Agrippa von Nettesheim, Henry Cornelius | Hiram Haydn (essay date 1950)
Hiram Haydn (essay date 1950)
SOURCE: "The Counter-Renaissance and the Repeal of Universal Law," in The Counter-Renaissance, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950, pp. 131-75.
[Here, Haydn briefly discusses Agrippa's repudiation of reason and the Law of Nature in On the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences.]
Agrippa, as does Montaigne after him, assails the divine origin of law and its universal application [in his Vanitie and Uncertaintie]. He refers to the determination of "aunciente Lawe makers" to bolster the authority of their laws by persuading ignorant people "that they did as they were taught by the Gods." This same device has served Emperor and Pope alike:
For this cause Leo the Pope straightly commaunded all Christain people, that noman in the Church of God should presume to iudge any thinge, nor any man, to iustifie nor to discusse any matter: but by the Authoritee of the holy Counsailes, Canons, and Decretals,...
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