A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 2 of 2 by J. M. Robertson
1573. Ritter, Geschichte der deutschen Union, i, 19. Cp. Menzel,
5311 words | Chapter 406
Cap. 433.
[140] Cp. Gardiner, Thirty Years' War, pp. 16, 18, 21; Kohlrausch,
p. 370.
[141] As to this see Moritz Ritter, as cited, i, 9, 27; ii, 122 sq.;
Dunham, Hist. of the Germanic Empire, iii, 186; Henderson, i, 411 sq.
[142] Freytag, Bilder aus d. deutschen Vergangenheit, Bd. ii, 1883,
p. 381; Bd. iii, ad init.
[143] Cp. Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, i, 53-83.
[144] Freytag, Bilder, Bd. ii, Abth. ii, p. 378.
[145] The Pope and the Council, Eng. tr. p. 260; French tr. p. 285.
[146] De Praestigiis Daemonum, 1563. See it described by Lecky,
Rationalism, i, 85-87; Hallam, Lit. of Europe, ii, 76.
[147] By Dutch historians Wier is claimed as a Dutchman. He was born
at Grave, in North Brabant, but studied medicine at Paris and Orleans,
and after practising physic at Arnheim in the Netherlands was called to
Düsseldorf as physician to the Duke of Jülich, to whom he dedicated his
treatise. His ideas are probably traceable to his studies in France.
[148] His collected works (1632) amount to nearly 7,000 folio
pages. J. Ten Brink, Kleine Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letteren,
1882, p. 91.
[149] Ten Brink, p. 86. Jonckbloet (Beknopte Geschiedenis der
Nederl. Letterkunde, ed. 1880, p. 148) is less specific.
[150] Ten Brink, pp. 89-90.
[151] Hallam, Lit. of Europe, ii, 83.
[152] Ten Brink, p. 87.
[153] Jonckbloet, Beknopte Geschiedenis, p. 149; Ten Brink,
p. 91; Bayle, Dictionnaire, art. Koornhert; Pünjer, Hist. of the
Chr. Philos. of Religion, Eng. tr. p. 269; Dr. E. Gosse, art. on
Dutch Literature in Encyc. Brit. 9th ed. xii, 93.
[154] Ten Brink, p. 91.
[155] Flint, Vico, p. 142.
[156] De Jure Belli et Pacis, proleg. §§ 11, 16.
[157] Bayle, art. Voelkel.
[158] Schlegel's note on Mosheim, Reid's ed. p. 862.
[159] Nelson, Life of Bishop Bull, 2nd ed. 1714, p. 392.
[160] Nicéron, Mémoires pour servir, etc., xiv (1731), 340 sq. One of
the replies is the Justa Detestatio sceleratissimi libelli Adriani
Beverlandi De Peccato Originali, by Leonard Ryssen, 1680. A very
free version of Beverland's book appeared in French in 1714 under
the title Etat de l'Homme dans le Peché Originel. It reached a sixth
edition in 1741.
[161] Nelson, Life of Bishop Bull, as cited, p. 280.
[162] Krasinski, Ref. in Poland, 1840, ii, 363; Mosheim, 16
Cent. sec. iii, pt. ii, ch. iv, § 22. Budny translated the Bible,
with rationalistic notes.
[163] Krasinski, p. 361.
[164] Mosheim, last cit. § 23, note 4.
[165] Krasinski, p. 367; Wallace, Antitrin. Biog. 1850, ii, 320.
[166] Bayle, art. Fauste Socin. Krasinski, p. 374.
[167] Krasinski, pp. 361-62. Fausto Sozzini also could apparently
forgive everybody save those who believed less than he did.
[168] Cp. the inquiry as to Locke's Socinianism in J. Milner's Account
of Mr. Lock's Religion out of his own Writings, 1706, and Lessing's
Zur Geschichte und Literatur, i, as to Leibnitz's criticism of Sonerus.
[169] Enfield's History of Philosophy (an abstract of Brucker),
ed. 1840, p. 537.
[170] In the dominions of Philip II there are said to have been 58
archbishops, 684 bishops, 11,400 abbeys, 23,000 religious fraternities,
46,000 monasteries, 13,500 nunneries, 312,000 secular priests, 400,000
monks, 200,000 friars and other ecclesiastics. H. E. Watts, Miguel
de Cervantes, 1895, pp. 67-68. Spain alone had 9,088 monasteries.
[171] Buckle, 3-vol. ed. ii, 484; 1-vol. ed. p. 564, and refs.
[172] Cp. Buckle, 3-vol. ed. ii, 497-99; 1-vol. ed. pp. 572-73;
La Rigaudière, Hist. des Perséc. Relig. en Espagne, 1860, pp. 220-26.
[173] Cp. Lewes, Spanish Drama, passim.
[174] "He inspires me only with horror for the faith which he
professes. No one ever so far disfigured Christianity; no one ever
assigned to it passions so ferocious, or morals so corrupt" (Sismondi,
Lit. of South of Europe, Bohn tr. ii, 379).
[175] Ticknor, Hist. of Spanish Lit. 6th ed. ii, 501; Don Quixote,
pt. ii, ch. liv; Ormsby, tr. of Don Quixote, 1885, introd. i, 58.
[176] Lafuente, Historia de España, 1856, xvii, 340. It is not quite
certain that Lafuente expressed his sincere opinion.
[177] Llorente, ii. 433.
[178] Id. p. 420.
[179] Bouterwek, Hist. of Spanish and Portuguese Literature,
Eng. tr. 1823, i, 331.
[180] Id. p. 151.
[181] Part II, ch. xxxvi.
[182] Bouterwek, whose sociology, though meritorious, is ill-clarified,
argues that the Inquisition was in a manner congenital to Spain because
before its establishment the suspicion of heresy was already "more
degrading in Spain than the most odious crimes in other countries." But
the same might have been said of the other countries also. As to
earlier Spanish heresy see above, vol. i, p. 337 sq.
[183] Despite the many fallacies retained by Copernicus from the
current astronomy, he must be pronounced an exceptionally scientific
spirit. Trained as a mathematician, astronomer, and physician,
he showed a keen and competent interest in the practical problem of
currency; and one of the two treatises which alone he published of his
own accord was a sound scheme for the rectification of that of his
own government. Though a canon of Frauenburg, he never took orders;
but did manifold and unselfish secular service.
[184] It was shielded by thirteen popes--from Paul III to Paul V.
[185] Galileo, Dialogi dei due massimi sistemi del mondo, ii (Opere,
ed. 1811, xi, 303-304).
[186] A good study of Bruno is supplied by Owen in his Skeptics of
the Italian Renaissance. He has, however, omitted to embody the later
discoveries of Dufour and Berti, and has some wrong dates. The Life
of Giordano Bruno, by I. Frith (Mrs. Oppenheim), 1887, gives all the
data, but is inadequate on the philosophic side. A competent estimate
is given in the late Prof. Adamson's lectures on The Development
of Modern Philosophy, etc., 1903, ii, 23 sq.; also in his art. in
Encyc. Brit. For a hostile view see Hallam, Lit. of Europe, ii,
105-111. The biography of Bartholmèss, Jordano Bruno, 1846, is
extremely full and sympathetic, but was unavoidably loose as to
dates. Much new matter has since been collected, for which see the
Vita di Giordano Bruno of Domenico Berti, rev. and enlarged ed. 1889;
Prof. J. L. McIntyre, Giordano Bruno, 1903; Dufour, Giordano Bruno
à Génève: Documents Inédits, 1884; David Levi, Giordano Bruno, o
la religione del pensiero: l'uomo, l'apostolo e il martire, 1887;
Dr. H. Brunnhofer's Giordano Bruno's Weltanschauung und Verhängniss,
1882; and the doctoral treatise of C. Sigwart, Die Lebensgeschichte
Giordano Brunos, Tübingen, 1880. For other authorities see Owen's
and I. Frith's lists, and the final Literaturnachweis in Gustav
Louis's Giordano Bruno, seine Weltanschauung und Lebensverfassung,
Berlin, 1900. The study of Bruno has been carried further in Germany
than in England; but Mr. Whittaker (Essays and Notices, 1895) and
Prof. McIntyre make up much leeway.
[187] Cp. Bartholmèss, i, 49-53; Lange, Gesch. des Materialismus, i,
191-94 (Eng. tr. i, 232); Gustav Louis, as cited, pp. 11, 88.
[188] Berti, Vita di Giordano Bruno, 1889, pp. 40-41, 420. Bruno
gives the facts in his own narrative before the Inquisitors at Venice.
[189] Berti, pp. 42-43, 47; Owen, p. 265.
[190] Not to Genoa, as Berti stated in his first ed. See ed. 1889,
pp. 54, 392.
[191] Berti, p. 65. Owen has the uncorrected date, 1576.
[192] Dufour, Giordano Bruno à Génève: Documents Inédits, 1884; Berti,
pp. 95-97; Gustav Louis, Giordano Bruno, pp. 73-75. Owen (p. 269)
has overlooked these facts, set forth by Dufour in 1884. The documents
are given in full in Frith, Life, 1887, p. 60 sq.
[193] The dates are in doubt. Cp. Berti, p. 115, and Frith, p. 65.
[194] See his own narrative before the Inquisitors in 1592. Berti,
p. 394.
[195] McIntyre, Giordano Bruno, 1907, pp. 21-22.
[196] Frith, Life, p. 121, and refs.; Owen, p. 275; Bartholmèss,
Jordano Bruno, i, 136-38.
[197] Cp. Hallam, Lit. of Europe, ii, 111, note. As to Bruno's
supposed influence on Bacon and Shakespeare, cp. Bartholmèss, i,
134-35; Frith, Life, pp. 104-48; and the author's Montaigne and
Shakspere, pp. 132-38. Here there is no case; but there is much
to be said for Mr. Whittaker's view (Essays and Notices, p. 94)
that Spenser's late Cantos on Mutability were suggested by Bruno's
Spaccio. Prof. McIntyre supports.
[198] His praise of Luther, and his compliments to the Lutherans,
are in notable contrast to his verdict on Calvinism. What happened
was that at Wittemberg he was on his best behaviour, and was well
treated accordingly.
[199] As to the traitor's motives cp. McIntyre, p. 66 sq.; Berti,
p. 262 sq.
[200] Noroff, as cited in Frith, p. 345.
[201] De l'Infinito, ed. Wagner, ii, 27; Cena de la Ceneri, ed. Wagner,
i, 173; Acrotismus, ed. Gfrörer, p. 12.
[202] Cp. Berti, pp. 187-88; Whittaker, Essays and Notices, 1895,
p. 89; and Louis's section, Stellung zu Christenthum und Kirche.
[203] Berti, pp. 297-98. It takes much searching in the two poems
to find any of the ideas in question, and Berti has attempted
no collation; but, allowing for distortions, the Inquisition has
sufficient ground for outcry.
[204] Sigillus Sigillorum: De duodecima contractionis
speciae. Cp. F. J. Clemens, Giordano Bruno und Nicolaus von Cusa, 1847,
pp. 176, 183; and H. Brunnhofer, Giordano Bruno's Weltanschauung und
Verhängniss, 1882, pp. 227, 237.
[205] In the treatise De Lampade combinatoria Lulliana
(1587). According to Berti (p. 220) he is the first to employ this
phrase, which becomes the watchword of Spinoza (libertas philosophandi)
a century later.
[206] Berti, cap. iv; Owen, p. 249; Ueberweg, ii, 27; Pünjer, p. 93
sq.; Whittaker, Essays and Notices, p. 66. As to Bruno's debt to
Nicolaus of Cusa cp. Gustav Louis, as cited, p. 11; Pünjer, as cited;
Carriere, Die philosophische Weltanschauung der Reformationszeit,
p. 25; and Whittaker, p. 68. The argument of Carriere's second edition
is analysed and rebutted by Mr. Whittaker, p. 253 sq.
[207] De Immenso, vii, c. 18, cited by Whittaker, Essays and Notices,
p. 70.
[208] As to Bruno's own claim in the Eroici Furori, cp. Whittaker,
Essays, p. 90.
[209] Documents in Berti, pp. 407-18; McIntyre, p. 75 sq.
[210] See the document in Berti, p. 398 sq.; Frith, pp. 270-81.
[211] Berti, p. 400 sq.
[212] See Berti, p. 396; Owen, pp. 285-86; Frith, pp. 282-83.
[213] The controversy as to whether Galileo was tortured leaves it
clear that torture was common. See Dr. Parchappe, Galilée, sa vie,
etc., 1866, Ptie. ii, ch. 7.
[214] Spaccio della bestia trionfante, ed. Wagner, ii, 120.
[215] Prof. Carriere has contended that a transition from pantheism
to theism marks the growth of his thought; but, as is shown by
Mr. Whittaker, he is markedly pantheistic in his latest work of all,
though his pantheism is not merely naturalistic. Essays and Notices,
pp. 72, 253-58.
[216] Italian versions differ verbally. Cp. Levi, p. 379; Berti,
p. 386. That inscribed on the Bruno statue at Rome is a close rendering
of the Latin: Majori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam
ego accipiam, preserved by Scioppius.
[217] Avviso, in Berti, p. 329; in Levi, p. 386.
[218] Levi, pp. 384-92. Levi relates (p. 390) that Bruno at the stake
was heard to utter the words: "O Eterno, io fo uno sforzo supremo per
attrarre in me quanto vi tra di più divino nell'universo." He cites
no authority. An Avviso reports that Bruno said his soul would rise
with the smoke to Paradise (p. 386; Berti, p. 330), but does not
state that this was said at the stake. And Levi accepts the other
report that Bruno was gagged.
[219] Notably his comedy Il Candelaio.
[220] Owen, Skeptics of the Italian Renaissance, p. 357. A full
narrative, from the documents, is given in R. C. Christie's essay,
"Vanini in England," in the English Historical Review of April, 1895,
reprinted in his Selected Essays and Papers, 1902.
[221] See it analysed by Owen, pp. 361-68, and by Carriere,
Weltanschauung, pp. 496-504.
[222] Amphitheatrum, 1615, Exercit. xix, pp. 117-18.
[223] Amphitheatrum, Exercit. xxvii, p. 161.
[224] Id. pp. 72, 73, 78, 113, etc.
[225] P. 35. Machiavelli is elsewhere attacked. Pp. 36, 50.
[226] Julii Cæsaris Vanini Neapolitani, Theologi, Philosophi, et juris
utriusque Doctoris, de Admirandis Naturæ Reginæque Deæque Mortalium
Arcanis, libri quatuor. Lutetiæ, 1616.
[227] Mr. Owen makes a serious misstatement on this point, by which
I was formerly misled. He writes (p. 369) that from the publisher's
preface we "learn that the Dialogues were not written by Vanini, but
by his disciples. They are a collection of discursive conversations
embodying their master's opinions." This is not what the preface
says. It tells, after a high-pitched eulogy of Vanini, that "nos
publicæ utilitatis solliciti, alia eius monumenta, quæ avarius
retinebat, per idoneos ex scriptores nancisci curavimus." In ascribing
the matter of the dialogues to Vanini's young days, Mr. Owen forgets
the references to the Amphitheatrum.
[228] "Alex. Sed in qua nam Religione verè et piè Deum coli vetusti
Philosophi existimarunt? Vanini. In unica Naturæ lege, quam ipsa
Natura, quæ Deus est (est enim principium motus)...." De Arcanis,
as cited, p. 366. Lib. iv, Dial. 50. See Rousselot's French tr. 1842,
p. 227. This passage is cited by Hallam (Lit. Hist. ii, 461) as avowing
"disbelief of all religion except such as Nature ... has planted in
the minds of men"--a heedless perversion.
[229] De Arcanis, pp. 354-60, 420-22 (Dial. 50, 56); Rousselot,
pp. 219-23, 271-73.
[230] The special reference (lib. iv, dial. 56, p. 428) is to
a story of an infant prophesying when only twenty-four hours
old. (Amphitheatrum, Ex. vi, p. 38; cp. Owen, p. 368, note.) On this
and on other points Cousin (cited by Owen, pp. 368, 371, 377) and
Hallam (Lit. Hist. ii, 461) make highly prejudiced statements. Quoting
the final pages on which the dialoguist passes from serious debate
to a profession of levity, and ends by calling for the play-table,
the English historian dismisses him as "the wretched man."
[231] Cp. Carriere's analysis of the Dialogues, pp. 505-59; and the
Apologia pro Jul. Cæsare Vanino (by Arpe), 1712.
[232] See Owen's vindication, pp. 371-74. Renan's criticism (Averroès,
pp. 420-23) is not quite judicial. See many others cited by Carriere,
p. 516.
[233] It is difficult to understand how the censor could let pass
the description of Nature in the title; but this may have been
added after the authorization. The book is dedicated by Vanini to
Marshal Bassompierre, and the epistle dedicatory makes mention of
the Serenissima Regina aeterni nominis Maria Medicæa, which would
disarm suspicion. In any case the permit was revoked, and the book
condemned to be burned.
[234] Owen, p. 395.
[235] Mercure Français, 1619, tom. v, p. 64.
[236] Gramond (Barthélemi de Grammont), Historia Galliæ ab excessu
Henrici IV, 1643, p. 209. Carriere translates the passage in full,
pp. 500-12, 515; as does David Durand in his hostile Vie et Sentimens
de Lucilio Vanini, 1717. As to Gramond see the Lettres de Gui Patin,
who (Lett. 428, ed. Reveillé-Parise) calls him âme foible et bigote,
and guilty of falsehood and flattery.
[237] Gramond, p. 210. Of Vanini, as of Bruno, it is recorded that at
the stake he repelled the proffered crucifix. Owen and other writers,
who justly remark that he well might, overlook the once received
belief that it was the official practice, with obstinate heretics,
to proffer a red-hot crucifix, so that the victim should be sure to
spurn it with open anger.
[238] Stephen Phillips, Marpessa.
[239] Cp. Owen, pp. 389, 391, and Carriere, pp. 512-13, as to the
worst calumnies. It is significant that Vanini was tried solely for
blasphemy and atheism. What is proved against him is that he and an
associate practised a rather gross fraud on the English ecclesiastical
authorities, having apparently no higher motive than gain and a free
life. Mr. Christie notes, however, that Vanini in his writings always
speaks very kindly of England and the English, and so did not add
ingratitude to his act of imposture.
[240] De Arcanis, p. 205. Lib. iii, dial. 30.
[241] Amphitheatrum, p. 17.
[242] De Arcanis, lib. iv, dial. 52, p. 379; dial. 51,
p. 373. Cp. Amphitheatrum, p. 36; and De Arcanis, p. 20.
[243] De Arcanis, dial. 50 and 56. In the Amphitheatrum he adduces
an equally skilful German atheist (p. 73).
[244] Dial. li, p. 371.
[245] Dial. liv, p. 407.
[246] Cp. Rousselot, notice, p. xi.
[247] Durand compiles a list of ten or eleven works of Vanini from
the allusions in the Amphitheatrum and the De Arcanis.
[248] Reported by Gramond, as cited.
[249] Owen, pp. 393-94.
[250] Garasse, Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits, 1623.
[251] De Arcanis, dial. vii, p. 36.
[252] Dial. iv, p. 21.
[253] Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps, 1623, p. 848.
[254] Karl von Gebler, Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia,
Eng. tr. 1879, pp. 36-37.
[255] This appears from the letters of Sagredo to Galileo. Gebler,
p. 37. Cp. Gui Patin, Lett. 816, ed. Reveillé-Parise, 1846, iii,
758; Bayle, art. Cremonin, notes C and D; and Renan, Averroès, 3e
édit. pp. 408-13. Patin writes that his friend Naudé "avoit été intime
ami de Cremonin, qui n'étoit point meilleur Chrétien que Pomponace,
que Machiavel, que Cardan et telles autres ... dont le pays abonde."
[256] Lange, Gesch. des Materialismus, i, 183 (Eng. tr. i, 220);
Gebler, p. 25. Libri actually made the refusal; but all that is
proved as to Cremonini is that he opposed Galileo's discoveries à
priori. As to the attitude of such opponents see Galileo's letter to
Kepler. J. J. Fahie, Galileo: his Life and Work, 1903. pp. 101-102.
[257] Fahie, Galileo, p. 100.
[258] Id. p. 127.
[259] Gebler, pp. 54, 129, and passim; The Private Life of Galileo
(by Mrs. Olney), Boston, 1870, pp. 67-72.
[260] Galileo's letter to Kepler, cited by Gebler, p. 26.
[261] The Jesuits were expelled from Venice in 1616, in retaliation
for a papal interdict.
[262] See it summarized by Gebler, pp. 46-60, and quoted in the
Private Life, pp. 83-85.
[263] The measure of reverence with which the orthodox handled the
matter may be inferred from the fact that the Dominican Caccini, who
preached against Galileo in Florence, took as one of his texts the
verse in Acts i: "Viri Galilaei, quid statis aspicientes in coelum,"
making a pun on the Scripture.
[264] See this summarized by Gebler, pp. 64-70.
[265] See The Private Life of Galileo, pp. 86-87, 91, 99; Gebler,
p. 44; Fahie, pp. 169-70; Berti, Il Processo Originale de Galileo
Galilei, 1878, p. 53.
[266] Gebler (p. 101) solemnly comments on this letter as a lapse into
"servility" on Galileo's part.
[267] Gebler, pp. 112-13.
[268] Private Life, pp. 216-18; Gebler, pp. 157-62.
[269] Berti, pp. 61-64; Private Life, pp. 212-13; Gebler, p. 162.
[270] Gebler, p. 239; Private Life, p. 256.
[271] Gebler, pp. 249-63; Private Life, pp. 255-56; Marini,
pp. 55-57. The "e pur si muove" story is first heard of in 1774. As
to the torture, it is to be remembered that Galileo recanted under
threat of it. See Berti, pp. 93-101; Marini, p. 59; Sir O. Lodge,
Pioneers of Science, 1893, pp. 128-31. Berti argues that only the
special humanity of the Commissary-General, Macolano, saved him from
the torture. Cp. Gebler, p. 259, note.
[272] Gebler, p. 281.
[273] Private Life, pp. 265-60, 268; Gebler, p. 252.
[274] Berti, Il Processo di Galileo, pp. 111-12.
[275] Letter of Hobbes to Newcastle, in Report of the
Hist. Mss. Comm. on the Duke of Portland's Papers, 1892, ii. Hobbes
explains that few copies were brought over, "and they that buy such
books are not such men as to part with them again." "I doubt not,"
he adds, "but the translation of it will here be publicly embraced."
[276] Gebler, pp. 312-15; Putnam, Censorship of the Church of Rome,
i, 313-14.
[277] See Ueberweg, ii, 12, as to the conflicting types. In addition
to Cremonini, several leading Aristotelians in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were accused of atheism (Hallam, Lit. Hist. ii,
101-102), the old charge against the Peripatetic school. Hallam
(p. 102) complains that Cesalpini of Pisa "substitutes the barren
unity of pantheism for religion." Cp. Ueberweg, ii, 14; Renan,
Averroès, 3e édit. p. 417. An Averroïst on some points, he believed
in separate immortality.
[278] Gebler, pp. 37, 45. Gebler appears to surmise that Cremonini
may have escaped the attack upon himself by turning suspicion upon
Galileo, but as to this there is no evidence.
[279] Ueberweg, ii, 17.
[280] Epist. 36.
[281] See above, p. 45.
[282] Bartholmèss, Jordano Bruno, i, 49.
[283] Lange, Gesch. des Mater. i, 189-90 (Eng. tr. i, 228). Born
in Valencia and trained at Paris, Vives became a humanist teacher
at Louvain, and was called to England (1523) to be tutor to the
Princess Mary. During his stay he taught at Oxford. Being opposed to
the divorce of Henry VIII, he was imprisoned for a time, afterwards
living at Bruges.
[284] See the monograph, Ramus, sa vie, ses écrits, et ses opinions,
par Ch. Waddington, 1855. Owen has a good account of Ramus in his
French Skeptics.
[285] Scholæ math. l. iii, p. 78, cited by Waddington, p. 343.
[286] "In many respects Galileo deserves to be ranked with Descartes
as inaugurating modern philosophy." Prof. Adamson, Development of
Mod. Philos. 1903, i, 5. "We may compare his [Hobbes's] thought with
Descartes's, but the impulse came to him from the physical reasonings
of Galileo." Prof. Croom Robertson, Hobbes, 1886, p. 42.
[287] Buckle, 1-vol. ed. pp. 327-36; 3-vol. ed. ii, 77-85. Cp. Lange,
i, 425 (Eng. tr. i, 248, note); Adamson, Philosophy of Kant, 1879,
p. 194.
[288] Cp. Lange, i, 425 (Eng. tr. i, 248-49, note); Bouillier,
Hist. de la philos. cartésienne, 1854, i, 40-47, 185-86; Bartholmèss,
Jordano Bruno, i, 354-55; Memoir in Garnier ed. of OEuvres Choisies,
p. v, also pp. 6, 17, 19, 21. Bossuet pronounced the precautions of
Descartes excessive. But cp. Dr. Land's notes in Spinoza: Four Essays,
1882, p. 55.
[289] Coll. of Philos. Writings, ed. 1712, pref. p. xi.
[290] Discours de la Méthode, pties. i, ii, iii, iv (OEuvres Choisies,
pp. 8, 10, 11, 22, 24); Meditation I (id. pp. 73-74).
[291] Full details in Kuno Fischer's Descartes and his School,
Eng. tr. 1890, bk. i, ch. vi; Bouillier, i, chs. xii, xiii.
[292] Buckle, 1-vol. ed. pp. 337-39; 3-vol. ed. ii, 94, 97.
[293] Buckle, pp. 327-30; ii, 81.
[294] Id. p. 330; ii, 82. The process is traced hereinafter.
[295] Kuno Fischer, Francis Bacon, Eng. tr. 1857, p. 74.
[296] For an exact summary and criticism of Gassendi's positions see
the masterly monograph of Prof. Brett of Lahore, The Philosophy of
Gassendi, 1908--a real contribution to the history of philosophy.
[297] Cp. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, bk. v, ch. i (McCulloch's
ed. 1839, pp. 364-65). It is told of him, with doubtful authority, that
when dying he said: "I know not who brought me into the world, neither
do I know what was to do there, nor why I go out of it." Reflections
on the Death of Freethinkers, by Deslandes (Eng. tr. of the Réflexions
sur les grands hommes qui sont morts en plaisantant), 1713, p. 105.
[298] For a good account of Gassendi and his group (founded on Lange, §
iii, ch. i) see Soury, Bréviaire de l'hist. de matérialisme, ptie. iii,
ch. ii.
[299] Voltaire, Éléments de philos. de Newton, ch. ii; Lange, i, 232
(Eng. tr. i, 267) and 269.
[300] Bayle, art. Pomponace, Notes F. and G. The complaint was made
by Arnauld, who with the rest of the Jansenists was substantially
a Cartesian.
[301] See it in Garnier's ed. of Descartes's OEuvres Choisies, p. 145.
[302] Id. pp. 158-64.
[303] Apparently just because the Jansenists adopted Descartes
and opposed Gassendi. But Gassendi is extremely guarded in all his
statements, save, indeed, in his objections to the Méditations of
Descartes.
[304] See Soury, pp. 397-98, as to a water-drinking "debauch" of
Gassendi and his friends.
[305] Rambaud, as cited, p. 154.
[306] Id. p. 155.
[307] Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XIV, ed. Didot, p. 366. "On ne l'eût
pas osé sous Henri IV et sous Louis XIII," adds Voltaire. Cp. Michelet,
La Sorcière, éd. Séailles, 1903, p. 302.
[308] Tr. into English in 1659, under the title The Vanity of Judiciary
Astrology.
[309] Jenkin Thomasius in his Historia Atheismi (1692) joins Herbert
with Bodin as having five points in common with him (ed. 1709, ch. ix,
§ 2, pp. 76-77).
[310] It might have been supposed that he was recalled on account
of his book; but it was not so. He was recalled by letter in April,
returned home in July, and seems to have sent his book thence to
Paris to be printed.
[311] Autobiography, Sir S. Lee's 2nd ed. p. 132.
[312] The book was reprinted at London in Latin in 1633; again at
Paris in 1636; and again at London in 1645. It was translated and
published in French in 1639, but never in English.
[313] Compare the verdict of Hamilton in his ed. of Reid, note A, §
6, 35 (p. 781).
[314] For a good analysis see Pünjer, Hist. of the Christ. Philos. of
Religion, Eng. trans. 1887, pp. 292-99; also Noack, Die Freidenker
in der Religion, Bern, 1853, i, 17-40; and Lechler, Geschichte des
englischen Deismus, pp. 36-54.
[315] See his Autobiography, as cited, pp. 133-34.
[316] De causis errorum, una cum tractate de religione laici et
appendice ad sacerdotes (1645); De religione gentilium (1663). The
latter was translated into English in 1705. The former are short
appendices to the De Veritate. In 1768 was published for the first time
from a manuscript, A Dialogue between a Tutor and his Pupil, which,
despite the doubts of Lechler, may confidently be pronounced Herbert's
from internal evidence. See the "Advertisement" by the editor of the
volume, and cp. Lee, p. xxx, and notes there referred to. The "five
points," in particular, occur not only in the Religio Gentilium, but
in the De Veritate. The style is clearly of the seventeenth century.
[317] Sir Sidney Lee can hardly be right in taking the Dialogue to be
the "little treatise" which Herbert proposed to write on behaviour
(Autobiography, Lee's 2nd ed. p. 43). It does not answer to that
description, being rather an elaborate discussion of the themes of
Herbert's main treatises, running to 272 quarto pages.
[318] See below, p. 80.
[319] More Reasons for the Christian Religion, 1672, p. 79.
[320] It is to be remembered that the doctrine of the supremacy of
the civil power in religious matters (Erastianism) was maintained by
some of the ablest men on the Parliamentary side, in particular Selden.
[321] Leviathan, ch. iv, H. Morley's ed. p. 26.
[322] Cp. his letter to an opponent, Considerations upon the
Reputation, etc., of Thomas Hobbes, 1680, with chs. xi and xii of
Leviathan, and De Corpore Politico, pt. ii, c. 6. One of his most
explicit declarations for theism is in the De Homine, c. 1, where
he employs the design argument, declaring that he who will not see
that the bodily organs are a mente aliqua conditas ordinatasque ad
sua quasque officia must be himself without mind. This ascription of
"mind," however, he tacitly negates in Leviathan, ch. xi, and De
Corpore Politico, pt. ii, c. 6.
[323] De Corpore, pt. ii, c. 8, § 20.
[324] Cp. Bentley's letter to Bernard, 1692, cited in Dynamics of
Religion, pp. 82-83.
[325] Leviathan, pt. i, ch. vi. Morley's ed. p. 34.
[326] Leviathan, pt. iii, ch. xxxiii.
[327] Above, p. 24.
[328] On this see Lange, Hist. of Materialism, sec. iii, ch. ii.
[329] Molyneux, an anti-Hobbesian, in translating Hobbes's objections
along with the Meditations (1680) claims that the slightness of
Descartes's replies was due to his unacquaintance with Hobbes's works
and philosophy in general (trans. cited, p. 114). This is an obviously
lame defence. Descartes does parry some of the thrusts of Hobbes;
others he simply cannot meet.
[330] E.g., Leviathan, pt. iv, ch. xlvii.
[331] Kuno Fischer, Descartes and his School, pp. 232-35. Cp. Bentley,
Sermons on Atheism (i.e., his Boyle Lectures), ed. 1724, p. 8.
[332] Hobbes also was of Mersenne's acquaintance, but only as a man of
science. When, in 1647, Hobbes was believed to be dying, Mersenne for
the first time sought to discuss theology with him; but the sick man
instantly changed the subject. In 1648 Mersenne died. He thus did not
live to meet the strain of Leviathan (1651), which enraged the French
no less than the English clergy. (Croom Robertson's Hobbes, pp. 63-65.)
[333] Hobbes lived to see this law abolished (1677). There was left,
however, the jurisdiction of the bishops and ecclesiastical courts
over cases of atheism, blasphemy, heresy, and schism, short of the
death penalty.
[334] Croom Robertson, Hobbes, p. 196; Pepys's Diary, Sept. 3, 1668.
[335] Leviathan, ch. ii; Morley's ed. p. 19; chs. xiv, xv, pp. 66,
71, 72, 78; ch. xxix, pp. 148, 149.
[336] Leviathan, chs. xv, xvii, xviii. Morley's ed. pp. 72, 82, 83, 85.
[337] "For two generations the effort to construct morality on a
philosophical basis takes more or less the form of answers to Hobbes"
(Sidgwick, Outlines of the History of Ethics, 3rd ed. p. 169).
[338] As when he presents the law of Nature as "dictating peace,
for a means of the conservation of men in multitudes" (Leviathan,
ch. xv. Morley's ed. p. 77).
[339] See the headings, Council, Religion, etc.
[340] G. W. Johnson, Memoirs of John Selden, 1835, pp. 348, 362.
[341] G. W. Johnson, p. 264.
[342] Above, p. 20.
[343] G. W. Johnson, pp. 258, 302.
[344] Id. p. 302. Cp. in the Table Talk, art. Trinity, his view of
the Roundheads.
[345] Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, ed. 1810, i, 181. Cp. i, 292;
ii, 44.
[346] Cp. Overton's pamphlet, An Arrow against all Tyrants and
Tyranny (1646), cited in the History of Passive Obedience since the
Reformation, 1689, i, 59; pt. ii of Thomas Edwards's Gangræna: or a
Catalogue and Discovery of many of the Errours, Heresies, Blasphemies,
and pernicious Practices of the Sectaries of this time, etc., 2nd
ed. 1646, pp. 33-34 (Nos. 151-53).
[347] Lords Journals, January 16, 1645-1646; Gangræna, as cited,
p. 150; cp. Gardiner, Hist. of the Civil War, ed. 1893, iii, 11.
[348] Green, Short Hist. ch. viii, § 8, pp. 551-52; Gardiner, Hist. of
the Civil War, iv, 22.
[349] Gangræna, p. 18.
[350] In 1644 he had been imprisoned at Bury St. Edmunds for
"dipping" adults, and after six months' durance had been released on a
recantation and promise of amendment. Gangræna, as cited, pp. 104-105.
[351] Rev. James Cranford, Hæreseo-Machia, a Sermon, 1646, p. 10.
[352] No. 100 in Gangræna.
[353] Cranford, as cited, p. 11 sq.
[354] See G. P. Gooch's Hist. of Democ. Ideas in England in the 17th
Century, 1898, ch. vi.
[355] Above, pp. 4 and 8.
[356] In the British Museum copy the name Richardson is penned, not in
a contemporary hand, at the end of the preface; and in the preface to
vol. ii of the Phenix, 1708, in which the treatise is reprinted, the
same name is given, but with uncertainty. The Richardson pointed at
was the author of The Necessity of Toleration in Matters of Religion
(1647). E. B. Underhill, in his collection of that and other Tracts
on Liberty of Conscience for the Hanserd Knollys Society, 1846,
remains doubtful (p. 247) as to the authorship of the tract on hell.
[357] The fourth English edition appeared in 1754.
[358] Gangræna, ep. ded. (p. 5). Cp. pp. 47, 151, 178-79; and Bailie's
Letters, ed. 1841, ii, 234-37; iii, 393. The most sweeping plea for
toleration seems to have been the book entitled Toleration Justified,
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