JOHN DEE. 
317 
the desire of penetrating into futurity), brought some suspicion upon 
him ; which was so far increased by a very singular act that befell him, 
as to draw upon him the imputation of a necromancer, which he de- 
served afterw'ards more than now. This affair happened soon after 
his removal from St. John’s College, and his being chosen one of 
the fellows of Trinity, where he was assigned to be the under reader 
of the Greek tongue, Mr. Pember being the chief Greek reader then in 
Trinity college. “Hereupon,” says he, “I did set forth, and it was 
seen of the university, a Greek comedy of Aristophanes, named in 
Latin, Pax ; with the performance of the scarabseus, or beetle ; his 
flying up to Jupiter’s palace, with a man, and a basket of victuals on 
his back ; whereat was great wondering, and many vain reports spread 
abroad of the means how that was effected.’ 
Disturbed with these reports, he left England again in 1548, and 
went to the university of Louvain ; where he distinguished himself 
so much, that he was visited by the duke of Mantua, by don Lewis de 
la Cerda, afterwards duke of Medina, and other persons of great 
rank. While he remained there, Sir William Pickering, who was 
afterwards a favourite with queen Elizabeth was his pupil ; and in 
the university it is probable, though not certain, that he had the de- 
gree of LL D. conferred upon him. July 1550, he went from thence 
to Paris, where, in the college of Rheims, he read lectures upon 
Euclid’s Eleriients with uncommon applause ; and very great offers 
were made him, if he would accept of a professorship in that univer- 
sity. In 1551 he returned to England, was w'ell received by Sir John 
Cheke, introduced to secretary Cecil, and even to king Edward him- 
self, from whom he received a pension of one hundred crowns a year, 
which was in 1558 exchanged for a grant of the rectories of Upton 
upon Severn, and Long Lednam, Lincolnshire. 
In the reign of queen Mary, he was for some time very kindly 
treated ; but afterwards came into great trouble, and even in danger 
of his life. At the very beginning of it. Dee entered into a correspon- 
dence with several of the lady Elizabeth’s principal servants, while 
she was at Woodstock and at Milton ; which being observed, and the 
nature of it not known, two informers charged him with practising 
against the queen’s life by enchantments. Upon this he was seized 
and conlined ; but being, after several trials, discharged of treason, 
he was turned over to bishop Bonner, to see if any heresy could be 
found in him. After a tedious persecution, on August 19, 1555, he was, 
by order of council, set at liberty, and thought his credit so little 
hurt by what had happened, that, January 15, 1556, he presented a 
supplication to queen Mary, for the recovery of ancient writers and 
monuments. The design was certainly good, and would have been 
attended with good consequences, had it taken effect; its failure can- 
not be too deeply regretted, as there was then an opportunity of 
recovering many of the contents of the monastic libraries dispersed 
• in Edward’s time. Dee also appears to have had both the zeal and 
knowledge for this undertaking. The original of his supplication, 
which has often been printed, is still extant in the Cotton library; 
and we learn from it, that Cicero’s famous work, De Republica, was 
once extant in this kingdom, and perished at Canterbury. 
