The Apology against Fuchs. 1536
Context
This is a response by Servetus to the work of Leonard Fuchs
Apologia, in defense of his friend, Symphorien Champier, a
known Galenist and antiarabist. The study of medicine in these
times amounted to little more than the philological interpretation
of Greek and Latin texts which were rediscovered during the
Renaissance. Many scholars wrote treatises trying to purify
the medical concepts of Hippocrates and Galen from the additions
and modifications introduced by the Arabs. The sequence of
events of the dispute was as follows:
- Fuchs published in 1530 a treatise, Errata recentiorum
medicorum, in which he defended the Greek school claiming
the superiority of Hippocrates and Galen over the Arabs, especially
Avicenna's Canon. The topic of special interest was the use
of plants as purgatives, prescribed by the Arabs, and the
origin of the new disease syphilis and its possible relation
to the disease described by the Greeks as "lichen."
- Lorenz Fries, a Dutch physician, defended the Arabs advocating
studying Avicenna in a work Defensio medicorum Principis Avicennae
ad Germaniae medicos (1530).
- Champier entered in 1533 the quarrel with his work, Epistola
responsiva in defensionem Avicennae Laurentii Frisi, in which
he criticized Fuchs and later, with Annotatio in Fuchsium,
directly attacking Fuchs. In the latter work, translated for
Fuchs by his friend Arabist Sebastian Montanus (Monteux or
Montuus), Champier tried to discredit the earlier corrections
of medical concepts made by Fuchs.
- Fuchs replied in turn by the work Paradoxa medicinae (1535),
a polemic on the errors of contemporary medicine, directed
against the Arabists and Champier
- Champier brought Fuchs’ book to the attention of
the inquisitors in Paris on the basis of certain theological
Lutheran tendencies (e.g., the doctrine of justification by
faith). As a result of the inquiry, the book was condemned
by the Sorbonne and burned in public as heretical.
- Fuchs in turn responded by a work Apologia
- Servetus, as a friend of Champier, a known Galenist and
Antiarabist, replied by publishing a work in defense of Champier
thus paying his debt of gratitude -- In Leonardum Fuchsium
Apologia defensio apologetica pro Symphoriano Campegio, autore
Michaele Villanovano (Lyon 1536)
Some excerpts
Nobody could suspect that there was any connection between
Servetus and Villanovanus. Here Servetus defended not only
the medical views of Champier (e.g., the use of scammony made
from the juice of a certain plant), but he also defended the
orthodox Catholic doctrine against the doctrine of Fuchs and
Luther of justification by faith:
"For the Lutherans whose arguments it will not be
difficult to refute and whose errors to uncover, do not wish
to attribute anything to works, because they do not sufficiently
understand the force of justification.''
Prints
In Leonardum Fuchsium apologia, autore Michaele Villanovano.
Lyon, 1536. There is a facsimile copy of the work done by
Oxford University Press, 1909.
Translations
English: was published by Charles David O'Malley, Michael
Servetus. A Translation of his Geographical, Medical and Astrological
Writings with Introductions and Notes, (Philadelphia: American
Philosophical Society, 1953), pp. 38-54.
Spanish: Apología contra Fuchs, Disertación
sobre la Astrología by Ángel Alcalá,
(Madrid, 1981)
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