Review: Supernatural and Secular Power in Early Modern England

[Paul Ferguson]

"Glyn Parry’s masterful chapter ‘John Dee, Alchemy and Authority in Elizabethan England’, makes a persuasive case for the role played by pro- and anti-alchemical propaganda in the controversy over whether Queen Elizabeth should accept the sovereignty of the Protestant Low Countries in the 1570s and ’80s. Supporters of alchemy argued that Elizabeth should take the first step in assuming the role of an apocalyptic world-emperor, while opponents saw alchemy as a politically and socially destabilising influence."


https://historyofwomenreligious.org/marc...nham-2015/