> Another favourite theme was to boast about his humble origins and plebeian influences – ‘I have not been ashamed to learn from tramps, butchers and barbers’ – even though he had benefited from a sound education as a child and gained a doctorate in medicine from the University of Ferrara.

I don't see the contradiction here. He does not claim to have only learned from ordinary people, just that he wasn't ashamed to do so. And that quote says nothing at all about his origins, humble or not.

In general, I don't understand the point of this article. It feels like a hit piece, but to what end?

Also, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that he was an alchemist. He lived during the sixteenth century. The alchemist that would go on to formulate classical mechanics was born a century after Paracelsus' death.