a pact with the devil under the following conditions:
*to serve Dr. Faustus for as long as he should live,
* to provide Dr. Faustus with whatever information he might request, and
* never to utter an untruth to Dr. Faustus.
The Devil agreed to these particulars, on the condition that Dr. Faustus would promise:
* at the expiration of twenty-four years to surrender his body and soul to the Devil,
* to renounce his Christian faith.
Having reached an agreement, the pact was drawn up, and Dr. Faustus formalized it with his own blood.
Henceforth Dr. Faustus' life was filled with comfort and luxury, but marked by excess and perversion.
Everything was within his grasp: elegant clothing, fine wines, sumptuous food.
He became the most famous astrologer in the land, for his horoscopes never failed.
No longer limited by earthly constraints, he traveled from the depths of hell to the most distant stars.
He amazed his students and fellow scholars with his knowledge of heaven and earth.
Shortly after midnight on the last day of the twenty-fourth year, the students who had assembled at the home of the ailing Dr. Faustus heard a great commotion.
First came the sound of a ferocious storm and then the shouts--first terrifyingly loud then ever weaker--from their mentor.
At daybreak they ventured into his room. Bloodstains were everywhere. Bits of brain clung to the walls. Here they discovered an eye, and there a few teeth. Outside they found the corpse, its members still twitching, lying on a pile of manure.
His horrible death thus taught them the lesson that had escaped their master during his lifetime: to hold fast to the ways of God, and to reject the Devil and all his temptations.
*to serve Dr. Faustus for as long as he should live,
* to provide Dr. Faustus with whatever information he might request, and
* never to utter an untruth to Dr. Faustus.
The Devil agreed to these particulars, on the condition that Dr. Faustus would promise:
* at the expiration of twenty-four years to surrender his body and soul to the Devil,
* to renounce his Christian faith.
Having reached an agreement, the pact was drawn up, and Dr. Faustus formalized it with his own blood.
Henceforth Dr. Faustus' life was filled with comfort and luxury, but marked by excess and perversion.
Everything was within his grasp: elegant clothing, fine wines, sumptuous food.
He became the most famous astrologer in the land, for his horoscopes never failed.
No longer limited by earthly constraints, he traveled from the depths of hell to the most distant stars.
He amazed his students and fellow scholars with his knowledge of heaven and earth.
Shortly after midnight on the last day of the twenty-fourth year, the students who had assembled at the home of the ailing Dr. Faustus heard a great commotion.
First came the sound of a ferocious storm and then the shouts--first terrifyingly loud then ever weaker--from their mentor.
At daybreak they ventured into his room. Bloodstains were everywhere. Bits of brain clung to the walls. Here they discovered an eye, and there a few teeth. Outside they found the corpse, its members still twitching, lying on a pile of manure.
His horrible death thus taught them the lesson that had escaped their master during his lifetime: to hold fast to the ways of God, and to reject the Devil and all his temptations.
Cristopher Marlowe