Eliseus Bomelius
Eliseus Bomelius (also Licius) (died c. 1574) was a German physician and astrologer.
Early life
The son of Henry Bomelius from
Bomelius was well received by English Protestant reformers, and contributed in Latin
In conflict with the College of Physicians
As a physician and astrologer Bomelius made a high reputation in London.
Before Easter 1570 Bomelius was an "open prisoner" of the King's Bench, and in April 1570 Parker was intending to take a bond from Bomelius to leave the country. Bomelius diverted this outcome by announcing in a letter to Parker that he had knowledge of a terrible danger hanging over England. The archbishop sent the letter to Cecil and urged him to examine Bomelius in the privy council. But Cecil entered into private correspondence with the doctor in the expectation of discovering a conspiracy. What Bomelius communicated to Cecil was a statement on the queen's nativity, and a portion of a book De Utilitate Astrologiæ, in which he claimed that great revolutions take place every 500 years, and that as rather more than 500 years had elapsed since the
In Russia
Russian ambassador Andrei Sovin, who was in London at the time, offered to take Bomelius to Russia. The English government did not hinder his departure, and late in 1570 Bomelius, who had promised to supply Cecil with political information and to send him small presents yearly, was settled in Russia. When
Horsey's account was that Bomelius was in high favour with the tsar as a magician, and held an official position in the household of the tsarevich. He had amassed great wealth, which he sent to England via Wesel, and was encouraging the tsar, by astrological calculations, to persist in a project of marrying Queen Elizabeth. But he was, according to Horsey, an enemy of England.[1]
Bomelius was charged (about 1574) with intriguing with the kings of Poland and Sweden against the tsar. He was
Works
No scholarly books of Bomelius are now known, though Henry Bennet of Calais, in his Life of Œcolampadius, alluded to them. An almanacke and pronostication of master Elis Bomelius for ye yere of our lorde god 1567 autorysshed by my lorde of London (i.e.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ "Bomelius, Licius (BMLS568L)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2811.required.)
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(help) (Subscription or UK public library membership - ISBN 978-0-7735-1103-3.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Bomelius, Eliseus". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co.