View Volume II - In Today's Catholic World

44 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
CHAPTER XIII.
HERESIES OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.
ARTICLE I.
ISAAC PERIERES, MARK ANTHONY DE DOMINIS, WILLIAM
POSTELLUS, AND BENEDICT SPINOSA.
1. -Isaac Perieres, chief of the Pre-Adamites ; abjures his heresy. 2.-Mark
Anthony de Dominis ; his errors and death. 3. -William Postcllus; his
errors and conversion. 4.-Benedict Spinosa, author of a new sort of
Atheism. 5.-Plan of his impious system ; his unhappy death.
1. Isaac Perieres, a native of Aquitaine, lived in this century.
He was at first a follower of Calvin, but afterwards founded the
sect of the Pre-Adamites, teaching that, previous to the creation
of Adam, God had made other men. The Old Testament, he
says, speaks only of Adam and Eve, hut says nothing of the
other men who existed before them, and these, therefore, were
not injured by Original Sin, nor did they suffer from the flood.
He fell into this error because he rejected Tradition, and, there
fore his opinion appeared consonant to reason, and not opposed
to the Scripture. He published a Treatise in Holland on the
Pre-Adamites, in 1655. He was convinced of the fallacy of his
opinions, both by Catholics and Calvinists, and his life even was
in danger from both one and the other, so ho at last recognised
the authority of constant and universal Tradition, and in the
Pontificate of Alexander VII. renounced all his heresies, and
returned to the Church (1).
2. Mark Anthony de Dominis was another of the remarkable
heretics of this century. He joined the Jesuits at first in
Verona, but left them, either because he did not like the restraint
of discipline, or was dismissed for some fault. He was after
wards elevated, we know not how, to the Bishopric of Segni, by
(1) Berti, Brev. Hist. t. 2, sec. 17; Bernini, t. 4, sec. 17, c. 5.