The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

context of Dee‘s failed English Court career. 89 By considering Dee‘s motivations in light of
previously unexamined evidence, Parry reassesses Dee‘s role in the episode. However, his
focus is on Dee, rather than Cecil‘s relationship with Kelley.
In contrast to previous historians, we can now reinterpret Cecil‘s interactions with
Kelley within the context of his established alchemical interests. In this context Cecil‘s
efforts to either lure Kelley back to England or obtain some of the alchemist‘s elixir can be
seen as genuine—the efforts of someone convinced of the reality of alchemical
transmutation (if not the trustworthiness of individual alchemists)—and expecting to
secure England‘s finances by alchemical means.
Kelley probably first became known to Cecil as a ‗scryer‘ or medium for John Dee‘s
angelic magic in 1582. 90 By September 1583, Dee‘s ‗spiritual conferences‘ with various
angels, communicated through Kelley, convinced him of the need to leave England before
the coming apocalypse. 91 Leaving England with Albrecht Laski, the Palatine of Sieradz in
Poland, Dee and Kelley eventually after many vicissitudes settled in Bohemia as servants of
the Earl of Rosenberg. 92
Dee‘s records of his angelic conversations reveal that they had brought alchemical
books and a ‗red powder‘ with them from England, but that Kelley initially failed in his
attempts at transmutation. 93 It was not until October 1586 that Dee began to make cryptic
references to alchemical success. 94 While at first Kelley had been merely an assistant, he
began to overshadow Dee. Likely the English Court‘s obsession with Kelley‘s abilities
originated with the English merchants Edward and Francis Garland. When, on 19
December 1586, Kelley ―made a public demonstration of the philosopher‘s stone‖ for the
89 Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of England.
90 Ibid.
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 John Dee, Meric Casaubon (ed.), A True & Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee
and Some Spirits, London, 1659, second pagination, p. 12.
94 Ibid, pp. 444-47.
91