SOURCE: "The Making of the Historia von D. Johann Fausten: The Emergence of the Faustian Pact," in his Faustus on Trial: The Origins of Johann Spies's "Historia" in an Age of Witch Hunting, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1992, pp. 110-46, 157-68.

In the following excerpt, Baron discusses the literary tradition of pacts with the devil that preceded the first known instances of the Faust legend in print.

Augustin Lercheimer speaks of a pact that Faustus had made, but he supplies few details. As far as we know, Lercheimer was the first to claim that Faustus made a pact for twenty-four years and that when he later tried to repent, the devil forced him to sign a second pact and thus brought about his damnation.¹

Aber sein geist warnet jn daß er davon [from Wittenberg, where he was about to be arrested] kamm, von dem er nicht lange darnach grewlich getodtet...