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John
Dee's Conversations With Angels |
From this letter it is evident that Dee wishes his friends in England to believe that he and his partner have already found the hidden secret, but he wraps his words in due mystery, and it is impossible to say exactly when Kelly first professed to have made, and when he induced his partner to believe that he actually had made, the gold on which his heart was set. That Dee's heart was equally fixed on the discovery is indisputable, but from what a different cause!
"To ye Rt. Hon S Fr. Walsingham Knt, her most excellent Ma Principal Secretary my singular good Fr and Patron with speed.
"Right Honorable Sir,
"Albeit I have almost in vain come a hundred miles (from Prague to this Leipsic Mart) hoping either to meet my servant there with answer to my former letters, sent in November last to her Majesty (when also I wrote unto your honour and others). And so with speed from this Leipsick to have sent again most speedily, as occasion should have served. and now I find neither servant neither letter from him, neither word of mouth, yet all this notwithstanding; and whatsoever the hindrance or delay hereof may be (whether the keeping back of my letters from her her Majesty, or the manifold and important most weighty affairs public hindring or delaying her Majesty's most gracious discreet and wise resolution herein. Or what other occasion else hath and doth cause this long and wonderful delay of answer receiving); all this notwithstanding, I thought good before I set up my coach to write, and most humbly to salute your honour very faithfully, dutifully and sincerely, with great and the same good will that my Letter some years since written to your Honour (but then a stumbling block unto your Honour and others for the strangeness of the phrases therein) doth pretend. So it is, right Honorable, that the merciful providence of the Highest, declared in his great and abundant graces upon me, and mine, is so wonderful and mighty, that very few, unless they be present witnesses, can believe the same. Therefore how hard they are to be believed there, where all my life and doings were construed to a contrary sense, and processe of death contrived and decreed against the Innocent, who cannot easily judge?
"I am forced to be brief. That which England suspected, was also here, for these two years almost, secretly in doubt, in question, in consultation, Imperial and Royal, by Honourable Espies; fawning about me and by others discoursed upon, pryed and peered into. And at length both the chief Romish power and Imperial dignity are brought to that point resolutely that partly they are sorry of their so late reclaiming their erroneous judgment against us and of us, and seek means to deal with us so as we might favour both the one and the other; and partly to Rome is sent, for as great authority and power as can be devised; and likewise here all other means and wayes contrived, how by force or for feare they may make us glad to follow their humours. But all in vain, for force human we fear not, as plainly and often I have to the Princes declared. And otherwise than in pure verity and godlinesse we will not favour any (my words may seem very marvellous in your Honours ears, but mark the end, we have had, and shall have, to deal with no babes). I have full oft, and upon many of their requests and questions, referred myself to her Majesties answer thus in vain expected. Nuncius Apostolicus Germanicus Malaspina, after his year's suit to be acquainted with me, at length had such his answer that he is gone to Rome with a flea in his eare, that disquieteth him and terrifieth the whole state Romish and Jesuitical. Secretly they threaten us violent death, and openly they fawn upon us. We know the Sting of Envy and the fury of fear in tyrannical minds, what desperate attempts they have and do often undertake. But the God of Heaven and Earth is our Light, Leader and Defender. To the World's end, his mercies upon us will breed his praises Honour and glory. Thus much, very rhapsodically yet faithfully, tanquam dictum sapienti, I thought good to commit to the safe and speedy conveyance of a young merchant here called Lawrence Overton, which if it come to your Honours hand before my Servant have left his despatch, I may by your honor be advertised. Your Honour is sufficient from her Majesty to deal and proceed with me, if it be thought food. But if you make a Council Table Case of it, Quot homines, tot sententioe. And my Commission from above is not so large: Qui potest capere, capiat."
The almost apostolical flavour which Dee permits himself to impart to some of this letter, owing to the greatness of his believed mission, shows to what a height of "rhapsodical" fervours his spirit had now attained. It is still more emphasised in the concluding passage, which begins, however, very practically, with an anxious thought cast back to his English possessions. His desire that Thomas Digges, the eminent mathematician to whom his calculations for the reformed calendar had been submitted, should be sent over to inspect their doings, was curious, but it shows that he, at any rate, wished to deal openly and conceal nothing. He ends thus:
"Sir, I trust I shall have Justice, for my house library, goods and Revenues, etc. Do not you disdain, neither fear to bear favour unto your poor innocent neighbour. If you send unto me Master Thomas Digges, in her Majestie's behalf, his faithfulness to her Majesty and my well liking of the man, shall bring forth some piece of good service. But her Majesty had been better to have spent or given away in alms, a Million of gold, than to have lost some opportunities past. No human reason can limit or determine God his marvellous means of proceeding with us. He hath made of Saul (E.K.) a Paul, but yet now and then visited with a pang of human frailty. The Almighty bless her Majestie both in this World and eternally; and inspire your heart iwth some conceiving of his merciful purposes, yet not utterly cut off from her Majesty to enjoy.
From Leipsic this 14 of May, 1586,
at Peter Hans Swarts house.Your Honours faithful welwisher to use and command for the honour of God and her Majesties best service,
"John Dee."
On being ejected from Prague, Dee removed his family and goods to Erfurt, but in spite of the influence of Dr. Curtius, and of a friend of Rosenberg, he was not allowed to hire a house there, for the Italian was before him. Pucci called on Dee after supper, and held out hopes that he might obtain permission for their return to Prague, for the new Nuncio, the Bishop of Piacenza, was inclined to a more favourable view than Malaspina. Pucci protested that they were only to be examined and if found heretical to be sent to Rome. He brought an invitation for their return, if they would promise not to exercise magical arts. Dee, who was starting early next morning to look at a house at Saalfield, wherein to settle his exiled family, bade Kelly copy it and rode off. On the ride he thought it over. Pucci he had never liked, neither had jane. "His household behaviour was not acceptable to our wives and family. He had blabbed our secrets without our leave. He was unquiet in disputation." Dee summed up the man as a spy, the letter as a bait, and set to work to devise a way of being rid of him "by quiet and honest meanes." He was absent two or three days, but the Italian was still there when he returned, urging them to go to Rome. Dee rebuked him for curiosity and interference, and accused him of conspiring against them; he, a mere probationer and not yet owned of the spirits (who in fact had said he was "leprous" and should be "cut off"), to presume an equal authority with them in their revelations!
Dee wrote a dignified letter to the Nuncio, and despatched it by the Italian, who was to receive from John Carpio, a wealthy neighbour and friend of theirs in Prague, a sum of fifty dollars for his expenses. The travellers went on to Cassel and to Gotha, but it was not long before a permanent asylum offered for the exiles. Their new patron, Count Rosenberg, was a friend worth having, for he was all-powerful with Rudolph; he was Viceroy of Bohemia and a Knight of the Golden Fleece. His influence and protection were now to be at the Englishmen's disposal. On August 8, Rosenberg obtained from the Emperor a partial revocation of the decree against them, since they were permitted by it to reside freely in any of his lordship's towns, cities or castles. They settled on September 14, 1586, at Tribau or Trebona, in Southern Bohemia, and here for about two years their wanderings came to an end.
Dee resumed the writing of his private diary, in which he had made no entry for three years, the last event recorded there being the departure of the family from Mortlake just three years before, on September 21, 1583. He opened a new volume, an Ephemerides Coelestium, calculated for the years 1581-1620, by Joh. Antonius Maginus, printed in Venice, 1582. The first entry made in it was Michael's birth at Prague on February 12, 1586; the next was their arrival at Trebona (for it will be more convenient to follow Dee's latinised version of the name).
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