Library/16th Century/Adam Landau, Oratio de corruptionis artium causa et anthithesi veteris et novae Medicinae (1571)

Library — Texts on Paracelsus 16th Century

Adam Landau, Oratio de corruptionis artium causa et anthithesi veteris et novae Medicinae

Editor:	Edited by Julian Paulus
Source:	Tomus primus orationum Ingolstadiensium, ed. Valentin Rotmarus, Ingolstadt 1571, f. 285r-299v
Quote as:	https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=7313

Abstract:

The text is a scholarly oration comparing ancient and modern medicine, specifically critiquing the ideas of Paracelsian medicine. It advocates for the superiority of ancient medical traditions, particularly those of Hippocrates and Galen, which the speaker asserts are rooted in divine wisdom and have been fostered by God throughout history. The speaker argues that these ancient traditions have stood the test of time and are supported by numerous privileges granted by Roman Pontiffs, emperors, and other authorities. In contrast, the modern Paracelsian school, represented by figures like Theophrastus Paracelsus, is dismissed as a novelty that lacks legitimacy and is spread by wandering charlatans with no fixed status or official recognition. The oration critiques Paracelsian medicine as unstable and fleeting, with its adherents accused of promoting new and strange ideas that contradict the well-established and reliable knowledge of ancient medicine. Paracelsians are described as working in dark, secretive corners, hiding behind obscure language and bizarre concepts, in stark contrast to the clear, methodical, and rational approach of Galenic medicine. The speaker derides Paracelsian claims of new revelations, dismissing them as arrogant and baseless, asserting that the belief in constant innovation in medicine undermines the stability of the discipline and leads to confusion and error. The speaker also warns against the dangers of abandoning ancient wisdom for the allure of novelty, suggesting that the desire for new ideas often leads to the rejection of valuable knowledge. The orator contends that the modern era, with its fascination with new discoveries, is misguided, and that the wisdom of the past is far more reliable and grounded in divine truth. He criticizes the Paracelsians for believing that God would withhold medical knowledge from the ancients only to reveal it in a corrupt age, asserting that such ideas are the delusions of a decaying world influenced by the Devil. In conclusion, the speaker urges his audience to value the studies of antiquity, which are seen as superior due to their age and divine origin. He exhorts them to reject the "ruinous pests" who seek to undermine the ancient disciplines and to remain steadfast in their adherence to traditional, well-established forms of medicine.

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[p. 285r] Oratio de corruptionis artium causa, & Anthithesi veteris & nouæ Medicinæ.

Vt nunc sunt tempora, moresq́ue hominum corrupti, & ad euertendam omnem ueritatem assuefacti, Magnifice D[omine] Rector, Illustres, Generosi, Reuerentia, nobilitate, & uirtute præstantißimi Auditores, non adeò mirandum esse uidetur, eas disciplinas, quæ semper omnibus seculis iudicatæ sunt honestißimæ, & ad humani generis conseruationem utiles, ac diuinitus concessæ, hodiè non solùm trahi in dubium, & uelut ad incudem, quod dicitur, retractari, sed etiam [f. 285v] captiosis sophismatis, imposturis, fraudibus, absurdis opinionibus ita labefactari ac corrumpi, ut illarum existimatio & dignitas sceleratorum quorundam hominum improbitate non mediocriter diminuta sit, & etiamnum authoritas artibus antiquis olim tributa, non parum hac peruersa hominum ætate uilescat.

Mentis tantum cogitatione percurrite præteriti temporis miserrimam & funestißimam conditionem. Non est, ut priscos annales, multorumq́ue seculorum historias euoluamus, aut memoria repetamus ea, quæ hominum ætas recordando compræhendere non potest. Istam duntaxat calamitatem, quæ patrum nostrorum memoria grassari cœpit, & ante annos plus minus sexaginta Germaniam dulcißimam patriam nostram, & charißimam alumnam inuasit, ac etiamnum perpetuis incrementis aucta, et ad summum quasi prouecta, nos omnes grauiter afficit, exruciatq́ue, paulò mecum exactius consyderate. An existimatis ullum extitisse genus disciplinæ, quod non extremis hisce temporibus uehementer labefactatum concussumq́ue sit? Nullum profectò monstrari potest, cui non effrænata repræhendendi libido uim maximam intulerit, cui non cladem & damnum irrecuperabile peruersitas ingeniorum induxerit. Non sanè dubitò, plerisque uestrum tantæ cladis & corruptionis artium caussam abundè notam & perspectam esse.

Verùm quia hanc fortè multi non satis assequuntur, ueniam mihi spero dabitis, si gliscentis huius mali unicam [f. 286r] saltem caussam, priusquam oratione progrediar, tribus quod aiunt uerbis adumbrauero, atque unde nam hoc nostro seculo (nam quid alijs temporib[us] acciderit, iam recensere non lubet) cùm aliarum artium, tum potißimum Medicinæ pernities exorta sit, paulò liberius indicauero. Reliquas huius miseriæ caussas alijs me peritioribus explicandas relinquo.

Quamuis autem iuxta dictum uetus, ueritas odium parere soleat, ea tamen ubique contra falsitatem audacter est obijcienda. Quod ubi paucis expeditum fuerit, ostendam deinceps ueteris & recentioris seu Paracelsicæ medicinæ discrimen & repugnantiam. Hoc autem dum aggredior, de uobis mihi perspectæ uestræ in me beneuolentiæ & humanitatis offitia, quibus ad perficiendum, quod institui, negotum opus me habere intelligo, confidenter polliceor.

Simulatque maleferiatos quosdam homines ambitiosa dominandi, & omnia maiorum instituta innouandi libido inceßit, confestim antiquæ religionis cultu mutato, scientiarum quoque & optimarum artium studia iacturam ingentem passæ sunt. Sic enim Deus Opt[imus] Max[imus] omnia humanitatis et pietatis studia coniunxit, ut quando hæc inter se firmo nexu ligata cohærent, ac seriò tractantur & excoluntur, In gubernatione rerumpublicarum pax optata uigeat, hominesq́ue ad cultum diuinum, et amplicationem no[min]is et gloriæ Dei multò efficiantur alacriores, promptioresq́ue: E diuerso, quando hæc pulcherrima disciplinarum [f. 286v] conspiratio & harmonia perturbatur, si ex ijs nonnullæ Magistratus & procerum Incuria pessumeunt, è uestigio tam politici quâm Ecclesiastici status authoritas uiolatur, & horrenda rerum confusio in uitam comunem inducitur, quemadmodum id infinitis exemplis, si temporis conditio pateretur, demonstrari posset.

Postquam igitur (Diabolo peruersa corda hominum instigante) Vniuersitates & Gymnasia publica, non, ut Musarum habitacula decebat, dignis honoribus affici, sed conuitijs etiam in uulgus æditis atrociter proscindi, & in odium apud plurimos Germaniæ populos adduci cœperunt, tunc temerarijs & nefandis conatibus fenestra patefacta fuit, quibus freti homines petulanter in honestas disciplinas, pro sua quisque cupiditate, debacchati sunt: Quando de uniuersitatibus publicis (proh dolor) scriptis proditum est, eas esse Sodomam & Gomorrham, adeoq́ue ipsa sathanæ lupanaria, quando uoces istæ Tragicæ paßim in auribus mortalium insonuerunt, ad Euangelium funditus extirpandum Sathanam astutius & efficacius commentum inuenire non potuisse, quàm uniuersitatum erigendarum.

Postquam ista persuasio mentes hominum occupauit, Figulos in rerum naturalium cognitione plus scire, quàm Aristotelem, & homuncio quidam, Proteo mutabilior, sapientes uiros non erubuit eos appellare, quæque maiores statuerunt, Gymnasia Musis & bonis literis consecrata, esse Sathanæ Synagogas, tunc inquam, igno- [f. 287r] rantia suis concomitata satellitibus ueritatis arcem oppugnauit, inuasit, & tanquam regina uictrix sceptrum obtinuit: Tunc artes bonæ in exilium profligatæ sunt: Tunc ambitio rerum potita, ueluti hydra quædam multiceps, monstrosis opinionibus omnium disciplinarum existimationem, certitudinem ac ueritatem oppreßit, oppressam attriuit, attritam tantum non in nihilum redegit. Tunc, inquam ignorantia pro libito fixit ac refixit leges, condidit artes nouas, abrogatis ueteribus. Hæc causa corruptionis, hæc mali tantopere sæuentis origo.

Ex hac scaturigine fluxit primúm error Anabaptistarum, literas bonas, & omnem Philosophiam planè damnantium. Hinc Carolstadius quidam peculiariter fato quodam ad istam miseriam propagandam natus, scholas tanquam uitiorum & turpitudinis seminaria iußit occludere, & ut discipulis suis exemplum imitationis præberet, ex Doctore factus Agricola, ex Professore mutatus in Aurigam, ex Concionatore uersus in Institorem seu nugiuendulum, pro libro uomerem, pro calamo scriptorio stiuam, pro Templo Tabernam, pro cæteris offitijs concionatori demandatis, furcam fimariam, aut falcem fænariam apprehendens, alios, ut suis insisterent uestigijs, unicè cohortatus est. Vidisses tùm uaria Doctores opificia discere, aliquot millia studiosorum adolescentum, spretis liberalibus studijs, ad manuarias & liberales operas animum conuertere. Qui non ita pridem in Cathedris sacræ Scripturæ in- [f. 287v] terpretationem sibi uendicabant, qui legum fontes & iura suis auditoribus explicabant, qui medicinam adolescentibus exponebant, illi mox consilio mutato, librisq́ue sepositis aut combustis, & omni abiecto humanitatis ornatu, in sudore uultus uictum quærere, humum fodere, arare, ruscolere, occare, stercorare, metere segets, ligna findere, & alia id genus opificia rustica exercere uilißimo induti amictu incœperunt.

Literis memoriæ traditum est, quòd alijs pistoriam, alijs sutoriam, alijs pictoriam, quibusdam scrinariam, his tonstrinam, illis balneatoriam, alijs alias mechanicas et sordidas artes, quibusdam etiam œnopolia disciplinis honestioribus anteferre placuerit. Miseranda profectó hæc rerum facies extitit. Hui quam subita & quàm ridicula fuit isthæc hominum literatorum metamorphosis. Democritus haud dubè plenis cachinnis istam stultitiam (lepidißimam fabulam dicere uolebam) excepisset, si Doctorem uel Philosophiæ Magistrum, postpositis grauioribus, utilioribus, et humanioribus studijs, uidisset instar quadrati rustici ocreatum incedere, scutica crepante biiuges tauros, fimarium plaustrum trahentes, impellere, runcare lolium, salices luxuriantes securicula tondere, tribulis aut flagris ad rythmum pulsantibus frumentum excutere, excussa uentilabro cribrare. Sed ut paucis omnia complectar, uniuersa disciplinarum genera, tunc quasi in præcipitio collocata, nutabam in Germania, & tristißimam ruinam minabantur.

[f. 288r] Quamuis autem tùm temporis in ista studiorum uarietate & confusione error & ignorantia, tanquam hydra quædam Lernæa, Herculem ueritatis propugnatorem maximè desyderaret, frustrà tamen uates Germanicus tantæ rerum perturbationis author, à pathmo domum reuersus, istam colluuiem hominum insanientium compescere, falsasq́ue opiniones & craßißimos errores occæcatis mentibus penitius infixos euellere conatus est: Imò uerò semel concepti errores tàm pertinaciter inhæserunt multorum animis, ut quanquam aduersus Carolstadium insurgerent plurimi, illiusq́ue dementiam, & insaniam acerbis obiurgationibus improbarent, nihilominus paßim in Germania tantæ halluciantionis uestigia relicta sint.

Latè istud domesticum incendium scintillas suas sparsit, quæ nondum profectò penitus sunt extinctæ. Laté hoc uenenum iunioribus installatum proserpsit, præsertim cum ad perennem memoriam historijs & scriptis plurimorum fuerit insertum. Quis autem, nisi planè stupidus sit, non animaduertit, quæ mala tum temporis in scholas irrepserunt, ea nondum esse prorsus eradicata? Contemplamini sacratißimam nostram Religionem in quot partes, in quot sectas & hæreses est distracta? An quicquam ab ullo homine fuit à natiuitate Christi saluatoris erratum, quod Neoterici non resuscitarint?

Olim aliquando una hæresis infestauit Ecclesiam, [f. 288v] hodie ipsam impetunt plures simul coiunctis uiribus conglomeratæ, & ab infernalibus flammis reuocatæ. Communis enim Ecclesiæ consensus uilipenditur: Conciliorum laudabilia decreta contemnuntur: Magistratus Ecclesiastici potestas in nullo propemodum est pretio: Obedientiæ iugum à subditis magna indignatione excutitur. Quisque pro suo arbitratu scripturam interpretatur, & ei nunc affingit, nunc detrahit, quod uult. Nullus est tam in infimo loco, tàm exili pago plebanus, qui sacra mysteria non à se putet perfectè explicari posse: Qui non ausit suam opinionem, sua propria somnia maiorum decretis superbè anteponere: Qui non plus sibi sapere uideatur, quàm Ecclesia Dei ab Apostolorum tempore ad nos usque summa iudiciorum conspiratione propagata sapit.

De Iurisprudentia nolo multa commemorare, si quidem eius corruptelas à medicis integrè haud tractari posse uideo. Veruntamen præterire silentio calamitatem ingentem non possum, quæ his etiam studijs ante paucos annos illata fuit. Quicquid sanxerunt Imperatores, id licet aliqua ex parte ratum adhuc pluribus in locis habeatur, in plerisque tamen confunduntur omnia. Nam unde, quæso, tot seditiones, to insidiosæ machinationes, tot latrocinia, tot principum aduersus Magistratum â Deo constitutum clandestinæ conspirationes, quàm ex optimarum legum contemptu? Quàm ex praua quadam opinione, mentibus hominum olim penitius [f. 289r] insculplta, qua putant se liberos esse, & ab omni legum uinculo solutos. Nimirum hos etiam fructus illa liberalium artium contemptio, & ad nauseam inculcata populis libertas peperit. Vnde, quæso tumultus rusticorum excitatus est? Quid Anabaptistarum rebellionem promouit? Quid Schmalcaldicum & intestinum istud & calamitosißimum Germaniæ bellum aduersus Imperatorem Carol[um] Quint[um] commouit? Plusquam licentiosa illa & factiosis quibusdam hominib[us] heu nimium decantata libertas. Quænam per Deum immortalem causa cogitari potest, quòd in spiritualibus rebus tot controuersiae, tot lites indiuulsæ relinquantur, etiam inter eos, qui ueritatis lucem perpetuò iactitant, quàm quòd Coryphæus huius Tragediæ quondam in Saxonico Hierusalem Ius Canonicum maximo summorum Pontificum, & ordinis sacrati consensu in certos libros distinctum, publico spectatorum applausu nefariè & contumeliosè exusserit? An putatis exiguam portionem legib[us] ademptam esse, si Iure Canonico combusto, & in cineres redacto, solum Ius Ciuile in adminstratione rerum publicarum retineatur? Quid porro de Iure Ciuili sentiat, qui Canonicum Vulcano consecrauit, uel ex eo satis liquet, quòd is ipse paßim in suis scriptis & familiaribus colliquijs pudenda conuitia in Iurisperitos scurriliter effutiat, illosq́ue tam grauibus iniurijs oneret, tam atroci ignominia afficiat, ut mirum sit, aliquem ex ijs, qui Iuris studio sese dederunt, tanto conuiciatori fauere & adhærere posse.

[f. 289v] Porrò quod ad solidiorem philosophandi rationem attinet, non est quod pluribus euincam, quantis etiam ipsa corruptelis infecta & contaminata fuerit. Nam etsi Mathematica studia, & linguarum expolitionem aliquibus locis retinuerint, tamen Aristotelem, Philosophorum Principem parum abfuit, quin ex Academijs profligassent Erothematum architecti. Neque sanè mirum, quandoquidem figulos audiuistis plus naturalis scientiæ habere, quàm in Physica aut Metaphysica Aristotelis contineatur. Nonne quemadmodum olim Epicurus Dialecticam reiecit, sic Logicam Aristotelis demoliri Ramus in Gallia conatus est? Quid de morali Philosophia quidam Theologi recentiores sentiant, illorum in lucem edita scripta satis attestantur.

Existit etiamnum hodie Lerneæ istius hydræ soboles, quæ ut nouam Medicinam effingeret, & ea nouitate popularem auram captaret, ueterem Philosophiam ab Aristot[ele] traditam, funditus euertere conata est: Quæ noua & inaudita fingit principia, & ad unum mysterium uel arcanum magnum reliqua omnia adstringit. At quia meliorem Philosophiam coniurata hæc peßimorum hominum caterua excogitare nequit, sed nudis tantum assertionib[us] ueritatem oppugnat, nullis constantibus argumentis infringit, spero non defuturos ex ordina Philosophorum, qui prodigiosas istorum Sophistarum opiniones sint aliquando diligentius ad libellam exmanitarui. Nam nisi conatibus improbis obtrectatorum restiterint, & iuuentutem à lectione [p. 290r] nouorum Commentariorum maturo consilio retraxerint, periculum est, ne quando Philosophia magnum sit perpessura detrimentum.

Series orationis modo postularet, ut quantam existimationis suæ iacturam hac nostra ætate Medicina fecerit, quantumq́ue ex omni parte læsa sit et debilitata, uobis, Auditores, breuib[us] aperirem, sed quia huc spectant, quæcunque hactenus de communi corruptionis artium causa dicta fuerunt, eaq́ue sit tum honestarum disciplinarum omnium, tum maximè Theologiæ, Iurisprudentiæ & Medicinæ conglutinatio, ut Medicinæ authoritas integra diu consistere uix, queat, quando pietatis & religionis uitæ studia, legumq́ue præstantißimarum exercitamenta corruere, & periclitari cœperunt.

Præterea cum in proxima oratione satis superq́ue sit ostensum, in quantis angustijs ars Medica constituta sit, et quot quantisq́ue calumnijs impetatur, Idcirco ut pollicitationi meæ nunc satisfaciam, rem dignam amplißimo uestro consessu me facturum spero, si postrema hac orationis parte crassiora quædam Paracelsicæ Medicinæ deliramenta uobis exponam, uel potius deridenda & exibilanda propinem. Quod ut fiat, paucis explicabo, quantum noua ista medendi ratio, quam abhinc annis plus minus quadraginta Theophrastus Paracelsus omnium primum effinxit, & eius discipuli tanquam pro aris & socis pugnantes tragicis clamoribus & contumeliosißimis scriptis defendere nituntur, à ueteri Medicina discrepet, quam ab Hippocrate & Galeno, & [p. 290v] alijs egregijs uiris inuentam, ædificatam & commonstratam accepimus.

Quanquam autem non dubitem à generosis & liberaliter institutis ingenijs, quicquid calumniarum aduersarij in nugatorijs suis scriptis procaciter nobis aspergunt, naturali quadam bonitate, uel me tacente, contemni et declinari, quoniam tamen hæc sententiarum diuersitas & medicationis discrepantia imperitos à uerò medicinæ usu penitus absterret, multis dubitandi scrupulum inijcit, ut in tanta iudiciorum multitudine et uarietate non exactè percipiant, uti parti plus fidendum aut tribuendum sit, quapropter ne uidear Theophrasticam damnare medicinam, priusquam qualis nam ea sit, quid ab antiqua differat, satis sit cognitum, placet utriusque originem, qualitatem, uim, certitudinem, & efficaciam uobis ob oculos ponere, (Siquidem, ut Philosophus ait, contraria prope se collocata magis elucescere solent) ut uosmetipsi, cognita ut riusque partis ueritate, ueluti diribitores, & sequestri causa, dirimere, & utra maiorem fidem mereatur, integro iudicio statuere poßitis. Quia uerò prolixum foret his angustis cancellis omnia complecti, quæ ad absolutam collationem referuntur, proinde communiora tantum attingam. Quæ uerò spectant ad doctrinarum diuersitatem, in commodiorem oportunitatem reseruabo.

Sic tamen in hoc orationis studio progrediar, ut recentiorum quorundam egregijs nihil detractum uelim. Cæterùm, ne uos longis ambagibus detineam, negotium hoc ab ouo, quod dicitur, auspicabor.

[f. 291r] Initio uos ignorare non arbitror, Medicinam ueterem, ut aliâs etiam ex hoc loco luculenter probauimus, non aliunde, quam à Deo ipso profectam, eiusq́ue principia cum totius Vniuersitatis mundi fundamento, primaq́ue conditarum rerum origine iacta fuisse. Nam simul ac Deus hanc mundi machinam creauit, singulisq́ue naturis uim quandam indidit, quæ uel obesset, uel prodesset hominum generi, eo statim temporis momento medicinam quoque coli et obseruari uoluit, præcepitq́ue primis parentib[us] ut eam colerent & exercerent, quæ deinceps continuata temporum serie ad nos usque pluribus in locis auctior & locupletior, & in artis formam redacta, peruenit.

Hanc etiam tractarunt & amplificarunt, ut similiter in superiori quadam Oratione mea dictum est, Dij immortales, uiri sanctißimi, quorum nonnulli Martyrij coronam adepti sunt, summi Pontifices, Episcopi, Abbates, Presbyteri, Monachi, Imperatores, tum Græci tum Romani, Reges, Principes et Philosophi, & Medici omnium ætatum præstantißimi Græci, Latini & Arabici, præsertim uerò Hippocrates & Galenus. Vnde qui antiquiorem Medicinam istam profitentur atque tractant, ab aduersarijs Galenistæ uocari consueuerunt.

Vt igitur huic uetustas dignitatem & splendorem summum adfert, Sic recentem medendi formam nuitatis appellatio planè reddit ignobilem. Nam hæc ipsa superiorib[us] primum annis emersit, antea per omnem hominum memoriam ignorata. Cuius author est Theophrastus ab Hochenheim [f. 291v] Heluetius, quem ob id Paracelsum quandoque Aureolum discipuli appellant. Hunc, quem ob id Paracelsum quandoque Aureolum discipuli appellant. Hunc alij nobilem insignem faciunt, alij prorsus ignobilem, alij hæremitam fuisse dictitant. Mirum profectò, de persona ipsos discipulos inter se non conuenire. Constat autem de Paracelso, quòd nulla nec dignitatis, nec eruditionis, nec religionis emninentia claruerit, sed obscuris parentibus ortus inter ignauos & infimæ fecis homines longè obscuriorem uitam duxit, in nulla propemodum re magis, quàm in arte maledicendi exercitatus. Diu Salisburgi pannosus oberrauit, ubi etiam satis glorioso Epitaphio, à suæ farinæ hominibus erecto, sepultus est.

Innotuit tandem eius fama ob artis raritatem principibus uiris, sed ij perspecta hominis uesania, nec eius opera multum usi, nec adeò cum ipso familiariter uixisse leguntur. Sed de uita moribusq́ue Paracelsi propediem à nobis uberius disserendum erit.

Sectatores uerò Theophrasti præcipui hoc tempore sunt, Adamus à Bodenstein, patre Carolstadio Zuuinglianæ hæresis protectore genitus, qui cum nihilominus pro nobilißimo uiro se paßim uenditet, ex illorum erit numero, de quib[us] Valer[ius] Max[imus] scribit, qui licet obscuro & ignobili loco nati, nec ullis uirtutib[us], comperti sint, tamen ex immenso gloriæ inanis pruritu fictam nobilitatem sibi usurpare, & clarißimis familijs se inserere non erubescunt: Is ubique prodit summam ignorantiam cum incredibili ambitione, auaritia, maledicendi studio, inuidia, similibusq́ue ui- [f. 292r] tijs coniunctam. Dies me deficeret, si hominis istius insaniam, & dissemiendi libidenem aliaq́ue inaudita facinora iusto sermone prosequerer, si tamen, ut cœpit, ueritati se pertinaciter opponere non destiterit, uix mihi temperare potero, quin uiuis ipsum coloribus depingam, & intolerabiles eius errores, ueris & indubitatis argumentis magno ipsius dedecore reijciam.

Huic autem non dißimilis habetus Vetterus ille, qui Phædronem sese nominat, cum balneatoris sit filius, & homo leuißimus ac impudentißimus, perfricta tamen fronte fucatæ nobilitatis splendorem ex antiquißima Gothorum familia, se duxisse gloriatur.

Quia autem ueterem medicinam nunquam seriò studuit, mirum non est, quòd ab ea ad paracelsistas defecerit, & cum ipsis uirulentam oris sui impurißimi maledicentiam coniunxerit. Vetus enim illud dictum perpetuò uerum est: Artes honestas nullum osorem habere præter ignorantem. Quanquam is præter Paracelsum & Tritemium longè præstantiores Præceptores se habuisse alicubi enunciat: cum inquit: Se Paracelsicam medicinam, quam ficto nomine architectonicen regiam, aut corpus artis Imperatoriæ nuncupat, non in Gymnasijs uel congreßibus doctorum hominum addidicisse, sed à metallicis monetarijs, expolitoribus lapidum, aurifabris, Imo quod maximè sibi gloriosum ducit, ab erronibus Aegyptijs, Magis, Nigromantis, Berillistis, Carnificibus, Vetulis Veneficis, & alijs id genus plebeis ac [f. 292v] contemptißimis hominib[us]. Si uerò talibus illi Præceptoribus in arte Paracelsica discenda utumur, conijcite quæso, quas Academias & scholas frequentare soleant, nimirum specus subterraneos, carnificinas, nocturna ueneficarum conuenticula, & similima tenebricosa loca, hisce prohibitis ac diabolicis operib[us] tractandis accommodata. Dignum profectò patella operculum. Quales præceptores, talis ars, tales etiam discipuli, tales officinæ. Interim non pudet istos Catillones uirulentis suis scriptis doctiores uiros ubique lacessere & calumniari.

Asseclis Theophrasti non immeritò quis adnumerarit N. Coloniensem, uirum non tam ingenij dotib[us] quàm iudicij synceritate destitutum, & innata quadam animi leuitate ad obuium quenque errorem amplectendum ualdè præcipitem, qui ut Galeni medicinam diu feliciter exercuit, indeq́ue non contemnendam laudem ac gloriam retulit, ita Paracelsica deliramenta nunc magno nominis & famæ dispendio tuetur, & ut in lucem ueniant, literarumq́ue studia per se satis afflicta magis conturbent, fratri Typographo aßiduus hortator est.

Nescio Paracelsistis ne sit adiungendus Bacchus ille Viennensis, homo, ut mendacijs, sic impuritate, & turpitudine uitæ, rerumq́ue honestarum omnium ignoratione nemini non cognitus, sed de hoc ne plura commemorem, uetat honestas & loci præsentis religio, quam non posset non temerare tàm impudentis & indocti hominis memoria.

[f. 293r] Taceo insuper alios, nec lubet recensere Blanckenstainium, non ita sacris literis (quod tamen sacrificum maximè decebat) atque chymicis adsurditatibus deditum, nec Fleterum Silesium & reliquam chymistarum rudem insulsamq́ue cohortem. Ex horum autem rudißimorum hominum obscuritate quis credat Theophrasticæ medicinæ plus lucis ac splendoris accedere, quàm ueteri medicinæ ex ijs, quos antea proposui?

Sed in comparatione cepta pergo. Medici peritiores artem ex Hippocratis & Galeni monumentis hauriunt, nec adeò multum curam Ethnicos fuisse hos authores & Christianæ religionis notitia destitutos, si quidem eos in hac parte plurimis etiam Christianis feliciores extitisse scripta memoriæ prodita declarant. Quæ quia maximæ sunt rationi humanæ consentanea, & ex penitioribus Philosophiæ fontibus deprompta, in Christianitate semper ad nostram usque ætatem floruerunt. Theophrasti uerò nonnulli quanquam Ehtnicis longè sint deteriores (si spectemus fidem & religionem ipsorum) tamen sibi solis perfectißimam medendi rationem arrogant, hoc solo prætextu, quòd ex Euangelij luce ueram eius exercitationem pendere opinantur, ac sibi falsò persuadent, Deum unà cum quinto Euangelio nouam quoque & longè meliorem ac præstantiorem medicinam humano generi, per Paracelsum patefecisse. Sic enim ipse Paracelsus scribit: extra scholam Christi fallacia & tenebræ, sine doctrina Christi [f. 293v] omnia error sunt. Sic etiam Bodenstainius Carlstadij filius, de quo supra locuti sumus, alicubi dissertis uerbis refert: Deus electos & pios magis iuuat, ijsq́ue maxima dona promisit, facit eos participes omnium, quæ in cœlis & terris existunt. Quare Hippocrates, Aristoteles & Galenus nihil solidi habent, quia non potuerunt ad æternam sapientiam omnis boni & cœlestis causam confugere. Nemo, inquit, potest mitigare morbos, nisi fuerit excellenti aliqua re à Christo instructus: Et alibi: Nunc in lumine, quod scilicet annis abhinc paucis exortum est, magis ac magis innotescit medicina per homines, quos Deus certis medijs excitat: Alius autem hæc omnia clarius exprimit: Ethnici Medici perfectam rerum naturalium cognitionem non habuerunt, propterea quòd diuina & humana luce priuantur.

Ex hoc teterrimo errore fluunt quotidie alij magis horrendi: Imò uana hæc et futilis persuasio multorum animos obsedit, philosophiam Aristotelis, Medicinam Hippocratis et Galeni penitus esse falsam, inanem et Christianis inutilem. Videtis Auditores, in quem locum homines isti bonas artes detruserint, quid moliantur, quò perniciosa nouitas hæc tendat. Quemadmodum, inquiunt, extremis his temporibus ueræ religionis lux effulsit: Ita quoque artes omnes longè illustriores in lucem proferuntur. Quicquid igitur ab Ethnicis olim fuit elaboratum, id ad Christianos nihil pertinet, nec ijs accommodari cum fructu potest.

[f. 294r] Ego quamuis in præsentia non errorum refutationem, sed simplicem ueteris & nouæ Medicinæ collationem instituerim, tamen ob rei indignitatem temperare mihi non possum, quin nonnihil à proposito digrediar, & paulò latius excurram. Quid, ideone damnabitis Galeni doctrinam, quòd ab Ethnico conscripta fuerit? ideo ne nouam & meliorem uobis à Deo reuelatam dicitis, quod ueteres Medicos omnes uitæ Innocentia, sanctitate, morum integritate, iudicij perspicacia & cæteris ingenij dotibus antecellatis? Longè falluntur Auditores, quicunque hac in opinione sunt, ut credant non nisi sanctis & inculpatis uel Syncero religionis cultu institutis ueram à Deo Medicinam patefieri.

Esto tamen rem ita habere: Quid autem, si plures uiros Sanctos, qui ueterem medicinam exercuerunt, quàm qui nunc recentem istam tractant, ostendere liceat? Conferrem hîc libenter neotericos cum ueteribus, sed quia quamplurimos in proxima oratione proposui uiros adeò pios & sanctos, ut etiam beatorum Cathalogo fuerint adscripti, qui omnes antiquiorem Medicinam coluerunt, inter Paracelsistas autem neminem prorsus reperio, qui sanctitatis aut pietatis, aut religionis nomine commendari poßit, cogor subsistere, donec unus ex ijs aliquando in angelum transmutatus edat opera sanctitatis commendatione digna. An quisquam tam insanus est, ut sanctos & pios, imò sanctio- [f. 294v] res angelis Dei credat eos esse homines, qui Hæreticis opinionibus & omni impietati, iamdudum ab Ecclesia damnatæ, sese penitus manciparunt? Magna Hercule ea est Bodenstainij sanctitas, quòd Sacramentariorum factioni subscripsit, quód auaritiæ, ambitioni, multisq́ue alijs turpioribus uitijs quotidie deditus est. Egregia profectò laus Theophrasti Paracelsi, & plusquam angelica pietas, quòd Arrianam hæresim amplexus & osculatus sit, ut de ipso Gesnerus testatur, quòd præter se despexit totam antiquitatem, ut imperitam, stultam, crassam, & rerum omnium ignorantem. Certo rumore iactatur ipsum in orbiculo gladij (sine quo nunquam pingitur) Cacodæmonem ad familiaria colloquia custoditum perpetuò secum circumgeßisse. Cuius instinctu procul dubio multa admiranda peregit. Quod sanè facile crediderim, cum plerumque antiquarum artium contemptores ex desperatione sibi malignos Spiritus associent, illorumq́ue commertio adiuti bonum commune supprimant, malum extollant, quemadmodum Paulus Iouius de Cornelio Agrippa, bonarum omnium scientiarum uaniloquo contemptore, refert, quòd perpetuò canem nigrum comitem circumduxerit, quem postea moriturus his uerbis ablegauit, Abi perdita bestia, quæ me totum perdidisti. Fertur autem canis hoc dicto statim euanuisse.

Sed Paracelsi sanctam uitam, uel ex eo quis satis depræhendat, quòd præter absurdum, incultum, rude, [f. 295r] asperum, & horridum sermonis, etiam non erubuerit plusquam ethnicas sententias scriptis suis inserere, ut cum scribit: Licere, ut quis à Diabolo petat opem, si alia ratione sanari nequeat. Scribit, si malignus spiritus ægrotantibus auxilietur, perinde esse, ac si Deus opem tulerit. Scribit, si maligni spiritus te restituunt sanitati, Deo gratias age, si nolunt amplius iuuare, & opem ferre recusant, dimittito illos, & alios accerse. Nam hæc sunt illius uerba, Zeucht Cuntz ab/ so kompt Heintz an die stat: Si unus Diabolus discedit, alter ei protinus succedit: Docet, malum tempore neceßitatis malum non esse. Item Diabolo præcipere, ut medeatur, non esse prohibitum. Sic enim habet: Den Teuffel bannen ist vnuerbotten/ wenn wir dem Teuffel alle seine künst ablernen kündten/ so sollen wirs thůn/ die kůnst brauchen/ den Schwartzen fahren lassen. Approbat denique omnes medicationes, quæ fiunt à ueneficis per incantationes: orationes, Ieiunia, horas canonicas, appellat hypocrises pharisaicas, imposturas diabolicas, quibus Sathan corda hominum sibi deuinciat, ut per has Cæremonias Dei obliuiscerentur, quæ Deo non sint gratæ, & ob id prorsus abrogandæ, tanquam superbiæ argumenta & idololatriæ exempla. Inuicatio Sanctorum est commentum Monachorum & Sacerdotum, ex auarita natum: In summa totus liber de morbis inuisibilibus scatet hæreticis erroribus, tot pha- [f. 295v] ticis & impijs opinionibus, quot paginas habet, unde me hercule singularis istorum hominum pietas & incomparabilis sanctimonia apparet, qua profectò Hippocratis & Galeni religionem Ethnicam innumeris parasangis superant.

Progrediar nunc in opere dudum inchoato. Quam nos profitemur Medicinam, ea quàm plurimis Romanorum Pontificum & Imperatorum priuilegijs est donata. Theophrastici uerò, cum tanquam planetæ & errones ægyptij hinc inde uagentur, nec fixam sedem teneant, nulla habent sibi singulariter convessa priuilegia. Postquam enim ab ea medicina defecerunt, cuius priuilegijs gaudere debebant, fit, ut omnia iura & prærogatiuas Doctorum amiserint. Nec illis fas est cathedram ascendere, in publico docere & explicare suam artem, nec facultatem habent promouendi quenquam, nec si quem in arte nondum à Pontificibus & Imperatoribus approbata Doctorem insignirent, is inter doctos locum inueniret. Tantum uerò abest, ut priuilegijs & immunitatibus barbaram & dissolutam illam medendi rationem tueri ac communire queant, ut etiam in benè constitutis Rebuspub[licis] ubi tranquillitas publici status portentosis istiusmodi doctrinis perturbari non permittitur, impunè curdelitatem suam in homines exercere non sinantur.

Vetus illa iamdudum in scholis omnibus recepta Medicina, Cæsarum, Regum & Principum permißio- [f. 296r] ne publicè in scholis & Academiijs docetur, & Iuuentuti explicatur per uniuersam Europam, mirabili iudiciorum consensione. Perlustrate enim antiquißima & celeberrima Gymnasia totius Italiæ, mentis agilitate circumspicite uetustißimas Academias Galliæ & Hispaniæ, quæq́ue per Germaniam ad ingenij cultum exstructa sunt paßim, Musarum domicilia: Vbique uetus illa medendi ratio conseruatur, ubique hanc publicè Professores salarijs magnificis conducti Iunioribus interpretantur. Theophrastica uerò Medicina non nisi in angulis obscuris furtim, fraudulenter & occultè docetur. Nec ausi fuerunt unquam huius Sectatores in publicas disputationum palestras prodire, intrepidi in arnam descendere, & cum uiris doctis placidè conferre. Sed perpetuò domi fumosis in gurgustijs delitescunt, chymicisq́ue tabernis, tanquam caucaso alligati, nimium intelligendo faciunt, ut nihil intelligant.

Veteres artem nobis tradiderunt perspicuam & dilucidam, uerbis apertis & claris conscriptam, ita ut certo ordine methodoq́ue compræhensa facili labore intelligi poßit. Paracelsistæ cimerijs tenebris sic inuoluunt omnia, & de industria res claras nouis et inusitatis, planeq́ue alienis uocabulis obscurant, ut ænigmata dixeris, quæcunque tradunt aut docent. Eduntur in lucem insulsißima quædam scripta, quæ cum succisiuis horis ali- [f. 296v] quando legissem, Deus bone, quàm tum exhorrui? Inextricabili labyrintho implicari perspicio omnia: affectatur in rebus perspicuis horrenda barbaries & obscuritas uerborum, quod sanè manifestius aliquando, si dabitur occasio, demonstraturus sum. Licet enim pleraque uernaculo idiomate scribuntur, nemo tamen Germanorum sibi tantum tribuat, ut speret, se horridum & prodigiosum scribendi genus, quo utuntur Paracelsistæ, rectè unquam intellecturum, nisi fortè sit tam exercitatus œdipus, ut sphingis ænigmata soluere circa magnum laborem queat.

Hippocrates scripsit artem planè diuinam, honestam, rationi congruentem, necessariam, stabilem ac firmam, quæ intellectu percipi potest. At uerò Paracelsus reliquit indigestum chaos, innumerabilibus mendacijs, & planè impijs erroribus refertum, quod ob ingentes nugas, fraudes & imposturas, quibus miseri homines circumueniuntur, merito inhiberi Senatusconsulto deberet. Promittunt enim desperatis omnibus salutem, promittunt senibus decrepitis pristinum uitæ uigorem, promittunt ægris, utcunque læthaliter decumbentibus, certam sanitatem, lege naturæ ut plurimum reclamante. Quid autem hoc aliud est, quam hominem reddere immortalem, quem Deus & natura mortalem esse uoluerunt, et ob id ex elementis mutabilibus condiderunt? Quid hinc aliud consequitur, quam hac noua medicina, ueluti quodam Medeæ pharmaco, uetulas mulieres, [f. 297r] erugata pelle, abiectoq́ue senectutis tædio, perdine atque serpentes depositis exuuijs reiuuenescere? Cæterum liberalem honestamq́ue non rectè dixeris eam artem, quæ tota uersatur in actione manuaria, quæq́ue chymicis operibus tractandis tantum uacat, cultoresq́ue suos ita deformat, ut Carbonarijs, quàm Medicis similiores efficiamur, & ad fraudem omnino est comparata.

Præterea captum omnem humanum excedit, rationiq́ue ex diametro repugnat, nec experimentis fallacibus undique satis trita existit. Idcirco neque necessariam iure statuas, cum à ueteri Medicina fiant omnia, quæ morborum curatio requirit, nec Paracelsistæ monstrare quicquam poßint, quod Galeni methodo seruata promptius ac melius non perficiatur. Quis uerò, per Deum immortalem, tam stupidi est ingenij, hanc ut Medicinam firmam, ac constantem existimet, cuius ueritas momentanea est, nec ad omnem ætatem extrahitur, sed elapso paucorum annorum curriculo, tanquam emortua, expirat, & in nihilum conuertitur? An cadere potest tanta in homines ratione præditos dementia, ut credant, qui ante infinita secula uerum fuit, id nunc penitus fieri falsum, quod modò ueritati consentaneum, id post annos aliquot in uniuersum, abiecta ueritatis specie, falsum omnino reddi posse? Quòd si res ita habet, ut certis temporum conuersionibus interuallis nouæ excogitentur artes, & quæ uera fuerunt, ea mox talia esse desinant, [f. 297v] & opinionem falsi protinus assumant, proh Deum, quanta liberalium disciplinarum confusio ex ista rerum aßidua uicißitudine, ac permutatione nasceretur? Nihil solidi mens hominum appræhenderet, omnia essent incerta, dubia, fallacia, & horrendis erroribus immersa. Legant, qui uolunt & lectione prodigiosarum opinionum delectantur, primam Paracelsi defensionem contra Medicos, Bone Deus, quantas nugas impudens homo paßim isthîc pro uero uendicat? Quam crassa & inaudita mendacia Sycophanta temerarius effutire non erubescit? Quando in hæc uerba prorumpit: Cœlum ipsum in naturæ lumine semper noua ingenia, nouas inuentiones, artes, nouasq́ue ægritudines nobis producit. Natura tam sagax, tam sedula, tamq́ue ingeniosa est, ut subinde noui quid excogitet & inueniat, uel antea inuentum augeat: nos nostra ingenia naturæ haud in totum dißimilia marcessere uolumus, eisq́ue de omni meliori fructu diffidimus? Quid enim? pluuiæ ante mille annos delapsæ num ad fructus nostros, ad messes, ad cætera nobis prosunt? aut nouas quotidie desideramus? non arbitror, sed quia nostro hoc anno & semper sic præsentem cursum syderum auidius cognoscimus, quo præsens uita nostra regitur ac temperatur: & paulò post. Vnaquæq́ue res secundum tempora sua distincta est in Monarchiam propriam, & ideo præsentia curare, de præsentibus cogitare, ac solliciti esse debemus, haud de præteritis: alibi sic ait: Nihil est [f. 298r] ut Medicus aliquis dicat, utar & contentus ero libris, qui ante bis mille annos scripti sunt. Non certe eædem causæ iam sunt, quæ tunc temporis fuerunt: aliud tempus, alia hæc ætas, aliam medicinam postulat, aliam diligentiam exigit, adsunt noui morbi, qui remedijs etiam nouis opus habent. Ego medicinæ recta fundamenta trado, quæ uos hactenus latuerunt, & adhuc latent. Hæc Theophrast.

Quibus nescio quid fingi poßit monstrosius, ineptius, absurdius, stultius, si uetera non prosunt, nec conueniunt his temporibus, si ueteres peccarunt, quòd semper eandem formam artis medicæ retinuerint, neque huic uarias sæpe formas induxerint, mundi uicißitudine mutationem artis necessariò efflagitante.

Sed quomodo, ô Paracelse, tua medendi ratio integra & salua constare poterit? An uerò hanc putas subsistere ac durare diu posse, si singulis annis comminisci nouas artes oporteat, si quod olim extitit uerum, id hodie falsum ostendatur, si nix ab aliquibus nigra uocatur, à uobis appellatur alba? Nihil profecta ea medicina, quam insolenter tradis, proderit posteris, perinde ut pluuia hoc anno delapsa nihil commodat annis sequentibus, per hos enim quadraginta annos, haud dubiè ita consenuit ars tua, ut innouationem singulis momentis desyderet. De præteritis non debemus, inquis, esse solliciti? Ideone damnandam censes totam Philosophiam, et cæteras à maioribus in- [f. 298v] uentas disciplinas? Aut cur quæso ueteres repræhendis, quòd tuam artem ignorarint, quandoquidem illis in eiusmodi Monarchia uiuere contigit, in qua lumen istud naturæ, de quo tantopere nugaris, nondum fuit reuelatum? An putas iuxta tuam phantasiam, quæ parum à summa stultitia differt, te natum esse, ut quæcunque ueteres cognorunt aut inuenerunt, ea censuræ tuæ subijciantur, ea per te subsistant corruantq́ue? Tu ne solus ex omnibus sapis? Dic quæso, quandiu Monarchia hæc, in qua tu uixisti, & nouam Medicinam contexuisti, duratura sit. Nam ea cessante, cessabit etiam ars tua. Videris à condito mundo ad tuam usque ætatem unam constituere Monarchiam, in qua idem sempter ueteris medicinæ authoritas uiguit, ueram autem medicinam Deus hominibus occultauit. Te uerò trifurcifero in lucem prodeunte, primum cepit fœlix illa Monarchia, redijt aureum illud seculum, in quo tu solus Monarcham agis, solus sapis, solus intelligis, quid uerum sit, solus mederi potes infirmis. O seculum insipiens, &, Sed cohibeo mei, ne septa orationis propositæ transiliam.

Hactenus ergo de his, quæ in uniuersum ad medicinæ antiquioris & recentis collationem pertinent, aliquo modo disseruimus. Restat, ut sigillatim de partibus doctrinæ differentibus nonnihil etiam adferamus. Sed cum tempus, quod ad dicendum mihi uestra humanitas accomodauit, iam penè effluxerit, orationem modo finiam, si tantum uos admonuero, ne consilijs ineptißi- [f. 299r] morum hominum obtemperetis, qui Medicinam & bonas literas ex communi uita procul eliminant. Etenim id nobis certò persuasum esse debet, ut honestarum omnium artium, sic medicinæ quoque originem à Deo promanasse, qui cum fons sit omnis bonitatis, ipsas quoque liberales artes non solum nobis impertijt ad miserias huius uitæ subleuandas, sed easdem etiam clementer fouet ac propagat. Non immeritò docuit olim Plato, in artibus gratißimam de Deo famam hinc inde dispersam esse, si quidem ijs mens nostra si excolatur, pulcherrima uariarum rerum in natura existentium contemplatione fruitur, & ad cognitionem Dei, & inquisitionem ueritatis mirificè accenditur, ad uirtutis studia, morumq́ue disciplinam, & explicationem inflammatur. Quod cum extra controuersiam omnes ponant, qui uel primoribus labris istam literarum dulcedinem degustarunt, neminem tam efferatis moribus, tam duro præfractoq́ue præditum ingenio reperiri puto, qui non exitiosas istas pestes è Repub[lica] protinus exterminandas statuat, quæ tantum bonum, tam diuitem disciplinarum thesaurum generi humano uel inuident, uel aufferre fraudulenter adnituntur. Insignem quoque dementiam illorum modis omnibus execramini, qui noua uteribus in totum esse præstantiora cæco iudicio opinantur, ac spretis ueterum institutis, præclarisq́ue grauißimorum hominum inuentis postpositis, nouarum rerum studijs adeò sunt addicti, ut hoc miserrimo [f. 299v] temporum statu, qui indies magis magisq́ue unà cum consenescente mundo uergit ad interitum, aliquid inueniri posse censeam, quod olim tam excultum, tam artificiosum, tam elegans, & ingeniosum non fuerit. Quasi Deus primos parentes, imo sanctißimos olim patres et Apostolos, quibus cum sæpe locutus legitur, quibus etiam multò abstrusiora mysteria per filium suum reuelauit, quicquam cælauerit, quod nostro hoc corruptißimo seculo primum in apertum producat, & eiusmodi hominibus, qui omni turpitudinis gerne, omni luxu, perfidia, scelere inquinati sunt, artes antegreßis temporibus incognitas patefaciat. Sunt hæc delirantis mundi uanæ persuasiones, sunt Diaboli præstigæ & ludibria, quibus tanquam tartareis facibus animos nostros ad uenerandæ antiquitatis contemptum accendit, ad euersionem uirtutis & honestißimarum artium impellit. Vos itaque sic potius statuite, literarum studia, quô sunt uetustiora, eô quoque existere laudabiliora.

Dixi.

Apparatus

Marginalia

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Generated by ChatGPT-4o on 13 September 2024. Attention: This translation is a machine translation by artificial intelligence. The translation has not been checked and should not be cited without additional human verification.

Speech on the Cause of the Corruption of the Arts, and a Comparison of Ancient and New Medicine

As the times now are, with the morals of men corrupted and accustomed to overthrowing all truth, Magnificent Lord Rector, Illustrious, Noble, and Revered Auditors, most excellent in nobility and virtue, it does not seem surprising that the disciplines which have always, through all ages, been judged most honorable and useful for the preservation of the human race, and which were granted divinely, today are not only called into doubt and, as the saying goes, put back on the anvil for reconsideration, but are also so undermined and corrupted by deceptive sophistry, impostures, frauds, and absurd opinions that their reputation and dignity have been considerably diminished by the wickedness of certain men, and even the authority once attributed to the ancient arts has become quite diminished in this perverse age.

Consider, just in your mind, the miserable and most disastrous condition of the past. There is no need to unfold ancient records or the histories of many centuries, nor to recall those things which the memory of mankind cannot comprehend. Just consider that calamity which began to rage within the memory of our fathers and about sixty years ago invaded Germany, our dearest homeland and cherished nurse, and which, having continually grown, now gravely afflicts and torments us all. Think about it more carefully with me. Do you believe there is any field of knowledge that has not, in these extreme times, been severely shaken and disrupted? There is certainly none that can be shown which has not suffered grievous harm from an unbridled desire to criticize, or which has not been ruined irrecoverably by the perversity of minds. I do not doubt that many of you are well aware of the cause of this great destruction and corruption of the arts.

However, because many perhaps do not fully grasp it, I hope you will allow me to briefly sketch in a few words the one cause of this growing evil, before I proceed with my speech, and to indicate somewhat more freely from where in this present age (for I do not care to recount what happened in other times) the destruction of the arts, especially Medicine, has arisen. I leave it to others, more skilled than I, to explain the other causes of this misery.

Although, according to the old saying, truth is accustomed to breeding hatred, it must nevertheless always be boldly opposed to falsehood. Once this is quickly cleared up, I will then show the distinction and opposition between ancient medicine and the more recent, so-called Paracelsian medicine. While I engage in this, I confidently promise myself your well-known goodwill and humanity, upon which I understand I must rely to complete the task I have undertaken.

As soon as certain ill-natured men, driven by an ambitious desire for domination and for innovating everything established by our ancestors, began to change the ancient worship of religion, the study of the sciences and of the noblest arts also suffered a great loss. For Almighty God has so united all studies of humanity and piety that when they are connected by a firm bond and are seriously pursued and cultivated, peace thrives in the governance of commonwealths, and people become much more eager and ready for the worship of God and for amplifying the name and glory of God. Conversely, when this beautiful harmony of the disciplines is disturbed, and some of them fall into decay through the negligence of magistrates and nobles, the authority of both the political and ecclesiastical states is immediately violated, and dreadful confusion is introduced into public life, as could be demonstrated by countless examples, if time allowed.

Afterwards, therefore (with the Devil stirring the perverse hearts of men), universities and public schools, instead of being honored as fitting dwellings of the Muses, began to be fiercely slandered in public invectives and brought into hatred among many people of Germany. At that time, rash and impious endeavors were given an open window, through which men, driven by their own desires, brazenly railed against honorable disciplines. When it was published (alas!) in writing about the universities that they were Sodom and Gomorrah, and indeed the very brothels of Satan, and when these tragic voices echoed everywhere in the ears of mortals, it was said that Satan could not have found a more cunning and effective device for the total eradication of the Gospel than the establishment of universities.

After this persuasion took hold of men's minds, some potters were said to know more about natural philosophy than Aristotle, and a certain man, more changeable than Proteus, shamelessly called learned men fools. He claimed that what the ancients had established—namely, schools dedicated to the Muses and the liberal arts—were in fact synagogues of Satan. At that time, I say, ignorance, accompanied by its satellites, attacked and seized the citadel of truth and, like a victorious queen, took up the scepter. Then the good arts were driven into exile, and ambition, like a many-headed Hydra, overwhelmed and oppressed the esteem, certainty, and truth of all disciplines with monstrous opinions, until what was once oppressed was almost completely reduced to nothing. Then, I say, ignorance established and reestablished laws at will, created new arts, and abolished the old. This is the cause of corruption, the origin of this terrible evil.

From this source first flowed the error of the Anabaptists, who utterly condemned good literature and all philosophy. Hence, a certain Carlstadt, seemingly destined by fate to propagate this misery, ordered the closing of schools as if they were nurseries of vice and depravity, and to set an example for his followers, he transformed himself from a Doctor into a farmer, from a Professor into a coachman, from a preacher into a peddler of trifles. He exchanged the book for the plow, the pen for the handle of a cart, the temple for the tavern, and for the other duties assigned to preachers, he took up the manure fork or the hay sickle, urging others to follow in his footsteps. You would have seen, then, various Doctors learning trades, and several thousand young students, having rejected liberal studies, turning their minds to manual labor and mechanical work. Those who not long before had claimed for themselves the task of interpreting sacred Scripture in the lecture halls, who had explained the fountains of law and justice to their listeners, who had taught medicine to young men, soon, having changed their minds, set aside or even burned their books, cast off all the adornment of humanity, and began to seek their livelihood through the sweat of their brows—digging the earth, plowing, cultivating fields, harrowing, manuring, harvesting crops, splitting wood, and engaging in other rustic tasks, dressed in the humblest garments.

It has been recorded that some preferred baking, others cobbling, some painting, others scribing, some hairdressing, and others bathing. Some even preferred running taverns over more honorable disciplines. Truly, this was a pitiable state of affairs. Ah, how sudden and ridiculous was this transformation of learned men! Democritus would no doubt have greeted this folly (I almost wanted to call it a delightful farce) with full laughter, if he had seen a Doctor or Master of Philosophy, having set aside more serious, useful, and humane studies, strutting about like a rustic, clad in leggings, cracking a whip to drive oxen yoked to a manure cart, plucking weeds, trimming willows with a small ax, threshing grain with a flail in time to a rhythm, and then winnowing the grain with a fan and sifting it with a sieve. But to sum it all up in a few words: all branches of learning were, at that time, on the verge of collapse in Germany and were threatening the most grievous ruin.

Although at that time, in the midst of such a variety and confusion of studies, error and ignorance, like a many-headed Hydra of Lerna, most sorely longed for Hercules, the defender of truth, the German prophet—author of so great a disturbance—having returned home from Patmos, attempted in vain to quell this madness of the insane crowd, and to uproot the false opinions and gross errors that were deeply fixed in the minds of the blind. Nay, rather, once these errors had taken root, they clung so stubbornly to the minds of many that, although many rose up against Carlstadt and condemned his madness and insanity with harsh rebukes, nevertheless traces of this great delusion remained scattered throughout Germany.

This domestic fire spread its sparks widely, and they have not yet been fully extinguished. This poison, implanted in the younger generation, spread widely, especially since it was inserted into the histories and writings of many, to ensure its perpetual memory. Who, unless they are utterly stupid, does not recognize that the evils which crept into the schools at that time have not yet been entirely eradicated? Consider how our most sacred religion has been divided into so many parts, so many sects, and heresies! Has there been any error committed by man since the birth of Christ our Savior that these moderns have not resurrected?

In earlier times, the Church was attacked by a single heresy, but today it is assaulted by many, joined together by combined forces and recalled from infernal flames. For the common consensus of the Church is despised, the laudable decrees of councils are disregarded, and the authority of ecclesiastical magistrates is held in almost no esteem. The yoke of obedience is thrown off by subjects with great indignation. Each person interprets scripture according to his own judgment, and now he attaches or subtracts from it whatever he wishes. There is no one so lowly, no priest from so humble a village, who does not think he can explain the sacred mysteries perfectly by himself, who does not dare to arrogantly place his own opinions and personal dreams above the decrees of the ancients, and who does not imagine himself to be wiser than the Church of God, propagated from the time of the Apostles to us with the utmost consensus of judgment.

I do not wish to say much about jurisprudence, since I see that its corruptions cannot be adequately handled by doctors. Nevertheless, I cannot pass over in silence the great calamity that has recently befallen this field of study as well. Whatever the emperors decreed may still in part be considered valid in some places, yet in many others, everything is in confusion. For whence, I ask, come so many seditions, so many insidious schemes, so many robberies, and so many clandestine conspiracies of princes against the magistrates ordained by God, if not from the contempt of the best laws? From what, if not from a certain corrupt opinion, deeply ingrained in the minds of men long ago, by which they think themselves free and released from every bond of law? Indeed, these are the fruits produced by the contempt for the liberal arts and the freedom preached to the people to the point of nausea. From where, I ask, did the peasant revolts arise? What promoted the rebellion of the Anabaptists? What stirred the Schmalcaldic War, that most calamitous civil war in Germany, against Emperor Charles V? It was that more than licentious freedom, excessively praised by certain factious men. What, by the immortal God, could be thought of as the cause that in spiritual matters there are so many controversies and endless disputes, even among those who continually boast of the light of truth, other than that the leader of this tragedy, once in the Saxon Jerusalem, wickedly and contemptuously burned Canon Law—arranged into certain books by the greatest Popes and the consensus of the sacred order—amid the public applause of the spectators?

Do you think that only a small portion of the laws was taken away when Canon Law was burned and reduced to ashes, while only Civil Law remained in the administration of public affairs? What that person thinks of Civil Law can easily be deduced from the fact that he everywhere scurrilously vomits shameful insults against legal experts in his writings and familiar conversations. He heaps such grievous injuries upon them and afflicts them with such atrocious dishonor that it is amazing that any of those who have dedicated themselves to the study of law could favor or adhere to such a reviler.

Moreover, as far as the method of solid philosophizing is concerned, there is no need for me to prove at length how much even this has been infected and contaminated by corruptions. For although the study of mathematics and the cultivation of languages has been preserved in some places, it was scarcely avoided that Aristotle, the prince of philosophers, was driven out of the academies by the architects of riddles. Nor is it any wonder, since you have heard potters claiming to possess more knowledge of natural science than is contained in Aristotle’s Physics or Metaphysics. Did not Ramus in France, just as Epicurus once rejected dialectics, attempt to demolish Aristotle's logic? As for moral philosophy, the published writings of certain modern theologians are enough to testify to what they think of it.

Today, there still exists an offspring of that Lernaean Hydra which, in order to shape a new form of medicine and capture popular favor through its novelty, has attempted to completely overturn the philosophy handed down by Aristotle. It invents new and unheard-of principles and reduces everything to a single mystery or "great secret." But because this conspiratorial band of the worst men cannot devise a better philosophy and only attacks the truth with bare assertions, without overthrowing it with solid arguments, I hope there will be those from among the ranks of philosophers who will someday carefully examine the monstrous opinions of these sophists by precise measure. For if they do not resist the wicked endeavors of these detractors and maturely draw the youth away from the reading of new commentaries, there is a danger that philosophy will suffer great harm.

The course of this speech now requires that I briefly reveal to you, Auditors, how much damage medicine has suffered in our time, how much it has been wounded and debilitated from all sides. But since what has already been said about the common cause of the corruption of the arts applies here, and since there is such a close bond between all honorable disciplines, especially theology, jurisprudence, and medicine, it is difficult for the authority of medicine to remain intact for long when the studies of piety, religion, and the exercise of the most excellent laws have begun to fall and be endangered.

Furthermore, since it has already been sufficiently shown in a previous speech how narrow the straits in which the medical art now finds itself and how many and great are the calumnies against it, I hope to fulfill my promise now by doing something worthy of your distinguished assembly. In this last part of my speech, I will expose certain grosser absurdities of Paracelsian medicine or, rather, offer them up for your derision and hissing. To do this, I will briefly explain how much this new method of healing—which Theophrastus Paracelsus first invented around forty years ago and which his followers, fighting as if for their altars and homes, strive to defend with tragic cries and most contemptuous writings—differs from the ancient medicine, which we received as discovered, built upon, and demonstrated by Hippocrates, Galen, and other illustrious men.

Although I do not doubt that whatever calumnies our adversaries throw at us in their trivial writings will be naturally scorned and avoided by noble and liberally educated minds, even without my speaking, due to their inherent goodness, nevertheless this diversity of opinions and the discrepancy in methods of healing utterly deters the ignorant from the true practice of medicine and sows the seeds of doubt in many minds. In the face of such a multitude and variety of judgments, they cannot clearly discern to which party they should give more trust or credence. Therefore, so that I may not seem to condemn Theophrastic medicine before it is well known what it is and how it differs from the ancient, I propose to lay before your eyes the origin, quality, power, certainty, and efficacy of both. (For, as the philosopher says, things placed in opposition to one another are often made clearer.) Thus, with the truth of both sides known, you will be able, as judges or arbiters in this matter, to determine, with sound judgment, which deserves greater trust.

Since it would be too lengthy to cover everything pertaining to a complete comparison within the limits of this speech, I will touch only on the more general points. As for the diversity of doctrines, I will reserve that discussion for a more convenient opportunity.

Nevertheless, in this effort of speech, I will proceed in such a way that I wish to detract nothing from the merits of certain modern thinkers. However, so as not to detain you with long digressions, I will begin this discussion, as the saying goes, "from the egg."

At the outset, I assume you are not unaware that ancient medicine, as we have clearly demonstrated from this place on other occasions, came from no other source than God Himself, and that its principles were laid alongside the foundation of the universe and the first creation of things. For as soon as God created the machinery of the world and endowed each of its elements with certain powers, some of which were harmful and others beneficial to the human race, He also, at that very moment in time, willed that medicine should be practiced and observed. He commanded the first parents to cultivate and exercise it, and over the course of time, it was preserved and enriched in many places, growing into a more developed form, which eventually reached us in the shape of an organized art.

This medicine, as I also mentioned in a previous speech, was cultivated and amplified by the immortal gods, by the most holy men—some of whom were crowned with the glory of martyrdom—by the highest Pontiffs, bishops, abbots, priests, monks, emperors (both Greek and Roman), kings, princes, philosophers, and the most excellent physicians of all ages, whether Greek, Latin, or Arabic. Above all, however, it was advanced by Hippocrates and Galen. Consequently, those who profess and practice this ancient medicine are commonly called "Galenists" by their adversaries.

Thus, just as the antiquity of this medicine brings it supreme dignity and splendor, the very name of the new form of medicine renders it utterly ignoble due to its novelty. For this new form of medicine first emerged in recent years, having been unknown throughout all of human memory until then. Its founder is Theophrastus von Hohenheim, a Swiss whom his disciples sometimes call Paracelsus, and also "Aureolus" because of his illustrious title. Some consider him a noble figure of great distinction; others claim he was of very humble origin; some even say he was a hermit. It is truly remarkable that even his own disciples cannot agree on his identity.

It is known, however, that Paracelsus distinguished himself by neither rank, nor learning, nor religious eminence. Born of obscure parents, he lived a far more obscure life among the idle and the lowest of the people, occupied in little else but the art of slander. For a long time, he wandered about Salzburg in rags, where he was eventually buried with a rather boastful epitaph erected by men of his own kind.

His fame eventually became known to princes because of the rarity of his art, but upon recognizing his madness, they neither used his services much nor lived closely with him. As for Paracelsus’ life and character, we will soon discuss these more fully.

At this time, however, the chief followers of Theophrastus include Adam von Bodenstein, the son of Carlstadt, the protector of Zwinglian heresy. Although he publicly presents himself as a noble man, he belongs to that group of people whom Valerius Maximus describes—those born in an obscure and ignoble station, known for no virtue, but who, driven by an immense hunger for empty glory, shamelessly usurp a false nobility and insert themselves into the ranks of the most illustrious families. Bodenstein everywhere exhibits extreme ignorance, joined with incredible ambition, avarice, a propensity for slander, envy, and similar vices.

I would run out of time were I to properly detail the madness of this man, his lust for sowing discord, and his other unheard-of crimes. However, if he does not cease opposing the truth as obstinately as he has begun, I will scarcely be able to restrain myself from painting him in vivid colors and refuting his intolerable errors with true and undeniable arguments, to his great disgrace.

Not unlike this was that other fellow, Vetter, who calls himself Phaedron, though he is the son of a bathhouse attendant and a most frivolous and shameless man. Yet, with brazen impudence, he boasts that he draws the splendor of feigned nobility from the most ancient family of the Goths.

Since he never seriously studied ancient medicine, it is no wonder that he defected to the Paracelsians and joined them in the virulent slanders of his most impure mouth. For the old saying is always true: "Honest arts have no enemies but the ignorant." Although he claims to have had far more distinguished teachers than Paracelsus and Trithemius, he states in one place that he did not learn Paracelsian medicine— which he falsely calls "Royal Architecture" or "The Body of Imperial Art"—in schools or among learned men, but from miners, coin makers, stone polishers, and goldsmiths. Indeed, he takes his greatest pride in having learned it from wandering Egyptians, magi, necromancers, crystal-gazers, executioners, old witches, and other such common and most contemptible people. If these are the teachers he used in learning Paracelsian art, imagine, I ask you, what kinds of schools and academies they must have attended: none other than underground caves, executioners’ dungeons, nocturnal gatherings of witches, and other dark places suited for practicing these forbidden and diabolical works. Truly, the lid is worthy of the pot: such teachers, such art, such disciples, and such workshops. Meanwhile, these hypocrites feel no shame in attacking and slandering more learned men everywhere with their venomous writings.

Among the followers of Theophrastus, one may justly count N. of Cologne, a man less endowed with intelligence than devoid of sound judgment, who, driven by an innate fickleness of mind, eagerly embraces any error he encounters. Although he practiced Galenic medicine successfully for many years and gained no small amount of praise and glory from it, he now defends Paracelsian delusions at great cost to his reputation and fame. He is a constant encourager of his brother, a printer, to bring these absurdities to light and thereby further disturb the already afflicted studies of letters.

I am uncertain whether Bacchus of Vienna should be included among the Paracelsians. He is a man known to everyone for his lies, his filthiness, the baseness of his life, and his ignorance of all honorable things. But propriety and the sanctity of this place forbid me from saying more about such an impudent and uneducated man.

I also pass over others, and I do not care to mention Blanckenstein, who, although he is not so devoted to sacred letters (as would be most fitting for a priest), is nevertheless immersed in chemical absurdities, nor Fleter of Silesia and the rest of the crude and foolish cohort of chemists. But who would believe that Theophrastic medicine could gain more light and splendor from the obscurity of these most ignorant men than ancient medicine from those whom I have previously mentioned?

But I will continue with the comparison I have begun. The more skilled physicians derive their art from the works of Hippocrates and Galen, nor do they greatly care that these authors were pagans and lacked knowledge of the Christian religion, since writings preserved in memory declare that they were happier in this regard than many Christians. Their teachings, because they are highly consistent with human reason and drawn from the deepest sources of philosophy, have flourished in Christendom down to our own time.

However, some followers of Theophrastus, though far worse than the pagans (if we consider their faith and religion), nevertheless arrogate to themselves the claim of possessing the most perfect method of healing, solely on the pretext that they believe the true practice of medicine depends on the light of the Gospel. They falsely persuade themselves that God, along with the fifth Gospel, revealed a new and far superior medicine to mankind through Paracelsus. For Paracelsus himself writes: "Outside the school of Christ, there is nothing but deception and darkness; without the teaching of Christ, everything is error." Likewise, Bodenstein, the son of Carlstadt, of whom we spoke earlier, says in some place: "God helps the elect and pious more, and promised them the greatest gifts, making them participants in all things that exist in heaven and on earth. Therefore, Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen have nothing solid, because they could not flee to the eternal wisdom, the cause of all good and celestial things. No one," he says, "can cure diseases unless he is specially instructed by Christ in some excellent matter." Elsewhere, he adds: "Now, in the light which has arisen in recent years, medicine becomes more and more known through men whom God excites by certain means." Another person expresses this even more clearly: "The pagan physicians did not have a perfect knowledge of natural things because they were deprived of divine and human light."

From this most hideous error, even more horrendous ones emerge daily. Indeed, this vain and trivial persuasion has so obsessed the minds of many that they now believe the philosophy of Aristotle and the medicine of Hippocrates and Galen to be utterly false, worthless, and of no use to Christians. You see, Auditors, into what position these men have thrust the noble arts, what they are attempting, and to what end this destructive novelty is leading. They claim that just as the light of true religion has shone forth in these last days, so too are all the arts now brought to light, far more illustrious than ever before. Therefore, they say, whatever was once elaborated by the pagans is of no concern to Christians and cannot be applied to them with any benefit.

Although I have intended in this address not to refute errors but to simply compare ancient and new medicine, I cannot restrain myself, given the indignity of the matter, from digressing somewhat and expanding upon the topic. What? Will you condemn Galen's doctrine simply because it was written by a pagan? Is this why you claim that a new and better form of medicine has been revealed to you by God—because you believe you surpass all the ancient physicians in innocence of life, holiness, moral integrity, sharpness of judgment, and other intellectual gifts? Those who hold this opinion, who believe that God reveals true medicine only to the holy and blameless, or to those endowed with a pure practice of religion, are greatly mistaken, Auditors.

Even if it were true that such a revelation has occurred, what would it matter if more holy men have practiced ancient medicine than those who now advocate this recent medicine? I would gladly compare the moderns with the ancients here, but since I already proposed in my previous speech numerous men so pious and holy that they have been inscribed in the catalog of saints—all of whom practiced the older medicine—and since I find not a single one among the Paracelsians who can be commended for holiness, piety, or religious devotion, I am forced to pause until one of them transforms into an angel and produces works worthy of the commendation of sanctity. Who is so mad as to believe that those who have utterly dedicated themselves to heretical opinions and every form of impiety, long condemned by the Church, are holier and more saintly than the angels of God? Truly, it is a great holiness of Bodenstein to have subscribed to the Sacramentarian faction, to be daily devoted to avarice, ambition, and many other more shameful vices. What praise indeed for Theophrastus Paracelsus and his more-than-angelic piety that he embraced and kissed the Arian heresy, as Gesner testifies of him, despising all antiquity as ignorant, foolish, and utterly uninformed about everything! It is also widely rumored that Paracelsus perpetually carried a familiar demon with him in a small sword (without which he is never depicted), using this demon for his frequent private conversations. Doubtless, it was through this demon's influence that he performed many of his wondrous deeds. I am inclined to believe this, since those who despise the ancient arts often, in their despair, associate themselves with malignant spirits, assisted by whom they suppress the common good and elevate evil, just as Paul Jovius recounts of Cornelius Agrippa, that boastful despiser of all good sciences, who perpetually led about a black dog, which, when he was about to die, he dismissed with these words: "Go away, accursed beast, you have utterly destroyed me!" The dog is said to have vanished immediately after this statement.

But anyone can easily perceive the holiness of Paracelsus' life from the fact that, in addition to his absurd, uncultured, crude, harsh, and horrid manner of speaking, he did not hesitate to insert more-than-pagan sentiments into his writings. For example, he wrote: "It is permissible to seek help from the Devil if no other means of healing can be found." He also wrote that if an evil spirit assists the sick, it is as if God Himself had helped them. He wrote: "If evil spirits restore you to health, give thanks to God; if they refuse to help you any longer, dismiss them and summon others." For these are his very words: "Zeucht Cuntz ab/ so kompt Heintz an die stat" ("When one Devil leaves, another immediately takes his place"). He teaches that evil, in times of necessity, is not evil. He also claims that it is not prohibited to command the Devil to heal. His words are as follows: "Den Teuffel bannen ist unverbotten/ wenn wir dem Teuffel alle seine künste ablernen kündten/ so sollen wirs thun/ die kunst brauchen/ den Schwartzen fahren lassen" ("It is not forbidden to command the Devil; if we could learn all his arts, we should use them and let the Black One depart"). Finally, he approves of all forms of healing that are performed by witches through incantations. He calls prayers, fasts, and canonical hours hypocritical pharisaism and diabolical imposture, by which Satan binds the hearts of men to himself so that, through these ceremonies, they may forget God, ceremonies which are displeasing to God and should therefore be entirely abolished as signs of pride and examples of idolatry. He claims that the invocation of saints is a fiction created by monks and priests, born from avarice. In short, his entire book on invisible diseases is filled with heretical errors and so many fanatical and impious opinions as to fill every page. From this, by Hercules, the singular piety and incomparable sanctity of these men become apparent, by which they surpass the pagan religion of Hippocrates and Galen by countless measures.

I shall now continue the work I began some time ago. The medicine we practice is endowed with many privileges granted by Roman Pontiffs and Emperors. However, the Theophrastians, wandering like planets and Egyptian vagabonds from place to place without any fixed residence, have no privileges specifically conferred upon them. For after they abandoned the medicine from which they should have enjoyed privileges, they lost all the rights and prerogatives of doctors. They have no right to ascend a teaching chair, to publicly teach and explain their art, nor do they have the authority to promote anyone. Even if they were to bestow the title of doctor upon someone in an art not yet approved by the Pontiffs and Emperors, that person would not find any place among the learned.

Indeed, so far are they from being able to defend and fortify their barbaric and dissolute method of healing with privileges and immunities, that in well-ordered republics, where the tranquility of the public order is not allowed to be disturbed by such monstrous doctrines, they are not permitted to practice their cruel arts on people with impunity.

The ancient medicine, long accepted in all schools, is taught publicly in schools and academies by the permission of Caesars, kings, and princes, and is explained to the youth throughout all of Europe with remarkable consensus of opinion. Consider the most ancient and celebrated academies of all Italy, or with the agility of your mind, cast your gaze upon the oldest universities of France and Spain, as well as those scattered throughout Germany, erected everywhere for the cultivation of intellect—the abodes of the Muses. Everywhere, the old method of healing is preserved; everywhere, professors are hired with magnificent salaries to publicly interpret it for the younger generation. By contrast, Paracelsian medicine is taught only in dark corners, furtively, fraudulently, and secretly. The followers of this sect have never dared to come forth into the public arenas of disputation, to descend boldly into the arena, and to calmly debate with learned men. Instead, they perpetually hide in smoky hovels at home or linger in alchemical workshops, like men chained to Caucasus, understanding too much only to understand nothing at all.

The ancients have handed down to us an art that is clear and lucid, written in plain and clear language, so that, having been methodically arranged, it can be understood with relative ease. The Paracelsians, however, wrap everything in Cimmerian darkness and intentionally obscure clear matters with new and unusual, and indeed entirely foreign, terms, so that whatever they teach or pass down can only be called riddles. Some of the most absurd writings are published, and when I have occasionally read them in my spare time, good God, how horrified I was! I saw that everything was entangled in an inextricable labyrinth. In matters that are perfectly clear, a horrendous barbarity and obscurity of words is affected, which I will manifestly demonstrate at some point, should the opportunity arise. For although most of their writings are in the vernacular, no German should be so presumptuous as to believe that he will ever understand the monstrous and bizarre style of writing used by the Paracelsians unless, perhaps, he is so well-practiced an Oedipus that he can solve the riddles of the Sphinx with ease.

Hippocrates wrote an art that is plainly divine, honest, reasonable, necessary, stable, and firm, and which can be understood by the intellect. But Paracelsus left behind a disorganized chaos, filled with countless lies and thoroughly impious errors, which, because of the enormous absurdities, frauds, and impostures by which miserable men are deceived, deserves to be banned by senatorial decree. For they promise health to all who are desperate, they promise the decrepit elderly a restoration of youthful vigor, they promise certain recovery to those who lie mortally ill, even when the laws of nature strongly protest. What is this, if not to render man immortal, when both God and nature have willed him to be mortal, and for this reason, created him from mutable elements? What else follows from this, but that with this new medicine, like some kind of Medea's potion, old women, shedding their wrinkled skin and casting off the burden of old age, would become young again, just as snakes are rejuvenated when they shed their skins?

Moreover, one could hardly call that art liberal and honorable which is entirely manual in its operation, being wholly devoted to the practice of alchemical works, deforming its practitioners so that we become more like coal miners than doctors. It is altogether oriented toward fraud.

Furthermore, it exceeds all human comprehension, and it directly contradicts reason, nor is it sufficiently proven by numerous and reliable experiments. For this reason, one cannot rightfully declare Paracelsian medicine to be necessary, since everything required for the treatment of diseases is already accomplished by ancient medicine, and the Paracelsians cannot demonstrate anything that cannot be more promptly and effectively achieved by following the method of Galen. But who, by the immortal God, is so dull of mind as to consider this Paracelsian medicine to be firm and constant, when its truth is momentary and not enduring for all time? After a few years, like something lifeless, it expires and is reduced to nothing. Can such madness fall upon rational men, that they believe what was true for countless ages is now completely false, or that what once conformed to the truth can, after a few years, be cast aside entirely as false?

If it is true that with the changing of the times new arts are invented, and that what was once true ceases to be so, and quickly takes on the appearance of falsehood, then, by God, what a confusion of the liberal disciplines would arise from this constant fluctuation and alteration of things! The human mind would grasp nothing solid; everything would be uncertain, doubtful, and immersed in horrendous errors.

Let those who wish to do so read and take pleasure in the writings of monstrous opinions, especially the first defense of Paracelsus against the physicians. Good God, what absurdities this shameless man everywhere promotes as truth! What gross and unheard-of lies this reckless charlatan dares to spew without blushing! He bursts out with such words as these: "The heavens themselves, through the light of nature, always produce new minds, new inventions, new arts, and new diseases for us. Nature is so clever, so diligent, and so ingenious that it continually devises and discovers new things, or enhances what was previously discovered. Should we allow our own minds, which are not entirely dissimilar to nature, to wither and distrust them for any better fruit?" And what of this? "Do the rains that fell a thousand years ago benefit our crops and harvests today? Or do we daily desire new rains? I do not think so. But because we are more eagerly aware of the present course of the stars this year than ever before, and because the present time governs and moderates our life, we must think about and care for the present, not the past." A little later, he says: "Everything, according to its time, has its own monarchy, and therefore we should take care of and think about the present, not the past." Elsewhere he says: "There is no point in any physician saying, 'I will use and be content with the books written two thousand years ago.' Surely, the same causes do not exist now as they did then. This is a different time, and this age requires a different medicine and a different diligence. New diseases are present that need new remedies. I lay down the true foundations of medicine, which until now have remained hidden from you and still remain hidden." These are the words of Theophrastus.

What could possibly be imagined more monstrous, more absurd, more ridiculous, more foolish than these statements? If the old ways are of no use and do not apply to these times, if the ancients erred by always retaining the same form of medical art and never introducing various forms in response to the changing conditions of the world, how, Paracelsus, can your method of healing remain whole and intact? Do you truly believe that it can stand and endure for long if new arts must be invented every year, if what was once true is now shown to be false, and if what some call black, you call white? The medicine you arrogantly proclaim will benefit future generations no more than this year’s rain benefits the harvests of future years. For in the span of these forty years, your art has undoubtedly decayed so much that it demands constant innovation at every moment.

You say we should not be concerned with the past? Does this mean, then, that you believe all of philosophy, and the other disciplines invented by our ancestors, should be condemned? Or why, I ask, do you criticize the ancients for not knowing your art when they lived in a monarchy during which the light of nature, about which you babble so much, had not yet been revealed? Do you believe, according to your fantasy (which differs little from utter stupidity), that you were born to subject everything the ancients knew or discovered to your own judgment, and to decide whether it should stand or fall by your authority? Are you alone among all men wise? Tell me, how long do you think this monarchy, in which you have lived and invented your new medicine, will last? For when it ceases, your art will cease as well. You seem to establish one continuous monarchy from the creation of the world to your own time, during which the authority of ancient medicine always prevailed, while the true medicine was hidden by God from mankind. But now that you, a trifurcated monster, have appeared in the light, a new and fortunate monarchy has begun. The golden age has returned, in which you alone are the monarch, you alone are wise, you alone understand what is true, and you alone can heal the sick. O foolish age! But I restrain myself so as not to overstep the bounds of this discourse.

Thus far, then, I have spoken somewhat about the matters pertaining in general to the comparison between ancient and modern medicine. It remains for me to say a little about the various parts of doctrine in more detail. But since the time which your kindness has allowed me to speak is now nearly spent, I will conclude my speech by simply reminding you not to follow the advice of those most foolish individuals who seek to eliminate medicine and good learning from our common life.

For we must be firmly persuaded that, just as the origin of all honorable arts, so too the origin of medicine flows from God. Since He is the source of all goodness, He not only bestowed the liberal arts upon us to alleviate the miseries of this life, but He also kindly fosters and propagates them. Plato, not without reason, once taught that a most pleasing reputation of God is spread here and there in the arts. For when our minds are cultivated by these arts, we enjoy the beautiful contemplation of the various things that exist in nature, and we are marvelously stirred toward the knowledge of God and the pursuit of truth, as well as toward the study of virtue, moral discipline, and explanation. Since all who have tasted even a little of the sweetness of letters place this beyond dispute, I think there is no one of such savage character, of such hard and obstinate mind, who does not immediately conclude that these ruinous pests, who either begrudge such a great good or fraudulently strive to take away this rich treasury of the disciplines from humanity, ought to be driven from the republic.

By all means, curse the remarkable madness of those who, with blind judgment, consider new things to be altogether superior, and who, despising the institutions of the ancients and disregarding the magnificent discoveries of the most serious men, are so addicted to the study of novelties that, in this most wretched condition of the times—which, along with the aging world, increasingly declines toward destruction—they believe that something can be discovered that was not already cultivated, ingenious, and elegant in former times. As if God had withheld anything from the first parents, or from the most holy fathers and apostles (to whom He is often said to have spoken and to whom He revealed much more hidden mysteries through His Son), only to reveal it for the first time in our most corrupt age, and to people who are stained with every kind of disgrace, every kind of luxury, treachery, and wickedness, and now finally unfolds to them arts that were unknown to previous generations!

These are the vain delusions of a deranged world, the tricks and mockeries of the Devil, by which he, like torches from Tartarus, inflames our minds to scorn venerable antiquity and drives us toward the overthrow of virtue and the noblest arts. You should rather determine that the older the studies of letters are, the more praiseworthy they are.

I have spoken.