The Alchemist

An Anabaptist and one of Face and Subtle’s victims. The Anabaptists have been paying Subtle for weeks to create the philosopher’s stone, and they send Ananias to Subtle to barter for Mammon’s metal and iron, so they can later turn it all into gold. When Ananias arrives, he calls Subtle a “heathen” because he doesn’t speak Hebrew, and he refuses to give Subtle any more money until he sees the stone. Subtle grows angry and kicks Ananias out, claiming he will only do business with the Anabaptist pastor, Tribulation Wholesome. Ananias returns with Tribulation, but they don’t leave with the metal or the stone. Subtle tells them he is still weeks away from creating the stone, but he offers to teach them how to cast Dutch money in the meantime. Ananias and Tribulation return to their brethren to see if casting money is lawful, and once they decide it is, Ananias returns to Subtle to tell him. When he arrives, Subtle says the Anabaptists will have to find a new place to cast money and rushes Ananias off. Ananias later returns with the police and the rest of the victims after they discover Subtle and Face are conmen, but he is turned away by Lovewit and never gets justice. Like Tribulation Wholesome, Ananias represents religious fanaticism and radical Protestantism, but he also reflects the anti-Catholic sentiments of Jonson’s time. Ananias despises traditions of all kinds, claiming they are all “Popish,” and he prefers the term “Christ-tide” because it doesn’t reflect the Popish “mass” in “Christmas.” In the New Testament, Ananias was a member of the early Christian Church in Jerusalem, who was struck dead after lying to God about money, and this connection paints Jonson’s Ananias in an equally unflattering light. Ananias and the Anabaptists are willing to resort to dishonest and unchristian means to advance their radical religious views, and Jonson condemns their actions and hypocrisy.