The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

himself as ―Samuel Rynevile and Norton‖ perhaps dates the manuscript to the 1590s when
he wrote another alchemical work under the name ―Samuel Rinvill, alias Norton‖. 124 That
he wrote the dedication from ―my house at Ligh [Abbots Leigh in Somerset]‖, the family
home, suggests that it was written after his father‘s death in 1584. 125
Little is known of Norton‘s life. The great-grandson of the famous alchemist
Thomas Norton, like Cecil he attended St. John‘s College, Cambridge—although some
forty years afterwards. 126 In July 1577 he dedicated to Queen Elizabeth ‗A key of alchimie‘,
a wide-ranging alchemical work, building on the alchemical philosophy of George Ripley,
which claimed, under the influence of Norton‘s friend John Dee, that Elizabeth was on the
verge of acquiring the philosopher‘s stone. 127 It is unclear whether Norton ever won the
royal patronage he sought. After his father‘s death, Norton became a prominent member
of the Somerset gentry, and was active in local administration until his death in 1621. 128
Despite Norton‘s university education, the medical philosophy outlined in the
‗Summarie Collection‘ explicitly rejected Aristotle, and in turn Hippocrates and Galen, as
―devoid and ignorant of this true magick natural where true physick is contained‖. 129
Norton argued instead, that medicine should be based on ―the primary and true physick of
unite first revealed and had in the knowledge of Adam‖, reflecting the widespread belief
that the biblical patriarchs had possessed great alchemical wisdom. 130 According to
Norton, a universe based on the three alchemical elements—sulphur, mercury, and salt—
was more compatible with both mathematic principles and the Holy Trinity than Aristotle‘s
four elements. In doing so Norton was clearly influenced by Paracelsian ideas, however, he
claimed that Hermes Trismegistus had been ―inspired by God with this science...thousands
124 Norton, ‗Summarie Collections‘; Mandelbrote, ‗Norton, Samuel‘.
125 Ibid. [Italics added].
126 Mandelbrote, ‗Norton, Samuel‘.
127 Charles Nichol, The Chemical Theatre, London, 1980, p. 18. Parry, ‗John Dee and the Elizabethan British
Empire‘, p. 663.
128 Mandelbrote, ‗Norton, Samuel‘.
129 Norton, ‗Summarie Collections‘.
130 Ibid.
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