34. New Knowledge of Man and Society pp. 300 - 307 A. The Current of Skepticism
The inter-relationship of Europe and the world brought new medicines and new diseases, plus new wealth, new foods, new products. Knowledge of the variety of human types and human customs and cultures tended to undermine old thought. As philosophers (or social scientists) viewed human diversity, they gained a sense of the relative nature of social institutions. It became much harder to believe in absolute values, that one set of human values or institutions was more likely to be God-given than another. Jesuit missionaries, the most traveled of educated men, stressed natural goodness and alertness of the peoples they contacted. Others came to praise non-Christian religions for their virtues. Perhaps the most important Skeptic was Pierre Bayle (1647-1706); his Historical and Critical Dictionary showed the gullibility of people and the problem of distinguishing truth from opinion and stressed religious toleration. “For Bayle, as for Montaigne, no opinion was worth burning your neighbor for.”
B. New Sense of Evidence
l. In English law, new rules of evidence were put into use, with less discretion by judges. For example, hearsay evidence was not allowed, and accused were allowed legal counsel. Confessions could not be extracted by torture--and there was a new search into the validity of confessions in general. But torture continued to be used in Europe.
2. Historians began to insist on evidence and turned to greater use of archival sources. The science of authenticating coins, manuscripts, etc. was begun. Others began to rethink the age of the world. James Usher, Anglican bishop of Ireland, declared the Creation dated to 4004 BC (a date still used by some fundamentalists). A scholar announced the earth was 170,000 years old, a figure seen as fantastic and appalling.
3. Catholics adopted the Gregorian calendar (Gregory XIII) in the 1500s, though Protestants continued to use the Julian. The English adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, but the Russians did not until 1918. (in both cases: Why?)
C. Scholars worked in Biblical criticism, applying basic ideas of textual