Duplessis-Mornay, Foix-Candale and the Hermetic Religion of the World

Abstract

The cumulative results of over thirty-five years of research by historians of Renaissance thought have established the importance of the Hermetic tradition in the intellectual life of Renaissance Europe. The studies of Frances Yates especially have focused the attention of historians of science upon the problem of the relationship of Hermetic magic to the development of modern scientific attitudes. Others have regarded the Hermetic tradition as a foundation of religious toleration in late Renaissance Europe. The studies of Yates, Walker, and Dagens have suggested that acceptance of theHermetica,together with the remaining texts of theprisca theologia,by Renaissance intellectuals was manifested in practical life in ‘eirenic, reunionist opinions’ and efforts to effect a reconciliation between warring Catholics and Protestants at the end of the sixteenth century.