Paracelsus was born in
Einsiedeln, a village close to the
Etzel Pass in
Einsiedeln,
Schwyz. He was born in a house next to a bridge across the
Sihl river. His father Wilhelm (d. 1534) was a chemist and physician, an illegitimate descendant of the
Swabian noble
Bombast von Hohenheim (1453–1499),
commander of the
Order of Saint John in
Rohrdorf. Paracelsus' mother was probably a native of the
Einsiedeln region and a
bondswoman of
Einsiedeln Abbey, who before her marriage worked as superintendent in the abbey's hospital. Paracelsus in his writings repeatedly made references to his rustic origins and occasionally used
Eremita ("hermit", from the name of Einsiedeln, meaning "hermitage") as part of his name. Paracelsus' mother probably died in 1502, after which Paracelsus's father moved to
Villach,
Carinthia, where he worked as a physician, attending to the medical needs of the pilgrims and inhabitants of the cloister. Some biographers have claimed that he received tutoring from four bishops and
Johannes Trithemius, abbot of
Sponheim.
Early career , source of the iconographic tradition of "fat" Paracelsus "Paracelsus sought a universal knowledge" that was not found in books or faculties. Thus, between 1517 and 1524, he embarked on a series of extensive travels around Europe. His wanderings led him from
Italy to
France,
Spain,
Portugal,
England,
Germany,
Scandinavia,
Poland,
Russia,
Hungary,
Croatia,
Rhodes,
Constantinople, and possibly even
Egypt. During this period of travel, Paracelsus enlisted as an army surgeon and was involved in the wars waged by
Venice,
Holland,
Denmark, and the
Tatars. Then Paracelsus returned home from his travels. In 1524, "[a]fter visiting his father at
Villach and finding no local opportunity to practice, he settled in
Salzburg" as a physician, In 1527, Paracelsus was a
city physician () in Basel with the privilege of lecturing at the University of Basel. At that time, Basel was a centre of Renaissance humanism, and Paracelsus here came into contact with
Erasmus of Rotterdam,
Wolfgang Lachner, and
Johannes Oekolampad. When Erasmus fell ill while staying in Basel, he wrote to Paracelsus: "I cannot offer thee a reward equal to thy art and knowledge—I surely offer thee a grateful soul. Thou hast recalled from the shades Frobenius who is my other half: if thou restorest me also thou restorest each through the other." Paracelsus' lectures at Basel university unusually were given in German, not Latin. He stated that he wanted his lectures to be available to everyone. He published harsh criticism of the Basel physicians and apothecaries, creating political turmoil to the point of his life being threatened. In a display of his contempt for conventional medicine, Paracelsus publicly
burned editions of the works of
Galen and
Avicenna. On 23 June 1527, he burnt a copy of Avicenna's
Canon of Medicine, an enormous tome that was a pillar of academic study, in market square. He was prone to many outbursts of abusive language, abhorred untested theory, and ridiculed anybody who placed more importance on titles than practice: 'if disease put us to the test, all our splendour, title, ring, and name will be as much help as a horse's tail'. Paracelsus was compared with
Martin Luther because of his openly defiant acts against the existing authorities in medicine. But Paracelsus rejected that comparison, famously stating: "I leave it to Luther to defend what he says and I will be responsible for what I say. That which you wish to Luther, you wish also to me: You wish us both in the fire." A companion during the Basel years expressed a quite unflattering opinion on Paracelsus: "The two years I passed in his company he spent in
drinking and
gluttony, day and night. He could not be found
sober an hour or two together, in particular after his departure from Basel." Threatened with an unwinnable lawsuit, he left Basel for
Alsace in February 1528.
Later career ,
Bavaria In Alsace, Paracelsus took up the life of an
itinerant physician once again. After staying in
Colmar with
Lorenz Fries, and briefly in
Esslingen, he moved to
Nuremberg in 1529. His reputation went before him, and the medical professionals excluded him from practising. The name
Paracelsus is first attested in this year, used as a pseudonym for the publication of a
Practica of political-
astrological character in Nuremberg. Pagel (1982) supposes that the name was intended for use as the author of non-medical works, while his real name
Theophrastus von Hohenheim was used for medical publications. The first use of
Doctor Paracelsus in a medical publication was in 1536, as the author of the
Grosse Wundartznei. The name is usually interpreted as either a
Latinization of
Hohenheim (based on
celsus "high, tall") or as the claim of "surpassing
Celsus". It has been argued that the name was not the invention of Paracelsus himself, who would have been opposed to the humanistic fashion of Latinized names, but was given to him by his circle of friends in Colmar in 1528. It is difficult to interpret but does appear to express the "paradoxical" character of the man, the prefix "
para" suggestively being echoed in the titles of Paracelsus's main philosophical works,
Paragranum and
Paramirum (as it were, "beyond the grain" and "beyond wonder"), a
paramiric treatise having been announced by Paracelsus as early as 1520. The great medical problem of this period was
syphilis, possibly recently imported from the
West Indies and running rampant as a
pandemic completely untreated. In two publications on the topic, Paracelsus vigorously attacked the treatment with
guaiac wood as useless, a scam perpetrated by the
Fugger of Augsburg as the main importers of the wood. When his further stay in Nuremberg had become impossible, he retired to
Beratzhausen, hoping to return to Nuremberg and publish an extended treatise on the "French sickness"; but its publication was prohibited by a decree of the Leipzig
faculty of medicine, represented by
Heinrich Stromer, a close friend and associate of the Fugger family. In
Beratzhausen, Paracelsus prepared
Paragranum, his main work on
medical philosophy, completed 1530. Moving on to
St. Gall, he then completed his
Opus Paramirum in 1531, which he dedicated to
Joachim Vadian. From St. Gall, he moved on to the land of
Appenzell, where he was active as
lay preacher and healer among the
peasantry. In the same year, he visited the mines in
Schwaz and
Hall in
Tyrol, working on his book on miners' diseases. He moved on to
Innsbruck, where he was once again barred from practising. He passed
Sterzing in 1534, moving on to
Meran,
Veltlin, and
St. Moritz, which he praised for its healing springs. In Meran, he came in contact with the socioreligious programs of the
Anabaptists. He visited
Pfäfers Abbey, dedicating a separate pamphlet to its baths (1535). He passed
Kempten,
Memmingen,
Ulm, and
Augsburg in 1536. He finally managed to publish his
Die grosse Wundartznei ("The Great Surgery Book"), printed in
Ulm,
Augsburg, and
Frankfurt in this year. His
Astronomia magna (also known as
Philosophia sagax) was completed in 1537 but not published until 1571. It is a treatise on
hermeticism,
astrology,
divination,
theology, and
demonology that laid the basis of Paracelsus's later fame as a "prophet". His
motto Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest ("Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself") is inscribed on a 1538 portrait by
Augustin Hirschvogel.
Death and legacy In 1541, Paracelsus moved to
Salzburg where he died on 24 September. He was buried in St. Sebastian's cemetery in Salzburg. His remains were relocated inside St. Sebastian's church in 1752. After his death, the movement of
Paracelsianism was seized upon by many wishing to subvert the traditional
Galenic physics, and his therapies became more widely known and used. His manuscripts have been lost, but many of his works which remained unpublished during his lifetime were edited by Johannes Huser of Basel during 1589 to 1591. His works were frequently reprinted and widely read during the late 16th to early 17th centuries, and although his "
occult" reputation remained controversial, his medical contributions were universally recognized: a 1618
pharmacopeia by the
Royal College of Physicians in London included "Paracelsian" remedies. The late 16th century saw substantial production of Pseudo-Paracelsian writing, especially letters attributed to Paracelsus, to the point where biographers find it impossible to draw a clear line between genuine tradition and legend. ==Philosophy==