SOURCE: "The Fantastic Cabala," in The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance. Columbia University Press, 1944, pp. 78-88.

Blau examines Agrippa's writings in the context of sixteenth-century study of the cabala.

In the sixteenth century magic was well-nigh respectable. Many of the most noted men of the century dabbled in it; to some, as to Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, magic spelled power. The universities did not teach magic, but many of their students practiced it. Magic went far beyond mere formulas of incantation; its doctrines were of far greater import than its practices. Much of the most original thinking of the period is to be found in books on magic.

Among the followers and students of the magical art cabala developed considerable popularity. It became, as it were, a part of the philosophic background required of each member of this fantastic fringe of the intellectual life. It is...