Abstract
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, while interpreting the Cartesian criterium veritatis for himself, the distinguished Dutch jurist, Gerard Noodt, approached somewhat originally the complex question of truth or falsehood that had been formulated in the modern debate on religious freedom. His Dissertatio de religione ab imperio iure gentium libera, delivered and published in Leiden in 1706, stated that God did not want to transmit a religious formula identical for all humanity, nor had attributed to religion the same level of evidence as that granted to arithmetic:
Sed o immensa, o admirabilis, Dei sapiential […] Quam certo earn revereri debemus, etiam cum causam ignoramus! Aliud tibi in numeris, aliud in religione, placuit.1
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References
Noodt, Gerard, Dissertatio de religione ab imperio iure gentium libera, habita in Academia Lugduno-Batava a.d. VI. Id. Febr. A. MDCCVi Cum abiret Magnifiai Rectoris munere. Lugduni Batavorum: apud F. Haaring, 1706, p. 13 (hereafter cited as Dissertatio). For the republication of this text and, above all, for full bibliographical information the reader is referred to my volume: Tolleranza e liberta di coscienza. Filosofia, diritto e storia tra Leida e Napoli ne I secolo XVIII, with a preface by G.C.J.J. van den Bergh. Napoli: Liguori, 1999, pp. 195–221.
Bayle, Pierre, Dictionnaire historique et critique…(1697–1698), V ed. Amsterdam-Leiden-La Haye-Utrecht: chez P. Brunei [et al], 1740, pp. 58–59.
See Paganini, Gianni, Analisi délia fede e critica délia ragione nella filosofia di Pierre Bayle. Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1980, pp. 325–326.
Noodt, Dissertatio, pp. 31, 10, 27. A critical analysis of juridical “probabilism” in Noodt is in Le Clerc, J., Bibliothèque choisie, VII, 1705, 225, and Ibid. XXVI, 1713, 258–259. On the theme and, in general, on Noodt’s historical-juridical thought, see van den Bergh, Govaert C.J. J., The Life and Work of Gerard Noodt (1647–1725). Dutch Legal Scholarship between Humanism and Enlightenment. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, esp. pp. 138ff.
Noodt, Dissertatio, pp. 31, 10, 27. A critical analysis of juridical “probabilism” in Noodt is in Le Clerc, J., Bibliothèque choisie, VII, 1705, 225, and Ibid. XXVI, 1713, 258–259. On the theme and, in general, on Noodt’s historical-juridical thought, see van den Bergh, Govaert C.J. J., The Life and Work of Gerard Noodt (1647–1725). Dutch Legal Scholarship between Humanism and Enlightenment. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, esp. pp. 32–33.
Noodt, Dissertatio, pp. 31, 10, 27. A critical analysis of juridical “probabilism” in Noodt is in Le Clerc, J., Bibliothèque choisie, VII, 1705, 225, and Ibid. XXVI, 1713, 258–259. On the theme and, in general, on Noodt’s historical-juridical thought, see van den Bergh, Govaert C.J. J., The Life and Work of Gerard Noodt (1647–1725). Dutch Legal Scholarship between Humanism and Enlightenment. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, esp. pp. 33, 26, 32, 39.
Rotondö, Antonio, Europe et Pays-Bas. Evolution, réélaboration et diffusion de la tolérance aux XVlf etX\ r llf siècles. Lignes d’ un programme de recherches. Firenze: Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Storia, 1992, p. 46 (with bibliography to p. 83). See also Simonutti, L., “Between Political Loyalty and Religious Liberty: Political Theory and Toleration in Huguenot Thought in the Epoch of Bayle”, History of Political Thought, XVII, 1996,523–554.
Bayle, Pierre, Nouvelles lettres de l’auteur de la Critique générale de l’histoire du calvinisme [1685], in Idem, Œuvres diverses. La Haye: chez P. Husson [et autres], 1727, reprint, Hildesheim-New York: G. Olms, 1965–1982 (hereafter cited as OD.), t. II, pp. 219a-222a,228a.
Noodt, Dissertation p. 36. The passage is to compare with Commentaire philosophique, part II: “On n’use point de violence afin de gêner la conscience, mais pour réveiller ceux qui refusent d’examiner la vérité. Illusion de cette pensée. Examen de ce qu’on appelle opiniâtreté” (Bayle, Pierre, Commentaire philosophique sur ces paroles de Jésus-Christ, Contrain-les d’entrer…, Canterbury: chez Th. Litwel, 1686 and Rotterdam: Fritsch et Böhm, 1713, part II, chap. 1, in OD., t. II, pp. 393–397). See now van Eijnatten, J., “Gerard Noodt’s Standing in the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Debates on Religious Freedom”, Dutch Review of Church History, LXXIX, 1999, 74–98. In the boundless bibliography about Bayle and the tolerance a critical-historical orientation is offered by: Mori, Gianluca, Introduzione a Bayle. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1996, pp. 4Iff and 205–208; see also Id., Bayle philosophe. Paris: Champion, 1999 (esp. chap. 6: “Conscience et tolérance”, pp. 273–320).
Noodt, Dissertatio, p. 42. It is interesting to compare this judgement with Bayle’s observations on the “équivoque du terrible mot de nouveauté”, incapable to reveal the heretical character of a doctrine “en matière de religion, où se mettra en bon train, mais ce sera sur un océan immense dont les tempêtes sont bien à craindre” (see Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, 1685; V: 1005,1006 [hereafter cited as NRL]; it is the review of Avertissements de Vincent de Lerins touchant Vantiquité et Vuniversalité de la foi catholique contre les nouveautés profanes de tous les hérétiques [Paris, 1684], Ibid.: 999–1006).
Bayle, Commentaire philosophique…, cit., pp. 440b, 432a. See Taranto, Domenico, Pirronismo ed assolatismo nella Francia del ‘600. Studi sul pensiero politico dello scetticismo da Montaigne a Bayle (1580–1697). Milano: F. Angeli, 1994, chap. 7, pp. 173–200.
See NRL 1706; XXXVIII: 586, 585. On the themes here examined, see Bots, H., “L’esprit de la République des Lettres et la tolérance dans les trois premiers périodiques savants hollandais”, XVIf siècle, n° 116, 1977, 45–47.
Le droit de la nature et des gens (…), par le Baron de Pufendorf, traduit du latin par Jean Barbeyrac (…). Amsterdam: chez la veuve de P. de Coup, 1734, V ed. (hereafter cited as Le droit), “Préface du traducteur”, § IV (t. I, pp. XVII, XIX).
J. Barbeyrac to J. Le Clerc, April 10th 1706, now in Le Clerc, Jean, Epistolario, ed. by Maria Grazia and Mario Sina. Firenze: Olschki, 1994, vol. Ill, p. 14.
J. Barbeyrac to P. Des Maizeaux, Berlin, December 22nd 1706, London, British Library, Add. ms. 4281, 21r. I thank the section manuscripts of the Library to have offered me an integral photocopy of this letter.
Le droit, book I, chap. 2, § IV, note 5 (t. I, pp. 26–27).
See Bibliothèque raisonnée des ouvrages des savants de l’Europe (repr. Genève: Slatkine, 1969; hereafter cited as BR) 1733; XI, part I: 56, 57. For the polemic against Bayle in Barbeyrac, see Hochstrasser, T. J., “Conscience and Reason: the Natural Law Theory of Jean Barbeyrac”, The Historical Journal, XXXVI, 1993, 295–303, then also Id., “The Claims of Conscience: Natural Law Theory, Obligation, and Resistance in the Huguenot Diaspora”, in Laursen, J.C., ed., New Essays on the Political Thought of the Huguenots of the Refuge. Leiden-New York-Köln: Brill, 1995, esp. pp. 37 – 46. More inclined to accentuate the critical distance of the French jurist from Crousaz is Lagarrigue, Bruno, Un temple de la culture européenne (1728–1753). L’histoire externe de la Bibliothèque raisonnée des ouvrages des savants de l’Europe. Nijmegen: Katholieke Universiteit, 1993, p. 219.
BR 1733; XI, part I: 69. See now my contribution: “Barbeyrac et le Tyrrhonisme historique’ dans la ‘Bibliothèque raisonnée des ouvrages des savants de l’Europe’”, in Häseler, J., and McKenna, A., ed., La vie intellectuelle aux refuges protestants. Actes de la Table ronde de MÜnster du 25 juillet 1995, Paris: Champion, 1999, pp. 253–267.
Le droit, “Préface du traducteur “, § XXXII (t. I, pp. CXIV, CXIII).
Traité du jeu, où Ton examine les principales questions de droit naturel et de morale qui ont du rapport à cette matière par Jean Barbeyrac… Amsterdam: chez P. Humbert, 1737, II ed., t. I, p. 39. In the critique to the second French edition of Noodf s Dissertationes (1714) Jean Le Clerc, in reference to the theses in Traité du sort, (published in appendix to the edition reviewed in 1714), declared himself “du sentiment de Mr. Barbeyrac, touchant le sort” (see Bibliothèque ancienne et moderne 1714; 1, part II: 456–457).
Le droit, “Préface du traducteur “, §§ III, IV (t. 1, pp. XIV, XVIII, XVI).
J. Barbeyrac to P. Des Maizeaux, Berlin, December 22 nd 1706, cit., 20v-21r.
Le droit, “Préface du traducteur “, § I (t. I, pp. III, IV).
Ibid, book II, chap. 3, § XIX, note 2 (t. I, pp. 232, 230). See Palladini, F., “Volontarismo e Taicità’ del diritto naturale. La critica di S. Pufendorf a Grozio, De iure belli ac pads, Prol. 11 el, 1, 10”, in Reason in Law. Proceedings of the Conference, 1984, December 12–15th. Bologna. Milano: Giuffrè, 1988, vol. Ill, pp. 401–402 and notes. On Le droit, book II, see Le Gere’s critique in Bibliothèque choisie 1706. He recalled the attention, above all, on Barbeyrac’s polemic against Bayle that the reviewer opportunely judged as engaged to “une enumeration des désordres affreux, qui arriveraient dans une république d’athées. Il continue la même matière sur le liv.II ch.III, 19 et ch. IV, 3 et réfute très-bien la pensée de Mr. Bayle, qui prétend qu’une république d’athées aurait été aussi bien réglée, que les républiques païennes”. The conclusion was in a critical judgement of Le Clerc on the limits to establish i4en quelque part une république d’athées, pour voir ce qui en serait; (qu’) une république, selon les idées de Platon; et désormais les raisonnements de Mr. Bayle ne feront pas grand mal au monde” (see Bibliothèque choisie 1706; IX: 403, 404). The “apologetical” value of the connexion between Grotius and Pufendorf in Barbeyrac against Hobbes has been recalled by Fiammetta Palladini, Samuel Pufendorf discepolo di Hobbes. Per una reinterpretazione del giusnaturalismo moderno. Bologna: il Mulino, 1990, pp. 277–278. About the contradictions in Barbeyrac among the rationalism and voluntarism, see Hochstrasser, T.J., “The Claims of Conscience”, cit., p. 46. On Barbeyrac and Pufendorf, see my contribution: “Jean Barbeyrac als Ausleger Pufendorfs. NatÜrliches Recht und Gewissensfreiheit”, in Beetz, M. and Cacciatore, G., eds., Die Hermeneutik im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, Proceedings of the Congress, Halle-Wittenberg, 1996, October 13–15th. Köln-Weimar-Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2000, pp. 197–207.
Noodt, Gerard, “Discours sur la liberté de conscience”, in Recueil de discours sur diverses matières importantes par Jean Barbeyrac. Amsterdam: chez P. Humbert, 1731,1.1, p. 159, note 1. On Noodt and Barbeyrac with regard to the distinction among “Christian and civil Tolerance”, see van Eijnatten, Joris, God, Nederland en Oranje. Dutch Calvinism and the Search for the Social Centre, Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit [1993], p. 122 and note 147 [p. 339] (but see, above all, chap. 3, pp. 99–126 and bibliography to pp. 408–457). On the fortune of Noodt’s and Barbeyrac’s ideas at the end of the eighteenth century see also: Id., Mutua Christianorum Tolerantia. Irenicism and Toleration in the Nederlands: The Stinstra Affair, 1740–1745, Firenze: Olschki, 1999, esp. pp. 41–51.
Noodt, “Discours sur la liberté de conscience”, cit., p. 160, note 1. The reference is to Traité de la morale des Pères de l’Eglise: où en défendant un article de la Préface sur Pufendorf contre l’Apologie de la morale des Pères du P. Ce il lier, religieux bénédictin de la Congrégation de St. Vanne et de St. Hydulphe, on fait diverses reflexions sur plusieurs matières importantes, par Jean Barbeyrac… Amsterdam: chez P. de Coup, 1728, chap. 12, §§ LUI, XXXVIII, pp. 194, 184. See Puaux, Frank, Les précurseurs français de la tolérance au XVII e siècle. Paris: G. Fischbacher, 1881, pp. 161–169.
Noodt, “Discours sur la liberté de conscience”, cit., p. 182, note 2 and BR 1728; I, part II: 318. On this critique, see Lagarrigue, Bruno, op. cit., pp. 55–56. To that Bibliothèque, with regard to the defense of tolerance against the religious orthodoxy, see Bots, Hans, “Le plaidoyer des journalistes de Hollande pour la tolérance (1684–1750)”, in Magdelaine, M., Pitassi, M.-C, Whelan, R., and McKenna, A., eds., De Vhumanisme aux Lumières, Bayle et le protestantisme. Mélanges en l’honneur d’Elisabeth Labrousse. Paris-Oxford: Universitas-Voltaire Foundation, 1996, pp. 557–559.
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Lomonaco, F. (2003). Religious Truth and Freedom of Conscience in Noodt and Barbeyrac: The Confrontation with Bayle. In: Paganini, G. (eds) The Return of Scepticism. Archives Internationales D’Histoire des Idées / International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol 184. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0131-0_21
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