ldolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine: Francis

Bacon and the Neo-Stoic Protestantism of the late Sixteenth

Century
Dana Jalobeanu
Perspectives on Science, Volume 20, Number 2, Summer 2012, pp.
207-226 (Article)
Published by The MIT Press
For additional information about this article
Access provided by Universiteit Gent (5 Aug 2014 04:33 GMT)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/posc/summary/v020/20.2.jalobeanu.html
207
Idolatry, Natural
History, and Spiritual
Medicine: Francis Bacon
and the Neo-Stoic
Protestantism of the
late Sixteenth Century
Dana Jalobeanu
University of Bucharest
This paper aims to explore some possible sources of Francis Bacons peculiar
way of relating idolatry, natural history and the medicine of the mind. In
the rst section, I argue that Bacons strategy of internalizing idolatry is not
unlike that of some of the leading Calvinist reformers. If in using natural
history as a therapy against the idolatrous mind Bacon departed from Cal-
vin, this departure, I claim, was not unlike the road taken earlier by another
important reformer, Pierre Viret (15111571). In elaborating a form of
spiritual medicine, Pierre Viret gave prominence to the empirical and the
anatomical study of nature. In the second part of my paper, I focus on a
particular kind of Calvinist writings against idolatry: the French Neo-
Stoic Calvinism of the late sixteenth century. I discuss the ways in which
the Neo-Stoic Huguenots (and their English followers) used an empirical,
anti-dogmatic and literal study of the Book of Natureunder the name
of natural historyas a weapon in the war against the idols of the mind.
In particular, I compare Bacons form of natural historical therapy with
the one advocated by Pierre de la Primaudaye (15461619).
Francis Bacon had high hopes for a reformed natural philosophy; nothing
less than the restoration of the commerce between the Mind and Things,
the true Marriage of Mind and Nature, and the restitution and reno-
vation of things corruptible (OFB XI, p. 3; SEH VI, p. 721). At the same
time, he was aware that accomplishing such a task might be beyond the
power of mere mortals. As a result, one nds in his writings a tension be-
tween a resolute belief in the possibility of the general reformation of hu-
manity on the one hand, and a more modest attitude about knowledge and
progress, expressed in his demarcation of smaller goals for the treatment
Perspectives on Science 2012, vol. 20, no. 2
2012 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and improvement of the distempered human mind, on the other. Inter-
pretatio naturae, claimed Bacon, was the true and natural work of a mind
freed from the fetters that restrain it (OFB XI, p. 1967); the natural
philosopher must never take his eyes off things themselves, instead, he
should take in their images just as they are (OFB XI, p. 45). However,
since man had lost his capacity to see things just as they are, the human
mind could never be free of impediments: the uneven mirror of the in-
tellect mingles its own nature with the nature of things, and distorts and
stains it (OFB XI, p. 81). Bacons late works, especially his natural and
experimental histories, are full of references to the inner idolatrous ten-
dencies of the mind. They also urge the inquirer to concentrate on the
more modest, introductory natural history, leaving natural philosophy and
the interpretatio to the future (Rees 2007, p. xxxv). In justifying the impor-
tance of natural and experimental history, Bacon also assigned to it some
of the goals originally ascribed to natural philosophy. In this way, natural
history acquired a pronounced theoretical thrust (Rees 2007, p. xxxvii;
Jalobeanu 2010), normative responsibilities, and the task of ghting the
idols of the mind.
1
In Bacons Latin natural histories, the general claims that natural his-
tory can act as a rst spark to kindle natural light (SEH V, p. 508), and
that natural history can prevent the intellect from falling prey to the de-
praved subject matter of speculation (OFB XI, p. 1023), are developed
and specied. Bacon claims that natural history should be written up
with the utmost religious care, as another kind of Holy Writ (OFB XI,
p. 469), because the mind, reading the Book of Nature, is permanently
tempted to fall prey to spectres, idols, prejudices, and old habits.
2
Bacon
therefore adds to his Latin natural histories a special category of observa-
tions that offer advice, precautions, and warnings, such that all
spectres can as far as possible be driven off as if by exorcism (OFB XII,
p. 15).
3
Nowhere is this language of idolatry more prominent than in the
preface to Historia naturalis et experimentalis (1622), where Bacon simply
equates theorizing to idolatry. Every single creator of a philosophical sys-
tem, ancient or modern, speculative or empirical, has contributed only to
the multiplication of ctions, superstitions, and tales out of the cells of
208 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
1. In earlier works, this task of curing the mind by ghting the idols was a function of
natural philosophy. Natural history also had a role in this therapeutic procedure, but only
as an introduction to natural philosophy.
2. Idols originate in the corrupt complexion of the mind, or in a corrupt and ill-
ordered predisposition of the mind, and hence reoccur in every act of judgment, even in
the reading of the Book of Nature; OFB XI, p. 55; SEH IV, p. 431.
3. A similar statement can be found in the introduction to the Novum organum (OFB
XI, p. 41).
his fantasy, by conjuring up worlds in an attempt to be like God. The
consequence is nothing short of a second Fall (OFB XII, p. 9). Such ar-
guments go beyond a mere critique of ancient and modern philosophers,
underlining the potential idolatrous character of any systematic causal en-
quiry into nature. In the absence of a fully developed interpretatio naturae,
every form of causal explanation, even one undertaken according to Bacon-
ian principles, is bound to contain elements of speculation and, hence,
idolatrous tendencies. In this way, Bacon internalizes idolatry, making it a
universal disease of the mind and a recurrent problem for every investiga-
tion of nature.
4
A number of implications arise from these claims. Firstly, although
man has an innate desire for knowledge that bears the stamp of his Cre-
ator, the very exercise of that desire is liable to lead him to idolatry and su-
perstition rather than to God and the truth about nature.
5
Secondly, natu-
ral history must be a continuous effort to keep the mind in check through
a humble, honest, and painstaking reading of the Book of Nature (OFB
XII, p. 11).
6
Lastly, the therapeutic value of natural history is ultimately
limited: the mind can never be cured or restored to its original powers by
the study of nature alone.
The purpose of this paper is to trace some of the possible Calvinist
sources of Bacons striking way of relating idolatry, natural history, and the
medicine of the mind. In the rst section, I will argue that Bacons views
on idolatry show similarities with those of Calvin but are particularly
close to those espoused by another important reformer: Pierre Viret
(15111571). Following both Calvin and Viret, Bacon internalized idola-
try as a universal disease of the mind. If in using natural history as a ther-
apy against the idolatrous mind Bacon departed from Calvin, this depar-
Perspectives on Science 209
4. Natural history, although helpful, is not an absolute guarantee against the idols of
the mind. At various places in his Latin natural histories one can nd surprising claims
about the therapeutic value of negative experiments that teach the mind to accept defeat,
or pieces of advice and cautions presented as forms of exorcisms. See for example OFB
XIII, p. 49; OFB XII, p. 1415; OFB XI, p. 41.
5. Although in principle natural philosophy was created and used as a remedy against
superstition, and blind, immoderate religious zeal (OFB XI, pp. 143, 145), it has failed
to meet its purpose because of the wrong method and the distorted and idolatrous nature
of the mind.
6. For Bacon, this reading of the Book of Nature is a deciphering and spelling the let-
ters from which the book is constructed. Bacon urges the inquirers to take its abecedaria
into their hands (OFB XIII, p. 11). The effort itself seems to be valued here, as in other
parts of Bacons works. The prayer with which Bacon closes Distributio operis compares
Gods effort to make the world with mans vanity and vexation of the spirit and praise in
a thorough Calvinist fashion the value of hard work if we sweat and strain in Your works,
You will make us share in Your vision and sabbath (OFB XI, p. 47). The same value is at-
tached to labor in OFB XII, p. 135.
ture, I will argue, was not unlike the road taken earlier by Viret, who, in
elaborating a form of spiritual medicine, gave prominence to the empirical
and the anatomical study of nature. In the second part of the paper, I
will focus on a particular kind of Calvinist writings against idolatry: the
French Neo-Stoic Calvinism of the late sixteenth century. I will discuss
the ways in which the Neo-Stoic Huguenots (and their English follow-
ers) used an empirical, anti-dogmatic, and literal study of the Book of
Natureunder the name of natural historyas a weapon in the war
against the idols of the mind. In particular, I will compare Bacons form of
natural historical therapy with the one advocated by Pierre de la
Primaudaye (15461619).
This addition of Pierre Viret and the French Neo-Stoic Calvinism to
the discussion about Bacons sources of idolatry and the idols of the mind
can have two potential benets. Besides contributing to the enrichment of
our historical picture of the philosophical and theological context in
which Bacons ideas took shape, it might also prove helpful in providing
further clarication on the much discussed issue of Bacons troubled rela-
tionship with Calvinism.
7
Internalizing Idolatry: The Idols of the Mind and the Fight Against
Epicures and Atheists
Superstition and idolatry are recurrent themes in Bacons religious, politi-
cal, and natural philosophical writings. In the early Advertisement Concern-
ing the Controversies of the Church of England, Bacon identies one of the
causes of religious controversy as the the nature and humour of some
men who try to establish tyranny over the minds of other men.
8
This is
coupled with the more general tendency of the human mind to follow the
names of things and the names of their masters instead of following
the things themselves, thus leaping from ignorance to a prejudicate
opinion (Bacon 1996, p. 8).
9
Learning, and especially speculative philoso-
phy, only aggravates things: universities, maintains Bacon, are the seat
and continent of this disease. There is also a constant connection in Ba-
cons writings between the introduction of new doctrines and the tyr-
anny over mens minds that leads to superstition and idolatry.
10
Supersti-
210 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
7. Bacons connection to Calvinism has been examined in some detail in Millner 1997;
McKnight 2006; Harrison 2007; Mathews 2008.
8. As Brian Vickers has pointed out, Bacons early tract is difcult to date. It was proba-
bly written between 1589 and 1591 (Bacon 1996, p. 497).
9. Julian Martin identies in this paragraph of An Advertisment Concerning the Contro-
versies of the Church of England the rst occurrence of Bacons conception of the idols of the
mind (Martin 1992, p. 148).
10. See the very last paragraph of Bacons Sylva Sylvarum: the introducing of new doc-
tion is worse than atheism, he claims in Of Superstition, because it erectech
an absolute monarchy in the minds of men (p. 373). Superstition is also
worse than atheism because, unlike atheism, it is compatible with reason
while atheism, in many ways, is not.
11
It is always the result of folly and
ignorance (p. 96). Since the human intellect still retains a divine spar-
kle of the creation light which cannot be extinguished, denying God
thus amounts to a self-denial that goes against reason itself (p. 95). As
Millner has shown, for Bacon, as well as Calvin, there are no real atheists:
those professing atheism either suffer from a hardness of mind or are
frenzied with a rebellious denial of their own ineradicable, divine nature
(Millner 1997, pp. 2467). The mechanism of superstition and idolatry
is the same, irrespective of whether we are dealing with religion or the in-
quisition of nature:
For as in the inquiry of divine truth, the pride of man hath ever in-
clined to leave the oracles of Gods word and to vanish in the mix-
ture of their own inventions; so in the self-same manner, in inquisi-
tion of nature they have ever left the oracles of Gods works, and
adored the deceiving and deformed imagery which the unequal
mirrors of their own minds have represented unto them. (SEH III,
p. 224)
12
The insidious nature of idolatry relates partly to the fact that it originates
in the very desire for truth that has been implanted in man. It is the na-
ture of the mind to function as a mirror but it is also in the nature of this
mirror to only produce distorted images. Instead of deciphering the Book
of Nature with due humility and reverence, the diseased mind languishes
in causal speculations which eventually only lead it to fall in love with its
own ctions and deformed imagery.
13
This is the deceitful power of
the mind, fed from wells of zealotry and superstition (Farrington 1964,
pp. 789).
Perspectives on Science 211
trines is likewise an affectation of tyranny over the understandings and beliefs of men
(SEH II, p. 672).
11. Superstition has its root in the idols of the tribe: the fact that the mind is more af-
fected by afrmatives than by negatives, or that it is tempted to assume that nature is sim-
ple and uniform, etc. (SEH IV, p. 432; SEH II, p. 668).
12. De augmentis scientiarum relates directly various types of the idols of the tribe with
resulting superstitions and heresies, without making any distinction between the heresy of
the Anthropomorphites and the heresy of Epicurus or the modern astronomers (SEH IV,
p. 423).
13. Bacon gives examples of distorted idolatrous sciences resulting from the general
tendency to mix passions with reason and fall in love with ones theories. See OFB IV,
p. 8991.
One can read Bacons explanation here as transposing Calvins anthro-
pology of religious idolatry into the realm of knowledge. Calvin had
identied the origin of idolatry in the innate desire for truth implanted in
the human mind, the seed of religion common to all men.
14
The expres-
sion of this innate desire becomes distorted by the darkness which has
settled down upon the minds of men, and which prevents them from dis-
tinguishing between idols and the true God.
15
Each mind is like a laby-
rinth, endlessly distorting the remnants of natural light (Calvin 2006, I,
pp. 645). Drawing on Augustine, Calvin places the root of error in the
belief that the human mind can encompass divine power by means of vi-
sual representation (pp. 109110). In this way, idolatry ceases to be a dis-
ease of the non-Christians or of the wrong Christians (i.e., the Catholics)
and becomes a Christian problem. It is internalized as a universal tendency
by which the diseased mind worships, not God, but dreams and specters
and a gment . . . of their own heart (p. 69). It is also internalized in the
form of a serious question regarding the true method and mode of wor-
ship, and the ways of searching for God in a fallen world (Rubis 2006,
p. 583). Idolatry thus became associated with questions regarding the na-
ture of the mind and with attempts at nding a proper discipline for its
diseased condition. Calvin is extremely critical with the traditional, natu-
ral philosophical forms of discipline: his diatribes against the philosophers
are increased by his ambivalent attitude towards natural theology and its
therapeutic function. On the one hand, God is manifest in nature in that
he has engraved his marks upon creatures so clear and so prominently
that even unlettered folks cannot plead excuse or ignorance (Calvin 2006,
p. 52). On the other, however, the mind is so distorted that it makes natu-
ral theology practically useless.
16
We are not at all sufciently instructed by this bare and simple tes-
timony which the creatures render splendidly to the glory of God.
For at the same time as we have enjoyed a slight taste of the divine
from the contemplation of the universe, having neglected the true
God, we have raised up in his stead dreams and specters of our own
brains. (p. 69)
212 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
14. There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct (Divinitatis
sensum), an awareness of divinity in all men (Calvin 2006, I, p. 43). This natural instinct is
sometimes called a seed of religion or a sense of divinity which can never be effaced
[and] is engraved upon the minds of men (pp. 45, 47).
15. Calvin, Commentary on Psalms 97.7, quoted in Eire 1986, p. 205.
16. There is an ongoing debate over the degree to which Calvin allows for the possibil-
ity of knowing God from nature. For a summary of the debate, see Schreiner 1991.
Bouswma emphasizes a possible connection between the uselessness of natural theology
and Calvins attacks on natural philosophy (Bouswma 1988, pp. 1538).
Such pronouncements, however, leave room to question whether there is
a possibility that the human mind, under the guidance of the true faith,
can achieve the sufcient instruction which the creatures and natural
preachers of God can, in principle, provide. If Calvin is ambivalent on this
point, other Genevan reformers are more positive in emphasizing the im-
portance and value of natural theology. Take, for instance, Calvins long-
time ally and leading gure of the French Reformation, Pierre Viret.
17
In
Virets polemical writings, idolatry is not only a disease of the mind; it is
also a general disease of the age, one against which the true Christian must
take arms.
18
Among Virets many writings on this subject, the second
tome of his Instruction chrestienne (1564) occupies a privileged position. In
it, Viret elaborates both a psychological and physiological account of idol-
atry, and a therapeutic strategy for ghting the inner idols of the mind
and the idolatrous tendencies of the sixteenth century.
19
Viret supplements Calvins anthropology with a detailed investigation
of the psychology and physiology of idolatry. Idolatry and superstition
originate in our attempt to forge an image of God in the shop of our own
brain (i.e. reason is subjected to our imagination), which brings into the
picture a psychology of the faculties; they are also rooted in the body to
which the mind is indissolubly connected.
20
In the second tome of the In-
struction chrestienne, Viret gives a medical account of how body and mind
strongly inuence one another.
21
The balance of humors, the temperament
Perspectives on Science 213
17. Today, Pierre Viret (15111571) is sometimes referred to as the forgotten re-
former (Barnaud 1973). In sixteenth-century France, as well as in sixteenth- and early sev-
enteenth-century England, however, his name and works were extremely well known and
widely read. For more on Virets publications and their context, see Raphale Garrods pa-
per in this volume. See also Barnaud 1973; Linder 1975; Menzer 2007; Gordon 2009.
18. Unlike Calvin, Viret advocated active resistance against tyranny and an active war
against idols going from the destruction of images to forms of spiritual medicine that will
provide defenses for the soul. See Gordon 2009; Eire 1986.
19. Pierre Viret, Instruction Chrestienne (Geneva, 1564). The book is announced as a
work in three volumes containing a summary of Virets doctrine. In the epistle dedicatory,
Viret claims that one can nd in his book everything that is necessary to live as a good
Christian and ght the enemy of the Church (the idolaters and atheists). The third tome of
Instruction Chrestienne was never written. The rst tome deals with the basics of the re-
formed religion and constructs an ethics, while the second volume is dedicated to natural
theology.
20. See also Viret, De la difference qui est entre les superstitions & idolatries des anciens gentilz
& payens & les erreurs & abuz qui sont entre ceux qui sappellent Chrestiens, Geneva, 1542. Viret
takes here the extreme position: the only true images are those created by God, i.e., the
creatures. Any other image is potentially or actually idolatrous. Venerating God according
to our imagination and affection is idolatry. It is a way of fabricating gods in the imagina-
tion, en la forge & boutique de nostre cerveau & entendement, auquel nous voulons
assujetir Dieu (Viret 1542, A5).
21. Car nous voyons par experience que lentendement & lesprit, & toutes les parties
of the body, and the temperature of the brain are said to affect the faculties
of the mind.
22
Conversely, the mind affects the body: it can do so in a good
way, by keeping everything under the tight control of reason, or in a bad
way, when the phantasms of the imagination leave their imprints on the
body itself.
23
Imagination is a dangerous faculty (Viret 1564, p. 384);
many false opinions and doctrines are products of the imagination. The
idolatrous philosophers have exerted tyranny over the minds of men by ex-
ploiting pleasing ctions and opinions which have a semblance of truth in
them (p. 403).
24
In the struggle against spiritual and corporeal diseases, the faculty of
reason has, however, an unexpected ally in memory. Memory is the faithful
scribe and secretary of the mind, recording the decrees and the judgments
of reason (p. 386).
25
However, memory can also be subject to malfunction
as well; distempers in the temperature of the body and the brain can af-
fect the moisture of the imprint.
26
In view of this, it is not surprising that Viret attached great importance
to knowledge of nature in general and knowledge of the human body in
particular; more precisely, he attached this importance to a specic form of
natural knowledge, namely an anatomy.
27
The second volume of the In-
struction chrestienne claims to be both an anatomy of the mind and body and
an anatomy of the world: it is a thorough and detailed empirical study, a
literal reading of the Book of Nature in which Gods creatures are viewed
214 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
& ofces de lame reoyuent grande aide ou grans empeschemens, selon que le corps & tous
les membres dicelui sont bien ou mal disposez, & que les moeurs suivent la complexion &
disposition du corps. Car Dieu a teilement attremp la nature dicelui avec celle de lame,
pour les faire bien convenir ensemble, que lune prend beaucoup de lautre, soit en bien soit
en mal, selon quelles sont ou bien ou mal disposes (Viret 1546, p. 402).
22. As in the cases of the diseases of the mind: frenzy, melancholy, mania are said to
proceed at least in part from the distempers of the body (pp. 3878).
23. Viret uses the standard example of the imagination of the mother that creates a visi-
ble imprint on the body of the fetus and a less standard example of someone who is so
afraid of heights that he cannot traverse a bridge without falling into the water (p. 385).
24. Like Bacon, Viret lists most of the ancient philosophers under this category. In their
attempts to read the book of nature, the ancients have fallen prey to their own idols.
25. Car comme nous avons besoin duntel juge que la raison, pour conclurre & arrester
nalement en lesprit, ce qui peut tre en doute & en different: ainsi il est de besoin que la
conclusion & larrest en soit enregistr en la memoire, comme en un registre & un
protocolle, n quon le puisse toujours trouver quand on aura besoin (p. 386).
26. Following Galen, Viret places the memory in the occipital lobe of the brain, which
is said to be dryer than the rest, and hence more suitable for preserving the imprint. How-
ever, the moisture of the brain varies, which affects the quality of the memory (p. 387).
27. By contrast to natural philosophy, anatomies offer descriptive and non-causal ac-
counts of the object under investigation. For the connection between anatomy and natural
history, see Pomata 2005; Jalobeanu 2012.
as preachers and witnesses of Creation. Although this study can never,
by itself, reveal any genuine truth about God,
28
and despite the fact that
knowledge obtained about His creatures at the end of Virets anatomical
survey is, at best, extremely limited, as a form of exercise this anatomy
re-enforces the sparkle of natural light and the law of nature already
imprinted on our soul (p. 377).
The descriptive and empirical character of reading the Book of Nature
in this way is explicitly contrasted with the speculative discourse of the
Epicureans and Atheists, who rst formulated plausible, pleasing, and
seductive explanations of the natural world, only to transform nature into
an idol (p. 676).
29
Viret holds a very pronounced anti-philosophical stance:
both ancient philosophers and instigators of modern sects are equally asso-
ciated with the Epicurean pigs and Atheistic dogs (p. 537).
Virets psychological proling of idolaters, whose sick mind can neither
stop inventing ctions nor rest in the certainty of the faith, evokes
sorrow
30
: the idolaters, he writes, are continuously inventing new reli-
gions . . . and other similar superstitions because they can never rest and
never know where to stop.
31
The same is potentially the case for every
mind that does not rest in faith, cured by God, the true physician. The hu-
man spiritual medicine can do little, although much is needed.
32
The doc-
tor of the soul can only reach as far as a clear understanding of the diver-
sity of false opinions to which the understanding is enslaved, and which
are liable to change erratically from one moment to the next.
33
That is why
Perspectives on Science 215
28. Gods creatures bear the stamp of creation and they point to God. They also veil
him (Viret 1564, p. 201). The student of nature can contemplate only the effects of Gods
power.
29. The Epicures of Viret in this case are the ancient philosophers Lucretius, Pliny,
Galen and Aristotle.
30. Il faut tousjours quilz vacillent, quils soyent inconstans, muables & troublez en
leur espritz & consciences, comme ilz le montrent par experience (Viret 1562, C5).
31. tous les jours leur fault inventer nouvelles religions . . . & autres semblables super-
stitions . . . que jamais ne sont a repos & ne scavent ou sarrester (Viret 1562, C5).
32. See also Viret 1564, II, p. 689: Parquoi si nous devons autant avoir de soin de
reduire tout nostre corps bonne temperature, sil y a quelque defaut, & la bien entre-
tenir & conserver quand nous lavons, & semblablement legalit & convenance qui doit
tre entre les humeurs desquelles elle procede . . . nous devons bien encore avoir plus
de soin de la temperance & moderation des affections de lame, & de la sant spirituelle
dicelle qui en procede. Et pource nous devons aussi considerer en la corruption des
humeurs du corps la corruption des moeurs & des affections de lame. Car il y a fort grande
convenance de lune lautre.
33. Et sil est question de lame, tu as considerer en icelle toutes les affections: & puis
la nature de lentendement, sil est tardif & pesant, ou subit & leger . . . Et puis il faut
considerer la doctrine de laquelle il aura t abruu, & les opinions & sectes qui sont . . .
enracines en icelui, & les persuasions desquelles il a t premierement occup: & puis les
all the ancient forms of spiritual medicine ended invariably by falling prey
to the idolatrous tendencies they were attempting to cure.
34
The same strategy was adopted by another inuential Huguenot writer,
Philippe Duplessis Mornay (15491623).
35
His De la verite de la religion
chretienne contre les Athees, Epicuriens, Payens, Juifs . . . et autres indeles (1581)
is a massive and eclectic attempt to provide a new spiritual medicine to re-
place the failed efforts of the ancients.
36
Like Viret, Mornay claims that, al-
though most philosophers have correctly diagnosed the diseases of the
mind, dogmatism and idolatry have proved stronger than their natural
wisdom.
37
The only effective spiritual medicine is the true religion, the
true art of saving the soul (Mornay 1581, p. 499). This art, however, is
in fact a tough discipline of the mind, a perpetual ght against the inner
diseases and imperfections of the human soul (p. 478). It is also a carefully
regulated process in which the mind is rst diagnosed, then made aware
both of its own disease and of its mortal nature, and nally directed to-
wards the true and tortuous road it must take if it is to be remedied
(p. 499). What distinguishes a true religion from an idolatrous one is that
it contains natural defenses against idolatry and it is able to employ
them in exposing the seeds of idolatry present everywhere in the world
(pp. 504505).
38
216 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
moeurs & la coutume & lauthorit dautruy. Car toutes ces choses brouillent beaucoup les
entendemens des hommes, & sont cause quil y a non seulement si grande diversit, mais
aussi contrariet dopinions & de sentences & de volontez, & quils les changent & re-
changent tant souvent, de sorte quils ne sont pas seulement differens & contraires entreux,
mais aussi un chacun avec soy mme (p. 402).
34. Among other things, the best philosophers of Antiquity have used their brilliant
minds to twist natural philosophy in such a way to provide consolation against death
(pp. 6367).
35. Philippe Du Plessis Mornay (15491623) was one of the leading gures of the
Protestant cause in France. He was the personal councilor of Henri de Navarre (Henry IV),
prolic author of works combining a Stoic perspective with Calvinist theology. On
Mornays recuperation and rewriting of Stoicism in a Protestant format, see Carabin 2004;
Graves 2006.
36. Mornays treatise went through numerous editions in Latin (1581), French (1581,
1582, 1583, 1585, 1597), English (1604) and Italian (1603). In England the translation
begun by Philip Sidney and nished by Arthur Golding was widely read: see Carabin,
2004.
37. Les Philosophes sont empechez a trouver un moyen pour purger le genre humain
de ses fouilleurs, les uns par Ethiques, les autres par Mathematiques, les autres par la
Theologie . . . Ils sont fols en leur remedes mais sages en la connoissance de la maladie
(Mornay 1581, p. 445).
38. Unlike Viret, Mornay claims that the human intellect is largely unchanged by the
Fall and that only the improper collaboration between the mind and the body lies at
the origin of our errors. As Carabin has shown, we have in Mornay a Platonizing reading
of the Stoics (Carabin 2004).
Both Viret and Mornay agree that idolatry and superstition endanger
public peace and the cohesion of society at large. Both associate idolatry
with other signs of corruption in the providential history laid out for
mankind. Religious disputations, philosophical and religious sectarian-
ism, and political turmoil became, in this way, symptoms of the same dis-
ease: idolatry, in all its varied forms.
By the last decades of the sixteenth century, the spiritual medicine that
had been proposed to ght such diseases began to incorporate more sug-
gestions about the value of a sober, pious, and empirical study of nature.
Spiritual medicine drew heavily on an alliance between Stoic and Protes-
tant doctrines characterized in recent years as the school of Protestant
Neo-Stoicism (Graves 2006).
39
Works of moral philosophy, natural his-
tory, encyclopedic writings, and translations of the Roman Stoics proposed
that various schools of wisdom, as well as empirical inquiries into the
natural world, could act as defenses in the war against Epicureans and
Atheists.
40
Early Protestant editors and translators of Seneca into French
felt obliged to preface their works with references to the usefulness of his
ethics or physics in the discourse against Epicureans (both ancient and
modern).
41
For example, in a summary of the natural philosophy of Seneca,
another important reformer, Simon Goulart (15431628), adopted this
strategy.
42
Goulart emphasized the value of Senecas empirical and non-
dogmatic method of studying nature, which can elevate the soul without
endangering the public peace (Goulart 1606, p. 418).
One can nd similar treatments of Seneca in late sixteenth- and early
seventeenth-century English translations of works that belong to the Neo-
Stoic revival.
43
English works of consolation and translations of the French
Neo-Stoics also made ample use of the imagery of a humble, pious, and
Perspectives on Science 217
39. Denise Carabin identied among the various phases of the recuperation of Stoicism
in France one characterized by a process of rewriting and Christianizing Stoic ideas under
the inuence of a Protestant sensibility (Carabin 2004, pp. 1357).
40. Such are Pierre de la Primaudayes rst volume of the Acadmie franoise, 1577, Guy
Lefevre de la Boderies translation of Ciceros De natura deorum published in 1581, and
Guillaume du Vairs La philosophie morale des Stoiques, 1585. See Sealy 1981, 73ff.
41. As Carabin has noticed, unlike the Catholic editions of Seneca, the Protestant ones
are decisively apologetic. Examples include Henri Etiennes projected edition of Senecas
works and Simon Goularts French translation of Senecas works. See Carabin 2004,
pp. 3156; Goulart 1606; Estienne 2007.
42. Goulart developed a full argumentation on the usefulness of Senecan doctrine in a
time of troubles, idolatry and irreligion (Goulart 1606). See also Estienne 2007.
43. See for example the preface of Thomas Jones to Guillaume du Vair, The Moral
Philosophie of the Stoicks, London, 1598, and the preface of Thomas Bowes to the second vol-
ume of Pierre de la Primaudaye, French Academy, London, 1594. See also the marginal titles
and comments on the rst translation of Senecas complete works published by Thomas
Lodge in 1614.
honest reading of the Book of Nature as a powerful weapon in the war
against idolatry.
44
By making idolatry and superstition universal diseases
of the fallen mind, as well as signs of the corruption of the age, Bacon
was thus following a widespread trend present in the cultural and reli-
gious milieu of his day. Similarly widespread was the solution of using an
empirical and non-dogmatic form of investigating nature as a weapon in
this war against the idols.
A more complete exposition of the same position is to be found in Pi-
erre de la Primaudayes Acadmie Franoise, a four-volume compendium of
moral, natural historical, and philosophical knowledge that was read
widely throughout Europe, particularly in late sixteenth-century England.
What this eclectic and massive work brings into discussion is an explicit
connection between the war against Epicures and Atheists and natural
history. It is to this that I will turn in the next section of this paper.
45
Natural History and Spiritual Medicine
The second and third volumes of Pierre de la Primaudayes French Academy
are natural histories.
46
The purpose of the second volume is to lay before
our eies as it were a naturall historie of man through a careful consider-
ation of the composition and structure of the human body, and also by a
description of the parts, powers, virtues and faculties of the soul (La
Primaudaye 1618, p. 630). The third volume is a description of the prin-
cipal natures and creatures of the Universe (La Primaudaye 1594, Pref-
ace). Both volumes are heavily indebted to Pierre Virets Instruction
chrestienne, from where La Primaudaye often takes not only his general line
of argumentation, but also transcribes large paragraphs verbatim (see
Drochner 1960; Jalobeanu 2012). The work is likewise a dialogue on Cre-
218 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
44. For a more general reception of Seneca in England see Todd 1983, Salmon 1989
and Guido Giglionis paper in this volume.
45. All the volumes of the French Academy were translated into English. The second and
the third volumes that I am going to discuss in the next sections appeared in English
translation in 1594 and 1601, before being also included in the nal English version of
1618. The second volume, French Academy, London, 1594, has an extended preface stress-
ing the importance of the book as a mirror of the inner parts of the body and soul and its
therapeutic and natural theological functions. It also emphasizes the actuality of such a
work within an age full of Epicures and Atheists. About one fourth of the preface is dedi-
cated to listing the gruesome and well deserved deaths of notorious atheists including
Epicurus, Lucian, Pliny, Pope John II, Pope Leo X and Franois Rabelais.
46. I will refer in what follows to the English translations of La Primaudayes volumes.
Most of the references will be to the complete French Academy, containing all the four vol-
umes, published in London, in 1618. To this I will refer as La Primaudaye 1618. Similarly,
I will refer to the English translation of the second volume published separately in London,
in 1594, as La Primaudaye 1594.
ation, the structure of the universe, the composition of the human body,
and the nature and functions of the human soul. However, Virets ideas are
packaged in a Neo-Stoic wrapping and supplemented by certain elements
of the nascent discipline of natural history. In fact, much of his factual in-
formation, and sometimes even the general structure and order of the
third volume, follows Plinys Historia naturalis. In addition to ancient au-
thorities, La Primaudaye quotes contemporary travel reports and empirical
facts based on a different type of evidence, but which nevertheless are
treated as holding the same authority as the facts reported by the an-
cients. The structure of argumentation in this composite work also often
reveals the inuence of Senecas Naturales quaestiones (Jalobeanu 2012).
This particular form of natural history is employed explicitly as a form of
spiritual medicine.
47
The particular aspect of La Primaudayes approach that makes it even
more similar to Bacons is that he explicitly argues for the tentative, em-
pirical, and unnished character of the study of nature. Chapters of the
French Academy regularly begin with a summary of the received opinions
on a given natural phenomenon, then reject most of them, selecting only
two of the weightier ones, and nally propose empirical arguments in fa-
vor of each. Sometimes the empirical arguments bring into discussion re-
cently published travel literature or travel reports on the phenomenon un-
der discussion (Jalobeanu 2012).
48
At other times, La Primaudaye even
takes into account the possibility of producing the phenomenon under in-
vestigation in an articial manner, through experimentation.
49
After sum-
marizing all opinions and arguments, his chapters invariably end by em-
phasizing the limited character of human knowledge, and its moral or
theological implications. In addition to offering many instances and often
repetitive examples of the argument from design, many of the chapters
suggest the conclusion that all past natural philosophies have been merely
Perspectives on Science 219
47. There is a clear connection between the four volumes of the French Academy, orga-
nized as a complex program of studies in a school of wisdom. One should begin with moral
philosophy and disciplining the mind; one should not study nature, claims La Primaudaye,
before preparing ones mind with moral precepts (La Primaudaye 1618, I, p. 17). The
study of nature is also just a part of the program that should end with the proper Christian
philosophy (see volume IV). Only in this way can philosophy be a medicine of the mind,
the true knowledge of life, and the true medicine and tillage of the soul (I, p. 21), and
therefore a way of reforming ourselves (I, p. 20).
48. Amerigo Vespuccis observations of new stars in the Southern Hemisphere are dis-
cussed as possible arguments in favor of the corruptible nature of the sky. Although La
Primaudaye does not accept that the sky is corruptible, such empirical arguments are used
to emphasize the limited character of human knowledge. La Primaudaye 1618, III, p. 697.
49. Such is the discussion of the similarities between some of the effects of the earth-
quakes and those produced in artillery or in mines, by powerful explosions (p. 767).
superstition and idolatry. The philosophers have blinded themselves
through their vaine discourses and have become guides to the blinde (La
Primaudaye 1594, p. 11). Their doctrines are based on false notions and
the misunderstanding of wordes (La Primaudaye 1618, III, 646) which
instead of acknowledging God, do forge . . . an Idoll of Nature (p. 704).
In fact, for La Primaudaye there is no distinction between superstition,
idolatry, and atheism: they are all diseases of the mind, and even Atheists
are the great idolaters of nature (p. 706). As a result, the French Academy
is not only a school of wisdom, but also a battleeld (La Primaudaye 1618,
II, pp. 329, 331332). The enemies are the Epicures and Atheists and
their modern followers. Chief amongst the Epicures are Pliny and Lucre-
tius, Aristotle, Averroes, and the Arab philosophers.
50
They are the idola-
trous creators of ctions, believingin a thoroughly unsubstantiated way,
of coursein the power of the human mind and in an ideal, demonstra-
tive knowledge. By contrast, the true Christian philosopher is fully
aware that any knowledge about the created world is bound to be descrip-
tive, tentative, and fallible, and has to be supported by arguments from
Scripture (pp. 723, 74041).
There is also another aspect to La Primaudayes natural history which
distinguishes it from natural theology and which also resembles one of Ba-
cons denitions of natural history: the strong emphasis placed on the role
of memory in collecting facts, keeping the mind on the right track, and
functioning as a remedy against the diseases of the imagination. As in
Viret (and with passages borrowed from him), La Primaudaye character-
izes the memory as a faithful scribe, the chancery of the mind, and the
treasury of knowledge (II, pp. 41718; I, p. 36). It records in a proper
manner all past events, and thus the judgment of reason and the exercise
of memory is a good remedy against the agitation of the spirit (I, p. 37).
As a result, the memory acts as a foundation for learning and the produc-
tion of sound knowledge.
51
This central role is paralleled by the impor-
tance of history among the arts and sciences: history is both a preferred ve-
hicle for learning and a good introduction into the more abstract matter of
philosophy. Yet, memory itself is not infallible. Following Viret, La Prim-
auaye describes memory as varying with the moisture of the brain; a dis-
turbed mind is essentially inconstant, wandering from one opinion to the
220 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
50. Although it is not clear who the contemporary Atheists are that La Primaudaye at-
tacks, the list of the ancient Epicures and Atheists is constant throughout the book. Pliny
is harshly criticized for his Atheist and heretical views (pp. 6246). Similarly, the chapters
on meteorology contain diatribes against Aristotle.
51. La Primaudaye is heavily quoting Seneca and other Stoics on the importance of
memory in volume I of the French Academy. Similar emphasis on memory as a remedy
against the diseases of the imagination can be found in Viret 1564, p. 394ff.
other.
52
Therefore, even records of the facts of nature (i.e., natural history)
are not enough by themselves to offer a medicine of the mind. Natural his-
tory can play, at best, only a part in the larger program to discipline and
control the various tendencies of the human mind towards idolatry and
superstition.
Possible Historical Connections: Bacon and the French Academy
The rst volume of Pierre de la Primaudayes French Academy begins with a
attering dedication to Henri III and his Palace Academy at Blois. La
Primaudaye claims to have modeled his school of wisdom after the Royal
Academy, and also implies that he has attended its meetings. Robert J.
Sealy has traced the history of this academy and surveyed the themes
discussed by this informal gathering of courtiers, politicians, and philoso-
phers, whose major purpose seems to have been the illumination and edu-
cation of the king and his supporters (Sealy 1981). It was an itinerant
academy, which moved with the court from Paris to Blois, and then from
Fontainebleau to Poitiers. According to Sealy, in the years 15771578 the
Palace Academy underwent a double transformation: rst, in 1577 its lec-
tures acquired a public format; then, in 1578 their subject shifted from
moral philosophy to natural philosophy (p. 90). This is the context in
which La Primaudaye began to write his French Academy. It was at the
same time that the young Francis Bacon was in France, following the
French court as part of the retinue of the English ambassador, Sir Amias
Paulet (Martin 1992; Jardine and Stewart 1995). Little is known about
Bacons years in France, but the little we know supports the hypothesis
that he was inuenced by the cultural and religious, and perhaps even po-
litical and legal, milieus to which he was exposed (Martin 1992, pp. 278;
Dzelzainis 2006). Moreover, as a member of a family that had strong ties
to the Protestantism in Europe and the religious leaders of Geneva, Bacon
was well acquainted with the writings (and persons) of both Genevan and
Huguenot reformers.
53
I have not been able to trace a direct, personal con-
nection with Pierre de la Primaudaye, but there are a couple of arguments
in favor of it: La Primaudaye was closely associated with Mornay and with
the type of political and intellectual commitment to which Mornay re-
mained faithful most of his life. Both looked to the partisans of the
Protestant cause in England as their natural allies, and La Primaudaye
Perspectives on Science 221
52. La Primaudaye used an entire passage from Viret to explain how the medicine of
the mind should begin. See La Primaudaye 1618, II, pp. 4278, and Viret 1564, p. 402
(see note 34).
53. See Jardine and Stewart 1995. For Bacons association with the Protestant or Puri-
tan movement in England and his association with the Leicester House and Philip Sid-
neys circle, see Martin 1992, pp. 334.
dedicated the third volume of his French Academy to Queen Elizabeth.
54
After the conversion of Henry IV, both Mornay and La Primaudaye disso-
ciated themselves from the moderate Huguenots and argued openly for
keeping their Protestantism pure (Holt 2007; Drochner 1960). They also
retired from public life in 1592, after which they restated their English
connections and sympathies: in 1611, for example, La Primaudaye reis-
sued his Advis sur la necessite et forme dun S. Concile pour lunion des Eglises
Chrestiennes en la Foy Catholique et sainct exercise dicelle (1591) with a dedica-
tory epistle to James I and the new regime of England.
This is only circumstantial evidence in favor of a shared intellectual
backgroundthat of the French Neo-Stoic Protestantismin which
some of Bacons ideas might have originated. We can, perhaps, also nd
other circumstantial evidence in one of Bacons early writings. The set-
ting of Redargutio philosophiarum is a French academy dedicated to the
great instauration of philosophy (instaurationem philosophiae). The assembly
share many common features with the Palace Academy: it is said to be
composed of courtiers, members of the Parliament, and divines, as well
as members of government. It also welcomes strangers (Bacon 1987,
p. 82). It is similar in many ways to the schools of wisdom advocated by
La Primaudaye, Mornay, Goulart, and Viret. In Bacons French academy,
a character bearing all the external attributes of wisdom and virtue speaks
against idolatry, superstition, and the innite number of opinions in
philosophy, theology and politics, raising the very issue of whose geneal-
ogy this paper has surveyed. How should one purge a human soul which
has been conquered and occupied (obsessae) by idols in such a way that
the small portion of the intellect which is still pure and clean can begin to
work properly (p. 90)? Bacons Redargutio formulates a whole program for
the education and preparation of the understanding. Several steps are em-
phasized: the rst is the attempt to deliver the mind from the tyranny of
sects and opinions through an exhaustive critique of the ancient and mod-
ern philosophers;
55
the second is meant to lead the mind to things them-
selves, bringing about the chaste and legitimate union with nature
through a new method which will bridle the winged imagination with
lead and weights (pp. 138, 114). This method is nothing else but experi-
222 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
54. In the dedicatory letter La Primaudaye claims that unlike France, England has well
received his previous volumes and therefore it is to England that he is sending this third
part of his Academy, placing it under the patronage of a queen who did so much in the
favour of the true religion.
55. All philosophical theories, Bacon claims, are no more than theatrical ctional plots
destined to ensnare the understanding (Bacon 1987, p. 108); they are statues receiving
adoration and honours (p. 128).
entia literata combined with the art and method for the honest interpreta-
tion of nature, that is, the true way of going from the senses to the under-
standing, whose result will be different from the old monsters of the
imagination (phantasiae monstra) (p. 114). Instead, Bacon promises a true
race of heroes, able to expel and annihilate these monsters (p. 138).
Going beyond the strikingbut by now familiar imagesof the Fall and
redemption, discipline and cultivation of the intellect, Bacon sketches in
the Redargutio philosophiarum the steps of his method of interpretatio naturae:
the mind should begin with natural history properly recorded and di-
gested, for one cannot erase the contents of the tables of the mind before
writing something new (p. 142). This growing and provisional material
has to be, then, subjected to an honest, pious, and humble reading and
interpretation. The details are left in the shade, and despite later at-
tempts to clarify the program, most remain rather unclear. Details apart,
the general contour of the scheme for medicining the diseased and idola-
trous mind, and especially its language, bears a striking resemblance to
the Neo-Stoic and Protestant milieu where, it seems likely, many of its in-
tellectual commitments took shape.
Conclusion
The standard story of Bacons troubled relation with Calvinism usually be-
gins with an emphasis upon the similarities between Bacons early works
and Calvins own doctrines, and then continues to claim that a gradual or
an abrupt break between Bacon and Calvinism took place (Millner 1997),
or that this was a break between Bacon and Puritanism more generally
(Mathews 2008). I have tried to ll in some of the details of this story. I
have argued that Bacons emphasis on the careful observation, recording,
and deciphering of natural particulars does not constitute a break with re-
spect to the Protestant tradition, as dened by some of the Genevan re-
formers. I have also argued that Bacon went beyond simply borrowing the
language and imagery of such Neo-Stoic, Protestant discourses on idola-
try: he used the same strategy of internalizing idolatry as a disease of the
mind. Moreover, he formulated analogous treatments and therapies cen-
tered upon a thorough, humble, and painstaking reading of the Book of
Nature. He endorsed, like Viret and La Primaudaye, the role of the mem-
ory in this process. Finally, he provided the missing link needed to solve
the problem of the unreliability of human memory: the art of recording
facts and experiments.
There are, of course, numerous points of difference between Bacons so-
phisticated natural history and the more navely empirical study of nature
one can nd in Viret or La Primaudaye. Nevertheless, they make the simi-
Perspectives on Science 223
larities even more pronounced, and demonstrate how much of our story of
Bacons views on religion and, moreover, his relation to his own intellec-
tual and religious background, still remains to be told.
References:
Bacon, Francis. 185774. The Works of Francis Bacon (SEH), 14 vols.
Edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon
Heath. London: Longman (repr. 196163, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt:
Frommann).
Bacon, Francis. 1985 , The Oxford Francis Bacon (OFB). Edited by Gra-
ham Rees and Brian Vickers. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bacon, Francis. 1996. The Major Works. Edited by B. Vickers. Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press.
Bacon, Francis. 1987. Rcusation des doctrines philosophiques et autres opuscules.
Edited by D. Deleule. Paris: Hermann.
Barnaud, Jean. 1973. Pierre Viret: sa vie et son oeuvre. Niuwkoop: B. De
Graaf.
Bavaud, George. 1986. Le rformateur Pierre Viret: sa thologie. Geneva: La-
bor et Fides, 1986.
Boucher, Jean. 2007. Socit et mentalits autour de Henri III. Paris: Honor
Champion.
Bouswma, William J. 1988. John Calvin. A Sixteenth Century Portrait. Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press.
Carabin, Denise. 2004. Les ides stociennes dans la littrature morale des XVI
e
et XVII
e
sicles (15751642). Paris: Honor Champion.
Calvin, John. 2006. Institutes of Christian Religion. Edited by John T.
McNeil. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press.
Drochner, Karl-Heinz. 1960. Darstellung eininger Grnzuge des literarischen
werks von Pierre de la Primaudaye. Berlin: [s.n]
Dzelzainis, Martin. 2006. The Feminine part of every Rebelion: Francis
Bacon on Sedition and Libel, and the Beginning of Ideology. Hunting-
ton Library Quarterly 69: 139152.
Eire, Carlos M. N. 1986. War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship
from Erasmus to Calvin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Estienne, Henri. (1586) 2007. Introduction a la lecture de Snque. Edition
critique, texte et traduction par Denise Carabin. Paris: Honor Cham-
pion.
Farrington, Benjamin. 1964. The Philosophy of Francis Bacon. An Essay on
its Development from 1603 to 1609 with New Translations of Fundamental
Texts. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Graves, Amy. 2006. Les preuves du huguenot et la vulgarization du
224 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine
stocisme: Simon Goulart, Jean de lEspine et Snque. Pp. 11731 in
Stocisme et christianisme la Renaissance. Paris: Editions Rue dUlm,
ENS.
Goulart, Simon. 1606. Les Oeuvres morales et mesles de Seneque, traduite de
latin en francois et nouvellement mises en lumire. Geneva: Jean Arnauld.
Gordon, Bruce. 2009. Calvin. New Haven: Yale University Press
Harrison, Peter. 2007. The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hesselink, John I. 2004. Calvins Theology. Pp. 7493 in The Cambridge
Companion to Calvin. Edited by Donald K. McKim. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Holt, Mack P. 2007. Divisions within French Calvinism: Philippe
Duplessis-Mornay and the Eucharist. Pp. 165179 in Adaptations of
Calvinism in Reformation Europe. Edited by Mark P. Holt. Aldershot:
Ashgate.
Jardine, Lisa and Alan Stewart. 1995. Hostage to Fortune. The Troubled Life
of Francis Bacon. New York: Hill and Wang.
Jalobeanu, Dana. 2008. Bacons Brotherhood and its Classical Sources.
Pp. 197230 in Philosophies of Technology: Francis Bacon and his Contempo-
raries. Edited by Claus Zittel et al. Leiden: Brill.
Jalobeanu, Dana. 2010. Experimental Philosophers and Doctors of the
Mind: the appropriation of a philosophical tradition. Pp. 3763 in
Naturel et surnaturel. Philosophies de la nature et mtaphysique aux XVI
XVII sicles. Edited by Vlad Alexandrescu and Robert Theis.
Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag.
Jalobeanu, Dana. 2012. Francis Bacons Natural History and the Senecan
Natural Histories of Early Modern Europe. Early Science and Medicine
17:197229.
Lagre, Jacqueline. 1994. Juste Lipse et la restauration du stocisme. Paris:
Vrin.
La Primaudaye, Pierre. 1578. Academie francoise. Paris: G. Chaudire.
La Primaudaye, Pierre. 1583. Suite de lacademie francoise en laquelle il est
traite de lhomme et comme par un histoire naturelle du corps et de lame. Paris:
G.Chaudire
La Primaudaye, Pierre. 1596. The Second Part of the French Academie. Lon-
don: George Bishop.
La Primaudaye, Pierre. 1601. The Third Volume of the French Academie. Lon-
don: George Bishop.
La Primaudaye, Pierre. 1608. LAcademie Francoise:Distinquee en Quatre Vol-
umes. Geneve: Pierre et Jaques Chouet.
La Primaudye, Pierre. 1618. The French Academie fully discoursed and nished
in four bookes. 3 vols. London: Thomas Adams.
Perspectives on Science 225
Linder, Robert D. 1975. Calvinism and Humanism: The First Genera-
tion. Church History 44: 167181.
Martin, Julian. 1992. Francis Bacon, the State and the Reform of Natural Phi-
losophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Matthews, Steven. 2008. Theology and Science in the Thought of Francis Ba-
con. Aldershot: Ashgate.
McKnight, Stephen A. 2006. The Religious Foundations of Francis Bacons
Thought. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Mentzer, Raymond A. 2007. The Genevan Model and the Gallican Orig-
inality in the French Reformed Tradition. Pp. 147165 in Adaptations
of Calvinism in Reformation Europe. Edited by Mark P. Holt. London:
Ashgate
McCrea, Adriana. 1997. Constant Minds: Political Virtue and the Lipsian
Paradigm in England, 15841650. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press.
Miller, Benjamin. 1997. Francis Bacon: The Theological Foundations of
Valerius Terminus. Journal of the History of Ideas 58: 24564.
Mornay, Philippe. 1581. De la verit de la religion chrestienne contre les athes,
epicuriens, payens et juifs, Anvers: Christophle Plantin
Pomata, Gianna. 2005. Praxis Historialis: The Uses of Historia in Early
Modern Medicine. Pp. 105146 in Historia: Empiricism and Erudition
in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Nancy Siraisi and Gianna Pomata.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rees, Graham. 2007. Introduction. Pp. xixxci in The Instauratio magna:
Last Writings, vol. XIII in The Oxford Francis Bacon. Edited by Graham
Rees. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rubis, Jean-Pau. 2006. Theology, Ethnography and the Historicization
of Idolatry. Journal of the History of Ideas 67: 57196.
Schreiner, Susan. 1991. The Theater of His Glory: Nature and Natural Or-
der in the Thought of John Calvin. Durham: Labyrinth Press.
Salmon, J. H. M. 1989. Stoicism and the Roman Example: Seneca and
Tacitus in Jacobean England. Journal of the History of Ideas 50: 199
225.
Sealy, Robert J. 1981. The Palace Academy of Henry III, Genve: Droz.
Viret, Pierre. 1564. Instruction crestienne. 2 vols. Geneva.
Viret, Pierre. 1542. De la difference qui est entre les superstitions & idolatries des
anciens gentilz & payens & les erreurs & abuz qui sont entre ceux qui sappellent
Chrestiens. Geneva: Jean Girard.
Todd, Margo. 1983. Seneca and the Protestant Mind: the Inuence of
Stoicism on Puritan Ethics. Archiv fr Reformationsgeschichte 74: 1829.
226 Idolatry, Natural History, and Spiritual Medicine