Theological Origins of Modernity

descartes’ path to truth 181
world in favor of an analytic mathematics that can map out and reveal the
true relations among all things. While Descartes’ original conception of
science may thus be indebted in some respects to Rosicrucianism (and by
extension to the Hermeticism of Italian humanism), it is not Rosicrucian
or Hermetic in its methodology or conceptualization. It builds rather on
the work of Bacon and Galileo, but uses a method that is Descartes’ own.
Whatever the meaning of the dream for Descartes, he clearly felt that he
had understood the foundations of his science, or at least the method for
attaining the truth. Indeed, when he recounts the story in the Discourse, he
suggests that he had thought out all four steps of the method, although this
seems doubtful given that it is still inchoate in the Rules. He claims to have
been equally certain that the development of this science would require a
much fuller knowledge of the world. Th us, while he continued to work on
individual problems and to conduct experiments, he did not attempt to
develop this science in its entirety at the time.
Descartes returned to Paris in 1622. Th e political and intellectual situation
was quite diff erent there from that in Holland and Germany. Catholics
had the upper hand but felt threatened by three diff erent groups: Christian
Hermetics such as the Rosicrucians who sought the secret knowledge of
natural causes; deists and libertines whose rejection of the intense religiosity
of Calvinism had become a rejection of Christianity; and Pyrrhonist
skeptics who believed that the only justifi cation for Catholic doctrine
was fi deism. 50 Marin Mersenne, who was one of the broadest thinking
Catholics and the person perhaps most responsible for the propagation
of Descartes’ thought had, for example, attacked Ficino, Pico, Giordano
Bruno, Cornelius Agrippa, and Robert Fludd, but he had also sharply criticized
skeptics such as Charron. 51
Upon his return Descartes found himself accused of being a Rosicrucian.
Th is charge may have been leveled because of his actual opinions, but
it may also have been the result of the fact that he was so reclusive. Whatever
the truth of the matter, he was clearly concerned not merely for his
reputation but also for his freedom and security, and he began to appear
more regularly in public to alleviate suspicion and soon left Paris for Italy,
where he remained for two years.
In 1625 Descartes returned to Paris and stayed for three years. Th e
intellectual life of Paris at the time had been shaped by the long years of
war and religious dispute. Th e Sorbonne was a bastion of scholasticism
that had been revived as part of the Counter-reformation, but outside its
walls a less traditional and more ardent Catholicism was also springing
up. In other quarters and under the infl uence of Montaigne and Charron,