Editing Norwich (section)

===Esoteric associations===
Because Norwich was England's second city in the medieval and Renaissance periods, it has some little acknowledged, but significant associations with [[esoteric]] spirituality. It was the home of [[William Cuningham]], a physician who published ''An Invective Epistle in Defense of Astrologers'' in 1560.<ref>Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.</ref> The [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] dramatist [[Robert Greene (dramatist)|Robert Greene]], author of [[Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay]], was born in Norwich in 1558. The city was the retirement residence of [[Arthur Dee]] (died Norwich, 1651), eldest son of the alchemist [[John Dee]].{{sfn |Fleay |1891 |pp=251–252}}<ref>Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 14</ref>

[[File:St John the Baptist Church - The Layer Monument.jpg|thumb|The Layer Monument, marble polychrome {{Circa|1600}}]]

Norwich was the residence of the physician and [[hermeticism|hermetic]] philosopher Sir [[Thomas Browne]], author of ''[[The Garden of Cyrus]]'' (1658). Many influential esoteric titles are listed as once in Browne's [[Library of Sir Thomas Browne#Esoteric|library]].<ref>Catalogue of the libraries of Sir Thomas Browne and his son Edward Browne, edited with an introduction by J. S. Finch E. J. Brill Publications 1986.</ref> His coffin-plate, on display at the church of [[St Peter Mancroft]], alludes to [[Paracelsian]] medicine and alchemy. Translated from Latin it reads, "Great Virtues, ...sleeping here the dust of his [[spagyric]] body converts the lead to gold." Browne was also a significant figure in the history of [[physiognomy]].

The [[Church of St John Maddermarket]]'s graveyard includes the Crabtree headstone, which has the pre-Christian symbol of the [[Ouroboros]] along with [[Masonic]] [[Square and Compasses]] carved upon it. Within the church is [[the Layer Monument]], a rare example of an alchemical [[mandala]] in European funerary art.{{sfn|Faulkner|2013}}

From 1787 the congregation of the [[New Jerusalem Church]] of [[Swedenborgians]], followers of the mystic [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], worshipped at the [[St Mary the Less, Norwich|Church of St Mary the Less]]; in 1852 they moved to Park Lane, Norwich to establish the Swedenborgian Chapel.<ref>[http://www.norwich-churches.org/St%20Mary%20the%20Less/home.shtm Norwich historic churches – St Mary the Less] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016080407/http://www.norwich-churches.org/St%20Mary%20the%20Less/home.shtm |date=16 October 2013}} Retrieved 9 October 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichsweden/norwichsweden.htm Norfolk Churches – Swedenborgian Chapel] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029002119/http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichsweden/norwichsweden.htm |date=29 October 2012}} Retrieved 8 October 2013.</ref>