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Home , Johannes Trithemius, Paracelsus, Triads (Gregory Palamas)

THE HERITAGE OF *

By PERCY M. DAWSON, M.D.

MADISON, WIS.

Introduc tion and profit from even a superficial survey EVERAL years ago I presented in- that I have no hesitation in presenting formally a brief sketch of the life you with my observations.1 and work of Paracelsus. I recall Alexa ndria that at the time I had a vague feel- ing that there was more in the subject Alexandria, the center of the known Sthan I had been able to catch sight of but world, the center of commerce, the center just what it was that had eluded me I did of wealth, the center of learning; here not know. flourish every sort of trade and craft, every I am no longer uncertain as to the factors variety of religion and philosophy and which make for the true understanding of every school of . Alexandria is Paracelsus. I am now able to comprehend queen not only of the Levant but of the the truly amazing contrast between Leo- known world, for Athens is sinking into nardo and Paracelsus. For on the one hand, decay and Rome has not yet reached her Leonardo made no outcry, he burned no glory. Here amid the concourse of strange books, but he quietly and most effectively peoples and still stranger customs and in an severed all connections with those elements atmosphere vibrating with conflicting opin- of the past in regard to which the scientists ions are three institutions which are to of today have little interest and less sym- claim our especial attention, namely, the pathy. Leonardo was in fact a man of our Egyptian temple, the Greek school, and own time, lacking our knowledge, to be the Jewish synagogue, and let us begin sure, but sharing our method and point with the oldest of these, the Egyptian of view. Paracelsus, on the other hand, temple. broke with the past only with difficulty The Temp le and never completely. His is a medieval character, intelligent, restless, progressive It is stated that when the Greeks under but still medieval and his life and writings Ptolemy took possession of Egypt they must, it seems to me, be rather unintelli- found in the temples a vast collection of gible to those who have not acquired some works on pharmacy, metallurgy and the slight acquaintance with several interacting industrial arts. These manuscripts were trends of thought which arose and flourished attributed to the Thoth and the exact in the centuries which preceded him. nature of this literature was jealously I have therefore taken it as my task to guarded by the priests. Small wonder that present to you certain aspects and events this was the case since the priests claimed in the history of , , mysti- that through the aid of these sacred writings cism (both Christian and Neoplatonic) and they were able to convert the baser of Kabbalistic theosophy. into gold. In regard to these subjects I can make The question of the precious metals was no claim to erudition or profundity but I one of very vital importance to the Roman have myself reaped so much satisfaction emperors, who as their finances fell, debased * Read in March, 1927, before the Seminar in the coinage so that their silver coin, the Medical History conducted by Prof. William S. argenteus, was at one time made of copper Miller at the University of Wisconsin. coated with tin. Thus it became one of the important tasks of Diocletian, the reestab- There is a stone . . . and the description of Iisher of the Empire, to restore and stabilize it is that it is [stone]. This stone is of the coinage and as part of this procedure great dignity and nobility . . . The nature the emperor sent his officers into the of it is warm and not very moist. It is subtle and Egyptian temples to destroy all manu- smooth and a valuable property of it is that it cures from all of whatsoever kind scripts on metallurgy. whether deadly or not, both from poisons that That Diocletian did not prefer to establish come from the earth and from those produced the imperial mint in Alexandria and to take by the bites of worms and reptiles. It also the manufacture of gold out of the hands cures wounds or snake bites . . . ? of the Egyptian priests, points to his skep- ticism with reference to the claims of the Doubtless it was the fabulous and the latter, a skepticism which is justified by extraordinary that appealed most success- the contents of some of the manuscripts fully to the learned of the fifteenth century which have come down to us and which and even later. At that time chemistry show these priests to have been consummate properly so called was cultivated only by rogues. the artisans and the alchemists with hardly “Clean white, soft tin four times,” a notable exception. reads one of these manuscripts, “Melt Leonardo, with characteristic uniqueness six parts of the same with one mina of had little respect for the philosophical white Galatian copper. It becomes prime chemists whom he called “lying interpre- silver that will deceive even skilled work- ters.”6 But as a technician he was interested men who will not suppose it to be made by in industrial chemistry. In this respect he such treatment.”2 stands out in sharp contrast with the These fraudulent practices imply, how- educated persons of his time. We are told ever, a background of not inconsider- that he had been commissioned by the pope able technical knowledge which ultimately to paint a portrait and that he began by enriched the various crafts. This knowledge preparing his materials. While engaged in spreading from Egypt reached Italy either boiling varnish he was visited by His directly or by way of the Saracens who Holiness who when he saw what Leonardo increased it in its passage not only by was doing cried out in impatience and increments from India but by additions vexation, “The man is good for nothing!”7 of their own. There were however besides the encyclo- As we pass down through the centuries pedias which were the delight of the learned and come to the thirteenth, we find that few, the trade manuscripts already referred the literature of chemistry can clearly be to, and these, favored by the introduction divided into two parts, the trade manu- of printing, increased and became small scripts, sometimes written in jargon, which trade manuals. The latter were concerned was intelligible only to the initiated work- not with metallic transmutations, with man and the compilations of such encyclo- theories as to the formation of metals from pedists as and other mercury and sulphur, with loadstone rocks successors3 of Pliny, the elder. and other travelers’ tales nor with anything In their voluminous writings the uncritical which was not severely practical. encyclopedists mingled facts and fables Among those booklets which were used most entertainingly. In one place we read by the miners, mining chemists and assay- of the terrible loadstone rock which drew ers and which were printed at about 1500 a .d . out all the nails of the passing ships, a story or perhaps earlier, was the “Probierbiich- familiar to our childhood as one of the Iein.” This little book went through not adventures of Sinbad the sailor.4 In another less than twenty-one editions in the next place we learn: two hundred and fifty years. In it are described and Niirnberg balances united without a third, for they need a bond and the making of sets of standard touch between them which shall join them both. needles and then follow clear, very modern The best of bonds is that which makes itself sounding directions such as this one for and those which it binds as complete a unity as separating gold from silver: possible, and the nature of proportion is to accomplish this most perfectly. For when of any Beat the silver, in which you suppose gold three numbers . . . one is a mean term, so to be contained, very thin, cut it in small that as the first is to the middle, so is the middle pieces and lay it in aqua fortis [nitric acid} to the last, then since the middle becomes the and set it in a gentle until warm and as first and the last, and the last and the first both long as it gives off bubbles. Then take it and become the middle, of necessity, all will come to pour off the liquid into a copper dish and let it be the same and being the same with one stand and cool. The silver then settles in the another, all will be a unity. copper dish. Let the silver dry on the copper Now if the body of the universe were to have dish after the liquid is poured off, and melt been made a surface having no thickness, the silver in a crucible. Then take the gold one mean would have sufficed to unify itself from the glass flask and fuse that to a lump.8 with the extremes, but . . . since solids can never be united by one mean, but require two, Among those familiar with these hand- God accordingly set and water betwixt books was doubtless Bishop Erhart for he fire and earth, and, making them as far as was at one time a chemist in the Fuggers’ possible exactly proportional, so that fire is to Mines at Schwatz. On the other hand air as air is to water, and as air is to water so scholars of the type of Trithemius water is to earth, thus he compacted and con- would be well acquainted with the encyclo- structed a universe visible and tangible.9 pedic writings. In fact Trithemius was him- One wonders how Empedocles would self a professed admirer of Albertus Magnus. have felt had he ever known what was to In one of his surgical treatises, Paracelsus happen to his four elements at the hands of acknowledges his debt to both bishop and posterity. abbot. Of Ehrhart we know but little. The divine Plato states moreover that Apparently he once taught at the Benedic- there are many kinds of fire and water tine school of the monastery of St. Andreas. and of the other elements. These names To Trithemius since he taught Paracelsus express rather great categories of materials much more than chemistry we shall return than anything more specific. Nor is it later" but not until we have several times impossible for one element to pass over revisited ancient Alexandria to which we into another as we may see in respect to shall now return. that which is now water, now a solid and again bears the character of air. Thus we The School may see that under proper conditions a The Greek philosophers of Alexandria substance may pass over from one cate- had brought from Athens their traditions gory into another. and their learning. Their minds were still dominated by the divine Plato. As they The Alchem ist s perused the dialogs, they found such To minds cast in this mould there was passages as the following: nothing inherently absurd in the claims of Apart from fire and light, nothing could the Egyptian priests. True the Greek ever become visible, nor without something philosophers could not hear tales of the solid, could it be tangible . . . therefore did transmutation of lead into gold with an God when he set about to frame the body of unqualified credulity. They saw in Thoth the universe, frame it of fire and of earth. But their own god Hermes, who was, among it is not possible for two things to be fairly other things, the patron of thieves. But there were surely some honest men among And has a form and shape most strange to see. these priests and what they had achieved When he was born he sprang from out the warm others could achieve especially with the aid And humid substance of united things. The close embrace of male and female kind of this “Hermetic” literature. —A union which occurred within the sea— Thus there grew up a class of men who Brought forth this dragon as already said; devoted more or less of their time to the A monster scorching all the earth with fire, invention of metallurgical processes and With all his might and panoply displayed, the application of these to the problem of He swims and comes into a place within metallic transmutation and a body of The currents of the Nile; his gleaming skin And all the bands which girdle him around tradition grew up which taught that gold Are bright as gold and shine with points of light.10 is the most perfect of metals and the goal of the Creator’s thought; that all other And so the poem continues on and on. metals are imperfect gold, that in purifying Just once do we see a substance mentioned them lies the essential task, the task of by its common name, when we are told completing the Great Work which God “then pour the mercury.” All the rest is has begun. Moreover the human body, left for those to interpret who can. like the baser metals, requires purification If and holy living could have and a divine elixir, which will cure all availed, if industry and devotion could bodily ills, awaits discovery through the have been crowned with success, the toilers labors of the experimenter and the sage. of the laboratory would have led mankind Success in this Great Work will surely into the promised land. never be achieved by base persons. Diligence At any time the devotee might have is not the only requisite of success; to^it turned aside to produce sham gold. Un- must be added a life of aspiration, of self doubtedly the experience of Denys Zachaire discipline, of self consecration; with a was not an unusual one. He writes: knowledge of the Hermetic books there must go, hand in hand, an abundance of On my road, I heard of a man of religion who . was wise in natural philosophy and went there- Such was the Greek philosopher turned fore to visit him, but only to be diverted by his chemist, in other words the alchemist, earnest counsel from all modes of sophistication, whose lore passed over into the keeping of over which I had wasted my time ... I was rather to study henceforward the books of the Moslems, to be augmented and passed ancient philosophers, that I might become on to Europe of the earlier (twelfth century) acquainted with their True Matter, wherein was Renaissance. the perfection of the science ... I began Just as the goal might not be reached, again to frequent those who were pursuing save by the blessed, so the steps taken by the Divine Work, not, however, my old the alchemists might not be displayed to acquaintances . . . who were dabbling in the gaze of the vulgar and so a form of sophistications.11 cryptic writing grew up whereby the true sense was concealed from all save the The temptation was always there and it is initiated. Thus Theophrastos, who versified to the credit of humanity that there were in the ninth century the equally cryptic apparently so many who would not yield prose of Stephanos who wrote two hundred to it. years before, tells us: Thus the Great Work, alchemy, passed down through the centuries and found in A dragon springs therefrom which, when exposed Italy of the Renaissance a much warmer In horse’s excrement for twenty days, Devours his tail till naught thereof remains. welcome among the educated than did its This dragon, whom they call, more substantial though less alluring sister, Is white in looks and spotted in his skin, technical chemistry. Neoplat onism beauty of its conceptions enthralled many Now besides deriving most impractical of the finest minds and these soon became notions from those most practical persons distressed and angered beyond measure by the Egyptian priests, the Greek philosophers the rise of a new group, a new school of in Alexandria did some real thinking of philosophy and religion. their own in regard to the difficulties raised by the metaphysics of their master Plato. Christi anity For Plato would have it that the phenom- This new upstart was which enal world is but the imperfect repre- had already outgrown its primitive com- sentation of the real world of ideas, or munism, pacifism and its naive anticipation prototypes, and it seems to have been of an impending judgment. Although it difficult for his later followers to conceive now could boast of its scholars, it still of these shadowy patterns of things existing claimed to be essentially the religion of always and yet nowhere in particular and the oppressed and with it to imagine the way in which such patterns soon closed in a struggle which was might connect with a world of phenomena. unworthy of either, a struggle for the Therefore these spiritual descendants of capture of political prestige. the Athenian Academy developed and Each angrily accused the other of plagiary extended the doctrines of Plato becoming and indeed they did have much in common. by’ so doing Neoplatonists. These Neo- They agreed essentially as to the nature of platonists solved one of the problems just God and of the world and of the relation alluded to by placing the patterns in the which exists between the two, and they mind of God and the second problem by also agreed as to the nature of evil and of bridging the gap between the patterns and freedom. They differed, however, in respect the objects before us by means of mediating to the incarnation and the resurrection, links. and to the Christians these differences Thus according to Plotinus there emanates were of overwhelming importance. Theirs from God, who is beyond everything, even was a religion of salvation; they sought a being, an overflow as it were, known as Mind guarantee of celestial favor which they [Nous], from which there is a second ema- could not find in Neoplatonism. True the nation, Soul, the universal Soul or Over-soul. Christian mystics like the Neoplatonists Besides the intellectual alteration in derived their sanction from ecstacy but Plato’s scheme, the Neoplatonists developed the ordinary people demanded or adopted from the Orient a technique through historical tradition. whereby each one of us may come to Hence the wrath of St. Augustine, himself experience God directly. not exempt from mystical leanings, who There are two steps in this approach to called the Neoplatonic philosophers the the Supreme Being. By the first we become “deceivers of the deceived”; their philos- plunged into thought, we transcend the ophy, , and their method, incantation. soul and enter the realm of mind. We With the death, in 363, of Julian whom the move among the archetypes and think Christians called “The Apostate” the tri- God’s thoughts with Him. In the second umph of Christianity now radically trans- step we progressively deny all sense impres- formed, became assured. In 415 Hypatia sions until the soul becomes caught up by was torn to pieces in the market place of the divine dark or nothingness which Alexandria. And in 529 the schools of the signalizes our absorption into the Deity. Greek philosophers were permanently closed Apart from any claim to logical deriva- by the Emperor Justinian, just as the tion or internal consistency which Neo- temples of Aesculapius had been closed by platonism might advance, the charm and Constantine two centuries earlier [335 a .d .]. Meanwhile the now chastened Neopla- In 827, a set of the Dionysian writings tonism had passed over into Syria to become was sent to Louis 1, son of Charlemagne, absorbed later into the culture of the Arabs, who turned them over to the Abbey of St. or it lay dormant in the works of its great Denis, near Paris. By a confusion either masters Plotinus and others to be reawak- unconscious or intentional, Dionysius, the ened by the Renaissance, or lastly it passed Areopagite, was identified with St. Denis, over directly into Christianity and served the martyr and patron saint of Paris. to reenforce the mysticism already culti- But in spite of this mistake the acquisition vated by the Christian saints. of these books was at once signalized by That this transference occurred not only miracles. Unfortunately as the books were gradually but sometimes in truly massive in Greek no one could read them, but at manner the following story shows. length Charles the Bald (843-876) ordered At a conference with the Severians,12 their translation by John the Scot who called by Justinian in 533 [or 531], the not only accomplished this but went on members of this sect of Christians asserted to write books of his own showing himself that Christ had a single nature. Judged to be one of the greatest mystics of the from the scholarly standpoint such a state- Middle Ages. ment must be erroneous for as every well- A few extracts from Dionysius will show informed person knew copper and silver the tenor of his thought: cannot be united by being merely melted together. They can be united only through the We ought to know that our mind has the intermediary agent, mercury, and further- power for thought, through which it views things intellectual but that the union through more this mercury acts as it does in virtue which it is brought into contact with things of its sharing the properties of both silver beyond itself surpasses the nature of mind. and copper since in some of its forms We must, then, contemplate things Divine by [quicksilver] it resembles silver while in union, not in ourselves but by going out of others it has the red color of copper.13 ourselves entirely and becoming wholely of Examples of this sort might be multiplied God.14 indefinitely. Indeed they are but special applications of the more fundamental doc- And again, addressing the NewTestament trine of the nature of the union of earth character: and fire. Thus we may clearly see that O dear Timothy, by thy persistent commerce there can be no reconciliation between God with mystic visions, leave behind sensible per- and man, no hope of salvation unless ceptions and intellectual efforts, and all objects Christ also possesses two natures, divine of sense and of intelligence, and all things being and human. and not being, and be raised aloft above knowl- However, the Severians stood firm and edge to union, as far as is attainable, with Him in support of their views produced manu- who is above every essence [or attribute] and scripts which they alleged had been written knowledge. For by a resistless and absolute by one Dionysius, the convert of Paul in ecstacy from thyself and everything, thou wilt the Areopagus, the first Bishop of Athens, be carried up to the superessential ray of the the companion and friend of the apostles. Divine Dark, when thou hast cast away all and become free from all.15 The opponents of the Severians, of Just as those who make a lifelike statue chip course, denied the authenticity of the off all the encumbrances, cut away all super- books and in the end won the day. But the fluous material, and bring to light the Beauty books themselves became popular almost hidden within. So we abstract [negate] every- immediately and from the beginning of the thing in order that without veils we may know seventh century were accepted by the the Unknown which is concealed by all the Eastern Church. light in existing things.15 All this is essentially like Plotinus. The Vah together with My memorial, amounts to ladder also is preserved albeit the rungs 248. Here we have 613 which is the number of are named differently; instead of God, the precepts of the law. The soul is a portion of Mind [Nous], Over-soul, we have a triple God from above, and this is mystically inti- trinity in (i) seraphim, cherubim, thrones, mated by the degrees of breath, spirit, soul, the initial and final letters of which amount to (2) dominations, virtues, powers, (3) princi- 613, while the middle letters of these amount to palities, archangels, angels. Whence this the number of Lord, Almighty, God. The soul extraordinary complexity? Whence? Why of our Rabbi, peace be on him! embraced that comes probably from the synagogue all the souls of Israel; as it is said, Moses was in Alexandria. Let us therefore hurry back equivalent to all Israel. Moses our Rabbi again to Alexandria. amounts to 613; and Lord, God of Israel also amounts to 613. The Kabbala 16 May good omen and good luck be upon us In the Jewish synagogue as well as in the and upon all Israel! Amen!17 Greek school the intellectuals were encount- Such methods of exegesis although repel- ering difficulties. It is obvious that the more lent to the severely rational mind have been spiritually minded and philosophical rab- very prevalent in Christian thought. bins who perused lovingly the rolls of the We find them not only in Swedenborg and scriptures should have found many passages Mrs. Eddy but also among the more which were most disappointing. If these orthodox who seek to impose upon words rolls contain only the most subtle, the and phrases meanings which accurate most exalting, the most soul satisfying of scholarship would discredit.18 spiritual food, what can be said of passages It was this discontent then with their such as those which describe the conduct scriptures as they stood which stimulated of Lot’s daughters, the outrage at Gibea, the rabbins to seek and find the following and of many others, which seemed either in the Hebrew : grotesque, contradictory or simply common- God the infinite, the boundless, is above place and stupid? The answer is obvious. all and beyond all; even being and thinking For, as the alchemists concealed their are attributes too finite to be affirmed of thought in words which meant something him. He cannot indeed be comprehended quite different from their face value and by the intellect nor described in words. His hence can be understood only by the name is En Soph [Without End, The Infinite]. initiated, so the holy and inspired writers Of course a being whose essential char- of these sacred rolls have written with a acteristic is infinite emptiness cannot create double meaning, the obvious for the simple, but even from the beginning there existed the profound for the wise. It became neces- in him [strange contradiction] the will sary therefore for the wise to seek and to become known. The first manifestation discover these hidden meanings, and the of this will, coeternal with the Inscrutable, text of the scripture thus became a cipher is the first Sephirah or emanation. Within for the solution of which at least eight well- this Sephirah are contained nine other defined methods were devised. Sephiroth derived serially one from another. Among the latter was that of giving to These ten intelligences proceed like rays every letter of a word its numerical value from the En Soph. Together they are called and then explaining this word by another the heavenly or archetypal man. They whose letters add up to the same quantity. were what Ezekiel saw in the mysterious Thus the Kitzur Sh’Iu reads: chariot and of them earthly man is but a It is written, this is My name, and this My faint copy. memorial. My name, together with the letter The natures of these separate intelligences Yeho, amounts numerically to 365; the letter are known through their names. 1, The Crown, 2, Wisdom, 3, Intelligence, 4, Love, Italy 5, Justice, 6, Beauty, 7, Firmness, 8, Splen- Italy in the fifteenth century! There had dor, 9, Foundation, 10, Kingdom. been nothing like it except among the Here is a trinity of triads plus the King- Saracens since the ancient glories of Alexan- dom which is the schechinah or halo which dria! Here in Italy was again the meeting surrounds them all. There is also to be place of all cultures and all varieties of extracted at least two more trinities, a thought. No longer was Italy solely depend- ent upon Arab translations for its learning trinity of units and a trinity of characters.19 for its scholars had begun to unlock the At once we are impressed with the likeness secrets imprisoned in Greek manuscript. between this celestial ladder and those of To the civilization of Italy, the Egyptian Dionysius and of John the Scot. I cannot temple had contributed its impulse greatly say with certainty whether Jewish or enhanced by its passage through the Christian mystic influenced the other more Saracens to metallurgy and the industrial in the process of complexification of the arts. Here alchemy was pursued with vigor, simple celestial linkage of the Neoplatonists. albeit under the suspicion of the Church. Certainly both Jewish and Christian influ- Here Jewish doctors might be found versed ences are brought to bear upon the ladder in Kabbalistic and Talmudic lore which building tendencies of later times. they were none too eager to impart. Here But to continue our exposition of rabbini- too is the Christian mystic the most cal lore; the world was not created out of dreaded ornament of the Church. For nothing. It is the unfolding of the Sephiroth because of his direct access to the Deity, and it is a fourfold world. First there is the the mystic is likely to become careless of world of emanations filled with the unborn the ministrations of the Church. He is likely to neglect his duty of holy obedience souls of men, secondly, the world of crea- and to place the authority of his own revela- tion, where the angel Metatron, “the tion before that of the institution which is garment of Shaddai,” rules all the worlds itself the clearest and most explicit revela- below him, namely, the third world, the tion of the divine will. Do not all heresies world of formation inhabited by the angelic and schisms begin with the mystics? hosts and lastly the fourth world, the world of matter, our world. The Florentine Academ y Man is a microcosm, he unites in himself It was in 1439 that a council met in all forms, indeed each member of his body Florence to discuss and, if possible, to corresponds to a part of the visible uni- accomplish the union of the Greek and verse.19 What oriental heritage is this, for Latin Churches. It was indeed a vain hope man was a microcosm not only to the but something grew out of that council a medieval Kabbalists but also to the ancient by-product of a most unexpected nature. It Chinese!20 happened in this way. Such was the work of the rabbins who Among the participants at the council wrought the Kabbala and these secrets, was a certain Gemistos Pletho [c. 1355- the learned carried with them into the 1450], a Greek.21 This man was versed in Moslem world and then into Europe prior the writings of the Neoplatonists and the to the Renaissance. But at first it was no Neopythagoreans. He was a dreamer who easy job for the Christian scholars to had imagined a semi-pagan philosophy persuade the reticent sages to speak of superseding Christianity and the resurrec- these mysteries of their religion and to tion of the old Athenian Academy where unfold the complexities of the Kabbalistic Plato had walked and talked among his alert theosophy. and appreciative pupils. As for Gemistos himself, the Florentine literati called him associated with the Florentine academy or the second Plato. who, we may suppose, dropped in occas- Time past and others began to take up ionally while passing through Florence? the dream of Gemistos and among these There was his eminence, the cardinal, was Cosimo de Medici, who with char- Nicolaus of Cusa, the son of a poor fisher- acteristic vigor founded at one stroke the man, who on his journeys to and from Florentine Academy. and the Netherlands, whither he Here the young men would learn by way was sent to restore purity and respect for of pastime precepts of conduct and the the rule in the monasteries, must certainly practice of eloquence. The older men would have tarried at the academy. He would be discuss the government of the family and welcomed, as a sign of ecclesiastical sanc- of the republic. The aged would seek con- tion, to their proceedings so often made solation in such themes as immortality. the theme of unpleasant comment by the There were patrons [the Medici], hearers pious and illiterate. He would also be [the body of the organization], and disciples welcomed as a scholar for had he not [the youths already mentioned]. followed Laurentius Valla in attacking the It was a grand idea and so successfully “Donation of Constantine” and then along carried out that other Academies began to with Juan Torquemada been the first to crop up as in Rome and in Naples. cast doubts upon the genuineness of the But there is one thing which an organiza- False Decretals? Was he not a good Neo- tion of this type must have and that is a platonist since he believed that all human permanent, responsible, talented person who knowledge is conjecture and that God will serve as an executive officer, a standard may be reached through intuition? And bearer in the company of scholars. although he held the queer notion that Now it happened that about this time the earth rotates, he was certainly a good a young man by the name of Marsilio Pantheist too. “Philosophy” said he, “is Ficino had begun to attract attention. He the religion of the learned; religion the was the son of Cosimo’s physician and philosophy of the simple,” or words to the close friend of that other promising that effect. And yet in spite of all this youth Cosimo’s own son, Lorenzo, and, liberalism he was made governor of Rome although his health was poor, he possessed during Pope Pius’s absence. rare gifts of mind. So Cosimo made him Among the attractive figures in and the hierophant of his new academy, where about the Academy was a gay Italian he set to work and translated Plato, nobleman, tall, fair, handsome with grey Plotinus and Dionysius the Areopagite. eyes and yellow hair, a great favorite with Indeed he became so diligent in his labors the ladies. It is Count Giovani Pico della that overzealous persons denounced his Mirandola who, though thirty years younger activities to the ecclesiastical authorities. than Ficino, became his closest friend. It seems to have been one of the regular Pico too had his troubles for once a book duties of the Popes in those days to pro- of which he was the author was burned by tect such scholars as were accused of order of the Pope. Once he was acquitted of heresy, magic, and impiety but who were heresies such as saying that the Kabbala at heart loyal to the papacy. So Ficino was gives proof of the deity of Christ. But acquitted and continued his labors living surely he ought to have known for he was in a beautiful, rural retreat not far from acquainted not only with Latin but with Florence, a pure, simple, lovely character, Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldee which he had encyclopedic in knowledge and possessed acquired from most accomplished teachers of a vast number of learned acquaintances. and he had studied the Kabbala pro- Now who were the men whose names are foundly before making the statement for which he was censured. Thus it would strict discipline and consummate scholar- seem that he read into the Kabbala his ship. Trithemius himself was a chemist, own desires, even as the rabbins had read alchemist and Kabbalist. He was also the theirs into the Hebrew Scripture. first important writer on . In 1506 he exchanged his abbotship for The that of St. Jacob at Wurzburg and here it In 1482 there arrived at the Academy, was that Paracelsus became his pupil. a strange scholar from the Black Forest. Among the friends of Trithemius was He had come to Italy as the interpreter of Agrippa von Nettesheim a traveler, Count Eberhard of Wiirtemberg. It was writer, soldier, physician and magician. He Johann Reuchlin. He was a very learned wrote on occult philosophy and a defence of man and knew both Greek and Hebrew magic as a means of knowing God. Agrippa and he soon found a kindred spirit in taught a modification of the Kabbalistic that other Hebrew scholar Pico della Mir- cosmology in which there were three worlds andola who, as we have seen, was one of the instead of four, namely the celestial, siderial noted Kabbalists. and the material. Soon Reuchlin also was finding in the In these worlds there exists the Agrippan Kabbala a defense of Christianity. But he analogue of the Dionysian or Kabbalistic found much more than this in his Hebrew ladder, a sort of hierarchy of power. At the studies. They became of absorbing interest top stands the prototype, at the bottom, to him and when an attempt was made in the man; and between them in descending cities along the Rhine to burn all the Jewish series each member dominated by the power books he stoutly opposed the attempt. For above and dominating the power below this he was denounced and summoned to come Angels, Heavens, Stars, Elements, Ani- Rome but, being a good Catholic, he was mals, Plants and Rocks. Through natural acquitted. magic, man may at least in part reverse Reuchlin’s reputation for learning brought this control, and by natural magic Agrippa to him many pupils among whom was means physics, mathematics and .22 Oecolampadius who later became pro- How strikingly familiar all this sounds! fessor of theology at and active in Indeed the system of Paracelsus cannot be the Protestant Reformation. He was the fully appreciated apart from that of his friend of and Frobius and sup- master’s friend Agrippa whom he followed ported Paracelsus during his brief and in many respects. When Agrippa says stormy sojourn at the university. “All chemists are either physicians or - Another pupil of Reuchlin was his sister’s boilers” his remarks sound very much like grandson Philip Schwarzerd. However, he some of Paracelsus’. too went astray and joined the Protestants Parac els us and as a writer and reformer is known by his Greek name Melanchthon. It is easy to see the value to Paracelsus of Besides those who actually visited Flor- his inheritance from the industrial chemists ence there were many who experienced the and the alchemists but what could have influence of the Florentine Academy either been the advantage to him of all this through the inspiring contact of such mysticism of threefold origin Christian, returned travelers as Reuchlin or through Neoplatonic and Kabbalistic with its intui- the writings of the academicians themselves. tions and ecstacies, its celestial ladders Thus made the and its endless irrational complexities and Benedictine monastery of near absurdities? The answer is not far to Kreuznach an educational institution of the seek. first order, noted for its excellent library, We have seen in the medieval Christian church two antithetical tendencies, the flood of light do these considerations throw ecclesiastical and the mystical. upon the bonfire of authorities kindled by The policy of ecclesiasticism demands Paracelsus at Basel! that there be a series of divinely attested It was the triumph of mysticism over dogmas whence all things may be deduced. ecclesiasticism, of saint over priest, of The ecclesiastical method is logical and is Neoplatonism over Neoaristotelianism, and followed unswervingly. It may lead to a Paracelsus being a medievalist [unlike Leon- doctrine of or to the immacu- ardo] could triumph in no other way than by late conception but the method cannot be using a medieval tool to cut his medieval abandoned except under dire necessity bonds. Fortunately also the chemistry and and then the appeal must not be made to alchemy, which Paracelsus knew so well, the uncontrolled, unlicensed mystic but to saved him from that most paralysing ele- some generally recognized source of divine ment in Neoplatonism, the belief in the guidance, a council, a pope, or a book. futility of human knowledge. Thus Para- To be sure the saints may communicate celsus was enabled to pluck the rose of directly with the Deity but the divine mysticism while avoiding its thorns. message in passing through them may That Paracelsus should also have been undergo immeasurable distortion, while caught up in the stream of the Protestant through the council, the pope, or the book Reformation is but natural for do not all come clear-cut, authentic, validated state- heresies begin with the mystics? ments of the Divine Mind. Erhart, the bishop, Trithemius, the abbot, The essentials of ecclesiasticism, however, Agrippa, the physician, along with Wilhelm are not characteristics which are confined Bombast von Hohenheim [of whom we to the sacerdotal orders. They are human know so little], these are they who opened characteristics and in medieval science there the door of the past to Paracelsus. It was was exactly the same antithesis as in the Paracelsus himself who opened for himself medieval church. and other children of Medievalism the It must be remembered that the door of the future. of the Renaissance was not the Aristotle of Theophrastus nor of William Harvey; he Note s was the medieval Aristotle. For just as the middle ages had transformed the poet 1. In my desire to avoid making any of those monumental blunders which sometimes mar Virgil into a magician and wonderworker,23 the presentation of matters with which one is so had Aristotle been made to assume the all too unfamiliar, I have submitted my role of doctor infallible, writer of patristic manuscript to the criticism of several of my literature and [significant difference!] not non-medical colleagues. It is certainly a the master of those who seek but the master pleasure and, I think, a duty to express my of those who know.24 thanks to Professors W. J. Chase, A. R. Hohlfeld, E. H. Byrne, E. Kremers, and A. E. Thus it came to pass that in fifteenth Haydon. century science, there stood on the one hand 2. Brow ne , C. A. The poem of the philosopher the rationalistic classicism of those scientific Theophrastos upon the sacred art: a metrical schoolmen, the Aristotelians and the - translation with comments upon the history ists, with its dogmas, its deductive logic of alchemy. Scient. Month., 1920, x, 202. and on the other hand stood those scientific 3. e.g. Bartolomaeus Anglicus, Vincent of Beau- mystics, champions of the direct appeal to vais, and perhaps might be included. Nature, who is to be approached not with 4. Twelfth century writer trans, by Valentin Rose obsequiousness to tradition and dialectic (Ztschr. f. deutsches Alterthum, 1875, Vol. subtleties but through , alchemy, xvii i) whom J. M. Stillman quotes (The Story magic and patient observation. What a of Early Chemistry, N. Y., 1924, p. 209). $. Still man , J. M. The Story of Early Chemistry, 15. Jones , R. M. Studies in Mystical Religion, 1909, N. Y., 1924, p. 206. p. 109. 6. Mc Curdy , E. Leonardo da Vinci’s Note-books. 16. Oes te rle y , W. O. E. and Box, G. H. A Short N. Y., 1923, p. 55. Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical and 7. Raab , F. Leonardo da Vinci als Naturforscher. Mediaeval , N. Y., 1920. From the Sammlung gemeinverstandlicher 17. Hebraic Literature: Universal Classics Library; wissenschlaftlicher Vortrage herausgegeben Dunne, New York, p. 271. von Virchow und von Holtzendorff. Series 18. “The Old Testament is a cipher,” writes Blaise 15, Heft 350. Berlin, 1880, p. 19. Pascal in his “Thoughts” (chapter entitled 8. Still man , J. M. The Story of Early Chemistry, “Thoughts on Mohamet and on China”) N. Y., 1924, p. 306. and he frequently reverts to this idea. 9. Plat o . Timaeus; trans, of R. D. Archer-Hinds, 19. Gins bur g , C. D. and Cook , S. A. Article 1888, quoted from Stillman, J. M. The Story on Kabbalah. Encyclopedia Brit., ed. 11. of Early Chemistry, p. 146. 20. Daws on , P. M. Su-Wen, The Basis of Chinese 10. Brow ne , C. A. The poems of the philosopher Medicine. Anna ls of Medi cal Hist ory , Theophrastos upon the sacred art. Scient. 1925, vii i, 59. Month., 1920, x, 204. 21. For the biographies of Pletho, Ficino, Pico, Cusa 11. Waite , A. E. The Secret Tradition in Alchemy, etc. and for the description of the Florentine N. Y., 1926, p. 192. Academy, I have drawn freely on the numer- 12. For this “collatio cum Severianis” see Encyclo- ous articles and cross-references to be found pedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James in the Encyclo. Brit. ed. 11. Hastings, article Monophysitism by G. Kruger 22. Stil lma n , J. M., Theophrastus Bombastus von 1916, vii i, 815, d. Hohenheim called Paracelsus. Chicago, 1920, 13. Brown e , C. A. The poem of the philosopher P- 3i- Theophrastos upon the sacred art. Scient. 23. Comp are tt i, D. Virgil in the Middle Ages; Month., 1920, p. 206. trans. E. F. M. Benecke, also Karl Shamb ach : 14. Jones , R. M. Studies in Mystical Religion, Virgil ein Faust des Mittelalters, 1904. 1909, p. 108. 24. Dante’s Inferno, Canto iv, line 131.