Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia. This season,
Speaker 1: we're talking about witchcraft and alchemy throughout the ages and
Speaker 1: what may or may not have become of those who
Speaker 1: practiced those arts. I'm Maria trem Marquis and I'm Holly Fry.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about the first alchemist of
Speaker 1: the season, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. Heinrich was born on September six.
Speaker 1: It's believed he was born into a noble or once
Speaker 1: noble family. We do know that his father was a
Speaker 1: citizen of Cologne in Western Germany, but no information remains
Speaker 1: about his mother or any other members of his family.
Speaker 1: A bit about his personal life and then we'll get
Speaker 1: into his work. We do know that he married three times.
Speaker 1: He was married to his first wife in fifteen fourteen.
Speaker 1: She died shortly thereafter. Their son, born in fifteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: died in early childhood, so we can't confirm if mother
Speaker 1: and baby died in childbirth, but because of the dates
Speaker 1: of their death, that is something that we did immediately consider. Younger, older, richer,
Speaker 1: poor mother's all had a very high risk of dying
Speaker 1: while giving birth at this time, as well as any
Speaker 1: complications afterwards, and in one Heinrich married a second time,
Speaker 1: and that couple had six children. Seven years into their marriage,
Speaker 1: his wife died. He did get married again less than
Speaker 1: a year later, but the only thing we know about
Speaker 1: that union is that it was apparently an unhappy one.
Speaker 1: Heinrich was a German polly map. He was a lawyer,
Speaker 1: a physician, a theologian, a soldier or perhaps a mercenary
Speaker 1: of some sort, and he was also an alchemist. He
Speaker 1: was an influential and prolific occult writer and gained reputation
Speaker 1: as quote and occult philosopher. He's been described as an honest, fearless,
Speaker 1: and generous man, but somewhat ving glorious, whereby he himself
Speaker 1: several times spoiled his chances at success. Some considered him
Speaker 1: to be a scientific swindler. Heinrich attended the University of
Speaker 1: Cologne between four and fifteen o two. There he studied
Speaker 1: subjects including law, medicine, magic, sciences, and theology. He also
Speaker 1: began establishing personal relationships with other German humanists who shared
Speaker 1: his interest in ancient wisdom. Some sources suggest that he
Speaker 1: was inspired to found a secret society devoted to astrology
Speaker 1: and magic. Quote so requisite is the use of astrology
Speaker 1: to the arts of divination, as it were, the key
Speaker 1: that opens the door of all their mysteries, is something
Speaker 1: that he once wrote. He was a student and also
Speaker 1: a soldier, as we mentioned, and he served Maximilian, the
Speaker 1: first Holy Roman Emperor, for several years. He would go
Speaker 1: back and forth between academia and military service and led
Speaker 1: a fairly restless life across Europe, when you might call
Speaker 1: an intellectual journey. Much later after his death, some began
Speaker 1: to doubt his degree in medicine, as well as his
Speaker 1: advanced degrees in canon and civil law, but experts have
Speaker 1: suggested that it's likely he received these degrees during two
Speaker 1: periods of his life that we actually don't know much about,
Speaker 1: between the years fifteen o two and fifteen o seven,
Speaker 1: and again between fifteen eleven and fifteen eighteen, although in
Speaker 1: that latter period there's some speculation that he was serving
Speaker 1: military duty for Maximilian. It's unclear, but in this capacity
Speaker 1: Heinrich may have been working as a mercenary for the
Speaker 1: emperor or as a member of a paramilitary organization for
Speaker 1: the Crown. In fifteen ten in Wurtzburg, Heinrich met your
Speaker 1: honest Trithemius, the addict of St. Jacob's Monastery. It's written
Speaker 1: that this could have been the most important meeting of
Speaker 1: his life. That's because Johannes was the man who encouraged
Speaker 1: him to complete what is considered to be his greatest work,
Speaker 1: The Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Johannes's advised Heinrich quote
Speaker 1: not to imitate bullocks, but to emulate birds. The first
Speaker 1: draft was dedicated to him. This work, The Three Books
Speaker 1: of Occult Philosophy, was originally written in fifteen ten, but
Speaker 1: then substantially reworked by Heinrich and then finally published again
Speaker 1: in fifteen thirty three. It's considered one of the most
Speaker 1: famous writings about the idea of magic, and it relies
Speaker 1: heavily upon the tenets of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and neo Platonism.
Speaker 1: He often wrote critically about the politics, culture, and religion
Speaker 1: of his time, and wrote that the ancient magic included
Speaker 1: in his writings could benefit humanity. His satirical writings addressed
Speaker 1: his views of the eight of science. In the fifteenth
Speaker 1: and sixteen centuries, and he became a major influence on
Speaker 1: philosophers Montaigne, Descartes and Geta. More than five hundred years later.
Speaker 1: Heinrich is considered one of the most influential occultists or
Speaker 1: occult philosophers, we should say, of the early modern period.
Speaker 1: But not everyone in his lifetime was pleased with his
Speaker 1: theories and experimentation. But three books of occult philosophy was
Speaker 1: condemned as heretical and blasphemous by the Inquisitor of Cologne
Speaker 1: and possibly the Dominican Inquisitor as well. The condemnation led
Speaker 1: to a suspension of his printing. Heresy does not have
Speaker 1: a complicated definition. If you are accused of it, it
Speaker 1: means very basically that you hold a belief with which
Speaker 1: the Church disagrees, and in the eyes of the Church,
Speaker 1: being condemned to heretic was analogous to being someone with
Speaker 1: a deadly contagious disease. To be branded one was to
Speaker 1: be banished, ostracized, and perhaps executed. Despite that position, or
Speaker 1: perhaps because of it, Heinrich's manuscript would go on to
Speaker 1: circulate for more than a century. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
Speaker 1: when we return, we'll talk about heinrich celebrated work, the
Speaker 1: Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's
Speaker 1: talk more specifically about how Heinrich's works were denounced for heresy.
Speaker 1: Many alchemists, as well as naturalists and physicians, struggled with
Speaker 1: the ideas and the responsibilities that came with their attempts
Speaker 1: to understand the world around them. Heinrich thought and wrote
Speaker 1: about occult philosophy, which means he studied the hidden causes
Speaker 1: of things in their manipulation by magic. Magic he considered
Speaker 1: was the highest form and the end of philosophy. Hinrichs
Speaker 1: goal actually sounds pretty noble. In its ambition, he wanted
Speaker 1: to separate magic from baseless and irrational perception. In doing so,
Speaker 1: he believed it would make way for a restoration to
Speaker 1: the time before the fall of humans, and along with that,
Speaker 1: a reformation of Christianity. To that end, he wrote philosophical
Speaker 1: critiques of every science. He also penned a manuscript condemning
Speaker 1: the subordination of women, which was prevalent in theology, and
Speaker 1: in that manuscript he wrote, quote but to proceed as
Speaker 1: in order and place. So also in matter of her creation.
Speaker 1: Woman far excels man. Things received their value from the
Speaker 1: matter they are made of and the excellent skill of
Speaker 1: their maker. Pots of common clay must not contend with
Speaker 1: china dishes, nor pewter utensils via dignity with those of silver.
Speaker 1: Woman was not composed of any inanimate or vile dirt,
Speaker 1: but of a more refined and purified substance, enlivened and
Speaker 1: actuated by a rational soul whose operations speak it a
Speaker 1: beam or bright ray of divinity. His manuscript, The Three
Speaker 1: Books of Occult Philosophy, is divided into just as the
Speaker 1: title suggests, three parts, the natural world, the celestial world,
Speaker 1: and the divine world, and it methodically details and tries
Speaker 1: to explain the philosophy, logic, and methods of magic and
Speaker 1: astrology and how these concepts might work. So the basic
Speaker 1: idea in the three books was that God created several worlds,
Speaker 1: three of which were the domain of the elements, the
Speaker 1: heavenly world of the stars, and the realm of the angels.
Speaker 1: And at the center of these three worlds were humans, who,
Speaker 1: because of their place in the universe, had the ability
Speaker 1: to gain knowledge of pretty much everything, but true knowledge
Speaker 1: which could be found only in God's love. In fifteen
Speaker 1: eighteen or possibly fifteen twenty, Heinrich put his law degree
Speaker 1: to use as the defense attorney in a sorcery trial.
Speaker 1: This lines up with the very big of Europe's witch craze.
Speaker 1: After successfully defending the woman accused of being a witch,
Speaker 1: thus saving her from execution, the locals denounced him for
Speaker 1: defending a witch. Heinrich, as he did, moved on, and
Speaker 1: three years later he went on to put his medical
Speaker 1: degree to use and became a practicing physician in Switzerland
Speaker 1: between fifteen twenty three and fifteen twenty four. After fifteen
Speaker 1: twenty four, he left Switzerland for Francis, the First Court
Speaker 1: in France, where he became the personal physician to the
Speaker 1: Queen Mother as well as court astrologer. When the royals
Speaker 1: became hostile for him for his charged speeches, they stripped
Speaker 1: him of his pension and refused to allow him to
Speaker 1: leave the country. Four years later, in fifteen twenty eight,
Speaker 1: when he was allowed to leave, the Regent of the Netherlands,
Speaker 1: Margaret of Austria, requested that Heinrich become archivist and imperial
Speaker 1: historiographer to the Emperor Charles the fifth in Antwerp. Margaret
Speaker 1: also happened to be the daughter of Maximilian the First,
Speaker 1: and this is the same Maximilian we mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: the episode when we talked about Heinrich's military career. Iric
Speaker 1: accepted Margaret's offer, and as you can see, we really
Speaker 1: weren't lying when we said he was restless. This new
Speaker 1: position afforded Heinrich the opportunity to return to writing and publishing.
Speaker 1: This is when he drafted, but did not finish, his
Speaker 1: now celebrated work, The Declamation on the Nobility and pre
Speaker 1: Eminence of the Female Six, that was published in fifty nine.
Speaker 1: Following that, his work on the Uncertainty and Vanity of
Speaker 1: the Arts and Sciences and Invective Declamation was printed in
Speaker 1: fifteen thirty and was considered to be quote a rigorous
Speaker 1: refutation of all products of human reason. It's considered one
Speaker 1: of the first testimonials to knowledge of the limits of
Speaker 1: human understanding and the uncertainty of human existence. He began
Speaker 1: to develop a reputation as a man who quote professed
Speaker 1: to overturn all the science. After Margaret's death, i Rick
Speaker 1: returned to France, but found there that he was now
Speaker 1: persecuted because of his writings and ideas. The Provincial superior
Speaker 1: for Burgundy denounced Heinrich as quote a dutyizing heretic. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a break for a word from our sponsor,
Speaker 1: and when we're back we'll talk about whether or not
Speaker 1: alchemy was a pseudo science. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's
Speaker 1: wrap up with why alchemy is considered the father of
Speaker 1: what we know as chemistry and how Heinrich's legacy has
Speaker 1: lived on today. Many of us can be pretty quick
Speaker 1: to judge alchemy as pseudoscience, but in the last few
Speaker 1: decades scientists have learned that that's not completely true. European
Speaker 1: porcelain thank alchemy the basis for toxicology again the work
Speaker 1: of alchemists in general. Alchemists were looking for the connection
Speaker 1: among all things the planets, minerals, animals, the human body,
Speaker 1: signs of the zodiac, and the nine orders of angels.
Speaker 1: They believed that being able to manipulate these forces was
Speaker 1: white magic or natural magic. Black magic, in comparison, was
Speaker 1: believed to rely on the power of demons and the devil.
Speaker 1: There are names you'll recognize but not associate with the
Speaker 1: practice of alchemy. Or at least probably not. Thomas Aquinas,
Speaker 1: for instance, was an eminent theologian who was permitted to
Speaker 1: study alchemy before it was condemned by the Church. Roger
Speaker 1: Bacon was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who
Speaker 1: was the first European to describe the process for making gunpowder,
Speaker 1: a discovery made through his practice of alchemy. He also
Speaker 1: proposed some pretty far out contraptions in his time, including
Speaker 1: flying machines and motorized ships and carriages. In the sixteenth century,
Speaker 1: Paracelsis ideas about poisons led to the inclusion of chemistry
Speaker 1: into the practice of medicine. This may be a surprise
Speaker 1: to some. English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton was also
Speaker 1: a practice or of the art of alchemy. Newton was
Speaker 1: working during the time when the ideas of science, superstition,
Speaker 1: and pseudoscience were being formulated, and historian and economist John
Speaker 1: Maynard Keynes noted that Newton was quote the last of
Speaker 1: the magicians when it comes to chemistry. Some alchemists were
Speaker 1: motivated by the search for the tincture they called the
Speaker 1: Philosopher's stone, which could turn base metals into man made
Speaker 1: gold as well as grant immortality. But there was a
Speaker 1: lot more to it than that. Alchemists were interested in
Speaker 1: a range of chemical technologies. Their work successes and failures
Speaker 1: both contributed to metallurgy, mining, pharmaceuticals, and medicine. The study
Speaker 1: of historical alchemists and their work continues to reveal the
Speaker 1: enormous complexity and diversity of its practice and why it
Speaker 1: was and is is important to human history, and it
Speaker 1: laid the foundation for what we now call chemistry. Heinrich
Speaker 1: believed that the way to truth didn't lay between different
Speaker 1: schools of thought or among philosophical distinctions, but rather than
Speaker 1: self knowledge and self awareness. His work focused on the
Speaker 1: study of occult sciences and teasing out solutions or possible solutions,
Speaker 1: to problematic theological questions. He was esteemed among his peers
Speaker 1: and scholars, but the attention he attracted from religious authorities
Speaker 1: was detrimental to his studies and to his writing. During
Speaker 1: his lifetime, Heinrich outraged the Church and was arrested, jailed,
Speaker 1: and denounced as a heritage. He also may have been
Speaker 1: arrested by Order of Francis the First for using some
Speaker 1: disparaging words about the Queen mother. That's really neither here
Speaker 1: nor there. There's not much evidence that Heinrich was seriously
Speaker 1: accused of practicing magical or occult parts, and we know
Speaker 1: for sure that he was not executed for tracy or
Speaker 1: any other crime. His life was riddled with financial hardship,
Speaker 1: and those monetary difficulties led to harassment food creditors, and
Speaker 1: he died in poverty at age forty eight. But left
Speaker 1: us with this wisdom that has lasted through the years.
Speaker 1: I confess that magic teacheth many superfluous things and curious
Speaker 1: prodigies for ostentation, leave them as empty things. Yet be
Speaker 1: not ignorant of their causes. But those things which are
Speaker 1: for the profit of men, for the turning away of
Speaker 1: evil events, for the destroying of sorceries, for the curing
Speaker 1: of diseases, for the exterminating of phantasms, for the preserving
Speaker 1: of life, honor, or fortune, may be done without offense
Speaker 1: to God or injury to religion, because they are as
Speaker 1: profitable so necessary. Heimrich has been memorialized in Christopher Marlowe's
Speaker 1: sixteenth century play The Tragical History of Dr Faustus, where
Speaker 1: Faustus proclaims he will become quote as cunning as Agrippa was.
Speaker 1: He also appears as a character in Mayor Shelley's novel
Speaker 1: Frankenstein and in her short story The Mortal Immortal. He
Speaker 1: continues to appear in novels today, and even appears in
Speaker 1: the video games Temple of Agrippa and Amnesia, The Dark Descent,
Speaker 1: And for all you Harry Potter fans, Heinrich lives on
Speaker 1: not just in science or with Frankenstein, but in Hollywood too.
Speaker 1: In the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Ron
Speaker 1: Weasley says to Harry Potter, quote, chocolate frogs have cards
Speaker 1: inside them, you know, to collect famous witches and wizards.
Speaker 1: I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa
Speaker 1: or Ptolemy. Heinrich's trading card reads celebrated wizard imprisoned by
Speaker 1: muggles for his writing because they thought his books were evil.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a perfect quote about him. For more perfect,
Speaker 1: hopefully things. Would you like to join me in the cauldron?
Speaker 1: I would love to. I hope there's something bubbly and tasty.
Speaker 1: There is something bubbly. It's like your psychic I might
Speaker 1: be okay. This also includes an ingredient we have not
Speaker 1: featured on the show before, and I've been wanting to
Speaker 1: kind of mess about with it, and then I happened
Speaker 1: to grab some recently on a trip to the Laker store.
Speaker 1: So the restless heretic. This first ingredient is not the
Speaker 1: thing I got from the Laker store. But it begins
Speaker 1: with a teaspoon of blueberry jam. If you are lucky
Speaker 1: like me, you have an amazing friend that makes jam
Speaker 1: every year, and since it is holiday gifts, and you
Speaker 1: have beautiful homemade blueberry jam. But if you don't, you
Speaker 1: can purchase it. Also, I should note if there's anybody
Speaker 1: out there of questionable taste who doesn't enjoy blueberries, you
Speaker 1: could sub it out, but why would you. The blueberries
Speaker 1: also give this drink an absolutely beautiful color. So to
Speaker 1: that one teaspoon of blueberry jam, you are going to
Speaker 1: add and I would put this in a shaker two
Speaker 1: ounces of honey mead, oh, and I would muddle it together,
Speaker 1: just stir it together with a spoon for a little while,
Speaker 1: and then I would give it a little bit of
Speaker 1: a shake because you want to really like dissolve the
Speaker 1: sugars of that jam. Now at this point, whether or
Speaker 1: not you strain it or not is up to you.
Speaker 1: I like leaving the little fruit bits in it because
Speaker 1: then when you get to the bottom of your glass,
Speaker 1: they've absorbed a lot of beautiful things because we're not
Speaker 1: done here, and they have this beautiful flavor, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna pour that into your glass. I would use my favorite,
Speaker 1: the chilled coope. I knew it because you're gonna add
Speaker 1: four ounces of champagne to the situation. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: would use something with a little bit of sweetness to it,
Speaker 1: if you can. Whatever champagne has a night or sparkling
Speaker 1: wine you have that's a little bit sweeter and not
Speaker 1: quite as dry one. It's beautiful because it's got that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, purply bluey tone to it. Two it's got bubbles.
Speaker 1: And I don't know why, but when I think of alchemy,
Speaker 1: and particularly of course when I think of alchemy in France,
Speaker 1: I think of champagne and like this sense of like
Speaker 1: discovery and things happening, because as you said, alchemy is
Speaker 1: the basis of a lot of actual science that we
Speaker 1: use a need today. You know, it's funny. One of
Speaker 1: the first things that came to mind, and this This
Speaker 1: may age me, but I remember as a child watching
Speaker 1: the Smurfs, and there was Gargamel and he had his
Speaker 1: cat and he had his cauldron, and he, to me,
Speaker 1: was an alchemist. Girl, don't don't open the Pandora's box
Speaker 1: of my love of Smurfs. Okay, just I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I will talk about jokey for a hundred years. You know,
Speaker 1: Smurf Fat became a blode through alchemy, but I believe
Speaker 1: she just became through alchemy, right, Yes, she was originally
Speaker 1: a brunette and then became a blonde. I liked her
Speaker 1: brunette kind of punky Vivyan Westwood look personally, but that
Speaker 1: is neither here nor there, because we're still talking about this.
Speaker 1: But I do want to note, as you you said,
Speaker 1: alchemy is this kind of like mess of crack pottery,
Speaker 1: And in fact, there were a lot of scientific concepts
Speaker 1: being seated there. They just kind of went down some
Speaker 1: paths that weren't necessarily always based in scientific truth. But
Speaker 1: that's how we figure stuff out. You try stuff and
Speaker 1: go oh no, no, that wasn't quite right, but this
Speaker 1: part of it was right, right, So yes, So that's
Speaker 1: why I wanted to include bubbles here I wanted. I've
Speaker 1: been wanting to include meat for a while, and meat
Speaker 1: is like an ancient drink. There are instances of references
Speaker 1: of it thousands of years back, so it also seemed
Speaker 1: like a good one to bring up here. We're talking
Speaker 1: about two alcohols that are low a b V, so
Speaker 1: it's not like a drink that is a mess. You
Speaker 1: could maybe have two of these if you are celebrating
Speaker 1: and not worry about getting completely and he breedd the
Speaker 1: mock tail for it is also amazing. It is five
Speaker 1: ounces of ginger ale an ounce of honey syrup. Again,
Speaker 1: I will say, not straight honey. You want to do
Speaker 1: half honey, half water and heat them up together so
Speaker 1: they blend, and then let it cool off, and that's
Speaker 1: your honey syrup, so it's thinner. And we'll combine with
Speaker 1: other things more easily, and then your teaspoon and blueberry
Speaker 1: jam and you can stir that all up however you
Speaker 1: Want's delicious. It is so delicious and so yummy. That's
Speaker 1: like a thing I'm going to make like as a
Speaker 1: breakfast drink. It's so yummy. I as I always say,
Speaker 1: I like to use a sugar free ginger ale because
Speaker 1: it makes it not as heavy employing. And then it's
Speaker 1: like a really bright, beautiful, slight fruity, but that honey
Speaker 1: gives it this nice earthy grounding roundness to it. Yum,
Speaker 1: and that is called the restless heretic. His his intellectual
Speaker 1: journey includes blueberry tom it does today what he ate
Speaker 1: for breakfast while he was wandering around Europe blueberry scrow
Speaker 1: in Europe exactly. Odds are good, and he was certainly
Speaker 1: in Champagne country by the time, and Mead was probably
Speaker 1: around wherever he went, of course, and I believe he
Speaker 1: was locked in France for a good four years, so
Speaker 1: I'm sure he would have appreciated this and worse places
Speaker 1: to be locked. That's actually so yeah, I am. I
Speaker 1: am quite delighted with how this one turned out because
Speaker 1: I have not played with Mead a whole lot in
Speaker 1: my life. I really want to do something with meat
Speaker 1: and culinary rosebuds soon. But we'll see what happens. That
Speaker 1: would I vote for that? Please do? Right? I still
Speaker 1: have plenty of that Mead left, so stay tuned. One
Speaker 1: never knows whe that might pop up or if it
Speaker 1: will even be. In seasons to come, we will be
Speaker 1: right back here next week with another alchemy or witchcraft
Speaker 1: story and another cocktail and mocktail, and we hope you
Speaker 1: join us here on Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of
Speaker 1: Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.