Review

Author(s): James A. Devereux, S.J.

Review by: James A. Devereux, S.J.
Source: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp. 205-207
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2860575
Accessed: 03-06-2015 22:09 UTC

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 REVIEWS 205

seeanycontinuation
whichis up to theauthoritative
standards
ofDr.
owingto theparadoxthattheuntappedsourcesareso abun-
Partner,
dant.The book endswitha usefultableof eventsand index;under-
ifinconveniently,
standably, is confinedto an introduc-
bibliography
torynoteand thetextualfootnotes.
THE WARBURG INSTITUTE, LONDON D. S. Chambers

D. P. Walker.TheAncient Studies
Theology: in Christian
Platonismfrom
theFifteenth
totheEighteenth Ithaca,New York: CornellUni-
Century.
versityPress,1972. 276 pp. $14.50.
The 'AncientTheology'ofwhichD. P. Walkerwriteswas foundby
manyChurchFathers, in particular
by Lactantius, Clementof Alex-
andria,and Eusebius,in supposedlypre-Christian textslike theHer-
theOrphica,
metica, theSibylline Prophecies,andthePythagorean Car-
minaAurea. InthemtheFathers sawvestigesofrevealedtruths, especially
monotheism, theTrinity, andcreationex nihilo.In orderto protectthe
exclusivityof biblicalrevelation,
theyattributed thepresenceof such
ideasamongthepagansto a tradition reaching back throughantiquity
to Mosesor evento Adam.In theRenaissance manyChristian writers
readthesetextsand othersin a similarway,in orderto showthatthe
AncientTheology,whichwas thoughtto culminate in Plato,harmo-
nizedwiththeirown Neoplatonicinterpretation of Christianity.
Havingexplainedhisthesisin an introduction, theauthorturnsto a
numberofRenaissance writerswho usedor had associations withthis
apologetic.He dealsfirstwithOrphictheology intheworksofMarsilio
Ficinoandsomeofhisfollowers. An especially
interesting, becauseun-
expected,chapterfollowson Savonarola,who,theauthorsays,was far
moresympathetic towardtheadvocatesoftheAncientTheologythan
hissermons andpublished writingswouldsuggest. A longchapter deals
with sixteenth-century Frenchwriters,includingLefevred'Etaples,
Pontusde Tyard,PeterRamus,Philippede Mornay,and in particular
Symphorien Champierand GuyLefevrede la Boderie,two popular-
izersof Ficino.The Frenchare shownto have been more cautious
adeptsoftheAncientTheology,sincetheywereawareofthedangers
whichit posedto orthodoxy. At thesametime,as patriots theyoften
includedtheDruidsin thecompanyof Orpheusand Hermes,thusas-
suringFranceitsownforcedefrappeamongtheAncientTheologians.
Thoughmoreacceptable to thosewho admitted a naturaltheologyand

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206 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
thepossiblesalvation ofthepagans,theAncientTheologywasaccepted
-and rejected-bybothCatholicsand Protestants in France.
The authorthenintroduces twofairly unlikelyEnglishmen, SirPhilip
Sidney and Lord of
Herbert Cherbury.Philippede Momay's De la
Verite dela Religion Chrestienne
had drawnupontheAncientTheology;
by seeingto its translation, Sidneyhelpedmake thenew apologetic
knownin England.Dr. Walkeralso suggests thatPamela,theheroine
oftheArcadia, showsherself an AncientTheologianinherdebatewith
Cecropia;shearguesas a pre-Christian who hasarrivedat essential re-
ligioustruths, thoughnot,itmustbe admitted, withanyapparent help
fromPlatoor Orpheus.One normallythinksofHerbertof Cherbury
as thefather ofEnglishdeism.But our authorshowshow in hispost-
humousDe Religione Gentilium(1663),he turnedto theAncientTheol-
ogy to show thatthe 'CommonNotions'of Christianity had always
andeverywhere beentaught.He findsthemin theancients' worshipof
thesun,thefixedstars,andheroes,to whichhe givesa symbolicinter-
pretation.
Surelythemoststriking oftheauthor'srevelations isthattheAncient
Theology was still
aliveand well in thelateseventeenth century among
French Jesuitmissionaries to China.Besidesadvocatingthecelebrated
'Chineserites,'theyarguedthatthe teachingsof Confuciusand the
Chineseclassicswerecompatible withChristian monotheism and mo-
rality, word ofwhich may have reached China via the patriarch Shem.
The positionwas advancedby,amongothers, LouisLe Compte,S.J.,
and Pierre-Daniel Huet.
The author'sfinalchapteris devotedto an odd butsympathetic Scot
who immigrated to Francein the eighteenth century, the Chevalier
Ramsay.His TravelsofCyrus(1727)givesus theAncientTheologyin
fictionalform.AtonepointhisherovisitsEgyptandhearsthepriests of
Isis' templesinga hymnto theirtriunedeities.Dr. Walkersuggests
whatmelodytheymayhaveused.I leavehisenchanting discovery to
readersof thebook,withthesinglecautionthattheyadd a flatto the
signature lestthenuminouseffect be shattered.
The studies whichDr. Walkerhasgivenus,thougharranged chrono-
logically,are not intended to make up a consecutive of
history theAn-
cientTheologyfromthefifteenth to theeighteenth century. In several
places,however,theauthorshowshow thatideamaintained itselfinthe
faceofopposition orwassignificantly modified(e.g.,pp. 130-131,166-
167,215). One is temptedto askthatin somefutureessayhe traceits

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 REVIEWS 207

development atgreaterlength. Itsvigorandhistorical importance are

allthemorestrikingsince,ifI amnotmistaken, thetraditionpersisted
wellintothenineteenth century. Two French Catholic philosophers,
Louisde BonaldandFelicite de Lamennais, appealedto thesamefa-
miliar
arguments inorderto demonstrate thatChristianityisinharmony
witha universal
tradition
reaching backtotheancients. De Bonaldsays
thatPlatoreceivedthenotionoftheoneGod,creator, conserver, and
fromSocrates,
restorer, whenceitmaybe traced tothePythagoreans,
theEgyptians,andprobably theJews(Oevres 1859],III, 7). He
[Paris,
attributes
itssurvivalandcontinuity to theprimitive giftoflanguage
madeto Adam.De Lamennais takesa similarpositioninhisEssaisur
L'Indifference
enMatieredeR6ligion (5 vols.[ParisandBrussels, 1828]),
andbolstershisargument withcitations fromHuet(III, 74),LuisLe
Compte (m, o101),and even the Chevalier Ramsay (III, 390). He espe-
theuniversality
ciallyemphasizes ofthistheologyin spaceas wellas in
time.Thus,theFloridaIndiansand theirgod, Okee, taketheirplace
alongwiththeEgyptianpriests ofIsis.But hisargument stillstandsin
thetradition
of ClementofAlexandriaand MarsilioFicino.
My perhapsoverenthusiastic pursuitof theAncientTheologybe-
yondthelimitsofDr. Walker'sbook shouldat leastsuggestthekeen
interest
whichitexcites.He leadsusalonguntrodden wayswitha clarity
ofexposition
whichis all butmiraculous in one so longexposedto the
mistsof Neoplatonism. For this,and fortherichstoreof knowledge
whichhe has setbeforeus, everystudentof theRenaissance will be
grateful.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA James A. Devereux, S.J.
AT CHAPEL HILL

Francisco
HenryEttinghausen. de QuevedoandtheNeostoicMovement.
New York-London:Oxford UniversityPress,1972. xii+178 pp.
$11.25, 3.50.
Dr. HenryEttinghausen'sthreefold aim is to studythenatureand
development ofQuevedo'sinterest in Stoicism,to establish
theposition
theSpanishhumanist deservesin theseventeenth-century Stoicrevival,
and to show theinfluencethattheStoa exercisedon hisvoluminous
worksinproseandpoetry.The authorattains hisgoalwitha work-by-
workanalysisandconclusion,supported byvaluableandabundant doc-
umentary evidence.

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