Certain wickedly disposed
persons this year [1577] practised magic against her majesty queen Elizabeth,
to take away her life.... [T]hree waxen images were framed; whereof one was of
the queen, and the two other of two persons nearest her, (perhaps the lord
treasurer Burghley, and the lord high steward, the earl of Leicester,) which
were found in the house of a priest near Islington, (who was a magician, and so
reputed,) in order to take away their lives.
*
Whether
it were the effect of this magic, or proceeded from some natural cause, but the
queen was in some part of this year under excessive anguish by pains of her
teeth; insomuch that she took no rest for divers nights, and endured very great
torment night and day. There was now in England an outlandish physician, called
Fenot, that happened to be then at court. To whom some lords of the council
applied themselves; requiring and commanding him to give his advice in this
extremity for the queen's ease. In obedience whereunto that learned physician
wrote a long letter in Latin unto them, dated the calends of December. Wherein
first, he shewed, “how dangerous a thing it was for him to give his
judgment,…”. But at length he gives his advice to use several things. But,
after all, if they proved ineffectual, and the tooth was hollow and decayed,
then he advised that it might be drawn out.
Strype, John. Annals of the Reformation…
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