1. Idea of Nature (Oxford, 1945), pp. 3–9.Google Scholar As Colllngwood himself admits (p. 4), “the name is not a good one, because the word ‘Renaissance’ is applied to an earlier phase in the history of thought… The cosmology I have now to describe… might, perhaps, be more accurately called post- Renaissance.”

2. Ibid., p. 5.

3. Scrutiny of the Oxford English Dietionary s.v. Law reveals two primary current meanings for the expression natural law. It is defined, on the one hand, as that law, prescribed by no enactment or formal compact, which is implanted by nature in the human mind, or is capable of being demonstrated by reason. On the other it is defined as referring, in “the sciences of observation,” to the theoretical principles deduced from particular facts, applicable to defined groups or classes of phenomena, and expressible by the statement that particular phenoniena always occur if certain conditions are present. For purposes of clarity I propose to use the term natural law to refer to the juristic concept, and the term laws of nature to indicate the scientific usage.

4. See Discours de La Méthode, Cinquième Partie.— Oeuvres de Descartes, ed. Jules Simon (Paris, 1841), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar

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7. The L. T. Hobhouse Memorial Trust Lecture No. 20, delivered on 23 May, 1950 at Bedford College, London, and published under the title: Human Law and the Laws of Nature in China and the West (London, 1951)Google Scholar. An expanded version bearing the same title is to be found in the Journal of the History of Ideas, XII (1951), pp. 3 ff.Google Scholar, and 194 ff., and also as Section 18 of Needham, Joseph and Ling, Wang, Science and Civilization in China, II (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 518–583Google Scholar—to which book my references will be given.

8. “The Genesis of the Concept of Physical Law,” pp. 277–279.

9. Science and Civilization, II, p. 542.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., p. 543.

11. Adventures of Ideas (New York, 1937), pp. 142–147.Google Scholar

12. For an interesting attempt to apply the distinction to the juridical sphere see Ginsberg, M., “The Concept of Juridical and Scientific Law,” Palitica, IV, No. 15 (03, 1939), pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar

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14. Ibid., p. 144.

15. This pantheistic Stoic view is fundamental to the statements about natural law which are to be found in the Corpus Jutis Civilis—see Inst., I, 2, 11; Dig., I, 1, §, 3; I, 1, 2.

16. Prov. viii, 19.

17. Adventures of Ideas, p. 133.

18. And in so far as it concerns man and is apprehended by his reason, the eternal law is called the natural law —Summa Theologia, Ia 2ae, qu. 94, art. 2 Resp.

19. S.T., Ia 2ae, qu. 91, art. 1 ad tertium.

20. Thus he can argue that God himself “cannot make that which is Instrinsically bad, not be bad.” For “as the essence of things… by which they exist, does not depend on anything else, so also it is with the properties which necessarily follow that essence; and such a property is the evil of certain acts, when compared with the nature of a reasonable being. And therefore God himself allows himself to be judged according to this norm.”—De Jure Bell et Pacis, Bk. I, ch. 1, §X, 5; ed. William Whewell (Cambridge, 1853), p. 12Google Scholar. It should be noted, however, that in his earlier De Jure Praedae, Commentarius— ed. H. G. Hamaker (The Hague, 1868)Google Scholar—he had taken as his point of departure the principle that the divine will is the basis of natural law (see ch. 2, pp. 7–9). This work was written in the winter of 1604–5 but rediscovered only in 1864 and first published in 1868.

21. Idea of Nature, p. 5.

22. Cf. supra, n. 4.

23. He definitely believed, as Whitehead puts it, “that the correlated modes of behaviour of the bodies forming the solar system required God for the imposition of the principles upon which all depended.”—Adventures of Ideas, p. 144. And thus, in his first letter to Bentley, Newton could write that “the motions which the planets now have, could not spring from any nalural cause alone, but were impressed by an intelligent agent.”—Opera quae exstant omnia, ed. Samuel Horsley, IV (London, 1782), p. 431.Google Scholar

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28. As the Stoics conceived of natural law as immanent in the universe the idea of command could play no part in such a conception.

29. Science and Civilization in China, II, p. 542.

30. ‘Semitic’ rather than ‘Judaic” because as Needham points out (p. 533) the idea was probably of Babylonian origin.

31. A Disquisition about the Final Causes of N˛tural Things. The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, ed. Thomas Birch, V (London, 1772), p. 401.Google Scholar

32. For an example see Mason, S. F., “Science and Religion in 17th Century England,” Past and Present, No. 3 (1953), esp. pp. 28–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. For a comparison between the views of Aquinas and those of the followers of the voluntarist tradition, and for a discussion of the importance of this tradition in the juridical sphere, see Oakley, Francis, “Medieval Theories of Natural Law: William of Ockham and the Significance of the Voluntarist Tradition,” Natural Law Forum, VI (1961), pp. 65–83.Google Scholar

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43. Opus Nonaginta Dierum (Lyons: Jean Trechsel, 1495)Google Scholar, ch. 95 (no foliation); see esp. § Nota de duplici potentia dei. Cf. Quodlibeta Septem una cum tractatu de sacramento altaris (Strasbourg, 1491)Google Scholar, Quodl. VI, qu. 6; English translation of this question in McKeon, Richard, Selections from Medieval Philosophers, II (New York, 1930), pp. 372–375.Google Scholar

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53. Apologia pro Joanne Gersonio (Lyons, 1676), pp. 4–7.Google Scholar

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76. The General Scholium which Newton appended to the second edition of the Principles contains the clearest statement of his physico-theological principles. In it he was careful to affirm, not only that “this most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being,” but also that this Being is to be considered as an omnipotent cosmic sovereign who “governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all”—Opera Orania, III, pp. 171–173.

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80. The Christian Virtuoso, Works, V, p. 521.

81. A Free Inquiry, Works, V, p. 216.

82. Some considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, Works, IV, p. 159.

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89. De Legibus, Bk. 1, ch. 1, Bk. 2, ch. 2; Selections, I, pp. 8 and 104; Met. Disp., II, Disp. XXX, § 17, p. 150. Robert Boyle himself came very close to the same position—see The Christian Virtuoso, Works, V, p. 521.

90. Essays on the Law of Nature, Essay I, pp. 108–110; Sanderson, De oblig. consc., Prael. Quarta, p. 101. Locke's editor suggests that the position of Locke as well as that of Culverwell was influenced by that of Suarez (pp. 36–37).

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95. Although it is unimportant in the present context, it should perhaps be noted that this distinction underwent slight fluctuations in meaning in the course of the three centuries during which it was current.

96. D'ailly, Sent. I, qu. 13, art. 1 D, fol. 159r; Major, In primum Sent., dist. 44, qu. 3.

97. See Leff, Gordon, Bradwardine and the Pelagiang (Cambridge, 1957), pp. 165–254.Google Scholar

98. It is cited explicitly, to my knowledge, by Luther, , Vorlesungen über I Mose, ch. 19, 14–20, ch. 20, 2Google Scholar; Werke, 43, pp. 71–72, 82; the Hubmaier, Anabaptist Balthasar, Das ander Biechlen von der Freywilligkait den menschens (Nicolsburg, 1527)Google Scholar—English translation in Williams, G. H. (ed.), Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers (Philadelphia, 1957), pp. 132–133Google Scholar; Perkins, William, A Godly and learned Exposition, Works, III, pp. 233–234Google Scholar; Suarez, , Met. Disp., II, Disp. XXX, Sectio 17, p. 150Google Scholar; Ames, , Marrow, Bk. 1, ch. 6,§§ 16–20, p. 21Google Scholar; Norton, , Orthodox Evangelist, ch. 1, p. 19Google Scholar, and Willard, , Compleat Body, Q. 4, Sermon 22, p. 70Google Scholar. and it is at least implied in some of the arguments of Melanchthon, , Initia Doctrinae Physicae, Opera Omnia, XIII, p. 207Google Scholar, and Boyle, Robert himself—Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, Works, IV, pp. 161–163Google Scholar. Cf. Malebranche's distinction between the ‘general’ and ‘particular’ will of God which is very similar in its import—see Dreyfus, Ginette, La Volonté selon Malebranche (Paris, 1958), pp. 101–109.Google Scholar

99. The New England Mind, pp. 33–34.

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105. It is perhaps worthy of note that many of these authors also make use of another distinction related to that which they drew between the absolute and ordained powers of God. This distinction concerned the order of salvation and was drawn between what Calvinist theologians usually referred to as the secret will and the revealed will of God, but which the Scholastics called voluntas beneplaciti and voluntas signi. Its history can be traced back as far as the De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei of Hugh of St. Victor (1096–1141)— Bk. I, Part 4, ch. 8 (Patroiogialatina, ed. J-P. Migne, 176 [Paris, 1854], col. 237)Google Scholar, but it consorted very profoundly with the voluntarism of the Ockhamists and became a commonplace of Protestant thought. It was cited, for example, by Hubmaier, — Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers, pp. 132–133Google Scholar; Perkins, William, A Treatise of God's free grace, Workes, I, pp. 704–705Google Scholar; Ames, , Marrow, Bk. I, ch. 7. §§ 52–54, pp. 30–31Google Scholar; Norton, John, Orthodox Evangelist, ch. 4, p. 92;Google ScholarHobbes, , The Questions concerning liberty, necessity and chance clearly stated and debated between Dr. Bramhall Bishop of Derry, and Thomas Hobbes of Maimesbury (London, 1656), pp. 10 and 78Google Scholar. It was used, among the members of the Royal Society, not only by the staunchly Calvinist John Wallis—A brief and easie explanation of the Shorter Catechism (London, 1662)Google Scholar, E 4 — but also by Charleton, , Darkness of Atheism, ch. 10, 4, p. 354Google Scholar. Cf. also Sanderson, , De oblig. consc., Prael. quarta, p. 97.Google Scholar

106. Hardly surprising for, according to d'ailly, “just as the divine will is the first efficient cause in the genus of efficient causality, so also is it the first obligating rule or law in the genus of obligating law”—Sent. I, qu. 14, art. 3 Q, fol. 173r.

107. Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, p. 294.

108. Needham, , Science and Civilization, II, p. 582.Google Scholar

109. Science of Mechanics, trans. T. J. McCormack (London, 1942), pp. 542, 551–552Google Scholar; cf. Taube, Mortimer, Causation, Freedom and Determinism (London, 1936), pp. 108–109.Google Scholar

110. Whitehead, A. N., Science and the Modern World (New York, 1958), p. 14Google Scholar; Collingwood, R. G., Idea of Nature, pp. 3–9Google Scholar; Foster, , “The Christian doctrine of Creation and the rise of Modern Natural Science,” Mind, XLIII (1934), pp. 446–468CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “Christian Theology and Modem Science of Nature,” Mind, XLV (1936), pp. 1–28Google Scholar. Cf. e.g. Mascall, E. L., Christian Theology and Natural Science (London, 1956), pp. 93–100.Google Scholar

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113. Ibid., p. 543.

114. Ibid., p. 582—Needham adds that “Modern Science and the philosophy of organism, with its integrative levels, have come back to his wisdom, fortified by a new understanding of cosmic, biological and social evolution. Yet who shall say that the Newtonian phase was not an essential one.”

115. As long ago as 1909 Pierre Duhem drew attention to the importance of those condemnations for the history of science —Etudes sur Lénard de Vinci, II (Paris, 1909), pp. 411 ffGoogle Scholar. He did so, however, because he believed that the utterances of the Bishop of Paris on specific points such as the possibility of the existence of a plurality of worlds marked the starting point of the development of modern science, and Alexandre Koyré has convincingly exposed the lack of evidence to support such a belief—“Le vide et l'espace infini au XIVe siècle,” Archives d'hist. doct. et litt. du Moyen Age, 24 (1949), pp. 45–91Google Scholar. But if the condemnations and the theological reaction to which they witnessed were unimportant in the realm of specific scientific discoveries, this was far from being the case in the realm of philosophical assumptions about nature— a point which Koyré apparently failed to perceive.