c CUNYB/Clarke December, :
Descartes: A Biography
might discourage Voetius from completing and publishing the critique
of Descartes. Huygens agreed to this ruse, and he sent the letter from
Mersenne to Voetius with a cover letter in his own hand.
While awaiting publication of what he understood to be a book by
Voetius about Cartesian philosophy, Descartes became aware of a different
theological dispute among Calvinists in ’s-Hertogenbosch, when he saw
the first pages of another book in the course of printing, in January.
The town of ’s-Hertogenbosch had been the scene of a famous siege in
.Itwas a highly fortified town in Brabant, on the northern border
of the Spanish Netherlands, and it had fallen to Dutch troops under
Prince Frederik Hendrik in Septemberafter a five-month siege that
subsequently acquired an almost mythic status. After this highly symbolic
rout of the Spanish, there was a general Calvinization of the town, with
the establishment of a local Reformed Church (about which Voetius had
been consulted) and the official suppression of the public exercise of the
Roman Catholic religion.In general, the town and surrounding territory
were integrated into a regime similar to what obtained in the rest of the
United Provinces. However, the legal rights of established corporations
were guaranteed, and this applied equally to a confraternity that had been
established in,evidently under Roman Catholic auspices, to promote
devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Over time, the confraternity had
evolved into something more than merely a religious association. It was
also in some sense a club or venue for social gatherings. When the new
Calvinist governor of the town, Johan-Wolfert van Brederode, requested
admission to the confraternity after the siege, together with thirteen other
administrators, none of whom were Catholics, it raised delicate questions
about religious sensitivity on both sides.
The local spokesmen on behalf of Calvinist orthodoxy objected to
church members joining a club that, in their eyes, condoned idolatry
and superstition, and this condemnation triggered publication of a num-
ber of books. Samuel Desmarets (–), a prominent member of the
Walloon Calvinist Church and a theologian in the local Illustrious School,
wrote aDefence of the piety and sincerity of the Den Bosch patricians in the
affair of the Confraternity named after the Holy Virginin.Voetius
articulated the objections of the other side in an extremely prolix book
that was eventually published in March, thereby contributing to a
public dispute within Dutch Calvinism. Even an abbreviated version of
the title of Voetius’ book extends beyond reasonable limits.Example of the