Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

of the body, and even, in the case of Galileo’s astronomy, in the truth of

the Scriptures.

Egmond aan den Hoef

During the time when Descartes was putting the final touches toThe

Principles of Philosophyand writing a reply to Martin Schoock’s critical

book, he mentioned without any explanation that he was ‘about to move

from here and to go to live near Alkmaar op de hoef where I have rented

ahouse’ (iii.).Sometime during the month of May,heleft

Endegeest and moved north again, to Egmond aan den Hoef, which was

considerably more isolated than his former residence.He repeated, in

February of the same year, the reasons he had often given sincefor

deciding to live in the United Provinces. Picot had written to say that

he was going to the Touraine region of France with a view to buying a

property there. Descartes claimed that he would prefer, for his part, to

purchase land in a poorer country where, for the same price, one could

get a larger piece of property, and ‘thus I would not be as easily disturbed

bymyrelatives’ (iii.). He presumably did not have the resources to

purchase property anywhere. One might read into his comments that he

could more easily afford to rent property in Egmond than close to Leiden,

and that the dominant motivation for his move was, as usual, to avoid

being disturbed by friends or relatives. His relocation may also have been

encouraged by the turn of events in Utrecht, where there was suddenly a

danger of being brought before a civil court and charged with libel.

Descartes had been summoned by the municipal council of Utrecht in

Juneto answer the charge of libel against Voetius. The principal par-

ticipants in this complex dispute lived in different provinces – Descartes

in Holland, Schoock in Groningen, Desmarets in Brabant, and Voetius in

Utrecht – and it was unlikely that any one province could have success-

fully enforced a summons against those who lived elsewhere. Descartes

refers to this in a formal letter of reply to theVroedschapof Utrecht.He

complained about the public nature of the summons, as he was well known

in the United Provinces, especially in Utrecht. Consequently, they knew

where he lived if they wished to contact him directly. He also hinted that

they lacked jurisdiction over him, since he lived in north Holland (iv.).

However, Descartes was also concerned enough about his personal safety

to look for legal advice, to ask Pollot for advice about getting local support,