Pierre Cally (25 September 1630 – 31 December 1709) was a French Catholic
Cartesian philosopher and theologian.
Life
He was born at
Mesnil-Hubert near
Argentan, now
Orne
Orne (; nrf, Ôrne or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.[University of Caen
The University of Caen Normandy (French: ''Université de Caen Normandie''), also known as Unicaen, is a public university in Caen, France.
History
The institution was founded in 1432 by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, the first rector ...]
, and in 1675, president of the Collège des Arts in the same city. In 1684 he assumed charge of the parish of Saint-Martin. He was an associate of
Pierre Daniel Huet
P. D. Huetius
Pierre Daniel Huet (; la, Huetius; 8 February 1630 – 26 January 1721) was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics, founder of the Académie de Physique in Caen (1662-1672) and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 t ...
, who converted him to
Cartesianism
Cartesianism is the philosophical and scientific system of René Descartes and its subsequent development by other seventeenth century thinkers, most notably François Poullain de la Barre, Nicolas Malebranche and Baruch Spinoza. Descartes is o ...
, and
Jean Renaud de Segrais
Jean Regnault de Segrais (22 August 1624, Caen – 25 March 1701) was a French poet and novelist born in Caen. He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1662.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Regnault De Segrais, Jean
1624 births
1701 death ...
. Cally died 31 December 1709.
Works
He wrote a course of philosophy, ''Universæ philosophiæ institutiones'' (Caen, 1695), in which the theories of
Descartes are explained and defended. He worked for the conversion of Protestants, and gave conferences in which he endeavoured to solve their difficulties. For the same purpose, and in reply to the
Jesuit Louis Le Valois,
[ http://scholasticon.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Database/Scholastiques_fr.php?ID=299] he composed a book on the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
, ''Durand commenté, ou accord de la philosophie avec la théologie touchant la transsubstantiation de l'eucharistie'' (Caen, 1700). In it he denies the existence of
absolute accidents and, instead of
transubstantiation
Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις '' metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of ...
, admits a transformation. Before and after the consecration the matter of the bread remains the same; by the consecration the matter of the bread becomes the matter of the body of Christ. A publisher in Caen was asked to print sixty copies of the work to be sent to competent judges before making it public. In fact, eight hundred copies were printed immediately and sold. At once the book became the subject of many discussions, and was bitterly denounced. On 30 March 1701,
François de Nesmond,
bishop of Bayeux condemned seventeen propositions taken from Cally's work as leading to heresy concerning transubstantiation. Cally made a public retraction on 21 April of the same year.
He also wrote
* "Doctrine hérétique et schismatique touchant la primauté du pape enseignée par les jésuites dans leur collége de Caen" (1644);
* "Discours en forme d'homélies sur les mystères, sur les miracles et sur les paroles de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ qui sont dans l'évangile" (Caen, 1703),
and published a new edition with commentaries of
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
's work, ''
De consolatione philosophiae
''On the Consolation of Philosophy'' ('' la, De consolatione philosophiae'')'','' often titled as ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' or simply the ''Consolation,'' is a philosophical work by the Roman statesman Boethius. Written in 523 while he ...
'' (Caen, 1695).
Notes
References
;Attribution
* The entry cites:
**Picot, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire eclésiastique pendant le 18e siècle (3d ed., Paris, 1853), I, 229;
**Werner, Der Heilige Thomas von Aquino (Ratisbon, 1889), III, 555; Mangenot in Dict. de théol. cath., II, 1368.
Further reading
*Lodi Nauta, ''Platonic and Cartesian philosophy in the commentary on Boethius' consolatio philosophiae by Pierre Cally'', British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Volume 4, Issue 1 March 1996, pages 79 – 100
Online PDF*Giuliano Gasparri, ''Pierre Cally (1630–1709) comme source du Lexicon rationale (1692) d’Étienne Chauvin'', Il Seicento e Descartes (2004), pp. 255–268.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cally, Pierre
1630 births
1709 deaths
French philosophers
17th-century French Catholic theologians
French male non-fiction writers
17th-century French male writers