Ryrie shows how Wisdom fits into the murky boundaries between medicine and fraud (he lacked university credentials) and probably met other con men frequenting Tudor England's notorious gaming houses and brothels during a time when the deadly new disease, syphilis, was increasing the demand for "medical" help. Ryrie discusses Widsom's medical schemes and how the belief in magic, whether the esoteric magic learned from Renaissance scholars or the more mercenary practices of small-time conjurers, was common even as successive Tudor rulers tried to control it. Ryrie's book skillfully illuminates an age when political upheaval and the turmoil of belief that accompanied the Reformation could make the magical claims of a fraud like Wisdom seem plausible.