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John
Dee's Conversations With Angels |
Chapter II
Imprisonment and Authorship
"A
man is but what he knoweth."
- Bacon
In December, 1551, Dee obtained, through the offices of Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Cheke, an introduction to Secretary Cecil and to King Edward VI. He had already written for and dedicated to the King two books (in manuscript): De usi Globi Coelestis, 1550, and De nubium, solis, lunae, ac reliquorum planetarum, etc., 1551. These perhaps had been sent to Cheke, the King's tutor, in the hope that they might prove useful lesson books. The pleasing result of the dedication was the gift of an annual royal pension of a hundred crowns. This allowance was afterwards exchanged for the rectory of Upton-upon-Severn, in Worcestershire, which Dee found an extremely bad bargain.
From the Beacon Hill above West Malvern Priory, the visitor may turn from inspection of the ancient British camp of Caractacus to admire the magnificent view; and across the level fields where the Severn winds, the tower of Upton church will be seen rising in the middle distance. Further west, if the day be clear, the more imposing towers of Tewkesbury and Cloucester may be discerned, while half a turn eastward will show Worcester Cathedral, not far away. Dee never lived in this beautiful place, although he was presented to the living on May 19, 1553. Even when the rectory of Long Leadenham, in Lincolnshire, was added to Upton, the two together were worth only about £80 a year. Next year he declined an invitation to become Lecturer on Mathematical Science at Oxford, conveyed to him through "Mr. Doctor Smith" (Richard, D.C.L., 1528, the reformer), of Oriel College, and "Mr. du Bruarne," of Christ Church. He was occupied with literary work, and in 1553 produced, among other things, a couple of works on The Cause of Floods and Ebbs, and The Philosophical and Political Occasions and Names of the Heavenly Asterismes, both written at the request of Jane, Duchess of Northumberland.
When Mary Tudor succeeded her young brother as queen in 1553, Dee was invited to calculate her nativity. He began soon after to open up a correspondence with the Princess Elizabeth, who was then living at Woodstock, and he cast her horoscope also. Before long he was arrested on the plea of an informant named George Ferrys, who alleged that oneof his children had been struck blind and another killed by Dee's "magic." Ferrys also declared that Dee was directing his enchantments against the Queen's life. Dee's lodgings in London were searched and sealed up, and he himself was sent to prison. He was examined before the Secretary of State, afterwards upon eighteen articles by the Privy Council, and at last brought into the Star Chamber for trial. There he was cleared of all suspicion of treason, and liberated by an Order in Council. August 29, 1555, but handed over to Bishop Bonner for examination in matters of religion. Bonner was apparently equally satisfied. Dee was certainly enjoined by him, at John Philpot's examination on November 19, 1555, to put questions as a test of his orthodoxy. He quoted St. Cyprian to Philpot, who replied: "Master Dee, you are too young in divinity to teach me in the matters of my faith, though you be more learned in other things."
Dee deserves well of all writers and students for time everlasting because of his most praiseworthy efforts to found a State National Library of books and manuscripts, with copies of foreign treasures, wherever they might be. On January 15, 1556, he presented to Queen Mary "a Supplication for the recovery and preservation of ancient writers and monuments." Within a few years he had seen the monasteries dissolved and the priceless collections of these houses lamentably dispersed, some burned and others buried. He drew up a very remarkable address to the Queen dwelling on the calamity of thus distributing "the treasure of all antiquity and the everlasting seeds of continual excellency within this your Grace's realm." Many precious jewels, he knows, have already perished, but in time there may be saved and recovered the remnants of a store of theological and scientific writings which are now being scattered up and down the kingdom, some in unlearned men's hands, some walled up or buried in the ground. Dee uses powerful arguments to enforce his plea, choosing such as would make the most direct appeal to both Queen and people. She will build for herself a lasting name and monument; they will be able all in common to enjoy what is now only the privilege of a few scholars, and even these have to depend on the goodwill of private owners. He proposes first that a commission shall be appointed to inquire what valuable manuscripts exist; that those reported on shall be borrowed (on demand), a fair copy made, and if the owner will not relinquish it, the original be returned. Secondly, he points out that the commission should get to work at once, lest some owners, hearing of it, should hide away or convey away their treasures, and so, he pithily adds, "prove by a certain token that they are not sincere lovers of good learning because they will not share them with others." The expenses of the commission and of the copying, etc., he proposed should be borne by the Lord Cardinal and the Synod of the province of Canterbury, who should also be charged to oversee the manuscripts and books collected until a library "apt in all points" is made redy for their reception.
Finally, Dee suggests that to him be committed the procuring of copies of many famous manuscript volumes to be found in the great libraries abroad: the Vatican Library at Rome, St. Mark's at Venice, and in Bologna, Florence, Vienna, etc. He offers to set to work to obtain these, the expenses only of transcription and carriage to England to be charged to the State. As to printed books, they are to "be gotten in wonderfull abundance." In this generous offer of his life to be spent in transcribing crabbed manuscripts, we cannot see the restless genius of John Dee long satisfied, but at any rate he proved himself not seeking for private gain.
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