Classical Scat

This section is pre-apologised!

Back in the swing of The Devil’s Doctor now. We are up to Paracelsus’ involvement with Luther, not that they met, but this requires a “Lutheranism for Beginners” section which has been quite an eye-opener. My limited views on the great Christian Schism have fallen into seeing Catholicism as the old-guard, rooted in mysticism and the origins of Christianity with Luther as a new broom, using his rationality and decency to sweep away the excesses of the papacy and the local clergy. All this has been reversed. Of course there were excesses – with two Popes at one point that is an excess of one Pope – much un-celibate and immoral behaviour, but Luther was a mad, unswerving zealot who as far as I can see has been responsible for the extreme concentration on faith rather than rational discussion that we still see as excuse for stifling debate. He said that men should not understand – they should only believe. In best Scaryduck fashion, I can also reveal that much of Luther’s theology was a result of constipation – lots of his writings give in great scatological detail, accounts of Satan’s use of his chamber, leaving a foul stench for days. He also says that many of his revelations came to him on the privy. I have to add that these details are only in a footnote in the book – though maybe they should be in a footstool note. It is strange to think that some of the worst conflicts and behaviour committed in the name of religion could have been avoided had Luther had a better diet, though as my wife says, if there was no religion, people would find something else to fight over.

Paracelsus himself had a much more pragmatic view of the scriptures and seems to have dismissed most organised religious worship as irrelevant saying that most people, religious or lay, had not understood what they were trying to say. All this sounds very “hello clouds! Hello sky”, like looking for God in the hedgerows and under stones, a sort of Eastern interpretation but that fits with his medical views as well. I am amazed that this book has so much detail though so much of it is background, details of the political and religious state of play (not that there was much separation between the two then – there was the Papacy and The Holy Roman Empire but they are just two sides to the same coin). I am getting view of rationalism in transition with Paracelsus as border guard albeit a mad one. I see him a bit like Tom Baker’s Doctor Who, strange and unpredictable in day-to-day things but rational and dependable when needed.

I don’t remember Paracelsus being in The Ascent Of Man which is now for sale at £31 on Amazon. They are waiting for me to bite. There is an episode on BBC4 next week as part of their 1973 season if you would like a taster. I have just seen that they are also showing The Green Death story from Doctor Who which is listed as being “the one with the maggots”. I remember this well, partly for the maggots but probably also because it was the first time I took notice of a Doctor’s assistant as anything other than the screaming sides-person. If only I’d known about the Dalek pictures. There was a long preview of 1973 week after A for Andromeda which seemed to make that year as cool as Life on Mars did.