Franciscus van den Ende

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Sketch of his execution in front of the Bastille , around 1674

Franciscus van den Enden , Latinized Affinius (born February 5, 1602 in Antwerp , † November 27, 1674 in Paris ), was a Dutch Jesuit , free thinker , headmaster and art dealer . He was the teacher of Baruch de Spinoza and an early advocate of democratic state ideas. He was executed as a conspirator against Louis XIV .

Life

Started in Antwerp

Antwerp 1572

Van den Ende was the son of a weaver. He attended the colleges of the Augustinians and Jesuits in Antwerp and joined the Jesuit order as a novice in Mechelen in 1619 ; In 1621 his novitiate ended and he studied philosophy for a year in Leuven and obtained a master's degree in grammar in Antwerp. With the Jesuits he not only received a very good education in Latin and rhetoric, but also learned Greek and probably also mathematics. In 1624 he began teaching in Mechelen and in the years that followed in various other Jesuit colleges ( Oudenaarde , Aalst , Sint-Winoksbergen , Kassel). In 1629 he went back to Leuven to study theology. In 1633 he was dismissed from the order for unknown reasons. He published neo-Latin poems, printed in works by the Spanish Augustinian Bartolomé de los Ríos y Alarcón , Phoenix Thenensis (Antwerp 1637) and Hierarchia Mariana 1641. The publications were related to the ongoing war of the Spaniards against the Dutch : for example, the destruction of Tienen (1635). It is likely that Van den Ende was involved, like his brother Johannes, who was captured as a priest in the defeat of the Spaniards not far from Sint Philipsland ( sea ​​battle on the Slaak , 1631). In the Hierarchia Mariana it is also mentioned that he is a medic. He also worked in the art and book trade, like his brother Martinus, a leading printer of art sheets in Antwerp, who published and distributed prints by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthonis van Dyck (the 80 sheets of his iconography). On March 11, 1640, he married Clara Maria Vermeeren from Gdansk in Antwerp . From this marriage he had several children, the first being their daughter Clara Maria in 1641.

Amsterdam

At the end of the 1640s he moved to Amsterdam and opened an art and book shop in the Nes , which did badly and was closed in the early 1650s. During this time he had contact with the then very respected painter Jan Lievens , who owed him money. Since he had a large family to look after, he then founded a Latin school on the Singel , first mentioned in 1654 on the occasion of a play on the wedding of Cornelia van Vlooswijck. The school was particularly popular with noble patricians, who were able to let their sons learn the Latin necessary for their studies here instead of sending them to the public schools run by strict Calvinists. His students performed Latin plays (for example by Terenz , Seneca , a Medea with his daughters in leading roles and Philedonius , an adaptation of Virgil's Aeneid ), published in 1657 with an introductory poem by Joost van den Vondel. In 1657/58 his students gave eight performances in the city ​​theater . In the late 1650s Spinoza and the anatomist Theodor Kerckring (who married Van der Enden's eldest daughter Clara Maria in 1671) were his students. His family had grown in the meantime: in addition to Clara Maria (* 1641), the twins Anna and Adriana Clementina (* 1648, Anna died early), their son Jacobus (* 1650, died early) and Marianna (* 1651). He also taught his daughters at his Latin school, and they made so good progress that they supported him in their lessons.

Amsterdam, Singel, the Latin school of van den Enden was on the left in the house with the stepped gable.

He published Kort Verhael van Nieuw Nederland (1662) on the establishment of a colony in the New Netherlands , in present-day Delaware , in connection with corresponding plans by Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy and others who campaigned for democracy and social responsibility of the state (Vrye Politijke Stellingen , 1665). He campaigned for religious tolerance , for a secular state, for education as a state task with publicly accessible knowledge, education for boys and girls, humane penal systems and against slavery. Because of his pamphlets, an influence on Spinoza's political thinking has been postulated. However, Spinoza himself does not mention Van den Enden anywhere in his works; conversely, it is possible that Spinoza’s writings can influence him. When Van den Ende writes that religion is primarily a means of the powerful to enslave the people, he is following the views of Niccolò Machiavelli and Pieter de la Court . Van den Ende also held pantheistic views similar to Spinoza . In 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War he offered Johan de Witt plans for a secret weapon. In Amsterdam he was considered a Cartesian and atheist (officially he was still a Catholic), which is why public disputes were prohibited by the magistrate. At times he also moved in alchemical circles (influence of Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont ).

Exactly when Spinoza became a pupil of the Latin school is not known exactly, possibly as early as 1654, before his exclusion from the Jewish community, perhaps not until 1657. It is also not known exactly what he taught his students apart from Latin and rhetoric. According to his student Kerckring, this included an introduction to the liberal arts and philosophy.

In his Latin school in Amsterdam he met many of the oppositionists against Louis XIV who had fled or exiled France, for example from the times of the Fronde Gilles du Hamel, Sieur de Tréaumont (also Latréaumont), who lived in Amsterdam from 1665 to 1669, and Guy- Armand de Gramont , Count of Guiche (1637–1673), who had been in Amsterdam since 1665, but who, according to van den Ende's later testimony during interrogation in France, was not privy to the conspiracy. In discussions with these and other members of the opposition, plans arose to build an ideal republic in Normandy according to van den Ende's plans. Van den Ende himself was fluent in French and Spanish. He came increasingly into conflict with the authorities in Amsterdam and after the conviction of Adriaan Koerbagh in 1668, in which he and Spinoza were cited as a bad influence, he saw his situation in Amsterdam threatened.

Conspiracy against Louis XIV, ending in Paris

In 1671 he moved to Paris and founded a Latin school (Hôtel des Muses) in the Picpus district of Paris , where his old French contacts helped him. It is possible that he was initially aiming for a position as a doctor or consultant at the court. In 1672 he married a second time, the 53-year-old widow Catharina Medaens.

In 1674 he was involved in a conspiracy led by the old bondman Louis de Rohan against Louis XIV , as well as La Tréaumont (who had also returned to France), the Norman nobleman de Préaux and others. The conspirators wanted to kill the king and found a republic in Normandy. Van den Ende drafted their constitution and maintained contact for the conspirators in the Spanish Netherlands , where he traveled on August 25, 1674 to meet Count de Monterey , governor of the Spanish Netherlands. An encrypted message in the Gazette de France informed the conspirators in France of the success of the negotiations. As soon as Van den Ende returned from Brussels on September 17, 1674, he heard that the conspiracy had been betrayed. He tried to escape, but was arrested shortly afterwards on September 20th near Paris. La Tréaumont defied arrest in Rouen on September 12 and died of one wound after defending himself with two shots. The conspirators had been betrayed to War Minister Louvois by one of Van den Ende's lodgers, whom the conspirators' meetings at Van den Enden had made suspicious . Van den Ende, who was suspected to be a Dutch agent and about whom incriminating papers had been found at La Tréaumont (including a French translation of his above-mentioned pamphlet from 1665), admitted that he was involved in interrogations in which he was partially tortured and explained his plans for a democratic republic, taking as ideal states those of Plato (headed by a philosopher-king), Hugo Grotius (oligarchies similar to the Dutch republic ), Thomas More (utopia) and his own idea of ​​a democratic state mentioned. The noble leaders (including Rohan, De Préaux and his lover Madame de Villars) were beheaded one after the other in the presence of numerous spectators in the courtyard of the Bastille . As a non-nobleman, Van den Enden was hanged in front of the Bastille on November 27, 1674 .

Signature of Franciscus van den Enden

During his time in Paris, Van den Enden also met Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz at Antoine Arnauld's and Leibniz visited him in his house. In an interview with Spinoza, he himself was horrified at the arrest and execution of Van den Ende.

Fonts

  • Philedonius , first Amsterdam 1657, Critical Edition by Marc Bedjai, Paris: Kimé 1994 (also in the book by O. Proietti given below)
  • Kort Verhael van Nieuw-Nederlants , Amsterdam 1662, possibly from Jan Rieuwertsz or Pieter Arentz, the author uses the initials HVZM (Houdt Van Zaken Meest, The One Who Loves Things Most)., Pdf
  • Vrye Politijke Stellingen , Amsterdam 1665 (also under the initials HVZM)
    • New edition, editor W. Klever, Wereldbibliotheek, 1992
  • Free Political Propositions and Considerations of State (1655). English translation with biographical documents and an excerpt from Kort Verhael, editor W. Klever, 2007.

literature

  • Jonathan Israel: Radical Enlightenment , Oxford UP 2001, Chapter 9 on Van den Enden, pp. 175 ff.
  • Wim Klever: A New Source of Spinozism: Franciscus Van den Enden . Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 29, 1991, pp. 613-631.
  • W. Klever Spinoza and van den Enden in Borch's Diary in 1661 and 1662 , Studia Spinozana, Volume 5, 1989, pp. 311-326.
  • W. Klever Proto-Spinoza Franciscus van den Enden , Studia Spinozana, Volume 6, 1990, pp. 281-288.
  • JV Meininger, G. Van Suchtelen: Liever met wercken, als met woorden: de levensreis van doctor Franciscus van den Enden, leermeester van Spinoza, complotteur tegen Lodewijk de Veertiende , Weesp: Heureka 1980.
  • KO Meinsma, Spinoza et son cercle - étude critique historique sur les hétérodoxes hollandais , Paris: Vrin, Librairie philosophique, 1983.
  • Steven Nadler: Spinoza. A. Life , Cambridge 1999.
  • Frank Mertens Franciscus van den Enden , in W. van Bunge a. a. Continuum Companion to Spinoza , London, Continuum 2011
  • F. Mertens Van den Enden en Spinoza , Voorschooten: Uitgeverij Spinozahuis, 2012.
  • Marc Bedjai Metaphysique, ethique et politique dans l'œuvre de docteur Franciscus van den Enden (1602-1674). Contribution à l'étude des sources des écrits de B. de Spinoza , Studia Spinozana, Volume 6, 1990, pp. 291-313.
  • Marc Bedjai F. Van den Enden, maitre spirituel de Spinoza , Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Volume 3, 1990, pp. 289-331.
  • Marc Bedjai Le docteur Franciscus van den Enden, son cercle et l'alchimie dans les Provinces-Unies du XVIIème siècle , Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, 1991-II, pp. 19-50.
  • Marc Bedjai La découverte de l'édition du Philedonius (1657) à la BN , Revue de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Volume 49 (autumn 1993), pp. 32-52.
  • Marc Bedjai Eternité et sentiment spirituel: une source ignatienne du Philedonius (1657) de van den Enden et de l'Ethique (1677) de Spinoza? , Bulletin de l'Association des Amis de Spinoza, Vol. 30, 1993, pp. 1-21.
  • Marc Bedjai Pour un Etat populaire ou une utopie subversive , in: Henri Méchoulan (Ed.) Amsterdam XVIIe siècle. Marchands et Philosophes: les bénéfices de la tolérance , Paris: Autrement, 1993, pp. 194-213.
  • H. Van Ruler: What does Franciscus van den Enden het sea-broke eighth Spinoza? , Filosofie Magazine, Volume 3, 1993, pp. 49-50.
  • G. Vanheeswijck Franciscus van den Enden, leermeester van Spinoza , Streven, Volume 7, 1993, pp. 595-601.
  • H. de Dijn What van den Enden het sea-broken eighth Spinoza? , Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte, Volume 1, 1994, SS 71-79.
  • JA de Jong: Franciscus van den Enden. Het gelijk van een schoolmeester , dissertation, University of Utrecht 2004
  • T. van Thijn: Franciscus van den Enden (1602-1674), een zelfbenoemd woordvoerder van het 'lesser slagh' van ingezetenen van Holland , in: FFE Blasing, HH Vleesenbeeck (ed.), Van Amsterdam naar Tilburg en toch weer terug: opstellen aangeboden aan dr. Joh. De Vries , Leiden: Nijhoff, 1992, pp. 191-201.
  • O. Proietti Philedonius, 1657: Spinoza, Van den Enden ei classici latini , Marcata: EUM, 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to the memories of Ducause de Nazelle (see below), he was dismissed from the order in 1621 because of an affair with the wife of an officer, but this did not lead to any lasting strain on his connection to the Jesuits. Nadler: Spinoza , p. 103.
  2. ↑ Cornelia van Vlooswijck (1635–1677) was the daughter of one of the Amsterdam mayors (Cornelis van Vlooswijck, 1601–1687) and Anna van Hoorn (1608–1666), a patroness of the poet Joost van den Vondel . The influential family was probably also the patroness of Van den Enden and his Latin school. One of the sons of Cornelis van Vlooswijck, Nicolaes von Vlooswijck (1638–1674, at the Battle of Seneffe ), was his pupil.
  3. ^ Nadler: Spinoza , p. 103.
  4. ↑ Free Political Proposals
  5. ↑ Jonathan Israel: Radical Enlightenment , Oxford UP 2001, p. 168.
  6. ↑ Jonathan Israel: Radical Enlightenment , Oxford UP 2001, p. 175.
  7. ↑ Jonathan Israel: Radical Enlightenment , Oxford UP 2001, p. 169.
  8. ^ According to Nadler Spinoza 1662 suggestions for improving warships
  9. ↑ Jonathan Israel: Radical Enlightenment , Oxford UP 2001, pp. 170 and 175. He cites a diary of Ole Borch , a Danish doctor, 1662
  10. ↑ Nadler: Spinoza , p. 108.
  11. ↑ Jonathan Israel: Radical Enlightenment , Oxford UP 2001, p. 181. According to Van den Enden, however, he was often present in discussions about political theory and reforms in the Netherlands.
  12. ↑ Nadler Spinoza , p. 105, refers to the biography of Meininger, Suchtelen Liever met wercken als met woorden .
  13. ^ Nadler: Spinoza , p. 105.
  14. ↑ The informer was Ducause de Nazelle (born 1647, died before 1708), a musketeer . He was rewarded by the king with a lifelong pension in gratitude for uncovering the conspiracy. De Nazelle left memoirs ( Mémoires du temps de Louis XIV , publisher Ernest Daudet , Paris: Plon 1899), but it is not entirely certain whether they are not partially forged. They are considered an important source for Van den Ende's time in Paris.
  15. ↑ At that time he had only published part of it. His papers were burned after his trial and the rest is lost today
  16. ↑ Eike Christian Hirsch The famous Herr Leibniz , Beck, 2000, p. 100. At the beginning of the conversation, Spinoza was suspicious of Leibniz because of his well-known good connections to France.
personal data
SURNAME Ends, Franciscus van den
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Affinius, Franciscus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish writer, teacher and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1602
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1674
Place of death Paris