The Sovereign and the Prophets Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History General Editor Han van Ruler (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Founded by Arjo Vanderjagt Editorial Board C.S. Celenza (John Hopkins University, Baltimore) M. Colish (Yale University, New Haven) J.I. Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) A. Koba (University of Tokyo) M. Mugnai (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) W. Otten (University of Chicago) VOLUME 268 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsih The Sovereign and the Prophets Spinoza on Grotian and Hobbesian Biblical Argumentation By Atsuko Fukuoka LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Image courtesy of the Royal Palace Amsterdam. Planisphere engraving (1649) in the floor of the Burgerzaal in the Royal Palace on Dam Square, the former city hall of Amsterdam. This piece of celestial cartography relates to the Blaeu publishing house and to the progress of astronomy in Holland. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Fukuoka, Atsuko, author. Title: The sovereign and the prophets : Spinoza on Grotian and Hobbesian  biblical argumentation / by Atsuko Fukuoka. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Brill’s studies in  intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; 268 | Includes bibliographical  references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035065 (print) | LCCN 2017047506 (ebook) | ISBN  9789004351929 (e-book) | ISBN 9789004322080 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Spinoza, Benedictus de, 1632–1677. Tractatus  theologico-politicus. | Church and state—Netherlands—History—17th  century. | Religion and law. | Grotius, Hugo, 1583–1645. | Hobbes, Thomas,  1588–1679. | Huber, Ulrik, 1636–1694. Classification: LCC B3985.Z7 (ebook) | LCC B3985.Z7 F85 2018 (print) | DDC  199/.492—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035065 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0920-8607 isbn 978-90-04-32208-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-35192-9 (e-book) Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. In memory of Arihiro Fukuda, Theo J. Veen, and Ingeborg Kopania ∵ Contents Acknowledgments ix List of Illustrations xi Notes on References and Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 1 ‘God Sets Out Things by Mediation of Other Men’: The Question of Mediation in the Remonstrant Controversy 14 1 Introduction: Immediate Proximity to God as a Key Criterion 14 2 Antonius Walaeus: Pastors as Onder-Rechters and Their Judgment 28 3 A Critical Evaluation of Walaeus’s Idea of ‘Judgment’ by G. J. Vossius 35 4 An Elaboration of ‘Judgment’ by Hugo Grotius 43 2 Hobbes’s Twist on Mediation: The Sovereign Prophet 53 1 Introduction: Hobbes’s Biblical Interpretation and the Dutch 53 2 Part III of Leviathan: Its Purpose 61 3 Hobbesian Sacred History 66 4 The Epistemological Critique of Revelation 73 5 The Sovereign: Supreme Pastor and Sovereign Prophet 78 3 The Bible as Shared Political Paradigm 93 1 Introduction: Into the ‘Web’ of Interpretations 93 2 Tremellius, Junius, and Walaeus: The Distinction between Priests and Judges 95 3 Grotius: The Great Sanhedrin 102 4 Hobbes: High Priest as Sovereign 107 5 Van Velthuysen and Du Bois: A Cartesian Twist 114 6 The Brothers De la Court: The Great (Republican) Sanhedrin 118 7 Van Berckel: Repulicizing Leviathan 131 8 Spinoza: A Secret Poison 135 9 The Tractatus theologico-politicus and Leviathan 145 4 Spinoza on Jus circa sacra 152 1 Introduction: Echoes of Contemporary Controversies 152 2 The ‘Framework of Mediation’ Meets Social Contract Theory 155 viii CONTENTS 3 Two Radicals: Hobbes and Spinoza 166 4 Charms and Traps of the Criterion of God’s Direct Speech 171 5 Spinoza on Libertas philosophandi 182 1 Introduction: The Nexus between Libertas philosophandi and Jus circa sacra 182 2 Prophets and Libertas philosophandi 186 3 Prophets and Jus circa sacra 200 6 Spinoza and Hobbes on the Authority of the Bible 218 1 Introduction: Helpful and Unhelpful Leviathan 218 2 Hobbes: ‘Submission of Intellect’ Replaced with ‘Obedience’ 220 3 Spinoza: Biblical Command of Obedience and Human Intellect 226 4 Reading Spinoza in Light of Hobbes 237 7 The Making of Hobbes’s and Spinoza’s Polarity (1): Media of Revelation 246 1 Introduction: A Bold Step Grotius Did Not Dare to Make 246 2 ‘How God Hath Spoken’ in Leviathan 248 3 Mediae revelationis in the Tractatus theologico-politicus 263 8 The Making of Hobbes’s and Spinoza’s Polarity (2): The Spirit of God 279 1 Introduction: Similar Goal, Different Paths 279 2 Hobbes and the Spirit of God 279 3 Spinoza and the Spirit of God 288 4 Conclusions from Epistemologia Sacra 303 9 Ulrik Huber and the Hobbesiani: The Mediator Concept within Jus publicum universale 311 1 Introduction: A Law Professor’s Mysterious Engagement with Theology 311 2 Huber’s Version of the ‘Framework of Mediation’ 319 3 A Defence of the Holy Spirit against Hobbes and the Hobbesiani 334 Conclusion: Where the Paths Cross 344 Bibliography 371 Index of Biblical References 403 Index of Names and Subjects 408 Acknowledgments This book grew out of a series of journeys. The most pivotal of them took place at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt. My great- est debt of gratitude is to Prof. Michael Stolleis. Without his support and con- fidence, this book would not have taken its present form. I am grateful also to Prof. Moritz Bälz and Prof. Thomas Vesting who kindly joined my doctoral committee at the Law Faculty of Johan Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt. To Prof. Vesting I owe my thanks for a stimulating comment that opened my eyes to further possibilities to develop my research. The DAAD made it possible for me to spend those fruitful years in this city. My itinerary started at Rotterdam and Leiden, where I was supported by the Huygens Programme (Nuffic) and the Murata Machinery Scholarship (Kyoto). My special thanks go to Prof. Wiep van Bunge and Prof. Han van Ruler. I owe enormous debts to Erasmus University’s excellent research group on seventeenth-century Dutch philosophy, especially Dr. Henri Krop, Dr. Aza Goudriaan, Dr. Michiel Wielema, and Dr. Paul Schuurman. I would also like to thank Prof. Laurens Winkel, Prof. Tammo Wallinga, Prof. Jan Hallebeek, and the late Prof. Theo J. Veen for offering me valuable opportunities to discuss the material from a legal point of view. My research at the Leiden University Library was greatly assisted by Mr. Wouter van Veenendaal and Mr. Frans Huisman. Visits to the Provincial Library of Friesland were always rewarding, thanks to Dr. Jacob van Sluis. The Rolf and Ursula Schneider Foundation provided me with the opportu- nity to continue my research at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Jill Bepler for her continuous support and friendship. The amazing staff at this library and its subject experts including Mr. Christian Hogrefe, Ms. Almuth Corbagh, and Ms. Katharina Mähler also belong to the treasures of Wolfenbüttel. In this context I would also like to express my grati- tude to Dr. Douglas J. Osler at Frankfurt for opening the door to the fascinating world of early modern books. My itinerary was enriched further by a stay at the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae at the Catholic University of Leuven and was supported by the C. Arrius Nurus Foundation. I would like to thank Prof. Gilbert Tournoy and Prof. Dirk Sacré, as well as my friend Prof. Wim Decock, for offering me the opportunity to develop my study into chapter 1 of the pres- ent volume. The idea for these journeys was conceived in Tokyo. I am grateful to my super- visor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo, Prof. Kazuyuki Takahashi, for his international perspective and encouragement for long-term projects. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This spirit is shared by my colleagues at the Graduate School of Advanced Social Sciences, with whom I have had the honour to work since 2011. I have received inestimable stimuli and supports from Prof. Jun-ichi Murakami, Prof. Masaaki Kubo, Prof. Bu Sasaki, Prof. Hiroshi Watanabe, Prof. Kazunori Ishiguro, Prof. Yoichi Nishikawa, Prof. Yasuo Hasebe, Prof. Akira Wani, and the late Prof. Arihiro Fukuda. In particular, I owe my interest in historical investigation to Prof. Akira Koba, who initiated an interdisciplinary researching group, ‘Valla’. My debt of gratitude is also to Spinoza scholars in Japan—Prof. Osamu Ueno, Prof. Naofumi Sakurai, Prof. Hisao Takagi, and the late Prof. Toshiko Shibata. In addition, grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science given during 2011–2017 enabled me to keep in contact with scholars abroad and exchange ideas with them. Equally invaluable was the accurate and effective service that the Komaba Library at the University of Tokyo has offered me dur- ing these years, making books available, even from distant places. Prof. Cornelia Niekus Moore, Dr. Heinz Mohnhaupt, Dr. Cordelia E. Chenault, and Dr. Darren P. Foster all read my draft at various stages and greatly helped me to improve it. I am grateful also to the anonymous reviewers of Brill for their insightful comments. I should also like to thank Prof. Kinch Hoekstra, Sir Noel Malcolm, Dr. Martin Baasten, Dr. Rudi van der Paardt, Prof. Ken- ichi Moriya, Prof. Jiro Mizushima, Dr. Harm-Jan van Dam, Prof. Esther-Beate Körber, Dr. Asaph Ben-Tov, and Dr. Britta Kruse for giving me advice at crucial points in my itinerary. I made a safe journey thanks to the friends who made me feel at home away from home: Dr. Regie Lyn Santos-Cortez, Thera Boerma, Dr. Ineke Langhans-Cornet, Dr. Silvia di Paolo, Dr. Andrew Grimm, Dr. Esther Dusil, Prof. Stephan Dusil, Dr. Lena Folianty, Dr. Kathleen M. Smith, Helga and Roland Kopania, Liesbeth Douma, and Magdalena and Nelly Rosa Weidringer. My special thanks go to Jan Vlasblom and Han van Ruler. Without the winter of 2006–2007 at Leiden, and their friendship in the succeeding years, this book would not exist. In preparing this book, my work was greatly aided by the support and advice—given with so much wit and humor—provided by Mr. Ivo Romein, the subject editor for intellectual history at Brill. I am very grateful also to Ms. Meredith McGroarty and Dr. Magda Hayton, whose assistance in editing and revising was truly invaluable. Judy Pereira, the production editor, and Caroline Diepeveen, the indexer, have helped me in the impressive process through which a manuscript turns into a book. A. F., Tokyo, April 2017