Biography
Weyer was born in Grave, a small town in the Duchy of Brabant in the Habsburg Netherlands. He attended the Latin schools in 's-Hertogenbosch and Leuven and when he was about 14 years of age, he became a live-in student of Agrippa, in Antwerp. Agrippa had to leave Antwerp in 1532 and he and his student then settled in Bonn, under the protection of prince-bishop Hermann von Wied. After completing a work on demons in 1533, Agrippa died in 1535, during a trip to France. From 1534, Weyer studied medicine in Paris and later in Orléans (It appears unlikely that he obtained the title of Doctor through these studies). Subsequently, he practiced as a physician in his native Grave. In 1545, he was appointed town physician of Arnhem. In this capacity, he was asked for advice on witchcraft in a 1548 court case involving a fortune teller. In spite of a subsidy from emperor Charles V, Arnhem was no longer able to pay Weyer's salary in 1550 and Weyer moved to Cleves, where he became court doctor to duke William the Rich, through mediation by humanist Konrad Heresbach. Here he published his major works on demons, magic, and witchcraft, in which he applied a sceptical medical view to reported wonders and supposed examples of magic or witchcraft. He retired from his post in 1578 and was succeeded by his son, Galenus Weyer. After retirement he completed a medical work on a subject unrelated to witchcraft. He died on 24 February 1588 at the age of 73 in Tecklenburg, while visiting somebody who had fallen ill. He was buried in the local churchyard, which is no longer extant.
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