SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY pessimism natural in a Counter-Reformation France torn by sectarian warfare Montaigne contrasted the educated and civilized citizens of European states, to their disadvantage, with the simplicity and nobility of the inhabitants of the recently discovered New World However, Montaigne’s emphasis on the limits of the human intellect does not prevent him from claiming to be quite certain of the truth of Catholic Christianity On the contrary, he can claim that in his scepticism about philosophy he is following in the footsteps of St Paul in First Corinthians: ‘Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.’ Pauline texts such as these were painted on the beams of Montaigne’s study along with quotations from Sextus such as ‘all that is certain is that nothing is certain’ To reconcile his scepticism with his orthodoxy, Montaigne emphasizes that what he has been attacking are the pretensions of the human intellect to achieve truth by its own eVorts But faith is not an achievement, it is a free gift of God: It is not by reasoning or understanding that we have received our religion, it is by authority and command from above The weakness of our judgement is more help than its strength, and our blindness is more help than our clear sight It is through ignorance, not through knowledge that we become wise with divine wisdom (ME, 166) Counter-Reformation Philosophy Montaigne’s exaltation of revelation to the exclusion of reason—‘Wdeism’ as it came to be called—was not typical of the Counter-Reformation In reaction against Luther’s insistence that the human intellect and will had been totally corrupted by the sin of Adam, Catholic controversialists tended to emphasize that basic religious truths were within the scope of unaided human intellect, and that faith itself needed the support and defence of reason In the forefront of this optimistic thrust of the Counter-Reformation were the Jesuits, the members of the new Society of Jesus This order was founded by the Spanish ex-soldier Ignatius Loyola and was approved by 16