In northern Europe, a more serious uprising known as the Protestant Reformation took place. This movement led to the emergence of several notable medical figures, including the Swiss physician Paracelsus, who was both peculiar and remarkable.
Paracelsus was born on December 17, 1493, in Masia Einseideln, close to Zurich, Switzerland. He was the son of Wilhelm von Hohenheim, and his mother served as the superintendent of the hospital at Einseideln until her marriage. He was named Theophrastus after a botanist who studied under Aristotle. The name "Paracelsus" was likely created by him to signify his superiority over Celsus.
His father, who was his first teacher, made an effort to educate him in all the knowledge of the era, particularly in astrology and necromancy. At just sixteen, he enrolled at the University of Basel but probably left soon after. He then traveled to Wurtzburg, where he began his research in chemistry. The idea of the philosopher's stone, which was a common belief at the time, was too far-fetched for Paracelsus's passionate nature. He dropped out of school and headed to the mines in Tirol. The practical knowledge he gained there was far more satisfying to him. He observed the mechanical challenges faced in mining, learned about the physical characteristics of minerals, ores, and metals, and gained insights into mineral waters. He witnessed the accidents that miners experienced and studied the illnesses that affected them. He became convinced that true understanding of Nature could not be found in schools or universities, but only by engaging directly with Nature and those who worked closely with it. He placed no value on mere academic debates, which he completely disregarded and scorned, especially discussions on medical issues that focused more on theories and definitions than on real-world application.
After spending time in Tirol, he wandered across much of Europe to learn as much as he could. He affirmed that the book of Nature is what a physician must read, and to do this, he must walk over the leaves. The humours, passions, and diseases vary among different nations, and physicians need to travel among these nations to master their craft; the more one learns about other nations, the better they will understand their own. He claimed that he was aware of what his predecessors did not know because he had not been educated in any human school. Where do I get all my secrets, from which writers and authors? Instead, ask how animals have learned their skills. If Nature can teach irrational animals, can it not teach men even more?
Wherever Paracelsus traveled, he aimed to provide cures, and surprisingly, these were quite successful. Soon, despite never having studied medicine, all the prominent figures in Europe sought his advice, and he could proudly say he had cured thirteen princes whose conditions were deemed incurable.
After moving from place to place, Paracelsus finally settled in Strassburg, where his reputation as a talented physician reached Basel. In Basel, there was a successful printer named Frobinus who was suffering from a serious foot ailment, which his doctor recommended amputating. Frobinus chose to consult the doctor from Strassburg before agreeing to the surgery, and luckily, he was cured without needing an operation. This led to Frobinus opening his printing press to Paracelsus' manuscript, securing him the role of municipal physician.
His fame was so great that at just thirty-three, he was invited to be a Professor of Physic and Surgery at the University of Basel in Switzerland. There must have been a lot of excitement in Basel on the day the new professor started teaching. Firstly, Paracelsus was not formally educated in medicine, and secondly, he was going to lecture in German.
Until that point, all medical education had been conducted in Latin, leading other professors and doctors to believe that medicine was being greatly disrespected by him.
Paracelsus, looking just like the portrait wrongly attributed to the famous Tintoretto, gazed at the students with those unusual eyes described as "wild, intense, hungry, homeless, defiant, and yet complaining; the eyes of a man who struggles to reveal a significant secret but cannot find the words, and wonders why people fail to understand and believe what is as clear to him as daylight."
That day, the new Professor did many remarkable things. Instead of the traditional Latin, he delivered his lecture in the local German, which at the time seemed "even to the German emperor, only fit for addressing horses." As students filled the University’s large theater, Paracelsus took another bold step. He brought with him a stack of books—the works of Galen, Avicenna, Averroes, and other medical authorities; it was shocking to see someone so iconoclastic alongside these respected figures, yet Paracelsus did not reference them. Instead, he dumped them on the floor of his lecture hall and set them ablaze.
As the astonished students watched, he declared: "They are worthless. You won’t need them. Reading alone does not make a physician. Patients are the only true books." Then he proclaimed: "You will follow me! The reign of medicine belongs to me!"
"We will liberate the practice of medicine from its gravest mistakes. Not by adhering to the teachings of the ancients, but through our own observations of Nature, supported by thorough practice and extensive experience. Who doesn’t realize that many doctors today make dreadful errors, causing great harm to their patients? Who doesn’t see that this is due to their excessive attachment to the teachings of Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, and others?... If I wish to demonstrate anything, I will not do so by citing authorities, but through experimentation and logical reasoning."
Paracelsus taught at the University of Basel. Rather than defending Galen, as was the norm for teachers, he criticized him and challenged the very core of medicine. He was so outspoken that it bordered on recklessness, and he was impatient with what he saw as errors and foolishness, embodying the spirit of rebellion.
Paracelsus' actual name was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, and he certainly had a flair for the dramatic in how he conveyed his humanistic views on healing. "Follow me," he shouted, "not the other way around! Follow me, Avicenna, Galen, Rhazis, Montagana, Mesue, and all of you! Follow me, not I you! You from Paris, Montpellier, Suabia, Meissen, Cologne, Vienna, and the banks of the Danube and the Rhine, you islands of the sea, Italy, Dalmatia, Sarmatia, Athens, you Greeks, Arabs, and Israelites, none of you will be left in the farthest corner where the dogs will not relieve themselves! How does that sit with you, Cacophrastus? You must eat this dung! And you Calefactores, you will become chimney sweeps! What will you think when I succeed? I am destined to be the king, and the kingdom will be mine. For I boldly declare that the hair on the back of my head knows more than all your writers combined; my shoe-buckles possess more wisdom than either Galen or Avicenna; and my beard has more experience than your entire Academy.
Paracelsus' academic journey was short and tumultuous: his life was a continuous struggle, and he would have caused even more chaos had he published his theological works. His self-assuredness was enough to provoke even the calmest of individuals. "Tell me, Galenic doctor," he cheekily inquires, "on what basis do you stand? Have you ever treated podagra, dared to confront leprosy, or cured dropsy? I truly believe you will fall silent and acknowledge that I am your superior. If you genuinely want to learn, pay attention to what I say and heed what I write.
Such arrogance surpasses the highest peaks of his homeland, the Alps, yet we can overlook a lot about a man who, during the time of excessive medication, could boldly declare: "Bah! This awful mixing business! But a woman only needs one man to conceive her child; too many seeds will only spoil it. If you mix various seeds and grind them like a pharmacist, then bury them in the ground, you won't get any fruit from them. My critics argue that I haven't entered the temple of knowledge through the proper entrance. But which entrance is truly the right one? Galenus and Avicenna or Nature? I have entered through the door of Nature: her light, not the lamp of a pharmacy, has guided my path.
The faculty at Basel, along with practicing doctors and other authorities, were shocked and furious. Paracelsus quickly became the focus of a growing wave of accusations, including a whispering campaign that labeled him a dangerous heretic who deserved to be executed by fire.
The validity of Paracelsus' teachings was seemingly validated by his success in treating or alleviating illnesses that regular doctors, who relied on all sorts of ineffective prescriptions and disgusting drugs, could not handle. For a few years, his reputation and practice grew remarkably, but his criticisms of conventional medicine made it impossible for him to remain at the University. His rivals were on the lookout for mistakes and failures; they claimed he had no medical degree and demanded he prove his qualifications. Additionally, his pharmaceutical methods did not align with the business practices of the apothecaries, and he did not use their medications like the Galenists did. The rising jealousy and hostility reached a peak during a conflict with Canon Cornelius von Lichtenfels, a high-ranking church official. He was suffering from gout, and Paracelsus managed to cure him after other doctors had given up. However, when it came time to pay the agreed fee of one hundred florins, he refused. Paracelsus lashed out at him.
The case went to court, and as expected, the judges favored Canon. The obstinate Paracelsus had no choice but to express his views on the entire situation and their ideas of justice. Even those who supported him were too scared to speak up, and his friends urged him to leave Basel immediately to avoid punishment for his criticisms of the authorities.
So, Paracelsus secretly escaped from Basel. He left in such a rush that he took nothing with him. This marked the beginning of his wandering life once more. Fear was his constant companion. Wherever he traveled, he argued and fought. No longer allowed to teach, he turned to writing. He roamed through Germany, and the timeline of his various writings reflects his journey. He spent about twelve years like this until 1541, when Archbishop Ernst invited him to settle in Salzburg under his protection, where he died on September 24, 1541, after being thrown from an inn window by the servants of an angry count he had quarreled with.
It wasn't until after Paracelsus passed away at the age of 48 that his supporters found the bravery to openly declare their allegiance. Suddenly, Paracelsus was recognized as a great reformer in medicine, much like Luther was seen as a reformer in religion. Printers and universities that had previously rejected his work suddenly wanted to share his writings with the world. Paracelsus had written over 300 treatises in German, many of which were later translated into Latin. Death had freed Paracelsus from the dangers he faced and made him acceptable to his peers.
The way Paracelsus was viewed in unbiased circles of his time can be clearly inferred from his epitaph, even if we consider the principle of "De mortuis nil nisi bene." The epitaph stated: "Here lies Philippus Paracelsus, the renowned Doctor, who, through his remarkable skill, healed severe wounds, leprosy, gout, dropsy, and other incurable illnesses.and to his own honour divided his possessions among the poor.
Paracelsus was the first major rebel in medicine, and his challenge to the established medical authorities actually made an impact on those around him. This is what secures his legacy, not just his medical expertise. You can see his fiery, self-important, and over-the-top personality in his writings. Even though he was often erratic and lost in confusing mysticism, Paracelsus expressed ideas in a passionate way that inspired many of the rebellious thinkers of his era.
Paracelsus explains his reasons for becoming a reformer: "Since I saw that the doctrine accomplished nothing but the making of corpses, deaths, murder, deformity, cripples, and decay, and had no foundation, I was compelled to pursue the truth in another way, to seek another basis, which I have attained after hard labour."
Despite not being formally trained in medicine, he had a natural medical intuition. His wide-ranging travels and escape from the rigid education of his time made him more suited to be a reformer than the educated professionals who blindly followed the teachings of Galen and the Arabs.
In exchange for his disregard for tradition and historical figures, Paracelsus earned the trust of the people he treated and drew strength from them. He had a noble view of what a physician should do and was so eager to heal that he famously said: "If God will not help me, so help me the Devil!" When he was with the sick, Paracelsus transformed; his arrogance and grandiosity gave way to compassion and kindness.
At the bedside of the ill, he truly embodied what it meant to be a clinician. He drew on the insights he gained from his travels and the stories he collected from workers, farmers, and merchants, with whom he felt a stronger connection than with the elite and philosophers. The injured, the sick, and those in pain sought his help.
Paracelsus relied on his own observations and experiences, approaching medical issues with the same level of independence that Luther applied to religion and Galileo to astronomy. He stated, "The human mind knows nothing about the essence of things through inner reflection. What his eyes see and his hands touch is his true teacher."
He encouraged people to experiment rather than blindly follow authority, which is a fundamental aspect of fostering independent thinking. He declared, "Science is a quest for God within his creation."
Paracelsus was the first to highlight the link between a parent's goitre and the cretinism seen in their children. He provided an excellent description of hospital gangrene and vehemently opposed what he called "the terrible rule that insists wounds must be made to suppurate." He remarked, "I have often witnessed the ignorance of you surgeons, as the wounds reeked and oozed foul pus, resembling a stinking old hole in elephantiasis, which you seemed to accept!" His emphasis on wound cleanliness was revolutionary for his time, as he stated, "In wounds, Nature is the true healer. All that is needed is to prevent infection in wound diseases. The humours, complexions, diet, weather, and stars have no effect. Only the right treatment, which allows Nature to work undisturbed, determines the outcome."
If a disease is present in the body, every healthy organ must work together to combat it; not just one, but all of them. Nature recognizes this truth. Nature is the healer, not you!
Despite his belief in mysticism, Paracelsus had the bright insight to tell his era: "In Nature's fight against illness, the doctor is merely a helper, providing Nature with the tools she needs, while the pharmacist is like a blacksmith who shapes those tools. The role of the doctor is to supply Nature with what she requires for her struggle. Nature is the true healer... Before the world ends, many things currently blamed on the devil will be revealed, and we will understand that most of these outcomes are actually due to natural forces.
