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Astrology was still in good repute, and the line was not
sharply drawn between that and meteorology. Theologians like
Melanchthon believed in it and practiced it, and kings and
princes had their court astrologers whom they consulted before
any important undertaking. In his lectures and in a published
pamphlet on the subject, Servetus made some disrespectful
remarks about the medical scholars of the time, charging them
with ignorance for neglecting this important subject, and
calling them a plague of the world. His colleagues in the
faculty were furious, and had him haled before the Inquisitor
on a charge of heresy. When he was acquitted of this, they
prosecuted him before the Supreme Court for advocating the
practice of divination, which was forbidden on pain of death
by fire. The Court ordered Servetus to withdraw his pamphlet,
to pay his colleagues more respect, and to cease lecturing
on the subject. But he had now had enough of academic life,
and so he left Paris and entered upon the practice of medicine.
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