ABSTRACT
George Ripley, a Canon Regular of Bridlington, knew all about it and handed the art to another canon at Lichfield, who in turn passed it to Thomas Dalton, a monk in Gloucestershire. A few intrepid spirits, braving ecclesiastical censure, attempted to break down this monkish monopoly, and in 1456 John Fauceby was granted a royal licence to produce the Elixir on a large scale for the benefit of the kingdom. Enraged at being hoodwinked by a mob of psalm-singing monks and learning that Prior Holleweye had hidden the Elixir in the walls of his abbey, Henry literally tore the monasteries apart. When Edward III became aware that he had a wrong reading, he sent a group of research scholars to Oxford to collate the manuscripts. The research assistants were shown only texts with intricate mathematical diagrams, treatises on dynamics and mechanics, theses by Duns Scotus on esse and essentia, problems on the squaring of the circle and suchlike meanderings.
