Cross and Crucible: Alchemy in the Theology of Paracelsus

Abstract

Paracelsus was not only a reformer of medicine with a preference for medical alchemy, but also emerged as a radical church reformer. However, he only rarely used the imagery of alchemy as a parable for theological salvation. Fire as the driving force for every alchemical process was also suitable as an image for the purification of souls. A central idea of alchemy, to transfer a substance from its still impure original state into the purified final state, was very much in line with Paracelsus’s doctrine of the Last Supper, according to which the mortal human who had descended from Adam is to be brought to a new birth through baptism with the Holy Spirit. As an alchemist, Paracelsus was keenly interested in the transfiguration of Christ, which he first explained alchemically, but later magically, probably according to the model of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Andrew Weeks, the anonymous referee, and above all Didier Kahn for their untiring help and invaluable comments.

Note on contributor

Urs Leo Gantenbein is a research associate of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (www.iem.usz.ch) and of the Institute of Swiss Reformation History (www.irg.uzh.ch), both at the University of Zurich, and he is the editor of the New Paracelsus Edition and founder of the Zurich Paracelsus Project of the University of Zurich (www.paracelsus.uzh.ch). He is specialised in Paracelsus studies and in the history of Renaissance medicine and medical alchemy. Address: Ackeretstrasse 16, CH-8400 Winterthur, Switzerland. Email: [email protected].

Notes

1 Paracelsus, Bücher und Schrifften, ed. Johannes Huser, 10 vols. (Basel: Conrad Waldkirch, 1589–1591), abbreviated as H1–H10; Chirurgische Bücher und Schrifften, ed. Johannes Huser (Strasbourg: Lazarus Zetzner, 1605), hereafter HC.

2 Paracelsus, Philosophia De Limbo Aeterno, ed. Johannes Staricius (Magdeburg: Francke, 1618). On Staricius see Andrew Weeks, “Jacob Böhme, Johannes Staricius (ca. 1580–??), and the Culture of Dissent,” in Jacob Böhme and His World, ed. Bo Andersson e. a. (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 221–43.

3 For the history of the edition of the theological works of Paracelsus see Paracelsus, Theologische Werke, Neue Paracelsus-Edition 1, ed. Urs Leo Gantenbein (Berlin–New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008), hereafter NPE1, on 37–69.

4 NPE1, 5–7.

5 Andrew Weeks, “Theorie und Mystik in der Nachfolge des Paracelsus,” Morgen-Glantz 13 (2003): 283–302.

6 Martin Luther, Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, vol. 6 (Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1888), 459.

7 For further details and references see Urs Leo Gantenbein, “The Virgin Mary and the Universal Reformation of Paracelsus,” forthcoming in Daphnis 48 (2020).

8 See Dane Thor Daniel, Paracelsus’ Astronomia Magna (1537/38): Bible-Based Science and the Religious Roots of the Scientific Revolution (Ph.D. diss.: Indiana University, 2003).

9 For an introduction to the alchemy of Paracelsus see e.g. Bruce T. Moran, Paracelsus. An Alchemical Life (London: Reaktion Books, 2019).

10 For a new discussion of the relevance of transmutation in the works of Paracelsus, see also Andrew Sparling, “Paracelsus was a Transmutational Alchemist,” Ambix 67 (2020): this issue.

11 See Kurt Goldammer, Paracelsus: Natur und Offenbarung (Hannover: Theodor Oppermann Verlag, 1953); Paracelsus, Essential Theoretical Writings, ed. Andrew Weeks (Leiden: Brill, 2008), hereafter Weeks, ETW, especially 1–59; Massimo Luigi Bianchi, Natura e sovrannatura nella filosofia tedesca della prima età moderna: Paracelsus, Weigel, Böhme (Florence: Olschki, 2011), 7–149; Walter Pagel, Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance, 2nd revised edition (Basel: Karger, 1982).

12 Dane Thor Daniel, “Medieval Alchemy and Paracelsus’ Theology: Pseudo-Lull’s Testamentum and Paracelsus’ Astronomia Magna,” Nova Acta Paracelsica N.F. 22–23 (2008–2009): 121–35; Daniel, Paracelsus’ Astronomia Magna, 174–77.

13 See the remarks in Didier Kahn, Le fixe et le volatil. Chimie et alchimie, de Paracelse à Lavoisier (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2016), 135–38.

14 For reasons of limited space, the original German and Latin texts are generally not reproduced here.

15 Martin Luther, Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Tischreden, 1. Band (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1912), 566–67. See Sylvain Matton, Scolastique et alchimie (XVI^e–XVII^e siècles) (Paris–Milan: SEHA–Archè, 2009), 492–95.

16 Urs Leo Gantenbein, “Die Beziehungen zwischen Alchemie und Hüttenwesen im frühen 16. Jahrhundert, insbesondere bei Paracelsus und Georgius Agricola,” Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Fachgruppe Geschichte der Chemie 15 (2000): 11–31.

17 English translation taken from Weeks, ETW 249.

18 Gantenbein, “Alchemie und Hüttenwesen,” 15–16, 20; Bianchi, Natura e sovrannatura, 113.

19 See Daniel, Paracelsus’ Astronomia Magna, 214–28; Dane Thor Daniel, “Paracelsus on Baptism and the Acquiring of the Eternal Body,” in Paracelsian Moments: Science, Medicine, & Astrology in Early Modern Europe, ed. Gerhild Scholtz Williams and Charles D. Gunnoe (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2002), 117–34; Urs Leo Gantenbein, “The New Adam: Jacob Böhme and the Theology of Paracelsus (1493/94–1541),” in Jacob Böhme and His World, ed. Bo Andersson e. a. (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 166–96.

20 Karl Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1894), 315–18; Paracelsus, Sämtliche Werke, 14 vols., ed. Karl Sudhoff (Munich–Berlin: Barth, Oldenbourg, 1922–1933), hereafter S1–S14, on S10:xxviii–xxxiv.

21 Paracelsus, First Commentary on Matthew, verse 17:2, Heidelberg University Library, Cod. Pal. Germ. 26, 2°, fols. 135v–136r: “Trannßformierenn ist, so mann eine form nimpt vnnd ain ander darauß macht, allß ain goltschmitt, der ein billt zerbricht, vnnd macht ein annders darusß, das ist, tranßformiertt. nuhn steett hier tranßformiertt, darum zu wissen ist, das die trannßformationn nitt Jnn der gestallt sein gesein, das ist, ain frawennform zu machenn, allß auß ainem mannen billt ain weibß billt, Sonnder die tranßformation muß also verstannden werdenn (daß ist annderst, dann das lattein fermag, villeicht ist nitt sein Recht lattein), das Christus bliebenn ist Jnn seiner form, wie ein mennsch, aber sein blutt vnnd fleisch ist wordenn, wie es sein soll Jm himell, ein personn der hailligenn drifalltigkaitt.”

22 The passage on metal transmutation was first published in Urs Leo Gantenbein, “Gesundheit und Krankheit in den Matthäus-Kommentaren des Paracelsus,” Salzburger Beiträge zur Paracelsusforschung 34 (2000): 47–72 (on 58–59).

23 Paracelsus, First Commentary on Matthew, fol. 136r: “yetz vff das, so haist es nitt trannßformiertt, dann es drifft die form nitt ann, sunder allain das fleisch vnnd blutt, darumben so hieß es allß dann trannßmutatio oder drannßfiguratio, dann diese zwo vocabull gonn nitt auf enndtformierung, sonnder auf daß wesenn vnnd verklerung der Substanntz, alß ob mann auß eisenn kupffer macht, auß bley quecksilber, auß silber gollt, daß sein transmutationes, vnnd seind der kunst muglich. also, so ain grob Corpus Jnn ein subtillers verwanndlett wirdt, So ist eß trannßmutatio. trannßfiguration hatt sein krafft Jnn dem, daß es sich Jnn der Complex verenndertt, vnnd nimpt ein annder figur ann mitt aigennschafft vnnd Clarificirunng.”

24 Paracelsus, Third Commentary on Matthew, verse 17:2, Leiden University Libraries, Cod. Voss. Chym. 25, 2°, fol. 218.

25 Paracelsus, Third Commentary on Matthew, fol. 218v: “Nun aber von Christo Zureden ist allso. Da ist sein transmutation, auß den primalibus nicht ganngen, dann er hatt kheine gehabt. Auch so ist er ÿbernatürlich verclert worden, Da sonnst nit möglich gewesen wer, Auß der creatur ein sollches Zuuolbringen. Darumb ein theur wort hat Christus geredt, mit seinem himlischen vatter, vnnd er mit ym. Auß der vrsach, das er geweßen ist, bey den himblischen, Jst er auch himblisch bekhlaydt geweßen, Jn seinem leyb, auch in seinem gwandt.” This passage is also mentioned by Arlene Miller Guinsburg, “Paracelsian Magic and Theology. A Case Study of the Matthew Commentaries,” Medizinhistorisches Journal 16 (1981): 125–39 (on 135–36).

26 H10:69–70. See also Daniel, Paracelsus’ Astronomia Magna, 187–88.

27 On celestial magic in Paracelsus see also Daniel, Paracelsus’ Astronomia Magna, 232–36.

28 I would like to express my sincere thanks to Jean-Marc Mandosio (École Pratique des Hautes Études, EPHE, IVth section, Paris) for his detailed references on this context.

29 For the authoritative edition of the Latin text together with an English translation see Stephen Alan Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1486): The Evolution of Traditional Religious and Philosophical Systems (Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998). See 494–503 for the Conclusiones magicae.

30 Farmer, Syncretism, 496: “7. Non potuerunt opera Christi uel per uiam magiae uel per uiam cabalae fieri.”

31 Farmer, Syncretism, 496: “8. Miracula Christi non ratione rei factae, sed ratione modi faciendi, suae diuinitatis argumentum certissimum sunt. 9. Nulla est scientia quae nos magis certificet de diuinitate Christi quam magia et cabala.”

32 For the chapter “Magic in Dispute, I” with reference to the Conclusiones see Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. 4 (New York, London: Columbia University Press, 1934), 485–511.

33 An incomplete copy of the Conclusiones can be found in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart (acquired by the Landesbibliothek in 1966).

34 For a scholarly edition of the Apologia with Latin and Italian text see Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Apologia. L’autodifesa di Pico di fronte al Tribunale dell’Inquisizione, ed. Paolo Edoardo Fornaciari (Florence: SISMEL–Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010), here 154–93. For an analysis of the Apologia see Amos Edelheit, Ficino, Pico and Savonarola: The Evolution of Humanist Theology 1461/2–1498 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2008), 286–349. On Pico’s magic see further Liana Saif, The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy (Houndmills, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 124–43.

35 See Urs B. Leu and Sandra Weidmann, Huldrych Zwingli’s Private Library (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019), 36.