The alchemist pastor

Around 1600, Tadeáš Budechius, also known as Šimon Tadeáš Budek, served here as a Protestant pastor. Emperor Rudolf II ennobled him with the title “of Lešín and Falkenberg”. Budek had previously spent ten years as an imperial courtier and leading alchemist. He corresponded with many Western European alchemists and attracted some of them to Rudolf’s court. He was appointed an inquisitor overseeing the Italians who came to the Krkonoše Mountains in search of gemstones and “materiam secretam”. An alchemical treatise by him, written partly in cipher, is now held in a library in Vienna. Budek carried out alchemical experiments in Rovensko and later in Bydžov. He visited the residences of neighbouring lords sympathetic to this pursuit. In 1606, for example, he stayed with Jiří Mírek of Solopysky at Chvalovice. His patron was Zikmund Smiřický of Smiřice. In 1603, a letter from the imperial chancery was addressed to him in Rovensko demanding payment of an old debt.