Theological Origins of Modernity

descartes’ path to truth 173
its throne to Frederick, the Elector of the Palatinate, champion of the Reformed
Protestant cause. Frederick became king in October 1619 but ruled
only until November 8, 1620, when his forces were defeated at the Battle of
White Mountain. Th is loss tilted the balance of power and drew nearly all
of the European states into the confl ict. 3 Th e civil war within the German
territories was brought to an end by the Peace of Prague in May 1635, but
the fi ghting continued, due to the intervention of large foreign forces from
France, England, and Sweden. Th e war ended only with the Peace of Westphalia
in 1648. Th e last years of this war were also contemporaneous with
the English Civil War that raged with similar ferocity although with somewhat
less devastation from 1642 to 1651.
It would be a mistake to believe that the question of religious orthodoxy
was the sole factor in the Wars of Religion. Charles Tilly has argued, for
example, that these wars were in fact more the consequence of eff orts to
consolidate the new national states than wars of religion. 4 While there is
much to be said for this argument and while it is certainly true that the
consolidation of state power was part and parcel of the process, there is
also little doubt that most of the leading participants in these wars and
many of the most violent among them thought that they were doing God’s
work and not that of their sovereign. Th us, while we cannot attribute the
wars simply to religious diff erences, there can be no doubt that religion in
many diff erent forms and ways contributed to the fanaticism and slaughter
that distinguish those wars from so many others.
Descartes (1596–1650) was intimately acquainted with the struggles
of the time. 5 His family was Catholic but had connections to Protestant
France. Th ey lived in Poitou, which was a Huguenot stronghold, but also
had close ties to Châtellerault, a secure city under the Edict of Nantes. His
mother died when Descartes was one and his father remarried, leaving
him principally in the care of his maternal grandmother and perhaps his
great-uncle Michel Ferrand, who was a judge in Châtellerault. Descartes’
father and many of his other relations were lawyers or judges, and they
clearly expected that Descartes would pursue a similar career in governmental
service. 6
Descartes was sent along with his older brother in 1606 to the Jesuit
school La Flêche that had been founded two years before by Henry IV. 7
Th e school was intended to prepare gentlemen for state service, and it had
a classical curriculum that drew both on the scholastic and the humanist
tradition. Th e school was run in an egalitarian manner with a general although
not total disregard for rank. Th e students’ lives were carefully regulated
but in a manner that excluded corporal punishment and promoted