De Religione Gentilivm, errorumque apud eos causis [Gentilium]

[iv], 231, [9] pp. A posthumously published work by Edward Herbert, first Baron Herbert of Cherbury and first Baron Herbert of Castle Island (1582' - 1648), a diplomat and philosopher, this is a collection of essays on religion and cosmology that is considered by scholars to be the first study of comparative religion. "Before Herbert left Paris he had found time to complete and - after gaining the approval of Grotius and Tielenus - to have privately printed his major philosophical work, De veritate, prout distinguitur a revelatione, a verisimili, a possibili, et a falso ('On truth, in distinction from revelation, probability, possibility and error')... In this work Herbert attempts, sometimes in rather obscure Latin and with cloudy reasoning, to determine how people may and do identify what is true. Eschewing the appeal to supposed authorities, he maintains that the use of 'right reason' ('recta ratio') provides a reliable way between the errors of scepticism and bigotry. While, however, he presupposes that reason is the final arbiter of what is true, he is aware that people come to different judgements and so, paradoxically, holds that individuals should test their judgements against the standard of universal consent. Herbert's epistemology is based on his doctrine of what he calls the 'faculties' ('facultates'). According to this doctrine there is in each person a huge number of faculties, each of which corresponds to a distinguishable object, whether physical or intellectual. Truth is grasped when an object is perceived in terms of the pre-established faculty that conforms to it, and it is known to be so grasped by an inner sense of satisfaction. In this way Herbert presents what may be regarded as a common-sense view of truth that recognizes that the mind is not a passive tabula rasa on which objects make impressions but is active in knowing them. At the same time, contrary to Locke's criticism, he holds that what are innate are not actual propositions, but latent modes of thought that have to be actualized by appropriate experiences. Herbert also holds that among the intellectual objects latent in the faculties are certain 'common notions' ('notitiae communes'). These are implanted by God in every person. When raised to consciousness through appropriate stimulation, they are recognized by all reasonable people to provide the normative principles for distinguishing what is true and good from what is false and bad. Probably the most famous (and controversial) part of Herbert's thought is his application of his doctrine of common notions to religious belief. He maintains that the criterion for true belief and the authentic way to salvation are not given in alleged revelations, but in the five common notions of religion. These are that: God exists; God ought to be worshipped; the heart of religion is found in virtue joined with piety; evils must and can be expiated by means of repentance; and people face reward or punishment after this life. While, finally, Herbert allows that some truths may have been divinely revealed, he suggests stringent tests for authenticating supposed revelations and maintains that no alleged revelation can be from God if it contradicts (as opposed to reaffirming or adding to) what is established in the five common notions of religion. In spite, however, of his remarks about revelation, the last pages of his autobiography intriguingly report that he finally determined to have De veritate printed after receiving, in answer to prayer, what he interpreted as a divine sign to publish it. In 1645 Herbert published a third, enlarged edition of De veritate, some copies of which included De causis errorum: una cum tractatu de religione laici, et appendice ad sacerdotes; nec non quibusdam poematibus ('Concerning the causes of errors, with a treatise concerning religion for the laity, and an appendix to priests; with certain poems'), a collection of writings that was also issued separately. The first of these pieces deals with fallacies that arise through failure to meet the appropriate conditions for perceiving the truth as laid down in De veritate. The second (an English translation of which was published by H. R. Hutcheson in New Haven in 1944) maintains that lay people can and should decide between rival systems of belief and avoid the errors introduced into religion by priestcraft. This is by applying the criterion of the common notions of religion that God has planted in the mind ('in ipsa mente coelitus descriptae') to judge what is to be believed and practised. The religious significance of what the Bible reports is also to be determined by this criterion... At his death Herbert left several unpublished manuscripts... His De religione gentilium was published in 1663, when Isaak Vos saw it through the press in Amsterdam. An English translation by William Lewis (The Antient Religion of the Gentiles and Causes of their Errors Consider'd) was printed in 1705. In this work Herbert attempts to show that the evidence of actual religions, which he takes mainly from classical authors, confirms his thesis that the five common notions of religion are universally acknowledged. Data that seem to contradict this thesis are dismissed as arising either from priestly corruptions or from a failure to recognize symbolic usage. He ends the treatise by submitting it to the 'Judgement of the Catholick and Orthodox Church; but not to the impetuous Enemies of Universal Divine Providence and the Publick Peace' (The Antient Religion, 388)... Finally, a comment needs to be made about Herbert's reputation as a 'deist' and 'the father of deism in England'. The latter ascription has been so long and so commonly made that it has become almost a second title for Herbert. Its justification is, however, open to question. On the one hand, it is not clear that - apart from being one of the sources used by Charles Blount (an eclectic and at times plagiarizing writer) - Herbert's views had any notable influence on those later writers commonly called deists, itself an unclear designation of doubtful value. On the other hand, Herbert's own statements indicate that he is to be regarded as a theologian of liberal convictions who sought to establish a rationally warranted understanding of religious belief that avoided the pitfalls of scepticism and bigotry; properly acknowledged the actuality of God as a universal providence whose gracious activity influences the lives of individuals; recognized that divine salvation is available to all humankind through repentance; affirmed the efficacy of prayer and the reality of personal immortality; was suspicious of the pretensions of priestcraft; and sought through the common notions to identify ways by which any reasonable person can justifiably choose between the competing claims of rival systems of faith. Herbert claimed to be an independent thinker and, although he was more of a provocative gentleman thinker than a rigorous scholar, he deserves to be respected as such - and, so far as modern English (or perhaps it should be said Anglo-Welsh) writers are concerned, as one who presented in De veritate the first metaphysical treatise and in De religione gentilium the first study of comparative religion." - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography