WEBVTT - Angels, Gold and Lust: John Dee and the Philosopher's Stone (Part 2) 0:00:15.410 --> 0:00:25.170 Pushkin. This is the second of two episodes about Elizabethan's 0:00:25.210 --> 0:00:31.450 scholar John D. Last episode, D's predictions secured the favor 0:00:31.570 --> 0:00:36.010 of Queen Elizabeth, but a scheme he backed to find 0:00:36.130 --> 0:00:45.330 the Northwest Passage ended in humiliation. At the castle of 0:00:45.450 --> 0:00:50.530 Treybon in southern Bohemia, a plume of thick gray smoke 0:00:50.890 --> 0:00:54.370 rises from the roof of the gatehouse. The year is 0:00:54.490 --> 0:01:01.770 fifteen eighty six, and inside an experiment is underway. A 0:01:01.810 --> 0:01:06.130 glass vessel shaped like an egg sits atop a furnace. 0:01:06.810 --> 0:01:11.250 A young man wearing a cowl hunches over it, feeding 0:01:11.410 --> 0:01:15.730 charcoal into the stack. He's been doing this for weeks now, 0:01:16.250 --> 0:01:21.530 at regular and frequent intervals. In the time before thermometers, 0:01:21.970 --> 0:01:26.970 controlling temperature is a delicate art. This furnace and the 0:01:27.010 --> 0:01:32.530 glass egg on top must remain at a constant. At 0:01:32.530 --> 0:01:35.210 the other end of the room is an older man, 0:01:36.170 --> 0:01:42.770 John D, the famous mathematician. John D is focusing intently 0:01:43.170 --> 0:01:48.170 on the glass vessel, quill scratching into parchment as he 0:01:48.250 --> 0:01:51.810 takes notes. He's hoping to see a change in the 0:01:51.890 --> 0:01:58.690 mysterious white matter inside it. No, he's willing it to change, 0:01:58.930 --> 0:02:02.970 to turn deep red a sure sign that they're on 0:02:03.050 --> 0:02:09.970 the right path. Their backer, the nobleman who owns traybon cars, 0:02:09.970 --> 0:02:17.810 needs results. D himself has bet everything, his career, his standing, 0:02:18.570 --> 0:02:23.210 his home on this venture, and the cow clad man 0:02:23.650 --> 0:02:28.250 hunched over the furnace. They've been iterating with all sorts 0:02:28.290 --> 0:02:35.730 of ingredients, salts, earth, suspended in water, horse manure, menstrual blood. 0:02:36.730 --> 0:02:40.930 They're objective to bring forth a substance that has been 0:02:41.010 --> 0:02:47.250 sought for centuries, but seldom, if ever obtained, a substance 0:02:47.330 --> 0:02:51.730 so powerful that it can force base metal into gold 0:02:51.850 --> 0:02:56.410 and even keep a man from death. John D and 0:02:56.450 --> 0:03:03.370 his associate are searching for the fabled Philosopher's Stone. A 0:03:03.530 --> 0:03:09.890 chill autumn wind whips around the castle walls, whistling through 0:03:09.970 --> 0:03:15.810 cracks in the masonry. John D puts down his quill 0:03:16.890 --> 0:03:33.210 and waits, I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. 0:03:47.970 --> 0:03:51.850 John D believed that numbers held the key to the universe, 0:03:52.450 --> 0:03:56.690 and he'd bet on navigation and exploration as the tools 0:03:56.730 --> 0:04:02.010 to reveal its hidden architecture. Around his fiftieth birthday, he 0:04:02.090 --> 0:04:06.090 had championed a mission to find the Northwest Passage. When 0:04:06.130 --> 0:04:12.450 it failed, D was devastated. He lost his reputation, his money, 0:04:13.170 --> 0:04:19.090 and his self confidence. Seeking a second chance at unraveling 0:04:19.210 --> 0:04:26.850 nature's secrets, he turned to the world of spirits. Good 0:04:26.930 --> 0:04:31.690 Christians believed in angels and in their ability to see 0:04:31.730 --> 0:04:37.010 the future. It was more transgressive, though, to actively seek 0:04:37.050 --> 0:04:41.530 their advice. The people who did this were called scriers. 0:04:42.450 --> 0:04:45.930 They would speak to angels and spirits by looking into 0:04:45.970 --> 0:04:49.730 a shiny showstone, such as a mirror or a crystal ball. 0:04:50.930 --> 0:04:56.170 Since scrying meant bypassing the church, it wasn't uncommon to 0:04:56.250 --> 0:04:59.610 find that a scrier was on the run, and because 0:04:59.610 --> 0:05:03.930 of their sensitivity to the occult, they also tended to 0:05:03.930 --> 0:05:09.370 be rather eccentric. Dee's first scrying partner ended up in 0:05:09.450 --> 0:05:15.410 court facing criminal charges. But then a mysterious stranger appeared 0:05:15.450 --> 0:05:21.690 at D's door under portentous skies of deep arterial red. 0:05:23.290 --> 0:05:28.130 The stranger introduced himself as Edward Talbot, a distant kin 0:05:28.330 --> 0:05:33.010 to the Talbot Earls of Shrewsbury. He was young, walked 0:05:33.010 --> 0:05:35.650 with the aid of a staff, and kept his head 0:05:36.010 --> 0:05:40.090 covered by a hood. He also seemed to be intelligent 0:05:40.210 --> 0:05:45.570 and better educated than the average sqrire. There was something 0:05:46.610 --> 0:05:51.850 captivating about him. D decided to give him a chance. 0:05:53.770 --> 0:05:59.330 In March fifteen eighty two, Talbot knelt in D's study 0:05:59.930 --> 0:06:05.090 amid stacks of books and manuscripts and peered into a dark, 0:06:05.690 --> 0:06:12.930 gleaming mirror. Himself retreated to a nearby room to pray. 0:06:15.570 --> 0:06:19.610 A few minutes later, he heard Talbot cry out, and 0:06:19.690 --> 0:06:26.010 he hurried back. The angel Uriel had made contact. D 0:06:26.410 --> 0:06:30.010 was hooked, and he wasted no time in asking Uriel 0:06:30.610 --> 0:06:37.010 via Talbot about the mysterious angelic language, a lost tongue 0:06:37.570 --> 0:06:41.730 encoded in a divine cipher that was believed to mirror 0:06:41.770 --> 0:06:48.890 the structure of creation. Talbot's next revelation was extraordinary. The 0:06:49.330 --> 0:06:56.610 archangel Michael would help D recover the angelic language. D 0:06:56.970 --> 0:07:02.170 was awestruck. If this was true, it would unlock the 0:07:02.210 --> 0:07:06.290 price that he had long sought the hidden workings of 0:07:06.330 --> 0:07:11.290 the universe, and he would be instrumental in restoring lost 0:07:11.370 --> 0:07:15.890 knowledge to humanity. What must I do to have the 0:07:15.970 --> 0:07:20.650 sight and presence of Michael, the blessed Angel? 0:07:22.730 --> 0:07:28.330 In voke our presence with sincerity. These things are revealed 0:07:28.450 --> 0:07:31.010 in virtue, not by force. 0:07:33.210 --> 0:07:40.970 D was grateful and relieved Talbot was reporting exactly what 0:07:41.130 --> 0:07:47.570 he'd hoped for. Talbot's sudden appearance in Mortlake raised a 0:07:47.570 --> 0:07:52.010 few eyebrows. His past was murky, and some of the 0:07:52.090 --> 0:07:57.050 villagers said that he was wanted for forging documents. Forgery 0:07:57.290 --> 0:08:02.010 carried a lasting punishment, the brutal clipping of the ears. 0:08:03.010 --> 0:08:07.650 Talbot always kept his ears carefully hidden beneath his cowl, 0:08:08.650 --> 0:08:12.290 and on the odd occasion anyone caught sight of them, 0:08:13.050 --> 0:08:19.770 one of them appeared curiously diminished. D had his doubts 0:08:19.810 --> 0:08:25.130 about the man, but he managed to suppress them. Scrias 0:08:25.290 --> 0:08:29.090 were itinerant by nature, so a nebulous past was normal, 0:08:29.810 --> 0:08:36.730 And besides, Talbot was prodigiously talented. His visions majestic and elaborate. 0:08:37.530 --> 0:08:40.810 D recorded them all in his diary, Convinced that he'd 0:08:40.850 --> 0:08:44.850 at last found the partner had been looking for. His 0:08:45.050 --> 0:08:53.530 entries were detailed and methodical. Within days, the scrier's visions escalated. 0:08:54.450 --> 0:08:59.730 The great Archangel Michael appeared in the mirror, sword in hand, 0:09:00.530 --> 0:09:03.490 and there was a man there too. He was kneeling 0:09:03.730 --> 0:09:06.730 with his back to Talbot, who couldn't see his face. 0:09:07.970 --> 0:09:12.010 The archangel tapped the man with his blade, as though 0:09:12.450 --> 0:09:18.210 dubbing a knight. Then the man rose and turned, and 0:09:18.290 --> 0:09:24.210 the scrire revealed his identity. He did resemble me. John 0:09:24.330 --> 0:09:32.250 d Encountenance, the d of Talbot's vision had been anointed, 0:09:33.290 --> 0:09:38.370 chosen for some higher task. It was a seductive story, 0:09:39.250 --> 0:09:45.610 one that the real flesh and blood d simply couldn't resist. 0:09:50.410 --> 0:09:57.010 Talbot and d continued scrying together. Each session D led 0:09:57.050 --> 0:10:03.930 them in the same preparatory ritual. They washed, shaved, dressed 0:10:04.010 --> 0:10:09.010 in fresh clothes, read from the scriptures, and prayed faced, 0:10:09.130 --> 0:10:14.210 seeing all four points of the compass. As the months passed, 0:10:14.890 --> 0:10:21.290 more angels identified themselves, explaining their places in the spiritual hierarchy. 0:10:22.530 --> 0:10:28.010 Talbot had exhausting apocalyptic visions of fire and brimstone that 0:10:28.290 --> 0:10:34.890 left his heart palpitating furiously, and archangel Michael began to 0:10:34.930 --> 0:10:39.090 dictate a holy table of numbers with a sacred sigel 0:10:39.170 --> 0:10:43.410 at its center. It was all going rather well until 0:10:43.450 --> 0:10:48.730 it wasn't. A few months later, De wrote a grim 0:10:48.770 --> 0:10:53.890 note in his diary. I have confirmed that Talbot was 0:10:53.930 --> 0:11:06.010 a cossoner. A cosoner was a fraud. Fast forward nearly 0:11:06.170 --> 0:11:09.770 four hundred and fifty years to the town of Agd 0:11:10.130 --> 0:11:15.770 in France. It's twenty twenty and Gield Detour is speaking 0:11:15.850 --> 0:11:21.690 with his father. That might seem unexceptional, but for one detail. 0:11:22.930 --> 0:11:29.530 Gild De'tur's father died over twenty years ago. A woman 0:11:29.610 --> 0:11:35.450 called Sophia Martinez has helped them reconnect. Martinez describes herself 0:11:35.490 --> 0:11:40.970 as a medium, hypnotherapist and healer, a specialist in the 0:11:41.090 --> 0:11:45.610 cleansing of energy for people and places. Her clients have 0:11:45.650 --> 0:11:51.130 included doctors, architects, and police officers, and she comes highly recommended. 0:11:53.210 --> 0:11:57.290 Detur himself used to be a Secret Service officer, but 0:11:57.370 --> 0:12:00.730 he's now the mayor of agd. His father ran for 0:12:00.890 --> 0:12:04.370 mayor too, but he passed away just before the votes 0:12:04.410 --> 0:12:08.970 were cast. Detur took up the torch and he's held 0:12:09.490 --> 0:12:14.210 since two thousand and one. He misses his father immensely. 0:12:15.370 --> 0:12:21.170 As time passes, he continues to consult Martinez. One day, 0:12:21.410 --> 0:12:23.850 when Detur is in his office at the town hall, 0:12:24.650 --> 0:12:31.290 his phone buzzes. It's dark, gleaming screen lighting up. The 0:12:31.330 --> 0:12:40.490 call is from a withheld number, Hello, Gesutor. The voice 0:12:40.570 --> 0:12:43.810 is guttural and rasping. Who is this? 0:12:45.210 --> 0:12:52.250 It is the archangel Michael, Prince of the heaven Leos. 0:12:52.290 --> 0:12:58.410 The Archangel Michael, leader of God's Army on the phone 0:12:59.650 --> 0:13:07.170 to him. If Detur is stunned, he's also credulous. As 0:13:07.330 --> 0:13:12.210 journalist Leo Chic reports in the podcast series The Mystic 0:13:12.450 --> 0:13:16.490 and the Mayor, he manages to answer the great Angel. 0:13:17.370 --> 0:13:20.970 He asks him about the afterlife, and Michael tells the 0:13:21.010 --> 0:13:24.570 tour that he has messages for him from his father. 0:13:25.890 --> 0:13:31.130 The calls keep coming. Before long, Michael asks the Mayor 0:13:31.810 --> 0:13:44.370 to call him Papa. In Mortlake fifteen eighty two, John 0:13:44.450 --> 0:13:50.770 D had made a discovery. His scrier's name wasn't Edward Talbot, 0:13:51.010 --> 0:13:55.250 but Edward Kelly, and he certainly wasn't related to the 0:13:55.290 --> 0:14:03.130 Talbot Earls of Shrewsbury. He'd given his master a fake identity. Talbot, 0:14:03.890 --> 0:14:08.770 or rather Kelly, defended himself. He got his hands on 0:14:08.890 --> 0:14:14.210 d diary, and beneath the charge of cousiner, he scrawled 0:14:14.210 --> 0:14:16.530 his own affronted entry. 0:14:16.810 --> 0:14:20.610 A horrible and slanderous lie. 0:14:21.010 --> 0:14:26.210 When D's wife Jane learned of the skrier's treachery, she 0:14:26.410 --> 0:14:31.250 flew into a marvelous rage. She'd never liked the man. 0:14:31.930 --> 0:14:37.610 He was mercurial and prone to wild, drunken outbursts. According 0:14:37.650 --> 0:14:42.490 to D, her fury lasted all evening and all night. 0:14:45.170 --> 0:14:50.090 D agreed that Kelly's deceit was abominable, but it was 0:14:50.290 --> 0:14:54.330 also true that a fake name didn't automatically make him 0:14:54.410 --> 0:14:59.010 less talented, quite the opposite. In fact, skill at scrying 0:14:59.810 --> 0:15:05.490 often went hand in hand with peculiarity. D now faced 0:15:05.690 --> 0:15:11.050 a dilemma. On the one hand, Ayane detested the man 0:15:11.490 --> 0:15:15.010 and wanted him gone from her house. On the other, 0:15:15.770 --> 0:15:19.250 they'd been making good progress in their work. The angelic 0:15:19.370 --> 0:15:25.610 language glittered just ahead or without Kelly, the signal from 0:15:25.690 --> 0:15:30.450 the heavens would go cold. Should he abandon the project, 0:15:31.690 --> 0:15:38.050 or choose to trust Kelly and plow on his wife, 0:15:38.330 --> 0:15:56.410 or his scrire cautionary tales will return. D managed to 0:15:56.530 --> 0:16:01.530 suppress his doubts. A few months later, he reunited with 0:16:01.650 --> 0:16:06.410 Kelly and offered him a place in his household. Jane 0:16:06.690 --> 0:16:11.730 Dee's loathing was but there was nothing she could do. 0:16:12.770 --> 0:16:18.690 Her husband was spellbound. De pledged Kelly a salary of 0:16:18.850 --> 0:16:22.970 fifty pounds per year. He was in debt and struggling 0:16:23.050 --> 0:16:26.250 for an income, but he was hardened by a reassuring 0:16:26.410 --> 0:16:34.690 forecast the Queen's glowing favor would soon return. The Queen's 0:16:34.690 --> 0:16:38.930 favor did not return, and other courtiers gave him the 0:16:38.970 --> 0:16:43.850 cold shoulder, but the angels had a ready explanation. 0:16:45.930 --> 0:16:50.210 Whom God commonly chooseth shall be whom the princes of 0:16:50.290 --> 0:16:51.690 the earth disdain. 0:16:54.050 --> 0:16:58.570 Dee's isolation was a badge of honor, proof of his 0:16:58.930 --> 0:17:06.050 cosmic significance. Trouble reared its head again. Kelly told Dee 0:17:06.050 --> 0:17:09.410 that a London surgeon was hounding him over for some 0:17:09.890 --> 0:17:14.010 fraudulent scheme. His wife Joanna had been forced into hiding. 0:17:15.050 --> 0:17:20.490 D wasn't too concerned. More pressing was that he couldn't 0:17:20.570 --> 0:17:25.090 obey the angel's latest command. They were to leave England 0:17:26.010 --> 0:17:32.890 because the apocalypse was coming, but they had no money 0:17:32.930 --> 0:17:40.210 for passage or lodgings. For now, they were stuck. In 0:17:40.250 --> 0:17:45.250 spring fifteen eighty three, as d and Kelly were busy 0:17:45.330 --> 0:17:51.570 transcribing the Angelic language, Prince Laski of Poland paid a 0:17:51.650 --> 0:17:57.090 visit to the English court. A distinctive figure, Laski wore 0:17:57.130 --> 0:18:01.570 his long white beard tucked into his belt, and gold 0:18:01.650 --> 0:18:06.050 and yellow shoes that curled the toes. He was charismatic, 0:18:06.650 --> 0:18:12.170 fabulously wealthy, and a favorite of his king. The Prince 0:18:12.210 --> 0:18:15.330 took an interest in d and Kelly's work and he 0:18:15.450 --> 0:18:19.450 visited them in Mortlake with a high stakes question for 0:18:19.530 --> 0:18:29.690 the angels. Would he Laski be the next king of Poland? Yes, 0:18:30.530 --> 0:18:35.090 said the angels, The crown would very soon be his. 0:18:39.690 --> 0:18:44.130 Did d and Kelly believe this forecast? Or was it 0:18:44.290 --> 0:18:49.250 calculated flattery? D, after all, had once profited by predicting 0:18:49.370 --> 0:18:55.290 the rise to power of Queen Elizabeth herself. Lasky was thrilled, 0:18:55.930 --> 0:18:59.490 offered to fund a journey in Europe and pledge D 0:18:59.770 --> 0:19:03.930 a salary of fifty pounds per year to the angel 0:19:04.050 --> 0:19:10.810 whisperer Kelly. He offered twice as much, but D learned 0:19:10.810 --> 0:19:16.090 that the Queen's spies had made a shocking discovery. Laski 0:19:16.410 --> 0:19:20.090 was not beloved by the King of Poland. In fact, 0:19:20.330 --> 0:19:23.650 it had been exiled by him. He was also broke, 0:19:24.250 --> 0:19:28.210 having burnt through his fortune raising private armies in a 0:19:28.250 --> 0:19:31.570 bid for the throne, and he'd run up enormous bills 0:19:31.610 --> 0:19:37.170 all over England. Had D and Kelly fooled him or 0:19:37.210 --> 0:19:43.930 had he fooled them? It got worse. Lasky started claiming 0:19:44.010 --> 0:19:48.010 that he was related by blood to Queen Elizabeth and 0:19:48.250 --> 0:19:53.650 spreading pamphlets about his own popularity as suspicion of the 0:19:53.690 --> 0:19:58.330 Polish Prince grew d realized that he'd hitched his wagon 0:19:58.490 --> 0:20:03.490 to a falling star. He decided not to quit, but 0:20:03.530 --> 0:20:08.570 to flee. He scrambled to borrow four hundred pounds and 0:20:08.730 --> 0:20:14.010 packed several hundred books, the Showstone and his most prized possession, 0:20:14.370 --> 0:20:18.330 his perspective class the kind of forerunner of the telescope. 0:20:20.010 --> 0:20:24.330 And so the Lord Albert Laski, I, mister e Kelly, 0:20:24.850 --> 0:20:29.850 our wives, my children, we went toward our ships a 0:20:29.890 --> 0:20:38.250 low grazer. One dark night in September fifteen eighty three, 0:20:39.170 --> 0:20:48.530 they slipped past their creditors and sailed for Holland d 0:20:49.130 --> 0:20:53.010 Kelly and their families trudged through the Netherlands and across 0:20:53.130 --> 0:21:00.170 northern Germany, lodging at drafty inns. Lasky meanwhile glided between 0:21:00.250 --> 0:21:04.330 the great houses of Europe, enjoying all the privileges of 0:21:04.370 --> 0:21:13.650 his rank. It sooned and bitterly cold. Jane Dee, charged 0:21:13.690 --> 0:21:17.250 with managing a household and three small children on the move, 0:21:18.050 --> 0:21:23.890 must have been miserable. Dee himself agonized over his decision 0:21:23.930 --> 0:21:29.250 to leave. Had he made the right choice, The angels 0:21:29.290 --> 0:21:33.130 revealed that he had passed the point of no return. 0:21:34.250 --> 0:21:43.370 England now viewed him as a renegade. In February fifteen 0:21:43.410 --> 0:21:48.770 eighty four, the exhausted party reached the prince's ice bound 0:21:48.850 --> 0:21:54.050 home of Lascar. The welcome was even chillier than the climate. 0:21:54.850 --> 0:21:59.170 Lady Laski took an instant dislike to her husband's rag 0:21:59.250 --> 0:22:03.490 tag entourage, and it soon became clear that the Prince's 0:22:03.610 --> 0:22:09.210 dire finances couldn't support them for long. The Angels now 0:22:09.290 --> 0:22:12.970 appeared to have a change of heart, ordering that d 0:22:13.370 --> 0:22:18.130 and Kelly abandon their bankrupt patron and head to the 0:22:18.170 --> 0:22:22.890 golden city of Prague of a make or break mission 0:22:23.410 --> 0:22:30.810 awaited them. Prague was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, 0:22:31.370 --> 0:22:35.010 the heart of a sprawling empire that covered much of 0:22:35.170 --> 0:22:40.490 modern day Central Europe. From his soaring castle high above 0:22:40.490 --> 0:22:44.890 the city, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph the Second ruled over 0:22:44.930 --> 0:22:48.530 a patchwork of lands that stretched from the Baltic to 0:22:48.610 --> 0:22:55.250 the Alps. Rudolph was obsessed with the occult, and his 0:22:55.370 --> 0:23:00.770 castle was crammed with eclectic objects. Have asked cabinets of 0:23:00.850 --> 0:23:07.770 curiosities that included clockwork, autometer, vials of virgin's blood, shriveled 0:23:07.930 --> 0:23:13.570 mandrake roots, an enormous narwhale tusk, and what he claimed 0:23:13.970 --> 0:23:20.890 were the leathery remains of a dragon. Below the Imperial 0:23:20.970 --> 0:23:25.610 Palace was a nest of winding streets, where astrologers and 0:23:25.730 --> 0:23:31.490 alchemists lived and worked. Rudolph was particularly interested in the 0:23:31.490 --> 0:23:37.050 Philosopher's Stone, a powerful substance that promised to transmute base 0:23:37.130 --> 0:23:41.930 metals into gold and supply an elixir of eternal youth. 0:23:43.170 --> 0:23:49.210 Monarchs everywhere craved the stone, and Rudolph kept a stable 0:23:49.290 --> 0:23:53.850 of alchemists on his pay roll. They labored in secret, 0:23:54.210 --> 0:23:59.970 subterranean labs, away from the disapproving eyes of the Catholic Church. 0:24:07.970 --> 0:24:15.930 As the summer unbeat down, De's loaded wagons rattled into Prague. Here, 0:24:16.490 --> 0:24:22.290 Kelly's focus shifted. Curious about the Philosopher's Stone and its 0:24:22.370 --> 0:24:27.610 lucrative potential, he began experimenting with a mysterious red powder 0:24:27.650 --> 0:24:32.810 that he said he had found back in England. The Angels, however, 0:24:33.250 --> 0:24:38.290 were restless. They announced that unless d delivered a shocking 0:24:38.490 --> 0:24:43.810 ultimatum to Emperor Rudolph, Satan would harm his beloved wife 0:24:43.810 --> 0:24:50.530 and children, a cunning fish of stratagem D was appalled, 0:24:51.450 --> 0:24:57.690 but what choice did he have? Declimbed to the Imperial castle, 0:24:58.450 --> 0:25:03.050 where he was ushered past displays of dissected frogs and 0:25:03.570 --> 0:25:10.210 magical amulets, and admitted to Rudolph's privy chamber. The Emperor 0:25:10.250 --> 0:25:13.970 had been told that the clever visitor from England had 0:25:14.090 --> 0:25:20.450 something useful to say to him. He waited expectantly, surrounded 0:25:20.490 --> 0:25:26.010 by his courtiers. De steeled himself, then began. 0:25:27.210 --> 0:25:31.290 The Angel of the Lord hath appeared to me and 0:25:31.370 --> 0:25:34.690 rebuketh you for your sins. 0:25:36.010 --> 0:25:37.890 The courtiers fell silent. 0:25:39.570 --> 0:25:44.650 Hear me, and you shall triumph. If you will not 0:25:44.890 --> 0:25:49.410 hear me, God will throw you headlong down from your seat. 0:25:52.450 --> 0:25:58.050 A chill fell over the chamber. The Emperor simply stared. 0:25:59.370 --> 0:26:04.090 Then he calmly rejected Dee's invitation to a scrying session 0:26:04.730 --> 0:26:15.170 and dismissed him. Shortly after this disastrous encounter, the papal 0:26:15.290 --> 0:26:21.770 nuncio in Prague accused d and Kelly of heresy, necromancy, 0:26:22.490 --> 0:26:29.490 and other prohibited arts. Rudolph had no interest in protecting them. 0:26:29.850 --> 0:26:33.410 They had just six days to find a new home. 0:26:35.370 --> 0:26:40.490 Isolated and penniless, d and Kelly had nowhere to go. 0:26:41.490 --> 0:26:46.010 They huddled in dirty crowded quarters and begged their old 0:26:46.130 --> 0:26:52.690 patron Laski for money. The messages from beyond again changed. 0:26:53.770 --> 0:26:58.250 It seemed that the angels wanted D and Kelly to 0:26:58.570 --> 0:27:04.650 focus on a new assignment, the Philosopher Stone. They ordered 0:27:04.690 --> 0:27:10.930 that d retire his showstone and burn his records. D 0:27:11.290 --> 0:27:14.650 was baffled as to how this fit their mission to 0:27:14.770 --> 0:27:20.530 decode the Angelic language, but exhausted, he went along with it. 0:27:21.690 --> 0:27:26.210 At the prompting of Kelly's Angels. D and his family 0:27:26.770 --> 0:27:31.450 had plodded from the court of Queen Elizabeth Tulaski, from 0:27:31.570 --> 0:27:37.370 Laski to Emperor Rudolph, and their journey still wasn't finished. Now, 0:27:37.690 --> 0:27:42.290 wealthy nobleman count villem Rosenberg took an interest in the pair. 0:27:43.170 --> 0:27:47.130 He invited them to his castle in Treybon, Southern Bohemia, 0:27:47.770 --> 0:27:51.570 where he gave them a laboratory and everything they needed 0:27:51.930 --> 0:27:57.650 to pursue the Philosopher's Stone. Kelly took the lead, wielding 0:27:57.730 --> 0:28:05.170 that strange red powder. D the Great Scholar, now acted 0:28:05.410 --> 0:28:14.130 as assistant. Word of their experiments spread. The Czar of 0:28:14.250 --> 0:28:18.810 Russia sent two merchants to Treybon with a lucrative offer 0:28:18.850 --> 0:28:24.850 of employment. Kelly declined, but before they left, he gave 0:28:24.890 --> 0:28:29.810 them a dazzling performance. Adding a tiny grain of his 0:28:30.010 --> 0:28:35.490 red powder to a crucible of mercury, he miraculously produced 0:28:35.530 --> 0:28:39.730 what he said was an ounce of the best gold. 0:28:41.450 --> 0:28:46.490 And as Kelly's reputation grew, so too did his wealth. 0:28:47.810 --> 0:28:51.250 In early fifteen eighty seven, he returned from a trip 0:28:51.370 --> 0:28:56.810 with an opulent gold necklace, valued at a staggering three 0:28:56.890 --> 0:29:01.850 hundred ducats. He didn't give it to his own wife. 0:29:01.970 --> 0:29:09.330 He gave it to Jane d Cautionary tales will return 0:29:10.530 --> 0:29:24.890 after the break. August twenty twenty three, at a lavish 0:29:24.970 --> 0:29:29.010 wedding in the south of France, one hundred white chairs 0:29:29.210 --> 0:29:33.930 line a path to an altar framed with angel wings. 0:29:34.970 --> 0:29:40.490 Local medium Sofia Martinez is getting married. Walking her down 0:29:40.530 --> 0:29:44.490 the aisle in the role of proud father figure is 0:29:44.570 --> 0:29:49.530 none other than long serving mayor of aged Yield at All. 0:29:50.690 --> 0:29:54.930 The All isn't the only client here. A number of 0:29:54.970 --> 0:30:00.770 the wedding guests have also engaged Martinez's services. Today they 0:30:01.010 --> 0:30:06.210 enjoy live music and two buffets. It's a beautiful wedding 0:30:07.170 --> 0:30:13.850 and it looks expensive. A couple of months later, the 0:30:13.890 --> 0:30:19.490 Mayor's ex wife Geraldine Sanchez de Toor walks into the 0:30:19.530 --> 0:30:25.530 aged police station with a strange story. She too, has 0:30:25.570 --> 0:30:32.370 been consulting Sophia Martinez. Recently, she started receiving phone calls 0:30:33.050 --> 0:30:36.970 from a rasping, guttural voice that purports to be the 0:30:37.130 --> 0:30:44.170 archangel Michael. The voice, which asks to be called Papa, 0:30:44.610 --> 0:30:48.930 knows all sorts of details about her private life, and 0:30:48.970 --> 0:30:55.130 it's begun requesting favors for Martinez. Sanchez de Tour later 0:30:55.210 --> 0:30:58.970 withdraws her complaints, but by then the police have heard 0:30:59.010 --> 0:31:03.770 from others they've been contacted by the rasping voice two 0:31:03.810 --> 0:31:07.770 and at least one worried about its influence on the mayor. 0:31:09.210 --> 0:31:14.210 An official investigation is opened. The police can't bring the 0:31:14.330 --> 0:31:24.770 archangel Michael in for questioning, so instead they followed the money. 0:31:29.690 --> 0:31:35.770 Spring fifteen eighty seven, Treybon By now D has been 0:31:35.930 --> 0:31:41.170 tethered to Kelly for more than three grueling years. The 0:31:41.210 --> 0:31:48.410 angel's requests had dwindled. Then in April, her spirit appeared 0:31:48.450 --> 0:31:52.490 to Kelly in the form of a young girl. She 0:31:52.770 --> 0:31:57.530 tantalizingly offered to reveal God's secrets, but there was a 0:31:57.570 --> 0:32:02.370 requirement that D and Kelly had to fulfill. First, it 0:32:02.410 --> 0:32:09.170 wasn't prayer or alchemy, but unity. They were to sh 0:32:10.170 --> 0:32:19.170 everything in common, including their wives. D was horrified. Nothing 0:32:19.290 --> 0:32:23.970 is unlawful, which is lawful? Until God came the convenient 0:32:24.130 --> 0:32:28.130 spiritual loophole. D and Kelly were warned that if they 0:32:28.250 --> 0:32:32.770 refused to obey the command, the consequences would be disastrous. 0:32:33.530 --> 0:32:38.170 The mysterious red powder their meal ticket would turn to dust, 0:32:39.170 --> 0:32:42.570 the angels would vanish, and the secrets of the universe 0:32:42.610 --> 0:32:50.090 would be locked away forever. D adored his wife, yet 0:32:50.770 --> 0:32:55.850 what choice did he have. H'd state everything on the angels. 0:32:57.050 --> 0:33:02.770 When grief stricken, he finally told Jane about their latest order. 0:33:03.730 --> 0:33:08.210 Her reaction shattered him. She fell a weeping and a 0:33:08.330 --> 0:33:12.770 trembling for a quarter of an hour, and I pacified 0:33:12.770 --> 0:33:17.930 her as well I could. D tried to persuade Jane 0:33:18.010 --> 0:33:25.730 that they must follow God's will. Eventually she agreed, I. 0:33:25.730 --> 0:33:29.890 Trust, though I give myself thus to be used, that 0:33:29.930 --> 0:33:32.330 God will turn me into a stone before he would 0:33:32.330 --> 0:33:37.170 suffer me in my obedience to receive any shame or inconvenience. 0:33:39.250 --> 0:33:45.530 D and Kelly drew up a contract, a cold legalistic 0:33:45.610 --> 0:33:59.450 document that formalized the common use of their wives. John 0:33:59.530 --> 0:34:04.010 Dee was a want in a generation polymath. He was 0:34:04.170 --> 0:34:09.210 phenomenally intelligent, yet he made choices that were dis de 0:34:09.210 --> 0:34:14.730 sidedly foolish. He fretted about Kelly's checkered past, and he 0:34:14.810 --> 0:34:17.810 knew that he was a liar, but he still chose 0:34:17.850 --> 0:34:22.370 to trust him. He followed Kelly into isolation and squalor, 0:34:22.610 --> 0:34:26.730 and he offended an emperor on his say so why, 0:34:27.970 --> 0:34:31.610 One answer lies in the spirit of the age. D 0:34:31.930 --> 0:34:35.890 truly believed that God was beneficent and wanted good things 0:34:35.930 --> 0:34:40.370 for him. The existence of angels was a fact. Difficulties 0:34:40.450 --> 0:34:45.370 were simply divine trials and far from being a red flag. 0:34:45.690 --> 0:34:51.530 Kelly's volatility and strangeness proved that his soul was sensitive 0:34:51.610 --> 0:34:56.690 to the supernatural. D also had a very real need 0:34:57.290 --> 0:35:02.650 for patronage. One way or another, he had to produce results. 0:35:04.410 --> 0:35:10.290 But there's another explanation at play here too. Psychologist Dan 0:35:10.370 --> 0:35:14.130 Kahan has argued we don't always use our intellect to 0:35:14.210 --> 0:35:18.050 seek the truth, but to preserve our sense of who 0:35:18.170 --> 0:35:24.290 we think we are. He calls this process identity protective cognition. 0:35:25.050 --> 0:35:27.970 What we believe isn't just a reflection of what we know. 0:35:29.130 --> 0:35:33.450 It's a badge of membership to our tribe. Our beliefs 0:35:33.610 --> 0:35:38.730 allow us to belong. John Dee's tribe was the intellectual 0:35:38.850 --> 0:35:42.970 elite of Europe. He saw himself as the man who 0:35:43.010 --> 0:35:48.410 would decode the hidden architecture of the universe, even as 0:35:48.410 --> 0:35:51.690 he became less and less relevant to the people in power. 0:35:54.970 --> 0:35:59.810 Edward Kelly, of course, never turned mercury into gold. Charlatan's 0:35:59.850 --> 0:36:05.570 had all sorts of tricks. Preloaded crucibles, hidden pellets, sleight 0:36:05.610 --> 0:36:10.490 of hand. This was stage magic, and the showmanship that 0:36:10.610 --> 0:36:14.930 made Kelly a compelling scrier probably also made him a 0:36:14.970 --> 0:36:22.010 convincing alchemist. D understood stagecraft decades earlier. He had shocked 0:36:22.050 --> 0:36:26.450 an audience at Cambridge University with a mechanical beetle that 0:36:26.570 --> 0:36:34.090 was so lifelike they thought he'd bewitched it, But by 0:36:34.130 --> 0:36:38.130 the time he reached Bohemia, d was too bought in 0:36:38.810 --> 0:36:42.410 to see the hoax in front of him, because the 0:36:42.410 --> 0:36:45.250 more you give up for a vision, the more you 0:36:45.290 --> 0:36:49.130 have to believe it. To admit that Edward Kelly was 0:36:49.170 --> 0:36:53.210 a fraud would mean admitting that John d was no 0:36:53.290 --> 0:36:57.930 longer a brilliant scholar, but an impoverished old man who'd 0:36:57.970 --> 0:37:04.530 been deceived by a common trickster. The truth was far 0:37:04.610 --> 0:37:09.530 too painful for John D to face, and so in 0:37:09.610 --> 0:37:14.850 a long, slow process of self preservation, he chose to 0:37:14.890 --> 0:37:21.610 believe the lie. In May fifteen eighty seven, D made 0:37:21.610 --> 0:37:29.730 a terse entry in his diary pactum factum. The agreement 0:37:30.490 --> 0:37:41.290 had been executed. He had sacrificed his wife to Kelly's angels. 0:37:43.090 --> 0:37:49.770 That summer, Queen Elizabeth sent envoys to Trebon. They wanted Kelly, 0:37:50.850 --> 0:37:56.770 and they ignored thee entirely. At the castle, tensions boiled over. 0:37:57.770 --> 0:38:02.370 Jane D was pregnant, and John D was ever more 0:38:02.410 --> 0:38:08.890 dependent on Kelly, who frequently erupted into violent outbursts. Irritated 0:38:08.890 --> 0:38:13.650 that D was hanging on. In an effort to make peace, 0:38:14.130 --> 0:38:18.250 D wrote Kelly and his wife charitable letters, but to 0:38:18.330 --> 0:38:25.250 no avail. Privately, he was afraid encrypting his diary in 0:38:25.330 --> 0:38:33.290 an increasingly complicated code. In October, Kelly and his wife 0:38:33.370 --> 0:38:38.210 Joanna told the household servants that D was in league 0:38:38.250 --> 0:38:44.010 with the devil. Haniced, D tried again to turn the tide. 0:38:44.690 --> 0:38:49.850 He gave Kelly his most prized possession, his perspective glass, 0:38:50.650 --> 0:38:54.450 that telescope like device that tricked the eye and made 0:38:54.610 --> 0:38:59.850 small objects seem large. Kelly took it, but he had 0:38:59.850 --> 0:39:03.450 no use for a scholar's instrument. He passed it to 0:39:03.530 --> 0:39:08.810 Rosenberg who passed it to the Emperor. D's perspective glass, 0:39:09.330 --> 0:39:13.330 his treasured window into the laws of nature, was tucked 0:39:13.370 --> 0:39:23.210