Notes on Le Comte de Saint Germain
Commonplace Book – Pages 54-58
Seems to have been free personally and enjoyed and sought the company of the pretty women of his day. Never ate any food in public, liked dining out because of the people he met and the conversation he heard.
It appears from the Memoirs of Baron von Gleichen, that when Saint Germain was in Paris, he became a lover of Mademoiselle Lambert, daughter of the Chevalier Lambert, who lived in the house in which he lodged.
He also had a love of jewels in an extreme form, and he ostentatiously showed off those he possessed. He kept a great quantity of them in a casket, which he carried about everywhere with him.
This is incompatible with the part he played in the Hermetic societies of Germany and France. His outward appearance of a man of the world was necessary in the first place for the purposes of the secret diplomacy [Secret du Roi] in which Louis XV often employed him.
“A man who knows everything and who never dies“, said Voltaire. Louis XV must have known who he was, as he alotted him rooms in the Chateau of Chambord – he would shut himself up with Germain and Madame de Pompadour for hours of conversation.
Most common hypothesis concerning his birth was that he was the son of Marie de Neubourg (widow of Charles II of Spain) and a Comte Adanero, whom she knew at Bayonne.
Another theory is that he was one of the sons of Francis Racoczi II, Prince of Transylvania. The children of Francis were brought up by the Emperor of Austria, but one of them was withdrawn from his guardianship. The story was that the child was dead, but was actually given into the charge of the last descendant of the Medici family.
He took the name of Saint Germain from the little town of San Germano, where he spent some years during his childhood and where his father had estates. “of middle height, strongly built, and dressed with superb simplicity” – Gleichen
He spoke with an entire lack of ceremony to the most highly placed personages and was fully conscious of his superiority. Many people who heard him play violin said of him that he equaled or even surpassed the greatest virtuosos of the period. Also an accomplished artist.
“I am pleased with you, and you have earned my showing you a few paintings of mine.”
“And he very effectively kept his word, for the paintings he showed me all bore a stamp of singularity or perfection which made them more interesting than many works of art of the highest order”- Gleichen
Nothing but the possession of alchemy could perhaps account for the enormous wealth at his command, though he was not known to have money on deposit on any banker’s. The diamonds that he wore in his shoes and garters were believed to be worth more than 200,000 francs. He asserted he could increase the size of pearls at will.
Madame du Hausset tells us that he was showing the queen some jewels and she commented on the beauty of a cross of white and green stones. Germain made a present of it and Hausset refused, but the queen signed to her that she might accept. Madame du Hausset had the stones valued, they turned out to be genuine and extremely valuable.
The musician Rameau and Madame de Gergy both assert that they had met him in Venice in 1710, under the name of le Marquis de Montferrat. Both of them agree that he appeared to be 40-50 years old.
Later, Madame de Gergy told Madame de Pompadour that she had received from Germain at Venice an elixir that enabled her to preserve the appearance of a woman of 25. 50 years later, Pompadour questioned Germain about the elixir, “It is not impossible; but I confess it is likely that this lady, for whom I have the greatest respect, is talking nonsense.”
The period of his great celebrity extended from 1750 – 1760, and then for 15 years he disappeared, and when the Comtesse d’Adhemar saw him again in 1775, she declared he was younger than ever. Twelve years later, she saw him and he was the same.
“These fools of Parisians, believe that I am five hundred years old. I confirm them in this idea because I see that it gives them much pleasure – not that I am infinitely older than I appear.”
Saint Germain asserted also that he had the capacity of stopping the mechanism of the human clock during sleep. He thus almost entirely stopped the physical wastage that proceeds, without our knowing it, from breathing and the beating of the heart.
He was interested in the preparation of dyes and even started a factory in Germany for the manufacture of felt hats. After the revolution of Russia in 1762, Count Alexis’ Orloff’s brother, Gregory, handed over to Soltikov (St. Germain) of his own free will 20,000 sequins, an uncommon action, seeing that St. Germain had not rendered him any particular service.
Beginning of the reign of Louis XVI, that St. Germain met with le Comtesse d’Adhemar to arrange a meeting with Queen Marie Antoinette, who immediately asked if he was going to settle in Paris again.
- “A century will pass before I come here again. The Encyclopedist party desires power, which it will obtain only by the complete fall of the clergy. In order to bring about this result, it will upset the monarchy. The Encyclopedists, who are seeking a chief among the member of the royal family, have cast their eyes on the Duke de Chartes. The duke will become the instrument of men who will sacrifice him when he has ceased to be useful to them. He will come to the scaffold instead of to the throne. Not for long will the laws remain the protection of the good and the terror of the wicked. The wicked will seize power with bloodstained hands. They will do away with the Catholic religion, the nobility and the magistracy.”
- “So that even the royalty will be left?”
- “Not even royalty. There will be a bloodthirsty republic, whose scepter will be the executioner’s knife.”
Saint Germain then asked to see the king, without his minister, Maurepas. The king did not possess sufficient authority and informed Maurepas of the interview with the Queen. Maurepas thought it wise to place Germain in the Bastille.
“The king has called on you to give him good counsel, and in refusing to allow me to see him you think only of maintaining your authority. You are destroying the monarchy, for I have only limited time to give to France, and when that time has passed I shall be seen again only after three generations. I shall not be to blame when anarchy with all its horrors devastates France. You will not see these calamities, but the face that you paved the way for them will be enough to blacken your memory.”
Secluded at Eckenforn in the Count of Hesse Cassel’s castle, St. Germain announced that he was tired, feeble but refused to see a doctor. No details exist of his supposed “death” in 1784.
It was known that he left all his papers and certain documents relating to Freemasonry to the Count – Germain must have been at least 100 years old at this time. Official Freemason documents say that in 1785 the French masons chose him as their representative at the great convention, with Mesmer, Saint-Martin, and Cagliostro present.
1786 – Was received by the Empress of Russia
1789 – Comtesse d’Adhemar met with him in the Church of the Recollets, after the fall of the Bastille.
1821 – Mdlle de Genlis met him during the negotiations for the Treaty of Vienna and again in the Piazza di San Marco. In Vienna he took part in the foundation of the Society of Asiatic Brothers and the Knights of Life, who studied alchemy, and it was he who gave Mesmer his fundamental ideas on personal magnetism and hypnotism.
With co-operation of Savalette de Lange, who was the nominal head, he founded the group of Philalethes. The Prince of Hesse, Condorcet, and Cagliostro were all members of this group.
“Man has in him infinite possibilities and that, from the practical point of view, he must strive unceasingly to free himself of matter in order to enter into communication with the world of higher intelligences.”
Notes on Le Comte de Saint Germain (Part 2)
Notes on Le Comte de Saint Germain (Part 3)
