Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [179]
Van Swieten Bredius, op. cit., p. 25.
Epicurus One of the principal philosophers of the Hellenistic period, Epicurus (ca. 341 b.c.–ca. 270 b.c.) was a materialist who taught that the basic constituents of the universe are indivisible atoms, explained natural phenomena without resorting to mysticism, and rejected the existence of the soul. As a corollary, he believed the main point of life was pleasure. Epicurus himself was no hedonist, believing instead that true happiness stemmed from control of one’s desires and in overcoming fear of death. His followers, however, soon acquired a reputation for debauchery, and his views were naturally anathema to the Calvinist ministers of Holland.
Torrentius’s Gnostic views Snoek, op. cit., pp. 80–2.
Jeronimus’s philosophy JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 153]; verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 203]; verdict on Jan Pelgrom, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 209]; JFP 30 Sep 1629 [DB 212].
Antinomianism, the Free Spirit and the Libertines Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium, pp. 149–51, 156, 166–7, 170, 172–3, 178, 182–4, 287, 301.
“. . . a state where conscience ceased to operate . . .” Ibid., pp. 148, 151, 178.
Descartes McIntosh, The Rosy Cross Unveiled, p. 71. The philosopher was then a resident of Amsterdam.
Rubens Snoek, op cit., p. 142.
Rosicrucian cells The suggestion that the Rosicrucians were active in Paris appeared in books and posters distributed throughout the French capital in 1623. Ibid., pp. 61–2, 108. Reports in several books that there were Rosicrucian cells in The Hague and Amsterdam appear to be the product of a nineteenth-century hoax. Ibid., pp. 182–4; McIntosh, op. cit., p. 69.
The Rosicrucian debate in the United Provinces Snoek, op. cit., pp. 62–3, 103–8; Herbert, op. cit., p. 86.
Investigation of the Rosicrucians Snoek, op. cit., pp. 62–4; Bredius, op. cit. pp. 17–18.
“. . . the Calvinist authorities were anxious to convict . . .” Bredius suggests the trial of Torrentius was staged to stress the orthodoxy of Haarlem’s ruling elite and bolster the city’s case to be considered the leader of the strictly Calvinist cities of the province of Holland at a time when several of its neighbors were still indulging liberal, Arminian views. Op. cit., p. 28.
The banishment of the Torrentian circle Snoek, op. cit., pp. 79–80. The coincidence of dates is not exact; Torrentius’s followers were supposed to leave the city no later than 19 September, but Jeronimus Cornelisz may have lingered longer than that, and certainly either remained in, or returned to, Haarlem as late as 9 October, when the city records show he visited one of his solicitors.
Chapter 2: Gentlemen XVII
The story of the Dutch East India Company is of considerable importance to both the Netherlands and many of the nations of the Far East, and it has been extensively documented and well studied. Statistical information concerning the VOC’s shipping and its voyages to the East is summarized and elaborated upon, in English, in the three volumes of Jaap Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979–1987). Dutch speakers will turn also to Femme Gaastra’s general study De Geschiedenis van de VOC (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1991), which is more complete and up-to-date than any English language equivalent. Kristoff Glamann’s earlier Dutch-Asiatic Trade 1620–1740 (Copenhagen: Danish Science Press, 1958), though now in many respects outdated, also remains of interest. For details of the construction of Dutch East Indiamen, see Willem Vos’s and Robert Parthesius’s five-volume series, the Batavia Cahiers (Lelystad: np, 1990–93), which fully documents Vos’s recent reconstruction of a full-sized retourschip of the Batavia’s time. This valuable and extremely practical project has resulted in the rediscovery of many early shipbuilding techniques, and the Cahiers deal with many questions that would