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Robert Burton on the Society of Jesus and Coimbra Recebido em 22-06­‑2020 Revista Filosófica de Coimbra Aceite para publicação em 01­‑02­‑2021 vol. 30, n.º 59 (2021) ISSN: 0872 -0851 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14195/0872-0851_59_1 ROBERT BURTON ON THE SOCIETY OF JESUS AND COIMBRA CLÁUDIO CARVALHO1 Abstract: This article explores the ambiguous attitude of Robert Burton towards the Jesuits, focusing on his peculiar reading of the Commentarii Collegii Conimbri‑ censis Societatis Iesu. After a contextualization of the detraction of the Society of Jesus in Philosophaster, a lengthy teatral play, I will pass in review the Scholar’s references to the articulation of melancholy in the Coimbra textbooks throughout the Anatomy of Melancholy. In order to recognize and understand the specificities of Burton’s reading, marked by selective adaptations and imprecisions, I will essay a presentation of the Conimbricenses’ doctrine on the temperaments. I argue that, despite its richness, who- se echoes in Burton’s famous work are a fainted testimony, Manuel de Góis approach remained an obliterated episode in the medical and intellectual history of melancholy. This path will enable an understanding of therapeutic and organizational framework that underlies (and supplements) the Coimbran teaching. As it will become clear, this valences and applications of the Commentarii were largely ignored by Burton. Iro- nically, a significant part of his knowledge of distant lands, his travelling by “map and card” and his socioeconomic views on China, essential for the transition from an observation of melancholy into a melancholic observation, as reflected on the resort to satire and utopia as therapeutic means, benefited from the Jesuit’s mobilization of their pedagogic formation in overseas missions. Keywords: Melancholy; Robert Burton; Conimbricensis; Therapy; Organization. 1 Unidade I&D Instituto de Filosofia, Universidade do Porto. Email: kraftcasc@gmail. com. ORCID: 0000­‑0002­‑8981­‑6481 The present article is part of the research project on “melancholy and the constitu- tion of the therapeutic medium”, financed through a post­‑doctoral fellowship provided by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) with reference: SFRH/ BPD/116555/2016. Some of the views here exposed, particularly on Burton’s reading of the Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu, were presented in a resumed version in the entry “Robert Burton and Coimbra” in Conimbricenses.org Encyclopedia, Eds. M. S. de Carvalho & S. Guidi (eds.), 2020. http://www.conimbricenses.org/encyclopedia/robert­‑burton­‑coimbra pp. 9-52 10 Cláudio Carvalho Resumo: O presente artigo explo- Résumé: Cet article explore ra a attitude ambígua de Robert Burton l’attitude ambiguë de Robert Burton face aos Jesuítas, centrando­‑se na sua envers les jésuites, en se concentrant leitura dos Commentarii Collegii Co‑ sur sa lecture particulière du Commen‑ nimbricensis Societatis Iesu. Depois de tarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis contextualizar a sua detracção da Com- Iesu. Après une mise en contexte de la panhia de Jesus em Philosophaster, uma dégradation de la Compagnie de Jésus longa peça teatral, passo em revista as dans Philosophaster, une longue pièce referências do académico à articulação théâtrale, je passerai en revue les réfé- da melancolia nos manuais do curso rences du savant à l’articulation de la conimbricense ao longo da Anatomia mélancolie dans les manuels de Coim- da Melancolia. Por forma a identificar bra tout au long de l’Anatomie de la e compreender as especificidades da sua mélancolie. Afin de reconnaître et de leitura, pautada por adaptações selecti- comprendre les spécificités de la lecture vas e imprecisões, empreenderei uma de Burton, marquée par des adaptations apresentação da doutrina dos tempera- sélectives et des imprécisions, je vais es- mentos dos Conimbricenses. Sustento sayer une présentation de la doctrine des que, apesar da sua riqueza, da qual os Conimbricenses sur les tempéraments. ecos na obra de Burton dão testemunho Je soutiens que, malgré sa richesse, esmaecido, a abordagem de Manuel de dont les échos dans le célèbre travail Góis permaneceu como um episódio de Burton sont un témoignage évanoui, obliterado na história médica e intelec- l’approche de Manuel de Góis est restée tual da melancolia. Este percurso permi- un épisode oblitéré dans l’histoire médi- tirá uma compreensão das perspectivas cale et intellectuelle de la mélancolie. Ce terapêutica e organizacional subjacentes parcours permettra de comprendre le ca- ao (e complementares do) ensino co- dre thérapeutique et organisationnel qui nimbricense. Trata­‑se, como se tornará sous­‑tend (et complète) l’enseignement evidente, de valências e aplicações dos de Coimbra. Comme cela deviendra Commentarii que Burton ignora. Iro- clair, ces valences et applications des nicamente, uma parte significativa do Commentarii ont été largement ignorées seu conhecimento das terras distantes, par Burton. Ironiquement, une part im- as suas viagens por “mapa e carta” e as portante de sa connaissance des contrées suas perspectivas socioeconómicas so- lointaines, de ses voyages par «mappe et bre a China, aspectos centrais da tran- carte» et de ses vues socio­‑économiques sição de uma observação da melancolia sur la Chine, essentielles pour la transi- para uma observação melancólica, bem tion d’une observation de la mélancolie patente no recurso à sátira e à utopia à une observation mélancolique, com- como vias terapêuticas, beneficia da ar- me le reflète le recours à la satire et à ticulação entre as capacidade formativa l'utopie comme voie thérapeutique, a e a organização das missões jesuíticas. bénéficié de la mobilisation des jésuites de leur formation pédagogique dans les : Melancolia; Ro- Palavras ‑Chave missions à l’étranger. bert Burton; Conimbricenses; Terapia; Organização. Mots clés: Mélancolie; Robert Bur- ton; Conimbricenses; Thérapie; Organi- sation. pp. 9-52 Revista Filosófica de Coimbra — n.o 59 (2021) Robert Burton on the society of Jesus and Coimbra 11 1. Introduction Robert Burton (1577­‑1640) was an English scholar and Vicar that spend most of his secluded life at Christ’s Church (Oxford), devoting himself to an extensive study of melancholy. Mostly due to the pedagogic and religious dimensions of his work, Burton’s stance on the Jesuits has received some attention. Although his interspersed approval of the various Jesuits is widely recognized2, more detained studies on Burton’s understanding of the Society of Jesus stressed his negative attitude towards the scholastic methods of tea- ching and, in alignment with the national sentiment, his suspicions regarding its political aims3. Burton’s observations on religious melancholy dismiss “man’s invention of a community of love­‑and­‑hate”4, a “dissociable society” (AM III.4.1.2, p. 332). According to Burton, the Society of Jesus was foun- ded on reverie and, through the dissemination of superstitious “popery”, ac- ted as an agent of political sedition5. Despite its considerable augmentation and revisions since its publication in 1621, in its latter editions the Anatomy of Melancholy preserves the echoes of those reproaches. However, the Oxford scholar displays a double debt towards the Society of Jesus, in particular to the collective enterprise of the Conimbricenses. The first one is inherent to a work composed in the first half of the seven- teenth century, whose encyclopaedic ambition required the use or at least the mentioning of Jesuit’s treatises and coursebooks, especially the Commentarii, conceived as a support for the Coimbra Jesuit Aristotelian Course [CJAC]. It is a testimony of the historiographic richness of Burton's Anatomy, an inquiry that, unveiling the filaments that compose the thread of melancholy, touches on everything that concerns the human being, including its organic, psychic 2 Cf. e.g. Angus Gowland, The worlds of Renaissance Melancholy: Robert Burton in context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Mary Ann Lund, Melancholy, Medicine and Religion in Early Modern England: Reading the Anatomy of Melancholy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 3 Cf. Kathryn Murphy, “Jesuits and Philosophasters: Robert Burton’s Response to the Gunpowder Plot”, Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 1 (2009). https://www.norther- nrenaissance.org/jesuits­‑and­‑philosophasters­‑robert­‑burtons­‑response­‑to­‑the­‑gunpowder- -plot/#back_to_12 4 Ruth A. Fox, The Tangled Chain: The Structure of Disorder in the Anatomy of Melancholy (Berkeley: University of California Press 1976), 176. 5 In the context of the religious disputes that will culminate in the Thirty Years’ War, since the second half of the fifteenth century, various states, particularly England, Ireland and the States of Holland, began passing legislation to ban Catholic cult and teaching, a proscription that extended to the suppression of its texts and symbols. Cf. e.g. Thomas M. McCoog, “Pre­‑suppression Jesuit Activity in the British Isles and Ireland”, Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies 1.4 (2019), 1-115. Revista Filosófica de Coimbra — n.o 59 (2021) pp. 9-52 12 Cláudio Carvalho and spiritual dimensions. We must note how, among the Conimbricenses, me- lancholy figures in the discussions concerning the bodily dimension of the soul, referring, as it occurred in Aristotle, a certain inborn way to be affected and react. But in contrast with the other temperaments, not only is melancholy synonymous with a medical condition, it also reflects the temporal tension of human existence. In fact, the centrality
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