The Day the Universe Changed - James Burke [72]
Then, in 1630, a Minorite Friar called Marin Mersenne began to gather intellectuals together twice a week in his cell at the monastery of Port Royal. Marin was the century’s great correspondent, keeping almost every scientific thinker of note in contact with the work of others. Twice a week anyone who was in Paris would turn up at the monastery to discuss philosophy and science. In 1634 Mersenne published his Questions, setting out the approach to scientific investigation which had been forbidden to Italians. In this work he established three major rules of scientific investigation: reject all previous authority; base all results on direct observation and experiment; ground all understanding of natural phenomena in mathematics.
Mersenne’s meetings were secret, and one of the earliest visitors who felt able to attend when the political situation in Paris permitted was a French citizen who had originally left the country to train in the Dutch military academy. He had subsequently fought in Bavaria, travelled in Italy, returned to Paris and left again for Holland. His name was Rene Descartes. In common with many freethinkers all over Europe he sought haven in Holland, the centre of tolerance for all those whose work gave the Catholic Church reason to suspect them.
The greatest explorers of the early sixteenth century, the Dutch navigators at work with the tools of their trade. Note the two men (right) holding a cross staff, the instrument used to measure the angles of the sun and stars as well as distance from landmarks.
Holland was fast becoming one of the richest countries in Europe. As a result of the flight of talent from Antwerp in the previous century, Amsterdam was now the economic capital of the West. The Dutch East India Company had been founded in 1602 to beat the Portuguese at their own game in trade with the Far East. To promote the development of the economy the government had founded the Amsterdam Bank in 1609. The bank offered long-term credit, issued bills of exchange and banknotes, and generally facilitated mercantile expansion as the Dutch fleets brought the riches of East and West to Europe to be re-exported in the famous fluytschip, the extraordinary short-haul cargo vessel invented by Dutch shipbuilders. The ship and the bank together made Holland the import—export capital of Europe.
Although the country was nominally Calvinist, the Dutch took the attitude that as long as people did not attempt to interfere in how the country was run they could do, say and print what they chose. Whereas the Catholic countries with their repressive, centralised, absolute monarchies continued to build baroque extravaganzas to dominate their cities as reminders of the power of the throne and the Vatican, in Holland the architects built small, coolly elegant houses for wealthy merchants along the banks of the Amsterdam canals.
The solid burghers of Holland, meeting as they often did in their enlightened country to do voluntary social work. This group is discussing their administration of a home for lepers.
This calm, neoclassical Palladian style soon became fashionable across the Channel in England. In London houses and in the large windows and spacious rooms of the Dutch mansions a new attitude was manifest. In both countries, but especially in Holland, the individual was at liberty to pursue his interests without interference from the state. The Dutch accepted any refugee who sought asylum. Rene Descartes was such a refugee.
In Holland in 1637 he published a work that was to influence the course of science for a hundred years and lay the foundations of modern thought. Descartes shared the opinion of other scientists of his time that it was pointless to engage in battles with the Church over whether such things as celestial spheres existed, or whether the Bible was literally true. Instead, the increasing mass of scientific and technical knowledge should be placed in the hands of practical men such as navigators, engineers, builders,