The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

According to Russwurin the university doctors objected to his lack of training in ―Greciane
or Aristoteticall philosophye‖. 36 He appealed to Cecil, ―who excelleth in all kindes of good
learninge himselfe‖, to withhold judgement until he sees the effects of the treatment. 37
Those university trained physicians who ―are the trewe searchers of the secretes and
mysteryes of nature‖, a common allusion to alchemy, were exempted from his attack. 38
Russwurin argued that even those physicians who originally looked to banish chemical
medicine had ―by litle and litle to resorte to the preparers of suche medicines... to buye all
the chymicall medicines that they can gett‖. 39 This supports Charles Webster‘s claim that
even members of the medical establishment were becoming increasingly reliant on
chemical remedies. 40
Through weighing Cecil‘s urine, Russwurin had determined that the cause of his
gout was a problem with one of Cecil‘s alchemical systems. An excess of moisture
lyke a miste or fogge, threateneth here after as age shall encrease, a weaking
not onely of the eye, but of the eares and of the memorye also ... Paracelsus
calleth them Tartarical because they soone turne into a Tartar, they fall
downe into the outtermoste partes, especially into the feete ... and there
coagulating and waxing harde bredeth all those paynes. 41
Russwurin informed Cecil that the disease would need to be treated with both internal and
external medicines ―bothe sortes spirituall, and not as Galenicall medicines be ... excellent
extractiones, saltes, essences, tinctures, and maysteries of metalles, of precious stones of
pearles and spices.‖ 42 These would cleanse the blood and reduce the pain of Cecil‘s gout.
Such was Cecil‘s trust in Russwurin‘s methods that he consulted with him about his
aging mother, Jane Cecil. Informed that ―your Lordship is desyrous also to understand
whether your Lordship mother may recover her sight agayne‖, Russwurin declared himself
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Webster, ‗Alchemical and Paracelsian Medicine‘, p. 305.
41 Russwurin to Cecil, Lansdowne Vol. 101, No. 4.
42 Ibid.
58