One of the first alchemist to abandon Hermetism and make alchemy serve practical purposes was Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastusvon Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus (1493-1541). īacon is called the first true alchemist of the medieval period, and his work did for alchemy what Robert Boyle’s did for chemistry and Galileo’s did for astronomy and physics. If any wicked man should learn to practice this art, the event would be impearled with great danger to Christendom. For the majesty must always remain a secret science and the reason that compels us to be so careful is obvious. Only when he begins to grow old and feeble, he may reveal it to one person, but not to more-and that one man must be virtuous and generally approved of by his fellows. Therefore, you should carefully test and examine the life, character, and mental aptitude of any person who would be initiated into the art, and then you should bind him, by a sacred oath, not to let our majesty to be commonly or vulgarly known. Nearness of blood, as such, does not exile anyone to be let into the secret, but only virtue, whether in those near to us or in strangers. Moreover, if any man would receive it, he must take a sacred oath, that since we his teachers refuse high rank and fame, that he also will not be too eager for these frivolous distinctions, and that he will not be so presumptuous as to make the secret known even to his own son for propinquity of blood, or affinity, should be held of no account in this our majesty. For the matter is so glorious and wonderful that it cannot be fully delivered to any one but by word of mouth. Not everyone can receive the art, unless there be some person sent by God to instruct him in it.
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