The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Marcus Manilius and Plato, had formed the core of Cecil‘s classical education. 157 However,
he also referred familiarly to Georgius Agricola, author of the metallurgical work De Re
Metallica; the famous medieval English alchemist Roger Bacon; and the humanist occultist
Cornelius Agrippa. 158 Eden clearly believed that, even if Cecil had not read their work, he
was familiar with their ideas. Eden, like Thomas Smith and many of those who would
appeal to Cecil as a patron of alchemy, certainly subscribed to Agrippa‘s particular blend of
restored medieval magic and Christian Cabala. It is likely that this work was part of the
informal study that influenced many Cambridge educated scholars.
Eden‘s failure to complete his translation of Naturalis Historia had less to do with a
lack of further support from Cecil, than him entering the service of Jean De Ferrieres, the
Vidame (principal lay officer) of the bishopric of Chartres. 159 As an influential member of
the Huguenot party in France, the Vidame came to England in 1562 seeking English
support. While negotiating the Treaty of Hampton Court, in which Elizabeth committed
money and men to the French Protestant cause, the Vidame‘s philosophical interests
brought him in contact with Eden. 160 The combination of their common interest in
alchemy and Eden‘s impressive linguistic skills would have made Eden an ideal secretary
for the Vidame.
Eden‘s activities during his time serving the Vidame are largely unknown. He
would later state that he lived with the Vidame ―for ten years and more in Germany and
France, with varying fortune‖ and that it was ―only in consequence of changeful and
adverse fortune; that he was not enriched‖. 161 When the Vidame wrote to Cecil in early
1565 to commend Richard Eden to him, he wrote that his ―labours are more about celestial
than terrestrial matters‖, suggesting that Eden was employed more for his astrological and
157 Riehl Leader, A History of the University of Cambridge, Volume 1, p. 349.
158 Eden to Cecil, Lansdowne, Vol. 101. No 5.
159 Joycelyne Russell, Peacemaking in the Renaissance, Philadelphia, 1986, p. 278.
160 Hadfield, ‗Richard Eden‘.
161 Richard Eden to Queen Elizabeth, 1572, Reprinted and trans. in Arber (ed.), The First Three English Books,
pp. xlv-xlvi.
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