Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, the 'Scientific Swindler'

noble family. We do know that his father was a citizen of Cologne in Western Germany, but no information remains about his mother or any other members of his family. A bit about his personal life and then we'll get into his work. We do know that he married three times. He was married to his first wife in fifteen fourteen. She died shortly thereafter. Their son, born in fifteen fifteen, died in early childhood, so we can't confirm if mother and baby died in childbirth, but because of the dates

of their death, that is something that we did immediately consider. Younger, older, richer, poor mother's all had a very high risk of dying while giving birth at this time, as well as any complications afterwards, and in one Heinrich married a second time, and that couple had six children. Seven years into their marriage, his wife died. He did get married again less than a year later, but the only thing we know about that union is that it was apparently an unhappy one.

Heinrich was a German polly map. He was a lawyer, a physician, a theologian, a soldier or perhaps a mercenary of some sort, and he was also an alchemist. He was an influential and prolific occult writer and gained reputation as quote and occult philosopher. He's been described as an honest, fearless, and generous man, but somewhat ving glorious, whereby he himself several times spoiled his chances at success. Some considered him to be a scientific swindler. Heinrich attended the University of

Cologne between four and fifteen o two. There he studied subjects including law, medicine, magic, sciences, and theology. He also began establishing personal relationships with other German humanists who shared his interest in ancient wisdom. Some sources suggest that he was inspired to found a secret society devoted to astrology and magic. Quote so requisite is the use of astrology to the arts of divination, as it were, the key that opens the door of all their mysteries, is something

that he once wrote. He was a student and also a soldier, as we mentioned, and he served Maximilian, the first Holy Roman Emperor, for several years. He would go back and forth between academia and military service and led a fairly restless life across Europe, when you might call

an intellectual journey. Much later after his death, some began to doubt his degree in medicine, as well as his advanced degrees in canon and civil law, but experts have suggested that it's likely he received these degrees during two periods of his life that we actually don't know much about, between the years fifteen o two and fifteen o seven, and again between fifteen eleven and fifteen eighteen, although in that latter period there's some speculation that he was serving

military duty for Maximilian. It's unclear, but in this capacity Heinrich may have been working as a mercenary for the emperor or as a member of a paramilitary organization for the Crown. In fifteen ten in Wurtzburg, Heinrich met your honest Trithemius, the addict of St. Jacob's Monastery. It's written that this could have been the most important meeting of his life. That's because Johannes was the man who encouraged him to complete what is considered to be his greatest work,

The Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Johannes's advised Heinrich quote not to imitate bullocks, but to emulate birds. The first draft was dedicated to him. This work, The Three Books of Occult Philosophy, was originally written in fifteen ten, but then substantially reworked by Heinrich and then finally published again

in fifteen thirty three. It's considered one of the most famous writings about the idea of magic, and it relies heavily upon the tenets of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and neo Platonism. He often wrote critically about the politics, culture, and religion of his time, and wrote that the ancient magic included in his writings could benefit humanity. His satirical writings addressed his views of the eight of science. In the fifteenth and sixteen centuries, and he became a major influence on

philosophers Montaigne, Descartes and Geta. More than five hundred years later. Heinrich is considered one of the most influential occultists or occult philosophers, we should say, of the early modern period. But not everyone in his lifetime was pleased with his theories and experimentation. But three books of occult philosophy was condemned as heretical and blasphemous by the Inquisitor of Cologne and possibly the Dominican Inquisitor as well. The condemnation led

to a suspension of his printing. Heresy does not have a complicated definition. If you are accused of it, it means very basically that you hold a belief with which the Church disagrees, and in the eyes of the Church, being condemned to heretic was analogous to being someone with a deadly contagious disease. To be branded one was to be banished, ostracized, and perhaps executed. Despite that position, or perhaps because of it, Heinrich's manuscript would go on to

circulate for more than a century. We're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and when we return, we'll talk about heinrich celebrated work, the Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk more specifically about how Heinrich's works were denounced for heresy. Many alchemists, as well as naturalists and physicians, struggled with the ideas and the responsibilities that came with their attempts

to understand the world around them. Heinrich thought and wrote about occult philosophy, which means he studied the hidden causes of things in their manipulation by magic. Magic he considered was the highest form and the end of philosophy. Hinrichs goal actually sounds pretty noble. In its ambition, he wanted to separate magic from baseless and irrational perception. In doing so, he believed it would make way for a restoration to the time before the fall of humans, and along with that,

a reformation of Christianity. To that end, he wrote philosophical critiques of every science. He also penned a manuscript condemning the subordination of women, which was prevalent in theology, and in that manuscript he wrote, quote but to proceed as in order and place. So also in matter of her creation. Woman far excels man. Things received their value from the matter they are made of and the excellent skill of

their maker. Pots of common clay must not contend with china dishes, nor pewter utensils via dignity with those of silver. Woman was not composed of any inanimate or vile dirt, but of a more refined and purified substance, enlivened and actuated by a rational soul whose operations speak it a

beam or bright ray of divinity. His manuscript, The Three Books of Occult Philosophy, is divided into just as the title suggests, three parts, the natural world, the celestial world, and the divine world, and it methodically details and tries to explain the philosophy, logic, and methods of magic and

astrology and how these concepts might work. So the basic idea in the three books was that God created several worlds, three of which were the domain of the elements, the heavenly world of the stars, and the realm of the angels. And at the center of these three worlds were humans, who, because of their place in the universe, had the ability to gain knowledge of pretty much everything, but true knowledge

which could be found only in God's love. In fifteen eighteen or possibly fifteen twenty, Heinrich put his law degree to use as the defense attorney in a sorcery trial. This lines up with the very big of Europe's witch craze. After successfully defending the woman accused of being a witch, thus saving her from execution, the locals denounced him for

defending a witch. Heinrich, as he did, moved on, and three years later he went on to put his medical degree to use and became a practicing physician in Switzerland between fifteen twenty three and fifteen twenty four. After fifteen twenty four, he left Switzerland for Francis, the First Court in France, where he became the personal physician to the

Queen Mother as well as court astrologer. When the royals became hostile for him for his charged speeches, they stripped him of his pension and refused to allow him to leave the country. Four years later, in fifteen twenty eight, when he was allowed to leave, the Regent of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria, requested that Heinrich become archivist and imperial

historiographer to the Emperor Charles the fifth in Antwerp. Margaret also happened to be the daughter of Maximilian the First, and this is the same Maximilian we mentioned earlier in the episode when we talked about Heinrich's military career. Iric accepted Margaret's offer, and as you can see, we really weren't lying when we said he was restless. This new position afforded Heinrich the opportunity to return to writing and publishing.

This is when he drafted, but did not finish, his now celebrated work, The Declamation on the Nobility and pre Eminence of the Female Six, that was published in fifty nine. Following that, his work on the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Arts and Sciences and Invective Declamation was printed in fifteen thirty and was considered to be quote a rigorous refutation of all products of human reason. It's considered one of the first testimonials to knowledge of the limits of

human understanding and the uncertainty of human existence. He began to develop a reputation as a man who quote professed to overturn all the science. After Margaret's death, i Rick returned to France, but found there that he was now persecuted because of his writings and ideas. The Provincial superior for Burgundy denounced Heinrich as quote a dutyizing heretic. So we're gonna take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back we'll talk about whether or not

alchemy was a pseudo science. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's wrap up with why alchemy is considered the father of what we know as chemistry and how Heinrich's legacy has lived on today. Many of us can be pretty quick to judge alchemy as pseudoscience, but in the last few decades scientists have learned that that's not completely true. European porcelain thank alchemy the basis for toxicology again the work

of alchemists in general. Alchemists were looking for the connection among all things the planets, minerals, animals, the human body, signs of the zodiac, and the nine orders of angels. They believed that being able to manipulate these forces was white magic or natural magic. Black magic, in comparison, was believed to rely on the power of demons and the devil. There are names you'll recognize but not associate with the

practice of alchemy. Or at least probably not. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, was an eminent theologian who was permitted to study alchemy before it was condemned by the Church. Roger Bacon was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who was the first European to describe the process for making gunpowder, a discovery made through his practice of alchemy. He also proposed some pretty far out contraptions in his time, including

flying machines and motorized ships and carriages. In the sixteenth century, Paracelsis ideas about poisons led to the inclusion of chemistry into the practice of medicine. This may be a surprise to some. English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton was also

a practice or of the art of alchemy. Newton was working during the time when the ideas of science, superstition, and pseudoscience were being formulated, and historian and economist John Maynard Keynes noted that Newton was quote the last of the magicians when it comes to chemistry. Some alchemists were motivated by the search for the tincture they called the Philosopher's stone, which could turn base metals into man made gold as well as grant immortality. But there was a

lot more to it than that. Alchemists were interested in a range of chemical technologies. Their work successes and failures both contributed to metallurgy, mining, pharmaceuticals, and medicine. The study of historical alchemists and their work continues to reveal the enormous complexity and diversity of its practice and why it was and is is important to human history, and it

laid the foundation for what we now call chemistry. Heinrich believed that the way to truth didn't lay between different schools of thought or among philosophical distinctions, but rather than self knowledge and self awareness. His work focused on the study of occult sciences and teasing out solutions or possible solutions, to problematic theological questions. He was esteemed among his peers and scholars, but the attention he attracted from religious authorities

was detrimental to his studies and to his writing. During his lifetime, Heinrich outraged the Church and was arrested, jailed, and denounced as a heritage. He also may have been arrested by Order of Francis the First for using some disparaging words about the Queen mother. That's really neither here nor there. There's not much evidence that Heinrich was seriously accused of practicing magical or occult parts, and we know for sure that he was not executed for tracy or

any other crime. His life was riddled with financial hardship, and those monetary difficulties led to harassment food creditors, and he died in poverty at age forty eight. But left us with this wisdom that has lasted through the years. I confess that magic teacheth many superfluous things and curious prodigies for ostentation, leave them as empty things. Yet be

not ignorant of their causes. But those things which are for the profit of men, for the turning away of evil events, for the destroying of sorceries, for the curing of diseases, for the exterminating of phantasms, for the preserving of life, honor, or fortune, may be done without offense to God or injury to religion, because they are as

profitable so necessary. Heimrich has been memorialized in Christopher Marlowe's sixteenth century play The Tragical History of Dr Faustus, where Faustus proclaims he will become quote as cunning as Agrippa was. He also appears as a character in Mayor Shelley's novel

Frankenstein and in her short story The Mortal Immortal. He continues to appear in novels today, and even appears in the video games Temple of Agrippa and Amnesia, The Dark Descent, And for all you Harry Potter fans, Heinrich lives on not just in science or with Frankenstein, but in Hollywood too. In the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Ron Weasley says to Harry Potter, quote, chocolate frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect famous witches and wizards.

I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy. Heinrich's trading card reads celebrated wizard imprisoned by muggles for his writing because they thought his books were evil. That's kind of a perfect quote about him. For more perfect, hopefully things. Would you like to join me in the cauldron? I would love to. I hope there's something bubbly and tasty. There is something bubbly. It's like your psychic I might

be okay. This also includes an ingredient we have not featured on the show before, and I've been wanting to kind of mess about with it, and then I happened to grab some recently on a trip to the Laker store. So the restless heretic. This first ingredient is not the thing I got from the Laker store. But it begins with a teaspoon of blueberry jam. If you are lucky like me, you have an amazing friend that makes jam every year, and since it is holiday gifts, and you

have beautiful homemade blueberry jam. But if you don't, you can purchase it. Also, I should note if there's anybody out there of questionable taste who doesn't enjoy blueberries, you could sub it out, but why would you. The blueberries

also give this drink an absolutely beautiful color. So to that one teaspoon of blueberry jam, you are going to add and I would put this in a shaker two ounces of honey mead, oh, and I would muddle it together, just stir it together with a spoon for a little while, and then I would give it a little bit of a shake because you want to really like dissolve the sugars of that jam. Now at this point, whether or not you strain it or not is up to you.

I like leaving the little fruit bits in it because then when you get to the bottom of your glass, they've absorbed a lot of beautiful things because we're not done here, and they have this beautiful flavor, so you're gonna pour that into your glass. I would use my favorite, the chilled coope. I knew it because you're gonna add four ounces of champagne to the situation. Yeah, And I would use something with a little bit of sweetness to it,

if you can. Whatever champagne has a night or sparkling wine you have that's a little bit sweeter and not quite as dry one. It's beautiful because it's got that, like, you know, purply bluey tone to it. Two it's got bubbles. And I don't know why, but when I think of alchemy, and particularly of course when I think of alchemy in France, I think of champagne and like this sense of like discovery and things happening, because as you said, alchemy is the basis of a lot of actual science that we

use a need today. You know, it's funny. One of the first things that came to mind, and this This may age me, but I remember as a child watching the Smurfs, and there was Gargamel and he had his cat and he had his cauldron, and he, to me, was an alchemist. Girl, don't don't open the Pandora's box of my love of Smurfs. Okay, just I didn't know that.

I will talk about jokey for a hundred years. You know, Smurf Fat became a blode through alchemy, but I believe she just became through alchemy, right, Yes, she was originally a brunette and then became a blonde. I liked her brunette kind of punky Vivyan Westwood look personally, but that is neither here nor there, because we're still talking about this. But I do want to note, as you you said, alchemy is this kind of like mess of crack pottery, And in fact, there were a lot of scientific concepts

being seated there. They just kind of went down some paths that weren't necessarily always based in scientific truth. But that's how we figure stuff out. You try stuff and go oh no, no, that wasn't quite right, but this part of it was right, right, So yes, So that's why I wanted to include bubbles here I wanted. I've been wanting to include meat for a while, and meat is like an ancient drink. There are instances of references of it thousands of years back, so it also seemed

like a good one to bring up here. We're talking about two alcohols that are low a b V, so it's not like a drink that is a mess. You could maybe have two of these if you are celebrating and not worry about getting completely and he breedd the mock tail for it is also amazing. It is five ounces of ginger ale an ounce of honey syrup. Again, I will say, not straight honey. You want to do half honey, half water and heat them up together so they blend, and then let it cool off, and that's

your honey syrup, so it's thinner. And we'll combine with other things more easily, and then your teaspoon and blueberry jam and you can stir that all up however you Want's delicious. It is so delicious and so yummy. That's like a thing I'm going to make like as a breakfast drink. It's so yummy. I as I always say, I like to use a sugar free ginger ale because it makes it not as heavy employing. And then it's like a really bright, beautiful, slight fruity, but that honey

gives it this nice earthy grounding roundness to it. Yum, and that is called the restless heretic. His his intellectual journey includes blueberry tom it does today what he ate for breakfast while he was wandering around Europe blueberry scrow

in Europe exactly. Odds are good, and he was certainly in Champagne country by the time, and Mead was probably around wherever he went, of course, and I believe he was locked in France for a good four years, so I'm sure he would have appreciated this and worse places to be locked. That's actually so yeah, I am. I am quite delighted with how this one turned out because I have not played with Mead a whole lot in my life. I really want to do something with meat

and culinary rosebuds soon. But we'll see what happens. That would I vote for that? Please do? Right? I still have plenty of that Mead left, so stay tuned. One never knows whe that might pop up or if it will even be. In seasons to come, we will be right back here next week with another alchemy or witchcraft story and another cocktail and mocktail, and we hope you join us here on Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of

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