Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

relying on a Limousin for domestic support, and visited infrequently by

afew close friends and supporters with whom he shared the secret of

his address. He had become a reclusive, cantankerous, and oversensitive

loner, who worried incessantly about his place in history and the priority

he claimed for various discoveries.His famously black hair was turning

grey, and he began to wear a wig. He continued this habit until his death,

always sourcing his wigs in Paris, even when he was living in Sweden.

One feature of his hidden life that attracted unfavourable comment was

his religious practice. Claude Saumaise (–), who held a chair

atLeiden beginning in, had written that he was ‘one of the most

zealous Roman Catholics.’During this period when he lived in north

Holland, Descartes had two friends who were Roman Catholic priests,

Jan Albert Bannius and Augustine Bloemaert, on whose behalf Descartes

wrote to Huygens in October.Descartes first met them because of

their shared interest in music and his reputation for having written a short

treatise on that topic many years earlier.In writing to Huygens, Descartes

acknowledges that some of his critics in France reproached him for living

in ‘this country, because the exercise of my religion is not tolerated there’

(ii.), and that he did not even have the excuse that he was living abroad

as a member of the French army that supported the United Provinces.

However, he explains that one can be a true Catholic without ‘supporting

the side of the king who is called Catholic’ (ii.), and that he could

enjoy the company and friendship of some clerics in Holland, so that his

conscience was free.

The tone of this letter was appropriate to that of a request addressed to

the secretary to the Dutch prince. When writing to Mersenne, however,

Descartes conceded that he was equally distrusted by both Catholics and

Calvinists. ‘The Huguenots hate me as a papist, and those of Rome do

not like me because they think I am entangled in the heresy of the earth’s

movement’ (ii.). His problems with Roman Catholics were not limited

to his endorsement of Copernicus. Many also accused him of being a

cryptic Calvinist and of attending their religious ceremonies. In November

,hewrote to Mersenne at great length to counter this accusation

with a written version of his examination of conscience. He listed all the

occasions on which he had attended a ‘sermon’ by anyone other than a

Catholic priest. On one occasion, in the company of two friends, he had

visited the site outside Leiden where, on the first Sunday of each month,

many ‘enthusiasts’ gathered to speak in tongues and to preach the Gospel.