historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

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Chapter 3. Biography
replace Bertius and Barlaeus, the new board of curators and burgomasters
succeeded in luring Franco Burgersdijk to Leiden. Daniel Heinsius, professor
of history and politics, was not prosecuted thanks to his religious orthodoxy. 51
3. Leiden University II. Structure, method, and content of education
Leiden University was modelled after the University of Paris. That means that
it had four faculties: three ‘higher’ faculties where the three ‘sciences’ (scientiae)
of theology (theologia), ), law (jus ( ) and medicine (medicina) were taught,
and one ‘lower’ faculty, the faculty of arts (artes), also known as the faculty of
‘philosophy and the free arts’ (philosophia et artes liberales), where knowledge
was taught that was seen as propaedeutic. 52 Since Boxhorn only finished his
study of philology and spent his whole active career at the faculty of arts, we
will focus on the curriculum and the method of teaching at this particular
faculty. 53
On August 12, 1626, Hendrik Boxhorn, eighty-one-years old, enrolled himself
and his two grandsons Marcus and Hendrik in the faculty of arts. 54 The
faculty of arts ‘was the faculty of both the beginning and the beginner. It was
both propaedeutic and pedagogic. Though it occupied the lowest rung on the
ladder of knowledge, it was the faculty that determined what ordered rational
knowledge was’. 55 Since the Middle Ages, that ‘ordered rational knowledge’
consisted of at least the free arts. The free arts were divided into two blocks,
51 Otterspeer, Het bolwerk van de vrijheid, pp. 281-89. For Heinsius, see Paul Sellin who convincingly
refutes Dirk ter Horst’s judgement that Heinsius was a turncoat who betrayed his former Arminians
friends by siding with the winners. Compare P.R. Sellin, Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England (Oxford
University Press; London, 1968), pp. 18-32, with D.J.H. ter Horst, Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655) (Ph.D.dissertation,
Hoeijenbos; Utrecht, 1934), pp. 71-87. See also J.H. Meter, The Literary Theories of Daniel
Heinsius: A Study of the Development and Background of His Views on Literary Theory and Criticism during the
Period from 1602 to 1612. Translated by Ina Swart (Van Gorcum; Assen, 1984), pp. 30-32, 300-1.
52 Wansink, Politieke wetenschappen aan de Leidse universiteit, pp. 38-61, and Laurence Brockliss,
“Curricula”, in De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), Universities in Early Modern Europe, p. 565.
53 Baselius, “Historia vitae & obitus”, iv-v. ‘Inter ea temporis Philologicum & Philosophicum
studiorum cursum absolvit, & ad Theologiam, cui destinabatur animum applicuit, in qua sub illius
facultatis Professoribus, nominatim Johanne Polyandro à Kerckhoven, sic & cum laude profecit ut progressûs
non illaudanda specimina ediderit, quâ publice, quâ privatim. Sed cum ingenium ad litteraturam
quasi natum videretur, illam deserere nequiit etiam tum quando cum fructu coepta Theologia
studia absolvere poterat. Hinc illa ipsa non intermissa modo, sed plane relicta, solum Philologicum
tractatum fuit.’ Johannes Polyandrus à Kerckhoven (1568-1646) was appointed professor of theology in
1611. He belonged to the Counter-Remonstrants and was a relative of Scriverius. He performed several
diplomatic missions for Frederik Hendrik. Langereis, Geschiedenis als ambacht, pp. 197-98, and Sluijter,
‘Tot ciraet, vermeerderinge ende heerlyckmaeckinge der universiteyt’, p. 142.
54 Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae MDLXXV-MDCCCLXXV, MDLXXV-MDCCCLXXV p. 194.
55 Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, “New Structures of Knowledge”, in De Ridder-Symoens (ed.),
Universities in Early Modern Europe, p. 489.