The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

of yeeres before Paracelsus time‖. 131 Scott Mandelbroke has noted Norton‘s determination
in his other works to ―reinterpret the native English alchemical tradition in a Paracelsian
vein‖. 132
According to Norton, all diseases resulted from imperfections of these three
elements in the body. Extracts of certain vegetables, animals, stones, and metals could be
wrought by Art of fire that their purified Sulphurs Mercuries and Salts may
be geeven to heale and help the imperfections of inward Sulphurs
Mercuries and Salts declined from the harmonie of health. 133
Given their use of alchemical techniques to restore the balance and unity of the body,
Norton‘s treatments were clearly Paracelsian in nature. However, Norton also outlined
―another way there is also much more philosophicall to come to the medicine‖. 134 He then
described how an alchemist could combine the male and female of each element through
the process of ―putrefaction‖ to create ―a fixed oile which is the Elixir of life curing all
diseases‖. 135 Norton‘s directions for creating this elixir, the alchemist‘s philosopher‘s stone,
are unusually comprehensible; they even include the proportions required. 136 Norton
therefore demonstrates both the intrinsic link between alchemy and Paracelsian medicine,
and his determination to appeal to Cecil, a non-expert in practical alchemy.
Norton wrote the treatise with the intention of it being ―presented, passed, and
avouched for under the patronadge‖ of Cecil, knowing him to be ―most singular and rare
for learning‖. 137 Significantly, Norton acknowledged that ―although my good lord, you are
[academia‘s] most cheefe piller and supporter, I feare not your parcialite‖. 138 Although
Norton denied Aristotelian learning, he remained confident that his alchemical
understanding of nature, reinforced with biblical teaching, would appeal to Cecil. Norton
concluded his dedication by describing
131 Ibid.
132 Mandelbrote, ‗Norton, Samuel (1548–1621)‘.
133 Norton, ‗Summarie Collections‘.
134 Ibid.
135 Ibid.
136 Ibid.
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid.
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