THE LIFE OF PARACELSUS 7 



Basel secretly and hurriedly in July 1528, to avoid 

 unpleasant complications.^ 



After this event Paracelsus resumed his strolling life, 

 roaming — as he did in his youth — over the country, 

 living in village taverns and inns, and travelling from 

 place to place. Numerous disciples followed him, attracted 

 either by a desire for knowledge or by a wish to acquire 

 his art and to use it for their own purposes. The most 

 renowned of his followers was Johannes Oporinus, who 

 for three years served as a secretary and famulus to him, 

 and who afterwards became a professor of the Greek 

 language, and a well-known publisher, bookseller, and 

 printer at Basel. Paracelsus was exceedingly reticent 

 in regard to his secrets, and Oporinus afterwards spoke 

 very bitterly against him on that account, and thereby 

 served his enemies. But after the death of Paracelsus 

 he regretted his own indiscretion, and expressed great 

 veneration for him. 



Paracelsus went to Colmar in 1528, and came to 

 Esslingen and Nuremberg in the years 1529 and 1530. 

 The " regular physicians " of Nuremberg denounced him a 

 quack, charlatan, and impostor. To refute their accusa- 

 tions he requested the City Council to put some patients 

 that had been declared incurable under his care. They 

 sent him some cases of elephantiasis, which he cured in a 

 short time and without asking any fee. Testimonials to 

 that effect may be found in the archives of the city of 

 Nuremberg. 



But this success did not change the fortune of 

 Paracelsus, who seemed to be doomed to a life of 

 continual wanderings. In 1530 we find him at Noerd- 

 lingen, Munich, Regensburg, Amberg, and Meran ; iu 

 I 5 3 I in St Gall, and in 1535 at Ziirich. He then went 

 to Maehren, Kaernthen, Krain, and Hongary, and finally 

 landed in Salzburg, to which place he was invited by the 

 Prince Palatine, Duke Ernst of Bavaria, who was a great 

 * UrtatisiuB, "Baseler Chronik.," bk. vii. chap. xix. p. 1527. 



