each—its logical definition—contains attributes which make conjunctions with
the attributes of others at the same time that it is particularly, indexically, itself.
Leibniz expresses this in theological language, reminiscent of Malebranche, as
a pre-established harmony set by God.
But the system does not rest on the theology; it rests on Leibniz’s conception
of a universal logic of all propositions. In his hands the concept of God be-
comes a way of referring to a world order of intelligible reasons. Omniscience
is the equivalent of an infinitely perfected science; omnipotence is subordinated
to the order of reasons. Leibniz’s system is the embodiment of all the network
ties that he brings together. Its central ingredients are the sophistication of
mathematical science at the cutting edge of the new dynamics and infinitesimal
calculus, plus the accumulated scholastic metaphysics which had gone under-
ground before the ideology of the modernists, only to reappear when its
cultural capital became a key resource in the philosophical attention space.Rival Philosophies upon the Space of Religious Toleration
In the last generation of the 1600s, the Protestant world was becoming the
leading edge of secularization in intellectual life. Earlier conditions were now
reversed. The Protestant styles of organizing religion were both more centered
on the national state and more decentralized to local congregations than
Catholicism. This meant that Protestant movements easily fused with dogmatic
enthusiasm and political coercion. Nevertheless, the trajectory of political
conflicts laid the grounds for a trend toward secularization. The greater dis-
persion of organizational resources for religious mobilization into politics
shifted the balance of power and eventually led to stalemate in the state’s ability
to coerce religious uniformity. This did not happen in every state, but inevitably
within an array of religious conflicts across Europe, some regions would come
out at a balance of forces around the point of mutual exhaustion. Toleration
and secularization occurred not because any of the strong factions desired it,
but because these forces exhausted themselves through their conflict. Seculari-
zation set in as a process of de-escalation when the struggle for domination no
longer had the means to continue.
This exhaustion of religious conflict occurred both between states and
within some of them. The culmination of alliance-building was the Thirty
Years’ War between the Protestant Union and the Catholic League; its ending
in 1648 left Germany devastated and Spain more deeply bankrupt than ever.
At the same time, Spain had to give up its costly crusade against the Dutch
Republic. One result was that France was no longer a captive of its anti-Spanish
policy, and it could turn to defending Catholic orthodoxy; we find this in the
greater dogmatism of the French national church under Bossuet. If France
594 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Western Paths