Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

his eyes and raised them to heaven in an expression of acceptance of God’s

will.He passed his final hours reportedly ‘in continuous acts of piety and

religion’, assisted by Chanut’s chaplain, surrounded by his friends who

recited appropriate prayers. According to Clerselier, Descartes accepted

his imminent death in words such as the following: ‘My soul, you have

been held captive a long time. This is the time for you to leave prison and

to relinquish the burden of this body. You must suffer this rupture with

joy and courage.’Descartes seems to have lapsed into unconsciousness

during the final night, and he died in the early hours ofFebruary,

just short of his fifty-fourth birthday.

The funeral was held onFebruary, according to the rite of the

Catholic Church, during which the coffin was carried by Chanut’s sec-

retaries and by his son, Martial. There were only a few mourners at the

funeral. They included Chanut, the chaplain who assisted at Descartes’

death – an Augustinian priest named Father Franc ̧ois Viogu ́e–and his bor-

rowed valet, Henry Schluter. The French philosopher was buried in the

cemetery of the orphans’ hospital. The son of Saumaise reported that this

graveyard was reserved for children who had died without being baptized,

and for those who had died of the plague – in other words, the two types

of people with whom no one wished to be associated after death.This

decision by Chanut symbolized the ambiguity of Descartes’ status within

his church. If he was buried with children who had died before baptism, he

was similar in death to those who were doomed to eternal exclusion from

heaven (according to the theology accepted at that time by the church). If

he was buried in consecrated ground reserved for children who had died

after baptism, his posthumous association with them suggested that he was

destined to spend eternity in heaven because of his innocence and uncon-

taminated holiness. Even in death, it seems, Descartes was ambiguously

compared either with non-believers or with holy innocents.

Reburial in France

Within days of his death, Chanut got to work on Descartes’ books and

papers, and he wrote a number of letters to inform some of Descartes’

closest friends of his premature death. In keeping with his long established

practice of reading little, Descartes had few books in his personal library.

Those he did have, and his personal papers, were set aside to be forwarded

to his family in Brittany. With an eye to future possible use, Chanut wrote