In Chapter 35, you learned that many Enlightenment thinkers challenged old beliefs with their new ideas. Baruch Spinoza was another influential Enlightenment thinker.

Spinoza was born in Holland. His family was part of a community of Jews who had fled Portugal during the Inquisition. The Holy Office of Inquisition was a Roman Catholic court that tried to find and punish heretics, or those who held religious beliefs in conflict with the church. Spain had established their Inquisition in 1480. Portugal had done the same in 1536. Thousands of Jews were put on trial, and many were killed. Many other Jews fled Spain and Portugal to establish new Jewish communities elsewhere.

Spinoza was educated in the orthodox Jewish tradition, but he also studied the works of Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and other writers of the period. He made a living polishing lenses for glasses. He became well known for his liberal views in politics and religion. His independent ideas even led to his excommunication from the Jewish community.

Below are short excerpts from an essay by Spinoza. He is writing about natural rights, or the rights that belong to people “by nature”--that is, simply because they are human beings. Which natural right is he writing about?

If men’s minds were as easily controlled as their tongues, every king would sit safely on his throne, and government by compulsion [force] would cease [end].…

However… no man’s mind can possibly lie wholly at the disposition of another, for no one can willingly transfer his natural right of free reason and judgment, or be compelled [forced] to so to do.

For this reason, government which attempts to control minds is accounted [considered to be] tyrannical, and it is considered an abuse of sovereignty [independence] and a usurpation [taking by force] of the rights of subjects to seek to prescribe [command] what shall be accepted as true, or rejected as false, or what opinions should actuate [guide] men in their worship of God.

Source
Spinoza, Baruch. “Freedom of Thought and Speech.” Essay in The European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche, edited by Monroe C. Beardsley. New York: Modern Library Edition of Random House, 1960.

Investigating Primary Sources

Write answers to these questions about the excerpt from Spinoza’s essay:

•	Which natural right does Spinoza write about?
•	What does he say about governments that attempt to control people’s minds?
•	Do you agree with Spinoza? Why or why not?

History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, Investigating Primary Sources