Cardano's twelve horoscopes [4]

CARDANO'S TWELVE HOROSCOPES

GENITURA IV

Hieronymi Cardani (1501-1576)

4. Sir John Cheke, Cheke also spelled Cheek (born June 16, 1514, Cambridge, Eng.—died Sept. 13, 1557, London)

English humanist and supporter of the Protestant Reformation who, as the poet John Milton said, “taught Cambridge and King Edward Greek” and who, with his friend Sir Thomas Smith, discovered the proper pronunciation of ancient Greek. Through his teaching he made the University of Cambridge the centre of the “new learning” and the Reformed religion. Henry VIII made him the first regius professor of Greek at Cambridge. He was tutor to Prince Edward (1544), who as King Edward VI knighted him in 1552.

FIGURE I : John Cheke

The life of the learned Sir John Cheke, John Strype, 1821

On the accession of Mary I (1553), Cheke lost the last of a series of government positions, was imprisoned briefly, and fled abroad. There he published his letters on Greek pronunciation. In 1556 he was captured in Belgium and confined to the Tower of London. Faced with death, he recanted his Protestantism publicly and is said to have died of shame.
One of the most erudite men of his time, Cheke was an indefatigable translator. His English works are of little importance, except for their avoidance of foreign words and for his reformed phonetic spelling, which make his letters some of the best plain prose of the period. [Encyclopaedia britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Cheke]

 

FIGURE II : Illustrissimi Ioannis Cheki à Secretis Anglorum Regis
Cardano, Liber XII geniturarum, operum, tomus quintum, p. 512

CHEKE ou cheeke (sir John), écrivain anglais, né à Cambridge, en 1514, mort à Londres, le 13 septembre 1557. Élevé au collège Saint-Jean à Cambridge, il fut, à vingt-cinq ans, nommé professeur de grec à l’université de cette ville. Il tenta de rétablir l’ancienne et vérifiable prononciation grecque ; mais il éprouva une vive résistance de la part du chancelier de l’université, Étienne Gardiner, évêque de Winchester. Chargé avec sir Anthony Cook d’enseigner le latin au prince Édouard, il jouit sous le règne de son élève d’une faveur éclatante, fut créé baronnet en 1551 et secrétaire d’État en 1553. Sous le règne de Marie, Cheke se compromit, par zèle pour la réforme, dans la conspiration de Jeanne Gray, et fut forcé de s’enfuir sur le continent. Après avoir erré dans plusieurs contrées de l’Europe, et avoir professé pour vivre le grec à Padoue et à Strasbourg, le savant anglais fut arrêté près de Bruxelles, le 15 mai 1556, et transporté à la Tour de Londres. Il ne racheta sa vie que par le désaveu le plus formel de ses opinions protestantes; mais il survécut peu à cette conversion forcée. On a de lui une traduction latine des deux homélies de saint Chrysostome, Contra observatores Novilunii, et de Dormientibus in Christo; Londres, 1543, in-4°; — une traduction latine des six homélies du même père sur le Destin et la Providence de Dieu; Londres, 1547 ; — de Obitu .doctissimi et sanetissimi theologi domini Martini Buceri, epistolae duae; Londres, 1551, in-4° ; — de Pronuntiationae graecae potissimum lingae disputationes ; Bâle, 1555, in-8°; — de Superstitione, ad regem Henricum. Cet ouvrage, placé par l’auteur à la tête de sa traduction du traité de Plutarque sur le même sujet, a été traduit en anglais par W. Elstob. Cette traduction a été publiée par Strype, à la fin de sa vie de Jean Cheke; Londres, 1705, in-8°. [Nouvelle biographie universelle, etc. v. 10, Hoefer]

 

FIGURE III : John Cheke's genitura

Notons qu'il existe une autre version de ce thème mais qui me rend perplexe. On le trouve dans The life of the learned Sir John Cheke, John Strype, 1821, p. 4. il est réalisé pour 2h05 min PM. Curieusement, la longitude de la Lune est de 18° Bélier, ce qui n'est compatible qu'avec l'heure indiquée par Cardano... Quoi qu'il en soit, dans ce travail, j'ai utilisé la leçon de Cardano. Jupiter au DS en conjonction avec Aldébaran ; Saturne à l'AS, Vénus en conjonction avec Canopus. Cardano évoque la présence d'Algol à 19° Taureau.

• Aldébaran : Lilly en fait une étoile funeste dans Christian Astrology :
  
  "malevolent Planet neer to the degree ascending, or a violent fixed Starre, viz. Antares in 4degrees of Sagittarius, Lans Australis about the 9th degree of Scorpio, Palilicium (1) in 4 degrees of Gemini, Caput Medusae in 20 degrees of Taurus, these prenote death" [p. 257] (1) Palilicium, in various orthography, but correctly Parilicium, used for the whole group of the Hyades, descended as a special designation for Aldebaran through all the catalogues to Flamsteed’s, where it is exclusively used [Star names : their lore and meaning, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1963, 384]
  
  Dans le thème de Cheke, Aldébaran est en conjonction (en longitude) avec Jupiter, lui-même opposé à l'AS (dont la tradition en fait le maître puisque dans le zodiaque tropical la maison I couvre le Sagittaire...). Cependant, la domitude d'Aldebaran est de 179°50'42". Ce qui place Aldébaran en opposition radix in mundo avec l'AS.
   
•  Canopus :  Canopus is of the nature of Saturn and Jupiter. It gives piety, conservatism, a wide and comprehensive knowledge, voyages and educational work, and changes evil to good [Robson, 130] ;  it has been observed to accompany cases of drowning, a notable instance being furnished by the horoscope of Shelley, where Argo occupied the 8th house and contained the Sun, Venus and Uranus. Drowning is particularly to be feared when Saturn afflicts the Moon in or from Argo [Robson, 30]

 Ce naufrage qu'évoque Robson doit bien sûr s'entendre par l'analogie : c'est bien ce qui s'est passé dans la vie de John Cheke, avec au moins eux revirements de fortune (1553, 1556). Compte tenu de sa forte latitude, la domitude de Canopus est à 136°54'26".

FIGURE IV

domitudes campanus radix : Aldébaran, Canopus

• 1540, professeur royal en langue grecque : V # Canopus - M // Canopus -
• 1544, précepteur du roi Edward VI : Rp L | J ; C V # L 1545 - C S # Canopus -
• 1547, publications, attribution par Edward VI de pension et de terres : C J conj S -
• 1550, gentilhomme de la chambre du roi : C J conj S 1550
• 1552, trésorier de l'Echiquier : C S # L 1551
• 1553, emprisonné à la Tour de Londres puis gracié par Marie : Rp Sa | L - D J # V 1553
• 1555, Il se rendit à Bâle, d’où il passa en Italie, & fit à Padoue des Leçons sur le Grec. Il s’établit ensuite à Strasbourg, où le Service Divin se célébrait selon la Liturgie de L’Église Anglicane: les Zélateurs de la Religion Romaine en Angleterre lui en firent un crime, & tous ses biens furent confisqués. Se trouvant réduit par là à une grande misère, il donna à Strasbourg des Leçons publiques sur la Langue Grecque , pour avoir de quoi vivre. Sa femme étant à Bruxelles au Printemps de l’année 1556, il résolut de l’y aller chercher: mais avant que de partir, il consulta l’Astrologie, pour laquelle il avait un grand faible, pour savoir s’il pourrait entreprendre ce Voyage sans danger. Son Art le trompa , car il fut arrêté le 15 de Mai par le Prévôt de la Maréchaussée entre Bruxelles & Anvers, & mené en Angleterre , où on le mit à la Tour. [Nouveau dictionnaire historique et critique, pour servir de supplément ou de continuation au Dictionnaire historique et critique de mr. Pierre Bayle. Par Jaques George De Chaufepié, vol. 10, p 80] : triple Rp D : Sa | L et M | J et C M | S. On remarque également un Rp miroir entre Sa | L en Direct et L | Sa en Converse.

 

FIGURE V

domitudes Campanus 1555 (direct)

 

FIGURE VI

domitudes Campanus 1555 (converse)

 1556-1557 : For when he was first examined, he understood it was the matter of religion that was the great quarrel against him. Confused indeed he was at first to be so used; and seeing it was for his religion he suffered this, he very resolutely chose in his own mind to die any death, rather than to renounce it. Soon after, two of the Queen’s Chaplains came to the Tower to confer with him, to try to change him, pretending much good-will and charity to him. Whereupon he received them with the like civility, and communicated to them his doubts that hindered his compliance with the corporeal presence, and other Popish doctrines; and desired to be better informed by them. But Cheke’s doubts were too hard for them to solve, and their endeavours gave him little or no satisfaction; nor could they move him any thing, and so left him, as giving little hope of being reconciled to the unity of the Churchy as they called his turning Papist.[...] fore he would be brought to do that; but after a double _ communication with him in one day, he was fain to yield to Pole’s order, and dissemble a willingness too, viz. to recant and to recant again, and that in the most public manner, that they might make the greater triumph of him.

Cheke likewise sends a letter to the Queen of the same date, and brought by the same messenger, the Dean; who, as he wrote, should shew her his mind now, as to the matters of religion, trusting, that as it was truly minded of him, so she would agreeably receive it. He promised all obedience to her laws, and to her orders in religion. [...]
But all these temporal accessions could not heal the wounds he had given his mind by his apostasy or hypocrisy ; which so excessively dejected him, that within leas than a year after it ended his life, as we shall be told by and by. But the Papists now outwardly made much of their convert; had him frequently in their companies, at their tables, to eat with them; and on their benches, when the pretended heretics were summoned before them, and examined; to shew him openly, no doubt, as an example to them, what a leading and learned man had forsaken their party; and for him to exhort them to do as he had done. Which were but so many fresh stings to him.
The Protestants extenuated as much as they could his dismal fall, making it not so foul as was at first represented. An Englishman in exile, sojourning at Strasburg, (and seems to be Grindal,) wrote to Peter Martyr, then at Zurich, March 15 anno 1556, informing him, that Cheke had given significations of his repentance and sorrow for his fall. [...] And pining away with the shame and regret of what he] had done, he died Sept. 13, 1557, aged 43, at his friend Mr. Peter Osborn's house, in Wood-street, London;  [...] I will add the verses that Sir Thomas Chaloner, a gentleman and excellent scholar that lived in those times, in his miscellanies made of him:

Epitaphium D. Joannis Checi.
Tu nunc exuvias liquisti corporis hujus,CHEKI, Deo vivens, lux nova juncto polo.Pulsisti inter nos lumen radiantius; et nunc Astra tuo exortu languidiora micant.[The life of the learned Sir John Cheke, John Strype, 1821, pp. 130-133]

 FIGURE VII : exitus

 Lors du décès, le Soleil entre en opposition avec l'AS, et en conjonction avec Aldébaran ; voyez ce qu'en dit Lilly dans Christian Astrology (cf.supra). Et Jupiter est en conjonction converse avec Vénus. Enfin, Mars est opposé à Vénus.