The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

late seventeenth and early eighteenth century attitude towards ‗irrational‘ concepts such as
alchemy and astrology is particularly evident in his writing. Strype, writing at the height of
the scientific revolution‘s emphasis on rationality and reason, usually found it easiest to
overlook Cecil‘s interest in alchemy.
When alchemical patronage came to the forefront of Cecil‘s correspondence,
Strype conveniently ascribed some other motive to his actions. This is evident in his
discussion of Cecil‘s correspondence with the alchemist Edward Kelley. Strype decided
that ―the curiosity of the subject, and eminency of the person [Cecil]‖ warranted the
printing of large sections of the letters both in his text and appendix. 3 On rather slim
evidence he presumed that Cecil sought Kelley primarily as a political informant rather than
for his purported alchemical skills. 4 This supposition has strongly influenced almost all
subsequent historians‘ interpretations of this episode. 5
Strype often included original documents in appendices. Whilst this has preserved
some letters that have since been destroyed, his documentary selections reflected his
personal prejudices, and their accessibility has since shaped the interests and perspectives
of historians. 6 As a clergyman he emphasised Cecil‘s religious policy, and almost totally
ignored many other topics. Too many historians have relied on his usually accurate,
although often silently abridged, transcriptions of difficult to access manuscripts, making
Strype‘s particular biases incredibly pervasive, even three centuries later. Historians as
eminent as David Quinn, in his biography of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, have repeated ad
nauseam Strype‘s treatment of one of Cecil‘s alchemical projects, the Society of the New
Art. 7
3 John Strype, Annals of the Reformation and Establishment of Religion and other Various Occurrences in the Church of
England During Queen Elizabeth’s Happy Reign, , Vol. 3, Part 2, Oxford, 1728, reprinted 1824, p. 132.
4 Ibid., pp. 132-33.
5 Edward Nares, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of the Right Honourable William Cecil, Lord Burghley, London,
1828, p. 340; Michael Wilding, ‗A Biography of Edward Kelly, the English Alchemist and Associate of Dr.
John Dee‘, in Stanton J. Linden, Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture, New York,
2007, pp. 61-62.
6 Martin and McConnell, ‗Strype, John (1643–1737)‘.
7 David B. Quinn, The Voyages and Colonising Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, London, 1940.
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