EARLY ENGLISH PHYSICIANS.
"Medicine is a science which hath been, as we have said,
more professed than laboured, and yet more laboured than
advanced; the labour having been, in my judgment, rather in
circle than in progression. For I find much iteration, and
small progression."--Lord Bacon's _Advancement of Learning_.
The British doctor, however, does not make his first appearance in
sable dress and full-bottomed wig. Chaucer's physician, who was
"groundit in Astronomy and Magyk Naturel," and whose "study was but
lytyl in the Bible," had a far smarter and more attractive dress.
"In sanguyn and in perse he clad was al,
Lined with taffata and with sendal."
Taffeta and silk, of crimson and sky-blue colour, must have given an
imposing appearance to this worthy gentleman, who, resembling many
later doctors in his disuse of the Bible, resembled them also in his
love of fees.
"And yit he was but esy of dispence,
He kepte that he won in pestelence;
For gold in physik is a cordial;
Therefore he lovede gold in special."
Amongst our more celebrated and learned English physicians was John
Phreas, born about the commencement of the fifteenth century, and
educated at Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship on the foundation
of Balliol College. His M. D. degree he obtained in Padua, and the
large fortune he made by the practice of physic was also acquired in
Italy. He was a poet and an accomplished scholar. Some of his epistles
in MS. are still preserved in the Balliol Library and at the Bodleian.
His translation of Diodorus Siculus, dedicated to Paul II., procured
for him from that pontiff the fatal gift of an English bishopric. A
disappointed candidate for the same preferment is said to have
poisoned him before the day appointed for his consecration.
Of Thomas Linacre, successively physician to Henry VII., Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., and Princess Mary, the memory is still green amongst men.
At his request, in conjunction with the representations of John
Chambre, Fernandus de Victoria, Nicholas Halswell, John Fraunces,
Robert Yaxley (physicians), and Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII. granted
letters patent, establishing the College of Physicians, and conferring
on its members the sole privilege of practicing, and admitting persons
to practice, within the city, and a circuit of seven miles. The
college also was empowered to license practitioners throughout the
kingdom, save such as were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge--who were
to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the new college, save within
London and its precincts. Linacre was the first President of the
College of Physicians. The meetings of the learned corporation were
held at Linacre's private house, No. 5, Knight-Rider Street, Doctors'
Commons. This house (on which the Physician's arms, granted by
Christopher Barker, Garter King-at-arms, Sept. 20, 1546, may still be
seen,) was bequeathed to the college by Linacre, and long remained
their property and abode. The original charter of the brotherhood
states: "Before this period a great multitude of ignorant persons, of
whom the greater part had no insight into physic, nor into any other
kind of learning--some could not even read the letters and the
book--so far forth, that common artificers, as smiths, weavers and
women, boldly and accustomably took upon them great cures, to the high
displeasure of God, great infamy of the Faculty, and the grievous
hurt, damage, and destruction of many of the king's liege people."
Linacre died in the October of 1524. Caius, writing his epitaph,
concludes, "Fraudes dolosque mire perosus, fidus amicis, omnibus juxta
charus; aliquot annos antequam obierat Presbyter factus; plenus annes,
ex hac vita migravit, multum desideratus." His motive for taking holy
orders towards the latter part of his life is unknown. Possibly he
imagined the sacerdotal garb would be a secure and comfortable
clothing in the grave. Certainly he was not a profound theologian. A
short while before his death he read the New Testament for the first
time, when so great was his astonishment at finding the rules of
Christians widely at variance with their practice, that he threw the
sacred volume from him in a passion, and exclaimed, "Either this is
not the gospel, or we are not Christians."
Of the generation next succeeding Linacre's was John Kaye, or Key (or
Caius, as it has been long pedantically spelt). Like Linacre (the
elegant writer and intimate friend of Erasmus), Caius is associated
with letters not less than medicine. Born of a respectable Norfolk
family, Caius raised, on the foundation of Gonvil Hall, the college in
the University of Cambridge that bears his name--to which Eastern
Counties' men do mostly resort. Those who know Cambridge remember the
quaint humour with which, in obedience to the founder's will, the
gates of Caius are named. As a president of the College of Physicians,
Caius was a zealous defender of the rights of his order. It has been
suggested that Shakespeare's Dr. Caius, in "The Merry Wives of
Windsor," was produced in resentment towards the president, for his
excessive fervor against the surgeons.
Caius terminated his laborious and honourable career on July the 29th,
1573, in the sixty-third year of his age.[2] He was buried in his
college chapel, in a tomb constructed some time before his decease,
and marked with the brief epitaph--"Fui Caius." In the same year in
which this physician of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth died, was born
Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, Baron Aulbone of France, and Sir Theodore
Mayerne in England. Of Mayerne mention will be made in various places
of these pages. There is some difficulty in ascertaining to how many
crowned heads this lucky courtier was appointed physician. After
leaving France and permanently fixing himself in England, he kept up
his connection with the French, so that the list of his
monarch-patients may be said to comprise two French and three English
sovereigns--Henry IV. and Louis XIII. of France, and James I., Charles
I., and Charles II. of England. Mayerne died at Chelsea, in the
eighty-second year of his age, on the 15th of March, 1655. Like John
Hunter, he was buried in the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. His
library went to the College of Physicians, and his wealth to his only
daughter, who was married to the Marquis of Montpouvillon. Though
Mayerne was the most eminent physician of his time, his prescriptions
show that his enlightenment was not superior to the prevailing
ignorance of the period. He recommended a monthly excess of wine and
food as a fine stimulant to the system. His treatise on Gout, written
in French, and translated into English (1676) by Charles II.'s
physician in ordinary, Dr. Thomas Sherley, recommends a clumsy and
inordinate administration of violent drugs. Calomel he habitually
administered in scruple doses. Sugar of lead he mixed largely in his
conserves; pulverized human bones he was very fond of prescribing; and
the principal ingredient in his gout-powder was "raspings of a human
skull unburied." But his sweetest compound was his "Balsam of Bats,"
strongly recommended as an unguent for hypochondriacal persons, into
which entered adders, bats, suckling whelps, earth-worms, hog's
grease, the marrow of a stag, and the thigh-bone of an ox. After such
a specimen of the doctor's skill, possibly the reader will not care to
study his receipts for canine madness, communicated to the Royal
Society in 1687, or his "Excellent and well-approved Receipts and
Experiments in Cookery, with the best way of Preserving." Nor will the
reader be surprised to learn that the great physician had a firm
belief in the efficacy of amulets and charms.
[2] In Dr. Moussett's "Health's Improvement; or Rules concerning Food"
is a curious passage relating to this eminent physician's decay.
But the ignorance and superstition of which Mayerne was the
representative were approaching the close of their career; and Sir
Theodore's court celebrity and splendour were to become contemptible
by the side of the scientific achievements of a contemporary. The
grave closed over Mayerne in 1655; but in the December of 1652, the
College of Physicians had erected in their hall a statue of Harvey,
who died on the third of June, 1657, aged seventy-nine years.
"The circling streams, once thought but pools of blood
(Whether life's fuel, or the body's food),
From dark oblivion Harvey's name shall save."
Aubrey says of Harvey--"He was not tall, but of the lowest stature;
round-faced, olivaster (waintscott) complexion; little eie--round,
very black, full of spirit; his haire was black as a raven, but quite
white twenty years before he dyed. I remember he was wont to drink
coffee, which he and his brother Eliab did, before coffee-houses were
in fashion in London. He was, as all the rest of his brothers, very
cholerique; and in his younger days wore a dagger (as the fashion then
was); but this doctor would be apt to draw out his dagger upon every
slight occasion. He rode on _horse-back with a foot-cloath to visit
his patients, his man following on foot, as the fashion then was, was
very decent, now quite discontinued_."
Harvey's discovery dates a new era in medical and surgical science.
Its influence on scientific men, not only as a stepping-stone to
further discoveries, but as a power rousing in all quarters a spirit
of philosophic investigation, was immediately perceptible. A new class
of students arose, before whom the foolish dreams of medical
superstition and the darkness of empiricism slowly disappeared.
Of the physicians[3] of what may be termed the Elizabethan era, beyond
all others the most sagacious and interesting, is William Bulleyn. He
belongs to a bevy of distinguished Eastern Counties' physicians. Dr.
Butts, Henry VIII.'s physician, mentioned in Strype's "Life of
Cranmer," and made celebrated amongst doctors by Shakespeare's "Henry
the Eighth," belonged to an honourable and gentle family sprinkled
over Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. The butcher king knighted
him by the style of William Butts of Norfolk. Caius was born at
Norwich; and the eccentric William Butler, of whom Mayerne, Aubrey,
and Fuller tell fantastic stories, was born at Ipswich, about the year
1535.
[3] To the acquirements of the Elizabethan physicians in every
department of learning, _save_ the sciences immediately concerning
their own profession, Lord Bacon bears emphatic testimony--"For you
shall have of them antiquaries, poets, humanists, statesmen,
merchants, divines."
William Bulleyn was born in the isle of Ely; but it is with the
eastern division of the county of Suffolk that his name is especially
associated. Sir William Bulleyn, the Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk
in the fifteenth year of Henry VII., and grandfather of the
unfortunate Anne Boleyn, was one of the magnates of the doctor's
family--members of which are still to be found in Ipswich and other
parts of East Anglia, occupying positions of high respectability. In
the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, no one ranked higher
than William Bulleyn as botanist and physician. The record of his
acuteness and learning is found in his numerous works, which are
amongst the most interesting prose writings of the Elizabethan era. If
Mr. Bohn, who has already done so much to render old and neglected
authors popular, would present the public with a well-edited reprint
of Bulleyn's works, he would make a valuable addition to the services
he has already conferred on literature.
After receiving a preliminary education in the University of
Cambridge, Bulleyn enlarged his mind by extended travel, spending much
time in Germany and Scotland. During the reign of Queen Mary he
practiced in Norwich; but he moved to Blaxhall, in Suffolk (of which
parish it is believed his brother was for some years rector). Alluding
to his wealthy friend, Sir Thomas Rushe, of Oxford, he says, with a
pun, "I myself did know a Rushe, growing in the fenne side, by Orford,
in Suffolke, that might have spent three hundred marks by year. Was
not this a _rush_ of estimation? A fewe sutche rushes be better than
many great trees or bushes. But thou doste not know that countrey,
where sometyme I did dwell, at a place called Blaxall, neere to that
_Rushe Bushe_. I would all rushes within this realme were as riche in
value." (The ancient family still maintain their connection with the
county.) Speaking of the rushes near Orford, in Suffolk, and about the
isle of Ely, Bulleyn says, "The playne people make mattes and
horse-collars of the greater rushes, and of the smaller they make
lightes or candles for the winter. Rushes that growe upon dry groundes
be good to strewe in halles, chambers, and galleries, to walk
upon--defending apparell, as traynes of gownes and kirtles, from the
dust."
He tells of the virtues of Suffolk sage (a herb that the nurses of
that county still believe in as having miraculous effects, when
administered in the form of "sage-tea"). Of Suffolk hops (now but
little grown in the county) he mentions in terms of high
praise--especially of those grown round Framlingham Castle, and "the
late house of nunnes at Briziarde." "I know in many places of the
country of Suffolke, where they brew theyr beere with hoppes that
growe upon theyr owne groundes, as in a place called Briziarde, near
an old famous castle called Framingham, and in many other places of
the country." Of the peas of Orford the following mention is
made:--"In a place called Orforde, in Suffolke, betwene the haven and
the mayne sea, wheras never plow came, nor natural earth was, but
stones onely, infinite thousand ships loden in that place, there did
pease grow, whose roots were more than iii fadome long, and the coddes
did grow uppon clusters like the keys of ashe trees, bigger than
fitches, and less than the fyeld peason, very sweete to eat upon, and
served many pore people dwelling there at hand, which els should have
perished for honger, the scarcity of bread was so great. In so much
that the playne pore people did make very much of akornes; and a
sickness of a strong fever did sore molest the commons that yere, the
like whereof was never heard of there. Now, whether th' occasion of
these peason, in providence of God, came through some shipwracke with
much misery, or els by miracle, I am not able to determine thereof;
but sowen by man's hand they were not, nor like other pease."[4]
[4] The tradition of this timely and unaccountable growth of peas
still exists amongst the peasants in the neighbourhood of Orford. J.
C. J.
In the same way one has in the Doctor's "Book of Simples" pleasant
gossip about the more choice productions of the garden and of
commerce, showing that horticulture must have been far more advanced
at that time than is generally supposed, and that the luxuries
imported from foreign countries were largely consumed throughout the
country. Pears, apples, peaches, quinces, cherries, grapes, raisins,
prunes, barberries, oranges, medlars, raspberries and strawberries,
spinage, ginger, and lettuces are the good things thrown upon the
board.
Of pears, the author says: "There is a kynd of peares growing in the
city of Norwich, called the black freere's peare, very delicious and
pleasaunt, and no lesse profitable unto a hoate stomacke, as I heard
it reported by a ryght worshipful phisicion of the same city, called
Doctour Manfield." Other pears, too, are mentioned, "sutch as have
names as peare Robert, peare John, bishop's blessyngs, with other
prety names. The red warden is of greate vertue, conserved, roasted
or baken to quench choller." The varieties of the apple especially
mentioned are "the costardes, the greene cotes, the pippen, the queene
aple."
Grapes are spoken of as cultivated and brought to a high state of
perfection in Suffolk and other parts of the country. Hemp is
humorously called "gallow grasse or neckweede." The heartesease, or
paunsie, is mentioned by its quaint old name, "three faces in one
hodde." Parsnips, radishes, and carrots are offered for sale. In the
neighborhood of London, large quantities of these vegetables were
grown for the London market; but Bulleyn thinks little of them,
describing them as "more plentiful than profytable." Of figs--"Figges
be good agaynst melancholy, and the falling evil, to be eaten. Figges,
nuts, and herb grace do make a sufficient medicine against poison or
the pestilence. Figges make a good gargarism to cleanse the throates."
The double daisy is mentioned as growing in gardens. Daisy tea was
employed in gout and rheumatism--as herb tea of various sorts still is
by the poor of our provinces. With daisy tea (or _bellis-tea_) "I,
Bulleyn, did recover one Belliser, not onely from a spice of the
palsie, but also from the quartan. And afterwards, the same Belliser,
more unnatural than a viper, sought divers ways to have murthered me,
taking part against me with my mortal enemies, accompanied with bloudy
ruffins for that bloudy purpose." Parsley, also, was much used in
medicine. And as it was the custom for the doctor to grow his own
herbs in his garden, we may here see the origin of the old nursery
tradition of little babies being brought by the doctor from the
parsley bed.[5]
[5] The classical reader who is acquainted with the significations of
the Greek ???????, will not be at a loss to account for this
medicinal use of the crisp green leaves.
Scarcely less interesting than "The Book of Simples" is Bulleyn's
"Dialogue betweene Soarenes and Chirurgi." It opens with an honourable
mention of many distinguished physicians and chirurgians. Dr. John
Kaius is praised as a worthy follower of Linacre. Dr. Turner's "booke
of herbes will always grow greene." Sir Thomas Eliot's "'castel of
health' cannot decay." Thomas Faire "is not deade, but is transformed
and chaunged into a new nature immortal." Androwe Borde, the father of
"Merry Andrews," "wrote also wel of physicke to profit the common
wealth withal." Thomas Pannel, the translator of the Schola
Saternitana, "hath play'd ye good servant to the commonwealth in
translating good bookes of physicke." Dr. William Kunyngham "hath wel
travailed like a good souldiour agaynst the ignorant enemy." Numerous
other less eminent practitioners are mentioned--such as Buns, Edwards,
Hatcher, Frere, Langton, Lorkin, Wendy--educated at Cambridge; Gee and
Simon Ludford, of Oxford; Huyck (the Queen's physician), Bartley,
Carr; Masters, John Porter, of Norwich; Edmunds of York, Robert
Baltrop, and Thomas Calfe, apothecary.
"Soft chirurgians," says Bulleyn, "make foul sores." He was a bold and
courageous one. "Where the wound is," runs the Philippine proverb,
"the plaster must be." Bulleyn was of the same opinion; but, in
dressing a tender part, the surgeon is directed to have "a gladsome
countenance," because "the paciente should not be greatly troubled."
For bad surgeons he has not less hostility than he has for
"Petty Foggers, in cases of the law,
Who make mountaynes of molhils, and trees of a straw."
The state of medicine in Elizabeth's reign may be discovered by a
survey of the best recipes of this physician, who, in sagacity and
learning, was far superior to Sir Theodore Mayerne, his successor by a
long interval.
"_An Embrocation._--An embrocation is made after this manner:--?.
Of a decoction of mallowes, vyolets, barly, quince seed, lettice
leaves, one pint; of barly meale, two ounces; of oyle of vyolets and
roses, of each, an ounce and half; of butter, one ounce; and then
seeth them all together till they be like a broathe, puttyng thereto,
at the ende, four yolkes of eggs; and the maner of applying them is
with peeces of cloth, dipped in the aforesaid decoction, being
actually hoate."
"_A Good Emplaster._--You shall mak a plaster with these medicines
following, which the great learned men themselves have used unto their
pacientes:--?. Of hulled beanes, or beane flower that is
without the brane, one pound; of mallow-leaves, two handfuls; seethe
them in lye, til they be well sodden, and afterwarde let them be
stamped and incorporate with four ounces of meale of lint or flaxe,
two ounces of meale of lupina; and forme thereof a plaster with goat's
grease, for this openeth the pores, avoideth the matter, and
comforteth also the member; but if the place, after a daye or two of
the application, fall more and more to blackness, it shall be
necessary to go further, even to sacrifying and incision of the
place."
Pearl electuaries and pearl mixtures were very fashionable medicines
with the wealthy down to the commencement of the eighteenth century.
Here we have Bulleyn's recipe for
"_Electuarium de Gemmis._--Take two drachms of white perles; two
little peeces of saphyre; jacinth, corneline, emerauldes, granettes,
of each an ounce; setwal, the sweate roote doronike, the rind of
pomecitron, mace, basel seede, of each two drachms; of redde corall,
amber, shaving of ivory, of each two drachms; rootes both of white and
red behen, ginger, long peper, spicknard, folium indicum, saffron,
cardamon, of each one drachm; of troch, diarodon, lignum aloes, of
each half a small handful; cinnamon, galinga, zurubeth, which is a
kind of setwal, of each one drachm and a half; thin pieces of gold and
sylver, of each half a scruple; of musk, half a drachm. Make your
electuary with honey emblici, which is the fourth kind of mirobalans
with roses, strained in equall partes, as much as will suffice. This
healeth cold diseases of ye braine, harte, stomack. It is a medicine
proved against the tremblynge of the harte, faynting and souning, the
weaknes of the stomacke, pensivenes, solitarines. Kings and noble men
have used this for their comfort. It causeth them to be bold-spirited,
the body to smell wel, and ingendreth to the face good coloure."
Truly a medicine for kings and noblemen! During the railway panic in
'46 an unfortunate physician prescribed for a nervous lady:--
?. Great Western, 350 shares.
Eastern Counties}
North Middlesex } a--a 1050
Mft. Haust. 1. Om. noc. cap.
This direction to a delicate gentlewoman, to swallow nightly two
thousand four hundred and fifty railway shares, was regarded as
evidence of the physician's insanity, and the management of his
private affairs was forthwith taken out of his hands. But assuredly it
was as rational a prescription as Bulleyn's "Electuarium de Gemmis."
"_A Precious Water._--Take nutmegges, the roote called doronike, which
the apothecaries have, setwall, gatangall, mastike, long peper, the
bark of pomecitron, of mellon, sage, bazel, marjorum, dill, spiknard,
wood of aloes, cubebe, cardamon, called graynes of paradise, lavender,
peniroyall, mintes, sweet catamus, germander, enulacampana, rosemary,
stichados, and quinance, of eche lyke quantity; saffron, an ounce and
half; the bone of a harte's heart grated, cut, and stamped; and beate
your spyces grossly in a morter. Put in ambergrice and musk, of each
half a drachm. Distil this in a simple aqua vitæ, made with strong
ale, or sackeleyes and aniseedes, not in a common styll, but in a
serpentine; to tell the vertue of this water against colde, phlegme,
dropsy, heavines of minde, comming of melancholy, I cannot well at
thys present, the excellent virtues thereof are sutch, and also the
tyme were to long."
The cure of cancers has been pretended and attempted by a numerous
train of knaves and simpletons, as well as men of science. In the
Elizabethan time this most terrible of maladies was thought to be
influenced by certain precious waters--_i. e._ precious messes.
"Many good men and women," says Bulleyn, "wythin thys realme have
dyvers and sundry medicines for the canker, and do help their
neighboures that bee in perill and daunger whyche be not onely poore
and needy, having no money to spende in chirurgie. But some do well
where no chirurgians be neere at hand; in such cases, as I have said,
many good gentlemen and ladyes have done no small pleasure to poore
people; as that excellent knyght, and worthy learned man, Syr Thomas
Eliot, whose works be immortall. Syr William Parris, of
Cambridgeshire, whose cures deserve prayse; Syr William Gascoigne, of
Yorkshire, that helped many soare eyen; and the Lady Tailor, of
Huntingdonshire, and the Lady Darrell of Kent, had many precious
medicines to comfort the sight, and to heale woundes withal, and were
well seene in herbes.
"The commonwealth hath great want of them, and of theyr medicines,
whych if they had come into my handes, they should have bin written in
my booke. Among al other there was a knight, a man of great worshyp, a
Godly hurtlesse gentleman, which is departed thys lyfe, hys name is
Syr Anthony Heveningham. This gentleman learned a water to kyll a
canker of hys owne mother, whych he used all hys lyfe, to the greate
helpe of many men, women, and chyldren."
This water "learned by Syr Anthony Heveningham" was, Bulleyn states on
report, composed thus:--
"_Precious Water to Cure a Canker_:--Take dove's foote, a herbe so
named, Arkangell ivy wyth the berries, young red bryer toppes, and
leaves, whyte roses, theyr leaves and buds, red sage, selandyne, and
woodbynde, of eche lyke quantity, cut or chopped and put into pure
cleane whyte wyne, and clarified hony. Then breake into it alum glasse
and put in a little of the pouder of aloes hepatica. Destill these
together softly in a limbecke of glasse or pure tin; if not, then in
limbecke wherein aqua vitæ is made. Keep this water close. It will not
onely kyll the canker, if it be duly washed therewyth; but also two
droppes dayly put into the eye wyll sharp the syght, and breake the
pearle and spottes, specially if it be dropped in with a little fenell
water, and close the eys after."
There is reason to wish that all empirical applications, for the cure
of cancer, were as harmless as this.
The following prescription for pomatum differs but little from the
common domestic receipts for lip-salve in use at the present day:--
"_Sickness._--How make you pomatum?
"_Health._--Take the fat of a young kyd one pound, temper it with the
water of musk roses by the space of foure dayes; then take five
apples, and dresse them, and cut them in pieces, and lard them with
cloves, then boyle them altogeather in the same water of roses, in one
vessel of glasse; set within another vessel; let it boyle on the fyre
so long until all be white; then wash them with ye same water of muske
roses; this done, kepe it in a glass; and if you wil have it to smel
better, then you must put in a little civet or musk, or of them both,
and ambergrice. Gentilwomen doe use this to make theyr faces smoth and
fayre, for it healeth cliftes in the lyppes, or in any other place of
the hands and face."
The most laughable of all Bulleyn's receipts is one in which, for the
cure of a child suffering under a certain nervous malady, he
prescribes "a smal yong mouse rosted." To some a "rosted mouse" may
seem more palatable than the compound in which snails are the
principal ingredient. "Snayles," says Bulleyn, "broken from the
shelles and sodden in whyte wyne with oyle and sugar are very holsome,
because they be hoat and moist for the straightnes of the lungs and
cold cough. Snails stamped with camphory, and leven wil draw forth
prycks in the flesh." So long did this belief in the virtue of snails
retain its hold on Suffolk, that the writer of these pages remembers a
venerable lady (whose memory is cherished for her unostentatious
benevolence and rare worth) who for years daily took a cup of snail
broth, for the benefit of a weak chest.
One minor feature of Bulleyn's works is the number of receipts given
in them for curing the bites of mad dogs. The good man's horror of
Suffolk witches is equal to his admiration of Suffolk dairies. Of the
former he says, "I dyd know wythin these few yeres a false witch,
called M. Line, in a towne of Suffolke called Derham, which with a
payre of ebene beades, and certain charmes, had no small resort of
foolysh women, when theyr chyldren were syck. To thys lame wytch they
resorted, to have the fairie charmed and the spyrite conjured away;
through the prayers of the ebene beades, whych she said came from the
Holy Land, and were sanctifyed at Rome. Through whom many goodly cures
were don, but my chaunce was to burn ye said beades. Oh that damnable
witches be suffred to live unpunished and so many blessed men burned;
witches be more hurtful in this realm than either quarten or
pestilence. I know in a towne called Kelshall in Suffolke, a witch,
whose name was M. Didge, who with certain _Ave Marias_ upon her ebene
beades, and a waxe candle, used this charme for S. Anthonies fyre,
having the sycke body before her, holding up her hande, saying--
'There came two angels out of the North-east,
One brought fyre, the other brought frost,--
Out fyre, and in frost!'
"I could reherse an hundred of sutch knackes, of these holy gossips.
The fyre take them all, for they be God's enemyes."
On leaving Blaxhall in Suffolk, Bulleyn migrated to the north. For
many years he practised with success at Durham. At Shields he owned a
considerable property. Sir Thomas, Baron of Hilton, Commander of
Tinmouth Castle under Philip and Mary, was his patron and intimate
friend. His first book, entitled "Government of Health," he dedicated
to Sir Thomas Hilton; but the MS., unfortunately, was lost in a
shipwreck before it was printed. Disheartened by this loss, and the
death of his patron, Bulleyn bravely set to work in London, to "revive
his dead book." Whilst engaged on the laborious work of recomposition,
he was arraigned on a grave charge of murder. "One William Hilton," he
says, telling his own story, "brother to the sayd Syr Thomas Hilton,
accused me of no less cryme then of most cruel murder of his owne
brother, who dyed of a fever (sent onely of God) among his owne
frends, fynishing his lyfe in the Christian fayth. But this William
Hilton caused me to be arraigned before that noble Prince, the Duke's
Grace of Norfolke, for the same; to this end to have had me dyed
shamefully; that with the covetous Ahab he might have, through false
witnes and perjury, obtayned by the counsel of Jezabell, a wineyard,
by the pryce of blood. But it is wrytten, _Testis mendax peribit_, a
fals witnes shal com to naught; his wicked practise was wisely espyed,
his folly deryded, his bloudy purpose letted, and fynallye I was with
justice delivered."
This occurred in 1560. His foiled enemy afterwards endeavoured to get
him assassinated; but he again triumphed over the machinations of his
adversary. Settling in London, he obtained a large practice, though he
was never enrolled amongst the physicians of the college. His leisure
time he devoted to the composition of his excellent works. To the last
he seems to have kept up a close connection with the leading Eastern
Counties families. His "Comfortable Regiment and Very Wholsome order
against the moste perilous Pleurisie," was dedicated to the Right
Worshipful Sir Robart Wingfelde of Lethryngham, Knight.
William Bulleyn died in London, on the 7th of January, 1576, and was
buried in the church of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, in the same tomb
wherein his brother Richard had been laid thirteen years before; and
wherein John Fox, the martyrologist, was interred eleven years later.