The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

difficult to access with microfilm copies only available in the British and Folger libraries.
Fortunately the Hatfield calendars are relatively comprehensive, often reproducing almost
compete transcripts of the original manuscripts.
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This thesis uses Cecil‘s enormous manuscript collection, in combination with other
state papers and contemporary published works, to examine his belief in the philosophical
ideals and practical possibility of alchemy. It contextualises Cecil‘s patronage of alchemy
within both the worldview promulgated by Renaissance humanism, and Cecil‘s overriding
interest in the security of England‘s Protestant state. In doing so it argues that rather than
the irrational hope of a fool, Cecil‘s belief in alchemy was a fundamental consequence of
his comprehension of the world, built upon an Aristotelian education that emphasised a
unified understanding of nature.
Chapter one focuses on alchemical philosophy as part of Cecil‘s understanding of
nature, beginning with a brief background sketch of the alchemical concepts prevalent in
the mid sixteenth century. It considers both the prominence of alchemical concepts within
Cecil‘s university education and the outlook of those scholars with whom he most closely
associated. Using both Cecil‘s later correspondence with the Cambridge scholars John Dee
and Richard Eden, and the antiquarian and alchemist Francis Thynne‘s appeals for his
patronage, it examines the extent to which Cecil‘s education established a continuing
fascination with alchemical philosophy and practice.
Chapter two investigates Cecil‘s patronage of chemical medicine. By establishing
the position of chemical practitioners in the medical marketplace it reveals the prevalence
of alchemical ideas in Elizabethan medicine. It then explores the use of chemical medicine
amongst physicians whom Cecil is known to have consulted, and also those whose offers
of medical assistance have no extant replies. Finally it considers Humfrey Lock and Samuel
Norton‘s attempts to appeal to Cecil using explicitly alchemical medical theory. In light of
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