Descartes: A Biography

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

 Notes to Pages–

five years later, in hisApologetic Letter to the Magistrates of Utrecht, that Voetius

had evidently slandered these worthy citizens in his ill-tempered public criticism

of their conduct (viii-.).

.Huygens had been attacked by Voetius earlier, because of his support for the use

of the organ in Reformed churches.

.Huygens to Descartes,June(iii.).

.Colvius to Descartes,June(iii.–).

.Mersenne to Rivet,May: ‘It is most unfortunate in this world to be

classified as an atheist who should be burned after having done everything in one’s

power to prove the existence of God’ (CM, xii.).

.See Raimondi () and the discussion in Chapter, this volume.

.Descartes to M. de la Thuillerie,January(iv.). He repeated this com-

plaint later in the same letter: ‘he clearly claimed that I teach atheism here sur-

reptitiously and in a completely occult style, just like Vanini who was burned at

Toulouse’ (iv.).

.Descartes to Mersenne,May(iii.), where Descartes explains that

he has travelled from his new residence in Egmond to Amsterdam to finalize

publication of the letter with Louis Elzevier in Amsterdam.

.TheHistorical Narrativewas datedSeptember/October,but was prob-

ably made public only in October of the same year. See Descartes to De Wilhem,

November(iv.).

.The immediate reason for moving may have been the expiration of his lease at

Endegeest. That leaves open the question why he moved so far north to the relative

isolation of Egmond.

.Descartes to Mersenne,May: ‘It is four or five weeks since I wrote to you,

because I have changed my residence and I am now in a district a bit further away,

where I receive letters that you have sent to Leiden only about eight days after

they arrive there’ (iii.).

.Descartes to theVroedschapof Utrecht,July(iv.–), which was written

in Dutch.

.Descartes to Graswinckel,October,inwhich Descartes describes him as

a ‘good angel whom God has sent from heaven to assist me’ (iv.).

.Descartes to Pollot,October(iv.); Descartes later wrote to Huygens

that ‘Pollot is working on my behalf, I would not say like a brother, for I do not

receive such support from mine, but like a friend who is more solicitous for my

interests than I could ever be myself.’ Descartes to Huygens,November

(iv.).

.Brasset to Descartes,November(iv.).

.Descartes to De Willem,February(iv.–). The text of the ambassador’s

letter is reproduced in iv..

.Descartes to Pollot,January(iv.).

.Descartes to Pollot,January(iv.).

.This is a summary rather than an exact translation of the text, which is reproduced

in iv.–.