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The Life of Theophrastus of Hohenheim, called Paracelsus

Etzel Pass and Devil's Bridge

Pilgrim path to Einsiedeln over the Etzel Pass with the Chapel St. Meinrad at the top and the Devil's Bridge at the bottom

Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim (1493-1541) was a Swiss physician, natural philosopher and theologian of Swabian origin. By introducing new ideas into medieval medicine, which was still bound to the theories of antiquity, he proposed a reform of Renaissance medicine and pharmacology. As an interested layman he joined the current general discussion on church reform. His respective views differ from the mainstream around Luther and Zwingli and can be assigned to the so-called radical reformation.

Paracelsus being a later nickname, Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim was born near the Devil's Bridge, not far from the Benedictine abbey at Einsiedeln, Switzerland, of which his mother was a bondswoman. His father William, who was an illegitimate offspring of the noble Bombasts of Hohenheim from Swabia, moved in 1502 to Villach, Carinthia, in order to become town physician. Paracelsus received his early training from his father and from several clergymen including Johannes Trithemius. Around 1515, he was awarded a doctorate in medicine and surgery at the university of Ferrara, Italy. After several years of travelling and serving as an army physician, he tried to settle in Salzburg as a doctor by 1524 at the latest. The first dated writings of Paracelsus date from the Salzburg period, namely theological writings on the Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity and a reformatory criticism of the practices of the traditional church. In the turmoils accompanying the Peasants' Wars, which had reached the city, Paracelsus took sides with the rebels and had to flee abruptly after their abatement in 1525, leaving behind most of his belongings.

In 1526, Paracelsus arrived at Strasbourg where he gained citizenship and joined the surgeons' guild. In nearby Basle he successfully treated he famous printer Johannes Froben. As a consequence, in 1527, he was appointed town physician and lecturer to the city and university of Basle, reaching so the the climax of his career. Filled with the glowing vision of a new medicine based on experience in contrast to book knowledge, Paracelsus presented a series of lectures wherein he broke with practically every traditional concept. Because of his undiplomatic, quarrelsome and unyielding nature, he soon clashed with the authorities. Again Paracelsus had to leave Basel abruptly after only a few months, after a short period that had begun as a highly promising reform of medieval medicine.

After the Basle debacle, Paracelsus was again subjected to endless wanderings, which in fact were to continue to the end of his life. He roamed Southern Germany, stayed in Nuremberg in 1529 and in Beratzhausen in 1530. During this time, he wrote tracts on syphilis and one of his most well-known works, the "Paragranum", where he developed the concept of the four pillars of medicine: natural philosophy, astronomy, alchemy and medical virtue. Although aimed to portray universal concepts, these writings are steeped in bitterness and accusations, that his mission had been misunderstood. Paracelsus's situation even worsened, as in 1530 the printing of his books was forbidden by the officials of Nuremberg, a means by which he had hoped to reach a broader audience.

Paracelsus turned his way again to Switzerland and in 1531 remained for several months in the city of St. Gall. There he wrote another important medical work, his "Opus paramirum", which he devoted to the well-known humanist and physician Joachim von Watt, called Vadian, who at the same time held the office of mayor. It was also in St. Gall, where Paracelsus observed the return of Halley's Comet. As comets were generally regarded as heavenly omens, Paracelsus wrote a booklet "Vßlegung des Commeten" in which he explained the theological consequences. Unlike Paracelsus had expected, Vadian gave him the cold shoulder and completely ignored him. In the face of these repeated disappointments, Paracelsus even at times considered giving up medical praxis. He retired to the nearby Appenzell hills and confined himself to theological writing and preaching.

In 1534, Paracelsus went to the country of Tyrol, stopping at Innsbruck and Sterzing, where he encountered the outbreak of plague, and finally Meran. In 1535 he gave a consultation to the abbot of Pfäfers, a little spa town in the Swiss Rhine Valley. The written records of this meeting belong to the few remaining documents in Paracelsus's own handwriting. His greatest literary success was the publication of his "Chirurgia magna" (Great Surgery) in Augsburg in 1536, one of the very few printed books during his lifetime. In 1537 Paracelsus is staying at Eferding near Linz, Austria, where he completes the "Astronomia magna", his main philosophical work.

In 1538 he was back in Carinthia, the former abode of his father. So to speak in a last creative effort, he tried to summarize and render more precisely his key ideas. The country officials promised to further the printing of these "Carinthian writings", but reneged on doing so. Already in 1540, Paracelsus reports to be sick. He died in Salzburg on September 24th, 1541. The cause of his death was presumably a chronic mercury intoxication as a late effect of his alchemical experiments.