Paracelsus (#64)

Background

Phillip von Hohenheim, also known as Paracelsus, was born in Switzerland on the 11th of November 1493, the son of a German chemist. When he was 16, Paracelsus went to stude medecine at the University of Basel. By 1516, Paracelsus had gained his doctorate from the University of Ferrara.

Work

As a physician, Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals as forms of medicine, and often found himself in disagreement with traditional medical books. Paracelsus's arrogance led to him being kicked out of the University of Basel's staff and out of the city of Basel. Paracelsus wandered Europe in search of knowledge. He would take old manuscripts and revise them. In 1536, Paracelsus published Die grosse Wundartznei, which helped Paracelsus to regain some fame. 

Paracelsus was known for burning traditional medical manuscripts, and many attributed this to his upbringing as a Lutheran. Paracelsus rejected the idea, saying that himself and Luther both have their own ideas and each is simply defending them, though their ideas are quite different.

Paracelsus is famous for his idea that the celestial bodies, the different metals, and the different human organs are connected, and along with being a physician, Paracelsus was an alchemist. Along with being a physician and alchemist, Paracelsus was also one of the first to experiment with psychotherapy and is known by many as the father of toxicology.

The End

At the age of 47, in the year 1541, Paracelsus died of natural causes and was buried in  Salzburg. Paracelsus is on our list for being an outstanding figure of both medicine and alchemy during the same time.

The Edict of Nantes (August 13th)

In the late 1500s, France was caught in the middle of its own Wars of Religion. The Protestant Reformation was sweeping across Europe, and France had been in the middle of the entire movement. Though the French crown remained Catholic, many French citizens were converting to Protestantism. This caused many riots, rebellions, violence, and wars within France.

During this period of time, Henry IV was the king of France. Henry IV was raised Protestant and only converted to Catholicism when he inherited the crown. Throughout his life, though, he remained sympathetic to the Protestant cause.

On August 13th, 1598, Henri IV signed the Edict of Nantes, which was meant to stop internal violence from religious differences. The Edict granted  certain privileges and protections to Protestants, but reaffirmed Catholicism as the established religion of France. The Edict ensured rights for Protestants within France and protected them from forces outside of France, including the Spanish Inquisition.

The Edict remained in effect until Louis XIV renounced it in 1685, declaring Protestantism illegal. This led to a mass exodus of almost 400,000 Protestants from France to England, Prussia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa. This took away many skilled workers from France, putting back France's economy. The rights given to Protestants in the Edict of Nantes were not reestablished until the Edict of Tolerance in 1787.

Defenestrating Prague: The Best of Traditions

Defenestration, defined by Dictionary.com, is "the act of throwing a thing or especially a person out of a window". When you look up 'Defenestration of' on Google, the results will almost fully be about Prague, apart from a short story by Arthur C. Clarke and the defenestration of cats. Prague is famous for its defenestration, but there was not just one defenestration, but multiple. Prague had two major defenestrations.

The first defenestration occurred shortly after the death of John Hus. John Hus (1370-1415) was a religious reformer and philosopher from Bohemia who accused the Catholic Church of being the cause of a deep social crisis. Hus wanted the Church to return to the original mission of the Church and to spread God's word and live according to the Biblical commandments. Hus also attacked the Pope's lifestyle and saw Jesus Christ as the head of the Church. Hus was executed for refusing to recant his criticisms of the Church. When the news of Hus's death in 1415 arrived at the Council of Constance, the populace was furious and attacked the clergy, especially the archbishop and the monks. Followers of the teachings of Hus became known as Hussites. On July 30, 1419, a Hussite priest named Jan Zelivsky led a procession to Prague's New Town Hall to protest the imprisonment of Hussite prisoners by the councilors of Prague. When an anti-Hussite threw a rock at the protesters, the Hussites stormed the New Town Hall and threw the seven councilors out of the window. The defenestration started the Hussite Wars, which lasted until 1436.

The second Defenestration of Prague occured in 1618. In 1617, Roman Catholic officials ordered the halt of the construction of Protestant chapels in a land the Catholic clergy claimed. The people claimed that the land belonged to the king and that they were free to use it. The people saw this act as a violation of freedom of religous expression and feared that it was the first step towards annulment of Protestant rights. The Czechs had already had enough with Catholicism. The Hapsburg Dynasty fought a long war to subdue the Czechs andprtests against Hapsburg rule and Catholicism were frequent. Leaders of the Czech estates, including Jindrich Matays Thurn and Vaclav Budovec met to forcefully remove governors Vilem Slavata and Jaroslav Borita. The men led an angry mob into the Bohemian Chancellery, found theimperial governors guilty, and threw the governors out of a 16 meter high window. Nobody, including their scribe, was spared. The two governors landed in a pile of manure and everyone survived unharmed. The scrive, Filip Fabricus, fled to Vienna and informed the emperor. The emperor had appointed the Catholic Emperor Fredinand II ad the King of Bohemia in 1617. The Czech aristocracy revolted against this, and in 1920, at the Battle of the White Mountain, the Protestant estate was defeated. The Czech noblemen were refused a pardon and over 200 of them were sentenced to death. This defenestration would lead to the absolutist monarchy of the Czech estate and would eventually lead to the Thirty Years' War.

There were other defenestration, but these other ones were not important to cause wars. These other ones occurred on September 24, 1483 and March 10, 1948. All these defenestrations add to Prague's rich history, and to end this post I give you 1 warning: Do not make the people of Prague angry.