Alchemy, medicine, and religion in Elias Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum: an unproblematic ménage à trois.

Regardless of time, place, and culture, alchemy has enjoyed a ménage à trois. On the one hand it has boasted the ability to find the panacea, that is, a universal cure for the body, thus claiming parentage to medicine. On the other hand, by declaring perfect knowledge of nature as its ulti- mate goal, the alchemical quest has been seen as a mystical way to find a cure for the soul, too. The aim of this essay is to shed light on the relationship of alchemy to medicine and religion through the case study of Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Published in London in 1652, the Theatrum is an early modern bestseller as well as the largest anthology of alchemical poetry in the English language. I will show that alchemy had both practical as well as spiritual connotations which only apparently could be regarded as incompatible with one another. After a short biographical introduction, this essay will consider, first, the historiography of alchemy; secondly, the practical uses of alchemy according to Ashmole; and, thirdly, the relevance of alchemy to his religious beliefs. Thus, the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum will elucidate some of the reasons for which the relation of alchemy, medicine and religion was an unproblematic ménage à trois.