Descartes and Utrecht

Behind this gate on Maliebaan 36, Utrecht, NL, once was the house
 of prof. Reneri, where Descartes stayed when he lived in Utrecht.
 A plaquette on the door remembers this fact.

Although René Descartes (1596-1650) was a Frenchman, he lived many years in the Netherlands, for in the Low Countries he could more or less freely express his ideas, while in France he risked to be persecuted. For some time he lived in Utrecht, and just his stay there led to such intellectual conflicts with some professors of the newly founded university that he didn’t feel himself safe any longer in the Netherlands and that he left for Sweden.
Before Descartes lived in Utrecht, he had lived in Deventer for some time (he stayed there in 1632 and 1633), where he had deep discussions with Henricus Reneri (1593-1639), which would result in his Discourse on Method. Then Reneri left for Utrecht, where he would become one of the five founders of the University of Utrecht (established in 1636) and the first “Cartesian” professor in the Netherlands. Descartes followed him and lived there in Reneri’s house. Until his arrival in Utrecht some main ideas of Descartes had not yet appeared in print but had been spread mainly verbally. In order to avoid that they would be misinterpreted, Reneri asked him to write them down, which resulted in the Discourse (published in 1637). The effect of the book was contrary to what Reneri and Descartes may have expected. Of course, the book clarified Descartes’ ideas, but it also led to a heavy clash with orthodox Christian theologians and especially with Gisbert Voetius, another founder of the University of Utrecht and professor in theology and also soon rector of the university. Reneri died in 1639 and when, in his funeral oration, Anton Aemilius, a friend of Reneri, praised Reneri’s advocacy of Descartes’ philosophy and described Descartes himself as “the Archimedes of our century”, the conflict exploded. Moreover, now Henry Regius, recently appointed professor of medicine at Utrecht, began to lecture on Descartes’ views. Regius had become close with Descartes and helped him prepare the manuscript of the Meditations. Regius was the type of person who didn’t avoid controversy. He published a set of Cartesian theses for debate at the university and Voetius accepted the challenge. He had decided not only to demolish Cartesian philosophy but also Descartes himself. Voetius strongly rejected Descartes’ (and Regius’) Copernican view of the universe and some theological implications of Regius’ (and Descartes’) view on the relationship between body and soul. The consequence was not only a heavy philosophical and theological debate but also student riots.
One thing led to another. The Senate of the university ordered Regius to restrict himself to teaching medicine and banned the teaching of Cartesian philosophy completely. Descartes was furious. He called Voetius “quarrelsome, envious, foolish, a stupid pendant, a hypocrite, an enemy of the truth”, and charged him with slander “sometimes public and sometimes surreptitious”. Moreover, Descartes stated that his ideas were in line with the orthodox religious ideas. However, via a proxy of Voetius, Descartes was charged with atheism “on the ground that he had set aside the traditional proofs of God’s existence”. Descartes replied with a public Letter to Voetius. In this Letter, Descartes accused Voetius of “atrocious insults”, of being “base and commonplace, stupid, absurd, coarse, and impudent.” He talked of “criminal lies”, “scurrilous insults”, “atrocious slander” against him; etc. It was clear that Descartes was enraged and that he felt hurt as a person and in everything he stood for, his philosophical views in the first place. However, since the accusation of atheism was the most dangerous for Descartes, in the Letter he especially rejected the idea that his views conflicted with the traditional religious ideas.
According to the authorities in Utrecht, Descartes had gone too far, and they decided to sue him for libelling Voetius. Descartes could have ignored this for he had left already the province of Utrecht and now lived in the province of Holland. It was unlikely that Holland would extradite him to Utrecht. Nevertheless, Descartes approached Christiaan Huygens, whom he knew, and the French ambassador to The Hague, with the result that the Prince of Orange himself intervened and made that the authorities in Utrecht withdrew the accusation of libel. Some skirmishes followed yet, but gradually the row came to an end.
Would all this have been necessary? Not if Descartes had followed Huygens’ advice to let the matter rest. “Theologians are like pigs. When you pull one by the tail, they all squeal”, so Huygens. But Descartes had too big an ego to drop the matter. Nonetheless, in the end, Descartes would be the loser of the case. He didn’t feel at ease in the Netherlands any longer. In 1649, he accepted an invitation of Queen Christina of Sweden to become her teacher. However, he wouldn’t feel happy there, also because he couldn’t get along well with the Queen, who didn’t really like his lessons. After having contracted pneumonia, Descartes died on 11 February 1650 in Stockholm. And so, in a sense, Voetius had become the winner of the debate with Descartes. He didn’t succeed to demolish his philosophical ideas. Far from that, for Descartes became the founding father of modern Western philosophy. However, Voetius had indirectly a part in demolishing Descartes as a person chasing him away from the Netherlands to Sweden, where he became unhappy and died. 

Sources
- Eskens, Erno, Filosofische reisgids voor Nederland en Vlaanderen. Amsterdam and Antwerp: Contact, 2009.
- Grayling, A.C., Descartes. The life of René Descartes and its place in his times. London: Simon & Schuster, 2006; esp. pp. 207-218.
- Klomp, Henk, “Descartes verjaagd uit Utrecht vanwege zijn ‘ketterse’ ideeën”, op website https://www.dub.uu.nl/nl/nieuws/descartes-verjaagd-uit-utrecht-vanwege-zijn-ketterse-idee%C3%ABn