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)