Andrew Fix

Balthasar bekker and the crisis of cartesianism

(1993). Balthasar bekker and the crisis of cartesianism. History of European Ideas: Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 575-588.

What happened to Balthasar Bekker in England? A mystery in the history of publishing

This article looks at the fate of Balthasar Bekkers De Betoverde Weereld in England. The famous work opposing the earthly activity of evil spirits, rejecting the reality of witchcraft, and debunking spirit stories by suggesting natural causes for the supposed supernatural events, was published in Amsterdam (following a rowe with the original Leeuwarden publisher) by Anthony van Dale in 1692–1693 and caused an intense controversy. Bekker was a strict monotheist unwilling to hand over any of Gods power to evil spirits or the Devil, an advocate of the accomodationist school of Scriptural interpretation that had landed Galileo in jail in 1633, a serious student of spirit “superstition” with works such as those of Reginald Scot, Abraham Paling, and Anthony van Dale in his library. And he was a Cartesian: he owned Clauberg, Heereboord, Sylvain-Regis, etc. His opponents said that if one did not believe in evil spirits one could not believe in God. Bekkers book went through several Dutch printings, was right away translated into French and German, stirring reaction in those countries (the new book by Nooijen, Unserm Grosen Bekker ein Denkmahl? looks at the German reaction). In England plans were afoot to translate the Betoverde Weereld by 1694, and Book I was translated and published. But that was all that got done. The highly controversial Book II and the final two books remained untranslated and unpublished. Why? Not for a lack of interest in evil spirits in England: witness the works of Glanvill, Henry More, George Sinclair, John Webster, and many others. Ghost stories were not lacking—just see the “Devil of Tedworth” and “Beckington Witch” stories. I argue the failure was a result of the vicissitudes of the London publishing industry, especially the relatively new periodical publishing, and of the eccentric, intellectual, but unfocussed general publisher John Dunton, who ruined himself and the Bekker project with his poor business sense (his wife ran the shop for him and when she died he was lost) which led him to travel to Dublin and Boston in search of publishable manuscripts (even on spirits!) instead of allowing him to concentrate his resources on Bekker. As a result, Bekkers work remained little known in the English-speaking world and its significance was almost totally overshadowed by the work of Locke. Would Daniel van Dalen, Jan ten Hoorn, or Willem Blaeu have made the same mistake? Also, Dunton put a goodly amount of his resources into the risky new periodical market and lost money that could have financed publication of the last three books of De Betoverde Weereld. Just because of the controversial nature of what he said, Bekker deserved better in England.

Most Attacked and Least Defeated: Confessionalism, Anti-Confessionalism, and Religious Controversy in the Dutch Republic

The life and work of Balthasar Bekker, from his early conflict with the Reformed church hierarchy over the funeral oration for his first wife to the publication of The World Bewitched, stood in marked contrast to one of the most powerful intellectual forces of the seventeenth century: the great transformation of religious ideas and institutions often called confessionalism. It was Bekker’s opposition to this thought system, from his early days in Friesland, which in large part defined his own vision of the church and Scripture. Bekker’s biblical exegesis, with its rejection of literalism, undermined the intellectual structure of Dutch Reformed confessionalism and provoked heated opposition to his ideas on the part of many church leaders.

Bekker’s Opponents: Confessionalism under Siege and Cartesianism in Crisis

The earliest and most heated opposition to The World Bewitched came from the conservative, confessional wing of the Reformed church. Heirs of Gomarus and Voetius, these dogmatic Calvinists saw the Bekker controversy as an important battle in their campaign to protect the Reformed faith from the corrosive influences of Cartesian philosophy and the exegetical methods associated with it. The confessionalists targeted Bekker’s biblical exegesis for their harshest criticism, arguing that his figurative interpretation of scriptural passages dealing with spirits cast into doubt the veracity and authority of the entire Bible. They also attacked Bekker’s Cartesian ideas and charged that it was his allegiance to the new philosophy that led him into his exegetical errors. In their assault on Bekker’s ideas conservatives armed themselves with the biblical literalism that formed the intellectual foundation of Dutch Reformed confessionalism. Again and again they mustered biblical passages that they believed showed the devil’s power and the actions of spirits on bodies. Any attempt to interpret passages in a context larger than that provided by the words themselves was anathema to the confessionalists, and violent verbal assaults on Bekker often accompanied these arguments.

The Death of an Atheist

Just over three months after Balthasar Bekker was excluded from the communion of the Dutch Reformed church an event, took place in Westminster, England, that bore ironic resemblance to Bekker’s experience in the spirit debate. The unhappy nobleman who died in Westminster on December 8th, 1692, had had the benefit, in his younger years, of an excellent education in religion and morality. He learned much faster than most boys of his age, becoming highly skilled in Latin and Greek by the age of 16, and he was zealous in the exercise of religion as well. He went on to university, where he stayed five years and again did very well. His friends considered him a blessing and the jewel of his family.

Cats Not to be Touched Without Gloves: Eric Walten and Other Supporters of Bekker

In the wide public controversy that surrounded The World Bewitched, few voices were raised in Bekker’s defense, and those that were raised were uniformly more radical than Bekker himself. These voices drew harsh criticism in their turn. If Bekker’s book marked a decisive turning point in the spirit debate as some historians have suggested, why was the work received with such nearly uniform hostility? Why was there so little evidence of minds changed by The World Bewitched?1

Balthasar Bekker and the Spirit Debate

Father Perreaud had been away from his home in Macon for five days, but because this was nothing unusual his maid continued her daily chores in expectation of his return. On the evening of September 14th, 1623, as the maid and another young lady were asleep in the same room, the young lady was awakened by a series of pulls on the curtain of her bed. Furniture in the room was suddenly thrown down, and when the lady tried to leave the room the door seemed to be held shut from the other side. When she later asked the maid why she had done these things to frighten her, the maid said that she had done nothing, but that perhaps the boy sleeping in the antechamber was responsible.

Bekker, the Sabbath, and Dutch Reformed Confessionalism

Balthasar Bekker’s participation in the spirit controversy was the culmination of a life of intellectual and spiritual development that led him away from traditional norms in philosophy and theology and ultimately set him in opposition to the confessional hierarchy of the Dutch Reformed church. The two intellectual pillars upon which The World Bewitched would be built, Cartesianism and anti-confessional theology, were set in place early in Bekker’s career. His interest in Cartesian philosophy started to develop after his first exposure to this philosophy when he entered the University of Groningen. The theological position that placed Bekker in opposition to Calvinist confessionalism and thus involved him in a religious controversy that would envelop his entire adult life also began to develop during his university days in Groningen and Franeker. His early theological views were nourished by an enduring friendship with Jacobus Alting, his Groningen professor of Hebrew, and were first highlighted in an unfortunate clash with the church hierarchy occasioned by the death of his first wife.

Cartesianism and the Spirit Controversy

Balthasar Bekker’s interest in Cartesian philosophy developed alongside his anti-confessional religious position during his early years in Groningen and Franeker. Cartesianism had been highly controversial in the Republic since it began to gain a foothold there in the 1640s, drawing intense opposition from the confessional wing of the Reformed church, which saw philosophical rationalism as a threat to religious belief. Bekker’s interest in Cartesianism therefore further embittered his confessionalist opponents and involved him in another complex web of intellectual controversy, this time between Dutch Cartesians and their clerical opponents.

The Friesian Hercules

As Bekker moved to the second part of his argument about spirits and their temporal activities, he left behind the realm of metaphysical speculation and entered perhaps the most dangerous mine field of late seventeenth-century intellectual discussion: biblical exegesis. To successfully bring home his overall argument about spirits, he had to deal with scriptural accounts of spirit activity. And deal with them he did.