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Postel and his idea of progress and Utopian reality
History Printed
of European Ideas, in Great Britain.
Vol. 6, No. 3, pp
311-324.
1985.
0191M599/85 $3.00 + 0.M) Pergamon Press Ltd.
POSTEL AND HIS IDEA OF PROGRESS AND UTOPIAN REALITY MARIONLEATHERSKUNTZ* In the thought of Guillaume Postel man’s creation in the Divine Image and Similitude was consonant with the idea of progress, since God gave man reason and the theatre of universal nature through which he could acquire knowledge and test hypotheses.’ Through these natural gifts man had the inherent power to progress in all areas of knowledge about himself and the world and in his knowledge of God. Postel links the idea of progress to evolutionary history. In each stage of history God gave to man specific gifts or revelations which were boons in man’s search for understanding himself and God. Postel sees human history in four stages, each of which grows out of the preceding stage. In some respects Postel’s view of history appears to be consistent with the millennialist tradition of Irenaeus, Lactantius, Origen and the Christian sibylline writings. Postel’s eschatology also resembles that of Joachim and, to an even greater degree, that of the radical Franciscans who introduced the conception of a third coming of Christ.2 Postel obviously drew from many medieval sources; however, he gave some originality to the millenarian and utopian views of his age.3 Postel’s eschatology differs from the usual schemes, however, because he emphasises the fourth age as the age of restitution in which the world will be reformed and united under God in a one-world state. He makes a clear distinction between restitution in the fourth age and the millenium which comes at the consummation of the world in the fifth and final age of the world.4 Postel was far more concerned with formulating principles for ushering in the age of restitution, which he believed was to take place in his own time, than he was with visions of the consummation of the world. Although Postel often spoke of the need for meditation and contemplation, he eschewed the purely contemplative life. His preference for the vita a&vu is clearly revealed in his view of history as the divinely developing drama in which man moves forward in his search for the way of return to God. Postel like Augustine saw men in every historical age moving actively through history in their search for knowledge and truth. In Postel’s mind, the evolution of human history is an essential part of human progress. Each age has been distinguished by the opportunities presented for human progress, although man has often failed to grasp the opportunities which were available. Nevertheless, mankind has made progress in every age; otherwise God’s purpose for creation would be thwarted. Postel, like Bodin, does not see human history as a constant degeneration.5 Although the original *Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, U.S.A. 311
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harmony between man and God was disturbed when Adam made an irrational decision to disobey God, man is not evil by nature. God wills that man return to the original harmony, and human history reveals progress toward this end. Postel calls the four ages of history the ages of nature, law, grace and restitution. In all of Postel’s metaphysical speculations he indicates a preference for a quadrapartite structure. For example, in place of the usual trinitarian view of the Divine Persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he speaks of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Lamb; or often as Father, Mother, Son, Daughter. For his ontology Postel also preferred a quadrapartite structure, based upon a four-fold principle of emanation which, in turn, was responsible for creation.” Quaternary emanation is distinguished in created wisdom which creates, forms and makes. This four-fold emanation flows from the quaternity of the Divine Being whose ineffable name has four divine letters. Postel describes the Unity of God by four aspects or attributes, namely; Essentia, Unitas, Veritas and Bonitas. Postel also adds as argument the Pythagorean ‘sacrament’ which states that the one most simple thing is necessarily four before anything can act from itself; likewise the most simple Unity can be no less than a quaternity in its own goodness or property of acting.’ Since Postel emphasised four as a metaphysical principle it is not surprising that four became for him the number for ordering history’s evolution. In like manner, he describes the four ages of world history by numerous four-fold distinctions. For example, the age of nature is also referred to as Pueritia, the age of law as Zuventus, the age of grace as Virifitas, and the fourth age of restitution as Senio which is the highest perfection.x To support the four-fold division of history Postel cites the Pythagoreans who judged that the ‘Quaternarium divinitus animae nostrae infusum et impactum esse radicem et fontem aeternar naturae’. Indeed, Postel always attached great significance to numbers and argued that numbers preceded names. Since the creation of the universe, Postel saw man progress in each age of history in spite of the vicissitudes present therein.” God created mankind to be members of His Ecclesia on earth; and this Ecclesia has been continuous from the time of the first parents. Postel wrote that God’s Grace, and consequently His Ecclesia or Church, appeared to be separated from man because of various upheavals and human problems. This could never be the case, however, since this view of man’s alienation would cause God to be defrauded of His Own Will. Postel reasons that if mankind were not progressing toward the restitution of all things, sin would be more powerful in destroying than tied in leading all things into their own end.“’ A basic contradiction, however, seems apparent in Postel’s view of progress. How can one speak of progress in human history when the original perfection of man has been stained by human sin? To obviate this seeming contradiction Postel de-emphasises man’s fall. He argued that whatever Adam lost through sin would be paid back with great interest in the restitution of all things in the fourth age of human history.” Postel envisioned man in an even more perfect relationship to God in the restitution of all things than he was before his fall. This paradox of the perfect becoming more perfect is similar to Postel’s statement that the Good becomes the Better the
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more common it becomes. In like manner, Postel argued that Christ is stronger in his members than he is in himself. As an analogue he noted that the root and trunk of a tree live only as long as the branches are alive. Divine participation is a general concept in Postel’s philosophic system. Postel describes human history as a four-fold development of the Ecclesia. The four ages of human history are also related by Postel to the four primal elements of earth, air, fire and water. Postel writes that ‘the law of nature has been for cleansing the element of fire, the written law for cleansing the air, or reformation for the Gospel for cleansing water, and the restitution cleansing little by little the earth’.12 In each of the four ages of the Ecclesia, God has sent His messengers to instruct and to chasten. In the Age of Nature (Pueritia), mankind was instructed by father Noah, first parent of the human race. Postel emphasised the new beginning given to the human race because of the piety of Noah, while he minimised Adam’s Fall by calling it an evil figment.‘” The end and the beginning of the world coalesce in Noah. Consequently, the death which man experienced after the Fall of Adam was subsumed into life, which was given to Noah, the new parent of the human race. Noah becomes a symbol of progress for Postel. Noah is the one who was snatched ‘from the waves’ because of his worship of the one true God.‘” Consequently, he becomes the new parent of the human race, but especially of the Italians, French, Germans and Spanish. Postel links Noah, as parent of the universe, to Janus and writes: Nullum itaque a Deo Optimo Maxim0 vnquam beneficium, per Mentis vniuersalis ministerium, post mundi creationem maius accepmus, quam quum duce Iano et Deorum et hominum parente a clade aquarum liberati sumus.‘S Postel calls his mythological technique of describing history ‘emithologie’, because it reveals the ‘emith’ or truth. I6 He argues that in the Golden Age the contemplation of divine and human things led the best men to see that they should apply various names to one and the same things in order to comprehend their various meanings and aspects.” According to Postel’s emithologie, Janus was an ancient king of Etruria and therefore related to the Kittim, mentioned by Jeremiah as a people who settled in the territory between the Arno and the Tiber and remained steadfast in their devotion to their God.l* This same Janus was also called Noah in the Hebraic view of history. Postel writes that Noah comprehended in a unique way the great secret of the dual nature of Homo Generalis, namely: the higher which is Image, Mens, Masculus, Intellectus agens et Homo verus interiorque, and the lower, which is Similitudo, Spiritus, Foemina, Intellectus possibilis et Homo exterior spectrosusque.‘” Because of his comprehension of the mystery of duality Noah was called by Postel, ‘bifrons’, an epithet applied to Janus in antiquity because he was related to living water and to the passage over running water.*” Noah or Janus with his forma bifrons revealed the frons and the facies of every man, although the highest part of Noah was united to the First Mover. Because of this unique union with the First Mover Noah becomes the head of all intelligences and the fountain and beginning of life for all intelligences. For this reason Noah was called in sacred interpretations Diu Prosopin, that is, Bifrons or ‘duarum facierum suppositum’.*’
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Postel used the term Aequivalentia to indicate divine participation through equivalence in the universe. The use of many names to express the same thing, as in the case of Noah and Janus, is an example of his concept of an equivalence. Since God participates through equivalence in His Creation, and since participation implies a relatedness in all things, Postel views history as universal and permeated with the Presence of God, or God’s Shekinah. Although multiple events in history are viewed from multiple perspectives, there is a unity or singleness of purpose which is inherent in the multiplicity of creatures, events and names of things. Therefore, the nurnen or presence of God in the universe, according to Postel, is the same Christ, whether it be called Janus, Vertumnus, Proteus or Noah.22 Consequently, all history is unified and is, in reality, the universal history of God’s Ecclesia. The universality of history resides in the unifying Presence of God in the world which is Christ or the Shekinah. Postel interpreted Noah as a messianic figure in the age of Nature.2” Noah was God’s spokesman and the one with whom God has made an eternal pact. Postel describes Noah as the ‘first offspring of divination’. Postel attached great importance to the signs of the sky which he called the ‘first visible dispensers of the Divine Virtues’.24 Therefore, he reasoned, the first knowledge in the age of nature was that of the astronomers. He likened Noah to the Magi, who ‘by the stars knew more about the coming of the King of the Jews than the Jews themselves did’.25 In addition, he proclaimed Noah as the greatest of the Prophets and Astrologers who established the Temporal and Occidental kingdom. Noah’s kingdom, according to Postel’s mythology, was in Italy, which he called Gaul. One must note that Postel also designated the French, German and Spaniards as Gauls. In fact, Postel says that the Gauls or Galli were ‘those who were snatched from the waves’ that is, in Hebrew the Gallim. The name Galli or Gallim was given to them to safeguard their memory of the flood and the sovereign miracle of the world.26 Postel emphasised the law in his scheme of history and speaks of the law of nature, the law of Moses, the law of grace and the law of restitution. God was the giver of the True Law, and He ordained that there be twelve ministers, as influenced from one Father, just as there are twelve signs which proceed from the Heavens. There were twelve Fathers in the line of the just who lived during the law of nature under the first Adam, known as (1) Seth (2) Enoss (3) Cainan (4) Mahalaleel (5) Iared (6) Enoch (7) Matusala (8) Lamec (9) Noe (10) Sem (11) Cham (12) Iapheth. Postel interprets the number twelve as a sign of God’s beneficence. In addition to the twelve Fathers in the law of nature, Postel points out that there were twelve patriarchs for the time of the written law, twelve apostles for the law of Grace, and there will be twelve holy men present for the age of the restitution of all things. The number twelve becomes an important component in Postel’s concept of history, because it is a multiple of four and three.27 Although in each age there were signs of human imperfection, God provided ministers to teach and restore mankind. Adam had received from the angel Raziel all the things ‘which ought to be revealed not simply by nature but through the mysteries of grace until the eternal law, inscribed in
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the minds of all and prescribed by that one return to us’.** In addition, Adam had been taught the names of things from the beginning. Therefore, Postel argued that the law of truth which is necessary to speak the names of things and to make sentences had been given to Adam from the beginning.*” Postel attached great significance to language and the Hebrew letters as signs which revealed divine concern for man’s progress. The Hebrew alphabet was the first and sacred alphabet given to Adam, according to Postel; to the letter iod Postel attaches special significance by describing it as the ‘fountain of eternal truth and proof’.3” Language, words and letters contain in themselves two parts of truth divinely received, namely: the argument and the proof.“’ Language has a mystical meaning for Postel. He reasons that all things have been expressed in the eternal language, since it is necessary that all things be and become in themselves and also become and be formed outside themselves, that is, in the human mind. 32 He states that ‘the most excellent being is in the intellect’ and that God made all things in order that they follow the most excellent being in the human mind. The divine gift of language and man’s ability to use it is an example of Divine Participation. Postel argues for a unitary theory of language basing his proof upon the premise of Divine Economy. ‘It would be in vain that something be made through more when it can be made through less.‘3” Postel believed that Hebrew was the original language, since in these characters God had given His Own Law to Adam. Postel sees language as an innate idea which separates men from animals and has, therefore, an essential function in man’s progress.34 He believes that there can be no knowledge of individual things until a name by which the object can be conceptualised is given to the object. Speaking the names of things is dependent upon hearing the names and then imitating what is heard. The first parent of the universe was divinely taught the names of all things. Postel reasons that God from His Wisdom infused the names of things into the mind of Adam, according to the reason of eternal truth which ordains all things. The names of things were in the mind of God and were conceived by Adam from an inner voice, since there was no one with whom he could speak.35 Postel views language not only as a great gift from God but also as a great miracle. Indeed, he sees the miracle of language granted to Adam as equal to the miracles of Jesus and the saints. Postel is in wonder about the great holiness of Adam which merited such a miraculous gift. In his awe of Adam and the gift, Postel even goes so far as to say that lives of all the saints combined demonstrated no thing other than that restauratio of nature which has been placed in Adam from the beginning.36 In Postel’s concept of progress language was a key, indeed perhaps, the key, to man’s progress. Adam was a symbol of progress because he was the conservator of words. The letters and characters, perfect and worthy of God the Teacher, were incised in the mind of man, as they were later sculpted in stone.37 Adam ‘in an atom of time’ transcribed all the names of things on very large stones; however, Postel notes, no trace of these characters remains except in the ‘God-written’ tablets of Moses. Postel considers language as an innate idea, however, since language is conceived before it is articulated.38
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In order for man to progress in his comprehension of God, which is the reason for his existence, God allowed the form (modus) of language which pertained to the manifestation of truth to be preserved wherever it was and throughout all ages even up to Postel’s age, as he explains. However, that same form (modus) had been given to Adam all at 0nce.j” Indeed, Pastel seems to be far more impressed with God’s gift of language to Adam than he was discouraged by Adam’s sin. In spite of Adam’s sin the gift of language was never taken away, even though as punishment the unity of language was shattered. Postel also equates the gift of language to Divine Law, which is written in the hearts of men, as language is written in the mind.“” This philosophy of history accordingly makes Jeremiah’s inwardness of the law prior to Moses’ bringing down the tablets of law from Mount Sinai. To continue his positive interpretation of man’s progress Pastel emphasises Noah’s pact with God sealed by the precepts of obedience to God, nature and Right Reason. 41 Though Noah lived in a sinful age he remained steadfast in his worship of God and in his practice of Right Reason and Natural Law. Consequently, the gifts of language, Right Reason and the comprehension of God’s Law were enhanced in Noah to the extent that Postel claims that he was knowledgeable of all future things.42 Noah became for Postel not only a Messianic figure but also a Magus. The proper worship of God instituted by Noah was grounded in God’s Law which is eternal and unchanging. Postel said that Noah established Etruscan Razi Inues or mystery priests who were spiritual overseers of sacred rights. Consequently, the true worship of God would be eternal, since its basis is the Law of God. Though true worship of God has been assailed through the ages, it cannot be destroyed any more than God’s Law can be destroyed. True religion resides in the acceptance of God’s Law handed down to the first parent Adam.“” One sees clearly that Pastel glosses over the Fall of Man and its subsequent evil for mankind; he focuses instead upon the great and divine gifts to mankind at creation and in each subsequent age and the great opportunities for a Great Restoration or Restitution of all Mankind. The idea of progress is so important to Postel that he sometimes ignores facts which would give cause for skepticism. Postel was enamoured with the concept of Noah, because the various myths about the great flood, Noah and his various names enabled Postel to use Noah as a symbol of progress after Adam’s Fall. The unity of all things was necessary for true progress in Pastel’s mind, and Noah with many names and two faces represented the unified countenance of restored mankind. Such great significance did Postel place upon the law of nature that he held that the Pentateuch originated with Adam and was transmitted in an oral tradition by the patriarchs of the law of nature. He indicated that almost all the world was confused about the origin of the five books of Moses, which were believed to have been handed down from Heaven like the Ten Postel says that all the ‘documents of divine wisdom’ had Commandments.” been handed down by Adam to Noah, then through good Abraham, Shem or Melchisedec to Moses, who compiled them into five books.” Don Cameron Allen points out that Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World assumes
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that Moses not only had received oral tradition from the patriarchs but also the written tradition compiled by Enoch.46 The preference which Postel shows for the law of nature is predicated upon the vast mythology of the ancient past upon which he could draw to set forth his doctrine of unity and restitution. As we have indicated, Postel believed that Adam had received all necessary knowledge from God through Raziel, and this knowledge was to be passed on to his posterity.47 However, when Adam sinned against God, his posterity was bound to the law of faith, until all things could be restored.48 Consequently, Postel maintains, there were two traditions of the law. The oral law of sacred tradition was hidden in the sacred language among the fathers of the law of nature or the reformation of the world, which began under the priesthood of Noah and was passed down to Abraham and then to Moses. This oral law was shared only with those worthy sages. The natural law was common to the whole world. Postel noted that in all the ages of history, even to his own day, it was the ‘glory of God to hide His Word in order that in each age through progress the glory of Kings would be to unfold that word of God, until in the fourth and final age of the Ecclesia under the spirit of Maternity, sacred knowledge would embrace all mankind’.49 The Law of Moses then was first received from the mouth of Adam and from Enoch, seventh prince of the world because of his virtuous life. Postel also maintains that the law was immutable and that not one iod or one point would change or pass away until all things would progress to their most perfect manner of Being. However, he notes that from the time of the flood to the time of Moses a multiple doctrine developed from the divine law because the divine law was understood in three ways: the elementary, the celestial and the supracelestial.50 In his elaborate mythologising of divine-human history Postel emphasises the continuity of God’s Law in a written as well as in a more secret tradition, that is, the Kabbalah. Although in each age all men do not follow or understand God’s Law, the Law remains immutable. Some men, however, in each age do indeed comprehend even the more secret meaning of God’s Law. Progress is measured by man’s understanding of God’s Law and his adherence to it.51 Postel has a clear belief in human progress which is rooted in God’s Law. In order to support a view of human progress in spite of man’s sin and subsequent alienation from God, Postel de-emphasises Adam’s sin by indicating Adam’s contribution in the transmission of God’s Law to the patriarchs of the law of nature. Postel interprets negative events, such as Adam’s sin, from positive effects. For example, had Adam not sinned, there would have been no need for Adam’s posterity to be bound to the law of faith; in addition, the oral law was hidden in certain pious men who transmitted the great secrets of God’s Law.52 The separation from God which Adam’s sin caused could not be permanent, because to protect His Creation God inscribed His Law in the hearts of all men. Without Adam’s sin there would not have been the possibility of universal restitution or reformation. The secrets of God hidden in His Law have caused men to search more deeply in order to comprehend His Immutable Law.53
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Pastel equates God’s Law to Being itself and identifies the Law as one of the virtues. He describes this virtue as the ‘power of the drawing out of all created Beings from the primal waters’. By joining God’s Law to man’s creation Postel indicates that this great virtue not only gave man his origin but was also his handbook for progress. In Postel’s interpretation the Law has an ontological basis. Consequently, Postel does not speak of the Old Law and the New Law. He speaks only of the Law which is from God from the creation of the world and is applicable to all nature.54 The law provides a source of unity among men and between mankind and God. One correctly assumes that Postel placed great emphasis upon the first two ages of man’s development, because the law which was handed down to Adam provided for the orderly progression of nature and mankind. The written law, given to Moses, was the same law which God gave to Adam. This virtue was bestowed during the ages of nature and law, but it was applicable to all ages. In the age of grace Postel also believed that a divine virtue had been given to mankind. The virtue was the power of conservation and salvation, or Zesuah, of all things, which are the most formal ideas, immaterial and abstract. Postel links this virtue to the age of grace, and he calls it Ros (dew) or Custodia or Safus.55 The virtue which is appropriate to the fourth age of restitution, teaches man, by the silent instinct of the Holy Spirit, to say, Eli Zahu, that is, My God is Iahu.56 This virtue harmonius with the age of restitution implies a universal worship of the one true God. The nearer man comes to the goal of a universal religion, in which cultural differences in no way hinder the worship of the one true God, the greater is man’s progress.” Postel speaks less often of the age of grace than of the other three ages. Part of his reluctance to extol the glory of the age of grace may reside in his abhorrence of the sectarian strife among Christians and the hostility of Christianity to Judaism and Islam. More important to his concept of the age of grace, however, are his Christological views. Postel speaks less often of Jesus Christ than of Christ’s presence in the world since the beginning of creation.58 Whereas, Jesus of Nazareth could, in some respects be viewed as a devisive figure, certainly in relationship to the Jews, God’s Presence, that is, His Christ, His Shekinah, was available and applicable to all mankind.59 The universality of Christ led Postel to call Christ Proteus and Vertumnus because Christ is adaptable to all the diversities of man. 6o Christ represents for Postel the unitary Presence of God which is multiple in its dimensions. Postel compares God and His Presence to a circle whose point is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.61 Here again we see that in his concept of history Postel interprets events according to an a priori premise of an inherent order and unity in the nature of things. The most often repeated theme for Postel is that ‘all things are in all’. Postel interpreted the renewal of knowledge and discoveries about the world during his own age as indications that this age was the age of the restitution of all things. The fourth age was the most perfect of all historical ages, since in the Senectus or ‘old age’ of the world man, because of his increased knowledge, could bring about, by the use of Right Reason, the unity of all things, which was the goal of man’s existence as a Creature of
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God. Postel’s program of world unity which was predicated upon a belief in natural order, divinely given, was three-fold. First, man must be unified within himself, next with his fellow man, then with God. Man’s animus, which is his higher and masculine soul and which has never fallen, must be reunited with the anima, the lower or feminine part of the soul. This union can be accomplished, according to Postel, by the use of recta ratio. Postel claimed that his own reason had been restored to its perfect condition so that now all mysteries were comprehensible to him. Postel had a profoundly mystical experience which he described as a complete rebirth in which his reason became unimpaired. He gives no exact plan for obtaining restored reason. However, he does say that every shadow which dims the Intellect must be removed and that all false knowledge must perish. Man must always be a speaker of Truth. He also recommends that man rely on prayer and meditation and embrace Truth with his ~0~1.~’ Postel attached great significance to the voyages of discovery, the invention of the printing press, the advancement of languages, the rediscovery of ancient texts, and the development of art and architecture. He viewed the renewal of the arts and the development of knowledge as indications that the fourth age was imminent.63 Conseque ntly, all mankind must immediately be restored and led into ‘one sheepfold’. Postel believed that man’s reason and his Goodness, since he was created in the image and likeness of God, could accomplish a world reformation so that all the sons of God would be joined in one universal state, political and spiritual, which would be God’s Ecclesia on earth. The fourth age of perfection which Postel constantly described could be referred to as a utopia in which all men would love God, His Goodness and His Creation. Postel believed that man’s love of God would be translated by political practice into acts of charity toward one’s fellow man and that the age of the restitution of all things was a utopia, not only possible, but indeed really real. A unified world in which all mankind would be joined in the worship of the one true God is the reality of man’s existence.@ The truly Real is, of course, God, and His Reality lies hidden in every man like gold and precious stones hidden in the earth. The time has now come for man to bring in the fruits which come forth in abundance in the fourth age of restitution. Postel compares this fourth age of nature to the moon in conjunction with the sun, which he calls the Kiss of the Sun. He also states that all things direct themselves through Being, Life and Sensation into the Intellect.65 And now human history is reaching its fulfilment after the ages of nature, law and grace. Postel’s utopia, which he refers to as the Ecclesia generalis, the respublica mundana and the respublica universalis was to be in time and was to endure until the millennium should come. The restitution is temporal, while the millennium is to come at the end of time. Postel calls the millennium the Fifth Year; the Restitution of all things is the Fourth Year. In addition, the Fifth Year or the Millennium of the World is also spoken of as the Eighth Day.@ Postel’s utopia, which he describes as reality, rests upon the unity of all things whose fruit is Virtue united to Charity.67 When all men become one in
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spirit and in mind, they then become participants in the Divine Unity. Postel’s platform for restitution or utopian reality rests upon amor Dei, virtue unitiva, charitas and virtus diffusiva. Love of God is the source of all other virtues.68 When all men with reason restored love God completely, they will naturally establish a unified society, a unitary language and a universal religion to reflect the unity which is God. The unitary political system will encompass all peoples of the world under one king, priest, judge, who will have his seat in Jerusalem, the spiritual centre of the universal monarchy of the fourth age; Venice, the city saved from the waters, will become the centre of a loosely structured political confederation, and Paris will be supreme in the judicial realm. 6y To hasten the unity of the world there must also be one language for the whole world, and this is the ‘language of Adam, Moses, and Christ to which now we all must necessarily return’.“’ Perhaps the most important unity which must be realised in the age of restitution is the unity of all religions. Postel argues that reason must be rendered in matters of Faith and Hope. Divisions among religions prove for Postel that men do not yet know what they are doing, nor do they know and understand what they believe. Reason, Postel believes, can lead man to the true religion which is the love of God. In order to accomplish religious concord and unity Postel minimises external practices of worship and emphasises the Truth of Religion hidden in men’s hearts. In like manner, he becomes convinced that all rites except communion must be removed, since they had become stumbling blocks to unity. Communion of bread and wine represents the universal gifts from God, and these gifts of food and drink showed God’s care for ail His people.71 The gifts of bread and wine are like the manna which God sent to feed the Israelites in the desert and like the ros or dew which nourishes the tree and its branches. Only the rite of communion is essential because it represents God’s universal love and care. Postel also states that practices which are offensive to Islam and Judaism, such as the devotion to statues, should be terminated. Instead of religious rites and dogma which divide mankind Postel believes in a programme of action predicated upon the love of God revealed by charitable acts. When this true religion is practiced by all, the restitution of all things will become a reality, since God desires, according to Postel, that no man be removed from His love. Restitution to Postel means simply the unity of all things as in the beginning of creation. This grand purpose for mankind will take place when Truth and Reason hold place in the world as they do in God. Postel’s idea of progress then is rooted in his concept of history as successive revelations and gifts of God to mankind. Postel’s view of history demands a concept of progress, or else God would be defrauded of His Will, since He wills that all men be saved, that is, to be returned to the original unity between God and man. As we have tried to indicate, Postel held a synthetic and syncretic view for understanding man’s history. True progress is measured by the interrelationship of all things, that is, omnia in omnihw. For Postel true progress is realised when Reason and Truth lead man beyond the individual and individual things to the general which is God and His multiple
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Unity. He sincerely believed that this unity could and must be accomplished in his own age. The establishment of a universal monarchy would signal the state as a work of art.72 The true artist is he who fosters universal brotherhood and man’s return to God. There can be no limit to human progress when all men let God be as a universal heart for the whole world, pumping life into a renewed world.” Marion Leathers Kuntz Georgia State University NOTES 1. See Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi Clauis, qua mens humana tam in diuinis quam in humanis pertinget ad interiora uelaminis aeternae ueritatis Gvlielmo Postello ex diuinis decretis exscriptone (s.1. ,s.d.). 2. See M. Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages. A Study of Joachimism. (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1969); also G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962); also note J. L. Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Francisians in the New World, 2nd edn rev. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970). 3. For example, see Petri Galatini Minoritae serui inutilis Iesv Christi, de Angelic0 pastore opusculum ex sacra ueteris et noui testamenti scriptura excerptum. ms. Vat. Lat. 5578, fols. l-84; B. Amadeus, dicitur a patria. Romae vixit, Systo IV; P. P. regnante, et hunt libellum de Revelationibus composuit hut usque nondum editum, ms. Ottob. Lat. 2914, fols. l-207’, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Roma; also, Confvtatio Erroris popvlaris de loanna psevdopontifice vvlgo Papessa per Florimundum de Remundo Ms. B. 107 Codex XVI”, Bibhoteca Vallicellaria, Roma; also note M. L. Kuntz, Guillaume Pastel, Prophet of the Restitution of All Things. His Life and Thought, pp. 1389. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981). 4. See the erudite work of G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), pp. 375 et seq., and also see Spiritual and Anabuptist Writers (Philadelphia: The Library of the Christian Classics, XXX, 1957); E. L. Tuveson, Millennium and Utopia. A Study in the Background of the Idea of Progress (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964); N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1961). 5. See J. Bodin, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem (Paris, 1566) and Les six livres de la republique (Paris, 1576); also G. Huppert, The idea of Perfect History, pp. 99117 (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1970). 6. He indicates a preference for the quadripartite structure: for example, in place of the usual trinitarian view of the Divine Being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he speaks of Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Lamb, or of Father, Mother, Son and Daughter. See also his Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . (s.1. ,s.d.) cap. 2 and cap 5. 7. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1412, fol. 184. 8. See Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . ., cap. 2 and cap. 3. 9. Ibid., cap. 2, sig. a3”-a5”. 10. Ibid., cap. 3, sig. a6 ‘opus est omnino reddi genus Humanum in his Inferioribus illi Perfectioni, quam, per Peccatum ubivis legibus profligatam, ad hanc diem desiderat. Nam alioqui plus potuisset Peccatum pervertendo, et innumeri Nebulones per tyranmdes et concupiscentias Naturae ordinem eventerdo, quam Deus in suum finem ducendo.’
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11. Ibid., cap. 9, sig. C2’-C3; compare also IIav &vwam Compositio omnivm dissidiorum circa aeternam ueritutem (s.d., s.1.) sig. b3: ‘In restitutione enim, quum nil praeter hominem sit restituendum, quumque caetera omnia sint munda, reddent obedientiam ab Adamo perditam, et usum Naocho concessum sine ulla exceptione: in futura autem coelesti paradiso, omnia in nobis erunt beata.’ 12. Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds lat. 3402, fol. 9”. 13. Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . ,, cap. 9, sig. C3”-C3. 14. See De Etruriae Regionis . . Originibus (Florentiae, 1551), and Les Raisons de la monarchic (Paris, 1551), Bibliotheque nationale, fonds lat. 3401, fols 36, 36”; see also D. C. Allen, The Legend of Noah (Urbana , Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1949); Mysteriously Meant. The Rediscovery of Pagan Symbolism and Allegorical Interpretation in the Renaissance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970). 15. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, p. 197; sig. Biii. 16. Bibliotheque nationale, fonds lat. 3401, fol. 58. Also see F. Secret, ‘L’emithologie de Guillaume Postel’, Archivio di Filosofia, Umanesimo e Esoterismo (1960), 381-437. 17. De Etruriae Regionis . Originibus, pp. 67-9. 18. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 233. 19. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, p. 144. 20. L. A. Holland, Janus and The Bridge (Rome: American Academy in Rome, 1961), pp. 25-74. 21. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, pp. 144-5. 22. Ibid., p. 96; Postel also writes: ‘Qui est omnia in omnibus facit omnia in omnibus, et omnia ex omnibus, ut doceat se ex nihilo prius omnia fecisse. . Multo magis sacrosanctus ille noster Vertumnus Christus Jesus, ut nos lucrifaciat tam in suis scripturis quam in suis naturis agit continua Proteum, quia in aequiualentia, eminentia potentia et realitate est omnia et in se et in omnibus.’ The British Library, Sloane ms. 1410, fol. 367’: note also A. Rotondo, Studi e ricerche di storia ereticale italiana de1 cinquecento. Pubblicazioni dell’Instituto di Scienze Politiche dell’Universit8 di Torino, Vol. XXX1 (Torino: Edizioni Giappichelli, 1974), pp. 1367. 23. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, pp. 132-3. 24. ‘C’est a ceste cause que les deux premiers signes du ciel, l’un en ordre et l’aultre en grandeur d’estoille ascauoir le premier diet Aries, et le quint diet Leo, iectent la dessus leur influence et force comme premiers dispensateurs visibles des Diuines vertus dont sont nayz au monde les Empires qui iusques icy ont gouuerne.’ Description et charte de la Terre Saincte . . (Paris: J. Ruelle, 1553), p. 107. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid., p. 108. 27. Vincvlvm mundi . . , (Paris: S. Nivelium, 1552), sig. Biiii, see also Description et charte de la Terre Saincte . , p. 11. 28. De Originibus sev, de varia etpotissimum orbi Latini . historia (Basileae, 1553: Ioannes Oporinum), pp. 54, 75-7. 29. Ibid., p. 19. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid., p. 18. 32. Ibid., p. 22. 33. Ibid., p. 20. Postel’s words are: ‘Nam inter Deum diuinamque eius tam increatam quam creatam sapientiam, interque angelos et homines a principio institutos, non potuit uerum nisi uno solo charactere exarari. Si quidem frustra fieret per plura, quod per pauciora fieri potest.’
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34. Ibid., p. 1.5. 35. Ibid. ‘Diuinitus itaque Adam accepit uocabula a Sapientia, seu ab intellectu agente et possibili, cuius uniuersi sumus membra.’ 36. Ibid., pp. 15-17. 37. Ibid, pp. 1617. 38. Ibid., p. 38. 39. Ibid., p. 17-18. 40. Ibid., p. 17. 41. De Etruriae Regionis . . Originibus, p. 128. 42. Ibid., p. 231. 43. Ibid., p. 245; also note the British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 292. 44. De Originibus sev, de varia et potissimum orbi Latini . . . historia, p. 53. 45. Ibid., p. 56. 46. Consult his Mysteriously Meant (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970); also note De Originibus . . , pp. 55-6. 47. De Originibus . . . , p. 54. 48. Ibid., p. 56. 49. Ibid., pp. 56-7. 50. Ibid., p. 58. 51. Ibid., pp. 58-61. 52. Ibid. 53. See De Etruriae Regionis . . . Originibus, p. 189; also note Psalm 87:2. 54. Bibliothbque nationale, fonds lat. 3402, fol. 72’. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid. 57. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1413, fol. 15. 58. Ilcuv OEVWUL(Y p. 76. 59. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 353. 60. See above, note 22. 61. See The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 6’. 62. Absconditorum a constitutione mundi Clauis . . , cap. XIII. 63. Ibid., cap. XIII-XV. 64. Ibid., cap. XV: ‘Possessio majorem mortalibus fidem faciet: nam licet sit tota mentalis, tota Verbalis, et tota in Instrumento, tamen Realis quae in quart0 loco est, omnes ad se trahit.’ 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid., sig. f*, f”; see also the important book of F. E. Manuel and F. P. Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1980). 67. Ibid., sig. f8. 68. The British Library Sloane ms. 1411 fol. 439; also see M. L. Kuntz, ‘Guglielmo Postello e la “Vergine Veneziana”. Appunti storici sulla vita spirituale dell’ospedaletto nel Cinquecento’, Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Quaderni 21 (1981), 18-20. 69. Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . . , cap. XIV. 70. Note M. L. Kuntz, ‘Guillaume Postel and the world state: restitution and the universal monarchy’, History of European Ideas 4f (1983), 29%323; 44565; also see Absconditorum a constitutione mundi clavis . ., sigs. g3, g4. 71. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 298. 72. Consult Kuntz, ‘Guillaume Postel and the world state’, p. 455. 73. See Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clauis . . , Chap. XI, sig. Cviii where
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of European Ideas, in Great Britain.
Vol. 6, No. 3, pp
311-324.
1985.
0191M599/85 $3.00 + 0.M) Pergamon Press Ltd.
POSTEL AND HIS IDEA OF PROGRESS AND UTOPIAN REALITY MARIONLEATHERSKUNTZ* In the thought of Guillaume Postel man’s creation in the Divine Image and Similitude was consonant with the idea of progress, since God gave man reason and the theatre of universal nature through which he could acquire knowledge and test hypotheses.’ Through these natural gifts man had the inherent power to progress in all areas of knowledge about himself and the world and in his knowledge of God. Postel links the idea of progress to evolutionary history. In each stage of history God gave to man specific gifts or revelations which were boons in man’s search for understanding himself and God. Postel sees human history in four stages, each of which grows out of the preceding stage. In some respects Postel’s view of history appears to be consistent with the millennialist tradition of Irenaeus, Lactantius, Origen and the Christian sibylline writings. Postel’s eschatology also resembles that of Joachim and, to an even greater degree, that of the radical Franciscans who introduced the conception of a third coming of Christ.2 Postel obviously drew from many medieval sources; however, he gave some originality to the millenarian and utopian views of his age.3 Postel’s eschatology differs from the usual schemes, however, because he emphasises the fourth age as the age of restitution in which the world will be reformed and united under God in a one-world state. He makes a clear distinction between restitution in the fourth age and the millenium which comes at the consummation of the world in the fifth and final age of the world.4 Postel was far more concerned with formulating principles for ushering in the age of restitution, which he believed was to take place in his own time, than he was with visions of the consummation of the world. Although Postel often spoke of the need for meditation and contemplation, he eschewed the purely contemplative life. His preference for the vita a&vu is clearly revealed in his view of history as the divinely developing drama in which man moves forward in his search for the way of return to God. Postel like Augustine saw men in every historical age moving actively through history in their search for knowledge and truth. In Postel’s mind, the evolution of human history is an essential part of human progress. Each age has been distinguished by the opportunities presented for human progress, although man has often failed to grasp the opportunities which were available. Nevertheless, mankind has made progress in every age; otherwise God’s purpose for creation would be thwarted. Postel, like Bodin, does not see human history as a constant degeneration.5 Although the original *Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, U.S.A. 311
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harmony between man and God was disturbed when Adam made an irrational decision to disobey God, man is not evil by nature. God wills that man return to the original harmony, and human history reveals progress toward this end. Postel calls the four ages of history the ages of nature, law, grace and restitution. In all of Postel’s metaphysical speculations he indicates a preference for a quadrapartite structure. For example, in place of the usual trinitarian view of the Divine Persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he speaks of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Lamb; or often as Father, Mother, Son, Daughter. For his ontology Postel also preferred a quadrapartite structure, based upon a four-fold principle of emanation which, in turn, was responsible for creation.” Quaternary emanation is distinguished in created wisdom which creates, forms and makes. This four-fold emanation flows from the quaternity of the Divine Being whose ineffable name has four divine letters. Postel describes the Unity of God by four aspects or attributes, namely; Essentia, Unitas, Veritas and Bonitas. Postel also adds as argument the Pythagorean ‘sacrament’ which states that the one most simple thing is necessarily four before anything can act from itself; likewise the most simple Unity can be no less than a quaternity in its own goodness or property of acting.’ Since Postel emphasised four as a metaphysical principle it is not surprising that four became for him the number for ordering history’s evolution. In like manner, he describes the four ages of world history by numerous four-fold distinctions. For example, the age of nature is also referred to as Pueritia, the age of law as Zuventus, the age of grace as Virifitas, and the fourth age of restitution as Senio which is the highest perfection.x To support the four-fold division of history Postel cites the Pythagoreans who judged that the ‘Quaternarium divinitus animae nostrae infusum et impactum esse radicem et fontem aeternar naturae’. Indeed, Postel always attached great significance to numbers and argued that numbers preceded names. Since the creation of the universe, Postel saw man progress in each age of history in spite of the vicissitudes present therein.” God created mankind to be members of His Ecclesia on earth; and this Ecclesia has been continuous from the time of the first parents. Postel wrote that God’s Grace, and consequently His Ecclesia or Church, appeared to be separated from man because of various upheavals and human problems. This could never be the case, however, since this view of man’s alienation would cause God to be defrauded of His Own Will. Postel reasons that if mankind were not progressing toward the restitution of all things, sin would be more powerful in destroying than tied in leading all things into their own end.“’ A basic contradiction, however, seems apparent in Postel’s view of progress. How can one speak of progress in human history when the original perfection of man has been stained by human sin? To obviate this seeming contradiction Postel de-emphasises man’s fall. He argued that whatever Adam lost through sin would be paid back with great interest in the restitution of all things in the fourth age of human history.” Postel envisioned man in an even more perfect relationship to God in the restitution of all things than he was before his fall. This paradox of the perfect becoming more perfect is similar to Postel’s statement that the Good becomes the Better the
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more common it becomes. In like manner, Postel argued that Christ is stronger in his members than he is in himself. As an analogue he noted that the root and trunk of a tree live only as long as the branches are alive. Divine participation is a general concept in Postel’s philosophic system. Postel describes human history as a four-fold development of the Ecclesia. The four ages of human history are also related by Postel to the four primal elements of earth, air, fire and water. Postel writes that ‘the law of nature has been for cleansing the element of fire, the written law for cleansing the air, or reformation for the Gospel for cleansing water, and the restitution cleansing little by little the earth’.12 In each of the four ages of the Ecclesia, God has sent His messengers to instruct and to chasten. In the Age of Nature (Pueritia), mankind was instructed by father Noah, first parent of the human race. Postel emphasised the new beginning given to the human race because of the piety of Noah, while he minimised Adam’s Fall by calling it an evil figment.‘” The end and the beginning of the world coalesce in Noah. Consequently, the death which man experienced after the Fall of Adam was subsumed into life, which was given to Noah, the new parent of the human race. Noah becomes a symbol of progress for Postel. Noah is the one who was snatched ‘from the waves’ because of his worship of the one true God.‘” Consequently, he becomes the new parent of the human race, but especially of the Italians, French, Germans and Spanish. Postel links Noah, as parent of the universe, to Janus and writes: Nullum itaque a Deo Optimo Maxim0 vnquam beneficium, per Mentis vniuersalis ministerium, post mundi creationem maius accepmus, quam quum duce Iano et Deorum et hominum parente a clade aquarum liberati sumus.‘S Postel calls his mythological technique of describing history ‘emithologie’, because it reveals the ‘emith’ or truth. I6 He argues that in the Golden Age the contemplation of divine and human things led the best men to see that they should apply various names to one and the same things in order to comprehend their various meanings and aspects.” According to Postel’s emithologie, Janus was an ancient king of Etruria and therefore related to the Kittim, mentioned by Jeremiah as a people who settled in the territory between the Arno and the Tiber and remained steadfast in their devotion to their God.l* This same Janus was also called Noah in the Hebraic view of history. Postel writes that Noah comprehended in a unique way the great secret of the dual nature of Homo Generalis, namely: the higher which is Image, Mens, Masculus, Intellectus agens et Homo verus interiorque, and the lower, which is Similitudo, Spiritus, Foemina, Intellectus possibilis et Homo exterior spectrosusque.‘” Because of his comprehension of the mystery of duality Noah was called by Postel, ‘bifrons’, an epithet applied to Janus in antiquity because he was related to living water and to the passage over running water.*” Noah or Janus with his forma bifrons revealed the frons and the facies of every man, although the highest part of Noah was united to the First Mover. Because of this unique union with the First Mover Noah becomes the head of all intelligences and the fountain and beginning of life for all intelligences. For this reason Noah was called in sacred interpretations Diu Prosopin, that is, Bifrons or ‘duarum facierum suppositum’.*’
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Postel used the term Aequivalentia to indicate divine participation through equivalence in the universe. The use of many names to express the same thing, as in the case of Noah and Janus, is an example of his concept of an equivalence. Since God participates through equivalence in His Creation, and since participation implies a relatedness in all things, Postel views history as universal and permeated with the Presence of God, or God’s Shekinah. Although multiple events in history are viewed from multiple perspectives, there is a unity or singleness of purpose which is inherent in the multiplicity of creatures, events and names of things. Therefore, the nurnen or presence of God in the universe, according to Postel, is the same Christ, whether it be called Janus, Vertumnus, Proteus or Noah.22 Consequently, all history is unified and is, in reality, the universal history of God’s Ecclesia. The universality of history resides in the unifying Presence of God in the world which is Christ or the Shekinah. Postel interpreted Noah as a messianic figure in the age of Nature.2” Noah was God’s spokesman and the one with whom God has made an eternal pact. Postel describes Noah as the ‘first offspring of divination’. Postel attached great importance to the signs of the sky which he called the ‘first visible dispensers of the Divine Virtues’.24 Therefore, he reasoned, the first knowledge in the age of nature was that of the astronomers. He likened Noah to the Magi, who ‘by the stars knew more about the coming of the King of the Jews than the Jews themselves did’.25 In addition, he proclaimed Noah as the greatest of the Prophets and Astrologers who established the Temporal and Occidental kingdom. Noah’s kingdom, according to Postel’s mythology, was in Italy, which he called Gaul. One must note that Postel also designated the French, German and Spaniards as Gauls. In fact, Postel says that the Gauls or Galli were ‘those who were snatched from the waves’ that is, in Hebrew the Gallim. The name Galli or Gallim was given to them to safeguard their memory of the flood and the sovereign miracle of the world.26 Postel emphasised the law in his scheme of history and speaks of the law of nature, the law of Moses, the law of grace and the law of restitution. God was the giver of the True Law, and He ordained that there be twelve ministers, as influenced from one Father, just as there are twelve signs which proceed from the Heavens. There were twelve Fathers in the line of the just who lived during the law of nature under the first Adam, known as (1) Seth (2) Enoss (3) Cainan (4) Mahalaleel (5) Iared (6) Enoch (7) Matusala (8) Lamec (9) Noe (10) Sem (11) Cham (12) Iapheth. Postel interprets the number twelve as a sign of God’s beneficence. In addition to the twelve Fathers in the law of nature, Postel points out that there were twelve patriarchs for the time of the written law, twelve apostles for the law of Grace, and there will be twelve holy men present for the age of the restitution of all things. The number twelve becomes an important component in Postel’s concept of history, because it is a multiple of four and three.27 Although in each age there were signs of human imperfection, God provided ministers to teach and restore mankind. Adam had received from the angel Raziel all the things ‘which ought to be revealed not simply by nature but through the mysteries of grace until the eternal law, inscribed in
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the minds of all and prescribed by that one return to us’.** In addition, Adam had been taught the names of things from the beginning. Therefore, Postel argued that the law of truth which is necessary to speak the names of things and to make sentences had been given to Adam from the beginning.*” Postel attached great significance to language and the Hebrew letters as signs which revealed divine concern for man’s progress. The Hebrew alphabet was the first and sacred alphabet given to Adam, according to Postel; to the letter iod Postel attaches special significance by describing it as the ‘fountain of eternal truth and proof’.3” Language, words and letters contain in themselves two parts of truth divinely received, namely: the argument and the proof.“’ Language has a mystical meaning for Postel. He reasons that all things have been expressed in the eternal language, since it is necessary that all things be and become in themselves and also become and be formed outside themselves, that is, in the human mind. 32 He states that ‘the most excellent being is in the intellect’ and that God made all things in order that they follow the most excellent being in the human mind. The divine gift of language and man’s ability to use it is an example of Divine Participation. Postel argues for a unitary theory of language basing his proof upon the premise of Divine Economy. ‘It would be in vain that something be made through more when it can be made through less.‘3” Postel believed that Hebrew was the original language, since in these characters God had given His Own Law to Adam. Postel sees language as an innate idea which separates men from animals and has, therefore, an essential function in man’s progress.34 He believes that there can be no knowledge of individual things until a name by which the object can be conceptualised is given to the object. Speaking the names of things is dependent upon hearing the names and then imitating what is heard. The first parent of the universe was divinely taught the names of all things. Postel reasons that God from His Wisdom infused the names of things into the mind of Adam, according to the reason of eternal truth which ordains all things. The names of things were in the mind of God and were conceived by Adam from an inner voice, since there was no one with whom he could speak.35 Postel views language not only as a great gift from God but also as a great miracle. Indeed, he sees the miracle of language granted to Adam as equal to the miracles of Jesus and the saints. Postel is in wonder about the great holiness of Adam which merited such a miraculous gift. In his awe of Adam and the gift, Postel even goes so far as to say that lives of all the saints combined demonstrated no thing other than that restauratio of nature which has been placed in Adam from the beginning.36 In Postel’s concept of progress language was a key, indeed perhaps, the key, to man’s progress. Adam was a symbol of progress because he was the conservator of words. The letters and characters, perfect and worthy of God the Teacher, were incised in the mind of man, as they were later sculpted in stone.37 Adam ‘in an atom of time’ transcribed all the names of things on very large stones; however, Postel notes, no trace of these characters remains except in the ‘God-written’ tablets of Moses. Postel considers language as an innate idea, however, since language is conceived before it is articulated.38
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In order for man to progress in his comprehension of God, which is the reason for his existence, God allowed the form (modus) of language which pertained to the manifestation of truth to be preserved wherever it was and throughout all ages even up to Postel’s age, as he explains. However, that same form (modus) had been given to Adam all at 0nce.j” Indeed, Pastel seems to be far more impressed with God’s gift of language to Adam than he was discouraged by Adam’s sin. In spite of Adam’s sin the gift of language was never taken away, even though as punishment the unity of language was shattered. Postel also equates the gift of language to Divine Law, which is written in the hearts of men, as language is written in the mind.“” This philosophy of history accordingly makes Jeremiah’s inwardness of the law prior to Moses’ bringing down the tablets of law from Mount Sinai. To continue his positive interpretation of man’s progress Pastel emphasises Noah’s pact with God sealed by the precepts of obedience to God, nature and Right Reason. 41 Though Noah lived in a sinful age he remained steadfast in his worship of God and in his practice of Right Reason and Natural Law. Consequently, the gifts of language, Right Reason and the comprehension of God’s Law were enhanced in Noah to the extent that Postel claims that he was knowledgeable of all future things.42 Noah became for Postel not only a Messianic figure but also a Magus. The proper worship of God instituted by Noah was grounded in God’s Law which is eternal and unchanging. Postel said that Noah established Etruscan Razi Inues or mystery priests who were spiritual overseers of sacred rights. Consequently, the true worship of God would be eternal, since its basis is the Law of God. Though true worship of God has been assailed through the ages, it cannot be destroyed any more than God’s Law can be destroyed. True religion resides in the acceptance of God’s Law handed down to the first parent Adam.“” One sees clearly that Pastel glosses over the Fall of Man and its subsequent evil for mankind; he focuses instead upon the great and divine gifts to mankind at creation and in each subsequent age and the great opportunities for a Great Restoration or Restitution of all Mankind. The idea of progress is so important to Postel that he sometimes ignores facts which would give cause for skepticism. Postel was enamoured with the concept of Noah, because the various myths about the great flood, Noah and his various names enabled Postel to use Noah as a symbol of progress after Adam’s Fall. The unity of all things was necessary for true progress in Pastel’s mind, and Noah with many names and two faces represented the unified countenance of restored mankind. Such great significance did Postel place upon the law of nature that he held that the Pentateuch originated with Adam and was transmitted in an oral tradition by the patriarchs of the law of nature. He indicated that almost all the world was confused about the origin of the five books of Moses, which were believed to have been handed down from Heaven like the Ten Postel says that all the ‘documents of divine wisdom’ had Commandments.” been handed down by Adam to Noah, then through good Abraham, Shem or Melchisedec to Moses, who compiled them into five books.” Don Cameron Allen points out that Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World assumes
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that Moses not only had received oral tradition from the patriarchs but also the written tradition compiled by Enoch.46 The preference which Postel shows for the law of nature is predicated upon the vast mythology of the ancient past upon which he could draw to set forth his doctrine of unity and restitution. As we have indicated, Postel believed that Adam had received all necessary knowledge from God through Raziel, and this knowledge was to be passed on to his posterity.47 However, when Adam sinned against God, his posterity was bound to the law of faith, until all things could be restored.48 Consequently, Postel maintains, there were two traditions of the law. The oral law of sacred tradition was hidden in the sacred language among the fathers of the law of nature or the reformation of the world, which began under the priesthood of Noah and was passed down to Abraham and then to Moses. This oral law was shared only with those worthy sages. The natural law was common to the whole world. Postel noted that in all the ages of history, even to his own day, it was the ‘glory of God to hide His Word in order that in each age through progress the glory of Kings would be to unfold that word of God, until in the fourth and final age of the Ecclesia under the spirit of Maternity, sacred knowledge would embrace all mankind’.49 The Law of Moses then was first received from the mouth of Adam and from Enoch, seventh prince of the world because of his virtuous life. Postel also maintains that the law was immutable and that not one iod or one point would change or pass away until all things would progress to their most perfect manner of Being. However, he notes that from the time of the flood to the time of Moses a multiple doctrine developed from the divine law because the divine law was understood in three ways: the elementary, the celestial and the supracelestial.50 In his elaborate mythologising of divine-human history Postel emphasises the continuity of God’s Law in a written as well as in a more secret tradition, that is, the Kabbalah. Although in each age all men do not follow or understand God’s Law, the Law remains immutable. Some men, however, in each age do indeed comprehend even the more secret meaning of God’s Law. Progress is measured by man’s understanding of God’s Law and his adherence to it.51 Postel has a clear belief in human progress which is rooted in God’s Law. In order to support a view of human progress in spite of man’s sin and subsequent alienation from God, Postel de-emphasises Adam’s sin by indicating Adam’s contribution in the transmission of God’s Law to the patriarchs of the law of nature. Postel interprets negative events, such as Adam’s sin, from positive effects. For example, had Adam not sinned, there would have been no need for Adam’s posterity to be bound to the law of faith; in addition, the oral law was hidden in certain pious men who transmitted the great secrets of God’s Law.52 The separation from God which Adam’s sin caused could not be permanent, because to protect His Creation God inscribed His Law in the hearts of all men. Without Adam’s sin there would not have been the possibility of universal restitution or reformation. The secrets of God hidden in His Law have caused men to search more deeply in order to comprehend His Immutable Law.53
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Pastel equates God’s Law to Being itself and identifies the Law as one of the virtues. He describes this virtue as the ‘power of the drawing out of all created Beings from the primal waters’. By joining God’s Law to man’s creation Postel indicates that this great virtue not only gave man his origin but was also his handbook for progress. In Postel’s interpretation the Law has an ontological basis. Consequently, Postel does not speak of the Old Law and the New Law. He speaks only of the Law which is from God from the creation of the world and is applicable to all nature.54 The law provides a source of unity among men and between mankind and God. One correctly assumes that Postel placed great emphasis upon the first two ages of man’s development, because the law which was handed down to Adam provided for the orderly progression of nature and mankind. The written law, given to Moses, was the same law which God gave to Adam. This virtue was bestowed during the ages of nature and law, but it was applicable to all ages. In the age of grace Postel also believed that a divine virtue had been given to mankind. The virtue was the power of conservation and salvation, or Zesuah, of all things, which are the most formal ideas, immaterial and abstract. Postel links this virtue to the age of grace, and he calls it Ros (dew) or Custodia or Safus.55 The virtue which is appropriate to the fourth age of restitution, teaches man, by the silent instinct of the Holy Spirit, to say, Eli Zahu, that is, My God is Iahu.56 This virtue harmonius with the age of restitution implies a universal worship of the one true God. The nearer man comes to the goal of a universal religion, in which cultural differences in no way hinder the worship of the one true God, the greater is man’s progress.” Postel speaks less often of the age of grace than of the other three ages. Part of his reluctance to extol the glory of the age of grace may reside in his abhorrence of the sectarian strife among Christians and the hostility of Christianity to Judaism and Islam. More important to his concept of the age of grace, however, are his Christological views. Postel speaks less often of Jesus Christ than of Christ’s presence in the world since the beginning of creation.58 Whereas, Jesus of Nazareth could, in some respects be viewed as a devisive figure, certainly in relationship to the Jews, God’s Presence, that is, His Christ, His Shekinah, was available and applicable to all mankind.59 The universality of Christ led Postel to call Christ Proteus and Vertumnus because Christ is adaptable to all the diversities of man. 6o Christ represents for Postel the unitary Presence of God which is multiple in its dimensions. Postel compares God and His Presence to a circle whose point is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.61 Here again we see that in his concept of history Postel interprets events according to an a priori premise of an inherent order and unity in the nature of things. The most often repeated theme for Postel is that ‘all things are in all’. Postel interpreted the renewal of knowledge and discoveries about the world during his own age as indications that this age was the age of the restitution of all things. The fourth age was the most perfect of all historical ages, since in the Senectus or ‘old age’ of the world man, because of his increased knowledge, could bring about, by the use of Right Reason, the unity of all things, which was the goal of man’s existence as a Creature of
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God. Postel’s program of world unity which was predicated upon a belief in natural order, divinely given, was three-fold. First, man must be unified within himself, next with his fellow man, then with God. Man’s animus, which is his higher and masculine soul and which has never fallen, must be reunited with the anima, the lower or feminine part of the soul. This union can be accomplished, according to Postel, by the use of recta ratio. Postel claimed that his own reason had been restored to its perfect condition so that now all mysteries were comprehensible to him. Postel had a profoundly mystical experience which he described as a complete rebirth in which his reason became unimpaired. He gives no exact plan for obtaining restored reason. However, he does say that every shadow which dims the Intellect must be removed and that all false knowledge must perish. Man must always be a speaker of Truth. He also recommends that man rely on prayer and meditation and embrace Truth with his ~0~1.~’ Postel attached great significance to the voyages of discovery, the invention of the printing press, the advancement of languages, the rediscovery of ancient texts, and the development of art and architecture. He viewed the renewal of the arts and the development of knowledge as indications that the fourth age was imminent.63 Conseque ntly, all mankind must immediately be restored and led into ‘one sheepfold’. Postel believed that man’s reason and his Goodness, since he was created in the image and likeness of God, could accomplish a world reformation so that all the sons of God would be joined in one universal state, political and spiritual, which would be God’s Ecclesia on earth. The fourth age of perfection which Postel constantly described could be referred to as a utopia in which all men would love God, His Goodness and His Creation. Postel believed that man’s love of God would be translated by political practice into acts of charity toward one’s fellow man and that the age of the restitution of all things was a utopia, not only possible, but indeed really real. A unified world in which all mankind would be joined in the worship of the one true God is the reality of man’s existence.@ The truly Real is, of course, God, and His Reality lies hidden in every man like gold and precious stones hidden in the earth. The time has now come for man to bring in the fruits which come forth in abundance in the fourth age of restitution. Postel compares this fourth age of nature to the moon in conjunction with the sun, which he calls the Kiss of the Sun. He also states that all things direct themselves through Being, Life and Sensation into the Intellect.65 And now human history is reaching its fulfilment after the ages of nature, law and grace. Postel’s utopia, which he refers to as the Ecclesia generalis, the respublica mundana and the respublica universalis was to be in time and was to endure until the millennium should come. The restitution is temporal, while the millennium is to come at the end of time. Postel calls the millennium the Fifth Year; the Restitution of all things is the Fourth Year. In addition, the Fifth Year or the Millennium of the World is also spoken of as the Eighth Day.@ Postel’s utopia, which he describes as reality, rests upon the unity of all things whose fruit is Virtue united to Charity.67 When all men become one in
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spirit and in mind, they then become participants in the Divine Unity. Postel’s platform for restitution or utopian reality rests upon amor Dei, virtue unitiva, charitas and virtus diffusiva. Love of God is the source of all other virtues.68 When all men with reason restored love God completely, they will naturally establish a unified society, a unitary language and a universal religion to reflect the unity which is God. The unitary political system will encompass all peoples of the world under one king, priest, judge, who will have his seat in Jerusalem, the spiritual centre of the universal monarchy of the fourth age; Venice, the city saved from the waters, will become the centre of a loosely structured political confederation, and Paris will be supreme in the judicial realm. 6y To hasten the unity of the world there must also be one language for the whole world, and this is the ‘language of Adam, Moses, and Christ to which now we all must necessarily return’.“’ Perhaps the most important unity which must be realised in the age of restitution is the unity of all religions. Postel argues that reason must be rendered in matters of Faith and Hope. Divisions among religions prove for Postel that men do not yet know what they are doing, nor do they know and understand what they believe. Reason, Postel believes, can lead man to the true religion which is the love of God. In order to accomplish religious concord and unity Postel minimises external practices of worship and emphasises the Truth of Religion hidden in men’s hearts. In like manner, he becomes convinced that all rites except communion must be removed, since they had become stumbling blocks to unity. Communion of bread and wine represents the universal gifts from God, and these gifts of food and drink showed God’s care for ail His people.71 The gifts of bread and wine are like the manna which God sent to feed the Israelites in the desert and like the ros or dew which nourishes the tree and its branches. Only the rite of communion is essential because it represents God’s universal love and care. Postel also states that practices which are offensive to Islam and Judaism, such as the devotion to statues, should be terminated. Instead of religious rites and dogma which divide mankind Postel believes in a programme of action predicated upon the love of God revealed by charitable acts. When this true religion is practiced by all, the restitution of all things will become a reality, since God desires, according to Postel, that no man be removed from His love. Restitution to Postel means simply the unity of all things as in the beginning of creation. This grand purpose for mankind will take place when Truth and Reason hold place in the world as they do in God. Postel’s idea of progress then is rooted in his concept of history as successive revelations and gifts of God to mankind. Postel’s view of history demands a concept of progress, or else God would be defrauded of His Will, since He wills that all men be saved, that is, to be returned to the original unity between God and man. As we have tried to indicate, Postel held a synthetic and syncretic view for understanding man’s history. True progress is measured by the interrelationship of all things, that is, omnia in omnihw. For Postel true progress is realised when Reason and Truth lead man beyond the individual and individual things to the general which is God and His multiple
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Unity. He sincerely believed that this unity could and must be accomplished in his own age. The establishment of a universal monarchy would signal the state as a work of art.72 The true artist is he who fosters universal brotherhood and man’s return to God. There can be no limit to human progress when all men let God be as a universal heart for the whole world, pumping life into a renewed world.” Marion Leathers Kuntz Georgia State University NOTES 1. See Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi Clauis, qua mens humana tam in diuinis quam in humanis pertinget ad interiora uelaminis aeternae ueritatis Gvlielmo Postello ex diuinis decretis exscriptone (s.1. ,s.d.). 2. See M. Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages. A Study of Joachimism. (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1969); also G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962); also note J. L. Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Francisians in the New World, 2nd edn rev. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970). 3. For example, see Petri Galatini Minoritae serui inutilis Iesv Christi, de Angelic0 pastore opusculum ex sacra ueteris et noui testamenti scriptura excerptum. ms. Vat. Lat. 5578, fols. l-84; B. Amadeus, dicitur a patria. Romae vixit, Systo IV; P. P. regnante, et hunt libellum de Revelationibus composuit hut usque nondum editum, ms. Ottob. Lat. 2914, fols. l-207’, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Roma; also, Confvtatio Erroris popvlaris de loanna psevdopontifice vvlgo Papessa per Florimundum de Remundo Ms. B. 107 Codex XVI”, Bibhoteca Vallicellaria, Roma; also note M. L. Kuntz, Guillaume Pastel, Prophet of the Restitution of All Things. His Life and Thought, pp. 1389. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981). 4. See the erudite work of G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), pp. 375 et seq., and also see Spiritual and Anabuptist Writers (Philadelphia: The Library of the Christian Classics, XXX, 1957); E. L. Tuveson, Millennium and Utopia. A Study in the Background of the Idea of Progress (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964); N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1961). 5. See J. Bodin, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem (Paris, 1566) and Les six livres de la republique (Paris, 1576); also G. Huppert, The idea of Perfect History, pp. 99117 (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1970). 6. He indicates a preference for the quadripartite structure: for example, in place of the usual trinitarian view of the Divine Being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he speaks of Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Lamb, or of Father, Mother, Son and Daughter. See also his Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . (s.1. ,s.d.) cap. 2 and cap 5. 7. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1412, fol. 184. 8. See Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . ., cap. 2 and cap. 3. 9. Ibid., cap. 2, sig. a3”-a5”. 10. Ibid., cap. 3, sig. a6 ‘opus est omnino reddi genus Humanum in his Inferioribus illi Perfectioni, quam, per Peccatum ubivis legibus profligatam, ad hanc diem desiderat. Nam alioqui plus potuisset Peccatum pervertendo, et innumeri Nebulones per tyranmdes et concupiscentias Naturae ordinem eventerdo, quam Deus in suum finem ducendo.’
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11. Ibid., cap. 9, sig. C2’-C3; compare also IIav &vwam Compositio omnivm dissidiorum circa aeternam ueritutem (s.d., s.1.) sig. b3: ‘In restitutione enim, quum nil praeter hominem sit restituendum, quumque caetera omnia sint munda, reddent obedientiam ab Adamo perditam, et usum Naocho concessum sine ulla exceptione: in futura autem coelesti paradiso, omnia in nobis erunt beata.’ 12. Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds lat. 3402, fol. 9”. 13. Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . ,, cap. 9, sig. C3”-C3. 14. See De Etruriae Regionis . . Originibus (Florentiae, 1551), and Les Raisons de la monarchic (Paris, 1551), Bibliotheque nationale, fonds lat. 3401, fols 36, 36”; see also D. C. Allen, The Legend of Noah (Urbana , Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1949); Mysteriously Meant. The Rediscovery of Pagan Symbolism and Allegorical Interpretation in the Renaissance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970). 15. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, p. 197; sig. Biii. 16. Bibliotheque nationale, fonds lat. 3401, fol. 58. Also see F. Secret, ‘L’emithologie de Guillaume Postel’, Archivio di Filosofia, Umanesimo e Esoterismo (1960), 381-437. 17. De Etruriae Regionis . Originibus, pp. 67-9. 18. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 233. 19. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, p. 144. 20. L. A. Holland, Janus and The Bridge (Rome: American Academy in Rome, 1961), pp. 25-74. 21. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, pp. 144-5. 22. Ibid., p. 96; Postel also writes: ‘Qui est omnia in omnibus facit omnia in omnibus, et omnia ex omnibus, ut doceat se ex nihilo prius omnia fecisse. . Multo magis sacrosanctus ille noster Vertumnus Christus Jesus, ut nos lucrifaciat tam in suis scripturis quam in suis naturis agit continua Proteum, quia in aequiualentia, eminentia potentia et realitate est omnia et in se et in omnibus.’ The British Library, Sloane ms. 1410, fol. 367’: note also A. Rotondo, Studi e ricerche di storia ereticale italiana de1 cinquecento. Pubblicazioni dell’Instituto di Scienze Politiche dell’Universit8 di Torino, Vol. XXX1 (Torino: Edizioni Giappichelli, 1974), pp. 1367. 23. De Etruriae Regionis Originibus, pp. 132-3. 24. ‘C’est a ceste cause que les deux premiers signes du ciel, l’un en ordre et l’aultre en grandeur d’estoille ascauoir le premier diet Aries, et le quint diet Leo, iectent la dessus leur influence et force comme premiers dispensateurs visibles des Diuines vertus dont sont nayz au monde les Empires qui iusques icy ont gouuerne.’ Description et charte de la Terre Saincte . . (Paris: J. Ruelle, 1553), p. 107. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid., p. 108. 27. Vincvlvm mundi . . , (Paris: S. Nivelium, 1552), sig. Biiii, see also Description et charte de la Terre Saincte . , p. 11. 28. De Originibus sev, de varia etpotissimum orbi Latini . historia (Basileae, 1553: Ioannes Oporinum), pp. 54, 75-7. 29. Ibid., p. 19. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid., p. 18. 32. Ibid., p. 22. 33. Ibid., p. 20. Postel’s words are: ‘Nam inter Deum diuinamque eius tam increatam quam creatam sapientiam, interque angelos et homines a principio institutos, non potuit uerum nisi uno solo charactere exarari. Si quidem frustra fieret per plura, quod per pauciora fieri potest.’
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34. Ibid., p. 1.5. 35. Ibid. ‘Diuinitus itaque Adam accepit uocabula a Sapientia, seu ab intellectu agente et possibili, cuius uniuersi sumus membra.’ 36. Ibid., pp. 15-17. 37. Ibid, pp. 1617. 38. Ibid., p. 38. 39. Ibid., p. 17-18. 40. Ibid., p. 17. 41. De Etruriae Regionis . . Originibus, p. 128. 42. Ibid., p. 231. 43. Ibid., p. 245; also note the British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 292. 44. De Originibus sev, de varia et potissimum orbi Latini . . . historia, p. 53. 45. Ibid., p. 56. 46. Consult his Mysteriously Meant (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970); also note De Originibus . . , pp. 55-6. 47. De Originibus . . . , p. 54. 48. Ibid., p. 56. 49. Ibid., pp. 56-7. 50. Ibid., p. 58. 51. Ibid., pp. 58-61. 52. Ibid. 53. See De Etruriae Regionis . . . Originibus, p. 189; also note Psalm 87:2. 54. Bibliothbque nationale, fonds lat. 3402, fol. 72’. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid. 57. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1413, fol. 15. 58. Ilcuv OEVWUL(Y p. 76. 59. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 353. 60. See above, note 22. 61. See The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 6’. 62. Absconditorum a constitutione mundi Clauis . . , cap. XIII. 63. Ibid., cap. XIII-XV. 64. Ibid., cap. XV: ‘Possessio majorem mortalibus fidem faciet: nam licet sit tota mentalis, tota Verbalis, et tota in Instrumento, tamen Realis quae in quart0 loco est, omnes ad se trahit.’ 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid., sig. f*, f”; see also the important book of F. E. Manuel and F. P. Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1980). 67. Ibid., sig. f8. 68. The British Library Sloane ms. 1411 fol. 439; also see M. L. Kuntz, ‘Guglielmo Postello e la “Vergine Veneziana”. Appunti storici sulla vita spirituale dell’ospedaletto nel Cinquecento’, Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Quaderni 21 (1981), 18-20. 69. Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clavis . . , cap. XIV. 70. Note M. L. Kuntz, ‘Guillaume Postel and the world state: restitution and the universal monarchy’, History of European Ideas 4f (1983), 29%323; 44565; also see Absconditorum a constitutione mundi clavis . ., sigs. g3, g4. 71. The British Library, Sloane ms. 1411, fol. 298. 72. Consult Kuntz, ‘Guillaume Postel and the world state’, p. 455. 73. See Absconditorvm a constitutione mundi clauis . . , Chap. XI, sig. Cviii where
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