Descartes: A Biography

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

Once More into Battle 

congregation that a student of the deceased had become an atheist by read-

ing Descartes’ work.Brasset was able to reassure Descartes, however, that

he had informed theStadtholderand that silence had been restored.

This was the second occasion on which Descartes had felt threatened by

avery public controversy with Dutch Calvinist theologians who were based

in a local university. At the time he feared for his safety, especially given

the threatening connotations of comparison to Vanini. Before concluding

these rows, he had occasion to pay two more visits to France, the first of

which was in summer.

Visit to France (Summer)

Descartes began to anticipate, in April, the inconveniences associated

with a journey to France that he hoped to make during the summer. On

his previous trip inhe has used the services of Dutch valets, or of

French assistants who had lived for some time in the United Provinces. He

was unhappy with both, since they were unable to adapt quickly enough

to the customs and expectations of French polite society. Accordingly, he

now wrote to his host in Paris, Picot: ‘The Dutch are troublesome on a

journey, and the French people who have been in this country are of no use

in France. That is why I would very much like if one of your acquaintances

were willing to look for a young boy for me who would be able to assist me

during the journey’ (iv.).

Descartes’ threat to leave permanently the country that had provided a

welcome retreat for almost two decades, together with talk about another

journey to France, prompted a worried response from Princess Elizabeth

in May, before his departure.Elizabeth compared Descartes’ growing

reluctance to return to Holland to a similar change of plans she herself was

contemplating. She had hoped to go back to The Hague toward the end

of,but she thought now that it would be better to await the outcome

of the Treaty of Munster and see if she might be able to return instead ̈

to her ‘homeland’ (i.e., the Palatinate). The war had abated, at least in

some parts of Germany, although there was much residual fire damage

to property, and they were plagued by such large swarms of midges that

some people went blind and deaf.ByJune, Descartes had arrived

atThe Hague en route to Rotterdam, from which he wrote to Chanut

and to Princess Elizabeth. He was still considering a permanent change of

residence, especially if the Leiden theologians became ‘unbearable’ (v.).