The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley
The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley
The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley
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<strong>Cecil</strong> tended to favour more practical aspects <strong>of</strong> alchemical patronage, he was more <strong>of</strong>ten<br />
alienated by Dee‘s religious ambiguity and lack <strong>of</strong> political judgement.<br />
While Dee matriculated at St. John‘s shortly after <strong>Cecil</strong> had left, the extent <strong>of</strong> his<br />
association with <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s academic circle is unclear. Although both attended St. John‘s<br />
College, Dee associated largely with conservative Catholic scholars and was out <strong>of</strong> step<br />
with the more reformist instincts <strong>of</strong> the group surrounding Cheke and Smith. 81 Dee‘s<br />
interest in alchemy and occultism certainly developed out <strong>of</strong> his Cambridge education.<br />
According to his book on occult symbolism, Monas Hieroglyphica (1564), Dee started his<br />
study <strong>of</strong> alchemy during his first year at Cambridge. 82 Nevertheless, Dee‘s biographers<br />
have argued that he was somehow out <strong>of</strong> place at Cambridge; that scholars like <strong>Cecil</strong>,<br />
Smith, and Cheke were concerned only with the study <strong>of</strong> logic and discourse rather than<br />
alchemical secrets. 83 However, in arguing that there is no indication that Cambridge<br />
introduced Dee to any <strong>of</strong> his alchemical, occult or hermetical ideas in a ―formal way‖,<br />
Nicholas Clulee inadvertently made an important point. 84 Dee provides the best example<br />
<strong>of</strong> the way in which the informal promulgation <strong>of</strong> alchemical and occult knowledge at<br />
English universities, especially Cambridge, influenced the educated classes <strong>of</strong> Elizabethan<br />
England. Dee and many others would take advantage <strong>of</strong> these shared obsessions in order<br />
to attract lucrative patronage. Appeals for <strong>Cecil</strong> that demonstrate the author‘s alchemy<br />
expertise are important because they demonstrate an awareness amongst supplicants that<br />
they could attract <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s patronage by appealing to his fascination with alchemy.<br />
After studying at the conservatively Catholic Louvain University, Dee received<br />
some favour under Edward VI. 85 Dee‘s 1592 autobiographical tract, Compendious Rehearsal,<br />
all too <strong>of</strong>ten taken at face value by historians, implies that his advancement to the Court<br />
81 Parry, <strong>The</strong> Arch-Conjuror <strong>of</strong> England.<br />
82 Feingold, ‗<strong>The</strong> Occult Tradition‘, p. 80.<br />
83 French, John Dee, p. 22; Nicholas Clulee, John Dee’s Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion, London,<br />
1988, pp. 22-28.<br />
84 Nicholas Clulee, ‗Astrology, Magic, and Optics: Facets <strong>of</strong> John Dee‘s Early Natural Philosophy‘, in Brian<br />
Levack (ed.), Renaissance Magic, New York, 1992, p. 7.<br />
85 Parry, <strong>The</strong> Arch-Conjuror <strong>of</strong> England.<br />
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