Eliseus Bomelius

Eliseus Bomelius (also Licius) (died c. 1574) was a German physician and astrologer.

The son of Henry Bomelius from Bommel in the Netherlands, from 1540 to 1559 Lutheran preacher at Wesel in Westphalia and friend of John Bale, he was said by his contemporaries to have been born at Wesel. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he proceeded to the degree of doctor of medicine.

Bomelius was well received by English Protestant reformers, and contributed in Latin elegiacs to an edition of Thomas Becon's early works published in 1560. Henry Bennet of Calais praised James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy in 1561, praised Mountjoy for employing Bomelius as a humanist recommended by Philip Melanchthon. A little later Bomelius is said to have lived in the house of John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley.

As a physician and astrologer Bomelius made a high reputation in London. Sir William Cecil is said to have consulted Bomelius as to the queen's length of life, during one of the early negotiations for her marriage. In 1567 he was arrested at the instance of Thomas Francis, president of the London College of Physicians, for practising medicine without license of the college. He was lodged in the King's Bench prison, and 27 May 1567 he wrote to Cecil asking for an opportunity to expose Francis's ignorance of astronomy and Latin; and petitioned for his release. and for financial assistance. On 3 May 1568 he supplicated at Oxford for incorporation as a doctor of medicine of Cambridge. Early in 1569 Bomelius's wife stated before the council of the College of Physicians that her husband had given due satisfaction for his offence to the queen and the lord treasurer, and petitioned for the council's consent to his liberation. The council demanded payment of a fine and costs, which Bomelius's poverty did not allow him to pay. On 2 June 1569 the council appears to have offered Bomelius his release on condition of his giving a bond to abstain henceforth from the practice of medicine; but early in 1570 he would seem to have been still a prisoner, and his wife was in frequent communication with Archbishop Matthew Parker as to the conditions of his release.

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