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Summary
This article focuses on the Tacitist thought shared by Justus Lipsius and Hugo Grotius. Contrary to what his later works might suggest, in the years before the Dutch political crisis of 1618, Grotius appears willing to look at history and contemporary politics in terms of the Tacitist and reason-of-state-based categories defined in Lipsius's political works. A specific Lipsian inspiration seems present in Grotius's Amsterdam address of 1616, and his analysis of the early Dutch Revolt in the Annales et Historiae is determined by categories of thought which at the time were identified with Lipsius's intellectual legacy.
Notes
1This article is part of the outcome of a research project on Grotius's Annales et Historiae conducted at the Radboud University Nijmegen from 2004 to 2008 with a VENI-grant from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
2For an introduction to Lipsius's life and works, see Jan Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Justus Lipsius, Politica: Six Books of Politics or Political Instruction, edited and translated by Jan Waszink (Assen, 2004), chapter 2 and the literature referred to there. For Grotius, see Nellen's recent biography: Henk Nellen, Hugo de Groot: een leven in strijd om de vrede (Amsterdam, 2007). No up-to-date English biography exists, but see for example Richard Tuck, Philosophy and Government (Cambridge, 1993), chapter 5; David Armitage, ‘Introduction’, in Hugo Grotius, The Free Sea (with William Welwod's Critique and Grotius's Reply), edited by David Armitage, translated by Richard Hakluyt (Indianapolis, 2004).
3The available scholarship hardly discusses Grotius as a Tacitist: Gerhard Oestreich, Antiker Geist und moderner Staat (Göttingen, 1989); Gerhard Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State (Cambridge, 1982); Tuck, Philosophy and Government. Arthur Eyffinger has written two articles on Lipsius and Grotius: Arthur Eyffinger, ‘Justus Lipsius and Hugo Grotius: Two Views on Society’, in Lipsius in Leiden, edited by Karl Enenkel and Chris Heesakkers (Voorthuizen, 1997), 163–77; Arthur Eyffinger, ‘“Amoena gravitate morum spectabilis”: Justus Lipsius and Hugo Grotius’, in The World of Justus Lipsius: A Contribution Towards his Intellectual Biography: Proceedings of a Colloquium in the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome, 22–24 May 1997, edited by Marc Laureys (Brussels and Rome, 1998), 297–328.
4See the papers collected in Grotius and the Stoa, edited by Hans W. Blom and Laurens C. Winkel (Assen, 2004). To illustrate the difficulty of defining Lipsius and Grotius's intellectual relationship, one could point for example to the fact that Blom and Winkel mention appetitus societatis, natural law and determinism as the main Stoic themes in Grotius's works, while Lipsius's Neostoicism is generally considered to have self-control and the suppression of emotions, the reconciliation of Stoic and Christian thought, and Divine providence as its central themes; see Grotius and the Stoa, edited by Blom and Winkel, 7. On Grotius's use of Seneca in the unpublished (by him) De iure praedae, see Martine Julia van Ittersum, ‘The Wise Man is Never Merely a Private Citizen: The Roman Stoa in Hugo Grotius’ De jure praedae (1604–1608)’, History of European Ideas, 36 (2010), 1–18.
5There is a wealth of scholarship available on individual Tacitist authors and contexts, but few overviews of the phenomenon: Giuseppe Toffanin, Machiavelli e il ‘Tacitismo’ (Napoli, 1972, first published in 1921); Kenneth C. Schellhase, Tacitus in Renaissance Political Thought (Chicago, 1960); Juergen von Stackelberg, Tacitus in der Romania. Studien zur literarischen Rezeption des Tacitus in Italien und Frankreich (Tübingen, 1960); Else-Lilly Etter, Tacitus in der Geistesgeschichte des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Basel, 1960); Peter Burke, ‘Tacitism’, in Tacitus, edited by T. A. Dorey (London, 1969), 149–71; Peter Burke, ‘Tacitism, Scepticism, and Reason of State’, in Cambridge History of Political Thought, edited by J. H. Burns and Mark Goldie, 6 vols (Cambridge, 1988–2011), III, 479–98; Marc van der Poel and Jan Waszink, ‘Tacitismus’, in Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik, edited by Gert Ueding, 10 vols (Tübingen, 1992–2011), IX, columns 1113–23 (see for references to further literature). On Lipsius's Tacitism, see Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, especially §§ 2.6.3, 4.2.4, 5.5, and the literature given there. On Grotius's Tacitism, see J. C. G. Boot, ‘Hugo Grotius et Cornelius Tacitus’, Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen afd. Letterkunde, 12 (1883), 333–62; António Droetto, ‘Il Tacitismo nella storiografia groziana’, in Studi groziani di A.D. (Torino, 1968), 101–51; Jan Waszink, ‘Tacitism in Holland: Hugo Grotius’ Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis’, in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini: Bononiensis Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies, Bonn, 3–9 August, 2003, edited by Rhoda Schnur and Perrine Galand-Hallyn (Tempe, AZ, 2006); Jan Waszink, ‘Tacitisme in Holland: de Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis van Hugo de Groot’, De Zeventiende Eeuw, 20 (2004), 240–63. See also the theme section on Grotius's imitation of Tacitus in Grotiana, 29 (2008), 85–132.
6W. J. M. van Eysinga (1878–1961) for example read the chapter ‘De Fide et Perfidia’ in Grotius's Parallelon Rerumpublicarum of c. 1600 as a prelude to De Iure Belli; see W. J. M. Eysinga, ‘Het oudste bekende geschrift van De Groot over Volkenrecht’, Mededelingen der Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen, afd. Letterkunde, 4 (1941). For the later controversy about this ideal image of Grotius, see Henk Nellen, ‘“Het Leidse Haylichje”: Hugo Grotius in de twintigste eeuw’, Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden 1994–1995 (Leiden, 1996), 37–64. The view of Grotius as a lifelong and principled pacifist has regularly been challenged in scholarly literature, but the revision has not reached the general (academic) public.
7Arthur Eyffinger, The International Court of Justice 1946–1996 (Kluwer, 1996), 40–71. See for example the booklet Hugo de Groot 10 april 1583-28 augustus 1645. uitgegeven door de commissie voor de 18 Mei-viering op de Scholen ingesteld door ‘Vrede door Recht’ (The Hague, 1913); W. J. M. van Eysinga, Gids voor De Groots De Iure Belli ac Pacis (Leiden, 1945), 7. The American diplomat and scholar Andrew Dickson White (1832–1918) was an admirer of Grotius and one of the initiators of the Peace Palace building; a very influential scholar and judge in the ‘Grotian tradition’ is Hersch Lauterpacht (1897–1960).
8For the history of the Dutch Republic, see Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477–1806 (Oxford, 1995).
9See for example the very rhetorical and arguably misleading historical argument in Hugo Grotius, De antiquitate reipublicae batavicae (1610); see Jan Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Hugo Grotius, The Antiquity of the Batavian Republic, edited and translated by Jan Waszink et al. (Assen, 2000), especially Intr. §§ 3.3-4. For a similar, ‘contextualising’ view of Grotius (i.e. as more political and less moral), see Martine Julia van Ittersum, Profit and Principle: Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies, 1595–1615 (Leiden, 2006). See also Edward Keene, Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics (Cambridge, 2002), especially 36–39.
10See Edwin Rabbie, ‘Introduction’, in Hugo Grotius, Ordinum Hollandiae ac Westfrisiae Pietas, edited and translated by Edwin Rabbie (Leiden, 1995).
11As they are called in the more ‘revisionist’ literature on the subject, for example Simon Groenveld, Evidente factiën in den staet. Sociaal-politieke verhoudingen in de 17e-eeuwse Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden (Hilversum, 1990).
12For the history of the period, see for example Israel, Dutch Republic, 421–49.
13Justus Lipsius, De Constantia in publicis malis (Leiden, 1584); Justus Lipsius, Two Bookes of Constancie, translated by John Stradling, edited by Rudolf Kirk and Clayton Morris Hall (New Brunswick, 1939, first published in 1594). Justus Lipsius, Politicorum sive Civilis Doctrinae libri sex (Leiden, 1589); for the modern edition see note 2 above.
14Nellen, Hugo de Groot, 43.
15‘Lipsius is not a politician, nor does he have any ability in political science: pedants are unfit for such things; neither I nor any other learned man would be able to produce anything good on politics’; Josephus Scaliger, as quoted in Oestreich, Antiker Geist, 152. Translation mine. See also Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, 119.
16See Eyffinger, ‘Lipsius and Grotius: Two Views’, in Lipsius in Leiden, edited by Enenkel and Heesakkers.
17Guy Patin (1601–1672), French doctor and man of letters, whose notes and letters preserve a wealth of information on the scholarly world of his age. His notes from conversation(s) with Grotius are published as ‘Grotiana’ in: R. Pintard, La Mothe le Vayer, Gassendi, Guy Patin. Études de bibliographie et de critique suivies de textes inédits de Guy Patin, (Paris: Boivin, 1943).
18See Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, 124–27.
19Eyffinger, ‘Lipsius and Grotius: Two Views’, in Lipsius in Leiden, edited by Enenkel and Heesakkers.
20Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition of the Language of Politics, 1250–1600 (Cambridge, 1992).
21See Lipsius's influential praise of Tacitus in the Politica and elsewhere; Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, 94–95.
22See Waszink, ‘Tacitism in Holland’, in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bononiensis, edited by Schnur and Galand-Hallyn; Jan Waszink, ‘Hugo Grotius’ Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis from the evidence in his correspondence, 1604–1644’, Lias, 31 (2004), 249–67.
23By Tacitism here I mean the Tacitism that came up from 1572 onwards; see Van der Poel and Waszink, ‘Tacitismus’, in Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik, edited by Ueding, XI.
24On the purposes and effects of this choice of format, see Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, chapter 3.
25Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, §§ 4.2.1-2.
26This is taken from the original 1589 edition; in the 1596 edition, Lipsius, at the demand of the Vatican Index, mollified his wording as follows: ‘Please consider with yourself: how is this possible?’.
27Lipsius, Politica, IV.13.1
28Lipsius, Politica, IV.14.4.
30Lipsius, Politica, IV.3.3.
29In the sense of his state, his being-in-power: for the preservation of power implies stability.
31Lipsius half-retracted this tenet in the editions from 1596 onwards in response to Vatican censorship: it is changed to an advice to prosecute silent offenders only when the circumstances allow, and reminds the prince of the difficulty of controlling people's minds. See Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, § 6.3.
32For the objections against the work formulated by the consultores of the Vatican Index, see Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, § 6.3.
33See Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, chapters 3 and 6–7.
34See for example Harro Höpfl, ‘Orthodoxy and Reason of State’, History of Political Thought, 23 (2002), 211–37.
35See for example in Lipsius, De Constantia (1584); Justus Lipsius, Physiologia Stoicorum (1604); Justus Lipsius, Manuductio ad Stoicam philosophiam (1604); Justus Lipsius, Seneca (1605).
36See for example Oestreich, Antiker Geist, 163–64; Burke, ‘Tacitism, Scepticism, Reason of State’, in Cambridge History of Political Thought, edited by Burns and Goldie, III, 492; Peter N. Miller, Peiresc's Europe: Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven, CT and London, 2000), 12–13; Jan Papy, ‘Lipsius’ (Neo-)Stoicism: Constancy between Christian Faith and Stoic Virtue’, in Grotius and the Stoa, edited by Blom and Winkel, 47–72.
37See also Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, 12–14.
38The terms ‘black’ and ‘pink’ Tacitism derive from Toffanin, Machiavelli e il ‘Tacitismo’ and Burke, ‘Tacitism’, in Tacitus, edited by Dorey. ‘Black Tacitism’ is veiled or ‘salonfähig’ Machiavellism; it refers to the views of those who saw in Tacitus's works a guideline towards suppressing the political crises of the period. ‘Red Tacitism’ is then ‘veiled Republicanism’. Toffanin's distinction between black and red Tacitism was refined by Burke, who labelled a monarchical but non-Machiavellian variant as ‘Pink Tacitism’ (‘supporters of limited monarchy in an age of absolutism’). This ‘colour-system’ however does not cover all the variants; i.e., the crucial figure of Lipsius can be termed neither black, red or pink: he criticised the Machiavellian aspect of black Tacitism but supported what is now called absolute monarchy, not limited monarchy.
39See for example Lipsius, De Constantia, II.25: ‘Even while we ourselves complain about tyranny, we carry its seeds in our hearts: and it is not the desire to act tyrannically which we miss, but the opportunity’, which is Tacitist in spirit.
40Compare with Meinolf Vielberg, ‘Folgenreiche Fehlrezeption: Justus Lipsius und die Anfänge des Tacitismus in Jena’, Gymnasium, 104 (1997), 55–72.
41The term was applied by Gerhard Oestreich; see the literature by Oestreich quoted above, note 3.
42Martin van Gelderen, ‘Holland und das Preußentum: Justus Lipsius zwischen niederländischem Aufstand und brandenburg-preußischem Absolutismus’, Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, 23 (1996), 29–56.
43Harm Wansink, Politieke wetenschappen aan de Leidse Universiteit 1575-± 1650 (Utrecht, 1981); Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, § 4.3.7.
44Although Eyffinger notes the scarcity of references to Lipsius in Grotius's works; see Eyffinger, ‘Lipsius and Grotius: Two Views’, in Lipsius in Leiden, edited by Enenkel and Heesakkers, 167.
45‘Ses livres de Politique ont esté fort approuvez, iusques là que Mr le President Janin disoit qu'il n'y avoit rien là dedans qui ne fust confirmé par l'experience’; Grotius as quoted in Guy Patin, ‘Grotiana’, in La Mothe le Vayer, edited by Pintard, 74. There is more on the Coornhert affair and Lipsius's return to the South. Janin (Pierre Jeannin, 1540–1622) was the French ambassador acting as intermediary during the Dutch-Spanish peace negotiations of 1607/8, in which Grotius was also involved; on page 73 Grotius calls him ‘Grand et rusé Politique’ (grand and cunning Politique). The following quote must be a reference to the Politica: ‘famam sapientiae praeceptis (the glory earned by his instructions for prudence)’; from Hugo Grotius, Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis (Amsterdam, 1657), 496. And some further endorsement: ‘vir civilium rerum non imperitus (a man with experience of politics)’; see Grotius, Annales et Historiae, 544. See also below on further references to Lipsius in the Annales et Historiae.
46See Hugo Grotius, De Bello ob Libertatem Eligendo ([c. 1608]), fol. 295r: ‘[…] obsequii gloria relicta ut Tacitus loquitur, sola obsequii gloria relicta est’; this quote is from Tacitus Annals 6.8, not Annals 4. See also Lipsius, Politica, 696 (with thanks to Annet den Haan of the Radboud University Nijmegen); Eyffinger, ‘“Amoena gravitate”’, in The World of Justus Lipsius, edited by Laureys, 308. In his correspondence of 1636 (i.e. during the period in which he was revising the Annales et Historiae for its eventual publication), Grotius confirms receipt of a copy of the Politica to Willem de Groot; see Hugo de Groot to Willem de Groot, 14 May 1636, letter 2591, in Hugo Grotius, Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius, edited by P. C. Molhuysen, B. L. Meulenbroek, Paula P. Witkam, H. J. M. Nellen and Cornelia M. Ridderikhoff, 17 vols (The Hague, 1928–2001), vol. VII, 146–148. A general reference to the Politica is made in letter 2548 of the same year (80–82).
47Quoted here from the new edition of the 1738 English translation of Jean Barbeyrac's translation and commentary: Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace, edited by Richard Tuck, 3 vols (Indianapolis, 2005). The line is ‘indigna digna habenda sunt, erus quae facit’, which in the Politica has ‘rex’ instead of ‘erus’ (without any indication that a change was made). Grotius quotes the line with ‘rex’ (and without mentioning Plautus).
48Grotius, Annales et Historiae, book I, 9.
49Grotius, Ordinum Hollandiae ac Westfrisiae, edited by Rabbie, § 89.
50Hugo Grotius, Oratie vanden hoogh-gheleerden voortreffelycken Meester Hugo de Groot, Raet ende pensionaris der Stadt Rotterdam ghedaen inde vergaderinghe der 36. Raden der Stadt Amsterdam (Enkhuizen, 1622), 49–54. Knuttel Collection of pamphlets (Royal Library The Hague) no. 2250. See also Israel, Dutch Republic, 430.
53Grotius, Annales, book III, 61–62 (on the year 1579).
51An interesting text in this respect is Simon Stevin, Vita Politica, het burgherlick leven of as early as 1590, which argues that obedience is always owed to the existing government, and attacks on it because of illegitimate origins are irrelevant in principle, because every government has come into being by overturning its predecessor. A French translation of the text is available: Simon Stevin, De la vie civile 1590, edited by Catherine Secretan and Pim den Boer, translated by Catherine Secretan (Lyon, 2005).
52 Hugonis Grotii Annales et historiae de rebus Belgicis (Amsterdam, 1657 (4°) and 1658 (8° and 12°)); see Bibliographie des écrits imprimés de Hugo Grotius, edited by Jacob ter Meulen and P. J. J. Diermanse (The Hague, 1950), (=TMD); no. 741–45. There is no modern edition, but the 1658 fourth edition is not rare and available in many libraries. An inaccurate English translation by ‘T.M.’ was published by Twyford in London in 1665: Hugo Grotius, De Rebus Belgicis: or, The Annals, and History of the Low-Countrey-Warrs (TMD 748, also available from University Microfilms International: Early English Books 868:8). Other translations appeared in French (1662, TMD 746) and Dutch (1681, TMD 749).
54Grotius, Annales, book V, 95 (on the year 1585).
55For a fuller discussion and more examples, see Waszink, ‘Tacitism in Holland’, in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini, edited by Schnur and Galand-Hallyn.
56See Grotius, Antiquity of the Batavian Republic.
57Grotius, Historiae, book IV, 213 (1595); V, 266 (1596); VII, 329–30 (1598); XV, 496 (1606); XVII, 544, 547 (1608).
58See Justus Lipsius, Iusti Lipsi Epistolae, vol. 8, edited by Jeanine De Landtsheer (Brussels, 2004), letter 95 01 02S.
59Waszink, ‘Introduction’, in Lipsius, Politica, 27–28, 127.
60Another (subtle) reference to Lipsius can be recognised in Hugo Grotius, ‘De constantia’, in Parallelon Rerumpublicarum, edited by Johann Meermann (Haarlem, 1801), book III, par. 18, near the end, where the phrase ‘moribus antiquis’ (Lipsius's motto) appears.
61Patin, ‘Grotiana’, in La Mothe le Vayer, edited by Pintard, 73–74.
62In the Prolegomena to DIB, § 17 sqq.; on the interpretation of Carneades as Machiavelli or the voice of reason of state, see A. Eyffinger and B. Vermeulen, Hugo de Groot. Denken over oorlog en vrede (Baarn: Ambo, 1991), 25–27. The dismissal is implicit in De Antiquitate.
63See Jan Waszink, ‘Polybius and Prudentia’, in Land of Dreams: Greek and Latin Studies in Honour of A.H.M. Kessels, edited by A. P. M. H. Lardinois, M. G. M. van der Poel and V. J. C. Hunink (Leiden, 2006).
64Eyffinger, ‘Lipsius and Grotius: Two Views’, in Lipsius in Leiden, edited by Enenkel and Heesakkers, 170.
65‘Lypsius quoque simile quid habet […]’; see J. D. M. Cornelissen, ‘Hugo de Groot's Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis op den Index’, Mededeelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome, 8 (1928), 165. See also Jan Waszink, ‘New Documents on the Prohibition of Grotius's Annales et Historiae by the Roman Index’, Grotiana, 24–26 (2003/4), 77–138. The censors also objected to Grotius's scorn for Lipsius's all-too-Catholic discussion of the miracle sites of Halle en Scherpenheuvel.