WALTER PAGEL

PARACELSUS
An Introduction to Philosophical Medi('ine in the
Era of the Renaissance

2nd, revised edition

PARACELSUS
 WALTER P_AGEL

PARACELSUS An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine

in the Era of the Renaissance

2nd, revised edition

Basel· Miinchen ·Paris· London· New York· Tokyo· Sydney· 1982

 Table of Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . XI

General Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
The individual "Savant" and his "World" as the focal point of the investigation . 2
Paracelsus: Interdependence and fusion of the scientific and non-scientific elements 3

The Life of Paracelsus S

Name, birth and family . . s
Formative years . . . . . 8
Early journeys (1Sl7-IS24) 13
Attempts at settling down. Reasons for frustration . 14
Relationship between medicine and surgery IS
(a) Salzburg. . . . . . . . . 17
(b) Strassburg . . . . . . . . 18
The reformers at Strassburg 18
(c) Basie . . . . . . . . . . 19
The second set of journeys. . . . . 22
(a) Colmar, Esslingen, Nuremberg. The work on Syphilis 23
(b) Beratzhausen and the "Paragranum" . . • . . . . 24
(c) St. Gall and the "Opus Paramirum" . . . . . ; • 2S
(d) Appenzell, Innsbruck, Sterzing. "On the miners' disease" 2S
National Library of Medicine, Cataloging in Publication (e) Meran, St. Moritz, Pfiifers and the foundation of Balneology 26
Pagel, Walter, 1898- (f) Augsburg and the "Great Surgery" • . . . 26
Paracelsns, an introduction to philosophical medicine in the era of (g) Bavaria and Bohemia. "Philosophia Sagax:" . . . . . . 27
the Renaissance/Walter Pagel. - 2nd, rev. ed. (h) Pressburg and Vienna . . • • . . . . . . . . • . . . 27
Basel; New York: Karger, 1982 (i) Carinthia. The "Klimtner Trilogie". The End at Salzburg 27
1. Philosophy, Medical - biography 2. Paracelsns, 1493-1S41 Johannes Oporinus and his pen portrait of Paracelsus . . . . . 29
WZ 100 P221PR The Literary Remains. Short notes on the Bibliography of Paracelsus 31
ISBN 3-80SS-3Sl8-X Paracelsus as a figure of the Renaissance and Humanism • . . . . . 3S
Paracelsus as a religious and social thinker and preacher. Paracelsus in the Era of
the Reformation. Sebastian Franck and Paracelsus . . • . • . . . . • . . . . 40
Paracelsus and popular criticism of Doctor and Patient in the Pre-Reformation Era.
All rights reserved. The "Narragonian" sermons . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, The Philosophy of Paracelsus so
withont permission in writing from the publisher. Paracelsus' general system of correspondences and the position of scientific elements
therein. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . • . . . . . . . . . so
© Copyright 1982 by S. Karger AG, P.O. Box, CH-4009 Basel (Switzerland) Paracelsns' approach to Nature. Empirical search for the divine seals in nature. S3
Printed in Switzerland by Buchdruckerei Gasser & Cie Aktiengesellschaft, Basel God and Nature . . . . . . . . • . . • . . . S4
ISBN 3-80SS-3Sl8-X The uncreated virtues and the created objects . . . • . . . . . . . . . S4
VI Table of Contents Table of Contents VII
The futility of snperstitious practices and the Devil . . . . . . . . . . . SS The Archens as the principle resident in the stomach . . . . . . . . . 106
The."True Signs" as revealed to research into Nature . . . . . . . . . . S6 The role of the Archeus in disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Experience (" Erfahrung ") versus pseudo-knowledge based on reasoning The Archeus as the individualising principle in the elemental "Matrix". 107
(" Logica ") . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S6 Archeus and Monads. The Archei in organs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Censure of Aristotle and Avicenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Archei in external objects and inside man. Their correspondence and
Theory of Knowledge. "Experientia" and "Scientia" through identification Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . · . . . . . . . . 109
of the mind with the internal "knowledge" possessed by natural objects in The Physician himself an Archens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
attaining their specific aims. "Ablauschen" (overhearing) of this "knowledge" The Archeus acting by "Imagination", "Magia" and astral forces 111
which is immanent in the objects of research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S9 lliaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Union with the object as the ultimate aim of the naturalist ("philosopher") Prime, intermediate and ultimate matter 112
and physician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 The Cagastrum. . . . . . . ·; 113
"Derived" as against "inborn" knowledge of the elements. Man and the Generation and pntrefaction llS
"Sagani" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Life, soul, spirit, astral body and air 117
Magia Naturalis: Its religious background; its protoscientific significance; its The astral body . . . . . . . 120
purport in medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The Power of Imagination 121
The analogies between Macrocosm and Microcosm and the role of the Stars: Imagination, semen and contagium 123
Astrology and" Astrosophy" 6S
Man as microcosm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6S
Limitations of astral "powers". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Medicine 126
Cosmis correspondences as against astral influx (inclination) as the power Introduction. Paracelsus' Fame as based on his development of chemical therapy.
conferring specificity and destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Ancient Medicine and Paracelsus opposition to it in general terms. . . . . . . . 126
Correspondences between the astral firmament and parts of the hnman orga- The "Elements", "Matrices" and the "Tria Prima" ("Salt", "Sulphur" and
nism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 "Mercury") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Correspondences between the Astrum and the Seat of Disease . . . . . . . 68 The Iliadus. Diseases as "Fruits" of the human "Iliadns" . 130
Astral concordance is the power of remedies which it directs to the diseased Motivation of Paracelsns' opposition to Hnmoralism . . . 131
organ . . . . . . . . . . . · · . · · · · · 69 The action of Mercury, Sulphur and Salt in causing disease 133
Celestial bodies and wounds . . . . . . . . . . 71 Man as a Mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Inconsistencies in the doctrine of correspondences 71 Localisation of Disease. Its local "Seats and Causes" . . . . . 134
Paracelsus' conception of Time . . . . . . . . . . 72 Chemical Considerations: The "Salia" and their "Anatomy" ( "Anatomia
The ancient conceptions of Time. "Empty" numerical (astronomical) time as Elementata ") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
against "qualified" time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Microcosmic Theory and Organic Pathology . . . . . . . . 137
Paracelsus and the astronomical notion of Time.· I ts "qualification" . . . . 73 · The "ontological" view of Disease (" Anatomia Essata ") 137
Qualitative determination of Time. Time as determined by changing events The "Oportet" and Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
and "Astra" as the vector of specificity 74 Aetiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . 140
Time, qualitatively determined, and Medicine . . 75 The "seeds" of Disease. Air as the Vector of the Disease Agent. The M. M.
Biological ideas in Paracelsus' conception of Time 77 (Mysterium Magnum). The role of Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Biological time and the "Astra" . . . . . . 80 "Ens Substantiae" - "Poison" - versus complexion (i.e. humours and qua-
Theological aspects of Time . . . . . . . . . . 80 lities) as inducing Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
The "Elements" and the "Three Principles" (Sulphur, Salt and Mercury): General Aetiological and Specific Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 The invention of remedies through a study of the cosmos . . . . . . . . . 143
The "Elements" . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Specificity in the relationship between the organ (seat of disease), the disease
Earth and Water as "Mothers". Their offspring. 9S and its remedy . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Earth, the "Mother" of man. . . . . . . 96 The Principle of Pharmacy . . . . . . . . . 144
Water the matrix most productive of natural objects 96 "Poison" as a remedy - Mercury its prototype 14S
The role of water and earth in the composition of natural objects 97 The homoeopathic principle . . . . . . . . . 146
Water as the main substance ("flesh") of plants . . . . . . . . 97 Minerals as "homoeopathic" agents cansing and curing the same disease 147
Water as the common virtue in the ground(" earth"), forming the raw material The homoeopathic principle as a consequence of the "Anatomy" of the
of objects - without accounting for specificity . . . 97 Arcanum . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . · . · · · · 147
The "Predestined Element" and "Quinta Essentia" . . . . . . . . . . . 98 The Treatment of Wounds. Its golden precepts in close proximity to super-
Sulphur, Salt and Mercury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 stitions injunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
The Macro-Microcosm theory in conflict with the concept of specificity. The astral The "Signatures" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
origin of specificity. Archens and Iliaster . 104 Disease and the Stars. The "Animal in man" and Lunacy. The Psychiatry of
The Archeus. Vulcan. The Iliaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lOS Paracelsus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
VIII Table of Contents Table of Contents IX

Special Pathological Theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 The Microcosmic Pattern as reflected by the Womb and the Earth. Leonicenus,
Diseases due to "Tartar" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Cesalpino and Aristotle. . . . . . 238
Localism and Specificity as based on Paracelsus' concept of digestion and Paracelsus and Ramon Lull . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
"Tartarus" formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . 154 Paracelsus and Arnald of Villanova . . . . . . . . . 248
Tartar of the various organs. I ts volatility (like "alcohol"). The nutritive Independence of thought. Use of empirical remedies 249
centre of an organ; its "stomach". . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • . . 155 Naturalism and Empiricism . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Summary of the Pathology of Paracelsus as emanating from the concept The quest for medical reform in a new age 252
of Tartar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Religious ideas and motives in medical theory and practice 253
Appendix. New ideas in the physiology of gastric digestion and the ex- Influence of the Stars . . . ·. . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
cretion of albumen in the urine as associated with "Tartarus" . . . . . 158 Specificity of objects (including diseases) and the Stars . 256
Van Belmont's criticism of the Doctrine of Tartar. . . . . . . • • . . 161 Arnald and Humoralism. . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Paracelsus' version of the ancient Doctrine of "Catarrh" and the Causes of Paracelsus and Alchemy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Epilepsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 The New Precious Pearl on the Philosophers' Stone. 259
Traces of catarrh theory in Paracelsus' chemical and symbolistic specu· Arnald of Villanova and John de Rupescissa 263
lations on Epilepsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Comment. General appraisal . . . . . . . . . . . 266
The Spirit of Life as the" ascendant" causing Epilepsy . . . . . . . . 168 Paracelsus' achievement in pure and medical Chemistry . 273
Survey of Paracelsus' Ideas on Epilepsy in the light of Ancient and XVII th Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Century Pathology (Localism versus Catarrh) . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Paracelsus' work in the chemical laboratory and its results in detail. 274
"Obstruction" as a primary and local change causing Disease. Its divorce Paracelsus' System of Chemistry. The "Archidoxis" . . . . . . . 27 5
from" catarrh" and its role as a further germ cell of" Localism". . . . . 170 Detoxication and medicinal use of chemicals. . . . . . . . . . . 275
Paracelsus on Plague. The Influence of Ficino. Traditional Plague Theories Spiritus vitrioli and its narcotic action - a probable predecessor of ether, and
and Paracelsus' "Anthropocentric" Doctrine. Its further Development in an example of Paracelsus' advanced medical chemistry. 276
Van Belmont's" Tomb of the Plague" . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . 172 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . 278
Traces of a suggested quantitative and chemical analysis of urine to replace Paracelsus and Nicolaus Cusanus . . 279
mediaeval uroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Paracelsus and Pico della Mirandola 284
Mediaeval uroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . • . 189 Pomponazzi and Paracelsus . . . . 289
Paracelsus' demand for a chemical examination of urine. Chemical Paracelsus and Johannes Reuchlin . 290
"uroscopy" and "dissection" ("Anatomy") of urine by Paracelsists. Agrippa ofNettesheym's "Occult Philosophy". 295
Assessment of the specific gravity of urine by Van Belmont. 190 The Occult Virtues, the World Soul, the Spirit (Quinta Essentia) and Sympathy 297
Thurneisser zum Thurn's "Probierung der Harnen" 195 Agrippa on Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
James Hart's criticism of chemical uroscopy . . . . . . . 196 The Power of Imagination in Agrippa's Occult Philosophy . . . . . . . . . 300
Van Belmont's criticism of chemical uroscopy . . . . . . . 198 Middle XVIth Century opposition to Galen. Johannes Argenterius and Paulus
Progressive aspects of Paracelsus in Medicine and their limitations . 200 Mazinus Arvernus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Opposition to the traditional doctrine of the Elements in the middle of the XVI th
century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Mazinus, Femel and Paracelsus . . . . . . . 305
The Sources of Paracelsus (Ancient, Mediaeval, Contemporary) 203 Paracelsus and the "Occult Qualities" ofFemel 310
Paracelsus and the ancient, mediaeval and Renaissance sources . 203 Erastus' Censure of Paracelsus . . . . . . . . . . 311
Paracelsus and Gnosticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 The character, attainments and methods of Paracelsus 313
The Gnostic concept of microcosm . . . . . . . . . . 204 Paracelsus' views of creation . . . . . 315
Mediaeval sources of Gnostic speculation and Paracelsus. 210 Paracelsus as a restorer of Gnostic heresy 315
The Cabalah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Belief in Miracles. . . . . . . . . . 315
Paracelsus and Neoplatonism. The influence of Marsilio Ficino. Ficino's ideal of the The Power of Imagination. . . . . . . 316
"Magus" as Priest-Physician. Paracelsus and the Philosophy of Plotinus. . . . . 218 Fascination - Incantation - Contagion . 317
Was Paracelsus really a Neoplatonist? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Natural Magic - The Neoplatonic fallacy 317
The "Prime Matter" of Paracelsus as foreshadowed by the philosophy of Salomo Nature and the Chemical Art 318
ibn Gebirol (Avicebron) and the "Popular Pantheism" of the Middle Ages. Giordano Amulets and Augury . . . . . . . . . 318
Bruno. The anonymous "Introduction to the Philosophy of Life" (1623). . . . . 227 The "Power" of Words. . . . . . . . 318
Ancient ideas as transmitted by Salomo ibn Gebirol . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Magnetic action - the pattern of Natural Magic 319
Gebirol's Prime Matter as fundamental to popular pantheism in the Middle The Devil and Witchcraft . 319
Ages and Reformation . . . . . . . . . . . . • 230 Matter and the Elements 319
Giordano Bruno . . • • • . . . • . . • • . • . . • 232 The Semina . . 322
The "Introductio in Vitalem Philosophiam" (1623) . 232 Quinta Essentia . . . . 323
x Table of Contents

Generation 323
Microcosm 323
Disease . . 324
The Locus of Disease . 324
The role of diet in Disease 326
Therapy . . . . . . . . 326
The cures of Paracelsus . · 327 Preface
Epilepsy . . . . . . . 327
Dropsy and Podagra . . 329
Comment . . . . . . . 330 Who does not know Doctor Paracelsus, renowned reformer of medicine,
Daniel Sennert's Critical Defence of Paracelsus 333
The chequered Life and dubious character of Paracelsus. 333 chemist and naturalist, philosopher and theologian, lay preacher and pro-
Criticism of the Microcosm theory . . . . . . . . . 335 tagonist of social justice, believer in natural magic and effusive diviner?
Sympathy and Antipathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 Indeed, something is known everywhere of each of these aspects offered by
Criticism of Paracelsus' Methods . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Prime Matter, Mysterium Magnum, Elements, Semina . 337 what appears to us as an erratic block in a period of renascent progress.
On Life and the Three Principles (Salt, Sulphur and Mercury) 338 Little, however, if anything is known of the link which must have forged such
On Generation . 341 disparate trends into the mould of a savant at once unified and unique in
Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
himself. To-day their unification in a single personality does not easily
344
make sense - at a time of transition they were not incompatible. Their
Final Assessment
very synthesis had a share in the development of modern naturalism,
science and medicine in the 16th and 17th centuries. In Paracelsus it was
Addenda and Errata 351
a consistent philosophia naturalis based on a medical view of man and
Collation ofloci quoted from Huser with the standard edition of Sudhoff 375
List of Illustrations . 378 world, in many ways archaic and in others surprisingly modern. Under-
General Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 standing it requires an effort to make oneself contemporary with him, an
arduous task which of necessity will remain short of completion and full
satisfaction. An attempt at achieving it as far as possible is the burden of
the present hook.
It was first published a quarter of a century ago. It met with un-
expectedly wide approval and, unobtainable as it has been for some time,
with persistent demand. No further monograph comparable in style and
scope has come to light in the meantime, hut a large number of new facts
and views have. The author's own continued research concerned Paracelsus'
debt to occult tradition from neo-Platonic and Gnostic sources as perpetu-
ated in mediaeval literature. Preliminary results are found in 'Das medi-
zinische Welthild des Paracelsus, seine Zusammenhiinge mit Neuplatonis-
mus und Gnosis' (Wiesbaden 1962); it opened as volume 1 the new series
'Kosmosophie', edited by Kurt Goldammer. This was followed by a
number of papers in 'Amhix ', various historical-medical journals and
more recently in the 'Salzhurger Beitriige zur Paracelsusforschung ', edited
by Sepp Domandl. Little if any doubt remains about the great significance
of the neo-Platonic and Gnostic pieces studied - they are organic compo-
nents of genuine Paracelsian texts and doctrines; they are not merely
quotations adduced from outside to embellish them or to show off his
XII Preface
erudition. Other students of Paracelsus have contributed importantly in
correcting traditionally repeated unrealistic data and views concerning
uncharted areas in Paracelsus' life, the dating of his treatises, his journeys
and religious ideologies, as revealed in first editions of his religious and
social-political writings from manuscripts under the aegis of K. Goldammer.
All this justifies re-publication of the book with correction of errors and
amplification of contents bringing it up to the present standard of our
knowlege and understanding of Paracelsus. This has now been provided
in the form of a comprehensive appendix of' Addenda and Errata' referring
to their appropriate places in the original text which thereby could be
preserved in its entirety. It also offers a collation of all loci quoted from
Huser with the standard edition of Sudhoff.
The author remains indebted to the W ellcome Trust - ever since,
under the auspices of the late Sir Henry Dale, O.M. F.R.S., it has supported
his publications in various ways up to the present day. He gratefully
remembers the help in all problems scientific and personal extended to him
by the late Dr. F.N.L. Poynter, F.L.A., librarian, founder and director
of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. He also provided
most of the illustrations of the present book. Of his staff and his successor's,
E. Freeman, the author enjoyed cooperation with Marianne Winder and
Renate Burgess, as also bibliographical information given to him by
John Symons. Unfailing personal support and encouragement he received
from Dr. William F. Bynum. Dr. Bernard E.J. Pagel corrected and revised
the text. As in the production of two books on Harvey (1967 and 1976)
the author wishes to record special thanks to the publishers, Dr. Fritz
Karger and Dr. h.c. Thomas Karger, for their courteous and highly efficient
work in publishing the present edition of 'Paracelsus'. He cannot conclude
without remembrance of Magda Pagel-Koll (M.D. Cologne, 26.6.1894 to
22.8.1980). She dedicated 57 years of her own life to indefatigable protec-
tion and maintenance of his life and literary activities taking more than
a full share in these in addition to her own studies in mediaeval art and
surgery. The present book with all its sequels is essentially indebted to her
co-operation.
General Introduction
Much of modern medicine developed in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries
against a background of trends of thought that were not purely or mainly
scientific. The main purpose of the present writer's historical enquiries
since 1926 has been to place scientific and medical discoveries in the to us
less comprehensible philosophical and religious setting in which they first
appeared.
The lion's share of the foundation of scientific medicine in the XVIIth
century goes to Harvey (1578-1657). However, credit must be given to
Van Helmont (1579-1644) for establishing the chemical outlook in biology
and medicine. Both Harvey and Van Helmont combine mastery of quanti-
tative scientific method with a philosophical insight which was strongly
influenced by Aristotle in one case and religious mysticism in the other,
and which helped to inspire some of their scientific discoveries. For Harvey
can be seen as the life-long thinker on the mystery of circular phenomena:
the circulation of the blood on the one hand and the cycle of generations
on the other, both forming the microcosmic copy of a cosmological pattern.
To Van Helmont each object of nature follows a specific plan of form and
function infused into it by the Creator and contained in the material vector
of specificity, a substance of finest corporality - this is his new concept of
"Gas".
Van Helmont is well known to have made a careful study of the work
of Paracelsus (1493-1541) - some of whose ideas gave him profound inspi-
ration while he completely rejected others. However, the detailed compa-
rison between the ideas of Paracelsus and Van Helmont that would be
required for a complete understanding of the thought and scientific dis-
coveries of the latter has never been attempted; nor indeed does there
exist a precise account of Paracelsus' own philosophy and medicine that
could be used as a starting point for such a comparison.
It is partly for this reason and partly in order to provide the Paracelsean
background for medicine in general that the present book has been written.
Our purpose here is rather different from that of the multitude of books
and essays on Paracelsus that have appeared and that are mainly concerned
2 General Introduction
with biography, bibliography, literary criticism and the personal part
played by Paracelsus in general and medical history.
A turbulent and paradoxical figure in his life-time, Paracelsus has re-
mained controversial ever since. Admired by many, despised by yet more,
he has discouraged patient objective scholarship by the violence and
inconsistency of his voluminous writings. He appeals to us in certain
brilliant and progressive aphorisms, but so far no hope has been held out
to us of understanding how they were arrived at and how they emerge
from a unified pattern of thinking. Indeed, the very possibility of doing
any such thing has been denied, not perhaps without reason. Nevertheless,
without being able to do anything like justice to the vast Corpus of Para-
celsus' work, it does seem possible to find certain basic concepts from which
an appreciable and in our opinion characteristic portion can be presented
as a coherent view of the universe from which some of the details
follow.
The individual "Savant" and his "World"
as the focal point of the investigation
The approach attempted in the present work is based on an analysis
of the savant as an individual person. He is taken as the centre of a world
which he has built up, and this in tum is composed both of those views,
doctrines and observations which died with the savant himself and of others
which became the common property of humanity and thus have remained
immortal. Taken as a whole, however, this world is not a sum of transient
and permanent elements, but a world unique and peculiar to one man;
it is without continuity - that is to say it has neither predecessors nor
successors. It is this whole and the emergence from it of scientific and
medical theories and facts which forms the subject of the present work.
The present volume mainly contaj.ns an account of XVIth century
philosophical medicine. Its centre is Paracelsus, and it falls into three
main parts. In the first we discuss Paracelsus ·as a representative figure of
the Renaissance and his general ideas, such as the position of man in the
cosmos, and the access he has to truth and nature. The second part treats
of Paracelsus' new Medicine, whilst the third is devoted to the ancient,
mediaeval and contemporary sources of Paracelsus - concluding with a
short account of the arguments of his antagonists.
Clearly a monograph such as this cannot come anywhere near to being
an exhaustive treatment; an attempt has merely been made to discuss
Paracelsus: Interdependence and fusion of the scientific and non-scientific elements 3
those features of Paracelsus' work that appear to the writer to be at the
same time the most accessible and the most characteristic. It is hoped to
discuss XVIIth century philosophical medicine and its Paracelsean back-
ground in a separate book.
Paracelsus: Interdependence and fusion
of the scientific and non-scientific elements
Among all the erratic figures of the Renaissance, Paracelsus is singled
out for the restlessness of his life and for the inconsistency of his opinions
and doctrines. In the study of his biography, fact has been gradually
separated from fancy; but no agreement has been reached as to the nature
and purport of his teaching. He is seen by many as a reformer of Medicine.
Others praise his achievements in Chemistry and even regard him as the
founder of "Biochemistry". He appears in the ranks of early XVIthcentury
scientists and reformers such as Vesalius, Copernicus, Agricola, and thus is
seen as a "modern".
On the other hand, he has always enjoyed the "Aura" of a mystic and
even the shady reputation of a magician.
For centuries his work has been criticised as non-scientific, phantastic
and bordering on insanity. Moreover, his originality has been questioned
in the very field in which he had seemed to be a harbinger of light and
progress, namely the introduction of chemical remedies.
There is a further side to Paracelsus, to all appearances divorced from
science and medicine. Many of his works are purely religious, social and
ethical in character. As more of these works become accessible, they seem
to reveal new and additional facets of this multicoloured personality.
Hoefer's summing up of 1843 seems still to hold good:
«Figurez-vous un homme qui, dans de certains moments, fait preuve
d'une penetration admirable, et qui, dans d'autres, radote le plus pi-
toyablement du monde; un homme qui, tantot devoue au progres de la
Science, proclame l'autorite absolue de !'experience ... et qui, tantot
comme un aliene, semble converser avec les demons ... un homme enfin
qui, a jeun le matin et ivre le soir, enregistre exactement toutes les idees
dans l'ordre dans lequel elles se presentent a son esprit.»1
This aptly summarises the impression which Paracelsus' writings make
on the average modern reader: the Faustian "two souls'', a mind split by
1
Histoire de la Chimie. Paris 1843, vol. II, p. 9.
4 General Introduction
tendencies and convictions which contradict each other. However, to
explain an historical figure today in terms of the "two souls" of Doctor
Faustus would be merely to resort to a well-worn cliche. What seems to
be contradiction and inconsistency to the modern mind was not necessarily
incomprehensible four hundred years ago. The historian must search more
deeply. The attempt to interpret a savant in modern terms erects barriers
to a true historical understanding of the hero as a unified personality and
a unique figure. Our task is not to show that Paracelsus was either a magi-
cian or a scientist (actually he deserves neither of these designations).
Nor will it suffice to present these different aspects side by side and be
satisfied with their mere existence. Nor, finally, does the modern historian
of science contribute to our knowledge of Paracelsus if he constructs a line
of development in which Paracelsus is seen as a landmark on the highway
leading from Magic into Science for there is n_o such thing in the life, work
and ideas of Paracelsus himself.
The problem which really does confront us is that of specifying the
manner in which mystical, magical and scientific elements are all blended
together into a single doctrine.
The Life of Paracelsus
(1) Name, Birth and Family
The large volume of extant books and papers on the life of Paracelsus
is out of proportion to the scarcity of well documented facts. Even the few
data which seemed solid enough to be transmitted from book to book for
centuries have recently been challenged for good reasons. We are not even
on safe ground when quoting the famous names: Philippus Aureolus Theo-
phrastus Paracelsus. The latter, by which he is commonly known, was a
nickname giv~n to him at a later period of his life. That he used it himself
at any time cannot be demonstrated. It first appears as a pseudonym for
the -author- oCa -"Praciica" of political-astrological character, printed in
1529 at Niirnberg, where it may have been used to distinguish the astro-
logical from the medical author who was simply called "Theophrastus of
Hohenheim".
Not until 1536/7 does the name: "Doctor Paracelsus" appear on a
medical treatise, namely the "Grosse Wundarznei" - one of the few works
printed before his death and at a time when he was widely known as
"Paracelsus".2
None of the interpretations of the meaning of this name has been satis-
factory. It is mostly taken as a translation of "Hohenheim" (the family
estate in Swabia), or to signify "surpassing Celsus" (the Roman writer on
medicine or possibly Celsus, the enemy of the Church). It has been con-
vincingly suggested that the name was not invented by Paracelsus himself,
who was averse to such humanistic practices as the latinization or graeci-
fication of names, but by his circle of "combibones" at Colmar (1528). 3
It was to convey (at the same time) .his superiority to Celsus and the para-
doxical character of his writings and speeches. It does not seem to be
accidental that later, on the title of his main works "Paramirum" and
"Paragranum" the syllable "Para" was accorded a conspicuous place.
2 Bittel, K.: Para - und Paracelsus. Paracelsus-Museum, Stuttgart. Paracelsus-Doku-
mentation. Referat-Bllitter. A 44 Januar 1943, pp. 7-8.
a Bittel: loc. cit.
6 The Life of Paracelsus
However, a "paramiric" work had been promised by Paracelsus already in
his earliest treatise of about 15204, and the "Volumen Medicinae Parami-
rum" ("Von den Fiinf Entien") is usually regarded as an early prelude to
the Opus Paramirum of 1531, also written about 1520.5
From all this it is fair to say that the invention of the name, though
probably not due to Paracelsus himself, was prompted by a verbal creation
of his own.
The name Theophrastus is not documented prior to his Strassburg
period (1526)6 and the programme to his lectures at Basie in 1527 7 • He is
first called Philipp on his tombstone. 8
His year of birth, normally given as 1493, is uncertain: 1494 has been
suggested as correct and the first of May as the probable hirthday9 • His
birth place - Einsiedeln - is uncontested. Nothing is known, however,
about the house in which he was horn, and the romantic tradition sur-
rounding the famous house at the "Devil's Bridge" over the Sihl near
Einsiedeln is fictional.
Paracelsus was the son of a physician, Wilhelm of Hohenheim, who was
of the family of the Banhasts or Bombasts. The name Bomhastus of
Hohenheim is the best documented designation of Paracelsus. "Bombast"
has nothing to do with "bombastic" in the sense of "turgid language" or
"tall talk"lO. It indicates descent from a very old and noble Swabian
family which had their original seat at Hohenheim near Stuttgart.11
4 Etliche (Elf) Tractaten ...von der Wassersucht. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, pp. 5 and XXXVI.
5 Sudhoff; correcting his former dating of this treatise at 1530 (Paracelsus-Forschungen,
1887, I, p. 67 as against his edition of 1929 where it appears in vol. I, p. 163. See
Bittel: loc. cit. p. 1).
6 The Strassburg town register has the entry: "Theophrastus von Hohenheim, der Artzney
Doctor" under December 5th, 1526 (R. H. Blaser: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Basler Zeit
des Paracelsus. Nova Acta Paracels. 1953, VI [supplem.], p. 9). In the diary of Nicolaus
Gerbelius, secretary to the chapter of Strassburg cathedral, Paracelsus appears as
"Theophrastus" in several places (Blaser loc. cit., pp. 10 seq.).
Bittel. Karl: Zur Genealogie der Bombaste von Hohenheim. Miinch. med. Wschr. 1942,
lxxxix, 359.
s Bittel, K.: Korrekturen zur Paracelsus-Biographie. Hippokrates 1943, xiv, pp. 30-32.
9 Bittel, K: Ist Paracelsus 1493 oder 1494 geboren? Med. Welt 1942, xvi, 1163. This was
challenged by J. Strebel in his edition: Theophrastus von Hohenheim: Samtliche
Werke, vol. I. St. Gallen 1944, p. 38. Sudhoff (Paracelsus. Ein deutsches Lebensbild aus
den Tagen der Renaissance. Leipzig. Bibliographisches Institut 1936, p. 11) came to
the conclusion that Paracelsus was born in the last third. of 1493.
10 See Sigerist, H. E.: The word "Bombastic". Bull. Hist. Med. 1941, x, 688. This term
derives from the Greek Bombyx, silkworm, and designates its product silk and later
cotton and cotton wadding. The first metaphorical use of the word ("the swelling
bumbast of a ... blank verse") is documented for 1589.
11 Bittel, K.: Miinch. med. Wschr. 1942, .No. 16, published important material relating
(I) Name, Birth and Family 7
Two traits stand out as characteristic in the life of Paracelsus: rest-
lessness and aggressive criticism. Both these traits are recognisable in the
life of his paternal grandfather George (J6rg) Bombast of Hohenheim.
He is known as a Knight of the Order of St. John (1453-1496) and must
have been a real knight-errant for he accompanied his sovereign Eberhard
the Pious (or "in the Beard" - "Rauschehart") on an adventurous journey
to Palestine (1468). In 1489 he had to tender a public and solemn apology
for an irate speech in the Diet. Moreover, we know of at least one ille-
gitimate child which he had produced - the father of Paracelsus. This was
Wilhelm Bombast de Riett, so called because he was brought up at Riet
in Wiirttemherg on the estate of his paternal uncle. It is tempting to
correlate the temperament, "Wanderlust" and chequered career of Para-
celsus with the character of his grandfather. In contrast to the latter,
Paracelsus' father seems to have been a scholar of a quiet and retiring
• disposition. He had studied at Tiihingen, matriculated as a pauper12 and
must have been at a disadvantage because of his illegitimacy. Thus there
was reason enough for him to leave his native country - which he signifi-
cantly did shortly after his father's disgrace. He settled at Einsiedeln in
Switzerland where he married.
The identity of his wife has been the subject of controversy hut it can
he assumed that Paracelsus' mother was a native of Einsiedeln.13 Here he
to the history of the Banbasts (Baumbasts, Bombasts) of Hohenheim (Hohenhain) -
one of the oldest families of the Swabian nobility. - On the genealogy of Paracelsus see
Strebel, J.: Vererbungsstudien an Paracelsus. Schweiz. med. Wschr. 1943, p. 1582,
and about "Hohenheim" - the family name and the fate of its estate: Strebel, J.:
Historische Glossen zum Namen "Hohenheim". Praxis 1951, 1075. Hohenheim was
situated near Plieningen on the highway from Stuttgart to Tiibingen.
12 He appears in the roll of the students under the 11th January, 1481, aged 24, as a
"pauper" who "dedit pedello unum solidum" (Strebel: loc. cit. 1943). He was penniless
by statute, namely as the son of a knight of a Holy Order.
13 She is said to have been a serf of the Benedictine monastery. That she was the daughter
of Ruodi Ochsner and his wife Els has been largely inferred from the arms displayed
in a picture supposed to be the portrait of Wilhelm of Hohenheim as a bridegroom. The
authenticity of this portrait, however, is no longer tenable (see footnote later). It has
been noted that the Paracelsus house on the "Kielwiesli im Wiesengrund" above what
is today the "Krone" was in 1501 in the possession of the Griitzer family from which
Paracelsus' mother possibly originated (B. Lienhardt, Medizingeschichtliches aus Ein-
siedeln 1941, p. 24, and Bittel: Korrekturen, loc. cit. 1943, p. 31). Of other families
that of Wesener has also been mooted. All this is quite uncertain.
From his iconographic studies Strebel concludes that Paracelsus' head showed char-
acteristic Swiss traits. This, according to Strebel, applies in particular to the authentic
and rightly famous portrait of 1538 by Augustin Hirschvogel and also to the Holbein
portrait of 1526 of "a young man with slouch hat". This has been claimed to be a
portrait of young Paracelsus, as it apparently formed the model for Wenzel Hollar's
Paracelsus portrait which belongs to the early XVIlth century. All this is highly con-
8 The Life of Paracelsus
practised as doctor and student of chemistry until - in 1502 - the Swabian
wars made him transfer to Villach. Here he lived and practised in undis-
turbed peace and with all civic honours for thirty-two yearsl<l. His re-
tiring introspective nature was deduced from the Salzburg portrait, marked
1491, of a young man, aged 34, holding a carnation. This was regarded
for many years as a portrait of Wilhelm of Hohenheim, because it displays
the supposed Paracelsean arms in both upper corners and a copy of it had
adorned the tomb of Paracelsus in the XVIlth and XVIIIth centuries.
However, all evidence based on this portrait has to be discarded since the
Paracelsean arms have been unmasked as spurious. 15
(2) Formative years
Beyond the scanty notes met with in Paracelsus' own wntmgs we
know nothing about his early life and education. It is likely that in the
tutoring which he received from his father natural history and mining
took precedence. Paracelsus himself says that "from early childhood" the
transmutation of metals had occupied his mind. 16 His teachers, he adds,
had been profound experts in "adepta philosophia" and the related "arts".
Prominent among those that he remembers are Wilhelmus of Hohenheim,
his father, "who has never forsaken me" and then a great number of
tutors of whom he only mentions by name four bishops and one abbot.
The latter is the abbot "of Spanheim" - to all intents and purposes the
famous Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim, later at St. Jacob, Wiirzburg.17
jectural and sounds somewhat wishful. Strebel, J.: Neue Beitrlige zur Ikonographie
von Paracelsus. Gesnerus 1952, 8, 236.
14 Testimonial issued by the "Richter, Raht und der gantz Gemain der Statt Villach"
on May 12th, 1538, and handed to Paracelsus with his possessfons on the Sunday
Jubilate.
15 The evidence is summarised by Rob. Herrlinger: Das vermeintliche Portrlit Wilhelms
von Hohenheim. Dtsch. med. Wschr. 1954, p. 1937. Herrlinger chiefly refers to E. Buch-
ner: Das deutsche Bildnis der Splitgotik und der friihen Diirerzeit. Berlin 1953. For
criticism antedating Buchner's discovery of the inauthenticity of the arms he refers
to Bittel, K.: Echte und Unechte Paracelsus-Bildnisse. Referatbllitter zum Leben und
Werk des Theophrastus von. Hohenheim. Referat B 1: Ikonographie. Paracelsus·
Museum, Stuttgart. August 1942. Silber, M.: Das Bildnis Wilhelms von Hohenheim.
Salzburger Museumsbllitter 1941, xx, No. 1-4.
16 Grosse Wundartznei (1536), tract. III, ed. Sudhoff, vol. x, p. 354.
17 Towards the end of the XIXth century Trithemius had a bad press. He was regarded
as a "windbag" who deliberately gave the impression of possessing the magic arts.
This must be the reason for Sudhoff's passionate and purely emotional denial of his
tutorship of Paracelsus (Paracelsus. Leipzig 1936, pp. 13 seq.). This, however, is the
unmistakable meaning of Paracelsus' own testimonial - see the critical examination
of this question by Goldammer, K.: Die bischi:iflichen Lehrer des Paracelsus. Arch.
f
I
(2) Formative years 9
It is of special interest that Paracelsus' early teachers were churchmen.is
This indicates that his education was not exclusively on naturalist lines,
but rather encyclopaedic or "pansophic". Trithemius was called "Pan-
sophiae splendor magnus". 19 Aiming at a "universal art" which enables
the "adept" to arrive at universal knowledge by the tabulation and ·per-
mutation of symbols, he thus seems to belong to the "kabbalistic" tradition
which leads from Lull to Picus, Reuchlin, Agrippa of Nettesheym, Bruno,
Alstedius, and Leibniz. The work of Paracelsus has an encyclopedic and
"pansophic" character; he himself is intent on unravelling the occult _
"kabbalistic" and symbolical - meaning of phenomena by visualising con-
cordances everywhere. All this is very much on the lines of the Lullian
tradition and may well have been inspired by the example and the work
of Trithemius. 20 "Philosophia adepta", as Paracelsus calls it, can be inter-
preted as encyclopedic rather than merely naturalistic knowledge and the
"arts" to which Paracelsus refers embrace such "magic" as the '"power"
enshrined in words and the letters of the alphabet.21 All these are familiar
tra.it~ in the w~rk of Paracelsus. Moreover, his profound knowledge of
rehg10n and philosophy is well explained by the youthful impressions re-
ceived from his clerical preceptors.22
Paracelsus knew Latin, but he was no logician, no orator, no jurist,
no humanist. His preference for the vernacular German and for utility
rather than elegant Latin seems to be in line with his character and not to
Gesch. Med. 1953, xxxvii, 234, and Paracelsus-Studien. Klirnten 1954, pp. 7-41,
on the Trithemius problem pp. 27-29 and 35-40. .
Trithemius nowadays enjoys a better and historically more realistic reputation a fact
which in itself is, of course, irrelevant to the assessment of his relationship with Para-
celsus.
18
For biographical detail and much detective work in the attempted integration of these
men with the life story of Paracelsus see Goldammer: loc. cit., 1953 and 1954.
19
Goldammer: loc. cit. 1954, p. 39.
20
See later our discussion of the Lullian traits in the work of Paracelsus.
~ol.~am1!!er,:, l?c. cit. 1954, ~· 26, is inclined to see in "Philosophia adepta" and the
21
~unste : die mo~er?e W1s~enschaf~ der grossen Erneuerungszeit, 'Philosophie' im
hochsten damals moglichen Smne, keme mysterii:ise Geheimtradition, sondern kriti-
sches E~kenntnisstre~~n und gelliutertes Wissen auf allen Wissensgebieten." In other
w?rds, It meant leg1Umate, logical and metaphysical speculation on the lines of
Nicolaus Cusanus and Enea Silvio. This is borne out by the lack of actual alchemical
work am?ng the wr.itings.of Trithemius, as Partington's careful analysis has shown:
J.R.P~:ungton: .T~1themms and Alchemy. Ambix 1938, 11, 53-59. On "Philosophia
Adepta as the mam purport of Paracelsus' doctrine see W. E. Peuckert, Theophrastus
P.aracelsus. Stuttgart and Berlin 1943, p. 375 and passim; also Spunda, F., Das Welt·
b1ld des Paracelsus. Wien. 1941, p. 226.
22
Goldammer: loc. cit. 1953, p. 235, with reference to Netzhammer: Theophrastus Para-
celsus. Einsiedeln 1901, p. 23.
10 The Life of Paracelsus
(2) Formative years 11
reflect a neglected education. The mining school of the Fuggers at Huten-

loannes Man~rdusi.
berg near Villach offered to Paracelsus, father and son, a broad field for
chemical and medical observation and speculation. Here and as an ap-
prentice in the mines of Sigmund Fueger at Schwaz he must have received
the direction towards his life work.
His was a practical and at the same time a contemplative - religious -
mind, intent on discovering truth. Thus he was bound to be repelled by
the largely eristic treatment of medicine at the universities which he visited
as a vagrant journeyman-scholar from the age of fourteen onwards. Para-
celsus mentions many of the famous German and Italian and also French
and Spanish universities. 23 It is not certain that he visited, let alone
studied at them. He possibly read, between 1509 and 1511, for the
bachelor's degree at Vienna where the Swiss humanist and friend of
Zwingli, Joachim Vadian, was Rector. Between 1513 and 1516 Paracelsus
journeyed and studied in Italy, notably at Ferrara. Here, possibly
together with Wolfgang Thalhauser, later municipal physician of Augs-
burg, and Christoph Clauser, town physician at Ziirich, he seems to have
sat at the feet of Johannes Manardus (1462-1536), a critical adversary of
astrology in medicine. 24 He probably also heard Nicolaus Leonicenus
(1428-1524), the medical humanist and critic. There is no proof of Para-
celsus' graduation which has been assumed to have taken place at Ferrara.
This assumption was entirely based on Paracelsus' own deposition during
his law suit against an ungrateful patient at Basle. 25 It has not been
possible to verify it from a documentary search. 26 It is noteworthy that

23
See the synoptic tables compiled by Telepnef, B. de: Verzeichnis der von Paracelsus
wahrend seiner Studienjahre und spiiter auf seinen grossen Wanderungen durch Europa
besuchten Universitiitsstlidte. Nova Acta Paracels. Basel 1946, III, 173.
24 Manardus refers to the spirited refutation of astrology by Picus and Savonarola.
Avicenna did not really believe in it, nor did Hippocrates. Moreover, the "astrological ',,
pest is a virus" highly offensive to the Christian religion. - Nor is it of any use or neces- 0 A N N E s Madardus FtrrarieoGs~ in Pannonia Vfaditlao
sity to the physician. Epidemics such as plague and syphilis break out at any time Regc nu:dcndi arccm exttcuit,eandemquedcmum ibgymoa.-
of the year, nor are they likely to be transmitted by the air - the reputed vehicle of fio Ferrari<\? profdfus.Eputolarum librurn edidic:, quo magna
astral influence. ,
medentibus,& phai:macopolis vciUtas paratur.quii tcrrre frugi
Manardi, Jo. Medici Ferrariensis: Epistolae Medicinales. Argentorati 1529, fol. 23 seq.
26 Cornelius of Lichtenfels - for detail see later p. 22.
buslodicisquc pr~fmim in tnedidnz vfum adoptatis,obfolc..
26 Ghibellini, I.: Le mie ricerche sulla Laurea di Paracelso, Gesnerus 1952, ix, 149-153,
to antiquo oomioe,&incena viiiu~potdl:ate perob"uriscruditam darit~•
came to an entirely negative conclusion after having searched the local university
rolls at Ferrara and elsewhere. - As Blaser (loc. cit. Arch. Gesch. Med. 1957, xli, 146, Fig. 1. Port. of Manardus. From Giovio Elogia 1577, p. 152 (125).
and before Nova Acta Paracels. VI, suppl. loc. cit. 1953, p. 32; 66 footnote 57)
pointed out, Paracelsus used the specific title of "Doctor in utraque medicina" - the
degree awarded exclusively by the universities of North-Italy and unknown at Basie when he settled down at Strassburg in 1526 he was not enrolled in the guild
uutil 1594. - Blaser suggests, this may provide a piece of circumstantial evidence that of doctors, but in that of grain merchants - which may of course have been
Paracelsus possessed the degree after all.
a more expedient way to comply with the formalities of admission. We also

I
12 The Life of Paracelsus
'Ni.Golaus Leonicenus.
·~ . .
- ..
E M o proficencim:n Medi'corum,Nicolao Lconiccno Viccoti
=:: no'~cra falucarisfcienti~d_ogmata~uriu'satquenitid~us expli- ·
cau1t.Ncmocrrores Sof'li1ftlirutn imponunagarrubtate cut)...
; da fredanciumdoqueotius1atquevaUdiusconfutauit. Netno
to d~'mum ad illutlrcm ccnioris pttitiz fidem longius atquc
.-ialubr1us ~ita_!11~ro:Iux1c •. ~rimus enim Gr.ecaGatroivolumina Latincin ...
Fig. 2. Port. of Leonicenus. From Giovio Elogia 1577, p. 132.
know that Paracelsus was employed as a military surgeon in the Venetian
service in 1522 - a post not normally acceptable to a doctor in medicine,
but possibly acceptable to an independent "doctor" of Paracelsus' stamp.
(3) Early Journeys (1517-1524) 13
That he became municipal physician and professor of medicine at Basie
does not prove his previous graduation as a doctor. He did, however,
possess a profound knowledge of the medical syllabus of the time - a
necessary prerequisite for its critical destruction at his hands and in itself
a testimony to the success of his medical studies. This does not seem to
have ever been in doubt. A possible solution of the question may lie in some
temporary inability on Paracelsus' part to bring his studies at Ferrara to
their formal conclusion.
A more realistic view of the matter should take into consideration the
fact that Paracelsus' life had been unconventional from the beginning. A
formal completion of the university course with all the Molieresque sham
celebrations surrounding the doctorate would have been beyond his means
and at any rate distasteful to him - without, however, impairing his feeling
of his own academic proficiency.
At all events, the universities neither of Germany nor of Italy, France
and Spain had anything to offer that appealed to him. He criticised their
medical faculties and teachers relentlessly. 27 Some of his remarks betray
a personal acquaintance with the academic premises, for example the
"magnificent vaults of Ferrara" where anatomy was taught. 28 Such re-
ferences, however, are scanty.
There was much more for him to learn in daily life as it presented itself
to a vagrant scholar-journeyman and above all in the mines. In fact,
throughout his life, working and observing the natural growth and "trans-
mutation" of metals in the mines was an outstanding experience. As a
boy he had worked near Villach and as an adolescent in the Fueger mines
near Schwaz.
(3) Early Journeys (1517-1524)
We are quite well informed about Paracelsus' journeys following his
sojourn at Basie in 1527 /28. These journeys were confined to Alsace,
Southern Germany, Switzerland, Tyrol, Bohemia and Austria. We know
nothing definite, however, about his earlier wanderings which are said to
have led him from North Italy throughout Europe, to Spain, England,
Scandinavia, Russia and even Turkey and the Middle East. A stay in
Scandinavia where he is reputed to have acted as army surgeon under
27 See the loci compiled by Telepnef: loc. cit. 1946.
28 "Unter dem loblichen Gewolbe zu Ferrara." Von blatern, leme, beulen ... der fran·
zosen. Lib. II, cap. 3. Ed. Sudhoff: vol. VI, p. 337.
14 The Life of Paracelsus
Christian II between 1518 and 1521 has been particularly singled out for
fanciful associations for which there is no documentary evidence what-
ever. 29 Paracelsus himself mentions in the "Spitalbuch"30 experiences
gained and successful cures performed in his early days in the Low Coun-
tries, in Naples and in wars waged by Venice, Denmark and Holland, and
more specifically that he had witnessed at "Stockholm in Denmark" the use
of a wound potion which cures all wounds after the third draught, except
fractures and injuries to the vessels. 31
It seems that on all these journeys Paracelsus acted as an army surgeon
and was involved in the many wars waged between 1517 and 1524 in
Holland, Scandinavia, Prussia, Tartary, the countries under Venetian
influence and possibly the near East.
(4) Attempts at settling down. Reasons for frustration
Paracelsus' life had been unconventional almost from the outset: he
grew up under the guidance of ecclesiastic dignitaries - yet the bent in his
education had been towards practical work at the bench and furnace and
in the open air. He had then studied at universities - yet the formal con-
clusion of such studies is clouded in obscurity and followed neither by
academic preferment nor by settling down in practice. Instead, Paracelsus
spends almost a decade journeying far and wide, entrusting his life to the
fortunes of war, to improvisation and chance. At a time of unrest when
new continents were being discovered and captured with unrestricted
violence and cruelty, when the buttresses of tradition, learning and faith
were being mercilessly challenged and demolished, unconventional features
in the life and work of the luminaries of the age are not surprising. More-
over, there is little that is unconventional in the life of the itinerant doctor
and army surgeon as such. There is much unrest noticeable in the life
and career even of such entrenched academic dignitaries as Leonard Fuchs
and many other eminent men of the century.
29 As Diepgen has shown, basing his criticism on a thorough examination of the Danish
sources (notably Hans Grams). See Diepgen, P.: \'<las wissen wir sicher iiber den Auf-
enthalt des Paracelsus in Skandinavien? Dtsch. med.W schr. 1943, p. 603; with special
reference to Paracelsus' supposed relationship with the mother of Christian H's
mistress, Sigbrit Villumsen, who exerted an unhappy influence on the king, especially
after the assassination of her daughter.
30 Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 374.
31 Grosse Wundarznei. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 96.
'i"
·1
Relationship between medicine and surgery 15
Relationship between medicine and surgery
What gives Paracelsus' early life its singular mark, however, is the
vacillation between the academic and artisan attitudes to life and medicine.
It is against this background that his persistent complaints must be
viewed - that he was recognised as a surgeon, but not as a physician.
In this the mediaeval attitude was still the order of the day. It regarded
active interference at the sick bed as something beneath the dignity of the
physician - for he enjoyed the privileges of the scholar. On the other hand
it precluded the surgeon - a mere craftsman - from any theoretical
approach.
The work of the great surgeon-scholars in the XIVth century, notably
of Henri de Mondeville 32, had never gained influence strong enough to break
the ice which separated physician and surgeon - nor was it intended to
do so.
This was the mediaeval professional code against which Paracelsus
battered. Where, he asks, is the surgery that a physician can dispense
with in his doctoring and where is the medical disease that does not require
the surgeon? Medicine is but theoretical insight into the nature, and
surgery the cure, of all diseases. He addresses the surgeon: "Look out
how you can stand up to diseases you call surgical - erysipelas, cancer,
estiomene ... if you are not a physician, what can you do other than mecha-
nical cutting in tailor's fashion? For you must find your ground in medi-
cine. How then can you establish it as another faculty and profession ?
You wood doctor and fool! He is called physician who fathoms the origin
of disease, and surgery is that which guides practical procedure. In judi-
cando you are a physician, in curando a surgeon.... The patient asks for
cure - "surgery"-, and not for theory - "medicine" -, it is the doctor who
needs this. That is: there can be no surgeon who is not also a physician -
the latter is begotten by the surgeon and the surgeon tests the physician
by the results of his work. Where the physician is not also a surgeon
32
For Henri de Mondeville (born between 1250 and 1270, died after 1325) and his creation
of the "scholar-surgeon", reference must be made to his "discovery" and first intro-
duction into the annals of medical history by Julius Pagel (1851-1912). A selection
from the pertinent literature is found in the present author's: Julius Pagel. Victor
Robinson Memorial Vol. NewYork 1948, pp. 273-297; id., Medical History at the
End of the Nineteenth Century. To commemorate Julius Pagel and his Discovery of
Mediaeval Sources. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1952, XLV, 303-306; id., Julius Pagel and the
Significance of Medical History for Medicine. Bull. Hist. Med. 1951, XXV, 207-225;
id., review of Theodoric's Surg., translated by E. Campbell and J. Colton in Isis 1956,
XLVII, pp. 444-445.
16 The Life of Paracelsus
Fig. 3. Hospital scene. Woodcut from Paracelsus Opus Chirurgicum. Frankfurt. Sigmund
Feyerabend 1566, p. 38 (and repeated). In the foreground surgeons operating. Between
them a group of consulting physicians discussing a urine specimen. From the evidence of
the authentic Paracelsus-Portraits (compare our fig. 4), Paracelsus in external appearance
resembled a surgeon rather than a physician.
On the artist compare: Herrlinger, R., Die Anatomie des Jost Amman und die Illustra-
tion zu Feyerabends Paracelsus-Ausgabe von 1565. Arch. Gesch.Med.1953, XXXVII,
23-38; and ibid. Ein weiterer Holzschnitt aus der Werkstatt J ostAmmans.1954, XXXVIII,
84-86.
he is an idol that is nothing but a painted monkey." 33 In his "Spitalbuch"
of 1529, Paracelsus presents all this in an autobiographical setting. He
says: The cures which he had performed on eighteen sovereigns, aban-
33 "Wo ist ein wuntarznei, die nicht ein physicum muss haben in seiner krankheit? Wo
ist ein leibarznei, die nicht durch ein chirurgicum muss und sol geheilt werden? ...
dan jeder krank begert der chirurgei und nicht der physic. der arzt aber begert der
physic. das ist kein chirurgicus mag nicht sein ohn ein physicum; er wird aus im ge-
boren und der chirurgus probirt den physicum ... "
Liber De Podagricis et suis speciebus et morbis annexis (Zwei friihe Ausarbeitungen
iiber das Podagra) lib. III. Cura. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, pp. 341-342.
Salzburg 17
doned by their physicians as incurable, in themselves refute the reproach
that he was no physician, but "only" a surgeon-craftsman. It was he -
the army surgeon - who had brought succour to a multitude of sufferers
from fever - in the Netherlands, in the territories of Rome, Naples, Venice,
in Denmark, Latvia, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, England, and all parts
of Germany. 34
The blows aimed by Paracelsus against the professional code were bound
to recoil upon the reckless attacker and to undermine any thought of civic
existence and respectability which he might have entertained at any stage
of his life. It was just this unification of surgery and medicine which was
conditioned by, and in turn led to, his devastating criticism of accepted
tradition, so that his further life became a series of fateful clashes with
ruling classes and opinions. It was a losing battle from the start - in spite
of the triumphs at the sick bed and the lasting fame in the annals of me-
dicine. Each of the long line of adventures and attempts to settle down
follows an identical pattern: Paracelsus arrives. His fame immediately
procures him a large audience. He effects a cure where others have failed.
He finds influential friends, and is even employed with a public authority.
After a short while, however, he falls foul of authorities, colleagues, pupils,
and even his former friends. To avoid imprisonment or death he has to
leave secretly and suddenly, forfeiting his earthly possessions. The classi-
cal example is his academic and professional activity at Basie - in spite of
its short duration, the climax of his life.
(a) Salzburg
Before, however, there is his experience at Salzburg (1524-1525). Para-
celsus was passionately moved by the misery of the poor, by the slavery into
which rigid juridical tradition had trapped them. His religious and social
ethical speculations are in line with those of the Brethren of the Spirit, the
Anabaptists and the exponents of "popular pantheism" in the Middle Ages
and the era of Reformation. 35 That he should be found in the ranks of the
rebellious peasants was a foregone conclusion. He was arrested, but nar-
rowly escaped the savage death meted out to suspects as well as those
convicted. A feature typical of his journeys emerges after his flight from
Salzburg: the attraction by which he was drawn to watering places. Not
universities, but spas, were the focal points to which he again and again
34 Spitalbuch (Part One). Preface. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 374.
35 For detail see later, p. 227.
18 The Life of Paracelsus
resorted. Like the mines, they were to him nature's laboratories revealing
her hidden virtues and powers. Thus, after his flight from Salzburg, he
visits the spas of Baden and Suebia, along the Danube.
(b) Strassburg
In 1526 it looks as if Paracelsus were to settle down at last. He is now
33 and on December 5th of this year has his name entered into the town
register at Strassburg. This entitled him to permanent residence and he
was free to join the guild "Zur Lutzerne" which received surgeons and
tradesmen. Again, he did not stay long - there is the story of his defeat
in a disputation on anatomy with the Strassburg surgeon Wendelin Hock36
which is said to have prejudiced his professional prospects. Yet we are told
hy Paracelsus' pupil Oporinus that the master was very popular with all
strata of the Alsatian population. In fact, he led the full life of a highly
appreciated professional authority whose society and counsel were sought
hy prominent town and country men. It cannot, therefore, have been a
scandal that drove Paracelsus from the town. It may be assumed, how-
ever, that already at Strassburg Paracelsus' relationship with his colleagues
left much to be desired and that he relied on the protection given to him
by the influential circle of the reformers.
The reformers at Strassburg
In this respect four figures must be considered: Nicolaus Gerbelius,
Kaspar Hedio, Wolfgang Capito, all at Strassburg, and Johannes Oeco-
lampadius, the reformer of Basie. Capito, before coming to Strassburg,
had been at Basie too, and was the intimate friend of Oecolampadius
whom he had known in his youth at Heidelberg and Bruchsal. At Basie
he had sponsored the latter's doctorate. Capito reached the height of his
26
Hock, a Suebian, was the author of an early syphilis tract (Strassburg, 1502; 1514)
in which he advocated cautious treatment with mercury. His debate with Paracelsus
is "hypothetical", as E. Wickersheimer rightly says in Paracelse a Strasbourg. Cen-
taurus, 1951, I, 356-365 (p. 359), with reference to Bittel, Die Elsasser Zeit des Para·
~elsus. Hohenheims Wirken in Strassburg und Kolmar, sowie seine Beziehungen zu
Lorenz Fries. Elsass-1.othring. Jb. 1944, XXI, 158-159; and Pachter, M.: Para-
celsus. New York 1951, p. 144. The story is based on indirect evidence provided by
an anti-Paracelsean lampoon from the Basie period. The passage to the effect that
he shunned a disputation with Hock may refer not to one held at Strassburg, but to
-0ne proposed at Basie and in fact never held.
Strassburg. - Basie 19
fame at Strassburg round about 1523. Gerbelius, secretary to the Strass-
burg Cathedral chapter, wrote of him: ••you cannot imagine what Capito 's
authority has achieved." 37 It was at Strassburg that he was visited by the
emissaries of the Queen of Navarre (the sister of Francis I) - Jacobus
Faber of Etaples and Gerardus Rufus - and thus became responsible for
the rise of protestantism in France.as
Capito was a friend of Hedio and Gerbelius. Hedio met Paracelsus,
as Gerbelius tells us in his diary - he was himself Paracelsus' patient.39
Capito was a polymath who had studied medicine, also law and in par-
ticular Greek and Hebrew. It is probable that through him Paracelsus was
brought into contact with the humanist circles at Basie.
(c) Basie
At all events, already from the middle of January to the end of Feb-
ruary 1527 Paracelsus was absent from Strassburg - on a visit to Basie.
Here the life centre of the humanist movement was the publisher Froben.
For some time Froben had failed to find relief for an ailing leg. Paracelsus
was more fortunate than the multitude of his colleagues who had been
consulted and was just in time to dissuade the patient from having his leg
amputated, as had been proposed. The success of his therapy was witnessed
and gratefully recognised by Froben's friends, among them Erasmus and
the influential Amerbach brothers. Already at this time the wish to secure
Paracelsus' services for Basie was expressed by Erasmus.40
For the actual appointment of Paracelsus (March 1527), Oecolampadius41
seems to have been responsible. We mentioned him before as the intimate
friend of Capito and the other Strassburg reformers whom Paracelsus had
known. He was highly influential in the town council which was predomi-
nantly protestant - in contrast to the university. He was a zealous theo-
37
"Non credis quantum auctoritas Capitonis efficiat", Gerbelius epist. XXII to Schwe·
belius, quoted from Adam, M.: Vitae Theologorum. Heidelberg 1620, p. 90.
38
Adam: loc. cit., p. 90.
Th~ relevant passages were published by Wickersheimer, loc. cit., pp. 359-360, to
39
which was added Paracelsus' prescription for Gerbelius in facsimile (p. 361). See also
Blaser, R.H.: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Basler Zeit des Paracelsus. Nova Acta Paracels.
Supplement to vol. VI. Einsiedeln 1953, 90 pp.
40
Blaser: loc. cit., p. 14.
41
This is the grecian form of his name Hussgen or Hausschein. He lived from 1482 to
1531. See for example: Hagenbach, K. R. : History of the Reformation. Trans. E.
Moore, Edinburgh 1878, vol. I, p. 275, also for further lit. concerning his divergences
from Luther. On his decisive influence in the appointment of Paracelsus: Jociscus in
his Vita Oporini. Strassburg 1569, p. 14.
20 The Life of Paracelsus
logian, hut had an active interest in social problems and the significance
of those deeds which keep faith alive in the same way as the spirit keeps
alive the hody.42
Paracelsus, though a Catholic, was known for his long record of friend-
ship with progressive circles and the Reformation. His medical proficiency
was ousting mediaeval scholastic medicine and was thus hound to appeal
to humanists, reformed churchmen and the public. A reformer of medicine
following original and, so it appeared, highly successful ways seemed to he
the right candidate for the vacant post of municipal physician - the man
to complement and strengthen the new - protestant - course set in town
politics. It was owing to the latter that the vacancy had arisen and persisted
for four years.
The post to which Paracelsus was appointed was a municipal, not a
university, preferment. Yet it was anomalous in that it carried the com-
mission and right to lecture. 43 The university, however, had not been
consulted in the appointment. In fact, owing to the dispute caused by the
Reformation and a severe epidemic of plague, many professors were absent.
Worse than this, Paracelsus himself refused to submit to the formal aci
of reception as an external graduate. This required a special oath and
recognition of his diploma by the university. Perhaps Paracelsus had no
such diploma to show. 44 Moreover, he challenged the faculty directly by
issuing an iconoclastic manifesto. 45 In this he promises to teach practical
and theoretical medicine for two hours daily - not after Hippocrates and
Galen (as was the recognised academic method), hut on the basis of original
experience in unravelling the secrets of nature and disease. Finally he
solemnly burned in the bonfire, on the most unsolemn occasion of a stu-
dents' rag, on June 24th (St.John's Day), the fat vohi~e of Avicenna -
the "Canon" of academic medicine. 46
42 The open book to which he points in his portrait (Blaser, loc. cit., p. 27) displays the
verse from James, II, 26: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith with-
out works is dead also".
43 Statutory detail regarding the post and the salary which it carried can be found in:
Robert Blaser, "Amplo Stipendio Invitatus". Zur Frage der Stellung und Besoldung
des Paracelsus in Basel. Arch. Gesch. Med. 1957, XLI, 143-153.
44 See above on Paracelsus' doctorate at Ferrara.
45 His "Intimatio" as printed in Sudhoff's edition of the works, vol. IV, p. 1-4.
46 Sudhoff discredits the story that Paracelsus burnt Avicenna - a thick folio would not
burn in a bonfire - and rather envisages the "Summa" of Jacobus de Partibus or per-
haps the - older - Summa of Thomas de Garbo. (Paracelsus. Leipzig 1936, p. 30).
Paracelsus himself said: "die Summe der Biicher" (Preface to Paragranum. Ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. VIII, p. 58).
However, Avicenna's Canon is well documented, by the testimony of Sebastian
Basle 21
This act seems to have followed the publication of his manifesto47 and
the opening of his lectures by only a few weeks. The faculty reacted -
refusing the use of the lecture room and the right to sponsor candidates
for the doctorate. At the same time Paracelsus' qualification to lecture
was disputed. In turn he lodged a protest with the town council against
the restrictions and censures. This was combined with complaints against
malpractice on the part of the apothecaries. Such complaints belonged to
the routine duty of a municipal physician commissioned to supervise and
regularly visit apothecary shops.
Paracelsus continued his lectures. He delivered them in the vernacular
- an absolute novelty in academic life, which it continued to he for nearly
two centuries. In these lectures Paracelsus formed the essential nucleus of
his system of medicine.
He must have had an enthusiastic and crowded audience which - an-
other breakaway from an iron tradition - included the nonacademic harher-
surgeons.
The first event which seriously undermined his position at Basie was
the sudden death of Frohen (October, 1527). A most damaging and widely
publicised lampoon followed-making fun of the neologisms which he had
used in his lectures and extolling the wisdom of Galen against the "Caco-
phrastus" Paracelsus. This was a special blow to the latter, as he had to
suspect one of his own pupils of being the author - for nobody else could
have been so conversant with his doctrines. Again Paracelsus complained
to the town council (December, 1527). The complaint was shelved.
Paracelsus had aroused the open hostility of his natural enemies: the
academicans and apothecaries with vested interests in the particular
tradition which he had deliberately defied. Afterwards he had done nothing
to mitigate or appease such hostility; instead he had developed a special
technique ("cum more suo") 48 of bringing things to a head. Above all,
however, by his aggressiveness and his flow of complaints he had alienated
the affection of his friends and the tolerance of the indifferent.
The final - famous - episode is his clash with the town magistrate whom
Paracelsus accused of ignorance and injustice. He had treated a dignitary
Franck: "Den Avicennam soll er verprent haben" (Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichts-
bibel. Strassburg 1531, fol. 253 - as quoted by Sudhoff himself loc. cit., p. 68).
47 June 5th: Blaser, p. 32; Sudhoff: Paracelsus' Werke, vol. IV, 3. On June 16th he is
first recorded as a university teacher in the municipal salary sheet.
48 Blaser, p. 51, with reference to the account in J. J. Grasser's Itinerarium historico-
politicum (1624) of the final quarrel at Basle.
22 The Life of Paracelsus
of the church49 in an acute painful abdominal incident for the cure of which
the patient had finally promised an enormous fee (100 guilders). When
Paracelsus effected full relief with the help of a few of his laudanum pills,
the patient refused to keep his promise. 50 H~d it been a practical joke
on Paracelsus, engineered by his enemies to provide material for a future
lampoon ?51 Paracelsus' reaction was typical and consistent with his first
principles of professional conduct. Oporinus tells us that he was not con-
cerned with the amassing of wealth. We are also told that he would rather
give alms than take a fee from the sick and poor. But litigation against
the rich prebendary was something to embark upon with enthusiasm.
For Paracelsus had been cheated by rich patients before. It was one of
his recurring experiences. Again and again he reacted after the "Michael
Kohlhaas" pattern: rigidly maintaining the letter of the law and exagger-
ating in violent outbursts the injury inflicted upon him - with the result
of a perpetual litigation that appears to us egocentric and unrealistic.
The magistrate - reflecting popular feeling in the town - found against
the plaintiff. He awarded a small fee, out of proportion to what had been
promised and demanded. Having insulted a judge publicly, Paracelsus
made himself liable to early arrest and severe - possibly capital - punish-
ment. Following the advice of his few remaining friends he left the town
that same day, entrusting his possessions to his pupil Oporinus.
This happened in January or February 1528 - bringing to an abrupt
close the ten months of climax in the life of Paracelsus,52
(5) The second set of journeys
What follows is a series of journeys interrupted by short periods of
residence in the south of Germany, in Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia and
again in Austria.
49 One Cornelius of Lichtenfels.
50 Not the patient reluctant to pay, but Paracelsus' pupil Oporinus (see later, p. 29)
called the paltry-looking but so highly efficient pills: "Mouse-dung". See Oporinus'
letter to· Wierus as quoted in footnote on p. 29 and Wierus, Joh., De Praestigiis Dae-
monum ex incantationibus et veneficiis lib. sex. Oporinus, Basel 1568, p. 198: "Pi-
lulae ad formam stercoris muris apparatae, unde et stercus muris Paracelsi nuncu-
patur . . . hoc opiatum stercus ex Ducatorum veterum auro purissimo vi chymica
extractum praedicabat." On the "Laudanum" of Paracelsus - a different preparation -
see later p. 103; p. 330.
51 That it had been a deliberate trap set by the anti-Paracelsean clique, was suggested
by Robert Browning and is supported by Pachter: Paracelsus, loc. cit., 1951, p. 318.
52 That Paracelsus' sojourn at Basie was indeed the climax in his creative life as a medical
philosopher is well shown in Blaser, Robert: Das Bild des Arztes in den Basler Vor-
Colmar. Nuremberg. Work on Syphilis 23
(a) Colmar, Esslingen, Nuremberg. The work on Syphilis
From Basie, Paracelsus went to Colmar where he stayed with Lorenz
Fries53, the author of popular medical literature - written like Paracelsus'
treatises in the vernacular. 54 There, however, the similarity ends - Fries'
work being on common dietetic lines. Though rejoined at Colmar by his
pupils - notably Oporinus - Paracelsus soon moved and, after a short stay
at Esslingen, reached Nuremberg in 1529. This was the town of his hope -
the great centre of commerce, of artists, artisans and religious reformers.
His reputation went before him, however, and precluded any access to the
phalanx of professionals which stood firmly closed against him. He imme-
diately challenged the latter by proposing to cure any patient deemed
incurable - in which he miraculously succeeded among nine out of fifteen
of the lepers of the town. Conceivably this intensified the hostility of his
colleagues. Worse than this, he alienated the strong Lutheran circles by
dissociating himself outspokenly from Lutheran orthodoxy. In his view
this was just as condemnable as popery. Standing as he did for practising
rather than preaching Christianity; he was bound to take exception to the
Lutheran worship of "Word" and "Faith" in contrast to "Deed". The
support given by Luther and his church to social injustice as practised by
the ruling circles in exterminating the rebellious poor, the dissenters and
the enthusiasts could not fail to provoke Paracelsus' anger and disgust. 56
More than anywhere else, his literary work at Nuremberg went straight
against recognised doctrines and ruling opinions.
lesungen des Paracelsus. Paracelsus-Schriftenreilie der Stadt Villach, No. V. Klagen-
furt 1956. 34 pp.
53 Letter of Paracelsus from Colmar to Bonifacius Amerbach of Feb. 28th, 1528, printed
in Sudhoff's ed., vol. vi, pp. 33-35, and fac. on plate iv.
54 In contrast to Paracelsus, Fries' opposition to current views turned not against
traditional medicine at large, but against the humanistic attitude of opposition to the
Arabic commentators. He published in 1530 a "Defence of Avicenna". This was not
necessarily directed against Paracelsus or occasioned by his visit - as he had praised
Avicenna already in his "Mirror of Medicine" in 1518 (see for detail Lynn Thorndike,
Hist. of Magic. Vol. V, New York 1941, p. 435). He consistently advocated the pro-
fessional privileges of the academically qualified doctor.
On the literary bickering going on between Fries and Paracelsus after the latter's
sojourn at Colmar see the loci collected by Sudhoff, Paracelsus, 1936, loc. cit., p. 56.
In passing, the progressive features exhibited in Fries' anatomical illustrations should
be mentioned. Compared with the highly schematic - "medieval" - diagrams, for
example, of the Anthropologium of Magnus Hundt (1501), the pictures of Fries,
though appearing only sixteen years later, are "modern" in character and separated
from the former as it were by ages. (See Herrlinger, R.: Grundsiitzliche Gedanken zu
anatomischen Abbildungen um 1500. Grenzgebiete der Medizin 1949, II, 561.)
56 See also later p. 41.
24 The Life of Paracelsus
The main medical problem of the era was syphilis, the disease newly
imported from the West Indies and causing on an unsalted soil all the
horrors of an acute and savage pandemic. Perhaps the situation was similar
to our own predicament in the face of cancer, particularly of the lung, and
the almost epidemic character which this form has assumed in recent years.
The main hone of contention was treatment. For this two remedies
were available: inunction with mercury and a decoction of the American
guaiac or pock wood. The miracles ascribed to the latter by such hopeless
sufferers from syphilis as Ulrich of Hutten were vigorously and judi-
ciously rejected by Paracelsus, who conceded to it hut one miracle: the ever
continuing and growing revenue which it brought to the coffers of the
holders of the guaiac import monopoly, the Fuggers of Augsburg. On the
other hand, though on sound principle an advocate of mercurial treat-
ment, Paracelsus had to expose and deprecate the common murderous
misuse of the metal. Already at Colmar he had directed particular attention
to the disease and taught how to avoid "mercurialism" and exploit the
curative while avoiding the toxic effect of the metal by careful dosage and
the use of less toxic mercury preparations.
Paracelsus had given vent to his opinions in a first short treatise against
the guaiac. This was followed by the first hook (probably printed in
1529)57 of a work planned on more comprehensive lines. It attacked
"impostors" and "impostures". The weapon now adopted by the pro-
fession was censorship. Paracelsus defied the opposition, having a hur-
ried edition printed by Frederic Peypus (1530). With this no further
sojourn in the city was possible. He retired to Beratzhausen - still hoping
for return and friendship with the men of Nuremberg when the storm had
blown over.
Such strange optimism was shattered by the final decree prohibiting
the printing of the planned Eight Books on the French Disease. The decree
was based on the opinion of the Leipzig Medical Faculty delivered by the
dean Heinrich Stromer of Auershach - founder of "Auerbach's Cellar",
author of a popular plague tract and friend and beneficiary of the Fugger
family.
(h) Beratzhausen and the "Paragranum"
There was no return to Nuremberg: staying at Beratzhausen, Paracelsus
entered his "Paramiric" period - the height of his medical literary activity.
57 See the evidence collected by Sudhoff, Introduction to the Vllth vol. of his edition,
pp. 11-13.
"Paragranum". "Opus Paramirum". St. Gall 25
He first hammered together the "Paragranum" (1529-30). Writing some-
thing "beyond the grain" he must have been aware that he was reaching
a climax himself. It is the "four-pillar work", demanding that medicine
should he based on: natural philosophy, Astronomy (embracing the rela-
tions of man with the cosmos outside him), Alchemy (notably the know-
ledge and invention of chemical remedies) and Virtue (the personal power
immanent in the individual - doctor, patient, herb, metal - which must he
united to effect the cure). The hook was introduced by the prefaces which
have become famous - packed as they are with the most vigorous invectives
against traditional medicine and its high priests.
It was at Beratzhausen too that he resumed religious preaching, which
he had practised already at Salzburg four years earlier.
(c) St. Gall and the "Opus Paramirum"
He became a still more active preacher at St. Gall where he stayed next.
St. Gall at this time was an important international emporium. Here, in
1531, the great Opus Paramirum - the "Work beyond Wonder" - was
completed. It had been conceived and outlined at Basie or even before.
It contains Paracelsus' basic medical doctrines, notably an exposition of
the diseases due to "tartar" and imagination. 58
He dedicated the work to Joachim de Watt (Vadianus), the humanist,
friend of such religious reformers as Ulrich Zwingli59, sometime Rector of
Vienna University, now acting mayor of St. Gall. He also had been a friend
of Paracelsus' father and the son had studied under him first at Villach
and - possibly - later in Vienna. He was hound to support his former
pupil, at least to begin with: by admitting him to the town and introducing
him to patients such as Christian Studer, the sick mayor of the city, and
affluent friends such as Bartholomeus Schowinger. In the long run Vadia-
nus, a typical exponent of academic tradition, order and dignity was hardly
anxious to solve the eternal personal problem of his iconoclastic pupil, and
to undertake the herculean task of making him into a permanent peaceful
citizen. Yet, Paracelsus stayed for more than two years.
(d) Appenzell, Innsbruck, Sterzing. "On the miners' disease"
The year 1533 found him in the land of Appenzell - a poo;r lay preacher
and healer among poor Swiss peasants. In the same year he visited the
58 See our account of "paramiric" doctrines, p. 121; p. 153.
59 On Vadianus as churchman, lay preacher and reformer see Hagenbach, K. R.: History
26 The Life of Paracelsus
mining districts of Hall and Schwaz. Here his work on the Miners' disease
was conceived and written - the first treatise in medical literature recog·
nising and systematically dealing with an occupational disease. 60
The route led towards Innsbruck. He entered the town in beggar's garb
and duly failed to secure professional admission.
1534 he had passed the Brenner and reached Sterzing (Vipiteno) in June.
The town was in the throes of the plague, hut the authorities, notably
clergymen of both confessions, not only refused to listen, hut hurled abuse
at him. Paracelsus, weakened by want and by his voluntary exposure to
an epidemic-ridden population, seems to have fallen ill and was suspected
of a venereal infection. Again, however, he was not without influential
friends. 61
(e) Meran, St.Moritz, Pfafers and the foundation of Balneology
Better luck awaited him at Meran and in the Veltlin - to Paracelsus
"the most healthy land, superior to Germany, Italy and France, nay to all
western and eastern Europe, where there is no gout, no colic, no rheuma·
tism, no stone". In the same vein he praises the spring of St.Moritz, an
acid water (especially in August) which "drives away gout, and makes the
stomach as strong in digestion as that of a bird that digests tartar and
iron". 62
St.Moritz was followed by Pfafers-Ragaz to which he devoted a special
pamphlet (August 1535). Here again he was fascinated by the "occult"
healing powers prepared in a subterranean laboratory and emerging as spa
water. It is at the spas that he seems to have spent the most happy days
of his life.
At this time he seems to have issued his consilium for the abbot John
Jacob Russinger at Pfafers.
(f) Augsburg and the "Great Surgery"
1536 found him at Kempten, Memmingen, Ulm and Augsburg. His
i>tay in the two latter cities is connected with the printing of his "Grosse
Wundarznei", started, hut not progressing to his satisfaction, at Ulm, and
of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland chiefly. Trans. E. Moore. Edinburgh
1878, vol. I, p. 339; Gotzinger, E.: Joachim Vadian, der Reformator und Geschichts-
schreiber von St. Gallen. Halle 1895.
6° For an account of its contents see later, p. 102.
61 Kerner and Marx Poschinger.
62 Das Buch von den tartarischen Krankheiten. Cap. 16, Huser: Fol. Edit. I, p. 309.
Spas. Great Surgery. Philos. Sagax. Carinthia 27
restarted and completed (up to the second hook) by Heinrich Steiner at
Augsburg (July to August 1536). The work was an immediate success and
had to he reprinted a year later. However, instead of continuing to write
the three further hooks projected, Paracelsus resumed his eternal journeys.
(g) Bavaria and Bohemia. "Philosophia Sagax"
Via Nordlingen he passed Munich, Passau, Eferding 63 (1537) on his way
to Bohemia, following the call for a consultation at Moravian Kromau, on
behalf of Johann von der Leipnik, a high dignitary of the kingdom of Bo-
hemia. Here besides work at the chemical furnace he began writing his
philosophical magnum opus - the Astronomia Magna or Philosophia Sagax
of the Greater and Lesser world. 64
(h) Presshurg and Vienna
On the way hack he stayed at Presshurg and Vienna - cold-shouldered
by the medical profession, hut sought after by the sick and even admitted
to an audience with King Ferdinand, the brother of Charles V, on two
occas10ns.
Prior to his arrival, at Presshurg he had been the guest of honour at a
ceremonial dinner. He had recovered something of the grand reputation
and wealth which he had lost in his Appenzell and Tyrolean period. Again,
however, it could not last for long. A series of altercati~ns with the Austrian
treasury followed. Paracelsus again managed to he cheated of all princely
promises and to sink hack into poverty. He had certainly disappointed his
protectors and the king is said to have called him the biggest swindler he
had ever met. Perhaps he had lost another battle against the faculty and
colleagues.
(i) Carinthia. The "Karntner Trilogie". The End at Salzburg
Soon afterwards (1538) he visited Carinthia where he dedicated to
the authorities of the land the "Carinthian Trilogy". 65 It sets out with a
dedication amplified by a panegyric in the form of a "Chronica" of the land.
83 Visiting the friend of his youth, the "adept" theologian and jurist, Johann von Brant,
to whom he dedicated the last revision of his book on diseases due to tartar.
64 First published by Toxites at Frankfurt (Feyerabend) 1571.
65 For literary detail see Goldammer, Kurt: Die Karntner Schriften des Paracelsus und
ihre Geschichte. Reprinted from Theophrast von Hohenheim: Die Karntner Schriften.
Ausgabe des Landes Karnten. Klagenfurt 1955, pp. 293-310.
28 The Life of Paracelsus
This is followed by a treatise on "Tartarus" written in Bohemia and in-
scribed to Johannes von Brant66, the "Labyrinth of doctors perplexed"
and an apologia pro vita sua, the "Seven Defensiones". The dedication
was accepted, hut the printing though promised, not undertaken - possibly
owing to official inertia67, possibly at the behest of the Vienna faculty 68.
Later, Paracelsus received a deposition by the town council of Villach
concerning the life and death of his respected father who had died four
years earlier.
. f AVRI.<11 ;"fl-JEOPHMSTI;. M flff:)H[N:~
ffl-i&M t ElfIGI[.fi tSVI ;.)£TATIS ~ •+ ~I .
1~A--f fe
Fig. 4. Paracelsus a. aet. 45. The famous portrait by Augustin Hirschvogel - 1538 -
preserved at the Albertina.
On Hirschvogel and Paracelsus see Donald Brinkmann, Augustin Hirschvogel und
Paracelsus. Paracelsus Schriftenreihe d. Stadt Villach VI, Klagenfurt 1957.
66 See footnote 63.
67 The view favoured by Goldammer.
68 As assumed by Strebel, Werke. St. Gallen 1944, vol. I, p. 71.
The end at Salzbnrg. Oporinus 29
The famous Paracelsus portrait by Augustin Hirschvogel - plausibly
regarded as the most genuine likeness - belongs to this year. It depicts
the man whose strong convictions challenged the world. The motto given
is: Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest. Another Hirschvogel Portrait
(of 1540) hears the additional device: What is perfect is from God, what
is imperfect from Satan, and thus well epitomises what Paracelsus thought
and expected from himself, and how he identified himself with the highest
ideals of the art. At the same time it is the picture of a sick man, looking
much older than his age (47).
Having continued on the great theosophical "Philosophia Sagax" in the
"desert region" around St.Veit and Klagenfurt, he followed in about 1541
a call by the bishop suffragan Ernest of Wittelshach to Salzburg where he
died on September 24th -having bequeathed some of his few belongings to
the poor and requested burial at the almshouse of St. Sebastian.
A strange personality and a strange life! Reports from eye witnesses on
whom his strange ways must have left an indelible mark should he of parti-
cular interest. Unfortunately, first hand evidence of this nature is scanty69
and what we do possess is coloured by emotion.
There is, however, one more serious and elaborate account which
deserves consideration in detail: that of his famulus Johannes Oporinus.
Johannes Oporinus and his pen portrait of Paracelsus
Among the mixed crowd of his pupils Paracelsus finds words of praise
for Johannes Oporinus (1507-1568) 70 who later became famous as Pro-
fessor of Greek at Basie and as the publisher of Vesalius (1543). His re-
miniscences of his apprenticeship under Paracelsus were given in a letter
to Solenander and Wierus and have been much quoted by friend and foe. 71
In fact, they are not altogether in an adverse vein, hut probably the
69 It was collected recently by Sudhoff, loc. cit. 1936.
70
"auch in sonderheit in allem vertrauen gepraucht meinen getreuen Johannem Oppo-
rinum". Buch der Imposturen II, 22. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 138.
71
The letter of November 26th 1555 was omitted from the printed editions of Wierus'
De praestigiis daemonum, the earlier of which were published by Oporinus. Sudhoff
(Paracelsus. Ein deutsches Lebensbild ans den Tagen der Renaissance. Leipzig 1936,
p. 46) prints the letter from a Dutch translation, but remarks (p. 60) that the textual
tradition is open to criticism. The Latin text was transmitted by Dan. Sennert, De
Chymicorum cum Aristotelicis et Galenicis Consensu. 1619. Ed. used: Paris 1633,
pp. 32-33.
30 The Life of Paracelsus
honest testimony of a gentle soul, shocked for life by the rough and
irregular habits and jokes of a not altogether sane genius.
Oporinus finds fault with Paracelsus' lack of piety and scholarship.
He never saw him pray, but often over heard his slighting remarks against
Luther as well as the pope and all theologians - none of whom Paracelsus
believed to have penetrated to the kernel of Scripture. Above all Oporinus
is repelled by Paracelsus' addiction to drink. Yet, Oporinus continues, what
he dictated late after a nocturnal bout - inebriated to all appearances -
made complete sense and could not have been improved upon by a per·
fectly sober person. He never undressed72 but threw himself on his bed
with his long sword - the present of a hangman - girded about him; sud-
denly he jumped up and, brandishing the sword, behaved like a madman
and frightened his famulus to distraction. All day he was busy at his
furnace - producing violent fumes which once overpowered the assistant
when Paracelsus made him sniff at one of the alembics. Oporinus said
that Paracelsus lived luxuriously, was never short of money and fond of
new expensive clothes. He gave the old ones away, but they were so dirty
that nobody would accept them. He worked miracles on ulcers - without
restricting the diet of his patients but feasting with them, so that he cured
them "with a full stomach". Up to his twenty-fifth year he had been averse
to drink, but later he challenged peasants to drinking contests from which
he emerged victorious. He was not interested in women and - Oporinus
believes - had never had intercourse.
Oporinus' letter remains the best eye-witness acount of the master and
his unconventional behaviour. There is no rancour in it, but rather awe
mingled with a measure of admiration and relief as after awakening from
a nightmare. Hence there is really no place for the vilification of Oporinus. 73
This also emerges from the high praise accorded to him by the orthodox
Paracelsist Toxites. He calls upon Oporinus as a witness for the life-saving
action of the Laudanum of Paracelsus. Oporinus himself, whom Toxites
loved like a brother, had used it with singular success, as he had told him
72 This part of Oporinus' story is born out by Riitiner's "Diarium" with reference to
Paracelsus' stay at St. Gallen: "Laboriosissimus est, raro dormit. Nunquam se ipsum
exuit, ocreis et calcaribus tres horas in lectum prostratus cubit subinde, subinde
scribit." (Quoted from Sudhoff, Paracelsus, 1936, loc. cit., p. 103).
73
See Sudhoff, loc. cit. 1936, pp. 45 et seq. and particularly Strebel who sees in Opo·
rinus' report the source of Paracelsus' ill fame as a drinker. (Der Schalk in Paracelsus.
Paracelsus-Studien III, Basel 1941, p. 37. Reprinted from Schweiz. med. Wschr.
1941, No. 38-39.) However, Strebel himself, following the example of Sudhoff(Ioc. cit.
1936, p. 62-67, subheaded "Der Zecher" under the main heading "Hohenwege"),
takes particular pleasure in mapping out the vintages which Paracelsus favoured
(loc. cit.).
Bibliography 31
on a journey by boat from Basie to Strassburg. 74 Finally, it was Oporinus
who passed Paracelsus manuscripts on to Bodenstein and Toxites and
thereby inspired and fed the Paracelsean movement in its early stages,
although he may have shunned publicity in this matter. 75
The Literary Remains
Short notes on the Bibliography of Paracelsus
We have mentioned some of the main works of Paracelsus as landmarks in the various
stages of his life: the "Paramirum" and "Paragranum", the "Great Surgery" and the
tracts on Syphilis - all reflecting the climax of his creative life. We also mentioned the
"Seven Defensiones" and the "Philosophia Sagax" - products of his declining years.
These comprise but a small fraction of the Opera Omnia which fill ten volumes of the
Quarto· and two elephant volumes of the Folio-Edition of John Huser - the latter running
to a total of 1818 pages to which 680 pages of surgical writings must be added. Only a
few of Paracelsus' writings, however, had been published during his life-time, such as
several of the astrological forecasts - "Practica" -, his tract against the Guaiac, his "Von
der Frantzosischen Kranckheit Drey Biicher", the booklet on Bad Pfllfers and above all
the "Great Surgery". From the early :fifties - about twelve years after the death of Para·
celsus - an ever increasing stream of Paracelsean writings came to light foremost among
them the "Labyrinth of Errant Physicians" (1553) - the tail piece of the "Carinthian
Trilogy" of 1538. The publication of these numerous books, tracts and papers reflects the
activity of the early Paracelsists notably Adam of Bodenstein, son of the church
reformer Carlstadt, Michael Schiitz (Toxites), Gerhard Dom, Theodor and Arnold Birck·
mann and many others. 76 It reached a peak at about 1570 with the publication of the
"Archidoxis", the handbook of Paracelsean Chemistry, in a number of editions that fol-
lowed one another in quick succession. 77
74 Toxites, Mich., Onomastica II.: I. Philosophicum. II. Theophrasti Paracelsi. Argento·
rati 1574, p. 450. See also ibid., p. 451 and Toxites' "Testamentum Theophrasti",
Strassburg 1574, fol. A 2 v referring to the regret felt by Oporinus for having written
the letter to Wierus and given away the books and preparations of Paracelsus. Toxites
himself, however, unlike Sudhoff and Strebel, finds in this letter much that is in
Paracelsus' favour and little that is not.
75 See Schmidt, Carl: M. Schuetz genannt Toxites. Stra.Bburg 1888, Karcher, Joh.:
Theodor Zwinger und seine Zeitgenossen. Basel 1956, p.28 and 33, and Strebel, J.,
Michael Schuetz (1515-1581), gen. Toxites, Erstherausgeber der Philosophia Sagax
Paracelsi. Nova Acta Parac.1947, IV, 99-111.
76 For a bibliography of the Paracelsists in the XVth century see Sudhoff, K.: Ein Bei·
trag zur Bibliographie der Paracelsisten im 16. J ahrhundert. Centralblatt fiir Biblio·
thekswesen 1893, X, 316-326 and ibid. 385-407. For early English Paracelsists see
Kocher, P.H., Paracelsean Medicine in England: The first thirty years (ca. 1570-1600).
J. Hist. Med. 1947, II, 451-480; on the Paracelsus tradition in Sweden see Lindroth,
Sten, Paracelsismen i Sverige till 1600 - talets mitt. Uppsala 1943 (discussed by Rosen,
George, Recent European publications dealing with Paracelsus. J.Hist.Med. 1947, II,
537-548 (pp. 542 et seq.) and by Anne Tjomsland in Bullet. Hist.Med.1948, XXII,
344-349).
32 The Life of Paracelsus
The next stage is that of the collected editions. Of these those of John Huser of Wald-
kirch, Baden, physician at Glogau (1589-1591; 1603 and 1605) are still definitive. 78
They were followed by Latin translations of the works, of which the latest appeared in
1658. 79 Since Huser, no complete edition of the works in their original form had been
attempted until Sudhoff's edition was published in 14 volumes between 1922 and 1933.so
This contains the texts in chronological order, extensive and copiously illustrated biblio-
graphical introductions and a critical apparatus in which special attention was paid to
manuscript tradition. It cannot be said that this edition, however valuable, superseded
Huser - especially not the carefully prepared Quarto of 1589 and the surgical Folio of
1605. Even the Huser Folio of 1603, supposed to be inferior to the Quarto, has the in-
estimable advantage of an index, which is still lacking in Sudhoff's edition. In fact, the
Huser Folio is quite reliable and extremely useful. However, the Huser Quarto is now
difficult to obtain; nor is the Folio common, especially the second volume containing the
philosophical treatises.
The present book, in which no textual or literary criticism is attempted, is based on the
Huser Folio as well as on Sudhoff's edition. In addition, the pre-Huserian first editions were
occasionally compared and quoted. The name of the treatise with book and chapter are given
throughout so that any passage can be verified from any edition.
The general reader is referred to Franz Strunz' excellent edition of the "Paragranum"
and "Paramirum" which is preceded by a sensitive account of the life and personality
of Paracelsus. s1
77 See the introduction to vol. III in Sudhoff's edition 1930.
78 Erster (Zehender) Theil der Biicher und Schrifften des Edlen, Hochgelehrten und Be-
wehrten Philosophi und Medici Philippi Theophrasti Bombast von Hohenheim, Para-
celsi genannt: Jetzt auffs new auss den Originalien, und Theophrasti eigener Hand-
schrifft, soviel derselben zu bekommen gewesen, auffs trewlichst und fleissigst an tag
geben: Durch Johannem Huserum Brisgoium Churfuerstlichen Coelnischen Raht und
Medicum. Conrad Waldkirch, Basel 1589-90, 10 vols. in 4°.
Aureoli Philippi Theophrasti Bombasts von Hohenheim Paracelsi ... Opera, Biicher
und Schrifften ... vor wenig Jahren ... durch Joannem Huserum Brisgoium ... in
Truck gegeben. Strasburg. In verlegung Lazari Zetzners. 1603. 2 vols. in Fol.
Chirurgische Biicher und Schrifften, dess Edlen ... Paracelsi genandt, jetzt auffs new
auss den Originalien, und Theophrasti eygenen Handschrifften ... <lurch Johannem
Huserum ... Strasburg. Zetzner. Fol. with: Appendix. Darinnen etliche alchymistische
und Artzneyische Tractaetlein ... Durch Joh. Huser. Zetzner, Strassburg 1605.
79 Opera Omnia Medico-Chemico-Chirurgica Tribus V oluminibus Comprehensa. Ed. no-
vissima et emendatissima by Bitiskius. De Toumes. Genevae 1658. Fol.
80 Theophrast von Hohenheim, genannt Paracelsus, Siimtliche Werke. I. Abteilung:
Medizinische, naturwissenschaftliche und philosophische Schriften, herausgegeben von
Karl Sudhoff. Band I-XIV. R. Oldeubourg, Miinchen 1922-33. - II. Abteilung: Die
theologischen und religionsphilosophischen Schriften. Herausgegeben von Karl Sud-
hoff und Wilhelm Matthiessen. Vol. I., Barth, Miinchen 1923.
81 Strunz, Franz: Theophrastus Paracelsus, Das Buch Paragranum. Diederichs Jena,
1903. - Volumen Paramirum und Opus Paramirum. Ibid. 1904. - Theophrastus Para-
celsus. Sein Leben und seine Personlichkeit. Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der
deutschen Renaissance. Ibid. 1903. In this work Strunz presented his hero as a re-
former of the Renaissance; later he underlined his affiliation to mediaeval and religious
ideas: Theophrastus Paracelsus. ldee und Problem seiner W eltanschauung. Pustet.
Salzburg. 1937 (see the review by the present author in Isis 1938, XXVIII, 469).
Bibliography 33
Similar in scope and typographical style to Strunz' texts is the edition of the im-
portant - early - Volumen Paramirum by J. D. Achelis, introduced by an extensive para-
phrase of the work to which a textual commentary is appended. s2
Commendable anthologies are those by J. Jacobi83 and Ildefons BetschartB4.
There is also a version of the Huser Quarto done into modem German, inaugurated
by B. Aschner and intended to bring Paracelsean therapy, unduly forgotten, into the orbit
of the modern practitioner.85 It is a work of considerable value, also for its notes on the
herbs and drugs recommended by Paracelsus. The same can be said of Strebel's digest of
the works which pursues a sinillar object to Aschner's86, in spite of occasional insipid
versions which miss the deeper meaning of a passage and the unbridled admiration for
their hero by which the editors are carried away. Both these versions can be used even
for purposes of scholarship if they are treated as "companions" to Huser or Sudhoff.
Strebel reversed the chronological order, attempted by Sudhoff and in his opinion un-
reliable and unsatisfactory, as it tears apart treatises which by content and purpose belong
together, such as those on "tartaric diseases". For the modem English reader an
elegant translation of four important short treatises by Sigerist in conjunction with
C. L. Temkin, G. Rosen and G. Zilboorg 87, and a modem version of the Volumen Para-
mirum by Leidecker88 are available. Among nineteenth century translations that by
A. E. Waite is very popular and useful - but it renders chiefly the alchemical and "her-
metic" writings and is prepared from the last Latin edition of the works.B9
82 Paracelsus Volumen Paramirum (Von Krankheit und gesundem Leben). Jena 1928.
See the same author on: Die Syphilisschriften Theophrasts von Hohenheim. Heidelberg
(Sitzungsber. Heidelb. Akad. Wiss.) 1939. - Zur Grundstruktur der Paracelsischen
Naturwissenschaft. Kyklos 1928, I, 47. - Zur Terminologie des Labyrinthus Medi-
corum. Acta Paracels. 1930, p. 33. - See also: Theophrast von Hohenheim, genannt
Paracelsus, Die Kiimtner Schriften. Ausgabe des Landes Kiirnten, besorgt :von K.
Goldammer unter Mitarbeit von J. D. Achelis, D. Brinkmann, G. Moro, W.-E. Peuckert,
K. H. Weimann. Klagenfurt 1955. This work has not been accessible to the present
author.
83 Paracelsus Selected Writings edited with an introduction by Jolande Jacobi. Transl.
N. Guterman. NewYork. Pantheon Books 1951. See W. Pagel's review in Isis 1952,
XLIII, 64.
84 Betschart, P., Ildefons 0. S. B.: So spricht Paracelsus. Barth, Miinchen-Planegg 1956
(a miniature book). See also id., Theophrastus Paracelsus. Der Mensch an der Zeiten-
wende. Benziger. Einsiedeln und Koeln 1942 (discussed by G.Rosen, loc.cit.1947,
p. 537).
86 Paracelsus Siimtliche Werke. Nach der zehnbiindigen Huserschen Gesamtausgabe
(1589-1591) zum ersten Mal in neuzeitliches Deutsch iibersetzt. Mit Einleitung, Bio-
graphie, Literaturangaben und erkliirenden Anmerkungen versehen von B. Aschner.
4 vols. Fischer, Jena 1926-1932.
86 Strebel, J.: Theophrastus von Hohenheim, genannt Paracelsus. Siimtliche W erke in
zeitgemiisser Kiirzung. 8 vols. Zollikofer & Co., St. Gallen 1944-1949. See for a detailed
review W.Pagel in Bull.Hist.Med.1953, XXVII, 276-281. In this several of Strebel's
papers on various Paracelsean problems are listed.
87 Four treatises of Theophrastus of Hohenheim. Baltimore 1941.
88 Volumen Medicinae Paramirum, translated by Kurt Leidecker. Suppl. 11 to the Bull.
Hist. Med. Baltimore 1949.
89 Waite, A. E.: The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus the Great. Now
for the first time faithfully translated into English. 2 vols. London 1894. 4°.
34 The Life of Paracelsus
The theological and religious-philosophical treatises, restricted to a one-volume torso
in the Sudhoff edition (by Matthiessen), are being prepared for publication under the
editorship of Kurt Goldammer, mostly from manuscript material,90
For all bibliographical questions reference must be made to Sudhoff's "Versuch einer
Kritik der Echtheit der Paracelsischen Schriften" which actually gives more than the
title promises, namely a complete critical and first hand bibliography of all editions and
a pioneer work on the numerous Paracelsus manuscripts scattered in many libraries. 91
In addition to this Sudhoff's scholarly bibliographical introductions to each of the four-
teen volumes of his edition must be consulted, as also his "Paracelsus-Forschungen".92
Friedrich Mook's pioneer work93 and John Ferguson's Bibliographia ParacelsicaH are still
of great interest, especially the alphabetical catalogue of the different editions appearing
in the fifth instalment of Ferguson's rare pamphlets.
Books and papers on Paracelsus are legion. Most of them have been listed on several
occasions 96 ; some are cited in the present book, but the author had to restrict quotations
to those few from which he himself derived information or inspiration.
For centuries Paracelsus has been a popular figure, "admired much and much maligned"
and thus has provoked an exuberant flow of literature that is extremely uneven in value
and interest. The judgement passed on Paracelsus in a given epoch can almost serve as
a gauge of its general cultural and medical outlook, as is well shown in Walter Artelt's
essay on the vicissitudes of his reputation in Medical History.96
Most books and papers that have been written about Paracelsus are devoted to his
life and only a few to his doctrines. Many of these are written with a bias or coloured by
emotion and even political passion. In contrast to these we refer to the objective tabulation
of the life against the background of the period by Artelt97 , the important papers by
Diepgen98, Bittel99 , and Wickersheimer100. The painstaking and scholarly contributions
90 Goldammer, Kurt: Theophrast von Hohenheim. Siimtliche Werke. II. Abteilung (re-
suming Sudhoff-Matthiessen cited above). Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden. Edition planned
under the following section headings: Einzelschriften (probably 3 vols.), Auslegung
zur Bibel (3-4 vols.), Abendmahlschriften (1 vol.), Sermones (incl. Marienschriften
1-2 vols.); so far Vol. IV, part 1 has appeared: Auslegung des Psalters David. Kom-
mentar zu den Ps. 75-102. 1955 and vol.V, part II, Kommentar zu d. Psalmen 103-117.
1957.
91 Sudhoff, K.: Versuch einer Kritik der Echtheit der Paracelsisclien Schriften. 2 vols.
Reimer, Berlin 1894-1899.
92 Schubert, E. und Sudhoff, K.: Paracelsus-Forschungen. Frankfurt a.M. 1887-1889. 2
vols.
93 Mook, Fr.: Theophrastus Paracelsus. Eine kritische Studie. Wiirzburg 1876.
94 Ferguson, J.: Bibliographia Paracelsia. Privately printed. Glasgow 1877-1893. 5 parts.
96 For example in Sudhoff, K.: Nachweise zur Paracelsus-Literatur. Acta Paracels. Suppl.
1-5, 1930-1932.
96 Artelt, W.: Paracelsus im Urteil der Medizinhistorik. Fortschr. Med. 1932, L, 929-933.
97 Artelt, W.: In Theophrastus Paracelsus (Bilderatlas), ed. F. Jaeger jointly with
A. Artelt, P. Diepgen, Dingelday, E. v. Frisch and M. Silber. Salzburg 1941.
98 Diep gen, P. : Was wissen wir von Paracelsus siclier und was bedeutet er uns heute ?
Gesundheitsfiihrung 1941, Heft 9 (September), 13 pp. On mediaeval traits in Para-
celsean teaching (notably Augustinian and Arnaldian): Theophrastus von Hohen-
heim, the Physician who bridged the Ages. Research and Progress 1942, VIII, 107-124.
99 Bittel, K.: Paracelsus-Museum Stuttgart. Paracelsus-Dokumentation. Referat-Bliitter
1943.
Renaissance and Humanism 35
by Robert Blaser have thrown much new light on the Basie period, the climax in the life
and work of Paracelsus101. Among more recent accounts of the doctrines those by Koyre102,
Sartorius von Waltershausen103, Hans Fischer1°4, C. G. Jungl06, B. de Telepnefl06, Kurt
Goldammer107, Owsei Temkin108 andA.Vogt109 should be mentioned. ErnstDarmstaedter•sllo
work stands out as an ingenious attempt to reproduce and interpret, in terms of modern
chemistry, the results obtained by Paracelsus in the laboratory. It was supplemented by
Sherlock111 and more recently continued by Fried. Dobler112,
Paracelsus as a Figure of the Renaissance and Humanism
The term "Renaissance" ist applicable to too many divergent historical
figures to convey more than a vague and in the last resort essentially
100 Wickersheimer, E.: Paracelse a Strasbourg. Centaurus 1951, I, 356-365. - Id.. Les
Arcana Paracelsica de Gaspard-Ulrich Hertenfels. Arch. Intern. Hist. Sci. 1948 24 7-258
101 Blaser, R.H.: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Basler Zeit des Paracelsus. Nova Acta 0 Paracels:
VI, Suppl. Einsiedeln 1953. - Id., Das Bild des Arztes in den Basler Vorlesungen des
Paracelsus. Paracelsus-Schriftenreihe der Stadt Villach, V, Klagenfurt 1956. - Id.,
Amplo Stipendio lnvitatus. Arch. Gesch. Med. 1957, XLI, 143.
102
~oyre, ~.: Parac~l~e. Revue ~is~. Philos. relig. 1933, XIII, 46-75; 145-163; reprinted
m: Mystiques, Sp1ntuels, Alchimistes du XVle siecle allemand. Cahier des Ann. vol. X.
Paris 1955, 45-80.
103 Sartorius von Waltershausen, Bodo Freiherr: Paracelsus am Eingang der deutschen
Bildungsgeschichte. Meiner, Leipzig 1935. This book was not available to the present
author; he quotes it from Hans Fischer (cited in subsequent footnote).
104 Fisc?~r Ha.ns: ~ie kosmologische An~ropologie des Paracelsus als Grundlage seiner
Med1zm. Em Be1trag zum Verstiindms des Arztes Paracelsus. In: Zwei Beitriige zur
Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft. Zur 121. Jahresversammlung der Schweiz. Natur-
forsch. Ges. (Verh. Naturforsch. Ges. Basel 1941, Lii, pp. 189 et seq.) 1941, p. 85-136.
- Theophrastus ·Paracelsus. Medizin und Pharmazie No. 3. Schweiz. Apotheker-Ztg.
1957, xcv, 463-478.
105 Jung, C. G.: Paracelsica. Rascher, Ziirich und Leipzig 1942. - Psychologie und AI-
chemie. ibid. 1944. See W.Pagel: Jung's View on Alchemy. Isis 1948, XXXIX, 44-48.
Also review of I. B. Cohen, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Discoverer of the true subject of the
Hermetic Art.Proc.Amer.Antiq.Soc.1951, LXI, 29-136 in Isis 1952, XLIII, 375.
106 de Telepnef, B.: Glossen zum Paragranum. Nova Acta Paracels. 1946, III, 16.
107 Goldammer, Kurt: Paracelsus. Sozialethische und sozialpolitische Schriften. Mohr,
Tiibingen 1952. - Paracelsische Eschatologie I-II. Nova Acta Paracels. 1948, V, 45-85;
1952, VI, 68-102. - Das theologische Werk des Paracelsus. Eine Ehrenschuld der
Wissenschaft. Ibid. 1954, VII, 78-102. - Paracelsus, Natur und Offenbarung. Th.
Oppermann Verlag. Hannover 1953. - Paracelsus-Studien. Z. Gesch.-verein Kiirnten,
Carinthia 1955, I, 145. Also: Landesmuseum Klagenfurt 1954.
108 Temkin, Owsei: The Elusiveness of Paracelsus. Bull. Hist. Med. 1952, XXVI, 201-217.
109 Vogt, A.: Theophrastus Paracelsus als Arzt und Philosoph. Hippokrates-Verlag Stutt-
gart 1956. See review by the present author in Bull. Hist. Med. 1957, XXXI, 194.
110 Darmstaedter, E.: Arznei und Alchemie. Paracelsus-Studien (Studien zur Geschichte
der Medizin, vol. XX). Leipzig 1931. - Id., Paracelsus De Natura Rerum. Janus 1933,
XXXVII, 1-18; 48-62; 109-115; 323-324.
111
Sherlock: The Chemical Work of Paracelsus. Ambix 1948, vol. III, p. 33.
112 Dobler, Friedrich: Die chemische Arzneibereitung bei Theophrastus Paracelsus am
36 The Life of Paracelsus
chronological grouping of persons and ideas. Yet, in an overall appraisal
of Paracelsus against the background of his period, it will not easily he
dispensed with.
Understood as a literary, artistic and aesthetic revival of antiquity, the
Renaissance has no place for Paracelsus. The man was no humanist who,
like Paracelsus, publicly repudiated ancient tradition and felt called upon
to create something entirely of his own, adapted to the new demands of a
new age.
It is in Paracelsus that we witness a new clash of original Christian
ideas with the classical heritage: the war which Paracelsus waged against
"reason" in favour of parable and analogy, against the moderate attitude
which is satisfied with the finite and visible form in favour of an unlimited
search for an infinite number of forces. In all this, Paracelsus seems to
challenge the highest ideals of the Renaissance.
If it is said, however, that the Renaissance stood for the revival of man
as a whole and for the unfolding of unlimited activity, then Paracelsus is
its true exponent. His view of the world is indeed "anthropocentric". The
hierarchic principle of the Middle Ages - clerical as well as feudal - had
limited the freedom of man not only in the social and economic sphere, hut
above all in the realm of ideas - directing attention away from the reality
of nature and of the individual towards that of universals. It had thus
created a collective outlook in which the life of the individual was stand-
ardised by the central powers of Church and State. Among the individual-
ists who were actuated by a desire to discuss rather than accept the scrip-
tural sources of such uniformity, Paracelsus stood in the first rank.
Moreover, a "decentralising" tendency can he observed everywhere in
his work. He seems to follow the alchemical principle of"separation" even
where the issue is not concerned with matter and its nature. He "differ-
entiates" and infinitely divides the world, which he sees peopled with de-
mons, subhuman and superhuman beings and invisible principles which
work under the surface of things visible It is the emphasis on these as
opposed to any syuthesis or limitation by a few universal principles and
entities, that is his leading idea. Even his anthropocentric view is thus
open to qualification and is far from providing absolute standards.
Furthermore, in his search for the Invisible and in his vision of infinitely
many higher and lower beings filling the universe and acting below the
surface of visible objects, Paracelsus worked - however unconsciously - for
Beispiel seiner Antimonpraparate. Pharmaceutica Acta Helvetiae 1957, XXXII,
181-193; 226-252.
Renaissance and Humanism 37
the revival of Neoplatonism, Gnosticism and the Kahhala: in this respect,
he appears as a true exponent of the Renaissance.
Perhaps the best illustration of this is provided by his general attitude
towards the position of the celestial bodies with regard to Man and Nature.
Aristotle had called them the "more divine among things visible".113 Pos-
sessed of "soul" and "life", he had regarded them as the driving forces
responsible for all activity in the suhlunar world. Nicolaus Cusanus, on the
other hand, had deprived the stars of this divine superiority. In his uni-
verse they were just as remote from divine infinity and the unerring Ideas
on High as was any other "finite" creature - with which they were perfectly
comparable by measure and number. There was still a hierarchic principle
- the subordination of things finite to divine infinity - hut the dividing
line was drawn differently than in Aristotelian cosmology. The celestial
bodies were now considered on the same footing as earthly objects. In
this Cusanus was followed by Pico della Mirandola.11 4
Paracelsus' attitude is ambivalent. At all events it is not easy to grasp
and has given rise to controversy, under the heading: Did Paracelsus ad-
here to astrology or not ?
It would appear that this question is too narrowly formulated to lend
itself to a simple answer.
Paracelsus does preserve the magisterial power of the "Astrum".
This, however, is no longer a remote tyrant who subjects sublunary things
in blind obedience to himself by "influxes" and "impressions".
Instead, Paracelsus emphasises "correspondences". But the idea of
series of objects corresponding and hound to each other by sympathy had
of course played a conspicuous part in gnostic and mediaeval, notably
Arabic, speculation. Such series, however, still presented hierarchies, each
crowned by a particular planet. It was from the sphere of this planet that
spirits set out to penetrate other spheres, elements, minerals, plants and
animals - taking possession at preordained times, conferring colour, smell,
consistency, temperature, moisture or dryness, forming and guiding a
particular organ, and so on.
There is still much of this in Paracelsus' work. But there is also a strong
tendency to dissolve such hierarchies and to assign to the individual,
113 ,;ra {)si6uea TWV cpavsewv" Aristot. De Coelo lib. I, cap. 9, Bekker, p. 278 and lib.
II, cap. 1, p. 284. See Alexander von Humboldt: Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen
Weltbeschreihung, Vol. III, J. G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Augsburg 1850, p. 29 (annot. 26),
on the survival of this idea in Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum Cap. 20, p. 71.
114 See for detail our chapters on Cusanus and Pico in the third part of this book, pp. 279s.
38 The Life of Paracelsus
power ("virtues") equal or even superior to that of the star. Each of these
virtues, however, is still hound by sympathy to a group of others and to
a particular star on High. Any action or change brought about by an
astrum or virtue has inevitable repercussions on the members of the group
and indeed on the world as a whole by disturbing the preordained order of
things. For, as Leibniz formulated it, there is "Consensus" rather than
"Commercium" between individual objects - each of them fulfilling its
own schedule of action and life.115 Nevertheless, even to Paracelsus the
stars spell the future - hut merely by indicating the determined and
concerted course of objects related to one another by sympathy. The stars
are the inescapable signals, hut do not influence objects and events by
themselves.116
"Astrum" finally becomes virtue in the widest sense - a virtue that is
subject to the will and discretion of the individual, a virtue that can he
used, cultivated and developed.
It is in this sense that Paracelsus saw "Astra" everywhere: on high as
well as on the earth and in its "fruits". The Sun, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, Venus were to him intrinsic to man, animals, plants, metals and
minerals, to earth, water, air and fire, since one of these stars corresponds
to the invisible driving force in each particular object. Moreover, it was
on the transference of astral correspondences to the body that Paracelsus
based his original views of the harmonious action of the organs which
makes an "organism" possible.
Paracelsus thus brought the "Astra" down to earth and implemented the
ideal of "Magia Naturalis", which is to "marry Heaven and Earth". This
redistribution of the "Astra" as common property of all objects in nature
is indeed consonant with his general tendency to decentralise and with his
distaste for hierarchy, dogmatism, rigidity and standardisation.
Paracelsus thus made hold strides to outgrow mediaeval astrology, hut
he did not accomplish this by any means. He remains "mediaeval" in
recognising the limitations of human action and liberty by cosmic constel-
lation in the traditional sense. In spite of his many progressive naturalistic
115 See for the discussion on Leibniz' Monads and Van Helmont's Archei W. Pagel: The
Speculative Basis of Modem Pathology. Jahn, Virchow and the Philosophy of Patho-
logy. Bull. Hist. Med., 1945, XVIII, 1-43 (p. 20).
116 The idea is well expressed in the title of one of Van Helmont's treatises: "The Stars
do necessitate, not incline nor signifie of the life, the body or fortunes of him that is
born." ("Astra necessitant, non inclinant." Ortus medicinae. Amstelod. 1648, p. 117.
Transl. by Chandler, London 1662, p. 118), notably cap. 5 et seq. "The firmament is
a preacher of all these Works" (sc. of God) - it is the luminous dial of the world clock.
Renaissance and Humanism 39
observations in medicine and chemistry and an advanced insight into the
working of nature, his thought as a whole cannot he called "scientific".
Paracelsus is concerned not with measurable quantities and the mathema-
tical laws underlying phenomena, hut with individual objects determined
by intrinsic divine virtues which defy scientific analysis.
Humanism at first sight seems incompatible with Paracelsus' attitude
towards the ancients. Yet he is unthinkable without the Hellenistic blend-
ing of Jewish, Christian, Greek and Oriental ideas and symbolism ("syn-
cretism") as expressed in Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism and Kahhala, Al-
chemy, Astrology and Magic. It was the humanists who revived these
sources just before and at the time of Paracelsus. Contacts and parallels
with such Platonists as Nicolaus Cusanus and Marsilius Ficinus followed
by Picus, Reuchlin, Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, Bovillus, Trithemius and
Agrippa can easily he demonstrated in the work of Paracelsus.117
Moreover, the humanistic reversion to classical models was asso·
ciated with a quest for truth and reality as against the fictitious - "sophis-
tic" - embellishments added by the Arabs. Hence the call for the resto-
ration of the ancient texts in their original purity. This is well expressed,
for example, in the title of the small plague treatise by Joh. Ammonius
Agricola which has an almost Paracelsean ring - promising that it is
"based on good ground, without any sophistic or Arabic, additional and
fictitious chatter unfounded in Medicine."118
Finally, since Petrarch's days (1304-1374), humanism had taken a
decisive stand against scholasticism and the exuberant claims of formal
logic - an attitude that at Paracelsus' time was still fresh and went well
with the revival of Platonism. However, little can he found in Paracelsus
of the polished style and elegance in appearance and behaviour of the
humanist of his days, although it was in humanist circles that he found
resonance and support.
Yet, in contrast with the humanists pure and simple, Paracelsus was
not interested in the preservation and revival of ancient sources for their
own sake or for the sake of general culture and erudition, hut moulded and
re-formed them in his own way, conscious as he was of the demands of a
new age with new needs and ideals.
117 See the third part of the present volume.
118 "Griintlicher ... auszug auss allen bewerten Kriechischen ... lerem ... von ursachen
... der Pestilentz ... Alles auss giitem grund on all Sophistisch oder Arabisch, in der
Artzney ungegriindt, zusetz und erdichtes geschwetz." Augsburg 1533.
40 The Life of Paracelsus
Paracelsus as a religious and social thinker and preacher
Paracelsus in the Era of the Reformation
Sebastian Franck and Paracelsus
Paracelsus has often been compared with Luther - he himself mentioned
and to a certain extent countenanced this comparison with a religious
iconoclast of historic dimensions. There are the obvious common traits in
their behaviour - the coarse and boisterous language, the use of the verna·
cular which had to be moulded and reformed in order to convey something
un-traditional and unheard of, the crass rejection of learned predecessors
and authorities, theatrical acts designed to appeal to students and the
illiterate mob - such as the burning of books or the display of "theses" in
public places.
Yet there was no love lost between Paracelsus and Luther.119 Paracelsus
stood for religious and intellectual freedom. He believed in the free will
of man which he supposed to enable him to act even upon the stars. ~e
was a pacifist and advocate of the common people. Though in principle
opposed to violence, his sympathy was with the insurgent peasants and
in his early years at Salzburg he barely escaped persecution and death in
the peasants' struggle against their feudal lords. His life and work was a
permanent war against the privileged and mighty. His medicine was
119 There is some evidence that Paracelsus' antagonistic attitude towards Luther developed
between 1531and1536, i.e. between the publication of his tract on the Comet and the
"Prognostikation auf XXIV. jar" (printed in Sudhoff's edition, vol. X, p. 579), as
B. Milt has convincingly shown (Prognostikation auf 24 zukiinftige Jahre von Theo-
phrastus Paracelsus und ein zeitgenossischer Deutungsversuch. Gesnerus 1951, VIII,
138-153). The tract on the Comet is dedicated to Leo Jud and Zwingli, the Prognosti-
kation to Ferdinand II., King of Austria and later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Although related to each other in content, the two tracts express different moods and
feelings on the part of the author. It seems that by 1536 he had lost confidence in the
reformers whose movement was becoming increasingly fossilised into a new dogmatism
and "Mauerkirche" (Brick-church) and he made it the subject of the veiled castigations
and evil forebodings of the "Prognostikation". Paracelsus now visualises the Emperor
as the saviour of religious peace and national unity. It may well be that Sebastian
Franck's influence moved him in this direction. See also C.A.Hase, Sebastian Franck
von W oerd, der Schwarmgeist. Leipzig 1869, p. 99, on Luther and Franck, the develop-
ment of the former towards an organised church and dogma and the tendencies of the
latter towards the limitless rights of the individual and the "abyss of pantheism". On the
other hand, the actual influence of Luther on protestant dissenters ("Schwarmgeister",
mystics and believers in the spirit - "Geist") should not be forgotten. See the survey
of the modern "Lutherbild" by Bornkamm, H., Mystik, Spiritualismus und die An-
fiinge des Pietismus im Luthertum. Giessen (Vortr.d.Theolog.Konferenz 44) 1926,
p. 5 et seq. - On contacts between Paracelsus and Luther ibid. p. 8.
The Reformation. Seb. Franck and Paracelsus 41
actuated by charitable motives. He sought eternal bliss in deeds of self·
denial rather than in mere belief and divine grace, factors withdrawn from
the sphere of human influence and understanding. Luther on the other
hand forged a new religious dogmatism based on the rejection of human
activity and free will in favour of mystical belief and the doctrine of election.
He sided with the sovereigns and mighty burghers of Germany against the
peasants and had his doctrine enforced against dissenters by fire, sword
and torture. He notably hit the Baptists, the powerful appeal of whose
"pure religion" made them a real focus of danger to the influence of Luther
and his partisans.
A deep gulf thus divorces Paracelsus from Luther. He rather belongs
to that group of men who, like Sebastian Franck (1499-1543) and Hans
Den ck (died 1527)120 would have none of dogmatic religion in any form,
but advocated progress and reform without violence.
Franck's life was unsettled and stormy - in which he again reminds us
of Paracelsus. He was at Nuremberg at the same time as Paracelsus whose
arrival he mentions in his "Chronica". He probably met Paracelsus there
and later at Augsburg.
Among Sebastian Franck's views, his antagonism to the "hybris" of hu-
man reason was hound to attract Paracelsus. Indeed, his main thesis seems
to be that the fall of man was due to the "tree" which was "Adam's essence,
will, knowledge, life". This Adam chose instead of "standing free under
God, knowing nothing but what God knew in him, doing nothing but what
God did in him, saying nothing but what God said in him - so that God
had without hindrance his sovereign realm, will, essence and power
in him." Thus in his treatise: On the Tree of Knowledge121, he was
120 On the opinions, life and tremendous though short-lived influence of Denck and the
early Baptists see Keller, Ludwig. Ein Apostel der Wiedertiiufer. Hirzel, Leipzig 1882.
It is noteworthy that Denck died probably at Basle in the same year in which Para-
celsus lived there.
On Franck and Paracelsus, their probable meeting at Niirnberg in 1529 and the con-
cordance in their antidogmatic religious attitude see Strunz, F.: Theophrastus Para-
celsus, sein Leben und seine Personlichkeit. Leipzig 1903, pp. 60-64. Franck talks of the
"Light of Nature" in terms that are different from theological and mystical parlance,
but are reminiscent of the language of Paracelsus. Like the latter he extols Nature
which invents all arts. Art is only the ape of nature, neither teaching nor altering nor
improving her. (Hase, loc. cit., p. 148).
121 Miihlhausen 1561 - first in German: Das theur und kiinstlich Biichlein Morie En-
comium ... von Erasmo Roterod .... Von der Heyllosigkeit ... aller menschlichen
Kunst ... mit angehefft ein Lob des Esels ... Von dem Baum des Wissens Gut und
Boss, davon Adam den Todt hat gessen und noch heut alle Menschen den Todt essen.
Encomium, ein Lob des thorechten gottlichen Worts, durch Sebastian Franken von
Word S.a. et 1. (?1537; also 1696). Separate editions: Von dem Baum des Wissens:
42 The Life of Paracelsus
led to deprecate all scholarship and indeed all use of reason, wherein he
found the actual cause of sin and the fall.
He expressed the same views in his "Paradoxa" - some of which are
literally identical with sayings of Paracelsus. 122
Like Paracelsus, Franck pointed to the "Book of Nature" as the living
source superior to the Bible which is hut the lantern and not the light it-
self. Nature - according to one of Franck's "Paradoxa" - is nothing hut
the force of acting and being acted upon intrinsic in every object of nature
since its creation. God is everywhere in Nature, maintaining the structure
of the world by His presence and "immanence" ("lnnensein"). Like Caspar
Schwenckfeldt (1490-1561) 123 he finds that the word of God is primarily
written in ourselves rather than in the Scriptures. Similarly, the "Law of
Nature", "the Law horn with us", rather than written and codified Law
should he obeyed.
Earthly goods should he enjoyed by all in common. Franck ridicules the
hopes placed by Luther in the Christianity of sovereigns. Like Paracelsus
he held up his spiritual independence, submitting to no dogmatism, either
of the pope or of Luther. Indeed, to Franck, Luther and Zwingli are just
as much forgers as is the Pope.
Until the XJXth century Paracelsus was charged with "Arian and
Gnostic Heresy".124 Pantheistic speculation is indeed evident in his idea
that the "Virtues" and "Arcana" in Nature are direct emanations from
Frankfurt 1619 and Liineburg 1692. Quoted from Joh. Christ. Adelung (1734-1806):
Geschichte der menschlichen Narrheit oder Lebensbeschreibungen beriihmter Schwarz-
kiinstler, Goldmacher, Teufelsbanner •.. und anderer philosophischer Unholden. Vol. II,
Leipzig 1786, p. 22. See also Hase loc. cit. p. 94 and 297.
122 For example: "J e gelehrter, je verkehrter" (the more learned, the more perverted),
Paradoxon LXV. Paradoxa ed. H. Ziegler with pref. by W. Lehmann, Jena 1909,
p. 93 to be compared with Paracelsus, Fragm. libri de Morbis ex lnca:ntat. Huser:
vol. I, p. 139, see later our chapter Paracelsus' Approach to Nature p. 56.
For. Franck's "Learned Ignorance" see Parad. LXIV (loc. cit. pp. 92-93): Simplicity
alone is wise and ignorance knows everything. Franck expresses our "learned ignorance"
of the nature of God in unmistakable terms - asserting that He is all in all, that He
is everywhere and nowhere, that there is nothing so small that God is not in it, that
there is nothing so small that God is not still smaller, nothing so great that God is not
greater. All these "paradoxa" well known from Dionysius Areopagita to Nicolaus
Cusanus were congenial to the thought of Paracelsus, and so was his deprecation of
reason.
123 On Franck as an "isolated" figure in his epoch see particularly Koyre, A., Sebastian
Franck. Cahiers de la Revue d'Hist. et de la Philos. relig. No. 24, 1922. Reprinted in
Mystiques, Spirituels, Alchimistes du XVI• siecle allemand. Paris 1955, pp. 21-43.
Ibid. pp. 1-19 on Caspar Schwenckfeldt.
124 See for example Sprengel, Kurt: Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arznei·
kunde. Vol. III, 3rd ed. Halle 1827, p. 454.
Religious and Social Ideas 43
divinity and "uncreated".125 Gnostic ideas can he found in his view of
Christ as an "Adam Kadmon" - the "Minor Limhus" - who represents the
created world and to whom all creatures finally return whereby they par-
take of his "immortal flesh" .126 The position accorded to Christ as the first
emanation from Divinity implies a unitarian outlook in which Christ is
subordinated to rather than unified with God.127
A detailed discussion of the religious views of Paracelsus and their relationship with
Christian and notably Lutheran dogma lies outside the scope of the present work. The
field has been admirably covered in recent times by Goldammer; we must limit ourselves
to a brief summary of his account.128
An individualist in his theological, as much as in his naturalist and medical thinking,
he would submit neither to the Church of Rome, which compromised with social and poli·
tical injustice, nor to the Reformation, which compromised with the existing aristocratic
and civic order of society. Like the Anabaptists, he was partly actuated in this by revo·
lutionary social ideas. Paracelsus agreed with the social reformers of his time - the
pacifist and the belligerent, the communist and the charitable, the ascetic and the
worldly - in their criticism of contemporary powers, ecclesiastic and secular. Yet he
differed from them in many respects. These concern, first of all, questions of dogma. Para·
celsus was anti-baptist. Further there is his recognition within limits of private property,
his maintenance of the rights of the individual (monogamy with free selection of one's
wife) and the family as the fundamental units of society, and of state and church authority.
Paracelsus preserved the mediaeval idea of Christian community life; his "communism"
was "charismatic" rather than dogmatic or class-conscious. Both property and poverty
were for him objects of religious rather than economic interpretation - poverty being
not a misfortune but a religious and theological phenomenon. He unmasked the basically
anti-social and anti-human inclinations of jurists and officials, but entrusted the task
of communalising the land and the means of production to the emperor and his administra-
tive machinery. 129
Paracelsus hoped for the end of Anti-Christ and the coming of the "Third Realm"
of the Holy Spirit - following the tradition of the abbot Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202). 130
125 See later p. 54.
126 See our chapter on Gnosticism in the third part of the present book; on Christ and the
"Limbus" our chapter on The Prime Matter of Paracelsus as foreshadowed by Me-
diaeval popular Pantheism p. 227; on the christological and sacramental aspects
of the concept of "Limbus" see Goldammer, K.: Paracelsische Eschatologie. Nova
Acta Paracels. 1948, V, p. 70. Cagastrum: our p. 113.
127 On contacts of Paracelsus in this respect with Servetus and Socinus see Sprengel loc.
cit., p. 454, footnote 50 with pertinent references to Sandius Hist. Ecclesiat. and
Arnold's Kirchen· und Ketzerhistorie.
128 For ref. see our short bibliography on p. 35.
129 Paracelsus' social programme, notably his ideas on fair wages and prices, were studied
by Bittel, K.: Ein Sozialprogramm bei Paracelsus. Nova Acta Paracels. 1946, III,
77-85. For a comprehensive account see Goldammer, loc. cit. 1953.
130 See Milt, B: loc. cit. 1951, p. 151. On the high appreciation of the prophecies of Joachim
of Floris at the time of Paracelsus see: Grundmann, H., Die Papstprophetien des
Mittelalters. Arch.f.Kulturgesch.1929, XIX, 77-138, notably p. 136. As Grundmann
says: "Paracelsus lent them his magic wisdom."
44 The Life of Paracelsus The "Ship of Fools" 45

Misled by Paracelsus' aggressive language and his innumerable invec-

tives against the privileged and against the ruling opinions of his age,
modern anti-christian worshippers of brute force and murder such as the
Nazis have acclaimed him as a congenial hero.131 Paracelsus, however,
made no secret of the Christian pacifism and the abhorrence of murder
and of all political power by which he was actuated. He said: "There are
two kinds of war on earth. One is caused by wilfulness - since all might
hails from evil and is illegitimately horn. The other is the war of the mem-
bers in our body - the diseases. The first is set upon pride and its glittering
splendour; the second one is in the body and is an emergency without
pride."132

Paracelsus and Popular Criticism of Doctor and Patient

in the Pre-Reformation Era

The "Narragonian" Sermons

To illustrate the general spiritual climate of the time of Paracelsus it

is tempting to refer to his period as an epoch sensitive to the shortcomings
of man and his desires, sceptical of contemporary civilisation and intent
on reform in all branches of life including medicine. Sebastian Brant's
(1464-1520) "Ship of Fools" would appear to he a particularly fertile
source of Paracelsean motives.
However, a closer study of "Narragonian" literature is disappointing.
The sermons of Geyler of Keisersherg, for example, which provide a text Fig. 5. The professional fool as depicted in Geyler von Keisersberg Navicula. Argent.
1510 - to illustrate the futility of traditional medicine. Title page.
to the illustrations of the "Ship of Fools", contain a defence of traditional
medicine against the foolish incredulity and indifference of :the patient to-
wards the doctor's word and prescriptions.133
The "thirty seventh crowd of fools" pilloried by Geyler of Keisersherg
131
is that of the disobedient patients. Those who despise medicine do so in
Similarly, Paracelsus' numerous invectives against the Jews and Jewish Medicine
have been exploited by modern obscurantists. However, viewed in their appropriate ignorance of the Scriptures, where it is said that God created medicines
historical context, they have little in common with modern sentiments. Moreover, they from earth - endowing herbs and stones with curative virtues. St. Augustine
are offset by the praise which Paracelsus accorded to the Kabbala - tliough it must be was not averse to medicine; when sick he would admit nobody hut his
admitted that Paracelsus thought it not to be of Jewish origin - and also the severe
castigation to which he was subjected by Erastus for trafficking witli tlie Jews (see doctors and, turning to the wall, recite penitential psalms. To despise
later p. 313). medicine is to tempt God. If you object that St.Agatha never admitted a
132 Vorarbeiten und Fragmente zu den Biichern Von alien ofnen Schaden. Preface. Ed. doctor hut entirely committed her health to Christ who by his sermon alone
Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 295. - On the rejection of capital punishment and oilier humani-
tarian tendencies in the religious work of Paracelsus see Goldammer: Paracelsus,
Sozialethische Schriften, loc. cit. 1952, p. 306 and passim. On war as sin ibid. p. 310. (1445-1510) paraphrase No.38 and No.55 of tlie "Ship of Fools" ("Von kranken die
133 Joann Geyler von Keisersberg, Navicula s. speculum fatuosum. Argentorati 1510. nit volgen", p. 70 and "Von narrechter arznei" p. 98 in: Sebastian Brant, Das Narren-
Egrotantium inobedientium Turba XXXVII. sig. r to r 3 • These sermons of Geyler schiff - 1494 - ed. Karl Goedeke. Brockhaus. Leipzig 1872).
46 The Life of Paracelsus The "Ship of Fools" 47

restores everything, listen to what St. Thomas Aquinas had to say on this what the symptoms are. The former deceive themselves and their purse -
score: St.Agatha was so blessed by heaven that she suffered no bodily because the doctor will take his fee in any case. The latter are even more
infirmity and was in no need of medicine. foolish, for the "urine is deceptive enough" ("quia urina admodum fallax
There are those who, tickled by curiosity, send their urine to the doctor est"). It is true, superstitious people recall miraculous diagnoses, not only
without any intention of following his advice. Others want the doctor to from specimens not seen, hut even from those of different people mixed
find out by himself whether the urine is that of a male or a female and together. Such effects are no doubt due to artful machinations of the devil,
and their perpetrators who must have a pact with him should he exter-
minated. Finally those who hide their ailment from the physician, their
sins from the confessor and their case from the lawyer deceive and damage
~ttrummdtiftfapimtte only themselves. If you wish to act wisely, sick man, tell the physician
exactly and faithfully all about your infirmity and with this produce your
urine and answer correctly all his questions. If when all this is done he has
given the right verdict, give thanks to God. Again, however, there are
those who do just the opposite of what the physician has prescribed. If he
prescribed wine, they drink water, if sweating, they drape themselves in a
long airy shirt, if a clyster, they indulge in drinking beer, if bloodletting,
they enter a hath. If the doctor says, the disease shows itself in pallor,
they blush.
Other fools do listen to the doctor - hut too late, when fire has already
caught the roof.
Others go to old wives, empirics or even Jews. To take medicine from
the latter has been expressly prohibited by decretal - except in emergencies
when nobody else or no better advice are available. One may object that
Basilius enjoyed the services of a Jewish doctor - hut this was a special
case, as can he learnt from his story. The damage done by old wives and
vagrant impostors is experienced by the community as well as by indivi-
duals and need not he looked up in history hooks. The worst are diviners
and magicians. They should he punished together with their patients.
Did they only remember what is said: "Never would I cure, even if the
devil supported me."
The empiric who says: By trial and observation I found a certain cure
to he effective, is open to deception. First, the demons may cease to molest
the patient. Secondly, supposing there were real succour to he had from
demons, incantations, empirical observations and witches, surely this kind
Fig. 6. of help is illicit, because it comes by virtue of communion with the adver·
Flaying of the sary of God and mankind. Thirdly, it is expressly forbidden by divine and
Fool. ecclesiastic law.
From Geyler von When all those fools who sin against medicine are reviewed, however,
Keisersberg
Navicula. we should not forget to mention those who put their trust in medicine
Argent. 1510. alone and do not care about help from God. These fools fail to recognise
48 The Life of Paracelsus
Fig. 7.
The Doctor-Fool
at the sickbed
examining the
urine.
From Geyler von
Keisersberg,
Navicula.
Argent. 1510.
sin as a principal cause of disease. They often grow weaker the more they
concentrate on their bodily health. The Lord said to the paralytic: Your
sins are forgiven. Why ? Because they made you sick.
All this is indeed a defence of traditional and rational medicine to which
Paracelsus could never have subscribed. This is easily seen from the
condemnation of empiricism and "magic" by the preacher.
The latter also voices hostility towards the Jewish doctor - an attitude
commonly expressed in the defence of traditional medicine against Para-
celsus, for example by Erastus.
Both parties, Paracelsist and Antiparacelsist, however, are unanimous
in their anti-Jewish sentiment, though for different reasons: the church-
man as well as the entrenched medical professional oppose the Jewish
doctor as an empiric who takes advantage of knowledge found outside the
syllabus. Paracelsus on the other hand gives vent to violent outbursts
The "Ship of Fools" 49
against Jews as exponents of a pseudo-original, but in fact traditional and
therefore inefficient medicine.134
Erastus seems uncompromising in his sentiment, but the "Narrago-
nian" churchman admits the Jew in emergencies and special cases. Para-
celsus professes to have learnt from Jews and other non-professional sources.
He inculcates the search for the hidden, the "kabbalistic" lore in medicine
and nature. It was for his trafficking with Jews and quacks that he was
censored by Erastus.135
It was Paracelsus, too, who was reputed to have invoked the help of
the devil, whenever God would not help.136
All this shows how far his attitude differs from that of the preacher in
the "Autumn of the Middle Ages". Yet inevitably some Paracelsean
"motives" can be found in these sermons too. For the preacher inveighs
against the doctor fool who impiously and complacently presumes to be-
come omniscient by virtue of anatomical dissection, uroscopy and pulse-
feeling. Such sentiments are commonly met with in mediaeval sermons137
and are in no way meant as an appeal for medical reform.
lH Von den Imposturen. In: Von der franzosischen Krankheit drei Bucher-Para-of 1529,
lib. I, 14. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 98, and ibid. II, 15; p. 127. - Drei Biicher der
Wundartznei, Bertheonei. Vorrede. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, 45-46. GroBe Wundartznei,
V. Theil, cap. 15, in: Opus Chirurgicum ed. Adam von Bodenstein. Frankfurt 1566,
p. 429. - Von Frantzosen, lib. I in Huser: Chirurg. Biicher. StraBburg 1605, p. 159.
- Labyrinthus Medicor. Second Preface ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 167.
135 A combined outburst against Paracelsists and Jews - similar to the sentiments of
Erastus - is found in pasquinades of the XVIIth century, for example: Artzney Teuffel
oder Kurtzer Discurs darin diesem Ertzmiirder seine Larve abgezogen by Ananias
Horerus 1634 (no place).
136 "Will Gott nicht helfen, so helf der teuffel." Kircher, Athan.: De Lapide Philosopho-
rum. Lib. XI, Sect. II, in: Mundus Subterraneus, tom. II, Amstelod., 1664, p. 277.
The story comes from Theodor Zwinger, Theatrum Vitae Humanae 1586, part 4,
p. 3176. According to Zwinger, annoyance with the opposition, in learned and pious
circles, against his lectures on the medicinal effects of incantation and magic, led
Paracelsus to the use of the above words - as witnessed by his pupils Albanus Torinus
and Johannes Oporinus and by Wolfgang Wisenberg, the theologian, who publicly
reprehended Paracelsus for this. See Adelung: Geschichte der menschlichen Narrheit.
Vol. VII, Leipzig 1789, p. 239.
137 Since the times of St. Augustine. On the attitude of St. Augustine to dissection see
Diepgen, P.: Der Kirchenlehrer Augustin und die Anatoinie im Mittelalter. Centaurus
1951, I, 206-211. The most fertile source for lay criticism of scholastic and arabistic
medicine in the" Autumn of the Middle Ages" are the well known essays of Petrarch. In
these much of the denigration of medicine by Agrippa of Nettesheym, at the time of
Paracelsus, was anticipated. See for detail Haeser, H., Lehrbuch d. Geschichte d.
Medicin und der epideinischen Krankheiten. 3•d edit. Jena 1875, vol. I, p. 729-732.

The Philosophy of Paracelsus
Paracelsus' general system of correspondences
and the position of scientific elements therein
Introduction
The distinguishing feature of Paracelsus' own philosophy is the conse-
quential view of cosmology, theology, natural philosophy and medicine in
the light of analogies and correspondences between macrocosm and micro-
cosm. Speculation about such analogies had seriously engaged the human
mind since pre-Socratic and Platonic times and throughout the Middle
Ages. 138 Paracelsus was the first to apply such speculation to the know-
ledge of Nature systematically.
This is associated with the singular position which he assumes with
regard to the theory and practice of the acquisition of knowledge in general.
Here Paracelsus broke away from the ordinary logical and scientific ratio-
cination, ancient and mediaeval and modern, and followed his own lines;
and it is in this that much of his naturalistic work finds its explanation
and motivation.
If man, the climax of creation, unites in himself all the constituents of
the world surrounding him - minerals, plants, animals and celestial bodies
- he can acquire knowledge of nature in a much more direct and "internal"
way than the "external" consideration of outside objects by the rational
mind. What is required is an act of sympathetic attraction between the
inner representative of a particular object in man's own constitution and
its external counterpart.
Union with the object is therefore the sovereign means of acquiring
intimate and total knowledge. This is not achieved by the brain, the seat
of the rational mind. It is to the deeper strata, to the person as a whole,
that true knowledge is given. It is his "astral body" that "teaches man".
By means of his astral body, man communicates with the super-
elementary world of the "astra". "Astrum" in this context denotes not
138
See our chapter in the third part, p. 214.
Scientia - Experientia 51
only a celestial body, hut the "virtue" or activity essential to any object.
Through the "astral body" the great works ("magnalia") of nature are
thus revealed to man. This is achieved, however, not in a state of conscious
rational thinking, hut in dream and trance fortified by a strong will and
imagination.
In this lies the deeper sense of Paracelsus' Scientia and "Experentia". Let
us take the example of a herb with a specific "virtue", say that of purging.
This "virtue" of the herb is its "knowledge" of how to effect the purge.
In order to have full knowledge of the herb and its specific virtue, the
naturalist must "overhear" ("ahlauschen"} its inner mechanism. In other
words, there is an element inside the naturalist - himself a microcosmic
whole - which corresponds to this particular plant and must, by an act of
sympathetic and magnetic attraction, unite with it. He will then acquire
knowledge of the natural object in question, with and through his person
as a whole, i.e. intuitively and truly. This "science" is identical with the
"science" intrinsic to the plant, the "science" which teaches the pear tree
how to produce pears, or scammonium how to purge.
This is obviously a "scientia" quite different from that which can be
learnt from hooks or by logical deduction. It is more akin to empirical
and experimental research, to testing, probing and "knocking at the door"
of nature. It is inspired by a deep distrust of the power of human reasoning
and is thus related to those trends of scepticism and empiricism which were
soon to contribute to the foundation of modern science.
What appears to he original in Paracelsus, then, is not the microcosmic
theory in itself, nor the quest for union with the object - for these had been
the avowed aims of Neo-Platonism and of magic and mysticism throughout
the ages - hut the consistent employment of these concepts as the broad
basis of an elaborate system of "correspondences" in natural philosophy
and medicine.
This yielded unexpected fruit, first in a negative critical sense by exposing
the weakness and unreality of the ruling elemental and humoral doctrine
and secondly in the adoption of experimentalism and empiricism. In con-
sequence, important proto-scientific ideas and findings already emerge in
the works of Paracelsus. Their importance and range have been grossly
overrated. Much of the fruitfulness of Paracelsus' work for science is only re-
cognisable in the inspiration which it gave to Van Helmont's original investi-
gation. This was published in 1648, more than a century after Paracelsus'
death (1541). Moreover, the bulk of Paracelsus' writing, which fills ten
volumes in Huser's quarto, and two elephant tomes in his folio edition, is
the exposition of his system of correspondences in sermonizing homilies,
52 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
allegories, lengthy invectives against orthodox medicine and collections of
prescriptions. In quantity all this exceeds by far the scientific and even
proto-scientific element. However, if we wish to understand the latter in
its historical setting, we have to integrate it with the hulk of his specu-
lative and non-scientific lore.
Paracelsus' breakaway from orthodox cosmology and medicine in favour
of a new system of correspondences and "iatrochemistry" is accessible to
various "explanations". In the first place, one must consider his psycho-
logical make-up, including his resentment and wanderlust, and his parental
home which inevitably brought him into close contact with mining and its
medical aspects. But in dealing with individual concepts, we must not
only resort to possible biographical reasons and predecessors, hut also find
the place that they logically occupy in the world of Paracelsus' non-medical
and non-scientific ideas. Thus, his persistent plea for homoeopathic and
isopathic measures and his doctrine of "signatures", so closely connected
with this plea, is the outcome of his quest for knowledge through union
of the object with something alike in the ohserver139 and for the "magnetic"
forces and "sympathy" in nature at large as expressions of the fundamental
unity of all its objects and phenomena. It is tempting to find in such an
emphasis on "similarities" in nature a trend common to mystic and magical
139 This has been rightly pointed out by Ritter, Heinrich: Geschichte der Philosophie,
vol. IX (Geschichte der christlichen Philosophie, vol. V). Hamburg 1850, p. 536. "Dieser
ganzen Lehre liegt die V oraussetzung zum Grunde, dass wir das Gleiche durch das
Gleiche erkennen. So soll auch das Gleiche das Gleiche heilen, nur ans der grossen in
die kleine Welt heriibergetragen." It is quite true that, as Ritter says, Paracelsus
also voices the opposite point of view: that we just as well derive knowledge from
observing contraries: good cannot be recognised without evil: j~y not witliout sorrow,
God not without the devil. Thus, in medicine, the harmful must be separated from
the beneficial - just as the "inner alcheinist" separates what is useful from the excreta.
It is obvious, however, tliat the emphasis in Paracelsus' system lies with the "Siinilia",
with "magnetic attraction" and "sympathy" in nature. He has it in common with
(and probably derived from) the verbal tradition, kept alive by such books as the
Picatrix and such men as Pietro d'Abano and Agrippa of Nettesheym. For the latter
see the third part of the present work, p. 295; for the Picatrix: Ritter, Hellmut:
Picatrix, ein Arabisches Handbuch Hellenistischer Magie. Vortrage der Warburg Bibi.,
vol. I, 1921-22. Leipzig-Berlin 1923, pp. 94-124.
There is no need to retrace here the well known Pre-Socratic and classical tradition
of the concept that perception and knowledge are due to the union of something in us
with something outside, siinilar or identical with it. Reference should be made, how-
ever briefly, to the Neo-platonic idea that, for example, vision is due not to the object
or the bundle of rays emitted by it, but to the soul itself. This recognises some part
of itself in the object, as it contains all that exists; or, in other words what exists is
notlring but the soul containing all diverse bodies. Individual souls, however, are but
parts of the world-soul which is one and the same everywhere. (See for example Neme-
sius, De Natura Hominis cap. VII, Oxonii 1671, p.143 with ref. to Porphyry De Sensu.)
Naturalism. Empiricism 53
as opposed to scientific thinking, because in the latter the emphasis lies
on the dissimilarities between objects - on distinction rather than on the
"lumping together" of phenomena.140 Hence science seeks an explanation
in deductive, quantitative and metric terms. With all his protoscientific
ideas and achievements, Paracelsus decidedly belongs to the former group.
He is not a scientist in the modern sense.
The latter element is present to a much greater extent in Van Belmont,
who did not, however, on that account abandon mysticism and magic.
It is the example of Van Belmont which best illustrates the fruitfulness of
"holistic" thinking and mysticism in the development of science and Para-
celsus' share in this. At the same time, it shows the historical futility of
the erection of harriers between mysticism on the one hand and scientific
thinking on the other; for these have not only not excluded each other,
hut actually formed an important source of mutual inspiration. This is
well illustrated in the work of Paracelsus and indeed it provides an addi-
tional stimulus for the historical elucidation of his ideas.
Paracelsus' Approach to Nature
Empirical search for the divine seals in nature
Paracelsus is first and foremost a naturalist. "It behoves me to des-
cribe natural things so that many secrets may become known. Then may
the physician prepare the fifth essence of gold and put to shame Avicenna
the Sophist and his followers. Great are the virtues of Nature. Who is so
thirsty as to work out all her virtues? For these are from God's wisdom
which is infinite. "141
He sets out to explore how Nature works, to discover what are the
ephemeral phenomena and the eternal laws by which Nature is governed.
The work of Nature constitutes, however inadequately, a visible reflection
of the invisible work of God. Nature provides signs by means of which
140 Paracelsus' "magic" view of sympathy, of course, in no way interferes with the pro-
minence given by him to "separation" as the individualising and driving force in the
development of the cosmos, the elements and virtues - in preference to creation (see
his "Three books of Philosophy written to the Athenians" and our analysis on p. 91,
and before, on Paracelsus - as a figure of the Renaissance and Humanism, p. 36.)
141 "Mir aber gebiirt natiirliche ding zu beschreiben: und so sie in die geschrifft sollen ge-
bracht werden, so werden viel erkennt, die sich bissher verborgen behalten haben, und
nicht recht erkennt sind worden. Dann mag der Artzt das Gold in das fiinfft wesen
bringen, und mag den sophisten Avicennam, und sein Anhenger ihren geschrifften
schenden.'.' Das vierdte Buch von den unsichtbaren Dingen. Huser, Fol. Ed. 1603,
vol. I, p. 103.
54 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
God has graced us with glimpses into His secret wisdom and "magnalia".
"In matters eternal it is Belief that makes all works visible, in matters
corporeal it is the light of Nature that reveals things invisible."142
God and Nature
The uncreated virtues and the created objects
The invisible virtues that the naturalist should uncover are direct
emanations from God. As such, they are uncreated. For God created
objects such as herbs - hut their virtues he did not create. "Virtues",
"Arcana", "Magnalia" had always been in God, prior to all creation, at
the time when God was a spirit hovering above the waters. Hence, virtues
and forces in natural objects are not natural, hut supernatural, without
end or beginning.
Eventually, when heaven and earth are dissolved, they will go hack
from whence they came.
It is in this sense that God would have to he called "natural" - if by
"Nature" not only created objects hut also their divine uncreated virtues
are understood.143
Nor are these virtues from the stars, for these cannot beget or produce, hut
only "cook" them, i.e. provide the necessary conditions for them to develop.
As all virtues in natural objects are divine, human ability and wisdom,
too, are from God.144
Our task, then, is to "seek", to "knock" and to "find", not to "drown
in work, abandoning research, saying that it is beyond our understanding
and thus failing to kindle the torch which will enlighten us". 145 Research
into the causes of natural phenomena is therefore a religious duty. "As
the light of Nature is like the crumbs from the table of the Lord, for all
the heathen to grasp, and has departed from Judah, it behoves us not to
give in, hut to pick up the crumbs as long as they fall."
142 "In den Ewigen dingen macht der Glaube alle werck sichtbar: in den leiblichen un-
sichtbarlichen dingen macht das liecht der Natur alle ding sichtbar." Vorrede in die
Bucher Morbor. lnvisib. Huser I, 87.
143 "Nun wie kan aber Got natiirlich sein ?" De Vera lnfiuentia Rerum, liber Theophrasti.
Tract. I. Ed. Sudhoff, XIV, p. 215.
144 Liber de Inventione Artium. Prologus. Vol. XIV, p. 249.
145 " ••• so gebiirt sich nicht nach zulassen, sondern auffklauben von der weissheit, so lang
ein brosymlin falt". Das vierdte Buch von den unsichtbaren Dingen. Huser I, 103. See
also Vorrede Huser I, 86. "Dan der da suchet und klopfet an, der findt. Also ist es
von den wercken zu verstehn, dieweil wir an uns finden Kranckheiten, deren ursprung
im sichtigen leib nit ergriffen mag werden."
Naturalism versus Superstition 55
Nature reveals the signs of God. It also opens the student's eyes to
His gifts, the divine cures and arcana lavished upon nature around us.
The futility of superstitious practices and the Devil
Moreover, it is by research into nature that superstition will he banished.
The internal working of living beings (the microcosm) was often expressed in
terms of sorcery, satanism, witchcraft, augury and superstition ("zauherisch,
teuffl.isch, hexisch, augurisch, superstitiosisch") - as a result of shunning
the "Light of Nature".
Nature follows its own inherent "order" and command, unaffected by
religious or superstitious ceremonies. Coloquinth purges and all arcana for
that matter act in heathens as well as in Christians. Matters corporeal
and belonging to this world ("irrdisch ") are not subject to religious influence.
There is no holiness in bodies; nor was Christ's resurrection due to the
holiness of His body. Nor did any signs emanate from His body in the
grave. It was hut ignorance of arcana and virtues that led people to
ascribe them to Gods and later on to the body of Christ or the Saints.146
Paracelsus would not deny that invocation of Saints for the cure of disease might have
helped here and there - but he is against it "because of the superstition and satanism
which goes with it". "A Christian should attribute everything to God ... and not call out:
may this or that happen. For when we invoke Saints in order that bears, lions, ravens
may serve us (as they served them) Satan is present." Hence it is for the physician to
take matters in hand; "for medicine is such that all superstition is banned and the phy-
sician moves towards the Light of God alone". 147
Similarly, Paracelsus says there may be something in "wound-blessings", exorcism and
even in the story of the "Venusberg", in which sorcerers profess to acquire powerful
"signs" ("characters"). 148 All this, however, is so overgrown with superstition that it
should not be believed.
The devil can do nothing without being ordered to do so by God. God may command
146 "Und darumb, was irrdisch ist, was es handelt, muss irrdisch seyn: Darumb so dient
es glaubigen und unglaubigen, guten und bosen, frommen und schiilcken, sie seyen
wie sie wollen: Wer den Coloqnint frisst, der muss zum stuhl. Dann also ist jedliche
natiirliche Wirckung von Gott verordnet, kein Person anzusehen, und nit jnbinden,
weder Glaub oder nit, weder im namen Jesu, noch im namen Christi, sondern dass
die N atur ihrem befelch nachgang": Opus Paranrirum, Lib. IV, De Origine Morborum
lnvisibilium. Huser I, p. 107.
Similarly, the curative effects of the "Mummy" - the "Mumia" - of Paracelsus (parts
from a human body which met with sudden - preferably violent - death) are perfectly
natural and do not admit of any superstitious interpretation. De Orig. Morbor. ln-
visibil. lib. IV. Huser, vol. I, p. 105.
147 Fragmentum libri de morbis ex incantationibus et impressionibus inferioribus. Das ist
von den unsichtbaren Kranckheiten. Huser I, 138.
148 Opus Paramirum Lib. V, De Origine Morbor. lnvisibil. Huser I, p. 116.
56 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
and commission spirits - but their action is through the powers of herbs, although there
is in the herbs nothing additional to what was always in them since their creation. No
demon or spirit was ever added at any one time or place. Nor is there any action of spirits
or demons in such powerful spiritual forces as imagination.
The "True Signs" as revealed to Research into Nature
Naturalism to Paracelsus thus means the search for divine signs.
"Who would not grasp the huh of nature from whence these signs come?"
Again they are not outwardly visible, they are not in the shape of
"bodies", hut are intrinsic virtues.
These internal and invisible virtues are the "fifth essences", of which one
"loth" (half an ounce) is equivalent to twenty pounds of the original
"body" from which it is extracted.149 "The less matter the higher the
value of the virtues. Just as the sun can shine through a glass and fire act
through the walls of a stove, so bodies can send out invisible forces over
distances while remaining at rest themselves". Thus are explained the
effects of the magnet, sympathetic power and the "mummy".150
Experience ("Erfahrung") versus pseudo-knowledge based on reasoning
("Logica")
The search for the invisible "seals" and forces in Nature will thus,
however indirectly, lead to truth - in contrast to mere human speculation.
For there is more "Knowledge" ("wissen und erkantnuss") in that which
God has created than there is in human reasoning. Thus we recognise
God in his creation which is the greater world and in man in whom all its
parts are represented.
Such truth is simple - just as God's commands should he kept in
simplicity. For the intention to improve, by human wisdom, the order
imposed by Christ, is inspired by Satan. "The more learned the more
perverted" (" Jhe gelehrter, jhe verkehrter"). "For belief is in no need of
the scholar's wisdom; i.t only demands simplicity."151
The methods required for studies in the "Book of Nature" are different
from those of hook-learning. "He who wishes to explore nature must tread
her hooks with his feet. Writing is learnt from letters, Nature, however,
(by travelling) from land to land: One land one page.
149 Opus Paramirum Lib. IV, De Origine Morbor. Invisibil. Huser I, p. 109.
150 On the "Mummy" see above p. 55 and 101.
151 " ••• muss man gross ermessen, nicht den W olstandt oder hiipsche Ordnung, sondern die
einfalt allein und sunst nichts, von wegen des Sathans einsehen, darauss diss entspringt:
"Experientia" versus Logic 57
Thus is the Codex of Nature, thus must its leaves he turned."1 52 Ex-
perience, which alone matters to the naturalist and physician, is "Erfah-
rung" - the result of travelling with open eyes. Thus the physician should
study geography and cosmography - he should he an "Astronomus".
To his eye must also he revealed the "mothers", the habitat and climate
in which the minerals grow. "But the mountains and mines will not
follow him. He must seek them. Where the minerals lie, there are the
artists: If one is to search for artists in the separation and preparation of
Nature, he must look for them where the Minerals are found. "153
There is then no higher bliss on earth for body and soul, nothing more
noble than to understand divine Nature.
Such understanding is based on religious experience and contrasts with
pseudo-knowledge, the product of haphazard observation and experiment,
the sources from which Aristotle drew.
Formal logic, as taught by Aristotle, Galen and Avicenna, is according
to Paracelsus unsuitable for, nay contrary to a proper study of nature.
It is a newcomer in the history of human knowledge.
The ancients had cultivated the spirit of observation in astronomy, recognising that
heaven and the astra were together the mother of all human wisdom - whence they derived
a great advance in science and the arts, 154
Knowledge and science thus obtained are admittedly limited and transient. Yet they
are a divine gift. 155 Thus, even before the advent of Christ, the world was endowed with
scientific knowledge, and its light is still as good as it was then. But man degenerated and
gave out as works of nature the figments of his own mind- pseudo-knowledge and wisdom,
which have nothing to do with heaven. 156 At the time of Christ this was the wit ("Sophiste-
rey und Gleissnerey") of the Pharisees and Scribes - and through their foolishness astro-
darauff dann auch folgt jhe gelehrter jhe verkehrter. Dan der Glaube darff keiner
Gelehrten, W eissheit: nuhr Eynfalt, und in derselbigen stracks ohnverruckt wandlen."
Fragm. libri de Morbis ex incantat. et impress. inferior, das ist von den unsichtbaren
Kranckheiten. Huser I, 139.
152 "Denn das will ich bezeugen mit der Natur: Der sie durchforschen will, der muss
mit den Fiissen ihre Bucher treten. Die Schrift wird erforscht durch ihre Buchstaben,
die Natur aber durch land zu land: als oft ein Land, als oft ein Blatt. Also ist Codex
N aturae, also muss man ihre Blatter umwenden." Defensiones und Verantwortungen
wegen etlicher verunglimpfung seiner Missgonner. Vierdte Defension. Huser I, 259.
153 Ibid., p. 258.
154 "Dardurch sie grosse Kiinste und zerglingliche Weissheit eroffnet und erfunden haben."
Philos. Sagacis Lib. I, cap. 1. Das Buch der Philosophey dess Himmlischen Firma-
ments. Huser, vol. II, p. 342.
155 "Dann im Natiirlichen Liecht handlen, und sich im selbigen erlustigen, ist gottlich,
wiewohl todtlich." Ibid.
156 "Wir legen uns selher das jenig zu, so im Liecht der Natur, unnd nicht in uns ist, als
gleich was wir reden, sey das Liecht der Natur ... also werden alle falsche Weissheit,
falsche Kiinst, falsche Artzney gelehrnet, unnd dieselhen nemmen weder auss Gott,
noch ans dem Natiirlichen Liecht sein Grund und Fundament." Ibid.
58 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
nomy was forgotten. Christ taught the eternal wisdom of the prophets and apostles which
superseded the light of nature - when "astronomers, magi, diviners and others abandoned
their art as the inferior light and followed Christ rather than nature." Thus Dionysius
Areopagita renounced astronomy at Athens and followed in the steps of St. Paul.
But we cannot emulate these heroic examples. Each should exercise
"what acts and should act in himself" and, though it is the minor light,
God will not abandon the light of Nature. It is given to those whom
nature has destined for it - just as a knowledge of cures comes naturally
to the horn physician.
But "Logica" is different. It has darkened the light of nature as well
as that of eternal wisdom and introduced a "foreign doctrine". It is the
"leaven of the Pharisees who move about in the schools, who break the
power of nature and follow neither Christ nor the natural light. They are
the dead who bury the dead; there is no life in what they do, for there is no
light for them in which they can learn anything".
Censure of Aristotle and Avicenna
The father of formal logic, however, was Aristotle, and it is he - to-
gether with Galen and Avicenna - whom Paracelsus singles out for censure
as the spirit that misled human natural research.
Paracelsus calls him a "sharp illusionist" ("Scharff Phantast") who has left some con-
siderable work on generation. He misled himself, however, and was completely ignorant,
"kept in the dark by the unpropitious constellation prevalent at his tinie and so much
fettered by animal nature that nothing remained but the impression of a sharp seed that
fell among the thorns. "157
He was subtle in a perverse way ("scharfsinnig auf irrige weg wider die
15 7 Das Buch der Geberung der Empfindtlichen dingen in der Vernunfft. Das erste
Buch der V orreden Theophrasti in das Buch der Gebiirung ("von Gebiirung des Men-
schen"). Erste Vorrede. Huser I, p. 117. "durch die Konstellation verfinstert und so
von der viehischen Natur unterspickt, dass nichts am Grunde liegt als nur das An-
zeichen eines Scharpffen Sahmens, der in die Dornen gefallen ist." Lib. de lnventione
Artium Theophrasti IV. Tract. Philos. Magna. Huser II, p. 231. See also with reference
to Aristotle, Meteorology, which does not tally with the facts: Grosse Wundartzney,
lib. I, tract. 2, cap. 1. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 285. Aristotle had, with typical Greek
mendacity (sic), given a false direction to philosophy. His unmasking had been de-
layed by mankind's stubborn adherence to the humoral theory. Grosse Wundartzney,
lib. 11, tract. 2, Beschlussred. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 347. In the same work lying as
a national characteristic is also attributed to the Jews, but they, as Paracelsus says,
were even surpassed by Christians. (Draft for the dedication of a work on syphilis
- possibly for the IVth part of the "Surgery" - to King Ferdinand. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X,
p. 485).
Criticism of Aristotle is found scattered in the Paragranum at a number of places
(e.g. lib. I: Philosophia, Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 69; 148; 81).
Censure of Aristotle. Theory of Knowledge 59
N atur"), propounding his arguments cleverly and with plausible and
amusing speeches ("mit verniinftigen Reden heschriehen, mit liistigen Sen-
tenzen und Spriichen herfiir gestrichen"). "Did Nature behave as his sweet
dissertations prescribe, who could desire a brighter light in it ?". And his
followers and pupils have enlarged on his work with multifarious artful
arguments: "hut in the kernel of Nature remained a dust and a withered
flower" ("Aber im Kern der Natur ein Staub und zerknitschter Blum").158
Paracelsus blames Aristotle for his ignorance of chemistry and alchemy.
He was not aware of the deep and marvellous powers of sulphur. He
doubted that "species" could he transmuted- and their transmutation by
sulphur remained hidden from Aristotle, the "double fool" and "blue
philosopher" .159
Similarly Avicenna "was not a child of Philosophy", for philosophy is
the mother of a good physician. Such men are ignorant of the basic
foundations of medicine and hence they talk about the end and not the
beginning. ("Darumh hanget ihnen an, so wir das wol deutschen sollen,
der Aussgang, aher nicht der Anfang").
We may find in this a gibe at the expense of the Aristotelian "Entelecheia". This is
the plan of perfection which in Aristotle's philosophy forms the final cause of organised
natural beings, where the "end" - the eventual fulfilment of the specific aim of life - is
seen as the "beginning". It is the "idea" or "plan" of immanent form and function which
causes the transformation of matter (the merely potential) into a specific object (the real).
Paracelsus attacks Aristotelians for lacking the "beginnings", the basis of soundly directed
causal research in nature, and for concentrating on final causes. They thus remain ignorant
of the invisible non-material forces, the effects of which they attribute to material action.
Hence they wrongly attributed to the visible stars an influence in forming a human in-
dividual.
Theory of Knowledge. "Experientia" and "Scientia" through identification
of the mind with the internal "knowledge" possessed by natural objects in
attaining their specific aims. "Ahlauschen" (overhearing) of this
"knowledge" which is immanent in the objects of research
A methodical approach is recognisable in Paracelsus' general "Theory
of Knowledge". What can and should we know of the world around us
and in us?
Knowledge is "Experientia" ("Erfahrung") - something we know for
certain - in contrast with "Experiment", which, by itself, is merely "acci-
108 Buch von der Gebiirung. 1. Vorrede loc. cit. Huser I, p. 117.
159 Von den natiirlichen Dingen. Vom Terpentin, Nieswurz, etc. cap. 7. Ed. Sudhoff,
vol. I, p. 125, and cap. 8, p. 163.
60 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
dental". The latter must he integrated with theory before it can become
knowledge, the mother of experience. · knowledge of man comes from the greater world, not from man himself. " 161
For example, experiment teaches us that scammonea purges. This
alone does not help us much - for disease is a complicated process following
its own laws and not just one single fact which can he set against another
fact, e.g. that scammonea purges. But there is "scientia" in the herb which
teaches it how to purge - just as there is internal "scientia" in the pear
tree which teaches it how to grow pears rather than apples. It is this
"scientia" which we should try to catch. "When ·you overhear ("ahlau-
schen") from the Scammonea the knowledge which it possesses, it will he
in you just as it is in the Scammonea and you have acquired the experience
as well as the knowledge: It is not an experiment. This - an experiment
without knowledge - you have when you fail to know Scammonea in all
its properties".
"Therefore, Scientia is what is in full accord with knowledge through the
just order of Nature."160 "Scientia is contained in the object in which God
has provided it: Experientia is knowledge of cases in which Scientia has
been put to the test."
Scientia is, therefore, a virtue present in natural objects. This is the
source whence "Experientia" is derived. "Experientia" is the philosopher's
comprehension ("Kuntschafft") of the manner in which any particular
natural object (e.g. a pear tree) fulfills itself and thereby attains perfection
- its inborn and sure instinctive "knowledge". That "knowledge" is
"correct" which enables an object to realise its specific aims. By putting
"Scientia" to the test in an experiment, the observer achieves identification
with the object and this makes an understanding of the object - Experi-
entia - possible. It goes much more deeply into the essence of objects than
does sensual perception, notably eyesight - which at best can only direct
an "experiment".
Union with the object as the ultimate aim of the naturalist
("philosopher") and physician
Obviously, hooks cannot offer anything that would satisfy the thirst
for such knowledge. In the thought of Paracelsus, the deprecation of hook
160 Experientia: "Also was vollkommen mit einem Wissen in rechter ordnung der Natur
geht, dasselbige ist Scientia." "Scientia ist in dem, in dem sie Gott geben hatt: Ex-
perientia ist ein Kuntschafft von dem, in dem Scientia probiert wirt". Labyrinthus
:Medicor, cap. 6. Von dem Buch der Artzney, so Experientia heist wie der Arzt das·
selbig erfaren soll. Huser I, 272-274. Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 192. Paracelsists such as
Severinus use the term "Scientia" to designate organ function; for example there is a
Inborn Knowledge 61
learning is connected with the concept of man as a microcosm. "The
Human reason is liable to build up "anthropomorphic" explanations that
are removed from reality. The only reality, however, which Paracelsus
will recognise is "the concordance which makes man whole, from which he
derives knowledge of the world and hence of himself - these two, being
one thing and not two. I put this to the test of experience".1 62
To Paracelsus, too, "man is the measure of all things" in that he was
the last and highest stage in creation and thus incorporates all parts of the
greater world. His mind is endowed with strata that are deeper and more
powerful than reasoning and that are indissolubly hound up with his per-
sonality as a whole and specific to the individual - in contrast to reason,
which on the surface appears to he valid to everybody. By means of
such deeper strata of his personality, man can level himself up or down
and become one with the world at large or the smallest object therein. It
is only by this process of union with the object that man can arrive at the
knowledge of objects, i.e. truth and reality. "Experience" as needed by
the naturalist and physician consists entirely in making himself part of the
object and understanding it by listening to its inner mechanism. It cannot
he acquired by those who lack the ability to identify themselves with
natural objects. Hence, the physician must he "horn" and "called" to his
profession, he must he "earthbound" for it is from the earth that the
medicinal herbs grow. "The earth knows him, establishes and rejects
him."163
"Derived" as against "inborn" knowledge of the elements
Man and the "Sagani"
The true knowledge of objects which man must take pains to acquire is inborn in those
man-like beings which are one with the elements - the Sagaui, the sylphs, the nymphs
"Scientia" in the stomach which directs digestion (Idea Medicinae Philosophicae. Basel
1571, p. 184), "Scientia" inherent in the Semina determines development and matur-
ation (ibid. p. 316).
161 "Denn der Mensch wird erlernt von der grossen Welt und nicht auss dem Menschen."
Opus Paramirum. Das erste Buch. De Origine Morborum ex Tribus primis Suhstantiis.
Huser, vol. I, p. 26.
162 "Das ist die Concordantz die den Menschen gantz macht: So er die Welt erkennt und
auss ihr den Menschen auch welche gleiche ein ding sind und nicht zwey. Das ich der
erfahrung weitter heimsetz." Ibid.
163 "Darumb alleine der so da berufft wirt, ein Artzt ist, demselbigen wachst die Artzney
aus der Erden, uud sie kennt ihn, hatt ihn zu setzen und zu entsetzen. So ist nun der
grundt das wir die drey Substantz erkennen und erfahren: Das nicht auss unsern
Kopffen, noch auss horen sagen, sonder auss der Erfahrenheit der Natur Zerlegung,
62 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
(that "remain honnd to water like herrings"), the lemurs (which are "hound to air like
birds") and the gnomes (that are "like shrews in the earth").
Physically they are all like man and even reason and work like man, hut unlike man
they are not endowed with an immortal soul. Owing to this, man is not physically one
with the elements - hut "free on earth and not in earth, on water and not in water, under
the sky hut not in the sky, by the air, hut not in the air - yet forming the centre of all
four in whom all operations and rays are concentrated. " 164
This shows the ambivalent position of man in nature. He has "bought" his freedom
and mastery of the elements at the price of detachment and ignorance - remaining far
below the "wisdom, art, activity and mansions" of these intermediate beings. By contrast
with their sure knowledge he speculates on outside appearances - comparable to one who
from a distance sees a blacksmith in his workshop, hut fails to grasp the essentials of his
work.
Magia N aturalis: Its religious background; its protoscientific
significance; its purport in medicine
Paracelsus' fight against superstition and search for natural causes do
not in any way preclude a belief in "Magic".
"Magica" reveals the unseen "influences" to which things are subjected,
hidden forces that are made evident by Medicine, Philosophy and Astro·
nomy.165 It is not, however, a theory which teaches us in principle how
effects are achieved in nature, hut is rather an action or practice in itself.
The "Magus" brings celestial forces down to earth and guides them to the
objects on which they can exert their specific power. He transfers them
to the "medium" in which such forces can operate, to the "centre" - and
the "centre is man". "Thus, through man, heavenly power may he brought
into man so that in him is found the action which is possible in the cor·
responding constellation. Thus man into whom magic has brought such
forces becomes the star with the star's secrets and arcana. Just as if some·
body eats a herb, this herb is inside him with all its forces, as they are ....
And as poison or a remedy with all its effects can he introduced into man
by man, so the Astronomer - Magus - can imbue man with firmamental
power."166
Such power is primarily something spiritual - for it is due to constel·
lation, i.e. not to matter hut to a certain order in which matter is arranged
und Erfahrung solcher Eigenschafft ergriindung." Opus Paramirum I, loc. cit. Huser,
vol. I, p. 26.
164 De Meteoris. Cap. IV. Quid in stellis de viventihus speciehus. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII,
p. 154.
16 5 Lahyrinthus Medicorum. Cap. 6. Huser I, 273. Ibid. cap. 9, Huser I, 278.
l66 Philos. Sagax. Lib. I, cap. 6. Von den Neun Prohationihus. In Probationem artis
l\fagicae. Huser II, 376. See also De Peste cum additionihus. Lib. II, cap. 2. Huser I, 382.
Magia Naturalis 63
by supra-material forces. Hence the magician is not taught by man hut
by the "Star". Not, however, by the Star as it appears to us, the "natural
Star", hut by "Supernatural Heaven". In other words, the magician is
horn with his art and knowledge - "art and man are conceived together".
"Magic is impressed on the Magus as is vision on the eyes and hearing on
the ears - take the example of the magi of the past, none of whom was
taught the bookish learning of mortal man. For, if a man go to no other
school than that which is made of bricks and mortar and seek no school·
master other than him who teaches from behind the stove, he will come
to nothing except superficially. And the school of magic stands its
test through Christ, who says : Learn from me, for I am merciful and
meek."167
"Reality" in a true sense cannot, therefore, he taught by man to man,
hut it is "magic" that can and does teach it; it is of divine revelation, for
God wants nothing to remain hidden and unknown. "Should something
become revealed, it must he given by Him who has hidden it and to him
who is called upon, able and gifted to interpret it. Just as the hook of
Revelations - which nobody will ever interpret unless he he a Magus, horn
or adopted.... "
The power of the magus is superior to the power of the elements and
matter, for it is spiritual 'power. The magician thus becomes the equal
of nature. By his action he can achieve what nature effects by means of
conception. Thus an image, devoid of flesh and blood, may he made by him
to act as a comet, and symbols and words ("characters") may through him
acquire forces like those of "Arcana". He may induce herbs and gems to
equal in power planets and their denizens and the whole of the firmament.
What the Saint is in the "Realm of God", the magus is in the "Realm of
Nature" - the Saint working through God, the Magus through Nature.16 8
How does the Magus act? The physician knows all the virtues of herbs.
In the same way the Magus knows "what is in the stars". The physician
extracts power from herbs - the extract may have little weight, although
"it has many leas and meadows in its fist". But the extract alone is th.e
remedy, not the leas and meadows. Thus the Magus can transport many
meadows of heaven into a small pebble which we call "Gamaheu" or
"Imago" or "Character". For these are containers in which the Magus
keeps sidereal forces and virtues as in a box. Just as the physician can
167 Philos. Sagax I, 6. Huser II, 376.
168 "Also ist die unterscheidt zwischen Sanctum und Magum, dass der Sanctus aus Gott,
der Magus aus der Natur wircket." Philos. Sagax I, 6. Huser II, 378.
 64 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
offer his remedy to the patient, the Magus can transfer such virtues to
man after he has extracted them.169
The main objects of the Magus are the transmutation of objects, trans-
fer of power, action at a distance and prediction. Nature gives wood the
form of a tree and through mere transformation of its material other
objects may he formed. Moreover, N~ture is willing on her own account
to endow herbs and stones with magic virtue - how much more can he
achieved when she is induced to lend her arcana to any material at hand.170
In disease, necessity itself demands the magic art. Through it Nature
will put into words and images virtues like those that she lavishes on
herbs and roots.
Such effects of Magic and "Cahalia" as the hearing of voices that are
miles away, are then due to the power of the spirit which uses "Nature"
in transforming elemental matter, hut is itself above it. For ''the Master
is superior to the disciples". The "Master of the Spirit" ("Spiritualischer
Meister") can thus transform man, just as a painter can change the figures
on his canvas. It is human "Scientia" and not stars which are here at
work, although the Magus "learns" from the star and is sent by it.
Magia teaches the physician "Pathology"171 - how by sympathy a
169 Philos. Sagax I, 6. Huser II, 379. - For "proofs of the efficacy of artificial as well as
natural images embossed on stones or plants commonly called Gamahe or Camaiev and
on Signatures" see the fifth chapter of I. Gaffarel's Curiositez lnovyes sur la Sculpture
Talismanique des Persans, Horoscope des Patriarches et Lecture des Estoilles. Paris
1629, pp. 149-222. Talismans act through "sympathy" between the image and the event
to he influenced, when a certain stellar constellation has created a favourable "milieu"
for effects of a "homoeopathic" or magnetic nature. Ancient as well as mediaeval
"Lapidaries" and sorcery hooks abound with prescriptions for talismans many of
which have been transmitted by the "Picatrix", an "Arabic Handbook of Hellenistic
Magic". See Ritter, Hellmut: Picatrix, in Vortriige der Bihliothek Warburg 1921-22.
Leipzig und Berlin 1923, pp. 94-124, notably p. 112. The Picatrix enjoyed much publi-
city at the time of Paracelsus. On Gnosticism as the origin of the belief in magic stones
("Gnostic gems") see: J oannis Macarii Canonici Ariensis Abraxas s. Apistopistus; quae
est antiquaria de Gemmis Basilidianis Disquisitio. Acced. Abraxas Proteus s. multi-
formis Gemmae Basilidianae portentosa varietas a Joh. Chifletio. Ex offic. Plantin.
Antverpiae 1657 - containing an atlas of Gnostic gems on 28 plates. - It is noteworthy
that Ficino shared the belief that something of the world-soul can he attracted into
objects and retained in them.
In this he was not so far remote from the ideas of magic current at his time and ex-
pounded by Trithemius, Agrippa and Paracelsus. It is true, however, that he avoided
"daemonic" magic to which the latter authors subscribed in favour of a "spiritual"
brand - as was recently shown by D.P.Walker, Spiritual and Daemonic Magic. From
Ficino to Campanella. London. The Warburg Institute. 1958. pp. 41 et seq., pp. 104
et seq.
170 Philos. Sagax I, 6. Huser II, 377-378.
171 Von der Fallenden Sucht, in: Eilff Tractat oder Biicher vom Ursprung und Ursachen
der Wassersucht etc. Huser I, 543.
Microcosm. Astrosophy 65
cosmic force ("Ascendent") specifically acts upon and combines with a
system or substance inside the body to which it corresponds according to
the analogies between Macro- and Micro-cosm.172 Finally, any cure achieved
by the knowledge of the arcanum that is "specific" for the case in question
is "magia"; true cure can only he by specific action on the agent that causes
disease - and not by working out the "grade and complexion" of diseases and
remedies as the ancients did.173
In Pathology and Therapy, magic thus reduces itself to the principle
of specific action. This has a scientific and modern ring. Paracelsean
magic certainly embraces it, hut it only just emerges from a theory of
knowledge and a belief that are alien to science and are significant today
in psycho-analysis at best.
The analogies between Macrocosm and Microcosm
and the role of the Stars: Astrology and "Astrosophy"
Man as Microcosm
Man is anchored in two worlds - the visible and the invisible, the
elemental and the celestial, the world of matter, which serves his body,
and the world of action and power, which serves his spirit and mind. Man
as a whole is a "fifth essence" (quinta essentia) extracted from both worlds
and wrought into one heing.174 He has received wisdom, reason and the
organic composition of his body (the "wisdom of the firmament") from
the Astrum, and flesh and blood from the elements. "Thus man is fifth
essence and microcosm and the son of the whole world".
172 For detailed descriptions from the "macrocosmic" pathology of Paracelsus, see part II
of the present work, p. 133; 178.
173 Eilff Tractat. Huser I, 546.
174 Man anchored in two worlds - the elemental and celestial - Man as Quinta Essentia:
" •.. Also ist das fiinfft Wesen von den Zweyen Corpem aussgezogen, und in einen Leih
vereiniget, ein Mensch zu seyn ... Das ist, dass der Mensch des Firmamentischen Him-
mels W eissheit, Vemunfft, Kunst und alles vom Gestim empfahet, und Fleisch und
Blut von den Elementen. Also ist der Mensch das fiinffte W esen und ist Microcosmus,
und ist der Sohn der gantzen Welt: ... Darumh schlecht (schliigt) der Mensch in die
arth der Stemen. Schlecht auch in die arth der Elementen, auss denen er dann gemacht
ist: darumb er alle (ihr) Eygenschafft an ihm hatt: darumh ihn auch die grosse Welt
speiset, fiihret und nehret in W eissheit, in Vemunfft, in Speiss und Tranck, als sein
eygen Blut und Fleisch, so wunderharlich aus ihr gehoren." Philos. Sagax. Lili. I,
cap. 2. Huser, vol. II, p. 346.
66 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
In Paracelsus' views, heaven and the stars retain the magisterial posi-
tion which they enjoyed in ancient cosmology. There are, however, marked
differences in emphasis which amount to a restriction of the unlimited
power ascribed to them in the Middle Ages and at Paracelsus' own time.
Limitations of astral "powers"
Limitations of the powers of the stars are evident, for example, in the
making of the ideal physician. He owes his highest faculties not to the
stars, hut to a divine influence which confers upon him "love of man".
This is superadded to his "natural" gifts - and these derive partly from
the constellation of the firmament. They also come from an inborn, earthly
nature. Man is indeed horn "artful" through his "stars", hut the stars
may he deceitful and confer folly instead of wisdom. The same stars may
lead man to invention and the advancement of knowledge, hut also to the
pseudo-knowledge of "Sophistry", which takes him away from purposeful
work - a "foolish star, a fantastic constellation has produced him, it would
have been better for him had he never been horn".175 Hence the wise man
tends to overcome the influence of the stars in himself by employing divine
wisdom. For those who are taught by God are the most learned, those by
the stars the least, and those who learn from the light of Nature occupy
an intermediate position.
The course of a star has no influence on the length of human life.
People would he horn and die at certain times even if Saturn had never
appeared in heaven; there would he men of "lunatic" temperament even
if the moon had never been created. Mars may signify a cruel disposition -
hut Nero, however cruel, was not his child; though of one and the same
nature, they did not receive it from each other. Helen and Venus are alike
- yet had Venus never been, Helen had still become a whore. 176
Nor do the stars act upon us by "impression" or "inclination". He errs
who says a thief has his predatory inclination from a star.177
175 Divine, not astral, influence in the making of the perfect physician. "ein narrechtigs
gestirn, ein Fantastische Constellatz hat in geboren, besser were es ihm, er were nit
geboren, dan also die Leut verfiiren." Grosse Wundartzney Lib. II, Tract. 1, cap. 6.
Huser, Chirurgische Biicher und Schrifften. Strasburg 1605, p. 73.
176 Independence of man and star (Mars - Nero; Venus - Helen). Vol. Paramirum Lib.
et Pagoyum I De Ente Astrorum, cap. 2. Huser vol. I, p. 5. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 178.
See also Werle, F., Die kosmische Weltanschauung des Paracelsus. Nova Acta Parac.
1947, IV, 12-29.
177 Impression - Inclination. Opus Paramirum. Lili. II, cap. 7. Huser, vol. I, p. 49.
Astrosophy. Correspondences 67
Cosmic correspondences as against astral influx (inclination) as the power
conferring specificity and destination
Priority and superiority are not due to the visible stars.178 Here again,
what is visible is not real and matters little; it is the invisible forces that
are the master-causes. Such forces result from the concerted action of the
firmament as a whole rather than from the influence of individual stars.
In other words, the pow:er of the stars - visible and invisible - is not in the
first place transmitted by an "influx" of rays which according to traditional
ideas might exert an "inclination" or "direction" on the character and
destiny of an individual.
"Nothing impresses; neither an astrum that necessitates, nor one that
governs or acts by inclination ... " 179 , and there is no truth in the assertion
that heaven forms, moulds and equips the body. For, as far as the body
is concerned, Adam was created as a material body; from then on without
further creation, he has propagated himself by virtue of a natural process
("Ens Naturae") with the help of the parental semen. Seed sown in a
field grows solely by virtue of its own Being ("Ens"). The star adds nothing
to it, neither power nor nature nor properties and complexions.
Correspondences between the astral firmament
and parts of the human organism
By contrast, the real "power" of the stars lies in the firmamental
coordination and correspondence by which objects and phenomena are
chained together.
"The conjunction between heaven and man is as follows ... There is a double firma-
178 Visible stars are not the all powerful "Heaven": "Der Himmel ist allein das Gestirn,
die Stemen sind sichthar, sie sind aber der Himmel nit." Philos. Sagax. Lili. I, cap. 2.
Auss was der Mensch gemacht sey, was der Limus sey, etc. Huser, vol II, p. 346.
179 "Nichts lmprimirt, vel Astrum necessitans, vel guhernans vel inclinans ... " Fragmenta
Medica. Fragmenta ad Paramirum de V entilius referenda. De ente Astrali. Huser,
vol. I, p. 132.
This is briefly summarised in Volumen Paramirum de Quinque Entibus Omnium
Morborum, lib. I: De Ente Astrorum super corpora lnferiora, espec. cap. 4. Huser,
vol. I, p. 6: "Wann ihr habt die Astra verstanden hissher, sie lnclinieren in uns, und
die lnclinatz bild uns nach ihnen: darauff ihr grosse Libell setzen, wie dem Gestirn
widerstanden soil werden . . . Sie gewaltigen gar nichts in uns, sie eynbilden nichts,
sie eignen nichts, sie inclinieren nichts, sie sind frey fiir sich selbst, und wir frey fiir
uns selbst. Nun mercken aber, dass wir ohn das Gestirn nichts leben mogen: dann kelte
und werme und das Digest der dingen, die wir essen und gebrauchen, kompt von jnen:
Allein der Mensch nicht. Und so viel nutzen sie uns und soviel miissen wir sie haben,
als viel dass wir kalt und warm, essen, trincken, lufft haben miissen. Aber nicht weitter
sind sie in uns, noch wir in ihnen."
68 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
ment, one in heaven and one in each body, and these are linked by mutual concordance
and not by unilateral dependence of the body upon the firmament. If, for example, a dis-
cord takes place in the coordination of the firmament on the one hand and the human
economy on the other, the latter will he broken ..."180
In this respect the relationship between the Firmament and Man is
twofold:
(a) Heaven forms a "portrait" or "model". Man and what he does, good
or evil, is thus represented in heaven as if in an image or mirror.
(h) Heaven is the "Prelude" to man. It represents in advance all his
work, behaviour and modes of life, acting as a "prophecy" rather than
a cause.181
Correspondence between the Astrum and the Seat of Disease
There is finally a "firmamental" correspondence between each astrum and the seat of
a particular disease in the body, the "sedes morhi". Plagne, for example, has six classical
loca: the regions behind eacli ear, under each axilla and in each inguinal fold. Each of
these corresponds to a "locus planetarum". Saturn and the moon act on the upper part
of the body, in this case on the region behind the ears, Mars and the sun on the axillae,
Jupiter and Venus on the inguinal folds,182
Consumption is another disease in which the correspondence of the astrum with its
seat emerges.
By this Paracelsus understands a progressive atrophy and exsiccation of organs and
limbs.183 It can he explained in cosmological terms: Man is a part of the earth. As the
latter lives by virtue of the gifts which it receives from heaven, so does man - the differ-
ence being that the gifts received by the earth are visible ones, such as rain and dew, whereas
those given to man are invisible. As long as the astral co-ordination of man is in its normal
°
18 Conjunction between heaven and man: Fragm. Med. ad Paramirum. De Ente Astrali.
Huser, vol. I, p. 132. - A concrete form of this relationship is the "Magnale"; this
"work of God" is a mysterious virtue, a kind of aether, finer than air and the recipient
of astral impression. It may pollute water by some "magnalian" odour, taste, acid,
bitterness and this in turn influences the organs, just as a fish depends upon the quality
of the water in which it dwells. In this way, bodies may he "polluted, made sick or
killed" by the action of the stars; the pollution of the "Magnale" is in effect a disturb-
ance of the relationship between star and man. Vol. Paramir., lib. I, cap. 6. Huser I,
p. 7, and Frag. Med. Huser I, p. 132.
181 Opus Paramirum. Lib. II, cap. 7. Huser, vol I, p. 49.
182 Stars and seat of disease. tlber die Pest. Huser, vol. I, p. 326.
183 Paracelsus is at pains to separate "Phthisis" from the contemporary concept of pul-
monary consumption. At that time consumption in general was believed to he the
product of bronchial obstruction or a "catarrh". Paracelsus admits that these cause
atrophy hut such atrophy is reversible and is not progressive consumption or "Phthisis".
The causes of the latter lie deeper, namely in the astral relationship of men with earth
and heaven. See also later in the second part of the present hook, p. 165; 170 et seq.
Elf Traktat von Ursprung, Ursachen etc.... vom Schwienen. Aridura. Huser, vol. I,
pp. 518-520. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 24.
"Astrum" - Disease - Remedy 69
equilibrium, the microcosmic sun, the heart, will distribute enough warmth and fluid to
maintain the nutrition and growth of organs and limbs. If this astral relationship is dis-
turbed, however, limbs, organs or the whole body will suffer from drought and overheating
by unbalanced action of the microcosmic sun. "For there is a sun in the body which ex-
siccates and withdraws damp. If this consumes further and further and nothing is added
as if by rain, the sun dries everything up and causes consumption."
The disease, therefore, is an affair of the sun. It is due to faulty reception and use
of nourishment whose "guidance" to the right places· depends on celestial concordance.
For the nourishment is consumed by the microcosmic sun.
The cure must aim at providing additional damp to feed the microcosmic sun. Man
cannot force heaven to provide this, hut can "make another heaven". Hence the arcana.
"For arcanum is as much as a powerful heaven in the physician's hand •.. he must sow
water that grows in man as grass grows in the field so that heaven stands in our hand;
for this is the arcanum that removes consumption and is the heaven in the remedy which
gives rain and dew ... the seed out of which water grows is margarita." 184
But the "impression" conveyed by the arcanum is not entirely microcosmic. The
desiccation of limbs and organs indicates that man has fallen "into the sphere of Saturn
and lost his old heaven, his ascendant, his constellation, and lives in Saturn which attracts
his nature and his complexion and rejoices in consuming him and leading him to where
the sun is hottest, as if he were a joint to he roasted, hut at last freezes him."185 "God,
however, has anticipated the treachery of some malignant stars ... and made a further
heaven by creating the physician and the remedy from the earth, and heaven above must
help earth to make the lower heaven grow. Who could withstand the upper heaven, were
there no lower heaven? Thus the lower heaven is the benevolent one which no wise man
despises."
Astral concordance is the power of remedies which it directs
to the diseased organ
Drugs and their specific action are essentially hound up with the astra.
Here again Paracelsus stresses that the effect is one of correspondence
rather than of causation. It is comparable with the passage of time. The
astra thus ."do the work of the physician". Hence "you should not call a
drug cold or hot or humid or dry, hut should say: this is Saturn, this
184 Margarita - pearls to which was ascribed a distinct cordial virtue supporting the vital
balsam (Castelli. Barth. Lexicon Medicum. Lipsiae 1713, p. 483). The Paracelsist
Oswald Croll attributed to his "Sal Perlarum" a renewing, augmenting and supporting
action on the "radical humour" whereby its beneficial effects in such exsiccating dis-
eases as phthisis and senile "marcor" were explained. It is worthy of note that pearls
were already prescribed as a "cordial" in the Middle Ages. Thus John de Rupescissa
praised the strengthening action of those remedies which, like gold, silver and pearls,
clarify the blood of the heart (De Considerat. Quintae Essent. Rerum Omnium. Basie,
s. a. 1561, p. 93). This is one example in which the origin of Paracelsean medicine can
he retraced to his mediaeval alchemical predecessors. See for further discussion of this
point part III of this hook, p. 265 s.
185 Ibid. Huser, vol. I, p. 520.
70 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
Mars, this Venus, this the Pole".186 The doctor should know how to bring
about a concordance between "the astral Mars and the grown Mars" (i.e.
the herb used as a remedy).
It is in this sense that "the remedy should he prepared in the star and
should become a star. For the stars on high make sick and kill and also
make whole and healthy." The physician should, therefore, abandon the
ancient (Galenic) way in the preparation of remedies which was based on
"grades, complexions, humours and qualities", and should recognise the
- specific - power of the drug in the "astrum". "There are the astra above
and those below. And as a remedy cannot act without heaven, it must he
directed by it. Thus you must make a drug volatile, that is to say, remove
what is earthy in it, for only then will heaven direct it." "What should act
on the brain will he directed to it by Luna, what on the spleen by Saturn.
What belongs to the heart will he guided to it by the Sun and to the kid-
neys by Venus, by Jupiter to the liver, by Mars to the bile".
"You should not say: Melissa is a herb for the womb and Majoran for
the head - thus the ignorant talk. Their action lives in Venus and Luna;
if you want it, heaven must he propitious". Any peasant can administer a
drug and wait to see whether it helps or not, hut the physician is supposed
to give it a direction to the head, brain, liver, etc., and how can he do so
when ignorant of the heavens - it is the latter which direct the drug. And
even if he knows what directs it to one or the other organ or makes it act
as a laxative or diuretic, he is still ignorant of what directs it towards the
disease; and if he knows this, he is still ignorant of the seat of the disease.
Since it is heaven that directs the drugs through the action of the Astra,
remedies must he adapted to the spiritual nature of the astral forces, i.e.
they must he brought into a volatile condition. For how could astra move
or direct an object as heavy as stone ? Being adapted to an astral nature,
a drug becomes "Arcanum". The physician is thus required to discover
the correspondence between the star which has caused a disease and the
star which heals it by means of an appropriate drug. "What higher aim
186 Remedies directed by stars: Das Buch Paragranum III (Der dritte Grundt der Medicin
welcher ist Alchimia). Huser, vol. I, pp. 219-220. See also: De Gradihus et Compositio-
nihus Lib. IV, cap. 2 (Differentia Herharum. "Dividuntur herhae in septem species
una cum reliquis Elementis, et ipsum pro ratione ac natura Astri, quod ex aequo cum
his in septem species coniicitur ... ut ea quae sub sole sunt, Cordi accommodantur ...
quae vero sub luna, Cerehro ... quae sub Venere, Renihus medentur, quae sub Saturno,
splenem comfortant: quae sub Mercurio Hepar defendunt, quae sub Jove Pulmonem
respiciunt. Postremo quae sub Marte sunt, Felli omnino accommoda referentur").
Huser, vol. I, p. 964.
It is God alone, not the star, that bestows "influence" and "virtue". De Vera in-
fluentia rerum. Philosophia Magna. Prologus. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 213.
"Astrum" - Wound - Remedy 71
can he imagined for the physician than the knowledge of the concordance
of the astra? For in them lies the fundamental essence ("Grundt") of all
diseases."
Celestial bodies and wounds
The fate of a wound largely depends upon the time when it was con-
tracted. This is the "good or had luck" of the wound. Luck is visualised
as a wheel described by the complicated movement of the stars, some
individual motions presaging good and others evil. We on earth, as it
were, collide with this wheel.
Hence wounds contracted under Gemini, Virgo, Capricorn are the most unlucky.
Similarly, the planets can he graded according to their evil influence on wounds. Finally,
the astral influence varies according to the seat of the wound. A wound below the belt
contracted when the moon is new is unluckier than one contracted when the moon is fnll.
A wound above the belt is more favourable when contracted before full moon than after.
A wound received after midday, at night, in March or April is less favourable than one
received before midday, in daytime, and in any other month. 187
This influence of the stars can he made use of in medicine. The "Ars Magica" teaches
how to capture "celestial seeds" which are planted in the body of the earth and in stone
and which are called "Gamahi". For heaven can smite a stone, just as it smites man by
sending down a pestilence. The "influence" shot into a stone can he either harmful or
beneficial in disease. It is our task to prepare or to find the appropriate "Gamahi" for
an individual disease. Such "influential stones" marked on the surface by a how or sword
would make amnlets against shot and stab wounds.188
Inconsistencies in the doctrine of correspondences
The example just given shows that in spite of the emphasis laid on
correspondences in preference to the action of individual stars, direct astral
impression and inclination do play an important part in Paracelsean bio-
logy and pathology. They cannot he explained away. At all events it is
difficult to separate direct stellar action from correspondence, as will he
confirmed by a glance into the voluminous "Great Astronomy or Philo-
sophia Sagax of the greater and lesser World" with its chapters on celestial
impression and inclination. 189
187 Grosse Wundartzney, lib. I, tract. 2, cap. 14, Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 144.
188 Grosse Wundartzney, lib. I, tract. 2, cap. 8, Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 124.
189 For example: Cap. IV, p. 109, and cap. X, hook I, p. 225 et seq. (Philosophei des him-
lischen firmaments), and cap. V, hook II (Von der iihernatiirlichen wirkung der himm-
Iischen astronomei). Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 352 et seq. notably pp. 358-360. How-
ever, even here where the - escapable - power of astral "inclination" and the - in-
escapable - "necessity" of astral "impression" are expounded we find in close vicinity
72 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
It is true that Paracelsus makes heroic efforts to shift the emphasis
from direct and causative stellar action to firmamental correspondence and
thereby to arrive at a new "astrosophy" in place of traditional astrology.
Yet the latter is by no means eliminated from his thought190 , although it
is also true that in Paracelsus' opposition to traditional astrology a tend-
ency is recognisable to replace general causes (as operative in astral in-
fluence and constellation) by the specific and proper causes of individual
objects and phenomena (as operative in intrinsic chemical virtues), that
in other words "Astrum" more and more assumes the meaning of virtue
pure and simple;
The controversy as to whether Paracelsus adhered to or rejected astrology
cannot therefore he simply answered either way. He rejected it and re-
placed it by astrosophy - hut neither completely nor quite successfully.
Paracelsus' Conception of Time
(1) The ancient conceptions of Time. "Empty" numerical (astronomical)
time as against "qualified" time
Astral correspondence is the keynote of Paracelsus' new conception of
Time. Like that of the Greeks it was presented in "astronomical" form.
There are, however, profound differences.
In Greek, notably Aristotelian philosophy, time was connected with
motion and number. Already in Plato's "Timaeus" it is made to "imitate
eternity and go around according to numbers; the sun, moon and planets
were created to distinguish and guard the numbers of time". By virtue
of their regular and constant motion, they are the "instruments" (organa),
the measuring units of time. Nevertheless, Plato regarded time as some-
thing more fundamental than a mere number and measure of motion; to
him its main function was to provide an image of eternity within the
(p. 352) the "coelestia dona" - free divine will and action which breaks through any
predestination as manifested in terms of "scientia coelestis" ("coelestis magica, nectro·
mantia, scientia" including prophecy, augury, divination). · is hut the great clock of the world which selects certain sections from infinite time.
190 See Proksch, J. K. : Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller. Safar, Wien und Leip·
zig 1911, p. 11 (who refers to the "Practica", some of the syphilis treatises, some of the
"Consilia" and the tract on the mineral waters of Pflifers) versus Sudhoff (who denied
astrological leanings in Paracelsus, Paracelsus-Forschungen, vol. II, Frankfurt 1889,
p. 70). E. Radl perhaps over-empasises the novelty and importance of the "astrosophic"
(as against simple astrological) tendencies in Paracelsus. Geschichte der Biolog. Theo-
rien der Neuzeit. 2nd ed. Leipzig 1913, vol. I, pp. 75 et seq.
Time - astronomical and qualified 73
physical universe. In this, however, motion and a numerical structure are
essential.
Aristotle finally defined time as the "number of motion" and held that
the circular movement of the heavenly sphere measures other motions and
time itself. In peripatetic philosophy, time thus assumed the character of
a universal quantitative framework completely unrelated to the qualities
of objects or to the differences between them.
This was the ruling view of time throughout the Middle Ages - in spite
of the opposition raised by Plotinus and the Neoplatonists. In the philo-
sophy of Plotinus, time was an offspring of eternity, occupying a position
independent of motion and number. It was seen as the activity of the
soul. Far from being a tool for measuring motion, it is a force to which
motion owes its existence. Moreover, Plotinus visualised time as entering
human life in a special relationship, because of its connection with the soul.
The observed temporal duration of a man's activities represents the in-
visible motion of his soul, which does not take place in time, hut actually
generates time for each individual.191
In Neoplatonism we can see the sources for new - qualitative - con-
ceptions of Time which develop in the thought of the Renaissance period
and culminate in the biological theory of time of J. B. Van Helmont, a
follower of Paracelsus.102
(2) Paracelsus and the astronomical notion of Time
Its "qualification"
To Paracelsus himself, Time is associated with the constellation of the
celestial bodies. The stars generate time and thereby promote the course
of events.
191 On the ancient philosophies of Time see: Leisegang, H.: Die Begriffe der Zeit und Ewig-
keit im spiiteren Platonismus. Beitriige zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters.
Ed. C. Baeumker, vol. XIII, No. 4. Munster 1913. Leisegang underlines the unique
position of Plotinus as the first philosopher to regard eternity as a force active in the
cosmos. The independence of time was even more insisted upon by Proclos. According
to Plotinus and Proclos motion measures time (in contrast to Aristotle, who made time
the measure, the "number", of motion). The :firmament and the motion of the stars
For a more recent account see: Callaghan, John F.: Four Views of Time in Ancient
Philosophy. Cambridge (Mass.) Harvard Univ. Press 1948.
192 On Van Belmont's biological theory of time see Pagel, Walter: J. B. Van Helmont
De Tempore and Biological Time. Osiris 1949, VIII, 346-417. (For a summary see
Isis 1942, XXXIll, 621).
Weiss, H.: Notes on the Greek Ideas referred to in Van Helmont, De Tempore, Osiris.
Ibid., pp. 419-449. (For a summary see Isis 1942, XXXIII, 624). On the criticism of
74 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
"A builder who lays his bricks is not helped by any other creature, only by that which
provides the time in which his work is consummated. The stars do not build the house
other than by fixing time. " 193 Heaven converts matter "now into something yellow and
harsh, that is Mars, now into something that is black and muddy, that is Saturn."194 The
Season in which a fever occurs determines its character - "this you are taught by time." 195
Time is the action of the celestial bodies - "it is influence that is time and makes time".
Hippocrates, an expert astronomer, studied such astral influences carefully. Hence "the
doctor should he an astronomer and consider time, so that he may know the time, i.e.
know how to plan his fight and how to prevail." 196 It is time, i.e. the season, that evokes
virtues in plants, some in leaves, some in blossoms, some in fruits. 197 In the same way time
evokes disease. Just as the seeds of the earth develop in summer, so flowers and fruit which
God has sown in man may he expected to come forth at appointed times. 198
Time, i.e. the celestial movements and constellations, decides and indi-
cates how things will end, and it is this interdependence which subjects all
medical aid ("Practick") to astronomical and temporal consideration.199
(3) Qualitative Determination of Time
Time as determined by changing events and "Astra" as the vector
of specificity
The foregoing expresses the "astronomical" orientation in Paracelsus'
conception of Time. In this it agrees with Platonic and Aristotelian ideas.
ancient time concepts by other Renaissance philosophers (Cardanus, Campanella,
Patrizzi, Bruno) see Pagel, W. : The Reaction to Aristotle in XVIIth Century Biological
Thought. Sci., Med., Hist. Essays in Hon. of C. Singer, Oxford 1953. Ed. E. Ashworth
Underwood, vol. I, p. 493.
193 Fragmenta Medica ad Paramirum de V Entibus referenda. Fragm. Aliud De Ente
Astrali. Huser, vol. I, p. 133.
194 "Von der Zeit verstanden, dass der Himmel das thut, derselhige'ist, der da dem Dreck
lnfluentz eyngibt und verkehrt ihn: Jetzt geel und scharpff, das ist Mars,jetzt Schwartz
und lettet, das ist Saturnus etc." Fragmenta de Modo pharmacandi. Lib. II, tract. 1.
Huser, vol. I, p. 784.
195 "1st das Fieher im Herbst, im Winter entsprungen, so ist es Quartana das lehret Dich
die Zeit. Also hatt auch ein jegliche Krankheit ihr Zeit." Comment. to Hippocr.
Aphorisms. Aphor. XII Accessiones vero. Huser, vol. I, p. 702.
196 "Die lnfluentz ist die Zeit und gibt die Zeit ... darumh der artzt soll ein Astronomus
seyn." Comment. to Hippocr. Aphorisms. Ausslegung primae sectionis Aphorismorum
Hippocratis. I. Tempus autem Acutum. Huser, vol. I, p. 695.
197 Comment. to Hippocr. Aphorisms I. Tempus autem acutum. Huser, vol I, p. 696.
See also Paragranum Ill: Von der Alchimey. Huser I, p. 222.
198 Philos. Sagax. Lib. I, cap. 10. Von Dem Dono lnclinationis. Huser, vol. II, p. 411.
199 De Phlehotomia. Von lrrung der Aderliissin mit underricht rechter dess Himmlischen
Lauffs anzeigung. 3rd tractat. Huser, vol. I, p. 719.
"Die Zeit gibt das End, auss derselhigen sollen nuhn folgen die Practick." "Also er-
kenn des Himmels Lauff auch, und lass ihm zu, dass du must zulassen dem Himmel
im Menschen." Practica Paracelsi gemacht auff Europen im nechstkiinfftigen Dreis-
sigsten Jahr. Huser, vol. II, p. 629.
Time - qualitative - and Medicine 75
On the other hand the quantitative and numerical aspects of time -
essential to the Greeks - play no conspicuous part in Paracelsus' philo-
sophy, which is based on the relationship between time and individual
objects and events.
Time according to Paracelsus is not conceivable apart from a thing
existing, a process taking place, a result maturing in it. Everything has
received its own time from God. Time is fate - different for each object
and process. 200 There is no "empty" time. Time is determined qualita·
tively.
Each object and phenomenon has its own hour when it "is appointed
in its monarchy", and its potentialities come to full fruition. It is at the
height of its development and functions; it unfolds its inner "knowledge",
or as Paracelsus puts it: it is "provided with the full light of nature".
The course of time thus means a continuous transference of the "light of
nature", an emergence of innumerable "monarchies" between the beginning
and end of the world. In this lies the miracle wrought by the work of God.
It is, therefore, the "Now" and not the "Then", the present and not the
past which we should heed.201
(4) Time, qualitatively determined, and Medicine
This view of time has its own moral in Medicine. First of all, it impli-
citly shows the uselessness of "classical" medicine. If time brings about
a continuous change, the diseases of today will differ from those of old,
and new methods must he devised to deal with them. What then is the
use of the "rod which chastised the young children", i.e. the experience
gained by man when medicine was in its infancy ? Mankind at that age
was of a much simpler fibre. The earth was not as densely populated,
people were not so uneven in character and voluptuous as now. The
200
Compare for the theological aspects: Goldammer, K.: Paracelsische Eschatologie.
Nova Acta Paracels. 1948, V, p. 59. Goldammer refers to the paper by Metzke, E.:
:Mensch, Gestirn und Geschichte hei Paracelsus. Blatter f. Deutsche Philos. 1941, XV,
261 which has not been accessible to the present author. Goldammer emphasises the
Christian (as against the "Germanic") character of Paracelsus' conception of Time.
201
Philos. Sagax. Lib. I. Das Buch der Philosophey des Himmlischen Firmaments. Cap. 1,
Huser, vol. II, p. 339. See also Preface to: Fasciculus Prognosticationum Astrologi-
carum. Huser, vol. II, p. 626.
"Light of Nature" - at least in this context - means the full development of the poten-
tialities of an object as a function of time. It is its "perfection" and therefore remi-
niscent of Aristotle's "Entelecheia". On other meanings of "Light of Nature" see:
Medicus, F.: Das Problem der Erkenntnis hei Paracelsus. Acta Nova Paracels. 1948,
vol. V, pp. 1-17.
 76 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
"pressure of population" thus causes different diseases and calls for
different remedies.202
Plants and parts of plants differ in form and colour - differences which
indicate different material composition. But this in turn depends upon
time and season. The virtues which are developed by maturation thus
"change every day and every minute". They are, therefore, not really
virtues inherent in matter, hut virtues of time and season. It is time -
not their material composition - that gives the buds of the elder tree their
laxative and acacia its styptic property. Such properties develop in the
plant while it is on the way to its final development - they are "inter-
mediate virtues" and byproducts of time. 203
This is also shown in chemical preparation, in which the alchemist performs the
function of time. He leads a substance to maturation, refining it by means of repeated
distillation. Thus crude vitriol in its first "budding time" acts as a potent laxative. In its
"second time" as "colcotha:r" (a mucoid residue after distillation), it is styptic and assists
scab formation in wounds. In the oily, "leafy" stage it is a remedy for epilepsy. And
finally, in its fruit, a further product of distillation, it is of a refreshing quality. 264
The remedy must he so adapted that "its time and the time of the
disease coincide. Where the action of a remedy ceases too early, it is as if
the summer were over too early." This is of particular importance in the
medicinal use of mercury. It is the course of the disease-its "time" -upon
which "the time of the mercury" depends. This especially forbids the
indiscriminate use of mercury ointment in syphilis - as commonly prac-
tised at that time and condemned by Paracelsus.205
Indeed, the physician at the bedside enters into a particular relation-
ship with Time. The Hippocratic physician who tended to wait and let nature
take its full course was in a different position from the Paracelsean physi-
cian, who strives to eliminate the cause of disease by active interference.
"He should act against time. For physic has to overcome time."20 6
202 Sieben Defensionen. Die Verantwortung iiher etliche Unglimpfungen seiner Missgiinner.
Die Andere Defension betreffendt die newen Kranckheiten und N omina des vorgemelten
Doctoris Theophrasti. Huser, vol. I, pp. 255-256.
203 "Dann wie die zeit den Holder spriisslen die laxation gibt, und nicht die Materia: Also
giht die Zeit auch den tugenden anderst und anderst ihre kriifft." What matters in
this context as a time - conditioned factor is a property that is transient and not per-
manent - as against the "Arcanum". Purgative and styptic herbs are not "arcana"
for "arcanum" is a pennanent property derived from a substance in its final stage.
204 Paragranum, 3rd tract. Huser, vol. 1, pp. 222-225. On Vitriol and the variation of its
"arcana" through various refinements of its crude form ("budding time") see: Das
Erste Buch von den Natiirlichen Dingen. Cap. 8. Vom Vitriol. Huser, vol. I, p. 1050
and 1051.
205 Buch der lmposturen II, 5. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, pp. 111-112.
206 Grosse Wundartzney. Lib. II, tract. 1, Cap. 4. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 245.
Time - Biological Conception 77
What is true for medicine applies in the same way in society and law.
It is imperative to alter the laws from time to time, to adapt them to the
changes in culture and social climate. The law unchanged and demanding
its pound of flesh "is the wolf".207
Wisdom and reason are steadily increasing the more we approach
doomsday. Then everything will have come to light so that those who
come last will he the first in learning and wisdom, and those who came
first will he the last. 20s
(5) Biological Ideas in Paracelsus' Conception of Time
A biological factor, operative in Time, is age and the age-conditioned
rhythm and rate of motion. The organism is like an hourglass set by the
"Ens Naturae et Creati". This "Ens Naturale" is the firmamental order
and interaction of the organs with a predestined beginning and end. The
seven main organs (liver, bile, brain, heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys) and the
seven main planets (Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Sun, Saturn, Mercury, Venus)
maintain the vital circuits of the lesser and greater worlds.
If a child is predestined to live hut ten hours, its bodily planets will
complete all their circuits, just as they would if it had lived for a hundred
years. The bodily planets of a centenarian, on the other hand, performed
exactly the same number of circuits as those of the child, only at a slower
rate. 209
In other words, life is predetermined by the period during which
celestial ("firmamental") order is maintained by the main organs. This
207
"Dass Jus ist der Wolff, dasselbig lass ich hie bleihen ... " Liber Philosophiae de Divinis
Operihus et factis et de Secretis Naturae. De lnventione Artium Tract. II. Huser,
vol. II, pp. 226-227.
"Die Ding gehend auss der Zeit, und niemandt ist iiher die Zeit, sondern nur under
ihr ... " "Die Zeit zeucht den Menschen, aber Zeucht Gott nicht. Darumb so bleiben
seine Gebott ewig, aber des Menschen nicht ... " Liber Philosophiae. De lnventione
Artium. Huser, vol. II, pp. 227-228.
208
De Inventione Artium tract. II, towards the end. Huser, vol. II, p. 228.
269
"Ein Sandtuhr, die du setzest und last lauffen: als bald sie laufft, so weist du, auff
welchen puncten sie auss ist: also ist die Natur in Creato dass sie weiss, wie lang Ens
naturale lauffen wirdt. Und also wie lang sie laufft und lauffen soil: also demnach und
der Zeit, setzt das Ens naturae und Creati alle die lauff, die den leiblichen Planeten zu
gebiihren, in leih, das sie alle verbracht werden in der Zeit zwischen der Creatz und
Praedestinatz. Also ein Exempel: Ein Kind wird geboren auf die Stund und sollt leben
nach dem Ens Naturale IO Stund also, dass sein Praedestinatz in Ente Creato also
geordnet wiir. So werden die leiblichen Planeten in ihrem lauf alle erfiillt, als wenn es
hundert Jahr alt wiir geworden. Und ein hundertjiihriger Mann hat nicht mehr Lauf
aber langsamer als ein einstiindiges Kind und noch ein jiingeres." Vol. Paramirum,
lib. III, De Ente Naturali, cap. 5. Huser I, 14.
78 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
period is not to be measured by clock time. Life is life, whether it lasts
for a few hours or a hundred years: the same circuits have been performed
by the firmament of the organs, but the rate and rhythm of the move·
ments were different.
We see here traces of a conception in which each individual being is
allocated its own "time". This is understood as the functional rhythm
determined by the duration of life as a whole, as implied in the individual
"Ens naturale". It is independent of the stars. Thus as far as the Ens
naturale is concerned Saturn has nothing to do with the spleen nor this
organ with Saturn. In this sense, the brain is independent of the Moon.
It is reinforced and regenerated by the power of the heart a hundred or a
thousand times more often than the Moon is renewed by the power and
light of the Sun.
Hence it is wrong to correlate "crises" by which the body may cure its disease with
the stars and their revolutions. "What disease the body contracts by its Ens naturale,
the body purges by crises according to its own circuits and not those of heaven."
The parallelism between the firmament and the lesser world of man lies,
therefore, in the "spirit", in the general type of organisation, rather than
in an actual correspondence between astral and bodily changes. No parallel
should thus be drawn between celestial time and the waxing and waning
of bodily substance. For life (that is to say the rhythm of changes in the
"Ens breve" of man) is different from time as derived from "Ens longum"
of the celestial body. 21 0
In this, we may find the idea of "Biological Time", according to which
living processes form a "clock" in themselves. Time as measured by the
latter has nothing to do with ordinary, astronomical cloc.k time. The unit
of clock time remains the same - yet the number, quality and "specific
velocity" of the biological processes that take place therein vary according
to the individual and especially according to age. They are determined by
the harmony and correlation of the main organs - a system that imitates
the celestial firmament, hut operates independently of it. The same
independence holds good for periodic pathological processes, such as fever
and crises. From time immemorial their very periodicity had suggested
the decisive role of astral influence therein. Paracelsus, however, anta-
gonistic to traditional astrology, here voices. his opposition to this ancient
doctrine.
Moreover, time is hound up with the innumerable species that are found
in nature. They determine the division of time. Hence "time does not
210 Vol. Paramirum, lib. III, De Ente Naturali, cap. 6, Huser I, p. 15.
Time and "Semina" 79
run in one way, hut in many thousand ways. For you see that thyme
blooms all the year round, whereas the crocus has its time in autumn."
One hour may thus he capable of a hundred thousand divisions ("minutes").
Each of these minute "points" brings with it its own "power". There is one
time which perfects ("erfiillt") the seed and permits it to grow, and another
which directs its flowering and fruit production ("harvest"). These times
are "the plants themselves and are their mother. " 211 There is not one year,
hut many years - a rose year occupies not more than half a summer, a
juniper year extends over three years and so on.
Two times can he distinguished in respect of the generations, particularly of plants
which stem from the earth. One is "force·time" ("kraft zeit") that lies in the earth and will
drive forth its products independently of season, weather, rain, snow and hail. The other
time is "growing time" ("wachsend zeit"), which does depend upon the accidental ("zu-
fellen"), external time, i.e. upon seasons and the weather. Growth is thus greatly acceler-
ated in summer - twenty or a thousand times quicker to the uuit ("auf einen puncten")
than in other seasons. It was not predetermined by God - in contrast to "internal" "force-
time" which takes its equal course throughout the seasons and vicissitudes of external
time.212
A separate time factor enters the "Semina" and determines the temporal
sequence of their development. Paracelsus calls this the "age" or the
"appointed time" ("Termin") of the seed. It is the "hour in which God
endows it with perfection and has no wish to deal with it any further,
hut commits it to the power of man" ("hefilchts dem menschen in sein ge·
wait"), so that man may carry out God's purpose for it.21a
Time and the other factors perfecting semina are seen not as stable
"anatomical" constituents, hut as dynamic functions which lead a certain
particle of matter to a certain predestined end. It is thus not paradoxical
that time i;itands on the same footing as the "soul", the "body" and a
metabolic factor from the sun, all of which are understood in the same
dynamic sense. Rigid anatomical concepts of a living being are thus under·
211 "das dise Zeit die gewechs selhen sind, und sind ir muter." Von den natiirlichen wassern
das vierte Buch, tract. 3. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 317.
212 Ibid. loc. cit. Sudhoff, vol. II, pp. 317-318.
213 This time-factor stands side by side with three other factors "perfecting" the seed,
namely its "balsamic" and astral "soul", its terrestrial "body", the "liquor terrae"
which is its "food and drink" and a "fiery" factor from the sun which consumes the
waste products.
Andere Ausarheitung iiher den Terpentin, cap. 3. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 188. - A
time factor decides sex determination. This depends on whether the male or the female
"semen" reaches the uterus first. Das Buch von der Geherung der empfindtlichen
Dingen in der Vernunfft. Von Gehiirung des Menschen. Tract. II, cap. 7 and 8. Huser,
vol. I, pp. 124-125.
80 The Philosophy of Paracelsus Time - Theological Aspects 81

mined and dissolved in favour of the perspective of function and movement

towards a predestined end.
PHILOSOPHIA MYSTICA,
ba-rinnbtgritfm
Biological Time and the "Astra"

In Paracelsus' biological concept the "Astra" acquire a significance

other than their position in simple "astronomical time". They enter as ~ilffunrcrfcOiDmt Theo-
the "specific" virtues of individual objects as against the elementary logico-Philofophifcbc I Doc~ ftUtfd;e 4r'11
ttcltldn I ~um t~tlhmt}Theophrafti Paracelli, aum
composition which they have in common. It is from the stars that the
"astral body", i.e. the soul, is derived, which directs the function of the
body to a certain end. In this sense "the astra give the time", 214 as they 4~ilaud)M. ValentiniWcigelii,a~mtnl})fa1i~ranau
make the elements and bodies their dwelling place and through time "like !)fccpall'/ Wj~o tttr~~racnm manufcriptis M
the soul in flesh and blood, like a spirit in a body, like a remedial virtue in ~§cofoptif~m ~artnc lte6fiabcrn.
a herb ... give, take, make whole or break by means of natural forces".
In other words, activity, virtue and function qua specific are "astral" and ~l nfQo tn ;wt~tn <t~ttlen ~um Cf:~rf~lfl
make themselves perceptible in a body in the specific rhythm and speed d>en l'orfcbub/ beybe .!iecbter I ber <IYnabm"nbber
of life of the individual. Time seen in this perspective is not a measure- n.ti:urtin"ne ~&Krwtd'tn/ inoffenm1:tud'
ment of merely quantitative "homogeneous" or "empty" intervals, hut sea-eben.
something specific that varies with the quality of the contents of its inter-
vals. ~en ~•tu( i'nbno~mcn 1wt£ dn jebdCnfonbcrOcft
( 6) Theological Aspect of Time '°"""' Authoribus fd6Pemamn1Dkaa~fofamDe
fclce '''8"' •irl>C.
Finally, there is the theological aspect of time. Time as a medium of spiritual events is
"perfect time" ("Vollkommene Zeit"). It has no numerical denomination, it is not succes-
sive, but is confined within a point of time. Hence the "minimal point of time is sufficient
for repentance to take place" - "For repentance stands in eternity, that is in the spirit
and not in the transient that is the body; it is therefore not associated with a figure in·
dicating a year, nor with numbers counting good deeds - terms which appertain to things
corporeal and not spiritual". "The spirit is perfect and no limit is set for perfect time. If
the spirit stands in repentance only for a moment, this is enough because of its perfection.
In actions of the body, however, it would not be enough - for this is not perfect and in the
course of time it must be revealed that it cannot attain perfection." 215
In this theological view, time is approximated to, if not identified with, eternity, for
the latter is, according to classical definition, an "eternal Now".
ANN 0 M. DC. .XYlll•
214 "Die Astra geben die Zeit. Nun sind die Astra in den elementen ... wie ein sel im blut
Fig. 8. Title page of the "Philosophia Mystica" of 1618 in which religious treatises of
und fleisch, wie ein geist in eim corpus, wie die arznei in eim kraut; das kraut ist die
Paracelsus and Valentin Weigel of Zschopau (1533-1588) are joined together. See: Israel,
arznei nit, der leib nicht die sel, also die elementa das astrum nit." Auslegung primae
A., M. Valentin Weigel's Leben und Schriften. Zschopau 1888, p. 41 and passim.
sectionis Aphorismorum Hippocratis. Aphor. lib. I, 2. "Et tempus" Ed. Sudhoff,
vol. IV, p. 501.
215 De poenitenziis Theophrasti, p. 6, in Philosophia Mystica, darinn begriffen eilff unter· To sum up:
schiedene Theologico-Philosophische doch teutsche Traktatlein, zum teil auss Theo·
phrasti Paracelsi, zum theil auch M. Valentini Weigelii bishero verborgenen Manu· In the work of Paracelsus, various conceptions of time can thus he
scriptis. Lucas Jennis, Neustadt 1618, pp. 5-32. discerned; astronomical, numerical and physical time in the orthodox and
82 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
ancient sense, time as determined by the object and situation, biological
time and finally theological time. The latter two ideas of time are just
outlined and in no way developed. They are combined and form the
foundation of a new biological Philosophy of Time in the work of J.B. Van
Helmont. 216
The "Elements" and the "Three Principles" (Sulphur, Salt and
Mercury): General Considerations
Much of the critical labour of Paracelsus was directed against the
ancient doctrine of "Elements". Yet wherever Paracelsus discusses the
composition of matter and of bodies, Earth, Water, Fire and Air - the
elements of the ancients - occupy a prominent place. 217 To Paracelsus
matter has much to do with them. There is, however, a fundamental
difference. In the world of Paracelsus water, earth, air and fire are not
the last and irreducible components of matter. They are not "simples'',
hut composite bodies in themselves. In fact it is owing to the admixture
of the three other elements that each one of them becomes visible and
tangible.21s The same applies to the ordinary sulphur, salt and mercury
that occur in mine, laboratory or household kitchen. They too are
composite bodies. Yet Paracelsus calls sulphur, salt and mercury the
"Three Principles" of which all bodies consist.
There are still further meanings of the terms "Element" and "Prin-
ciple": the elements earth, water, air and fire are also called "Matrices" -
the "wombs" in which objects are generated, in which they dwell, and
from which they receive their "signature" and ultimate destination. Al-
ready the alchemists had compared the elements with hermetic vessels,
not only as mere containers, hut in the sense that the shape and kind of
vessel used essentially and specifically influences the nature of its contents. 219
This idea may have inspired Paracelsus' concept of elementary "matrices".
216 See the present writer in Osiris, loc. cit., vol. VIII, 1949, pp. 346-417.
This was already emphasised by Darmstadter, E.: Arznei und Alchemie bei Para-
217
celsus. Studien z. Gesch. d. Med., vol. XX, 1931 passim, and Hooykaas, R.: Die Ele-
mentenlehre des Paracelsus. Janus 1935, XXXIX, 175-187.
2 1s See Chevreul, E.: Considerations sur l'histoire de la partie de la medecine qui conceme
la prescription des remedes ... precedees d'un examen des Archidoxa de Paracelse et
de Phytognomonica de J.B. Porta. Paris 1865, p. 15.
2 19 See Artis Auriferae, vol. II, p. 115. - l\forieni de Trans. Metal. lnterrog. et Resp.
p. 27. - M.A. Atwood: Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery with a Disser-
tation on the more celebrated Alchemical Philosophers. 3rd ed. by W. L. Wilmshurst.
Belfast 1920, p. 146.
Elements and Three Principles 83
Moreover, there is the idea of the "Predestined Element" or "Quinta
Essentia". In each object one of the elements acquires a power superior
to that of the others - and it is this element which forms the kernel of the
object. It embodies all its specific power and virtues and thereby marks
the essential difference of one object from another. This idea is inspired
by certain ancient concepts of the alternation and combination of the
elements in the generation and corruption of natural ohjects. 220 It also
recalls the principle of "Devictio" in "graded medicine" as developed by
Galen and his mediaeval followers, notably Raymond Lull.221 This prin-
ciple of "Devictio" meant the supremacy of one or several elements in an
elementary mixture and explained the properties of a drug in terms of
"grades" of hot, cold, moist and dry.
Apart from the ambiguous terminology there is the question of the
relationship between the "elements" and "principles" in any of the various
meanings of these terms. Are they simply juxtaposed - in the sense that
matter consists of the elements of the ancients as well as sulphur, salt and
mercury; or are the former the germ cell of the latter or vice versa ?
We have no definite answer solving the contradictions and removing
the obscurities which were hound to result from the way in which the terms
"element" and "principle" were used in Paracelsus' works.
There is, however, consistency in the emphasis laid by Paracelsus on
one point and the present author feels that this consistent emphasis is
worth following up in our context: Paracelsus leaves no uncertainty as to
what really matters concerning the essential difference between natural
objects, i.e. their specificity as individuals and members of a species. The
decisive factor is the immanent, specific, soul-like force rather than the
- visible - chemical components of an object. The substances which we
handle in daily life are hut crude covers that envelop and disguise a pattern
of spiritual forces. It is this pattern and not the corporeal cover which is
responsible for the composition of matter. Among the coarse visible
substances, it is in earth, water, air, fire, and sulphur, salt, mercury that
220
See later footnote 261 top. 99 on the Aristotelian and mediaeval tradition. The theory
of "Epikrateia" may also be mentioned in this connection. It was conceived in order
to explain the preference for either "male or female semen" in generation.
This "agonistic" theory goes back to Alkmaion of Kroton and in its several variations
plays a considerable role in the history of embryology through the Middle Ages and
the dawn of the modem era. See for a follow up: Lesky, E.: Die Zeugungs- und Ver-
erbungslehren der Antike und ihr Nachwirken. Akad. \'fissensch., Lit., Mainz. Geistes-
und sozialwiss. Klasse, Nr. 19, Wiesbaden 1950, p. 1249 et seq. and the review by
0. Temkin in Gnomon 1955, XXVII, 115-119.
221
See later our chapter on Paracelsus and Ramon Lull.
84 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
the pattern of spiritual forces is least disguised and comparatively easy to
recognise.
To he a body at all, an object has to display certain properties such
as moisture, dryness, heat, cold and also structure, solidity and function.
In ordinary water, for example, moisture is most prominent, in sulphur
(as ordinarily found in nature) a regular structure, in sodium chloride (salt)
solidity and in quicksilver (mercury) the functional element as expressed
by fluidity and elasticity.
Sulphur also stands for the combustible, mercury for the smoky and
volatile, salt for the unchangeable constituent in any object of nature.
These constituents emerge when the coarse material covering is removed;
for example when wood is burned it will reveal itself to he composed of
flame ("sulphur"), of smoke ("mercury") and of ash ("salt").
We have, therefore, I) some archetypes of qualities, 2) the spiritual
forces which direct bodies to assume these qualities, and finally 3) the
empirical objects in nature. Among these three it is the spiritual forces
which are the true elements and principles, whereas empirical objects
such as the "elements" of the ancients and the chemical substances in
nature are, as it were, crystallised deposits - the results of an interaction
of spiritual forces which causes these forces to become more and more
condensed, "qualified", specialised and thus limited in power. Matter after
all is indeed composed of elements and principles, hut "composition" must
he understood in a fluid and dynamic rather than in a chemical and material
sense. "Composition" here means a continual process of solidification and
materialisation of the spirit - a process that remains reversible as long as
there is even the most minute trace of the spiritual driving force of the
elements and principles. These, however, can never entirely disappear, as
they are visualised not as pure spirits, hut as a "Pneuma" endowed with
and inseparable from the finest corporality - comparable to the Pneuma
of the ancient stoic philosophers222, or even more so to their "seminal
intelligences" ("Logoi spermatikoi"). In Stoicism also emphasis had been
laid on the ambivalent - neither corporeal nor spiritual - character of
"Prime Matter". This, to the stoic philosophers, was not "matter" in the
ordinary sense, hut an "Arche" or "Ousia" - the unique basis of all Being,
222 Hooykaas, Ioc. cit., p. 176, footnote 1 already drew attention to this. On Pneuma we
quote from the extensive literature only Leisegang, W.: Der Heilige Geist. Das Wesen
und Werden der mystisch-intuitiven Erkenntnis in der Philosophie und Religion der
Griechen. Vol. I. Leipzig und Berlin 1919, p. 50 and passim. See also: A. L. Peck: The
Connate Pneuma. An essential factor in Aristotle's solutions of the problems of repro-
duction and sensation. Science, Medicine and History. Essays in honour of C. Singer.
Ed. E. A. Underwood, Oxford 1950, vol. I, p. 111.
Elements and Three Principles 85
displaying a material as well as a spiritual aspect. 223 It is matter that is
alive and at the same time it is spirit that is of finest corporality. It follows
that the position of the ordinary elements was interpreted in a way that
differed from the traditional one. The visible elements were now regarded
as the secondary effects of the interaction of invisible divine "Archai",
namely the qualities of heat, cold, moisture and dryness, with prime matter.
In contrast to these invisible and eternal primordial "elements" the ordi-
nary elements are visible, mutable and perishable - hut each of them is
endowed with hut one quality and not a "complexion" of several qualities.
Much of this seems to he revived in Paracelsus' doctrine of Elements and
Semina.
The use of the latter also has a specific source in Hellenistic and me-
diaeval alchemy, in which the origin of metals is explained in terms of
"Seeds". This is one of the characteristic cases in which alchemy imported
biological conceptions into chemistry - an inverted form of Biochemistry.
This kind of "Hylozoism" was still practised by Paracelsus although side
by side with it the "modern" principle of explaining biological phenomena
in chemical terms can he clearly discerned. Generalising the hylozoistic
semen-principle of the alchemists, Paracelsus poses invisible "semina" as
the germ cells of every object in nature opposing these to the visible
elements of the ancients. Instead of units of matter, Paracelsus searches
for the "Logoi" in matter and finds them in the "Semina" and the "In-
telligences" which they carry. He says: "Thus our knowledge and under-
standing acquire a firm basis, as all things have a seed and are encom-
passed each by its seed; and nature is the maker of figure and form which
is itself the essence, and it is form that indicates essence."22 4 The "Semina"
are closely related to the "Archei", the agents responsible for specificity. 225
It is therefore not so much the use of fire, air, earth and water as such
that Paracelsus deprecates. What he rejects is the role attributed to them
as the finest particles of matter and as hearers of certain qualities and
above all of fixed combinations of qualities - the so-called complexion.
For the ancients water was inevitably cold and moist, earth dry and cold,
223 For pertinent lit. see: ·Lippmann, E. 0. v.: Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Al-
chemie (Berlin 1919), vol. I, p. 14.6. With ref. to Philo and his relation to Stoicism.:
Lippmann, loc. cit., p. 156; and Leisegang: Der Heilige Geist. loc. cit., p. 57 et seq.
224 "Also kompt der grunt in unser wissen und erkantnus, die weil alle ding ein samen
haben und im samen alle ding beschlossen seind und die natur ist der fabricator in die
figur, so gibt sie die form, die das wesen an im selbs ist, und die form zeiget das wesen
an." Philos. Sagax. I, 7. Huser's fol. ed., vol. II, p. 394 A.
225 See later our chapter on the theory of microcosm in conflict with the concept of spe-
cificity, p. 104.
86 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
fire hot and dry and air moist and hot. As we shall see, most of the argu-
ments and emotional sentiments which he adduces are directed against
these two propositions and the resulting view of matter as an aggregate of
particles of one, three, four or seven different kinds in which the particles
of each kind remained homogeneous and equal to each other.
The true "Elements" and true "Principles" are forces and archetypes
of finest corporality ~dden in the objects of nature and imprinting on them
a certain "signature". They form units of "prime matter", each with a
spiritual and a corporeal aspect. This seems to the present writer the over-
riding idea in Paracelsus' doctrine of matter and its "elements' and "prin-
ciples". It provides a guide through the highly complicated and at first
sight contradictory statements which can he found in his writings. 226
Admittedly, sometimes the elements as well as the three principles are
used in the traditional sense as indicating the actual "chemical" compo-
sition of bodies. This is evident where the three principles are regarded as
the actual constituents of the "Elements" - as it were the Elements of the
elements. 2 27 Where, however, the ideas are stated in the form of a doctrine,
i.e. with a modicum of clarity and coherence, it is the spiritualization of
matter which prevails. This applies to the doctrine of the "Predestined
226
In his penetrating and illuminating essay: Die Elementenlehre des Paracelsus. Janus
1935, XXXIX, 175-187, R. Hooykaas drew attention to the difference between the
"Archidoxis" and the other Paracelsean treatises in which the doctrine of the elements
and three principles is evolved. The Archidoxis treats of the elements of the ancients
and finds no place for the three principles, sulphur, salt, mercury, which appear,
however, in the other treatises side by side with the ancient elements. In both the
"Archidoxis" and the other works a distinction is made between corporeal and spiritual
elements, the invisible active principle called "Quinta Essentia" in the Archidoxis
and "Matrix" in the other treatises on the one hand, and the elementary "chemical"
bodies on the other.
227
See Hooykaas, loc. cit. for such loci in Paracelsus: concerning for example the differ-
ence between visible and invisible substances (earth and water versus air and fire)
p. 183; the composition of the four elements of sulphur, salt and mercury p. 184 et
seq. According to Hooykaas Paracelsus was as definite as (to him) possible in asserting
that sulphur, salt and mercury are the components of the elements of the ancients.
The converse - that sulphur, salt and mercury consist of the elements - is only found
in the writings of the later Paracelsists (with the exception of Oswald Croll). This was
due to the juxtaposition of the four corporeal elements and the principles in the doctrine
of the Paracelsists, instead of the Paracelsean subordination of the elements to the
principles. See Hooykaas: Die Elementenlehre der latrochemiker. Janus 1937, XLI,
1-28. The same interpretation of the genuine Paracelsean meaning is found in Chevreul,
loc. cit. p. 15, where he says that the "quintessence" (i.e. the element that is active -
the "predestined element") is composed of a certain sulphur, a certain mercury and
a certain salt. ("Ce sont les trois principes prochains actifs, un certain soufre, un certain
mercure, un certain sel, qui constituent la quintessence, ou encore !'element predestine
d'un mixte".)
Elements and Three Principles 87
Element" and "Quinta Essentia" in which significance is restricted to one
of the four elements alone, suppressing the others. 22 8 It also applies to the
idea that the elements form the "matrices" for all objects which receive
from them - their mothers - a stamp, seal or signature rather than a special
chemical composition. 229 An example of such a "signature" is the greater
thickness of the original fluid matter of which the fruits of the earth,
namely plants, consist, as against the products of water, such as crystals.
The same principle of spiritualization is followed with regard to sulphur,
salt and mercury; these are not chemical substances, hut "principles of
constitution" representing organisation (sulphur), mass (salt) and activity
(mercury). To Paracelsus these principles have preference and are the
root of everything else, notably of the matrices ("elements") in which the
semina of all objects in nature are hatched. The principles are inherent
in the semina, are their main constituents and, one may even say, are the
semina themselves. Again, it is well to remember that we have here the
combination of alchemical tenets: (a) that all metals and minerals includ-
ing the philosopher's stone consist of sulphur and mercury and (h) that
they develop from specific semina. Both these concepts were the result of
philosophical considerations in Hellenistic times. 230 Moreover, in alche-
22s See for detail later p. 98.
229 See later p. 95.
23o See Lippmann, E. 0. v.: Abhandlungen und Vortrage zur Geschichte der Naturwissen-
schaften. Vol. II, Leipzig 1913, p. 147 (Chemisches und Alchimistisches aus Aristoteles).
Id.: Der Stein der Weisen und Homunculus. Zwei alchemistische Probleme in Goethes
Faust. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik. Berlin 1923,
p. 251: New qualities are bound up with "semina". The philosopher's stone is visualised
as a "germ" or "embryo". Qualities, semina and souls of metals are identified with the
"logoi spermatikoi" and the "quinta essentia" of gold, silver, sulphur and mercury.
This is the "Philosophical Gold and Silver", it is "Our Gold and Silver" as against ordi-
nary gold and silver. -The distinction between "cold and passive" and "hot and active"
finally led to the belief in sulphur and mercury as the components of all things and
hence of all metals. This doctrine, first emerging in the Arabic alchemical corpus is of
Greek-Hellenistic origin, as the Arabic sources put it forward as an accepted doctrine
rather than something new. Originally sulphur - believed to be a combination of air
and fire - stood for "hot" and "active" and mercury, supposedly a combination
of earth and water, for "cold" and "inert". Ever since mercury had been distilled,
about 400 A.D., this took the place of sulphur (see also Lippmann: Abh. und Vortr.
loc. cit., vol. II, p. 59, Chemisches und Physikalisches aus Plato). Mercury now assumed
the dignity of "Pneuma". Only then was it called after Hermes ("Mercury") and allo-
cated to the corresponding planet, whereas tin was transferred from Mercury to Jupiter
and "Electron" (a gold-silver amalgam) which formerly belonged to the latter, entirely
eliminated. - It is not difficult to see that the Paracelsean Sulphur is the predecessor
of the "Phlogiston" of Daniel Sennert and Stahl.
As E. 0. von Lippmann has shown (Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie, vol. III,
Weinheim 1954, p. 105), "Phlogiston" as the inflammable principle characteristic of
sulphur first occurs not in Sennert (as quoted by Boyle in Chymista Scepticus London
88 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
mical language, both sulphur and mercury stand for something active and
spiritual. Although in the course of time mercury superseded sulphur as
the more spiritual - "pneumatic" - component, the latter retained much
of its original dignity as an active force. Paracelsus would seem to have
elaborated on the traditional alchemical doctrine. 231 He added the third
principle: "salt". This is not primarily meant as solid matter itself, hut as
the principle directing material towards the solid state. In other words,
all three are "principles" immanent in the "semina" - agents which provide
matter with the characteristic features of species and individual.
Basically, therefore, the doctrine of Paracelsus is directed against the
crude theory of the ancients according to which every object was deter-
mined by the mixture of such coarse material as that of the elements and
their qualities - the "complexion". Paracelsus is actuated by the quest for
real specificity which to him is inexplicable by mixture, hut betrays in each
case the presence and action of one specific force immanent to one well
characterised specific substance. He thus conceives of units each consisting
of a force of finest corporality or of a body of highest activity and dynamic
power - an "acting substance" ("Wirkstoff").
This is the real meaning of the Paracelsean term: "lliaster". If, to
Paracelsus, "Astrum" in a wider sense means action, virtue and power of
a determined nature, Iliaster does not stand for the matter from which the
stars are made and of which every object on earth partakes23 2, hut for
matter which essentially is and expresses the sum total of specific actions
possible and realisable in nature.
In this Paracelsus follows the ideas of Stoicism and extends to all
objects in nature the theory of the Alexandrinian alchemists who - for
1661, p. 209, and Kopp, H., Geschichte der Chemie, vol. Ill, p. 112), but in Hapelius,
Disquisitio de Helia Artium Lipsiae 1606. (The present author quotes from:: Cheira-
gogia Heliana De Auro Philosophico necdum cognito Marburg 1612, in which the.
Disquisitio is included, pp. 103 seq. On p. 171: " ... sciendum est TO <pAoyun6v esse
quidem proprium omnis sulphuris." The inflammable sulphur is present in metals in a
fixed form). On the bibliography of this work see J.Ferguson, Bibl.Chemica.Repr.
London 1954, vol. I, p. 232, under Eglinus Iconius and p. 364 under Hapelius. On the
general historical aspects of "Phlogiston" see the definitive papers by J. R. Partington
and D.McKie, Ann. Sci.1937, 9, II-IV.
231
Already Dan. Georg Morhof insisted that Paracelsus applied to all objects in nature
the alchemists' theory that all metals and minerals were composed of sulphur and
mercury, and added salt as a third constituent. Polyhistor Literarius, Philosophicus et
Practicus. Ed. IV. Luebeck 1747. Tom. II, p. 251. (Lib. II, part 1, cap. 16: De Para-
celso ejusque sectae principiis).
232 "Beseelter Sternenstoff" (animated star-matter) is for example J. Strebel's rendering
of lliaster. (Paracelsus als Begriinder der modernen Medizin und Chemie. Raeber & Co.,
Luzern 1951, p. 10). Elsewhere Strebel renders the term "Beseelter Urstoff".
The Elements 89
philosophical reasons - believed all metals to consist of sulphur and mer-
cury. 233 In ancient cosmology matter was the purely passive stuff from
which a "mixture" is prepared. In the ideas of Paracelsus elementary
matter is at the same time soul, force and power, just as much as soul is
approximate to matter and "materialised". In fact, the opposition bet-
ween soul and matter ceases here, and in this Paracelsus may have been
influenced by certain mediaeval views of "Prime Matter" which we shall
discuss later. 234 Apart from philosophical reasons and beliefs, empirical
observations disproving the ancient elementary theories are also of great
importance. One such observation was the inflammability of alcohol which
impressed the observer as an instance of "watery fire" or "fiery water".
The tendency to spiritualise matter, as seen in Paracelsus, elevates
earthly matter to a more dignified position. To the ancients and to such
mediaeval thinkers as Dante, the immutable, pure, perfect and eternal
celestial . matt~r was opposed to the perishable four earthly elements.
Moreover, the forms which matter assumes depended in principle upon
the planets and constellations. The planets, by means of their rays,
"emboss the seal of form into the wax of the world". 23 5 Individual vari-
ation, however, was accounted for by the inequalities of the latter. The
"seminal" forces are emanations of the "Intelligences" (Angels) which di-
rect the planetary movements.
Much of all this is still recognisable in Paracelsus, hut the replacement
of matter by dynamic forces which he taught was hound to bridge the gap
between the celestial and terrestrial worlds which ancient elemental
theories had established and kept open.
The "Elements"
In surveying Paracelsus' ideas of "Matter" and the "Elements" we can
hardly avoid following the "Three Books of Philosophy to the Athenians "236
- although the authenticity of this treatise has been questioned237. How-
~3 3 See E. 0. v. Lippmann as quoted before in footnote 230 p. 87.
*34
285
See p. 227.
Parad. 8, 127.
236
Des Hocherfamen und Hochgelehrten Herrn Theophrasti Paracelsi ... Philosophiae ad
Athenienses drey Bucher. Von ursachen und Cur Epilepsiae ... Item, vom ursprung,
Cur oder heilung der contracten glidern. Coln. A. Byrckmann 1564. - Ed. Sudhoff,
vol. XIII, p. 389.
237
Sudhoff, K., in his edition of the Works of Paracelsus: Theophrast von Hohenheim
gen. Paracelsus, Sii.mtliche W erke. I. Abt. Medizinische etc. Schriften, vol. XIII,
Miinchen and Berlin 1931, p. XI. - Strebel: Paracelsus, ed. vol. II, p. 428, regarding
it as an abstract from the Philosophia Sagax.
90 The Philosophy of Paracelsus The Elements. Mysterium Magnum 91

this treatise was widely perused by friend 239 and foe 24 0 at the time of the
early Paracelsus revival in the last three decades of the XVJth and through-

PHILOSOPHY out the earlier part of the XVIlth century.

The "Philosophia ad Athenienses" therefore contains ideas that were
Reformed & Improved held to he genuinely Paracelsean by authorities belonging to a generation
I 7{ close to Paracelsus and his work.
FoHI' Profound TRACT ATES. It first introduces the concept of the "Mysterium". By this is meant any "Matrix"
or "Mother" in which an object is generated. Thus milk is a "mysterium" of cheese and
THE butter, cheese a "mysterium" of maggots and worms", a star a "mysterium" of cater-
I. Difcoveriog the Great aod Deep pillars, midges, flies and similar products of "spontaneous generation". These are "mysteria
8vfyjleries of ~ture...,, : specialia". They all in turn descend from the "Mysterium Magnum" which is the "one
mother of all things" 2U and of all elements and a "grandmother of all stars, trees and
BJ t b11t Learned creatures of the flesh". It is the "materia of all things", incomprehensible, without pro-
Chymift &- Phyfitian perties, form, colour or elemental nature. It is uncreated - though fashioned by the highest
artist - not mortal or perishable; there is nothing else like it and nothing can return to it.
0 SW: C K 0 L L 1 V S. It is "Prima Materia" 242 • In it objects were "created" all together and at once, not one
THE OTHER after the other, nor each with its own form, essence and qualities. The objects are there
TI r. Difcovering the Wonderfull as it were by implication - just as images are contained in wood, in which they remain
invisible until the surplus wood is cut away - with the difference, however, that there is
..'Jv.lyfleriesof the Creation, no waste in the Mysterium Magnum; every particle initially present will come into being
B y and to its proper form. This takes place through separation accompanied by condensation
PAR.ACELSVS: whereby invisible prime matter is converted into a visible substance - matter in the
SElNCi ordinary sense. This process is comparable to the separation and condensation of soot from
His 'Philo{ophy to the AT HK NI AS' s. hardly visible smoke and air.

Both made Englith by H. P l N N Ii t L, for the
incrcafc of Learning and true Knowledge.
LO 7{DO N: Printed b1 t.M. S. for LoJo•i&I{
LIOJJ, at the Caflle in Cornbi/I. I 6 S 7.
Fig. 9. Portrait of Paracelsus ascribed to Jan Van Scorel (1495-1562) as modified and
published with the English translation of the Introduction to the Basilica Chymica by
Oswald Croll (1609) and the Philosophy to the Athenians by Paracelsus London 1657.
The original portrait which shows as a background Dinant and the river Maas and the
Bayard rock is preserved in the Louvre and was described by Sudhoff (see Paracelsus
samtliche Werke, vol. VI, Miinchen 1922, p. 16). According to Sudhoff it would - if
genuine - depict Paracelsus in his first Alsatian period in the twenties of the XVJth
century.
ever, doubts have been raised against this criticism 238 ,
which is based on
literary and textual points rather than on internal evidence. At all events,
238 Goldammer, K.: Paracelsus. Hannover 1953, p. 33.
"Separation" is thus the greatest miracle in nature - it is the model and
original pattern of all birth. In it a "truphat" 243 must have been at work,
239 Severinus and Croll may be quoted among the early Paracelsists whose writings are
partly based on the treatise; of XVIlth century Paracelsists we mention Burggraf, the
author of the lntroductio in Vitalem Philosophiam (1623) which will be discussed in
detail later (p. 232). Finally, the popularity of the book is shown by its translation into
English alongside the first part of Oswald Croll's Basilica Chymica in Philosophy
Reformed and Improved in four profound Tractates made English by H. Pinnell.
London 1657. See Ferguson, J.: Bihl. Chem. 1906, vol. I, p. 187.
210 Barthol. Reussner, Ein kurtze Erklerung und Christliche ~'iderlegung der unerhiirten
Gotteslasterungen und Liigen, welche Paracelsus in den drey Biichern Philosophie ad
Athenienses hat wider Gott sein Wort und die liibliche Kunst der Artzney ausgeschiittet.
A. Frisch, Giirlitz 1570, 136 pp. - Erastus, Thom., Disputat. De Nova Philippi Para-
celsi Medicina particularly in Pars Altera Basle 1572, p. 99 and passim. See our ana-
lysis and discussion of Erastus later. p. 315-319.
241 First book, first text, ed. 1564, A 3 r; Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 390, "und ist Mysterium
Magnum ein einige miiter aller tiidtlichen ding".
242 "Dann gleich wie ein kass nimmer zu milch wirt, also wenig wirt die generation in jr
erste materien widerkommen." Lib. I, text 2. Ed. 1564, A 3 v, - On "Prime Matter"
used in the above sense see later our chapter on "Popular Pantheism" in the Middle
Ages, p. 227.
243 "Truphat": It is at least tempting to suggest that this may be derived from the Hebrew
92 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
i.e. a separating virtue which effects the separation of pure metal in mineral
mixtures. But no comparison conceived by the mortal human mind is
really applicable to the Mysterium Magnum which transcends all that
mind can conveive.
The first event led to the separation of the elements: Fire became heaven
and a "cage" of the firmament, air became an empty invisible space with-
out corporeal substance - a "cage" for "invisibles" - water became a
liquid and settled in the centre of the other elements providing a "cage"
for nymphs and the prodigies of the sea. Earth became a coagulum - a
"cage" for growth that is nourished by it.
There followed the separation of the firmament and the stars from the fire; of "fates,
impressions, incantations, superstitions, witchcraft, dreams, divinations, visions, appa-
ritions, spirits" from the air - each of these to develop its own predestined life at its special
seat - the "Diemeae" ,in pores of stones, the "Durdales" in the airy spaces of trees, the
"Neufareni"24 4 in the pores of earthy matter, the "Melosiniae" in human blood. Similarly
water was separated and divided into many "special mysteria" - to develop fishes, salt,
corals, prodigies, nymphs, syrens, "drames", "lorint", "nessder" and other products yet
unknown. In the same way the earth developed its inhabitants - stone, metal, plant,
animal, man and "gnomes", giants, and other wild denizens of mountains and woods.
The so-called "complexions" of the elements are not constant features
- fire may he cold and moist - for there is not one fire, hut several hundred
kinds of fire - each being generated in its own way and forming a "mys-
terium" of its own.
Similarly, there were "many thousand kinds of water in the element
aqua". Water as an element is not simply cold and moist, as the ancients
believed, hut it is "many hundred times as cold, yet :not as moist" as
ordinary common water. "Waters" are different not in "degree" of cold
and moisture, hut in kind -yet they all belong to the sam:e "element water".
Some waters are destined to become stone, crystal or amethyst, others to be converted
into plant-like growths such as corals and carabes; others to form "liquor vitae" in animals
or "liquor terrae" in the earth, some to form the flesh of water animals and warm-blooded
prodigies such as nymphs. Although in these transformations the complexion of water
is altered in many ways they still belong to this element and eventually revert to it.
The same can he seen in the "element earth" - some of its products such
as sulphur and "mineral liquors" are inflammable. Yet these do not belong
Taraph ("11!,f) - to break, lacerate - and Taruph (M'toraph) - the severed, pulled
apart, discerpted, hammer beaten. (Buxtorf: Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum et
Rabbinicum. Ed. B. Fischer, Lips 1875, p. 470). Compare Greek: Tryphos.
244 The Hebrew Naphar (Nephrsa 1Dl) - a female serpent which is spotted (Buxtorf:
loc. cit., p. 694) - may be mentioned, but any connection with the "Neufareni" seems
to be more than doubtful.
The Elements 93
to the "element fire" - hut are "Ignis terrae" - just as there is an "Ignis
aqueus", when "water is burning and brought to blaze" ("Brunst").
Terrestrial "fire" is not an "element", hut merely indicates the process of
consumption of earthy matter. Finally, liquid from under ground remains
of the "element earth" and does not become water.
The "Element Air" contains spirits which may attach themselves to
man, who is from the "Element Earth" - thereby forming a combination
("Conjunctio") of two elements. Such an attachment is effected in witch-
craft and in incantations practised by aerial spirits. Similar effects are
obtained by the "Wasserfrawen" - female denizens of the "Element Water"
whose offspring may attach itself to human beings.
Each object is the "fruit" of its "element" and its origin is revealed by
the element to which it returns - nymphs to water, man to earth, witches
to air. True thunder is a fruit of the stars, i.e. of firmamental fire, hut a
thunderstorm wrought by a conjurer is made from and returns to air.245
Hence an object does not consist of four elements, but only of one. For an
element is not what appears as such to our senses. Water qua element is
not anything that is damp nor is anything that burns fire. What is visible
is hut the cover of the real element - which is a spirit, alive in the thing,
just as the soul is alive in the body. "The element proper is the invisible
and incomprehensible Prime Matter of the Elements" - the "Element" of
the elements. Yet it is everywhere and in everything, for prime matter of
the elements is hut the life that is in the creatures; and what is dead has
ceased to he an element, hut has become ultimate matter wherein there
is no longer either taste, or virtue, or power.246
Nor is there any "complexion" in the elements as assumed in ancient
cosmology: fire is just hot and hot alone and not of a hot and dry com-
,plexion. Earth is just cold and neither dry nor moist. Water is damp and
air is dry, hut neither of these is hot or cold as well. It is this singleness of
quality that justifies the term "Element".
In other words, there is no conjunction of elements which causes objects
to he formed. The "mysterium" - the matrix - of an object is of necessity
something simple and not the product of a "conjunction or composition".
A composite mixture only gives rise to its like, hut the "mysterium" creates
something different from itself and even antagonistic to it.247
Herbs with antagonistic effects such as flammula and mandragora
derive from the same mother earth. According to Galen they are entirely
245 Lib. I, text 20. Ed. princ. D 1 r,
246 Lib. II, text 2.
247 The so-called "Divertallum".
94 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
different, as they have a different complexion, one being of a hot, the other
of a cold quality. In the world of Paracelsus, however, they are closely
related as the offspring of the same mother - earth. This again shows that
in studying an object we should ask about its "mother" and not about its
quality and complexion. Each of the elements stands for a power visu-
alised at its highest intensity, whereas the ordinary "elements" are material
substances in which these powers are reduced to a pale reflection of their
archetypes. 248
The elements of the ancients are corporeal and as such limit the power
of the real elements which are spiritual. The latter correspond to the soul -
thus for example "Elementum lgnis" may dwell in a piece of green wood
just as it "lives" in fire. Hence being cold or warm does not indicate to
which element an object belongs.
Since the real "Element" is not material hut dynamic and functional,
the test which indicates the elementary origin and nature of an object is
its function. All that displays active growth is from fire, what is solid -
"fixed" - from earth, what nourishes from air and what consumes from
water.
In these functions also lie the limitations which one element imposes upon the other:
the solidifying action of earth sets a limit to growth that is home and maintained by fire;
nothing would be nourished or broken down without the action of air and water respec-
tively. 249
The formation of bodies in general is comparable to the condensation
of an invisible exhalation or smoke - a "spiritus fumosus". It is not alto-
gether converted into body, for there remains in it something eternal -
the soul. The body and indeed the whole world will eyentually dissolve
and revert to the "spirit of smoke". From it a new birth of bodies may
take place, just as hail suddenly emerges from a cloud. Thus the cyclic
process of the birth of visible objects from an invisible base and their
reversion to the latter may he repeated indefinitely. In a volatile state
everything tends to merge - yet there is an invisible separation according
to the original dwelling places - the matrices - from which things emanate
and to which they return.250
248 For example the true element water softens stone and hard metal, whereas ordinary
water has no such power. The true element air is possessed of such a drying power as
to dry out all waters of the earth in one moment, and the true element earth will con-
vert all water into crystal and all animals into marble. Lib. II, text 5. Ed. princ., sig. F.
249 Book II, text 6. Ed. princ., sig. F 2.
2so Book III, text 1-2, sig. J 3-4.
Elements and "Mothers" 95
Every object is therefore hut coagulated smoke 251 ; hut each has its own
smoke which is endowed with a specific predestination. All that is taken
in by the body is coagulated smoke as well. Digestion means its recon-
version into smoke.
Earth and Water as "Mothers"
Their offspring
The Element, then, is the "mother" ("matrix") of the object. Its
function is twofold: First it provides the soil from which the object ori-
261 Ibid., text 3 sig. K. Wood is smoke from "Derses" and therefore different from herb
which is smoke from "Leffas" and metal which is smoke from "Stannar", stone which
is smoke from "Enur" and man, the product of ebullient vapours of the body and
those members that produce sperm ("samische glieder"). Hence each is specific according
to its origin. The "Chaos" of Paracelsus and the "Gas" of Van Helmont: Paracelsus
emphasised the importance of the volatile state which he often calls "chaos". It is from
this term or perhaps the related word "gaesen" that Van Helmont derived his "new
term" and concept of"Gas" (see E. 0. vonLippmann, Abhandlungen und Vortrage, vol. II,
Leipzig 1913, p. 361 and 365. Beitrage z. Geschichte d. Naturwiss. u. Technik vol. II,
Weinheim 1953, p. 73. Darmstadter, E., Chemiker-Zeitung 1929, pp. 565 and 701,
prefers the derivation from the Paracelsean "gaesen" which denotes effervescence,
for example of food in the stomach causing the deposition of tartar - Das Buch von
den tartarischen Krankheiten 1537-1538, cap. 3 ed. Sudhoff vol.XI, p. 33. "Chaos"
and "gaesen" are not mutually exclusive, but etymologically related. Van Helmont
was particularly interested in the "gas" observed in "fermentation" - a concept that
he introduced into the physiology of digestion. The term "gaesen" would have fitted
well into this trend of thought - see W.Pagel, Bullet. Hist.Med.1955, XXIX, 563
and ibid. 1956, XXX, 524).
It is, however, a far cry from the vague Paracelsean "Chaos" to the well defined Hel-
montian concept of "Gas". It is true that Paracelsus makes the activity of "Arcana"
dependent upon their volatile state. Hence the arcanum is a "chaos and can be directed
by the astra like a feather by the wind" (Paragranum, Tract. II I, von der alchimia.
Ed. Sudhoff vol. VIII, p. 185). He also regards the arcanum as specific in action. He
does not imply, however, that "chaos" is the material vector of specificity in any
given object which is the meaning that Van Helmont attached to his new concept
of "Gas" (see Pagel, W., The Religious and Philosophical Aspects of Van Helmont's
Science and Medicine. Bullet. Hist.Med. Supplem. II, Baltimore 1944, pp.16 et seq.). Nor
can any such meaning be read into those passages of the treatise on the "Bergsucht"
(Miners' Disease) in which different types of "Chaos" are ascribed to different mines
and minerals (for example Book I, cap. 2-4, tract. 1; and the whole of tract. 2. Ed princ.
Dillingen Sebald. Mayer, 1567, fol. 2 verso to 11 recto). Van Helmont in addition
described in great detail and precision a considerable number of gases as understood by
modern chemistry, notably carbon dioxide, and distinguished them carefully from
water vapour and air - media that are not specific but common to all objects (see for
the historical-chemical aspects Partington, J. R., Joan Baptista Van Helmont. Ann.
Science 1936, I. p. 370 et seq.). Van Helmont also dropped the Paracelsean correspon-
dences between the arcana and the stars. It may be noted in passing, however, that
96 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
ginates and gives it its "signature". Secondly it is responsible for the
maintenance of the object - its hoard and lodging.
Earth, the "Mother" of Man
Earth is the "mother" of man who shares "mother earth" with the
"Erdgewachse" - plants, minerals and certain spiritual emanations ("im-
pressions"). Hence man harbours in himself the virtues of the thistle and
the lily, of mercury and orpiment.252
Water the matrix most productive of natural objects
However, earth has a powerful competitor: Water. In attributing to
water the role of that matrix which is most productive of the natural
objects surrounding man, Paracelsus follows the common alchemical tra-
dition which ruled from antiquity to the XVIIIth century.253
Water is called the "matrix of all creatures" ("Matrix aller Creaturen"). 254
It is their "mother" and is compared with the Moon, whereas Fire and Sun
act as their "fathers".
Van Helmont's term "Spiritus Sylvester" (wild spirit that cannot be kept or coerced
in vessels) for "Gas", occurs in Paracelsus (Opus Paramirum Lib. I, cap. 3 ed Huser I,
p. 29) where it is used for a spirit ("Ungestiimer Geist") emanating from vitriol, tar-
tar, alum or nitre when these are dissolved. It is the product of an activation ("ignition")
of sulphur, salt or mercury in man, whereby either of these becomes "mii.nnisch" (i. e.
active, "male").
252 Labyrinthus Medicor. Chap. 3. Huser, vol. I, p. 268. For mediaeval and Greek sources
see our chapter on The Microcosmic Pattern ~s reflected by the Womb and the Earth,
p. 238.
253 It found a more mature expression in the chemical theory of Van Helmont. In this it
is intimately connected with the first appearance of the concept of "Gas".
Concerning the ancient sources of the theory which makes water the matrix of things
we can but briefly mention the famous passage in Aristotle's Meteorologica (lib. III,
cap. 6. 378a; ed. Bekker Oxon. 1837, vol. III, p. 99). In this two kinds of"exhalations"
("Anathymiasis") are distinguished, one vaporous and the other smoky - each giving
rise to a different group of objects. In the earth the latter ("dry") exhalation forms
"fossils", stones, sulphur and similar bodies, and the vaporous exhalation metals such
as iron, copper, gold. The process is one of congelation setting in before dew or frost
can be formed. Hence the metals "are water in a sense, and in a sense not". Poten-
tially they were the stuff of water, but they are no longer so; nor are they from water
that was formed through some affection such as the juices. - For the significance of this
(
basic passage in alchemical tradition see: F. Sherwood Taylor: The Idea of the Quint-
essence. Science, Medicine and History. Essays in hon. of Ch. Singer. Oxford 1953.
Ed. by E. Ashworth Underwood. Vol. I, p. 248.
254 De Pestilitate. Tract. I, "Von dem Mayen der grossen Welt". Huser, vol. I, p. 329.
Water as "Matrix" 97
Stones and tartarus are "fruits" of water. Vitriol, salt, alum, precious
stones are water "in their first matter" - a kind of mucilaginous substance
in which the various species develop by separation and coagulation. 255
It is in Paracelsus' tract on "Natural Waters" 256 that the role of water
as the universal matrix of solid objects was expounded. This treatise is
usually appended to the early work on Mineral Waters 257 , hut may well he
independent and of a later date.
The role of water and earth in the composition of natural objects
Metals, stones and gems are born from the element water and not from the earth.
This appears to contradict the passage in which man was said to share "mother earth"
with minerals. (See above, p. 96.) However, even here the earth retains a highly important
function. The "body" of the minerals basically consists of water, but they need the earth
to revert to their original matrix. It is the earth that changes them back into water. Hence
the honour and name of master in this process belongs by right to the earth which in this
way brings forth strong metallic and mineral wells called "body waters" ("leibliche was-
ser").268
Metal may become water - "body water" - by the action of the earth in dissolving
solid bodies. But water may also become solidified again - in the form of herbs, fungus,
wood and trees - "growing water".
Water as the main substance ("flesh") of plants
"Growing water", the stuff from which plants are made, needs food. It acquires this
in the form of an "invisible moisture" from the "air of the earth" ("der luft der erden"). To
this must be added salt - the salt of the earth which is "nitre", and similar in nature to
the salt of urine. Water is thus enabled to form the "flesh", i.e. the full substance of a
plant. It is special water - as against ordinary rain or brook water - for it contains all
constituents of the plant, and really changes into the plant. Rain can become grass, but
only when it is mixed with this potent "growing water".
Water as the common virtue in the ground ("earth"), forming the raw
material of objects - without accounting for specificity
But how can the specific characters of objects he reconciled with the.
uniform "growing water" which is one and the same medium for all plants ?
255 Metals from Water: Paragranum, Tract. I. Huser, vol. I, p. 208.
256 Von den natiirlichen W assern. Buch drei, vier und fiinf. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 273.
2 s7 Von den natiirlichen Badern (ca. 1525). Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 225.
258 Von den natiirlichen Wassern. Lib. III, Tract. I, cap. 13. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 286.
Any strong taste in water is due to metal dissolved in it. "Foul", "viscous" water is
the matrix from which worms develop, both in the earth and in man who drinks it.
98 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
The answer is that there is something common to all things which does not
affect the specificity of an individual or a group. None of the innumerable
stars is identical with any of the others - yet they all appear in the same
light, colour and gross form. Specific differences, however, are inherent in
the semina of things whereby the realms of heaven and earth are divided
into as many species. Each semen retains its special kind and nature. 259
It will impress it on another object which happens to enter its sphere, as
seen in the way in which animals assimilate foreign objects with their food.
Any food becomes poison when ingested by a toad and pork when eaten
by a pig.
The "Predestined Element" and "Quinta Essentia"
The above view of the Elements as "Matrices" is not Paracelsus' orig-
inal doctrine. The latter is found in the "Archidoxis", an early summary
of his natural philosophy (about 1525-1526). In this work Paracelsus
formulates objections to the interpretation of matter in the traditional
terms of elements and qualities, hut arrives at a modification which retains
to a certain extent the original view of the elements as constituents of
substances.
The differences between these two views - that of the Archidoxis and
of later works - do not seem to he fundamental, however, and can he
explained in terms of a natural development of his concepts which we
must now consider briefly.
Paracelsus says that the designation of a herb as "hot" is not well
defined. Does it mean that the herb, when its constituent parts are se-
parated, releases more of the "actual element of fire" 260 than others or that
it is hot and dry like fire? Or, finally, is it not its "predestined element",
rather than its elemental composition, that is referred to as hot? Is it not
the "predestined element" of the nettle that is hotter than that of camo-
mile?
What is this "predestined element" in a given object? The "predestined
element" is the one among the four elements that achieves "perfection" in
a given substance with particular properties and function, whereas the
other elemental constituents remain "suppressed" and do not attain "per-
fection". They are in the object "like rot in a piece of wood" and there-
259 "ein jetlicher sam behalt sein sondere art und natur." Von den natiirlichen Wassern
das vierte Buch. Tract. 2, loc. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 309.
260 "Zeigbar sei in actu elementum ignis, als ein feuer". Archidoxis, lib. III, De separa-
tionibus elementorum. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 104.
"Predestined Element" and "Quinta Essentia" 99
fore do not deserve the designation "element". In other words, the sup-
pressed elements cannot unfold in the object in question their appropriate
activities or what is called their 'complexion', such as the wetness dis-
played by water, or the heat of fire.261
This predominance of one element in any one object makes it possible for several
elements to be present without antagonising one another and thereby "breaking" the
object. Of the four elements in a given object, three are not there "actu". If the object
is "actually" water, we need not look for earth, fire or air in it. For the predestination of
the object is water - and there is no dryness or heat intrinsic in it by nature. 262 Water is
the element that "tinges this substance and gives it its elemental characteristic". 263
At first sight it would appear that such powerful and essential extracts as the Quintae
Essentiae can be identified with the "predestined element" of a substance. It is doubtful,
however, whether Paracelsus really meant to identify the Quinta Essentia with one of
the four material elements. For he himself emphasises that to obtain the Quinta Essentia
it is necessary to "break the elements". 264 It is the kernel of an object and more intimate
to it than its material composition.
261 This doctrine of the "Predestined Element" owes its inspiration to the idea of the
alternation and combination of the four elements in each individual object - in the
last resort an Aristotelian idea, incorporated in the stock topics discussed during the
Middle Ages. The basic passages come from Aristotle De Generatione et Corruptione II,
3 and 4 - dealing with a cycle of transformations, owing to the conversion of a single
quality, of Fire into Air, Air into Water, Water into Earth and Earth into Fire (transl.
by H. H. Joachim, Oxford 1922, 331 B). For lit. concerning the mediaeval transmission
through Constantinus Africanus, William of Conches and others see Liebeschiitz, H.:
Kosmologische Motive in der Bildungswelt der Friihscholastik. Vortrage der Bihl.
Warburg 1923-1924. Leipzig and Berlin 1926, p. 123, footnote 84; also for the ancient
sources: Gronau, K.: Poseidonius und die jiidisch-christliche Genesisexegese. Leipzig
1914, p. 61-62.
According to William of Conches bodies are composed of smallest particles called
earth, water, air and fire, but not identical with what we call earth, water, air and fire
in daily life (Liebeschiitz, loc. cit., p. 123). - Alexander Neckam says that the four
elements were aggregated to form the body of Adam - yet he is said to have been
formed from earth, "because earth predominates by quantity and effective power in
the human body". (De Naturis Rerum, cap. 152. Ed. Th. Wright, London 1863, p. 233).
- Hildegard of Bingen taught that God created the world in such a way that no element
can be separated from the other. It would indeed cease to be if one could exist without
the other. "They are indissolubly chained together." Water contains fire whereby it is
enabled to flow; fire harbours by nature the cold of water; fire in earth accounts for
the fruit growing power of the latter. Neither fire nor water can exist without air and
so on. (Causae et Curae IV: Heilkunde. Das Buch von dem Grund und Wesen und der
Heilung der Krankheiten. Transl. H. Schipperges. Salzburg 1957, p. 97.)
Paracelsus' idea of the "Predestined Element" is also reminiscent of Ramon Lull's
concept of "Devictio"; see later p. 243.
262 "in seiner angebornen Natur". Archidoxis ibid. p. 103.
263 "das dan die substanz tingiert und elementiert". Ibid. p. 103.
26 4 De vita longa, Cap. I, ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 301. We follow here to a certain extent:
Darmstadter, Ernst: Arznei und Alchemie. Paracelsus-Studien. Stud. Gesch. Med.,
vol.XX. Leipzig 1931, p. 13. - The Quinta Essentia of Paracelsus and the "Fifth Element"
(Aether) of Aristotle: It is tempting to overemphasise the differences between these
100 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
The Quinta Essentia is admittedly a substance of fine corporality. Yet it is distin-
guished from the elements. It is the "life" of the object, from which it is extracted in the
form of a fluid. Hence it can only be obtained from things which still have some vitality
left when subjected to preparation, for example a plant such as balm (Melissa), hut not
flesh and blood, human or animal. It is a centre of power lying in the "predestined"
element rather than the "predestined" element itself. For example, the "predestined"
element of gold is fire, of silver water, of lead earth, and of mercury air. It is not one of
these elements, and not one of the elementary qualities, however, which decides the nature
or effect of the "Quinta Essentia". For example, such different substances as gold and
anacardum have the same "predestined" element: fire; yet their properties and medicinal
effects are quite different from each other. Indeed, there are as many Quintae Essentiae
as there are substances and objects.
The Quinta Essentia is pre-eminently powerful and curative. 265 It
forms a minimal fraction of the original substance. It is this kernel or
"heart" of the object which enables its elementary components to act at
all. In this sense it is the soul of the object. Moreover, the Quinta Essentia
gives the object its colour. Gold that has lost its colour has lost its Quinta
Essentia and with it its "life".
Sulphur, Salt and Mercury
These are "Principles" and not the substances which are known under
these names in the chemical laboratory today. In early alchemy "sulphur"
and "mercury" had been visualised as the basic constituents of all metals.
concepts. It must not be forgotten, however, that the Paracelsean concept cannot
conceal its origin in its Aristotelian predecessor and that it retains much that is
common to both. Aristotle's Quinta Essentia is something "atithereal" - it is non -
elemental in that it is different in kind from the ordinary elements; so is that of
Paracelsus. Aristotle's Quinta Essentia belongs to the celestial bodies; so does (at least
to a considerable extent) the Quinta Essentia of Paracelsus. Already in Stoicism and
increasingly so in Neo-Platonic Philosophy the Aristotelian idea that it was purely
celestial had been modified and assumed a form closely related to the meaning given
to it by Paracelsus : the Quinta Essentia had been identified with the "Pneuma" and
later the "Logoi Spermatikoi", the "seeds" and "souls" in terrestrial objects, notably
metals. The "celestial" had thus been brought down to earth - just as it was by Para-
celsus. In this as in so many other fields the latter follows closely the tradition of
alchemy which is basically an offspring of Aristotelian Philosophy, however much
modified by Stoicism, Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism (see p. 262 and in
particular E.O.Lippmann, Chemisches und Alchemisches ans Aristoteles. In Ahhand-
lungen und Vortrage z. Geschichte d. Naturwiss. Vol. II. Leipz. 1913, pp. 146 et seq.).
265 For example, Quinta Essentia of iron is not "Ferrugo Martis" - probably iron oxide -
but "Crocus Martis" (Oleum Martis) - probably iron chloride - which is easily soluble.
But it is still corrosive and unsuitable for internal use. Darmstadter (loc. cit.) suggests
that Paracelsus might have succeeded in preparing a less harmful colloidal iron solution
(possibly from Ferrum oxydatum sacharatum).
Sulphur - Salt - Mercury 101
Gold was thought to owe its colour to "sulphur" and its fluidity to "mer-
cury''. Neither to ancient alchemy nor to Paracelsus is mercury simply
and consistently identical with the "Hydrargyrum", "Argentum Vivum"
or "Quicksilver" of the chemists. In fact, it is not a metal at all, but either
a substance that is or a principle that causes something to be unstable,
fugitive, vaporous or spiritual.
In all objects of nature there is something that makes them more or
less combustible and gives them "body, substance and structure" ("aedi-
ficium") - this is their "Sulphur". There is also something which makes
them solid and gives them "colour, balsam266 and solidity" ("coagulation")
- this is their "Salt". Finally something in their constitution makes them
fluid or vaporous, conferring upon them "virtues, power and arcana" -
this is their "Mercury".
Bodies, then, consist of three constituents: the combustible, the va-
porous and the solid. There is one way to demonstrate this real compo-
sition of bodies: the removal of their coarse visible covering and the ex-
posure of the invisible kernel by burning. Hence the true naturalist is
called "Philosopher through Fire". If wood is burnt it will be resolved
into its three true components: the flame - its "sulphur", the smoke -
its "mercury" and the ash - its "salt".
From this it might be taken to follow that it is the quantitative pro-
portion, the ratio in which the three are "mixed", which accounts for the
differences between individuals and species. If this were so, the three
were comparable to the elements of the ancients as well as to the elements of
modern chemistry. Salt, Sulphur and Mercury would provide the "prime"
material from which Nature produces innumerable objects, just as a painter
using but a single colour produces innumerable forms and figures, each
different from the other. This is the simile which Paracelsus uses in this
context 267 and it seems to establish the fundamental principle by which
the properties of individual substances are interpreted as the effect of the
mixture in different proportions of "elements" that are in themselves
homogeneous and constant.
Yet this interpretation would hardly represent Paracelsus' real meaning.
It is true that all objects have "Sulphur, Salt and Mercury" in common.
28 8 Balsam in this connection means the power to preserve from corruption. "Salt" may
act as "balsam", just as it may act as destructive corrosive (as such it is regarded as
the ultimate cause of all ulcers; Grosse Wundartzney, lib. II, tract. 2, cap. 3; ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. X, p. 293). This ambivalence of action shows that what appears to be a
chemical substance - salt -is really a principle. - "Balsam" in the sense of the natural
healing power of the tissues counteracting putrefaction is called "Mummy".
267 Das Buch De Mineralihus. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 43.
102 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
But these are not simply chemical constituents, in the sense of being
particles of different materials. 268 Each of them rather stands for a prin·
2 66 Compare Chevreul, loc. cit. 1865, p. 14: "Les trois principes actifs ne sont pas, pour
Paracelse, des especes chimiques, mais bien trois genres, renfermant autant d'especes
de soufre, autant d'especes de mercure, autant d'especes de sel, que l'on compte d'especes
differentes de corps composes de soufre, de mercure et de sel ... La consequence est
done que le soufre du plomb differe du soufre du fer, du soufre de l'etain, qu'il en est
de meme du mercure et du sel des memes metaux."
According to Chevreul, Paracelsus here followed the Galenic principle of deducing
abstract qualities from concrete substances taking each of these qualities as "pars pro
toto". It is this principle that "misled" Galen as well as Paracelsus. Mercury and the
specific poisons in mines: It is true that Paracelsus roughly distinguishes mines and
their harmful effects on the human body according to the various minerals and metals
found in them. Thus, in his book on Miners' Diseases ("Bergsucht") of 1533-1534 he
describes symptoms referable to chronic poisoning with arsenic in some and mercury
in others. (See for detail: the passages in "Von der Bergsucht oder Bergkranckheiten
drey Bucher". I, 3, 2 and III, 4, 1 seq. Ed. Prine. Dillingen 1567, Sebald.Mayer sig. D
i verso and Nii verso, ed. Sudhoff vol. IX, pp. 461-544: Arsenical poisoning pp. 478-4 79;
Mercurial poisoning pp. 536-537; for a commentary see Koelsch, F., Theophrastus von
Hohenheim gen. Paracelsus Von der Bergsucht und anderen Bergkrankheiten, Berlin.
Springer 1925 and in particular the definitive account in George Rosen's compre·
hensive hook: The History of Miner's Diseases. A medical and social interpretation.
New York 1943, p. 77 and 84). It cannot be said, however, that with this Paracelsus
introduced a distinction between "Mercury" as the volatile principle denoting the
embryonic stage of any metal and "Argentum Vivum" as an individual "adult" metal
that displays specific effects on the human body. Throughout all the parts of the
book on Miner's Disease, "Mercury" is understood as the mother of all metals - stand·
ing as it does for any substance that has not reached its state of "ultimate matter",
i. e. of perfection. Each metal at a certain stage is "mercury", after which it acquires
its own individuality by a process of coagulation. "Argentum Vivum" ("Quicksilver")
is a source of harmful vapours in mines, not because it is one of the series of "adult"
or "perfected" metals, but because it emits specific vapours as uncoagulated mineral
matter remaining in a liquid state. As such it is compared with an open house into
which anybody may go and take what he chooses - harmful smoke as well as the
arcana which cure its ill effects. In the "perfected" metals - gold, silver, tin and so
on - coagulation has closed the door, until dissolution and reversion to its "first matter"
will reopen it. ("ein jedes conguliertes mettall hat inn jm die art des Mercurij" - a
passage from the third book of the treatise on Miner's Disease, III, 1, 2 ed. princ.
fol. 40 and 43 recto, sig. Kiiii and Liii. It shows that although symptoms of mercurial
poisoning are described in this book, these are not attributed to "mercury" as one
of the series of metals). It cannot therefore be maintained that "Paracelsus distinguishes
diseases caused by quicksilver from those which are mercurial" (Henkel, Joh. Fred.,
Medizinischer Aufstand und Schmelzhogen. Von der Bergsucht und Hiittenkatze.
Dresden und Leipzig 1745, p. 162 - as quoted by Koelsch, loc. cit. 1925, p. 57).
Even where it indicates a mineral substance with special effects, "mercury" retains
the character of a principle. This is well expressed in its name "Azoth" - as used in
Rosicrucian and later alchemical literature. The corpus of Paracelsean treatises contains
a "Liher Azoth s. De Ligno et Linea Vitae" (first ed. 1590 in the appendix to Huser's
Quarto vol. X). It deals with various mystical subjects, partly on lines influenced
by Nicolaus Cusanus (see p. 104), and is regarded as genuine by Strebel (Azoth. Nova
Acta Paracels. 1947, IV, 55-68). "Azoth" combines the first and last letter of the
Sulphur - Salt - Mercury 103
ciple conferring on matter some faculty or condition such as structure,
corporality and function. In this the principle is compared to the soul
acting in and on the body or to seed which embodies the separate character
of each individual and species. 269
Moreover, Paracelsus expressly states that "sulphur, salt and mercury"
are not the same in each object, i.e. they differ in quality. Hence they are
not comparable to the elements of the ancients or of modern chemistry.
For each object has its own sulphur, its own salt, its own mercury. In fact,
there are as many sulphurs, salts and mercuries as there are objects. For
example, gold is not the product of a certain constant combination of
sulphur, salt and mercury, hut there are many sulphurs, salts and mercuries
of gold - according to the many kinds of gold that exist. The same is true
of other metals, of plants, fruit, animals and men. 270 The innumerable
individual and species differences in nature are thus derived from the
differences between innumerable sulphurs, salts and mercuries.
It would therefore appear that sulphur, salt and mercury do not bear
a clear-cut definition either as original material components or else as
elementary qualities or purely spiritual impulses. The nearest approach to
the meaning which Paracelsus seems to have intended, is again through the
concept of the "Semina". These differ from each other in subtle material
characteristics linked with differences in direction of development. In this
sense sulphur, salt and mercury are simultaneously capable of material,
functional, quantitative and qualitative interpretations. They form the
"Prime Matter" from which the world was created. Nature produces
species and individuals out of them not by mixing material elements to
which souls are added later, but from "semina" which contain soul-like
impulses and directions already. In this the alchemical doctrine of the
"Seeds" of metals is extended to the whole realm of nature.
We see here corporeal generation subordinated to the working of spir· ·
itual archetypes of a material substratum of which visible matter is but a
coarse derivative. The chemical elements sulphur, salt and mercury each
alphabet with the last letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets respectively and
thus indicates the "soul" penetrating and enlivening the universe, the world-soul.
As such it is a purely spiritual concept (Strebel loc. cit.). That it has a material meaning
as well is evidenced by its juxtaposition to salt and sulphur in the dedicatory poem
on the verso of the Rosicrucian portrait of Paracelsus adorning Birckman's edition
of the Astronomica of 1567 (Strebel loc. cit.). It is in this portrait that "Azoth" first
appears on the hilt of Paracelsus' famous long sword. According to Strebel this may
indicate a relationship to the "Laudanum" which Paracelsus carried in it.
2
69
De Mineralibus. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 41.
270
De Mineralibus. Sudhoff III, p. 42.
104 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
exhibit certain properties which are visualised as an original pattern latent
in all objects and regarded as a vestige of the original creative working of
nature. 271
As we have endeavoured to show, the same principle applies to the
position of the "Elements" fire, water, air and earth in the doctrine of
Paracelsus.
The Macro-Microcosm theory in conflict with the concept of
specificity. The astral origin of specificity. Archeus and lliaster
Man is a replica of the greater world. In him all parts of the cosmos
are somehow represented. Man forms a distillate, a "fifth substance" of it.
In this view of Paracelsus, the concept of specificity, so essential to his
ideas in general, seems to be abandoned.
If organic beings are in principle identical with the outside world, how
can their specific differences, their specific "life", be explained? There
does not seem to be room for specific forces, but only the general cosmic
forces such as heat, which created life and determined its rhythm in ancient,
notably Aristotelian, philosophy. Van Helmont, for this reason, broke
away from the analogies between macrocosm and microcosm. Instead he
built up the conception of the "Archeus" as the material vector of spe·
cificity. In this he found the union of spirit and body consummated in a
different way for each individual being. The Archeus he believed to be
open to empirical analysis in the test tube in the form of "Gas". 272 One
271
A religious - trinitarian - background of the salt-sulphur-mercury division is clearly
expressed in the Liber Meteororum, cap. 2. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 135, with reference
to the differences between red lead (minium), white lead (ce~ssa) and spirit of lead.
Though derivatives of the same "element" lead, they differ according to the formative
impulses given by salt, sulphur and mercury to the original substance. "God made
everything from three ... for the origin of this number is from God ... also the word
was threefold, for Trinity has spoken it and the word is the beginning of heaven, earth
and all creatures ... each creature can thus he divided into these three parts ... " It is
tempting to believe that this Christian interpretation implies opposition to the "hea-
then" preference for .quaternaries as those of the elements, humours and qualities. On
the mediaeval - alchemical - tradition of the "trinitarian" concept see later our chap.
on Paracelsus and Alchemy p. 267.
The application of numerical symbolism to Paracelsean principles was taken up by
Gerard Dorn, the Paracelsist, in: Monarchia Triadis in Unitate Soli Deo Sacra, in
Aurora Thesaurusque Philosophorum Theophrasti Paracelsi. Praeterea Anatomia Viva
Paracelsi. Basileae 15 77, pp. 66-127. In this the influence of the symbols used by Nico-
laus Cusanus in his Docta Ignorantia is unmistakable.
272
See for a detailed account the present writer in: The religious and philosophical aspects
of Van Helmont's Science and Medicine, Suppl. Bull. Hist. Med., vol. II. Baltimore 1944.
Specificity. Archeus. Iliaster 105
may therefore see in the system of Paracelsus a dualistic co-existence bet·
ween individual specificity and an ultimate unity of all objects in which
specific differences are submerged. In other words, Paracelsus appears to
be hampered by a fundamental inconsistency. Van Helmont finally over·
came this inconsistency and thus prevented "organic life" from being over·
shadowed by "hylozoism" - the idea of a cosmic "all-life".
The Archeus. Vulcan. The Iliaster
Yet the concept of "Archeus" is derived from Paracelsus, to whom it
also represented individual specificity. Moreover, he recognised its signi·
ficance for a philosophy of the universe which, like his own, could not
conceal its "biological" ("hylozoistic") bias.
According to Paracelsus, God created things in their "prime", but not
their "ultimate" matter. He sees the world as a continual process by which
objects are perfected, developing from the stage of "prime matter" to that
of "ultimate matter". He calls the workman who is in charge of this process
"Vulcan". 273 In the earth the "vulcanus terrae" forges grass and plants.
Vulcan is visualised as a virtue or power that is immanent in the
"matrices" ("elements") such as heaven, earth, water and fire. But it
cannot work unaided - it requires assistance. First of all, it needs a reser·
voir whence it can draw that hidden power that is inherent in matter in
general - "primordial matter" - and is necessary for the nourishment,
growth and preservation of natural products. This reservoir is the Iliaster. 274
The Iliaster, however, is a general reservoir of building material. This
is but primordial, i.e. potential man, potential tree or potential creature
("primus homo et prima arbor et prima creatura"). It is also called
"Idechtrum cuiuscumque rei". 275 It is something without life, that is to say
without individual life.
Hence Vulcan needs something in addition to the reservoir, namely a
virtue separating the individual from the general. Vulcan has to assemble
material of the one kind and thereby impress on the object the stamp of
specificity as a member of a species and as an individual.
2 73 Archeus and Vulcan: Lib. Meteoror, cap. 4. Quid in stellis de viventibus speciebus.
Huser, vol. II, p. 79: "der die ding ordnet von dem sahmen in sein ultimam materiam,
derselbige ist Vulcanus."
274
Iliaster: Scholia in lib. de Gradibus et Compositionibus. Huser, vol. I, p. 982. De Vita
longa, lib. IV, cap. 5. Huser, vol. I, p. 853.
275 Idechtrum or "Ides, das ist, die Glohel oder Materia darauss der Mensch und Elementen
beschaffen sind". Fragm. Anatomiae Theophrasti. Huser, vol. II, p. 21.
106 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
This specificity is the Archeus ( also called "Ares"). It stands for the
"Anatomy of Life as it lies in man in each one of the limbs and it begins
at the point where the anatomy of the Idechtrum ends, i.e. when life is
infused. " 276
The Archeus is closely akin to Vulcan. In fact, it is difficult to see them as different
entities. 277 For it is said of the Archeus that "all things are constituted to have their own
Archeus by which they are brought to their highest pitch."278
"The Archeus directs everything into its essential nature. "279 In other
words, in common with Vulcan, its main function is to hammer out an
object from the diffuse mass of "prime matter" and to guide it on its way
to "ultimate matter", i.e. to perfect it by conferring specificity and ever
increasing individuation. The Archeus is Vulcan operating inside objects,
"der inwendig Vulcanus". 280 Its function is largely one of separation - a
chemical operation performed by Nature as well as by the doctor and the
chemist. For it is by the art of alchemy that things are led to their
"ultima materia". This is the policy pursued by the Archeus, the internal
Vulcan, "who knows how to distil and to prepare according to proportion
and distribution, just as the art in itself has power to do so by means of
sublimating, distilling, reverberating. For all the arts are present in man
as well as in alchemy outside."
The Archeus as the principle resident in the Stomach
The Archeus in man is often identified with the "principle" residing in
the stomach which "separates" nourishment for the organs from the waste
products of food. 281
276 "Anatomia Archei ist die Anatomey des Lebens, wie sie im Menschen ligt in einem
jeglichen Glied und hebt an da die Anatomie Idechtri aufhort, id est quando Vita in-
funditur." loc. cit. in foregoing footnote.
277 It is difficult to see a difference between these two other than that the archeus is the
"workman" inside the body, whereas "Vulcan" works in Nature at large. Sherlock
suggested (The Chemical work of Paracelsus. Ambix, 1948, vol. III, p. 42) that the
passage: ''Thus the vulcan and the archeus separate from each other" (Labyrinth.
Medicor., cap. V. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 188-189) refers not to a difference between
them, but to the action of splitting and separating forces which they have in common.
There is much to he said in favour of this explanation.
278 All things have their own Archeus: "Dann alle ding sind dahin heschaffen, das sie
haben ihren eigenen Archeum, durch den sie bracht werden auff das hiichst." Ursprung,
Ursach und Heylung der Frantzosen. IV. Buch, cap. 4. Chirurg. Biicher und Schrifften.
Ed. Huser, Strassburg 1605, p. 216.
279 Archeus Director: "Solche Krafft ist Archeus, d'ordiniert alle Ding in sein Wesen."
Lib. Meteor., cap. 4. Huser, vol. II, p. 80.
280 Archeus the internal Vulcanus: Labyrinthus Medicor., cap. 5. Huser, vol. I, pp. 271-272.
281 Archeus Separator in the Stomach: De Pestilitate. Tract. II, Modus et Processus fiendi.
Huser, vol. I, p. 342.
Archeus - Stomach - Disease 107
The Archeus in the stomach enjoys a position of fundamental impor-
tance in the biological philosophy of Paracelsus. The "Archeitas Stomachi"
decides for example the quality of the urine. Healthy urine should be
"separated, digested and expelled" in the stomach.282
The Role of the Archeus in Disease
The separation of waste from nourishment by a properly working
stomach ensures health. On the other hand, pathological action of an
Archeus followed by the dissolution of a chemical compound will cause
disease. 283 No substance will display its specific effect unless it is in a pure
state, freed from association with other substances. Arsenic ("Realgar")
cannot damage the body when introduced and maintained as a compound.
It can, however, be harmful when liberated by the separating action of the
Archeus. Man can be compared to a mine and the Archeus in him to a
smelter. 284 Just as fumes in a foundry tend to escape through the outlet,
salts in the body tend to the periphery, where they do damage which is
difficult to combat. This happens when Realgar is set free by the Archeus.
The Archeus as the individualising principle in the elemental "Matrix"
There are differences between the archei according to the environment, i.e. the matrix
(earth, water, air, fire, the human body) in which they work. For example, stones are pro·
duced in water by the archeus of water - a process which takes a very long time and can
he reproduced in the laboratory at a much faster rate.285
The terrestrial archeus digests, promotes putrefaction, generates and augments the
seed put into the earth, with the assistance of the firmament, so that fruit can grow and
serve as food for animals and man.288
It is through the Archeus of the earth that all seven metals are born in the moun-
tains. 2s7 All this is due to the action of the terrestrial archeus - the "Archeus mineralis".
282 Archeitas Stomachi and Urine: De Urinarum Iudiciis. Lib. I, Annot. in cap. 1 and 2.
Huser, vol. I, p. 734. "Der gesund Harn soll in der Separation, Digestion, Expulsion
recht stehen im Magen." Vom Urtheyl des Harns. Huser, vol. I, p. 746.
283 Deficient function of stomach. Its results are: haemorrhages ("morbus rubeus"), an
exudative diathesis ("morbus albus"), or a state of "relaxation" recognisable by poly·
uria. Paragraphor. Lib. I, De Morbo Dissoluto. Cap. I. Huser, vol. I, p. 451.
234 Man as a Mine: "Sich soll niemandt hierinn verwundem, dass ich in den Microcosmum
ein Schmeltzhiitten setze, darzu ein Schmeltzer darinn, der Archeus Heisset." Grosse
Wundartzney. Lib. II, cap. 12. Chirurg. Schrifften. Ed Huser, p. 89. See later p. 134.
285 De Natura Rerum. Lib. II. De Crescentihus Rerum Naturalium. Huser, vol. I, 886h.
286 The Archeus of the earth and its differences from the Archei in other matrices: It is
not concerned with the preparation of seed, whereas that of the stomach prepares
material for the production of semen by separation from the food. De Pestilitate.
Tract. II. Huser, vol. I, p. 342.
287 Philos. ad Athenienses. Lib. IV, tract. 3. De Mineralibus. Huser, vol. II, pp. 53-56.
108 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
Though working deep in the bowels of the earth, it makes itself perceptible on the
surface because of a warm "mineral mist" which diffuses out and affects the colour of
plants and trees whereby subterranean veins of metallic ore ("Ertzgang") can he re-
cognised. 288
Archeus and Monads. The Archei in organs
The Archeus has total power over the object on which it acts. One
could, therefore, assume that it works in its entirety and on the object as
a whole, like a stroke of lightning. This, however, is not so. Paracelsus
sees the archeus as divided into parts which act on corresponding parts of
the object. It is tempting to suggest that he arrived at this view in order
to introduce a further system of correspondences. This is in good con-
formity with the general trends of Paracelsus' philosophy; this particular
aspect was further developed (in spite of his opposition to correspondences
in general) by Van Helmont. In the biological philosophy of Van Helmont
many further archei are visualised in addition to a central archeus ("Arch-
eus influus"). These are immanent to the organs and their parts ("Archei
insiti").
Later Leibniz advanced a similar view in his "Monadology" (seep. 187).
In this philosophy the world consists of innumerable objects, which can be
infinitely divided. Each division has its own "Archeus", the "Monad",
which in its own way enters into union with other "archei". This division
in no way detracts from the principle of specificity. On the contrary, it
amplifies and deepens it. For not only visible objects, but each of their
smallest parts retain some degree of specificity. 289
Paracelsus says that the "Anatomia Archei" is the "Anatomy of Life,
as it lies in Man in each individual limb". It takes over when the "Ana-
tomia ldechtri" ceases, i.e. after the body of the first man has been formed
and life infused. 290
In addition, Paracelsus expounds the view that each organ has also a
sphere of influence over other organs. This realm is seen as a kind of
constellation with the main organ as its centre. The heart, for example,
288 De Natura Rerum. Lih. IX: De Signatura Rerum Naturalium. Huser, vol. I, p. 916a.
289 See for a more detailed account of the concepts of Van Helmont and Leihniz W. Pagel
in: The speculative Basis of Modern Pathology. Jahn, Virchow and the Philosophy of
Pathology. Bull. Hist. Med. 1945, XVIII, 1-43 (notably p. 18-21) and: J.B. Van Hel-
mont: De Tempore and Biological Time. Osiris 1949, VIII, p. 350.
290 "Anatomia Archei ist die Anatomey des Lebens, wie sie im Menschen ligt in einem
jeglichen Glied, und heht an da die Anatomey Idechtri auffhiirt, id est quando vita
infunditur. Anatomia Idechtri ist, wie der Mensch und alle Geschopff am ersten Men-
schen gewesen seindt, so fern dass vom Leben nicht dareyn kommen." Fragmenta
Anatomiae Theophrasti. Ed. Huser, vol. II, p. 21.
Archeus outside and inside man. Archeus-Physician 109
governs such a constellation. "It has in itself a constellation of its own,
in the same way as the inner spirit Archeus is to be considered and com-
pared to the external one. " 291 Similarly there is "sidereal power" in the
womb. If this is disturbed or broken up it will spread destruction over the
whole region of its influence, just as "influence" from above causes anthrax
and other "fires" ("Anziindung"). Hence putrefaction in the breast is
caused by "infection" from the womb, followed by destruction of the
breast.
Archei in external objects and inside man
Their correspondence and interaction
The interaction between the organs of man and such objects of the
outside world as drugs or chemicals is an interaction of archei and parts
of archei. Each of the four elements is endowed with an archeus; each of
these archei is divided into parts and each of the latter corresponds to one
organ of the human body. It is from this correspondence that the "strength-
ening" and curative action of drugs and chemicals is derived. That which
emerges from the heart of the terrestrial archeus fortifies the heart of
man, such as gold, emerald, corals; that which comes from the liver
strengthens the liver in the lesser world. 292
The Physician himself an Archeus
There is, finally, a further set of correspondences associated with the
Archeus. It concerns the physician who finds the appropriate cure se-
parating the pure from the impure, the useful from the waste - just in the
same way as does the "inner chemist", the "archeus". "External" book
learning and logical reasoning about the Galenic "qualities", grades and
"complexions" will not provide it, it comes to him by inspiration. For
this, he must understand the inner mechanism of the pathogenic agent.
This depends on its position in the world of correspondences. What are
291 Grosse Wundartzney. Lih. II, tract. 2, cap. 17. Chirurgische Schriften. Ed. Huser,
1605, p. 93.
2 92 Correspondences of Archeus inside and outside the body: Von den ersten dreyen
Essentiis, darauss componirt wirt das Generatum. Cap. 9. Huser, vol. I, p. 325. Simi-
larly, curative action is located in that part of the archeus of elements which cor-
responds to the affected human organ. Thus salt purges the stomach when it originates
in the stomach of the archeus, it purges the spleen when it comes from its spleen, and
so on for the brain, liver, lung and other organs. "Thus the part of the archeus acts
upon its counterpart in the microcosm."
llO The Philosophy of Paracelsus
the "parents" of the agent in the greater world and what are its affinities
with the human organs and with metals, minerals and plants that make
a cure possible ? In other words, the physician must penetrate into or
make himself a part of a strange world. The deepest possible penetration
is "mystical" union with the object, a union that embraces much more
than the superficial function of logical reasoning. The physician must be
able to divine a system of associations that is at work invisibly and behind
the phenomena. His action, based on this deep intuitive understanding,
is not like action resulting from mathematical reasoning, which works out
factor by factor and then strikes a balance. By virtue of his union with
his objects - the patient, the disease and the cure - the physician indeed
acts like an Archeus. It is an all-or-nothing action striking at the very
root of events, beyond any quantitative consideration such as the Galenic
device of "adding something that is missing or withdrawing something
that is in excess."
The physician is thus compared to the earth which makes seed grow. You may have
gold in your possession and know of its great virtue. But as such it is not "grown on the
tree of medicine". Hence you must act as the archeus acts in the earth. The physician
should be the "other archeus" which maiutaius growth just as does the earth. The "tree
will prepare the cure in the microcosm. Let gold be the seed, you be the growing power.
Let earth be the furnace ("athanor") whence you will lead the gold to fruition. From such
fruit you may feed the diseases, the origin of which remains hidden from you and me". 293
The idea of the physician acting like an Archeus and taking its place
where it fails in the patient is indeed the keynote of Paracelsus' reform of
medicine. Physicians will soon see that no reliance can be placed in Avi-
cenna and Galen, for "the stones will crush them. Heaven will make
different physicians who will know the four elements, and in addition
magic and cabbala which are a cataract before your (i.e. the Galenist's)
eyes. They will be dowsers, they will be adepts, they will be Archei, they
will be spagyri, they will have Quintum Esse, they will have arcana, they
will have mysteria, they will have tinctura: What will become of your
soup-kitchens in this revolution? Who will dye the thin lips of your
293 The Physician as an Archeus compared with earth causing seed to grow: "Dann wie die
Blumen aus der Erden wachsen also wachsen auch die Artzney under den Kunsten des
Artzets. Dann der Arzt soll dermassen verfasst sein, dass ihm die Artzneywurtzel in
Stammen gang in die Blumen und vollend mit der Frucht. Dann er ist in seiner Kunst
gleich der Erden. Also ist die Artzney in Deiner Handt nur ein Samen ...
Darumb wie der Archeus in der Erden handlet, kochet und macht: Also soil der Artzt
der ander Archeus sein, der da zu gleicherweiss auch also fiirfare in seim Gewiichs, als
der Archeus in der Erden ... " Das Vierdte Buch von dem Ursprung und Herkommen
der Frantzosen. Cap. III. Chirurgische Schrifften. Ed. Huser 1605, p. 215.
Imagination and "Magia" lll
women-folk and clean their pinched faces? The devil, with the cloth of
hunger."294
The Archeus acting by "Imagination", "Magia" and astral forces
All action is visualised by Paracelsus as flowing from an act of imagi-
nation - a process not connected with formal logical reasoning, but with
the spirit-conscious or subconscious and in a broad sense embracing all
strata of the personality. Thus the Archeus, the active principle and vector
of life, is connected with the mind and is at the same time part of the
universal soul, which is but an emanation of the divine mind and intelli-
gence. It is the latter that, although common to the entire Universe,
"creates" individual and generic differences. The "Archeus" is therefore
something reserved to the individual and at the same time shared by every
object in nature, for the archeus flows from the power that distributes
activity over the universe. It links man with the universe and is "more
intimate to him than he is to himself" - to express it in terms of a paradox
used by Giordano Bruno and Van Helmont. 295
Paracelsus talks of the "Olympian Spirit" in which lies the "Gabalistic
art" which proves that imagination can do even more than force a person
to a certain action. 296 All this has nothing to do with superstitious prac-
tice, but lies in the "natural course of subtle Nature". Imagination and its
significance for man in health and disease falls under the "Magia" which
is made accessible by studying astronomical patterns. 297 In these it is the
course of events rather than a static form that matters - the course that
can be compared to the functional schedule of the organs. 298
2 94 Physicians will he "Archei": "Die Stein werden sie zerknitschen, der Himmel wirdt
andere Artzet machen, die da werden die vier Element erkennen: Darzu auch Magicam
und Gabalisticam, die Euch Cataracten vor den Augen seind: Sie werden Geomantici
seyn, sie werden Adepti seyn, sie werden Archei seyn, sie werden Quintum Esse haben,
sie werden Tincturam hahen: W o werden ihre suppenwiist hleiben under dieser Re-
volution? Wer wirt ewern Weibern die diinnen Lefftzlin ferhen und die spitzige niisslin
putzen? Der Teuffel im hungertuch." Vorrede iiher das Buch Paragranum. Huser,
vol. I, p. 203. (Italics are of the present author.)
295 Bruno, Giordanus: De Universo et lmmenso. Lib. VIII, cap. 10, verse 60, in: De Mo-
nade item de lnnumerahilihus. Wechel et Fischer, Franco£. 1591, p. 651.
J. B. Van Helmont: De Tempore 29-30. Ortus Medicinae Amstelod. 1648, p. 634.
296 Imagination and the Olympian Spirit: Opus Paramirum. Lib. III, De Origine Morhor.
lnvisib. Huoer, vol. I, p. 100.
2 97 Eilff Tractat vom Ursprung und Ursachen ... der fallenden Sucht. Huser, vol. I, p. 544.
2 9S Astral parallels, not humours and complexions, explain the action of organs: The heart
nourishes the body as the sun nourishes the earth. The spleen has a "course" analogous
to that of Saturn. Bile in its physical action (on "substance") corresponds to the
directionalinfluence of Mars (on the "spirit"). The kidneys have the "venereal quality"
112 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
These parallels, and not humoral complexions, indicate the working
of the invisible Archei and therefore the real courses of physiological
processes, of customs and expressions, habits and emotions.
Iliaster
Iliaster is a kind of primordial matter, but not matter in the ordinary
corporeal sense. It is rather the supreme pattern of matter, a principle
that enables coarse visible matter and all activity of growth and life in it
to develop and exist. In other words, it is a force that confers activity,
life and growth on the "caput mortuum" of earthly matter. It is not,
however, an individualising force which converts matter into an individual
object - mineral, vegetable or animal.
"Iliaster" thus designates a concept similar to that of "Prime Matter"
in mediaeval Pantheism which we shall discuss later. 299
The term "Prime Matter" however is not usually used by Paracelsus
in this "pantheistic" sense of "Iliaster". In most places it merely means
immature material which is worked upon and converted into a finished
product ("ultimate matter") by the chemist.
Prime, intermediate and ultimate matter
All objects in nature undergo at some time a transmutation from a
"prime" through an "intermediate" towards an "ultimate" stage - the
latter indicating the final fulfilment of destiny, the Aristotelian "perfection"
or "entelechia" of an object. This transmutation is brought about by
alchemy - the alchemist being Nature itself or man helping to promote a
natural process to its end. There is the example of bread. Its "prime
matter" is the grain as supplied by nature. It becomes "middle matter"
in the oven. It is the inner alchemist of man ("Archeus'', "Vulcanus")
and share with Venus "exaltations" according to predestination; Venus receives an
"exalting" stimulus from the Sun, the kidneys from the seat of sensuality in Man.
Jupiter acts through benevolence; in the same .way the liver softens all violent im-
pulses. Volumen Paramirum. Ens Naturale. Cap. 7. Huser, vol. I, p. 15. Opus Para·
mirum. Lib. 1, De Causis et Origine Morb. ex Tribus primis substanciis. Cap. 4. Huser,
vol. I, p. 30.
299 Seep. 227 on Prime Matter and Popular Pantheism in the Middle Ages. C. G. Jung
(Paracelsica. Ziirich 1942, p. 89) says that "Iliaster" seems to be "eine Art von (all-
gemeinem) Gestaltungs- und Individuationsprinzip". We agree that it is a general
"Gestaltungsprinzip", but not that it is an "Individuationsprinzip". It does, however,
play a fundamental part in the operation of "Ares", "Vulcan" and "Archeus" - the
Paracelsean principles of individuation - as lucidly explained by Jung later on (pp. 95
et seq.).
Prime and Ultimate Matter. Cagastrum 113
who converts it into "ultimate matter" - namely flesh and blood. In
terms of alchemy the conversion of primary into intermediate and final
matter can also be regarded as one of disease, into the decline and death
of an object. "Prime matter" may also be seen as the product of putre·
faction, for this causes the seed to germinate in the soil. Intermediate
matter can be visualised as a result of the consumption of prime matter,
while ultimate matter is "powder and earth". "Alchemy is the art that
separates what is useful from what is not by transforming it into its ulti·
mate matter and essence. " 3 oo
The Cagastrum
Paracelsus' belief that "separation" as opposed to "creation" was the
main driving and building force in the world is closely associated with the
"fall" of nature and of man. 3 01 All individuation and specialisation is
seen as a breaking away from the original divine unity, simplicity and
homogeneity. Beings and forces have been successful in an egotistic
struggle for independence, working out their own lives in isolation. The
whole of Nature can be visualised as such a process of splitting up into
individuals - a kind of corruption and putrefaction. It is as a result of
this process that individual beings not observable in the original har·
monious and homogeneous medium make their appearance. The process
of separation from a homogeneous medium is seen in spontaneous gener·
ation, in which putrefying material gives birth to a large variety of objects
that are quite different from the original. It is also seen in diseases. Each
disease represents an "Ens", an individual being, to wit the extrinsic agent
that causes disease - a poison, an astral virtue, a command of God or the
product of an abnormal imagination. Thus, disease is an example in which
an individual - the pathogenic agent - interferes with the harmoniously
working organism and causes corruption, separation and the deposition of
impurities. More precisely, an extrinsic agent such as a poison interferes
with digestion and metabolism. These normally lead to the full dissolution
300 Labyrinthus Medicorum. Cap. V. Von dem Buch der alchimei, wie on dasselbig der
arzt kein arzt sein mag. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 188-189.
301 Secretum Magicum de Lapide Philosophorum. Opp. Huser's Fol. Edition 1603, vol. II,
p. 677, B.: "Dieweil nuhn die Schopffung der gantzen Natur ihr Fall ist, und deswegen
gefolgter Fluch, und letstlich auch ihr ErlOsung und Regeneration . . . So befinden wir
erstlich darauss, dass Gott alle ding, vonn wegen dess Menschen Ewig erschaffen, unnd
darwieder auch von wegen des Menschen Zerstorligkeit underworffen hatt, nichts auss
der Natur, sondern wegen des Worts, so der Allmechtig Gott der Natur zu einer Straff
geschworen und auffgelegt."
114 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
of food and its conversion into tissues without any remnants but the
physiological excreta. In disease, however, abnormal deposits are formed
in the organs which appear as pathological changes - again it is a case of
individual agents being made visible as they build up an organism of their
own. In this case the new organism becomes perceptible as a pathological
change that leads a parasitic life at the expense of the host.
The sum total of all such disruptive processes leading to the splitting
of matter into individuals is called the Cagastrum. This expression con-
veys the idea of something bad and degenerative, a fall from olympic
heights down to this valley of miseries which is Nature. This idea already
existed in the Gnostic doctrines and in traditional alchemy: in the former,
because of the dominating role attributed to the "Fall", and in the latter
because of the perennial yearning for a "universal solvent", which dissolves
deposits and thereby restores simplicity and homogeneity. A century
.after Paracelsus, it was to become the famous Liquor Alcahest of Van
Helmont.
Because of the "Cagastrum" all created things are mortal and return
to nothing. 302 After all, creation is but a process of separation and there-
fore transitory.
Yet there is redemption. It is wrought by Christ's atonement, by re-
birth. As his successor and as a receiver of his sacramental body, the
Christian will assume his "glorified flesh". 303 It is the return of the divine
element in man - his "sacramental matter" or "spiritual body" - to God,
just as the elemental body returns to the "prime matter" of the elements. 304
Man as a microcosm, an epitome of the whole world outside him, will
thus through his own immortality preserve the whole of the world. 305 It is
through man that the miraculous work of God is made visible. 306
302 Secret. Mag. de Lap. Philos. loc. cit. in previous footnote.
sos Philos. Sagax., lib. II, cap. 2. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 310. See Goldammer, K.: Para-
celsus. Natur und Offenbarung. Hannover 1953, p. 80, with reference to Paracelsus'
Christology. This did not go as far as that of Schwenckfeld and later dissenters in
doubting the true humanity of Christ, but prepared the more modern "spiritualistic"
Christology and radical criticism of dogma. See also on Caspar Schwenckfeld: A. Koyre,
Mystiques, Spirituels, Alcltlmistes. Schwenckfeld, Seb. Franck, Weigel, Paracelse.
Paris 1955, p. 2.
304 De Natura Rerum (1537), lib. VIII. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 361 and 373. In all this
Paracelsus seems to approach Baptist doctrines and to be remote from Lutheran ortho-
doxy. See above footnote on Schwenckfeld, and Koyre, loc. cit., p. 77.
305 Secretum Magicum de Lapide Philosophorum, loc. cit. Huser, Fol. Ed. 1603, p. 677:
"So befinden wir erstlich darauss, dass Gott all ding, von wegen des Menschen Ewig
erschaffen." Also: Philos. ad Athen, lib. II, text 11. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 410.
.sos Philos. Sagax,, lib. I. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 57. Philos. Sagax, ibid., p. 53.
Generation - Putrefaction 115
Generation and putrefaction
Generation is a universal process dominating nature, inorganic as well
as organic. The firmament is the father, the elements are the mothers
("matrices" or "wombs") which contain the "semina". These are the
"female semen", comparable to the egg, which is substantially of the hen,
but needs the cock for fruition. The cock provides the "Astrum" which
activates the quiescent female "semen" and the Sun contributes a "di-
gestive" power that causes development of the potential parts. 307
Heavenly and elemental spermata can beget a kind of "counterfeit" human being
which dwells in the element which is its matrix. These beings are made without the mud
of the earth ("limus terrae") and without the soul by a kind of spontaneous generation - as
horseflies grow from horse dung.sos Such are nymphs and spirits of the waters (the "Wasser-
leuth"), giants, fairies and spirits of the hills ("lemurs, Bergleuthi"), gnomes ("Lufftleuth"),
volcanic spirits ("Vulcani, Fewrleut"), scrats and pygmies ("Umbragines, Schrottlin")•
Generation is basically putrefaction. This is the teaching of the Para-
celsean treatise De Natura Rerum.3°9 It concurs in this with the old
Aristotelian doctrine.
There are reasons to believe that the treatise De Natura Rerum is not a genuine
product of the pen of Paracelsus. But the role conceded in it to putrefaction is no evidence
against its genuineness, for this process can claim prominence in the world of genuine
Paracelsean ideas. It says in the Labyrinthus Medicorum310 : The seed planted in the earth
first putrefies - whereby it is broken up and vanishes as an object in its own right. The
putrefying material, however, forms the "prima materia" of that which grows out of it
and from it the growing tree derives its form. Putrefaction thus leads to perfection. "Each
thing that goes through time is subject to heaven - this causes the putrefaction of things.
For as soon as they have run out and finished their term, they dissolve. After each dis-
solution a new ascendant and a new beginning occur. " 311 Again true to Aristotelian tra-
dition, there is thus a cyclical alternation of putrefaction of one thing and growth of an-
other.
Various sources of heat cause differences in the details of the putrefaction process. 312
Febrile diseases develop when Sulphur fails to become volatile and putrefies instead.313
Contrary to the opinion of Fracastor, for example, Paracelsus maintains that putrefaction
can happen in the air and cause disease. 314 Colours arise from putrefaction. They thus
307 Philos. Sagax., lib. I, cap. 5. Was Generatio sey und seine Species. Huser, vol. II,
p. 372.
sos Spontaneous generation: Philos. Sagax., lib. I, cap. 5 : Was lnanimatum sey und seine
Species. Huser, vol. II, p. 373.
309 De Natura Rerum. Neun Biicher. Lib. I, De Generationibus Rerum Naturalium. Huser,
vol. I, pp. 881-885.
s10 Cap. 10. Huser, vol. I, p. 278.
sn Paragranum, tract. II. Astronomia. Huser, vol. I, p. 218.
312 Von dem Bad Pfeffers, cap. 2. Huser, vol. I, p. UIS .
313 Fragm. Medica to the Paramirum, tract. II, 2. Huser, vol. I, p. 134.
116 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
indicate products of pathological digestion ("putrid stercus"). 315 There is a predisposition
to putrefaction in the "Stercora" which should he combated by "preservative tinctures". 818
In the chemical process of the "transmutation of natural things" putrefaction is the
normal phase following solution. It is so powerful that "it devours the old nature and
transmutes things into a new nature and brings forth a new fruit. All living things die
therein, all things that have died putrefy therein, all dead things acquire a new life therein.
It deprives all corrosive salt spirit of its sharpness, makes it mild and sweet, it transmutes
the colours, it separates the pure from the impure, the pure above itself and the impure
below, each separate." 317
"Spontaneous" generation, which produces small animals from herbs,
works by putrefaction. All these animals are not begotten by their likes;
they grow and are born from other things and can be reproduced by the
art of the adept. They are all poisonous - snakes, toads, scorpions, basilisks,
spiders, wild bees, ants, midges, beetles. Having no parents, these animals
are on the same footing as monsters, begotten from the morbid imagination
of the mother with the help of putrefaction.
Menstrual blood and semen exposed together to putrefaction may give rise to the
basilisk, whose poison is sinrllar to that in the eyes or breath of a menstruating woman.
Monsters produced by spontaneous generation are short-lived and hated by normal beings.
They are refused bliss since they do not hear God's likeness. They were created by the
devil in order that they might serve him. The devil has "marked" them ("gezeichnet").
Putrefaction, then, is a basic pattern which is responsible for the coming
into being and passing away of natural objects. It accounts for generation
in the widest possible sense, embracing natural procreation as well as
artificial reproduction such as that practised by the alchemist. Generation
does not only mean embryonic development for even digestion is a kind
of generation. By it new parts are formed to replace others that have been
worn away. Thus regeneration is "generation" though it takes place on
the level of maturity.
Here again we meet with an Aristotelian doctrine, and it is not sur-
prising that it was widely developed by William Harvey, the Aristotelian
scholar. Even as late as the early XIXth century, philosophers and
naturalists made use of all these connotations of generation in their
attempts to explain the working of Nature and Art. 318
314 Fragm. Med. de Morho dissolutivo Paragr. II. Huser, vol. I, p. 193.
315 De Modo Pharmacandi, tract. IV. Huser, vol. I, p. 778.
816 Archidoxis, lib. VIII, De Elixiriis. Huser, vol. I, p. 819.
817 De Natura Rerum, lib. VII: De Transmutatione Rerum Naturalium. Huser, vol. I,
p. 899.
318 Among these naturiilists Ferdinand Jahn is pre-eminent and notable for having anti-
cipated some of the speculative elements which were later put on a sound observational
basis by Virchow. See Pagel, W.: The speculative basis of modern pathology. Jahn,
Virchow and the Philosophy of Pathology. Bull. Hist. Med., 1945, XVIII, 1-43.
Life and Spirit 117
In an even wider sense Paracelsus makes putrefaction the mother of all
transmutation. Just as digestion changes food, putrefaction changes the
shape of objects, their nature, colour, smell and properties. It will convert
what is healthy into poison but will just as easily reverse the process. For
does not the gospel tell us: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" ?319
The power of putrefaction as the basic principle in generation seems to
be unlimited. As it can be employed in the laboratory it opens to the
"expert spagyricus" the perspective of attainment to the "highest and
greatest magnale and divine mystery, the highest secret and miracle re-
vealed to mortal man by God". Thus mucilaginous matter prepared from
the ash of a bird may be reconverted into the bird and the artificial man,
the "homunculus", prepared in a test tube.
The secret of how to make the "homunculus" was known to the "Wunderleut"
(Miracle Men) of old who were themselves begotten by the process. It shall remain secret
to the end of days, when everything will he manifest. A recipe is given, however. It pre-
scribes: let a man's semen putrefy in a sealed vessel for 40 days at the highest possible
temperature - until some movement can he seen. It will then resemble a human shape,
hut he transparent and without a "body". It now needs feeding daily with the "arcanum"
of human blood, for 40 weeks, after which it will develop into a real human child with all
its limbs, only smaller.320
Life, soul, spirit, astral body and air
Life to Paracelsus is "virtue" and function. At the same time it is a
concrete, though invisible and incomprehensible thing, a "balsam", i.e.
something not merely spiritual, but of finest corporality. It comes to us
from and through the air - for "air gives all things their life". There is
nothing corporeal that has not a "spiritual thing" hidden in itself. Hence
to Paracelsus all things are alive - there is nothing that has no life hidden
within itself. "For what else is life but a spiritual thing?"
"Life" or "spirit", being a "power and virtue", is permanent and not
subject to death and decay, as against the body in which it works. When
this dies, the spirit returns to its origin, namely to the air and "chaos" of
the lower or upper firmament.
The world of bodies is a replica of the world of spirits. For there are
as many spirits as there are bodies: celestial, sublunar, human, metal,
mineral, salt, herb, wood, flesh, blood, bone.
31 9 De Natura Rerum. Neun Biicher. Lib. I: De Generationihus Rerum Naturalium.
Huser, vol. I, pp. 881-885.
118 The Philosophy of Paracelsus Soul - "Astral Body" 119

These spirits come to us from the stars; they are "astral bodies". They
carry with them life, function and individual specificity. Hence the life of
man is an "astral balsam", a "balsamic impression", a "celestial and in-
visible fire", "air enclosed in body", a "tinging Salt Spirit"321, whereas the Figura Mundi. Figura Ho minis.
humours are but fuel for the fire of life. 322 Life is comparable to fire that
"lives" in wood, in resins and in oily substances. In directing metabolic
processes it acts like ,a "ferment which makes bread and digests the body. 323
At the same time, it is a "preservative", the "virtue" - the "elixir" -
which maintains the body as such. Such "elixirs" are found in all objects of
nature, for example in wood, as there is nothing in nature that is not "alive".
In man the "elixir" has to fight against "stercoral corruption" - the
"spiritus stercorum" in the gut, which "battles with the preservative".
Animal life is localised in the heart. It is here, that the true soul
which God formed in Adam resides. 324

320 See later our chapter on Paracelsus and the Kabhala, p. 215.
321 De Natura Rerum. Lib. IV. De Vita rerum naturalium. Huser I, p. 889. The "virtue
of a thing lies in a spirit, not in a body". Ibid., p. 890h.
322 Das Buch vom langen Leben. Huser I, p. 832.
323 Archidoxis. Lib. VIII: De Elixiriis. Huser, vol. I, 819. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 187, reads
with Huser: "also wir das praeservatif ein elixir heissen, wie ein fermentum das Brot
machet, als das den leib auch dirigirt", i.e. which "directs" the body. The reading:
"also dz den leib digeriert", i.e. "digests" as given in the German edition (Basie
1570), p. 69 (quoted from Sudhoff's critical apparatus to vol. III, p. 524), seems to be
preferable as it denotes "fermental" action. In view of the "governing" role attributed
to ferments by Van Helmont, the reading "directs" could he defended.
324 Azoth s. De ligno et linea vitae, cap. 2. Huser II, p. 521. Ed. Sudhoff (among the
spurious treatises) in vol. XIV, p. 550~ Ritter, Heinr.: Geschichte der christlichen
Philosophie, vol. V, Hamburg 1850, pp. 532 et seq., drew attention to the fact that
in some Paracelsean works "Geist" (spirit) denotes sometliing inferior to "Seele"
(soul) - contrary to the usual terminology. Thus "Geist" can stand for the vegetative
soul thaffloats on the pericardia! fluid, whereas "Soul" is used for the "Divine Breath"
that dwells in the centre of the heart. - There is a distinct materialistic ring about
Paracelsus' concept of higher and lower soul - which are in need of food: "For leaven
and ferment are Christ, and verbum domini is the word of the father that has become
matter and is the material food of the soul. Such a word is present in each object, in
which it dwells like a soul." The highest soul lives on "heavenly manna" - the materially
substantial word of God, the "middle soul" on animal food which stems from the
bigger soul of the world, and the lowest soul in our organs on "sal-nitric" food. Lib.
Azoth, loc. cit., p. 557. See also: Philos. Sagax, lib. II, cap. I. Huser II, p. 433. This
materialistic view is in conformity with the high position attributed to the body in
the theological doctrine of Paracelsus. According to Goldammer (Paracelsus: N atur
und Offenbarung, Hannover 1953, pp. 96 et seq.) the sacrament serves to renew the
psychosomatic harmony. Paracelsus sees ethical, moral and religious life in the light
of natural philosophy which makes natural law and predestination paramount and
seems to leave little to free will and human action. Paracelsus reveals here the internal
inconsistencies of his doctrine - for it was free will which he had emphasised in con-
trast to traditional astrology. See Ritter, loc. cit., p. 544, 1850.
~4r4n; b4nn ar~ie a&erma!)f tj fetn aufc6cn ~nnb mfermn t~1
fOlC
Fig. 10. Man - an Inverted Cosmos: The divine Light and Spirit ("Spiraculum Vitae")
dwells outside and above the elemental world, but occupies the innermost centre of man.
Outside the latter there is the darkness of the earth and the abyss of hell - which in tum
occupy the centre of the cosmos. The same inversion of order applies to the concentric
layers of the elements ("spiritual water" in the greater world corresponding to fire and
mind in man; fire corresponding to air and soul, "sydereal spirits", including the" Evestrum"
through which man receives messages from the outside world and can make forecasts
concerning cosmic events, and reason - ; air corresponding to water and blood; elemental
water corresponding to earth and flesh).
From: lntroductio Hominis oder kurtze Anleitung zu einem Christlichen Gottseligen
Leben, p. 240 in: Philosophia Mystica, darinn hegriffen Eilff unterschiedene Theologico-
Philosophische, doch teutsche tractaetlein, zum theil auss Theophrasti Paracelsi, zum
theil auch M.Valentirii Weigelii. .• manuscriptis. Newstadt. Lucas Jennis. 1618. See
Fig. 8 reproducing the title page.
The heart occupies the position of the earth in the greater world, containing "Life"
- the counterpart of water - and "Soul" - corresponding to air. "Floating above the water,
on the capsule of the heart" (not in the heart), is the spirit or soul and "king of the human
animal". This is different from the life that dwells nearby in the peripheral members
120 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
clothed with fiesh and blood. Nor is it identical with the "genuine soul of man", the
"breath of God", that dwells in the centre of the heart.
Here, then, three "Lives and Beings" - all of a spiritual nature - are
distinguished: the "breath of God", a divine emanation introduced into
man, the "spirit of the human animal" 325 and the multifarious life that
dwells in the muscles and organs, in flesh and blood. 326
Locating life and soul in the heart, Paracelsus follows the biblical tradition and was
hardly influenced by Aristotelianism. Nor did he entirely subordinate the brain to the
heart - for he regarded the former as the centre of reason and the seat of certain though
not all mental diseases. There is, however, in Paracelsus' opinion, a constant movement
of spirit from the heart upwards to the brain, for all that is volatile has a tendency to
climb up. The heart thus corresponds to the Sun and the brain to the Moon and so do all
the remedies that are applicable to them, a doctrine that is in conformity with Greek
tradition. 327
The Astral Body
Man has an elemental and a super-elemental body - the "astral body"
("corpus sidereum"). This is the body which "teaches man" - for flesh
and blood have nothing to impart hut carnal desire. Through the astral
body man communicates with the super-elemental world of the astra.
Its secrets - the "adepta philosophia" and "magnalia naturae" - will thus
he revealed to him.328
In this connection "astra" stands for "virtues" in general and man can
only recognise them by his "astral body". This is thus the most important
instrument of the naturalist and physician. For the "semina" which
embody and carry all the "virtues" of natural objects, of all qualities and
notably all specificity, are "astral". 329
Man can derive information about the outside world through commu-
nication between it and his "astral body". Similarly, through the astral
body, man can indicate or predict conditions in the outside world. This is
seen when changes of the moon, astral conjunctions, and the state of the
3 25 Necrocomicum, i.e. animal soul.
326
Necrococomicum, i.e. "mannigfaltiges leben", "unterschiedliches vielerlei leben" of
the "musculi des gantzen menschen".
327 See W. Pagel in: Mediaeval and Renaissance Contribution to the Knowledge and
Philosophy of the Brain. Symposium held at the Wellcome House, London, July 1957.
In Press.
328 Astronomia Magna oder die ganze Philosophia sagax der grossen und kleinen Welt
(1537/38), cap. 8: Probatio in scientiam medicinae adeptae. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII,
p. 196.
329 "Also muss aus den sternen die eigenschaft der samen gehen, so in inen ligen." Philo-
sophia Sagax, cap. XI. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 253.
"Astral Body" - Power of Imagination 121
weather are perceived in advance by people, notably the sick, owing to
the "Donum Aegrorum", the "gift" with which they are endowed. Man
can thus signify things "present, past and future" and thereby inform us
as to the way in which the elements operate. From the changes shown by
wine kept in a cellar we may conclude the time when the vine flowers in the
vineyard.
Dreams indicate certain works of nature that are in progress at the time. For example
a dream in which water or fish occur points to the maturation of minerals, salts, metals,
sand etc. which are all products of this element. If the fish seen in the dream is in any way
imperfect, the mineral products maturing at this time will show similar imperfections.
Flying or catching birds in a dream indicates the evaporation ("Exaltation") of dew
("tereniahin") in the air; if the Hight is impeded, the dew will not go up as it should. 330
Although invisible the astral body is not immortal. It vanishes to·
gether with the elemental body - in contrast to the immortal and divine
spirit,331
The Power of Imagination
The Renaissance has been called the period which discovered man and
his power in the universe. Paracelsus is a true child of this period. He
extols man and his power which even reaches the stars and can influence
them more than they can influence man. This power is twofold. It lies
first in the concentration of all matter and spirit of heaven and earth in
man, i.e. in his microcosmic naiure. Secondly, man's power derives from
his most potent instrument, the imagination. It is a spiritual power and
the role attributed to it by Paracelsus reveals his basic idea that the spirit
dominates the body. It is also a characteristic Paracelsean idea that there
should he two bodies in man, the visible and the invisible, and that the
invisible one should he the more powerful. The latter is recognised hut
indirectly by its effects - just as the power of the sun, which may burn
down houses, is invisible. Similarly "what else is imagination hut a sun in
man which acts throughout his circle ?"332 Finally, all action is through
imagination - "as all heaven is nothing hut imagination; it acts on man,
causes plague and other disease, not through bodily instruments, hut
through its form ("Gestalt"), as the sun kindles fire". 333
330 Philos. Sagax, lib. I, cap. 9. Von dem Dono Aegrorum. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 261.
331 Philos. Sagax. Das ander Buch, cap. I. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 288.
332 Fragm. libri de virtute Imaginativa IV. Philos. Magna I, 15. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV,
310.
333 Ibid., p. 311.
122 The Philosophy of Paracelsus
Imagination is an "astral", i.e. a celestial force. It is thus capable of
lifting man up and joining him to cosmic matter, the "primordial man".
Hence, without any physical labour, man is "up-graded" or "reverberated"
in his soul whereby the "long life" of such biblical figures as Enoch
("Enochdiani") is conferred upon him.3 34
Imagination acts through magnetic attraction on an object in the out-
side world. This is "drawn into" the person who is exerting imaginative
powers and then "impressed" on another person. Hence imagination
("belief") misused can inflict most grievous harm. It is "like an invisible
nettle, invisible Celandine or Troll". 335 If we have sufficient faith our
prayer can make people crooked or lame and convert natural into super-
natural disease. Belief, therefore, is like a weapon that needs careful
handling. The more a person is given to speculation, the more powerful is
his imagination. "He may give birth to a spirit, may exercise the gahalistic
art and - like a magnet - will find nothing too difficult for him." Such
people are often mistaken for saints. 336 Women are superior in this respect
to men as their emotions, their hatred and lust for vengeance, are stronger.
Hence women should not he left to melancholy thoughts; they should he
humoured, kept cheerful and in company given to simple straightforward
thinking. If a woman has a trade and this does not prosper, her unsatis-
fied capacity and imagination may contaminate the goods she sells. Nor
should a woman have and rear too many children, as her wrath will im-
press itself on them. 337 A woman may die in childhed wishing in wrath
and anger that all the world may die with her. This strong imaginative
volition may convert itself into a spirit. Such a spirit can act by means
of the ("menstrual") birth discharge as its material instrument and thus
generate an epidemic.
234 De Vita Longa, lib. V (1526/27). Book IV, cap. 6. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 283. See
Jung, C. G.: Paracelsica, Ziirich 1942, p. 89 on the transference of such chemical
notions as "gradation" (i.e. perfection of weight, colour and durability) and "re-
verberation" (i.e. calcination by brisk fire) to actions of the "soul". "Imagination",
in Jung's opinion, stands for "meditation".
335 Celandine is Chelidonium and Troll corresponds to "Trioll" or "Trollblume" or"Trollius"
(see Aschner's translation, vol. I, p. 231, and Strebel: Paracelsus' Werke, vol. I, p. 344).
336 Fragm. De Virtute Imaginative IV. Philos. Magna I. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 314.
337 Ibid., p. 315: In a pregnant woman the foetus provides the "building material" for
maternal imagination. "The child is the earth and what it surrounds the celestial
sphere and globe. Thus, by virtue of her imagination the woman is the artist and the
child the canvas on which to raise the work" (Fiinff Biicher De Causis Morbor. lnvisib.,
lib. III. Huser, vol. I, p. 97). It is thus that birthmarks and malformations arise.
A woman who has conceived an image, for example of a snail, may grasp her knee -
a movement exactly coinciding with her imagination. The image is now on the knee
of the child.
Imagination - Semen - Contagiwn 123
Since man is made from heavenly matter, heaven is not too far away to
he reached and acted upon by human imagination. Just as the stars send us
poisonous influence, we may send poison to the stars. This is seen in the
causation of the plague. The pestilential agent is formed by and in the
stars after the effluvia of sinful human imagination have reached them. 338
But imagination may also work more directly in plague. The news that
my brother was carried away by the plague abroad may "reverberate" in
myself so much that it finally displays an action similar to that of the
semen in conception, kindle the disease in myself and thereby create the
_source of an epidemic. 339 This can propagate itself not only through contam-
inated air, hut also by the transmission of morbid, pestilential imagination
from one person to the other. Hence one part of plague prophylaxis is to
keep people cheerful and pleasantly occupied. Fright is one of the most
dangerous emotions - it is the coward who is killed in wars, and he who
imagines himself a reborn Roman warrior wins.
Imagination, Semen and Contagium
Imagination has a strong effect on the world of material objects. It
alters things existing and generates new things. Hence its close assocation
with the concept of the "Semina" in the world of Paracelsus. "Semen" is
something superadded to the human body. It is "on" it rather than "in"
it. For it is linked with the sphere of will, imagination and desire. It is
thus different from corporeal "sperma" which is merely a secretion clean-
sing the kidneys and comparable to mucus excreted by the brain and nose
or the yellow bile ("cholera") discharged with ear wax.
To regard such spermatic fiuid as the active semen is "one of the greatest fallacies
that was ever entertained by physicians". 340 By contrast, the active semen is distributed
throughout the individual limbs and organs. It is contained in their "vital fiuid" - "that
of the hands in the hands, that of the feet in the feet, that of the heart in the heart, and
that of the brain in the brain". As soon as it is made active it separates from the "vital
fiuid" - "like a foam from soup and an effervescence from wine",341
338 See our account of Paracelsus' plague theories on p. 179.
339 Von der Imagination und wie sie in ir exaltation kompt und gebracht wird. De Occulta
Philosophia printed under Spuria No. 8. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 527.
340 Das Buch von dcr Gebiirung der empfindlichen Dinge in der Vemunft, tract. I, cap. 4.
Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 260.
341 Ibid., p. 259. The comparison with foam is, of course, borrowed from Aristotle (De
Gener. Anim., II, 2; 735b and 736a), but by contrast its production is located not in
the generative organs, but in each organ and limb. For Aristotle's refutation of the
theory "that the semen comes from each and every part of the body" (De Gener.
Anim., I, 18; 722a and 766b) see translation and footnotes by A. Platt, Oxford 1910.
Semen is due to secretion or excretion. Ibid., I, 18; 724b.
124 The Philosophy of Paracelsus Imagination - Semen - Contagium 125

The activating process is due to a magnetic attraction exerted by the will. Nothing
happens unless "the lodestone attracts this semen", and it is a magnetic force in the womb
that acts as the lodestone.342
This "magnetic" process is set into motion by imagination and desire following the
perception of an object, for example a beautiful woman.
of the female which offends the appropriate chaste star - Venus. Contagion is thus due
to a propagating - "infectious" - seed. It infects water - just as semen acts on water when
using it as the matrix from which new generations are made. 348

The "semen lies in speculation". It is thus that Paracelsus gave ex·

pression to these ideas already in what seems to he one of his earliest
treatises (believed to have been written about 1520).343 Later he said:
"Phantasy is the mother of the semen". 344
The process is also compared with the kindling of a fire. It is by imaginative speculation
that vital fluid is converted into active semen - just as the heat of the sun sets wood alight.
Semen is a fire kindled in the microcosm by an object of the outside world. It develops
when the will of man becomes "entangled" ("verhengt") with the object.345
The superior strength of imagination of one partner as compared with the other de·
cides the sex of the child begotten,346
To obtain ultimate perfection the semen needs the co-operation of "heaven" - the
preparer and cook, the spirit and builder of all semen - and the element water takes the
place of the ground into which the seed is sown. 347 Mother, father and celestial body each
bring their own semen to growth and by complete concordance with each other can beget
a perfect "fruit". If there is no concordance, monsters are produced or the semen of con-
tagion, notably plague. The latter is the product of lascivious imagination on the part

342
Ibid., p. 259.
343 " •••der sam in der speculation ligt." Das Buch von der Geblirung der empfindlichen
Dinge in der Vernunft, tract. I, cap. 4. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 256.
344 Liber De Generatione Hominis. Ed. Huser, vol. II, pp. 63 and 66.
345 "So also der willen des menschen verhengt in das object, als dan wird diser liquor zu
einem Samen. gleich als wan die biz der sonnen anziint ein holz ... also ist das object,
ziindet an dem andern sein microcosmum, das er brennet, und wird ein same daraus,
wie aus dem holz ein feur." Buch von der Geblirung, loc. cit. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 259.
346 Liber de Generat. Hominis, loc. cit. Here again we see ancient Greek theories of gene-
ration emerge (as before concerning the "foamy" nature of the semen, see footnote 341).
In fact, Paracelsus combines the ancient - "atomistic" - theory of "Pangenesis" and
that of "Epikrateia" and gives them a Parcelsean twist. According to the Pangenesis
theory all parts of the body contribute to and contain the germinative matter. Its
founder appears to be Democritus. The Epikrateia theory is older and goes back to Alk-
maion of Kroton, who attributed sex-determination to the superior strength or quan-
tity of paternal or maternal semen. For detail relating to these ancient theories see
Lesky, E.: Die Zeugungs- und Vererbungslehren der Antike und ihr Nachwirken.
Akad. Wiss. Mainz 1950, Abh. Geistes- und Sozialwiss. Klasse, Nr. 19, pp. 33 and 70.
(To this cf. Temkin, O.,in Gnomon, 1955, XXVII, 115-119). The Paracelsean "twist"
is the subordination of both theories to the all-powerful influence of Imagination - a
further example of his tendency to "spiritualise" matter.
347 Water is also a powerful adjuvant of imagination. "Any imagination will gain in strength

when projected on to water" ("Denn eine jegliche imagination geht durchs wasser am
krefftigsten" Fiinff Biicher De Causis Morbor. Invisib. III, Huser, vol. I, p. 97). In 3'8 De Pestilitate (a probably unauthentic treatise). Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 613. We
animals imagination is fed by the reflection of their colours in water. shall discuss the seed-theory of contagion in the chapter on Plague, p. 182.

Medicine
Introduction
Paracelsus' Fame as based on his development of chemical therapy.
Ancient Medicine and Paracelsus' Opposition to it in general terms
During his life-time, Paracelsus' fame rested largely on the strangeness
of his behaviour, hut partly also on his cures which, rumour had it, bordered
on the miraculous.
Belief in the efficacy of his prescriptions - as against the weakness of
conventional medicines - led to the adoption of his theories among students
of medicine in the period following the death of the master. This is well
set out by the Paracelsist Adam of Bodenstein (1528-1577). Defending
himself against the accusation that he had broken away from Galenic
teaching to which he owed his medical education and prosperity, he says:
"In 1556 I suffered from a tertian fever which developed into a continua, then into
a quarternary type, followed by tympanitis and persisting for four and fifty weeks - in
spite of the care of such honest and learned men as Doctor Oswald Beer and Dr. John
Huber. Finally reduced to an extreme condition of danger, I accepted extreme physic
(extremum remedium). It was given to me by a friend, a practitioner, Cyriacus Legher.
Its ingredients were: spiritus vitrioli, liquor serapini, laudani and such like. At this time
I regarded Paracelsus, the author of such recipes, as an impostor - but within four and
thirty days I was rid of all disease. At this time I was acting as a physician in ordinary to
my Lord Otho Heinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Elector - who had graciously
prompted me to give attention to Theophrastus' (Paracelsus) treatises. Thus I became
a secret follower of Paracelsus and used the arcana recommended by him for myself and
my patients with such spectacular success that I was suspected to have conjured the devil."
But enthusiasm for Paracelsus' medicine was not universal at any time.
Erastus was soon to codify the criticism which had already been so violent
in Paracelsus' life-time. Bodenstein's account reflects the criticism and
opposes it briefly:
Ungrateful people, he said, objected that the relief afforded by Paracelsean cures is
of short duration, it is a sham ("ein fucus") - for the disease will soon recur. "But
should I", continues Bodenstein, "who have rid the shrunken, lame, syphilitic, dropsic,
epileptic, podagric, calculous and deaf of their diseases - should I first give an under-
The cures of Paracelsus 127
taking that such diseases cannot recur? Is such an undertaking whithin human power,
considering that food, drink and the elements contain the poison causing as well as the
antidote to these diseases? Was there ever a doctor who could insure anybody against
future wounds or fever, blows falling, sadness, joy, wrath, ulcers internal or external,
etc.; although he had been once cured of one of them?" True, the ancients possessed
important means of maintaining health - but Paracelsean physic, prepared "through
Vulcanus", is more spirit-like and therefore more subtle and efficacious. If administered
throughout the year in appropriate dosage, it acts in reality and not by suggestion or
the confidence the patient has in his doctor. And then they said, a simple goldsmith or
silversmith should be able to prepare such metallic sulphur, salt or mercury as was pre-
scribed by Paracelsus. Is it all futile and vain because none of it can be found in the books
even by those who are well versed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew ?1
It is only fair to mention in this connection the reports of curative
failures and errors attributed to Paracelsean methods, especially in the
hands of boastful empirics. We refer to the cases reported by Erastus and
Wier 2, although the latter professes to use Paracelsean methods himself
and to he conscious of the importance of chemistry in medicine and of the
merits of Paracelsus and contemporary Paracelseans. 3
The passionate attack and defence which make Paracelsus a contro-
versial figure even to-day, leave no doubt as to the deep impression and
influence of his personality and especially of the cures which he performed.
For these, posterity had various explanations to offer. Paracelsus appre-
ciated medical chemistry. Hence his use in therapy of chemicals such as
mercury, arsenic, antimony - in themselves superior in action to the
Galenic herbs. At the same time, the study of chemistry enabled him to
derive extracts from herbs which were hound to achieve more than the
1 "Vorred" zu Paracelsi's Schreyben von den Kranckheyten, so die vernunfft berauben
als da sein S. Veyts Tantz Hinfallender Siechtage etc. Basel 1567. The four "Disputa-
tions on the New Medicine of Philip Paracelsus" by Erastus (1572/73) will be discussed
in detail under: Erastus' Censure of Paracelsus at the end of the present work.
2 The reports of Erastus will be discussed later (p. 327). - De Praestigiis Daemonum
Lib. II. De Magis lnfamibus, cap. 18. Joannis Wieri Opp. Omnia. Amstelod. 1660,
p. 152.
3 "Neque hie chymian haud levem medicinae partem elevo, quam magnifacio, uti et
omnes mecum veteris medicinae cultores : eamque nunc mire exornari, est quod arti
nostrae gratuler: ejus· quoque potentia contra quoscumque morbos extrahi spiritus
et olea, pulveres et sales confici ex sulphure, vitriolo, antimonio, et id genus minera-
libus reliquis, uti et metallicis, libenter agnosco ut qui ilia penes me habeam, nee in-
feliciter utar." Wier, loc. cit., p. 153. See also: Wierus, Liber Apologeticus adversus
Leonis Suavii calumnias, Opp. 1660, loc. cit., p. 623; particularly p. 630 where Wierus
admits having opposed Paracelsus for his invectives against ancient and contemporary
medicine, but not for the useful part of his work. Wierus also sides with Paracelsus'
enemy Erastus, in those cases where the latter has confuted him, especially in the use
of superstitious and magic cures. A passage on p. 629 deals with Paracelsus' possible
"occult" predecessors, notably Roger Bacon and Picus l\lirandulanus.

128 Medicine
medical "soup kitchen" of his time. From his antagonism to humoral
pathology and its therapeutic quietism, follows his own active attitude to
therapy. His "scientific" and in particular "biochemical" outlook made
him appear as a "modern".
Finally, he has been accused of using homoeopathy and even sheer
trickery.
We do not intend to enter into the causes of Paracelsus' fame, the
reality of his curative successes or the reasons which account for them.
His knowledge and use of superior and "modem" sounding therapeutic
devices, such as mercury to promote diuresis, are undisputed. So are his
superior methods of detoxicating dangerous chemical compounds, which
thereby became suitable for therapeutic purposes. 4 What we wish to
examine here is his "Philosophy" of Disease and to what extent it provides
a platform for his therapeutic maxims.
In antiquity, disease was attributed to an upset of the humoral equi-
librium. 5 There was too much or too little of the cardinal humours and
qualities in the individual, i.e. of blood, mucus, black and yellow bile, of
dryness, dampness, heat or cold. In other words, the cause of disease was
largely endogenous. It was man himself, his constitution or habits of life.
There was one disease only - "distemper". In this, no other variation
occurred than that of signs and symptoms which differed according to the
"constitution" of the patient,_ i.e. his individual mixture of humours and
qualities. Hence prognosis of the distemper, rather than diagnosis of one
of many diseases, was the aim of the ancient physicians and therapy con-
sisted in "adding what was lacking" and "withdra~ing what was in excess".
Remedies, notably herbs, were examined for qualities which would make
good losses or remove excess. A slender body of empirical observations
had been developed into elaborate, almost juridical and syllogistic systems
of pharmacology. The philosophical background of humoralism had been
the ideas of the pre-Socratic thinkers, who pondered about Nature ("Phy-
sis"), about the unity that presumably rules behind the multiplicity of
objects and phenomena. This unity had been attributed in tum to the
4 See for detail our chapters on the Progressive Aspects of Paracelsus p. 200 and Final
Assessment p. 344.
5 Ancient Medicine, General Characteristics: see Sigerist, H. E., Antike Heilkunde.
Heimeran, Miinchen 1927, pp. 11-24 and passim. Diepgen, P,: Geschichte der Medizin.
Berlin 1949, vol. I, pp. 77 et seq. Pagel, W.: Prognosis and Diagnosis, A comparison
of Ancient and Modern Medicine. J. Warburg Institute, 1939, II, 382. Temkin, 0.:
Greek Medicine as Science and Craft. Isis, 1953, XLIV, 213. Riese, Walter, The Con-
ception of Disease. Its History, its Versions and its Nature. New York. Philosophical
Library. 1953, pp. 41-46 (The Galenic or physiological conception of disease) and p.
78 (The ontological conception).
Elements - Principles - Diseases 129
predominance of one of the elements, Water, Air, Fire, Earth, or of such
general notions as "Being" versus "Change", or, finally, to atoms that
were identical in character hut formed a variety of combinations. The
elements in the greater world correspond in quality to the humours in the
lesser world that is man. Plato first conceived this idea of the parallelism
of macrocosm and microcosm. We have seen that it forms the basic
conception of the philosophy of Paracelsus.
The "Elements", "Matrices" and the "Tria Prima"
("Salt", "Sulphur" and "Mercury")
Yet Paracelsus utterly opposed and destroyed the ancient humoral
ideas and allied concepts of disease. The upsetting of the humoral balance
in the ancient sense appeared to him more as a formula than a reality.
To him, the four humours and complexions could not explain the large
variety of diseases. Paracelsus believed them to enter the human body
from outside. In place of the constitution, paramount in ancient patho-
logy, he emphasised the intimate relationship between man and the out-
side world. In the latter no humoral complexion was operative. There
were the "Elements", Water, Air, Fire, Earth - not as elementary consti-
tuents of every object, however, hut merely as "matrices", as harbours
which provide a platform on which the really fundamental building ma-
terials can generate various objects. These "elementary" materiais ap·
peared to he either the essential factor operative in combustion (~ulphu~),
or something fluid and changeable (Mercury), or finally somethmg solid
and permanent (Salt).
As we have seen, salt, sulphur and mercury denote in the first place
principles directing the condition of matter rather than actual chemic~!
substances, hut as terms explaining individual phenomena their symbolic
character should not he overrated. "Salt", for example, is also used for a
substance with distinct chemical, physiological and pathogenic properties.
It is salt which quite generally accounts for ulcer formation in the skin.
Salt is excreted and deposited in the skin as if it were a salt mine. Salt
alone is the cause of the "offene schiiden". 6
The objects formed by Salt, Sulphur and Mercury vary in their prop·
erties according to the matrix in which they are generated, in which they
appear as their specific "fruit". In spite of these differences, however,
Paracelsus postulates that they correspond to each other.
s Wundtartzney II, cap. IO. Ed. Huser, 1605, pp. 69 et seq.
130 Medicine
A certain fungus, for example, is a "fruit" of the earth - yet it has its equivalent in
a "fruit" of water, where it occurs as "vitriol". Arsenic is a mineral product of water -
the same arsenic emerges from the earth, again, as a certain fungus. In other words, these
objects are (a) produced by the fundamental building materials (Sulphur, Mercury, Salt),
and (b) marked out in appearance and function by the matrix (Earth, Water, Air, Fire)
in which they were generated. In principle, however, they are similar to each other or even
identical. Hence they are not merely the transient individual objects which we handle in
everyday life, but constitute certain "Species". As such, they deserve a fixed name. For
example "I shall say: Vitriolum terrae album that is Pfifferling (a species of mushroom),
Vitriolum aquae that is copper water etc."
It is the contention of Paracelsus that each disease is a specific "species"
or "fruit" as is any other object in nature.
The lliadus. Diseases as "Fruits" of the human "Iliadus"
Diseases as Species
The sum total of species which can he generated by the fundamental
materials (Salt, Sulphur, Mercury) in a given matrix is called Iliadus.
Each of these matrices has its own Iliadus. There is one of Earth, one of
Water, one of Fire and one of Air - and one of Man. For Man, in whose
formation and maintenance all objects and elements of the greater world
have a part, represents a matrix comparable to one of those enumerated.
In the Iliadus of one of the matrices we find minerals growing, in one
patch vitriol, in another marcasite 7, and so on. 8
Similarly the Iliadus of Man is liable to grow "fruit", whereby some-
thing is made visible that is normally not apparent. This manifestation
of something invisible is the disease. It is a process which brings to the
surface mineral constituents which are normally fully integrated in the
bodily substance and hence invisible. It is in this sense that diseases are
regarded as the "fruits" of the Iliados in man, each corresponding to one
mineral grown in the earth. "For the fruits are called Minerals and are
taken for Minerals. Thus when you see Erysipelas, say there is Vitriol.
When you see Cancer, say there is Colcothar.9 If you see Lupus say there
°
is Plumosum. 1 For it is such species that you shall observe, and examine
7 "Marcasite" is an immature metallic substance which may in the course of development
assume the properties of one metal or another. For example, marcasite of lead is anti-
mony, white marcasite is bismuth. See Castelli Lexicon Med. Lips. 1713, p. 482.
s Man as "Matrix" and "lliadus" giving birth to disease as a "fruit". Fragmenta Medica
ad Paramirum. Huser, vol. I, p. 135. Also: Opus Paramirum Lib. IV De Origine Morb.
Matricis. Huser, vol. I, pp. 78-80.
9 "Fixed vitriol", the residue - caput mortuum - of vitriol after distillation.
10 A saline substance in man; otherwise a kind of alum. Castelli, loc. cit., p. 595.
Diseases as species 131
in what way the minerals of the outside world and those in man correspond
to each other ...". "Or take Alopecia. This corresponds to roughness of
the bark in the element of Earth, to rust in Water, to dust11 in the element
of Air and to lightning in that of Fire."
In other words, diseases form "species". These differ in material
composition - differences which they have in common with their counter-
parts in the outside world. Two diseases such as Erysipelas and Cancer
differ from each other as much as vitriol and colcothar, i.e. in their chem-
ical constitution.
Each disease is thus characterised as an entity in itself, with its own
material structure and function. Moreover, it is a "mineral" in that it
corresponds to one of the "minerals" in the greater world or in a broader
sense to a certain "fruit" in each of the media (matrices) of the greater
world: Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
There are thus as many diseases as there are "species". To Paracelsus
diseases are "Species", real substances that are well defined in chemical
composition. Health is the Iliadus which does not "give fruit". For it is
the evil which is thrown up and out; for example, gold may appear where
it spells disease in the iliadus of earth. Hence disease is identical with its
equivalent minerals and metals. In the same way as these, it is associated
with certain places - just as a disease may he "endemic" or confined to
certain individuals or associated with certain organs (localism). In this way
disease resembles a mine and so does man when he becomes subject to
it.12
Motivation of Paracelsus' Opposition to Humoralism
Antagonism to ancient humoralism in Paracelsus can he traced to a
variety of motives. It is partly emotional and hound up with his iconoclasm
and resentment against the ruling powers in contemporary science and
medicine. The new epoch, which he felt began with him, needed new
methods and orientation. Moreover, a sound naturalism made him scep-
tical of the real existence and significance of humours and qualities, such
as warm, cold, moist or dry; he did not, however, doubt the role of agents
that are sour, salty, corrosive or acid. Podagra, for example, is caused by
such "chemical" action of acid "catarrh" ("Fliissen") hut not by any of
the "qualities", however "cold" or "hot" are the external appearances the
11 The text has "St." (or "st." in Sudhoff's ed., vol. IX, p. 240). Sudhoff's notes offer
no alternative. We would tentatively suggest either: "Staub" (dust) or "Stern" (star).
12 Man as a mine. Fragm. Medicum ad Op. Paramirum. Ed. Huser, I, p. 135.
132 Medicine
disease produces. Such appearances are incidental and rather the result
of the disease, of its "work" and "labour", i.e. the struggle between health
and sickness in man.13
Van Helmont took up the same argument directed against the "qual-
ities", maintaining at the same time the importance of what is "acid" and
"corrosive" in the causation of disease. In this Van Helmont refers hack
to Hippocrates who - more correctly than Galen - had said that "diseases
are not heat or cold, hut something acid, sharp, hitter and biting. " 14
There was also, finally, an anti-materialistic trend. Paracelsus fully
recognised the importance of matter. This is expressed in his preference
for Chemistry. But what he wanted to find in matter and elucidate by
chemical methods were the "virtues" hidden in it rather than its elementary
composition. These "virtues" effect chemical changes that are deeper than
those of quality and complexion, i.e. mere alteration of component parts.
This is of particular interest in disease and its cure. Disease is not driven
out by any of the "qualities" which we observe in the "elements" ("Ele-
mentische Art"), hut by certain "virtues". It does not help us to know
whether a "disease is hot or cold". Fever is "hot", yet not driven away
by "cold", hut by a "virtue". Heat and cold come under the heading of
"regime", like diet - they can he employed by the physician as auxiliary
factors. For heat and cold are after-effects, products of the disease, rather
than primary factors in its causation. An ulcer ("offener Schaden") is
"hot", when the "salt" causing it or excreted into it is "hot", and burns
like a stinging nettle. If this salt is "defeated" ("gewaltigt"), the "heat"
disappears. The flow observed in ulcers and causing them is due to soluble
salt which attracts water and is excreted into the skin, resulting in erosion
and ulceration. Hence to dry up a flux is palliative, not real therapy -
the flow will continue. But if the salt is made insoluble, i.e. coagulated,
the flux will cease. A laxative acts not because it is cold or hot, hut be-
cause of its "specific" virtue. What is necessary in the cure of ulcers is to
"master the salts" ("dass die Salia gemeistert werden").15
Ia Von den natiirlichen Dingen (Das erst Buch). Vom Terpentin, von schwarzer und
weisser Nieswurz, vom Wasserblut, vom Salz etc. etc. (? 1525), cap. 2. Ed. Sudhoff,
vol. II, p. 79.
14 Van Helmont, Blas Humanum, 52. See Pagel, W.: J. B. Van Helmont. Springer,
Berlin 1930, p. 16. Hippocrates, Ancient Medicine, XV. Ed. W. H. S. Jones, vol. I,
London (Loeb) 1923, p. 40: "For it is not the heat which possesses the great power,
but the astringent and the insipid." ("Ov yae TO #eeµ6v l<n:w TO Tijv µeyaA'Y}V
uvvaµtV
.ll , ezov,
" a1111a
'11 ' TO' <1TQV<p'VOV
, "at' TO' n11aua(!
1-.ll 6V • • •") See a1so I'b'd
l .,
XVII (i.f.), loc. cit., p. 46, and XIX, p. 48.
15 Wundartzney. Ed. Huser 1605, cap. XVIII, p. 74.
Opposition to Humoralism 133
In replacing the ancient humours and qualities by salt considered as
causing ulceration of the skin, Paracelsus uses terms which appear to us
more realistic and more akin to modern chemistry than those of his prede-
cessors. This new chemical interpretation still seems to explain pathology
in terms of changes of matter. What chiefly interests Paracelsus, however,
is not the salt as a chemical substance, hut its condition which renders it
harmful or harmless. It is thus the relationship between "virtue" and
man with which he is concerned; in other words a function and "power"
in matter rather than matter itself is the object of his research.
In conclusion: Diseases differ according to the interaction of the three
fundamental principles of substance - Salt, Sulphur, Mercury - with the
elements ("matrices") - Earth, Fire, Air, Water - and the seals which the
latter impress on their offspring ("fruit"). This interaction takes place in
the universe, whereby the various species of objects are formed. It like-
wise occurs in the body - whereby the various disease-species are created.
Finally, the same interaction is responsible for the appropriate remedies
appearing in or from the earth in the form of minerals or plants. The
physician has to imitate these interactions in order to transmute a sub-
stance, to give it a new "Gestalt", to lead it away from its "first life" in
which it is no remedy against decay. From this it is horn to a new, its
"second life", in which it displays its virtues. Thus, a rose in all the
grandeur and fragrance of its "first life" has no medicinal action. It will
acquire it when it has lost its fragrance. It is then that its invisible virtues
become visible.
The action of Mercury, Sulphur and Salt in causing disease
Mercury "ascending" through "sublimation" may cause apoplexy - when it is deposited
like "tartar" in the walls of the vessels. In other cases, Salt is held responsible. When it
expands ("sich auftreibt") and is secreted in places where it should not be - such as the
skin - ulcers, cancer or gangrene will develop. Salt is subject to resolution, calcination
(roasting), reverberation (heating by flame) and the addition of alkali. All these processes
can occur in the body. Thus too much Salt goes into solution in people who indulge in
overeating or lechery. In these, salt is converted into fat. Obese bodies are like land which
is too avid (lecherous) and brings fruit too quickly to germination, or where an excess of
rain causes fruit to decay. Salt is calcined when fluid is withdrawn and, e.g., alum or
vitriol are formed. When it is fluid it is reverberated, remains unmixed and goes up and
down as though distilled. Vital spirits blowing on its surface make it myxoid or glue-like.
In this form it is driven to the surface where it appears in the form of "musty" wounds
("vulnera aeruginosa"). Any external disease, notably ulcers, cancers, baldness, pustulae,
scars, condylomata, morphea and leprosy are salt-diseases - varying morphologically with
134 Medicine
the nature of the salt affected. For it is salt that gives everything its stability and corpo·
rality, its "form" .16
These states of ascendancy and discord between the three fundamental substances,
Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, are due to the hybris and arrogance of one of them - "if the
Sulphur runs high in pride, it melts down the body, as the sun melts the snow".
Such views are not in principle different from ancient humoralism,
according to which one of the humours causes disease owing to excess or
deficiency. In Paracelsus' ideas, however, chemical entities replace the
humours. It is true that these chemical terms are often stated in the
vague and general manner of analogies and correspondences, hut there
seems to he an appeal to reality about them, more so than in humoralism
and in the logical elaboration of fictitious qualities and "grades". These
had dominated medicine for 2,000 years. They were heathen ideas, deceit
and phantom used by the devil to tempt Christians. The minerals which
Paracelsus had observed in the mines in their natural state - as well as
the course of pathogenic action - had lent the pattern for his ideas, how·
ever much the latter engulfed his actual observations in a cobweb of fancy.
Man as a Mine
In this context we find him spinning out the analogy between the body and a mine
(vide supra). He uses this analogy to explain the similarities in the disease pattern in people
living far apart and also differences which occur in spite of the patients living in close
proximity. He says "Here are some people who have this disease and nothing else, others
who have that disease and nothing else and still others who have another disease: be they
in one district or not, they have the same mountain in themselves and all form one moun·
tain, that is a mine. For disease is a mine in all who are affected." 17
Localisation of Disease. Its Local "Seats and Causes"
A. Chemical Considerations: The "Salia" and their "Anatomy"
("Anatomia Elementata")
The localist point of view distinguishes diseases according to the different
parts first affected, their different anatomical changes and different exo·
genous agents. In localist pathology there are thus classifiable diseases by
which men are affected - a "phalanx morhorum". Each disease involves
16 Action of "Mercury", Sulphur and Salt: Op. Paramir. Lib. II, cap. 4-6. Huser I,
pp. 44-48; also cap. I, Huser I, p. 39, and ibid., cap. 2, p. 41.
17 The Paracelsean analogy between man and mine was taken up by Martin Pansa in his
"Consilium Peripneumoniacum" of 1614. See footnote 12; Rosen, G. ,The History of
Miners' Diseases. New York 1943 and Rosner, E., Arch. Gesch. Med. 1953, XXXVII,
357-361.
Localism versus Catarrh 135
one organ or system first and has its own aetiology. Diseases are entities
defined by anatomical changes and aetiological agents.
Yet humoralism and location of disease were not always mutually ex·
elusive. This is shown by Galen's attention to local changes, for example
in his treatise: De locis affectis. On the other hand, opposition to hu·
moralism as preached and practised by Paracelsus need not necessarily
lead to localism. In establishing a chemical basis of pathology, Paracelsus
seems to favour implicitly the general constitutional rather than the
localist and aetiological view. Yet in his case chemical considerations can
he demonstrated to have led to a localist theory. That it was hound up
with opposition to the doctrine of "catarrh"18 is no accident. We must
remember that, according to this ancient theory, disease in general was
believed to he due to a downflow of corrosive catarrh fluid from the brain
through the base of the skull to various organs. In the lung it was supposed
to cause abscess and phthisis, in the joints rheumatism and gout, in the
legs ulceration and decay. In other words, catarrh was practically the only
disease. Moreover, its cause was a general as against a local affection and
it was also a humoral disturbance, namely the production of surplus fluid
that was abnormally acid and corrosive. "Catarrh" is thus a classical
product of humoral pathology.
As we shall see, traces of this theory are recognisable in Paracelsus. It was
only a century later that Van Helmont made an all out attack on Catarrh.
However, Paracelsus already lumps the "flow" together with the "acidity"
of the liver as typical humoralist and false explanations of external ulcers
calling for correction. If, as the schools believe, black bile has its seat in
the spleen, how can it get to the leg, causing ulceration therein ? The same
applies to yellow bile, presumably a product of the liver, and to mucus,
supposedly the "son" of the hrain.19
It is, therefore, Paracelsus continues, neither the assumption of corro·
sive properties by a humour nor the transference of such corrosive humour
from one place to another which causes ulceration, say of the leg. Instead,
salt, notably a mineral salt, is its cause. Moreover, it is by a local process
of separation ("Scheidung") that salt is liberated and enabled to act
locally on the tissue with ulceration resulting. It is through this process
18 For a history of catarrh theories, see W. Pagel in J. B. Van Helmont: Einftihrung in
die philosophische Medizin des Barock. Springer, Berlin 1930, pp. 48-62. And idem:
Zur Geschichte der Lungensteine und der Obstruktionstheorie der Phthise. Beitr.
Klin. Tuberk. 1928. LXIX, 316.
19 Drei Bucher der Wundarznei, Bertheonei Book II, preface: Vom missbrauch und irrung
der alten arzet. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, pp. 115 et seq., notably pp. 116 and 117.
136 Medicine
of local "separation" that all products in nature emerge, and in the body
no health or disease can subsist without it. Hence the physician must
study this process. 20
Anything corrosive belongs to the species "Salt". 21 Salt is normally
present in the tissues, hut it is "temperate" and cannot act harmfully
unless it is set free and "opened up". There are many different species of
salt in the body and each causes its own type of ulcer - just as the chemical
reactions of salts are different.
From their different products, namely the differences in the form and fate of ulcers,
we recognise that there are many different "salia" in the body. Each is subject to "Ex-
altation" at its own time, just as one wine keeps longer than another or is more acid than
another. 22
Each of these salia has its appointed place in the body. The distribution of the different
salts constitutes an anatomy of its own, the "Anatomia Elementata". For it is the minerals
and salts that are the "elements" in man which decide health and disease. The "elements"
of the ancients - fire, air, earth and water - are relevant as the "matrices" of minerals
and salts, hut not as the material basis of "complexions" of qualities (hot, cold, dry, moist)
and temperament (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguinic). 23 It follows from the
anatomy of salts and minerals (and not from humours and complexions) that ulcers having
a certain shape and course develop in one place and not in another. 24
Disease and its cause, then, must he referred to a seat, and the cause
found in a chemical substance - a mineral "element" - well defined by its
counterpart in the greater world. In other words, pathology must he based
on the "anatomia elementata" 25 which is concerned with the distribution of
minerals in the outside world.
20 Ibid. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 123.
21 "nun ist kein corosiv nit, es sei dan aus dem geschlecht des salz aus dem folgt, das alle
wundscheden aus dem salz urspriinglich geboren werden." Bertheonei, lib. II. Ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. VI, p. 120.
22 Ibid. loc. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 121.
23 " ••• wan complexiones machen kein element, aher die mineralia, so daraus (sc. from
the four elements) gehoren werden, die geben das element. also ist der mensch auch
ein element und seil). gesundheit und krankheit die mineralia und der corpus; daraus
es producirt wird, das ist matrix, und der samen diser matrix ist der, aus dem alle
mineralia gehen." Bertheonei: Das ander buch, cap. 1 (vom ursprung in der gemein
aller wund scheden). Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 123.
24 "wollet ir von der stat der krankheit reden und die ursach wahrhaftig anzeigen, warumb
an dem oder disem ort ein solich loch sei, warumh dis oder das von dem ein solch under-
scheithab, so moget ir das on die anatomia elementata nit prohiren; dan die regiones
des leihs miisset ir fiirnemen." Bertheonei II, cap. 5. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, pp. 128-129.
25 This is closely related to "Anatomia Essata" (see later p. 138) which is primarily con-
cerned with the corresponding seats of the minerals in the body.
"Organic" and "Ontological" Views 137
B. Microcosmic Theory and Organic Pathology
Quite apart from these chemical considerations, and perhaps more
important in the attention given by Paracelsus to the organs, is the prin-
cipal article of his faith - his conviction of the parallelism between man
and the cosmos. 26 If the body is a replica of the firmament in which all
"life" is indicated by the motion of the stars, the organs must dominate
life and function as individuals, as well as by their interaction. For the
organs are in the body what the stars are in the world. Your attention
should not he directed to the humours, Paracelsus says, hut if something
is wrong with the liver, attribute it to the liver; if the head is at fault,
ascribe it to the head; if the spleen, to the spleen - hut not to black bile,
phlegm or blood. For "if any star may cause disease in man, how can a
humour he adduced ?"27
The "Ontological" View of Disease ("Anatomia Essata")
It is in this way that the views of Paracelsus pave the way to localism,
the study of the morbid anatomical changes of the organs. Associated with
this is the "ontological" view in which diseases are regarded as entities in
themselves distinguishable by specific changes and causes.
In this view the main tenet of humoral pathology - that the sick
individual determines the cause and nature of disease - is completely
reversed: It is now the individual disease that conditions the patient and
manifests itself in a characteristic picture.
Paracelsus visualises each disease as endowed with a body; it is thus
distributed throughout mankind, just as minerals are distributed through
the Earth. Just as there is not gold everywhere, hut only in certain places,
so there is a relationship between a given disease and the place where it
occurs. This is the "anatomy" of diseases, and from it we learn which
26
The principle of organic pathology is well expressed in the famous "Labyrinth of
Physicians". Here Paracelsus says: "Disease is determined by the organ, for the worms
of the marrow are different from those of the gut. There are as many classes of diseases
as there are organs." Characteristically the heading of the chapter is: "Of the book
of Nature, that reveals the physical body in the microcosm, that is the book of the
Anatomy of the Greater Body." "So viel species corporales, so viel auch Genera Mor-
horum.... dan nach dem das Glied ist, so ist auch die Kranckheit: als anders sind die
Wiirm des Marks, anders die Wiirm der Eingeweid." (Labyrinthus med., cap. 4. Huser,
I, 270, Von dem Buch Physico das da lehret den Physicum Corpus in Microcosmo er-
kennen, das ist das Buch Anatomiae Maioris.)
27
Wundartzney, lib. II, cap. 11. Ed. Huser 1605, p. 69; ed. Bodenstein 1566, p. 132.
138 Medicine
disease will develop in a certain individual or group. "The anatomy gives
each individual his particular disease. " 28
In the light of this "living" anatomy, the individual is seen as an offspring of a parti-
cular part of the earth and so are each of his organs and limbs. Hence, "let cosmography
be an anatomy ... if you understand it thoroughly, you will understand the microcosm
in its essence. Look at anatomia terrae, find in what order its hands and feet are distributed
in it and consider what its fingers, its principal members are ... the anatomy of water,
find out what is its body and how the minerals constitute its limbs ... " 29
It is through susceptibility to a disease that an individual is recognised as a member
of a group or class of men, and his place in the "anatomy" of the "body" of humanity is
determined. For example, just as all veins of gold constitute one member of the earth, so all
men suffering from dropsy form one member of the "Anatomy of Man". Thus, each dis-
ease has its equivalent mineral in the earth and so has each organ in man. Hence the "localis
anatomia" that teaches the site and differences of metals in the earth also determines the
seats of disease in man and the organs that are to suffer together and so cause the symptoms.
One important cause of failure in medicine is ignorance of the locus
morbi ("stat der krankheit"). It is therefore necessary to study the "Ana-
tomy of Diseases" - the "Body of Disease" rather than the "Anatomy of
the Body". To this "Anatomy of the Disease" the "Anatomy of the Re-
medy" must he adapted. If it attacks regions beyond that affected it will
act as a poison, if it fails to cover the whole of the affected region it will he
too weak. In this connection the term "disease body" denotes the products
of its action on the organ, i.e. the anatomical changes. Their distribution
reveals the nature of the disease agent and the part of the outside world
whence it comes - for this must correspond to the part affected in man.
It also directs the invention of the remedy, the structure ("signature") of
which must he attuned to the anatomy of the disease hody. 30
The affected places do not coincide with the organs and tissues that
are differentiated in "dead anatomy'', however. What really matters in the
location of disease is the distribution of the essential chemical constituents
in the body - the "Anatomia Essata". 31
Diseases are therefore entities, each in its own right. Yet certain diseases, e.g. syphilis,
2s
"Wan ein jetlich mensch ist geschickt zur lepra, apoplexia und zu allen krankheiten,
aber die anatomei gibt eim jeglichen sein besonder Krankheit." Von blatern, leme,
beulen etc. der franzosen II, cap. 3. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 336.
29 "}asset euch die cosmographei ein anatomei sein ... so ir dieselbigen in grund verstent,
so habt ir den microcosmum genzlich in seim wesen. besehent anatomiam terrae, wie
ordenlich in ir hend und fiiss ligen ... die anatomie des wassers, schaue was sein corpus
sei, demnach wie die mineralia seine glider sind ... " Von blatern, leme, beulen etc.
der franzosen. Lib. II, cap. 5. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 340.
30 Buch der lmposturen, lib. II, cap. 2. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 107.
31
The liver qua part of the dead body cannot cause dropsy. Hence "the dead body should
be rejected as a source of aetiology, for knowledge comes not from the physical body;
it is from what is outside that events inside should be recognised." Ibid., cap. 7. Sud-
"Anatomia Essata". The "Oportet" 139
will only develop on top of others, by "transplantation". "Where there is no prior disease
in the body, there is no foothold ('Anfang') for syphilis."32
Syphilis is the expression in pathological terms of unchastity and exuberance ("luxus"),
rife since the latter decades of the XVth century. 33 Yet syphilis is a "specific" poison,
which is attracted by the human body and "attacks" such luxury". 34 Thus, he who suffers
from gout will develop syphilitic paralysis. Gout will have changed into syphilitic gout or
gouty syphilis. Non-syphilitic ulcers will be "syphilised" and ulcerative syphilis will
develop. 35
The "transplantation of disease" is obviously derived from the belief in spontaneous
generation, to which Paracelsus emphatically subscribed. Beetles spring from putrid
faeces, and worms from wood. A special brand of beetles, however, will be the result of
"transplantation" when wood is left to decay in dung. Similarly, it is dung mixed with
urine that gives rise to tapeworm. Certain plants are the offspring of other plants produced
by putrefaction. 36
The "Oportet" and Disease
There is yet another "anatomy" of man that causes disease. This
concept is based on the multiplicity of the components of the body. It is
this combination of many parts under one skin, each with its own function
and aim, which makes for instability and discord. The germ of disinte-
gration which lies in this multiplicity has become more and more destruc-
tive with the growth of mankind. This is due to the progressive trans-
mission of morbid disposition from generation to generation. Hence dis-
eases contracted to-day differ from those seen in primordial man. Such
differences are particularly impressive in the ravages of epidemics which,
Paracelsus says, had become overwhelming in his own time.
Man thus carries in himself, ever since he was horn and created his own
enemy, the germ of disease. Healthiness does not really exist, hut as long
as man is healthy he owes this to a latency of disease, with which he is
indissolubly hound.
hoff, vol. VI, p. 343. On the relationship between Anatomia Essata and Anatomia
Elementata see above p. 136, footnote 25.
32 Just as in nature at large "there are many herbs and roots which are not from their
own seed, men who were not properly preformed and other results of transplantation,
so pustules are due to the transplantation of another disease." Blatern, leme, beulen
etc. der franzosen. Lib. III, cap. I. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 352.
33 " ••• also das, so lang die welt gestanden ist, griissere, ungeordnetere, iippigere unkeusch-
heit nie gewesen ist, dan zu der Zeit des Anfangs der franzosen, das ist im jar vierzehn
hundert sibenzige und achtzige aus ubertreflicher, iippiger, ungeordneter unkeuschheit
ein neue krankheit, das ist die blatern, erstanden sind." Von blatern etc. der franzosen.
Lib. IV, cap. 3. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 372.
34 "diesen luxum antrit", loc. cit. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 374.
35 Ibid. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 374.
36 Ibid. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 356 and p. 358.
140 Medicine
The origin of all disease is an "Oportet", something compulsory. It is
due to the disease factor inside man, namely the multiplicity of his parts,
and to the hostility of the external world. 37
Aetiology
The "Seeds" of Disease. Air as the Vector of the Disease Agent.
The M.M. (Mysterium Magnum). The role of Air
From the fundamental analogy of cosmos and man, the anti-humoral
theses are derived that provide the basis for a new aetiology. "Diseases
grow in man, as grass and shrubs grow from the earth." But what grows
from one element need not have its properties, i.e. such qualities as dry,
damp, cold, warm. Crowfoot (flammula) is "hot", yet it comes from the
earth that is cold and dry. Solid plants such as flax (linum palustre) breed
in water. A stone kills, a sword wounds, not by virtue of heat, cold, dry
or damp, but by its "own firmament - the power of steel in which this is
predestined". In the same way, the human mind is wrecked "in the manner
of the corresponding stars, notably the moon. Hence you must not purge
black bile, but stave off the moon and stars. For these make the disease". 38
Though fundamentally a disturbance of the "firmamental" interaction
of the organs, disease is not endogenous or constitutional; to engender it,
a foreign invader, a "seed", is required. 39 Such seeds of disease - notably
minerals - were sown into the earth by God at the time when he regretted
the creation of man. They act like a "man hidden in man", affecting the
organ to which they are related by a kind of predestined sympathy.
Diseases and their causes need not be connected with the mineral world.
There is the atmosphere which makes man ill by "infection", i.e. the
37
Grosse Wundartzney. Lib. II, tract. 2, cap. 2. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, pp. 288-290.
38 Wundartzney II, 11. Ed. Huser 1605, p. 69; Bodenstein 1566, p. 132.
39 Von blatem, leme, beulen der franzosen. Lib. II, cap. 10. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 347.
As trees are distinguished by the semina which are responsible for their specific fruit,
diseases should be distinguished by their "fathers", i.e. the semina which cause them,
and not their "mothers", i.e. the humours. Hence to drive out the faulty element or
humour is no cure. It is the semen of disease which corrupts the elements and thereby
causes illness of man. Thus from horsedung worms and insects are produced - not by
a conversion of the dung - but by a semen which had access to it and uses it as matrix.
Labyrinth. Medicor. Cap. XI. Von dem buch der geberung der krankheiten. Ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. XI, pp. 212-218. - Disease can be due to an "iliastric" semen which is created
as such, just as the seed of a plant. It causes such diseases as dropsy, jaundice, gout.
By contrast a "cagastric" semen is one that is spontaneously generated by corruption
- such as the "seeds" of pleurisy, plague and fevers.
Aetiology: "Seeds" - "MM" - Air 141
transmission of astral poison. The common vector of such exhalations of
the stars is the vaporous "chaos" which surrounds us: the air.40
The latter belongs to the "Ens Astrale".
These theses show the importance which Paracelsus attached to air -
as the medium of normal life in the universe as well as in man and as the
vector of disease agents. 41 Air is linked with another still more general
and essential factor - both derive from goodness on High and are the first
created. Hence their name: Mysterium Magnum (M.M.). Air is thus
exalted over the stars and the firmament. For the firmament itself
depends upon it as its "life" and motion. It is not astral "inclination"
that causes disease, but simply transmission of "astral poison" by the air.
"Ens Substantiae" - "Poison" - versus complexion (i.e. humours and
qualities) as inducing disease
This poison is "Ens Substantiae", i.e. a real object - as against a mere
"complexion", i.e. upset of humours as construed by human reason. 42
Disease may be cold or hot, but cannot depend on these highly complicated
combinations of qualities. Nor can a humour in itself cause disease, for it
does not belong to the astral and firmamental world, where dwell the real
causes and powerful impulses.
Aetiological and Specific Therapy
Paracelsus' "Philosophy" of disease derives from his thinking in "ana-
logies", his comparison of man with the outer world. From it consistently
follows most of the detail, such as the development of chemical therapy
and the iso- and homoeopathic principles. The therapy of the ancients
largely employed measures that were supposed to be suitable in all or most
diseases. Such measures as sweating, bloodletting and vomiting aimed at
the evacuation of any morbid matter. They were "non-specific" and thus
accorded with ancient pathology, for the latter was focussed around the
diseased individual. Disease was interpreted in terms of an upset of the
humoral balance - an endogenous dyscrasia, which differed from the
40 Air as an Ens Astrale causing disease: Vol. Paramirum, tract. I. De Ente Astrorum,
cap. 6 (et seq.). Huser, vol. I, p. 7.
41 See later the concordant views expressed by Agrippa of Nettesheym, p. 298.
42 Ens substantiae versus complexion: Opus Paramirum. Lib. I, cap. 3. Huser, vol. I,
p. 28; ibid., cap. 4, p. 30.
142 Medicine
humoral mixture prevalent in normal times, i.e. the temperament. Hence
ancient pathology did not recognise "specific" disease entities, each re-
quiring a different "specific" therapy.
To Paracelsus, however, an exogenous substance or influence acted
upon and combined with an equivalent substance inside the body. Thereby
a disease complex, with its own specific characteristics, was produced, not
as a part of the individual, but rather as a parasitic invader. This called
for the removal of the specific agent or disease complex by specific means.
Therapy must not be "symptomatic", but "aetiological". It should not
be directed against the heat or cold which may attend disease. These are
usually secondary phenomena or even due to wrong treatment. Fire is
quenched by water not because it is cold, i.e. because of its "quality",
but because of the factor associated with its "essence", namely humidity.
Extinction is what is intended, not cooling. This is well seen in Erysipelas
(the "Persian Fire"). A burning forehead, red urine, a quick pulse, a
"thirsty liver" - all these are but symptoms and not material in disease.
If you want to cure stone, remove the stone and let the knife be your
arcanum.43
It is this quest for "specific" remedies which led Paracelsus to the devel-
opment and recommendation of chemicals.
For example, Mercury is the specific remedy in dropsy. This is due to a morbid ex-
traction of salt from the flesh, a chemical process of solution and coagulation. As such
this process does not depend at all upon quality and complexion, but is a "celestial virtue"
endowed with its own "monarchy" to which quality and complexion are subservient. 44
Mercury will drive out the dissolved salt, which has a harmful corrosive action on the or-
gans, and preserve the solid - coagulated - state of the salt in the flesh, where it is needed
to prevent putrefaction. Mercury will effect the cure specifically in everybody, although
it causes vomiting in one and sweating in another. Neither vomiting nor sweating - the
universal cures of the ancients - are therefore the curative factors. Hence he errs who says
the patient must be cured with sweating or vomiting, for he fails to consider the manifold
43 Op. Paramir. Lib. I, cap. 4. Huser, vol. I, p. 31. Sieben Defensiones Ill: Von Wegen
der Beschreibung der Newen Recepten. Huser, vol. I, p. 256 (Paracelsus' ideas on
"Poison" and its medicinal uses). Op. Paramir. Lib. II, cap. 1. Huser, vol. I, p. 39
("Darumb die Artzney ... muss seyn ein Fewr das da verzere, das ist lgnis Essentiae,
und ohn das Fewr ist kein Artzney"). Op. Paramir. Lib. I, cap. 4. Huser, vol. I, p. 30.
(A trauma is neither hot nor cold, but a trauma. It requires no "contraries", nothing
cool, if the wound is hot, but "Incamativa", i.e. substances which restore continuity
of tissue. So do all internal diseases.) "Sich den Stein an, was er fiir zufiill mache:
wilt du sie nemmen, so thue den Stein hinweg .... Das Messer lass sein Arcanum sein:
also erkenn die Arcana wie sie sein sollen. Das ist wahr, der kalts auff warms brauchen
will, feuchts auff truckens etc. Der versteht den grund der krankheiten nit. Dann sehet
an in Mania: was hilfft da also allein sein Adem auffzuschlahen, so genist er: Das ist
sein Arcanum, nit Campfer ... " Op. Paramir. Lib. I, cap. 4. Huser, vol. I, p. 31.
44 Elf Traktat. Wassersucht. Huser, vol. I, p. 552. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 18.
Aetiological and Specific Therapy 143
variety of man and that any effect of such remedies is merely the expression of the different
reaction of individuals to the same remedy, not the cure itself. 411
Specificity of disease and remedy are closely related to the astral nature
and origin of specific substances, notably metals. Disease cannot take
place unless a specific constellation is realised between a celestial element
outside man and its equivalent in man. Hence only something astral, a ·
counter-influence to the "influence" which made the disease possible, will
be able to remove it. The qualities and complexions of a substance, such
as its dry, moist, cold or warm character, are in no way "astral" or specific
and are therefore quite irrelevant in curing disease.
The invention of remedies through a study of the cosmos
The invention of remedies must therefore follow from a study of the
correspondences between man and the world outside. The physician will
study wood, stones, herbs and recognise these "species" inside man both
in health and in disease. Gold is found as such in the mineral world. In
man it exists as a natural tonic ("confortativum"). "He who knows how
to understand and recognise the various species in the body, that this is
sapphire in man, this mercury, this cypress, this wallflower, has well
experienced and scrutinised the book of the body." This is the "Anatomy"
of man which must be studied by means of dissection as well as by the
re-examination of parts after boiling.46
Specificity in the relationship between the organ (seat of disease),
the disease and its remedy
If then the body of man is a mosaic of varied "species" which corre-
spond to those of the outside world, the treatment of diseases will vary,
not only according to the agents causing them, but also according to the
site affected.
Organs and diseases are thus related specifically in a similar way as
are diseases and remedies. 47 It follows that the latter enter into a similar
411 "darumb das ein irrsal ist, der so sagt, er muss mit schwizen gesunt werden oder mit
vomiren, dieser betracht nicht die Manchfaltige art der Menschen und das sie nicht sol
zu der arznei fiirgenomen werden, sonder der arznei die theoric befelen." Elf Traktat
von Ursprung, Ursachen, Zeichen und Kur einzelner Krankheiten. Wassersucht.
Huser, vol. I, p. 551. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 16.
46 The physician should study "species" in man and the greater world: Labyrinthus
Medicor., cap. IV. Huser, vol. I, p. 270.
47 "Species Herbarum". Specific relationship between organs, diseases and remedies:
De Gradibus et Compositionibus. Lib. IV, cap. 2. Huser, vol. I, p. 964. On "Nuba"
144 Medicine
relationship with the organs. Each organ and each herb is hound up with
its own planet (astrum). Thus the circle of correspondences is closed.
These embrace the Astra on High, minerals and herbs in the greater world
and the "anatomy", normal and morbid, in the lesser world of man. Herbs
thus fall into seven "species" - just as do the rest of the elements - accord-
ing to the seven species of Astrum. The same sevenfold division applies to
the body. Whatever in its astral power corresponds to the Sun acts on the
heart, counterparts of the Moon influence the brain, those of Venus cure
the kidneys, those of Saturn sustain the spleen, those of Mercury defend
the liver, those of Jupiter tend to the lung and those of Mars refer to the
bile.
In detail, everything that regenerates is closely related to the heart, such as gold,
balm (Melissa), a rose-coloured manna ("nuba") and other substances. Whatever removes
mucus, with the help of its innate fragrance, acts on the brain, such as rose, camphor,
musk and amber. Whatever dries up or heats the blood serves the liver; whatever raises
urine and increases sperm is associated with the kidneys; whatever prolongs life with the
spleen; whatever removes obstructions with the lung.
The Principle of Pharmacy
Ancient and traditional pharmacy relied upon the composition of ingre-
dients. Paracelsean pharmacy is based on separation. By this is meant the
isolation of the specific virtue - "arcanum" - which has a specific action
on one or several diseases. In other words, pharmacy stands or falls by a
chemical, scientific procedure, rather than by traditional empiricism or
reliance on the fictitious system of qualities, grades and humours. What
medicine needs is "to extract, not to compose. It lies in knowledge of
what is inside and not in composing and patching up pieces to make it.
What are the best trousers ? Those which are whole; those patched up
and pieced together are the worst ones. Who is so stupid as to believe
that nature has distributed so much of a virtue to one and so much to
another herb, and then commissioned you doctors to put them together ? ...
Nature is the physician, not you; from her you take your orders, not from
yourself; she composes, not you. See that you learn where her pharmacies
ibid., p. 986. See also: Sieben Defensionen. Huser, vol. I, p. 255, where the Identity
of the Origin ("Matrix") of a disease and its specific remedy is expressed as follows:
" .... wie die kranckheit ist, also ist auch die Artzney: 1st die Kranckheit den Kreuttem
befohlen, so wirt sie durch die Kreutter geheilet: ist sie under dem gestein, so wirdt sie
under denselbigen auch ernehret; ist sie under das Fasten verordnet so muss sie durch
Fasten hinweg."
Pharmacy. The "Poison". Mercury 145
are, where her virtues are written and in what boxes they are kept; not
in Mesue, not in Lumine, not in Praeposito." 48
It follows from all this that a cure is achieved by the interaction bet-
ween the arcanum and the disease as specific entities, not between such
non-specific general contraries as hot and cold or wet and dry, the qual-
ities and grades of traditional medicine. The real contraries which must
act upon each other are the "arcanum" and the "disease". "Arcanum is
health and disease is contrary to health. These two expel each other." 49
Hence chemical knowledge and methods are needed, for "as the hen,
by incubation, converts the world outlined in the shell into a chick, so
alchemy matures the arcana which lie in the physician-philosopher." 50
"Poison" as a remedy - Mercury its prototype
If the action of remedies depends on specific chemical properties,
instead of mere elemental composition, it is easily understood that poisons
can he remedies of high power when administered in a non-lethal form
which yet retains the power of action.
Poisonous action and remedial virtue are intimately bound up with each other in such
substances as arsenic. "As long as it (arsenic) lives, poison and remedy are close together.
When its poisonous quality is subdued, it loses its power of physic." The ancients tried
in vain to "correct" a poison by preparing alcoholic extracts for external application.
From wounds, however, it can easily be absorbed and thus display its harmful action. A
better way is to suspend it in oil or fatty, viscous media ("schmer, iil, terpentin, honig"),
but then its action is slowed down. The aim must be to "kill" it; one must "detract from
its life" whereby it is "fixed" and itself changed into an oily form. This is done by mixing
equal parts of white (crystalline) arsenic with nitre ("salpeter"), heating it until it forms
a deposit like lard at the bottom of the crucible. It is then poured on marble, where it as-
sumes a golden colour, and kept in a damp place. The product may be mixed with alcohol,
or it may be adulterated with "calcined tartar" whereby it will gain in power. It is most
effective in removing syphilitic or other "blatem" in the mouth or under the nose - damp
spots which give no easy access to a remedy; it is also effective against condylomata
("feigwarzen") developing at "moist and sweating places" such as axillae, hands, and bet-
ween the fingers. 61
4B Paragranum. Lib. I, Philosophie. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, pp. 84-85, referring to
traditional pharmacopoeas such as Mesue, the "Luminare Majus" and Nicol. Prae-
positus.
49 Ibid., p. 89.
60 "Und wie die hennen die figurirte welt in der schalen durch ir briiten verwandlet in
ein hiinlin, also durch die alchimei werden gezeitigt die arcana, so philosophische im
arzt ligent ... " Paragranum. Lib. I, Philos. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 79.
61 Von den natiirlichen Dingen. Vom Terpentin, Nieswurz etc.(? 1525), cap. 9. Ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. II, pp. 169-171.
146 Medicine
Any virtue, quality, property or essence of all objects must be referred
to salt, sulphur and mercury. There is nothing that has not taste or colour
and there is no taste or colour which is not due to its "salt". There is nothing
that would not burn at one stage in its "life", and it could not do so with-
out its "fire" or "sulphur", i.e. something fatty and oily. Finally, things
are what they are by their specific characteristics and are related to one
another by sympathy and antipathy- all this is governed by the "mercury"
in them. It is for this reason that all physic and remedy is "mercury", for
it rests with the specific property of each herb and chemical.
Hence every body and bodily virtue "stands" on "the three", but "the
doctor who purges, consolidates and cures" is "mercury" - the same mer-
cury which produces paralysis, tumours, stupefaction and corrosion. 52
Here we meet the homoeopathic principle: in the source of the disease
lies its remedy.
Mercury is thus the prototype of a pathogenic agent, as it stands for
change in general- a change for the worse as well as a change for the better.
Hence it also symbolises the remedy. Individual diseases, however, may
be caused by each of the three principles of salt, sulphur and mercury.
Some ulcers are caused and cured by the latter; skin eruptions such as
alopecia, pruritus and scabies, which are due to salty juices ("viscus"),
are cured by salt; and all that burns like fire - "ignis persicus, icteritia,
and fevers" - are caused and cured by sulphur.53 In this again, the ho-
moeopathic principle holds good for all three groups.
The homoeopathic principle
If remedy and disease are attuned to each other like lock and key, the
ancient principle "Contraria Contrariis Curentur" cannot hold. "There
never was a "hot" disease cured by "cold", nor a "cold" one by "heat". 54
If "cold" has ever cured "heat", this was not because of its cold but be-
cause of other separate properties. Cancer corresponds to deposits of
arsenic in the greater world. It is "Morbus arsenicalis", and "Arsenic cures
52 Lib. primus de Virtutibus Rerum. Tract. de materia prima. Fragments to the Virtutes
herbarum. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 213.
53 Von den natiirlichen Biidern (ca. 1525) 4th tract. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 245.
54 Superiority of chemical remedies: "Es ist nie kein heisse kranckheit mit kaltem geheilt
worden, noch kalte mit heissem. Das ist aber wol geschehen, dass seins gleichen, das
sein geheilt hatt, der Mercurius den Sulphur, der Sulphur den Mercurium, und dass
Saltz dergleichen, und sie das Saltz." Fragmenta Medica. Ein ander Fragment to
Paramirum, de morbis ex tribus primis. Huser, vol. I, p. 134. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IX,
p. 236.
The Homoeopathic Principle 147
Arsenic 55, Anthrax Anthrax, as poison drives out poison'', and - generally
speaking - evil also attracts evil.
So a toad attached to a phagedenic ulcer will suck out its poison. Oil in which live
toads have been cooked heals white and black "leprosy" ("Morphea") in plague and veno-
mous bites. 56 Field mice can thus be used against consumption and crabs against cancer.
He who regularly eats crab is protected against the stone.
The homoeopathic principle even applies to such recalcitrant diseases as stone ("Tar-
tarus").67 To cure Stone, use stone - such as crabs' claws, the Judaick-stone, the Lyncian-
stone, lapis lazuli, sponges, eaglestone (aetites), selenite. Distil from them a vinous essence,
wherein you dissolve the calcined stones; they will disappear as salt in water. Distil again
and mix the deposit with another vinous essence. In this way the remedy for stone will be
prepared. In other words, stone is used against stone - but first it is crushed and dissolved
in vitro. The crushed and dissolved stone will thus crush and dissolve the stone in vivo, an
example in which homoeopathy not only uses a substance similar to that causing the dis-
ease, but also prepares it in the way in which it is supposed to act.
Minerals as "homoeopathic" agents causing and curing the same disease
Again these principles follow from the analogies between things outside and inside
the human body. These are revealed by natural philosophy, on which medicine is based.
When the doctor says: "marcasite (bismuth) is good for this, he must know beforehand
that the marcasite is in the world and that it is in the human microcosm. This is how the
philosopher speaks. If he wants to speak as a physician, however, he must say: this marca-
site is man's disease, hence it cures him. A hole rotting the skin and eating into the body,
what else is it but a mineral?" Then follows: Colcothar - the caput mortuum of vitriol -
mends the hole. Why? Because Colcothar is the salt that makes that hole. Thus Mercury
cures the holes which it has provoked and Arsenicals do likewise. 58
The homoeopathic principle as a consequence of the "Anatomy"
of the Arcanum
The specificity of the arcanum lies in its structure, its "anatomy". It is in its "ana-
tomy" that the remedy is identical with the agent that caused the disease. Hence a scor-
pion's venom cures scorpion poisoning, arsenic cures disease due to an exaltation of the
56 Homoeopathic principle ("Morbus arsenicalis" cured by arsenic): Fragmenta Medica
Liber quattuor columnarum medicinae. Huser, vol. I, p. 147. For a comprehensive
account see: R. A. B. Oosterhuis: Paracelsus en Hahnemann, een Renaissance der
Geneeskunst. A. W. Sijthoff, Leiden 1937 (with a preface by J. A. J. Barge). In this
work the relevant passages from the works of Paracelsus have been compiled.
66 Medicinal virtue of the toad: Liber principiorum, cap. 3. Huser, vol. I, p. 1089. Biichlein
von der Pestilentz an die Stadt Stertzingen, cap. I. Huser, vol. I, p. 358.
57 Homoeopathic principle in the cure of stone (Tartarus): Das Buch von den tartarischen
Kranckheiten. Cap. XVIII. Huser, vol. I, p. 312.
58 Minerals (Marcasite, Colcothar, etc.) causing and curing the same disease: Op. Para-
mirum. Lib. IV. De Origine Morbor. Matricis. Huser, vol. I, p. 78.
148 Medicine
"arsenical quality" in man; what corresponds to brain in the outside world cures diseases
of the human brain and so on,69
The iso- and homoeopathic principles here put forward are connected
with (a) the specificity of the arcanum which is found in its chemical
structure, not in any quality, (b) the specificity of the disease as determined
by its specific chemical cause, (c) the sympathy and magnetic attraction
between cause and remedy and (d) the parallelism between an organism
and the outside world.
The Treatment of Wounds
Its golden precepts in close proximity to superstitious injunctions
These are shown for example in Paracelsus' treatise on wounds. It is
not the surgeon but an inborn "balm" of the flesh, body, veins and bones
that heals wounds, fractures, stabs and other injuries. Hence it is the
surgeon's task to protect the wound so as to give this natural healing
power its chance. It is for this reason that the formation of pus, i.e.
putrefaction of the wound, must be avoided and the proper excrement of
the wound produced instead. The remedy for the wound should not seal it
off and prevent it from receiving its proper nourishment freely and pro-
ducing and giving off its proper excrement. Sewing and encasing wounds
in the whites of eggs are methods which should be avoided. "For nature
desires nothing for its healing process but protection against putrefaction-
a guidance by the remedy."60
Not far away from these golden words we find Paracelsus expounding
the effect of wrath in poisoning wounds with bile. The same applies to .
other "saturnine" or "martial" influences as are found in jealous, hateful
and perfidious women, and also to poisonous looks ("giftige Gesicht")
which are projected into and contaminate the wounds. 61
Similar is the influence of the stars - for it is in the power of heaven
to "impress" the plague and to poison wounds. An unpropitious heaven
bodes ill for wounds and is difficult to influence. 62
The "Signatures"
The doctrine of "Signatures" is based on a morphological principle:
A herb reveals by a certain configuration or the colour of its leaves, flowers
or roots an affinity with a certain star, organ or disease.
69 Paragranum (final redaction). Hb. I, Philos. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 157.
60 Von der grossen wundarznei das erst buch. Cap. 2. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 36.
61 Ibid., cap. 4, p. 41.
62 Ibid., p. 42.
Wound Treatment. Signatures 149
"The root Satyrion (orchid) is it not formed like a man's private parts? Hence it pro·
mises through magic and has been found by magic to restore manhood and sexual desire
to man. Also the thistle - do not its leaves prick like needles? Hence there is no better
remedy against internal stitches." 63 Eyebright (Eufragia) shows the image - signature -
of eyes, hence it is led by sympathy towards and cures the eye. Iris (dactyletus, aristo-
lochia) cures cancer, for "its image locates itself in the body at the place to which it be-
longs by form. "64
It is the shape of a medicine that directs it to the appropriate place of
action without any further guide. For Nature by virtue of its "alchemy"
has carved out this shape from formless "prime matter", converting it into
"ultimate" matter endowed with a specific "form". This is closely connec-
ted with the "virtue" of a remedy and hence its chemical composition.
There is thus no real contradiction between the morphological principle of
"signatures" and Paracelsus' chemical theory of the "quintessence" - the
effective extract of a plant or mineral without shape or form. Both prin-
ciples culminate and ultimately agree in the specificity which they attri-
bute to herbs and remedies - a specificity of form as well as of chemical
essence. 65
63 De lmaginibus. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 378. Here, signatures are discussed in the
general context of images (such as found in old chapels, sepulchres, caves, secret pas-
sages, rocks, islands and uninhabited places), of colours, gems, amulets and their"astral",
magic and curative power. If you wish to cure a person by means of an image, for
example a "homunculus"-figure, you must treat the image, anointing it or doing to
the image whatever the patient needs.
64 Labyrinthus Medicor, cap. X. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 210.
66 Chevreul, Considerations 1865, loc. cit. (footnote 218, p. 82), p. 22, regarded the natu-
ralistic concept of signatures as different from the chemical doctrine of Paracelsus and
attributes the former mainly to J. B. Porta and his "Phytognomonica" of 1588. A sur-
vey of the doctrine of signatures was given by Quecke, K.: Die Signaturenlehre im
Schrifttum des Paracelsus. Pharmazie, Beiheft 2 (Beitrage zur Geschichte der Phar-
mazie.) Berlin 1955, pp. 41-52. In this the relationship between the "signatures" and
the homoeopathic principle is well brought out. It is in fact an ancient principle (see
J. Steudel: Woher kommt der Name Krebs?. Dtsch. med. Wschr., 1953, LXXVIII,
p. 1574, with reference to Dioscorides, lib. II, cap. 12, where the ash of burnt river
crayfish - Karkinoi - is recommended against Carcinoma. A pertinent passage in Para-
celsus is found "Von den hinfallenden Siechtagen", ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 293).
Perhaps the best known example is the use of the yellow Chelidonia in jaundice. To
Paracelsus "Signatures" are revealed by "Chiromantia", "Physionomia", "Proportio,
Substantia, Habitus" and "Mos et Usus". "Chiromantia" gives the "fixed lines" in
all beings, i.e. those furrows and wrinkles which are morphological entities. "Physio-
nomia" embraces for example the changes of form and colour that are characteristic
of an individual disease - an early attempt to elucidate something internal such as
aetiology from external phenomena.
150 Medicine Disease and Stars. Psychiatry 151

Disease and the Stars

The HAnim.al in Man" and Lunacy. The Psychiatry of Paracelsus

The relationship between Disease and Star is presented as particularly

close in mental illness. This is due to the subjugation of man and his
divine spirit by his low animal instincts, notably lust, covetousness and
the passions of the soul in general. These act like drugs, notably hemlock,
and are elicited by the stars. Each star corresponds to an animal with its
characteristic emotional behaviour and also to a single passion of man.
When he falls a prey to these passions, the star awakens in him the one
that corresponds to its own animal nature. This action is not as acute and
deadly as that of hemlock, but it engenders a chronic condition of mania. 66
In other words, lunacy spells the victory of "animal nature" ("Viehi-
scher ve~stant") over the divine spirit in man - that spirit by which he is
raised above and protected from the stars.
This interaction of animal-star and animal-man is yet a further appli-
cation of the principle of "Sympathy" which, according to Paracelsus and
to Renaissance philosophy at large, is the main force in the cosmos. The
principle that "like unites with like" explains in this case the biological
process of mental disease.
Consequently, the physician must study the "inclinations" of his patient
- the particular passion to which he is liable and the star which corresponds
to this passion. "He who is prone to meanness has chosen Saturn as his
wife; for each star is a woman. Hence in this case the cure must be directed
against Saturn." 67 The patient must be talked to, admonished and en-
couraged to confess in church; his disease must be explained to him. If Fig. 11. Devil inflicting ulcers. From: Paracelsus Opus Chirurgicum. Feyerabend, Frank-
he is not accessible to !1dvice, he must be taken into custody "lest he lead furt a.M. 1566, p. 178. Ander Theil der grossen Wundartzney, cap. 18: Von den offnen
schaden, so durch Unholden zauberey entspringen. - On the artist see caption to fig. 3.
astray with his animal spirits ("vichgeistern") the whole town, his house
and the country." 68 In the same way gamblers, fornicators, usurers, mer-
chants should be dealth with - "remind them of the ten commandments, mentally deficient - indicating a morbid condition of body and mind.
of the words of Christ, of love to one's neighbour; do so first yourself, then Goitre in turn is due to an action of minerals taken in with drinking water. 70
let your neighbours do it, then the church; and when all this is of no avail, We recognise in all this a~ attempt at integrating the somatic and
have them locked up."69 psychological aspects of mental disease. Galdston thus rightly calls Para-
Goitre, though occurring m the mentally normal, is common in the celsus a "psychosomaticist" centuries before this concept was reborn and
66 Liber De Lunaticis. Philos. Magna, vol. primum. Ed Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 59. On rechristened. 71 This follows in Paracelsus' case from his view of lunacy as
Gnosticism as a source of this concept seep. 209.
67 Liber De Lunaticis, loc. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 67. 70 De Generatione Stultorum, tract. I, loc. cit., p. 82.
68 Ibid. p. 68. In this connection Paracelsus' idea of the causation of an epidemic, notably 71 The Psychiatry of Paracelsus. Bull. Hist. Med. 1950, XXIV, 211; also in Science,
plague, through overbearing human passion and its sympathetic action on a star Medicine and History. Essays in honour of Ch. Singer. Ed. E. Ashworth Underwood.
should be mentioned. See our detailed account on p. 179. Oxford 1953, vol. I, p. 408; and Biodynamic Medicine versus Psychosomatic Medicine.
69 Ibid., p. 69. Bull. Menninger Clinic 1944, VIII, 4.
152 Medicine
the result of an emotional discord between man and "his world", in other
words, of the microcosmic character of man. Paracelsus regarded emotion
as such as a cause of mental illness, as Zilboorg has pointed out. 72
Admittedly these ideas have a modern ring and strike us as "progres-
sive". It would be misleading, however, to forget that in some treatises
Paracelsus reveals an attitude quite removed from the understanding and
humanitarian treatment of the insane that seems to have informed the
ideas reported so far. In fact, Paracelsus was deeply immersed in the
contemporary belief in witches and in demoniacal and devilish possession
as causes of insanity. In some of his treatises not the physician and nat-
uralist, but an inquisitor of the church seems to address the reader 73,
when he recommends the avoidance of lunacy by confession or the burning
of patients lest they become an instrument of the devil.
This is one example of those statements which impress us as crass self-
contradiction and which already provoked the anger and scorn of contem-
poraries and such early critics as Erastus. 74 Ackerknecht rightly reminds
us of Paracelsus' ambivalent attitude towards mental illness - the product
of confused thinking and inconsistency rather than of depth of insight and
understanding.75 At all events, as in many other fields, Paracelsus presents
a tangle of observations and speculations - partly contradictory and
fantastic - from which some sound, progressive and even modern ideas
emerge. It would be very misleading indeed to isolate the latter and present
them as the Psychiatry of Paracelsus.
In Paracelsus' therapy of mental illness the emphasis clearly lies on psychological
methods 76 , but it is true that he also recommended a kind of shock-therapy such as venae-
section and trephining (see footnote 43). He was deeply conscious of the healing action
of sleep and sedation - as achieved by sulphur preparations. 77 This. again is the result of
his thinking in terms of "sympathy": Sulphur ascending to and acting on the brain causes
stupor in epilepsy (see p. 167). Hence sulphur by its sedative effect will support the
healing power of the soul and cure mental illness.
72 In Sigerist, H. E.: Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim. Baltimore 1941,
p. 133.
73 J. Strebel with reference to tract. IV, De Lunaticis in his edition, vol. II, St. Gallen
1945, p. 129.
74 See later Erastus' Censure of Paracelsus in the third part of the present book, p. 314.
75 Ackerknecht, E. H.: Kurze Geschichte der Psychiatrie. Stuttgart 1957, p. 26.
76 See above. According to Galdston (loc. cit., p. 213) these represent "a series of stages
in the progressive development of modern psychiatric thought and knowledge" and
include "magnetism, mesmerism, hypnotism, suggestion, psychocatharsis and psycho-
analysis". However, as W. Riese says: "Paracelsus' achievements in this field (sc.
planned psychotherapy) did not reach beyond his psychotherapeutic intentions and
some sketchy indications." (A History ofldeas in Psychotherapy. Bull. Hist. Med.1951,
xxv, 445.)
77 See our account p. 276.
Psychiatry. Doctrine of "Tartar" 153
Special Pathological Theories
A. Diseases due to "Tartar"
The general principles of Paracelsus' pathology so far discussed are best
illustrated by his doctrine of "Tartar". This comprises not only calculus
in the modern sense, but a number of other changes - notably those in
which a tubular system such as the bronchial tree is obstructed by in-
spissated and often calcifying material, e.g. lung-stones, known to us as
the product of tubercular infection.
All that is growing and living in nature must eat. In fact, things,
including man, "are what they eat". Food taken in has constituents pure
and impure which must be separated from each other before it can be
used. For an impure thing cannot "be assimilated by the anatomy of the
organism, but retains its own anatomy. Yet it remains in that organism." 78
The body thus contains refuse as well as nourishment. It is this refuse -
"stercus" - which matters here.
The stomach can separate what is useful for itself, i.e. it can eliminate its own "stercus".
It is the stomach of the textbooks of human anatomy, the stomach which is "suspended
from the neck-tube" ("am Halsrohr hangend"); to Paracelsus it is the "first stomach".
This can but achieve the first crude digestion, i.e. the separation of nutritious material
from "human stercora'', but not from the "stercora of the food". This task falls to the
"subtle stomach that is in the mesenteric vessels, in the liver, kidneys, bladder and gut".
There is, therefore, material which finds its way from outside into the
body; substances that are neither "faeces" in the ordinary sense nor
subject to incorporation in man. "They cannot be broken down ("sind
nit zerbrechlich"), yet they are not man"; they are the "Tartarus" of
Paracelsus.
Human faeces, being the product of decay, have an inherent tendency to be excreted.
By contrast, the "refuse" contained in food and drink has a tendency to coagulate and to
stay. As "refuse", it is not subject to further transmutation; it forms "ultimate matter"
("ultima materia"). In fact, it remains what it always has been. "These diseases are stone
and gravel, mud ("Letten") and glue. How could humours become stone, gravel, mud and
glue without being so originally?" In other words, tartar is not a product of the humours,
but an agent from outside. ·
A source of tartar is cereals, such as barley and peas. For these are productive of
mucus, an ultima materia that is sweet. If cooking has eliminated this mucus, no stone will
develop, but the material will be excreted with the faeces. Milk, meat and fish are also
productive of "bolus" and hence of tartarus. Among drinks, fruit juice, wine and, in par-
ticular, beer contain tartarus. The tartar content of food varies with countries and places.
78 Tartarus obstructing tubular systems (bronchial tree): Op. Paramirum Lib. Ill. De
Origine Morb. ex tartaro. Tract. III. Huser, vol. I, pp. 51 et seq.
154 Medicine
Thus it happens that a Swiss may suffer from a "Nuremberg or W esterburg tartar" owing
to the consumption of com or cereals imported from these places.
Such differences in origin also explain why various types of tartar develop and mature
at their own times. Just as do trees and herbs, they differ according to rate of growth.
Such differences may be found to parallel differences in the growth rates and times of
flowering of certain herbs. The knowledge of such correspondences is the marrow of physic,
its theory and its practice. 79
Localism and Specificity as based on Paracelsus' concept of digestion
and "Tartarus" formation
Tartar is due to the action of salt. Salt stands for solidity and gives
matter its form. It is a "spirit of salt" which dries up and coagulates
mucoid matter. The spirit of salt acts on mucilaginous matter in a manner
comparable to that of the Sun, but more specifically. For the sun cannot
make a stone, nor can any other general force such as heat. Tartar is
formed by a kind of digestion and this is a specific process, bound up
primarily with a specific function of the stomach.
Moreover, as the product of a specific process, tartar varies in quality
with the locality where it is formed. It results from a strictly local change.
"You shall know that the spirit of salt coagulates and forms Tartara:
This coagulation and formation it undergoes according to the place wherein
it lies."
A specific digestive process already takes place in the mouth - and this process is
potent enough to sustain life. Its waste products are deposited as "Tartar" on the teeth
79
Das Buch von den tartarischen Krankheiten (1537 /38), cap. VII. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI,
p. 54. Dietary causes of calculus known since antiquity: Paracelsus emphasised the exo-
genous - dietary - causes of stone, but he did not discover them. They had been known
since antiquity. Among the foods incriminated, cheese assumed a prominent position;
for the density of its texture it was regarded as the main example of "cibus crassus"
("edesma pachyn"; see Galen, Methodus Medendi, lib. XIV, cap. 16, ed. Kiihn vol. X,
pp. 997-999; Comment. III to Hippocrates Epid. VI, cap. 15, Kiihn XVII B, p. 47;
cheese owes its stoneforming property to its origin from milk - in itself a "dense" food
which may cause calculus when used excessively: De Sanit. tuenda, lib. V, cap. 7,
Kiihn VI, p. 344. - Milk and cheese render the urine "dense" and cause a predisposition
to calculus, particularly of the bladder in children. Other - constitutional - factors
include narrowness of the channels in the kidney and dependent structures and in-
creased internal heat, responsible especially in children for the formation of deposits
from "dense" food. See for example: Galen in Hippocrates, De Humoribus III, 4;
Kiihn XVI, p. 366).
What was new in Paracelsus' doctrine of "Tartar" is therefore not the recognition of
exogenous - dietary - causes of certain diseases such as stone, but the wide range of
diseases covered by this concept. What had been a chapter of special pathology assumed
the role of a principle of general medicine: the causation of disease by faulty digestion
resulting in local as against humoral changes.
Tartar of Organs 155
- with resulting "decay of the gums ('Fll.ulung der Biller'), wearing down of teeth, pain
due to the acerbity ('Acridet') with which each tartarus is endowed." Tooth-ache is thus
comparable to the pain caused by calculus elsewhere.
A new digestion follows in the stomach; it is specifically different from oral digestion.
It leaves another tartarus which sticks to the gastric wall - causing burning, oppression in
the pit of the stomach "and other compressions and tortures ... and paroxysm, the Par-
oxysmus calculi." Tartarus may also be "born" when food "ascends" in the stomach and
forms vapours - a process comparable to the distillation of wine.
Tartar of the stomach is a progressive ailment, for with each digestion (distillation)
it increases its acidity. "For each substance that is distilled and digested waxes sharper
in its properties."80
Tartar of the various organs. Its volatility (like "alcohol")
The nutritive centre of an organ; its "stomach"
How does tartar finally develop in the lungs, bile ducts, heart, spleen,
brain and kidneys? Here we come back to Paracelsus' idea of "stomach".
Each of these organs takes in its - specific - food which it selects from
what it is offered. It thus acts as its own "stomach", but not as the first
"stomach" which works for the common weal. What the stomach does,
"it does on behalf of the liver, kidneys, bladder, urine, i.e. on behalf of a
whole community of organs". 81 This communal function of the "first
stomach" is not sufficient, however. Each organ must take it up and
thereby achieve its own "specific" nutrition. In doing so it must dispose
of the refuse. Each organ has its own "exit" for this purpose, the lung
coughing it up, the brain emitting it through the nose, the spleen through
the vessels, the bile through the stomach, the kidneys through the bladder,
the heart "into a chaos" (i.e. by a vaporous exhalation). The tartar in
these organs is not visible because it is volatile "and goes into these organs
like a spirit that ascends and appears to be devoid of body - it is there,
however, and even if it is placed in a still (pelican) and circulates (is dis-
tilled), it has its tartar in itself". s2
80 "Dann ein jeglich destilliert und digiriert ding acuirt sich in seinen eigenschafften."
Ibid.
81 "ist auch von wegen einer gantzen gemein aller gliedern." Ibid.
82 Volatile state of tartarus: Op. Paramirum. Lib. III, tract. IV. Huser, vol. I, p. 59.
"Wie ein Brenterwein der auffsteiget." Paracelsus does not here use the word "Alcohol",
but "distilled liquor". As well known, Paracelsus was the first to use the term "alcohol"
in the modern sense. (See E. 0. von Lippmann, Beitrll.ge zur Geschichte des Alkohols.
Chemiker-Ztg. 1913, p. 1313; reprinted in Beitrage zur Geschichte der Naturwissen-
schaften und der Technik. Springer, Berlin 1923, p. 60). But at the same time he retains
its original sense of "fine powder" - "subtile powder like alcool"; e.g. with reference to
antimony, rust, metals, salt and sal-ammoniac, tartarus alcali, and organic substances
156 Medicine
Tartar in the lung8 3 is not as coIIlJilon and widespread as in the pathways of faeces and
urine. The volume of nutritive material reaching the lung is comparatively small. Lung
tartar appears in the form of small stones, wheat or millet seeds. The bronchial tubes are
the "stomach" of the lung in which it separates the pure from the impure. Hence there
is a specific lung excrement in the air tubes in which it is distilled ("darinnen es sich Pelli-
caniert und Circuliert"), and from which it should be coughed up. If it is not, but instead
transformed into fine leaves, slate particles and tablets, these will obstruct the air passages,
prevent their free up and down movement in respiration and thus cause many diseases.
These are called asthma, coughing, phthisis, hectic fever - yet they are all but Tartar and
Tartaric disease.
The "stomach" of the brain lies outside it in the upper interior parts of the nose and
it is through the latter that brain excrement is voided. It is from here, the brain's "stom-
ach'', that Tartar causes insanity, mania and similar disorders, commonly attributed to
blood changes.
The specific excrement of the kidneys appears as the deposit in urine and from the
latter kidney diseases can be diagnosed. "This excrement is contained in the urine and
excreted with it and is the deposit (hypostasis): Hence the deposit appraises the kidneys
in their distempers. " 84 The separation of urine from its deposit requires a special technique,
through which the way to diagnosis of kidney disease is opened.
Tartar and stone have an astral correspondence. They are like meteorites, and like
these follow appointed times and astral courses. Nobody escapes that variety of stone in
which the astral correspondence is particularly potent, for the spirit of salt causing it is
an "astrum". It is, therefore, in the universe as well as in man. It is subject to macro-
cosmic paroxysms that produce thunderbolts. 85
such as manna or flowers. "Alcool is the most subtile constituent of each individual
thing" ("Alcool ist das subtileste eines jeglichen Dinges"). Only in a_ derivative sense
is it also used of spirit of wine. (See the loci given by Lippmann, loc. cit.). According
to Lippmann, Paracelsus transferred the Arabic term denoting a fine powder to spfrit
of wine as the refined - very fine - product of distillation (see Lippmann, E. 0. von,
Chemiker-Ztg. 1909, pp. 615 and 1233; also with regard to the Arabic nomenclature,
Richter P., Arch. Gesch. Naturwiss. und Technik 1913, IV, 429; especially pp. 448 and
452 the references to Paracelsus). Accordingly, the early Paracelsus "Onomastica" give
alcohol as a general term meaning "pulvis subtilissimus", and in the modern sense only
with the epithet: "Alcohol vini" (s. vini exsiccati). This develops when all "super-
fluity" is separated from wine so that it "burns" and is completely consumed without
leaving a residue ("fecum aut phlegmatis") in the vessel. (Toxites Mich., Onomastica II.
Argentorati 1574, p. 385. See also: Dorn, G.: Fasciculus Paracelsicae Medicinae
Francof. ad Moenum 1581. Paracelsi Dictionarium, fol. 120: "Alcol, aliquando scriptum
alcool, vel alcohol, est, pulvis in minutissimum pollinem factus, ubi nihil additur ad
nudam vocem, alioqui restringitur per adiunctum. Alco} vini est aqua ardens recti-
ficata. ")
83 Tartar of Lung: Op. Paramirum. Lib. Ill, tract. IV. Huser, vol. I, pp. 59-60.
84 Tartar in kidney and urine: "Diss excrementum vermischt sich in den harn und geht
mit dem harn auss und ist der Hypostasis: Darumb der Hypostasis die Nieren urtheilt
in ihren gebrasten." Op. Paramirum. Lib. Ill, tract. 4. Huser, vol. I, p. 60.
Other organs in which tartar develops include the heart (notably the pericardium), gall
bladder, spleen, blood, flesh and marrow. Fluxions, sciatica, arthritis, gout are mani-
festations of tartar in flesh and marrow.
85 "The still world harbours in itself the generation of these strange things - invisible to
the searching mind ('Philosophy')- but visible in their ultimate result ('ultima materia').
Principles emerging from Tartar - Doctrine 157
Summary of the Pathology of Paracelsus as emanating from the
concept of Tartar
This complicated and strange conception of "Tartar" and "tartaric
disease" is prominent among the nosological theories of Paracelsus; it was
conceived early and consistently repeated in various phases of his life.
In fact, it epitomises and applies all that is essential in Paracelsus' reform
of pathology. Nor should it be overlooked that, embedded in this idea of
tartar, one can find such notable protoscientific observations as the appre-
ciation of acid as a potent factor in digestion and of albumen in urine as
an important indicator of disease. Before discussing these, however, we
should give a short summary of the general pathological conceptions which
inspired and emanated from the idea of Tartarus:
(1) Disease is recognised as a concrete entity. This can be made visible,
felt and examined, in contrast to disease in the ancient sense - a mere
upset of the humoral balance, conceived on purely theoretical grounds.
(2) Disease is exogenous - it is due to indigestible matter introduced
with food and drink. According to ancient medicine, disease was largely
endogenous; the cause of humor al upsets lay in man himself. Yet ancient
physicians had emphasised the damage done by food and drink. The
humoral changes which they envisaged, however, were in Paracelsus'
opinion late after-effects of the disease. Not these, but the exogenous
cause of the disease is the target of Paracelsus' therapy.
(3) The disease entity can be defined in chemical terms. It is the pro-
duct of a coagulation connected with the action of Salt on the harmful
substance entering from outside. It is a metabolic disorder, a failure to
separate "pure" from "impure", nourishment from refuse.
(4) This process is "specific", a chemical process in its own right. It
thereby differs from such general effects as are achieved by heat, for
example the evaporation of fluid and subsequent condensation of solutions.
(5) Disease is a local process. This may be followed by effects on other
parts of the body and finally generalised. Ancient medicine, on the other
Now when among the spirits the offsprings of salt prevail in heaven, they will meet
with an ascending dew that is born of those waters of the elements which are productive
of stone. These are the "primae materiae" of stone formation which end up in heaven."
By the conjunction of the salt-spirit with this dew, condensed matter is formed which
drops down to earth, where it hardens into stone. The rapid congelation of the spirit
of salt causes thunder at that moment.
"Now original matter (prima materia) in man is all spirits and all astra and is subject
to the same course in time. So you shall know that he who has the same astrally pre-
destined course will not escape the stone." Op. Paramir. Lib. III, tract. 6. Huser,
vol. I? p. 66.
158 Medicine
hand, saw the process in the reverse order; man as a whole falls ill, and
decaying or displaced humours ("catarrh") may produce local changes in
a later phase.
(6) From Paracelsus' interpretation of disease as a primarily local
process emerges a different appreciation of the morbid anatomical changes.
"Tartar" is the anatomical change in which the invisible action of the
pathogenic agent and the invisible failure of local digestive faculties be-
come visible and lend themselves to investigation in the processes of
coagulation, obstruction of channels and stone formation which they have
caused.
These points, though they simplify and modernise Paracelsus' expo-
sition of pathology, lent the basis for the further development of chemical,
localising and aetiological pathology. This is seen particularly well in the
nosological system of Jean Baptiste Van Helmont - the greatest follower
of Paracelsus - which will be discussed in another book.
Appendix
New ideas in the physiology of gastric digestion and the excretion of
albumen in the urine as associated with "Tartarus"
We mentioned that the Tartarus treatises contain two observations in
which Paracelsus foreshadowed discovecies belonging to a later age. Here
again, Van Helmont forms the next landmark, with his discovery of acid
digestion and hydrochloric acid in the stomach and his investigations of
the specific gravity of urine.
In ancient physiology, heat was an almost universal factor to which
many of the vital functions were ascribed. Life was "intrinsic warmth";
digestion in the stomach was also supposed to be due to the action of heat
and to crude mechanical trituration of the food.
Already Reuchlin and Agrippa of Nettesheym had regarded the trans-
formation of food in the stomach as the effect of an "occult virtue". It is
true, the latter says, that a known elemental quality such as heat "digests"
- but no exposure of food to heat or fire will ever perform what the stomach
accomplishes in digestion. This is due to a specific virtue unknown to us,
as is evident, for example, in the ostrich, which is able to "cook" even cold
and very hard iron, converting it into nutriment. Other such occult virtues
are those that drive away poison or boils, attract iron, enable the salamander
to dwell in fire and a certain bitumen to be insoluble in fire or molten iron.
They defy human understanding and can only be grasped by empirical
Acid in Gastric Digestion 159
experience.86 These ideas were later taken up by Fernel, who cannot claim
originality in this field.
Paracelsus first of all emphasised that a "specific" process is involved -
i.e. digestion in the stomach differs from digestion in other organs, such
as the mouth.87 He still mentions "the heat of digestion" in the mouth,
and especially that in the stomach. The latter "is a mighty heat which so
efficiently seethes and cooks - not unlike the fire outside". It is this
digestive heat of the stomach that distributes itself to all organs. Heat of
the body is therefore that which is communicated to it by the process of
digestion. 88
Ordinary heat has many divers functions, whereas the heat of digestion
solely serves one function, just as it takes place in one special organ.
Our account of Tartarus so far is based on the third book of the "Para-
mirum" (1531). In the "Book of Tartaric Diseases", which was written
several years later (1537/38), Paracelsus mentions the action of acid on
food in the stomach.89 It is responsible for tartar formation in the organ.
The process is compared with the curdling of milk which requires heat and
the presence of acid. Then the whey ("Serum") will separate from the
curd ("Dopffen").90 The whey is excreted, whereas the curd is "materia
Tartari". Paracelsus is thus aware of the albumen-coagulating action of
acid. Later we shall discuss a second example, namely the precipitation
of albumen from urine by means of rennet, which Paracelsus also describes
in a treatise on "tartar".
While Paracelsus thus seems to know of the action of acid in the sto-
36 Reuchlin, De Verbo Mirifico, lib. II, cap. 6, in Artis Cabalisticae, tom. I. Ed. Pistorius
Niddanus, Basileae 1587, p. 912. Agrippa of Nettesheym, Occulta Philosophia. Lib. I,
cap. 10. Ed. Lugduni apud Godofridum et Marcellum Beringos fratres 1550, p. 24.
For details, see Pagel W., J. B. Van Belmont's Reformation of the Galenic Doctrine
of Digestion - and Paracelsus. Bull. Hist. Med. 1955, XXIX, 563-568; and idem, Van
Belmont's Ideas on Gastric Digestion and the Gastric Acid. Ibid. 1956, XXX, pp.
524-536.
87 Digestion in mouth and stomach differ from each other. " ... es ist im Magenmund ein
andere digestion zu verstehn wie im Mund." Op. Paramir. Lib. III. De Orig. Morbor.
ex Tart. Tract. 2. Huser, vol. I, p. 55.
88 lgnis digestionis in and from the stomach: " ... nun aber so muss ein Hitz da seyn ...
die nimbt sich auss dem Magen, derselbig wermbt den Leib." It is this Ignis digestionis,
not the humours, that account for the complexion of man and its variation in different
age groups. Opus Paramirum. Lib. II. De Orig. Morb. ex Tribus Primis. Cap. 1. Huser,
vol. I, p. 4.0.
39 "sollen ihr endtlich im Magen auch verstehen, dass ein seure zur Speiss Kompt oder
Sawer an ihr selbst wirdt und· scheidet sich." Das Buch von den Tartarischen Kranck-
heiten. Cap. 10. Huser, vol. I, p. 299.
90 "Wirdt die Milch heiss und empfacht ein seure, so bricht und scheidt sich in zwo arth,
in Dopffen und in das Serum." Ibid.
160 Medicine
roach, he mentions this only incidentally and it is doubtful whether he
realised that acid was a normal factor in gastric digestion.
If he did, it would he surprising that he should not have exploited this discovery
polemically to counter the ancient physiological theories and given it due prominence as
the correct interpretation of a basic physiological function. He is obviously more con-
cerned with the role of acid in the pathological event of tartar formation than in normal
digestion. Shortly afterwards follows the remark that what gives ash (i.e. a "salt") gives
tartar and that the stomach must produce "alkali" if tartar is to form. 91 Then follows:
Sweets are highly productive of tartar where they "are subject to such digestion and the
acid as indicated. "92
These passages are somewhat obscure and, at first sight, contradictory. The meaning
seems to he that the stomach must he well balanced in its function if disease is to he
avoided. 93 If digestion is normal, it "boils food down to two parts", one of which is liquid
and converted to blood and flesh, while the other is excreted. Then no tartar is formed.
As, however, something that is overcooked in a saucepan may he converted into carbon,
so an ill-tempered stomach may overcook the food and thus interfere with the excretion
of the parts which should not, and could not, he assimilated. "Incineratum" becomes
"materia tartari". Milk moderately warmed will produce good cheese; if overcooked, an
inhomogeneous and useless substance will form. In the same way "too hot digestion" in
the stomach makes out of cheese two kinds of cheese, one of which is digested and the
other is "gluten", becoming "materia tartari". When acid has access to food in the stom-
ach, a separation will follow, comparable to that of milk into whey and eurd and "where
such separations take place, it cannot end without tartar formation. " 94
From the passage discussed, Paracelsus is aware of the action of acid
in the stomach as a contingency indicating hyperactive digestion - rather
than the normal event. An ill-balanced stomach will produce acid, causing
curdling of food, as well as alkali, i.e. a salt or its product, the two main
requisites of tartar formation.
This is borne out by later discourses in which Paracelsus says nothing
about acid as a normal digestive factor, hut recognises the additional di-
gestive power which acid can lend to the stomach. Acids endowed with
this power are comprised under the name Acetosa esurina. They are found
in spa water ( acetosum naturale, acetosum fontale) and can also he prepared
artificially. The latter is called acetosum vitriolatum. The acid prepared
from copper vitriol can digest copper and so on with other metals. The
universal digestive powers of such acids explain why the ostrich is able to
consume iron, steel,' copper, as easily as we consume beer or nuts, why a
91 "Unnd aher in dem ligt es allein, dass der Magen dahin in ein alkali hringen muss,
sonst geschicht diese generatio Tartari nicht." Ibid.
92 "Unnd Zucker, Honig, gehen viel Tartara, wo sie in solche Digestion kommen und die
seure wie gemelt ist." Ibid.
93 "Dann der Magen muss ein Temperament in ihme haben, sonst ist es alles umbsonst:
W o das nicht ist, da seind viel Kranckheit zu erwarten." Ibid.
94 "Wo solche scheidung gesehehen, damages ohn ein Tartarum nicht zergehen." Ibid.
Albumen in Urine 161
dog may digest hone as easily as flesh, why a blackbird eats spiders as if
they were hemp seed, why the stork eats venomous frogs and snakes with
impunity. In the same way, the intake of acid will protect man against
tartar. The ostrich possesses it naturally, man has to add it to his food.
Thus he who uses the spa "in Egendin zu Sanct Mauritz", which "runs
most acid in August" will keep healthy and "knows of no stone, nor sand,
of no podagra, no Artetica. For the stomach is so fortified that it digests
tartar as an ostrich digests iron, as a blackbird a spider."95
Summing up, it must he admitted in fairness that Paracelsus paved the
way to the discovery of acid digestion, achieved by Van Helmont about a
century later.96
How conscious Paracelsus was of the power of acid in bringing about
biological effects is also shown in another by-product of his work on
"Tartar" - his observation of the deposition of albumen in urine by the
action of acid.
This is found in the chapter: "On the Milk of the Kidneys", from his Basie lecture on
Diseases developing from Tartar (1527). 97 It says there, in a comment to the third chapter
of the third treatise of the second hook: Food and drink are separated in the stomach into
impure excrement of the nature of Sulphur and a fluid which is transmitted to the liver,
where it changes the colour of the food to red. The part of this fluid that the liver does not
keep for its own nutriment is sent to the kidneys. The kidneys digest this in turn, and the
first product is white, like milk, because of the Sulphur contained in the fluid; the second
product is red; from the third phase of digestion, the kidney retains its nutriment and ex-
cretes the rest with the urine. Each of these three digestive phases takes fifty minutes.
Failure of the second digestion in the kidney will leave the milky product of the first phase
unchanged, and a milky urine will he voided. If rennet is added to this ("ein Kiissmagen"),
it cu;rdles and produces a whey ("molcken"), or if vinegar is added, a separation takes place.
This deposit is not pus, hut milk. I have seen, says Paracelsus, a beggar who voided "milk"
with his urine for five years and this weakened him to death. When he added wine or
vinegar to this milk, it coagulated, or when he left it standing for a few days, cream
separated on top.
Van Helmont's Criticism of the Doctrine of Tartar
It was Fabius Violet, Sieur de Coqueray, who, in the seventeenth
century, made sweeping claims on. behalf of the theory of "Tartar" as the
95 Aeetosa esurina in spa water: Das Buch von den Tartarischen Kranckheiten. Cap,' XVI.
Huser, vol. I, p. 309.
96 For detail see the present author in Bull. Hist. Med. 1955 and 1956 loe. cit. in foot-
note 86 p. 159.
97 Acid depositing albumen in urine: De Tartaro Lib. II, tract. 3, cap. 3: De laete Renum.
Huser, vol. I, p. 437 - see to this Paul Richter, Med. Klin. 1909, p. 1450, and Strehel's
note in Paracelsus, Samtliehe Werke in zeitgemasser Kiirzung. Vol. VI, St. Gallen
1948, p. 183.
162 Medicine Violet, Van Helmont and the Doctrine of Tartar 163

Following the lead of Paracelsus' hook "Paragranum" - the "Four Column

Book" - Violet extols Alchemy as one of the pillars of medicine. He also
subscribes to the view that faulty gastric digestion produces disease with-
out causing any visible changes in the stomach. In fact, Violet is an ortho-
dox Paracelsist and his treatise is couched in the familiar Paracelsean terms.
He rejects humoral medicine and attributes disease to a coagulation of sul-
phur and mercury brought about by salt.
At the same time, Van Helmont raised the stomach to the rank of the
centre of the body and indeed regarded it as the "seat of the soul". He
also adopted the principle of localising diseases - a principle based on the
theory of local precipitation. In other words, Van Helmont incorporated
into his system the main pathological "moral" of Paracelsus' doctrine of
"Tartar". He opposed the latter, however, in so far as it had been based
on the analogy with the simple deposition of a sediment, notably of wine
in the vat. Van Helmont took great pains to show that stones are not
the product of the simple settling of matter at the bottom of a fluid, hut

Fig. 12.
Fabius Violet's Book
defending Paracelsus'
doctrine of Tartar as
the cause of diseases.
Paris 1635. Title page.
general basis of Pathology. His hook is entitled: "The Perfect and Complete
Knowledge of All Diseases of the Human Body Caused by Ohstruction." 98
98 Violet, Fabius: La parfaite et entiere cognoissance de toutes les maladies du corps
humain, causees par obstruction. P. Billaine, Paris 1635. It contains chapters on:
"L'Alchimie, Colonne de la medecine"; "Que le Tartre est la matiere qui fait l'oh-
struction"; "De I' Anatomie des Tartres". For a short abstract of the work see: Portal,
M.: Histoire de l'Anatomie et de la Chirurgie. Vol. II, Paris 1770, p. 531. Violet's name
is just mentioned in G. Matthiae's Conspectus Historiae Medicorum, Gottingae 1761,
p. 451, hut is not listed in Hirsch's Biographisches Lexicon.
Tl::ere is little that is original in Violet's book, hut it contains one statement that is
arresting: On p. 142 he refers to the "Acetum Esurinum" which causes the sensation
of appetite and, if pathologically increased owing to irritation of the stomach by tartar,
that of pain. He continues: "car c'est un esprit dissoluant, qui fait les digestions (et non
une chaleur simplement, ainsi que le sue de limons, qui est froid, digere la perle aussi
hien que !'esprit de vin qui est chaud) ... "With this he seems to identify the digestive
factor in the stomach with the "Hungry Acid" of Paracelsus and to reject heat in its
favour. He is thus more definite than Paracelsus, who had regarded acid as an adjuvant
to digestion rather than as the digestive factor itself, except in certain animals such as
the ostrich (see above p. 161). Violet therefore assumes a position intermediate between
Paracelsus and Van Helmont, who definitely establishes acid gastric digestion and
comes close to the suggestion that the "Hungry Acid" is hydrochloric acid (see Pagel,
W.: Van Helmont's Ideas on Gastric Digestion and the Gastric Acid. Bull. Hist. Med.
1956, XXX, 524-536). Van Helmont's most relevant treatise was not published until
1648 with his collected works ("Ortus Medicinae"). He had touched upon acid gastric
digestion in his treatise On Stone (cap. Ill, :par. 24). In the same treatise he had men-
tioned the preparation of hydrochloric acid as a preventive against the stone - in
close proximity to his observation of the stone-dissolving properties of the acid "fer-
ment" in the stomachs of pigeons (cap. VII, par. 28). The treatise On Stone, however,
was published nearly ten years after Violet's hook had appeared (1644). In the "Supple-
ment on the Waters of Spa" - published in 1624 - Van Helmont did deal with the
"Hungry Acid" of Paracelsus as a common basis to mineral and metal matter in general,
and mentioned its preventive action against the stone, hut did not refer to gastric
digestion. Violet's statement does not therefore seem to have been inspired by ·van
Helmont - nor is this to he expected from its tenor and wording as a whole. Nor finally
is there any evidence that Violet borrowed from such Paracelsists as Severinus, Croll
or the author of the "Introductio in Vitalem Philosophiam" (see later p. 232). Seve-
rinus dwells on the pathogenic action of acid and attributes gastric "concoction" to
the virtue ("scientia") of "mechanical spirits", i.e. salt, sulphur and mercury (Idea
Medicinae Philosophicae. Basil. 1571, p. 141 and 184). Violet shares Croll's idea that
Tartar - the "mucilago of salt" - is the mother of almost all diseases (Basilica Chymica.
1609; Ed. Hartmann, Genevae 1643, p. 146).
164 Medicine
require the action of a "ferment" that actively produces and separates a
solid deposit.
The analogy with tartar in wine vats is wrong. For this is a mere ad-
mixture to wine deposited on long standing without alteration to the
latter. Stone, however, is not merely a deposit, hut due to a chemical
transmutation of urine. Moreover, tartar is water-soluble; stone material in
urine, however, is not. Urine left standing will not yield sand or stone
material simply by deposition - either in the cold or at body temperature.
Van Helmont's quest for "specific causes"
"Fermentation" as the true - specific - cause of deposits
"It once happened", says Van Helmont99, "that I was conversant with
some Noble Women, the Wives of Noblemen, and so also with the Queen
her self, from the third hour after noon, even to the third hour after mid-
night, at London in the Court of Whitehall; for they were the Holyday-
Evens of Feasting in the Twelf-dayes. But I made water, when those
Women first drew me along with them to the King's Palace: wherefore,
for civility sake, I with-held my urine for at least 12 houres space. And
then, having returned home, I could not, even by the most exact viewing,
find so much as the least mote of sand in my urine. For I feared, least my
urine, having been long detained and cocted beyond measure, would now
he of a sandy grain. Wherefore I made water the more curiously through
a Napkin; hut my urine was free from all sand."
A different picture, however, was seen, when, on the morrow, "I pissed
new urine through a Towel and detained it in a glass-urinal as many houres
(to wit, twelve): And at length, I manifestly saw the adhering sand, to he
equally dispensed round about where the urine had stood." Van Helmont
concluded that neither mucoid matter (as maintained by scholastic me-
dicine) nor heat were the causes of this coagulative process. "With a great
courage, therefore, I again disdaining all the Books of Writers, cast them
away, and expelled them far from me. Neither determined I to expect
the ayd of my Calling from any other way than from the Father of Lights,
the ·one and onely Master of Truth. And presently I gave a divorce to all
accidental occasions and mockeries of Tartar".
Van Helmont was led to what he regarded as the solution of his problem
by seeing through the fallacy of the heat and deposition theory. A mere
leaving of the urine will not yield the desired result. This will obtain,
99 De Lithiasi II, 13. Chandler's translation. London 1662, p. 838.
Van Helmont on Tartar and Fermentation 165
.however, when a new factor is added from outside: the fermenting of urine.
In this condition a new agent is introduced, a "seminal ens", more power-
ful than ancillary factors such as heat and cold. For Nature works no
transmutation without a "specific" factor, i.e. a "ferment", "odor",
. V an H e1mont ' s natura1 phi1osophy through-
" semen " or " arch eus " . Th.Is IS
out all realms of Nature. It is stated in "vitalistic" terms and his idea of
stone formation is based on it.
To Van Helmont, then, stone formation is a coagulatlve process for which two "spirits"
are required: the "spirit of urine"lOO and the "spirit of wine". Hence he adopts the Para-
celsian name of the process, Duelech, for it depends upon the interaction of two com-
ponents. Van Helmont adduces in vitro experiments for his theory, for example, if an
ammonium carbonate solution from urine is mixed with alcohol, immediately a white
though subtle and transient coagulum ("offa alba") develops.
From the point of view of modern medicine, it may he hard to say
where there was more error: in the Tartar of Paracelsus or the Coagulation
theory of Van Helmont. The latter made fermentation the first act in the
tragedy, although today this would he regarded as auxiliary or a sequel,
rather than a cause of stone. Paracelsus incriminating food and drink and
demonstrating albumen in the urine seems to he more to the point, how-
ever much he loses himself in wild metaphors.
Yet Van Helmont laid down a body of remarkable original experiments
and acute observations; he dropped the semi-poetic language and analo-
gies freely used by Paracelsus and replaced them by genuinely scientific -
chemical - terms. Moreover, he developed the modern idea of pathology
contained in the doctrine of tartar: the new ontological view of diseases
as specific entities determined by exogenous agents and local (anatomical)
changes.
B. Paracelsus' version of the ancient Doctrine of "Catarrh" and
the Causes of Epilepsy
As we have seen (p. 135), humoral pathology is pre-eminently and
typically reflected in the doctrine of "Catarrh". "Catarrh" had been visu-
alised as a process consisting of three phases: the ascent of vapours from
the stomach to the brain, their condensation to mucus therein and the
flow of the latter from the brain through the skull down to the nose,
ioo As Partington says: "For the volatile ammonium salt (ammonium carbonate) Van
Helmont uses the names spiritus urinae, sal volatile (also for ammonium chloride in
soot), spiritus lotii etc." (Joan Baptista Van Helmont. Ann. Sci. 1936, I, 379.)
166 Medicine
pharynx, lungs, joints, hones and other organs ("rhume de cerveau",
"rheumatism"). This process had been supposed to cause the majority
of diseases. The tenacity of this theory is one of the arresting features in
medical history101, for it dated from pre-Socratic times and survived for
more than a hundred years the severe battering administered to it in the
XVIIth century by Jean Baptist Van Helmont, the Paracelsist, and Conrad
Victor Schneider, the discoverer of the mucous membranes (1660).
To assess Paracelsus' role as reformer of pathology, it will he imperative
to examine his attitude to "Catarrh".
Paracelsus retained the old Aristotelian view of the brain as a muci·
parous gland - one of the original sources of the catarrh idea. Nor did he
abolish the latter. But he modified it into his own characteristic version
and, as we shall see later, achieved emancipation from it in one particular
respect.
In the works of Paracelsus as a whole, "catarrh" is not accorded the
prominence which it enjoyed in ancient medicine, though it does occur in
the traditional sense of displaced mucus that flows down from the brain
and moves from place to place in the hody. 102
Finally, distinct traces of ancient catarrh speculation are recognisable
in the chemical theory of Paracelsus - in which the changeable and agile
lOl See the present author in: Humoral pathology - a lingering anachronism in the History
of Tuberculosis. Bull. Hist. Med. 1955, XXIX, 299-308.
102 In a pharmacological treatise, the members of the catarrh family (Foetor, Apostemata,
Putrefactio, Fluxus, Catarrhus, Rheuma, Brancha, Anthrax, Pituita, Sanies gingivarum)
appear as diseases due to mucoid excremental matter. These diseases have their origin
in the brain or the head in general, and are liable to move with the intake of food,
changes of weather and the development of putrefaction. They bring up discharges in
the lungs and pharynx in Asthma, Coughing, Pneumonia or Pustulae.
De Modo Pharmacandi II, cap. I (Noinina Aegritudinum). Huser, vol. I, p. 783. -
Consilium Medicum to Johann von der Leipnick. Huser, vol. I, p. 687. De Phlehotoinia.
Fiinff Tractat von lrrung der Aderlassin. V. Huser, vol. I, p. 725. - In Paracelsus'
Consilia, catarrh traditionally figures together with apoplexy, podagra and arthritis.
Das Erste Consilium zur sterckung des hims und magens, fiir Verhiitung der fl.iiss ..•
an Adam Reissner. Huser, vol. I, p. 684.
"Catarrh" appears in a slightly more masked form in the surgical treatises on Syphilis.
Here, "catarrh" is said to lend itself as a "body for the Franzosen" (i.e. syphilis). As
we mentioned (p. 139), Paracelsus regarded the latter, not as an independent disease,
hut as an affection modifying an already existing disease in a characteristic way. The
latter "was made French" - it assumed syphilitic appearance and followed a syphilitic
course. In this way, catarrh can become syphilitic, and paralysis will develop here or
there - owing to syphilis "going up and down" with the catarrh. Perforation of the
uvula and palate with subsequent emergence of food and drink through the nose,
quinsy, croup, and membranes may develop.
Catarrh and syphilis: Das sechste Buch von den Blattern, Lahme, Beulen, Liicheren
und Zittrachten der Frantzosen. Cap. 4. Chirurg. Schrifften. Ed. Huser, p. 284.
Catarrh and Epilepsy 167
mercury takes the place of the catarrh-fluid. Owing to overeating and
drinking, mercury may "ascend" in the body and fall hack again, or he
precipitated and move about as in a retort (pelican). Its precipitation
causes gout and arthritis, its sublimation disease of the brain and mania.
It may become so subtle that it penetrates hone and muscle, thus causing
pustulae and the changes observed in syphilis and leprosy. Rigor may he
due to the ascent of mercury through heating - vapours will then develop
which cannot find an outlet.103
Traces of catarrh theory in Paracelsus' chemical and symholistic
speculations on Epilepsy
Reminiscences of the ancient "catarrh" are even more diluted in Para-
celsus' pathology of the "Falling Sickness". In this, the action of an
"ascendant" is essential - in this case sulphur vitrioli which lies dormant
in the body, hut may he ignited by an outside force and ascend in the
form of fumes to the brain. Overpowering the brain and its cells which
control reason, it causes madness, stupefies, intoxicates, corrodes and acts
somewhat like narcotic drugs such as hemlock and opium.104
We have here, therefore, the same idea of a substance ascending to the
brain, as in catarrh.
The chemical and catarrhal elements are, however, overshadowed by the
astral correspondences in the process.
The "igniter" from outside which causes the sulphur to "ascend" is an "ascendant"
as well, i.e. a cosinic - astral or mineral - force in an active phase in which it seeks con-
junction with its counterpart in the body. Such a conjunction is comparable to that of
stars and thus able to convert passive material lying in the body into something fine,
spiritual and active, i.e. into fumes with the tendency to "ascend". The conjunction takes
place at an appointed time.
Elsewhere, epilepsy is compared to the bursting of a shell.105 Earth-
quakes and thunder are corresponding phenomena. Both develop in a shell,
which they burst when they are "ripe". Thus the earth forms such a shell,
which is called an "egg". When the earthquake matter contained in it has
matured, an earthy thunder spells imminent destruction.106
103
Penetrating action of Mercury: Op. Parainirum. Lib. II, cap. 4. Huser, vol. I, p. 45.
104
Vom Fallendt. Causa. Eilff Tractat vom Ursprung der Wassersucht, Farhsuchten, etc.
- an early work (ca. 1520). Huser, vol. I, p. 543.
105
Falling Sickness and its macrocosinic analogues: Liher de Caducis, das ist von Hin-
fallenden Siechtagen (1530). Paragraphus II. Huser, vol. I, p. 593.
166
Corresponding phenomena in water are the "Lorind" - a tidal wave; in air, thunder
that occurs in a clear sky.
The prodromal symptoms of epilepsy correspond to the weather changes preceding a
168 Medicine
The Spirit of Life as the ••ascendant" causing Epilepsy
The fa<:tor responsible for the epileptic attack cannot he one of the
humours in the ancient sense - for these are not active. Yet it is one of
these humours which contains and conveys it, namely the blood, for the
latter is the vector of the "spirit of Life". This is a subtle spirit which is
set into motion and "breaks out" - as when a spirit distilled from wine
becomes in time more acid, subtle and volatile. Thus, when acted upon
by salt, it is converted into a dynamic and explosive agent, raising the
blood and causing fits, dancing and mania. 107
In addition to this spirit, smoke-like emanations may reach the brain and "suifocate"
the intellect. Such smoke may develop from decaying matter in the stomach in which
worms are formed; it ascends and "darkens" the brain. Or else the brain is hit in a more
indirect way, when the smoke first reaches the heart, whereby blood and humours "effer-
vesce and rave" as if sulphur and nitre had been set alight together. This process goes on
until the harmful matter has spent itself, unless life is extinguished first. The same may
happen in the uterus, in which some matter becomes acid and causes the organ and sub-
sequently all limbs to contract.108
A humour distilled into the head also forms the matter that causes mania.
Which of its varieties will develop depends upon the place of distillation.
Survey of Paracelsus' Ideas on Epilepsy in the light of Ancient and
XVIlth Century Pathology (Localism versus Catarrh)
The three treatises from which we have quoted belong to the first
decade of Paracelsus' literary activity. A full account of his ideas is al-
ready found in his "Eleven Tracts" of about 1520 and supplemented by
the "Liher de Caducis" of 1530. These two develop the theory of the
disease from the general analogy between macrocosm and microcosm. It is
storm the clouds to disturbed vision. This is followed by a strong wind, recognisable
in ma~ by swelling of the abdomen and neck. Then thunder breaks out, moving heaven
and earth - this corresponds to spastic extension and traction of all limbs in man -
when the eyes are flashing and nothing hut fire is sensed by them. As thunder splashes
rain, so the patient brings out froth. The flash as well as the wind develops pressure
which may break walls and disrupt everything. It is the same power that heats, breaks
and curves the limbs.
107 Schreihen von den Kranckheyten so die V ernuuift herauhen, als da sein S. Veyts Tantz,
Hinfallender Siechtage, Melancholia und Unsinnigkeit 1525/26. Ed. princeps by Ad.
von Bodenstein, Basle 1567, fol. D.
108 loc. cit., fol D 4 verso. At the same time, the hereditary character of epilepsy is fully
recognised (ibid., sig. A 4). Weakness of the semen and inordinate and excessive habits
on the part of the parents prevent a healthy vital spirit from developing in the child.
The spirit, thus impaired, is unable to expel pathological matter.
Epilepsy - Localism v. Catarrh 169
this pathological concept as contained in the Liber de Caducis of 1530
which Temkin made the basis of a brilliant presentation of Paracelsean
and Hermetic medicine in his comprehensive work on the history of
Epilepsy .109
Epilepsy, then, in the theory of Paracelsus, is preeminently a process
in man analogous to a thunderstorm in the greater world. This may break
out in one of the four cosmic "mother" strata: Earth, Water, Fire or Air.
This "symbolistic" and "analogical" theory is Paracelsus' original
contribution and marks its own epoch in the history of epilepsy. Also the
incrimination of certain chemical substances such as Sulfur Vitrioli is
Paracelsean.
It is not unlikely that Paracelsus knew the role of sulphur in the prep-
aration of narcotic substances (possibly ether), and brought this knowledge
to bear upon his theory of "the diseases which rob man of reason". We
shall discuss this later under "Paracelsus and Chemistry" (p. 276).
Further, it fits well into the Paracelsean system that the dangerous
substance should be lying preformed in the body and ignited by its counter-
part in the greater world. Finally, it is typically Paracelsean that it should
he a "smoke" or the "spirit oflife" in the blood which causes the symptoms,
and not a humour or (water) vapour.
Yet, in the emphasis laid by Paracelsus on the "ascendant", we recog-
nise the imprint of the ancient doctrine of"catarrh". A strange overlapping
of two meanings of "ascend" emerges in Paracelsus' theory. In the ancient
theory it simply meant that vapours ascend to the brain where they are
condensed and sent down again in fluid form. To Paracelsus, "ascend"
also implies astral activity, the tendency of spiritual forces to conjugate
with and subjugate matter, to spiritualise it and thereby enable it to climb
up, to "ascend" in its turn.
A further reminiscence of catarrh is the corrosiveness ascribed by Para-
celsus to the "ascendant", for the ancients attributed the pathogenic action
of catarrh to the sharpness of the fluid.
On the other hand, Paracelsus dissociated himself from crude material-
istic humoralism. He tended to "rarefy" the matter responsible for epi-
lepsy, to see it as an active spirit comparable to an astral force in the
cosmos. Yet, while he modified ancient "catarrh" and gave it his own
characteristic imprint, he did not break its spell, let alone abolish it. It
was not before Van Helmont that the "ascendant" and with it the whole
"madness of catarrh" was demolished.
109
Temkin, 0.: The Falling Sickness. A history of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Begin-
nings of Modern Neurology. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1945, pp. 159-172.
170 Medicine
Accordingly Van Helmont's concept of epilepsy is thoroughly cleansed
of such notions. It is a purely dynamic theory - tracing its first origin to
the vegetative centres around the stomach, locating it in the brain when
fully developed and identifying it in principle with asthma, the "falling
sickness" of the lungs.110
"Obstruction" as a primary and local change causing disease
Its divorce from "Catarrh' and its role as a further germ cell of "localism"
We cannot leave catarrh theories and their modification by Paracelsus
without discussing one aspect in which he already achieved emancipation
from them - in favour of a localistic view. It is of particular interest that
this result was reached through replacing "catarrh" by "tartar". As we
have seen, we can give Paracelsus' doctrine of "tartar" the credit of being
an early attempt at localising disease. It also drew attention to the ana·
tomical changes indicative of specific - chemical - causes.
The one province in which Paracelsus achieved complete emancipation
from the all-powerful "catarrh" in favour of the local origin of the changes
is the doctrine of "obstruction" as a cause of consumption.
At first sight Paracelsus seems to object to this theory (see above p. 68). He says
that "obstruction" causes "drying up" of a limb, but that this is not comparable to its
"fading away", its consumption. By "drying up" ("Ariditas", "membrum aridum") owing
to "obstruction", Paracelsus primarily means dry gangrene of a linib following arterial
thrombosis. It is comparable in effect to the severing of a limb, but is not a real" Schwinung",
or "consumption". The latter is due to lack of material which ought to pass through the
channels, not to obstruction.111
This criticism of "obstruction" as a cause of phthisis is levelled at a classical and widely
propagated theory. It can be followed up from its origin in Galen via Arabic authors to
Femel, and even 18th century authors such as Stahl, Selle and Huxham.112
110 It should he added that Van Helmont was a keen student of clonic and tonic contraction,
which he subordinated to immediate action of the vegetative centres as against Galen's
theory of a fight between voluntary motion and the natural heaviness of the limbs.
He regarded clonus and tonus as a universal expression of life, as the cause of pain,
fever and even anatomical changes such as ulceration and empyema, referring them
to abnormal tissue acidity. See for example Van Helmont: De Febribus, IX, 8. Temkin
(loc. cit., p. 187) mentions the interesting and unjustly forgotten theory of Charles le
Pois (1563-1636) who attributed epilepsy to the brain, rejecting any "sympathetic"
form originating in the stomach or uterus.
111 V om Schwienen. Priores quinque tract. alio modo descripti - other redaction of the
eleven tracts. Huser, vol. I, pp. 554-555. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 39.
112 See Pagel, W. : Die K.rankheitslehre der Phthise in den Phasen ihrer geschichtlichen Ent-
wicklung. Beitr. z. Klin. d. Tuberk. 1927, LXVI, 66-98 and: Zur Geschichte der Lungen-
steine und der Ohstmktionstheorie der Phthise, ibidem 1928, LXIX, 315-323. The
main loci from Galen are: De Difficult. respir. I, 9 (crude "tubercula" obstructing the
Localistic Theory of "Obstruction" 171
Galen's theory of "obstruction" is bound up with that of "catarrh", particularly the
inspissation of catarrh fluid in the bronchi, converting it into "hailstones". Hence the
emphasis laid on dyspnoea as an early symptom of phthisis. Inspissation of super-abundant
catarrh fluid is a cause of dyspnoea and phthisis, also according to Femel.113 Femel was
apparently the first to designate the inspissated obstructing material as having the "con-
sistency of old cheese".1H
It is in one of his early tracts on diseases115 that Paracelsus objects to
"obstruction" as a cause of phthisis.
Later on, in his Opus Paramirum on Tartaric Diseasell6 as well as his
work on Miners' Disease117, he himself subscribes to "obstruction" - en-
larging on the dyspnoea that follows it, in the same way as did Galen and
Fernel. By contrast, Paracelsus attributes obstruction not to fluid reach-
ing the area from elsewhere - "catarrh" - but to a metabolic product
formed locally - "tartar". It is "tartar'', not "catarrh", that causes
"asthma, coughing, phthisis, ethica febris", by obstruction of the bronchial
tree, preventing the lung from free expansion and contraction. This
"tartar" has been observed in the form of stony concretions in the human
and animal lung.118
Paracelsus' opposition to the ancient theory ofphthisis by "obstruction"
is therefore directed not so much against the actual occurrence and harm-
ful effect of obstruction, as against the ancient theory of its causation by
"catarrh". Obstruction is due not to the latter but to "tartar", the product
of a chemical and metabolic disorder revealing itself locally. It follows that
therapy must not aim at the "drying up" of a "catarrh"ll9 , but that the
tissue damage, due to "drying up", must be repaired by a redistribution
of fluid into them.120
Like Paracelsus, Van Helmont took up the theory of obstruction inci·
bronchi; oppilation of the lung in pneumonia), De Locis affectis IV, 8 and 9 (catarrh
blocking the bronchi).
113 Univ. Medicina, V, 10, pulmonum morbi. See also Long E. R.: Jean Femel's con-
ception of tuberculosis, Sci. Med. Hist. Essays in honour of Ch. Singer, Oxford 1953,
vol. I, p. 401.
IH "Veteris casei constantiam". See Pagel, loc. cit. 1928, p. 318.
115 Printed in the first volume of Sudhoff's edition and according to the latter written
about 1520.
116 Appearing in Sudhoff's edition, vol. IV and dated 1531.
117 Von der Bergsucht. Lib. I, cap. 2 and 3. Huser, vol. I, 643-644.
118 Opus Paramirum. Lib. III, tract. IV. Huser, vol. I, p. 59.
11 9 For example, Avicenna, Canon III, fen. 10, tract. 5.
12o See Pagel, loc. cit. 1927, p. 74. It should he noted, however, that abnormal "dryness"
of the lung as a cause of dyspnoea and phthisis was not entirely unknown to Arabic
authorities: see Rhazes, lib. divisionum Gerardo Toledano Cremonensi interprete
Basil. 1544, p. 372.
172 Medicine
dentally adopting the Fernelian term "caseous" ("'grumi caseosi"} 121. In his
work the divorce of obstruction from catarrh is much more consciously and
significantly established than in the work of Paracelsus, and ancient patho-
logy including that of Fernel is decisively refuted. 122
This is particularly evident in Van Helmont's appraisal of phthisical
changes such as the lung cavity ("vomica"). For Van Helmont says:
"I deny that the cavity is due to catarrh; even more so that it derives
from a vapour ascending from the stomach. Thus I do not assign con-
sumption to a fl.owing down into the lung hut I know that it is due to a
local distemper of the lung".1 23 How all this is intimately connected with
the new localistic and aetiological pathology by which Van Helmont
anticipates and even overtakes much that has been credited to Morgagni
(1761) will he discussed in its proper place. 124
C. Paracelsus on Plague.
The Influence of Ficino. Traditional Plague Theories and
Paracelsus' "Anthropocentric" Doctrine. Its further
Development in Van Helmont's "Tomb of the Plague"
It is in his ideas on the plague that we find actual contacts in the medical
teaching of the famous Florentine Neo-Platonist Marsilio Ficino (1433-99)
and Paracelsus. The influence of the general philosophical ideas of Ficino
on Paracelsus will be examined later.125 Here we propose to compare the
plague treatises of Ficino and Paracelsus with traditional Galenic doctrine.
The latter we shall find presented in the tracts of Agricola, Thayer, Bero-
aldus and Rhazes.
1. Agricola: De Peste
George Agricola (1490-1555), famous for his work on mines, has left hut
one work on a medical subject: De Peste, published in 1554.
Agricola regards a special heavy and pestilential air as the common cause of plague.
It originates in "putrid exhalations", arising from unburied corpses, notably of soldiers,
of the victims of famine or of people drowned, or from stagnant lakes, swamps or caves in
121 Asthma et tussis, cap. 42-43, Ortus Med. Amstelod. 1648, p. 370.
122 See Pagel, loc. cit. 1928, p. 320.
12s Catarrhi Deliramenta 41 and 63. For detail see Pagel, W.: Joh. Ba pt. Van Helmont.
Einfiihrung in die philosophische Medizin des Barock. Berlin 1930, pp. 44 et seq.
1 24 In a subsequent work on Van Helmont and Harvey.
125 In the third part of the present hook, p. 218.
Ancient Plague Theories 173
the ground. The agent in this air is a poison of hot quality inhaled by the lungs, :finding·
its way to the heart and thence to all parts of the body - which are set alight with a
"hectic" pestilential fever. 126 It is transmitted from person to person "by contagion and
a pestiferous odour" 127 , through the air tubes or the pores of the skin - through the latter
by the contamination of underwear and bedding. Hence it is wise to follow the Florentine
government in burning all clothing left by victims of the plague. 128
A second hut much less common cause can he "the heavens". These may vitiate the
air by conferring too much moisture upon it through prolonged rain and fog, especially
after a warm spring with prevalent east wind. Such a "pestifera coeli intemperies" leads
to an over-production of small animals by spontaneous generation - notably of mice,
frogs, flies and other harmful insects, which act as transmitters. Or else celestial portents
such as comets may directly cause morbid "exhalations", especially in autumn. A third
still less frequent type of plague is due to the action of had food rendering the humours
prone to putrefaction and fevers.
What Agricola has to say on plague is in substance Galenic. In the sixth
chapter of his hook on differences in fevers, Galen had said that there were
two causes of the "Pestilence". "The one cause is an infected, corrupted
and putrefied aire: the other cause is evill and superfluous humors gathered
in the hodie through naughtie and corrupt diet which humors he apt and
ready to putrefaction."129
Galen had also emphasised the role of uncremated corpses of war vic-
tims and stagnant waters as sources of the contagion - the seeds of the
plague (").oiµov aneeµa-ra"). This must meet with a faulty mixture of
humours such as frequently occurs at times of famine. Hence not every-
body is liable to he affected by the plague. Agricola has to add some inter-
esting facts about the efficient methods of segregation practised by the
government of Venice. This had allocated two islands - the Lazaretum
Vetus and Novum - for quarantine - the former for the infected and sick
and the latter for convalescents and those who had attended the sick.
Incoming ships were also inspected, all food and drink supervised and
aromatic wood burnt in public places.
2. Thomas Thayre's Plague Tract
Thomas Thayre's "Excellent and best approved Treatise of the Plague" of 1625 - to
single out one of a myriad of similar tracts - is chiefly designed as a collection of "preser-
vatives" against pestilence. It also gives the traditional Galenic doctrine - "this contagious
sicknes which is generally called the Plague or Pestilence, is no other thing than a cor-
rupt and venomous aire deadly enemie unto the vitall spirits ... by reason whereof those
126 Agricola: De Peste lihri tres. Frohen, Basileae 1554, pp. 11-21.
127 Loe. cit., p. 22.
128 Loe. cit., pp. 22 et seq.
129 The passage is thus translated by Thomas Thayre in "An Excellent and best Approved
Treatise of the Plague". Printed for Thomas Archer, London 1625, p. 4. For the original
Text see: Galen Opp. Ed. Kiihn, vol. vii, Lips 1824, p. 289.
 174 Medicine Ficinus on Plague 175
bodies wherein there is Cacochymia, corrupt and superfluous humours abounding, are apt
and lightly infected, those humours being of themselves inclined and disposed unto putri-
faction". He adds a sermonal chapter on "sinne" as the ••first and chiefest" cause, as
proved from Scriptures which ••giveth many examples how the Lord oftentimes punisheth
his people for their sinne and impietie of life with the Pestilence".130
TRACTATVS
SINGVLARIS DOCTISSIMI VIRI MARSI$
lij Picini de ~idimiz morbo,cxltalico in
3. Beroaldus on plague Latinum vafus.
This idea of divine punishment leads us to an additional point - the
connection between earthquakes and pestilence, which was emphasised by
Philippus Beroaldus.1 31
An earthquake is a ••praesagium" foreshadowing plague - "a portent of dire things".
The connection, however, is not a mystical one; it is simply the liberation of a pestilential
spirit or nocuous waters from the bowels of the earth. These contaminate the air, spread
widely, and - as bad things are wont to overcome good things - invade and kill man. 182

4. Rhazes (app. 865-923) de Pestilentia

In this book we find that an original thought has been introduced into
the traditional story, a chemical concept. This connects the general cause
of plague, namely putrefaction, with effervescence of the blood.
Blood, Rhazes says, can be compared with wine in its developmental stages: in infants
it is like grape juice before fermentation, in adolescents like hot fermenting must, and in
the elderly like wine which tends to be cool, acid and free from all ebullience. Pestilence
is contracted when blood decays and effervesces in order to drive out foamy and muddy
redundancies. It is a condition resembling that of adolescent blood - linking pestilence
with a foam-producing heat like that which acts in the must at a certain time. Hence in-
fants and adolescents, in whom the blood is not yet in a perfect state, hardly ever escape
in epideiuics.133

5. Ficinus on Plague CVM PRIVILEGIO IMPERIAL!.

Rhazes' fermentation hypothesis does not seem to have been popular
Fig. 13. Marsilius Ficinus' Treatise on the Plague. First Latin edition, Augsburg 1519.
among the later writers on plague. Ficinus, quoting Rhazes in his "Anti- Title page with woodcut.
dote to Epidemics"1 34, followed him in describing the putrefaction of the

130 Thayre, loc. cit., pp. 1-4.

131
Opusculum Philippi Beroaldi De Terrae Motu et Pestilentia. Cum Annotamentis Galeni.
Bononiae. Per Benedictum Bibliopolam Bononiensem 1505. Sm. 4°.
132 Loe. cit., fol. C 4: "Praesagia".
133 Rhazae De Pestilentia liher Georgio Valla Placentino interprete. In: Pselli De Victus
Ratione ad Constantinum lmperatorem and Joannis Manardi Ferrariensis in Artem
Galeni medicinalem luculenta expositio. Cratander, Basileae 1529, p. 42.
13' Epideiuiarum Antidotus ex idiomate Thusco ab Hieronymo Ricio Latinit. donata.
Excudebat Jo. Le Preux (n.1.) 1595, p. 259. The first and only XVth century edition
is: Ficino, Marsilio Consilio di Marsilio Ficino fiorentino contro la pestilentia. Apud
Sanctum J acobum de Ripolis, Florence 1481. Reprinted: Firenze heredi di Ph. di Giunta
1523 (together with II Consiglio di maestro Tommaso del Garbo; Una ricetta d'una
polvere composta da maestro Mingo da Faenza; Una ricetta fatta nello Studio di Bo-
blood in plague as an effervescence and, in addition, developed chemical
connotations of his own - which in turn foreshadow those of Paracelsus.
To Ficinus, plague is a poisonous vapour which gathers in the air1 35 - just
as it is to Galen. But to Ficinus its action is not by virtue of an elementary
logna, etc.). Latin text in: Tractatus singularis doctissimi viri Marsilii Ficini de epi-
diiuiae morbo, ex Italico in Latinum versus. August. Vindelicor. Sig. Grimm and
Marci Vuyrsung. 1518 (preface by Riccius dated 1516). This edition is distinguished by
its large title woodcut showing a patient attended by a doctor in the presence of his
family.
135 Venenosus quidam vapor est in aere concretus, vitali inimicus spiritui Loe. cit., p. 248.
176 Medicine
quality, such as heat and moisture, hut by reason of its specific properties.
This specific poison is comparable to theriac which acts beneficially not because it is
hot or cold, dry or humid, hut because of the "specific form" as a whole, that is harmonious
with ("accommodata") the vital spirit as a species ("forma"). Similarly the pestiferous
vapour is in its whole structure ("proportio") contrary to that of the vital spirit contained
in the heart. It is continually produced in the earth, and on certain occasions finds its
way into the air as a poisonous vapour. The air, however, being pure and adapted to spirit
and fire, is not liable to putrefaction and thus normally prevents this vapour from estab-
lishing itself in it. Hence only individuals predisposed to fever or putrefaction will catch
it; others in whom the vital spirit is strong, repel it. It will thrive in the plethoric in whom
humours and vapours are abi:indant and at times when they are effervescent. This effer-
vescence indicates a certain grade of putrefaction ("certo quodam gradu putrefiunt humores
simul et ebbulliunt"), and the earlier its appearance the more the body abounds in humours.
The poison displays the destructive - corrosive and inflammatory -
nature of calcium and arsenic. Adverse astral constellations, notably a
conjunction of Mars and Saturn, and eclipses, produce, strengthen and
sustain the poison, especially in places exposed to the ill-effects of such
constellations. Astral influence also decides which animals will he affected
by the plague, or whether man will he affected alone. Just as sulphur is
set alight earlier than wood, so the predisposed ones will he the first vic-
tims. If the poison is strong in itself, however, it will attack even those
that are not predisposed. When this happens nobody knows. However
weak in the beginning, the poison propagates itself even more rapidly than
does sulphur when ignited. It attacks the vital spirit of the heart even
more strongly than sulphur affects the nose. It is an ignition comparable to
that of sulphur which makes it virulent and causes it to expand rapidly in
a predisposed body, particularly if sudden ignition takes place in summer
time, when humours are diluted and the air is thin. The pestilential fever
is essentially due to effervescence, first of the spirit, then of the humours.
Effervescence and inflation first affect the blood, then bile and mucus and
finally black bile. Hence the sanguinic are most exposed, the choleric and
phlegmatic a little less so, and the melancholic type least. For the cold
and dry complexion of the latter is least prone to inflammation and putre-
faction, and keeps the pathways of the humours, and thus of the poison,
narrow. This also explains the comparative resistance of the elderly. The
latter will not prevail, however, when Saturn is the master of the year as
happened in the Florentine plague of 1479, which took a toll of 150 dead
per day.
At times of pestilence this is the only disease that appears. With the
emergence of other diseases, plague recedes. 136 Any prolonged contami-
13& Loe. cit., cap. 4, p. 256: De signis indiciisque pestis.
Arsenical Nature of·Agent causing Plague 177
nation of the air with pestiferous vapour will infect water and the fruit of
the earth. Hence it is safe to boil drinking water or to mix it with iron
and wine.137
The point of interest brought up by Ficino is that the pestilential
poison has the corrosive action of the arsenical vapour that develops in
mines - in this he appears to have influenced the theories of Paracelsus as
we shall see presently.
In Paracelsus' life time, Ficino's concept found its way into the popular
plague treatise by Jo. Ammonius Agricola (Pewrlin), Professor of Medicine
and Greek at lngolstadt (1533). 138 He quotes Ficinus in several places as
an authority on the same level as the classics. He says: When the poisoned
vapour of the air has seized a body which is full of moisture and thus prone
to catch the fever, the moisture decays, boils over and ferments, usually
on the third day. It is then overcome by the malignancy which lime or
arsenic contained in mine-smoke carry - a power which causes decay,
corrosion and burning inside and outside. 139
The poison is therefore of an arsenical nature as evidenced by the
similarity between its corroding effects and those of corrosive smoke in
mines. It is transmitted by the air and acts on the humours, which are
made to ferment and effervesce.
137 There is no point in discussing in detail the prophylaxis and therapy of the plague as
recommended by Ficino. It is largely on traditional lines with its prescription of aro-
matic and acid condiments (for example the "theriacal pills" and "Marsilius' own
pills"), fumigation of houses and streets, smelling salts and the wearing around the
neck of unicorn's horn, hyacinths, topaz and emeralds. An interesting point is that
most of the ingredients are also recommended by Agrippa of N ettesheym in his short
Contra Pestem Antidota Securissima addressed to Theodoric of Cyrene, Archipraesulatus
in suffragiis (Epist. lib. II, 19). Opp. Pars post. Lugd. Ap. Beringos s. a., pp. 578-582.
They are composed, Agrippa says, according to the advice of most excellent doctors
and found by himself and his family most efficacious. The best preventive, however,
is to seek out those places from which the plague has receded for more than a year
and not go to those not yet visited by it (loc. cit., p. 739).
138 Ain griintlicher fieissiger ausszug aus alien hewerten Kriechischen und Lateinischen
lerem . . . von ursachen, zaichen, fiirsehung und haylung der grewlichen Pestilentz ...
alles aus gutem grund, on all Sophistisch oder Arahisch, in der Artzney ungegriindt,
zusetz und erdichtes geschwetz. Augspurg (Phil. Ulhart) 1533, fol. 13 verso.
139 " ••• Und so er des giffts natur an sich genommen hat, dann iiherkommet er die hosshait,
die der Kalck oder Arsenicum, das man Hiitrauch nennet an jnen hahen, welcher krafft
ist feulen, nagen und prennen innen und aussen." Loe. cit. - Arsenic, at Galen's time,
was regarded as a "septic" substance, i.e. one that causes putrefaction and is suitable
for therapeutic purposes because of its corrosive and caustic properties. (Galen, De
Simplicium Medicament. Temperam. ac Facultat., lib. V, cap. 15, ed. Kiihn, vol. XI,
p. 756; ibid. lib. IX, cap. 3, Kiihn, vol. XII, p. 212. See also Paulus Aegineta, The
Seven Books with commentary by Francis Adams, London 1847, vol. III, p. 52, to
Book VII, sect. 3).
178 Medicine
6. Paracelsus on Plague
(a) The decomposition of material parts in nature and man as causes of
plague
The Paracelsean ideas on the plague were neatly summarised by
Matthias Untzer in 1615.140 His book on the plague is none too original and
is similar in style to that on Epilepsy.141 Like the latter, it offers a well
arranged comparative survey of the Galenic and "Hermetic" opinions.
Plague, according to the Hermetic, is an astral disease, fiery and contagious.
·
B y means of a poisonous · a Mercur1a,
vapour, i.e. . 1 Arseruc. al or "Napelline "
(aconite) spirit, it enters the pores and canals of the body, and rapidly
invades the principal seats ( subjecta) of the spirits namely the heart,
brain and head, to infect, corrupt and dissolve them with its malignant
acuity. Finally, with the help of ignited bodily sulphur, it causes the
deposition of salt behind the ears, at the shoulder and groin, which in turn
leads to abscesses and carbuncles.
Not far removed from this definition, though even more obscure, is
that of Paracelsus in the third chapter of the second book on Tartar:
plague is due to arsenical air trapped in a tartaric deposit, the latter being
caused by the coagulation of an arsenical spirit. Arsenic burns, ignites and
causes swelling - this happens in the plague when the body is heated up -
the heat becomes more and more intense until the tartarus is separated
from the arsenic and a febrile paroxysm is caused thereby. Then the
arsenical poison "ascends'', causing abscesses, delirium and coma.
This is indeed the gist of the comparatively concise lecture notes on
Tartaric diseases (Winter 1527-28).142
According to these, plague is hound up with a metabolic process in nature at large
as well as in ourselves. It is therefore time-conditioned.us It is essentially the separation
of a substance with arsenical properties, a partial splitting up of the whole. Arsenical
140 Katoptron Loimodes hoc est De Lue Pestifera Lihri tres. Halae Saxonum 1615, p. 9:
Definitio Pestis sec. Hermeticos and Definitio Paracelsi.
141 leronosologia Chymiatrica. Hoc est Epilepsiae s. Morhi Sacri Accuratissima juxta
Hippocratico-Galenica atque Hermetica principia descriptio Halae Sax. 1616.
142 Ed. Sudhoffin vol. V, Miinchen and Berlin 1931, p. 77, notably pp. 81-87.
143 "Pestis est aer suae regionis ex primo corpore generatus, oppilatus sine egressu de
materia arsenicali et opprimechioli,j de illo Vero tartaro velocis mutationis dicendum
est; fit enim per digestionem naturae." The pathological condition (namely the trap-
ping of "arsenical air" in a coagulum and its conversion from a freely moveable "spirit"
into corrosive "tartar") affects the mineral world, notably the "Opprimechiolum",
i.e. the "smoke that arises from an ore" (Ioc. cit., ed. Sudhoff, vol. V, p. 79). The dis-
ease in man is hut a "compassio" with a similar affection of the "elements" outside.
- Displaced arsenic sets the body "alight" like sulphur, causing paroxysms that are
comparable to an earthquake ("Sulphurische Zufell laufen mit in gleicher weis dem
arsenikalischen gift", ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, loc. cit., p. 385).
Paracelsus on Plague 179
substances thus liberated may he trapped while in an airy form and display their corrosive
and putrefying effects everywhere in nature, notably in minerals and in man. In man this
occurs in the ducts of the liver.
(b) The Role of the Stars
In these lecture-notes nothing is said about the correlation of the
plague with the stars. We are informed on this point in Paracelsus' Two
Books on Pestilence, the "Nllrdlingen tract" (1529-1530)144 and in his
Three Books on the Plague (probably from the middle thirties of the
century). 145
In the Niirdlingen plague treatise, Mars and Sulphur as the chemical corresponding
to it, are given as the immediate causes of plague. This is a process of combustion. The
body is set alight, sulphur igniting it and Mars making the sulphur burn.
The story in the later treatise is similar: Mars, Venus or Luna are called "Masters of
this disease" ("wer herr sei diser K.rankheiten als in peste ist Mars, Venus, Luna"). The
process is compared to the burning of wood.
(c) Anthropocentric view. Man himself as the first cause of plague.
The original causation of the plague, however, is more complicated than
a mere chain of metabolic-chemical events in nature at large and in Man.
It lies in a psycho-physical interaction between man and the stars. It
originates in sin - as expressed in wicked passions and the sinful imagi-
nation, which "infect" heaven and arouse the wrath of God. Thus Man
himse]f brings down the scourge of the plague upon mankind. This anthro-
pocentric view of an individual disease is in harmony with Paracelsus'
whole philosophy and indeed with Renaissance philosophy in general.146
This is not merely a psychical process, but, according to Paracelsus,
emotions and passions are convertible into something physical, into a body.
"Any lust, desire, volition ... which arises in man's memory or imagination,
engenders a body in him, just as wrath and jealousy grow into a body."147
All this takes its course in the celestial ("supernatural") half of man which
144
Zwei Biicher von der Pestilenz und ihren Zufiillen. Niirdlingen. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII,
p. 369.
145
De peste lihri tres cum quihusdam ipsius autoris additionihus. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IX,
p. 565.
146
See above. Paracelsus' Theory of the Plague and Natural Magic: The interaction between
man and star involves a "ricochetting" effect - it is man who first acts on the star
whereby he touches off a chain of repercussions that fall hack on the operator and man-
kind at large. In this the causation of the plague is conceived as a typical magic pheno-
menon. The magician strikes not only at ordinary animate or inanimate bodies hut
also at the stars themselves from which he derives the most powerful effects (see also:
D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella. The Warburg
Institute, London 1958, p. 76).
147
Loe. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IX, pp. 593-594.
180 Medicine
embraces his fiery and airy parts. Varying with the individual, this half
in man corresponds to different planets, such as Saturn and Mars. Any
"body" engendered by the passions partly remains in Man and partly -
as it is volatile - ascends to the appropriate planet, the latter attracting
it like a magnet. Jealousy will find its way to Saturn, mendacity to Mars.
Lying dormant in the planets, such "bodies" are the "semina" which work
against us and will bring down upon us plague and similar supernatural
diseases. Thus plague strikes the body like an arrow that hits three places,
the ears, the axillae and the groin. It is, therefore, an external disease
("eusserliche krankheit") without any humoral cause. 148 It strikes the
body like a thunderbolt from heaven which beats and rocks the earth,
house and yard. It is an earthquake, an "invisible thunderclap in nature
shaking the body as long as it passes through it, until it settles and concen-
trates towards some particular place". The thunderclap sets the organs
and members alight. 149
(d) Cure of the plague
Cure must be directed against the agent causing the disease, not against
accidents such as the comatose sleep which has been combated with
diaphoretics (though not without success). Changing diet and habits is
of no avail. It is not what is too much or too little that matters - as
ancient humoral pathology believed whence its reliance on dietetics. 150
But one must know "what is infected". From this the disease is propagated
("erbt sich die krankheit") . .It is "fixed in its poison" ("fix in irem gift").
We learn its source through astronomy.
There are various approaches to prophylaxis and therapy in pestilence. The most im-
portant one is to interrupt the magnetic attraction with which the "Magnes Spiritus"
in the human body attracts the infected air ("chaos") outside. This can he achieved by
various "insulators" ("zenexton") - various amulets to he worn around the neck, such as
sapphires, amber, coagulated gum, resins and turpentine. For internal therapy one should
remember that plague causes internal as well as external wounds. This calls for an "in-
carnativum": the spirit of gold to he administered in sweat-producing waters mixed with
gems.161
HS Loe. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 577.
149 Loe. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 587.
160 "dan zu wenig hringet keinen schaden also zu vil hringt auch keinen schaden." Loe. cit.
Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 390.
161 Prescriptions against plague vary according to the element in which signs of plague
are first observed - if in water, take a mixture prepared from elder tree, wallflowers,
harebells, metallic substances, white corals and amethyst; if in earth, colts foot, water
lily, wild rue, rosemary, elixir (of gold or pearls); if in fire, take an infusion of sea holly,
red corals and spodium.
Paracelsus' plague remedies include sulphur (spirit of vitriol, sulphur sublimate) and
Paracelsus on Plague. Summary 181
(e) Summary: Originality of Paracelsus' doctrine and its Neoplatonic
background
This, then, is Paracelsus' doctrine of the plague (see the diagram). It
preserves some of the traditional Galenic material and widely elaborates
Ficinus' chemical theory, but mainly presents an original Paracelsean
complicated interplay of macrocosmic and microcosmic forces. In this
interaction the reciprocity between man and heaven is of the utmost
interest. Plague comes to us as a thunderbolt from heaven affecting a
certain metabolism in nature at large and the corresponding process in
man. But first it is man who creates the astral semina of the disease, the
contagium. This is a physical entity, a body. But it is created by some-
thing non-corporeal, the sinful passion and imagination of man.
In all this the Neoplatonic principle of the force of imagination seems
to be involved. "In Nature contemplation is to be something" - as Ficino
says.152
It finally leads to the concept of a psychic element in bodies and vice
versa, and thus to an abolition of strict dualism. The non-corporeal spirit
begets corporeal matter. This train of thought is recognisable in Campa-
nella's "Sensus Rerum" and especially in the philosophy of Van Helmont,
Glisson and Leibniz. It is not accidental that Van Helmont gave it pointed
expression in his treatise on the plague, which we shall compare with Para-
celsus' doctrine.
Before doing so, however, we must review briefly the theory of Contagion.
The Origin of the Plague according to Paracelsus:
Human passion
*
Conversion into "body"
*
metals, also - for external treatment of boils - toads and decoctions of beetles (de-
signed to remove the evil by magnetic attraction), hut herbs and drugs as prescribed
by Ficino and Agrippa are greatly amplified and still appear in a prominent place. See
for detail the footnotes to the edition published by Aschner, Jena 1926-1932, vol. I.
p. 895.
162 "In natiira quidem intueri nihil aliud est quam esse tale et tale quiddam facere."
Plotini Opp. ad Ennead. III, 8, 1 et seq. Basileae 1615, p. 339 et seq. See later our
chapter on Paracelsus and Plotinus. For a more general appraisal of the force of
imagination in mystical philosophy see Koyre, A.: La Philosophie de Jacob Bohme.
Paris 1929, p. 205. Paracelsus Revue d'Hist. et de Philos. relig. 1933, XIII, 46
and 145. Pagel, W.: Bull. Hist. Med., 1935, Ill, 103. Ibid. 1945, XVIII, 21 and Suppl.
Bull. Hist. Med., II, 1944, 31 and 39.
182 Medicine Fracastor on Contagion 183

Ascent of "body" to appropriate

star where it rests as "Seed"
*
Shooting down of seed by
the wrath of God
*
Causing disturbance in Iliados (Nature at large) -
liberation of arsenical (i.e. corrosive)
substances to be trapped in a coagulate (tartar)
*
Parallel process in man producing contagium.
*
Plague

7. The Contagium. Fracastor, Saracenus and Kircher on Plague

Developed by Fracastor (1483-1553) in a classical treatise (1546), the

contagium theory essentially conforms with the modern idea. It is note-
worthy that the view of the plague agent as a chemical corrosive should
have survived it for some length of time.
By introducing a specific agent - the contagium - Fracastor believed
he could explain a special case of "sympathy" in nature - his treatise on
Contagium forms the appendix to one on "Sympathy and Antipathy" in
the cosmos at large. 153

153 Hieronymi Fracastorii Veronensis: De Sympathia et Antipathia Rerum lib. unus.

De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis et Curatione lib. III. V enetiis ap. hered. Lucae-
antonii Juntae. April, 1546. In Fracastor's hands the doctrine of contagia retained
a realistic and scientific air. Later, this doctrine provided a platform for formal-logical
exercises about the various possible contingencies which would make the "sympathy"
between two people effective in transmitting the contagium. This is seen, for example,
in the purely speculative treatise of the Venetian Joannes Marinelli, De Peste ac de
pestilenti contagio liber: in quo disputatur, quantum inter se distent pestis et pestilens
contagium et quae contagioni pestilenti, quales sunt bubones pestiferi et carbunculi
qui aliquas ltaliae civitates inquinarunt, curatio sit adhibenda. Venetiis ap. Gratiosum
Perchacinum 1577. 3, 21, 2 ff. In Fracastor's concept it is from the specificity of the
contagium that the specificity of the disease is derived. This is of particular interest in
view of Paracelsus' ideas that each disease is a specific "Ens" determined by an outside
agent acting upon the body. Fracastor ascribed to his contagium "life", comparable
to that of seed ("seminaria") and opposed to "occult qualities" as well as "miasma"
and putrefaction (see E.W. Goodall in Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1936, XXX, 341)- a further
point of contact with Paracelses' ideas. Finally the importance attributed by Fracastor
to the air as the most powerful cause and vector of contagion is reminiscent of Para-
celsus' view of the air as the carrier of "astral poison" as well as the mysterious "MM"
by which life is maintained on earth (seep. 140).
: HIE~NYMV.S
3_::::.:::!::J.~)' 0 '~"-»··c1~;~$
Fig. 14. Portrait of Fracastor - related to an anonymous woodcut prefixed to his Homo-
centrica. Impression in the Wellcome Collection. Neg. 14799.
The concept of contagion is closely related to "Natural Magic" - for both are based on the
belief in sympathy and antipathy in the cosmos. This connection can be traced to Ficino's
treatise on the Plague (1481). Here Ficino, more than sixty years before the work of
Fracastor, says: Infection is transmutation of like into like - comparable to the re-
sonance given by one of two guitars attuned to each other when the twin instrument is
played. Hence the more two persons are related to each other by birth, complexion
or constellation, the greater the danger of one being infected by the other (De Epid.
Morbo, loc. cit., 1518, sig. Giii, cap. XXIII: De astantium conservatione qui infirmum
regunt). - For a general appraisal of Fracastor see: Singer, C. and D. W., Ann. Med.
Hist. 1917, I, l; and Wilmer Cave Wright in the translation of De Contagione. New
York 1930.
184 Medicine
Fracastor's view is "atomistic" - in it small particles and their capa·
bility of penetration and action at a distance are paramount. Their activity
largely depends upon humidity, which allows them to become adhesive. 154
That they are beings in their own right emerges from the differences which
separate them from the agents causing putrefaction, which is the simple
dissolution of a composite object.
Rabies, for example, though contagious, presents no evidence of putrefaction. 155
Wine turns acid by contagion but not by putrefaction. Contagion is a matter of particles,
unlike putrefaction or combustion which affect an object as a whole. 156 In spite of super-
ficial similarity (notably in their malignancy), contagium is fundamentally different from
poison. For the latter cannot generate anything cognate to itself. Arsenic, orpiment,
rokett157 and cantharides are corrosives which simply bum. They are often wrongly called
putrefactive. Nor can their vapours give rise to the seeds of contagium. 158
ConselJuently, in works on the plague which are based on the doctrine
of the contagium, no mention is made of any resemblance or identity bet-
ween the causative agent and a chemical corrosive.
This is seen for example in Saracenus' work on the plague. 159 In this.the contagium,
as defined by Fra'castor, assumes the central place in the causation of plague as a cor·
ruptive process of the body "as a whole". Among the more remote causes, human wicked-
ness is given considerable attention, but not connected with the astrological causes of a
depravation of the air, or with the pestilential vapours arising in it. On the other hand,
arsenic and other chemicals and metals are recommended as preventives chiefly to be
worn around the neck - in order to attract the poison "magnetically~' and neutralise it
by "sympathy".160 This may contain a trace of the idea that the poison is something akin
to a chemical substance.
Kircherl61, though argning on lines similar to those of Saracenus, issues a warning just
against chemical corrosives worn as amnlets, because of their highly poisonous action on
respiration and the heart. A new feature is the broad exposition of the spontaneous gener·
ation of a contagium animatum ("Vermes") from putrid material, supported by experi-
ments and microscopic observations. 162 Close to this proto-scientific effort, we find a long
chapter on the traditional topic of "magic" plague brought about by diabolical art, in-
154 Fracastorius, Hier.: De Contagione. Lib. I, cap. 10. Opp., Secunda Ed. Venetiis,
1574, p. 81 (verso).
155 Ibid. Lib. I, 9, p. 81 (recto).
156 Ibid. Lib. I, 1, p. 77.
157 "Pythiocampe" meaning "Eruca", an anti'scorbutic plant of sharp, burning, pene·
trating quality. It also stands for an insect with properties similar to Cantharides -
the meaning intended here (see Castelli Lexicon Med. Lipsiae 1713, sub "Eruca",
p. 316).
155 Ibid. Lib. I, cap. 11, loc. cit., p. 82.
159 I. Antonii Saraceni Lugdunaei: De Peste Commentarius. Ex. Off. Jo. Gregorii, 1572.
160 Saracenus, Ioc. cit., p. 215.
161 Athanasii Kircher Scrutinium Physico-medicum Contagiosae Luis quae dicitur pestis.
1658. Second Ed. Leipzig 1659, p. 339.
1s2 Loe. cit., pp. 69 et seq.
Contagion. Van Helmont's Theory 185
eluding a lengthy explanation of how vindictive Jews, lepers and beggars manufactured
the plague in France in about 1320 by poisoning wells, as they admitted under torture. 163
~What the poison was, however, he does not say, but suspects that it was provided by
poisonous animals or plants,164 replete with poisonous vapours from the earth. It is in
Kircher'.s book that we meet again with arsenical and mercurial exhalations, but these
are not actually thought to be pestiferous. Malignant astral spirits notably of Mars and
Saturn, mixed with diverse elemental matters such as arsenical, mercurial, bituminous,
saline, antimonial, snlphurous and other vapours, can be contributory, however. Hence
the various forms and degrees of malignancy of plague epidemics. 165 It is the same malig-
nant astral spirit that begets in the earth and sea those monstrous insects which swarm
out just before the plague and spell forthcoming doom. 166 This spirit again "tinges" plants
with its malignant breath.
8. Van Helmont's Tomb of the Plague
Van Helmont's treatise: "The Tomb of the Plague", is outstanding in
several respects. It contains a version of Plato's simile of the cave adapted
to the history of medicine, notably with respect to his predecessors Galen
and Paracelsus. It also epitomises the whole of Van Helmont's reform of
medicine and his religious-ethical demands upon the medical profession.
It finally incorporates his doctrine of the "Sensus Reruni.", which fore-
shadows Glisson and Leibniz' philosophy of Monads.
Like all Van Helmont's treatises, it sets out with a widely sweeping
rejection of previous theories. Heaven is in no way responsible for the
plague. The Astra are ordained to be signs indicating the seasons and the
future of things, but not their causes. These latter are the "seeds" of
things - which existed before the stars were made. Thus plants were created
earlier than the stars. There is no plague in China and in some countries
plague still rises afresh. Yet the same stars undergo the same type of
revolutions in all countries. If the plague agent was star-made, it would
envelop the whole atmosphere of the earth at once, because of the great
distances of the stars from the earth.
The Paracelsean theory that man's sinful passions infect the stars
means that heaven is defiled by the deeds of mere non-entities. With
regard to the wrath of God invoked by Paracelsus, Van Helmont asks, why
should the executioner be angry with his victim ? Why should our iniquities
elicit the punishing action of Saturn and Mars rather than of other and
nearer planets like the moon? Moreover, the first to be caught in an epi-
demic is often an innocent child.
163 Loe. cit., p. 113.
164 P. 114.
165 Loe. cit., p. 134.
166 P. 141.
186 Medicine
In Van Helmont's own opinion, the agent of the plague is a poisonous
"gas", i.e. a volatile ("wild") spirit of a specific nature. '"Gas", by virtue
of its specificity, is different from other volatile bodies, notably air and
water vapour - general media of which all things in nature partake.167
The plague spirit either comes to us from outside sources such as plague patients or
carcases or is formed in ourselves - when an internal ferment attaches itself to a crude,
putrefying gas from the earth. But the action of this agent formed in ourselves is not a
direct stroke of the poison at our vital powers (the Archeus), for these are of the celestial
nature of light and therefore not immediately open to an attack by something coporeal
like the poison gas of plague. Plague develops, however, when the Archeus, by a pertur-
bation, confusion or passion, conceives the image of his own change.
The imagination of an "image of death" inside the Archeus thus prepares the nest in
which the poison can settle by a kind of sympathetic or magnetic attraction. This is made
possible by the existence of a kind of sensus inside the poison as well.
Van Helmont says :168 "All which things (namely those which subsist by a real essence)
do enclose in them an obscure act of feeling, imagination and a certain image of choice. For
else, by what mean.s shall a thing be moved, or altered at the presence of its object, unlesse
it feel or perceive that very object to be present with it self? And unlesse that felt concep-
tion doth include some certain imagination in it self?
"There is almost nothing made in nature without a proper motion: and nothing is
moved voluntarily or by itself, but by reason of the property put into it by the Creator,
which property, the Ancients name a proper love, and for this cause they will have selflove
to be the first born daughter of nature, given unto it, and bred in it for its own preservation:
And when this is present, there is of necessity also a sympathy and antipathy, in respect of
the diversity of objects .... "
There is an internal sensus, i.e. "feeling, imagination and image of choice" in objects
of nature. It exists in man, animals and plants, but also in minerals, stones and any part
of matter that acts and functions even in the most primitive way. It thus explains all
phenomena and actions, and particularly those that are attributed to the "occult qualities"
or the tota substantia.
Among these the phenomenon of contagion is paramount. "Take notice Reader that
in this corner all the abstruse knowledge of occult or hidden properties layeth which the
schools have banished from their diligent search .... "
Van Helmont thus erects a complicated hierarchy of factors in the
causation of plague in a way very similar to that of Paracelsus. But his
order is different in content as well as in its arrangement. He recognises
the traditional Galenic "primary" plague poison which comes to us from
outside (notably from plague patients or carcases) and attempts to classify
it as a chemical substance ("Gas"). He also recognises the Paracelsean
idea of its partial formation in ourselves, but drops the macrocosmic-
microcosmic parallel, the action in nature at large, its corrosive - arsenical-
167 On "Gas" and the significance of Van Helmont's discovery see Pagel, W. in: Religious
and Philosophical Aspects of Van Helmont's Science and Medicine. Baltimore 1944.
168 Translated by Chandler. Oriatrike, 1662, p. 1113.
Van Helmont's Theory. Hodges' Loimologia 187
property, and particularly the concept of the "infection" of the stars from
which the poison finds its way back to man. He also adopts from Para-
celsus the conversion of a process of imagination into a physical entity -
the Plague - by sympathetic attraction of a corporeal ferment. In this he
elaborates Campanella's theory of the Sensus Rerum which in his hands
becomes the precursor of the ideas of Glisson and Leibniz. 169 Unlike Para-
celsus, however, he subordinates man to the action of the poison which
exists independently, whereas in Paracelsus' opinion the poison is the pro-
duct of the sinful actions of man.
The following diagram permits an easy comparison 'with the ideas of
Paracelsus.
The Origin of the Plague according to Van Helmont:
Pestilential Poison - a Gas combining with a Ferment
I
Exogenous Endogenous
(Patients, carcases) (Gas of Earth plus ferment
from body)
Stirs up Archeus forming
I
Image of Disease
I
Image+ Poison = Plague = Contagium
9. Traits of Paracelsean theory in Hodges' Loimologia
By the time of Nathanael Hodges, who described the plague of London
(1665) in his Loimologia of 167217°, divine wrath as the cause of plague
had become a mere formula promulgated chiefly in order to avoid the sus-
picion of atheism. To Hodges, the admission of a supernatural cause cannot
mean an evasion of the search for the natural causes which is paramount
l69 See Pagel, W. in: The Speculative Basis of Modern Pathology. Bull. Hist. Med. 1945,
XVIII, 18-21, and in: The Reaction to Aristotle in XVIIth Century Biological Thought.
Science, Medicine and History. Essays in honour of Ch. Singer. Ed. E. Ashworth
Underwood. Oxford 1953, vol. I, p. 503.
l70 Loimologia sive Pestis Nuperae apud p:ipulum Londinensem grassantis Narratio
Historica. Londini 1672.
188 Medicine
in medicine. It would be beneath the dignity of the Hippocratic art and
injurious to reason.1 71 Plague is a disease caused by a fatal and poisonous,
fine contagious aura, which spells corruption and is in turn the product of
a peculiar alteration of the nitrous-aerial spirits in the earth.172 It is a
fine "pneumatic" aura rather than a thick earthy miasma. The poisonous
quality of the aura invites a comparison with a chemical substance, to wit
any "arsenical tinctures" as contained in minerals.
In all this we easily recognise a transformed Paracelsean plague con-
cept. It is stripped of its metaphysical and symbolic implications based
on the correlations between cosmos, earth and man. What remains is the
designation of the virus as arsenical and its derivation from the bowels of
the earth. The coincidence of plagues with earthquakes is now qnite ra-
tionally explained in terms of a liberation of the fatal poison from its hiding
place in tlle depths of the earth by the natural catastrophe. The chemical
theory is elaborated upon by introducing the Helmontian concept of the
Alkahest in order to illustrate the devastating effects of the poison -
likened to an omnipotent chemical solvent - on organic substance. An-
other, to him still more contemporary, chemical concept ori which Hodges
draws is that of the nitro-aerial spirits.
On January 4th, 1664/5, Robert Hooke had made an experiment by which he showed
that coal in a closed glass vessel ceases to bum but revives when brought into air. He
concluded that "air is the universal dissolvent of all sulphurous bodies and that this
dissolution is fire" in which process the effective cause is a "nitrous substance inherent and
mixt with the air". 173 Against this Boyle assumed the mere enclosure of "little aerial
particles between the very minute solid ones" of nitre when commenting on Hooke's
theory. 174 In 1674, Boyle suggested that the "springyness" of fresh air necessary for
animal life is due to "some vital substance diffus'd through the Air whether it be a volatile
Nitre or (rather) some yet anonymous substance, Sydereal or Subterraneal ... " 175 At the
same time and probably independently, Mayow concluded that air contained nitro-aerial
171 Loe. cit., p. 38.
172 "Pestis est morbus, ab aura venenata; subtilissima, maxime exitiosa, simul ac Con-
tagiosa, complures eodem tempore diversarum Regionum corripiens, a peculiari
potissimum Spiritus Nitroaerei alteratione velut Corruptiva ortus." Ibid., p. 39.
173 McKie, D.: Fire and the Flamma Vitalis: Boyle, Hooke and Mayow. Science, Medicine
and History. Essays in hon. of C. Singer, Oxford 1953, vol. I, p. 474, with reference
to Birch, T.: History 'of the Royal Society of London, London 17 56-1767, vol. II, p. 2.
Compare for the background of this and similar experiments : Kopp H. : Geschichte der
Chemie, vol. III. Braunschweig 1845, p. 133.
174 Boyle, Tracts cont. New Experiments touching the Relation betwixt Flame and Air.
Oxford 1672, p. 76. See McKie, loc. cit., p. 479. On the actual year of publication of
Boyle's work (1673) see Partington, J. R.: The Life and Work of John Mayow (1641-
1679). Isis 1956, XLVII, p. 409.
175 Boyle, Tracts ... about some Hidden Qualities of the Air. London, 1674, p. 24-27.
See McKie, loc. cit., p. 484.
Nitro-aerial Particles. - Uroscopy 189
particles which were consumed in combustion and respiration.176 Mayow's belief in the
assumption of nitro-aerial particles from the air into the blood177 must have had a special
appeal for any theory of the plague as a disease communicated by the air.
The nitro-aerial particles are now the mediators between man, earth
and cosmos. Divine wrath as the primary cause of an upsetting of ele-
mentary balance in the earth, causing the stars to send down the deadly
poison - all this has been dropped; and in place of this complicated astro-
metaphysical and symbolistic mirage, in which Paracelsus had enveloped
his chemical hypothesis of the arsenical nature of the poison, the latter
alone remains in a form approximated to reality by the contemporary
concept of the nitro-aerial particles in earth, air and man.
Traces of a suggested quantitative and chemical analysis of
urine to replace mediaeval uroscopy
We may conclude this chapter with one other example of the strange
and intimate blending of sound scientific principles with a system of magical
and fantastic analogies: the replacement of ancient and mediaeval uro-
scopy by the weighing and chemical examination of urine.
Mediaeval uroscopy
Since the 13th century A.D., uroscopy had been brought into a closed
system and, at this time, Walter Agilon presented diseases no longer in
the order from head to foot, but according to the changes recognisable by
simple inspection of the urine. Diseases such as malaria, vertigo, alcoholism
were lumped together because they all give urine a white colour. The urine
was supposed to indicate the pathological changes in the humours. Four
regions from top to bottom were distinguished in the urinal and were
correlated with the head, chest, abdomen and uro-genital system. Urinary
changes appearing in one of these regions pointed to the system affected.
A granular deposit found in the upper layer and descending into the second
layer on shaking indicated "catarrh", i.e. the downward flow from the head
to the chest. 178
176 Mayow, John: Tractatus qninque medico-physici. Oxford 1674, pp. 104--105. See
McKie, loc. cit., p. 485. Hoefer, F.: Histoire de la Chimie. 2°d ed., Paris 1866, vol. II,
p. 253. For a recent assessment of John Mayow as an independent observer and savant
see Partington, loc. cit. Isis 1956, XLVII, pp. 217 and 405.
177 Tract. de Respiratione Bihl. Anat., ed. le Clerk and Manget, Genevae 1685, vol. II,
p. 224. See Pagel, W.: Harvey and the Purpose of Circulation. Isis 1951, vol. XLII, p. 24.
178 Mediaeval Uroscopy: For a clear and profound survey see: Diepgen, P.: Geschichte der
190 Medicine Chemical "Uroscopy" 191

AV RORA

T HESAVR VS-
Q..VE PHILOSOPHORVM,
Theophrafti Paracel6 , Germani
Philofophi,& Medici pra: cundis
omnibus accuratifsimi.
A.cceflit
Monarchia Phyflca per GB R A R...
D v M Do RN B V M,in defenli'onem Para..
celficorum Principiorum, afuo Przcepro.
re pofi'rorum.
Przterea
Anatomia uiiu Pttrttctlfi, qua docet autor prttterft•
tfionem corporum ,& ante mortem, patienti•
6us effe faccurrendum.

Fig. 15. Mediaeval Uroscopy. Disc exhibiting the colours of urine. From: Ulrich Binder
(Pinder) Epiphanie Medicorum. Speculum videndi urinas hominum. Peypus, Niirnberg
1506.

Paracelsus' demand for a chemical examination of urine - Chemical I 5 77.

"uroscopy" and "dissection" ("Anatomy") of urine by Paracelsists.
Assessment of the specific gravity of urine by Van Helmont

Paracelsus opposes "uroscopy" on the ancient lines. No information,

he says, can be obtained from the urine short of its examination by "ex-
traction", coagulation and distillation ("ebullition"), i.e. by chemical BASILE AE·
methods. These will reveal what is hidden during a mere inspection of an
untreated specimen - for example the true colour of urine, its sweet, bitter
or sour quality, its salt content, and changes due to fever paroxysms.
Fig. 16. Title page of the "Paracelsean" treatise in which a "chemical-anatomical dis-
Medizin. Berlin 1949, vol. 1, p. 213, and idem, Gualteri Agilonis Summa Medicinalis. section" of the urine is recommended. The same work contains Dorn's l\fonarchia Triadis
Ed. princ., Leipzig 1911. as referred to in footnote 271 on p. 104.
192 Medicine Chemical "Uroscopy" and "Dissection" 193

Signs of tartaric disease are just as hidden in urine as is silver dissolved in VIVORVM IJ7
Aqua fortis. 179 They are detected, however, when a deposit is precipitated.180
This is formed by coagulation whereby the morbid "species" are separated
out from the urine. 181 Diseases will thus be diagnosed in terms of an
abnormal quantity or condition of s,alt, sulphur and mercury. 182 In short,
the doctor must know how to "separate" the contents of urine by chemical
means.
Detailed instructions are given for "reading" the deposits - revealing a
disappointing albeit subtle new brand of uroscopy.
Yet the principle of chemical examination stands out as a remarkably
progressive step. This remains true in spite of the fantastic versions which
the principle assumed in the hands of the Paracelsists. Such versions are
prominent in a treatise ascribed to Paracelsus himself, but regarded as J.O
H
spurious already by Huser. 183 It is of great interest to follow up how the
Paracelsists elaborated the ideas of the master in the matter of urine
u.
J3
examination - until the sound scientific reform of Van Helmont, the Para- ,4
celsean naturalist. f,.J'
The author of the treatise just mentioned still aims at a quantitative t6
analysis by means of the balance and accurate measurement of volume.
This proto-scientific procedure is still bound up however, with the idea
•7
that in the urine the whole anatomy of man is somehow represented.
•9
19
This is the old idea of "uroscopy" - but with a chemical twist. Simple ~I)
inspection of the urine teaches nothing. It is necessary to subject urine Fig. 17. The "Anatomi- '.2.J
to distillation in a carefully gauged measuring cylinder, the parts of which cal Furnace" for the di-
stillationofurine and dia- l-2.
correspond in length and width to those of the human body. Careful gnosis of the locus morbi
observation of the airy, fluid and earthy parts and the sequence in which ~~
(for explanation see text,
they ascend and are deposited will then reveal the seat of the disease. It is p. 194). From: Aurora 2.4
Thesaurusque Philoso-
thus that the body will be "chemically dissected". Hence the title of the phorum Paracelsi with
179
"Anatomia Viva Para-
Schedula de Urinis. Scholia in libros de Urinis in librum de urinarum ac pulsuum celsi" by which help
judiciis. Huser, vol. I, p. 764. should be given to the De fornace anatomica.
Ibid., pp. 738 and 752.
180
on abfimili
N proporcio, fornacit
181
patient ante mortem. ratione , nofirz
Kurtzes Biichlein de Urinis auss Theophrasti eigner Hand abcopiert. Huser I, p. 745 A. Basileae 1577. Title page
182
183
Ibid. Huser I, p. 746 C. in fig. 16. con:clpondeat pra!cedenti-
Anatomia Corporum adhuc viventium, qua docet Theophrastus Paracelsus . . . ante
mortem aegris consulendum ... in: Aurora Thesaurusque Philosophorum Theophrasti
1 s
Paracelsi accessit Monarchia Physica per Gerardum Domeum ... praeterea Anatomia
Viva Paracelsi qua docet autor praeter sectionem corporum et ante mortem patientibus
esse succurrendum. Basileae 1577, pp. 129-191. - Anatomi, das ist zerlegung der
lebendigen Ciirper, oder von distillierung des hams. Ein Tractatlin etwan von dem treatise: "Anatomy that is the dissection of the living body. Or of distil-
Hochgelehrten Herren Gerhardo Domaeo Lateinisch beschriben und Theophrasto lation of the urine."
Paracelso zugeeignet. Nunmehr aber gemeinem Nutz zum besten Ins Teutsch versetzt.
Chirurgischer Biicher Appendix ... geordnet durch Joh. Huserum. Strassburg 1605, It contains first of all a minute description of the equipment, notably measuring
p. 58-70. cylinders, weights and a balance. The urine should be kept in a vessel of glass or stone, not
194 Medicine Chemical "Uroscopy" and "Dissection" 195

of any other material which might alter its chemical composition. The arms of the balance Thurneisser zum Thurn's "Probierung der Harnen"
should consist of copper or silver but not of iron, which is liable to rust, owing to the
corrosive properties of urine. Glass vessels should be used for the weighing and should be This method was exploited by the Paracelsist Leonhart Thurneisser
suspended by specially firm cords, not liable to decay when contaminated by urine.
The assessment of the urine is based on specific gravity, the weight of gold being used
zum Thurn (1530-1595).
as the standard for comparison. 18 4 Urine in which the salty property predominates is the
lightest of all, "mercurial" urine the heaviest and the "sulphurous" variety stands between
the two. The assessment of the urine by specific gravity, however, is much overshadowed by
the significance attached to distillation. For this a cylindrical vessel divided along its length
into 24 equal parts ("Daumen") is recommended, its length being six times its width. It is
juxtaposed to the figure of a man exhibiting the same proportions. This vessel is used for
the distillation of urine in a tripartite furnace, which is as long as the cylinder and of
meticulously determined measurements.
With this equipment, all the chemical anatomy of man can be studied. The urine
represents "spagyrical and anatomical man hidden in his own urine". The carefully
regulated fire takes the place of the anatomist's scalpel and will dissect man by the "chemi-
cal barber's art" ("auff Chimische Balbierkunst").
When, after heating the longitudinal vessel in the furnace, humours or vapours ascend
from that part which corresponds to the site of the human heart towards the anterior part
of the vessel, the disease is due to too much joy; if to the posterior part, to sadness; if to the
apex, to wrath (cholera); if to the lower part to fright, etc. If earthy parts ascend before
fluid parts (obviously a pathological sign), a strong tartaric disease is indicated. If the
humour at the first distillation is tinged with many different colours such as blue, yellow,
green, it indicates that the uterus is "infected" by sperms, especially if the colours are
discernible in the middle of the glass, i.e. the region of the genital parts.
There is no need to go into further detail.

In conclusion:
We see ancient uroscopy replaced by a new system hardly inferior to
the old one in the construction of scholastic rules remote from reality. Yet
the new system incorporates sound scientific principles such as the careful
collection of urine in special non-metal containers, its accurate measuring
and weighing and finally a kind of chemical examination. But all this is
bound up with the assertion that the urine mirrors human anatomy. By
giving the still the proportions of a human figure, a workable analogy seemed Fig. 18. Leonhardt Thurneisser zum Thurm. Portrait from: Magna Alchymia. Das ist ein
to be achieved by means of which the normal and pathological formation Lehr ... von den offenbaren und verborgenlichen Naturen ... und was der dingen zum
of urine in the body could be recaptured in vitro. Moreover it seemed theil hoch in den Liifften, zum theil in der Tieffe der Erden, und zum Theil in den W assern,
welche auss dem Chaos oder der Confusion und Vermischung elementischer Substantzen,
possible to locate the phases of this process by observing in which order als Geistlicher und doch subtiler, noch uubestandiger weiss verursacht, empfangen und
various vapours appeared and in which parts of the still they were con- radiciert. BerlinNic. Voltz. 1583.
densed.

What he calls his "fifty-ninth book", professedly published before the fifty-eight others
in 1571185, treated of the "Probierung der Harnen" (testing of urine) "to forestall future
184 On Nicolaus Cusanus as a predecessor in recommending examination of the specific
gravity of the urine for diagnostic purposes, see below, p. 199. 186 At Frankfurt an der Oder by Johan. Eichorn.
196 Medicine
importumties by boastful and opinionated persons". 186 It is a collection of "consilia"
based on urine examination. Each consilium proceeds from the weight and naked-eye
appearance of the urine to the description of what happened in its distillation. For example,
the urine of a woman aged 46 is described as fairly heavy, indicating "mercurial"proper-
ties.187 It forecasts dropsy followed by a tumour of the limbs and tympanites of the lower
part of the abdomen to be relieved by camphor oil, amber and pearls. When separating
the phlegm from the subtle parts of the urine, Thurneisser says he found a blue and yellow
vapour mixed with green fumes at the site of the still corresponding to the uterus, pointing
to some putrefaction and impure nature. These fumes ascended to the very top; unwilling
to resolve into fluid, they remained a fog, becoming thick and turbid, circulating like a
globe and moving hither and thither. All this revealed that vapours were permeating the
ducts of the liver, the tracheo-bronchial tree and the cavities of the heart, leading to
fainting, putrefaction and tartar formation. They would finally attack the brain causing
apoplexy, convulsions, torpor. Deposited - coagulated - matter had the appearance of
"tartar".
Thurneisser's descriptions of the distillation of urine largely paraphrase
the theory of catarrh in chemical terms. There are vapours ascending from
the abdomen to the brain, which are condensed in the top part of the
alembic - human or chemical - and flow down to organs having ducts that
are liable to be obstructed by the condensed and coagulated material
(tartar).
James Hart's criticism of chemical uroscopy
For a criticism of this alchemical "urosophy" we turn to "The Anatomie
of Urines containing the conviction and condemnation of them", by James
Hart of Northampton. 188 Standing firmly on his humoralistic convictions
he "detects and unfolds the manifold falsehoods and abuses committed by
the vulgar sort of Practitioners, in the judgement of diseases by the urines
onely." The tenth chapter - at the end of the book - treats of the "fond
and foolish opinion concerning the distillation of urines: of the water of
separation, together with the uncertaintie of judgement by such meanes".
Hart says 189: "One of the great masters of alchemy Thurnheuserus by name, to the
186 A more comprehensive work adorned with anatomical folding plates with movable
parts appeared at Berlin (Im Grawen Closter) in 1576: Bebaiosis Agonismou Das ist
Confirmatio concertationis oder ein Bestettigung ... der ... Kunst des Harnprobirens.
In Dreytzehen kurtze Bucher an tag geben. Folio. VI, 107 fol. No. IX in Moehsen's list
of Thurneisser's printed books (p. 191). (Beitriige zur Geschichte der Wissenschaften
in der Mark Brandenburg. Berlin 1783.)
187 "die mensur 16 lot 3 quintlein und 2 / wegend."
16
1 Quint = about l drachm.
1 Lot= about 17 grammes (4 drachms).
188 London 1625.
189 P. 119.
Chemical "Uroscopy" criticised. J. Hart 197
end that Paracelsus and his disciples might be thought to surpasse all other Physicians,
devised a new way to judge of diseases by Urines: to wit, by dividing it into three generall
principles, Mercury, Sulphur and Salt: and so by distillation to finde out that which we
demanded." Libavius mentions a "water of separation", one drop of which added to the
patient's urine will accomplish the separation of these "elements" so that the predominant
one will "lay it selfe open to the sight of the eye, and shall withall declare and lay open the
cause of the disease." But, says Hart: "Great cry and little wooll. Our Paracelsists would
THE
ANATOMIE
OF VRINES.
CONTAINING THE CONVIC-
tion and condemnation ofthem.
Or,theje,ond Pm ofourdifcourfe of'JriM1,
Dc1cl\ing and vnfolding 1hc manifold fallhooclsand
abufcs commi11cd by 1hc vulgar fo11 of Praaitioncrs,
in 1hc iudgw:mcnt ofdifcafcs by the vrincs oncly : co•
gcthcr with a nwow furucy of thcirfubtbiicc,
chicfc colalln,and manifold con1cm1,ioy-
ning withaU the righ1 vfe of vrlna,
whmi• ii "nt•i1mlpk111i11fp,,jil4fft mUJ/f(/111/I
Hijlotlt1t11Utrtii"!1!N f•'1tdl.
Collei!led, ••well our ofihc aacl•nt Oreeh, Lalno,<WI Ara•
bi an Authors, II out or om lore hlDOU> Ph,iidllW orr.u...u
Nationo: theirauthorldes qu01ed 1ndu1nfltted0111of
th• origlo•ll tong-,tognhcrwid1 fomc oftht
Authon owne obfctu1tlon>.
B1 huu Hu.T efN 01.TH.AMPJOllo
Fig. 19. Title page of James Hart LONDON.
(Fl. 1633), Anatomie of Urines. Pri11tcd i., 1u&.t,Fitllr«Rohn&(Jtf-, 110d 111uolle
tol.tat!lls lh•nau.blltolllbdoorcof Pawa. I hs•
faine feed us with many such smoaky promises." Nor has he any confidence in the weigh-
ing of the urine as practised by the alchemists in order to trace a "heavy tartar or terres-
trious substance". Nor finally has he any patience with the "anatomizing" of the urine,
i.e. Thumeisser's method, ·as described above and summarised by Hart in the words of
Reusner: "After the separation of the aforesaid elements the vapours ascending sticke to
some part of the Still, answering in situation to that part of the body of man in the which
lyeth hid the very fountaine and spring of the disease." 190 Hart argues that the urine is a
distillate of the blood and that separation of its "elements" can at best reveal "the number
190 De Spagiricorum nova urinae probatione quae fit per separationem et resolutionem
Mercurii, Sulphurii et Salis. In Willichii, Jodoci Reselliani Urinarum probationes
illustratae scholis medicis Hier. Reusneri. Henricpetri, Basileae 1582, p. 286.
198 Medicine
of the parts which are in the substance of the blood, and of what nature and kind it is".
Perhaps one may thereby put something down to the action of mercury, sulphur or salt.
Hart then asks the courteous reader: "If when thou hadst used all thy art and cunning, a
countrey-man should aske thine opinion concerning his urine, and thou shouldst tell him
bee were troubled with some sulphureous, mercuriall or saltish and tartareous disease,
would he not laugh thee to scorne, and thinke, it may be, thou hadst beene that day too
well acquainted with some pots and pipes of Tobacco? ... and if he ... tell his wife ... who
knowes but she might call him Goodman Wood-cocke for telling her such a tale of Robin-
Hood". If it be a "sulphureous disease" there are many of them and which should it be?
Ifit be a fever how should it be possible to conjecture its type and nature from the methods
of the alchemical "urine-mongers"?
Hart is a humoralist who would see in colour differences the reflection
of humoral changes and crises, but on the whole deprecates any diagnosis
and prognosis from the urine in a critical and enlightened manner.
Van Helmont's criticism of chemical uroscopy
It was not very long before Van Helmont ridiculed the "chemical
anatomy" of urine which he ascribes to Thurneisser alone. 191 He sees in
it one application of the analogy of the macrocosm and microcosm, basic
to the world of Paracelsus and one of the main targets of Van Helmont's
polemic. Van Helmont says that Thurneisser talks nonsense about the
multitude of "species" hallucinated by him in the urine. He not only
wants man to be a microcosm, but also urine "to enjoy this privilege" -
believing that urinary vapours ascending in distillation are condensed at
that part of the still which corresponds to the region affected by disease in
the patient. This is how Thurneisser is satisfied, to impose on the world
his "uroscopies", suspect of deceit and magic nonsense, by excusing them
as a kind of distillation and "hydromantics".
Unlike Van Helmont's own chemical methods, Thurneisser's invention
served only to deceive its author and others. It was ludicrously, if not
dishonestly, introduced into medicine.
Yet the idea of weighing the urine was taken up and greatly promoted
by Van Helmont, who also recommended comparative readings and the
determination of the specific gravity.
In this, Van Helmont is preceded by Nicolaus Cusanus (1401-1464).
In his small treatise: "On Experiments with the Balance", Cusanus insists
on the expression and interpretation of all natural phenomena and proc-
esses in quantitative terms. For this he recommends the use of the balance,
particularly to determine the specific weight of blood and urine. Weight
191 De Lithiasi, cap. III, Contentum urinae, 20; Opuscula. Ed.Valentini, p. 17.
Chemical "Uroscopy" criticised. Van Helmont 199
and colour of urine will thus make a better diagnosis possible than colour
alone, for the latter is fallacious. Tables should be prepared in which the
average normal figures valid for young and old people, for Germans and
Africans, are shown for comparison with the urine of a given case. 1 92
We shall return to Cusanus in a more general context later. 1 9 3 Here it
suffices to say that he influenced Van Helmont's quantitative experiments
and deliberations.
Van Helmont says194 : "There is, in the meantime, a safe method of examining urines
by their weight; to wit, an ounce weigheth 600 grains. But I had a glassen vessel, of a
narrow neck, weighing 1354 grains: But it was filled with rain water, weighing besides
4670 grains: the urine of an old man was found to weigh in the same vessel 4720 grains;
or to exceed the weight of the rain water, 50 grains: But the urine of a healthy woman of
55 years old weighed 4745 grains: The urine of an healthy young man of 19 years old,
weighed 4766 grains: But that of another young man of like age, being abstentions from
drink, weighed 4800 grains: The Urine of a young man of 36 years old, undergoing a tertian
ague with a cough weighed 4763 grains: But the aforesaid youth of 19 years old, with a
double Tertian, had drunk little in the night aforegoing: but his urine weighed 4848
grains: which was 82 grains more than while he was healthy. A maid having suffered the
beating or passion of the heart, made a water like unto rain water, and the which there-
fore, was of equal weight with rain water: A lukewarm urine is always a few grains lighter
as also more extended than itself being cold: And therefore, let the vessel be of a short
neck and sharp pointed that it may measure the urine almost in a poynt. Another shall
add and meditate of more things: And it is a far more easy method, than. that which is
reduced into Aphorisms by weighing of the whole man: I have always breathed about
the essences, remedies and applications, or for the curing of a disease : and who am one
that have hated the common applause: I have hated also the prognostication, prediction
and fore knowledge that was familiar to divinations: I have rather rejoyced to heal the
sick party, than by speaking doubtfully, to have foretold many things."
192 Cusanus, Dialogus quartus Idiotae: De Staticis experimentis. Operum clarissimi
P. Nicolai Cusae Card. Ex. officina Ascensiana recenter emissa, vol. I, Parisiis 1514,
fol. 94 v. Vitruvius had recommended that water near human habitations should be
examined for purity by weight. In the same way should be tested: "Sanguis, Urina,
Sanus, lnfirmus, Juvenis, Senex, Alemannus, Mer, Haerbae, Radices, Doses, Pulsus,
Anhelitus, Complexio, Periodus, Calor, Frigus, Climata, Homo, etc." (Marginal sum-
mary of text). For separate editions: Vitruvius, De Architectura. Knobloch, Stras-
burg 1543. In German: Nicolai Cusani Dialogus Von Wag und Gewicht in Benj.
Brameri, Kurtze Meynung vom Vacuo. Marburg 1617. More recently in No. 5 in
Nicolaus von Cues, Schriften in deutscher il"bersetzung. Ed. Ernst Hoffmann, trans-
lated by H. Menzel-Rogner. Leipzig 1944. (Bibliography including German trans-
lations prior to Bramer: pp. 82-83; the mid-XVIlth cent. English translation in:
The Idiot in Four Books, London 1650, should be mentioned in addition.) For an
appreciation of Cusanus as a founder of chemical and physico-chemica~ methods in
medicine: Hans Fischer, Roger Bacon and Nicolaus Cusanus. Schweiz. med. Wschr.
1940, LXX, 97-109.
193 P. 279 on Paracelsus and Nicolaus Cusanus.
194 Scholarum Humoristarum Passiva Deceptio 31. Ed. Valentini, Franco£. 1707, vol. 11,
p. 193. - Translated by Chandler 1662, p. 1056.
200 Medicine
Whoever wishes to judge history by the yardstick of modern science
may thus compare Van Helmont's reduction of Paracelsean "uroscopy" to
a scientific minimum with the flowery imagination of Thurneisser, and the
scientific terms used by Van Helmont with the obscure language of Para-
celsus and his immediate followers.
Progressive Aspects of Paracelsus in Medecine and
their limitations
So far we have discussed Paracelsus' medical ideas and theories - the
main subject of the present book. It remains to survey briefly the pro-
gressive aspects of his work in various branches of medicine. 195
Paracelsus let light and air into the sickroom and exhibited distinct
humanitarian and ethical traits in his attitude towards the patient, notably
including the mentally sick. He recognised the healing power of nature
especially in surgery where he restricted activity to the utmost. Conse-
quently, he adhered to the basic antiseptic principles of the schools of Hugo,
Theodoric and Mondeville - without necessarily being conscious of pre-
decessors in this field.1 96 Nor did he recommend the use of hot oil in wounds
- a method then in common use, but possibly not known to him.
Such sound and judicious principles did not prevent Paracelsus from
including astrological injunctions, for example in the handling of haemor-
rhages and prognostication of wounds. 197 Moreover, he ignored ligature
and probably did not practice colostomy.198
We mentioned his unrealistic syphilis theories. 199 His observations of
syphilis in its many protean manifestations, including visceral and con-
genital syphilis, were, however, advanced, and so was his rejection of
guaiac and heroic mercurial treatment. Though recognising the bone
195 ·For a critical assessment of these aspects see the masterly essay by J. K. Proksch,
Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller, Safar, Wien und Leipzig 1911.
196 Mediaeval surgeons are mostly mentioned in a deprecating vein, for example Lanfranc
and Argelata in: Drei Chirurgische Biicher von Syphilis etc. Liher quartus Chirurgiae
de hulcerihus in genere. Tract. I, cap. I. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 509; also in several
places: Von Apostemen. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IV, pp. 168, 284, 367, 368, Theodoric is
quoted as the author of an - improbable - theory of scrophull\ (Von Apostemen, Ge-
schwiiren etc. 1527. Cap. 28. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IV, p. 255). "Rogerius mentitur" with
reference to his theory of goitre. Ibid., cap. 19, p. 223; against Roger's explanation
of haemorrhoids and peri-anal papilloma. Ibid., cap. 21, p. 229.
1 97 See above p. 71; p. 148.
198 Proksch, loc. cit., pp. 20 et seq.
199 See above p. 139.
Progressive Aspects 201
lesions as syphilitic, he regarded other syphilitic changes as the result of
"mercurialism" .200
His knowledge of the diuretic action of mercury and its curative action
in dropsy201 remains a remarkable fact - especially in view of his anti-
mercurialist attitude. Another progressive feature is that he connected
goitre with the deposition of minerals (as against an upset of humoral
balance), the drinking of water202 and the presence of marcasites in cer-
tain places. He recommended a salt as a cure. 203 Paracelsus' merit in this
is not greatly diminished by the fact that the role of drinking water in the
causation of goitre was a matter of popular belief at the. time. Modern
research has confirmed Paracelsus' 'hydro-telluric' theory of goitre. 204
There are several fields in which Paracelsus is given credit as being the
"founder". One of these is modern Balneology. 2 05 He certainly was a keen
student of mineral waters and their action on the sick and made many
shrewd observations, for example on the appetising and beneficial diges-
tive affects of the acid water of St.Maurice. He is even said to have anti-
cipated modern geological findings from his examination of Spa water. 206
His theory concerning the medicinal action of waters has a sound
observational component: that it is due to their mineral contents. It is
these that the physician must know - as Paracelsus already emphasises
in his Baderbiichlein (1525).
The main part of his theory, however, is the correspondence of each
water with the specific action of a medicinal plant. For example, Pfafer's
water corresponds to melissa and hellebor. 207 It is difficult to separate the
200
201
Proksch, loc. cit., p. 45.
"Die arznei ... ist der mercurius, dan er ist der, der gewalt hat das resolvirte salz
zu treiben und das rechte herfiir zu fiirdern" (Mercury is the remedy, for it wields the
power of expelling the dissolved salt and of promoting the appropriate salt). Elf
Traktat. Von der Wassersucht. Huser, vol. I, p. 551. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 16.
202 "Ubi fontes si quis diu bibat, strumam accipit. Ergo uhi non humor mineralis, ibi non
struma." Von Apostemen, Geschweren etc. Cap. 19: De Struma, vulgo kropf. Ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. IV, p. 223.
203 "Hungarian Salt". See Strebel, J.: Paracelsus iiber den Kropf, seine Entstehung und
Behandlung. Praxis, Bern 1949, Nr. 10.
204 Breitner, B.: Das Kropfproblem bei Paracelsus und heute. Cilia-Symposium 1956, IV,
128-132.
205 Strebel, J.: Paracelsus als Begriinder der allgemeinen und speziellen Balneologie.
Nova Acta Paracels. 1948, V, 121-134.
208 Strebel, loc. cit. 1948, p. 131, with reference to his knowledge of the common origin
of the waters of Baden-Baden, Wildhad and Zellerbad of which only those of Baden-
Baden retain their original power owing to their uninterrupted flow from the source.
207 For detail see Strebel, J.: -Ober Heilpfianzen und Heilbiider in der Balneologie Hohen·
heims und iiber seine korrigierenden Zusiitze zu den Heilhiidern. Nova Acta Paracels.
1948, V, 135-138. The author endeavours to show the empirical truth in the "phyto-
202 Medicine

empirical and these "cosmological" components of this theory. At all

events it is not possible to ascribe scientific balneology to Paracelsus in
simple terms - although his work is certainly interspersed with sound
observations.
A second field accredited to Paracelsus is Miners' Disease.2os Indeed,
he was the first to treat it comprehensively and under one heading ("Berg-
The Sources of Paracelsus
sucht" 1534). Here again we find fine observations and clinical descriptions
- notably of chronic arsenic and mercury poisoning. In detail, Paracelsus (Ancient • Mediaeval • Contemporary)
is aware of the toxicity of inhaled lead, arsenic and mercury. He presents
reports of skin lesions in salt miners. He knows that the latter are not
Paracelsus and the ancient, mediaeval and Renaissance sources
exposed to risks comparable to those of metal miners. He vividly describes
the asthmatical attacks and gastro-intestinal symptoms of Miners' Disease.
It has been said1 that Paracelsus derived his ideas on Nature neither
Here again, however, theory as well as practice are interwoven with
from the books nor from the doctrines of classical philosophy; it was not
general ideas of correspondences between astra, minerals and organs and
Stoicism, nor Cabala, nor Florentine Neo-Platonism which provided the
their "signatures".
sources of his "philosophy". He did not look for its elements in Picus
Paracelsus, then, presents not only an application of chemical theories
della Mirandola, Reuchlin or Agrippa of Nettesheym, although he cer-
to medicine that was largely original, but also a number of protoscientific
tainly utilised traditional doctrine in developing his view of the world. It
and advanced observations. In assessing such progressive aspects of his
is largely in himself that he found the image of his world - conforming in
work we should not forget, however, that they emerge from a mantic and
this to the usual practice of the Renaissance philosopher and naturalist.
cosmological system which is removed from scientific medicine. We are
We can give but a qualified assent to this statement. We have endeav-
tempted to-day to select and isolate observations that are sound and have
oured to show that Paracelsus was original in his heroic attempt at inte-
a modern ring, from a context that strikes us as utterly speculative and
grating the study of nature and particularly of medicine with chemistry
fantastic. Correct interpretations and descriptions of phenomena are often
and cosmology. His achievement seems to lie in the elaboratio~ of the latter
juxtaposed to and contradicted by reports that are widely different from
into naturalistic and medical detail. "Natural Magic", "Astrosophy",
reality. It is in this that the limitations of the progressive aspects of Para-
"Microcosmic" Correspondences, Alchemy and the vision of Unity in all
celsus' work must be found. To call him the "founder" of any branch of
realms of creation were ideas traditionally and widely cherished in the
medicine or pathology is therefore misleading.
Renaissance. Moreover, all these trends of thought implied opposition to
the ruling Aristotelian and syllogistic philosophy - an opposition that is
already recognisable in Plotinus. All such trends had something of the
"Occult", and it is these trends of oppositional - occult - naturalism which
we find developed in Paracelsus on a grand scale.
He could not help drawing upon the contemporary sources of pertinent
ideas. How far he went in doing so is difficult to say in detail - quotation
of authors and sources was not the usual practice and was particularly
pharmacological metaphors" of Paracelsus concerning the action of mineral waters. distasteful to Paracelsus. A comparison with mediaeval and contemporary
Melissa has a sedative action on the heart - so have the waters of Pflifers, etc. savants and alchemists will immediately show that Paracelsus' famous
208 Strebel, J.: Paracelsus als Begriinder der Lehre von den Gewerhekrankheiten und der
Gewerhe-Hygiene. Acta Nova Paracels. 1948, V, 86-96 and: id., Nachwort mit Kom-
mentaren zu Hohenheims erster Monographie in der W eltliteratur iiher Gewerhe- 1 Koyre, A.: Mystiques, Spirituels, Alchimistes du XVIe siecle allemand. (Cah. des Ann.
Krankheiten und Gewerhe-Hygiene, ibid., pp. 97-111. - For a more critical appraisal X), Paris 1955, p. 50 (in "Paracelse", originally published in Rev. Hist. Philos. Relig.
see Rosen, G., The History of Miners' Diseases. New York 1943. 1933, XIII, 46-75; 145-163).
204 The Sources of Paracelsus
device: "Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest" must be taken with a large
grain of salt.
Paracelsus and Gnosticism
The gnostic concept of microcosm
Following the lead of Thomas Erastus, Daniel Sennert calls the Para-
celsean concept of innumerable seeds of disease scattered over the world a
"Manichean" idea. These seeds of disease embody the evil principle which,
after the Fall of Adam, supervened and invaded the seeds created by God
in purity. This, says Sennert, is the belief in evil as a substance seen as a
repulsive and formless mass either thick and earthy or fine and airy, and
as opposed to good.11
The basic dualism expressed in this idea is indeed the chief distinguish-
ing feature of Gnosticism and Manicheism. Both are trends of Christian
thought which throughout the Middle Ages led the subterranean life of
heretic doctrines and as such might well have found their way to the sur-
face in the works of Paracelsus - just as did much of the Hellenistic and
Cabalistic lore of alchemy and magic.
It was the avowed aim of Gnosticism to search for the germs of Christian
truth in pagan Persian philosophy and in Judaism. To connect these with
the Christian doctrine seemed to pave the way from ignorance to know-
ledge, concerning the problem of the world and of life, and thereby from
mere belief - "Pistis" - to higher understanding - "Gnosis". In this the
main driving force was Neo-Platonism - so much so that Tertullian called
Plato the "Patriarch of the Gnostics" and gnosticism "Platonism Christian-
ized". In this endeavour we recognize two main problems which gnosticism
set itself to solve: First, to find a transition from the world of ideas to the
world of reality, from the Absolute to the Finite.3 Such transitions were
not formulated as concepts and doctrines, but in terms of mythological
personification. Gnosis is not rational knowledge, but one which penetrates
to the hidden world of the Invisible. It sets out to do so by reading its
seals, symbols and traces in the Visible. To do this we must observe nature
with an eye on the "signatures" emerging in natural objects. In addition
there are "signatures" revealed by the mystic interpretation of the letters
2 De Chymicorum cum Aristotelicis et Galenicis consensu ac dissensu. Ed. Ill, Paris
1633, p. 259. - For Erastus and his vociferous accusations of Gnosticism levelled
against Paracelsus see p. 315.
a Baur, F. Ch.: Die christliche Gnosis oder die christliche Religionsphilosophie in ihrer
geschichtlichen Entwicklung. Tiibingen 1835, p. 569.
Gnosticism 205
of the alphabet and of numbers, notably the excellence of the number
seven. Finally a body of traditional myths and symbols concerning the
universe and beings which inhabit it calls for integration with the "signa-
tures" in nature. Natural objects and phenomena are described and ex-
plained in terms of human figures, of life, of generation and begetting.
Everything is animated and alive. 4 The second problem was the origin of
evil. Both problems implied dualism, though not as unqualified as in the
Persian separation of the principle of Light and Darkness by which gnosti-
cism was originally inspired.
Manes interprets the development of the world as a whole in terms of
a progressive contraction of the original gap between fundamental oppo-
sites. This process culminates in the creation of man, the central point in
which the rays from each opposite side converge. Man bound to matter is
faulty and evil. But the spirit of the world which lives on in man as a
"Dew of Light" ("humectatio luminis" - "lkmas tou photos") finds its
way back towards the highest Being. It is thus that man is distinguished
from all other beings, and the human body the most powerful link ("fleaµo~
µeyun:o~") connecting the soul, which is in the nature of light, with
matter. It is in this sense that man is a microcosm. "This body is called a
cosmos as related to the great cosmos".5
Man owes this position to the Fall of Lucifer and his subordinate angels.
This "Fall" implies the loss of a whole world; in its place another cosmos,
the microcosm of man, arises. A new world takes the place of a preceding
world. It is a better world in that man is accessible to redemption whereas
Lucifer is not.
Forming a "Microcosm" is therefore the distinguishing feature of Man
in the Cosmos. His creation thereby redeems not only evil itself, but also
the original dualism and what it implied, namely the limitation of light
and spirit by darkness and matter. Man, qua microcosm, finds his way
hack to the realm of light, developing into psychic and finally purely
spiritual ("pneumatic") man.
In the world of Paracelsus man is a microcosm because in him body is
united with soul, which is an invisible divine fire. In this he was created
over and above all an:gels including Lucifer. For when they have fallen
there is no returning to God. Man on the other hand, by virtue of the
spark of divine love in his soul, is attracted towards God as by a magnet. 6
4 Leise gang, H.: Die Gnosis. Leipzig 1924. Introduction pp. 1 et seq.
5 See Baur, L.: Das Manichiiische Religionssystem. Tiibingen 1831, p. 147.
6 Secretum magicum. Von dreien gebenedeiten magischen Steinen. Huser, fol. edit.,
vol. II, p. 673.
206 The Sources of Paracelsus Gnosticism 207

These views are basically "dualistic". Yet there is the tendency to

unite the opposites and in this lies the redemption and perfection of the
world and man. It is achieved by the original divine light descending in
its fullness into the world and enabling man to return to his origin. In
addition to a soul, the world and man receive the pure Pneuma which
becomes "Innermost Man". The soul is thereby liberated from the burden
of the flesh; it is purified, and a "new" man, "Pneumatic Man", emerges. 7
In this view man and the outside world are the same. The divine light,
the Logos, is the "Upper Man" inasmuch as it is a purely spiritual Being,
and it is the "Great Man" inasmuch as it is the Cosmos itself. Outside
creation the divine light is formless. Inside creation it is formed. 8
In Gnosticism the highest principle, the original Father and Light, is
also called "Original Man". His first emanation is designated as "Son of
Man" or "Second Man". 9 This is the concept of the "Protoplastus" or
"Adam Kadmon".
Such designations are the natural consequence of the whole analogy
drawn between macrocosm and microcosm. They are therefore also found
in the nomenclature of Paracelsus. A famous passage in the Paragranum
says "Heaven is man and man is heaven, and all men one heaven and
heaven but one man". 10 Unification is in "heaven" and "Upper Man"
will restore man on earth to long life. How to achieve this is the subject
of Paracelsus' treatise "De Vita Longa". 11
It is tempting to follow up the gnostic pattern in the ideas of Paracelsus
in greater detail. Only a few hints can be given here.

Perhaps the best illustration of this connection is found in the ideas of Jakob Bi:ihme.
According to him, man is the "bright transparent centre", in which the great battle of
principles has its innermost and deepest significance. To Bi:ihme in the same way as
to the Gnostics and to Manes it is in man that the Fall of Lucifer is redeemed and the
great gap, caused by it, bridged. "Man created for the realm of Light compensates for
the defection of the spirits into the realm of darkness."
Baur: Gnosis, loc. cit., p. 591, with reference to Bi:ihme's Aurora 16, 75; 14, 62; Drei
Prinzipien 10, 8; 10, 11 seq.
The Paracelsist Oswald Croll (1580-1609) said in the introduction to the Basilica
Chymica (1609): "God created man that the number and losse of the rebellious Angells
might be made up in the kingdome of Heaven." Philosophy reformed in four tractates
translated by H. Pinnell. London 1657, p. 54.
7 Leisegang, loc. cit. 1924, p. 133.

Fig. 20. Verso of title page to Suso's Horologium Sapientiae. Colon. 1503. Christ as s Leisegang, ibid.
9 Baur: Gnosis, loc. cit, p. 171.
"Cosmos-Man" spanning the whole width of the mantle of God Father. The title page
10 Paragranum. Der antler grund, gesetzt auff die Astronomey. 1st edition by Adam of
itself is given in fig. 24.
Bodenstein. Franckfurt 1565, fol. 50 verso. Ed. Strunz, p. 56.
11 Published by Adam of Bodenstein in 1562. A penetrating analysis of it, in terms of

psychology of the unconscious, is found in Jung, C. G.: Paracelsica. Zwei Vorlesungen

iiber den Arzt und Philosophen Theophrastus. Zurich und Leipzig 1942, p. 82 seq.
208 The Sources of Paracelsus
Gnosticism sees in the world-soul a derivative of the highest principle
which is purely spiritual. Distributed through nature, the world-soul
assumes the form of light - a principle of corporality, however fine.12 The
spirit thus becomes gradually materialised. This tendency is closely bound
up with the idea of microcosm. For each particle of the microcosm is
supposed to contain something of the cosmos outside, not primarily in a
material form, but represented by its spiritual virtue, a part of the world-
soul. This gnostic idea is also one of the basic principles of Paracelsus. It
is in such "monistic" tendencies of Gnosticism rather than its original
"dualistic" position that its kinship with the ideas of Paracelsus emerges.
For the latter advocated what has been called a "vitalistic monism",13
His ideas of God, the world, nature and man are based on the unity of
spirit and nature. Indeed, one of his main trends of thought is to dissolve
the body and to trace in it the all-pervading spirit. The latter, in turn,
is not regarded as alien to matter, but as a substance of finest corporality.
It is divine, uncreated and forms that "Prime Matter" ("Iliaster") which
precedes and unites all form and matter.14
Similarlf it was a gnostic thought that the soul of the world flows constantly into
us with our food, for it is the same soul that dwells in plants, animals and man. The idea
that man "is what he eats" is Paracelsean. One of the links which connects man with the
world is his food and because of his basic identity with the latter, food is one of the main
factors determining his nature in health and disease.
We have mentioned before the "Dew of Light", a gnostic term which designates the ·
divine spark of light, the link between man and the transcendent world. Paracelsfi.s. ~ay
well have been inspired by this in his concept of the "Tereniabin", a- sweet dew co~g'
from heaven and thereby conveying a particularly effective virtue. · ..
Paracelsus' concept of the elements is pervaded by the "mother"
principle. The elements are seen as the "mothers" from which all natural
objects receive their origin and the seal of specific form and function. In
the gnostic (ophitic) story of creation it is the "mother" ("Sophia") which
became entangled with matter. Weighed down by it she was unable to
join the pure light of the Father and the Son. Forced into a position
intermediate between light and darkness she formed heaven and gave
birth to a demiurge who in turn, together with the spirits of the planets,
formed a world of bodies and finally communicated the spark of divine
light to man.15
12 Baur: Gnosis, loc. cit., p. 197.
13
Goldammer: Paracelsus. Natur und Offenbarung. 1953, p. 95.
14
See below our chapter on Prime Matter, p. 227.
15
Baur: Gnosis, loc. cit., pp.173-175. The fall of Sophia into the waters of chaos (matter)
and her endeavour to be redeemed became one of the basic symbols in alchemy. In
Gnosticism 209
Gnosticism had restricted the belief in an unlimited power of the stars
in. a similar way as Paracelsus did. The stars in themselves do nothing but
indicate the action of the powers of nature. There is, however, in us an
influence of the stars, connected with our animal nature. They impress on
our souls the images of wolves, monkeys and lions and thereby stir up
desires that are similar to those of animals. As such they are the "attach-
ments" ("Prosartemata") to the rational soul which account for evil in
man.16 They have power over man only in his ordinary state of earthly
existence ("Genesis"), but not after rebirth ("Anagenesis"). A connection
between the stars and animal nature in man was incessantly emphasised
by Paracelsus. We refer for example to his theory of insanity.17
Traces of gnostic thinking can be recognized even in the Pathology of
Paracelsus. As we have seen, to Paracelsus diseases are entities in them-
selves, evil principles which enter from outside and are identical with such
forces as are immanent in stars, plants and minerals. Disease to Paracelsus
is thus much more determined by its specific cause than ever before in the
history of medicine. To him disease is caused by a cosmic force which may
exert its harmful effect for example in the form of an arsenical vapour.
At the same time, however, it is a special star or a special plant whose
nature is "arsenical". Finally it is also the product of an "arsenical"
imagination - an evil thought and desire which by a kind of magnetism
and sympathy attracts a corresponding outside power or virtue, a patho-
genetic agent. Similarly in gnosticism evil thought and desire is an evil
demon which attaches itself to man, on whom it acts like a parasite. These
are the "Prosartemata" which we mentioned above.18 It is demons which
induce man to imagine and desire things which are foreign and beyond him.
Perhaps the best illustration of the external causes of disease in the form of demons
lying in wait to attack man is the engraving entitled "Homo Sanus", designed by Fludd
for his "Medicine Catholica". 18 In this man is seen praying in the centre of a platform
the writings of Paracelsus it is symbolised by the Melusine and all that is "melusini-
cum". A nymph-like being dwelling in the human blood, Melusine finally assumes the
meaning of the .deeper strata of the - unconscious - soul and its origin in the world-
soul. Jung: Paracelsica, loc. cit. p. 101 et seq.
16 ·Baur: ibid., pp. 214 and 595. The latter locus refers to Biihme: Drei Principien, 16,
22-25 and 31: "The stars and elements under whose sway man lies captive, often
cause man's mind to imagine a lion, wolf, dog, snake and such like".
Similarly Oswald Croll attributes the sensual life which causes man to behave like
dogs, foxes and wolves to the "syderiall spirit" - in contrast to rational life that derives
from the breath of God, i.e. the holy spirit. Philosophy reformed, loc. cit., 1657, p. 57.
17 See before p. ISO.
ls Baur: Gnosis, loc. cit., p. 215.
l9 Francofurti 1629. The picture is reproduced in Pagel, W.: Religious motives in the
medical biology of the XVII century. Bull. Hist. Med. 1935, 3, p. 279.
210 The Sources of Paracelsus Mediaeval Speculation. St Hildegard of Bingen 211

- each of its four corners being occupied by a protecting angel with sword drawn and
brandished against the four demons, Azael, Azazel, Samael and Mahazael. These are
mounted on weird animals - including fish and snake - surrounded by swarms of winged
creatures half bird, half insect, and propelled by the original sources of disease - the winds.
For it was Paracelsus' idea that evil spirits and invisible seeds of disease come from the
aerial chaos above us. Each of the four demons bears the hallmarks of one of the four
elements. Azael, the demon dwelling in moisture, causes infections such as plague,
small-pox and phthisis; Mahazael, the earthy demon, melancholy, stupor, leprosy and
scabies; Azazel, the principle in water, apoplexy and epilepsy.
In conclusion: There are close parallels and contacts between the
doctrines of Paracelsus and Gnosticism. They largely follow from the idea
of microcosm which they have in common. To explain this there is no
need to postulate a special acquaintance of Para-celsus with the gnostic
texts and fragments transmitted by the Fathers of the Church or Plotinus.
Gnostic tradition was alive at the time of Paracelsus in magic and alche-
mical writings, printed and unprinted. 20
Mediaeval sources of Gnostic speculation and Paracelsus
The mediaeval sources commonly quoted in connection with gnostic
speculation, in addition to alchemical writings, are the Elucidarium of
Honorius Augustodunensis, the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Lands-
berg21 and the Scivias of Hildegard of Bermersheim (1098-1179), known as
Hildegard of Bingen. The latter, however, stands aloof from Gnostic and
Manichean dualistic heresies. 22 Yet her work is based on the idea of
forms the focal point in which oriental, Judeo-Christian und Greek cos-
mological ideas were united into an original and specific pattern23 and as
such transmitted to the writers of the Renaissance. Trithemius had seen
and copied for himself the original manuscript of Hildegard's work on
medicine and natural history. 24 Her book of visions, the "Scivias", was
first edited by Jae. Fabre d'Etaples in 1513. 25 Though belonging to the
Xllth century her works may thus have come to the attention of Para-
celsus, although we have no evidence for this. Resemblances in doctrines
and theories can easily be found, but do not prove anything and are offset
by points in which their doctrines strongly diverge. 26 A few points may be
mentioned, however.
The comparison of the world with an egg and of the layers composing it with skins is
common to Hildegard and Paracelsus. 27 Another example is the designation of meteorites
as "excrements" of the stars. Hildegard says that glowing spheres and missiles appear
at night when the stars send their fire into the air. At this time the latter discharges
"excrement" whereby it purifies itself of the stellar fire and heat. 28 Paracelsus speaks of
stellar "excrementum" which becomes visible at night. 29 The deeds of man have re-
percussions on the stars - they obscure the sun and moon, which react in turn by raising
tempests or droughts, says Hildegard. 30 Paracel!,us' theory of the plague and other cala-
mities is based on the same speculation. 31 Hildegard and Paracelsus have in common a
tendency to limit the power of the stars in favour of the correspondences between man's
activity and stellar configuration. 32
However, there are differences m principle that are more important
I than such similarities in individual doctrines. Hildegard freely draws upon
I

microcosm and for this reason alone deserves our attention. Moreover it
20
In fact, traditional alchemy had always been closely bound up with gnosticism, espe-
23
cially in Hellenistic times. Berthelot as well as Lippmann devote a principal chapter
in their classical works on the Origins of Alchemy to gnostic sources. Berthelot refers
most alchemical symbols, such as the "Ouroborus'', i.e. the serpent that swallows its
own tail, the Salamander and Dragon, the three-circle system, the eight-cornered star,
24
the homunculus and indeed the representation of metals by persons, to gnosticism.
Moreover, the specific "gnostic" language is recognisable in alchemical writings and
both alchemists and gnostics have in common the connection of magic with religious 25
practices. 26
Berthelot, M.: Les Origines de l'Alchimie. Paris 1885, pp. 57-66. Lippmann, E, 0. v.: 27
Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie. Springer, Berlin 1919, pp. 235-247.
The long survival of gnostic symbolism in alchemy emerges in such entries in Ruland's
Lexicon Alchymiae of 1612 in which the "Water is Adam", the "Earth is Eve" or in
the mediaeval denomination of Mercury as the "Mother of Metals". Berthelot, M.:
Introduction a l'etude de la Chimie des Anciens et du Moyen Age. Paris 1889, p. 258. 28
21 29
Reitzenstein, R., and Schaeder, H, H.: Studien zum antiken Synkretismus. Leipzig
1926, p. 136. 3 °
22 31
On this point and her position as an original and quite independent author see in
32
particular H. Schipperges in his recent translation and interpretation of the "Causae
et Curae": Hildegard von Bingen, Heilkunde. 0. Miiller, Salzburg 1957, pp. 15 and 43.
On differences from gnostic speculations notably the concept of androgynous man:
pp. 25; 318 and 321.
Singer, C.: Scientific views and visions of Saint Hildegard. Stud. Hist. Meth. Sci;,
vol. I, Oxford 1917, with special reference to the illustrations closely paraphrasing the
text. - Liebeschiitz, H.: Das allegorische W eltbild der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen.
Stud. Bihl. Warburg. Leipzig 1930, for a detailed appraisal of doctrines and theories.
Schrader, M., und Fiihrki:itter, A.: Die Echtheit des Schrifttums der heiligen Hildegard
von Bingen. Ki:iln und Graz 1956, p. 57; 155.
Liber trium virorum et trium spiritualium. Paris 1513, fol. 28-118.
Schipperges, loc. cit., p. 318 and below.
For the relevant passages from Hildegard see Liebeschiitz, loc. cit., 1930, p. 65, foot-
note 2. Paracelsus particularly refers to the air in this connection, He says: Air forms
the heaven and is like the membrane or shell of an egg - encompassing all that is alive
and separating it from the rest of the world. Philos. de generat. et fruct. quattuor
elementor. Lib. I: De Elemento Aeris. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 15.
Causae et Curae II, transl. by Schipperges, loc. cit., p. 61.
De Meteoris, cap. 10, De Exhalationibus. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 203.
Causae et Curae II, loc. cit., p. 69.
See above pp. 179-182.
Causae et Curae II, loc. cit., p. 67.
212 The Sources of Paracelsus
and adapts (albeit in her original way) the humoral doctrines of the ancients
and nowhere reveals the chemical bias which informed Paracelsus.
Gnostic concepts occur in the "Book of the Holy Trinity" - a product
of the early XVth century and therefore much nearer to the era of Paracelsus
than the sources mentioned so far. 33
Relevant gnostic concepts in this book include the parallelism of things natural and
supernatural, the latter being expressed "occulte" through symbols such as the passion
of Christ and the nativity of Mary. There is also the idea that the planets have communi-
cated some of their own substance to man and there is the story that Adam was created
from eight pieces - a belief widely held in the Middle Ages, though decidedly divergent
from recognised church doctrine. 34 A further gnostic idea - probably Persian in origin -
is that of the "Black Fire of the Sun" forming one constituent of the eight pieces that
composed Adam. This idea is also found in Hildegard of Bingen, and such writers of the
Renaissance as Ficinus, Reuchlin, and Agrippa of Nettesheym. 35
Neither the "Black Fire" nor Adam's composition from eight pieces is mentioned
specifically in the Paracelsean Corpus - except in the spurious tract "On the Secrets of
Creation" in which - significantly - both these concepts occur. 36 Corresponding ideas can
be found, however, in the genuine works - notably the distinction between visible and
33
"Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit" written by a cleric in Konstanz between 1410 and
1419, and analysed in detail by Ganzenmiiller, W.: Das Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltig-
keit. Eine deutsche Alchemie aus dem Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts. Arch. Kulturgesch.
1939, XXIX, 93. Reprinted in: Beitriige zur Geschichte der Technologie und der Al-
chemie. Weinheim 1956, pp. 231-272. - The book was never printed, but manuscript
copies were in circulation among alchemists at the time of Paracelsus and the Para-
celsists - of the latter Nicolaus Niger Hapelius mentions two: one possessed and lost
by Thurneisser and an older one belonging to the Schobinger Library at St. Gallen
(where it is still extant). See Hapelius Cheiragogia Heliana De Auro Philosophico nec-
dum cognito. Marpurgi Cattorum 1612, pp. 72-74. The book is also mentioned in "De
Arte Chemica" wrongly attributed to Ficino (in Manget: Bibliotheca Chemica 1702,
vol. II, p. 172. On the spurious author see Kristeller, P. 0.: Supplement. Ficinianum
1937, I, CLXVI).
84 See Ganzenmiiller: loc. cit. with reference to R. Kohler: Adams Erschaffung. Kleine
Schriften, vol. II, 1900, p. 1-7.
35 Hildegard: Scivias, lib. I, vis. 3; lib. divin. oper. vis. II. - Ficinus: "lgnem caliginosum
.. . luminis expers." - De Vita coelitus comp. cap. 16, ed. Aldina 1516, fol. 160 verso.
- Reuchlin: "Deus legem ... conscripsit per ignem fuscum super ignem candidum (ut
asserunt Cabalaei, notably Rambam Gerundensis). De Arte Cabalistica III. Ed. Pisto-
rius, vol. I, p. 705; Basileae 1587. - See also: Kabbalah Denudata Fmncof. 1677-1684,
vol. II, tract. IV, in Siphra de Zeniutha, p. 128 (commentary by R. Chajim Vital).
Here, "Fire" ("Esh") is said to denote "Red" ("Edom") and "Black" ("Sh'chor").
Agrippa of Nettesheym: "lgnis in coelo dilatatus, in inferno coarctatus, tenebrosus"
De Occulta Philosophia, lib. I, cap. 5. Ed. Lugduni 1600, p. 7.
36 De Secretis Creationis. In: Chirurgische Biicher Paracelsi. Appendix. Ed. Huser.
Zetzner, Strassburg 1605, p. 103, C: "Gott gleich einem fewer in einem diesteren
Flammen", comparable to an invisible spirit in a visible body. - Adam composed
from eight pieces, ibid., p. 114: " ... und die componierung der Menschen Ciirper ist
die subtilheit der vier Elementen, welche subtilheit auch sowol die acht stuck oder
substantien in ihr hat, von welchen Gott Adam gemacht hatte ... "
Mediaeval Speculation. The Cabalah 213
invisible, "material" and "essential" fire. 87 The latter indicates the intrinsic virtue and
power of natural objects, such as balsam, salt, iron, tinctures. In this connection the life
of man is called a "celestial and invisible fire". 86 In all these analogies visible or bodily
fire corresponds to the "dark fire" of gnostic, mediaeval and alchemical parlance.
The Book of the Holy Trinity" could have easily become a source of
gnostic ideas known and used by Paracelsus. At all events it foreshadows
the new enthusiasm for the "occult" in the Renaissance when it enjoyed
wide publicity in alchemist and "occult" circles.
The Cabalah
Gnosticism is closely related to Jewish mysticism and the Cabalah. 39
Cabalistic studies were popular at the time of Paracelsus and cannot have
failed to come to his notice. In this connection it is sufficient to mention
Picus della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Agrippa of Nettesheym and Georgius
Ven:etus ("Zorzi"). Adelung, in his "History of Human Folly'', calls Para-
celsus: "A Cabalist and Charlatan"40 , and Steinschneider says that "Para-
celsus and his associates popularised the Cabalah."41 In fact the Cabalah,
an "occult" current opposed to the privileged teaching of the schools, was
bound to attract Paracelsus and to strike him as superior wisdom. Conse-
quently the terms Cabalah and cabalistic occur in the Paracelsean Corpus
at frequent intervals. They are used to denote the quest for the invisible
meaning, the "divine seals", in objects and phenomena in a general sense.
Specific cabalistic methods and aims, however, such as the mystical inter-
pretation of letters and their numerical value and the cabalistic cosmology
as a whole are not elaborated. Paracelsus himself regarded the Cabalah as
a Persian doctrine perverted by the Jews. 42 This seems to be contradicted
37 "Darum uns zwei Fewr verstanden werden, materialisch und essentialisch. Das Mate-
rialisch wircket mit Flammen und brennen: Essentialisch durch sein Essentiam und
Virtutes." Liber Azoth. Ed. Huser, vol. II, p. 534.
86 "lgnis invisibilis vita est hominis" - "Leben des Menschen ... ein Himmlisches und
Unsichtbares Fewr, ein eingeschlossener Lufft und ein tingierender Saltz-Geist".
De Natura Rerum (nine books). Lib. IV. Ed. Huser, vol. I, p. 889a.
39 See Graetz, H.: Gnosticismus und Judenthum, Krotoschin 1846, and Joel, M.: Blicke
in die Religionsgeschichte zu Anfang des Zweiten Christlichen Jahrhunderts. I: Excurs
Die Gnosis. Breslau 18Bo, p. 114 et seq. (Die jiidische Gnosis und die platonisch-pytha-
goreischen Anschauungen der palestinischen Lehrer). Guttmann, Jul., Philosophie des
Judentums. Miinchen 1933, pp. 51 et seq. and p. 238 with ref. to Scholem, G., Correspbl.
Akad. Jud. IX, pp. 4-26.
40 "Theophrastus Paracelsus, ein Kabbalist und Charlatan". Geschichte der mensch·
lichen Narrheit. Vol. VII. Leipzig 1789, p. 189. .
41 Steinschneider, M.: Jiidische Literatur in Ersch and Gruber's Realencyklopiidie.
Leipzig 1850, p. 455, with reference to Sprengel.
42 Philosophia Sagax I. Probat. in Scient. Necromant. Huser, vol. II, p. 387.
214 The Sources of Paracelsus
by the praise accorded to the Jew "Techellus" and his wisdom ("Techelli-
sche Wissenschaft") - "a great teacher in Israel and true naturalist". But
then, references to Techellus are only found in two treatises that are
strongly suspect of being spurious. 43 On the other hand, their author must
have felt his positive attitude towards Jewish wisdom to be in line with
genuine Paracelsean tendencies - an attitude that would strike his con·
temporaries as authentic. 44 Moreover, even if Paracelsus had no first hand
knowledge of cabalistic ideas and sources, he could not fail to arrive at
concordant views in his doctrine as a whole as well as in certain specific
points. Such concordances are largely the result of the dominant role
played by the theory of Microcosm in both. 45 It is therefore imperative to
43 Liber Principior. s De Myst. Vermium (on the virtues of snakes). Huser, vol. I, p. 1090;
Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 503. - De Pestilitate, Das ist vom Ursprung und Herkommen
Pestis, tract. I. Huser, vol. I, p. 326; ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 597.
There does not appear to exist any "Techellus" as an author or the personal origin
of a tradition. "Techellische Wissenschaft" suggests basic knowledge of perfection or
perfect knowledge, to he derived from the Hebrew "thachal" to begin, to initiate or
"th'chila", the beginning, or else from "Thichlah" or "Thachlith", perfection. To
connect Techellus with "Tesillus" - the <;orrupt form of Thessalus, the second founder
of the methodical school under Nero, a form used by Pietro d' Ahano, Mondeville, Lan-
franchi and Guy de Chauliac - appears to he unrealistic, although Thessalus is men-
tioned by Paracelsus. On d'Ahano (Conciliator Venet. Junta 1526, fol 3 r) see: Nor-
poth, L.: Zur Bio-Bibliographie und Wissenschaftslehre des Pietro d'Ahano. Kyklos,
Leipzig 1930, vol. Ill, p. 335; on the mediaeval surgeons in this connection: Pagel,
Jul.: Die Chirurgie des Heinrich von Mondeville. Berlin 1892, p. 556.
44 This is home out by the way in which Techellus is mentioned by Daniel Sennett; see
later p. 335.
45 For the history of the idea of microcosm in general compare for the classical sources:
Loheck, C. A.: Aglaophamus sive de Theologiae Mysticae Graecorum Causis. Tom. II.
Regimont. Pruss. 1829, p. 908 (lib. 2, Orphica, cap. 9, De Macrocosmo et Microcosmo).
- For general surveys: Meyer, A.: Wesen und Geschichte der Theorie von Mikro- und
Makrokosmos. Bemer Studien zur Philosophie und ihrer Geschichte, 1900, XXV,
1-122, and Conger, G. P.: Theories of Macrocosmos and Microcosmos in the History
of Philosophy. Columbia University Press, New York, 1922. A strong influence of the
microcosm idea on medicine can already he demonstrated in antiquity. As we are told
by the Platonic Phaidros (270C), it was the opinion of Hippocrates, "the Asclepiade",
that the nature of the body cannot be understood without knowledge of the "nature
of the whole", i.e. of the universe. This, Plato infers, is even more true of the under-
standing of the soul. In other words, body and soul were regarded as integral parts of
the cosmos, its matter and its spirit, respectively. The cosmic analogies of the organism
and its parts are prominently displayed in two Hippocratic treatises which show traits
of the style and philosophy of Heracleitos (Peri Diaites - Regimen - lib. I, ed. W. H. S.
Jones in Loeb's Class. Library, Hippocrates vol. IV, p. 246; Diels, H., Vorsokratiker.
-Herakleitos Imitation 1, Hippocrates De Victu I, 10 - 4th ed. Berlin 1922, vol. I,
p. 107; Hippocrates, On the Seven, in Roscher, W.H., Die Hebdomadenlehre der
Griechischen Philosophen und Arzte. Ahhand. Saechs. Akad. d. Wiss. XXIV, no. 6.
Leipzig 1906, p. 48). It is this Pre-Socratic thinker who is said to have originated the
concept of microcosm and it is perhaps not accidental that this critic of his age and
The Cahalah 215
review, however briefly, the contacts between Jewish mysticism and Para-
celsus.
The cosmos of the Cahalah is one of graded divine emanations in which the whole of
nature is spiritualised, i.e. penetrated by divine impulses - a "nature divinisee",46
Such a "divinised nature" well describes the world of Paracelsus.
The cabalist visualises the world as a human figure - "Original Man" or "Heavenly
Adam". It was he who formed "Earthly Adam".47 The latter, even after the fall, remained
a "microcosm whose every member corresponds to a constituent part of the visible uni-
verse".48 These are comparable to the stars, while his skin corresponds to the sky, indicating
"secret things and profound mysteries". 49
A further cabalistic concept relevant to the ideas of Paracelsus is that
of the three primordial elements, ether, water, and air, visualised as the
three 'Mothers'. These were first ideal and ethereal and in the course of
emanation developed into the more concrete and palpable elements.so
Fire became the visible heaven, water became earth, air became atmosphere.
Heaven, earth (including sea and land) and air are the three basic forms
(mothers), in which the universe appears to us.
It is a Jewish-Gnostic idea that seems to have inspired Paracelsus'
speculations on the "Homunculus" 51 - the idea of the "Golem", a human
of humanity at large should have been represented as a critic of traditional medicine
because of its ignorance of the cosmos. A deliberate imitation of Heracleitos from
Hellenistic times voices a censure of contemporary medicine in terms that are reminis-
cent of Paracelsus (Bernays, Jacob, Die Heraklitischen Briefe. Berlin 1869, pp. 47
et seq.). The philosopher, suffering from dropsy, is made to say that through knowledge
of the universe he obtained insight into the nature of man, of health and disease and
would thus cure himself - imitating God who balances out excess in the universe by
drying up moisture and cooling down heat. He told the physicians: You shall heal me if
you know how drought can he made to replace inundation. Alas - there was no response.
It is God who heals the great cosmic bodies by restoring their balance. - The anthropo-
centric - Paracelsean - view of microcosm is strikingly expressed in the Life of Pythag-
oras by an anonymous author (Photii Biblioth. cod. 249. Loheck, C. A., loc. cit. 1829,
vol. II, p. 924; M. Joel, lhn Gahirols' (Avicehron's) Bedeutung f. d. Gesch. d. Philos. -
1857 - repr. in Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. Breslau 1876, vol. I, Anhang p. 30). It says
here that man is called microcosm not because he consists of the four elements (which
can also he said of any animal, including the lowest one), but because in him all forces
of the universe are joined together. For in the universe there are the Gods and the four
elements, hut also the lower animals and the plants. Man possesses all these forces.
For he has the divine power of mind, the physical power of the elements, and the power
of nutrition, growth and procreation of his like.
46
Munk, S.: Melanges de Philosophie Juive et Arahe. Paris 1859, p. 494.
47 Munk, loc. cit., p. 275, 288 and 492-493; Ginsburg, C. D.: The Kahhalah. London
1865, p. 111.
48 Ginsburg, loc. cit., p. 112.
49 Ginsburg, loc. cit., p. 113.
50
Ginsburg, loc. cit., p. 151; Franck, A.: Die Kahhala oder die Religionsphilosophie der
Hehriier. Transl. Ad. Gelinek. 1844. Reprinted Berlin s. a., p. 112.
51 See above p. 117.
216 The Sources of Paracelsus
figure of clay that is called to life and activity by affixing an amulet
bearing a certain inscription and turned back into a lifeless mass by its
removal. 52
Finally, Paracelsus visualised diseases as beings ready made in the form
of "Semina" which invade man from outside, and transplant themselves
and their own schedule on to man. In this "ontological" concept, diseases
are identified with their causes and seen as real living "entia".
The worlds of the Cabalah and of Paracelsus are full of invisible "souls",
"sparks", "demons", "homunculi", "semina", of beings particular to each
of the elements - beings which tend to attach themselves to man in order
to partake of his soul or body. It is a multitude of sensitive and vegetative
"souls", generally called "spirits", that migrate from body to body, rather
than the immortal soul. This was Pythagoras' "metempsychosis". The
latter visualised a "circular" process in which the spirits of plants transfer
to animals, from animals to man, then to air and from air to earth and
again to plants. 53 The Cabalah speaks of the "lbbur" 54, a "psychic"
pregnancy w h ereb y one or more " spark s" or " soul s" are JOIIle
. . d t o an a dult .
The object of this process is to help either the "parasite" (who may thus
use the host body to fulfil some commandment neglected during its own
life) or the host (by guiding him to righteousness). This connection with
sin is similarly present in the case of diseases. The accessory soul has to
suffer all the pains and mortifications through which the host goes and
thereby gains an opportunity to atone for its own transgressions. More-
over, disease-demons may attach themselves, "stick to" and possess man.
52 Scholem, G. : Die Vorstellung vom Golem in ihren tellurischen und magischen Be-
ziehungen. Eranos-Jahrhuch 1954, XXII, 235-289. Whereas Paracelsus prescribed
urine, semen and blood as ingredients for the preparation of the "Homunculus", the
"Golem" is made from earth and water. However, according to Scholem, a rabbinical
injunction from the first half of the XJVth century that vessels should he used, shows
that the production of the "Golem" was visualised as a chemical process comparable
to that of "Homunculus". It is doubtful whether a parallel can he found in the limitation
of the Golem's activity to forty days with the time prescribed by Paracelsus for the
"gestation" of the Homunculus, as the same period is recommended for other chemical
operations: Scholem, loc. cit., p. 287, with reference to a XVIlth century source in
which the Golem-story has assumed its "modern" form, as adopted by novelists and
poets. - Forty days as the period of alchemical "gestation" are prescribed for example
by George Ripley (second half of the XVth century) for "sublimation" - whereby a
body is made spiritual and a spirit is fixed to a body (Liher Duodecim Portarum,
Porta VIII. In: Manget Bihlioth. Chemica 1702, vol. II, p. 282).
53 See Sebastian Wirdig (a pupil of Sennert), Nova Medicina Spirituum ... Ad Regiam
Societatem Londinensem. Hamhurgi 1673, part I, p. ll 7.
54 "lhhur" - "emhryonatus". See R. Jitzchak Lorja: De Revolutionihus Animarum.
In: Kahhala Denudata, vol. II, Francofurti 1684, part Ill, tractat. secundus pneuma·
ticus, p. 263; see also vol. I, Sulzbach 1677, p. 614.
The Cahalah 217
It is a "soul" that "sticks to" man, the "Dibkuth"55 or "Dibbuk" of the
Cabalists which accounts for "possession".
Evil demons - "Mazzikin" - are innumerable, surrounding everybody,
causing the ill effects of over-crowding, tiredness in the knees, and the
deterioration of garments. They are supported by the devils - "Shedim" -
who are just as numerous. They were created by God on a Friday, or
according to a different tradition by Adam after his banishment. Ruchoth
- spirits which seize man - are originally the souls of the deceased. They
are particularly dangerous, and the spirits of leprosy, heart disease and
tetanus are mentioned separately and expressly. 56
In all this, source material may be found for the "ontological" concept
of disease of Paracelsus, who may well have drawn upon it.
Another cahalistic idea probably relevant for Paracelsus' concept of disease is the pro·
creation of demons, ill spirits and "lemurs" from semen not used for its proper purpose.
Lilith and N aemah make from every drop of such semen the bodies of demons and spirits.
This process started with Adam's "gonorrhoea" - meaning the flow of semen, in excess of
the single drop needed for the procreation of normal offspring, in his case of Cain and
Ahel. 57 Paracelsus discusses at length the monstrous products of superfluous semen. If it
finds access in an "exalted state" to fish, monsters such as mermen, mermaids, merdogs,
merspiders are created. Similarly "sperma from the stars" is productive of monsters in the
air. Those in the earth, for example dragons, are due to the intercourse of different animals
with each other.58
These examples may suffice to suggest concordances in detail between
the lore of the Cabalah and the teaching of Paracelsus. 59
55 Kahhala Denudata, loc. cit., vol. I, 1677, p. 245.
56 See Blau, Ludwig: Das altjiidische Zauherwesen. Strassburg 1898, pp. 10-15, with
reference to talmudic tradition and its origin in Egypt, Babylonia and Persia. See also
Delitzsch, F.: System der hihlischen Psychologie. Leipzig 1855, pp. 249, 262, 405.
57 Kahhala Denudata, loc. cit., vol. II, p. 358.
58 Fragmentum lihri de Animalihus ex Sodomia Natis. Philosophia Magna. Byrckman,
Coln 1567, p. 240. Ibid., De Maleficis, p. 228, with reference to "Animalische Sper-
mata" used by demons ("Ascendentes") for begetting monsters out of witches.
59 In passing some Rabbinical sources may he mentioned which provide a religious back-
ground for the homoeopathic principle, so conspiciously employed by Paracelsus. The
late Herbert Loewe drew the attention of the present writer to Shemoth Rabba (a homi-
letic compendium of exegetical material on the hook of· Exodus), cap. 26, par. 2:
Moses, when told to take the rod with which he smote the Nile, said: That was the
rod of punishment which brought the plagues. How shall it now bring forth water
for the thirsting people? God answered: My nature is not as man's nature. A surgeon
cuts with a knife and heals with a plaster, hut as for Me, with that very substance with
which I smite, I heal. - Salomon h. Jehudah, the Babylonian (X-XJth century) ex-
presses the same in a poem (Zulath for Sabbath Bereshith in Davidson's Thesaurus,
vol. I, p. 122, no. 2595). - On the other hand, the Mishnah prohibited the eating of a
mad dog's liver by those bitten, since it was regarded by the Sages as sheer super-
stition. Matthew hen Heresh allowed it, however, probably on empirical grounds. -
218 The Sources of Paracelsus Neo-Platonism. Ficino 219

Paracelsus and Neoplatonism

The influence of Marsilio Ficino. Ficino's ideal of the "Magus" as
Priest-Physician. Paracelsus and the Philosophy of Plotinus

The search for the hidden invisible spirit which governs and moves
visible bodies is the keynote of Paracelsus' natural philosophy. In this it
followed one of the main tenets of Platonism as revived by Ficino: that all
corporeal activity derives from a non-corporeal vital principle joined to
matter. This principle owes its power to the immaterial soul which sub-
ordinates corporeal life to uniform and persistent order. The soul in its
highest form is the Soul of the World, followed by the souls of the celestial
spheres and finally the soul of all creatures alive. The world is full of
souls and demons.
Marsilius Ficinus (1433-1499), Neoplatonist, head of the Florentine
Academy, physician and Christian philosopher, forms with Hippocrates,
the Father of all Medicine, the small group of medical figures not reviled
by Paracelsus. To him Ficinus was "Italorum medicorum optimus". 60
His hook on "Three-fold Life" had inspired Paracelsus' De Vita Longa, and
he quoted the work of the "egregius medicus Marsilius Ficinus ". 61
So far, the influence of Ficinus on Paracelsus has been pointed out in
general terms. 62 In our chapter on Paracelsus' ideas about the plague63
we endeavoured to show that Ficino's influence extended into individual
medical theories and the application of chemical principles therein. General
philosophical parallels between Ficino and Paracelsus are, according to
Strebel, the result of the doctrine of Plotinus, notably his critical and
restricting attitude towards the influence of the stars. For Plotinus said
that these "indicate" rather than cause phenomena such as the inclinations MARSILIVS FJCINVS,
and qualities of beings. Both Plotinus 64 and Paracelsus 65 emphasise the FLORENTINVS.
For further material see Zimmels, H. J.: Magicians, Theologians and Doctors ... in
the Rabbinical Response (12tL19th century). London 1952, p. ll4.
In recommending homoeopathy, Paracelsus was actuated by belief in the "occult"
principle of sympathy rather than by religious motives in the strict sense.
60 Letter to Christoph Clauser 1527. Sudhoff, vol IV, p. 71.
61 For example, his recommendation of fennel therein as a life-prolonging herb. De Foeni-
culo. In Macri poemata de virtutihus herbarum, radicum etc. scholia et observationes.
Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 4ll.
62 See for example: Sudhoff, Introduction to vol. III of his Paracelsus edition, 1930,
p. xxxii. Also: Strebel, J.: Plotin und Paracelsus iiber Horoskopie und Schicksal.
Nova Acta Paracels., vol. III, Basel 1946, p. 95.
63 See above p. 174-181.
64 Ennead III. Peri Heimannenes.
65 In: De lnventione Artium and the second Book of the Philosophia Magna (De Vera Fig. 21.
influentia rerum) where it says that true influence is from God and not from the stars. Portrait of Marsilius Ficinus. Line engraving in the Wellcome Collection PD 237-2-1.
220 The Sources of Paracelsus
internal, notably hereditary, tendencies in man as against the more external
influence of the stars.
Paracelsus' attitude to astrology has been discussed before at length
(see p. 65). He certainly did say much against it, hut his "astrosophic"
system could not fail to admit and he inspired by much of traditional
astrological lore.
Yet anthropocentric tendencies are dominant in the philosophy of
Paracelsus. The concept of Man, the microcosm, so prevalent in it, is in
itself anthropocentric and restricts astrology. Man, especially his intellec-
tual power, overcomes the astral influence, hut his animal nature remains
subject to it.66
Ficinus, on the other hand, is well known to have subscribed to astrol-
ogy67 - dissenting in this respect from Picus. Even to Ficinus, however,
the power of the stars was not unlimited. Otherwise he could not have
written his hook De Vita. For its first and third part contain detailed
prescriptions which will enable the scholar to overcome his "saturnine"
propensities. He cannot escape the power of his star hut, by observing a
certain regime, he can make the best of the star's beneficial virtues by
strengthening them in himself and warding off the harmful influences as
far as possible. He must achieve perfection in a life within the confines of
the circles of his star. Man cannot choose the latter hut can work his own
direction towards its beneficial aspects. Saturn is at the same time the
harbinger of melancholy and inertia and the donor of intellect and con-
templation. Thus Saturn works against those whose life is base and con-
temptible, hut supports the seeker of truth and contemplation. By virtue
of intelligence and reason, man can break some of his bonds with "Nature"
and thereby even choose a "spiritual planet".
In all these reservations towards an unlimited power of the stars on
man, Cassirer finds the appeal which Ficino's works had for Paracelsus 68 .
Still, astrology retains a much stronger place in Ficino's philosophy than
it does in the world of Paracelsus.
Therefore antagonism to astrology cannot he adduced as a point common
66 See for a judicious survey: Goldammer, loc. cit. and our chapter on Imagination and
on the Psychiatry of Paracelsus.
67
De Vita libri tres, quorum primus de Studiosorum sanitate tuenda, secundus de Vita
producenda, tertius de Vita coelitus comparanda. 1489. Fifth edition: Venice 1498
(Pelus.). For a detailed analysis see: Panofsky and Saxl. F.: Diirer's Melancholia I.
Stud. Bihl. Warburg, vol. II. Leipzig and Berlin 1923, p. 32 et seq.
68 Cassirer, E.: Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance. Stud. Bihl.
Warburg, vol. X. Teuhner, Leipzig and Berlin 1927, p. 105 and 119.
Neo-Platonism. Ficino 221
to Paracelsus and Ficinus . .It remains true, however, that the two of them
agreed in their general adherence to Neoplatonism.69
In 1482 Ficino's main work, the "Platonic Theology", had appeared.70
It presented an attempt at reconciling the Platonic system of philosophy
with Christian theology - utilising Neo-Platonic, Gnostic, Cahalistic and
Hermetic elements and the Aristotelian doctrine of form and matter; it
ultimately intended a demonstration of the divine origin of the human
soul and its communion with God. Ten years later, Ficino's translation
and paraphrases of Plotinus, the Prince of Platonists, was published. 71
Further Neo-Platonic treatises together with Ficino's dietetic and astro-
sophical work: "On Threefold Life" (1489) followed in 1516.72
It was in the third hook of this work, entitled 'Life to be adjusted to
Heaven', that Ficinus emphasised the superiority of the occult - celestial -
over the elementary - material - forces. The former - with negligible body
and weight - achieve effects for which elementary forces would require the
impact of heavy bodily masses. As these occult effects and properties are
not from the elements, they must he "vital", i.e. derive from the life and
spirit of the world and he transmitted by the rays of the stars. Precious
stones exposed to such stellar rays are particularly productive of occult
virtues. 73 It is these rays which kindle and maintain the occult fire in
sulphur and thus account for its inflammability.
The action of the celestial spirit in objects on earth is an expression of
the unity of the world in all its parts. This is illustrated in the theory of
microcosm. Thus the life of the world is immanent in plants and trees
for they are the hair, and in stones and minerals which are the teeth and
hones of the world. The same life animates and permanently moves water
and earth and, in particular, air and fire. Finally, the same life is in the
celestial bodies - the head, heart and eyes of the world - which like the ani-
mal eye emit rays not only visible, hut also invisible and occult.
All action is by sympathy and antipathy. It is therefore essential to
know the correspondences between the celestial and sublunary worlds.
Hence if you wish to concentrate solar forces on your body, seek out what
is "solar" among metals, stones and particularly plants and administer
69
Seep. 226 and Goldammer, loc. cit. p. 34 on the limited acceptance of Neoplatonism
by Paracelsus.
70
Platonica Theologia; de immortalitate videlicet animarum ac aeterna felicitate libri
XVIII, Ant. Miscominus, Florence 1482.
71 Plotinus. Opera. Ant. Miscominus, Florence 1492.
72 Jamblichus, De Mysteriis Aegyptorum ... 1497. Marsilii Ficini De triplici vita etc.
we quote from the second edition. In aedibus Aldi, Venice 1516.
73
De Vita coel. comp. Ed. 1516, loc. cit., fol. 158 recto. See above p. 64.
222 The Sources of Paracelsus
them on the days and hours of the sun and when the sun prevails in the
aspect of heaven.
The "solar" plants and stones are those that are called "heliotropic" - because they
turn to the sun. Such are gold and orpiment, golden colours, the chrysolith, carbuncle,
myrrh, musk, ambergris, balsam, honey, the ram, cock, lion, crocodile, light-coloured men
who are often bold and magnanimous, and so on.
If it is the liver which seems at fault, draw "liverish" faculties to the abdomen by
friction and fomentation, chicory, endives, liver-wort, agrimony, spodium. 74
It is not difficult to demonstrate that the neoplatonic doctrine as
embodied in Ficino's work was a fundamental source for Paracelsus. This
particularly emerges from Ficino's "Apology" for his own attitude to life
and philosophy.75 It is dated 1489 and defends his preoccupation with
astronomy and medicine - fields regarded by some as alien to philo-
sophy.
"Surely Marsilius is a priest", people will say. "What has a priest to
do with medicine?" "What again with astrology? Why should he,
a Christian, interest himself in Magic and Images, and the life anim~t­
ing the whole of the world?" Still others - unworthy to live - will
deny Life to the world and heaven. The answer is that the most
ancient priests - Chaldean, Persian, Egyptian - were also physicians as
well as astronomers, and thereby served piety and charity. For it is the
foremost act of charity to maintain in man a sound mind in a healthy
body. This, however, is best effected by combining the attitude of the
priest with that of the physician. As, however, medicine without heavenly
grace is ineffective and even harmful, the physician must embrace astro-
nomy as an essential part leading to that priestly charity which is exercised
through medicine. It is the priest-physician whom the sacred writings hid
us to honour, because God on High created him to meet the needs of man.
And Christ, the giver of Life, ordered his disciples to cure all sufferers on
earth. He enjoins the priests to heal by means of herbs and stones, as
unlike the disciples of old they no longer possess the power of healing by
words. In composing medicines it is not sufficient to choose the correct
ingredients, for they in themselves are often quite ineffective, hut one
should acquire their power through celestial influx ("afflatus coeli") at
certain times. It is therefore essential to prepare medicines under a pro-
pitious sky. In the same way, by inspiration and a celestial instinct, ser-
74 Ibid., fol. 151 verso.
75 Apologia quaedam, in qua de medicine, Astrologia, Vita mundi, item de magis, qui
Christum statim natum salutaverunt. Appended to: J amblichus, De Mysteriis etc.,
loc. cit., fol. 169-170. Aldus, Venet. 1516.
Neo-Platonism. Ficino 223
pents heal eye diseases with fennel and swallows with the swallow-wort76 ;
eagles suffering the pangs of childbirth discovered the "Echites" or viper-
stone by means of which they lay their eggs happily and quickly.
The power to heal thus flows from celestial inspiration: in the same way
as this is given to an animal, it comes to the priest who drives out disease
by charity.
The same applies to "Magic". This is not a profane cultivation of de-
mons, hut captures the heavenly gifts hidden in natural objects for the
promotion of health. It is 'natural magic' that requires a superior mind
in which celestial and earthly elements are combined and perfectly bal-
anced. Such a mind enables the Magus to adapt the inferior world to
heavenly influence for the benefit of human happiness - just as the farmer
prepares the field, heeding weather and air, for the benefit of growing food.
Such Magi first apprehended the birth of Christ - wisdom and priesthood,
not sinister practices and poison, were the source of their activities and
achievements.
Neither meddling with demons nor the artificial production of birds
and serpents from plants decaying under certain constellations, hut the
conjunction of medicine and astronomy is the task of that magic which is
essential for the maintenance of human life.
In this view it is life that pervades the universe. If it is recognised in
the smallest animals and humblest vegetation on earth, it must he common
to all objects everywhere. Could it he denied to heaven, which by itself
fertilises the earth and creates all that is alive by an act of vision ?
Paracelsus' whole life and work seems to he an attempt at implementing
this ideal of Ficino's priest-physician. Indeed, the contacts and parallels
between the ideas of Ficino and Paracelsus are close and our discussion of
the plague has shown that they extend into medical detail. 77 It is from
Ficino as the exponent of Neo-Platonism that Paracelsus derives his
inspiration. It is therefore imperative to examine in this respect the main
source of Neo-Platonism: Plotinus.
Plotinus was critical of the influence conceded to the stars in the life
and fate of man. He restricted it in favour of powers immanent in man
76 Chelidonium, spelled "celidonium" by Ficinus and interpreted by some as "the present
of heaven".
77 See before p. 174. On the differences between the "spiritual" magic of Ficino and the
"demonic" magic of Paracelsus, Trithemius and Agrippa see: Walker, D.P., Spiritual
and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella. The Warburg Institute. London 1958.
See also above p. 64, footnote 169, on the "Gamaheu" and Ficino's belief in their
efficacy. On Ficino's concept of "Appetitus Naturalis" and the specificity of objects
cf. Kristeller, P. 0., The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino. New York 1943, pp. 171 et seq.
224 The Sources of Paracelsus
himself and transmitted to him by heredity. Plotinus also criticised the
exalted position which humours and qualities enjoyed in ancient philo-
sophy. Generally speaking, in the world of Plotinus qualities are hut
accidental and fleeting changes of the surface of reality, as against activity
and form which constitute the "archetypes" of things.78 · Paracelsus' quest is therefore for the "Seminal Reasons" - the forces and
In detail, criticism is directed against the creative role attributed to "primary" qual·
ities such as warmth and cold and to mixtures of these qualities. How, for example, could
jealousy and intrigue be referred to such factors, let alone luck in being of noble birth
or detecting treasures. It is therefore not something corporeal but the sympathy between
objects in nature that accounts for differences in character and fate. This sympathy follows
from the ultimate unity of the universe which is one living organism embracing all indi-
vidual organisms, linking them by means of the world-soul. Where like acts on like, there
is health and sanity, where the acting subject is not like the object acted upon, something
foreign and disagreeable is perceptible, as for example the effect of bile and wrath. "Indeed
there is also in the universe something analogous to wrath and bile . . . and also in plants
one part may be inimical and even destructive to another. This universe is not only one
being alive, but also appears as a multitude. Hence each thing qua being one is preserved
by the whole, but qua being one of many and combining with many others causes much
damage by its diversity."79
It follows that objects of the world below may act on the world ahove80,
a concept of importance for the "anthropocentric" ideas of Paracelsus who
credited man with the power of influencing the stars. All this is due to the
general sympathy prevailing in the universe, the "chain" which connects
everything with everything else. It is this and not the stars that accounts
for "natural magic". 81 In the same way, "signatures" in nature indicate
attraction and repulsion which in themselves imply the possibility of
predictions. In all this it is notably the rejection of the claim of humours
and qualities in favour of sympathy between all objects in the cosmos that
strikes us as congenial to the ideas of Paracelsus.
Perhaps an even closer parallel may he found in the general view of
nature which Paracelsus seems to have in common with Plotinus. The
main problem besetting Paracelsus is the supremacy of the "occult" spirit
and the way in which it acts on visible bodies. It belongs to the field of
"natural magic" which also provides the explanation for what appears to
the superficial observer as miraculous or supernatural. "Nature" to Para·
celsus is the total of the acting Invisible, the spiritual forces that create
78 Ennead. II, lib. 6, cap. 3. See on this: Inge, W. R.: The Philosophy of Plotinus. Lon·
don 1918, vol. I, p. 152.
79 Ennead. IV, lib. 4, cap. 32.
80 Ennead. IV, lib. 4, cap. 31 and 45. Ed. H. F. Miiller, Berlin 1880, vol. II, p. 72 (transl.
II, p. 71) and p. 86 (transl. II, 86).
81 Ibid., cap. 40.
Neo-Platonism. Plotinus 225
form and are active in matter. Such forces, however, cannot he different
in kind from the "intelligences", the ultimate and original forces which
emanated from God. Matter itself is seen as an emanation, lower in
dignity and later in appearance than the Soul of the World and the Nous.
acting powers which alone matter in any object.
This view of Nature is preformed in the philosophy of Plotinus to
whom "Nature" stands for activity, for "soul" and "logos" -in short, some-
thing spiritual. As such it is unconscious, a "sleeping spirit" 82 - yet owing
to its spirituality it is real, in contrast to "dead" matter which is not.
In Plotinus this close relationship between "nature" and "spirit" emerges
in Nature's urge towards contemplation. It is common to all living beings,
whether endowed with reason or not, and to all vegetables and to the earth
which produces them. 83 The process of production is the outcome of
contemplation - to contemplate is to produce. This is perhaps best epito·
mised in the comment of Ficinus to this chapter: "In Nature to contem·
plate is nothing hut to he something and to do something". (In Natura
quiddam intueri nihil aliud est quam esse tale et tale quiddam facere) 84•
There is "Life" in Nature, and it acts through "contemplative reasons"
which are infused into it by the divine intellect. These are the "reasons"
for that which is generated. Elemental quality and motion, regarded as
the driving forces by the ancient natural philosophers, Plotinus replaces
by incorporeal forms which are not subjected to motion hut direct it.
These intrinsic forms are the seminal reasons from which flow the modu-
lation and determination of motion and qualities adapting them to the
purposes of Nature. So far from needing matter, Nature gives it its quality
and motion. It is an intrinsic urge in Nature - an "essential act" which is
in itself "stupid and oblivious to everything, like the behaviour of the
thunderstruck". By a kind of transference it is called Contemplation
(Intuitus), best compared to the Sensus attributed by some to plants.
"For this is the common plant of the universe which enjoys life through
82 As expressed by Schelling and quoted by Inge, loc. cit., p. 155.
83 Ennead. Ill, lib. 8, cap. 1. Translated in parts by Inge, loc. cit., pp. 156-161.
84 Plotini Opp. ad Ennead III, 8, 1 et seq. Basileae 1615, p. 339 et seq. The subject formed
a topic for the medieval commentators of Dionysius Areopagita. Thus Hugo says:
The motion that in the higher world is contemplation is in the lower world "operatio".
It tends towards the superior world in order to come to rest in it. And it tends to the
lower world in order to lead it back to itself. Charity thus moves upward in order to
remain there - and downwards in order to return. Hence the motion of charity in the
superior world is called reverting to the inferior sphere and active. Hugo, Comment. on
Dion. Areopag. Celestis Hierarchia. Ed. Argent. (G. Husner) 1502, vol. I, fol. 66, verso.
226 The Sources of Paracelsus
its sensus that works quietly and intrinsically in its substance and con·
ceives things natural. " 85 What is brought forth in matter as the product
of this lntuitus is a Spectaculum - a visible event comparable with a child's
birthmark which we believe to express the concupiscence and imagination
of the mother.
The Intuitus - contemplation - intrinsic in Nature thus occupies a rank
similar to that of the Sensus Rerum - a dim unconscious psychic force
present in all objects of nature, plants and even stone and rubble. It is
also comparable to Imagination. This leaves its seal on the body, thus
indicating the power of the spirit in directing the course of nature.
In the world of Paracelsus the power of imagination is paramount,
and it is here that we see a basic and fairly detailed contact with Neo·
Platonism and the philosophy of Plotinus - although it would he difficult
to say whether he derived these ideas from Plotinus directly, or where the
Plotinian lead is specifically reflected in his works.
The Neo-Platonic trend in the concept of Nature supplies the over·
riding doctrinal basis for the work of Paracelsus. The supremacy of the spirit,
the flow of action into matter from it through the power of imagination
as a force distributed over the universe and all its parts - these ideas form
the principle which Paracelsus follows up through all realms of nature. He
thereby filled the conceptual framework of N eoplatonism with a wealth of
naturalistic observations and allegorical interpretations of natural phe-
nomena - and it is all this that gives his work its original flavour.
Was Paracelsus really a N eoplatonist?
Goldammer, while admitting the strong influence of Neoplatonism on
Paracelsus in general86 , nevertheless finds important differences. 87
However, in an appraisal of the influences on Paracelsus we have to
remember that the latter left no closed system and indeed was not a
systematic thinker.
We can certainly find in Paracelsus passages in which a "dualistic"
personal contrast between Creator and creature is emphasised, and we may
oppose this to the view that all beings emanate from and possibly return
to the Creator. This is the "unitarian" Neoplatonic position - as held for
B5 Ficinus ad loc. cit.
ss Goldammer, Kurt: Paracelsus. Natur und Offenbarung. Hannover 1935 (Heilkunde
und Geisteswelt, herausgegeben von Joh. Steudel, Bd. V), p. 61.
s7 Loe. cit., p. 34.
Neo-Platonism. Mediaeval Pantheism 227
example by Agrippa von Nettesheym - a position in which the Creator
"loses concreteness", as Goldammer says.88
On the other hand, Paracelsus saw no difference between God and the
original - uncreated - virtues which penetrate the - created - objects of
the world. Indeed, Paracelsus was no "dualist" - as Goldammer himself
pointed out. 89 On the contrary, it is suggestive that his "unitarian" tendency
to spiritualise matter and to materialise the spirit followed from the neo-
platonic idea of the cosmos of "steps" and emanations. Moreover, the
Platonic Macrocosm-Microcosm theory (so fundamental to Paracelsus)
centres around the analogies rather than the specific differences between
various objects or phenomena. Against this, his emphasis on the unique·
ness of events in time and the absence of the gnostic-emanationist views
of a continuous return of souls and worlds to the One do not seem to carry
weight. For the "return" of material parts, of"astral bodies" and the divine
spirit into the greater world (although not of "worlds" into the One) is one
of the doctrines consistently maintained by Paracelsus. 90
Finally, Paracelsus' "dualistic" traits such as the fundamental distinc·
tion between a visible and an invisible world support rather than refute
his connection with Neoplatonism.
The "Prime Matter" of Paracelsus as foreshadowed by the
philosophy of Salomo ihn Gehirol (Avicehron) and the
"Popular Pantheism" of the Middle Ages. Giordano Bruno.
The anonymous "Introduction to the Philosophy of Life" (1623)
We have already discussed Paracelsus' concept of "Prime Matter" in
the course of our analysis of the "Philosophia ad Athenienses", in which
we developed some general considerations regarding the "Elements" and
"Three Principles".91 We concluded that, to Paracelsus, prime matter
(the "Mysterium Magnum", "lliaster") does not stand for the matter from
BB " •••wii.hrend der Archetypus, die Trinitii.t, der Weltbaumeister Agrippas sich im Sinne
des N eoplatonismus auf dem Wege zur Entpersonlichung und Ahstraktion befindet."
Goldammer, loc. cit.
s9 Goldammer, loc. cit., p. 35. Contrasting Nicolaus Cusanus and Paracelsus, Ernst
Hoffmann already drew attention to the absence of a "dualistic" view of God and
world in the philosophy of Paracelsus. Cusanus' "dualism" is here seen as the ex-
pression of "genuine Platonism". See later the chapter on Cusanus, p. 284.
90 Philos. Sagax. Lib. I, cap. 2. Huser's Fol. Ed. 1603, vol. II, p. 34. Edit. Prine. by
Toxites, Frankfurt 1571, fol. 13 verso and passim.
91 See before p. 89 et seq.
228 The Sources of Paracelsus
which the stars are made and of which every object on earth partakes,
hut for matter which essentially is and expresses the sum total of specific
actions possible and realisable in nature. 92 We also endeavoured to show
that Paracelsus had ascribed a spiritual and metaphysical rather than
material meaning to his "three principles" salt, sulphur and mercury.
Paracelsus' idea of "Prime Matter" is closely connected with the idea that man epi-
tomises in himself the greater world. This is the greater "limbus, the semen, from which
all creatures emerged - comparable to a tree which grows out of a minute seed, with the
difference, however, that what the earth is to the tree, the word of God is to the limbus ..•
the lesser limhus is the last creature towards which the greater limhus tends. This is
man; all that had been created before was used in making him - as a son is engendered
by his father, the limbus was taken from the greater limbus, and as the son is endowed
with all the limbs of the father, man comprises all creatures in himself". 93 The "limhus'
from which man was created is "prime matter" because "nothing was excluded from it.
All its kind._ and property, all its essence and nature were again comprised together into
a limbus". 94
From this the concept of "Limbus" would appear to he of fundamental
importance in the world of Paracelsus. It is nothing ''specific", hut stands
for certain manifestations of the Divine - a "margin", comparable to the
hem of a garment, at which eternal principles become concrete. It is the
"border" of the Iliaster or "Prime Matter". In this sense both man (as
the bearer of the divine spark) and Christ are examples of a minor "Limb us".
For Christ - his immortal body and flesh - represents the created world
and it is this of which man, by virtue of the sacrament, partakes, to which
he eventually returns and by which he acquires immortality. 95
92 P. II2.
93
Von den podagrischen Krankheiten und was in anhiingig ist. Vom Limbo. Ed. Sud-
hoff, vol. I, p. 355. "Limbus", the undefined "border" between creatures and their
non-material (spiritual, dynamic) matrix, means according to the Paracelsists "the
greater and universal world, the semen and prime matter of man; also heaven and
earth above and the sphere below with the four elements and all that they comprise"
(Domeus, Gerhard, Fascic. Paracels. Medicinae ... Paracelsi Dictionarium. Francof.
1581, fol. 133 verso).
94 Ibid.
95 On the christological and eschatological aspects of "Limbus" see Goldammer, K.:
Nova Acta Paracels. 1948, V, pp. 70 et seq.
It may be noted in passing that the concept of "Limbus" also serves to explain the
fundamental differences between the male and female principles - differences that per·
vade the whole world of Paracelsus. According to him mankind is closer to the cosmos
- of which man is composed - than men are to women. ("Dann die Element und der
Mensch sind nii.her und gefreunter dann Mann und Weih." Labyrinth. Medicor, cap. 3.
Huser, vol. I, p. 268). Adam was created from a "matrix" that was the whole world.
The semen which begot him was the spirit of God, the "Limbus" in which the whole
world was contained. Man was then separated from this matrix and out of him was
made a human matrix (Eve), the womb which mirrors the whole world in itself; "the
Mediaeval Pantheism. Gebirol 229
It must he admitted, "prime matter" is often not used in this lofty,
all-embracing and metaphysical sense. Paracelsus also uses the term
simply to denote something raw and unprepared which, through chemical
preparation, reaches a final state of perfection, in other words, becomes
the fully developed object. For example, wheat is "primary matter" which
by the chemical activity of the baker becomes bread - "intermediate
matter" - and finally part of the organism. As such it has, again through
chemical activity (namely that of the stomach), achieved a climax and
has become "ultimate matter". At this stage it is subject to putrefaction
and returns to the "primary matter" that is dust and earth.96
However, this concept is more than a chemical theory. It is visualised
as a general law of the reversion of all things to their origin, thus making
possible the preservation of matter. Or, as Darmstaedter97 puts it, "'Pri-
mary Matter' thus serves to illustrate the circulation or, in other words,
the law of preservation of matter."
We suggest that Paracelsus' concept, whatever the form in which it
was used or developed, was profoundJy influenced by the ancient ideas
of "Prime matter", notably in the form transmitted by Salomon ihn
Gehirol (the "Avicehron" of scholastic philosophy, 1020-1070).
Ancient ideas as transmitted by Salomo ihn Gehirol
When discussing Paracelsus' doctrine of the Elements and Principles
we referred to the monistic theory of Stoicism. In this, "Prime Matter"
was not visualised as purely corporeal, hut also as spiritual to an equal
extent. In the same way, finest corporality was attributed to Spirit
("Pneuma"). Hence, Prime Matter is called "Arche" - Beginning - and
"Ousia" - Being. It stands for the basis of all Being - in which spirit and
"Soma" are united in "living" matter. We mentioned the traces of this
spirit of the Lord· is in it, embosses itself on it and plants fruit into it". What is missing
in the female is, therefore, not the divine spirit, hut the "Limbus", the semen from
which the world and Adam were created. Man cannot beget man from Earth (as first man
was begotten). Therefore God has ordained a special matrix for him, and he has his
own semen ("Limbus") whereby "he is his own son". Man, therefore, is not "from one",
but "from two" - never from the matrix alone "hut from the male posited in the ma-
trix". Paracelsus sees in the male the active ("Limbus") and in the female the passive
part in generation - just as Aristotle did. - Op. Paramirum. Lib. IV. De Origine Mor-
hor. Matricis. Huser, vol. I, pp. 72-73. See also Diepgen, P., Paracelsus und das
Problem der Frau. Nova Acta Paracels. 1957, VIII, 49-54.
96
See above the role of the "Alchemist" ("Archeus") in nature and human art, promoting
prime - through the stage of middle - into ultimate matter; p. 106.
97
Arznei und Alchemie. Leipzig 1931, p. 43.
230 The Sources of Paracelsus
doctrine in Philo. It reaches pre-eminence in the philosophy of Salomo ihn
Gehirol ("Avicehron"). In this, matter occupies a central place; it imme-
diately follows the Creator in the hierarchy of the steps which constitute
the world both in its real existence and in its contemplation by the mind.
The more we deprive objects of their individual characteristics, notably
colour, shape and quantity, and go hack from the coarse, palpable objects
in nature to the simple and general, the less remains of the "forms". For
"form" is the entity which makes simple "matter" more and more complex;
form "limits" matter, introducing diversity, specification and finiteness into
something simple, undifferentiated and infinite. In contrast to Aristotelian
philosophy, it is, therefore, the forms and not matter which account for
individuation and specificity. Matter is thus conceived as free of quantity
and corporality, for these already imply specification and limitation. It is
primarily""a hidden substratum, not corporeal hut spiritual, not accessible
to the senses hut only to the intellect, and made manifest by the forms.
It is unlimited, infinite, and "Primary". Such spiritualisation of matter as is
recognisable in Gehirol 's philosophy follows from his tendency to admit
only spiritual causes of phenomena. All is full of life and force. There is
nothing dead in nature.98
Gehirol's Prime Matter as fundamental to popular pantheism in the
Middle Ages and Reformation
Gehirol's doctrine of "Prime Matter" became a fundamental source for
mediaeval pantheism - as first professed and propagated by David of
Dinant (d. 1209). To him "Prime matter" - the indivisible substance that
originates, sustains, and exists in all things - is God. Through David, the
doctrine of "Prime matter" reached and powerfully influenced such popular
"puritan" movements as the Amalricans, Waldenses, Ortlihians, Beguards
98 Munk, S.: Melanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe. Paris 1859, pp. 72-83; pp. 116-11 'i,
183. - Ritter, H.: Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. VIII (Geschichte der christlichen
Philosophie, vol. IV), Hamburg 1845, pp. 94-104. Ritter, H.: Die christliche Philo-
sophie. Gottingen 1858, vol. I, p. 6la. - Eisler, M.: Vorlesungen iiber die jiidische
Philosophie des Mittelalters, vol. I. Wien 1876, pp. 62 et seq. - Joel, M.: Beitrage zur
Geschichte der Philosophie. Breslau 1876, vol. I, Appendix: ibn Gebirol's (Avicebrons)
Bedeutung fiir die Geschichte der Philosophie, p. 48 (emphasises Gebirol's dependence
upon Plotinus; against this: Kaufmann, David: Geschichte der Attributenlehre in
der jiidischen Religionsphilosophie des Mittelalters von Saadja bis Maimuni. Gotha
1877, p. 109). - Kaufmann, D.: Studien iiber Salomon lbn Gebirol. Budapest 1899
(ps. - Empedocles "On the Five Substances" as source of Gebirol). - For a more recent
account see: Guttmann, Jul.: Die Philosophie des Judentums. Miinchen 1933, pp. 102-
119.
Mediaeval Pantheism 231
and Beguines, the Brothers of the Free Spirit, the lntelligentials of Brussels,
and the Bohemian Adamites. 99 It is thus in the last resort from Gehirol's
doctrine that the identity of God and the World was derived.
It was notably the Brothers of the Free Spirit 100 who visualised God as the sum total
of His creatures - each representing one of the infinite forms of divine intelligence. His
separation into forms, however, indicates a deficiency from perfection, calling for a re-
version to original unity. To reach this, the soul is in no need of outside support. It must
only follow its natural inclination. For there is no difference between the perfect soul and
God or Christ. The spirit is free and not subject to limitation by any outside law. 101 Eckart
said: "God has created nothing like Himself but the Soul ... as certainly as I am a man,
so certainly God begets His own nature in the depths of my soul as much as in heaven."1° 2
Anti-trinitarian tendencies from Eckart to Servetus can also he traced to pantheistic
speculation. The duality of Father and Son breaks the original unity of the Divine being
- a unity which calls for restoration. For infinite essence cannot dwell in the realm of
forms (i.e. the distinctness and relatedness of individuals). 103
At Paracelsus' time the pantheistic tradition flared up in these inde-
pendent movements, which were condemned by the Church of Rome and
more so by the Reformers. As Jundt says 104, this pantheistic doctrine -
its metaphysics and moral principles - remained alive up to the seventeenth
century with little deviation from the Neoplatonic tenets of the twelfth
century. The Reformation carried theology and the gospel to the people,
thus legitimising and paving the way for the secret and heretical doctrines
99 See for a detailed account including the survival and influence of these movements in
those of the XVItll century: Jundt, Auguste: Histoire du Pantheisme Populaire au
Moyen Age et au Seizieme Siecle. Paris 1875, passim. "Heretical" Traits in the Life of
Paracelsus: Certain traits exhibited in Paracelsus' life and behaviour as an individual
are reminiscent of those displayed by the groups of heretics which emerged in the
"autumn of the Middle Ages", notably the Beghards and the Beguines. Driven by
feverish unrest, these preachers in the name of the unique "spirit of the world" found
their main satisfaction in acts of agitation and in wandering from place to place through
Switzerland, Strasburg and Colmar - familiar haunts in the life of Paracelsus - and
through Mainz, Cologne, Bohemia and Milan. Homeless, they made their home every-
where. Practical people, most of whom had learned a craft, they felt keenly the need
for social reform and for liberation from feudal slavery. Dedicated to the other world,
they nevertheless adopted the attitude of temporal rulers and did not hesitate to use
threats in launching their demands for the communal distribution of goods. They
preached wisdom from spiritual experience as against books, even including the
Scriptures. For them there was no God outside the world. The soul of man was divine,
and man's duty was to unite with it completely so that thus God might be caused to
descend into man and man to ascend to divinity. Through superior knowledge man
could thus acquire a power not given to the ignorant. - However, inspite of many
parallels, the attitude of these heretics towards church and religion was more radical
than that of Paracelsus, since the former would admit neither the necessity for a media-
tor between God and man, nor the uniqueness and superhumanity of Christ. See for
detail: Reuter, H.F., Geschichte der religiosen Aufklarung im Mittelalter. Berlin 1877,
vol. II, p. 241.
232 The Sources of Paracelsus
of the Middle Ages. Paracelsus' life and work offer many contacts with
these.
Giordano Bruno
Gehirol's concept of "Primary Matter" was revived in the second half
of the sixteenth century - some forty years after Paracelsus - by Giordano
Bruno (1548-1600). He quotes Gehirol in his dialogue "Of the Cause, the
Principle and the One" 105, first together with Democritus and the Epi-
cureans as the authority for the assertion that matter is the only substance
of things and at the same time the divine essence - whereas forms are
hut accidental qualities of matter. Later106 Bruno expresses agreement
with his distinction between two kinds of matter: (i) matter as the opposite
to form and (ii) matter on a level higher than this antithesis, i.e. original
matter which embraces corporeal and non-corporeal (form) and transient
as well as permanent Nature. This matter is conceived as something
existing prior to its "contraction" into corporality and individual objects.
As Ritter says, there is no idea on Bruno's part of introducing a "materi-
alistic" view which explains the spirit in terms of material changes. On the
contrary the tendency is towards a spiritualisation of matter as a conse-
quence of the unity of the cosmos. In this sense Bruno enjoins us not to
regard matter as a merely passive receptacle, nor to despise it as something
inferior, transient or evil in the terms of Aristotelian philosophers. It is
rather the fountain of all being and becoming which sends forth the forms
from its bosom- an eternal principle, a divine virtue. "Nature" is "Matter"
unfolded in its creative power.107
The "lntroductio in Vitalem Philosophiam" (1623)
Paracelsus' concept of the "Prima Materia" as a spiritual force was
developed by Johan Ernst Burggrav of the early seventeenth century
who belonged to the circle of the Frankfort publisher Joh. Th. de Bry.
100 Jundt, loc. cit., p. 55.
101 Jundt, loc. cit., p. 55.
102 Von der sele werdikeit und eigenschaft. Ed. Pfeiffer: Deutsche Mystiker, vol. II, 1857,
394, 8 and 399, 31. - Jundt, loc cit., p. 62.
103 Jundt, loc. cit., p. 85.
104 Loe. cit., p. 205.
l0 6 De la Causa, Principio et Uno (Venezia 1584) Dial. III in Opere di Giordano Bruno.
Ed. Ad. Wagner, Lips. 1830, vol. I, p. 251; Von der Ursache, dem Prinzip und dem
Einen. German transl. by Ad. Lasson. 2nd ed., Heidelberg 1889, pp. 74 and 102.
1 06 Ibid. Ed. Wagner I, p. 269; Lasson, p. 102.
107 Ritter, H., Die christliche Philosophie, vol. II. Gottingen 1859, p. 125.
Joh. E. Burggrav's Vit.alis Philosophia 233
He published in 1623 an "Introduction to the Philosophy of Life Embracing
the Interpretation and Cure of all Diseases - astral and material, elementary
and hereditary from the Book of Nature, the Codex of philosophical and
medical Truth ... in which first the experience of Galen, then that of Para-
celsus, Turnheuser, Quercetanus and other moderns is expounded and the
remedies of all Diseases are demonstrated from Anatomy and the Art of
Signatures". 108 The exposition is influenced by Severinus 109, who is often
quoted, and is reminiscent, to a certain extent, of the efforts to reconcile
Paracelsism with Hippocrates and Galen - as shown, for example, in the
contemporary work of Daniel Sennert. 110 The author of the "Introduction",
however, is a staunch Paracelsist.
He says that in Aristotelian philosophy Prime Matter is the "Hyle" and
lOS lntroductio in Vitalem Philosophiam cui cohaeret omnium morborum astralium et
materialium; seu morborum omnium, Elementatorum et haereditariorum ex lihro
N aturae Codioe philosophiae et medicae veritatis . . . deinde Paracelsi, Turnheuseri,
Quercetani aliorumque Neotericorum philosophorum experientia demonstratur,
medicamenta omnium morborum ex Anatomia et Arte Signata; tam Simplicia quam
Composite ostendendo. Francofurti Typis Hartm. Palthenii, Sumptihus Joh. Th. de
Bry et Joh. Ammonii 1623. Title in woodcut border, identical with that of Michael
Maier's "Atalanta Fugiens", Oppenheim, de Bry, 1618 (depicting the story of Hippo-
menes and Atalanta and their metamorphosis into lions by Cybele whose temple is
shown being profaned by their impatience to consummate their nuptials). With refer-
ence to the alchemical significance of the Atalanta story see Michael Maier, Arcana
Arcanissima hoc est Hieroglyphica Aegyptio-Graeca vulgo necdum cognita ad de-
monstrandam falsorum apud antiquos deorum . . . pro sacris .receptorum, originem
ex uno Aegyptiorum artificio, quod aureum animi et Corporis medicamentum peregit.
S. l. et a., p. 87. In this work an attempt was made at interpreting the whole of Greek
mythology in terms of Alchemy, tracing the origin of all the "false gods, goddesses,
heroes, sacred animals and institutions to the preparation of the golden medicine of
soul and body by the Egyptians." - Atalanta, a princely and elusive virgin, symbolises
matter, and her winged feet allude to mercury. Picking up the golden apples she
shows herself content with ephemeral results and fails to persevere in the search for
the true Philosophers' Stone. Drawing water from a rock she shows herself on the way
to its discovery. Her untimely conjunction with Hippomenes and conversion into
lions symbolises phases of the alchemical process in vitro. On the alchemical allusions
in the Hercules myth and Hercules as the author of the "golden medicine", see ibid.,
pp. 77 and 80.
For a bibliographical appraisal of the "Atalanta Fleeing" and its contents, see: Read,
J.: Prelude to Chemistry. London 1939, pp. 236-246.
Maier's alchemical mythology was resumed by Jae. Tollius (notably in his Fortuita
in quihus praeter Critica nonnulla, tota fabularis Historia Graeca, Phoenicia, Aegyp-
tiaca, ad Chemiam pertinere asseritur. Amstelod. 1687). There does not seem to be
a reference to Atalanta, however.
l09 Peter Soerenssen (1542-1602), author of Idea Medicinae Philosophicae Fundamenta.
Basileae 1571. See W. Pagel in .his essay on Harvey and the Purpose of Circulation.
Isis 1951, XLll, p. 34.
110 De Chymicorum cum Aristotelicis et Galenicis Consensu. 1619. See our detailed account
of this work later on p. 333-343.
234 The Sources of Paracelsus Rosicrucian Symbolism 235

INTRODPCTIO.
IN VlTALEM
PHILOSOPHIAM.
{ui &oh.mt
OMNIVM MORBORVM
Aftralium & · Matcriahum; feu , Morborum.
omni um, Elementatorurti & ha:..rcditariorum ex
libro Natura: Gudiec pl!.i!ofophicx & mcdica:
veritatis, ac.dttls Vc:tci:'timpiacitis, Hip- .
poc11Qris , (fafoni , Celli•
.tlionnri~
Explit.1tiQ atque Ouratio.
lN SPP.C•I.A!.I EXP!.IC.ATIO'liJ'II
morhorum agitur de C11r11twnum myfleriu, Indi-
&11tion11m eompendiu , Remediorum 11reani4. E~
primum Galeni & 11liorum vettrummedit11men14
proferuntr<r: deinde P11r11eel(i, Turnheufari,§J!!er•
cetani 11/iorumtfi N eo1er.icor11m Phllofophor11m e:t-
Jerienti11 Jemonftr11t11r, ,,.eJicAr1Jent11 omni11m
morborum ex .An11tomi/J & .Arte Sign11t11, titm
Simplici11, quam C11mpofa11 oflemlt!u/g.
~!Vl>"O"OS.-
francoforti Typis Hartm. Palrhenij, Sumtibut
Joh. Th.de Bry, & Iob.Ammonij.
~Jd,1.!C.XX~

Fig. 22. Title page of "lntroductio in Vitalem Philosophiam" with the woodcut border of
Michael Meier's Atalanta Fugiens. See description in footnote 108 to p. 233. Like Michael
Meier, the author of the "lntroductio" was influenced by "Rosicrucianism" - the mystical
movement usually dated about 1620 and onwards. For the earlier use of Rosicrucian
svmbols and its connection with the portraiture of Paracelsus see the legends to figgs 23
. and 24-25.
Fig. 23. Portrait of Paracelsus against a background of early Rosicrucian symbols from
the first edition of the Philosophia Magna (Colon. A. Birckmann 1567) - a modification of
the Hirschvogel portrait of 1540, probably by Franz Hoogenbergh under the direction of
the Paracelsist Dr Theodor Birckmann. The interesting feature of the portrait is the
presentation of unmistakable Rosicrucian symbols - the child's head emerging through a
cleft in the ground and other symbols of rebirth - prior to 1620, the date usually given for
the advent of Rosicrucianism. In this respect the male figure in front of" Jacob's ladder"
is of particular interest (right upper inset). The left eye is not represented - symbolising
the "cagastric", earthly or temporal eye that should be kept closed while the right -
"iliastric" - eye contemplates eternity and the higher sphere of the Creator.
Interpretation by J. Strebel, Paracelsus und die Rosenkreuzer. Acta Nova Paracelsica.
1946, III, p. 122 and 125. id., Entstehung und Bildkomponenten des sog. Rosenkreuzer-
portraits Hohenheims des Kiilnischen Birckmann Holzschnittes von Franz Hoogenbergh
1567. Nova Acta Parac. 1947, IV, 122-127. See also: B. de Telepnef, Paracelsus und die
236 The Sources of Paracelsus Joh. E. Burggrav's Vitalis Philosophia 237

"Chaos" - a merely passive receptacle of the forms, and therefore quite

different from "our", i.e. Paracelsean, "Prime Matter". This is the principle
which confers form on all objects of nature and sustains them not as the
material, hut as the efficient and formal cause. As such it is, therefore,
not subject to corruption or alteration. It is invisible - a "naked Diana"
who does not enter the orbit of mortals. It is clothed in vestments, which
protect it from the gaze of the impious and stupid. These vestments -
the elements - Aristotle and Galen mistook for the essential form and the
nucleus of creatures. The latter, however, is not elemental hut spiritual,
although it dwells with us and acts in us.
This Prime Matter corresponds to the Platonic Idea - the species
which always "is", i.e. remains the same and neither develops nor perishes.
That is to say, it derives from no other pre-existing composite matter, nor
is it resolved into any other matter. Hence it is not accessible to sensual
perception hut only to intellectual contemplation.
From this it emerges that the differences between all objects are de-
termined by Prime Matter.
The "prime matter" of philosophers is therefore the internal form, the principle of
life, the source of activity and fertility, the governor of generation, alteration and indeed
of all natural actions. It is through its offices that elements antagonistic to ea~h other are
held together by the unifying action of mixing. It is thus that the principle of life, and the
root and species of an object, remains in spite of the gradual corruption and consumption
of its material components. In this lies the superiority of prime matter over the ordinary
qualities of the elements.

The exalted position accorded to a spiritualised "Prime Matter"111 by

the Paracelsist author of the "Introduction to Vital Philosophy" implicitly
reveals the influence of ancient and mediaeval "popular pantheism" on
Paracelsus and his followers.

111 The same tendency to substitute spirit for matter and body is recognisable in the
author's discussion of "Innate Heat". This, our author argues, had been taken in a
material sense by the liumoral school. According to Aristotle, plants and animals live
by virtue of this heat, and death is due to its extinction. In this, however, the funda-
mental difference between spiritual ("ethereal") and elementary heat had been over-
looked. Elementary heat comes to objects by virtue of the mixture and proportion
of their elementary components. It is sterile, inane, "empty" and not more than
accidental to the object. Natural and vital heat, however, is quite different in nature Fig. 24. A possible "Rosicrucian" symbolical picture even earlier than the Paracelsus
from the elements. For this reason it has been called celestial and divine. It is present portrait of the Birckmann print shown in fig. 23. Title page of Suso's Horologium Sapien-
in plants and animals which in terms of elementary qualities are absolutely cold, such tiae Cologne 1503. Survey: Trinity presented after the "Pieta" pattern (as shown for
as poppies, lattuce, mandragora and the serpent. example in Petrus de Castroval Tractatus vel Expositio in Symbolum quicumque vult.
The vital heat is the "Internal Mineral Sun" of the alchemists. In it lies the universal Pampelona ca. 1496). Angel top left has the left eye merely outlined (compare with the
force of nature, the "Vital Sulphur", the "Radical Moisture" of the whole of nature. Rosicrucian figure in our illustration No. 23). The omission of the eye may be accidental
in the Suso print of 1503; however (it might be argued), if it were accidental, such a fault
in reproduction should be observed more often.
238 The Sources of Paracelsus Womb and Earth 239

Phia.d.Alberti.M.

Fig. 25. Close up: The two angels of the top part.

The microcosmic pattern as reflected by the womb and the earth

Leonicenus, Cesalpino and Aristotle

Comparing the womb ("Mother") with the earth, Paracelsus views it as

a cosmos in the cosmos. For in it all properties of the greater and lesser
worlds are united. Here Paracelsus is using a symbol that was popular in
his time. ~
Cl')
The frontispiece to an early edition of an elementary tract on Natural
("'!
History - the "Philosophia Pauperum" of Albertus Magnus 112 - represents
0
the Cosmos as a circle. Its upper half - bright rimmed - carries the sun, C)
and its lower half - dark rimmed - the moon. In the centre the upright ;z:
human figure of a cosmic man spans the vertical distance between the sun 0
v,
and moon. The lower abdomen of the figure is occupied by the Earth, as if it n
were pregnant with it. The earth is thus represented as the womb of the (") <
cosmos; it occupies its centre and symbolises fertility and life. What the c :z:
'"i
~I it'

.~ *\
earth is to a plant, the womb is to animals and man. ;I
i:::
The seed of the plant needs the earth to he nourished and to grow from it, and it is r.i
for this same purpose that we need the uterus. The plant generates roots for itself by '(J
means of which it attracts nutriment from the earth. In the fetus, vessels take the place .;
II . .. . . . . . . :=g:n
~~g;;;~~~~ lT1
of the roots. The seed sends forth the trunk and from it the branches and twigs down to L.;j • .....
the smallest buds. In all this we easily recognise the analogues of the aorta, vena cava and
spine, with all their ramifications. An animal is thus a plant with flesh and blood - a "planta
< I
I'-'

3:
sanguinea et carnea". In this view there is no difference between the vegetable and animal ~ VIS AMAR.I AM Ar PO RI GE PORIGETlf§ J
kingdoms for both share the same workman - the vegetative soul. From the same instru·
ment that gives life, nutrition and growth to the plant, namely the seed or semen, the
Fig. 26. The Earth as the Womb of the Cosmos. Allegorical frontispiece to Albertus Magnus
animal forms arteries, veins, nerves, bones and membranes. The plant in animals, i.e. their
Philosophia Pauperum. Brescia. Bapt. de Farfengo 1493.
112 Alhertus Magnus, Philosophia Pauperum. Baptista de Farfengo, Brescia 1493. This
woodcut does not occur in the first edition of 1482. The idea on which it is based is
recognisable in alchemical woodcuts depicting the earth as "Prima Materia" nourishing
the "Son of the Philosophers" - for example an illustration from Mylius, Philosophia
Reformata. Francof. 1622, p. 96. Reproduced by Jung, C. G.: Psychologie und Al· vegetative soul, acquires the two further faculties which are afforded by the blood, namely
chemie. Zurich 1954, p. 438 with reference to "Prime Matter", the uncreated "Mother warmth and locomotion. The animal thus represents the "plant of the future" - "haec
of the Elements and all Creatures" of the Paracelsean treatise Philosophia ad Athe· planta futura est animal". This development is due to the acquisition of new faculties
nienses. rather than to the abolition of plant life in the animal as though it were obsolete.
240 The Sources of Paracelsus Ramon Lull 241

This evolutionist perspective was propounded by Nicolaus Leonicenus (1428-1524), Paracelsus and Ramon Lull
who with Manardus (1462-1536) was a teacher of Paracelsus at Ferrara. We find it in one
of his minor treatises, the "Letter on the Formative Virtue to the illustrious physician Ramon Lull (1234-1315), Doctor Illuminatus, renowned as a philo-
Caesar Optatus of Naples" .113 Leonicenus takes up Galen's argument114, opposing Aristotle. sopher, logician, alchemist, mystic and martyr, conjured up the vista of
In addition to his critical attitude towards Aristotle, the emphasis laid by Leonicenus
on the analogy between the womb and the Earth should have appealed to Paracelsus.
encyclopaedic knowledge. This was supposed to he producible at the will
It is well to remember, however, that this criticism of Aristotle lends support in Leonicenus' of the adept by means of tables, movable circles and geometrical patterns.
opinion to the views of Galen, which in itself would be no recommendation to Paracelsus. These represented certain general notions symbolised in letters of the
Later on, the comparative anatomical perspective was taken up in the celebrated alphabet; permutations and combinations of groups of these letters were
work "On Plants" by the Aristotelian naturalist Andreas Cesalpinus (1523-1603). He says to enable the "Lullist" to arrive at the invention of new and indeed all
that the veins of the animal body which draw nourishment from the abdomen correspond
in some respects to the roots of plants. 115
Cesalpin does not, however, mention the womb as corresponding to the earth. This
latter idea had been put forward by Aristotle himself, in spite of the criticism levelled
against him by Galen for having treated plants and animals as fundamentally different
forms of life. 1~6
Aristotle had linked this analogy with his doctrine that the womb is responsible for
the bodily substance and shape of the foetus. "For it is the soil that gives to the seeds the
material and the body of the plant." Hence the uterus (unlike the male parts) is not a
mere passage but an organ of considerable width.11 7

113 Nicolai Leoniceni ad excellentissimum Medicum Caesarem Optatum Neapolitanum

de Virtute Formative Epistola. Bonon. 1506. Opuscula, Cratander, Basileae 1532, p. 84.
114 Galen, De Semine. Lib. I, cap. 9. In Galen's opinion, Aristotle failed to see the con-
sequences of his own work in the matter of the correspondence between plants and
animals, seeming to have abandoned his own insistence on the comparative anatomical
perspective. For he gave different explanations for the working of nature in plants
and animals. In the former, he regarded the seed as such as the active principle and
material - but not so in animals. Galen on the other hand, supported by Leonicenus,
shows the fundamental identity of the developing plant and animal, the latter supple-
menting rather than abandoning the faculties of plant life.
115 Caesalpini, And., De Plantis libri XVI, Florentiae 1583, p. 1. This may be compared

with the Hippocratic dictum that what the earth is to the trees, the abdomen is to
the animal body. The abdomen nourishes, warms by intake and cools by evacuation.
Galen commenting on this compares the roots of the tree drawing nourishment from
the soil with the veins which nourish all parts from the abdomen.
Hippocrates, Humours Opp. ed. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb Library), vol. IV, p. 82, and
Galen, Hippocratis de Humoribus liber et Galeni in eum Commentarii tres. Lib. II, 37
Opp. Galeni ed. Kiihn, vol. XVI (1829), p. 340.
116 This criticism was answered in favour of Aristotle by the Averroist Cremonini (1552-
1631) in an involved argument in which no place is given to the analogy between
womb and earth. Cremoninus, Caesar Centensis de Calido innato et semine pro Aristo-
tele versus Galenum. Lugd. Bat. Elzevir 1634, p. 158.
117 De Generat. Animal. Lib. II, cap. 4, 738b, 25-40. The womb is responsible for the body,
the male for the "soul", i.e. the "reality of a particular body". Crossbreeds finally
resemble the female parent, just as the offspring of foreign seeds varies according to
the nature of the soil. See also: ibid., lib. 1, cap. 2, 716 a, 13: "By a male animal we
mean that which generates in another, and by a female that which generates in itself,
wherefore men apply these terms to the macrocosm also, naming mother Earth as being
female, but addressing Heaven and the Sun and other like entities as fathers, as Fig. 27. The Martyrdom of Ramon Lull at Bugia. From: Raymundus Lullus, Ars Inventiva
causing generation." Transl. A. Platt. Oxford 1910. On the Earth as centre of fer- Veritatis. Valencia. Didacus de Gumiel. 1515.
242 The Sources of Paracelsus
possible facts. This is the "Lullian art". It must have appeared to its
inventor and his pupils as the most splendid achievement of the human
intellect so far reached in history. It is hardly accidental that "Lullism"
had its great vogue at the time which "discovered" man and his intellectual
powers, i.e. the Renaissance and the XVIIth century, from Nicolaus Cu-
sanus and Pico to Leibniz. Lullism then was coupled with the revival of
Cahalah and the mysticism of numbers; it may he said to have found its
climax in Leibniz's discovery of Calculus and its main exponent in Gior-
dano Bruno. It is difficult for us today who are no longer able to under-
stand, let alone practise the Lullian Art, to realise the attraction that it
exerted on the best minds of the age. It is usually dealt with in the history
of logic in which it forms a foreign body rather than a stage of organic
development. It would now appear, however, that it is just this approach
from the history of logic which has so far barred an understanding of
Lullism, since, as has been recently shown by Miss Yates, more sense can
he made of it when it is approached through Lull's theory of the elements
and of astrology. 118 Such an approach would have to start from the
correspondences with the elements that were assigned to the stars. These
are expressed in letters of the alphabet.
There are further correspondences of elements, stars, the complexion and temperament
of man, of metals, plants and animals. For example, one could speak "of a 'B-complexion'
man, metal, plant, animal and so on - that is of a man, metal, plant or animal in which
the B, or fiery, element predominated because he was under the influence of a B star."
Such correspondences and therefore "fortunes" in the astrological sense can be thus read
in the tables provided by Lull. The basic principle of working them out in detail is that
tility in Greek mythology, see Creuzer, F.: Symbolik und Mythologie der Alten Volker,
besonders der Griechen. 3rd Ed. Leipzig and Darmstadt 1836, vol. I, pp. 25, 28 and 156.
There is no point in following the comparison of the womb with the earth back to its
origin in religion, mythology and folklore. That it was traditional and older than
Aristotle is shown by a saying of Empedocles that, prior to animals and before the sun
moved round, trees developed from the earth. In these, male and female are first un-
divided; later under the influence of solar heat in the earth they are differentiated and
form parts of the earth comparable to embryos which form parts in the womb of the
mother.
Empedocles, No.164, 70, in Diels, H.: Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. 4th ed., Berlin
1922, vol. I, p. 212. See also ibid. No. 190, 57-62, pp. 245-247. For further relevant
passages from the Presocratics see: Anaxagoras: The animals originate in celestial
semina sown into the earth. (Diels; H.: loc. cit., vol. I, p. 398, No. 113). Earth and
ether of Zeus bring forth the mortals - earth is the mother of all (ibid. No. 112; No. 62).
Hekataios of Abdera: the Earth as a kind of vessel harbouring all that grows, hence
called womb (mother). (Diels, loc. cit., vol. II, p. 152; No. 460, 22). Zeno: Man stems
from the earth (Diels, loc. cit., vol. I, p. 166, No. 127, 5).
118 Yates, Frances A.: The Art of Ramon Lull. An approach to it through Lull's theory
of the elements. J. Warburg Inst. 1954, XVII, 115-173.
The Lullian Art. Devictio. Graded Medicine 243
of "Devictio" - the precedence in a given combination of the letter (or property) which
occurs more often than the others.
The principle of "Devictio" of one property over others in a combination of objects
or notions immediately calls to mind "graded medicine", which has its principal sources
in Aristotle119 and Galen120. In this the elementary qualities had been worked out in minute
detail for every herb and drug.
First, "priniary" and "secondary" qualities had been distinguished. The primary
qualities - warm, cold, moist and dry - combine and thereby give rise to the secondary
qualities - taste, smell, hard, soft, damp-cold, dry-warm. Drugs in general fall into three
categories: those which act by virtue of (l) the primary, (2) the secondary and (3) the
specific qualities inherent in the substance of the drug as a whole ("tota substantia").
Those in the second category are the sweet, bitter, astringent, sharp and softening drugs,
of which the sweet and bitter ones are at the same time warm, while the acid ones are
cold. Emetics, laxatives, antidotes belong to the third category of specific medicines.
Pepper is hot like fire, but only "potentially" so and not like the latter "actually". This
elementary quality may display four grades of intensity; the first grade in which it is hardly
i perceptible, the second grade in which its action is evident, the third in which it is intense
and the fourth in which it is destructive. Opium, mandragora and hemlock are cold in
the fourth grade; spurge is hot in the fourth grade, roses cool in the second grade and so
forth. Following the principle of "Contraria Contrariis", mixtures of herbs and drugs
could be finely balanced and adjusted for individuals according to temperament and com-
plexion and for disease according to the excess or deficiency of the elementary qualities that
it caused. For example opium, which is cold in the fourth degree, needs to be combined
with heating substances such as castor which moderate its action. A cooling remedy will
be needed in fever and so on (Max Neuburger).121
It is clear that this Galenic pharmacology formed a prominent target
for Paracelsus. According to him it is a "foreign" system, grown in Greece
and Arabia and used in modern times and other countries as a result of
"peregrina arrogantia" and "patriae error". In this, Paracelsus does not
voice narrow-minded parochialism and German nationalism. It is rather
his conviction that every age and every place forms a world by itself. For
the "fruits" of the elements, notably the earth, are different according to
time and place. These "fruits" of an age and of a certain part of the earth
include diseases which change their face in different times and localities.
Arabic Balsam is of no use in districts remote from Arabia. In the same
way, each time and each country produce their own physician appropriate
to the diseases ("necessities") peculiar to age and country. Hippocrates,
Avicenna and finally Lull were physicians perfect for their country and
119 De Generatione et Corruptione II, 3; 331 a.
120 De Simplic. medicamentor. facultat. ac temperamentis libri XI - De Compositione
medicamentor. sec. locos I. X - De Compos. med. per genera I. VII - De Antidotis
I. II - De Theriaca ad Pisonem - De Theriaca ad Pamphilium - De Ponderibus et
mensuris - De succedaneis medicamentis - Synopsis simplicium medicamentorum.
121 Neuburger, M.: Geschichte der Medizin. Stuttgart 1906, vol. I, pp. 398-399.
 244 The Sources of Paracelsus
horn from the necessities of the soil. But of what use is Rhazes for Vienna,
Savonarola for Freihurg, Arnaldus for Swahia ?122
It is thus hardly surprising that Lull comes in for severe censure by
Paracelsus, and that he is chiefly mentioned in the treatises on the grades
and composition of medicines. "Long is the error and the way between
thorns", i.e. throughout Lull's hook called "Lily between thorns".123
Ancient medicine reached its natural end a long time ago. Hence the
necessity for new inventive work in medicine. Moreover many good methods
and prescriptions of old have not come to us, and those which have are
confused by gibberish, notably that of monks such as Rupescissa. Nor will
Paracelsus admit any debt to Raymundus Lullus as the acquirer of the
"appropriate prescriptions of philosophy".124
Lull, Paracelsus says, erred in his doctrine of the "Quinta Essentia" and remained far
behind the'!:esults achieved and laid down by himself in his "Archidoxen". Lull mistook
mere "extractio" and "melioratio" for the "Quinta Essentia". 125 His pupils, searching
for the real "Quinta Essentia" of wine - the "vinum salutis" - emptied many vats of
wine, found nothing and wasted their time, mistaking brandy for the spirit of wine ("bran-
ten wein fiir spiritum vini"),126
The followers of Lull falsely called the "Rubigo" of Mercury its "flower", whereas it
is really a deadly corrosive. 127 Against all this the chance remark in a pupil's notebook
that Lull was the first to cure leprosy wherein he was followed by Arnaldus128 cannot
claim any siguificance - any more than can occasional quotations of Lullian prescriptions. 129
Lull is thus one of Paracelsus' targets for opposition and censure. Yet
122 De Gradibus. Begleitbrief an Cluser (November lOth 1527). Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IV,
pp. 71-73. In a similar way Paracelsus says of himself: "That I am solitary, that I am
new, that I am German, should not cause you to despise my works ... " (Paragranum,
Third tract "Von der Alchimia" ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 201). With this and similar
designations such as "Philosophus nach der teutschen Art") he "only meant one
who speaks German and turns away from Roman Scholasticism", as Friedrich Gun-
dolf has convincingly shown. (Paracelsus. 2nd Ed. Bondi. Berlin 1928, p. 66).
128 From student notebooks to De Gradibus. Ed. Sudhoff, loc. cit., vol. IV, p. 91. The
argument (loc. cit. at p. 96) goes into technical detail with regard to difficulties arising
from the application of the doctrine of grades to corrosives. Here Lull figures together
with Arnaldus, Johannes de Rupescissa, Hermes, Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas
Aquinas.
124 Das Zweite Buch, Grosse Wundarznei (1536). Dritter Tractat von den ofnen scheden.
Cap. 6. Von der tinctur geheissen sal philosophorum. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 365.
125
De Vita longa (1526/27). Lib. III, cap. I. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 272. Also Deutsche
Originalfragmente zu den Fiinf Biichern De Vita longa. Lib. III, cap. 1, loc. cit., p. 301.
126
Deutsche Fragmente zu: De Vita long a. Lib. III, cap. 5, loc. cit., p. 305.
127 Ibid., cap. 8, p. 277 and Deutsche Fragmente, p. 307.
128
Kolleg-Niederschriften zu den Biichern der Paragraphen (3b). Ed. Sudhoff, vol. V,
p. 305.
129
Paragraphor. Lib. XIII and XIV. Nachschrift aus dem Kolleg. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. V,
p. 264. - Scholia et observat. in Macri poemata. De Foeniculo. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III,
p. 411.
Lull - Paracelsus - Bruno 245
Giordano Bruno was to find a strong Lullian trait in the work of Paracelsus.
There was no tendency on Bruno's part to minimise the achievement of
Paracelsus in medicine at large, or to show that he was not really original
therein. On the contrary he praised Paracelsus as "medicorum princeps"
who alone could claim a seat close to Hippocrates himself. Nevertheless
Bruno accused Paracelsus of having, in one part of his medicine, reaped
what Lull had sown, of having appropriated the "Majorcan cloth"
without giving his source, veiling it in preposterous, newly invented names,
and of having fashioned it into a mantle here and cut it up into short
Swiss trousers ("femoralia") there. What Lull calls B for "light", Para-
celsus names ''Fire"; Lull's C for "Oil" is Paracelsus' "Sulphur"; the
Lullian D for "Smoke" is Paracelsus' "Mercury'', Lull's E for "Ash" Para-
celsus' "Salt" and so on. 130
Bruno here seems to be referring to the use of letters as summarised for example in
the table "De significatione literarum" or in the "Arbor operationis" and of similar sym-
bols appended to some of the Lullian alchemical treatises, notably the "Testamentum". 131
The letters used in the "Testament" do not correspond to those given by Bruno, but the
principle is the same.
Bruno's accusation would have to he judged from the debt which Para·
celsus owed to alchemy in general and not to Lull in particular. For it is
generally agreed that the Lullian corpus of alchemical treatises is not by
Lull himself. Lull deprecates alchemy in his genuine work in unmistakable
terms and there are gross inconsistencies in the stories connecting his life
with alchemical activity.132
180 Bruno, G.: De Lampade Corubinatoria Lulliana (praefatio), Wittenberg 1587. Opp.
Lat. vol. II, part 2, pp. 234-235. Prior to the recent work of Yates (loc. cit, p. 131),
Heinrich Ritter drew attention to this as early as 1850 ("Seltsamerweise wird die Lehre
des Paracelsus auf Lullus zuriickgefiihrt." Geschichte der cliristlichen Philosophie,
vol. V, Haruburg 1850, p. 605, footnote 2).
131 Testamentum Raymundi Lulli duobus libris universam artem chymicam complectens.
Item ejusdem compendium animae transmutationis artis metallorum. 2nd ed. Coloniae
Agripp. ap. Jo. Birckmannum 1573, fol. 231 verso. Manget Bibliotheca Chemica,
vol. I, p. 778, p. 822, p. 852; Lux Mercuriorum, ibid., p. 824. - Arbor operationis Manget
I, 826.
132 The identity of the author of all "Lullian" treatises, philosophical and alchemical,
was assumed as late as 1832 by Schmieder, K. C.: Geschichte der Alchemie, Halle 1832,
p. 166 et seq. Against this identification see for example Kopp H.: Beitrage zur Ge-
schichte der Chemie, vol. III, Braunschweig 1875, pp. 102-107; Kopp: Die Alchemie
in alterer und neuerer Zeit. Heidelberg 1886, vol. I, pp. 25-26. Lippmann, E. 0. von:
Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie, Berlin 1919, p. 494. Waite A. E., Ray-
mund Lully, in: Three Famous Alchemists, pp. 9-75, Rider & Co., London; Taylor,
F. Sherwood, The Alchemists, London 1951. The Lullian diagrams, notably circles
and triangles, are closely reminiscent of those traditionally used in magic (see for
example Petri de Abano Heptameron s. Elementa Magica in Agrippa, Opp. ed. Lug-
246 The Sources of Paracelsus
It is true that the use ofletters and symbols gives some of the treatises an outward
resemblance to the "Lullian Art", i.e. the genuine natural philosophy and cosmology of
Lull. 133 But the letters and symbols in the chemical works do not appear to be meant as
an "alphabet of concepts", an instruction and guide for combination and permutation
whereby new concepts or constellations or facts were to be invented. It seems, on the con·
trary, that letters and symbols were introduced in order to give the chemical treatises a
genuine Lullian stamp. For otherwise the Lullian alchemy differs in no way from other
brands of mediaeval alchemy, notably Arnaldian and Rupescissian.
What then did Bruno mean ? Was there any justification in his priority
claim for Lull against Paracelsus ?
The doctrines of Paracelsus stand and fall by the theory of microcosm
and the correspondences which he found everywhere in the greater and
lesser worlds. It was Lull who probably for the first time formulated and
tabulated correspondences between the greater and the lesser worlds in
great detail. His "Art" implies throughout the analogies between man
and the cosmos. Lull sees the influence of the stars on inferior bodies as
the imprint of a seal rather than as a physical effect. It is a correspondence
in form and function, a directive impulse, rather than the transmission of
anything physical. Thus the inferior substances, directed by the astral seal
which they have received, act in consonance with the stars, hut the action
itself is theirs - just as more heat is produced in summer in consonance
with the sun, and fountains and rivers increase and decrease in parallel
with the waxing and waning of the moon. 134 According to Miss Yates, it
is of particular importance for the understanding of the Lullian art that
in these and similar passages the influences of signs and planets are iden-
tified with the 18 fundamental notions of his general table, such as Bonitas,
Magnitudo, Duratio, Potestas, etc.135 The latter correspondences are even
more important to Lull than any elemental qualities which inferior things
have in common with celestial bodies. "For example, Sol and Fire concord
more through mutual honitas, magnitudo and so on than through calor
and siccitas, for Sol is not formally calidus and siccus hut he is formally
bonus, magnus, durans, potens etc." 136 All "ratios" on earth - the equality
between men of the same size or in any human science such as mathematics,
music, law and medicine, are caused by the equality in heaven. It is the
duni 1600, vol. I, p. 455). As we have seen, Paracelsus incorporated traditional "magic"
in his work. Lull's diagrams should have appealed to him for this reason.
1 88 As pointed out by Hoefer, P., Histoire de la Chimie, Paris, 1842, vol. I, p. 401.
13 4 Lull, R.: Tractatus Novus de Astronomia (written in 1297). Paris lat. 17, 827, fol. 17 v.
Quoted from Yates, loc. cit., p. 124.
13 6 Yates, loc. cit., p. 124.
1aa Yates, loc. cit., p. 126.
Lullian Traits in Paracelsus 247
latter which becomes the influencing principle and impresses its likeness
on the equalities in inferior things". 137 By the principle of equality the
crude principle of "Contraria Contrariis" appears to he superseded to some
extent, as it permits herbs that are contrary in complexion to he equal in
honitas, potestas and virtus.138
In this insistence on correspondences as against influences, Lull believed
himself original and superior to traditional astrology, which had conceded
absolute power to the stars. Such power, Lull emphasises, belongs to the
Creator, who can alter the astral influences and move the soul of man
against the constellation under which he was horn. Finally Lull appears to
have restricted the principle of "Contraria Contrariis" by the overruling
power of the equality principle.
In all this we are reminded of the views of Paracelsus, to whom the
correspondences were paramount and superseded the power of elemental
quality. Paracelsus rejected traditional astrology and the power ascribed
by it to the stars in favour of correspondences. The free action of God and
of the human soul was to Paracelsus far above that of the stars, which was
"animal" in nature and subject to alteration by the will of God as well as
of man. Paracelsus emphasises constantly that "virtue" does not by any
means depend on complexion, for example in a herb or drug, and one
may well compare this with Lull's restriction of the "Contraria Contrariis"
principle by that of "Equality". According to Paracelsus, many herbs and
drugs that differ in "complexion" are identical in "virtue" and effect. 139
"Virtues" to Paracelsus are divine and uncreated.140
It is unlikely that Paracelsus remained unacquainted with those Lullian
and pseudo-Lullian treatises which were in circulation among adepts of the
secret arts, such as Trithemius and Agrippa on the one hand, and metal-
lurgists and alchemists on the other. There is, however, no direct evidence
of the Lullian art in the work of Paracelsus and a possible influence of
Lullian ideas should not, therefore, he overrated. Carried away in his
enthusiasm for Lull, Bruno may well have done this, including Paracelsus
in the series of his admired "predecessors in Lull" such as Nicolaus Cusanus,
Agrippa, Bovillus and J ac. Faber Stapulensis.
1 37 Yates, loc. cit., p. 127.
138 Yates, loc. cit., p. 129.
139 See above p. 93.
1 40 See above, p. 54.
248 The Sources of Paracelsus Arnald of Villanova 249

Paracelsus and Arnald of Villanova
Among the outstanding figures of mediaeval medicine, Arnald of Villa-
nova (1235-1311) has always invited a comparison with Paracelsus.
Already in Arnald's biography1 41 there is much which bears comparison
with the life of Paracelsus, notably his restlessness, which kept him travel-
t!\mald' tt ~llla UOlJa
ling for most of the time. Then, there is Arnald's propensity to mix with
unorthodox circles, notably Franciscan divines and exponents of "chili-
astic" and "Joachimite" ideas of the impending end of the world and the
advent of the Antichrist. 142 Arnald, like Paracelsus, was subject to abrupt
vicissitudes, such as his imprisonment at Paris (1299) as a heretic, on
account of his chiliastic ideas and criticism of church institutions. Like
Paracelsus, Arnald ministered with great success to prominent persons,
notably kings and popes. On the whole, however, Arnald moved
in circles and classes altogether different from those which formed the
background of Paracelsus' chequered life and career. He remained through-
out a high dignitary at secular as well as ecclesiastical courts, where he
received castles as presents.

Independence of thought. Use of empirical remedies

Further parallels can be found in Arnald's independence of outlook and

views, notably on such hotly debated questions as sorcery and magic.
In spite of enlightened criticism of vulgar superstition and belief, notably
in human powers over planets and demons, Arnald - like Paracelsus -
remained a firm believer in the actual existence of demons. Moreover, he
made much use of amulets and seals, especially in the cure of poisoning,
and of the stone (so successfully employed by him in the case of Pope
Boniface VIll).143 Much of this probably belongs to what Arnald confesses
to having learned from simple folk and empirics. 144 In the same way, Para-
celsus acknowledged his indebtedness to ordinary and even illiterate people;
Fig. 28. Arnald of but Arnald emphasises in the first place what he had learned from his
Villanova. From:
Hartmann Schedel, academic teachers, the "magistri in medicina expertissimi" - an emphasis
Registrum hujus hardly to be met with in Paracelsus.
operis libri croni-
carum. Niirnberg
1493. From the
copy in the British tione maleficiorum. Arch. Kulturgesch. 1912, IX, 385. With special reference to parallels
Museum (Wellcome with Paracelsus in: Theophrastus von Hohenheim, the physician who bridged the
Collection Ages. Research and Progress 1942, VII, 107-124, esp. pp. 111-112. See also Thorndike,
neg. 4113). L.: History of Magic and Experimental Science. New York 1923, vol. II, pp. 841-861.
142
See Diepgen, P.: Die Weltanschauung Arnalds von Villanova und seine Medizin.
Scientia Milano 1937, January, p. 40 et seq. See also Grundmann, H., Die Papstpro-
phetien des Mittelalters. Arch. f. Kulturgesch. 1929, XIX, loc. cit. p. 93 with ref. to
Diepgen loc. cit. 1909, p. 15. As the latter has shown, Arnald was in intimate contact
l4l On this and related questions see the comprehensive work of Paul Diepgen: Arnald with southern French Beguines and praised the prophetic literature that was popular
von Villanova als Politiker und Laientheologe. Abh. zur mittleren und neueren Ge- with them.
schichte. 1909, Heft IX; id., Studien zu Arnald von Villanova III, Arnald und die 143 See for detail: Thorndike, loc. cit., p. 848 et seq.
Alchemie. Arch. Gesch. Med. 1910, III, 369, und IV, Arnalds Stellung zur Magie, 1 44 Breviarium. Lib. I, Prooem. Opp. Omnia cum Nicolai Taurelli annot. Perneus et Wald-
Astrologie und Oneiromantaie. Arch. Gesch. Med. 1912, V, 88. Arnaldus de improba- kirch, Basileae 1585, col. 1055 b-c.
250 The Sources of Paracelsus
Naturalism and Empiricism
Yet in his medical teaching, Arnald professes independence and em-
phasises personal and objective experience as the main source of knowledge.
He said that he who takes everything from his predecessors and com-
placently tries to put this into practice resembles cattle that are led by a
rope and go along hlindly. 145 He has much to say against pure empiricism
on the one hand and against excessive reasoning that neglects experience
and experiment on the other. 146 The physician who knows the natures and
powers of simple things and possesses a strong gift of imaginative
combination in the use of natural forces will appear to work miracles, for
example by bestowing a laxative effect on wine. "Blessed, therefore, is the
physician whom God has endowed with knowledge (Scientia) and intel-
ligence, for he is the associate of nature ( naturae socius). Alas, many are
called, hut few are chosen. For the science of medicine is relegated to the
opinion of those who ponder about universals. For he who reduces many
single facts to one universal is esteemed the better man. Hence somebody
well defined medicine as the science which is unknown. But may the
blessed God cause us to know and understand and act according to his
benevolence. " 147 Parisian and Italian physicians spend all their energies in
search of the knowledge of universals, not bothering about detailed facts
and experience. A celebrated master in the theory and logic of natural
science knew not when and how to order a clyster or to cure an ephemeral
fever. The schools of Naples and Montpellier, where Arnald himself studied,
however, would not lose sight of the knowledge of detailed facts and true
l45 "Recitant sicut hauriunt ex scriptura nequeuntes discernere, utrum terram per-
transeant propriam vel alienam: sed sicut brutum cliorda trahitur, et etiam detinetur,
sic et eorum intellectus in scripturis chartapellorum detinetur, et etiam alligatur."
De Considerat. Operis Medicinae Prooem. Opp., col. 848g-849a. See also Diepgen, P.:
Geschichte der Medizin. Berlin 1949, vol. I, p. 211 et seq.
146 See Pagel, W.: Religious Motives in the Medical Biology of the XVIIth century. Bull.
Hist. Med. 1935, III, 112 et seq. Diepgen, P.: Die Weltanschauung Arnalds von Villa-
nova und seine Medizin. Scientia 1937, p. 43.
147 "Qui enim plura singularia ad universale reduxerit, melior habetur: Ideo bene definit
quidam dicens: Medicina scientia est, quae nescitur: Deus autem benedictus faciat
nos scire et intelligere, et secundum suum beneplacitum operari." De Vino. Opp.
Omnia, loc. cit., col. 588a-c. Diepgen gives the gist of this passage as: "Der Arzt ist
auf dem besten Wege, der die Singularia zu den Universalia fiihrt" (the physician who
reduces particulars to universals is on the best way to success; loc. cit., Scientia 1937,
p. 43) and calls this "a hint at the principle of the inductive method" in which we re·
cognise in Arnald's albeit scholastic thought "the spirit of a new science". Such a spirit,
however, lies in Arnald's obvious criticism of those who reduce particulars to universals
(although they are reputed to be successful) and not in a recommendation of this prin-
ciple.
Arnald of Villanova. Naturalism 251
experience. 148 Ratio and Experiment are the leading stars towards the
"certainty of the art". Experiment alone will he insufficient for the know-
ledge of the composition ("complexion") of an object. It will need confir-
mation by reason. 149 For experiment as distinct from reason reveals the
immediate and actual qualities and effects, those common to several as
well as those limited to individual objects ("virtutes communes et propriae").
Reason, however, is restricted to the knowledge of virtues that are common
to more than one object. In conjunction with experiment it can reveal
the potential properties of an object. With the help of experience, reason
will thus teach us that certain substances act in a certain way on animals
of diverse species - for example, wine will inebriate man as well as the
ape - whereas others act in a certain way on one species, hut not on another;
for example, wheat is good for man hut not for horses.150
It thus remains imperative to acquire in the first place knowledge of the
miraculous works of nature, instead of letting blind and presumptuous
imagination and delusion run away with the mind of the young student.151
What can he perceived with the senses must he taught to the student.
For it is through the "Sensibilia" that the intellect ascends to the "Insensi-
bilia", i.e. to what is hidden ( occulta ), arduous and subtle - as shown in the
whole working of theology just as well as in that of medicine. For all real
knowledge derives from sensual perception.152
148 "Et propter hoc Parisienses et Ultramontani medici plurimum student, ut habeant
scientiam de universali, non curantes habere particulares cognitiones et experimenta.
Et medici montis Pessulani, sicut Magister meus et alii probi viri ... qui student satis
habere scientiam de universali, non praetermittentes scientiam particularem: unde
magis respiciunt ad curationes particulares, et didascola et vera experimenta habere
quam semper universalibus incumbere." Breviarium, lib. IV, cap. 10, Opp., loc. cit.,
col. 1392e.
149 De graduationibus medicinarum. Cap. 36, Opp., loc. cit., col. 555g. See also Explic.
sup. Can. Vita Brevis. Cap. l, Opp., col. l679c.
150 "De Modo cognoscendi virtutes complexionatorum primo per experimentum." Spec.
lntroduct. Med., cap. 20, col. 57f. "Experimento cognoscuntur virtutes communes et
propriae. Ratione vero cognoscuntur communes." Ibid., col. 58a.
151 "Mira valde sunt opera naturae, sine quorum notitia caecutit superbus et indomitus
iuvenum intellectus, qui contemtis veris imaginaria quadam delusione, defraudatur
praecipue, cum elata praesumptio faciat eos suis imaginationibus pertinaciter in-
haerere." De Dosis Theriacalibus. Opp., loc. cit., col. 50lc-d.
15 2 "Doctor gratiosus et efficax parabolis utitur ad occulta per sensibilia declaranda. Cum
omnis vera cognitio a sensu oriatur ... necessario ipsa sensibilia debent gratiose et
efficaciter demonstrari iuvenibus et addiscentibus: quia tune intellectus discurrens
per ea, abstrahit multa media et multas conclusiones. Unde per sensibilia venit in-
tellectus ad cognitionem insensibilium et occultorum et arduorum et subtilium, ut
declaratur per totem processum theologiae et per totum processum medicinae: Et ideo
tales parabolae utiles sunt, sicut dicit canon." Parabolae Medicationis. Opp., col.
1038b-c.
252 The Sources of Paracelsus
In Arnald's case the quest for empirical knowledge and experience as
against the dictates of "industrious" reason is associated with the fight
against superstition, just as it is with Paracelsus. The knowledge that
matters in devising remedies is of the virtues of their components rather
than of their composition and complexion. This virtue is learnt not by
reason but by experiment. 153 A celestial virtue regulates and perfects it.
All this, however, is purely natural. It is due to sympathy and antipathy
as natural forces and has nothing to do with demons or products of super-
stition. "Reject therefore the shameful incantators, conjurors, invocators
of spirits, diviners and augurers in the service of man's health, who have
already become the helpers of the devil in opposition to the highest phy-
sician, Christ. For, as Origen said, it is better to be ignorant than to learn
from demons and better to learn from scientists than to invoke divination" .154
The quest for medical reform in a new age
One "rationale" of Arnald's criticism of ancient medicine is indeed very
much like the argument used by Paracelsus. Since antiquity the world
has changed. Prescriptions and precepts that were salutary in ancient
times are insufficient or even highly dangerous to-day. No wonder that,
after Christ has appeared, much more can be done in medicine than in
Hippocrates'times,manyyears "ante adventum summi medici Jesu Christi".
And this is necessary - for already "the world has become senescent, both
macrocosm and microcosm have grown old, and with this human nature
progressively became weak, exhausted and prostrate. Thus the experience
of the ancients must be adapted and converted according to the require-
ments of the present state of human intellect and personal experience.155
This proud and ambitious programme is reminiscent of the revolution-
ary propositions of Paracelsus. Moreover, it uses the same argument which
the latter adduces in order to justify his reformation of medicine. Each
time with its own constellation needs its own new medicine. For there is
a new generation of man with its own constitution of body and mind, and
its own illnesses against which ancient medicine will not be sufficient help.
Yet, in what follows in Arnald's text on the cure of the stone, little if any
discrepancy can be seen from the prevailing opinions of Galen and the
Arabs. Herein lies the difference from Paracelsus.
153
De Epilepsia. Opp., col. 1629b.
154
Ibid.
155 Contra Calculum. Cap. IV, Opp., col. 1568d.
Arnald of Villanova. Medical Reform. Religion 253
Religious ideas and motives in medical theory and practice
Religious motives and the frequent invocation of God and Christ as the
"greatest physicians" in Arnald's works are features reminiscent of Para-
celsus. Temkin drew attention to this with reference to epilepsy. Para-
celsus was not the first, Temkin says, to ask for divine help in the treat-
ment of epilepsy or to be moved by love for the sick. Arnald too had
appealed to Jesus Christ and his compassion for the sufferers from this
"unfortunate disease" .156
To Arnald, God is indeed the source of Medicine. The short rules which
he calls Parabolae medicationis are given secundum instinctum veritatis
aeternae. For God on High created medicine, just as all that is good and
perfect comes down from the Father of Light. Medicine studies the visible
body in order to penetrate to what is invisible, from the ailments of the
body to those of the non-corporeal spirit. For "lnvisibilia per visibilia
designantur" 157, a rule which formed the basis of Paracelsus' philosophy.158
God punishes man for his moral shortcomings with disease, but, in his
infinite clemency, has given him the means of repairing this "shipwreck",
notably an excellent theriac.159
The true physician is divine; for he is the harbinger of truth. For all
truth lies with God. The physician should, therefore, be "informed" by
God and must be a specially chosen vessel of eternal truth.160
We learn in order to grow wise, not for the sake oflucre. He who studies
for this latter will stop short of wisdom and be comparable to an "aborted"
mole, chiefly because he will not arrive at the "perfect end" of any study
which is the "cognition" of the Creator.161
In the invention of remedies, reason is superseded by inspiration and
grace. The Magna Opiata which are the glory of medicine because of the
manifest and sure help which they afford were discovered by force of the
special grace of divine inspiration rather than by the industry of human
156
Temkin, 0.: The Falling Sickness. A History of Epilepsy. Baltimore 1945, p. 160, with
ref. to Arnald, De epilepsia, cap. 21, Opp., loc. cit., col. 1624 and 1617. Temkin also
drew attention to Arnald's recommendation of fever treatment for epilepsy, at least
for that caused by black bile. (Loe. cit., col. 1075).
157
Parabolae medicationis secundum instinctum veritatis aeternae quae dicuntur a me-
dicis regulae generales curationis morborum. Opp., col. 913e-f.
158
See above p. 56.
159
De Venenis. Opp., col. 153le.
160 Opp., 914d.
161
Parabolae I, 4., Opp., col. 920f-g.
254 The Sources of Paracelsus
reason - as Avicenna says of the theriac, and Mithridates in his treatise on
the virtues of the heart and its medicine.1 62
The knowledge of remedies that act by an intrinsic unknown quality -
the tota species - rather than by an analysable combination of well known
elementary qualities, comes to the individual physician by the grace of God.
Such remedies include magic cures, notably of epilepsy, for example a
pendant consisting of peony and burnt oakwood, or an emerald suspended
from the neck. 163
No human physician will cure such conditions as complete paralysis in
epilepsy (analepsis), only the Summus Medicus Jesus Christus. 164
Influence of the Stars
Finally, it is divine action that explains the influence of the stars on us.
Hence the religious background of astrology. God has commissioned the
stars to govern nature ( ducatus naturae) by means of their motions through-
out the millennia.
Saturn, by nature cold and dry, governs the stomach of man; Jupiter, warm and
moist, the liver; Mars, hot and dry, the kidneys; the Sun, hot and dry, the heart; Venus,
warm and moist, the testicles; Mercury, cold and moist, the bladder; the moon, cold and
moist, the brain.
The action of the stars is the result of their linkage with the elements. Like these, they
owe their activity to a double virtue - one that is common to all, and one that is limited
to the individual. Elemental actions common to all, for example, are heat and cold. But
heat may be produced by something that is either warm or cold in itself. Moreover, heat
and cold are present in something that, besides this, has a specific "celestial" property,
for example of dissolving or attracting, of producing stupor, or of fixing, or of corrupting.
162 Explic. super can. Vita Brevis, cap. 4. Opp., col. 1703a-b. Here Avicenna is quoted
in support of Arnald's own opinion. That he even protected Avicenna against mis-
understanding by "commercialised and vaporous" physicians is shown in De con-
siderat. op. medicinae, cap. 4, col. 879b. Arnald here blames those who fail to under·
stand Avicenna rather than Avicenna himself, Arnald's opposition to Arabic medicine
is largely based on scholastic considerations. For example he blames Averroes for his
opinion that poison and remedy do not belong to the same genus. Arnald objects that
all poison acts in the same way as does the remedy, namely by alteration of the body
(De Dosibus Theriacalib., Opp. 497c-498b and Taurellus' note pointing out the diffi.
culties inherent in Amald's argument 504d). Not all of Amald's arguments against
Avicenna are allegations that he misrepresented Galen. For example, he rejects Avi-
cenna's recommendation to alleviate pain by abolishing sensitivity. Arnald argues that
sensitivity is a requisite of the sound body and must not be repressed. The aim must
be the restitution of continuity and the ejection of pathological matter. If necessary,
a limb must be sacrificed, but not merely its sensitivity. (De consid. operis medic.,
pars II, Opp., 890e.)
1 63 Loe. cit., Opp., col. 1606.
164 Opp., col. 1617c.
Arnald of Villanova. Astrological Medicine 255
It is from this "celestial" virtue that rhubarb salubriously and commonly purges choleric
matter, and similarly, though more powerfully, does scammonea.1H
In the same way, the stars have a double action; primarily one which they all have in
common and which is exerted by means of rays of light that heat the air and give rise
to comets. Secondarily, each star has its individual activity, associated with the revolving
motion that leads the planet through the various parts of the "orb of signs". Its action
varies with the constellations. Crises are hours determined for a rapid change for good or
evil, depending on the position of the moon. 166 The latter tends to moisten and dissipate
what has become solid and will thus directly infiuence the work of the physician in com-
posing medicines. Such influence of the moon is particularly noticeable in cerebral - lu-
natic - diseases of which epilepsy is the prototype. 167
Humours expand and contract according to the position of the sun and moon which
act like a magnet. In this way, all that consists of the four elements is affected by the
motion and properties of the planets.
As Hippocrates said, astrology is no small part of medicine. Nor can
there he any doubt of the influence of the upper world on the lower one -
as has been established by experience. We know, for example, that if
somebody is wounded with an iron weapon, that member will he affected
which corresponds to the sign in which the moon happens to stand at the
time. Hence astrology and medicine are linked together, medicine being
in need of astrology. It is also indispensable as an aid to medical practice
and prognostication, and the physician who fails to study it is liable to
intolerable error.168 On the other hand, the power of the stars, however
great, does not preclude interference by the physician. The wise man will
he able to overrule the stars by dint of his superior reason ( sua rationabili-
tate ). He will prevail over an evil disposition, improving it by giving the
appropriate remedy. Or else, if the disposition is favourable, he will make
use of it in his direction and thereby obtain a superior result. 169
165 De Epil., cap. 24. Opp., col. 1628.
166 Parah. Medic. Opp., col. 963b,
16 7 De Epil., cap. I. Opp., col. 1603a-b. Parah. Medic., col. 964b.
168 The short treatise De Iudiciis Astronomiae, Arnald says, is not meant to be a discursive
exposition of medical astrology, but a brief manual revealing "how the practising
physician may be helped in his work and prognostication by the knowledge of the stars,
and how those physicians who do not attend to this may avoid intolerable error."
("Quo modo medicus operans potest iuvari in opere et in prognosticatione per scien·
tiam astrorum, et quomodo medici non incurrant in errores intolerabiles illi, qui ad
hoc non considerant"). De Iudiciis Astronomiae, cap. 10, Opp., col. 2070c-d.
Neuburger, in his excellent account of Arnald, finds in this passage an indication that
Arnald "recognised the unreliability of astrology . , , where he says the physician who
neglects astrology avoids falling into intolerable error." Neuburger, M.: Geschichte der
Medizin, Stuttgart 1908, vol. II, p. 402. We cannot agree with this translation and
interpretation. Moreover, Neuburger's quotation of the passage is marred by a mis-
print ("untriigliche lrrtiimer" instead of "unertriigliche lrrtiimer") which obscures
the meaning completely.
16 9 De conservanda juventute, cap. 3. Opp. 832c-d.
256 The.Sources of Paracelsus
This outwitting of the stars by the physician may he said to reflect an
anthropocentric or iatrocentric view similar to that of Paracelsus. In
detail, however, Arnald's medical astrosophy has little in common with
that of the latter. For it is purely humoralistic - allocating humours and
qualities to the various stars and deducing their sphere of influence from
this allocation.
Specificity of objects (including diseases) and the Stars
It is the stars that endow objects with specific forms and functions.17°
This is well shown by gold, the most perfect and secret object in nature.
It owes its perfection to the unique and admirable balance of elementary constituents
and virtues therein. In addition, it harbours specific virtues which are due to celestial in·
fiuence. In it~ stability and permanence, gold is itself like a star of heaven. Though an
object composed of elements, it is unalterable, insoluble, incorruptible - a miracle of nature.
It helps vision and, above all, cleanses and clears the substance of the heart and the foun-
tain of life. It also cures leprosy. All these properties, however, are only found in the natural
gold that was created at the command of God. Hence the alchemists deceive themselves:
for although they reproduce the substance and colour of gold, they fail to infuse into it
the virtues of natural gold. Only the latter can therefore be used for medicinal purposes -
i.e. for those purposes for which it was created by God. The artificial product will only
damage the vital organs. Moreover, it must be used with moderation and not hoarded,
which will lead to damnation rather than bliss. But hope and reliance may be placed in
God's mercy. 171
Specificity in objects is thus star-borne and derives from astral cor·
respondences with sublunary things. In this view any species of disease
has "its star" under which it is engendered and lives. 172 In the same way,
a remedy possesses a "vis contraria" derived from its star. This power does
110 Specificity, as determined by the planets, is a common medieval concept. It was ex-
pressed, for example, by Dante who said that the "stars emboss the seal of Form upon
the Wax of the world". See Lippmann, E. 0.: Beitrage zur Geschichte der Natur-
wissenschaften und der Technik. Springer, Berlin 1923, p. 192, on: Chemisclies und
Technologisches bei Dante. The main passages quoted are from: Parad. 7, 138; 13, 66;
27, 144; 21, 15; 8, 127; 13, 67. Canz. 12, I. De Monarchia II. The forms assumed by
matter depend upon the planets and the qualities of the rays by means of which they
influence matter, and also upon the constellations in which they happen to be situated.
On the other hand, matter is not uniform and is therefore liable in turn to influence
the ultimate form assumed, but it is the seminal virtues which are conveyed by the
stars, emanations in a true Neoplatonic sense of the intelligences - popularly called the
Angels. Parad. 2, 120; conv. 2, 7; canz. 16, 4. Ores growing under planetary influence:
conv. 3, 3; 4, I. See above p. 89.
171 De Vinis. Opp., col. 59ld-g.
172 "Like each element, so each disease species has its star, under which it is generated
and lives, as Rabbi Moyses says." De Epilepsia, cap. 24. Opp., col. 1628d.
Arnald of Villanova. Stars. Humoralism 257
not act "magically" or by itself "as a whole" (tota species) on the disease as
such, hut works rather through action on pathological products which
impede normal function. For example, peony cures epilepsy by means of
a virtue contrary to the disease. This virtue the herb acquires from heaven,
when the moon occupies that position in which it is liable to cause epilepsy
by moving noxious matter which obstructs the outlet of the anterior
ventricle of the brain. The herb immobilises this matter by simple contact
with the body of the patient, for example when worn as an amulet round
the neck.
The belief in correspondences between the star on the one hand and a
disease as an entity in its own right (species) and its cure on the other, is
indeed common to the worlds of Arnald and Paracelsus. The cure is effected
by a herb which acquired its specific virtue from above (a coelo) under the
same constellation which caused the disease. This applies in particular to
the moon, which governs the movement of water in the macrocosm as well
as in the microcosm and causes disease by mobilising humours at a certain
time during its course. It is at this very time that the herb possesses and
displays its curative virtue.
This implies a homoeopathic view which, as we have seen, is character·
istic of the medical philosophy of Paracelsus.
There is, however, one fundamental difference between the medicine of
Arnald and that of Paracelsus. The former is in its content pure Galenism,
i.e. humoral pathology - whereas Paracelsus continually tries to get away
from the latter. Indeed, humoralism penetrates Arnald's medical system
throughout.
Arnald and Humoralism
A.maid's basic position is that of ancient humoralism and materialism.
He holds with Galen that the soul is largely dependent upon the mixture
of the humours. Its main instrument is the spirit - a subtle vapour of the
blood endowed with great penetrative power. It conveys natural heat to
the members through the arteries. It is formed in the heart ( spiritus vitalis)
and modified in the liver ( spiritus naturalis) and brain ( spiritus animalis).
Hence the diversity in the composition of the blood of the individual will
he reflected in the behaviour of the spirit and consequently of the organs
that are "informed" by it. If its substance is well mixed throughout
( subtilis et clarus) and well tempered in its qualities, well disposed spirits
( splendidi et temperatissimi) will he formed and will ensure happiness and
a joyful life - whereas a slight increase in heat will already cause heavy
258 The Sources of Paracelsus
emotions, such as wrath. It is therefore incumbent upon the physician to
bring about a cure by improving the blood. 1 73
Those in whom phlegm abounds will frequently see rain in their dreams when phlegm
flows down through the shoulders and limbs. If, on the other hand, a well tempered
person dreams of rain, it forecasts something specific, namely instruction which somebody
will impart, or some divine command. 174
It is true that Arnald also subjects humours and spiritus to the power of the soul, which
is in turn governed by the stars. Just as in generation the formative virtue is subordinated
to the constellation of the stars, the latter directs the movements of the soul throughout
life. When the celestial bodies disturb and swell the air, the soul in the heart causes the
spirit to surge up and disturb it with an appropriate repercussion on the body.175
In conclusion: Some of Arnald's theories anticipated those of Para-
celsus - such as his appraisal of each disease as a specific entity resulting
from a specific cosmic constellation. His quest for naturalism, empiricism
and the reform of medicine adapted to the specific requirements of a new
age is strikingly reminiscent of the demands of Paracelsus, and so is the
basic religious attitude which pervades his life and work. On the other
hand, Arnald abides with Galenism, and the humours remain the basic
frame of reference for all action and change in nature. Arnald's preoccu-
pation with alchemy in no way modified his adherence to humoralism, and
it is in this that his philosophy differs basically from that of Paracelsus.
Paracelsus and Alchemy
Both in substance and in trends, Paracelsus' work was foreshadowed
by such mediaeval alchemists as Arnald of Villanova, the Lullists and John
of Rupescissa, who applied chemistry and alchemy to medicine. 176
173 Spec. Introd. Med., cap. 8, col. 24c. Ibid., cap. 75, col. 160a.
174 Expositiones visionum. Lib. I, 4. Opp., col. 631.
175 Expositiones visionum. Lib. I, 2. Opp., col. 627.
l76 Their works were available in printed form at the time of Paracelsus and so was that
of Geber. The latter had appeared already in the XVth century and was printed again
in Paracelsus' lifetime in 1525 at Rome, and in 1529 and 1531 at Strassburg. See: E.
Darmst!idter, Die Geber Inkunabel, Hain 7504. Arch. Gesch. Med. 1925, XVI, 214;
Lynn Thorndike, Alchemy during the first half of the Sixteenth Century. Ambix 1938,
II, 26. F. N. L. Poynter: A Catalogue oflncunabula in the Wellcome Historical Medical
Library, Oxford 1954, p. 53, lists Darmstadter's copy and gives 1490 as the approximate
date of publication.
The Lullian De Secretis Naturae which deals with the preparation of the quintessence,
notably alcohol, by means of distillation was partly published in Joh. Math. de Gradi,
Consilia, Venice 1514, in 1518 at Augsburg, and later complete in 1521 (Venice) and
1535 (Lyons). The most popular works epitomising the doctrines of Rupescissa, the
Lullists, Arnald and Albertus Magnus were those of Hieronymus Brunschwig (1500)
Alchemy. General Principles 259
It is in these that we find empiricism and experimentalism opposed to
the supremacy of the reasoning intellect as implied in scholastic and Aristo-
telian philosophy.
Before discussing individual authors, however, we propose to survey
the general principles of mediaeval alchemy as. transmitted in one of its
encyclopaedic presentations, and to compare them with the ideas of Para-
celsus.
(1) The New Precious Pearl on the Philosophers' Stone
(a) The Quest for Empiricism
Alchemy, the author of the "New Precious Pearl"1 77 tells us, is based
upon facts of Nature - such as medicine, horticulture and glass blowing.
It is not a systematising art like grammar, logic and rhetoric. Yet it is
preceded by a theory and investigation of its own that is devoted to the
search for causes. It is proven by the testimonies of the Sages who like
Hermes based it on correspondences between the greater and the lesser
world. 178 However, it does not admit of a logical argument, but calls for
and the famous "Heaven of the Philosophers" by Philip Ulstad. It first appeared in
Fribourg in 1525 and was reprinted at Strassburg in 1526 and 1528 before its wide dis-
persion in many editions, small and large. (Thorndike, loc. cit., p. 32, with ref. to
Gesner, Conr.: Bihl. Univers. Tiguri 1545, fol. 559r). Rupescissa's original text was
not published in Paracelsus' lifetime - the first complete Latin edition being that of
Gratarolus in 1561. But some of Arnalds chemical treatises had been printed in the
early editions of his works (1504, 1532). The first work of Pantheus - "Ars Trans-
mutationis metallicae" - must be mentioned as it already appeared in 1519. This work
is largely devoted to mysticism of numbers and letters in the Lullian tradition and
therefore hardly influenced Paracelsus. There are, however, objections to and modi-
fications of the traditional theory of the elements which might be considered in con-
nection with the work of Paracelsus. Augurellus' poem Chrysopoeia (1515) may finally
be mentioned as an alchemical work that appeared during Paracelsus' earlier years.
For a more detailed bibliography see: Hirsch, R., The invention of Printing and the
diffusion of alchemical and chemical knowledge. Chymia 1950, II, 115.
177 Lacinius, Janus, Praeciosa ac Nobilissima Artis Chymicae Collectanea de Occultissimo
ac Praeciosissimo Philosophorum Lapide. Norimbergae ap. Gabrielem Hayn. 1554.
The title of the Aldine edition is: Pretiosa Margarita Novella De Thesauro Ac Pretio-
sissimo Philosophorum Lapide. Artis huius divinae Typus et Methodus: Collectanea
ex Arnaldo, Rhaymundo, Rhasi, Alberto et Michaele Scoto; per lanum Lacinium
Calabrum nunc primum ... edita. Venetiis 1546. The contents give the traditional
mediaeval alchemy, although it would be difficult to date the individual entries and
the collection as a whole. On the probable authors, Lacinius and Petrus Bonus, and
the bibliographical history of the book see Ferguson, J., Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. I,
p. ll5, and vol. II, p. 2, and in particular Lynn Thorndike: History of Magic and Ex-
perimental Science, vol. III, New York, 1934, pp. 147 et seq. Parts were translated by
A. E. Waite in The New Pearl of Great Price. A treatise concerning the treasure and
most precious stone of the philosophers. J. Elliott & Co., London 1894, p. 50.
178 Ibid., Waite's translation, p. 79.
260 The Sources of Paracelsus
ocular demonstration - as an operative science which, according to Aris·
totle, deals with particulars that are subject to sensual perception, as
against universals which belong to the domain of reason. 179
Similarly in medicine empirical proof is required of a certain action of
a remedy, say the purging effect of rhubarb or scamonea. 180
(h) The Superiority of Spirit and Virtue
What matters in alchemy is the volatile substances, their protection
against evaporation and their retention in solid ("fixed") hodies. 181 In this
lies the perfection of the work, for it is in the volatile state that a substance
is recognised by its qualities and virtues. These alone - and not products
of reasoning such as the "substantial forms" reveal the nature of a sub-
stance. What exhibits the properties of gold, is gold. Hence the alchemical
gold is identical, with that which occurs in nature.182
All motion, activity and form depends upon volatile, i.e. "spiritual" airy
and fiery principles. They are the virtues hidden in objects. It is in this
sense that Rhazes calls fire and air the occult, water and earth the manifest
principles of a compound. The enclosing principles are weaker than the
enclosed virtues. Hence compounds easily disintegrate. 183
The way in which substances are produced in alchemy is akin to that
of generation in nature, especially to spontaneous generation. Here again,
it is the volatile state by which the most profitable conversions are accom·
plished - conversions comparable to those achieved by the Philosophers'
Stone. Alchemy, imitating the natural generation of diverse species,
achieves the conversion of base - "diseased" - into perfect - "healthy" -
metals and thus resembles medicine, for it replaces disease by health. 184
179 Ibid., p. 84. See also Manget: Bibliotheca Chemica et Curiosa, 1702, vol. II, p. 38,
quoting from Rhazes in Libro Perfecti Magisterii: "Meditatio enim sine experientia
nihil valet, sed experientia absque meditatione perficit, unde plus est experientia quam
meditatio perquirenda. Operatio autem haec et experientia, aget continua operatione
manuum quasi, et intuitu visus, in suis horis determinatis, ut artifex mundet elementa
et ipsa mundata videat et conjungat."
Divine inspiration is needed for this work just as much as ocular demonstration and
experiment. But book-learning will not lead to it, for it is an affair of the soul and the
spirit. For example the chemical method of sublimation is the creation of a soul.
Indeed, there is an intimate relationship between the adept and the substance on which
he works. For his soul and imagination impart their concept of the result to be ob-
tained to the minerals used, thus enabling them to digest and liquefy matter. Waite,
pp. llO and 123.
lso Waite, p. 86.
181 Waite, p. 89.
182 Ibid., p. 91.
188 Ibid., p. 245.
184 Ibid., p. 101. As Temkin has shown (The Falling Sickness loc. cit. Baltimore 1945,
Alchemy: Spirit, Virtue, Fermentation 261
Baseness of metals is a kind of leprosy affecting the bile in iron, the blood
in copper, phlegm in tin and black bile in lead. Hence a "theriac and poison"
contained in the Stone - its proper ferment - is needed to "cure" and
convert these metals into gold by cleansing all impurities, notably impure
sulphur.
The "work" has two parts: first comes a digestive process. This is
followed by "fixation'', which makes the newly prepared substance perma-
nent by the entry of a spirit. In the latter process an earthly substance is
united with a heavenly principle - the spirit.185
(c) The Role of Heat and Fermentation
In the hatching of an egg, heat plays hut an auxiliary role. In the same
way it is not the fierce heat of the furnace which completes the work so
quickly, hut the specific factor of the "Stone".186 Nor is the influence of
the stars and seasons of decisive significance, for by creating a certain
degree of warmth artificially one can overcome the seasonal changes and
generate worms at will in a putrefying hody.187
Transmutation is a process of digestion in which the action of a "ferment"
is paramount. If, by definition, the latter is an agent which converts
matter into its own substance, the "Stone" is the leaven of all other metals
and changes them into its own nature. It is itself a metallic substance, for
like the metals it is generated from sulphur and mercury.188 As ordinary
leaven receives its fermenting power through heat, the Stone is rendered
capable of fermenting, converting and altering metals by means of a
certain digestive heat which brings out the potential and latent properties.
(d) Comparison with Paracelsus
Comparing this with the basic tendencies recognisable in the work of
Paracelsus, there is first of all the call for empiricism. This is followed by
p. 167), the search for a deeper - symbolical - meaning of pathological processes and
therapeutical action is common to mediaeval figures such as Hildegard of Bingen and
the alchemists on the one hand and to Paracelsus on the other. It is in this that one of
the main mediaeval traits of Paracelsus can be found. For the mediaeval naturalist
used analogy as evidence and proof on a large scale. This was pointed out by Charles
Singer in: A Review of the Medical Literature of the Dark Ages with a new text of
ab. lllO. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1917, X, 107-160 (p. 16-17 of the paper).
185 Ibid., p. 144.
186
Ibid., p. 154.
187 Ibid., p. 158.
1 88 Cap. XI, Manget, lib. III, sect. I, subsect. I, vol. II, p. 40, with reference to Rhazes:
Book of the Three Words. On the nature of the ferment in detail see ibid., footnote
top. 40.
262 The Sources of Paracelsus
the quest for the "Volatile" and "Invisible". Alchemy is compared with
medicine and the baseness of metals with disease. Moreover, there is the
insistence on the interaction of substances as against the reputed creative
action of heat, which is degraded to the rank of an auxiliary factor. Trans·
mutation is ascribed to fermentation, i.e. the assimilation of one substance
by another which causes it to assume its own properties. The "Stone" is
the "leaven" of metals.
All these propositions of the "Margarita" have a Paracelsean ring and
are easy to recognise as such. It is much more difficult to assess the differ-
ences. One might find them in the attitude of the mediaeval writer to
Aristotle and Scholasticism. Indeed, the whole tenor of the treatise is in
the Aristotelian and scholastic tradition. A strictly methodical and scien·
tific approach on Aristotelian (and for that matter Avicennian and Aver·
roesian) lines is inculcated as against the prevalent allegorical approach
of the ancient - pre-Aristotelian - sages. 189
It is true that a defence of alchemy against its rejection by Aristotle forms a large part
of the work. But, it says, Aristotle erred on this point only in his younger years. "In his old
age the secret became known to him. When he wrote against the art he was a young man
and was reasoning in a general way. In his old age he gave the deliberate verdict of his
experience and spoke from detailed knowledge ... As an old man, Aristotle agreed with the
ancient Sages and was heartily willing to admit that this Art is true, and according to
Nature, as he set forth at length in his Epistle to King Alexander."190
. Aristotle emphasised man's ability to imitate Nature, notably in the fourth chapter
of his Meteorology.191
The mediaeval alchemist explains the whole mystery of transmutation
in the Aristotelian terms of Form and Matter. The "tincture", i.e. the
essential "generating principle", is derived from the quality and "form", or
sulphur - quicksilver being the "matter" or quantity. 192 The Aristotelian
theory of putrefaction of the semen is widely employed in generation -
"Gold must putrefy so as to he reduced to its first matter that it may
become capable of germination". 193 Generation is a kind of nutrition. The
conversion of a metal to gold is engendered by a sperm - an outward
sulphur - that generates an innermost sulphur from quicksilver. The
innermost sulphur acts like the heart in the Embryo which, according to
Aristotle, takes over from the sperm and governs the development of all
189 P. 148. Manget II, p. 35.
190 P. 208-209.
191 P. 217.
192 P. 237.
193 P. 419.
Alchemy: Aristotle, Arnald and Rupescissa 263
organs and memhers. 194 As late as in the middle of the XVIIth century,
the compatibility between Alchemy and Peripatetic philosophy was estah·
lished in detail. 190
Some of these "Aristotelian" positions, however, form a contrast to Paracelsus, not
in their substance, but in the fact that they are so rigidly presented in their original formal
logical - Aristotelian - setting.196
Paracelsus, for example, believed in the significance of putrefaction for generation
and life - an Aristotelian principle widely adopted by mediaeval alchemy. 197 Nothing can
exist, animated, born or created unless it has previously undergone corruption, putre·
faction and mortification. The "active virtue" of a new form corrupts the existing form. 198
(2) Arnald of Villanova and John de Rupescissa
(a) The Quinta Essentia
The general ideas of Amald have been compared with those of Para·
celsus in a previous chapter. 199 Here it remains to mention Amald as the
chemical adept in possession of an "Elixir" whose virtue surpasses that of
all known "professional" medicines in curing all disease and infirmity, he
they of a warm or cold quality, through its occult and subtle nature. 2 00
It preserves health, strengthens vital energy, rejuvenates and expels all
disease, staves off poison from the heart, moistens the arteries, dissolves
deposits in the lungs, fills defects caused by ulceration, purifies the blood
and the spirit. A disease that lasts for a month it will cure within a day,
one that lasts for a year, in twelve days, one that has persisted for a long
time, within a month. This super-medicine must he the ultimate aim, for
he who possesses it commands an incompar~hle treasure. ·
John de Rupescissa (middle XIVth century) implores God not to let
1114P. 289.
196 For example in: Bonvicinus, Valer.: Lanx Peripatetica qua vetus Arcani Physici
veritas appenditur, et auctoris Mundi Subterranei nova objecta revocantur ad pondus.
Patavii, 1667.
196 According to Thorndike: History of Magic, vol. III, p. 153, it was a "prime purpose of
Peter in the Precious New Pearl ... to associate the name and philosophy of Aristotle
in a favorable way with alchemy ... The reader is given the impression that alchemy
is being measured by Peripatetic standards and formulated in Aristotelian terms. The
effort is not wholly convincing since it is with the letter of Aristotelian texts and not
with the spirit of Peripatetic Philosophy and scientific method that the art of trans·
mutation is brought into rapport."
197 See above p. 115.
198 Raym. Lullii Testamentum. Cap. XXVII. Manget, Bihl. Chem., Vol. I, p. 725.
199 See p. 248-258.
200 Arnaldus of Villanova: Thesaurus Thesaurorum et Rosarium Philosophorum, omnium
secretorum maximum secretum, de verissima compositione Naturalis Philosophiae,
qua omne diminutum reducitur ad Solificum et Lunificum. Lib. II, cap. 31, Manget,
Bibi. Chemica Curiosa. Genev. 1702, vol. I, p. 676.
264 The Sources of Paracelsus
his prescriptions for the Quinta Essentia fall into the hands of the un·
worthy, vain and mean, who want lucre, instead of the charitable and God·
fearing, who proffer remedies to the needy. In the quest for the Quinta
Essentia, Rupescissa says, Physicians, intent ("ardent") only upon gain
and honours have failed. For God will not let the unworthy into the
secret and obviate his purposes.
The "first secret" is that man, by his domination ("magisterium") over
the virtue conferred by God upon Nature, can cure the infirmities of old
age and restore youth. It is the power which prevents putrefaction and
preserves without diminishing the substance of a body. There can he no
question of conferring immortality, which God had refused to Adam even
within the confines of Paradise. Only rejuvenation and preservation until
the appointed day of death can he attempted. The means for it cannot
he something elemental, i.e. corruptible, hut must he incorruptible like
heaven, which is also called "Quinta Essentia". This is not like one of
the four elements, which confers hut one or two qualities such as warm
and dry (fire), cold and moist (water), warm and moist (air) or cold and
dry (earth). By contrast, the Quinta Essentia can confer any quality
according to what is required at the moment. It is thus the "root of life"
created by God for the necessity of our bodies. It is contained "in nature",
must he extracted "from the body of created nature" by human artifice
and is called: Fire-water, Soul or Spirit of wine, Water of Life. It is a
water - yet unlike elementary water it is combustible. It is an air - yet,
unlike elementary air, it is not warm and moist and would not, like the
latter, give rise to the spontaneous generation of insects. It is therefore
incorruptible as long as evaporation is avoided. Its extreme sharpness and
heat prevent it from being dry and cold like earth. That it is finally not
dry and warm like fire is shown in the fact that, though hot in itself, it
cools and cures inflammatory disease. That it confers incorruptibility is
shown by the preservation of animal flesh in it. This Quinta Essentia is
the human heaven which God created for the preservation of the four ele·
mental qualities in the human body, just as He created Heaven for the
preservation of the universe.
Every object in nature contains its incorruptible Quinta Essentia. In
us the blood - a perfect work of nature - contains it and with it the mar·
vellous "virtue of our starry heaven". It is, therefore, able to "work the
highest curative miracles". The Quinta Essentia can he extracted from
blood and flesh by slow digestion with salt and distillation.
The Quinta Essentia can he prepared from medicinal herbs and
added to the classical Quinta Essentia that is produced in the distillation
Rupescissa and Paracelsus 265
of wine, i.e. alcohol. The action of such mixtures will vary according
to the elementary qualities of the herbs used. These qualities and
"grades" of qualities are those taught by Galen.
Herb extracts, however, only supplement the elaborate prescriptions for mineral ex-
tracts, notably from antimony, sulphur, orpiment, iron, copper, silver, mercury, vitriol,
marcasites, etc. It is to these, and notably to the preparation of antimony, that the most
miraculous effects are ascribed.201
(h) Comparison with Paracelsus
There is much in this that invites comparison with the teachings of
Paracelsus. Just as in the case of Arnald 262, there are similarities even in
the lives of Rupescissa and Paracelsus. It is again the unorthodoxy and
irregularity of a heretic's life that presents features similar to the life of
Paracelsus. 203 Rupescissa spent some of his life - Franciscan and monastic
- in prison; the circumstances of his death are unknown. He left prophecies,
a "Vademecum in tribulatione", and was deeply immersed in alchemy and
the application of the latter to medicine.
201 J oannis de Rupescissa qui ante CCCXX annos vixit de consideratione Quintae essentie
rerum omnium opus sane egregium. Arnaldi de Villanova Epistola de Sanguine humano
distillato. Raymundi Lulli Ars operativa et alia quaedam. Acc. Michaelis Savonarolae
Libellus de aqua Vitae (item Hieron. Cardani Libellus de Aethere s. Quinta essentia
Vini). Basileae n. d. (1561). Collected edition by Gratarolus. The above quotations
are from Rupescissa's work passim, notably pp. 15-21, 22-28, 41-53, 60-61 (qualities
and grades), 94-119 (Quinta Essentia from minerals).
202 See above p. 248.
2os For detail see Ferguson, Bibi. Chemica, vol. II, pp. 305-306, 1906; Thorndike, Lynn:
Hist. of Magic ans Exper. Sci. in the M.A. 1934, vol. III, pp. 347-369, 722-740; Sarton,
G.: lntrod. to the Hist. of Science, 1948, vol. 111,part, 2,pp.1572-1574. Sarton quotes
an edition of Rupescissa's De consid. Quintae Essentiae in Gratarolus' Vera Alchemia,
but not Gratarolus' edition of 1561 as quoted in the previous footnote. See also:
Taylor, F. Sherwood: The Idea of the Quintessence, in Science, Medicine and History;
Essays in hon. of C. Singer, ed. E. Ashworth Underwood, Oxford 1953, vol. I, p. 258
on Rupescissa, p. 262 on Paracelsus' use for the preparation of his potable metals
("magisteria") of the same process as indicated by Rupescissa but without giving him
or anybody else as his source (in the Archidoxis, see footnote 236). On the contrary,
as Taylor says, Paracelsus rejects the treatises of Arnald, Rupescissa and Ulstadius
in a later work ("On the correction of impostures" printed in: Chirurgische Biicher und
Schrifften. Ed. Huser, Strassburg 1605, vol. I, append. p. 55). According to E. F. Jacob
(John of Roquetaillade. Bull. J. Rylands Library 1956, XXXIX, 75-96, p. 83):
Rupescissa "is in the van of iatro-chemical study: more than a forerunner of Paracel-
sus, and one of those who used his chemical experiments for a curative purpose." -
He is "indicative of certain currents in the political and scientific speculation of
contemporary Europe, of the break-up of the ordered mediaeval world and of the
changing and divided state of the Franciscans in the middle of that period." (p. 96)
See also ibid. for an account of his prophecies, the manuscript tradition and recent
literature.
 266 The Sources of Paracelsus
In Rupescissa's work the quest for the invisible and incorruptible in
natural objects is preqominant - a genuine mediaeval motive which is just
as paramount in the work of Paracelsus. Not the corruptible and mutable
elements, with their Galenic qualities and grades, hut that which is superior
to the elements by virtue of its stability and power, is the aim of Rupescissa
as it was to he the aim of Paracelsus. This is the Quinta Essentia and
Rupescissa's main work is devoted to its preparation. "Rupescissa goes on
to bring the fifth essence decisively within the sublunary sphere by de-
claring that a fifth essence is not only obtainable from wine, hut from all
other things as well. "204
This tradition is taken up in the hulk of Paracelsus' chemical treatises,
notably the Archidoxis. There is also a belief common to Rupescissa and
Paracelsus in the parallelism of macrocosm and microcosm, the concept of
the stellate heaven in man and the sun as his Quinta Essentia. There is
the knowledge of the curative effects of alcohol and of its superiority over
the elements.
It is tempting to regard this as one, if not the main, foundation stone
from which Paracelsus built his rejection of the ancient theory of the
elemental composition of matter. In alcohol, as Rupescissa pointed out
with no uncertain emphasis on the inferiority of the elements - we have
a water which, at the same time, is combustible and displays much of the
action of fire. We have a fire that has a cooling effect on the skin and on
wounds. It emits an airy vapour, hut unlike air this is not warm and moist,
and it is incorruptible (i.e. will not give rise to spontaneous generation).205
(3) Comment (General Appraisal)
A general and profound appraisal of Paracelsus in the light of Mediaeval
Alchemy has been given by Ganzenmiiller.206 In this Paracelsus is pre-
sented as an original savant who broke away from mediaeval alchemy.
More recently, however, the medical aspects of Paracelsus' chemistry have
been surveyed by Multhauf 267, who finds the medico-chemical achievements
204
Multhauf, R. P.: John of Rupescissa and the Origin of Medical Chemistry. Isis 1954,
XLV, p. 364.
205
De consideratione Quintae essentiae, loc. cit. Basle 1561, pp. 20-21.
206
Ganzenmiiller, W.: Paracelsus und die Alchemie des Mittelalters. Angewandte Chemie,
1941, LIV, 427-431.
207
Multhauf, R.: Medical Chemistry and "The Paracelsians". Bull. Hist. Med. 1954,
XXVIII, 101-126, and id., The Significance of Distillation in Renaissance Medical
Chemistry. Bull. Hist. Med. 1956, XXX, 329-346.
Alchemy and Paracelsus 267
of Paracelsus essentially anticipated in the writings of his alchemical
predecessors in the Middle Ages.
(a) The parallels between mediaeval alchemy and Paracelsus as generally
admitted
Ganzenmiiller admits that some essential motives of Paracelsean che-
mistry and alchemy can he found in his mediaeval predecessors. Such
motives include the rejection of gold-making as the ultimate aim of alchemy
in favour of its utilisation for the cure of disease and prolongation of life. 268
The object of alchemy to Paracelsus, as well as to mediaeval chemists, is
to perfect what Nature left in an imperfect state. Its study should he
based on the parallelism between macrocosm and microcosm, the mani-
festation of "life" and organisation in inorganic nature and the various
possible transformations of the three fundamental states of matter, the
fluid (Mercury), the solid (Salt) and the combustible (Sulphur) which bet-
ween them account for the multiplicity of objects.
Mediaeval alchemists compare metals with organic bodies ascribing to
them body, soul and spirit. For example, the "philosopher" says: The
"dragon" is "live silver" extracted from bodies and possessing body, soul
and spirit. Mercury ("Aurum vivum") is cold, moist and black in virtue
of its body, hut warm, dry and white, in virtue of its spirit. 209
In this connection Paracelsus cites Hermes, who rightly said that all
seven metals, and also the "tinctures" and the Philosopher's stone, derive
from three substances, which he calls spirit, soul and body. These, to
Paracelsus, are the three "Prima", namely Mercury ("spirit"), Sulphur
("soul") and salt ("body"). The sulphur mediates between spirit and
body, joining together these two which are antagonistic to each other in
themselves. 210
2os Roger Bacon, Opus majus. Ed. Bridges, London 1900, p. 215. See also the passages
from Arnaldus and Johannes de Rupescissa as quoted in the following footnotes, and
our general appraisal of Paracelsus' achievement in chemistry p. 278. Multhauf (loc.
cit., 1956, p. 332) refers to a disillusionment as a probable cause of the attention given
by alchemists to medicine in preference to gold-making in the sixteenth century, but
alchemy proper, from about 1500, turned increasingly from technology to philosophy
- technology becoming more and more. incorporated in medical chemistry.
209 Rosarium Philosophorum. Ed. Manget, Bihl. Chemica, vol. II, p. 94.
21o "das mitel aber zwischen dem spiritu und corpore, darvon auch Hennes sagt, ist die
sel und ist der sulphur der die zwei widerwertige ding vereinbaret und in ein einiges
wesen verkeret." Die 9 Biicher de Natura rerum (? Villach 1537). Lib. primus de
generat. naturalium. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 318. In alchemical literature sulphur
combines the properties of a physical substance with those of an occult spirit. See
Jung, C. G.: De Sulphure. Nova Acta Paracels. 1948, V, 27-40, and above our chapter
on Sulphur, Salt and Mercury p. 103-104.
268 The Sources of Paracelsus
Fig. 29. Alchemical - symbolical - representation of the "Tria Prima" from the "Pandora",
an alchemical treatise incorporating the "new Magische art" of Paracelsus (who invented
"veram magiam ... per quam actuando vel uniendo virtutes naturales, mirabilia efficimus
opera in natura, et quasi mundum maritamus, ut Picus Mirandulanus scribit: quaeque in
rerum supernaturalium cognitionem nos ducit").
The three principles are here presented as the "esoteric" or "sophic" salt, sulphur and
mercury. Hence the "Queen" (bottom right) does not stand as usual for silver, but for
"sophic" Mercury ("Die weisse Ross" - the elixir of which one part converts thousand
parts of quicksilver into the purest silver). Accordingly Salt (top left) is the "Ash of the
Philosophers" and Sulphur, impersonated by the dragon (bottom left), the "Schwebel der
Philosophen".
Pandora: Das ist die edleste Gab Gottes oder der W erde unnd Heilsamme Stein der
Weisen mit welchen die alten Philosophi auch Theophrastus Paracelsus die unvollkommene
Metallen durch gewalt des Fewrs verbessert ... Basel 1582, p. 39-45 (copy in possession
of the present author).
Alchemy and Paracelsus. Divergencies 269
This tripartition of the essentials of material being follows the pattern
of the sacred "Trinity" - for the mediaeval alchemist in the same way as
for Paracelsus. Ganzenmiiller in this connection demonstrates the parallel
between the mediaeval "Book of the Holy Trinity", which is entirely
based on the tripartition of metals and the Philosopher's stone into Body,
Soul and Spirit, and the elaboration of this in Paracelsus' work De Mete-
oris.211 From this parallel between the metals and the spirit, soul and
body, the mediaeval alchemists concluded that mercury, standing for the
spirit, deserves more attention than anything else. Its superior activity is
comparable to that of the sun and of the "solar" metal, gold. 21 2 In turn,
the superiority of the spirit - the invisible occult virtue - is one of the
cardinal Paracelsean concepts. The power of the Arcana, i.e. the true
remedies in contrast to the "soups" and concoctions of traditional Galenic
Medicine, derives from their volatility and the absence of "body"; they
are "chaos" transparent and directed by the star. 213 Such quotations
could he multiplied 214 and show how much Paracelsus' ideas are indeed
foreshadowed by the mediaeval alchemists.
(h) The reputed points of difference
Evidently, Ganzenmiiller has not ignored the parallels between medi-
aeval alchemists and Paracelsus.
He sees a fundamental difference, however, between mediaeval alche-
mists and Paracelsus in that the former regarded sulphur and mercury as
the fundamental components of natural objects, notably metals, hut did not
admit of a third component. 215 By contrast, Paracelsus introduced such
a third component, "salt".
211 Ganzenmiiller, loc. cit. 1941 and id.: Das Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit. Arch. Kultur·
gesch. 1939, XXIX, 125. Paracelsus says: De Meteoris, cap. 2. De prima materia coeli
et stellarum: "so hat got drei fiir sich genomen und alle ding in drei gesezt. Dander
ursprung dieser Zal ist aus got am ersten, das ist der anfang ist drei in der gotheit ...
also bei der zal werden wir erinnert der dreiheit in den drei speciebus •.. und wird in
drei corpora widerumb gebracht, also das sichtbar seind und sich beweist, das ein
ietlichs geschopf zerteilt mag werden in die drei stiick, ietlichs an sein ort ..• " Ed. Sud·
hoff, vol. XIII, p. 135. Ganzenmiiller also cites in this connection Ripley, G.: Liber
duodecim portarum Theat. Chem., vol. III, p. 807. See above p. 104 (n. 271).
212 Rogeri Baconis Angli:· De Arte Chymiae Scripta. Francof. 1603, p. 47 (Excerpta de
libro Avicennae De Anima capit. secundum).
213 " ••• das sie arcana seind, die da tugent und kreft seind, darumb so seind sie volatilia
und haben kein corpora und seind chaos und seind clarum und seind durchsichtig und
seind in gewalt des gestims." Paragranum. Tract III, loc. cit. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII,
p.186.
m See above p. 95 (n. 251).
215 According to Ganzenmiiller Geber's tripartite division of the natural principles into
Mercury, Sulphur and Arsenic (Summa perfectionis Jiiagisterii in sua natura, lib. I,
270 The Sources of Paracelsus
Yet by some mediaeval alchemists the "Salt of Metals" had been called
the "Philosopher's Stone", and - what is even more akin to the Paracelsean
concept - "salt" was understood to he matter in a state of coagulation.
"Our stone is water solidified in gold and silver •.. hence the reduction of
bodies to first matter, i.e. mercury, is nothing hut the solution of congealed
matter.216 Gratianus says that ash can he made from any matter and,
from this ash, salt can he made and from the latter water, and from water
mercury, and from mercury gold. Whoever wants to transform bodies and
spirits must first reduce them to the nature of salt and alum and then
dissolve them again, says the philosopher. Hence Arnaldus said: "He who
possesses a fusible salt and incombustible oil should praise God." Avi-
cenna called the salts the roots of the work. 217
Many more similar statements could he adduced.
But, Ganzenmiiller says, there are differences in principle between the
mediaeval and the Paracelsean Sulphur and Mercury. Paracelsus based
his descriptions of these substances on their chemical behaviour, whereas
the mediaeval alchemists used them to denote the spirit, soul and body of
metals in a rigid, formal and scholastic way. Paracelsus' Sulphur and
Mercury embrace all objects in nature, whereas they are restricted by the
mediaeval alchemists to the metals. The old theory was "static", whereas
that of Paracelsus is "dynamic", emphasising mercury as the force and
virtue operating in sulphur as in the hody. 218
Yet the three principles as defined, for example, in Geher's Summa are
cap. 12, ed. Gedani 1682, p. 35) is an isolated case which had no influence on Paracelsus.
We agree that "arsenic" in this case hardly deserves the name of a separate principle
and is not at all comparable with the "Salt" of Paracelsus. It is hardly more than a
special form of Geber's "Sulphur" (see Summa, lib. I, cap. 14). Compare also: Margarita
Pretiosa by Lacinius. Transl. Waite, The New Great Pearl of Wisdom, London 1894,
p. 302 (Epistle of Bonus).
210 "Sal Metallorum est lapis philosophorum; lapis enim noster est aqua congelata in auro
et argento, et repugnat igni et resolvitur in aqua sua, ex qua componitur in genere
suo. Ergo reductio corporum in primam materiam seu in argentum vivum, non est
alia nisi congelatae materiae resolutio ... " Liber Rosarium Philosophorum. Bib. Che·
inica. Ed. Manget, vol. II, p. 88.
211 "Gratianus: De omni re potest fieri cinis, et de illo cinere potest fieri sal et de illo sale
fit aqua, et de ilia aqua fit mercurius, et de illo mercurio per diversas operationes fit Sol.
Philosophus: Quicunque vult corpora et spiritus alterare, et mutare a sua natura
oportet, ut prius reducat ad naturam salium et aluininum, aliter nil faciet, deinde solvat
ea ... Unde Arnold us: Qui haberet sal fusibile, et oleum incombustibile laudaret Deum.
Avicenna ait ... Sales sunt radices tui operis ... " Rosarium Philos. Ed. Manget, loc.
cit., pp. 94-95.
21s "do muss am ersten ein leib sein, in dem man das werke, das ist der sulfur, do muss
sein die eigenschaft, das ist die kraft, das ist merkur; do muss sein die compaction,
congelation, coadunation, das ist sal." De Mineral. III, p. 47.
Alchemy and Paracelsus. Divergencies 271
not merely scholastic distinctions, hut real enough. Sulphur is a fatty
substance in an earthy mineral matter, inspissated by temperate decoction
and called sulphur when it has become hard. It is a homogeneous body
and therefore does not allow its oil to he separated by distillation. Arsenic
is similar to sulphur, hut different in its colour reactions. Mercury is a
viscous fluid of subtle white earthy substance in the bowels of the earth,
homogeneous in itself as long as its moisture and dryness are in equilibrium.
Together with sulphur it forms the matter of metals - as some people say. 219
Moreover, the activity of "spiritual" mercury and hence its superiority
over "corporeal" sulphur had been emphasised by the alchemists. 220 It is
true that sulphur and mercury were regarded by the alchemists as the
components of metals in the first place. Yet from the frequent comparisons
of macrocosm and microcosm occurring in mediaeval alchemy it is evident
that sulphur and mercury were regarded as the basic constituents of
organic - microcosmic - substance too. 221 Thus, it says in a mediaeval
alchemical tract: Man is called the lesser world because in him is the
pattern of heaven, Sun and Moon. 222 Here then, we have a further set of
parallels with the concepts of Paracelsus in which the analogies of macro-
cosm and microcosm are paramount.
Finally Ganzenmiiller finds the most important difference between
mediaeval alchemy and Paracelsus in the use by the former of human
physiology as the pattern of inorganic chemical reaction. A chemical
process - the production of the stone - is made comprehensible by com·
parison with the creation of man for example. 223 Paracelsus, however, in
219 Summa perfectionis. Lib. I, cap. 13-15. Ed. Gedani 1682, pp. 39-42. That arsenic can
display effects similar to those of sulphur was emphasised by Paracelsus in his plague
concept. See above p. 178, footnote 143.
220 See before quotations from the Rosarium and Roger Bacon, in footnotes 209, 212 and
216.
221 Ganzenmiiller, loc. cit. 1941, quotes various instances in which cheinical reactions
were compared with physiological and pathological processes. "Sick" metals com·
pared with a sick foetus in the womb. Ruska: Das Buch der Alaune und Salze. Berlin
1935, p. 75. Albertus Magnus: De Alchiinia. Theat. Chem., vol. II, p. 425. Digestive
nature of cheinical processes: Lullus Theorica, cap. 16, Theat. Chem., vol. IV, p. 25
and p. 71. Concordance of members of the body with planets and zodiacal signs; the
inicrocosm as a symbol of the Philosopher's Stone in the Tabula Smaragdina.
2 22 Tract. Micreris in Theatr. Chem.,vol. V, p. 97. - The generation of metals is also
explained in terms of organic generation. "Sulphur" corresponds to the paternal
semen, "mercury" ("argentum vivum") to the female foetal matter. Braceschi, De
ligno Vitae, loc. cit. (in footnote 244), p. 913.
223 According to Lull, the Philosopher's Stone is made in a way similar to the operations
of animal, vegetable and mineral nature - for it must iinitate the creation of man who
was made from mud. Lullus, Theorica Theat. Chem., vol. IV, p. 76.
272 The Sources of Paracelsus
Ganzenmiiller's opinion followed the opposite way. He used known che·
mical reactions to explain physiological processes.
We agree that the latter is the method that conspicuously occurs in
Paracelsus. He says for example: What a disease is, its cause and its cure
("arcanum") is learnt from inorganic nature outside man, i.e. from the
growth and transmutation of minerals and metals. "He who is ignorant
of what makes copper and gives birth to Vitriolata does not know what
makes leprosy; he who is ignorant of what makes rust on iron does not
know what makes ulcers, or of what makes earthquakes what makes rigour.
That which is outside teaches and indicates what is wrong with man". 224
However, the "mediaeval" explanation of chemical reactions in terms
of animal physiology can also he found in Paracelsus; it was even regarded
as characteristic of him by Sherlock. 225 One striking example of this is the
high importance attributed by Paracelsus to putrefaction as the basic
factor in generation and his explanation of chemical transmutation in
terms of the biological processes of putrefaction and generation.226
In fact, both ways - the explanation of inorganic processes in "organic"
terms and vice versa - were used by the mediaeval chemists, as well as
Paracelsus, hut one finds the application of inorganic processes to organic
life more developed in Paracelsus.
In conclusion:
Alchemical lore is extensively found and essentially adhered to in the
work of Paracelsus. However, the latter shifts the emphasis to its natu·
ralistic and medical aspects. Paracelsus abandoned much of the symbolical
language of alchemy, replacing it by a new nomenclature. He also ahan-
224 Paragranum. Lib. I, Der erste grund .•. Philosophia. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 79.
225 The Chemical Work of Paracelsus. Ambix, 1948, vol. III, p. 33. Yet, Sherlock too
(loc. cit. Ambix 1948, p. 35) regards Paracelsus' view of alchemy as a fundamental
departure from the traditional. For to Paracelsus alchemy embraced any process
whereby natural products are made fit for some new end. According to this Paracelsian
view (as set out in the Paragranum, ed. Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 185, and the Labyrinthus
Medicorum, cap. V, ed. Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 187) alchemy covers such diverse operations
as the smelting and working of iron, the baking of bread or the digestion of food in the
stomach under the control of the "inner alchemist" or Archeus. See above our chapter
on the Archeus p. 106. See also Walden, P.: Paracelsus als Chemiker. Angewandte
Chemie 1941, p. 434. Walden emphasis Paracelsus' antagonism to the search for the
Philosophers' Stone concluding that his genuine works are devoid of alchemical sym·
bolism and that the alchemical treatises ascribed to him are spurious. In fact, his
theory of the Three Principles and his study of metals and minerals including attempts
at inorganic analysis (as laid down in his "Archidoxis") constitute the basis of system-
atic chemistry, as achieved later in the "textbooks" of Libavius.
226 See above p. 116.
Chemistry: Pure and Medical 273
doned the idea of"transmutation" in favour of"separation" and concerned
himself with the elaboration of traditional alchemy for the benefit of his
system of pathology and medicine.
Paracelsus' achievement in pure and medical Chemistry
(a) Introduction
Our comparative survey of mediaeval alchemy has revealed close
proximity if not identity in principle with Paracelsus' ideas and purposes.
There were, however, differences in emphasis, and it is on these differences
that the view of Paracelsus as a progressive naturalist must he based.
Paracelsus' position in the development of chemistry and pharmacology
is similar. Multhauf has advanced the thesis that the principal chemical
prescriptions of Paracelsus were those of his mediaeval predecessors and
that only the Paracelseans, notably Oswald Croll, gave them their modem
form and usefulness. 227 This seemed to he home out by Urdang's research
into the entry of chemical remedies, notably Calomel, into the British
Pharmacopoeia. 22s
Already Chevreul says, the work of Paracelsus is the product of ohser·
vations made before him and not of discoveries of his own. But these ob-
servations were dispersed and isolated. It is the merit of Paracelsus that
he subordinated them to the principle of specificity especially in therapy,
thus creating a coherent body of medical doctrine.
The basis of his doctrine is that of" Quintessence" as borrowed from Arnald, Lull and
Rupescissa. Like the latter, he found the specific organotropic ("organoleptic") properties
of wine in the volatile part separated by distillation and thus regarded distillation as the
universal method of concentrating the specific properties of a substance in a small volume.
If alcohol was the "Quintessence" of wine, all objects in nature must have such a "quint-
essence" attainable by distillation,229
Thus it was Paracelsus himself who prepared the ground for modern
medical chemistry by his unorthodox methods, by his stimulating refor-
matory and revolutionising attitude and in spite of his blending of philo-
sophical, religious and naturalistic ideas.
227 Multhauf in Bull. Hist. Med. 1954, loc. cit.
228 U rdang, G.: How Chemicals entered the Official Pharmacopoeias. Arch. Internat. Hist.
Sci. 1954, vol. VII, pp. 303-314.
229 Chevreul, E.: Considerations sur l'histoire de la partie de la Medecine qui concerne la
prescription des remedes •.• Pree. d'un examen des Archidoxia de Paracelse et du livre
de Phytognomonica de J.B. Porta. Paris 1865, p. 10.
274 The Sources of Paracelsus
(h) Paracelsus' work in the chemical laboratory and its results in detail
Paracelsus had first-hand experience in routine laboratory procedure
(Sherlock23 0) and devised genuine chemical operations such as the con-
centration of alcohol by freezing out watery admixture. 231 This also
emerges from his instructions for the preparation of Aqua fortis and for the
solution in it of metals in laminated form until at length an oil is formed
at the hottom.232
On the other hand, he had no correct idea of the course of the chemical
changes involved in the processes described, for he thought that he had
separated out liquids containing "elements" (i.e. fire, earth, water) of the
metals, when he had for the most part only obtained distillates containing
more or less nitric or hydrochloric acid. 233
Yet his chemical operations led to the preparation of medicinal chem-
icals and to the grouping of chemicals "in similar classes the members of
which were susceptible of chemically similar processes. " 234
But, as Sherlock concludes 235, much in Paracelsus' chemistry derives
from the Lullian school and Rupescissa. For example, his recipe for
preparing potable metals 236 is directly taken over from Rupescissa.
On the other hand, Darmstadter suggested that Paracelsus' ideas go
beyond these mediaeval writers as well as such contemporary workers as
IDstadius and Brunschwig who incorporated and popularised them.
He refers to the difficulties which attend the reproduction of P,aracelsean preparations
in a modern laboratory, notably the impurities of Paracelsus' reagents, the long exposures
to heat and the clumsy apparatus used by the old chemists. Moreover, and this is probably
the greatest stumbling block, in the description of procedure Paracelsus often deliberately
omits an important link. 237 Concerning the idea of "potable metals", Darmstiidter believes
230 Ambix, loc. cit., 1948, vol. III, p. 47-52.
231 Archidoxis, lib. VI, "Auszuziehen das Magisterium aus dem Wein". Ed. Sudhoff, vol.
III, p. 165-166.
232 Archidoxis. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 108.
233 As Multhauf (loc. cit. 1956, p. 339) says: The Archidoxis "reveals that the processes
were not fundamentally different, if indeed they were even superficially different. It
is anything but clear how Paracelsus' fifth essence differed from the lighter fractions
produced in his separation of the elements."
234 The latter notably include "auric chloride, mercuric chloride, stannic chloride, and to
a lesser extent cupric and ferric chlorides and a series of nitrates all of which are affected
to some extent by heat in such a way that a change is made visible by the evolution
of the characteristic brown fumes of oxide of nitrogen." Sherlock, loc. cit., p. 48 and 52.
235 Loe. cit., p. 62-63.
238 Archidoxis. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 157.
237 A striking example of this is the "tree" of gold which is said to form when Aqua Regia
is poured on gold and distilled away (cohobation). In this, the production of the well
known Arbor Dianae, the addition of Mercury is essential, which was omitted - de-
liberately or by mistake. (Archidoxis, lib. VI. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 157.)
System of Chemistry: The Archidoxis 275
that Paracelsus prepared metals in a colloidal state. 238 Sherlock raised some doubts in this
explanation and concludes that this process, like the majority of alchemical recipes, is not
in accord with modern chemical knowledge.239
Nor can any information whatever be derived from the presumed "revelation" of
Paracelsus' original method of making the Philosopher's Stone. 240 But then Paracelsus
himself attributed its manifold wonderful effects not so much to its properties as a special
chemical substance but to the powers conferred upon any sUbstance by the "subtle practice
which is brought about by the preparations, reverberations, sublimations, digestions,
separations and distillations." 241 What matters therefore is a chemical process rather than
a chemical substance. Nor was Paracelsus really interested in the transmutation of metals
and the making of gold.242
(c) Paracelsus' System of Chemistry (The "Archidoxis")
It cannot he denied that Paracelsus' work forms a landmark in the
development of Chemistry as a scientific subject, because it presented for
the first time a kind of system of Chemistry. His chemical doctrine
embraces all chemical substances known to him and evolves a classification
of operations and materials. In this he precedes Andreas Libavius. On the
other hand, his "Archidoxis" on which his claim as the creator of a System
of Chemistry rests should not he overrated. In Multhauf's opinion, it
depended too much upon distillation and was thus preoccupied with the
lighter fractions in preference to the residues. In this respect Multhauf
believes that the practical minds of the "herbal distillers" from Brunschwig
to Gesner achieved more than Paracelsus' striving for theory and system.243
(d) Detoxication and medicinal use of chemicals
Although preceded by mediaeval alchemists in this respect as well 244,
238 Paracelsus recommends the digestion of the leaves of gold with turpentine oil and
similar substances which would in fact not alter metallic gold. It is quite different,
however, when a solution of gold chloride is heated with oil of turpentine or rosemary.
Then colloidal gold, mostly of a blue our mauve colour, is formed. Drei Bucher der
Wundarznei. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 136. Dannstiidter, loc. cit., p. 25.
239 Sherlock objects (loc. cit., p. 60) that no Aqua Regia was used in the process and no
"protective" mechanism - necessary for the preservation of metals in the colloid
state - was introduced.
240 Archidoxis. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. Ill, p. 147.
241 Ibid., p. 145.
242 See Walden, loc. cit. 1941, and more recently: Dobler, loc. cit. (in footnote 253), 1957;
and above p. 272.
243 Multhauf, loc. cit. 1956, pp. 339 and 333. A case in which Paracelsus does seem to have
paid attention to residues rather than distillates is that of antimony preparations.
See Dobler, loc. cit. (in footnote 253), 1957. As Dobler has shown, in assessing Paracel-
sus' position, much depends upon the interpretation of texts and their variants assisted
by the experimental reproduction of Paracelsean preparations.
2« The principle that crude "foetid and horrible" metals - the "earth of metals" - must
276 The Sources of Paracelsus
Paracelsus deserves particular credit for the care which he took in the
medicinal use of his chemical preparations. In fact, he made their de·
toxication his main concern, and it is again this difference in elaboration
and emphasis which distinguishes him from his mediaeval predecessors.
Paracelsus freed the final product, such as the "Quintessence" of metals,
from all sharpness by washing it with alcohol and water. 245 This parti•
cularly applies to the heating with saltpetre which brings about oxidation
and thereby renders soluble insoluble combinations of metals or minerals.
Thus sulphides, for example of iron, are converted into sulphates. Such
conversion made the minerals and metals suitable for medicinal use. 246
(e) Spiritus vitrioli and its narcotic action - a probable predecessor of
ethe1:'._, and an example of Paracelsus' advanced medical chemistry
As an example of Paracelsus' anticipation of an important drug through
his proficiency in chemistry, we select his "stupefying vitriol salts".
In the short treatise "On Sulphur or Earthly Resine" Paracelsus says:
sulphur derived from vitriols and salts is stupefactive, narcotic, analgesic
and hypnotic. It acts in a mild and transient way, unlike hyoscyamus,
poppy and mandragora. In its natural condition it is sweet, and liked by
chickens, in which it causes a quite harmless sleep.
Certain human diseases require analgesics and in these sulphur is called for in the first
place - for it "lays all passions at rest and sedates without doing any liann, extinguishes
all pain, mitigates all heat and all grave disease •.. This sulphur is sulphur philosophorum -
for all philosophers aim at long life, health and the combating of disease and these they
have found paramount in this sulphur •.. " 247
be prepared by a kind of maturation process in order to become fit as remedies, is
clearly expressed by the mediaeval alchemists. As long as the vapours of the crude
"metallic earth" ascend when heated they cannot become "mature", i.e. sweet, just
as fruit is sour and sharp early in summer and becomes sweet when it is ripe. Hence
by the coagulation of these vapours the crude "earth" acquires a miraculous sweetness.
Thus Amaldus says in the Rosarium: Make the bitter sweet and thereby have the
magisterium. (Joh. Braceschi Lignum Vitae in Manget, Bihl. Chemica, vol. I, p. 916).
At the same time the hard metal itself, even when made more subtle by alcohol,
cannot act on human flesh, but only when its hardness has been removed and it has
been purified, concocted and made sweet. In other words, medicine will act and act
more universally the more it is "spiritual'', "formal", "simple", remote from crude
matter and independent of mere quantity. It should then emulate the prime and uni-
versal cause in the inferior world, namely the celestial body, from which each metal
receives its potency.
246 Sherlock, loc. cit., p. 56.
248 Dannstiidter, loc. cit., p. 36. For a detailed description of technique see the example
given above p. 145.
247 "Vom Schwebel oder erden hartz", edited by Adam von Bodenstein in: Dess hoch-
Spiritus Vitrioli: Ether-like Action 277
The chemical nature of the "sweet sulphur" preparations to which
Paracelsus here attributes narcotic effects was clearly indicated by Libavius
and the Paracelsist Oswald Croll.
In his "Alchemia" of 1597 Andreas Libavius describes Paracelsus'
method of preparing spirit of vitriol by adding alcohol to the distillate of
vitriol. 248
Croll says in his Basilica Chymica of 1609 that Paracelsus attributed
many a great virtue to the spirit of vitriol because of its volatility. Croll
himself recommends two preparations, the second of which employs al-
cohol added to the distillate of vitriol. An "oleum vitrioli" will develop of
the sweetest odor, most pleasant taste and highest medical efficiency.249
Paracelsus is thus likely to have known the narcotic action of products
of the action of sulphuric acid on alcohol and, in the history of our know-
ledge of ether, his "analeptic spirit of vitriol" has been recognised as the
forerunner of the "sweet oil of vitriol" prepared by Valerius Cordus in
1540. 250
More recently Strebel 251 pointed out that from all this Paracelsus
emerges as a describer of chemical combinations related to ether, including
erfahrnesten Medici Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi schreyben von den Kranckheyten so
die vernunfft berauben, et. (1525/26). Basel 1567, fol. M verso. See also the early work:
"Von den natiirlichen Dingen (? 1525), vom Terpentin ... vom Schwefel, vom Vitriol,
vom Arsenik". Ed. Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 133: "alle sulphura von den vitriolatis salibus
stupefactiva seind, narcotica, anodyna, somnifera ... zum anderen hat er eine siisse,
das in die hiiner all essen und aber entschlafen auf ein zeit, on schaden wider auf-
stont." On the other loca dealing with the curative effects of sulphur, see Sudhoff,
preface to vol. II, p. XV; but in this a reference to Bodenstein's edition of Kranck-
heiten so die vernunfft berauben - Vom Schwebel oder erden hartz, Basel 1567, is
omitted. In the Grosse Wundartzney of 1536 sulphur-vitriol is prescribed as the
sedative in Rabies, lib. I, tract. 3, cap. 1. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 170. Paracelsus'
observation of the narcotic action of his sulphur preparations in chickens is interesting
in view of the English designation for H yoscyamus - "henbane".
248 D.O.M.A. Alchemia, Lib. II, tract. 2, cap. 26. Francof. 1597, pp. 340-341.
2 9
4 Oswaldi Crollii Basilica Chymica aucta a J. Hartmanno, edita a J. Michaelis. Genevae
1643, p. 223 et seq. Of earlier Paracelsists Peter Severinus should be quoted in this
connection (Idea Medicinae Philos. 1571, p. 334 where "Spiritus Sulphurei" are
mentioned as the narcotic principle in poppies, mandrake, hemlock, henbane and simi-
lar herbs).
25
0 Kopp, H.: Geschichte der Chemie, vol. IV, Braunschweig 1847, p. 312. On Basil
Valentine as a hypothetical forerunner in the preparation of ether by distillation of
vitriol oil with spirit of wine see: Kopp, loc. cit., pp. 307, 309; Hoefer, Histoire de la
Chemie, Paris 1842, vol. I, p. 459; Kopp, H.: Beitriige zur Geschichte der Chemie,
vol. III, Braunschweig 1875, p. 124. Cf. ibid. the evidence against Basil Valentine and
lsaacus Hollandus having preceded Paracelsus (p. 109 et seq.). Already Adelung had
rejected this priority claim raised in favour of Basil Valentine ( Geschichte der N arrheit,
vol. VII, Leipzig 1789, p. 327).
278 The Sources of Paracelsus Nie. Cusanus. Cosmology 279

mixtures of sulphuric acid, ethyl esters or alcohol with vitriol-ether, and
of the narcotic action of these products. Paracelsus' preparation presents
the oldest document of our knowledge of an ester formation resulting from
the interaction of ethyl alcohol and an inorganic acid (Strebel). According
to Strebel it is also likely that Paracelsus prepared ethyl chloride from
alcohol and antimony trichloride.
Apart from its importance in the history of our knowledge of ether,
Paracelsus' "Spirit of Vitriol" can claim special interest as an early ins-
tance of the use of animals to test a drug. As F. H.K. Green has pointed
out there are only scanty records of set trials of medicaments up to the
XVIIIth century and these do not seem to include animal experiments. 252
Paracelsus and Nicolaus Cusanus
The philosophy of Nicolaus Cusanus (1401-1464) led to a new per-
spective of the Cosmos as a whole. In this Cusanus anticipated the Coper-
nican revolution of thought and in some respects went even farther than
Copernicus.
In the philosophy of Cusanus, a new position was allocated to man,
and indeed to all objects in nature. However, Cusanus' principal concern

(f) Conclusion

In pure and medical chemistry Paracelsus is evidently under the

influence of mediaeval alchemists. This, however, is balanced if not over-
shadowed by certain advances.
Paracelsus attempted systematic chemical research incorporating me-
tallurgy and pharmacology - an attempt resumed later by Libavius. He
introduced new laboratory methods. He made possible the use of new and
probably efficacious therapeutic preparations by devising special methods
of rendering them less harmful. Examples of advanced knowledge are the
concentration of alcohol by freezing, the production of narcotic ether-like
products arising from the reaction between sulphuric acid and alcohol and
the preparation of tartar emetic. 253 His chemical achievements form the
link between his mediaeval predecessors and the Paracelseans, notably
Oswald Croll. Although the Paracelsists - like Paracelsus himself - largely
utilised mediaeval preparations, they are unthinkable without Paracelsus-
for it was he who created the stimulus to which they owed their existence
and the atmosphere which they breathed.

251 Paracelsus als Chemiker und Verfasser des ersten deutschsprachigen Lehrbuches der
Chemie. Praxis, Bern 1949, No. 37.
252 The clinical evaluation of remedies. The Bradshaw lecture for 1954. Lancet 1954, II,
1085-1091. Green refers to a Cambridge M. D. thesis by J. P. Bull: A study of the
history and principles of clinical therapeutic trials, 1951.
253 As Dobler, Pharm. Acta Helv. 1957, XXXII, pp. 245 et seq. has shown, Paracelsus
long before Mynsicht (who is usually credited with it) prepared tartar emetic and
used it chemotherapeutically. Dobler's argument is based on the original reproduction
of the substance in the laboratory from the instructions given by Paracelsus himself.
Fig. 30. Nicolaus Cusanus: The pope leading him by a halter and diverting him from
bringing the gospel and the light of his wisdom to the common people.
From the title page of Johannes Kymaeus Fuldensis, Des Babsts Hercules wider die
Deutschen. Die auch vor dieser Zeit, nicht haben wollen dem Babst, beide die christliche,
und des heiligen Riimischen Reichs freiheit und dignitet, libergeben. Witenberg 1538
(copy used: Brit. Mus. 3908 ccc 19). Cusanus, "in his weakness is against the Lutherans,
but in his virtue and strength for us and against the pope", whose dictatorial power he
rejected in favour of the rights of common man and the superiority of belief over works.
For detail see: Menzel, 0., Cusanus Studien VI: Kymeus, Joh., Des Babsts Hercules
wider die Deutschen. Heidelberg (Akad. Ahhand.) 1941 (new edition and on the attitude of
Protestant reformers towards Cusanus) and Hoffmann, E., Nikolaus von Cues loc. cit.
Heidelberg 1947, p. 77, footnote 18.
280 The Sources of Paracelsus
related to the cosmos and infinity, and not to man. Paracelsus, on the
other hand, saw the world concentrated in man and felt man to he called
upon to lead the world to perfection. Where the thoughts of Cusanus and
Paracelsus meet is in their recognition of infinity in the finite, their search
for the point where the finite object participates in divine infinity, and
whereby man is thus elevated to the rank of microcosm. 254
We must, therefore, briefly review the cosmology of Nicolaus Cusanus.
The mediaeval cosmos had been based on the ancient doctrine of a
closed finite system of spheres. In this, graded steps lead from God via
the intelligences and the world soul down to nature ("Stufenkosmos").
Continuity had been achieved by granting each stage a share in its
"higher" predecessor.
Cusanus demolished the whole concept - first by removing the top of
the ladder. The universe was no longer regarded as "closed", hut as in-
finite. Where our world, where the so called eighth sphere (the end of the
ancient cosmos) reached its limit, new worlds were visualised. In this way
the world, though not identical with God, achieved similarity with Him.
The Universe is an "infinite sphere" - for were it not, it would border on
something else, a place outside the world which cannot exist.
In an infinite universe which is known to us hut in an infinitely small
proportion, no place remains for gradation, however.
All objects of our world, though each different from the other, are on
an equal footing in dignity. None of them reigns supreme. In other words,
there is no room for a world "centre" - the earth as well as the sun being
stars like other stars, all of which - including the earth - are in perpetual
motion. Nor is the earth inferior to the sun in being "darker" or more
perishable. Nor finally is any "sublunary" object less noble than a celes-
tial body. Indeed, each object forms a world of its own. There are centres
everywhere in the universe - the "infinite sphere".
Nicolaus Cusanus arrived at this new cosmology about a century before
Copernicus - who still adhered to the closed cosmos of the ancients, al-
though he shifted its centre from the earth to the sun, and superseded
Cusanus in detailed astronomy. 255
Cusanus, on the other hand, could not recognise any one centre. It
was at this point that his philosophy was taken up by Giordano Bruno
who acknowledges his debt to Cusanus in enthusiastic terms.
254 Hoffmann, Ernst: Nicolaus von Cues. Zwei V ortriige. Heidelberg 1947, p. 50.
255 For his actual advance on the special astronomical knowledge and views of Cusanus
in which the earth retained a central position of reference, see: Mahnke, D. : U nendliche
Sphiire und Allmittelpunkt. Halle 1937, pp. 91-96.
Nie. Cusanus. Cosmology 281
Cusanus was led to his new view of the universe by his speculations on infinity. By
comparing the finite objects that surround us with one another and the standards thus
gained, we become aware of "Opposites": good - bad, great - small, warm - cold, soft -
hard, and so on. No such "opposites" can be conceived in the infinite in which the in-
finitely small in no way differs from the infinitely great, and indeed all "opposites coincide".
This "coincidentia oppositorum" can be demonstrated for example with reference
to the One. As the last unit comprising the All, the One stands for the infinitely Great.
At the same time One - as the smallest of an infinite series of numbers - expresses the in-
finitely Small.
Hence, no knowledge can he acquired about the Infinite other than the
fact that we are totally ignorant about it. This "learned ignorance" of
Cusanus particularly applies to God and his attributes - based as it is on
the main tenet of the "Negative Theology" of Dionysius Pseudo-Areopa-
gita, the patristic Greek writer of the sixth century, who became the
fountainhead of Christian Mysticism.
On the other hand, our intellect tackles the finite world of "Opposites"
and, by expressing them in mathematical terms, notably geometrical
symbols, discovers their relationship with infinity.
Cusanus' speculations on cosmology and infinity were hound to have
strong repercussions on empirical research. This became evident not only
in astronomy, hut also in mechanics and its application to medicine. We
mentioned before (p. 199) that it was Cusanus who recommended exact
measurement and the use of the balance (to determine specific gravity)
in the examination of urine. We also gave an example of how this idea
was taken up and carried out in the laboratory by Van Helmont.
In the application of mathematics to the study of nature, Cu:sanus
believed himself to he penetrating to eternal truth - the true kernel and
virtues hidden behind the fallacious appearances of objects and pheno-
mena. This can he achieved by laying hare the numerical proportions of
measure and weight, that determine structure and function in each individ-
ual object - a Neopythagorean approach.
Though not concerned with measurements and numbers, Paracelsus
too searched for the "secreta natura", i.e. the specific properties of each
suhstance. 2 56 He even said that "disease stands on weight, number and
2 5s Compare Thorndike, Lynn: Hist. Magic, vol. IV, New York 1934., p. 392, with reference
to the "Static Experiments" of Nicolaus Cusanus: "With this ideal of scientific measure-
ment something of the old conception of magical virtue is still intermingled. Alchemy
and astrology and the occult virtues of gems, herbs and fountains still play a larger part
in contemporary science than do pure physics." It is indeed the "secret nature" of
objects to which Cusanus hopes, access may be gained by the experimental and quan-
titative approach. The connection between the search for numerical proportions in
natural objects, magic and mysticism of numbers is obvious in such authors as Reuchlin
282 The Sources of Paracelsus
measure".257 Cusanus recognised the ancient four elements as speculative.
So did Paracelsus. To both Cusanus and Paracelsus, new scientific orien-
tations and knowledge are inseparable from philosophical and cosmological
speculation.
Though primarily concerned with the Universe, Cusanus by no means
neglected the individual. On the contrary, as we have seen, it was just
through this new conception of the cosmos as a whole that the individual
was lifted out of uniformity into the position of a centre, a world or sphere
in his own right. This particularly applies to the multitude of creatures in
whom God reproduced Himself, as it were in a multiple mirror image, with
varying degrees of faithfulness. Each individual has infinite possibilities of
imitating divine infinity, thus reflecting in his own limited way the infinity
of the universe2ss - he is a "created or human God" 259 .
Of th;- creatures man is the highest and almost reaches the angels in
perfection. He epitomises the universe and is rightly called a microcosm.
In this we may find a point of contact with Paracelsus and his "anthro-
pocentric" position taken in contrast to traditional astrology which had
subjected man to the totalitarian power of the stars.
However Cusanus' concept of the microcosm, is focussed around the
intellectual faculties of man - not, as in Paracelsus' concept, around the
composition of his body.
The differences between animal and human life are derived not from physical differ-
ences hut from the unio~ ("suhstantialis identitas") of the human vegetative and sensitive
soul with incorruptible intellectual virtue. That it is not on physical properties that its
permanence depends is shown by the persistence of the soul in a body with a gangrenous
hand. Here the soul has not dried up as well hut has simply ceased to enliven the withered
limb, while itself remaining incorruptible.
How can it remain? The answer is: "Non possumus negare hominem dici micro-
cosmum, hoc est parvum mundum qui hahet animam." We cannot deny that man he
called microcosm, i.e. a lesser world endowed with soul. 260
and Agrippa of Nettesheym who are palpably influenced by Cusanus. On .th~ ~ther
hand Cusanus' search for the "secret nature" i.e. the specific property of each md1vidual
suhst,ance, was rightly called by Hans Fischer "an eminently ~cientific enterprise
within the natural limits imposed by the methods available at that time." (Roger Bacon
and Nicolaus Cusanus als Begriinder chemischer und physikalisch-chemischer Methoden
in der Medizin. Schweiz. med. Wschr. 1940, LXX, 97-109, p. 104).
257 "Dan das sol der Arzt nit leugnen, die Krankheit stet in dem Gewicht, in der zal und
in der mass." Opus Paramirum (St. Gallen 1531) part I, hook 1, cap. 1. Ed. Sudhoff,
vol. IX, p. 40.
2ss Docta Ignorantia II, 2. Opp. Paris 1514, fol. 14 recto.
259 De Conjecturis II, 14. Opp. Ed. cit., fol. 60. . .
260 "Humana vero natura est illa, quae est supra omma de1 opera elevata, et paulo mmus
angelis minorata, intellectualem et sensibilem naturam complicans ac universa inter
Nie. Cusanus. Cosmos and Man 283
That man is a part of the universe does not mean that he is not a world in himself.
For in all parts the whole is reflected ("In omnibus enim partibus relucet totum") - just
as a hand reflects the proportions of the whole body. Everything is determined by its
proportion to the universe - and especially so man, who reflects the perfection of the uni-
verse more than does anything else. "Homo est perfectus mundus", though small and
though hut one part of the bigger world. 26 1
This concept of man as a microcosm participating by virtue of his soul
in spheres higher than himself is still based on the principle of gradation.
First there are the graded faculties of the soul ranging from the nutritive
to the intellectual. Secondly there are the cosmic "steps" from apparently
lifeless stone via plants, animals and man, the stars, the universe and the
intelligences, to God. What is "implicit" in the latter is "explicit" in the
universe. This concept of the "unfolding" of the finite and perishable from
the infinite and perpetual seems to contradict the principle of the complete
remoteness of the latter from the finite world. As we have seen (see pre-
vious p. 280), the fundamental principle introduced by Cusanus and new
to the mediaeval world was the abolition of the concept of step-ladder
continuity leading from God the Infinite down to finite material objects.
It was this new separation ("tmema") of the empirical world of the senses
from the metaphysical world of the intellect which enabled Cusanus to
conceive of a new cosmology and to oppose the ancient and mediaeval
geocentric cosmos. It was in fact a renewal of the genuine Platonic idea
of "separation" ("Chorismos"). 262 This idea of "Chorismos", however, in
no way contradicted another Platonic idea - that of the "share" ("Me-
thexis") which was also developed by Cusanus. In spite of its remoteness
from the world of ideas, the empirical world has a "share" in it.
For Cusanus, then, what matters in rendering man a "microcosm" is the
intellect and its exalted position in the hierarchy of physical and mental
faculties.
In this lies the "miraculous work of God in which the discriminating virtue is gradually
elevated from the senses to the highest kind of intellect through certain steps and organised
channels: there the bonds of union of the finest bodily spirit are continually illuminated,
simplified through the victory gained by the virtue of the soul in reaching the inner sanctum
of the virtue of reason. After this it arrives at the highest order of intellectual virtue, as it
were through a canal leading into the infinite sea". 263
se constringens ut microcosmus aut parvus mundus a veterihus rationaliter vocitetur."
De Docta lgnorantia. l,ib. III, cap. 3. Ed. Paris 1514, fol. 25 verso. Ed·. Rotta, Bari
1913, p. 129.
. 261 De Ludo Glohi. Opp. Ed. cit., fol. 156 verso and 157 recto.
262 See Ernst Hoffmann: Platonismus und Mittelalter. Vortr. Bihl. Warburg, vol. III, p. 17.
2ea De Conjecturis II, 14. Opp. Ed. cit., fol. 59.
284 The Sources of Paracelsus Pico della Mirandola. Against Astrology 285

Man is a microcosm by virtue of his intellect, which measures and compares the ob~
jects of the empirical world and in this process makes use of those ideas which provide the
yardstick for this process of measuring and comparing. Everything that is finite and de-
pends on other things that are finite can he recognised as such only by its contrast with
lo. Picus Mirandula..
the ideas, which are stable and independent. 264 But these ideas can never he reached or
emulated by anything measurable. It is the recognition of this unbridgeable gulf between
the intellect and God that makes the working of man's intellectual faculties possible.
Man thereby acquires "learned ignorance" ("docta ignorantia") and a "share" in the
world of ideas. He now acts as a "copula" and "microcosm". 266

All this goes to show the differences between the position of Cusanus
and that of Paracelsus, the former being epistemological and the latter
largely physical and physiological in character.
That Paracelsus received some general influence from Cusanus and the
Cusanian climate of thought can not he denied categorically. We have,
however, no direct or indirect evidence for it. Man as a microcosm is cer-
tainly of some importance and consistently occurs in Cusanus' philosophy,
hut the demonstration of his idea differs from that given by Paracelsus.
Moreover, as Hoffmann has shown, Paracelsus' idea of God is different
from that of Cusanus. To Paracelsus (and indeed to Renaissance thought
in general) God is the sum total of forces acting in nature and concentrated
in man. To Cusanus, however, God is not the sum and multiplicity of
these powers hut their master. This is the only dualism which Cusanus
upheld, the dualism between cause and effect, infinity absolute and relative,
ideas as a measure and the measuring mind; in Christian terms, between
Creator and creature, or, in Platonic terms, between Eidos and eidolon. 266

Paracelsus and Pico della Mirandola

Giovanni Pico, Count of Mirandola (1463-1494) is well known as an
advocate of human liberty, a defender of "natural magic" and Kahhala and
an adversary of traditional astrology. His views created much of the
264 See also: Cassirer, E.: lndividuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance.
Leipzig 1927, pp. 19-25. Hoffmann: Das Universum des Nikolaus von Cues. Heidel-
berg 1930, p. 14. Schneiderreit, G.: Die Einheit in dem System des Nikolaus von Kues.
Gymnas.-Progr. Berlin 1902.
26 6 De venatione sapientiae. Cap. XXXII. Ed. Paris 1514, fol. 214 verso. See also De
Beryllo. Cap. 5, fol. 184 verso ("Unde in se homo repperit quasi in ratione mensurante
omnia creata").
266 Hoffmann, E.: Nikolaus von Cues. Zwei Vortriige. F. H. Kerle, Heidelberg 194 7, p. 51.
On the obvious and essential influence of Cusanus on such Paracelsists as Gerard Dorn
and Van Helmont see footnote 271 on p. 104, p. 37 and p. 199 footnote 192.
0.A.MN Es Picu!tMiranduta mtnto rognomine Phctnix ap ..
pcllatus dl>qudd in eum,Dij fuptri,fuprafamilice clari~at~m,o..
mnis corporiJ,acanimivd rarifsimadonacontukrint. Mira<;
~fm alcitudiriefubtilis ingcntj. dc~ora facie,h:difsimisquc mo ..
r1bus,tt iocornparablli quurrt difputarct,aut fcribcretfacundia
o cscius leculi fapi~ntcs in admiration cm fui facile <'ouutttit. Grauifs!m~
autcm opcrc,nccdum abfotuto,rantacruditiont, acq ucvchcmcntia Aftrolo..
Fig. 31. Port. of Picus della Mirandola. From Giovio Elogia p. 76.
climate of the Renaissance and of Humanism.26 7 They are consonant with
those of Paracelsus in a general way - although special points of contact
267
For a general survey and lit. see Kristeller, P. 0.: Introduction to a translation of Pico's
286 The Sources of Paracelsus
are hardly demonstrable. Pico's uncompromising rejection of astrology 26 8
is difficult to reconcile with its qualified admission in Paracelsus' "Astro-
sophy". Pico deliberately separates astronomy from Medicine and other
practical knowledge such as that of the husbandman and sailor. Astrology
issues statements and warnings of a very general nature, based on the
annual movement of the celestial bodies, that is an efficient cause remote
from the individual object and its innumerable potentialities. Individual
properties including temperament and mode of living may well turn the
astrologer's forecast into its contrary. In this, one may be reminded of
Paracelsus' belief that human freedom confers on man the power of influenc-
ing even the stars. But in the world of Paracelsus this very reciprocity im-
plies an intimate connection between man and star in a close system of
correspondences which is alien to Pico's attitude, which views the astrologer
and the physician as contrary rather than helpful to each other. The astrol-
oger indulges in generalities which are supposed to apply to many people
and objects at the same time. The physician, however, judges from reason
based on a study of the individual object which he carries out by means of
sensual perception. He thereby elucidates the particular response of the
object - which is different from the general tendencies prevailing in the
universe at any given time.269
Moreover, astrologers have concocted fictitious and empty rules far
removed from reality. Hence the physician should follow the precepts of
Hippocratic Prognostics and rely upon an examination of the urine and
the pulse, rather than upon observation of the spheres. 27 0
Finally, there are no "occult virtues" in the celestial bodies whereby
they are responsible for the hidden properties of things on earth. All that
they do transmit is light and heat. 271 For all the stars are like each other
Oration on the Dignity of Man in: Cassirer,E., Kristeller, P. 0. and Randall, J. H. jr.:
The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Chicago 1948, p. 215.
268
It has been pointed out that Picus while rejecting astrology in his "Disputation against
divining astrology", recognised a "true astrology" in his "Conclusions". It is the
"cabalistic" brand of astrology - the "celestial alphabet" indicating correspondences
between stars and the letters of the Alphabet and all that is symbolised by them -
which Picus, Reuchlin and "minor cabalists" such as Blaise de Vigenere, Pontus de
Tyard, Claude Duret and others are inclined to admit. See: F. Secret, L'Astrologie
et les Kabbalistes Chretiens a la Renaissance. La Tour St-Jaques 1956, pp. 45-56
(No. 4, May-June). I am indebted to Miss Desiree Hirst for this reference.
269
The physician "ex propriis et propinquis indi cat causis". In Astrologiam, lib. II, cap. 3 :
Non esse utilem astrologiam in decernendo quid sit agendum, quid fugiendum. Opera.
Ed. post. Basileae 1601, p. 293.
270
Ibid., lib. III, cap. 19: Cur nautae, medici, agricolae vera saepius praedicunt. quam
astrologi. Opp. 1601, p. 339.
271
Ibid., lib. III, cap: 24, loc. cit., p. 344.
Pico against Astrology. Magia Naturalis 287
and the earth is one of them. 272 This does not militate against the exalted
state of the stars in general, but it does against the subordination of
individual objects to individual stars. All physical virtue is derived from
the participation of an object in a celestial faculty - just as all cognition
is. participation in the light of intellect. The latter reaches perfection in
reason, the former in the spirit of the heart. In this, however, diversity is
not a result of the action of diverse stars, hut of matter and the form of
individual objects. 273 Nor is there anything super- or extranatural in
celestial causes. They are just as natural as any other causes. Hence, mi-
racles can be neither caused nor indicated by celestial signs. 274 Nor,
finally, does the "star" account for strange habits of an individual, such as
abnormal sexual inclinations. Pico here adduces a case of Masochism
which he graphically describes. 275 Not astral influence, but childhood
experience - living with a horde of rough and violent people - accounts
for the abnormal habit in Pico's opinion.
From all this Pico derives a critical attitude towards the astrological
basis of humoral pathology.
The moon does not promote cold and moisture. In fact, there is more cold moisture
in man when the moon is waning and less resistance is offered by the body against fluid
collecting inside. Moonlight rather acts in the opposite way, drawing fluid from inside
outwards and thus effecting a salubrious warming up of the body. Hence venaesection should
take place with a waxing and not, as recommended by Haly Hamec, the Astrologer, with
a waning moon. However, neither the moon nor the sun are necessarly warming - both
may have a cooling effect: the sun when there is much evaporation and the moon when
owing to the coolness of night its rays have to pass through narrowed pores and veins. 276
In contrast to astrology, Pico favours "Natural Magic". Its purport is
to demonstrate the effects, virtues and limits of natural objects by adducing
empirical evidence. That part of natural magic which is largely concerned
with the virtues of the celestial bodies, is called "Cabala". The Magus
studies the "gifts and virtues" of the upper world, and applies them to
objects on earth - he thus weds earth to heaven, just as the husbandman
weds elms to vines. 27 7 The "a posteriori" knowledge derived by magic from
empirical facts meets revelation which knows "a priori". For by deter-
212 Ibid., III, cap. 25, p. 346.
273 Ibid., p. 348.
274 Ibid., IV, C!!p. 14, p. 369.
216 Ibid., III, cap. 27, p. 350.
216 Ibid., III, cap. 6, p. 315.
277 ". • • sicut agricola nlmos vitibm, ita Magus terram coelo, id est inferiora superiorum
dotibus virtutibusque maritat." De Hominis Dignitate. Opp. 1601, loc. cit., p. 217.
Transl. by Kristeller, loc. cit., p. 249.
288 The Sources of Paracelsus
mining the limitations of natural action, magic and cabala implicitly prove
"scientifically, most truly, religiously ("catholice") and without heresy and
superstition" the divinity of Christ whose works transcend the laws of
nature. 278
Man must he viewed in his relationship with the world at large, or
more precisely with the three worlds that exist: the uppermost which the
philosophers allocate to the intellect and the theologians to the angels,
the celestial world and the sublunary world. Pico firmly believes in the
essential identity of and parallelism between these worlds. There is nothing
in any which is not found in all of them. What is in the lower world is also
in the upper one, only of a higher perfection. Elementary fire burns,
celestial fire makes alive, the supercelestial - seraphic - fire of the intellect
is the seat of the synergism of the all, of cosmic "love". Elemental humour
smothers the heat of life, celestial dew fosters it, supercelestial moisture is
the vehicle of knowledge.
Man represents a fourth world. In him, all those constituents are found
which are present in the other worlds. 279 Accordingly, the fourth hook of
Pico's "Heptaplus" is entitled: De Mundo Humano that is on the Nature of
Man. 280 The featu~e distinguishing man from any other being is that he
encompasses in himself the fulness of the universe. In this he is even
superior to the angels. Man has the command of the elements which truly
and naturally compose our terrestrial body. There is also the spiritual
body which is more divine than the elements, since it corresponds to
heaven. Man furthermore is possessed of the faculties of plant life such
as nutrition, growth and generation, of the sensual animal life, and of
celestial reason. He finally participates in the higher intellectual know-
ledge of the angels - in all a "divine possession recalling the word of
278 Apologia. De Magia naturali et Cabala disputatio. Opp. 1601; loc. cit., p. llO seq.
279 In Heptaplum de Opere sex dierum Geneseos ad lectorem praefatio. Opp. 1601, loc. cit.,
p. 4 seq. It is from the belief in cosmic correspondences and in the all pervading spirit
of the world that the symbolic thinking should he derived that forms a characteristic
trait of the Renaissance common to Pico and Paracelsus. The consequences of such
trends of thought for the understanding of Renaissance imagery have been demon-
strated by E. H. Gombrich, lcones Symbolicae. The Visual Image in Neo-Platonic
Thought. J. Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1948, XI, 163-192. Here images are
shown to implement the "conception of revelation through symbolism" which is
traced hack to Dionysius Pseudo-Areopagita and clearly revived in Pico's view of the
Universe as "one vast symphony of correspondences in which each level of existence
points to another level. It is by virtue of this interrelated harmony that one object
can signify another and that by contemplating a visible thing we can gain insight into
the invisible world" (p. 167-168).
280 Opp. 1601, p. 21.
Pico. Pomponazzi 289
Mercury: A great miracle, 0 Asclepius, is man. It is in this that man can
rejoice and claim the service of all other creatures". 281
These concepts relating to man as a microcosm are indeed congenial
to the philosophy of Paracelsus - just as there are contacts and parallels
with Pico's ideas of natural magic and of the Magus who "weds earth to
heaven". It is precisely this which Paracelsus enjoins the physician to do.
Paracelsus went farther than Pico - not only in elaborating this idea into
a system of medicine and protoscientific detail. In his astrosophic system
of close correspondences between man and the world, however, he incor-
porated much of that traditional astrology which Pico had rejected.
Pomponazzi and Paracelsus
The present author is aware of no direct evidence of Paracelsus' ac-
quaintance with the works of Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1524). These were
widely read and stirred up public opinion and ecclesiastic opposition in the
twenties of the XVlth century, the first period of Paracelsus' literary
activity. 282 The latter can have hardly failed to take notice of them and
of the echo which they found. At all events, their writings show contacts
and parallels in expressing the spirit of their period. It is for this reason
that Erastus lumped them together as blasphemous heretics who reveal
their basically atheistic attitude in the question of "Natural Magic" and
the power of man extending to the stars. 2 83
281 Heptaplus, lib. IV, Opp., loc. cit., p. 27.
282 See Thorndike: History of Magic. vol. V, New York 1941, pp. 94-110. For a general
appraisal of Pomponatius and pertinent literature compare: Cassirer, E.: lndividuum
und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance. Leipzig and Berlin 1927, p. 86, with
special reference to causality in nature as guaranteed by the imperturbable course of
the celestial bodies, p. 109. See also more recently: Randall, J. H. jr.: Pietro Pom-
ponazzi in Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. 0., and Randall, J. H. jr: The Renaissance
Philosophy of Man. Chicago 1948, pp. 255-279; Kristeller, P. 0.: Ficino and Pomponazzi
on the Place of Man in the Universe. J. Hist. Ideas 1944, v. 224.
283 Disput. de Medicina Nova Philippi Paracelsi, pars prima, Basileae 1571, p. lll and
p. 128. See our account of Erastus' criticism p. 317. Paracelsus as well as Pomponazzi
regarded imagination and incantation as powerful forces in nature. They shared this
view with many writers of the Renaissance, hut not with all of them. This is shown for
example in the treatise "On Imagination" by Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola
(1470-1533), the nephew of Giovanna Pico (see our chapter p. 121). The author holds
with Aristotle that imagination is necessary to digest sensual perception and to convey
it to the intellect. Owing to its irrational nature, however, imagination is subject to
and should he guided by the intellect. Man should suppress it in order to uphold "that
dignity in which he was created and placed and by which he is continually urged to
direct the eye of the mind towards God." (Ed. and transl. Harry Caplan, Cornell
290 The Sources of Paracelsus Reuchlin, Scholasticism censured 291

It is another question, however, whether they really belong together in

Renaissance thought. Pomponazzi has been called the "last of the school-
JOANNES REVCHLTNVS
men", and the "first exponent of enlightenment" 284 - neither of these des-
ignations is applicable to Paracelsus. Hence they should not be compared
and placed on the same level without careful qualification.

Paracelsus and Johannes Reuchlin

To have studied at Tiibingen towards the end of the fiftheenth century

and remained unconscious of the presence and influence of Reuchlin
(1455-1522), the star of the young university, is inconceivable. Hence,
Paracelsus' father must have known him, and so might Paracelsus him-
self, who pcissibly passed through Swabia as a journeyman-scholar before his
studies in Italy.
Reuchlin belonged to the entourage of the ruler of Wiirttemberg,
Eberhard "The Pious" (or "In the Beard"), where he could hardly have
failed to meet Paracelsus' grandfather. Like the latter, he accompanied
Eberhard on a journey abroad. It was Reuchlin's first visit to Italy - at
the age of 27 in 1482. 285
A second journey to Italy (1490) brought him into touch with Pico Fig. 32. Portrait of
Johannes Reuchlin
and seems to have inspired and confirmed his studies in Neoplatonism and from Pantaleone
the Kabbala. In the latter he saw the source of the philosophy of Pytha- Prosopographiae.
goras and it was this which he meant to restore - in the same way as Ficino Basel 1566. Part III,
p. 23.
had restored Plato and Jacob Faber of Etaples, Aristotle. 286

Studies in English XVI, New Haven 1930, p. 45.) For, being at the mercy of sensual
perception, imagination is liable to deceive the intellect, the "spiritual eye of the soul"
- just as the bodily eye may see things wrongly tinted or distorted. It is deceitful
imagination that runs riot in those women which are called witches (ibid., p. 57).
By contrast, prophecy "flows into the intellect whenever God, as it were engraves
therein the signs of the future". Man, therefore, "ought to follow reason and to shake
off the allurements of sense and phantasy" (ibid., p. 65). Pico's position is that of ancient
rationalistic philosophy. It is largely based on materialistic explanations in humoralistic
terms, with the result that reason prevails against imagination. The gulf which sepa-
rates this philosophy from the supernaturalist and mystic undercurrent which extolled
imagination at the expense of reason and was supported by Paracelsus appears to he
unbridgeable. Some of Pico's arguments were resumed in Thomas Fienus' De Viribus
lmaginationis, Lovanii 1608.
284 Cassirer, loc. cit., p ..86.
28 5 Preface to De Arte Cahalistica. Ed. Pistorius Nidanus in Artis Cahalisticae. Tom I.
Basileae 1587, p. 611.
286 Preface to De Arte Cahalistica, loc. cit., p. 612. For the general trends of Reuchlin's
ideas see Ritter, Heinrich: Geschichte der christlichen Philosophie. Vol. V (Geschichte
der Philosophie, vol. IX). Hamburg 1850, pp. 315-326.
Reuchlin devoted himself to profound studies in Hebraic literature
which led to his famous challenge of contemporary obscurantism. The
Swabian wars and especially the despotism of the young ruler of Wiirttem-
berg involved him in much personal suffering and hardship in which he
was helped by such independent spirits as Ulrich of Hutten and Sickingen.287
Among Reuchlin's main philosophical propositions the severe limita-
tions which he imposed on reason and formal logic are of particular interest
to us. Truth is implicit in the structure of our world and the proper and
original "allusions" of nature. 288 Knowledge can therefore be obtained
287
See Meiners, C.: Lehensheschreibungen heriihmter Manner aus den Zeiten der Wieder-
herstellung der Wissenschaften. Zurich 1795, vol. I, pp. 44-212; p. 74.
288
"in hac mundi structura, quam cernimus, aliquam triumphare veritatem .. , non for-
tuitis aut alicunde adventitiis, sed suis et propriis et originariis naturae illicihus, quae
292 The Sources of Paracelsus
either through scrutiny of the nature of an object or through divine
inspiration. 289
However, the objects of our sublunary world are continually changing. True knowledge
of these objects is therefore not given to man. He can merely pass an opinion based on
reason, and this is just as much open to change as its ohject. 290 On things supercelestial,
"nobody, absolutely nobody" can obtain even the most minute hit of knowledge. 291
Since therefore the divine world is beyond our reach and things of our world are
fleeting, there remains no constant, total and unbreakable knowledge other than divine
revelation.
Your wisdom and your knowledge have deceived you. You failed in the multitude
of your counsels; each of them erred in his own way - probing the causes of things below
and taking care of celestial influences, you remained ignorant of the real driving force in
natural processes and of the entirety of relevant factors. Hence faith is superior to know-
ledge, for it elevates the intellect to the summit, pure, lucid and radiant in the divine and
supercelestial intelligences, reflecting the condition of all things mortal and immortal
as it were in an eternal mirror. If our soul unites with things sensible by sensation and with
those intelligible by intellect, it is through faith that our mind is united with the highest
intelligences and God Himself. For the First Cause is more intimate to things than all the
derivative causes which are contained in the former like rivulets in a stream. 292
God placed man in the centre of the universe, a region common to the
lower and upper worlds. It has access to the latter by faith and to the
former (however inadequately) by reason.
The world is One - "Omnia Unum"; not the sum total of atoms that
are subject to chance, devoid of reason and incapable of building up an
orderly cosmos. Hence He who is the H)ghest is One, and He who is One
is simple - ignorant of the disturbance, tedium, sorrow, inherent in any-
thing composite. 293
Reuchlin thus presents the views of the mystic. He combats the claims
omnia, cum non fiunt frustra, utique contingit, ut veritatem eorum quae sunt, aliquo
tandem opportuno tempore amplexemur." De verho mirifico. Lib. I, cap. 8, loc. cit.,
p. 892.
289 "Quisquis igitur id, quod est, vel suapte natura vel divino adiutus adminiculo vere com-
prehenderit, quare non ilium eius scientiam sortitum existimaverim? lta enim scientiam
appellahimus veram apprehensionem rei." Loe. cit., p. 892.
290 "Quam quidem mutahilis rei susceptivam in nohis potestatem ... opinahilem rationem
voco ... Et ego tibi assentior, quae certe ut cognita mutantur, ita et scientia mutahi-
tur." - "Omnium rerum sub coeli domicilio commorantium, non est humanitus, quam
vere scientiam vocamus, sed opinio potius." Ibid., loc. cit., cap. 9, p. 893.
291 "De his itaque quoniam supercoelestia sunt nee ulli usquam sensui ohvia, quis ...
mortalium praeter quam divinitus, ac nulla humana virtute, quantulamcumque tan-
dem cognitionem ohtinere queat? Nemo, Hercle, nemo." Ibid., p. 893. On syllogism
as the main enemy of cognition of the divine that depends upon "mera et nuda fides":
De Arte Cahalistica. Lib. II. Ed. Pistorius, loc. cit., pp. 645, 649 and passim.
292 De Verho mirifico. Lib. I, cap. 9. Ed. Pistorius, p. 893.
293 Loe. cit., cap. 10, pp. 894-895.
Reuchlin. Specificity of individual objects 293
of reason and logic in favour of knowledge by revelation. This is obtained
through insight into the divine unity and simplicity of the world - a
knowledge that transcends reason and penetrates to the divine source of
intelligence. Reuchlin is aware of the transcendence of God who is more
than the mere cause and creator of things. He is the absolute Being that
is immanent in everything, and present in all worlds. 294 He preaches
"learned ignorance" of an infinite world in which ordinary "being" is not
"Being" and "not being" recognised as true "Being".
Unlike the mediaeval mystics, however, and following the inspiration
given by Nicolaus Cusanus, Reuchlin does not close his eyes to Nature
and the specific properties of individual objects therein.
In emphasising specificity in natural objects and functions, Reuchlin
opposes traditional interpretations of nature in terms of elementary qual-
ities and mixtures. With this he expressly rejects heat as the agent which
had been regarded as decisive in the animal economy since antiquity. To
illustrate this point he selects as a leading instance gastric digestion. This
effects the transmutation of food into body substance. Heat cannot
achieve this - for if it could, food should be digestible by fire or heat out-
side much better and more rapidly than in the body and stomach. The
effect is, therefore, due to an occult property intrinsic in the latter. In the
same way, amulets around the neck, such as corals, display certain effects
not because they are cold or hot, but by an intrinsic occult virtue. This
cannot even be explained in terms of astral or any other mediating influence.
Such occult virtues are the instruments by which God causes objects
to be different from one another. They have variously been designated as
Gods, angels or good demons.
It is by means of a similar occult virtue that man, the microcosm, can
move towards God ("migret in Deum") and in turn God can establish his
dwelling in man ("Deus habitet in homine"). Of this proei~ss we can re-
cognise no more than such outward expressions and symbols as words.
Again, this is well illustrated by gastric digestion in which heat is the only
phenomenon accessible to our senses. Heat, however, is but the medium
supporting a vital function which is essentially different from it. In the
same way, symbols act as "shadows" or "images" of the true process of our
unification with God.295
294 In this, Reuchlin says, lies the difference between the talmudic and the cahalistic point
of view - the former looking on God as the true cause and Creator, the latter as the
transcendent and at the same time immanent absolute Being. De Arte Cahalistica.
Ed. Pistorius, loc. cit., p. 632.
295 Reuchlin: De Verho Mirifico. Lib. II, cap. 6. Ed. Joh. Pistorius, loc. cit., p. 912.
294 The Sources of Paracelsus Agrippa of Nettesheym 295

Further criticism of ancient elementary theories is based on an inter- Agrippa of Nettesheym's "Occult Philosophy"
pretation of the Hebrew designation of God. This is derived from the
divine nature of the sun and fire. But this is not elementary fire, and not A source of Neoplatonic wisdom contemporary to Paracelsus was the
even stellar or celestial fire, hut an indescribable "splendor" - compared to Occult Philosophy of Agrippa of Nettesheym (1487-1535). It is true that
which any other fire is like shadow and darkness. Thus, even the higher this was only printed in (1531-)1533, i.e. when Paracelsus' literary pro-
world of the archetypes and ideas is hut a shadow and image of the divine ductivity was already at its height, and his basic ideas had taken shape
light, and how much more so our material and "faeculent" world which is
called the shadow and image of the superior world. 296
The rational soul occupies a position intermediate between the world
invisible - the world of the fire - and the world visible - the world of the
earth. Yet it is intimately akin to the upper world. 297
Reuchlin thus appears as a figure with many facets - typical of the
Renaissance. He was chiefly a humanist, concerned with the revival of
classical tradition, notably the Hebrew and Greek sources for the study
of Pythagorean, Platonic and cahalistic ideas. But he was more than that.
He was a mystic intent on disentangling eternal truth from the dictates
of human opinion as based on reason and logic. This opposition to reason
not only failed to prevent hut actually encouraged him in advocating
science within its own limits. He distinguished serious science such as the
measurement of the sizes and distances of the stars - the certainty of which
is proved by mathematics and experience itself - from fallacious and
controversial astrology. 298 It is in this respect that Reuchlin, the humanist
and mystic, can claim a place among those whose ideas prepared the soil
for the foundation of science.
His contacts with Paracelsean thinking are obvious, notably in his
opposition to the traditional explanation of objects and phenomena in
terms of elements, humours and qualities. Paracelsean ideas are eve.n
more strongly foreshadowed in the emphasis which Reuchlin lays on the
specific properties of individuals and species. It is of particular interest
that he recognises a special property as the agent effecting gastric digestion
as against heat which is a general factor of no more than auxiliary signi-
ficance. This may well have inspired Paracelsus and certainly forms a
background to one of Van Helmont's major discoveries in physiology.
It is to Reuchlin that we must look for the source of the ideas of Fernel
(1497-1558) and the extensive use which he made of the "Occult Property".
It emerges clearly that Fernel was not original in this.

296 Ibid., lib. II, cap. 18, Ioc. cit., p. 930.

297
Ibid., lib. II, cap. 21, loc. cit., p. 945.
298 De Verbo Mir. Lib. II, cap. 1, loc. cit., p. 906. In this condemnation of astrology Fig. 33. Portrait of Agrippa of Nettesheym from: J. J.Boissard, lcones et Effigies Virorum
Reuchlin forms a fundamental source. Doctorum. Francof. J.Ammon. 1645. Sig.Ee3.
296 The Sources of Paracelsus
for a long time. Yet Agrippa's hook had been composed much earlier,
namely soon after 1510, and widely circulated in manuscript form. 299
Agrippa had been encouraged in the study of "Occult Philosophy" and
the writing of his hook by Trithemius, one of the earlier teachers of Para-
celsus3o0, hut it is improbable that Agrippa was in contact with Trithemius
when Paracelsus received tuition from him.
There is much in Agrippa's erratic and short life that is reminiscent of
Paracelsus. Like the latter he died at the age of 48 bringing to a close a
long series of disappointments and itinerations through France, Italy,
England, Alsace, Switzerland, the Rhineland, Belgium and France again,
interrupted by short periods of employment. He had studied and occa-
sionally practised medicine, alchemy and the magic arts. He was primarily
a humanist orator and jurist, however. Naturalism had a certain signi-
ficance in,'his philosophy, hut it was mainly an attitude of the contem-
plating mind and an instrument to attract popular attention. There was
nothing of the ardour and thirst for new knowledge and experience of
nature which captivated the whole mind and personality of Paracelsus.
There is, on the other hand, Agrippa's uncompromising rejection of all
traditional sciences and arts and his passionate call for simple wisdom
and experience as against the unrealistic theories and elaborate prescrip-
tions of academic medicine. Agrippa's invectives against the latter and
those who profess it are couched in the same terms and based on the same
arguments as those of Paracelsus. Physicians, Agrippa says, acquire their
knowledge from incorrect hooks, while the "old wife" searches wood and
field for the individual plants, learning their colours, forms, taste, scent
and species, and, according to her experience of their virtues, administers
the surest remedy free of charge to everyone. 301 Agrippa's criticism like
299
Agrippa's Preface to the Reader and Meiners, C.: Lehensheschreihungen heriihmter
Manner aus den Zeiten der Wiederherstellung der Wissenschaften. Zurich 1795, vol. 1,
p. 390.
300
See above, p. 8.
301
See for further detail W. Pagel in: Religious Motives .in the Medical Biology of the
XVIl 1h Century. Bull. Hist. Med. 1935, vol. Ill, pp. 120-123, with reference to Agrippa's
famous work on the Uncertainty and Vanity of All Sciences and Arts (1530). It is
quite true that Paracelsus himself disapproved of Agrippa whom - together with Pietro
d'Ahano and Trithemius - he found wanting in illumination and true understanding
of the occult (De Occulta Philosophia. Preface. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 514). This
in no way detracts from the debt which Paracelsus owes to Agrippa's work. See also:
Strebel, J.: Plotin und Paracelsus iiher Horoskopie und Schicksal. Nova Acta Paracels.
1946, III, 100. It may he noted in passing that Lorenz Fries was an acquaintance
common to Agrippa and Paracelsus (see above p. 23 and Wickersheimer, E., Deux
Regimes de Sante: Laurent Fries etc. Themecht 1957, I, 4, with further references).
Agrippa: Occult Virtues. Spirit 297
that of Paracelsus is informed by religious ideas and motives and it is
through these that he arrives at the recommendation of simple empiricism.
The Occult Virtues, the World Soul, the Spirit (Quinta Essentia)
and Sympathy
We have quoted Agrippa's Occult Philosophy before when discussing
his opinion that gastric digestion is not due to a known "elemental"
quality, namely heat, hut to an "occult virtue'', unknown to us in its mode
of operation, hut accessible to empirical experience.302
These "occult virtues" are the "seminal principles" or the "vestiges"
and "shadows" (umbrae) of the divine ideas bestowed on all species of
natural objects. For each species in the lower world there is a correspond-
ing celestial species ("figura coelestis") in the stars.303
Democritus, Orpheus and many Pythagoreans agreed that "all is full
of Gods'', i.e. of divine virtues pervading all things. The soul of one being
can step out and enter another, and can deprive it of its power by fasci-
nation just as steel hinders a magnet from attracting iron.
Since the soul is the first principle and mobile by itself in contrast to
bodies and matter which are not, there is the need for something inter-
mediate, as it were not body already soul, or not soul hut already body.
Such an intermediary joining the soul to the body is the spirit of the world,
the "fifth essence" - something not composed of the four elements, but
above and outside them. The spirit in the body of the world is the same
as the spirit in the body of man. Just as the powers of our soul are linked
to the limbs through the spirit, so the virtue of the soul of the world is
diffused everywhere through the "fifth essence". The spirit is drawn into
things through the rays of the stars corresponding to them. Through this
spirit all "occult properties" are communicated to herbs, stones, metals
and animated beings.
The spirit and its action can he intensified by those who either know
how to extract it or at least know the use of objects which have it in
abundance. Such objects in which spirit is less submerged by body and is
not kept down by matter are more powerful and perfect than others and
can more easily generate their own likes. For all generative and seminal
virtue is in the spirit. Hence alchemists strive to separate ( secernere) this
spirit from gold and silver, in order to make gold and silver by adding it
302
See above p. 158.
303
De Occulta Philosophia .. Lih. I, cap. 10-20. Ed. Lugduni 1550, pp. 23-45. Lugduni
s. a. (1600), pp. 17-31.
298 The Sources of Paracelsus
to matter of the same sort, i.e. to any other metal. Agrippa intimates that
he himself is conversant with the method and has seen the work performed,
hut he was never able to produce gold exceeding the quantity from which
he had extracted the spirit. He will not deny, however, that this might
he possible by other methods.
The virtues of natural objects are the products of an "occult" sym-
pathy ( similitudo) prevailing between them and not accessible to any
reasoning or calculation of elemental qualities, quantities or proportions.
It is accessible, however, to empirical experience and conjecture.
Sympathy means that each object moves towards and fuses with its
like, a tendency recognisable in the activity displayed by its specific
("occult") property as well as in its elemental composition ("quality").
Activity !lleans motion not towards something inferior, hut to something
equal and corresponding ("ad sui par et consentaneum").
What has lain close to salt for some time assumes a salty character and eventually
becomes salt. Our digestive power converts food not into herbs or plants, but into human
flesh. Intense heat, cold, boldness, fear, love, hate or any other emotion or passion tends
to transmit itself. to somebody else. Fire moves towards and fuses with fire, water with
water, boldness with boldness. Thus brain is a remedy for diseases of the brain, lung for
those of the lung. The paws of a tortoise help in gout when applied foot to foot, hand to
hand, right to right and left to left. A sterile animal and in particular its testicles, uterus
and urine tend to induce sterility. In order to produce a certain effect we must choose an
animal or other object in which the desired property is normally strong. If it is love which
we want to induce, we must take from a turtle-dove, sparrow, leech ~r wagtail the parts
in which the venereal urge is localised: i.e. the heart, testicles, uterus, penis, semen or
menstrual discharge - and these at the time of rut. To induce boldness, the heart, eyes or
forehead of a lion or cock are suitable. Agrippa recites a long list of such expedients. 304
Similar rules apply to the primordial antipathy between natural objects and its use in the
reproduction of certain effects.
Agrippa on Air
The air is the vital spirit which penetrates all and confers life and
consistency to all - linking, moving and filling all. Hence the Rabbis
regarded it not as an element, hut as a medium and glue which connects
separate things.
Air is thus visualised as the link between macrocosm and microcosm,
the carrier of vital pneuma and therefore animated in itself - ideas that
can he retraced via Hildegard of Bingen to Poseidonius, Seneca and ~ther
3o4 In these strangely enough the prostitute plays a prominent part. She by herself in-
duces boldness, fearlessness, impudence and luxuriousness and even her clothes or
mirror will do so. Cap. 15 and 16, loc. cit., ed. 1550, pp. 34-37.
Agrippa on Sympathy and Air 299
Stoic and Neoplatonic interpreters of Platonic cosmology.305 Air as the
vector of cosmic pneuma occupies an exalted position in the cosmology of
Paracelsus in which it appears in close connection with the "Mysterium
Magnum" - the power responsible for life in the universe.306 Similarly
Agrippa teaches that air concentrates into itself all the celestial influxes and
communicates with all single elements; like a divine mirror, it reflects all
things made by nature and art and all languages and speech. Penetrating
into the pores of the skin, it forces all that it carries into man - to whom
it appears in the form of dreams and prophecies. Hence the terror instilled
in those who pass by places where murder has been committed, for the air
in these places contains the "species" of murder.
It is through this receptive and transmissive power of air that man can
transmit messages over wide distances by mere mental concentration and
transference to the air. Agrippa himself had practised this and so had
Trithemius. Plotinus already taught that certain images ("idols") not only
of a spiritual, hut also of a natural character emanate from objects, coalesce
as it were in air, and come into sight or other sensual perception by light
or motion. Hence the mirroring of distant objects in clouds, hence images
conjured up in the air by means of mirrors, effects attributed by the un-
educated to demons and the images of souls. It is also known that in a
dark room with only a small opening for light a paper placed opposite to
it will mirror all the events outside. Images and inscriptions exposed to
the beams of the moon can he read at a great distance in the disc of the
moon, into which they are reflected hack.
All this follows from mathematical and physical laws. What is true
in optics is also applicable to acoustics.307
306
See Liebeschiitz, H.: Das Allegorische Weltbild der Heiligen Hildegard von Bingen.
Leipzig 1930, pp. 70-71, with reference to the "tonus" in certain strata of the air, as
assumed by Hildegard. In kabbalistic tradition the world ("space") was created by a
concentration and limitation of God ("Zimzum"). The "space" thus produced is also
called "original air". It is not "empty", but acts as a "vessel" containing and limiting
the divine splendour and light. It is through the creation of this vessel that various
gradations of darkness and thereby our perception and share of divine splendour are
made possible. Joel, D.H., Die Religionsphilosophie des Sohar. 1849 (Reprint Berlin
1918), p. 200.
306
See above, p. 140.
The transmissive power of air is a topic extensively treated by Paracelsus ("Chao-
mantia"). See Philos. Sagax. Lib. I, cap. 4, ed. princ. 1571, fol. 31, recto.
307
De Occulta Philosophia. I, 6. Ed. Lugd. 1550, pp. 13-16. Camera obscura on p. 15:
"Et notum est, si qnis in loco obscuro, et omnis luminis experte, nisi quod per minimum
foramen solis radius alicubi ingrediatur, supposita illi papyro alba, aut speculo plano,
videri in ea quaecumque foris a sole illustrata agantur."
300 The Sources of Paracelsus
The Power of Imagination in Agrippa's Occult Philosophy
The passions of the soul are not only powerful in directing the body
hut also operate outside it. They can act on all objects in nature and
remove as well as produce diseases of the body and soul. Thus, a soul
strongly elated and fired by vehement imagination induces health or
disease not only in its own body, hut also in other people.
Avicenna believed that somebody's imagination can make a camel fall. Images of dogs
will appear in the urine of a patient with rabies. The desire of a pregnant woman impresses
the mark of the desired object on the fetus in the womb or causes any malformation or
monstrosity. The intention of a witch to inflict damage makes a man powerless by the
fascination of her gaze fixed upon him; similarly, the gaze of the toad and basilisk can kill.
Plague and Leprosy are transmitted by vapours exhaled, the latter being products of a
morbid imagination. What is harmful is not the vapour itself, hut the action of the soul
which the vapour conveys - since the soul is superior in "power, strength, fervour and
mobility" to any such material as vapour. Hence the philosophers enjoin us to avoid
traffic with evil and those unfortunate men whose souls, full of noxious rays, infest with
dangerous contagion those whom they reach. A power exceeding that of mere imagination
must he expected from reason and the mind - in as much as these excel imagination. The
mind, directing its full intention towards the Divine and towards a certain beneficial
effect can direct something divine to its own or another hody.3°8
In all this, coordination with celestial influences is paramount. For the
spirit is much more prone to unite with and he influenced by celestial
forces than any matter. By imagination and reason our soul can accom-
modate itself ("imitatione quadam") to any of the stars, and thus becomes
a receptacle of its influx and its specific offices ("munerihus"). The con-
templating mind, separating itself from all perception, imagination, natural
bonds and deliberation, operates by "belief". By this Agrippa understands
the intense fixation and concentration of a person's attention on what can
help or give strength for a particular task to be performed. In this way
an image arises in us of the power to he acquired or of the result to be
achieved. We must, therefore, be actuated in any activity or use of objects
by vehement emotion, imagination, hope and the firmest belief. Thus
physicians have experienced the power for health which lies in firm con-
fidence, unshakeable hope and love for the doctor and his medicine. To-
gether with the remedy it is the strong mind of the physician that can
alter the qualities in the patient's body, especially when the latter coop-
erates by giving the physician and the remedy his confidence. Hence, the
magic operator must stand firm in belief and unhesitating confidence in
the eventual success of his work.309
308 De Occulta Philosophia. Lih. I, cap. 65. Lugduni 1550, p. 151. Lugduni 1600, p. 104.
309 Ihid.,lih. I, cap. 66, loc. cit. Ed. 1550, p. 154; ed. 1600, p. 106.
Agrippa: Power of Imagination 301
A person of superior emotional strength can, by the appropriate use of
natural objects, confer the power of binding and attracting on others with
less intense emotions.
Binding others in admiration betrays superior solar virtue, in servitude or weakness
lunar, in quiet sadness saturnine, in veneration jovial, in fear and discord martial, in love
and gaiety venereal, in persuasion and obedience mercurial power. To counteract this
power and dissolve its attraction, an opposite stellar virtue must he used. If you fear Venus,
bring Saturn into the field, if Saturn or Mars, oppose them by Venus or Jupiter.310
For there is a power of altering, attracting, impeding and binding things and man to
that which the soul vehemently desires. What is below is hound in subjection to what is
above. Hence the lion is afraid of the cock, since the solar virtue attaches itself.more
strongly to the latter than the former, and the magnet attracts iron because it occupies
a higher rank in the sphere dominated by the constellation of the Bear. Steel311 impedes
the Loadstone to which it is superior in the Order of Mars.
All this almost literally epitomises the lengthy discourses of Paracelsus
on the power of imagination and belief. We refer to our chapter on this
topic. It is traditional material expounded by Agrippa, Paracelsus and
many other contemporary writers. There is no point in going here into
the "history of magic and experimental science" prior to the XVlth
century - as it has been completely covered in recent times by Thorndike.
Paracelsus cannot claim any originality in this field - other than the
elaboration of the idea of magic for medicine and pathological theory -
as seen for example in his concepts of Plague, Syphilis and other infectious
diseases.
Middle XVIth Century opposition to Galen
Joannes Argenterius and Paulus Mazinus Arvernus
Paracelsus' revolt against Galen was not only the first and the most
violent before the end of the XVlth century, hut also the most general.
Vesalius' (1514-1564) opposition to Galen, for example, was concerned
only with Anatomy, not with his system of medicine as a whole. In spite
of the immediate success of Vesalius' anatomy, Galenic medicine remained
paramount for centuries.
Yet not long after the death of Paracelsus it was subjected to a system-
atic attack by Johannes Argenterius (1513-1572).31 2
310 Ibid., lib. I, cap. 68, ed. 1600, p. 108.
311 "Adamas" is steel and not diamond in this connection. See E. 0. von Lippmann, Ah-
handlungen und Vortriige zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, vol. II, Leipzig
1913, p. 39.
312 For a general account of Argenterius see in particular Spreng el, K.: Pragmat. Geschichte
302 The Sources of Paracelsus
It is of particular interest that Argenterius appears to he quite m-
dependent of Paracelsus, his main works having been published in the
early fifteen fifties, before those of Paracelsus appeared. Nor were his
pupils and defenders Rainerus Solenander (1524-1601) and Laurent Joubert
(1529-1583) imbued with Paracelsus' ideas. 313 Nor, finally, is there any
close resemblance to Paracelsus in the arguments used by Argenterius, who
largely relied upon logical reasoning and a scholastic refutation of Galen.
He chiefly used Galen's own weapon of argumentation, and hardly ever
appealed to observation or to any of Paracelsus' philosophical ideas such
as the concordances between man and the cosmos.
Yet we cannot ignore an outspoken critic of Galen who followed almost
immediately on Paracelsus; we therefore briefly review his arguments.
In this we follow Argenterio's first work, comprising seven treatises
der Arzneykunde. 3rd ed., vol. III, Halle 1827, pp. 357-363, on whose excellent notes
most subsequent historians seem to have relied. For bibliography see also: Haeser:
Geschichte. 3rd ed., vol. II, Jena 1881, p. 124. Wernich in Biographisches Lexicon der
hervorragenden Arzte. Ed. Wernich and Hirsch. Wien and Leipzig 1884, vol. I, p. 188.
More recently: Thorndike, Lynn: Hist. of Magic, vol.VI, New York 1941, pp. 226-228; 212
3 13 As Solenander's biographer Iwan Bloch points out, he was a friend of John Wierus,
the pupil of Agrippa of N ettesheym; hut then, Wierus was no adinirer of Paracelsus
(as we have seen before, p. 127): Bloch, I.: Der rheinische Arzt Solenander und die
Geisteskrankheit des Herzogs Albrecht Friedrich von Preussen. Klin-Therapeut.
Wschr. 1922, Nr. 17/18 (special reprint published by the Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Ge-
schichte der Naturwissenschaften und Medizin in honour of I. Bloch's 50th birthday
on April 3th 1922). Solenander wrote a hook on the doctrine of signatures ("De charac-
teristicis") which was never printed (Bloch, loc. cit.), but he mentions "signatures" in
his Consilia (IV, 20; p. 381, ed. Francof. 1596). He also wrote a hook on hot spas (De
Caloris fontium medicatorum causa. Lugd. 1558) which reports some careful analyses
of spa water, particularly at Lucca. Interest in spas was keen during the second half
of the XVIth century - as the example of the Antiparacelsist Erastus shows (see p. 311 ).
Solenander's maiden treatise - his defence of Argenterius (Reineri Solenandri Medici
Apologia qua Julio Alexandrino respondetur pro Argenterio Florentiae 1556) consists
of a nmuber of scholastic arguments which are of no interest in our context. At the
end, however, he has something interesting to say about the need of progress in medi-
cine beyond the confines of the Galenic system. Such progress, he says, had been made
in his own time in materia medica, in surgery, in anatomy, in the use of mineral waters
- he dates the book from Lucca - and in the preparation of the Quinta Essentia. This,
he calls an ingenious invention which, through the dissolution of all sorts of objects
by heat, distillation, putrefaction and imbihition with diverse juices and liquors, arrives
at the preparation of substances which are indispensable not only in medicine (and
notably in surgery), but also in many other arts. In all this medicine has advanced
beyond Galen whose errors were generally recognised. Why should Argenterius alo11e
he denied the right of uncovering further errors of the ancients? (loc. cit., pp. 176-177).
- On Joubert see Jul. Pagel in Biographisches Lexikon hervorragender Arzte, vol. III,
p. 417. - Concerning his leaning to superstition and his work on "Popular Errors" see
Thorndike, Lynn: Hist. of Magic, vol. VI, p. 220.
Argenterius: Censure of Galen 303
On Disease, published in 1550. 314 His Medical Consultations appeared next
- in 1551.315 Then, in 1553, his Errors of Ancient Physicians and in the
same year his Commentaries on Galen's Art of Medicine were puhlished. 316
Among further works that "On Sleep and Wakefulness" became particu-
larly well known, as it contained a rejection of Galen's doctrine of
spirits. 317
Argenterius - like Paracelsus - led an irregular life and was a contro-
versial figure - widely opposed and not universally recognised as a success-
ful practitioner. He had drifted from Italy to Lyons, then via Antwerp to
Turin, Pisa, Naples, Rome and finally hack to Turin.
Argenterius says: Neither Aristotle nor Galen hesitated to censure and
correct their predecessors. Why then should we remain in a state of blind
submission to these authors - instead of searching for the truth, which lies
not with authorities, hut the object itself and with the principles and
reasons appropriate to it. 318 Not disputation and reasoning hut the analy-
sis and synthesis of individual facts, of causes and effects, is the natural
highway to truth. There is no use whatever in the attempts to reconcile
diverging authorities or passages in which a single author contradicts him-
self. He who makes up a defence for an author implicitly accuses the critic
of this author of calumny or ignorance. Who ever of the ancient classics
like Plato, Aristotle and Theophrastus bothered to reconcile the opinions
of others ? Hence let us follow the proven way of these classics and seek
for proof in our senses and minds, let us believe nobody, hut put forward
freely all that we have found to he true. Let us reject those who are in
high repute and by whose authority weak minds may he overawed. Let
us rescue this divine method from sophistic corruption and obscurity. 31 9
Galen's definition of disease as a disturbance of function is unsatis-
factory - for such disturbance is hut the consequence of an alteration of
314 Joannis Argenterii Castellonovensis Medicinae in Academia Pisana Professoris Varia
Opera de Re Medica ad Magnanimum Principem Cosmum Medicem. Florentiae. In
officina Laurent. Torrentini 1550. Fol. Reprinted in octavo as De Morbis Lihri XVI.
Florence 1556; Lyons 1558 (only the octavo editions are quoted in the literature. The
present account is based on a copy of the folio edition in the possession of the author).
315 De Consultationihus medicis sive de collegiandi ratione. Florent. 1551. Haeser gives
1549 (Geschichte der Medizin, 3rd ed., vol. II, Jena 1881, p. 124), others have 1553.
316 De Erroribus Veterum Medicor. Florent. 1553. - In Artem Medicinalem Galeni commen-
tarii tres nempe de corporibus, de signis et de causis salubribus. Paris 1553. Monte
Reggio 1556.
317 De Somno et Vigilia. Lib. duo. Florent. 1556.
318 "ex propriis rei principiis et rationibus." Varia Opp. de Re Medica, 1550, loc. cit.
Preface ad Lectores, p. 16.
319 Ibid., p. 19.
304 The Sources of Paracelsus
the composition and structure of the body. Health is therefore symmetry -
the middle between extremes; and disease an "ametria" - an upsetting of
the natural balance in composition and structure. 320
It follows that we cannot accept such doctrines as the one that local
tumours develop through a flow of humours. Some at least are local
deposits of material that has not flowed from elsewhere, hut has slowly
accumulated in a certain part which was unable to deal properly with its
nutriment. Such sluggish lesions as scirrhi, warts or ascites cannot pos-
sibly he attributed to humoral flow whereas "hot" - inflammatory- changes,
which can, develop within a very short time. For humours that are hot
are mobile and not likely to collect slowly at one place; they are prone to
putrefy when held in the vessels or to cause pain - an event which
does not attend chronic affections. Oedema is a different case; its daily
waxing and waning reveals as its cause a humour flowing into that part
from elsewhere. 321
Disease is, therefore, a local rather than a metastatic affection - at all
events more often than dogmatic humoralism would allow. Moreover,
Argenterius favours a single vital force - innate heat - instead of the
various spirits of Galen. He likewise opposes the elementary qualities
(hot, cold, dry, wet) as factors responsible for the shape, surface and
composition of a body (its so-called "secondary qualities").
Yet Argenterius is still a firm believer in the significance of the humours
for health and disease. 322 In this he agrees with Galen - whom he attacks,
however, for his failure to treat the subject methodically and for errors in
detail.
On the whole his criticism is purely negative; he has nothing new to
put in the place of Galen's theories and cannot therefore he compared with
Paracelsus.
More important for our purpose than Argenterius is his immediate
contemporary Paulus Mazinus. The latter's treatise antedates by a few
years the main anti-Galenic works of the former, with which it has some
common traits in general as well as in detail.
320 De Morbi generibus, cap. 1, loc. cit., p. 4.
321 De Causis Morborum. Lib. II, cap. 6, loc. cit., p. 81.
322 "Sunt porro inter causas sanitatis et morbi praecipue humores." De Signis Demon-
strativis. Lib. II, cap. 7, loc. cit., 1550, p. 201.
Mazinus: The Elements 305
Opposition to the traditional doctrine of the elements
in the middle of the XVIth century
Mazinus, Fernel and Paracelsus
Paulus Mazinus published his unorthodox views ("Paradoxa") on the
elements in a small hardly-ever noticed treatise in 1549. 323 It is a modest
effort and in no way compares with the titanic battle waged by Paracelsus
against the ancient elements and humours. It simply states a dissentient
point of view in general terms. But its ideas are strangely close to the
Paracelsean opposition. Mazinus says that none of the philosophers rightly
assessed the difference between natural actions and those that are a divine
and supernatural prerogative. For all have sought the causes of things in
matter rather than in heaven. Hence they have done away with creation
and not looked for the manifest vestiges and works of the "highest archi-
tect" which founded and still govern the cosmos.324
Some of the ancients received not a few pieces of divine knowledge
veiled, as it were, in a shadow through the Egyptians, Chaldeans and
Hehrews. 325 Is this not in itself an admonition that those who have seen
the light of truth in Christ should at last transcend the limited knowledge
of the ancients ? The nature and place of the elements should not be learnt
from putrid and denatured products, hut from the purest and most pro-
ductive source of knowledge which is beyond Hippocrates and Aristotle.
It was in God's power to create elements more numerous and subtle than
those which are visible. Hence it should he unambiguously stated that
we consist not of a mixture of the visible "elements" and of qualities (as
assumed by the ancients), hut of true elements that are distinctly sepa-
rated.326 What appear to us as fire and water are not true elements. The
first true elements were an aethereal fire and air. In contrast to our visible
fire, which is merely hot and destructive, aethereal fire enlivens, nurtures
and tends. Air by virtue of its fatty moisture maintains the aethereal fire,
whereas visible moisture (water) extinguishes and antagonises it. As both
323 Pauli Mazini Aruerni: De Elementorum Natura et eorum Situ Paradoxa ad Carolum
Toumemine ahbatem de Boumet Regisque Eleemosynarium. Parisiis. Ex typographia
Matthaei Davidis via amygdalina ad Veritatis insigne. 1549, 46 pp. This treatise was
issued together with the same author's: De Rerum N aturalium Generatione Paradoxa.
Paris 1549 (Brit. Mus. 536 a 2).
324 Pp. 4-5.
325 Pp. 14 and 15.
32s P. 20.
 The Sources of Paracelsus Mazinus : The Elements 307
306
aethereal fire and air were too fine and light to give substance to objects,
God created visible fire and water. However, these are not elements, hut
from elements; fire from aethereal fire, and water from air. The theories
put forward by the ancient philosophers regarding the elements and their
qualities obviously appertain to the visible - secondary - products of the
true - primordial - elements. How could this remain hidden for so long
and any addition to or correction of Aristotelian dogma he frowned upon
as sacrilegious ?327
The secondary "elements" can generate and nurture nothing, either by
themselves or when mixed and acting together. Hence, the ancient system
had to be based on the theory of a permanent process of "corruption":
from corrupted earth, water was supposed to derive, from corrupted water
air, from corrupted air fire, and from corrupted fire air. It was also sup-
posed that contrary principles were present in the same subject and that
everything was contained in everything potentially. Others argued that
it is only by a mixture of qualities and not of substances that things are
formed, and some even supposed air and water to arise from earth.3 28
From all this sprang the belief in harmony - where there is only per-
manent horror.
Mazinus, on the other hand, holds that qualities are as cleanly sepa-
rated as elements.
There is no room for something warm and dry, moist and warm, dry and
cold, cold and moist. Water is of all elements the heaviest and always has
a tendency to flow downwards. So it has to he in order to insure the widest
possible separation of the coldest from the hottest (i.e. fire) - and thereby
to avoid destruction of the world. Hence life is a gift from above - the
realm of the aethereal fire, whereas death comes from the cold regions
below. In this way the active forces in nature - hot and cold - occupy
positions at the extremities, whereas the passive qualities - moisture and
dryness - are situated in the centre. Hence the Bible tells us that the earth
lies above the waters and these duly appear when earth is dug up.329 Water
PAP.. JS I l St is also the heaviest, because it is at the same time the coldest and densest
among the elements. However, heaviness is not influenced by moisture
, Ex typographia Matth&tt Dau1dis,'Via or dryness. For heated water is lighter than cold water, though just as
amygdalina, ad Veritatis inftgne. moist as the latter.
In the same way hot iron is lighter than cold iron, and man warm and
I ) 4 ,.
C V M P R. T V I L E. G 1 O. 327 P. 23.
32s P. 26.
329 P. 30.

Fig. 34. A polemical treatise against the traditional doctrine of the elements from the
middle of the XVJth century, appearing eight years after the death of Paracelsus. Paulus
• _____ l\.T _.._ _____ ... c..: ....... D ............ ...l ..... "",.. JJ ......~~ 1 c;.AO "Pi+l,::r. ntmcrP
308 The Sources of Paracelsus
alive is lighter than his cold and dead body. Hot objects are richer in
"spirits" than cold things. 330
Fire is the most noble element - being predominantly warm and well
balanced in moisture and dryness. Air follows, being predominantly moist
and well balanced in temperature. Water, and not, as some believe, air, is
predominantly cold and not predominantly moist, hut balanced in moisture
and dryness. Earth is predominantly dry and balanced in temperature. 331
Fire and water as the active elements are hot and cold "actually" and
dry and moist "potentially", whereas the passive air and earth are hot
and cold "potentially" and moist and dry "actually". What is "actual" in
the active - "male" - and "potentiaP' in the passive - "female" - operates
in generation - a genuine Aristotelian doctrine with which the treatise
concludes,:
However, in spite of his adherence to certain features of the Aristotelian
doctrine of the elements, Mazinus mainly opposes the interpretation of
visible fire, air, water and earth as the "elements". His consequent re-
jection of the traditional theories of qualities, mixture, corruption and
coming into being, and his appeal in favour of a search for the invisible
genuine elements· and truth, strongly remind us of Paracelsean cosmology
expounded in the Philosophia ad Athenienses and other treatises. 332 The
present writer has been unable to trace any external evidence as to a
relationship of Mazinus with Paracelsean lore. Nor could he find any other
data indicating Mazinus' place in XVJth century thought. It seems likely,
however, that he belongs to the group of "juniores" who are criticised by
Fernel. 333 In their opinion the true elements are not met with as such in
330 P. 32.
331 Pp. 35-36.
s32 See before p. 92. Concerning the sources of Mazinus, mere opposition to the ancient
doctrine of the elements does not in itself indicate Paracelsean influence. With reference
to Dorn, a confirmed Paracelsist, Thorndike says that his distinction of two original
and two derivative elements "might seem more in the manner of the sixteenth century,
when various such modifications of the four elements theory were suggested". On the
other hand such mediaeval authors as Morienus and Alhertus had already regarded fire
and water as the original elements and parents of earth and air (History of Magic
vol. V, p. 633). - In this connection the modification of ancient theories about the
elements by Jerome Cardan (1501-1576) may he mentioned (De Suhtilitate - 1550 -
Lib. II, Lugd. 1559, p. 44; De Rerum Varietate Basil. 1557, Lib. I, cap. 2, p. 21). This,
however, does not seem to have influenced his early critical work on contemporary
medicine (Hieronymi Castellionei Cardani Medici Mediolanensis De Malo recentiorum
Medicorum Medendi Usu. Venet. 1536; second ed. - often erroneously regarded as the
first ed. - ibid. 1545). Nor was Cardan influenced by Paracelsus.
333 "Contra juniores, qui elementorum solas vires, non idem suhstantias in nohis putant
inesse." De Elementis. Lib. II, cap. 6. Universa Medicina Trajecti ad Rh. 1656, p. 60.
Heurnius, the editor of the 1656 edition of Fernel's Universa Medicina, nominates
Fernel: Elements. Mixture. Generation 309
nature, nor would they bear combining and mixing. Hence in us not the
substances, hut merely the qualities of the elements are present. Matter
used up in a new combination thus loses its "species", as soon as this comes
into being.
Against this, Fernel argues, there are hut a few bodies which display the
qualities in full purity - namely earth, water, air and fire, whereas the
majority of bodies contain the same qualities in a "depressed", i.e. mixed
and not obviously perceptible state. Thus, we call bread, meat, wine,
pepper and many other things hot, just as we call cartilage, membranes
nerve and hone dry. In all these heat and dryness are not obvious - as
they are in fire or earth. Yet pure elements and qualities do exist and
form the principles and sources from which the constituents of the multi-
tude of bodies are formed. In the centre of the universe pure earth is to he
found - most heavy, most dry and utterly devoid of all humour; in the
hollow and at the internal surface of heaven, fire - most light and burning,
yet not translucent and luminous as our fire, which is hut burning smoke.·
For luminosity is consequent upon the mixture of fire with some dense
body alight. The elements, therefore, retain their original pure substance
only at the extreme ends of the cosmos. Yet the elements remain as such
through the conversion of one object into another. For instance, those
which constitute a plant remain when the latter is converted iii.to blood and
flesh by digestion. Aristotle had seen this when defining the element as
the first constituent of any composite body and the last into which the latter
is divided. 334 Elsewhere he asserts 335 that in flesh and wood fire and earth
are contained potentially and recoverable from them manifestly. How,
Fernel asks, could this happen if these had been lost when the constituents
of flesh and wood were mixed, as the "juniores" maintain.
"Mixture" must he distinguished from "generation". This, unlike the
former, is due to the combination of contrary qualities endowed with
unequal force and coming together in unequal proportions. In simple
"mixture" contrary qualities are combined with each other - just as in
generation. This, however, is accomplished when different things are
combined in such a way that one of them vanquishes the other and forces
Avicenna as exponent of this opinion (imputed to him by Averroes- lib. 3, de Coelo I,
67), hut says that Fernel's criticism is really levelled against Thomas (De generatione
et corruptione, cap. 10) and Scotus (2 Sent. Distinct. 15). It is well known that Fernel
opposed Argenterius especially concerning the nature of fever. It is probable that the
group of the "Juniores" comprised all anti-Galenists - Mazinus, Argenterius as well
as Paracelsus and their respective pupils.
334
V, metaph., cap. 3.
336
III, De Coelo, cap. 3.
310 The Sources of Paracelsus
it to become something else. Hence there is no generation of one without
corruption of another - as Aristotle taught. In mixture, however, although
is produces something new, nothing of the original constituents perishes
or evanesces.
Fernel's well known firm adherence to ancient tradition is perhaps best
epitomised in the criticism which he levels against any contradiction to the
ancient doctrine of the elements and qualities, of their combination ("mix-
ture") and of generation and corruption. How far Fernel's criticism was
directed against Paracelsus is difficult to say. He may have had knowledge
of the few literary remains published prior to his death (1558). More likely
he was acquainted with Mazinus - a compatriot writing at the time of
Fernel's greatest productivity. True to the custom of his period, Fernel
gives hut sparse quotations from contemporaries. For example, Leonicenus
is the only contemporary referred to in the "Dialogues", and Monardes
and Antonius Musa are mentioned in the treatise on Syphilis. 336 Others
such as Montanus appear as "quidam",33 7
At all events, Mazinus offers points of special interest in his early Para-
celsean views on the elements and his rejection of ancient doctrine, as
refuted in turn by Fernel. From Mazinus we may derive indirect infor-
mation on Fernel's response to Paracelsean ideas.
Paracelsus and the "Occult Qualities" of Fernel
Paracelsus deprecated any explanation of biological processes in terms
of the ancient qualities and humoral mixtures which he regarded as ficti-
tious. Instead, he searched for the true driving force which is hidden in
objects and phenomena of nature. In this he seems to pursue aims similar
to the reformation of Galenic Medicine as introduced shortly afterwards by
Fernel.
336 See Sherrington, C.: The endeavour of Jean Fernel. Cambridge 1946, pp. 131, 183. In
his delightful hook Sherrington confines himself to general remarks on Ferne! and
Paracelsus, nor does he mention Fernel's criticism of the "juniores" in the doctrine of
the Elements. In fact, Ferne! seems to have been acquainted with the ideas of Paracelsus
through Jacques Gohory (Leo Suavius), the well known Paracelsist - commentator
of the "De Vita Longa" and author of a compendium of Paracelsean Philosophy and
Medicine, antedating the similar work of Peter Severinus by three years (Basil.1568).
See for detail: Walker, D.P., Spiritual and Demonic Magic. loc. cit. 1958, p. 101.
Fernel's "Dialogue" On the Occult Causes first appeared in 1548 - perhaps before any
such influence could have made itself palpable. Yet the wide admission in this "Dia-
logue" of the divine, non-elemental ("astral") substance and its decisive influence on
natural objects, functions, diseases and in particular the soul may he in some measure
indebted to this influence.
337 De medicamentorum praeparatione. Lib. IV, cap. II, ed. 1656, p. 362.
Ferne!: Occult Qualities 311
The latter attributed a biological phenomenon to an "Occult Quality",
because of the innumerable possible ways in which qualities and humours
can he mixed and combined. The possibilities are too numerous to he
comprehended. Similarly Arnald of Villanova had argued three hundred
years before Fernel.338
There is, however, a fundamental ideological difference between the
"Occult Quality" of Fernel and his mediaeval predecessors on the one hand
and the "Invisible Force" of Paracelsus on the other. The former authors
basically remain Galenists: their occult quality is still opposed to a
mixture of humours and qualities - however difficult to grasp. By contrast,
Paracelsus replaces the humours and qualities altogether by something else.
This is a specific substance. As such it is definable in chemical terms and
therefore real. It has nothing to do with entities of reason discerning bet-
ween objects and phenomena by means of logic and argument, i.e. it is not
an Ens Rationis - for this does not belong to the reality of Nature. It is
"occult", because it is not visible at once, hut has to he made evident by
the art of chemistry. But it is not "occult" in the sense of Fernel, i.e.
because it cannot he grasped by reason.
Erastus' Censure of Paracelsus
Thomas Liebler, called Erastus (1523-1583), of Baden in Switzerland,
represents the entrenched academic outlook as it was towards the end of
the sixteenth century. 339 Trained in Italy (1544-1555) as a philosopher,
338 See the present author in: Religious Motives in the Medical Biology of the XVIlth Cen-
tury. Bull. Hist. Med., 1935, 3, 97-128.
339 For biographical detail see: Melchior Adam: Vitae Germanorum Medicorum. Haidel-
hergae 1620, p. 242. For an account of Erastus' treatises other than the Disputations
against Paracelsus: Thorndike, Lynn: A History of Magic and Experimental Science.
Vol. V, New York 1941, pp. 652-667. Among these his treatise against Astrology (1569)
has been particularly noted. It is dedicated to Counts William and George Ernest of
Henneberg at Meiningen to whom Erastus acted as physician in ordinary until he was
called to the chair at Heidelberg (1558). He remained consultant physician to George
Ernest whom he accompanied to the watering place of Kissingen. From a letter to
Camerarius we know that Erastus analysed the mineral water with oak-gall water
for vitriol and alum. The letter is couched in observational terms and is one of the out-
standing documents of early and sound halneology. See for references: Heffner, L.:
Kissingen, seine Salz- und Mineralquellen. Arch. hist. Verein von Unterfranken. Wiirz-
hurg 1854; Pfister, H.: Bad Kissingen vor vierhundert J ahren. Wiirzhurg 1954,
pp. 24-26. - "Erastianism" concerns the supremacy of the state in ecclesiastical
affairs. Erastus for example affirms the right of civil authority to punish the sins of
professing Christians (Explicatio gravissimae questionis. Pesclavii - London - 1589;
written in 1568).
312 The Sources of Paracelsus
theologian and physician, he became Professor of these subjects at Heidel-
berg. He also served on Protestant church councils as a delegate for the
Palatinate and Wiirttemberg.
THOMAS ERASTVS
Fig. 35. Thomas
Erastus. From:
Pantaleone
Prosopographiae
Part III, p. 545.
Basie 1566.
In this capacity he inaugurated a church dogma of his own - "Erasti-
anism". In keeping with this adherence to religious dogma is his staunch
defence of the traditional humoral doctrine and his angry impatience with
the "occult" - astrology, magic and alchemy. In this he was not informed
by the spirit of enlightened enquiry into nature, for he also believed in
Satan, demons and witches whose prosecution and execution he zealously
demanded. As in so many churchmen his convictions were the product of
logical deduction rather than inspiration. Nor was he altogether opposed
to the use of sound observation and reasoning. This is shown for example
Erastus' Censure 313
in his treatise on the "Occult Virtues of Pharmaca" and also in not a few
places in his comprehensive "Disputations on the New Medicine of Para-
celsus" - the s{ibject of this chapter.340
The character, attainments and methods of Paracelsus
Erastus offers a critical survey of the work of Paracelsus as a whole,
probing into its general philosophy as well as its scientific and medical
premises and conclusions. He repeats and transmits many of the reports
of Paracelsus' unconventional behaviour and chequered career and dwells
at length upon his failures in notable cases.341 In view of Paracelsus' own
utterances against the Jews it is of special interest that he was attacked
by Erastus for his constant trafficking with Jews and the dregs of the
people. 342 Also, from a letter by Crato, Erastus records that the Emperor
Ferdinand regarded Paracelsus as a most mendacious and impudent
impostor who had always refused contact with approved scholars.
To Erastus, Paracelsus is the classical example of an obscurantist who
revels in obscurity of expression as well as the expression of obscurity.
There are various reasons for the former - all exhibited by Paracelsus. Such reasons
include the awareness that the doctrines expounded are wrong; there is also the wish to
put the reader to the same trouble through which the writer had gone himself before
realising that he was wasting "oil and labour". He is also actuated by the desire to he
regarded as the inventor of things which he never invented. Hence he most generously
offers to others the treasures which he himself failed to find.
Among these are the infernal - "tartaric" - names used by Paracelsus
and his disciples to make palatable such dangerous and poisonous stuff as
mercury, antimony and sublimate. 343 What little he did know of good
34° Disputationes de Medicina Nova Paracelsi. Pars I in qua quae de remediis super-
stitiosis et magicis curationihus prodidit praecipue examinantur. Basileae apud Petrum
Pernae s. a. (1572). - Pars Altera in qua Philosophiae Paracelsicae Principia et Elementa
explorantur. s.l. 1572. - Pars Tertia in qua Dilucida et Solida Verae Medicinae Assertio
et falsae vel Paracelsicae Confutatio continetur. s.l. 1572. - Pars Quarta et Ultima
in qua Epilepsiae, Elephantiasis s. leprae, H ydropis, P()dagrae et Colici doloris vera
curandi ratio demonstratur et Paracelsica solidissime confutatur. Basileae 1573.
The work has become rare, especially the fourth volume which deals with Paracelsus'
doctrine of special diseases, notably epilepsy, ascites, podagra and colic. There is no
copy of part IV in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library and Temkin complained
about its absence from American libraries. (The Falling Sickness. Baltimore 1945,
p. 161). No copy of the whole work appears in the catalogue of the library of the
Royal College of Physicians, London 1912, in which, however, other works of Erastus
are listed. For the following account the author used his own copy of all four parts.
au See later p. 327.
3 4 2 Disp. IV, p. 160: "Semper illi negotium fuisse cum Iudaeis et vilissimis ho minibus."
343 Disput., pars quarta. Basileae 1573, p. 11.
314 The Sources of Paracelsus
medicine, however, Paracelsus expressed in terms that were simple and
intelligible enough. The rest he deliberately couched in mysterious non-
sensical terms to cover up his fraud, and it was this same motive that drove
Paracelsus from place to place.
The upshot is: Paracelsus, driven by unbounded ambition and vanity,
"vexed" the people - as seen from his nonsensical "Liber vexationum" -
and murdered them. He was original, however, in abolishing the know-
ledge of the ancients and replacing sane teaching by insane delusion, the
certain by the uncertain, the comprehensible by the incomprehensible,
truth by false names and doctrines, the useful by the useless, salubrious
medicine by pestilential poison. 344
Treating Paracelsus' work as a system, Erastus was hound to become
painfully aware of what appeared to the contemporary as Paracelsus'
persistent and "fatal habit of contradicting himself". 345 It drives Erastus
to such outbursts as "beast" and "grunting swine"346 - hurled against the
man who refutes astrology with one breath only to admit and support it
with the next.347
Erastus finds fault with Paracelsus' ignorance in the "Liberal Arts".
He was a "Magus" whose association with the Devil inevitably emerges
from his opinions and promises. Erastus admits, however, that he was
also a student of Chemistry who taught the preparation of certain pharmaca
and remedies. "We can grant him that he was a Chemist and a Magus.
What else he knew would he difficult to say" 34B, for he was ignorant of
languages and declared logic a pest. Categories did not exist for him.
Hence no proper definition of diseases can he expected from him, nor any
orderly marshalling of symptoms.
As diseases in themselves are not apprehensible by the senses, their
presence must he deduced from the symptoms - for example in pleurisy
from the side pain, dyspnoea, fever, pulse and sputum. Only the ignorant
peasant diagnoses them by dint of simple assertion - this, however, is
the very diagnostic method of Paracelsus who moreover confused cause
and effect in disease. Thus he identified the pathological condition of
bladder obstruction with the substance of the stone which causes it -
3 44 IV, p. 15.
345 Pars I, p. 14, 16, 228. "Fatale est huic bestiae sibi ipsi contradicere."
346 Ibid., p. 249: "Quam turpis sit oratio Paracelsi et quam foede in tam pauculis versibus
sibi contradicat ... lege, quae in hoc capite sequuntur et quae deinde in eodem hoc
lib. 2 capite 3 de libero arbitrio porcus ille grunnit."
3 47 Ibid., p. 233.
343 Part II, p. 4.
Erastus' Censure 315
although Galen, as well as simple logic, would have taught him that the
latter is irrelevant qua substance and of interest only as a cause of the
condition. Paracelsus, however, had no teacher - boasting of being taught
by God alone, angels, snakes, magic, by the world at large, the "Evestrum"
and the Cahalah. These are the sources for his "Light of Nature" - in
Erastus' eyes the light of the Devil, of evil spirits and of hell. 349
Paracelsus' Views of Creation
These, to Erastus, are sheer heresy amounting to a fiat denial of creation. Paracelsus
taught that objects were not the result of creation, but merely of separation and segre-
gation from matter uncreated and eternally existing. 850 Thus, according to Paracelsus,
Adam was not created by God, but a product of the devil; Christ, himself a sinner and sub-
ject to God's judgment, is regarded as a "Separator" rather than a "Creator". It follows
that Man must be devoid of free will.
Paracelsus as a restorer of Gnostic heresy
In all this Erastus finds the "pestilence of Arian and Mohammedan heresy" which
Paracelsus inherited.851 He is worse than pagans such as Aristotle who observed reverence
towards God and creation. In fact, Paracelsus renewed the pestilential errors of Gnostic
heresy as professed by Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates,
Cerinthus - all of whom attributed the act of creation to the angels. Nor was he ashamed
to subscribe to the dogma of Marcion which postulates three original principles. Nor
finally was he repelled by the delirious nonsense of Cerdo and Manes who said that a
"Mother of Life" - a power that made all - emanated from God. Nay, Paracelsus exceeded
all these heresies - fabricating innumerable such "deunculi" that were capable of leading
man to crime and evil. In this he almost equalled the most filthy heresy of the Egyptian
V alentinus.
Belief in Miracles
Paracelsus' belief in miracles appears to Erastus as another monstrous heresy. Para-
celsus attributed miracles to certain natural forces which enable anybody - even a dog -
to enact them. Such forces are normally inborn such as the "Evestrum" which imparts
prophetic gifts, others account for miraculous healing of incurable disease, for example
the miraculous virtues of certain medicinal herbs. Sucli miracles belong to the realm of
"magic" which teaches us to make blood from herbs and bread, and milk from dry wood,
to cast out demons by characters and incantation and to preserve anything from corruption
with the help of amulets.
349 Ibid., p. 16.
35o Disputat. de Medicina Nova Paracelsi. Pars I. Basileae apud Petrum Pernae. s. a.
(1572), p. 4.
351 Ibid., pp. 20, 29, 41.
316 The Sources of Paracelsus
To Erastus, however, this is the type of magic which may, through the incantations
of an old hag, destroy the fruit of a whole year's labour within an hour.
This is seen from the attribution of miraculous effects by Paracelsus even to corpses
- invoking a sympathy by which parts of a dead body attract their counterparts in the
outside world. According to Erastus, such effects just do not exist. In short: Nature admits
of no miracle - this is alien to Nature and possible for God alone.
The Power of Imagination
Paracelsus regarded this as one of the main driving forces in Nature.
Erastus vigorously denies its significance, its only function being to pre-
serve and reproduce images of absent objects. It acts by setting heat and
spirits in motion and may thus display certain effects in health and disease
- just as may any other psychic influence. Paracelsus, however, and simi-
larly Pomponatius in his "blasphemous hook: On Incantations" maintain
that it can he productive of an actual object. This has to be rejected, for
an idea cannot he the efficient cause of any particular object or event.
Thus, the art of medicine is a general norm and yardstick ("norma et
regula") hut not the efficient cause - "principium" - of medication, just as
little as the picture of a house in the mind of the builder is the efficient
cause of house-building in general or of an individual house in particular. 352
Nor is the imagination of the mother the efficient cause of birth-marks in
the child. Imagination implies a wish that something should happen.
Where, however, is the mother who would wish 353 her child to hear a dis-
figuring mark? The reason for such birth-marks is an accidental event
such as a sudden fall or mild trauma unnoticed by the mother which
causes an abnormal movement of spirits and blood at an early stage of
pregnancy when the tissues of the embryo are still very soft.354 Another
such concept is the emission of spirits from the eye of a menstruating
woman, supposed to make a mirror opaque. This is entirely fictitious:
first because vision is not by the emission of spirits hut by the reception of
something from outside. Secondly mirrors do not turn opaque in this way:
if they did it would not he due to the action of spirits, hut to vapours
emerging from the nose or mouth. Nor can menstrual blood be as harmful
as is reputed since it supplies the original matter in which a fetus
develops. 355
362 P. 78.
363 Have the "Appetitus"
364 P. 87.
366
Pp. 91-92.
Erastus' Censure 317
Fascination - Incantation - Contagion
A clear distinction should he made between fictitious ideas such as
fascination and incantation on the one hand and a real event such as the
Contagium on the other. The contagium is putrid matter exhaled from a
putrid humour. It may he emitted from anybody and will he harmful to
everybody. Being an exhalation it can really leave the body. The power
of fascination, however, is by definition limited to certain people endowed
with special gifts. Fascination will affect only those whom the operator
wishes. Finally "spirits" are the essential part of an object and therefore
unable to leave it and make themselves into independent agents such as
the contagia.356
Paracelsus had regarded the force and effects of imagination as un-
limited. Erastus severely restricts them to the narrow field of the repre-
sentation of images. This function is devoid of any direct effects on matter
or events. For if it had such effects, the paranoid would really he what
he thinks he is, such as a bird, a king, or dead. Erastus denies the existence
of incantation and fascination. What he cannot deny is a possible action
of the devil. Even here, however, the harmful effects of diabolic ceremonies
are believed to he harmful rather than really so.357
Natural Magic - the Neoplatonic fallacy
Together with Paracelsus, Neo-Platonism as a whole and Pomponatius
in particular are the targets of Erastus' censure. Like Paracelsus, Pom-
ponatius assumed that persons with prophetic gifts can exert power even
over the stars. 358 The Neoplatonist believes in transitions between the
spirit and the body, hence his belief in miracles worked by the "Intelli-
gences" aided by the forces of heaven and demons. Hence the belief in
magic, which "marries Heaven to Earth". 359 But, says Erastus, Heaven
cannot act on Earth except through motion. Moreover, light can only
heat and illuminate; it can not transfer anything incorporeal such as ideas.
"Natural Magic" is hut the sum total of effects experienced by peasants
and not yet explained in scientific terms. 36 0 "Magic" in the traditional
sense has two main sources: (i) the belief in demons - which even Ficinus
356 Pp. 93-101.
357 P. 108.
3
58 P. 111; see also p. 128.
359
See above our chapter on Pico, p. 287.
360 P. 132.
318 The Sources of Paracelsus
was unable to escape361 and (ii) the attribution of specific and individual
effects to celestial influence - which is the basic fallacy. For Heaven acts in
accordance with a general pattern affecting everything in the same way. 362
For example, in spontaneous generation heaven provides heat, which main-
tains a process, essentially caused by forms, species or ideas which are not
transmitted by Heaven. On Earth, each object enjoys its own specific virtue
which is inborn and not the property of a particular star conferred on the
object from outside - a genuinely Neoplatonic belief to which Paracelsus
subscribed.
Nature and the Chemical Art
Again, nothing specific is revealed by the Art of Chemistry such as
would earn for it a preferential position in Nature. For "Art" is not "Na-
ture's Ape"363, but wherever it displays any real effect, it is "Nature itself".
Amulets and Augury
Reports of help derived from lead amulets worn by epileptics 364 are just
as "putrid lies" as the "augural" powers of birds of which Paracelsus talks
a great deal and proves nothing.365
The "Power" of Words
Words reputed to be productive of a specific powerful virtue are the
offspring of human convention, not of "Nature".
Were they from "Heaven", i.e. inborn, the mute should be able to talk without
previous knowledge of speech. If it were in the invocation of demons that the power of
Words was manifested, nobody could condone such a blasphemous practice - quite apart
from the proven ineffectiveness of anything attributed to the action of demons.388 In fact,
words are products of the Intellect and on this, as philosophers have agreed, Heaven
cannot act. Ficinus, intoxicated by the vagaries of Plotinus, believed that, if not words
themselves, a special combination of words, can have special effects, as does a combination
("mixture") of substances. But all this has long been refuted and Ficinus himself could
not uphold it.387
381 P. 118.
382 P. 141.
383 P. 160.
384 P. 153.
385 "Multa passim dicit Paracelsus at nihil probat", p. 169.
388 P. 177.
887 Ibid. Compare: Ficinus: De Virtute Verborum atque Cantus ad beneficium coeleste
captandum; in: De Vita coelitus comp., cap. XXL Venet. Aldus 1516, p. 164. A series
Erastus' Censure 319
Magnetic action - the pattern of Natural Magic
Much criticism is levelled against the use by Paracelsus of the Magnet
as a general pattern illustrating the action of remedies which, as Paracelsus
said, "attract" the agents of disease. These, Erastus argues, are immov-
able, whereas the pieces of iron which the magnet attracts are movable.
From the mere existence of an electric eel, it does not follow that there
should he plants or stones with similar properties.368
The Devil and Witchcraft
Erastus devotes much space and mental gymnastics to the proof that Paracelsus was
a disciple of the Devil,389 that witchcraft is real, and that witches should be punished
without mercy. 370 He maintains, in fact, that all divination and magic is the Devil's
work. 371 On the other hand, the actual damage that witches can inflict is, in Erastus'
opinion, small. Witches deserve punishment chiefly because this is decreed by Scripture.
A witch is not in the same class as a lunatic and therefore not immune from retribution,
for there is a deliberate blasphemous aim in magic and divination which are designed to
make God appear unreliable and weak. Witches do not act themselves, but instigate and
incite evil demons to harmful action. 372 The Devil operates mainly through deceit; never-
theless he is occasionally capable of true prophecy.373
Thus, while severely limiting the power of devils, demons, witches and
magicians, Erastus does maintain its reality.
Matter and the Elements
Paracelsus believed that natural objects are not created as such, but
are formed by separation and segregation from matter - the "Mysterium
Magnum", uncreated and everlasting.
An independent and more fundamental place in Paracelsus' world is
occupied by the three "principles" Salt, Sulphur and Mercury: it is against
these that Erastus concentrates his attack.374
of tones selected and composed according to certain ratios presents a new harmonic
form endowed with "celestial" virtues - in the same way as a mixture of herbs prepared
by the art of the physician-astronomer produces a new form that is harmonic in com-
position and displays astral power.
388 P. 189.
389 Disputat., part II, Basileae 1572, p. 16.
370 Disputat., I, pp. 198, 204, 208, 211, 215.
371 P. 221.
312 P. 204.
3;3 P. 227.
374 Disputationum de Nova Philippi Paracelsi Medicina, pars altera in qua Philosophiae
Paracelsicae Principia and Elementa explorantur. Basilieae 1572, pp. 37-39.
320 The Sources of Paracelsus
First of all Paracelsus has no right to call them "Principles". For they are corporeal -
each representing an individual substance belonging to a species. A principle, however, is
something non-corporeal, different from an individual substance, the "principiatum" on
which it acts.
Moreover, the three "Principles" cannot he the origin of the Elements Air, Water,
Fire, Earth, as Paracelsus supposes - for nothing corporeal can he made from something
incorporeal. This applies still more to composite ("mixed") bodies which, far from con·
sisting of Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, are really composed of the Elements.
Paracelsus stated that all bodies consist of those substances into which they can he
dissolved. Since he believed himself able to isolate Salt, Sulphur and Mercury from any
given substance by chemical manipulation, he concluded that all natural objects must con-
sist of these three. Against this Erastus argues that bodies do not consist of those parts
from which they were generated, nor are the products of generation, such as worms, con-
stituents of the putrifying body from which they develop. Should we regard pus as a
component part of the lung simply because the latter may degenerate into an abscess ?
By the action of heat solid bodies can he converted into many diverse - heterogeneous -
substances such as ashes, fluids, nitre, which cannot possibly he regarded as constituents
of the original bodies.
Erastus himself found that the degree of decomposition of a substance varies in direct
proportion to the strength of heat applied. None of the resulting products was pre-existent
in the original composite body. In this the potentiality of matter manifests itself - it seems
to he inexhaustible and explains the wide individual and species differences in the digestion
of bread for example. Heat is the factor of supreme significance in all such processes - just
as the successful reproduction of any laboratory experiment depends upon our exact know-
ledge of the degree of heat which must he applied in each individual operation. 375
Nobody, however, has ever seen salt, sulphur and mercury emerge as final thermal
decomposition products of any substance. Nor is it true that all smoke is "mercury", all
inflammable matter "sulphur" and all that turns solid "salt". Nor is the converse true
that all mercury is smoky, all sulphur inflammable, and all salt solid.
If these three were really the elementary components of everything, why not feed en-
tirely on them, and wherefore all the exertions in the search for "Arcana" and "Quintae
Essentiae"?
Paracelsus says that the differences in objects derive from the different proportion in
which the "Three" combine - for example the "mercury" in wine, apples, meat and metals
is present in a different proportion than the "mercury" found in quicksilver. With this,
however, Paracelsus is inconsistent in admitting another principle apart from the "Three',
namely proportion. Furthermore, since the common substances salt, sulphur and mercury
have properties which from the foregoing result from the different proportions in which
the principles are contained within them, it follows that they must he composite. 376
3 75 "Per variatam ignis operationem ex mistis res dissimillimas gigni: ex quihus impossibile
sit mistum conflatum fuisse, tamquam ex miscihilihus. Generantur enim talia pleraque
propter materiae potentiam: actu neque ante compositum extitemnt, neque in com-
posito fuerunt." "Summam prope artem in eo consistere, ut ignis rite temperetur ...
Quinimo nunquam his idem ex una et simili materia effectumm (nisi casu contingat)
qui temperandi ignis rationem non probe teneat, asseverant (sc. qui in Chemia exer-
citati sunt)", p. 72.
376 P. 78. See also pp. 89-93.
Erastus on Elements and Principles 321
According to Erastus, the properties of an individual object - such as
solidity, inflammability and volatility - are not conferred on it by the
presence of particular substances, hut by the proportions in which the
elements air, fire, water and earth are "mixed" within it. For this reason,
a composite body has properties not found in the simple elements com·
posing it. 377 It is the special mixture of water and subtle earthy particles
which makes mercury prone to go up in smoke. Sulphur is inflammable
because of the fine and warm air which it contains. Without this "air",
sulphur would become inert and lose its "sulphurousness". Salt indicates
its relationship with earth by its solidity.
Whatever is done to objects by "Art" or "Nature", concludes Erastus,
they all eventually revert to the Elemenu of the Ancients: Air, Fire,
Water, Earth, hut not into the "Sem!na''. no1 into salt, sulphur and
mercury. 378
What, then, has Paracelsus to say about the Elements and where did
he go wrong in this ?
In this, Erastus could not fail to detect further inconcistencies. Para·
celsus, he says, visualised the elements as cages of the non-corporeal soul -
as it were the capsules or "mothers" designed for the preservation of
living beings. As "mothers", however, the elements are not merely con·
tainers, hut true genitors and parents of innumerable creatures. These are
the "fruit" of the elements such as herbs, metals, and finally man himself.
Shifting the meaning of the term "Element" more and more, Paracelsus
finally arrives at a denial of its corporeal nature. In the hook: "De Medicina
Coelesti" the Element is said to he no body at all, hut a wind, air and
spirit. In it not heat or cold, hut a salt is operative. Likewise there is an
invisible spirit in earth which is responsible for its production of fruit.
It is not fire, hut a spirit in fire that destroys and corrupts. The elements
are thus alive, for spirit is life. In the same way, man is alive not through
flesh and blood, hut by virtue of the spirit therein. It is not the tongue
that is endowed with speech, hut the spirit in it.
Thus the "Element" comes to he regarded not even as a corporeal receptacle, hut as
the soul-like living spirit contained in the body. In the second hook "Ad Athenienses" the
"Element" is introduced as the "Life of all Creatures" or as "Prime Matter" creating the
377 "Ego in compositis aio plurimas inesse constantes minimeque fugaces proprietates,
quae in componentihus non insunt, p. 79.
378
"Non datur regressus ad formam a privatione: nee retrorsum in generando vadit
natura. Prorsum semper progreditur in mistis: et tanquam circulo quodam mutationes
suas ahsolvit, ex priore semper efficiens posterius, nunquam a posteriore prius, ante-
quam ad elementa prima perventum fuerit." Erastus II, p. 43, with reference to
Aristotle, Metaphys. I, 2.
322 The Sources of Paracelsus
ordinary elements. The latter - air, fire, water, earth - assume the role of bodies that con·
tain the true "Element" which is its invisible "soul" or "life". For example, ordinary water
is not the "Element Water" - for the latter is endowed with a humidity much more power·
ful than that of ordinary water and hence capable of softening minerals and metals. It is
diminished and weakened in its power in ordinary water. The "element fire" is contained
in green wood just as much as in ordinary - corporeal - fire, with the difference that it is
"alive" and burning in the latter and not in the former in which it merely rests as its
"soul".
To Erastus, all this is a circumlocution for the well-known difference between latent
and manifest qualities. Fire, when rarified by mixture with other elements, is not visible,
hut true fire is present below the surface. It hums in herbs and trees without the emission
of light or heat.
It follows that Paracelsus' whole doctrine of the Elements is based on
a blatant misuse of the word "Element". This, as shown in Aristotle's
works on Heaven and Meteorology, cannot he anything hut the smallest
part of the material components of an object. To call them - as does
Paracelsus - "cells" or "loca" means to deny that they are parts of com·
posite bodies at all. For a "locus" is not a part of that which is in it -
just as little as the matrix is part of the foetus.
The Semina
Paracelsus taught that physical objects can arise from things incorporeal
such as passion and imagination. Erastus admits that what is active in a
body is not the latter itself, hut an immanent incorporeal virtue. "If he
felt this he felt not inaptly, hut what he rightly felt, he expounded igno-
rantly"379, and characteristically expressed an old truth in incomprehen-
sible terms. However, the soul in the body cannot act without the latter -
it is the composite object which acts, the "form" or "soul" serving as its
instrument. There is no form or specificity of organic life without its
material substratum, and it is by a succession of individual composite
bodies that form and properties of an individual species are preserved.
Paracelsus, however, envisaged bodiless "Semina" or "Vital Powers"
floating about and suddenly taking possession.
To all this Erastus objects that it is not an independent semen from
outside that builds up the body, hut that it is the individual body of the
plant or animal in which Semina are generated. This is their true origin;
not a mysterious "abyss" or "chaos" from which Paracelsus lets them
emerge like actors entering the stage at certain points in the play.
379 Ibid., p. 126.
Erastus: Semina and Quinta Essentia 323
Quinta Essentia
There is no such thing as the "Quinta Essentia" of Paracelsus. At all
events the latter is different in principle from what Aristotle had meant
by this term, namely something in the semina that is similar to the heat
of the celestial bodies; Paracelsus made it identical with a part of heaven
or aether and regarded it as the source of the vital spirit,380
But, how could this possibly derive from a mere quality such as celestial
heat ?381 Consequently the opinion of Paracelsus again amounts to blas-
phemy. For it implies that the spirit of the world and of life is less pure
and perfect than solar heat - which is worse than Mohammedan impudence
and simply "tartaric". 382 Moreover, if the "Quinta Essentia" of Paracelsus
is the very spirit of life, how can it survive the thorough mincing, grinding,
drying and rotting which Paracelsus prescribes for its preparation from its
source in various substances ? Or should these practices make it even more
active and alive? What Paracelsus extracts is merely the intrinsic heat of
a body; no celestial substance which is eternal can he found in sublunary
matter which is mutable and perishahle.383
Generation
Generation to Paracelsus is merely the separation of objects preformed
in an Anaxagorean "Chaos". Hence in his world there is room neither for
corruption nor for the transformation of things. 384 Thus, according to
Paracelsus, the bread which we eat is not converted into blood, hut already
contains it. If that were so, however, where is the art which succeeds in
making blood from bread ? Paracelsus in his pestilential heresy places un-
limited faith in this art which is hut an ape of nature and unlike the latter
is nothing divine.
Microcosm
Paracelsus' conception of the microcosm deserves vigorous refutation.
It may pass as a pleasant allegory; hut it is simply foolish to assume that
the human body contains the virtues and materials of all parts of the
380 Erast. disput. II, p. 168.
381 Disputationum de Nova Philippi Paracelsi Medicina. Pars Tertia in qua dilucida et
solida verae medicinae assertio et falsae vel Paracelsicae confutatio continetur. N. p.
1572, especially pp. 23 et seq.
332 I.e. from hell as well as a pronouncement of the inventor of "tartar" and "tartaric
disease", p. 43.
383 III, p. 28.
38' III, p. 133.
 324 The Sources of Paracelsus
outside world. 385 It eliminates completely the differences between plants,
animals and man - differences that are real enough and reflect different
elementary mixtures. 386 Or, how many of the innumerable microcosms
that must exist does man contain? Or, why can he not fly, lay eggs, live
in the sea, grow fruit or remedial arcana, if he really contains all other
objects of nature ?
Disease
In defining disease Paracelsus commits an error worse than Manichaean
heresy. He regards it as a created substance, introduced after the creation
of the world. Obviously, he confuses "disease" and the "cause of disease".
What Paracelsus calls disease is an agent which enters from outside,
changes the part concerned and only then affects its function. Disease,
however,''l.s generally understood, is a disturbance of normal function. 387
Paracelsus' failure to distinguish properly between disease and its
causes led to such errors as the identification of headache with an internal
wind that blows against the membranes of the hrain. 388 Similarly he iden-
tified epilepsy with the "Aura". This, however, is not epilepsy, hut its
cause, for if an "aura" is prevented from ascending to the head, epilepsy
will not break out. Moreover, if the aura were epilepsy, it should cause
the loss of sense and motion even without finding access to the head and
brain. The mere presence in the body of the cause of a certain disease, how-
ever, cannot possibly he called this disease, until it has reached that organ
which is the normal "seat" of the disease in question. A person who merely
harbours a humour which is deadly when given access to the heart, cannot
for that reason he called dying or dead.
The Locus of disease
There is a deep rift, says Erastus, between the traditional Galenic
conception of the site of disease and that of Paracelsus.389 The former uses
"locus" to denote those parts of the body that are the origin and instru-
ment of function. Any specific disease is engendered in and by these parts
38 5 Disput III, p. 63.
386 Pp. 64-65 with reference to the Paracelsean: "Just as the liver, when it needs food,
takes it from the liver of the earth and the heart from the heart of the earth, the earth's
bile nourishes the bile of the body and the earth's brain restores and nourishes the
brain of the body ••• for heaven and earth are man." De modo pharmacandi. Lih. I,
tract. 3. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. IV, p. 457.
387 Disput. III, p. 173.
388 Disput. III, p. 180.
38 9 Disput., vol. IV, p. 92.
Erastus' Censure: Pathology 325
and obstructs their function. Hence different symptoms must be expected
when the same cause affects different organs. The same pathological
humour causes blindness when obstructing the eye, deafness when ob-
structing the ear, and so on.
In Paracelsus' doctrine, however, "loci" are breeding places of the
semina of disease; they are their "boxes" and dwelling places which the
semina enter from outside. The parts of the body are merely passive
recipients of disease and not productive of pathological function.
Here again Paracelsus is rebuked for his tendency to make the external
cause the main factor in disease and even to identify it with the latter.
Disease, according to Paracelsus, is something already made in the outside
world and as such obtaining access to the body, though it is only recognised
later from its "fruits", the pathological changes and symptoms. The
organs affected merely provide the playground and the material.
This theory is the result of Paracelsus' opposition to traditional humoral
pathology in which disease was gauged against the background of the
healthy body and attributed to a mere exaggeration of normal functions.
Consequently, Paracelsus argued, it should he the normal function of the
posterior ventricles of the brain to drive out impurities of nutriment,
thereby to avoid epileptic convulsions. This Paracelsus denied. To him,
function by itself is not strong enough to keep out or neutralise pathogenic
factors. Where these obtain a foothold, the functions simply cease to
operate and look on as it were in a stupor while the body is destroyed by
foreign forces stronger than themselves.
Thus, in Paracelsus' opinion, Galen failed to "smell out" the true roots
of disease.
Indeed, Erastus here lights upon the essential difference between the
traditional concept of disease and that of Paracelsus. In the former the
body is everything and the outside cause of hut little significance. A
body well balanced in its humoral mixture will prove resistant to external
factors which will only upset the balance where there is already a consti-
tutional tendency for one humour to he pathologically prevalent. Disease
in this concept is nothing by itself, hut its real "Ens" is man and his
personal humoral constitution, his "temperament". To Paracelsus, how-
ever, disease is a real object and enters our body as such, imposing its own
schedule of life. It is a parasite, a kind of animal, "homunculus'', or
demon. This is the well known "ontological" concept of disease which
became the germ cell of modern pathology. 390 To Erastus and indeed to
sso See above, p. 137 and 157.
326 The Sources of Paracelsus
professional medicine for up to another two centuries longer this was sheer
nonsense and lunacy, as it is not the cause which decides the features and
course of a dis.ease, but the functions affected. Moreover, there seemed to
be no hope for medicine if diseases are due to "semina" which are perfectly
unknown and come to us out of the blue. Paracelsus derived from his
concept unlimited confidence in drugs and other remedies - and disregarded
the healing power of nature. Amulets and occult qualities - as recommended
by Paracelsus in epilepsy, for example, display no action on humours and
humoral mixture; hence, to Erastus, they are of no use at all.
The role of diet in disease
From his disregard of humoral balance it would appear that Paracelsus
attributes no significance to diet. 391 However, this is a further subject in
which he contradicts himself. In fact, he ascribes our very life to food 392,
declares too much food and drink to he poisonous, condemns repletion of
the body as unfavourable for the sick, and accuses irregular diet of making
ulcers worse as do sexual and muscular activity. 393 Finally he regards all
food as pathogenic inasmuch as it contains poisonous equivalents to
arsenic, stinging nettle, hemlock, tartarus, salt, napellus. 394
Therapy
Paracelsus recommends metallic remedies. But how, Erastus asks, can
the spirit and humours of life be restored and augmented by anything that
is not assimilable ? Metals, including gold, in whatever form or preparation
can never be assimilated. Being immutable and incapable of attracting or
altering humours, all chemicals do great damage rather than any good. 395
There is no evidence that what refines metals also purifies the hody. 396
All the Paracelsean remedies designated by many different obscure and
highsoun<Jing names are in the last resort nothing hut mercury pure and
simple.397 Where Paracelsus uses no metals hut hellebore as in podagora,
391 "Victus ratio nil prodest". Spitalhuch, part I, tract. 3. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 400.
Observation of air and regulation of diet are a "macula medicorum".
392 Lih. de Longa Vita. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III, pp. 236-237, also p. 222.
393 Das Erste Buch der grossen Wundartznei, cap. 4. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 41, especially
cap. 9, p. 55.
394 Disput., III, p. 176.
396 IV, p. 195; p. 255: "What, therefore, did the dirty butcher babble about the power of
gold in augmenting the innate humour?" ("Quid igitur de virihus auri in augendo
humore congenito garrit impurus carnifex ?") Also p. 306.
396 Ibid., p. 303.
397 P. 301.
Erastus' Censure: Cures. Epilepsy 327
the action is through the humours, as in all legitimate therapy. For hell-
ebore purges the humours and so does venesection, which he also recom-
mends. In fact, the essence of therapy in podagra is purging. 398
The cures of Paracelsus
From records communicated by Crato, Erastus reproduces a number of cases in which
Paracelsus proved a complete failure. 399 At Cromau he could bring no succour to John of
Leippa, a sufferer from Arthritis. His son, Berthold, suffered from slight eye trouble which
Paracelsus is said to have converted into permanent blindness. The wife of Baron Johannes
of Zerotin, first suffering from colic, developed fatal epilepsy in spite or rather because of
the therapy administered by Paracelsus. Theodor Zwinger and other most trustworthy
and learned doctors confirmed that all patients treated with Paracelsean methods at Basie
died within a year, in spite of an initial apparent relief.400
Epilepsy
Erastus' criticism of Paracelsus' pathology of individual diseases occu-
pies the fourth part of the Disputations401, which sets out with an elaborate
treatise on Epilepsy.
Erastus first casts doubt on the traditional localisation of sensation and ratiocination
in the brain substance. He refers to experiments performed and communicated to him
by his friend Volcherus Coiter who succeeded in removing the brain without any ill effect,
as long as the nerves and ventricles remained unharmed.'02
Erastus concludes that the brain, though itself without sensation, must he the instru-
ment of sensation and motion, not so much by virtue of its substance, as by virtue of its
structure and the spirits which it produces. He confesses ignorance as to which parts of
the brain are essential for this purpose. Galen had assumed that thick fluid ascending to
the brain obstructs the pathways of the spirits to the nerves. If this were true, however,
there should he a complete suspension of motion in epilepsy. Instead of this, rigours
develop. It is sensation that is abolished, while motion is unaffected. The lesion is one of
the "Sensus communis". Hence it is in vain that the "governor of motion'', still undisturbed,
disseminates the spirits through the members and organs.'03 It must he, therefore, a very
subtle lesion of the brain unrecognisable in post mortem examination - in contrast to apo·
398 Disput. IV, p. 286.
399 Disput. IV, p. 159.
400 Ibid., p. 253.
401 ParsQuarta Basileae 1573: in qua epilepsiae, elephantiasis s. leprae, hydropis,podagrae
et colici doloris vera curandi ratio demonstratur et Paracelsica solidissime confutatur.
402 P. 31. In his monograph on Volcherus Coiter, R. Herrlinger descrihes these experi·
ments on pp. 89 and ll8, witliout, however, mentioning the references in Erastus.
(Niirnherg 1952.) - See also Neuburger, M.: Geschichte der Hirn- und Riickenmarks-
physiologie. Stuttgart 1897, and Pagel, W.: Mediaeval and Renaissance contributions
to the knowledge and philosophy of the brain, loc. cit. Symposium Wellcome Founda-
tion. London 1957, in press (Blackwell. Oxford 1958).
4oa P. 47.
328 The Sources of Paracelsus
plexy, which is due to a visible obstruction of pathways. The affected locus is the same in
both, hut the causes are different: In apoplexy the presence of a thick viscous hwnour is
suggested by the long duration of the attack, whereas in epilepsy the shortness of the
attack implies the action of some easily penetrating and corrosive substance. In fact,
such transitory phenomena as dizziness and even singultus and intense sneezing "amount
to a mild fit of epilepsy.404 These arguments support the attribution of epilepsy to vapours
and fwnes (rather than humours).405 The fits express a tendency of the brain to extrude
such noxious fumes. 406
Erastus thus arrives at the following Definition of Epilepsy: an affection
of the cerebral ventricles, more precisely a concussion caused by an effort
of the brain to expel corrosive or otherwise harmful vapours. 407
With this he contrasts the ideas of Paracelsus:
(i) that the disease is a "homunculus" created and implanted in man by enraged souls
actuated by the desire to retaliate for the hardship they suffered on earth. (ii) that epi-
lepsy is th~ equivalent of a thunderstorm taking place in the microcosm. Its mechanism
is supposed by Paracelsus to he the same as in the greater world: a vapour compressed
within a bubble and empting through its shell with effervescence. (iii) that Epilepsy is
due to an ascending movement of the inner vital force ("Faber", "Archeus", "Ascendens")
whereby seeds of disease inherent in the bodily sulphur are ignited and led to the "sinuses
of ratiocination" in the brain. (iv) that the affected part is the spirit in the cerebral ven·
tricles which normally governs sensation. (v) that the cause lies in putrid vapours ascending
to the brain. Such vapours are similar to those of vitriol (sulphur chalcanthum) which
stupefy and corrode.
Erastus has no patience with any of these hypotheses. If the disease is
an internal "homunculus" that moves the body of the patient with its
hands and feet, how can it he the product of imagination and fear, as
Paracelsus says it is in other places? Or is the "homunculus" simultane·
ously both thunder and a product of morbid imagination? Moreover, if
epilepsy is from a specific disease seed, how can it he due to imagination ?
Here again Erastus betrays his utter unwillingness to understand one
of the main tenets of Paracelsus: the far-reaching effects of purely spiritual
forces on the body which lead to a conversion of spirits - an idea or imag·
ination - into corporeal substance.
As regards the cause of epilepsy he is prepared to concede to Paracelsus
404 "Stemutatio magna est parva epilepsia."
4o5 As suggested by Averroes and Femel who in some cases accuses mercurial vapours
entering the brain through the ear (lib. 2, De ahditis morh. caus.).
406 However, this is not connected with a motion of the brain - again Volchems Coiter has
shown that all motion seen about the brain is from the arteries, hut not the brain
substance. Were it to move it would make matters worse, because this would narrow
the passage through the ventricles. P. 63.
&o 7 "Est cerehri ventriculorum affectus, in quo propter vaporem vel mordacem vel aliter
inimicum et peregrinum ita illius exturhandi causa concutitur, quomodo ventriculi os
commovetur, cum expellere nititur, quae molestiam ipsi adferunt.". P. 62.
Erastus' Censure: Diseases 329
the presence of corrosive vapour or smoke rather than the obstructing
fluid of Galen. Moreover, he agrees that the paroxysm occurs when the
smoke enters the brain cells controlling consciousness.
That there should be a kind of bubble ascending to and bursting in the
brain, Erastus finds an utterly unreal, nay insane, dream. There are many
instances in which grave disease is caused by the bursting of an organ
through erosion by putrid matter collecting in its walls - hut there is no
shadow of evidence that this occurs in epilepsy.408
This provides yet a·nother opportunity for an outburst against the:
"Impudent beast who set out to pervert everything and to corrupt what
he could not pervert by spattering it with his foetid saliva" - invectives
well up to the standard of those which Paracelsus had himself hurled against
his contemporaries.409
Paracelsus' therapy of epilepsy is directly borrowed from the devil -
this applies in particular to such abominable pharmaca as those prepared
from "mummy", human cranium and human blood.410 It is a totally
superstitious treatment. In Erastus' belief all specific action is due to the
organ rather than to any quality intrinsic in the drug.
Dropsy and Podagra
In the causation of hydropsy Paracelsus recognises neither frigidity nor any other role
of the liver. Instead he attributes it to a celestial semen which causes rain. It is not simply
a collection of water, hut bodily substance liquefied - more precisely it is salt liquefied by
astral action.
Against this Erastus argues411 that Paracelsus confused a symptom, the collection of
water, with the disease itself. To derive it from heaven is culpable astrology. Moreover,
if it is celestial water that collects, how could it he liquefaction of the bodily salt which
causes the ascites ?
Paracelsus recoIDlllends purging of the liquefied salt by precipitate of mercury - hut
to Erastus mercury is a lethal poison.412
Concerning podagra Paracelsus does not seem able to make up his mind whether it is
a mercurial, sulphurous or salty disease.413
At all events he prefers self-contradiction to the simple truth that podagra is due to
a "catarrhal" flow of watery mucus first generated in the stomach.
40s P. 85.
' 09 P. 85: "lmpudens hestia cum omnia pervertere statutum erat, quae evertere propter
evidentiam non potuit, additione aliqua depravare, foetidaque saliva sua aspergere
et conspurcare studuit." His pupils are even worse in that they not only rave with
mad reasoning, hut simply prepare plague and destruction for everybody.
no P. 140.
m Vol. IV, p. 206.
n 2 "Exitiosus et noxius", p. 220.
413 Vol. IV, p. 269.
330 The Sources of Paracelsus
Comment
Summarising we must confess that Erastus spared no effort in mar-
shalling an imposing array of arguments which must have appeared
unanswerable to his colleagues. Even today when the development of
medical science has borne out much of the Paracelsean reform we find it
difficult to apportion in detail our consent to or countercriticism of the
arguments of Erastus. His criticism of Paracelsus' obscurities and self-
contradictions can be endorsed without hesitation although what appeared
obscure and contradictory then need not do so today.
In the latter half of the XIXth century, when linguistic and literary
criticism overshadowed any attempt at understanding the doctrines of
Paracelsus as a whole, their obscurities and inconsistencies were simply
ascribed 'to an undergrowth of spurious treatises. This was overrated both
in volume and possible influence. Nor are obscurities in Paracelsus'
writings due to the denial to him by fate of an opportunity to supplement
promised explanations later on or to the fact that much of his writing
has been lost and remained in fragments. The multitude of the complete
and well-established texts in which his treatises have come to us militates
against this. Moreover, what appear to he deliberate obscurities, such as
the omission of essential links in the description of chemical methods, have
been demonstrated414, while in other places we find explicit prescriptions
and explanations of terms. 415
Already the early Paracelsists such as Severinus, Dorn, Toxites, Gohory,
Croll and others each had to find their own way through the tangle of
difficult and to all appearances contradictory doctrines. These are there-
fore genuine enough.
About half a century after Erastus, Sennert examined the arguments in
a way which impresses the present day observer as fairly judicious, at all
events, from the point of view of Sennert's own period. However, there
remains much to be said in favour of Paracelsus when viewed in the light
of the further development of medicine. We shall give an account of
Sennert's criticism in the following section.
u• Darmstiidter, E.: Arznei und Alchemie, loc. cit. (footnote 237), p. 25, with reference
to the reproduction of the Arbor Dianae. Archidoxis. Lili. VI. Ed. Sudhoff, vol. III,
p. 157.
us For example on "Laudanum". This is not an opiate, hut the gum Laudanum of the
pharmacopoea or a compound remedy ("arcanum") that contained pearls as one. of
the chief ingredients. Sigerist, H. E.: Laudanum in the works of Paracelsus. Bull. Hist.
Med. 1941, IX, 530-544; in part. p. 540. Strebel, J., Azoth. Nova Acta Parac. 1947,
IV, 67.
Erastus' Censure: Summary 331
Leaving aside sheer invective in which Erastus vies with Paracelsus
himself most effectively, his criticism is largely based on religious argument
and on reasoning enforced by a modicum of observational experience. In
addition he sets out convincingly the really relevant points in which Para-
celsus diverges from the basic teachings of traditional philosophy and
medicine.
(1) One such point is the Neoplatonic unification of the spiritual and
corporeal - making provision for their continuous transition and con-
version into each other. Hence Paracelsus' belief in the limitless creative
power of imagination. This is the central point in Erastus' criticism of
Paracelsus' philosophy. It is from this vantage point that he attacks
Paracelsus' occult leanings - his natural magic, demonology, astrology and
alchemy.
In contrast to Paracelsus' monism and pluralism, Erastus' position is
that of dualism. The strict separation of the spiritual and corporeal is in
his case associated with a disbelief in and abhorrence of all that is "occult".
In this he seems to show himself an enlightened modern and progressive -
far superior to the avowed obscurantism of Paracelsus. However, we find
Erastus here in a similar position as the Jesuits opposing Van Helmont
half a century later. These, like Erastus, were decidedly sceptical towards
any "miracle" in nature, notably effects produced by purely spiritual
forces or magnetic action at a distance emanating from the "weapon-
salve". Yet they left a door open for such effects as possible results of
action by the devil, whose reality they upheld as vigorously as that of
witches.
Erastus' attitude thus impresses us as a strange mixture of sound
scepticism and a credulity hardly less intense than that of his opponent.
With Erastus, however, it is a juridical and dogmatic, an impersonal and
unemotional religious trend that leads to credulity and superstition - in
contrast to the pantheistic and monistic religious experience from which
Paracelsus' belief in miracles and magic springs. We do have to admit
that belief and personal religious experience formed the nucleus of Para-
celsus' world, whereas superstition and credulity are hut a sideline in
Erastus' critical and logical reasoning.
(2) The second basic divergence of Paracelsus from traditional doctrine
Erastus finds in his philosophy of pathology, more precisely the question
of the disease-seat.
In traditional medicine disease is a disturbance of normal function in
an organ. The same cause attacking different organs may thus produce
quite different diseases.
332 The Sources of Paracelsus
To Paracelsus, however, the organ is ·a merely passive receptacle for
the disease. This is essentially a "seed' which comes from outside and
takes possession of this or that organ. In the "seed' the disease is already
made like an embryo which needs no more than incubation in a suitable
medium. In other words, Paracelsus shifts the emphasis from the organ
to the external cause, from the host to the parasite.
Erastus delivers a brilliant exposition of the basic differences between
Paracelsus and contemporary professional medicine and a closely reasoned
refutation of the former. However, he seems more concerned with the
conclusiveness of logical deduction than with the reality of his premises.
Where his critical probe meets with contradiction or obscurity he no longer
cares about the possible resolution of such contradictions or the truth
which may have been concealed in such obscurity. He himself takes his
premises, 'notably ancient humoralism, for granted. 416 Any innovation
would be hateful to him, the dogmatic professor and churchman, anyway.
Today we are not called upon to express our sympathy or to say who was
"right" - Paracelsus or Erastus. We could certainly not deny the latter
our sympathy or the feeling that from the point of view of professional
medicine at his own time he was "right". This all the more, as posterity
seems to have given its verdict in favour of Paracelsus whose multifarious
activities and teachings offered one aspect towards a future scientific
medicine - a development made possible and materialised through the
work of John Baptist Van Helmont. It is through the latter, that from
the tangle of Paracelsean visions, the germs of scientific biology and me-
dicin~ were developed, especially the aetiological conception of disease, the
interpretation of nature and life in chemical terms and in terms of living
"monads" with closely interlocked physical and psychical elements.
Erastus was ready to concede to Paracelsus some individual points such
as the knowledge and reawakening of chemistry and the admission of an
occasional error of Galen, for example in the causation of epilepsy. Yet,
he did not see any future in Paracelsus' work as a whole, and probably
could not do so.
Our object in dwelling at some length on his censure of Paracelsus is
not to contribute to the history of Erastus or the reception of Paracelsus'
us Erastus' book is in dialogue form - his interlocutor somewhat tenuously defending
Paracelsus, an arrangement which amounts to no more than a pretence of impartiality.
The name of the defender of Paracelsean doctrines - "Furnius" ("Man of the Furnace")
- is significant in this respect. Moreover, in the dedicatory letters to the four parts of
his book, Erastus leaves no doubt that the object in writing it was not so much the
necessity to refute the work of Paracelsus, but to warn against its inherent impiety and
the damage which it was bound to inflict on the body and mind of mankind.
Sennert: Criticism and Defence 333
work at the hands of posterity. It is to open up a further source of the
understanding of its novelty through the arguments raised against it by
a generation living and thinking in the same intellectual climate as Para-
celsus.
Daniel Sennert's Critical Defence of Paracelsus
Sennert's intention is to reconcile the new iatrochemical school of
Paracelsus with Galenic Humoralism - a project which implies that he is
not entirely against Paracelsus. The title of his hook is appropriately: "On
the consensus and discord between the Chemists and the Followers of
Aristotle and Galen".417
Yet Sennert is severely critical of Paracelsus. His lifetime (1572-1637)
roughly coincides with that of Van Helmont (1579-1644). His work, how-
ever, appeared in 1619, i.e. long before the main treatises of Van Helmont
(1644 and 1648) and their works are quite independent of each other.
Chronologically speaking, Sennert's criticism of Paracelsus stands bet-
ween those of Erastus (1572) and Fontanus (1657). 418 He takes over a
number of arguments from Erastus though not without qualifying and
criticising them sharply.
The chequered Life and dubious Character of Paracelsus
Sennert admits that Paracelsus was felicitous in the cure of ulcers:
by the use of mercury he achieved better and more spectacular results
417 De Chymicomm cum Aristotelicis et Galenicis consensu ac dissensu liher cui accessit
appendix de constitutione chimiae. Wittenberg 1619. The edition here used is the
third edition. Paris 1633.
413
No detailed account will be given of Fontanus and his work: D. Gabrielis Fontani
Jacobi Filii de Veritate Hippocraticae Medicinae firmissimis rationum et experimen-
tomm momentis stabilita et demonstrata. Seu Medicina Anti-Hermetica. Lugduni 1657.
His main point against Paracelsus and his followers is that they had nothing to offer
that was really new. The "Elixirs" and "Fifth Essences" are distinguished by a dis-
tribution of particles that is finer than in the original material - without, however,
affecting the role of the elements as the basic constituents of matter. Whatever the
chemist does, he cannot get away from the elements and humours of the ancients.
From times immemorial these had included the earthy, oily and aqueous snhstances,
present in all natural objects. Hence there is no reason to elevate them to the rank of
"Principles" under the name of "Salt, Sulphur, Mercury". Nor can the "new" Para-
celsean names for diseases claim any right of existence. The "Tartar" of Paracelsus,
for example, simply indicates humours that are inspissated and cause obstruction of
natural channels.
334 The Sources of Paracelsus
Fig. 36. Daniel Sennert. From a line engraving in the Wellcome Collection No PD 304-4'40.
than his Galenic colleagues. His cures, however, were beset with danger.
Nor should credence he given to any success which he claimed in "des-
perate" diseases such as leprosy and epilepsy. For the vagueness of his
nomenclature precludes any idea of what he treated and how. 419 One
cannot help feeling that he treated all diseases with sublimated and cal-
u 9 Pp. 48-50.
Sennert on the Microcosm 335
cined mercury indiscriminately. Moreover he made ample use of the
smoke screen of "Magic" - extolling "Techellus" and others of his kind. 420
All this is reflected in the restless life of an uncultured itinerant drunkard
which Paracelsus led. 421 His works are full of incredible nonsense, for
example that nightfall is not due to the setting of the sun hut to the rising
of the night stars, that some of the stars are shaped like cucurhits and
phials containing salt, sulphur and mercury and emitting winds like man. 422
Finally, Paracelsus propounded blasphemies and impieties. Among these
belong his boast of having produced a homunculus, his statement that
aboriginal populations are not descended from our progenitor Adam, and
hence are not blood relations to us, and that Adam and Eve acquired
genital organs only after the fall in the same way as goitre is acquired by
people in Carinthia through drinking snow-water, and finally the multi-
tudes of new creatures which he introduces such as nymphs, sirens, me-
lusines, gnomes, lorinds.423
Criticism of the Microcosm theory
Special criticism is levelled against the theory of microcosm. Erastus
rightly blamed Paracelsus for restricting the microcosm analogy to man,
while in some places 424 extending it to all objects in nature with the con-
sequence of postulating an infinite number of microcosms. 425
It is true that man consists of the same material as all other objects in nature. It is
inconceivable, however, that man should contain each species of natural objects or an
equivalent of each object as such. There is a "vegetative virtue" in man as there is in
plants, and man is endowed with senses as are animals. But it is absurd to look in man for
melissa, sapphire, mercury or fios cheiri as Paracelsus enjoins the physician to do in the
fourth chapter of his "Labyrinth of the Physicians".426 Severinus, though an orthodox
Paracelsist, saw the difficulty inherent in this dogma when he said'27 : there is no need to
look for the shapes and "signatures" of outside objects in the anatomy of man. What
matters are their virtues, "seminal tinctures" and properties; he who looks for the proper-
ties and dynamic constituents'88 of wheat, grapes, rye, roses, gold, emeralds as well as of
poisons, minerals and plants in man, will find them.
420 P. 50. On "Techellus" see our chapter p. 214.
' 21 To illustrate this, Sennert inserts the letter by Oporinus to Wierus and Solenander;
for a detailed discussion of this letter see above p. 29.
422 P. 39 with reference to cap. III. Lib. meteor.
•2s P. 41.
42
~ De Caduco Matricis. 2. De Modo pharmacandi. Tract. 2.
425 P. 62.
'
26
P. 62.
427 Idea medicinae. Cap. 13, p. 319.
426 "Tincturae radicales, actlonum fontes."
336 The Sources of Paracelsus
Sympathy and Antipathy
Sennert also believes in the "occult qualities" which man shares with
all objects in nature. Hence the strange phenomena of sympathy and anti-
pathy - such as the affinity between certain stars and certain organs, the
harmful effect of cantharides on the bladder, the beneficial action of peony
worn around the neck in epilepsy, and individual idiosyncrasies against
cats, fish, wine or cheese. It is extremely difficult to give a cause for these
phenomena.
Severinus thinks they are due to a gradual penetration of man, not by the actual
natural objects outside him, hut by the shapeless semina of these objects or traces of
them. However, this would imply that sympathy and antipathy are acquired properties
- whereas they are in fact congenital and even hereditary - "a primo ortu". Sennert,
therefore, h~.eves it to he more rational to attribute them to the innate heat or the imma-
nent spirit, endowed with an original affinity or antipathy to outside objects.
Criticism of Paracelsus' Methods
Even after this critical reduction of Paracelsean dogmas some funda-
mental objections remain: Paracelsus endeavoured to replace the time-
honoured methods of scientific invention, namely reason and experiment,
by a vision of similarities in nature. However, there is nothing in nature
similar to something else which is not in a certain respect dissimilar to
it. 429 The registration of similarities yields no scientific result. What
matters in scientific inquiry is the search for causes. This requires active
probing and investigating, not mere waiting for illumination by divine
grace ("lumen gratiae") or for the passive visionary experience of "the
light of Nature".430
In short, we must agree with Erastus 431 that it is impossible that the
property and function of one object of nature also exists in another. Man
shows the properties of the elements such as heat, cold, damp and dryness
because he consists of these elements. His vital heat may be even derived
from the Sun and its counterpart in the body, the heart. But if the Para-
celsean philosopher asserts that all other objects in nature - for example
Melissa - are found in man, he has the onus of demonstrating where these
objects are located in the human body. So far this has not been done. 432
«29 "Nullum est simile quod non etiam aliqua parte sit dissimile", p. 66.
430 Sennert particularly criticises the Paracelsists Croll, Valentin Weigel and the Rosi-
crucians for practising and recommending these methods: p. 56; 63.
431 Part 3, Disput. contra Paracelsum.
432 P. 65.
Sennert: Matter, Elements and Semina 337
Prime Matter, Mysterium Magnum, Elements, Semina
In these Paracelsean concepts Sennert recognises the "World-Soul" of
Plato. 433
"Prime Matter" is the uncreated, imperceptible "Mother" of all natural things. It con-
tains all "Semina" and through them acts on each individual object as the force hidden
in it. At the same time it is the force that moves the universe. It is at once the source of
all substance, matter, form, essence, nature and destination of things mortal and corrupt-
ible. Even Aristotle had room for such an all-pervading "Pneuma" and generating force,
although he emphasised the individual "soul" as the expression of specificity, perfection and
destination. 4:14
Closely related to his "Primary Matter" are the "Elements" of Paracelsus. "Element"
is for the individual object what "Prime Matter" is for the world as a whole, i.e. the "moth-
er" of individuals and species. Both are invisible and imperceptible. The visible so-called
elements earth, water, air and fire are hut coarse receptacles containing the true elements,
in the same way as a body contains the soul. The "body" of the element is dead and dark,
hut the real element is alive. It is the force which confers essence, life and activity on
each object in nature. Each of the invisible elements embosses its specific seal on the natural
objects. The latter are the "fruits" of the true elements just as an individual is the fruit
of the earth, metals and stones of water, dew and "manna" of air, and rain, snow and
stars of fire.
Criticising this Sennert objects first to the use of the word "Element"
for something which has nothing to do with what "Element" has meant
since antiquity, namely the minimal part of matter of which an object
consists. Instead, Paracelsists confuse with the matter of things their
location, matrices and receptacles. Secondly Paracelsus gave preference
to his three principles, salt, sulphur and mercury, without making clear
their relation with the elements of the ancients. Some Paracelsists thought
that the external, i.e. visible elements consist of salt, sulphur and mercury.
Thus, according to Croll, the latter compose the "Corpus Elementi". Croll
postulated that the differences between earth, water and air are due to the
different ratios in which salt, sulphur and mercury are mixed. Severinus
however visualized the three principles merely as collaborators of the in-
visible elements in the production of natural objects.
In all this lies a tendency to deprive the elements of the high rank
which they had enjoyed in natural philosophy. Sennert deprecates any
such tendency which sees in the elements hut passive and inert matter.
By contrast, he regards them as a necessity to life and creation whose
actions are obvious enough in health and disease. If subtlety of structure
and invisibility are taken as criteria of activity, fire and air must be highly
433 P. 70.
434 De Gen. Anim. III, 11; De Mundo 4.
338 The Sources of Paracelsus
active, even if earth and water are less so. Nor can any of the elements he
called "dead" since they were never alive.
Finally, the Paracelsean concept of the "Semina" being distributed
over the elements or given into their custody cannot he supported. "Se-
mina" are hound up with the species of natural objects. Generation from
semina is through the action of parents and not directly from elements.
Prior to birth the soul of Bucephalus was not in the visible elements, hut
in its parents. There is no elementary abyss or "elysium" from which
semina are sent out into the world.
It may he admitted, however, that the number of true elements is a
subject of argument for naturalists of all persuasions, not only Paracelsists.
Moreover, the e~ements are not the only centres of activity which should
he considered. But then, no monopoly was accorded to the elements in the
systems of'Aristotle and Galen. This is evidenced for example by the role
attributed by Aristotle to a spirit more "divine" than the elements, which
is responsible for the fertility of Semina, whence not ordinary heat and
fire hut a vital "solar" principle are productive of animals. 435
In the same way the "Occult Qualities" and phenomena of Sympathy and Antipathy
had been keenly studied by the ancients. Galen was fully conscious of the difference in
action between ordinary elementary qualities and such special effects as are produced by
minimal quantities of poison.
The Paracelsists have called the souls and forms which govern the function of a body
"Astra"; chiefly because of the regular time-intervals which biological phenomena have
in common with the movement of the stars. The flowering of plants is hound up with
the seasons; nine months are required for gestation in man. Here again, there is nothing
new in this concept: the function of organs, the action of the soul and the course and in-
fluence of the stars and of divinity on them had been associated with one another from
times immemorial.
In spite of all these reservations, Sennert in principle supports the
concept of the Semina and their universal significance in nature. He ob-
jects, however, to the Paracelsean idea that they arrive on the scene from
somewhere, Heaven or Orcus, and then take hold of any object in nature,
as does an actor who puts on a garment or a mask before entering the stage.
By contrast, there is no time when the semina are not hound up with
the appropriate species.
On Life and the Three Principles (Salt, Sulphur and Mercury)
Objections must be raised to a sweeping attribution of "life" to stars,
minerals and gems. Thus the "life" of a magnet was thought by the
435 De Gener. Anim. II, 3.
Sennert on Life and Three Principles 339
Paracelsists to lie in the "spirit" of iron, that of arsenic in a poisonous
"mercurial spirit". A "malignant foetor" was believed to he the vital
power of excrement and that of aromatic substances was thought to consist
in their smell. In all this the Paracelsists confused "Life" with "Action".
While the latter exists everywhere, "life" appertains to animated beings
alone. This does not, in Sennert's opinion, preclude minerals, metals and
stones from having a special "organic" structure which requires and
achieves its own nutrition, growth and regeneration. Hence it is not
absurd that a "spirit" productive of gold or silver should join with appro-
priate matter, solidify it, and thus maintain the stock of precious metal in
the earth. The existence and emission of such mineral spirits is borne out
by the observation of metal particles in the lung of miners. Such deposits
are the result of the same solidification of "spiritual" and fluid mineral
matter as occurs in the earth.
The vision of "Life" in all objects in nature finally induced the Paracelsists to call
their chemical philosophy "Philosophla Vitalis". This was particularly said with reference
to the "vitality" of the three principles Salt, Sulphur and Mercury. In this view sulphur
seemed to represent the sun, endowed with the ability to digest, concoct, nourish, generate,
to produce smell, to consume any excess and to attract matter in general. Mercury was
regarded as the spirit of the world emerging from the "Mysterium Magnum" and pre-
serving, regenerating and enlivening animal, vegetable and mineral matter. Salt finally
is regarded as what keeps things together - largely by preventing mercury and sulphur
from becoming diffluent.436
Sennert has no intention of denying the existence of Salt, Sulphur and
Mercury or their importance for all objects in nature. Sulphur, for example,
can he traced in all plants and metals. 437 It is a constituent of all that is
combustible, and as such different from water-vapour. This is seen when
damp wood is burnt. Moisture is the first to escape, hut it is not the only
constituent which emerges in this process (as Fernel43 8 had wrongly be-
lieved). The watery effluvium is followed by an oily and fatty "sulphur"
which maintains a pure smokeless flame. The remaining ash is the "salt".
This is a constituent of many more objects than those with a salty taste.
Notwithstanding the importance of salt, sulphur and mercury as con-
stituents of all objects in nature, the three "principles" have no claim
to rank higher than the elements. The latter are "simple" whereas salt,
sulphur and mercury are "mixed", though comparatively simple bodies.
' 36 P. 129. Sennert quotes here: (1) Quercetanus: De Remm Signaturis Externis and
Defensio contra Anonymum, c. 14. (2) Beguinus: Tyrocinium Chymicum, lib. I,
cap. 2; (3) Scheunemann: Paracelsia de Morho Mercuriali Contagioso.
' 37 P. 148.
' 38 Phys. IV, 3.
340 The Sources of Paracelsus
On the other hand, their properties do not follow from differences in
elementary mixture, hut are due to the specific "form" with which each
of them was created.
In this context Sennert discusses the main argument which Erastus had advanced
against the Paracelsists. Chemists believed that any object can be reduced to its components
by chemical methods. Against this Erastus argues that products can be obtained by putre-
faction that are remote from the components of the original substance. Thus, corrupt
excremental products can emerge from humours or worms from meat. Here, Sennert says,
Erastus confused the issues. To discuss the elementary composition of an object is one
thing and to muse on its possible transformations another. Butter, cheese and whey are
actual components of milk, just as oil is a component of almonds and nutmeg. Components
like these belong to the immanent or permanent matter of an object. With regard to this
matter it is true that an object is separated into those substances which compose it.
Transformation on the other hand concerns transient rather than permanent matter, when
for example blood loses its original form and assumes that of fl.esh. 439
If salt, sulphur and mercury can be obtained from objects, it truly follows that they
are their constituents.
Sulphur is the actual component which confers inflammability. An
object burns not because it contains air hut in so far as it has an admixture
of sulphur. Sulphur is its "phlogiston".440 Sulphur also accounts for the
smell of an object, as it occurs not only as an oil or fat hut also in a "spir-
itual form" for example in the spirit of wine.
In a similar way salt can he shown to he present in most natural objects
regardless of taste or form. Salt generally either causes crystallisation -
the "Schiessen" (shooting forth) of crystals - or else it is contained in
objects as a solidifying spirit which confers hardness, for example on stones.
The position of mercury is not so clear and it is not beyond doubt
whether a third "principle" exists at all.
In conclusion: Sennert agrees with the Paracelsists in according salt,
sulphur and mercury a high rank in nature as components common to all
its objects. In this he opposes Erastus who recognised nothing hut the
four elements of the ancients. Sennert disagrees, however, with the Para-
celsists in rejecting their claim that salt, sulphur and mercury are "prin-
ciples" rather than material constituents of objects and that they are
exalted in rank over the elements which the Paracelsists had divested of
the fundamental position they had enjoyed in ancient natural philosophy.
439 Pp. 149-151.
440 "Sulphuris autem proprium est esse <pAoyun:6v et nihil sine sulphure infl.ammatur."
p. 182. See also p. 164. We mentioned above (p. 87) the use of the term Phlogiston
by the Paracelsean alchemist Hapelius (1559-1622) in 1606, i.e. before Sennert. This
was shown by von Lippmann, E. 0.: Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie.
Vol. III, Weinheim 1954, p. 105.
Sennert on Generation and Pathology 341
In Sennert's opinion the elements cannot account for such qualities as col-
our, taste, smell and inflammability of objects - all qualities which must he
attributed to salt, sulphur and mercury. The latter in themselves, how-
ever, are composed of the elements. In fact, there are three stages or
grades in nature: first, Form and Matter undifferentiated, secondly the
elements and, emerging from them as a third stage, salt, sulphur and
mercury.
On Generation
A similar conciliatory position is taken up by Sennert in discussing
generation. Here again Erastus had rejected any action other than that
of the elements. Against this, Sennert supports the emphasis laid by Para-
celsus on the specific semina and forms.
A special seminal virtue is indispensable for the production of a species
and indeed for any specificity in nature. Putrefaction can hut supply the
heat which the semen needs to develop. There may he spontaneous gener-
ation hut even here certain specific media are necessary to produce certain
effects. Some worms develop in cheese, othe:i;s in horse-dung.441
Sennert finds in the monopoly accorded to the elements and their free mixture a
materialistic element which fails to do justice to the glory of creation. For the soul with
its ancillary faculties such as heat and innate spirit was created, and it is under its direction
that the elements gathered together and formed into the shape of each individual object,
a process which is not restricted to the period of creation, but continues through all times.
It follows that the decomposition and new formation of bodies does not normally revert
to the original elementary components.442
This, however, had been the view of the ancients, notably of Aristotle who denied con-
tinuous creation of objects from nothing. According to him generation is nothing but
alteration and conversion of matter that is always present; generation is, therefore, some-
thing accidental, and there is no place for celestial "semina" that are superadded to matter.
Here again, Sennert sides with the Paracelsists who believe in the hidden semina and their
de novo influx into matter when objects are generated.WI
Pathology
The basic error of Paracelsus according to Sennert lies in his rejection
of the humours, the very existence of which he sometimes denied 444 and
4n P. 205.
442 P. 209.
443 The difference of opinion between the ancients and the followers of Paracelsus in the
question of generation is well expressed by Fontanus in his work on the Verity of
Hippocratic Medicine, loc. cit. in footnote 418. Fontanus, of course, fully endorses the
ancient view.
444 Labyrint. Medic., cap. III.
342 The Sources of Paracelsus
sometimes admitted. He is consistent, however, though quite wrong in
denying them any significance in disease. Instead, Paracelsus attributed
the latter to preformed "seeds", which were likened to mineral and plant
poison. Disease in Paracelsus' doctrine thus assumes the character of an
entity in itself which is identical with its "seminal" cause. Diseases are
seen as substances rather than as something which happens to a body.
This, according to Sennert, is erroneous. Disease cannot he compared with
the production of a plant or an animal from a seed, for disease is a process
of corruption whereas generation is one of perfection. Disease is due to
faulty humours altering, infecting and corrupting the good ones. No form·
ative virtue is recognizable therein as in generation. 446
Paracelsus erred in assuming a preformation of hereditary diseases which he thought
grow from,the semen like a plant bringing forth its fruit at the proper time. In reality,
however, hereditary disease is transmitted as a morbid predisposition to the humours in
which faulty ingredients accumulate and finally produce the disease.
Sennert finds fault with the Paracelsean classification of diseases. An
"Ens Deale" as a pathogenic agent is unthinkable - for nothing immediately
divine can enter the human body. Concerning the "Ens Astrorum", ce·
lestial influence in the causation of disease cannot he denied, hut there is
no idea of the stars communicating to man anything of their substance.
Similarly the "Ens Veneni" is a concept full of confusion because many
harmless substances are called "poison" simply because they are useless in
nutrition and th:refore excreted as such.
There is a point in differentiating diseases according to the prevalent action of either
salt or sulphur or mercury, but even here difficulties arise. Inflammation and ulceration
are not simply due to the excretion of salt which corrodes the tissues, but to an accumulation
of humours which, instead of being excreted throngh the natural channels, are propelled
to out of the way places, notably lymph nodes and the surface of the body. They then
assume the colour of extravasated blood and are subject to corruption. Hence inflammatory
products such as pus vary according to the quality of the humours concerned. It goes
without saying that in these processes salt and sulphur are also excreted, each modifying
the appearances in its own way. That the external application of arsenic, vitriol or alum
to the skin causes inflammatory changes different from ordinary inflammation and ulcer
is no argument against the role played by salt and sulphur in the latter. Such differences
in appearance are simply due to the chemical differences between sulphur and salt found
in the outside world and those acting in the human body. Similarly, spirit of salt or any
other salty or astringent substance dissolved in the humours causes pain. There are, how-
ever, many other causes of pain such as mechanical tension and especially heat. Here
again the error of the chemists lies in the monopoly which they claim for substances de-
finable in terms of chemistry.
445 P. 259.
Sennert: Humours. Entia. Diseases 343
Sennert continues on these lines through a presentation of medical
therapy. It may he pointed out in passing that he believes in the magnetic
cure of wounds. Like attracts like. There are occult qualities and there are
spheres of operation without the necessity of action by direct contact
with the object. These belong to those points which had been unduly
opposed by Erastus. The magnet attracts a piece of iron through flesh
and skin as Pare showed in the 15th chapter of the 7th hook of his "Sur-
gery". All these effects are perfectly rational and have nothing to do
with magic.
The chemist rejects medicinal compositions since to him each disease
has its own specific remedy. He believes there is no need for attenuating,
strengthening and directing additions. Against all this Sennert argues
that most diseases are not simple, hut complicated and therefore not
accessible to a single remedy. In fact, the chemists themselves are wont
to prescribe complicated mixtures of remedies. In conclusion, Sennert
asserts the strong and often beneficial effect of chemicals, notably metals,
especially in grave diseases such as epilepsy, melancholy, elephantiasis,
paralysis, podagra. At the same time, however, harmful after- and side-
effects may occur.
In summing up Sennert's criticism of Paracelsus as a whole, he appears
to desire the best of two opposing worlds. He rejects neither Galenic nor
Paracelsean medicine hut wants to make use of both, though not without
critical qualification. To Sennert, there are always two sides to a medical
problem as is shown for example in the "Healing Power of Nature".
Some diseases are accessible to it whereas others require medical inter-
ference. The same applies to the principles "Similia similibus" and "Con·
traria contrariis". At bottom Sennert himself is a keen "iatro-chemist".
Hence, on the whole, he is more inclined to accept than to reject the prac·
tical tenets and achievements of Paracelsean Medicine.

Final Assessment
Summarising our survey of the work of Paracelsus - his philosophy,
his medicine and his sources - we must now try to answer the following
questions:
(1) W:as he a scientist and scientific physician in the modern sense?
(2) How far was he original?
(3) What difference would his absence from the historical scene have
made, if any?
(4) What is the pattern of his message and wisdom?
(1) Was he a scientist? Paracelsus worked in the chemical laboratory
with experience, skill and ingenuity. He devised new methods, prepared
new mineral compounds and greatly enriched the store of medicinal
chemicals - chiefly by his care and success in detoxicating heavy metals.
He finally drew up what may he called a skeleton outline of inorganic
chemistry, a system from which he endeavoured to provide a chemical
interpretation - however crude - of the processes of life and disease.
In this the scientific elements of Paracelsus' work stand out clearly
enough, and a line can he drawn connecting him with such sound and
early chemists as Lihavius, Oswald Croll and J.B. Van Helmont.
Viewing him as a whole, however, his chemistry forms hut one aspect
of a cosmology and philosophy which are symholistic, "mythical" and
decidedly unscientific. However much inspiration and actual addition to
chemical knowledge may he due to him, Paracelsus was neither a scientist
nor a chemist in the modern sense.
His position in medicine is similar. He left shrewd observations and
descriptions of diseases and pathological conditions. As a notable example
we recall the "Miners' Lung" and his first attempts at establishing "Occu-
pational Medicine". There is also his modern-sounding insight into the
role of drinking water and minerals in the aetiology of goitre and cretinism.
There are the recommendation of mercury as a diuretic and the demon-
stration of albumen in urine. There are above all his unceasing struggle
Was Paracelsus a Scientist? 345
against the traditional system of Pathology and his attempts at replacing
it by a new system. In this - notably his pathology of "Tartar" - we
recognise a tendency to refer diseases to local anatomical changes resulting
from the nutritive disorder of an organ. Associated with this is the signi-
ficance attributed to extraneous pathogenic agents.
Taken out of their context in this way, these ideas impress us as a
move towards the modern view in which diseases are distinguished as
objects classifiable by typical anatomical changes and specific causes. This
was to replace traditional humoralism which had made the individual as a
whole responsible for disease - a general humoral upset following a uni-
form pattern.
In short, Paracelsus not only demolished the ruling system of medicine,
hut replaced it by a theory in which the germ cells of modern pathology
can he divined. How far he was ahead of his time in this respect is shown
by a comparison with the feeble reformatory efforts of such contemporaries
and early successors as Fernel, Argenterius and Mazinus.1
However, he vigorously opposed the traditional building up of rational
medicine on the basis of anatomy and physiology - subjects in which he
had little interest and knowledge. Moreover, what we said concerning his
chemical theory applies equally to his medical doctrine. It is not scienti-
fic - taken as a whole. It is a system of analogies and metaphors based on
his theory of Microcosm. In this, observation and protoscientific elements
are widely overgrown by a farrago of speculations which strike us as
fantastic. It is these products of an uninhibited imagination that render
the personality and teaching of Paracelsus so "elusive" to the modern
mind. 2
It is true enough that Paracelsus made Nature the main subject of his
speculation and that the unification of Nature and the Soul in God and
the identity of nature and spirit were among the main tenets of his philo-
sophy.
We cannot agree, however, that this led to an extrication of the material
world from religion and philosophy, already in Paracelsus' own work -
amounting to an emancipation of the scientific (chemical) investigation
from his own "astrosophy" and cosmology.a
1 See above, p. 301-311.
2 Temkin, 0.: The Elusiveness of Paracelsus. Bull. Hist. i\ied. 1952, XXVI, 201-217.
3 This is the thesis of Vogt, A.: Theophrastus Paracelsus als Arzt und Philosoph. Stutt-
gart 1956. As Vogt sees it Paracelsus was led to replace alchemy by chemistry and to
base ~athology on the physico-chemical study of combustion. "To have recognised
what is absolutely dead - the ultima materia - is the merit that Paracelsus can claim
in the history of medicine and science ... since Paracelsus the history of chemistry has
346 Final Assessement
To-day we have no means of following in detail the steps which led him
from one analogy to the next or of saying why he chose one cosmic phe-
nomenon or another to explain a particular fact in biology or pathology. 4
However, it is possible to trace the general lines of his thinking and to
find a system therein. This represents a methodical attempt at dethroning
the rationalistic view of the world as based on formal logic in scholasticism.
Nor did Paracelsus care about a theory of experimental science in which
fact-finding was correlated with a rationalist philosophy - the ideal of the
late Middle Ages and the basis of the "methodological revolution to which
modern science owes its origin".5 Paracelsus forms no link in this devel-
opment.
Yet his system of metaphors, analogies and myths is of concern to the
been the history of "Entorganisierung" (the increasing application of inorganic science
to biological problems), the history of the search for deadness in the living" (Vogt,
p. 100). An all too easy solution of the Paracelsus problem! Paracelsus pursued with
equal vigour the search for life in the dead inorganic world, as his vitalistic concepts -
for example that of the Archeus - show. Moreover, to try to establish any easy formula
for Paracelsus as a phenomenon in history implies resignation from the task confronting
the historian; which is to integrate the religious and speculative element with his proto-
scientific trends and achievements, even in chemical, physiological and pathological
detail. Vogt overemphasises a dualistic "break" in the world of Paracelsus - a break
between the realm of the spirit and that of nature with her own and independent laws;
for, as we have endeavoured to show in the preceding pages, Paracelsus is dominated
by a monistic outlook - visualising spirit in body and vice versa.
Already Christoph Sigwart warned against the assumption that Paracelsus viewed
organic life in a purely mechanical and chemical perspective, since he attributed a per-
sonal nature to the life force in the microcosm, the Archeus. Theophrastus Paracelsus
in: Kleine Schriften. 2nd ed., vol. I, Freiburg 1889, p. 46.
See also: J. D. Achelis in his introduction to the Volumen Paramirum, loc. cit. 1928,
p. 3, against a one-sided view of Paracelsus either as the indispensable link in the de-
velopment of modern science or as the "occult" and "magic" philosopher. Both these
views take a part for the whole and are therefore wrong.
4 Temkin, loc. cit. 1952, p. 210.
5 Crombie, A. C.: Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100-1700.
Oxford 1953, p. 9. - As Sigwart says (loc. cit., p. 46) the genius of Paracelsus as that
of many of his contemporaries failed to raise the question of a method for the study
of nature. In the present author's opinion it follows that our difficulties in understanding
Paracelsus as a whole and in recognising consistency in his philosophy are largely due
to our changed concept of reality. To Paracelsus it was only symbolical - intuitive -
thinking that would lead to reality - a reality far more truthful than anything within
the reach of rational and intellectual thought. It is the hidden reality of the cosmic
correspondences, that reflects the idea of divinity and can be read in the phenomena
produced by nature as well as in the supernatural wisdom of the magician who knows
how to direct spiritual power into objects and images. Symbolic thinking thus consist-
ently follows from the belief in cosmic correspondences and in the all pervading spirit
of the world. Through this the Magus penetrates into the divine spheres and soars high
above the limited knowledge and power of complacent human reason. See also:
Gombrich, loc. cit. in footnote 279 p. 288.
Was Paracelsus original? 347
historian of science and medicine to-day. For it forms the setting of legiti-
mate scientific and medical observation and reasoning. More important
than this, it is not by accident that such "modern" elements appear in the
"mythical" setting. His breakaway from a largely syllogistic medicine
and reversion to the unorthodox sideline of alchemy and magic started a
cross current that trickled indirectly into the broad stream of modern
science and medicine.
Paracelsus, then, though not "scientific" himself produced scientific
results from a non-scientific world of motives and thoughts. In this lies
the perennial interest of his work to the historian.
(2) Was he original? Paracelsus' predecessors were the mediaeval al-
chemists and herbalists who had devised methods for the extraction of the
Quinta Essentia. He extended and enriched their knowledge considerably,
but had little to offer that was new in principle.
His symbolistic thinking - the search for a deeper reality hidden behind
visible objects - was an attitude of mind that he inherited from the Middle
Ages. Nor was the anthropocentric doctrine of Paracelsus alien to the
mediaeval mind. On the contrary, in the Middle Ages man had been
accorded an exalted position - as the recipient of the divine soul. His
position as an intermediary between the spiritual and material worlds
seemed to make man particularly suited for active study of an influence
on the works of the Creator - thus overcoming the narrow limits drawn
by ancient determinism. 6 Moreover the unification of "Nature" and
"Spirit", of natural philosophy and religion, which Paracelsus achieved in
his grand vista of man as a microcosm, had been accepted Neoplatonic
and Renaissance teaching. In this, again, no original principle was intro-
duced by Paracelsus.
Yet he cannot be denied originality. To the present author this seems
to lie in his systematic integration of alchemical and Neoplatonic ideas
with medicine and its result: the erection of a new scaffolding to replace
traditional medicine with the aid of what had been hitherto regarded as
"foreign" elements. Here was a whole doctrine of medicine and natural
philosophy - however non-scientific - which none of his alchemical
predecessors or contemporaries had attempted.
Galenic and Arabic medicine had lost the cosmological background
visible in some of the Hippocratic treatises. Its link with religion had
never been strong or conspicuous even in such writers as Arnaldus of
8 See for example: Crombie, A. C.: Augustine to Galileo. The History of Science. A. D.
400-1650. London 1952, pp. 140-141.
348 The Sources of Paracelsus
Villanova or Ramon Lull. No more than lip service had been paid to
religion by the doctors and surgeons of the Middle Ages. There was religion
and there was medicine - like philosophy a "handmaid" of the former
rather than its part, let alone its equal partner. In Paracelsus, medicine
attained to this height - just as theology was identified by him with cos-
mology. Medicine now comprised the whole of human knowledge and
especially knowledge of Nature and Man.
This medicine of Paracelsus is based on a "Cosmological Anthropology" 7
and only through this open to our understanding.
In assessing Paracelsus' success we must not forget the appeal which
he had to contemporaries and subsequent generations. The violent anta-
gonism which he also aroused is hut an indirect expression of this appeal.
His cures were at least sure of the negative success that was to he expected
from the, omission of traditional therapeutic procedure. It now appears
that the latter must have been highly inefficient, if not frequently fatal -
whereas the administration of empirical remedies including strong chemicals
as elaborated by Paracelsus may well have achieved more. In this context
we should remember the care that he took to detoxicate and avoid the
indiscriminate use of metal and mineral remedies. However, to-day it is
impossible to make sense of his prescriptions and "consilia" in detail. 8
Contemporary reports are highly controversial and coloured by sentiment.9
We therefore conclude that Paracelsus should he found original in his
thinking in analogies which in his case afforded a strange synthesis of
medicine, alchemy, chemistry, religion and cosmology - a synthesis that
is entirely his own. There may yet come a time when his analogist teaching
will sound less fantastic even to the scientist than it does to-day.
(3) "Was Paracelsus really necessary?" Those who ask this question
implicitly deny that he ranks among the reformers and founders of modern
medicine and let his claim to fame rest with his singular aggressiveness
and unconventional career. In particular, the praise accorded to him by
some, for having inaugurated chemical medicine, has recently come in for
censure. "Paracelsists" such as Oswald Croll - it has been said - in fact
continued where mediaeval alchemists and sixteenth century chemical
herbalists had stopped and owed hut little to their eponymous hero.
This may he so. In fact, however, Paracelsus not only lent his name
7 As formulated by Hans Fischer in: Die kosmologische Anthropologie des Paracelsus als
Grundlage seiner Medizin. Verh. Naturforsch. Ges. Basel 1941, Lii, 189 et seq.
8 Temkin, loc. cit. 1952, p. 204.
9 See above, p. 126. Adam von Bodenstein versus Gesner, Wier, Erastus and other
critics of Paracelsus.
Paracelsus: Historical Necessity and Message 349
to a revolutionary movement, hut also started it single-handed. This
movement culminated in the vogue accorded to chemical medicine in the
second half of the sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth.
In the second half of the XVIth century the use of Paracelsean remedies
formed the objective of a vigorous campaign. By 1570 this campaign
had widely affected academic circles in Switzerland and southern Germany
with Basie and Strassburg as centres. Under the pressure of the Paracelsist
movement, humanist physicians such as Crato, Zwinger, Erastus and
others who, of their own accord, would hardly ever have turned to me-
diaeval or contemporary alchemists and herbalists felt it incumbent upon
themselves to study Paracelsus carefully and to define their own position
with regard to his chemical medicine.IO
It is Paracelsus who founded "latro-Chemistry" and the Paracelsists
are simply unthinkable without him. This applies in particular to J.B.
Van Helmont, the greatest of the Paracelseans. It was Van Helmont who
led the ideas of Paracelsus into scientific channels - however original, he
was indebted to him and to his warfare against the ruling tradition.
Seen in a historical perspective, Paracelsus was indeed "necessary".
(4) How, then, should we classify the man and his message?
Science can he fully communicated to everybody. Its results can he
repeated, confirmed, refuted and indexed, independently of the person who
first conceived and discovered them. Not so the scientific insight of Para-
celsus. For it forms part of a personal revelation. This relates to the
cosmos as a whole and the Creator. Its aim is knowledge that enables the
philosopher to ascend, to transcend and to commune with the universe
outside himself - a knowledge that liberates him from the fetters of passion
and predestination. It is personal wisdom rather than scientific and indeed
intellectual knowledge - a personal and not transferable possession.
10
The situation was well summed up by Multhauf: "With the appearance of Paracelsus
the medical profession was forcibly acquainted with the existence of a rival school
which challenged the claims of traditional medicine. This development was in no small
degree owing to the appearance on the scene of Paracelsus himself." The significance
of Distillation in Renaissance Medicine and Chemistry. Bull. Hist. Med. 1956, XXX,
336. - On the Paracelsist movement in Switzerland see: Milt, B.: Chemisch-alche-
mistische Heilkunde und ihre Auswirkungen in Zurich. Vjschr. naturforsch. Ges.
Ziirich 1953, XCVIII, 178-215; with special reference to Basel: Karcher, Joh.: Theo-
dor Zwinger und seine Zeitgenossen (Stud. Gesch. Wissensch. in Basel, vol. III).
Basel 1956, p. 44. - The case of Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) is admittedly different.
Like Crato, Zwinger and Erastus he had no sympathy with Paracelsus, but being
mainly a naturalist he turned to such traditional alchemists and herbalists as Brun-
schwyg and Ulstadius and continued their work. It was Gesner who emphasised the
limitations of distillation in the preparation of remedies - the method that had taken
pride of place in the Archidoxis of Paracelsus (see Multhauf, loc. cit., p. 341).
350 The Sources of Paracelsus
Among the most violent invectives hurled against Paracelsus by the
"Prince" of his adversaries, Erastus, was the accusation of gnostic heresy.
Indeed, the attitude of Paracelsus does seem to show something of the
"Spiritual Man", the "Pneumatikos" of the Gnosis. Led by his superior
insight the gnostic mystagogue found the way from the lower strata of
the flesh and vegetative soul to the higher sphere of the spirit. He spanned
in one vision all that happened from the beginning to the end. In Hellen·
istic times this had been the position of the Magus and Alchemist.11 In
the Renaissance it was the ideal of the "Priest-Physician" as extolled by
Ficino.12
What makes Paracelsus unique in this tradition is his wide excursions
into observable Nature. There are periods in his life and voluminous trea-
tises among his works in which he appears to be nothing but a naturalist
explorer and physician. Nor is it accidental that he boldly embraced nature
as the object of study at a time that was eminently susceptible for this.
It wowd be wrong to forget, however, that even where the naturalist
aspects are prevalent in Paracelsus it is the desire to probe and test Nature
for the validity of his cosmological and religious philosophy that forms the
driving motive for his research. It was at the end of his life, in a period of
sad resignation, that he wrote his- main metaphysical work - the "Philo-
sophia Sagax". Yet this puts forward nothing that is new over and above
the general ideas which he imparted in his other and earlier works.
Paracelsus thus remains true to his device: "Alterius non sit qui suus
ess~ potest": To contemporaries this marked him as a "brave" man rather
than a "sound" man and one who was bent on "truth" (as he saw it)
rather than on "good taste". To the modern mind he stands out not as a
link in the chain of students of Nature to whom modern science owes its
origin, not as a physician with modern and revolutionising ideas, not as
one of a cohort of religious preachers, ethical thinkers or social reformers -
but as a "Magus" who forged a new synthesis from personal experience.
While this synthesis is in general not readily accessible to us, nevertheless
certain parts and isolated aphorisms suggest by their brilliance to the
modern mind the power of the whole and its impact at its own time.
11 See Reitzenstein, R.: Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen. 2nd ed., Leipzig and
Berlin 1920, p. 165. On the revival, in Paracelsus, of the ancient Christian unification
of the pastoral (missionary) and medical vocations see Goldammer, K., Neues zur
Lebensgeschichte und Personlichkeit des Theophrastus Paracelsus. Theolog. Zeit. 1947,
191-221 and Eis, G., Laecna Sidr in der Thidrekssaga. Lychnos 1954-55, 295-299.
12 See above our chapter on· Paracelsus and N eoplatonism, p. 222.
Addenda and Errata
Page 10, line 17
Christoph Clauser (149?-1552) as student and Doctor of Medicine - Ferrara (1514)
For a documented account see: Wehrli, G. A.: Der Ziiricher Stadtarzt Christoph
Clauser und seine Stellung zur Reformation der Heilknnde im 16. Jahrhundert, Ziirich
1924. Clauser, municipal physician at Ziirich, is known to have taken the MD at Ferrara
in 1514 (Wehrli, 1924, p. 10). He should thus have been a pupil of Manardus. On the other
hand, Clauser merely brought his study to a conclusion at Ferrara and this 1 year after
Manardus had left there. Clauser met Paracelsus at Basie and probably at Zurich in 1527.
The latter dedicated to Clauser his work 'De gradibus', thus indicating his hope that
Clauser would promote its publication. However, he failed to do so and in his treatise on
urine (Ziirich, 1531) harshly criticized Paracelsus. This 'Luthems medicorum' may know
something about surgery and 'alchemical sophistry', but what he did at Basie was 'gross
madness and ignorance' (' grosse toubsucht und unwussenheyt ', sig. Biii). In the same work
Clanser mentions Manardus as well as Leonicenus as translators of Avicenna. There is no
hint, however, that he (let alone he and Paracelsus) received tuition from these men.
Page 10, line 23 and note 25
Paracelsus' possible doctorate at Ferrara
Paracelsus' own deposition to this effect, 'Eyd den er an sin doctorat der loblichen
Hohen Schul zu Ferraria getan ', was given in a civil law suit between two Strassburg
citizens (Burckhardt, A.: Nochmals der Doktortitel von Paracelsus, Korresp BI. schwei-
zer Arzte 1914, XLIV, 885, 754). The magistrate accepted it in lieu of the judicial oath.
In his introductory letter to Paracelsus' 'Grosse Wundarztney' the municipal physician
at Augsburg, Wolfgang Thalhauser, addresses the author as 'Beitler Arznei doctor'.
Perhaps Paracelsus took only one of the minor degrees in medicine then conferred at
Ferrara. In the same letter Thalhauser mentions Manardus (just dead-1536) as the Master
of True Medicine whose sound teaching had not been heeded and was forgotten. It is
doubtful, however, whether this really is written in a vein reminiscent of student days
spent at the feet of Manardus. For the latter had already left Ferrara in 1513 for Hungary
only to return to Ferrara in 1526. Herzog, A.: Joh. Manardus, Hofarzt in Ungarn und
Ferrara, Janus 1929, XXXIII, 52-78, 85-130. Bugyi, B.: Paracelsus in Ungarn, Salzb.
Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1972, XI, 57-72, Telle, J.: Leben und Werk eines Augsburger
Stadtarztes; Beziehungen zu Paracelsus und Schwenkfeld, Med.-hist. J. 1972, VII, 1-30.
Miinster, L.: Besteht noch eine Moglichkeit, das notarielle Privileg des Doctorexamens von
Hohenheim in Ferrara aufzufinden? Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1971, VIII, 173.
Page 15, line 29
Physician and surgeon inseparable
Paracelsus holds that 'there can be no surgeon who is not also a physician - the latter
engenders the surgeon and the surgeon tests the physician by the results of his work' ( Liber
de podagricis et suis speciebus et morbis annexis, Ill, Cura, Sudhoff, vol. I, pp. 341-342;
De gradibus, Schiiler-Aufzeichnungen, ad V, 7, Sudhoff, vol. IV, p. 120).
352 Addenda and Errata
Page 17
Salzburg
The evidence for Paracelsus' first stay is a short document concerning the possessions
which he left behind after what appears to have been a hurried departure. The text admits
of various interpretations, nor is the role of the peasants' revolt in the whole episode clear,
or a discharge of Paracelsus after proceedings against him probable. The open warfare of
the peasants only erupted after his departure. It remains, however, that this was at least
'in the air' - it is mentioned in the document as bearing on the disposal of the possessions.
Indeed, the revolt was reactive to the punishment meted out by the archbishop to some
miners professing heresy in the words of Seb. Franck: des 'glaubens halben '. Perhaps
fear that the invading peasants would claim him as their hero accounts for what happened.
This was suggested by Rosner, E.: Hohenheims Weg von St. Gallen nach Augsburg
(1531-1536), Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1977, XVI, 60-63. In any case the circum-
stances of the story are still equivocal.
Page 24, line 11
Paracelsus, Kardinal Lang, the Fuggers and guaiac
The question of the involvement of the Fuggers in the guaiac trade, as suggested by
Paracelsus, is open to doubt. The latter seems to have largely relied on Hutten, Poll
and Schmaus. The same applies to his polemical outburst against Kardinal Lang, cf. Wei-
mann, K.-H.: Paracelsus und Kardinal Matthiius Lang als Gegner im Guajakstreit, Arch.
Gesch. Med. 1961, XLV, pp. 193-200, and in particular for a clarification Toellner, R.:
Matthiius Kardinal Lang von Wellenburg und Paracelsus; Zur Polemik des Paracelsus
gegen Kardinal Lang und die Fugger, Verh. XIX. int. Kongr. Gesch. Med., Basel 1964,
pp. 489-497. See also Rosner, E.: Hohenheims Weg von St. Gallen nach Augsburg 1531-
1536), Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1977, XVI, 59-60, for criticism of the story con-
cerning the Leipzig-Niirnberg censure of the Paracelsian syphilis work.
Page 25, line 20
Paracelsus and V adianus
Vadianus' literary and humanistic fame had been assured by his commentary to the
geographical work of Pomponius Mela. In this he had expressed his belief in the observable
laws of nature and his distaste for speculation. When temporarily teaching at Villach
(1507) he had probably met Paracelsus' father. It is doubtful whether he taught Para-
celsus - then or later when back at Vienna. Nor is any assumption warranted of support
or welcome extended to Paracelsus at St. Gall at any time. Moreover, Vadianus, the Church
reformer on strict Lutheran and Zwinglian lines, was bound to object to Paracelsus'
spiritualist tendencies and early-Christian social ideals in which even the Catholic Church
was allotted a role. For literature: Niif, W.: Vadian und seine Stadt St. Gallen, 2 vol.,
St. Gallen 1944-1957. Milt, B.: Vadian als Arzt; in Bonorand, C. (ed.): Vadian-Studien,
vol. VI, St. Gallen 1959, p. 24 seq., also pp. 128-139, p. 135 on doctrinal theological
discrepancies between Vadian and Paracelsus and the latter's departure from St. Gall.
Milt, B.: Conrad Gesner und Paracelsus, Schweiz. med. Wschr. 1929, LIX, No. 18/19.
Page 25 seq.
St. Gall and after
The alchemical leanings of the influential Schobingers should indeed have been
attractive to Paracelsus and conducive to an extension of his presence in the town. The
2 years suggested may have been meant to refer to the surrounding region rather than
the town proper. However, there is little firm evidence to identify all the stations on th!"
Addenda and Errata 353
way which took him eventually to Augsburg where he supervised the printing of two
'Practica' of divination and the early version of his 'Great Surgery' (1536). It is to a
large measure uncharted territory which has invited many conjectures. They were criti-
cally sifted by E. Rosner (Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1977, XVI). The latter confirms
the route which led through the Veltlin and St. Moritz (1532-1533) to Sterzing (June 1534),
Meran (July), Augsburg (1534-1535), Pfiifers (summer 1535) to Ulm (winter 1535-1536). It
included a number of smaller places and alpine passes to Innsbruck (spring 1534). To
Schobinger's alchemical interests Goldschmid, G.: Zur Sichtung und Erforschung der
alchemischen Handschriften, Ciba Fdn Symp. 1938, V, 1980 on the manuscripts in the
Vadian library collected by Schobinger. Huggenberg, F. M.: Alchemisten und Goldmacher
im XVI. Jahrhundert, Gesnerus 1956, XIII, 97-163.
Page 26, line 1; page 102, note 268; page 202, line 6
Miners' disease, date of Paracelsus' treatise
On textual and external evidence this has to be taken back to about 1520 (Paracelsus
working under S. Fueger at Schwaz) instead of the accepted date of 1533-1534, cf: Rosner,
E.: Hohenheims Bergsuchtmonographie; in Dilg-Frank, R. (ed.): Kreatur und Kosmos,
Fischer, Stuttgart 1981, pp. 20-52 where it is just as convincingly shown that books II
and III are later additions to I, possibly dne to revision by Paracelsus himself. Beer, G.:
Schwaz zur Zeit des Paracelsus, Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus Forsch. 1972, XI, 37-46. Para-
celsus at Strassburg: Ulrich Gyger ( Geiger-Chelius of Pforzheim, famulus to Paracelsus
and finally 'archiater' there, (died 1558). Blaser, R.-H.: Ulrich Gyger, sin diener; in Dilg-
Frank, Kreatur and Kosmos, 1981, pp. 53-66.
Page 29, note 71
Oporinus' letter, regrets and apology, text and motives
A printing of the Latin text prior to Sennert (1619) is in Michael Doring (Sem1ert's
son in law); De medicina et medicis adversus latromastigas et Pseudiatros libri II, in
quibus non solum generatim medicinae origo ... asseritur, sed etiam particulatim tam
Hippocraticae et Galenicae praestantia quam Empiricae, Magicae, Methodicae et Para-
celsicae usus atque abusus excutitur . . . omnium Facultatum studiosis nee ingrati nee
infructuosi, Giessae Hessorum 1611 (I, cap. 7, pp. 158-163: De Paracelsi vita et moribus).
Oporinus' famous letter containing his realistic pen-portrait of Paracelsus had been
'lured' out of him (' emendicatqm ') by Wierus and published against his will - so Oporinus
told Toxites. That Oporinus experienced himself the drastic - purging - effect of Para-
celsian 'precipitate' is well documented (Sudhoff: Paracelsus-Handschriften, p. 193 also
with reference to Jocisci: Vita Oporini, 1569, sig. Bii verso). He also used the 'Laudanum
Theophrasti' for sedation and other 'pills' in himself and others with good results. On
Oporinus' motives see Domandl, S.: Paracelsus, Weyer, Oporin. Die Hintergriinde des
Pamphlets von 1555. Der lateinische Text als Nachtrag in Domandl, S. (ed.); Paracelsus,
Werk und Wirkung, Wien 1975, pp. 53-70, pp. 391-393.
Page 32, line 5
Sudhoff edition, index
Sudhoff's edition having been out of print for a long time is now being reprinted
with an introduction by Dilg-Frank (G. Olms, Hildesheim). At the same place the Huser
quarto edition was reprinted with an introduction by K. Goldammer in six volumes, the
last volume reprinting the surgical books and writings of the Strassburg folio volume of
1605.
The use of the Sudhoff edition has been greatly facilitated by the provision of an
index volume: Miiller, M.: Registerband zu Theophrastus von Hohenheim gen. Paracelsus,
354 Addenda and Errata
Siimtliche Schriften, Nova Acta Paracels, 1960, suppl., XII. This index, though not
without notable omissions and errors, is invaluable.
Page 34, note 90
The theological works and Paracelsus literature since 1958
Five volumes of Goldammer's critical edition are extant (vol. II-VII, Steiner, Wies-
baden 1955-1965), see Weimann, K.-H.: Bibliographie Goldammer; in Domandl, Para-
celsus, Werk und Wirkung, 1975, pp. 353-362; a supplementary volume: Religiose und
sozialpolitische Schriften in Kurzfassungen, Wiesbaden 1973, and Goldammer, K.;
Paracelsus, Osiander and Theological Paracelsism; in Debus, A.G. (ed.): Science, Medicine
and Society in the Renaissance, New York 1972, vol. I, pp. 105-120.
Some of the recent literature is mentioned and discussed in the present 'Addenda',
but no attempt is made at supplying a list. Instead reference is made to W eimann,K.-H.:
Paracelsus-Bibliographie 1932-1960 mit einem Verzeichnis neu entdeckter Paracelsus-
Handschriften (Goldammer, K., ed., Kosmosophie, vol. II), Steiner, Wiesbaden 1963 and
Weimann, K.-H.: Paracelsus-Lexikographie in vier J ahrhunderten; in Dilg-Frank,
Kreatur und Kosmos, Stuttgart 1981, pp. 167-195. Since 1960 the English Paracelsians
have been given comprehensive treatment in the work of A.G. Debus. We mention:
The Paracelsian Compromise in Elizabethan England, Ambi{C 1960, VIII, 71-97. An
Elizabethan History of Chemistry, Ann. Sci. 1962, XVIII, 1-20. Solution Analyses prior
to Roh. Boyle, Chymia 1962, VIII, 41-60. John Woodall, Paracelsian Surgeon, Ambix
1962, X, 108-118. Paracelsus and the Aerial Nitre, Isis 1964, LV, 43-61. The English
Paracelsians (Oldbourne History of Science Library), London 1965 (to this: Pagel, W.:
Hist. Sci. 1966, V, 100-104 and Pagel, W.: The Prime Matter of Paracelsus, Ambix 1961,
IX, 117-135). The Chemical Philosophy; Paracelsian Science and Medicine, New York
1977, 2 vol. Stensgaard, R.; Shakespeare, Paracelsus and the Plague of 1603, Shakesp.
Res. Opportunit., 1968-69, Nr. 4, 73-77. Stensgaard, R.: All is Well that Ends Well, and
the Galenico Paracelsian Controversy, Renaiss. Q. 1972, XXV, 173-188. Rattansi, P.M.:
Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution, Ambix 1963, XI, 24-32. Webster, C.: The English
Medical Reformers of the Puritan Revolution, Ambix 1967, XIV, 16-41. Pinero, J.M.
Lopez: Paracelsus in 16th and 17th Century Spain, Clio med. 1973, VIII, 113-141. Klein-
Franke, F.: Paracelsus Arabus, Med.-hist. J. 1975, X, 50-54. Trevor Roper, H. (Lord
Dacre): The Sieur de la Riviere, Paracelsian Physician of Henry IVth (Roch de Bailiff);
in Debus, Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance, New York 1972, vol. II,
pp. 227-250.
Page 42, note 122
Religious scepticism towards human reasoning and learning
Passages comparable with Sebastian Franck's aphorisms: 'also macht sich jeder
selbst gelehrt, und nit von got' ( Philosophia sagax, I, 9, Sudhoff, vol. XII, p.224). 'J e
mer wiz, je mer irgangen. dan des menschen verstant gibts nit' (Labyrinthus medicorum,
2nd Jpreface, 1Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 168). 'Muss man gross ermessen, nicht den wolstand
oder hiipsche ordnung, sondern die einfalt alein .. darauf dan anch folgt, ie gelerter ie ver-
kerter. dander glaube darf keiner gelerten, weisheit; nur einfalt ... ' (Ausarbeitungen zu
den fiinf Biichern von den unsichtbaren Krankheiten, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 355).
Page 43
Paracelsus religiosus et theologus
Rudolph, H.: Kosmosspekulation und Trinitiitslehre, Weltbild und Theologie bei
Paracelsus; in Domandl. S. (ed.): Paracelsus in der Tradition, Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-
Forsch. 1980, XXI, 32-47. Rudolph, H.: Schriftauslegung und Schriftverstiindnis bei
Addenda and Errata 355
Paracelsus; in Dilg-Frank, Kreatur und Kosmos, Stuttgart 1981, pp. 101-124. Rudolph,
H.: Einige Gesichtspunkte zum Thema Paracelsus und Luther, Arch. Reformat Gesch.
1981, LXXII, 34-54. By contrast with Luther and the Spiritualists Paracelsus is con-
cerned with the human body- the 'flesh' earthly as well as celestial, the latter as acquired
by the Eucharist. This reflects his 'eucharistic realism' (Goldammer). Miller-Guinsburg,
A.: Paracelsian Magic and Theology. A case study of the Matthew commentaries, Arch.
Reformat Gesch. 1981, LXXII, 125-139. Baron, F.; Der historische Faustus, Paracelsus
und der Teufel, Paracelsus in der Tradition, Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1980, XXI,
20-31.
Messianic and chiliastic ideas in Paracelsus: A future realm of equity and justice - a
new Jerusalem and the Golden World beyond - should follow the 'Platonic Year' of
world destruction; there is also a divine purpose in history reflected in the 'monarchy'
achieved by a created object - its fulness of perfection - at a certain point of time. The
latter is thus no longer interpreted as a chain of successive 'empty' nows, cf. Goldammer,
K.: Paracelsische Eschatologie, 1-11, Nova Acta Paracels. 1948, V, 61; 1952, VI, 90;
Goldammer, K.: Natur und Offenbarung, Hannover 1953, p. 92; Pagel, W.: Das medizi-
nische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962, pp. 101-105; Pagel, W.: Paracelsus als
Naturmystiker; in Faivre, A.; Zimmermann, R.C. (ed.): Epochen der Naturmystik,
Berlin 1979, p. 59. Achievement of the alchemical ideal of transmuting ('redeeming')
base metals into gold in a future age after destruction is expressed by Paracelsus in mes-
sianic terms bound up with Elijah and Elisha, cf. Pagel, W.: The Paracelsian Elias Artista
and the Alchemical Tradition; in Dilg-Frank, Kreatur und Kosmos, Stuttgart 1981,
pp. 6-19 (and Med.-hist. J. 1981, XVI); Paracelsus, 'Speculum alchimiae Heliae'; Eglinus
Iconius (Niger Hapelius) in Cheiragogia Heliana de auro philosophico necdum cognito ',
R. Glauber and the Esch m'zareph of Knorr v. Rosenroth's 'Kabbala denudata '.
Page 53, line 28
Nature acting by creating the image of an object - nature as 'Abbildner' and 'Prophet'
- Novalia and praesagia
'Die Natur beherrscht die Kunst der Abconterfeiung' (Philosophia sagax, Von dem
Dono Novalium, ed. pr. Argentor. 1571, fol. 95 verso, Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 262).
Page 60, line 21
Knowledge acquired through union with the object - 'overhearing' (' Ablauschen ')
its inner plan of building form and executing function, i.e. the scientia of the object
That this is Paracelsus' real idea of the royal way to acquiring knowlegde is proved
by the following statements: 'so du nun der scammonea ir scientia ablernst also das in dir
ist wie in der scammonea, so hast du experientiam cum scientia' (Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 191,
Labyrinthus medicorum, cap. VI). 'Haben wir ein sinn, der fleugt aus uns ... ich gedenk
zu erfaren den himel, zu erfaren die kreuter so ist mein geist in kreutern ... dieselbigen
geist und mein geist komen zusamen' (De lunaticis, Philosophia magna, I, Sudhoff,
vol. XIV, p. 58). It is through imagination that the physician forces the herbs to let come
out their occult nature. Thereby a specific spirit is born inside the physician (Erkliirung
der gantzen Astronomie, Probatio in scientiam incertarum artium, Sudhoff, vol. XII,
p. 484): 'der imaginiert zwingt die kreuter das ir verborgene natur herfiir muss komen,
was in inen ist '. This process of imagination thus belongs to the communication of astral
bodies or sidereal spirits, the traffic between spirits of objects with each other and revealing
themselves to man, especially in his sleep (Philos., tr. V, Sudhoff, vol. XIII, pp. 350-354).
It is therefore quite clear that knowledge, according to Paracelsus, is acquired not by
mere empirical observation with or without reasoning, but by a much more sophisticated
process. This is borne out in the Paracelsian heritage as transmitted by Severinus, Weigel,
and Van Helmont.
356 Addenda and Errata
Page 64, note 169; page 82
The enigma of the eight mothers and Gamathea - marital union of the four elements
(female) with four astral forces (male)
The mother concept in elemental and matter theory has its sources in Plato, the
Sepher Jezirah, Jehuda ha-Levi, the 'Lauteren Briider', al-Quazwini, Salomo ibn Gehirol
and certain alchemical traditions. Paracelsus usually speaks of four mothers, but there
are also eight (Von den podagrischen Krankheiten, I, Vom limbo, Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 355),
four celestial corresponding to four earthly matrices. The model is the conjunction of the
'upper' (subtle-ethereal) and the 'lower' (solid-material) elements - a doctrine common
to neo-Platonists of the Renaissance (Ficinus, Pico, Zorzi, Agrippa). The elements of the
two quaternary groups are identical in substance, but different in subtlety and allegorical
significance. The Paracelsian eight mothers of the arts stand for the elemental knowledge
that the physician must have at his command, namely the four philosophies for the earthly
and the four astronomies for the celestial concerns. At the same time the eight mothers
indicate the sum total of the semina of created objects, the limbus in which the upper-
celestial and the lower-physical elementary principles are still conjoined. Hence Adam
was made of eight parts - old gnostic stock-in-trade that re-emerges in the Paracelsian
corpus (see-note top. 204). A medieval predecessor to the 'eight astronomies' also men-
tioned by Paracelsns is Daniel of Morley's Liber de naturis inferiorum et superiorum '.
The Paracelsian pater elementatus and mater elementata (of Trithemius) should be collated
with the 'upper vulcani ', the husbands, from whom 'element-women' conceive ( Lahy-
rinthus medicorum, XI, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 213). The whole idea of the eight mothers
and the correspondence of the four upper and four lower elements belongs to the Gnostic
heritage of the pre-eminence of the Eight (Ogdoas). Pagel, W.: Das Riitsel der Acht
Mutter im Paracelsischen Corpus, Sudhoffs Arch. Gesch. Med. Naturw. 1975, vol. LIX,
pp. 254-266. Pagel, W.; Winder, M.: The Higher Elements and Prime Matter in Renais-
sance Naturalism and in Paracelsus, Ambix 1974, XXI, 93-127. Pagel, W.; Winder, M.:
Die Konjunktion der irdischen und himmlischen Elemente in der Renaissancephilosophie
und im echten Paracelsus, Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1975, XI, 187-204. Pagel, W.:
Paracelsus als Naturmystiker; in Faivre, Zimmermann, Epochen der Naturmystik, Berlin
1979, pp. 52-104 (pp. 63-67).
Page 75, line 18 and note 201
'Light of nature' expressing consummation of object-specific 'life' and as measure of time
'Sieben Defensiones' (1537/38), Erste Def., Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 127-128. Light of
nature as an effect of the stars: Philosophia sagax, lib. I, cap. 1, Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 23.
Astronomical and other time: Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 19.
The significance of this in the natural philosophy of Paracelsus has been exaggerated
and misinterpreted. Its meaning is definitely not: natural science. It is rather the sum
total of the innumerable 'sciences' contained in each of the innumerable objects of nature.
This conveys the many ways in which each of these objects realizes the building up of its
form and the execution of its function. As Goldammer expresses it: The light of nature is
not a light ignited and radiated by nature, hut a principle that constitutes and penetrates
nature, cf. Goldammer, K.: Lichtsymholik in philosophischer Weltanschauung, Mystik
und Theosophie vom 15. bis zum 17. Jahrhundert, Stud. gener. 1960, XIII, 670-682;
Goldammer, K.: Der Beitrag des Paracelsus zur neuen wissenschaftlichen Methodologie
und zur Erkenntnislehre, Med.-hist. J. 1966, I, 75-95. Light of nature is the principle
'behind nature' whereby the constitution of individual man and things is made meaningful
(p. 78). It is connected with the invisible astral body in man (p. 79). Like the latter it is
lit up by the Holy Ghost (p. 80). Qua scientia it shines not in the investigator, hut in the
object investigated (p. 88). The most consistent interpretation is the entelecheia which
leads the individual to perfection, its 'monarchy' at a certain point of time - the light
Addenda and Errata 357
of nature is and acts in the centre of the individual (Sieben defensiones, I, Sudhoff, vol. XI,
pp. 127-128; Philosophia sagax, I, 3, Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 67; Pagel, W.: Das medizinische
Weltbild des Paracelsus (Goldammer, K., ed., Kosmosophie, vol. I), Steiner, Wiesbaden
1962, pp. 101-102, p. 54 and passim; Pagel, W.: Paracelsus als Naturmystiker; in Faivre,
Zimmermann; Epochen der Naturmystik, Berlin 1979, pp. 63-67).
Page 88, lines 5-6; page 270, line 1
Was Paracelsus original in adding the third principle - salt - to sulphur and mercury?
The answer is yes and no. The way in which he juxtaposed salt as third of a trium-
virate that was operative in all realms of nature was indeed original and essential to his
cosmosophic synthesis. However, salt as separate from the sulphur and mercury of the
metals was stock-in-trade in mediaeval alchemy and not merely (as has been inferred)
a form of sulphur. Clearer than in Geber (where the idea may have originated) the salt
even gains an exalted position as a prime - solidifying - principle that makes action in
nature possible in the first place. In other words, it is viewed as superior rather than juxta-
posed to sulphur and mercury. It accounts for their formation of bodies by enabling them
to penetrate matter - hence its designation as honorific or animated by virtue of its sublime
and exalted properties of penetrating and expelling. Comparable to fire it acts like the
artisan in his workshop - it is nature itself captured by art. Thus we read in Lullius, where
also a list is given of things of all realms with salt as essential component, from sea-water,
egg-yolk, clouds, fire, hitter-salt, urinary salt, ash, borax, aleali down to 'sulphur exalted'
and 'mercury sublimated' (Raym. Lullii Testamentum novissimum, cap. XXVII; in
Libelli aliquot chemici op. Doct. Toxitae, Basil. 1572, pp. 166-168, 21). Borrichius inter-
preted this rightly as 'salt in all things' and added a more restrictive quotation from .
Isaacus with salt as component of all metals (Hermetis et Aegyptior. sapientia, Hafniae
1674, p. 394). Similarly in Michael Scotus a third component of metals is called 'earth'
(metals generated from composition of mercury, sulphur and terra). It reappeared as faex
in the mediaeval-arabic 'Septem tractatus Trismegisti aurei' in Ars chemica ', Argentor.
1566, pp. 17-18 and significantly as inherent unicuique materiae. Paracelsisists identified
thefaex with terra (Penotus, De denario medico, Bern 1608, 103) and with the Paracelsian
salt (Dorneus, Physica genesis, Theatr. Chem., Argent or 1613, vol. I, p. 376). To all this:
Pagel, W.: Paracelsus, Traditionalism and Medieval Sources; in Medicine, Science and
Culture (essays in honour of 0. Temkin), Baltimore 1963, pp. 51-75 (p. 58 seq). To the
probable author of the Scholia to the Septem tract - Israel Harvetus -: Gilly, C.: Zwischen
Erfahrung und Spekulation, Theod. Zwinger und die religiiise und kulturelle Krise seiner
Zeit, Basler Z. Gesch. AltertKunde 1977, LXXVII, 57-137 (74-75). Dorneus was possibly
the editor(' Gnosius Belga ')rather than the author as suspected by Pagel, W.: Paracelsus,
Traditionalism and Medieval Sources, Baltimore 1963; another 'Helga' could be E.
Vogelius.
Page 90, caption to figure 9
Iconography of Paracelsus
The portrait formerly ascribed to Jan van Scorel and more recently to Quentin
Matsys was copied and modified in a series purporting to show Paracelsus in his first
Alsatian period in the middle twenties. A possible archetype is in possession of the Loeve-
nitch collection in New York. It is regarded as a copy from a lost portrait by Hans Holbein.
It shows a juvenile rather fleshy Paracelsus perhaps from his Basel period in 1527. For
detail Blaser, R.: Beitriige zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und Technik in Basel,
Olten 1959 should be consulted.
358 Addenda and Errata
Page 95, note 251 · Page 102, note 268
Van Helmont's discovery of gas and Paracelsus' possible presentiments: 'chaos' - gas
Van Helmont discovered a 'new' volatile substance, i.e., one that was different from
air and water vapour. He called it' gas'. As it could not easily be retained in the receptacle,
he also called it 'wild spirit' ( spiritus sylvestris). This may have been vaguely foreshadowed
by the following passage from the 'Opus paramirum' which is to the effect that there is
a spirit which makes inert material 'male', i.e., active, alive, and responsive. Thus sulphur
is activated by ignition and mercury by sublimation. Salt is activated by solution whereby
acids are formed 'mit aller ungestiimikeit'. However, the latter phrase is not rendered in
Latin translations of the passage sylvestre, but tumultuose (Opus paramitum, I, 3. Sudhoff,
vol. IX, p. 52). Nevertheless a passage in an early Helmontian work may be reminiscent
of this Paracelsian concept: 'in all solution ... some exhalations are stirred up, being
before at quiet, which as they are wild ones, they do not again obey coagulation; therefore
the waters (sc. acids such as aqua fortis) do of necessity fly away or being restrained do
burst the vessels (Supplementum de Spadanis fontibus, IV, par. 6, Ortus Med. Amstelod
1652, p. 552; Oriatrike of Physic refined, ti:ans. J. Chandler, London 1662, p. 697). It
may well be that the term gas was etymologically derived from the Paracelsian term
chaos. The··meaning of the latter, however, is quite different. In Paracelsus it means any
medium or habitation from which an object draws its means of subsistence or certain
qualities (examples collected in Pagel, W.: The Wild Spirit (Gas) of J.B. Van Helmont
and Paracelsus, Amhix 1962, X, 1-13, 4). Finally it is tempting though inconclusive to
connect the Helmontian spiritus sylvestris with those elementary spirits which Paracelsus
called sylvestres.
Their properties may he correlated as follows: I. Paracelsus: the sylvestres are spirits;
Van Helmont: gas is a volatile spirit. II. Paracelsus: they are uncouth in appearance and
behaviour; Van Helmont: gas is 'wild' because it takes a special effort to keep in in vitro.
III. Paracelsus: they are not wholly spiritual, hut have a material body of 'subtle flesh'
that is specific to themselves; Van Helmont: gas has a material basis, namely water - the
material basis of all objects in nature; indeed, it is water to the extent that it is matter,
but water that has received the almost indelible stamp of specificity - 'seminalis concreti
proprietas in Gas perseverat' (Complex. et mistion. elemental. figmentum, 29, Opp.,
Francofurti 1682, p. 129). IV. Paracelsus: their habitat and origin is the air; Van Helmont:
gas is 'airy' by dint of its volatility, though definitely not air. V. Paracelsus: this habitat
is called chaos; Van Helmont: the specificity of gas and its difference from air and water
vapour are expressed by the use of a 'new' term, namely chaos or gas. This designates the
spirit specific for one individual substance (Pagel, Ambix 1962, X, 10). Concerning the
specificity of gas which is essential in Van Helmont's concept the Arcana of Paracelsus
may be mentioned: they are the astral efficients in objects which are specific to each
individual object and at the same time are 'directed by the astra like feathers in the
wind', i.e., they are volatile (Paragranum, III, Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 185 and pp. 182-185).
Paracelsus also spoke of wesentliche Geister which are immanent in every object (wesent-
lichen Ding). There are as many spirits as there are bodies and objects in nature (De
natura rerum, lib. IV, Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 329-330). In Van Helmont's concept gas
is the object itself divested of its coarse material cover thus revealing its essential and
specific volatile kernel - the internal 'spring' that makes the object 'tick'.
In conclusion: gas remains Van Helmont's discovery. It is quite different from the
Paracelsian chaos although the latter may have influenced Van Helmont's coining of the
'new' term gas. Similarly Paracelsian 'pneumatic' deliberations and observations formed
a congenial background of inspiration to Van Helmont without detracting from his
originality in discovering and laying the foundations to our knowledge of gases and
pneumatic chemistry.
Addenda and Errata 359
Mercury - the 'mother' of all metals
Von der Bergsucht, III, 1, 2, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 522 seq, and vol. III, 2, 1 cap. 5.
Sudhoff, vol. IX, pp. 526-527. 'So ist auch nicht minder das Mercurius vivus die muter ist
aller siben metallen und hilich sei ein muter der metallen genennet werden, dan er is ein
ofnes metal' (De natura rerum, lib. I, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 318).
Page 107, note 287
Metals, water and the terrestrial Archeus ( Erdgeist)
The correct loci from Paracelsus are: De natura rerum, lib. I, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 318;
Das Buch de mineralibus, Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 37; Philos. de gener. et fruct. quatt. ele-
mentor. Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 105 (tr. Ill, cap. 10), Huser (fol. ed.), vol. II, pp. 53-56.
Metals are an offspring of the element water (p. 97), hut grow and develop in the
earth by virtue of the terrestrial archeus (Erdgeist; De natura rerum, I, Sudhoff, vol. XI,
p. 318). Expressed differently: nature creates in the element water a tree which invades
the earth and here produces its 'fruit' -the metals (Buch de mineralihus, Sudhoff, vol. Ill,
p. 37). Or finally: 'Ares' distributes the 'first matter' of metals in the earth ('in der
globul ', De gener. et fruct. quatt. elementor., tr. III, cap. 10, Vom archeus der metallen,
Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 105). All seven metals are horn through the archeus terrae and not
from any sulphur or mercury or through the philosopher's stone of the alchemist. The
latter can transmute, but - unlike nature - not generate de novo (De natura rerum, I,
Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 318).
Page 108
Paracelsus' monist ideas: dynamic working-matter (Wirk-Stoff)
This replaces the dualist view of a soul entering and acting on matter from outside.
Instead the emphasis lies on dynamic impulses that are inseparable from and act in mat-
ter. On the Aristotelian roots of these monistic ideas and their elaboration by Van Helmont,
Harvey and Glisson see Pagel, W.: William Harvey's Biological Ideas, Basel 1967, pp.
252-272; Pagel, W.: Harvey and Glisson on Irritability with a Note on Van Helmont,
Bull. Hist. Med. 1967, XLI, 497-514; Pagel, W.: Chemistry at theCross-Roads: The Ideas
of Joachim Jungius, Ambix 1969, XVI, 100-108 (ii propos Kangro,H.: Joachim Jungius'
Experimente und Gedanken zur Begriindung der Chemie als Wissenschaft, Steiner, Wies-
baden 1968); Pagel, W.: New Light on William Harvey, Basel 1976, pp. 34-36, 52-54,
77-80. For the Ruchni-gaschmi as a mediaeval-pantheistic version of 'working-matter'
in Sal. ibn Gehirol see Joel, M.: Ihn Gebirols Bedeutung fiir die Geschichte der Philosophie,
Breslau 1857, p. 36; for microcosm, p. 29. To Mechor chajim, III, 6, see also Munk, S.:
Melanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe, Paris 1859, p. 39.
Page 112, line 4
Theories of elements and matter
Goldammer, K.: Bemerkungen zur Struktur des Kosmos und der Materie bei Para-
celsus; in Eulner et al., Medizingeschichte in unserer Zeit, Stuttgart 1971, pp. 121-144.
Passages on the divine 'fiat' as prime matter non-created call for reconsideration in the
light of Pagel, W.: The Prime Matter of Paracelsus, Amhix 1961, IX, 117-135; Pagel, W.;
Winder, M.: Die Konjunktion der himmlischen und irdischen Elemente in der Renais-
sance-Philosophie und im echten Paracelsus; in Domandl, Paracelsus, Werk und Wir-
kung, Wien 1975, pp. 197-204; Pagel, W.: Paracelsus als Naturmystiker; in Faivre,
Zimmermann, Epochen der Naturmystik, Berlin 1979, pp. 67-69. In the latter the argu-
ment is largely based on genuine works and not on 'Deutero-Paracelsica '. Briefly: the
360 Addenda and Errata
world as a whole - iliaster - 'is the first matter before all creation' (' Iliaster ist die erste
materia vor aller Schopfung', Von dem Bad Pfafers Tugenden, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 658).
See also note to page 204.
Goldammer, K.: Die Paracelsische Kosmologie und Materietheorie in ihrer wissen-
schaftsgeschichtlichen Stellung und Eigenart, Med.•hist. J. 1971, VI, 5-35 -the originality
of Paracelsus' theories as compared with those of Ficino, Pico and Agrippa of Nettesheim
through his specific anthropological, medico-chemical and microcosmic concerns. Indebted-
ness to neo-Platonism and Gnosis is admitted, but somewhat underplayed in its share in
not a few doctrines that at first sight appear as original Paracelsian.
Page 113, note 301
The Cagastrum
The concept is related to the ideas prominent in gnosticism - the material and ele-
mental world is a pleroma tes kakias, a fullness of evil. In the Paracelsian corpus this is
poignantly expressed in treatises regarded as spurious, notably those probably emanating
from the circle of Valentin Weigel (e.g. De secretis creationis - on its tradition see Lieb, F.:
Val. Weigels Kommentar z. Schopfungsgeschichte, Ziirich 1962; also perhaps 'Secretum
magicum de lapide philosophorum' as cited in note 301, p. 113). Weigel borrowed from
the 'Philosophia ad Athenienses' (e.g. bodies as 'excrement' or 'coagulated smoke' of
the astra; elements as seat of devil and hell, cf. Peuckert, W.E.; Zeller, W., eds.: Weigels
Werke, vol. I, Stuttgart 1962, pp. 46-55). For more genuine Paracelsian loci: Liber meteo-
rorum, Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 243, pp. 253-254, p. 260 - the site of the four elements as the
'heaven' of Lucifer as already presented in Origen (De principiis, Ill, 5, 4).
The whole question of the Cagastrum and its affiliation to gnosis and cabbala has
been discussed by Pagel, W.: Das medizinische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962,
p. 89, pp. 95-98; Pagel, W.; Winder, M.: Gnostisches bei Paracelsus und Konrad von
Megenberg; in Fachliteratur des Mittelalters (Festschrift fiir G. Eis), Stuttgart 1968,
pp. 359-371 (p. 362); Pagel, W.: Paracelsus als Naturmystiker; in Faivre, Zimmermann,
Epochen der Naturmystik, Berlin 1979, pp. 95-99.
Page 115, line 8
Elemental spirits
Sources (cf. Pagel, W.: Paracelsus als Naturmystiker; in Faivre, Zimmermann,
Epochen der Naturmystik, Berlin 1979, pp. 80-83): Psellus (1018-1078 De daemonibus),
Ficino, Agrippa, based on the biblical: the marriage of the Sons of God (giants) with the
Danghters of Man. To this Paracelsus, Philosophia sagax, I, 5, Sudhoff, vol. XII, pp. 113,
468; Isidorus, Etymol., VIII, 11, 15: in 'daemonibus est omnis scientia'; in Paracelsus:
'so wissen die geister die ding all auch, sie konnen alle die kiinst' (De invent. artium, I,
Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 251); they communicate with us in sleep and dream (Philosophia
magna, V, Vom schlafen und wachen der leiber und geister, Sudhoff, vol. XIII, pp. 354-
357).
The elemental spirits - their literary after-life: The central figure, the watery spirit
Undine, was immortalised in E.T.A. Hoffmann's opera with Fouquet's libretto. It is
largely representative of Paracelsus' appreciation in German Romanticism, cf. Goldammer,
K.: Paracelsus in der deutschen Romantik, Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1980, XX.
Page 116, line 30; page 139, line 15
Generation and putrefaction
Aristotle attributed an important role to putrefaction in spontaneous, notably abio-
genetic, generation. This role, however, was auxiliary. He said: 'nothing is generated
Addenda and Errata 361
putrefying, but being cooked and only the residues of the cooking putrefy' (De gener.
anim., Ill, 2; 762al5). Harvey did not deny the existence of abiogenetic generation, but
reduced its significance considerably whilst discussing in detail equivocal generation from
non-specific or dissimilar parentage or precursors (metamorphosis) as occurring in insects.
Paracelsus also made provision for organic primordia - a seed born in dung from which
worms grow - instead of a direct (abiogenetic) conversion of putrifying material into live
beings (Labyrinthus medicorum, XI, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 215).
Page 118, line 1
Life - a process of combustion; the essential role of air
Life is combustion - 'as if I say it cannot burn is tantamount to my saying, it cannot
live' (Liber Azoth de ligno et linea vitae, Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 549). Equally it is 'in air
that there is the force of all life' (Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 558). Fire is 'the body of the soul'
or a 'house wherein the soul of man dwells'. This fire is 'true man' (ibidem). Life is invisible
celestial fire, air enclosed in a body, a 'tinging spirit of salt' (De natura rerum, Sudhoff,
vol. XI, p. 330). It is in and throngh air that spirits and astral bodies communicate with
each other (Philos. tract. quinque, tr. V, Sudhoff, vol. XIII, pp. 354-357; Liber de Nymphis,
tr. Ill, Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 133). On the Aristotelian, Stoic, neo-Platonic, hermetic and
Gnostic sources of these concepts see: Pagel, W.: Paracelsus and the Neo-Platonic and
Gnostic Tradition, Ambix 1960, VIII, 125-166 (notably p. 150) and Pagel, W.: Das
medizinische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962, pp. 57-58 and 113-115. Ibid.,
p. 90: It should be noted that the commentary to the hermetic Asclepius ascribed to
Ficinus is probably the work of Jae. Faber Stapulensis.
Page 121, line 12; page 208, line 25
Tereniabin
is the sweet celestial dew (drosomeli, aeromeli) of Persian-Arabic origin, cf. Lippmann,
E.O. v.: Geschichte des Zuckers, Leipzig 1890, pp. 83-87 (2nd ed., Berlin 1929, pp. 145-
153).
Page 121, line 13; page 227, line 14
Astral body and immortal soul
Althongh invisible the astral body is not immortal - in contrast to the immortal and
divine spirit (soul). It vanishes together with the elemental body to rejoin the stars whence
it came. By contrast: 'spiraculum vitae ... aus dem munt gottes ergangen zu dem er
wieder gehet' (Philosophia sagax, II, I, Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 288) and: 'wie gott selbs und
prima materia und der himel, die drei ewig und unzergenglich sind, als ist auch das gemiit
des menschen' (Liber de imaginibus, 12, Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 383) and: 'die sel aus got
und wider zu got get' (Devera influentia rerum, I, Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 221).
Page 124, note 347
Water supporting imagination
'eine jegliche imagination geht durchs wasser am krefftigsten' (De causis mor-
borum invisibilium, Ill, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 288) repeats almost literally statements
by Pico and Georgi us Venetus (Zorzi): 'ad aquas imaginationis affectus referamus' (Pico,
Heptaplus, V, Opp., Basil. 1557, p. 33); 'anima omnium rerum similitudo ... similis est
aquae per imaginationem' (Georg. Venetus (Zorzi), Harmonia totius mundi, cant. I,
ton. 6, cap. 5, fol. 103r, Venet. 1525). Pagel, W.: Gedanken zur Paracelsus-Forschung,
Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1980, XXI, 1980, 11-19 (p. 12 and note 2). The idea is
in the neo-Pythagorean-Platonic tradition. It was succinctly expressed by Numenius of
Apamea (2nd century): All souls sit by water that is pervaded by spirit divine ('proshi-
362 Addenda and Errata
zanein to hydati tas psychas theopnoo onti') (Porphyry, De antro nympharum, 10, Hol·
stenius-Van Goens, ed., Traj. ad Rh. 1765, p. 11).
Page 137
The ontological view of disease
This constitutes the central part of Van Helmont's medical reform - diseases are
entia, real things which befall man, attacking him from without and not merely the product
of imbalance of the humoral mixture appropriate to the individual from within. In this
and much of his detailed arguments he had been anticipated by Paracelsus. Both postulate
specific semina as disease-entia - they enshrine the plan, blue-print, idea or image according
to which the disease receives its 'strange form' (' solch seltsam biltnus der krankheiten ',
Opus paramirum I, 5, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 63), the 'species of disease in its anatomy'
(ibid., p. 64). Both attribute an essential role in forming the semen to morbid imagination
(fantasei} hatched in the vital principle (archeus}, but the latter is merely the parent from
whom the semen soon separates to attack it from outside. Passion, lust, sin and will are
thus convertible into a 'body', a kind of poison or ens morbi. Outside pathogenic agents
impress their specific 'seals' on the semen externalised from its parent and have become
an 'alien guest' to it (Pagel, W.: Van Helmont's concept of disease - to be or not to be?
The influence of Paracelsus, Bull. Hist. Med. 1972, XLVI, 419-455).
The ontological principle as conceived by Paracelsus and consolidated and amplified
by Van Helmont remained alive in Harvey, Sydenham, the naturalists of the early 19th
century and Virchow's cellular pathology (Pagel, W.: Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Virchow
und die W andlungen im ontologischen Krankheitsbegriff, Virchows Arch. Abt. A Path.
Anat. 1974, CCCLXIII, 183-211).
On the role of the historical period (diseases worse to-day than in the days of Hip·
pocrates and Rhazes) in Volumen paramirum, Ens dei, Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 228.
Page 137
Imagination and disease
Of general significance in view of the primarily spiritual nature of disease: 'krank-
heiten sind nit corpora, darumb geist gegen geist gebraucht sol werden' Paragranum, II,
Sudhoff, vol. VIII, pp. 177-178). It is essential in such violent diseases as rabies and plague
(Grosse Wundarztney, I, 3, 1, Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 169, Opus paramirum, IV, Sudhoff,
vol. IX, pp. 225-226; De natura rerum, IV, Sudhoff, vol. XI, 329, Volumen paramirum,
Sudhoff, vol. I, pp. 217-218).
Page 138, line 28 and page 143, line 20
Paracelsus and anatomy
The nearest Paracelsus comes to using the term in its ordinary usage is when he says
that wounds are to be considered in the light of the various members and systems (Buch
serogolia, Sudhoff, vol. V, p. 413 seq). He occasionally uses the term for morbid anatomy
(Kolleg. d. Paragr., 14 Bucher, Sudhoff, vol. V, p. 215). Other meanings include: the
morbid disposition of individual organs, the intrinsic power of an object, the acting
mechanism and situation of the various species of salt, sulphur and mercury, the situation
of herbs and minerals in the 'anatomy' of the archeus ( vulcanus) whereby its remedial
('alchemical', 'magic') action is directed. Finally anatomy can stand for the building up
of the form which makes an object what it is. In any case anatomy proper according to
Paracelsus is concerned with the correspondences of macrocosmic objects (sapphire,
mercury, cypress, wallflower, etc.) with members and organs - 'this is the anatomy of
man, and not the one which is studied by means of dissection as well as by the reexamina-
tion of parts after boiling' (Labyrinthus medicorum, IV, Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 182-184).
For detail and further loci see: Pagel, W.; Rattansi, P.: Vesalius and Paracelsus, Med.
Addenda and Errata 363
Hist. 1964, VIII, 309-328 (p. 311); also on the Paracelsian origin of the term synovia
(Elf Traktat, Sudhoff, vol. I, p. 132; Liber paragraph., VII, I, Sudhoff, vol. V, p. 244).
Page 142, line 3
Galen anticipating the homeopathic principle
De simpl. medicament. temperam. et facult., lib. III, 24-25, Kiihn, vol. XI, p. 613:
'purgantia ea attrahunt, quae ipsis similia sunt in corpore.' Against the principle: Hippocr.
Epidem. et Galeni Comment., II, Kuhn, vol. XVII, A, p. 911 seq., p. 915.
Page 145, line 12
Role of dosis
'Alie ding sind gift und nichts ohn gift; alein die dosis macht das ein ding kein gift
ist' (Defensiones, III, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 138). In the same vein (ibid.): 'es ist nicht zu vii
noch zu wenig, der das mittel trift der entpficht kein gift.' On the other hand there are
agents so strong that dosis is of no significance (Ursprung und herkunft der frantzosen,
V, 11, Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 300 seq., vol. VI, p. 11, p. 320; Spitalbuch, I, Sudhoff, vol. VII,
p. 383).
Page 150, line I
Doctrine of temperaments in Paracelsus
To this: Goldammer, K.: Der cholerische Kriegsmann und der melancholische Ketzer,
Psychologie und Pathologie von Krieg, Glaubenskampf und Martyrium in der Sicht des
Paracelsus, Psychiatrie und Gesellschaft, Stuttgart 1958, pp. 90-101. ·
Page 150, line I
Paracelsus on fools
Cranefield, P.F.; Federn, W.: The Begetting of Fools. An annotated translation of
Paracelsus, De generatione stultorum, Bull. Hist. Med. 1967, XLI, 56-74, 161-174. On
Gnostic ideas recognizable in this treatise - 'der Idiota wird den W eg zur sapientia weisen,
die den sternen uberlegen ist' by virtue of his nearness to God and freedom from astral
reasoning - see Pagel, W.; Winder, M.: Gnostisches bei Paracelsus und Konrad von
Megeuberg; in Fachliteratur des Mittelalters, Festschr. fiir G. Eis, Stuttgart 1968, p. 368.
On Gnostic sources concerning the ineptitude of the vulcani, 'heavenly apprentices and
immature master craftsmen' responsible for the making of fools, see Pagel, W.; Winder,
M.: The Eightness of Adam and Related Gnostic Ideas in the Paracelsian Corpus, Ambix
1969, XVI, 136.
Page 151, line 3
St. Vitus's dance, goitre, cretinism, hysteria, plague
Paracelsus can claim the merit of having placed St. Vitus's dance into the rank of
natural diseases (Proksch, J.K.: Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller, Wien 1911,
p. 36). Similarly Proksch drew attention to hysteria which according to Paracelsus starts
in the brain and not in the uterus (p. 38), to the description of hysterical blindness (p. 65)
and the omnipresence of epilepsy (caducus} in the body. On cretinism and goitre: Crane·
field, P.F.: The Discovery of Cretinism, Bull. Hist. Med. 1962, XXXVI, 489-511. Crane·
field, P.F.; Federn, W.: Paracelsus on Goitre and Cretenism. A translation and discussion
of De Struma vulgo, der Kropf, Bull. Hist. Med. 1963, XXXVII, 463-471. Merke, F.:
Hat Paracelsus als erster uber den Kretinismus berichtet und den Zusammenhang mit dem
endemischen Kropf vermutet? Karger-Gazette 1964, No. 9/10. Dilg-Frank, R.: Begriff
und Bedeutung von 'pestis-pestilentia' und ihre Verwendung bei Paracelsus, Salzb.
Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1980, XXI, 48-66. Mora, G.: Paracelsus' Psychiatry, Am. J.
Psychiat. 1967, CXXIV, 803-814.
364 Addenda and Errata
Pages 152, 314, 330
Paracelsus self-contradictory ?
Apparent contradictions are due to contrariety inherent in the facts, as for example
medicinal dosis essential in some, but without significance in other drugs (Sieben Defen-
siones, III, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 138; Herkunft der Frantzosen, V, 11, Sudhoff, vol. VII,
p. 300, vol. VI, 11, p. 320; Spitalbuch, I, Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 383). Medicine when practised
correctly is binding for all nations ('ir mir nach, ich nicht euch nach ', Paragranum,
Sudhoff, vol. VIII, pp. 56, 76, 140), yet there are geographical differences ('was nutzt
Rhazes in Wien', De gradibus, Brief an Cluser) and changes of diseases in time (Sieben
defensiones, II, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 135). Nature to be examined in her visible as well
as invisible manifestations (Pagel, W.: Das medizinische W eltbild des Paracelsus, Wies-
baden 1962, pp. 5-12). Some contradictions must be explained in developmental terms:
traditional convictions held earlier in life Paracelsus abandoned in later periods when
humoralist traces had been reduced, as in the appraisal of bile as an important tool rather
than an excrement (Pagel, W.: Gedanken zur Paracelsus-Forschung und zu Van Helmont,
Paracelsus in der Tradition, Salzb. Beitr. Paracelsus-Forsch. 1980, XXI, 11-19). Similar
reasons apply to the contradictory assessment of insanity in somatic terms at an earlier
period in his life and in religious-cosmosophical contexts in his final years. This change
would seem to follow from a change in interest, application and occupation at large rather
than a change in philosophy and cosmosophic theory (as suggested by Midelfort, H.C.E.:
Anthropological Roots of Paracelsus' Psychiatry; in Dilg-Frank, Kreatur und Kosmos,
Stuttgart 1981, pp. 67-77). That certain contradictions are not accessible to explanation
in such biographical terms was pointed out with regard to the syphilis books by Keil, G.:
Daems, M. F.: Paracelsus und die 'Franzosen ', Beobachtungen zur Venerologie Hohen-
heims, I. Pathologie und nosologisches Konzept, Nova Acta Paracels. 1977, IX, 99-151
(p. 122). The time intervening between the formulation of the contradictory statements
was too short to allow of developmental directions accounting for them.
Page 162, note 98
Fabius Violet and Joh. Walaeus on the 'hungry acid' as the agent of gastric digestion
The immediate source for Violet seems to be Quercetanus (De priscorum verae medi-
cinae materia, 1603, tr. II, De signaturis rerum, Col. Allobrog. 1609, pp. 110-112) and
Petr. Castellus (Epist. medicinal., v, Romae 1626, p. 141). The influence of Quercetanus
on Van Helmont and other Paracelsists is obvious. To these also belongs the crypto-
Paracelsist Stephan Rodericus de Castro (Pagel, W.: Wm. Harvey's Biological Ideas,
1967, p. 98). Gastric concoction in Severinus: Idea medicinae philosophicae, 1571, pp. 241
(not 141) and 184. 3 years before posthumous publication of Helmont's work Joh. Walaeus
had reported his quantified time series of dog experiments proving acid gastric digestion
(Epist. duae in Th. Bartolinus, Instit. anat., Lugd. Bat. 1645, pp. 445-447). Pagel, W.:
New Light on Wm. Harvey, Basel 1976, pp. 115-116, 130-131.
Page 170, note 112
Obstruction by tartar in the lung
Galen: De difficult. respir. I, 11, Kiihn, vol. VII, p. 781 seq.; De locis affectis, IV,
10 and 11, Kiihn, vol. VIII, pp. 272-296.
Page 177, note 137
Agrippa on immunity of places from plague
The best preventive is to seek out those places from which the plague has receded
Addenda and Errata 365
for more than a year. It is more dangerous to return to a place too early than to remain
in it. On Agrippa and his world see Zambelli, P.: Agrippa in den neueren kritischen Studien
und Handschriften, Arch. Kulturgesch. 1969, LI, 264-295. For a comprehensive appraisal
including Agrippa's debt to Georg. Venetus (Zorzi): Millier-Jahncke, W.-D.: Magie als
Wissenschaft im friihen 16. Jahrhundert, Beziehungen zwischen Magie, Medizin und
Pharmacie im Werk des Agrippa; Diss. Marburg 1973.
Page 195, line 1
Leonhart Thurneisser - his priorities and merits in the chemical examination of urine
and mineral water
A priority quarrel between Dorn and Thurneisser concerns the idea of a chemical
examination of urine chiefly by weighing and distillation. In his two pertinent treatises
of 1571 and 1576 (Moehsen, I. C. W.: Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wissenschaften in der
Mark Brandenburg, Berlin 1783, p. 189, no. III, and p. 191, no. IX, respectively) Thurneis-
ser may have followed an older model, as Dorn insinuates, and Sudhoff believes (Biblio-
graphia Paracels., p. 302). On the other hand, both of Thurneisser's works antedate Dom's
treatise, published under the name of Paracelsus, but most likely written by Dorn him-
self. It should be added that the same illustrations which adorn the latter (notably the
balance and the 'human furnace') are found in Thurneisser's second work antedating
Dorn by 1 year, whereas no pictures are found in the first treatise of 1571. This favours
Thurneisser's priority. It is the latter who is mentioned as the sole designer of 'chemi-
cal uroscopy' by authors of the late XVI th and of the XVII th centuries, notably Hierony-
mus Reusner, James Hart, J.B. Van Helmont, and others. Weighing of the urine, as in-
culcated by Thurneisser, remained a sound method of urine examination and was estab-
lished as such by Van Helmont. Seen in this light Thurneisser was productive of some
progressive ideas and results, however much overgrown by the fruits of wild imagination
and deliberate trickery (on chemical uroscopy and chemical dissection of urine, see pp.
190-200). In this field Thurneisser's position appears to be equalled by his merits in
the chemical examination of mineral waters. Though not the first in this field, it was
Thurneisser and not Paracelsus who carried out such investigations, and he did so on a
systematic scale. For detail and further references see Debus, A.G.: The Paracelsian
Aerial Niter, Isis 1964, LV, 43-61 and Debus, A.G.: Solution-Analyses prior to Boyle,
Chymia 1962, VIII, 41-61.
On Thurneisser's chemical uroscopy in medical-historical perspective: Bieker, J.:
Die Harndiagnostik des Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn, Dt. Arztebl. 1970, LXVII,
3202-3209, Bieker, J.: Die Geschichte der Nierenkrankheiten, Mannheim 1972, Bieker, J.:
Chemiatrische Vorstellungen und Analogiedenken in der Harndiagnostik Leonh. Thurn-
eissers (1571, 1576), Sudhoffs Arch. Gesch. Med. Naturw. 1976, LX, 66-75.
For a new, comprehensive and definitive assessment of Thurneisser in all aspects:
Morys, P.: Medizin und Pharmazie in der Kosmologie Leonhard Thurneissers zum Thurn
(1531-1596); Diss. Marburg 1981 (typescript). It should not be forgotten that the source
for the human figure as a urine furnace is in the first place genuine Paracelsian: 'im harn
ist der ganze microcosmus fiir gebildet' (Opus paramirum, III, tr. 5, Sudhoff, vol. IX,
p. 164).
Page 200, line 6
Progressive aspects of Paracelsus' medicine
At a conservative estimate a short list of Paracelsus' contributions to the development
. towards modern medicine should include the following items: (1) Paracelsus devoted
much labour to the study of the miners' disease and was the first to present it as an oc-
cupational illness ( ?1533-1534), an achievement marred only by the fact that his treatise
366 Addenda and Errata
first appeared long after his death (1567) and minor productions were allowed to hold
the field until then. (2) Paracelsus' original and advanced clinical descriptions of the
protean manifestations of syphilis - then a new disease and believed to be single in type
and appearance. Paracelsus identified congenital syphilis, rejected guaiac as well as
heroic treatment with mercury and recognized the latter as the true curative agent qua
metal. (3) Knowledge of the diuretic action of mercury and its effect in dropsy. (4) The
connection of goitre with minerals and drinking water. (5) The advanced study of mineral
waters which, though not really supplemented by chemical analysis, led to anticipation
of geological knowledge. (6) The recognition of exogenous agents in disease and of the
local anatomical changes resulting from their action. Paracelsus thus foreshadowed modern
aetiology and morbid anatomy and prepared the view of classifiable diseases, each with
a specific cure. (7) The preparation and use of new chemical remedies such as tartar
emetic and of ether, the latter being experimentally tested in chickens and recommended
as a soothing agent in fits, notably in epileptic fits. (8) Paracelsus devised methods for
the detoxication of chemical remedies achieving for example the conversion of sulphides
into sulphates by heating with saltpetre. (9) The launching of iatro-chemistry, as success·
fully taken up by the Paracelsists and emerging in the first 'London Pharmacopoea' of
1618. (10) Demonstration of the precipitation of protein by means of acid. (11) The re·
cognition of acid in the stomach of certain animals and at certain times and the praise
given to acid mineral waters as appetisers and regulators of metabolism. (12) The recog·
nition of the healing power of nature causing Paracelsus to preach and practise antiseptic
principles.
His detailed descriptions of syphilitic affections - from these we can conclude that
they were in principle identical with those seen today - are superior to any previous or
coeval descriptions. They include venereal ulcer - cambucca - , although primary and
postprimary lesions are not distinguished. Visceral syphilis, especially of bone and brain,
are particularly well treated and so is congenital syphilis including its late manifestations.
Paracelsus observed hydrargyrosis and interpreted it as the result of a retention of mercury
in the organs (Proksch, J. K.: Paracelsus iiber die venerischen Krankheiten und die
Hydrargyrose, Med.-chir. ZentBl. 1882, XVII, 67). He improved mercurial therapy and
removed unnecessary dietary restrictions therein. His interest in anatomy was not as
small as usually thought. He took great interest in the crossing of the optic nerves and is
responsible for the introduction of the term synovia. He first described dancing mania
and chorea in medical terms as due to natural rather than demonic causes, also goitre
and cretinism, hysteria and hysterical blindness, the variety of hysterical manifestations
and the role of the brain therein (although still regarding the uterus as the principal source).
He allowed air and light into the sick-room and seems to have kept aloof of (or perhaps
not known) such cruel methods as the infusion of boiling oil into wounds. On the other
hand he rejected wound suture. He may have known colostomy and the introduction
of a silver tube into the gut. All this is ultimately mixed with grossly archaic methods
such as the dried toad fixed on pestilential ulcers to suck up the pestilential poison -
specifically, the moss from skulls for haemostasis and a welter of astrological injunctions
in surgery (p. 71 and Proksch, J. K.: Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller, Safar,
Wien 1911). See also Proksch, J.K.: Paracelsus-Forschung; Eine Antwort auf die Rezen·
sion des Prof. Karl Sudhoff, Wien 1912 (mostly on the latter's irrational and wishful
statements on the supposed absence of astrology in Paracelsus; to this: Pagel, W.: Das
medizinische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962, pp. 5-6). Traditional 'Dreck-
Apotheke' was a lively source in Paracelsian therapy.
A new comprehensive and magisterial account of the syphilis in the wider perspective
of Paracelsus' biological and medical ideas is by Keil, G.; Daems, W.F.: Paracelsus und
die Franzosen, Beobachtungen zur Venerologie Hohenheims. I: Pathologie und noso-
logisches Konzept, Nova Acta Paracels. 1977, IX, 99-151. It is introduced by an amply
documented critical review of the origin and epidemic spread of the disease.
Addenda and Errata 367
Page 204, line 3
Paracelsus and gnosticism
The whole subject has been studied in detail as follows: Pagel, W.: Paracelsus and
the Gnostic and Neo-Platonic Tradition, Ambix 1960, VIII, 125-166. Pagel, W.: The
Prime Matter of Paracelsus, Ambix 1961, IX, 117-135. Pagel, W.: Das medizinische
Weltbild des Paracelsus. Seine Zusammenhiinge mit Neuplatonismus und Gnosis, Wies-
baden 1962. Pagel, W.: The Wild Spirit (Gas) of Van Helmont and Paracelsus, Ambix
1962, X, 1-13. Pagel, W.: Paracelsus: Traditionalism and Mediaeval Sources; in Medicine,
Science and Culture, Essays in honour of O. Temkin, Baltimore 1968, pp. 51-75. Pagel,
W.; Winder, M.: Gnostisches bei Paracelsus und Konrad v. Megenberg; in Fachliteratur
des Mittelalters, Festschr. f. G. Eis, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 359-371. Pagel, W.; Winder, M.:
The Eightness of Adam and related Gnostic Ideas in the Paracelsian Corpus Ambix 1969,
XVI, 119-139. Pagel, W.: Das Ratsel der Acht Miitter im Paracelsischen Corpus, Sudhoffs
Arch. Gesch. Med. Naturw. 1975, LIX, 254-266.
The Gnostic concepts found in the Paracelsian corpus notably include:
(1) the pessimistic appraisal of the material world of elements and creatures as some·
thing base and excrementitious ('pleroma tes kakias', hell);
(2) the distinction between the Highest God of redemption from the lower powers of
astral demiurges (archontes, administrators - dioiketes) who are responsible for
creation;
(3) separatio in matter uncreated, in contrast to creation de novo from nothing;
(4) the role of water as universal matter, the seat of Behemoth or devil;
(5) creation of Adam from eight parts, the eight astronomies and philosophies, the
eight mothers, the dark fire, the middle body, the planets as blacksmiths, the inepti-
tude of the lower creators such as vulcani and demiurges.
These Gnostic ideas are conspicuous in works which are regarded as spurious, such as
notably the 'Philosophia ad Athenienses'. However, they also occur in genuine treatises
though in a diluted form, e.g. the planets,and their role as 'blacksmiths' and creators of
a minor degree and inferior performance (Philosophia sagax and De generatione stultorum),
the idea of a 'middle body' or 'middle Life' (Opus paramirum) and the marriage of the
lower - female - elements with the - male - astral forces (the 'Vulcanischen' in Labyrin-
thus medicorum, see above to p. 82). Quite probably there are cases in which the name
of Paracelsus was used to put across heretical ideas, but sometimes this was not without
historical justification and sometimes heretical and notably pantheistic concepts were
genuine Paracelsian.
Prime matter and pantheistic views: Here two headings must be distinguished: (1)
prime matter of the world and (2) prime matter of the individual objects.
(1) The prime matter of the world was the.fiat - the word of God (Opus paramirum,
I, cap. 2, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 48). It is therefore not matter in the modern sense, but
something uncreated and with God. Only thereafter the word fiat was 'made material' -
the iliastrum, and from this the three building principles salt, sulphur and mercury emerged
(De mineralibus, Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 34; Liber Azoth, cap. 1, Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 549).
See above note (top. 112) on iliaster as 'matter before all creation'.
(2) The prime matter of the individual objects is the seed of this object (Labyrinthus
medicorum, cap. 5, Sudhoff, vol. XI, p. 187, De mineralibus, Sudhoff, vol. III, pp. 33-34).
The seeds were created by God from nothing, then left to be developed by their inherent
'blacksmiths' - the vulcani or archei.
A pantheistic view expressed by Paracelsus is to the effect that God, prima materia,
heaven and the human soul (' gemiit ') are indestructible and eternal (De imaginibus,
Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 383). For detail see Pagel, W.: Das medizinische Weltbild des
Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962, pp. 79-84; Pagel, W.: The Prime Matter of Paracelsus,
Ambix 1961, IX, 117-135; Pagel, W.: Paracelsus als Naturmystiker; in Faivre, Zimmer·
mann, Epochen der Naturmystik, Berlin 1979, pp. 67-69.
 368 Addenda and Errata
Page 211, line 8
Mediaeval sources - Hildegard von Bingen
. For Paracelsus' acquaintance with the works of Hildegard we have but scanty evi-
dence: Fragmente ad lib. de fundamentis sapientiae (Sudhoff, vol. XIII, p. 334).
In folklore star-shoots are considered as the products of their self-cleansing (' schneuzen
und putzen'). See Humboldt, A. v.: Kosmos, Stuttgart 1845, vol. I, p. 393 and note 28
to p. 121. Earth as the cloaca of heaven: Leibniz, G. W.: Theodicee, Reclam, Leipzig,
vol. I, p. 456.
For Gnostic-mediaeval affiliations and magia naturalis in Paracelsus cf. Goldammer,
K.; Magia naturalis und die Entstehung der modernen Naturwissenschaft, Studia Leibnit.,
1975, 7, 30-55. Schipperges, H.: Magia et scientia bei Paracelsus, Sudhoffs Arch. Gesch.
Med. Naturwiss. 1976, LX, 76-92. Schipperges, H.: Medizinischer Unterricht im Mittel-
alter, Dt. med. Wschr. 1960, 856-861, Schipperges, H.: Paracelsus. Der Mensch im Licht
der Natur, Stuttgart 1974. Lauer, H.H.: Taumellolch (sailam) in einem arabischen
Zauberrezept, Sudhoffs Arch. Gesch. Med. Naturw. 1965, XLIX, 37-49. Lauer, H.H.:
Elemente und Kriifte im Naturverstiindnis des Paracelsus, Antaios, 1969, XI, 321-334.
Page 213, line 8; page 267, line 23
The hermetic doctrine of the middle position of the sulphuric soul between spirit and body
According to Zosimus the 'soul' is of a sulphuric and caustic constitution. It joins
the two contrary things - spirit and body - and changes them into one being (Berthelot,
M.P.E.: Collection des anciens alchimistes Grecs, 1888, Zosimus, III, 12, vol. I, p. 152,
and Ill, 152). Nearer to Paracelsus and a more probable source for him is: Lullus, R.:
Potestas divitiarum; in Artis auriferae, 1610, vol. III, p. 67: in the soul and sulphur
extracted from the 'occult stone' is infused that virtue which unites two contraries.
For further detail and the general position of Hermes and Archelaus in the Paracelsian
corpus see: Pagel, W.: Paracelsus, Traditionalism and Mediaeval Sources; in Medicine,
Science and Culture, Essays in honour of O. Temkin, Baltimore 1968, pp. 53, 56, 62.
Page 213, note 37
Essential and·material fire
The sentence quoted is from: Liber de renovatione et restauratione, Sudhoff, vol. Ill,
p. 209. In Liber Azoth (Sudhoff, vol. XIV, p. 577) the salamander is said to live in the
essential fire. The tradition of creatures living in fire is at least as old as Aristotle (Hist.
Animal., V, 19, 552bl0; also Pliny: Nat. hist., X, 42; Aelian: Nat. anim., II, 2; Apuleius:
De deo Socratis 8; Kore kosmou, Stobaeus I, 996; Philo: Noae Plant. 12, De aeternit.
mundi 45). Aristotle mentions the Pyrigona (? Empedoclean; De respirat., XXI, 4 78al6
on pyr psychikon). See Leisegang, H.: in Cohn, Heinemann, eds., Philo, Philosophische
Werke, vol. IV, Breslau 1923, p. 59, note 2 (De gigantibus).
The 'dark', material fire: Sources collected in Pagel, W.: Das medizinische W eltbild
des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962, p. 71, supplemented from Aristotle, neo-Platonists,
Gnosis, Rabbinics, Isaac the Blind, Alstedius in Pagel, W.; Winder, M.: The Higher
Elements and Prime Matter in Renaissance Naturalism and in Paracelsus, Ambix 1974,
XXI, 102-105. Additional: Cahbala denudata, 1684, II, pars 2, tract. 4, Siphra de zeniutha,
comm. R.C. Vital, p. 128; Hippolyt. Refutatio omn. haeres., VI, 9; Bousset, W.: Haupt-
probleme der Gnosis, Giittingen 1907, pp. 230, 232. lgnis alacer (celestial) versus ignis
vaporosus (terrestrial) in Venceslaw Lavinius, 'De coelo terrestri' in Nicolaus Niger
Hapelius (Raph. Eglinus) ,' Cheiragogia Heliana de auro philosophico necdum cognito'
(Marpurgi 1612, p. 98).
Addenda and Errata 369
Page 214, note 43
Techellus/Konrad von Megenberg as mediaeval sources to Paracelsus
The source for Techellus is: von Megenberg, K.: Buch der Natur. He is identical
with and better known as Zahel, Thetel, Cheel, Theel and the spurious author of a book
on stones with carved images. It appears as: Techelsbiichlein - biichlein eines grossen
meisters in der jiidischheit der hiess Techel (Megenberg, Pfeiffer, Stuttgart 1861, pp. 469-
4 72). See Choulant, L.: Graphische lncunabeln in N aturgeschichte und Medizin, Leipzig
1858, pp. 99-122 and Pagel, W.: Paracelsus and Techellus the Jew, Bull. Hist. Med. 1960,
XXXIV, 274-277.
It is true that the treatises in which Techellus occurs are probably not authentic Para-
celsian. However, the main point in Techellus/Megenberg is the natural - divine - origin
of images carved in stones. This very point Paracelsus made his own in De imaginibus,
cap. 7, Sudhoff, vol. XIII, pp. 373-375, a genuine treatise. It is likely that Paracelsus
was acquainted with Megenberg's encyclopedic work, for it was extant in several incunable
editions and once reprinted in Paracelsus' life-time (Egenolph, Francof. 1536). There are
a number of Paracelsian doctrines also found in Megenberg, especially on elementary
spirits, monsters, miracle-men, stars, sin, and lunatics and fools, though with typically
Paracelsian modifications (Pagel, W.: Paracelsus, Traditionalism and Mediaeval Sources;
in Medicine, Sciences and Culture, Baltimore 1968, pp. 71-72; Pagel, W.; Winder, M.:
Gnostisches bei Paracelsus und Konrad v. Megenberg; in Fachliteratur des Mittelalters,
Festschr. fiir G. Eis, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 366 seq.). Nevertheless Paracelsus may have
used a source other than Megenberg for this material which was common property of
the tradition going back to Pre-Socratics and Aristotle.
Page 216, note 52
The cabbalah and the homunculus
The most important and probably authentic loci are: On terpentin und honig, Sudhoff,
vol. II, p. 195, to De vita longa, Sudhoff, vol. III, p. 304 and De natura rerum, lib. I,
De gener. rerum naturalium, Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 316-317. Its ingredients are semen
and blood (not: urine). The use of the number 40 for the days of gestation in vitro is
ancient Greek: 40 days are required for the typosis, i.e. the time in which the embryo
assumes its shape (Roscher, W.: Die Zahl 40 im Glauben, Brauch und Schriftum der
Semiten, Leipzig 1909, p. 13). According to Meister Eckart it is on the fortieth day that
the soul enters the embryo (in Pfeiffer, ed., Deutsche Mystiker, vol. II, 1857, pp. 260-261).
For the significance of residues as features distinguishing the earthy from the heavenly
world in cabbalistic tradition see Preis, K.: Die Medizin im Sohar, Mschr. Gesch. Wiss.
Judent. 1928, LXXII, 167-184 (p. 170). Things are generated by a process of coagulation or
crystallisation, leaving a fluid residue containing waste. Thus in creation heaven emerges
as a product of the crystallisation of the upper waters - leaving a residue of' turbid waters'.
The latter signify the dark powers which subjugate the world - the chaos wronght by
coarse matter. In the present author's opinion this is closely related to the Paracelsian
ideas on the Cagastrum (Pagel, W.: Das medizinische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden
1962, pp. 98-99).
Page 235
Mystic monocularity and the Rosicrucian portrait of Paracelsus
The symbols at the back of the figure of Paracelsus first occur in the Paracelsian
'Prognostication' of 1536 (Sudhoff, Bibliogr. Paracels. No. 17, p. 26). Its 'Rosicrucian'
modifications include the symbols of resurrection with the signet: Rx Rosa, the Jacob's
Ladder and above all the blotting out of the left eye of the adept destined to rebirth in
the lumen supranaturale. This is the cagastric eye for perceiving the lower world of the
transient and ephemeral. It must be closed to enable the mystic to concentrate on the
370 Addenda and Errata
world eternal. There are 'zweien geistlichen ougen mit den der mensch sihet in die ewigkeit
und in die zit, und wie eines von dem anderen gehindert wird' (in Pfeiffer, Theologia
deutsch, 3rd ed., Giitersloh 1875, cap. VII, p. 24). We also refer to Suso: Horolog. sapien-
tiae, Cologne 1503 (title page) showing mystic monocularity. This is undoubtedly a fore-
runner to the 'Rosicrucian' symbols under discussion and not due to a printer's whim or
error. For other such forerunners can be adduced, notably the figure of God Father in
Monte der Orazione, Venet. Bernard. Benalius, before June 11th 1493 (Cat. Schab, 1964,
No. 7). See further: Hildegard, Welt und Mensch; in Schipperges, Salzburg 1965, plates
on p. 16, 264. Dallett, J.B.: Hohenheims Labyrinth; in Domandl, Paracelsus, Werk und
Wirkung, Wien 1975, pp. 29-44 (pp. 31, 39-40) to: 'Rosicrucian Portrait' Finally G.
Randall published his translation of Cusanus' 'De visione dei' under the title: The Single
Eye (1646; Wind, E.: Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, London, 1958 p. 182, note 1).
Page 238, line 6
The womb - a microcosm
Page 242, note 117
Mother earth
Eve was made from Adam who was an epitome of the whole world and as such analo-
gous to God (Adam Kadmon). Eve develops the womb which becomes a mirror of the
whole world: 'thus all properties of the greater and lesser world come together in the
belly of the woman - she carries the lesser world in her belly' (Philosophia sagax, I, 2,
Sudhoff, vol. XII, p. 49). 'The spirit of God is in it, embosses itself in it and plants fruit in
it' (Opus paramirum, IV, De origine morborum, matricis, Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 191, pp. 183
seq.).
On earth and womb see: Dieterich, A.: Mutter Ertle, Ein Versuch iiber Volksreligion;
3rd ed., Leipzig 1925; and Ziegler, K.: Menschen- und Weltenwerden - Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte der Mikrokosmosidee, Leipzig 1913 (Jb. klass. AlterKde. XXXI, 529-573).
Page 244, note 122
Paracelsus and the German language
Its enrichment through Paracelsus often maintained is rather doubtful (Telle, J.: Die
Schreibart des Paracelsus im Urteil Deutscher Fachschriftsteller des 16. und 17. Jahr-
hunderts; in Dilg-Frank, Kreatur und Kosmos, Stuttgart 1981, pp. 78-100).
Page 244
Paracelsus' own version of' elemental' grading
'Grades' are bound up, not as traditionally with quantitative differences in one of
the qualities or their combinations (opium 'cold' and pepper 'hot' to the 'fourth degree'),
but with the elements themselves, the 'mothers'. Their products ('fruit') bear each the
signature of the 'mother' - those from the earth are all 'first grade', those from water
'second grade', from air 'third' and from fire 'fourth grade'. Grade thus measures neither
quality nor quantity, but that intensity of action which an object shares with all those that
derive from the same womb. Earth-born vegetables are of slow and mild action and qua
offsprings of the earth of the 'first grade' as against arsenic fire-born and hence of the
'fourth degree' (De gradibus et composit. receptor. et naturalium, I, 4-7, Sudhoff, vol. IV,
pp. 9-12). Against the traditional 'grades': Paragranum, I, Philos., Sudhoff, vol. VIII,
p. 155.
Pages 247, 254
Lull and Arnald of Villanova on the power of imagination
Lull compares the faculty of forming images and ideas (imaginativa) of specific
objects with the lodestone that attracts iron. It is connected with the microcosmic struc-
Addenda and Errata 371
ture of man in whom consequently all principles are duplicated - ~wo goodnesses, magni-
tudes, durations and so on (Opusculum Raymundinum de auditu kabbalistico, Petr.
Maynardus, ed., Venet, 1518, sig. c4r).
Arnald sees in amor heroicus the product not of disease, but of strong and assiduous
imagination ( cogitatio) over a desired thing confident of its eventual possession. Affection
of the cerebellar part appertaining to imagination may lead to its exsiccation and transfer-
ence of its heated spirits into the seat of judgement (Opp., 1585, col. 1523 and 1528).
To Paracelsus amor hereos is 'aus der imagination geboren' (Biicher von den unsichtbaren
Krankheiten, Ill, Sudhoff, vol. IX, pp. 300-302). To this cf. Koch, R.; Rosenstock, E.:
Th. v. Hohenheim, FiinfBiicher iiber die unsichtbaren Krankheiten, Frommann, Stuttgart
1923, p. 63: 'sperma, das aus der vorstellung kommt, wird in amor heroicus geboren'.
Red objects stimulate motion of the blood, not because of similarity of colour, but by
virtue of the force of imagination (De dosib. theriacal., Opp., col. 497c-498b and 500d).
Page 252, line 14
Arnaldus of Villanova - quest for medical reform in a new age
Paracelsus normally feels himself aloof of the ideas and achievement of Arnaldus and
other mediaeval predecessors. He gives, however, qualified recognition to Arnaldus who
knew something of the anni Platonis when things will be renewed, as if he understood
this - and yet he soon deviates from the fundament ('grunt') (Opus paramirum, I, De
origine morborum ex primis substant., Sudhoff, vol. IX, p. 54; see Pagel, W.: Das medi-
zinische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden 1962, p. 102).
Page 263, line 15
The elixir and Paracelsus
Elixir prevents putrefaction (Archidoxis, lib. VIII, Sudhoff, vol. III, pp. 184-186). It
'directs' the body in the same way in which a ferment makes bread (ibid., p. i87). The
pertinent material was collected by Diepgen, P.: Das Elixir, Bohringer, lngelheim 1951,
p. 14 seq. and the following brands are distinguished: elixir balsami (from balm, gold,
and alcohol), elixir salis (from salt, quintessence of gold and wine), elixir dulcedinis (based
on the preserving properties of honey, manna and sugar added to the quintessence of
gold), elixir quintae essentiae (chelidonia, melissa, safran, gold, mercury, myrobalsamum
plus wine), elixir subtilitatis (olive oil, honey, alcohol and the substances mentioned in a
refined form), Paracelsus is severely critical of the quinta essentia of Arnald, Rupescissa
and the Lullists (Imposturenhuch, Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 124).
Page 267, line 7
Paracelsian 'alchemy' not gold-making
' alchimia . . fiirnemen mache arcana gegen den krankheiten aus anweisung der
natur' (Paragranum, Ill, Sudhoff, vol. VIII, p. 185). When dross is taken away, the
remedy emerges: this is physician working like a smelter for arcana - 'thorugh fire'
(Grosse Wundartzney, II, 2, Sudhoff, vol. X, p. 287; alchemy, Labyrinthus medicorum,
V, Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 187-188). Alchemy works with all materials including wood, not
only with metals and gold (Sudhoff, vol. XI, pp. 188-189). Potable gold: Von den natiirli-
chen Dingen, I, 4, Sudhoff, vol. II, 106. However, Paracelsus believed in the transmutation
of metals, as e.g. from iron vitriol into copper. For gold see above the additional note to
p. 43 (Elias artista). A pre-Paracelsian biological explanation in inorganic terms: natura
mercurialis as essential for life of animals and plants, as 'fermentum vitae et existentiae
rerum universarum' (Clangor buccinae in De alchimia opuscula, Francofurti 1550, 32v.).
372 Addenda and Errata
Page 267, note 209
Roger Bacon - silver, mercury, their body, soul and spirit
Rosarium Philosophorum in Manget, vol. II, p. 94 for 'live silver'. Roger Bacon:
De arte chymica, Francofurti 1603, p. 46 for mercury cold in body and hot in spirit.
Page 269, note 211; page 271, notes 221 and 223
Tripartition of metals' and the 'stone'
Rosarium abbreviat., tr. I, Theatr. Chem. 1613, vol. III, p. 681 and Ripley, G.:
Liber duodecim portarum, Theatr. Chem. 1613, vol. Ill, p. 853 in Porta IV de conjunctione.
Page 271, note 221
Alhertus Magnus: De alchimia, Theatr. Chem. 1613, vol. II, p. 462. Lullus: Theorica,
cap. 14, Theatr. Chem., vol. IV, pp. 28, 71.
Note 222: Tr. micreris, Theatr. Chem., vol. V, 1622, p. 109.
Note 223: Lullus: Theorica, cap. 45-52, Theatr. Chem. 1613, vol. IV, pp. 76-85.
Page 272, lines 8-10
Ulcer comparable to rust on iron and identity of causation
Ursprung und herkomen der Frantzosen, VIII, 3, Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 361. Entwiirfe
z. Syph., VIII, Sudhoff, vol. VII, p. 438. Von blatern, IX, 4, Sudhoff, vol. VI, p. 446.
In Galen: aerugo in causation and therapy of ulcers: Kiihn, vol. X, p. 202; vol. XII,
p. 218; vol. XIII, pp. 367, 660, 732. In the Talmud: chaludah - rust - of skin resembling
eczema and due e.g. to hypersensitivity to cabbage ( charob): Preuss, J.: Biblisch-talmu-
dische Medizin, Berlin 1911, p. 405 (with reference to Simon b. Jochai hidden in a cave
full of charob for 13 years). For chaludah-rubigo ('flos ferri, cupri etc.') cf. Buxtorf-Fischer
(Lexicon Chald., Talmud. et Rabbin., 1875, p. 390): 'donec corpus eorum rubiginosum
fieret - guphcha chaludah. '
Page 274, line 4
Alcohol through freezing out from fluids
The Paracelsian invention was original for Renaissance Europe. It had been antici-
pated in China a long time before - at the latest about 700 AD with Liang Ssu Kung and
his 'frozen-out wine' (tung chin). At the end of the 14th century the purity of spirits was
tested on high mountains by Tshao Mu Tzu when pure alcohol was shown not to freeze.
Possible hints to the matter can be traced to Li Shih Chen at about 200 BC (Jos. Needham,
Gwei Djen, N. Sivin, vol. V, part 4 of Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge 1981,
pp. 151-154) with follow-up from Bacon and Thomas Browne to Glauber and Boyle.
Page 274, note 237
The Arbor Dianae
The correct locus is: De natura rerum, lib. II, De crescentibus rerum (Sudhoff,
vol. XI, p. 321).
Pages 274, 275
Paracelsus' chemicals, old and new
The subject has been covered in a number of papers by W. Schneider, for example:
Grundlagen fiir Paracelsus' Arzneitherapie, Arch. Gesch. Med. 1965, XLIX, 28-36.
Schneider, W.: Der Wandel des Arzneischatzes im 17. J ahrhundert und Paracelsus,
Arch. Gesch. Med. 1961, XLV, 201-215. Schneider, W.: Arzneirezepte von Paracelsus;
in Dilg-Frank, Kreatur und Kosmos, Stuttgart 1981, pp. 151-166. Fehlmann, H.-R.:
Addenda and Errata 373
Paracelsus und die Rezeptiergewohnheiten seiner Zeit; in Domandl, Paracelsus, Werk
und Wirkung, Wien 1975, pp. 77-92. See also: Lauer, H.H.: Taumellolch (sailam) in
einem arabischen Zauberrezept, Arch. Gesch. Med. 1965, XLIX, 37-49.
Page 276, line 11
Paracelsus' ether-like preparations - their pharmacological testing in man
As an example of Paracelsus' anticipation of an important chemical through his pro-
ficiency in the laboratory the stupefying vitriol salts must be mentioned. Paracelsus iso-
lated substances that resulted from the interaction of alcohol and vitriol (sulphuric acid)
and demonstrated their narcotic action in man as well as in chickens. The unanimous
verdict of historians of chemistry - the only competent judges in this matter - has been
that these products were ether or kindred preparations. In their production Paracelsus
seems to have been anticipated by the Lullists - a further indication of mediaeval in-
fluences in the work of Paracelsus. However, he appears to have been the first to recognize
their narcotic properties and to have put them to experimental test and therapeutic
use in man (pp. 276-278; Pagel, W.: Das medizinische Weltbild des Paracelsus, Wiesbaden
1962, pp. 22-24; Pagel, W.: Paracelsus, iitheriihnliche Substanzen und ihre pharmako-
logische Auswertung an Hiihnern: Sprachgebrauch (henbane) und Konrad von Megen-
bergs 'Buch der Natur' als mogliche Quellen, Gesnerus 1964, XXI, 113-125). Recently
this has been contested on the basis of new manuscript material from the late Middle
Ages and notably from the period immediately preceding Paracelsus (Eis, G.: Zur Be-
urteilung der Tierversuche des Paracelsus, Forsch. Fortschr. 1964, XXXVIII, 16-20,
as reprinted in Vor und nach Paracelsus: Untersuchungen iiber Hohenheims Traditions-
verbundenheit und Nachrichten iiber seine Anhiinger, Fischer, Stuttgart 1965, pp. 1-10).
From that it emerges that various animals, including birds, had been treated with a
variety of substances - with the intention of inducing sleep or unconsciousness - by
hunters and fishermen who employed them as bait. The idea that he could have been
influenced by the experimental and practical experience of previous generations in testing
bis new substances in animals is plausible. Yet the manuscript material does not prove
that the substances tested by Paracelsus had nothing to do with ether or that he was
not original in testing them in chickens, in addition to using them therapeutically in man.
(1) It has been inferred that simple alcohol (in the form of wine), and not ether, was
used by a confirmed Paracelsist. However, it was used in this case (alongside hyoscyamus
and deadly nightshade) as a bait 'for catching fish by hand'. This inference would suggest
the opposite of what it is intended to demonstrate, for Paracelsus used his new product
not just for the prosaic purpose of catching prey, but for the treatment of disease in man,
notably epilepsy and other nervous complaints requiring sedation. On the contrary, then,
the use of wine rather than ether by a Paracelsist for baiting would bring out in relief
the new departure of Paracelsus rather than his dependence upon late mediaeval baiting
practice in this matter.
(2) None of the many bait ingredients tested by the mediaeval authors in animals
comes anywhere near the ether-like substances of Paracelsus - the nearest being beer.
(3) Indeed, the former had experimented with birds including pheasants, but no
chickens were used. In this respect a much closer contact with Paracelsus can be found
in the mediaeval English designation of narcotic hyoscyamus as henbane. This usage was
adopted in French (hanebane, mort aux poules). For detail, Gesnerus 1964, XXI, 113-125,
should be consulted.
(4) That birds having eaten henbane can be caught by hand is found in Konrad von
Megenherg's 'Buch der Natur' (c. 1350). This went through six printed editions in the
pre-Paracelsian period (i.e., before 1500) and we have good evidence of Paracelsus' famili-
arity with it (Bull. Hist. Med. 1960, XXXIV, 274-277, and Gesnerus 1964, XXI). In
other words there is no need for recourse to manuscript material in the question at issue.
374 Addenda and Errata 375

In conclusion: Paracelsus is likely to have been influenced by mediaeval vocabulary

as well as by baiting practice as transmitted in a printed source (Konrad von Megenberg)
with which he was familiar. This, however, in no way affects his originality in having (a)
used ether-like products in human conditions requiring sedation such as, notably, epilepsy
and (b) devised a true pharmacological test in the experimental animal which in purport
and make-up went far beyond mediaeval baiting experiments.
Finally the spiritus vitrioli antiepilepticus formed a stock-preparation in the pharma-
copoeias ofXVIIth and XVIIlth centuries' iatrochemists (Croll, Rhenanus, Van Helmont,
Collation of loci quoted from Huser with the
Angelus Sala, Rolfinck and others). That this was really an ether-like substance has been standard edition of Sudhoff
demonstrated for example by Robinson, T.: On the nature of Sweet Oil of Vitriol, J.
Hist. Med. 1959, XIV, 231-233 and Gravenstein, J. S.: Paracelsus and His Contributions Page Foot- Sudhoff edition Page Foot- Sudhoff edition
to Anesthesia, Anesthesiology 1965, XXVI, 805-811 (experiments in chickens). See also note (volumtl aud page) note (volume and page)
on Paracelsus' claim for priority in isolating ether-like substances: Leake, C. D.: Isis
1925, VII, 14-24 and Sudhoff, K.: Valerius Cordus, der Ather und Theophrast von Hohen- 26 62 S. XI, 99 74 196 S. IV, 495
heim, Sudhoffs Arch. Gesch. Med. Naturw. 1929, XXI, 121-130. 42 122, 74 197 S. IV, 495-496
line 4 S. IX, 355 74 197 S. VIII, 182
Page 277, note 247 53 141 S. IX, 306 74 198 S. XII, 227
Additionally to Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 133, Paracelsus' prescription for 'digestion' of 54 145 S. IX, 307, 255 74 199 S. VII, 465-466
vitriol with alcohol, Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 154 and use in epilepsy, Sudhoff, vol. II, p. 156. 55 147 S. IX, 354-355 76 202 S. XI, 135-136
Sudhoff did not omit a reference to Bodenstein's edition of 'Kranckheiten so die vernunfft 55 148 S. IX, 348 (in cap. III) 76 203 S. VIII, 192
berauben' (preface to Sudhoff, vol. II, p. XV). 56 149 S. IX. 325 76 204 S. VIII, 193
57 152 S. XI, 145-146 76 204 S. II, 146
Page 278, note 253 58 157; 77 207 S. XIV, 259
Paracelsus and the preparation of tartar emetic line 3 S. I, 243 77 207 S. XIV, 261
See the critical appraisal of Schneider, W.: Paracelsus und das Antimon, Veroff. 58 157, 77 208 S. XIV, 262
int. Ges. Gesch. Pharmazie 1960, XVI, 157-166. line 6 S. XIV, 274 77 209 S. I, 206
59 158 S. I, 243-244 78 210 S. I, 207
61 161 S. IX, 45 79 213 S. I, 264
Page 311, note 339; page 317, lines 23 and 24; page 320, line 10 62 165 S. XI, 204 85 224 S. XII, 177
Erastus - life and theology 62 166 S. XII, 122; IX, 596 96 252 S. XI, 179
Karcher, J.: Thomas Erastus (1524-1583), der unversohnliche Gegner des Theo- 63 167 S. XII, 124. 96 254 S. XIV, 604 and
phrastus Paracelsus, Gesnerus 1957, XIV, 1-13. Wiesel-Roth, R.: Thomas Erastus, 63 168 S. XII, 130 Opus paramirum
Beitrag zur Geschichte der reformierten Kirche und zur Lehre von der Staatssouveriinitiit, 64 169 S. XII, 1.33 S. IX, 191
Lahr 1953. Erastus says (Disputat., I, 1572, p. 117): Like Paracelsus, Pomponatius 65 173 S. I, 152 97 255 S. VIII, 148
assumed that persons with prophetic gifts can appropriate to themselves the power of 65 174 S. XII, 39 105 275 S. III, 465
the stars. It is certain that there were never greater worshippers of demons than the 66 175 Grosse Wundartzney, 106 280 S. XI, 186-190
Platonists, notably Ficinus. So-called miracles cease to be miracles when explained by lib. II; tr. 1, cap. XV 106 278 S. VII, 266
virtue of the human intellect. S. X, 267 106 279 S. XIII, 158
Paracelsus' statement that all bodies consist of those substances into which they can 66 177 S. IX, 115 106 281 S. XIV, 630
be dissolved is based on Aristotle, Physics Ill, 5, 205a: 'hapanta gar ex hou esti kai dia- 67 178 S. XII, 38 107 282 S. IV, 554
lyetai eis touto.' It became an alchemical tenet, as for example in 'Correctio fatuorum ', 67 179 S. I, 236 107 282 S. IV, 625
cap. 3, 'De alchimia opusc. ', Francofurti 1550, fol. 3v ('omnis res de eo est in quod resol- 67 179 S. I, 179-180 107 283 s. v, 207-208
vitur'), and was frequently repeated (Edward Jorden, Disc. of nat. bathes, 1632, p. 77, 68 180 S. I, 237 107 284 S. X, 316 (tr. II)
Bacon, Baader and others). 68 180 S. I, 182 107 285 S. XI, 322
68 181 S. IX, 115-116 107 286 S. XIV, 630-631
Page 321, note 378 68 182 S. XIV, 597 107 287 S. XI, 318
Aristotle, Metaphys., I, 2, 994al. 69 184 S. I, 30 (Elf Traktat) (De natura rerum, I)
69 185 S. I, 31; 40 107 287 S. III, 37 (Das Buch
70 186 S. VIII, 182 de mineralibus)
70 186 S. IV, 35-38 107 287 S. XIII, 105 (Philos.
74 193 S. I, 237 de generat. et fructi-
74 .194 S. IV, 483 bus quatt. elementor.,
74 195 S. IV, 515 tr. III, cap. 10)
 376 Collation of loci quoted from Huser with the Sudhoff edition Collation of loci quoted from Huser with the Sudhoff edition 377
Page Foot- Sudhoff edition Page Foot- Sudhoff edition Page Foot- Sudhoff edition
note (volume and page) note (volume and page) note (volume and page)

108 288 S. XI, 391 147 57 S. XI, 108 218 65 S. XIV, 214 seq.
109 291 S. X, 330 147 58 S. IX, 211 227 90 S. XII, 18; 47
109 292 S. III, 11 149 63 S. XIII, 377 (cap. 9) 228 95 S. XI, 178; IX, 179;
. 110 293 S. VII, 265 149 63 S. XIII, 373 (cap. 7) 183,; 185; 201
111 294 S. VIII, 65-66 151 70 S. XIV, 82 265 203 S. VII, 124
111 296 S. IX, 298-299 153 78 S. IX, 122 (Opus 270 218 S. III, 47
111 297 S. I, 147 paramirum, III, tr. 1) 274 237 S. XI, 321
112 298 S. I, 208; 153 78 S. IX, 140 (Opus (De natura rerum)
IX, 56, 60 paramirum,111,tr. 3) 299 306 S. XII, 95
115 307 S. XII, 112 153 78 S. IX, 151 (Opus 330 414 S. XI, 321
115 308 S. XII, 113 paramirum, III, tr. 4)
115 309 S. XI, 312 153 78 S. IX, 125
115 310 S. XI, 208 155 80 S. IX, 134 (Opus
115 311 S. VIII, 110; 173 paramirum, IV, tr. 2)
115 3l2 S. IX, 648 155 81 S. IX, 147 (Opus
115 313 S. IX, 235 paramirum, Ill, tr. 1)
116 314 s. v, 272 155 82 S. IX, 148
116 315 S. IV, 465 156 83 S. IX, 149-151
116 316 S. III, 186-187 156 84 S. IX, 152-154
116 317 S. XI, 352 157 85 S. IX, 172
117 319 S. XI, 312; 317 159 87 S. IX, 134
118 321 S. XI, 330 159 88 S. IX, 86
118 322 S. III, 227 159 89 S. XI, 66
118 324 S. XIV, 583; 565 161 95 S. XI, 99
118 324 S. XII, 296 161 97 s. v, 108
122 337 S. IX, 288-289 166 102 S. IV, 481
124 344 S. I, 294 166 102 S. XI, 233
124 347 S. IX, 288 166 102 S. IV, 415
129 6 s. x, 253-255 166 102 s. x, 3
130 8 S. IX, 237-238 166 102 S. VI, 408
130 8 S. IX, 210-211 167 103 S. IX, 104
131 12 S. IX, 239 167 104 S. I, 143
132 15 S. X, 272 (lib. II) 167 105 S. VIII, 275
134 16 S. IX, 101-113; 168 107 S. II, 396; 401 seq.
82-88 168 108 S. II, 414
134 16 S. IX, 88-96 171 116 S. IX, 121 seq. (1531)
137 26 S. XI, 183 171 117 S. IX, 464 seq.
137 27 S. X, 258 171 118 s. IX, 151
141 40 S. I, 182 179 145 S. IX, 565; espec. 589
141 42 S. IX, 51; 55-57 192 180 S. IV, 565; 587; 589
142 43 S. IX, 59 192 181 S. IV, 623
142 43 S. XI, 139 192 182 S. IV, 625 seq.
142 43 S. IX, 84 207 10 S. VIII, 100
142 43 S. IX, 59 213 ' 37 S. III, 209 (Liber de
143 46 S. XI, 182-184 renovatione et
143 47 S. IV, 35-36 restauratione)
144 47 S. XI, 134 213 38 S. XI, 330
147 55 S. VIII, 120 213 42 S. XII, 156
147 56 S. XIV, 502 217 58 S. XIV, 379
147 56 S. IX, 552 218 65 S. XIV, 251 seq.
378 List of Illustrations 379
Fig. 25, p. 238 Close up view of the two angels shown in Fig. 24.
Fig. 26, p. 239 The Earth as the Womb of the Cosmos. From: Alhertus Magnus, Philo-
sophia Pauperum. Brescia 1493.
Fig. 27, p. 241 Ramon Lull. His martyrdom at Bugia. From: Ars Inventiva Veritatis.
Valencia 1515.
Fig. 28, p. 248 Arnald of Villanova. From Hartmann Schedel, Liber Cronicarum. Niirn-
berg 1493. Wellcome Collection.
List of Illustrations Fig. 29, p. 268 "Sophie" Salt, Sulphur and Mercury in symbolistic - alchemical - re-
presentation. From: Pandora. Basel 1582.
Fig. 30, p. 279 Nicolaus Cusanus from Title page of Kymaeus, Des Babsts Hercules
Fig. 1, p. 11 Johannes Manardus. Portrait from Giovio, Elogia 1577, p. 152. wider die Deutschen. Witeuberg 1538.
Fig. 2, p. 12 Nicolaus Leonicenus. Portrait from Giovio, Elogia 1577, p. 132. Fig. 31, p. 285 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. From Giovio, Elogia, p. 76.
Fig. 3, p. 16 Hospital scene. From: Paracelsus, Opus Chirurgicum. Frankfurt. Feyer- Fig. 32, p. 291 Johannes Reuchlin. From: Pantaleone, Prosopographiae Basel 1566,
abend. 1566, p. 38. part III, p. 23.
Fig. 4, p. 28 The Hirschvogel-portrait of Paracelsus (1538). Fig. 33, p. 295 Agrippa of Nettesheym. From: Boissard, Icones. Francof. 1645, sig. E 3.
Fig. 5, p. 45 Title page to Geyler van Keisersberg, Navicula ad Narragoniam, Argen- Fig. 34, p. 306 Mazinus Arvernus, De Elementorum Natura et eorum Situ Paradoxa.
torati 1510. Paris 1549. Title page.
Fig. 6, p. 46 Flaying the Fool. Apollo flaying Marsyas. From the Navicula. Fig. 35, p. 312 Thomas Erastus. From Pantaleone, Prosopographiae. Basel 1566, part III,
Fig. 7, p. 48 The Doctor - Fool at the deathbed examining the urine according to p. 545.
scholastic rules. From the Navicula. Fig. 36, p. 334 Daniel Sennert. W ellcome Collection PD 304-4-40.
Fig. 8, p. 81 Title page of Philosophia Mystica containing treatises by Paracelsus and
Valentin Weigel. Neustadt 1618.
Fig. 9, p. 90 Title page of the English translation of Paracelsus' Philosophia ad
Athenienses and the introductory part of the Basilica Chymica by Oswald
Croll; London 1657 (by H. Pinnell) with the Paracelsus portrait ascribed
to Jan Van Scorel.
Fig. 10, p.119 Man - an inverted Cosmos, to illustrate microcosmic correspondences.
Diagram from Philosophia Mystica (see Fig. 8).
Fig. 11, p. 151 Devil inflicting ulcers. From: Opus Chirurgicum (see fig. 3). Frankfurt.
Feyerabend. 1566, p. 178.
Fig. 12, p. 162 Fabius Violet's exposition of the Paracelsean doctrine of diseases due to
"Tartar". Title page. Paris 1635.
Fig. 13, p. 175 Ficino on the Plague. Title page of the Latin edition Augsburg 1519.
Fig. 14, p.183 Hieron. Fracastorius. Portrait from Homocentrica. W ellcome Collection
14799.
Fig. 15, p. 190 Mediaeval Uroscopy. Diagram from Ulrich Binder, Speculum videndi
urinas hominum. Niirnberg 1506.
Fig. 16, p. 191 Aurora Thesaurusque Philosophorum Paracelsi with the Anatomia Cor-
porum adhuc Viventium. Basel 1577. Title page. The "Anatomia" deals
with Thurneisser's invention of "Chemical Uroscopy".
Fig. 17, p. 193 The "Anatomical Furnace" for the distillation of urine. From Aurora
Thesaurusque Philosophorum Paracelsi (cf. fig. 16).
Fig. 18, p. 195 Leonard Thurneisser. Portrait from Magna Alchymia. Berlin 1583.
Fig. 19, p. 197 The Anatomy of Urines by James Hart. London 1625. Title page.
Fig. 20, p. 206 Christ as "Cosmos-Man". From Suso's Horologium Sapientiae Colon.
1503. Verso of title page.
Fig. 21, p. 219 Marsilius Ficinus. Portrait from the Wellcome Collection PD 237-2-1.
Fig. 22, p. 234 Joh. Ernst Burggraf's Introductio in Vitalem Philosophiam. Title page
of the first edition published anonymously in 1623.
Fig. 23, p. 235 The Hirschvogel portrait ·or Paracelsus of 1540 adorned with Rosi-
crucian symbols (from: Astronomica et Astrologica and Philosophia
Magna. Cologne. Byrckman, 1567).
Fig. 24, p. 237 Frontispice of Suso's Horologium Sapientiae Colon. 1503.