Jacobus Palaeologus: The Concept of Nature in the De Tribus Gentibus (1572)
Palaeologus's life is well documented in the studies concentrating on the history of religious free thought in sixteenth century Eastern Europe.[366] The main motifs of his adventurous biography are his various escapes from the Inquisition, and episodes of political agency or even spying.[367] In the 1570s Palaeologus stayed in Poland, Transylvania and Moravia and joined the moveÂment of East-European radical Antitrinitarians.
He wrote his most famous works between 1571 and 1576 while continuously commuting between Cracow and Transylvania. Although the religious climate of his time was not favouraÂble for the publication of his chief works, they were widely available in handÂwritten copies in Eastern Europe. Palaeologus was captured in 1581 in Moravia on imperial order and subsequently extradited to Rome, where he was exeÂcuted in 1585.His work De tribus gentibus (On the three nations) contains perhaps the clearest summary of his syncretic theology.[368] Palaeologus finished the essay in Cracow in 1572, the only preserved manuscript is dated 1587 in Thorda/ Transylvania, copied by Mate Thoroczkai. The modern edition of the treatise, published by Lech Szczucki in 1972, is based on this manuscript.[369]
Palaeologus begins his essay with an apodictic statement. All men by nature desire to seek and to acquire salvation.[370] [371] Salvation - which substiÂtutes Aristotle's â€?knowledge' in this paraphrase of the first sentence of the Metaphysics^ - is twofold. First, it is the object of a basic instinct in every memÂber of mankind without exception - Palaeologus regards this natural instinct as a strong anthropological motive. Although this desire can be satisfied neiÂther by any sensual nor by any mental knowledge, its origin is nevertheless natÂural. Second, there is another salvation (altera salus) which was based by God on the first type of salvation and desire. The figure of Abraham plays a decisive role in the history of spreading out this altera salus. With Abraham mankind acquires knowledge about the second salvation and raises institutions to serve God who provides mankind with the hope of attaining it. Although the pagan Greeks and Romans had some undetermined notions of the second salvation in the form of their public patriotism as well, Abraham's descendants enjoyed special privileges. At the same time, non-Jewish nations perceived the preemÂinent status of the Jews, and some of them tried to enter God's elected nation through the ritual of circumcision. According to Palaeologus there were two proper types of human existence that had the appropriate notion, hope and desire of altera salus before Christ: Abraham's descendants and those nonÂJews who subjected themselves to the act of circumcision in order to join to the elected nation.[372] Patriotism without circumcision assured only a week sign of the altera salus - especially for the Greeks, who were great patriots in public but nevertheless conducted a vicious life in their private sphere. The situation changed with Christ's appearance in the world - but not in the traditional sense.[373] Those non-Jews who originally had no other choice to enter the elected nation than to subject themselves to the rite of circumcision, were offered the notion of altera salus without undertaking circumcision. The criterion of having knowledge of salvation was not circumcision anymore, but the faith in the fact that Jesus was the Christ, i.e. God's anointed. However, the occurrence of the new faith did not mean the annulment or cancellation of the rites of the Jews. This new notion of salvation propagated by Christ was the very same salvation as the one which had been promised for Abraham's descendants. The key moment of Palaeologus's conception is the question of circumciÂsion.[374] Without going into subtle details, we can summarise Palaeologus's point of view in his statement that it was not the Jewish nation, whose status conÂcerning the salvation changed with Christ's occurrence. Regarding natural law, Palaeologus's syncretic view testifies an interesting oscillation of the concept of nature. In relating Jews and Christians to each other, the Greek thinker established two types of natural law concerning human beings. The first type is the law of desire for salvation, that is, an anthropologÂical standard in all members of mankind. In the first sentence of the De trlbus gentibus, Palaeologus expresses this natural desire through the paraphrase of Aristotle's opening statement at the beginning of the Metaphysics concerning man's natural desire for knowledge. The all-embracing natural drive towards justification keeps moving human history according to God's plan in all times and regions. For the second type, somewhat paradoxically, Palaeologus qualÂifies the manner according to which Abraham's descendants disposed of the notion of salvation as natural in some passages. They were saints naturally,[375] all theJews were God's sons and branches of the life's tree naturally,[376] they Werejustified by nature[377] they sucked the sanctity of the natural oil-tree as inborn or natural branches while believing that Jesus was the Christ^[378] their certainty of justification inhabited in them φυσει[379] [380] Natural law belonged to the Ancient Greeks and Romans only in the first sense, they disposed of the natuÂral drive towards supranatural salvation, but no certitude of justification was given them naturally. However, neither any member of the gentes who underÂtook the ritual of circumcision possessed the hope of salvation in a natural way, their certitude inhabited in them θεσει. After explaining the syncretic theological horizon for Jews and Christians, Palaeologus discusses the position of Muslimsi7 regarding his altera salus. As the title of the treatise - De tribus gentibus, On the three nations - already suggests, Palaeologus leads the third nation into his syncretism too. First of all, the Alcoran acknowledges Jesus as Christ as well, performing the minimal requirement for the salvation for the gentes.[381] They practice the act of circumÂcision, but - contrary to the Jews - there is no sign of the deadline of the eighth day, they circumcise boys only after a certain age and justify this rite through some causes relating to corporal hygiene?[382] After all, the circumcision of the Muslims is a question of comparative studies of religions, as it appears by Herodotus or Diodorus.[383] [384] [385] May these sources from Antiquity suggest that the ancestors of the third nation had received the ritual of circumcision from the Jews - long before being Muslims -, it has nevertheless no impact on sharing their notion of the altera salus. Their status is the same as that of the non-cir- cumcised non-Jews, they are provided with the notion and the hope of salvaÂtion by recognising Jesus Christ. Palaeologus refuses the standard polemical commonplace of the absurdities contained in the Alcoran through relating similar phenomena in the texts of Christian revelation and enforces his view by emphasising a possible genetic relationship between them.21 Muslims are in fact descendants of nations who lived in geographical proximity22 of the scenes of Christ's coming - therefore they were promised with the hope of salÂvation in the same manner as other gentes who were not Jews. According to his famous view, Palaeologus sees the cause of their departure from Christianity in the fact that they were averse from accepting the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the essential divine nature of Christ as late developments of so-called Christian theology.[386] Palaeologus's syncretic view implied a break away from traditional Christologies. There is much obscurity regarding the possible sources of Palaeologus's theological approach. According to Lech Szczucki, this radical syncretism had only very rare parallels in contemporary Europe. One of the similar cases was that of Guillaume Postel. Although Postel and Palaeologus had the painful opportunity to get acquainted with each other in the prison of the Inquisition in Rome in 1559, Szczucki denies a direct takeover of Postel's thought?[388] Mihaly Balazs emphasised some similarities with Nicolaus Cusanus's De pace fidei, while keeping in mind the German philosopher's strong trinitological comÂmitments.[389] [390] [391] Martin Rothkegel interpreted Palaeologus's theology within a Levantine cultural context?7 Palaeologus's approach might have been influÂenced by Averroes's notorious last disputation of his Incoherence of Incoherence, where Averroes provided a naturalistic account for the spreading out of the monotheistic religions?8 3