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CHARRON, PIERRE (1541-1603)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 949 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARRON, See also:PIERRE (1541-1603) , See also:French philosopher, See also:born in See also:Paris, was one of the twenty-five See also:children of a bookseller. After studying See also:law he practised at Paris as an See also:advocate, but, having met with no See also:great success, entered the See also:church, and soon gained the highest popularity as a preacher, rising to the dignity of See also:canon, and being appointed preacher in See also:ordinary to See also:Marguerite, wife of See also:Henry IV. of See also:Navarre. About 1588, he determined to fulfil a See also:vow which he had once made to enter a See also:cloister; but being rejected by the See also:Carthusians and the See also:Celestines, he held himself absolved, and continued to follow his old profession. He delivered a course of sermons at See also:Angers, and in the next See also:year passed to See also:Bordeaux, where he formed a famous friendship with See also:Montaigne. At the See also:death of Montaigne, in 1592, Charron was requested in his will to See also:bear the Montaigne arms. In 1594 Charron published (at first anonymously, afterwards under the name of " See also:Benoit Vaillant, Advocate of the See also:Holy Faith," and also, in a594, in his own name) See also:Les Trois Verites, in which by methodical and orthodox arguments, he seeks to prove that there is a See also:God and a true See also:religion, that the true religion is the See also:Christian, and that the true church is the See also:Roman See also:Catholic. The last See also:book (which is three-fourths of the whole See also:work) is chiefly an See also:answer to the famous See also:Protestant work entitled Le Traite de l'Eglise by Du Plessis See also:Mornay; and in the second edition (1595) there is an elaborate reply to an attack made on the third Verite by a Protestant writer. Les Trois Verites ran through several See also:editions, and obtained for its author the favour of the See also:bishop of See also:Cahors, who appointed him See also:grand See also:vicar and theological canon. It also led to his being chosen See also:deputy to the See also:general See also:assembly of the See also:clergy, of which See also:body he became See also:chief secretary. It was followed in 160o by Discours chrestiens, a book of sermons, similar in See also:tone, See also:half of which treat of the See also:Eucharist. In 16or Charron published at Bordeaux his third and most remarkable work—the famous De la sagesse, a See also:complete popular See also:system of moral See also:philosophy. Usually, and so far correctly, it is coupled with the Essays of Montaigne, to which the author is under very extensive obligations.

There is, however, distinct individuality in the book. It is specially interesting from the See also:

time when it appeared, and the See also:man by whom it was written. Conspicuous as a See also:champion of orthodoxy against atheists, See also:Jews and Protestants—without resigning this position, and still upholding See also:practical orthodoxy—Charron suddenly stood forth as the representative of the most complete intellectual See also:scepticism. The De la sagesse, which represented a considerable advance on the standpoint of the Trois Verites, brought upon its author the most violent attacks, the chief being by the Jesuit See also:Francois Garasse (1585-1631), who described him as a "brutal atheist." It received, however, the warm support of Henry IV. and of the See also:president Pierre See also:Jeannin (1540-1622). A second edition was soon called for. In 1603, notwithstanding much opposition, it began to appear; but only a few pages had been printed when Charron died suddenly in the See also:street of See also:apoplexy. His death was regarded as a See also:judgment for his impiety. Charron's See also:psychology is sensationalist. With sense all our knowledge commences, and into sense all may be resolved. The soul, located in the ventricles of the See also:brain, is affected by the temperament of the individual; the dry temperament produces acute intelligence; the moist, memory; the hot, See also:imagination. Dividing the intelligent soul into these three faculties, he shows—after the manner which See also:Francis See also:Bacon subsequently adopted—what branches of See also:science correspond with each. With regard to the nature of the soul he merely quotes opinions.

The belief in its See also:

immortality, he says, is the most universal of beliefs, but the most feebly supported by See also:reason. As to man's See also:power of attaining truth his scepticism is decided; and he plainly declares that none of our faculties enable us to distinguish truth from See also:error. In comparing man with the See also:lower animals, Charron insists that there are no breaks in nature. The latter have reason; See also:nay, they have virtue; and, though inferior in some respects, in others they are See also:superior. The estimate formed of man is not, indeed, flattering. His most essential qualities are vanity, weakness, inconstancy, presumption. Upon this view of human nature and the human See also:lot Charron founds his moral system. Equally sceptical with Montaigne, and decidedly more cynical, he is distinguished by a deeper and sterner tone. Man comes into the See also:world to endure; let him endure then, and that in silence. Our compassion should be like that of God, who succours the suffering without sharing in their See also:pain. Avoid vulgar errors; cherish universal sympathy. Let no See also:passion or See also:attachment become too powerful for See also:restraint.

Follow the customs and See also:

laws which surround you. Morality has no connexion with religion. Reason is the ultimate criterion. See also:Special See also:interest attaches to Charron's treatment of religion. He insists on the diversities in religions; he dwells also on what would indicate a See also:common origin. All grow from small beginnings and increase by a sort of popular contagion; all See also:teach that God is to be appeased by prayers, presents, vows, but especially, and most irrationally, by human suffering. Each is said by its devotees to have been given by See also:inspiration. In fact, however, a man is a Christian, See also:Jew, or See also:Mahommedan, before he knows he is a man. One religion is built upon another. But while he openly declares religion to be " See also:strange to common sense," the practical result at which Charron arrives is that one is notto sit in judgment on his faith, but to be " See also:simple and obedient," and to allow himself to be led by public authority. This is one See also:rule of See also:wisdom with regard to religion; and another equally important is to avoid superstition, which he boldly defines as the belief that God is like a hard See also:judge who, eager to find See also:fault, narrowly examines our slightest See also:act, that He is revengeful and hard to appease, and that therefore He must be flattered and importuned, and won over by pain and See also:sacrifice. True piety, which is the first of duties, is, on the other See also:hand, the knowledge of God and of one's self, the latter knowledge being necessary to the former.

It is the abasing of man, the exalting of God,—the belief that what He sends is all See also:

good, and that all the See also:bad is from ourselves. It leads to spiritual See also:worship; for See also:external ceremony is merely for our See also:advantage, not for His See also:glory. Charron is thus the founder of See also:modern See also:secularism. His See also:political views are neither See also:original nor See also:independent. He pours much hackneyed scorn on the common See also:herd, declares the See also:sovereign to be the source of law, and asserts that popular freedom is dangerous. A See also:summary and See also:defence of the Sagesse, written shortly before his death, appeared in 1606. In 1604 his friend See also:Michel de la Rochemaillet prefixed to an edition of the Sagesse a See also:Life, which depicts Charron as a most amiable man of purest See also:character. His complete See also:works, with this Life, were published in 1635. An excellent abridgment of the Sagesse is given in Tennemann's Philosophic, vol. ix.; an edition with notes by A. See also:Duval appeared in 1820. See Liebscher, Charron u. sein Werk, De la sagesse (See also:Leipzig, 1890) ; H. T.

See also:

Buckle, Introd. to See also:History of See also:Civilization in See also:England, vol. ii. 19; See also:Abbe Lezat, De la See also:predication sous See also:Henri IV. c. vi. ; J. M. See also:Robertson, See also:Short History of See also:Free Thought (See also:London, 1906), vol. ii. p. 19; J. See also:Owen, Skeptics of the French See also:Renaissance (1893); See also:Lecky, See also:Rationalism in See also:Europe (1865).

End of Article: CHARRON, PIERRE (1541-1603)

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