Traditional Chinese and Greek medical practitioners knew of a sweet grass medicine that was almost certainly based on the pharmacological effects of ergot alkaloids. But it was not until the 15th century, mentioned in a Nuremberg manuscript in 1474, that ergot appeared in European pharmacology as a specifically listed ingredient in prescriptions (Fig. 3.1): a powder made from laurel, (scented) Solomon’s seal/dittany, and rye mother (= ergot), which was to be taken with warm wine to alleviate abdominal or uterine complaints: “Fur die helf muter. Item fur die heffmutter oder permutter. Nÿm lorper würcz vnd weÿdwurcz rocken muter gepuluert vnd yn wein getruncken warm” [1]. It was to be another hundred years, till the end of the 16th century, before this strange formation in the ears of rye became the subject of research for a new generation of physicians and botanists who had been trained at the European universities of the Renaissance. They all had one intriguing thing in common (and the Antonites may have been horrified by it): without exception, they had grown up in Protestant homes that belonged to the circle of reformers Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli. These early scientists investigated the medical effects of the sclerotium and began to publish their findings. One of the most renowned among them was the Frankfurt city doctor and publisher, Adam Lonicer (info box 1).