Table Of ContentALCHEMICAL BELIEF
THE MAGIC IN HISTORY SERIES
FORBIDDEN RITES BATTLING DEMONS
A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the
Richard Kieckhefer Late Middle Ages
Michael D. Bailey
CONJURING SPIRITS
Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic PRAYER, MAGIC, AND THE STARS IN THE
Edited by Claire Fanger LATE ANCIENT AND ANTIQUE WORLD
Edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker,
RITUAL MAGIC and Brannon Wheeler
Elizabeth M. Butler
BINDING WORDS
THE FORTUNES OF FAUST Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages
Elizabeth M. Butler Don C. Skemer
THE BATHHOUSE AT MIDNIGHT STRANGE REVELATIONS
An Historical Survey of Magic and Magic, Poison, and Sacrilege in
Divination in Russia Louis XIV’s France
W. F. Ryan Lynn Wood Mollenauer
SPIRITUAL AND DEMONIC MAGIC UNLOCKED BOOKS
From Ficino to Campanella Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval
D. P. Walker Libraries of Central Europe
Benedek Láng
ICONS OF POWER
Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity
Naomi Janowitz
The Magic in History series explores the role magic and the occult have played in European culture, religion, science,
and politics. Titles in the series will bring the resources of cultural, literary, and social history to bear on the history
of the magic arts, and will contribute towards an understanding of why the theory and practice of magic have elicited
fascination at every level of European society. Volumes will include both editions of important texts and significant
new research in the field.
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I would like to thank Cambridge University Press for permission to
reprint an earlier version of chapter 4 that appeared in Rethinking the
Scientific Revolution, ed. Margaret Jacob (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2000), 89–118.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Janacek, Bruce, 1961–
Alchemical belief : occultism in the religious culture of early
modern England / Bruce Janacek.
p. cm. — (Magic in history)
Summary: “Explores the practice of alchemy in the context of the
religious and political tensions in late Elizabethan and early Stuart
England, and the use of occult knowledge to demonstrate proof of
theological doctrines”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn 978-0-271-05013-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. England—Church history—1485– .
2. Alchemy—Religious aspects—Christianity—History.
3. Alchemy—England—History.
I. Title.
BR757.J36 2011
261.5'13094209031—dc22
2011015428
Copyright © 2011 The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802–1003
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free
paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
This book is printed on Natures Natural, which contains 50% post-consumer waste.
In Loving Memory of Susan Beaudette
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, line 9
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put
the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food;
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of
the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. . . .
—Genesis 2:8–12 (KJV)
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall
come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming?
and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and
like fuller’s soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and
he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that
they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the
offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days
of old, and as in former years.
—Malachi 3:1–4 (KJV)
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Thomas Tymme and Natural Philosophy:
Schism and Alchemical Unity in the Book of Nature 16
2 Robert Fludd, Natural Theology, and the
Alchemical Debate of 1623 43
3 Francis Bacon, Alchemy, and the Great Redemption 75
4 Catholic Natural Philosophy:
Alchemy and the Revivification of Sir Kenelm Digby 99
5 Elias Ashmole:
The Collection and Culmination of Alchemical Thought 128
Epilogue 160
Notes 165
Bibliography 193
Index 211
ILLuSTRATIONS
Fig. 1 | Thomas Tymme’s explanation of the Trinity according to alchemical
elements in his Light in Darkness. Ashmole MS 1459, p. 475. By permission of the
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. 28
Fig. 2 | Anthony Van Dyck, Venetia Stanley, Lady Digby, on Her Deathbed,
1633. By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Gallery. 100
Figs. 3 and 4 | A letter Ashmole copied in the blank interleaves of his
personal copy of the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum and his notes on
the printed page. Ashmole MS 972, fol. 190v. By permission of the Bodleian
Libraries, University of Oxford. 130–131
Fig. 5 | Ashmole’s description and sketch of George Ripley’s sepulcher in a
blank interleaf of Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Ashmole MS 972, fol. 286r.
By permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. 153
Fig. 6 | Ashmole’s description of Samuel Norton’s sepulcher in a blank
interleaf of Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Ashmole MS 972, fol. 300v. By
permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. 154
