The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

St John‘s College, and to whom many at the college professed loyalty. 26 Alongside the
religious Reformation, academic arguments over the interpretation of ancient texts
epitomised the struggle between the entrenched scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas and
Renaissance humanism‘s literary focus. 27
Analysis of Cecil‘s education at Cambridge University is difficult. In contrast to his
later life, we completely lack records of his experiences. Historians therefore discuss his
Cambridge education in broader terms, focussing on the effect of political and religious
turmoil on the young scholar. They highlight the influence of the Henrican suppression,
both of those loyal to Rome and of radical Protestants, on Cecil‘s later political and
religious views. This marginalises the Aristotelian intellectual tradition that shaped him. 28
Traditionally, historians have described Tudor Cambridge and Oxford as ―predominantly
grammarian and unscientific [in] character‖, but Mordechai Feingold has catalogued the
occult tradition among English university graduates, arguing that ―until the middle of the
seventeenth century the occult tradition was essentially an intellectual tradition‖. 29 More
recently Stephen Alford has emphasised the influence of the new humanism on the
university curriculum. 30 Alford described how successful, ambitious young humanists at St
John‘s, such as John Cheke, triggered a re-examination of many aspects of university
learning, centring on a controversial new pronunciation of Greek. 31
Cecil‘s education may have reflected the growing influence of humanist philosophy,
nevertheless ―Aristotle was still The Philosopher, but it was a less scholastic Aristotle‖. 32
Whilst the Henrican injunctions had introduced other philosophers such as Philip
Melanchthon, the aim was not to replace Aristotle in the curriculum, but to improve the
26 Read, Secretary Cecil, pp. 26-27.
27 Alford, Burghley, p. 18.
28 Mordechai Feingold, ‗The Occult Tradition in the English Universities of the Renaissance: a Reassessment‘
in Brian Vickers (ed.), Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance, Cambridge, 1986, p. 74.
29 Ibid., p. 89; Frances Yates, Lull & Bruno, London, 1982, p. 250.
30 Alford, Burghley, pp. 17-19.
31 Charles Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge, 1995, p. 187.
32 Damian Riehl Leader, A History of the University of Cambridge, Volume 1: The University to 1546, Cambridge,
1988, p. 349.
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