Descartes: A Biography

c CUNYB/Clarke     December, :

Retreat and Defence (–) 

‘Each one preaches as they wish, both men and women, according as

they feel inspired, so that within one hour we heard sermons from five or

six peasants or working people’ (ii.). He also acknowledged hearing

a sermon by an Anabaptist minister and, much more recently, he had

attended a service of thanksgiving at The Hague at which a Calvinist

minister preached.

None of these comments explains whether Descartes practised his

religion in the manner required, at the time, by the Council of Trent.

When Descartes wrote to Huygens in support of his local priests, his let-

ter assumed that it was not necessary to make explicit what was being

requested, since the primary petitioners had already made known their

request. However, the final sentence of his letter says: ‘If you wish to leave

afewpriests here for us, I ask that it would be these rather than any

others’ (ii.). This is consistent with what is known independently of

the unofficial toleration of Roman Catholics in the United Provinces at

that time. Although all public religious meetings apart from those of the

Calvinist Church were officially banned, other religions were tolerated as

long as they were discreet. In some towns in the province of Holland, for

example, the majority of the residents were Roman Catholics. They were

able to attend religious ceremonies, such as the Mass, as long as they did

so without public display and with the co-operation of local officials, who

often needed to be bribed.

Descartes was still planning during the autumn ofto publish a

selection of objections and replies to hisEssays, although he anticipated

that it would take another three months’ work to get all his papers in

order.It was initially unclear whether they would appear in French or

in Latin, or in parallel editions in both languages. However, since most

of the objections or, at least, most of those that he thought worth pub-

lishing had been written in Latin, he asked in Julythat any other

outstanding objections be written in Latin too.At the same time, he was

encouraging Mersenne to prepare corrections of the French edition of

theEssays, although it was evident by Januarythat, given the poor

sales of the first edition, the publisher was unlikely to reissue the book in

French.Despite these unfavourable omens, Descartes seems to have still

been committed to his original plan, as he explained to Mersenne in the

same letter in January. ‘I have planned a study for the rest of this winter,

which will not tolerate any distraction. For that reason I humbly ask you

to allow me not to write to you again before Easter’ (ii.–).Although