Elisha Bomeliya is considered by some to be a clever adventurer and charlatan who managed to get into the confidence of Ivan the Terrible himself, others - a professional magician and astrologer. In the annals he is called "the evil sorcerer." Who was this man really?
Dropout Medic
His real name was Eliza Bomelius. He was born in 1530 in Westphalia, the son of a Dutch-born Lutheran preacher Heinrich Bomelius.
From a young age, Eliseus began to study medicine. In 1558, he joined the English family, Bertie, to care for their frail offspring, who later became the famous statesman Peregrine Bertie. Bertie was forced to flee to Westphalia due to the persecution of the English Queen Mary Tudor. But in 1558, they returned to their homeland, accompanied by Bomelius. Catherine Bertie, Baroness Willoughby, got Eliseus accepted into the Department of Medicine at Cambridge University.
True, the young man did not complete the full course of study. He married in 1564 and then opened a medical practice in London. However, in 1569 he was arrested for healing without a license and practicing black magic.
Thanks to Lady Willoughby's connections and efforts, the young doctor's imprisonment was commuted to a monetary fine. At this time, the embassy of Ivan IV, headed by Andrei Savin, was located in London. The Russian tsar instructed his ambassadors to find a good doctor for him in England. It is not known why Bomelius so captivated Savin, but as a result of a short acquaintance, he offered him to become a life doctor at the Russian court.
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Evil Heretic
The newly-made Tsarist Aesculapius arrived in Russia at the end of the summer of 1570. He quickly managed to gain great influence on Ivan the Terrible. He completely trusted his doctor and even consulted with him on many issues - both personal and state.
Meanwhile, the chronicle of 1570 asserts that the "fierce sorcerer" and "evil heretic" Elisha Bomelius (as he was christened in Russia) was sent to the tsar by either Germans or Lithuanians, and he did it so that "the tsar imposed ferocity, but make love to the Germans."
Apparently, Elisha Bomelius was well versed not only in the art of healing. He often climbed the bell tower of the Kremlin Church of St. John Climacus to observe the heavenly bodies, sometimes in company with the king himself, and they, following the outlines of the stars, decided the fate of the state …
But the main benefit of Bomelia was that he knew how to make various drugs. Some allegedly reliably protected the tsar from poison, damage and evil eye, while others "with a guarantee" destroyed the tsar's enemies at the exact day and hour. At the royal feast, one of the boyars was certainly served a bowl of poison …
It was rumored that it was with the participation of Bomelius that the streltsy voivode Fyodor Myasoyedov, who saved Pskov from the Polish blockade, the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarina Maria Temryukovna, and also the wife of Tsarevich John, Princess Praskovya, were poisoned. They all died under similar circumstances.
Dangerous prediction
But no matter how much the string twists, but the tip be! Many boyars hated Bomelia and began scribbling denunciations against him, accusing him of "having relations in letters written in Latin and Greek with the kings of Poland and Sweden." The tsar's trust in the doctor began to melt little by little.
One day in 1579, Ivan the Terrible demanded that Bomelius predict the future of his family. He laid his hands on the crystal ball - and suddenly curled up in convulsions. He began to utter terrible prophecies - that the second wife of the eldest son of Ivan the Terrible would give birth ahead of schedule and die with the baby; that the prince himself will be killed by his own father; that the middle prince Fyodor would die early, leaving no heirs; and the youngest, Dmitry, will die before he comes of age. The Rurik clan will be suppressed, and a time of trouble will come …
The king was so furious that he threw a massive silver goblet at the diviner's head. Fortunately, Bomelius survived, although he lay unconscious for three days. After that he, having entered into an agreement with the Pskov boyars, tried to escape from Moscow. But the tsar's henchmen captured him on the way to Pskov and, in shackles, brought him back to the Mother See.
Under torture, Bomelius confessed that he thought of harming the Tsar and the Russian state … By order of the Terrible, the disgraced warlock was hacked up on a rack and then roasted alive on a spit. The execution took place on Bolotnaya Square, not far from the Kremlin … Before his death, Bomelius cursed the Tsar. Indeed, a few years later, Ivan the Terrible died suddenly, far from old age. And the fateful prophecy came true in full …
