Seventeenth-Century Catholic Polemic and the Rise of Cultural Rationalism: An Example from the Empire

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 57, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 87-106

  Rosa, Susan ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0007025285     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3653884     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, tr. Stillman Drake (Berkeley, 1967), 57
2. C. John Sommerville, The Secularization of Early Modern England: From Religious Culture to Religious Faith (New York, 1992), 9: "[W]e live on one side of a great divide, where religion is something one thinks about rather than something one does."
3. See Peter Harrison, 'Religion' and the Religions in the English Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1990), 26; Sommerville, op. cit., 5, and William R. Shea, "Galileo and the Church," God and Nature, ed. David C. Lindberg and Ronald Numbers (Berkeley, 1986), 115.
4. See Peter Harrison, 'Religion' and the Religions in the English Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1990), 26; Sommerville, op. cit., 5, and William R. Shea, "Galileo and the Church," God and Nature, ed. David C. Lindberg and Ronald Numbers (Berkeley, 1986), 115.
5. See Alan Charles Kors, Atheism in France, 1650-1729, I, The Orthodox Sources of Disbelief (Princeton, 1990).
6. Galileo, Dialogue, 130
7. See Guillaume H. M. Posthumus Meyjes in his introduction to Grotius, Meletius sive de iis quae inter Christianas conveniunt epistola (Leiden, 1988), 30
8. Joseph Levine, "Latitudinarians, Neo-Platonists, and the Ancient Wisdom," Philosophy, Science, and Religion in England 1640-1700, ed. Richard Kroll, Richard Ashcraft, and Perez Zagorin (Cambridge, 1992), 91.
9. Richard H. Popkin, "Skepticism and the Counter-Reformation in France," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 51, 1 (1960), 58-87.
10. Popkin, "Scepticism...," 69.
11. Richard H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (Berkeley, 1979), 68-73; quoted in Richard Tuck, "Grotius, Carneades, and Hobbes," Grotiana, new series, 4 (1983), 46. Popkin's claim that extreme fideism of this kind represented the orthodox Catholic position is effectively refuted in a French context by Kors (Atheism in France, esp. 115-16). In The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor, 1934), Louis I. Bredvold made a similar argument for England; his claims were refuted in 1968 by Philip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago, 1968), esp. 97-105 and 248. My own research has shown that fideism nowhere represented the dominant or orthodox Catholic position; see my "'Il était possible aussi que cette conversion fût sincère': Turenne's Conversion in Context," French Historical Studies, 18 (1994), 632-67, and "The Conversion to Catholicism of the Prince de Tarente, 1670," Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, XXI (1995), 57-77.
12. Richard H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (Berkeley, 1979), 68-73; quoted in Richard Tuck, "Grotius, Carneades, and Hobbes," Grotiana, new series, 4 (1983), 46. Popkin's claim that extreme fideism of this kind represented the orthodox Catholic position is effectively refuted in a French context by Kors (Atheism in France, esp. 115-16). In The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor, 1934), Louis I. Bredvold made a similar argument for England; his claims were refuted in 1968 by Philip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago, 1968), esp. 97-105 and 248. My own research has shown that fideism nowhere represented the dominant or orthodox Catholic position; see my "'Il était possible aussi que cette conversion fût sincère': Turenne's Conversion in Context," French Historical Studies, 18 (1994), 632-67, and "The Conversion to Catholicism of the Prince de Tarente, 1670," Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, XXI (1995), 57-77.
13. Richard H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (Berkeley, 1979), 68-73; quoted in Richard Tuck, "Grotius, Carneades, and Hobbes," Grotiana, new series, 4 (1983), 46. Popkin's claim that extreme fideism of this kind represented the orthodox Catholic position is effectively refuted in a French context by Kors (Atheism in France, esp. 115-16). In The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor, 1934), Louis I. Bredvold made a similar argument for England; his claims were refuted in 1968 by Philip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago, 1968), esp. 97-105 and 248. My own research has shown that fideism nowhere represented the dominant or orthodox Catholic position; see my "'Il était possible aussi que cette conversion fût sincère': Turenne's Conversion in Context," French Historical Studies, 18 (1994), 632-67, and "The Conversion to Catholicism of the Prince de Tarente, 1670," Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, XXI (1995), 57-77.
14. Richard H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (Berkeley, 1979), 68-73; quoted in Richard Tuck, "Grotius, Carneades, and Hobbes," Grotiana, new series, 4 (1983), 46. Popkin's claim that extreme fideism of this kind represented the orthodox Catholic position is effectively refuted in a French context by Kors (Atheism in France, esp. 115-16). In The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor, 1934), Louis I. Bredvold made a similar argument for England; his claims were refuted in 1968 by Philip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago, 1968), esp. 97-105 and 248. My own research has shown that fideism nowhere represented the dominant or orthodox Catholic position; see my "'Il était possible aussi que cette conversion fût sincère': Turenne's Conversion in Context," French Historical Studies, 18 (1994), 632-67, and "The Conversion to Catholicism of the Prince de Tarente, 1670," Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, XXI (1995), 57-77.
15. Richard H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (Berkeley, 1979), 68-73; quoted in Richard Tuck, "Grotius, Carneades, and Hobbes," Grotiana, new series, 4 (1983), 46. Popkin's claim that extreme fideism of this kind represented the orthodox Catholic position is effectively refuted in a French context by Kors (Atheism in France, esp. 115-16). In The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor, 1934), Louis I. Bredvold made a similar argument for England; his claims were refuted in 1968 by Philip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago, 1968), esp. 97-105 and 248. My own research has shown that fideism nowhere represented the dominant or orthodox Catholic position; see my "'Il était possible aussi que cette conversion fût sincère': Turenne's Conversion in Context," French Historical Studies, 18 (1994), 632-67, and "The Conversion to Catholicism of the Prince de Tarente, 1670," Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, XXI (1995), 57-77.
16. Richard H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (Berkeley, 1979), 68-73; quoted in Richard Tuck, "Grotius, Carneades, and Hobbes," Grotiana, new series, 4 (1983), 46. Popkin's claim that extreme fideism of this kind represented the orthodox Catholic position is effectively refuted in a French context by Kors (Atheism in France, esp. 115-16). In The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor, 1934), Louis I. Bredvold made a similar argument for England; his claims were refuted in 1968 by Philip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago, 1968), esp. 97-105 and 248. My own research has shown that fideism nowhere represented the dominant or orthodox Catholic position; see my "'Il était possible aussi que cette conversion fût sincère': Turenne's Conversion in Context," French Historical Studies, 18 (1994), 632-67, and "The Conversion to Catholicism of the Prince de Tarente, 1670," Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, XXI (1995), 57-77.
17. On this issue see Kors, Atheism in France, I, 111-31.
18. Terence Penelhum, God and Skepticism: A Study in Skepticism and Fideism (Dordrecht, 1983), 1.
19. According to Hubert Jedin, the first monograph on the marks of the true Church was written by the Hessian Franciscan Nikolaus Herborn in 1529. "Zur Entwicklung des Kirchenbegriffs im 16. Jahrhundert," Relazioni del X Congresso Internationale di Scienze Storiche IV: Storia Moderna (Florence, 1955), 67. During the sixteenth century, Catholic polemic had added considerably to the number of "marks" of the true Church, but by the mid-seventeenth century, controversialists had come to rely almost exclusively on the four classic notae. See Leopold Willaert, S.J., Après le concile de Trente: la restauration catholique, 1563-1648 (Tournai, 1960), 323-30. The indispensable work on the notae is Gustave Thils, Les notes de l'Eglise dans l'apologétique catholique depuis la Réforme (Gembloux, 1937); but see also Pontien Polman, L'Elément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Gembloux, 1932); and Rémi Snoeks, L'Argument de tradition dans la controverse eucharistique entre catholiques et réformés français au XVIIe siècle (Louvain, 1951).
20. According to Hubert Jedin, the first monograph on the marks of the true Church was written by the Hessian Franciscan Nikolaus Herborn in 1529. "Zur Entwicklung des Kirchenbegriffs im 16. Jahrhundert," Relazioni del X Congresso Internationale di Scienze Storiche IV: Storia Moderna (Florence, 1955), 67. During the sixteenth century, Catholic polemic had added considerably to the number of "marks" of the true Church, but by the mid-seventeenth century, controversialists had come to rely almost exclusively on the four classic notae. See Leopold Willaert, S.J., Après le concile de Trente: la restauration catholique, 1563-1648 (Tournai, 1960), 323-30. The indispensable work on the notae is Gustave Thils, Les notes de l'Eglise dans l'apologétique catholique depuis la Réforme (Gembloux, 1937); but see also Pontien Polman, L'Elément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Gembloux, 1932); and Rémi Snoeks, L'Argument de tradition dans la controverse eucharistique entre catholiques et réformés français au XVIIe siècle (Louvain, 1951).
21. According to Hubert Jedin, the first monograph on the marks of the true Church was written by the Hessian Franciscan Nikolaus Herborn in 1529. "Zur Entwicklung des Kirchenbegriffs im 16. Jahrhundert," Relazioni del X Congresso Internationale di Scienze Storiche IV: Storia Moderna (Florence, 1955), 67. During the sixteenth century, Catholic polemic had added considerably to the number of "marks" of the true Church, but by the mid-seventeenth century, controversialists had come to rely almost exclusively on the four classic notae. See Leopold Willaert, S.J., Après le concile de Trente: la restauration catholique, 1563-1648 (Tournai, 1960), 323-30. The indispensable work on the notae is Gustave Thils, Les notes de l'Eglise dans l'apologétique catholique depuis la Réforme (Gembloux, 1937); but see also Pontien Polman, L'Elément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Gembloux, 1932); and Rémi Snoeks, L'Argument de tradition dans la controverse eucharistique entre catholiques et réformés français au XVIIe siècle (Louvain, 1951).
22. According to Hubert Jedin, the first monograph on the marks of the true Church was written by the Hessian Franciscan Nikolaus Herborn in 1529. "Zur Entwicklung des Kirchenbegriffs im 16. Jahrhundert," Relazioni del X Congresso Internationale di Scienze Storiche IV: Storia Moderna (Florence, 1955), 67. During the sixteenth century, Catholic polemic had added considerably to the number of "marks" of the true Church, but by the mid-seventeenth century, controversialists had come to rely almost exclusively on the four classic notae. See Leopold Willaert, S.J., Après le concile de Trente: la restauration catholique, 1563-1648 (Tournai, 1960), 323-30. The indispensable work on the notae is Gustave Thils, Les notes de l'Eglise dans l'apologétique catholique depuis la Réforme (Gembloux, 1937); but see also Pontien Polman, L'Elément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Gembloux, 1932); and Rémi Snoeks, L'Argument de tradition dans la controverse eucharistique entre catholiques et réformés français au XVIIe siècle (Louvain, 1951).
23. According to Hubert Jedin, the first monograph on the marks of the true Church was written by the Hessian Franciscan Nikolaus Herborn in 1529. "Zur Entwicklung des Kirchenbegriffs im 16. Jahrhundert," Relazioni del X Congresso Internationale di Scienze Storiche IV: Storia Moderna (Florence, 1955), 67. During the sixteenth century, Catholic polemic had added considerably to the number of "marks" of the true Church, but by the mid-seventeenth century, controversialists had come to rely almost exclusively on the four classic notae. See Leopold Willaert, S.J., Après le concile de Trente: la restauration catholique, 1563-1648 (Tournai, 1960), 323-30. The indispensable work on the notae is Gustave Thils, Les notes de l'Eglise dans l'apologétique catholique depuis la Réforme (Gembloux, 1937); but see also Pontien Polman, L'Elément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Gembloux, 1932); and Rémi Snoeks, L'Argument de tradition dans la controverse eucharistique entre catholiques et réformés français au XVIIe siècle (Louvain, 1951).
24. This is Bellarmine's argument. See for example J. de la Servière, La théologie de Bellarmin (Paris, 1908), 181, where the function of the marks of Catholic truth according to Bellarmine is briefly described in the following manner: "Pour ceux qui admettent l'Inspiration des Ecritures et la valeur de la tradition historique ou patristique, 'l'Eglise apparaît par ses notes [the marks] évidemment vraie....'"
25. On the Catholic arguments that influenced the young Bayle, see Pierre Bayle, Lettre à M. Bayle fils, ministre du Caula, au Caria, 15 April 1670. Quoted in Pierre Des Maiseaux, Vie de M. Bayle, in Dictionnaire historique et Critique de Pierre Bayle (Paris, 1820), XVI, 46; and Elisabeth Labraisse, Pierre Bayle (The Hague, 1964), I, 69.
26. On the Catholic arguments that influenced the young Bayle, see Pierre Bayle, Lettre à M. Bayle fils, ministre du Caula, au Caria, 15 April 1670. Quoted in Pierre Des Maiseaux, Vie de M. Bayle, in Dictionnaire historique et Critique de Pierre Bayle (Paris, 1820), XVI, 46; and Elisabeth Labraisse, Pierre Bayle (The Hague, 1964), I, 69.
27. For a typical example of these arguments and their reception, see "Motifs de la Conversion de Feu Monseigneur Le Prince de Tarente, Ecrits par luy-même vers l'Année 1671," A.N. AP. * 441. My thanks to Keith Luria for having acquainted me with this manuscript.
28. Vitus Erbermann (1597-1675) is known primarily for his polemic against the Lutheran ecumenicists Georg Calixtus (1586-1656) and Hermann Conring (1606-81). See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 5 (Berlin, 1967-71), 578.
29. Johann Musaeus (1613-81) was one of the most influential theologians of his time. A liberal who sympathized with the ecumenicism of Calixtus and Conring, he also combatted the deism of Herbert of Cherbury and the biblical criticism of Spinoza. Against the Catholics Erbermann and Jodocus Kedd he defended the Lutheran view of the primacy and sufficiency of Scripture. See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 23, 84-85.
30. Johann Christian von Boineburg (1622-72), a jurist and diplomat who had studied at the universities of Jena and Marburg and at Helmstedt with Georg Calixtus, converted to Catholicism in 1653 and subsequently entered the employ of the Elector of Mainz. Despite his conversion, he maintained an intimate friendship throughout his life with Hermann Conring and their correspondence provides an indispensable source of information about the intellectual issues which preoccupied potential converts to Catholicism among the educated classes in the Empire and frequently helped to determine the spiritual trajectory which led to their acceptance of Catholicism. See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 3, 222-24, and Commercii Epistolici Leibnitiani ... Tomus Prodromus, qui totus est Boineburgicus (Hannover, 1745).
31. Johann Christian von Boineburg (1622-72), a jurist and diplomat who had studied at the universities of Jena and Marburg and at Helmstedt with Georg Calixtus, converted to Catholicism in 1653 and subsequently entered the employ of the Elector of Mainz. Despite his conversion, he maintained an intimate friendship throughout his life with Hermann Conring and their correspondence provides an indispensable source of information about the intellectual issues which preoccupied potential converts to Catholicism among the educated classes in the Empire and frequently helped to determine the spiritual trajectory which led to their acceptance of Catholicism. See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 3, 222-24, and Commercii Epistolici Leibnitiani ... Tomus Prodromus, qui totus est Boineburgicus (Hannover, 1745).
32. Vitus Erbermann, AntiMusaeus, h.e. Parallela Ecclesiae Verae et Falsae (Würzburg, 1659). The proemium to the treatise is unpaginated.
33. See Terence Penelhum, God and Skepticism, 15. Cf. Descartes, Discourse on the Method in Selected Philosophical Writings, tr. Cottingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch (Cambridge 1993), 34: "Reflecting especially upon the points in every subject which might make it suspect and give occasion for us to make mistakes, I kept uprooting from my mind any errors that might previously have slipped into it. In doing this I was not copying the skeptics, who doubt only for the sake of doubting and pretend to be always undecided, on the contrary, my whole aim was to reach certainty - to cast aside the loose earth and sand so as to come upon rock or clay."
34. See Terence Penelhum, God and Skepticism, 15. Cf. Descartes, Discourse on the Method in Selected Philosophical Writings, tr. Cottingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch (Cambridge 1993), 34: "Reflecting especially upon the points in every subject which might make it suspect and give occasion for us to make mistakes, I kept uprooting from my mind any errors that might previously have slipped into it. In doing this I was not copying the skeptics, who doubt only for the sake of doubting and pretend to be always undecided, on the contrary, my whole aim was to reach certainty - to cast aside the loose earth and sand so as to come upon rock or clay."
35. See William V. Bangert, S.J., A History of the Society of Jesus (St. Louis, 1986), 83-89 and 236-51, and Jonathan Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (New York, 1984).
36. See William V. Bangert, S.J., A History of the Society of Jesus (St. Louis, 1986), 83-89 and 236-51, and Jonathan Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (New York, 1984).
37. Spence, Memory Palace, 42, 151, 210. Ricci's account of his experiences in China had been published in 1615 by Nicholas Trigault under the title De christiana expeditione apud sinas suscepta. In 1667, the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher incorporated large extracts of this work into his China Illustrata.
38. Spence, Memory Palace, 42, 151, 210. Ricci's account of his experiences in China had been published in 1615 by Nicholas Trigault under the title De christiana expeditione apud sinas suscepta. In 1667, the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher incorporated large extracts of this work into his China Illustrata.
39. Spence, Memory Palace, 64, 90; Bangert, A History, 159.
40. Spence, Memory Palace, 64, 90; Bangert, A History, 159.
41. See Pasquale M. d'Elia, Galileo in China: Relations through the Roman College between Galileo and the Jesuit Scientist Missionaries (1610-1640), tr. Rufus Suter and Matthew Sciascia (Cambridge, 1960).
42. It should be noted that adherence throughout the world not only constituted one of the classic four "marks" of Catholic truth but had also been granted primacy by St. Vincent of Lérins in the well-known canon of Catholicity contained in his Commonitorium, a patristic text relied on by theologians on both sides of the confessional fence throughout the controversies of the Reformation. In 434, Vincent had written that "one must take the greatest possible care to believe what has been believed everywhere, ever, by everyone." Quoted in Jaroslav Pelikan, Historical Theology: Continuity and Change in Christian Doctrine (New York, 1971), 4, my emphasis.
43. Paolo Casati, S.J., "Paolo Casati ad Alessandro VII., sopra la regina di Suecia," Leopold von Ranke, The History of the Popes, tr. E. Foster (London, 1847-51), 430-33, (written 5 December 1655).
44. Sforza Pallavicino, Della Vita di Allessandro VII Libri Cinque (Prato, 1839), 342-43 (written c.1658; first published, 1838).
45. Hugo Grotius, quoted in G. H. M. Posthumus Meyjes, "Hugo Grotius as an Ecumenicist," The World of Hugo Grotius, Proceedings of the International Colloquium Organized by the Grotius Committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Amsterdam, 1984), 61.
46. On the distinction between dialectic and demonstration in the seventeenth century, see Jean Dietz Moss, Novelties in the Heavens: Rhetoric and Science in the Copernican Controversy (Chicago, 1993), 3-9.
47. Sforza Pallavicino, Della Vita di Alessandro VII, 342-44.
48. Louis XIV, King of France and of Navarre, Mémoires for the Instruction of the Dauphin, tr. Paul Sonnino (New York, 1970), 58-59, and 3-21 (Sonnino's intro., concerning the authenticity of these memoirs).
49. See Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. by C. B. Macpherson (New York, 1985), esp. 228-39.
50. Compare Richard B. Friedman, "On the Concept of Authority in Political Philosophy," Concepts in Social and Political Philosophy, ed. Richard E. Flathman (New York, 1973), 140 (thanks to Terry Nardin for this reference). See also Hobbes, Leviathan, chap. 29 on private judgment and the erroneous conscience.
51. Compare Richard B. Friedman, "On the Concept of Authority in Political Philosophy," Concepts in Social and Political Philosophy, ed. Richard E. Flathman (New York, 1973), 140 (thanks to Terry Nardin for this reference). See also Hobbes, Leviathan, chap. 29 on private judgment and the erroneous conscience.
52. Louis XIV, Mémoires, 59.
53. "A Letter Concerning Toleration," Locke on Politics, Religion, and Education, ed. Maurice Cranston (New York, 1965), 104: "Honored Sir, Since you are pleased to inquire what are my thoughts about the mutual toleration of Christians in their different professions of religion, I must needs answer you freely, that I esteem that toleration to be the chief characteristical mark of the true church. For whatsoever some people boast of the antiquity of places and names, or of the pomp of their outward worship; others, of the reformation of their discipline; all, of the orthodoxy of their faith, for everyone is orthodox to himself; these things, and all others of this nature, are much rather marks of men striving for power and empire over one another, than of the church of Christ. Let any one have ever so true a claim to all these things, yet if he be destitute of charity, meekness, and good will in general towards all mankind, even to those that are not Christians, he is certainly yet short of being a true Christian himself."
54. Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity, 219.
55. Michel de Certeau, The Writing of History, tr. Tom Conley (New York, 1988), 127.