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Calvinist Pastoralism in Pierre Viret's Instruction Chrestienne (1564)

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Calvinist Pastoralism in Pierre Viret's Instruction Chrestienne (1564) On Fish: Natural History as Spiritual materia medica: Calvinist Pastoralism in Pierre Viret’s Instruction Chrestienne (1564) Raphaële Garrod University of Cambridge Pierre Viret (1511–1571), one of the leaders of the Calvinist Reformation, claims that the natural theology of his Instruction Chrestienne (1564) dedi- cated to the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier, is a spiritual medicine. This paper shows that such spiritual medicine amounts to a speciªc expression of Calvinist pastoralism. Viret’s natural theology uses natural-historical data as moral examples, thus transforming them into the material ªt for his pas- toral cure. This cure consists in exhorting his audience to bear the trials of divine Providence by meditating on their own sinful state: such medicine as- serts the limits of human reason. This is a paper about ªsh: how they can cure your body, but also your mind, according to the Calvinist preacher and scholar Pierre Viret (1511– 1571). In 1564, Viret publishes in Geneva his Instruction Chrestienne in three parts, entitled: Instruction Chrestienne de la loy et de l’Evangile: & en la vraye philosophie & theologie tant naturelle que supernaturelle des Chrestiens: & en la contemplation du temple & des images é oeuvres de la providence de Dieu en tout l’univers: & en l’histoire de la creation et cheute et reparation du genre humain. The ªrst part focuses on Christian ethics; the second one is a natural theol- ogy dedicated to the city Montpellier, and more precisely to its faculty of medicine. The anatomical lessons of the surgeons and physicians of Mont- pellier were reputed across Europe; so was its natural history as materia medica under the leadership of the naturalist Guillaume Rondelet (1507– 1566) (Ogilvie 2006, p. 76).1 The second part of the Instruction discusses 1. In 1561, Viret is ill and seeks cure in the South of France. He reaches Montpellier in February 1562, tensions are growing between Catholics and Huguenots. The city ever- Perspectives on Science 2012, vol. 20, no. 2 ©2012 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 227 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/POSC_a_00064 by guest on 30 September 2021 228 On Fish: Natural History as Spiritual materia medica the theological and natural principles at work in Creation. It focuses in turn on the Heavens, the sublunary world, the earth, and ªnally man. These discussions take the form of dialogues between two protagonists: Nathanaël raises metaphysical and natural-philosophical questions, and Philippe answers them mostly by means of Scriptural interpretation. Viret claims in the dedicatory epistle that his natural theology is a spiritual medicine which not only supplements the bodily medicine Montpellier is reputed for, but actually reorients it towards its right purpose: medical knowledge, like any other natural knowledge, should ultimately lead to the contemplation and celebration of the Creator (Viret 1564, fol.8v). Does Viret’s natural theology actually function as a medicine of the mind, or is the medical reference merely a rhetorical captatio benevolentiae intended for the Montpellier physicians? If it is a medicine of the mind, how does it work? What sort of handling of natural knowledge does it in- volve? I will address these issues by focusing on Viret’s theological use of natural history—more precisely, the natural history of ªsh. Rondelet, the distinguished Montpellier physician, wrote in 1554 a natural history of ªsh, De piscibus, translated in French in 1558 as the Traité des poissons.2 Rondelet’s preface justiªes his natural-historical enterprise by emphasiz- ing its medical usefulness.3 In his own natural-theological developments, Viret testiªes to his acquaintance with contemporary natural histories on ªsh, a topic which was dear to his host. He evokes ªsh in the eighth dia- logue, “qui est de la Création de la terre et de l’eau”: this dialogue turns from a cosmographical account of the earth as a globus terraquaeus to a short account of ªsh—it is also interwoven throughout with biblical references to the Book of Job. What theological uses does Viret’s spiritual medicine make of the emerging discipline of natural history? I will ªrst investigate Viret’s claim that his natural theology is a spiri- tual medicine: Viret’s theological account of the powers of logos (reason and speech) suggests that he did conceive of preaching as an effective spir- itual medicine—it ensured the proper working of the faculties of the mind by controlling its affections—and of the natural world as a form of divine preaching. Although the Instruction Chrestienne is not a sermon, it testiªes to the same pastoral intentions which characterize the Calvinist sermon as a whole (Ford 2001, p. 66; Pettegree 2005, p. 17). I will then increasing Huguenot population led by the Faculty of Medicine and its most famous repre- sentative, Guillaume Rondelet, welcomes him like a hero (Barnaud 1973, pp. 557–78). 2. Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) acknowledges Rondelet as one of his sources in the preface of the fourth volume of his Historia animalium (Gessner 1558, fol b.1r). 3. Natural history emerged from the ªeld of materia medica (Ogilvie 2006, pp. 29–33, 88, 92, 95–7; Pomata 2005, pp. 105–46). Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/POSC_a_00064 by guest on 30 September 2021 Perspectives on Science 229 analyse Viret’s theological uses of natural history by focusing on his ac- counts of the whale and the John Dory: the former illustrates the superim- position of biblical literalism onto a natural particular and the “naturaliza- tion” of the biblical referent it induces, whereas the latter instantiates the theological interpretation of up-to-date natural-historical knowledge. These analyses ultimately demonstrate the ways in which Viret’s uses of natural history contribute to the curative virtue of his natural theology. Viret’s spiritual medicine consists of in these examples rekindling the rightful fear of God every Christian should experience, thus reminding his audience of the corruption of human nature trialled by God. In order to prompt this meditation, Viret favours the natural-historical observation of particulars supplemented by biblical literalism. These choices are driven by his epistemology of “familiarity,” which expresses divine accommoda- tion in Scripture and in the world, and the related necessary limits of hu- man knowledge in man’s fallen state. 1. Natural-Theology as Spiritual Medicine: a Mere Metaphor? 1.1. Addressing the Medical Community of Montpellier In the preface to the Instruction, Viret systematically appeals to the medical metaphor: the Reformation is the cure to the diseased Christianity and the remedy to the infection of erudite learning which fuels free thinking and atheism (Viret 1564: fol.5r–v). The preachers of the Reformation are the true physicians of Christianity, whereas Catholics are mere charlatans who beneªt from their patient’s illness (Viret 1564: fol.4r). Viret ªnally identiªes himself as a spiritual physician curing souls, before paying trib- ute to the welcoming community of distinguished physicians and sur- geons who cured him (Viret 1564: fol.9r). The metaphor of the Refor- mation as spiritual medicine establishes common grounds between the Calvinist preacher and his audience: it is ªrst a powerful rhetorical device. 1.2. The Natural-Theological Project: Amending Medicine Viret deªnes his natural theology as the amendment and reorientation of medicine: medical knowledge of bodies should lead to theological knowl- edge of the soul and of the Creator of both (Viret 1564, fol. 8v–9r). How- ever, Viret also shares Calvin’s view on the limits of rational natural theol- ogy in the fallen state, as exposed in the ªrst volume of the Christian Institutes (Viret 1564, p. 421). Natural knowledge alone will not allow us to decipher God’s presence in the world, because our intellect has been dulled by the Fall.4 In order to read the book of nature, one needs to put 4. However Viret advocates a strong rationalism: the rational mind is of divine essence Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/POSC_a_00064 by guest on 30 September 2021 230 On Fish: Natural History as Spiritual materia medica on the spectacles of Scripture (Calvin 1961, p. 68). For Viret, this means that the commonsensical experience of the world must be supplemented and elucidated by biblical hermeneutics. For example, in the sixth dia- logue, Viret interprets the heavenly motions in the light of David’s Psalms. This interpretation epitomizes the Christian natural theology Viret promotes against the potentially impious excesses of learned disci- plines describing nature.5 1.3. Natural Theology, Pastoralism, and Medicines Medicine often appeals to natural-theology in order to justify its enter- prise: these commonplace natural-theological arguments state that medi- cine is a divine gift which testiªes to the usefulness of a Christian nature designed for man.6 These arguments justify Rondelet’s natural historical project as materia medica (Rondelet 1558: fol. A3r).7 His Traité des poissons is ªrst concerned with disclosing the medical usefulness of ªsh by investi- gating systematically their “nature tant caché é admirable que variable” (Rondelet 1558, p. 1).8 The treatise also relishes this very variety. The medical uses of ªsh and their diversity is one expression of the greatness of (Viret 1564, p. 371, p. 374); it can reach knowledge of the general, even if God created man with limited intellectual powers (Viret 1564, p. 427). Viret’s account of cognition en- dorses the scholastic psychological doxa: the external senses imprint sensory perceptions as images in the common sense (sensus communis); these imprints are then combined by the fantaisie, compared with other imprints and articulated into inferences (jugements) by dis- cursive reason (raison, discours). These judgments are stored in the memory, whose role in rational and spiritual processes is paramount (Viret 1564, pp.
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