The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

and the patronage of Cecil. His appointment as Lancaster Herald in 1602, nearly four years
after Cecil‘s death, reflected the prevalence of Thynne‘s broad range of interests in
Elizabethan society. 197
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Cecil‘s interest in alchemical philosophy demonstrates that not only did he believe
in the feasibility of alchemical transmutation, but that this belief was an essential
consequence of his understanding of the world. Alchemical theory, as it existed in the
sixteenth century, was a conglomeration of various spiritual, magical, and metallurgical
ideas. Whilst these concepts were often paradoxical, they had at their core a unified
understanding of nature, based on the elemental theory of Aristotle. The unity of nature,
as implied by the unity of creation, allowed for both the occult effects of the heavens and
the alchemical transmutation of metals. Cecil‘s education, steeped in Aristotelian
philosophy, therefore encouraged a worldview complementary alchemy. Further, the
interests of Cecil‘s tutors John Cheke and Thomas Smith suggest that explicitly alchemical
and occult works were amongst those read unofficially, through private study.
Whilst John Dee‘s actions during Queen Mary‘s reign tainted his relationship with
Cecil, their common education informed Dee‘s decision to appeal to Cecil using occult
knowledge. Dee did not copy Steganographia for Cecil for its cryptographic secrets: these
were not known at the time. Rather, Dee copied it because he thought Cecil would be
interested in a rare and authoritative source of occult and alchemical knowledge. Richard
Eden—after attending Cambridge with Cecil and acting as his secretary—appealed Cecil‘s
intellectual curiosity and ―pleasure in the wonderfull woorke of arte and nature‖. 198 He
knew that Cecil was fascinated by not only the practical applications of alchemy, but also in
its philosophical implications. Francis Thynne‘s demonstrations of his knowledge of occult
knowledge successfully played upon this fascination, gaining Cecil‘s patronage and relieving
197 Knafla, ‗Thynne, Francis‘.
198 Eden to Cecil, Lansdowne, Vol. 101, No. 5.
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