Secularisation and the Leiden Circle

Mark Somos, Ph.D. (2007) in Political Science, Harvard University, is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Sussex.

Those interested in Western intellectual history, 3rd-18th centuries; Dutch historians, 16th-17th centuries; Renaissance and Reformation historians; historians of early modern philosophy, literature and science; political scientists; international relations theorists.

Unpublished endorsements

"Secularisation and the Leiden Circle is a book about the process of secularization of international relations by a variety of Dutch seventeenth-century authors. All of them were good Christians, but believed that writings about international affairs should be essentially secular and that religious conceptions and interventions could only contribute to discord among states.
One of the many remarkable things about his book is the elegance, eloquence, and wit of Dr. Somos's style. Even more striking is his extraordinary erudition. This study is particularly relevant to contemporary debates about the role of religion in world affairs."
Professor Stanley Hoffmann, Paul and Catherine Buttenweiser University Professor, Harvard University

"This elegant masterpiece addresses large questions in a large way. Against the common view that secularization requires a confident hold on truth underwritten by modern science, Somos shows that a group of important secularizers in the West—the circle of thinkers associated with Leiden in the seventeenth century – in fact did not reject religion for the god of science. On the contrary, they were often deeply religious. They wanted to liberate politics and history from religion not because they were atheists, but rather because they were pacifists. With verve, wit, and erudition, Somos recovers the reasons that prompted the West to make itself modern."
Professor Russell Muirhead, Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics, Dartmouth College

"This work by a young scholar reveals an extraordinary depth of knowledge and an ability to tackle the most important issues. As religious conflict once again racks the world, Mark Somos shows us in vivid detail how it first became possible in Europe to separate politics from religion, and how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theorists offer us guidance about the intellectual labour necessary to do so in our own time."
Professor Richard Tuck, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government, Harvard University

Preface

I INTRODUCTION
1 Question and Term
2 Method: Leiden as Illustration
2.1 The Leiden Circle
2.1.1 A Thickening Description: Illustration and Contextualisation
3 The Medieval Background
3.1 The Omnipresence of Theology: Generic Problems and Solutions
3.1.1 IR Theology: Just War Theories During The Crusades
3.2 A Specific Example: The Reign of Philip IV
3.2.1 The Sacrosanct State and its Gallican Church
3.2.2 Crown vs. Tiara: Boniface VIII, Clement V and the Avignon Papacy
3.2.3 Expansion and Centralisation
3.3 The Persistence of Theological Politics
4 Change And Continuity: The Early Modern Crises of Christianity
4.1 The Religious Foundations of Early Modernity: Generic Problems and Solutions
4.2 A Specific Example: Historicisation as Secularisation’s Point of Entry
5 Scaliger’s Secularising Historiography: A Valuable Start to Constructing Leiden as Illustration

II SCALIGER: HISTORY COMES OF AGE
1 Vita Brevis
2 Scaliger’s Significance
3 Premature Universal History: The French Origins of Scaliger’s Method
4 Everything a Target: History as Master Discipline
4.1 First Illustration of History as the Master Discipline: Historical vs. Astronomical Method
4.1.1 Leiden’s Scaligerian Astronomy
4. 2 Second Illustration of History as the Master Discipline: History vs. Theology
4.2.1 Ancient Christianity vs. Modern Progress
4.2.2 The Secularisation of Christ
5 Scaligerian History as Master Discipline: Consequences for the Leiden Circle

III HEINSIUS: ENTER SECULARISATION
1 Vita Brevis
2 Virtuous Poverty of Reason: The Bucolic Heinsius (1603-4)
3 Dwelling on the Pagan-Christian Borders: Heinsius and Cunaeus on Nonnus (1610)
4 Enter Secularisation: On The Constitution of Tragedy (1611)
4.1 Intellectual Context: Theatre and Sixteenth-Century Politics of Religion
4.2 A Close Textual Analysis of DTC
4.2.1 Imitation and Passion
4.2.2 Character and Action
4.2.3 Fable
4.2.4 Manners
4.2.5 Verisimilitude
4.2.6 Universal – Particular In DTC
4.2.7 Contrivance
4.3 DTC and Secularisation
4.4 Reception and Controversy
4.5 Heinsius’s Secularising Contributions in DTC and Related Works
5 On The Superiority And Dignity Of History (1613)
5.1 The Greatest Good: Eternal Life
5.2 Universal-Particular in DTC
5.3 Epistemic Humility
5.4 The Politics of Writing History
5.5 History-Writing Polities
5.6 History’s Triumphal March
5.7 Unsecularised Counterparts of Triumph and Immortality through Historiography
6 Hymns to Gods of Frenzy: Lof-Sanck Van Bacchus (1614), Lof-Sanck Van Jesus Christus (1616)
6.1 Background
6.2 Frenzy and the Brethren of the Common Life: The Epistemic Context
6.3 The Lofzangen: Satire, Satyr, Silenos And Christ
6.3.1 The Hymn to Bacchus
6.3.2 Satire
6.3.3 The Hymn to Christ

IV CUNAEUS: SOPHIA’S DREAM
1 Vita Brevis
1.1 Leiden’s Young Zeelanders
2 Sardi Venales
2.1 Brief Introduction: Text, Context, Reception
2.1.1 Text: SV’s Secularising Message
2.1.2 Context: SV’s Secularising Genre
2.1.3 Reception: The Impact of SV’s Secularisation
2.2 Textual Analysis: Text, Context, Reception
2.2.1 SV: The Text
2.2.2 Context
2.2.3 Reception

V GROTIUS: FROM BIBLE CRITICISM TO A THEORY OF WAR AND PEACE
1 Vita Brevis
2 Secularisation In IPC: From Bible Criticism to a Theory of War and Peace
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Textual Analysis
2.2.1 Method and Contexts
2.2.2 Discussion: Cases
3 Conclusion: From Fox to Hedgehog

VI CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK

Appendix
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index