Editing René Descartes (section)

=== Death ===
Descartes arranged to tutor Queen Christina after her birthday, three times a week at 5 am, in her cold and draughty castle. However, by 15 January 1650 the Queen had actually met with Descartes only four or five times.<ref name="Åkerman 1991"/> It soon became clear they did not like each other; she did not care for his [[Mechanical philosophy#Descartes|mechanical philosophy]], nor did he share her interest in [[Ancient Greek language]] and [[Ancient Greek literature|literature]].<ref name="Åkerman 1991"/> On 1 February 1650, he contracted [[pneumonia]] and died on 11 February at Chanut.<ref>{{cite book |title = Math and mathematicians: the history of math discoveries around the world |last=Bruno |first = Leonard C. |year=2003 |orig-year=1999 |publisher = U X L |others = Baker, Lawrence W. |isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9 |location = Detroit, MI |page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/104 104] |oclc=41497065 |url = https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun |url-access=registration }}</ref>

{{blockquote|"Yesterday morning about four o'clock a.m. has deceased here at the house of His Excellency Mr. Chanut, French ambassador, Mr. Descartes. As I have been informed, he had been ill for a few days with pleurisy. But as he did not want to take or use medicines, a hot fever appears to have arisen as well. Thereupon, he had himself bled three times in one day, but without operation of losing much blood. Her Majesty much bemoaned his decease, because he was such a learned man. He has been cast in wax. It was not his intention to die here, as he had resolved shortly before his death to return to Holland at the first occasion. Etc."<ref>[https://dwc.knaw.nl/wp-content/bestanden/2012_Rijks-_Correspondence_Van_Nierop.pdf The Correspondence of Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierof, (1610–1682), pp. 61, 84 ]</ref>}}

The cause of death was pneumonia according to Chanut, but [[pleurisy|peripneumonia]] according to Christina's physician Johann van Wullen who was not allowed to bleed him.<ref>{{cite web |title = Il y a des preuves que René Descartes a été assassiné |url = https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-rue89-culture/20100212.RUE5003/il-y-a-des-preuves-que-rene-descartes-a-ete-assassine.html |access-date = 27 September 2020 |website = L'Obs |date = 12 February 2010 |language = fr |archive-date = 20 May 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190520025901/https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-rue89-culture/20100212.RUE5003/il-y-a-des-preuves-que-rene-descartes-a-ete-assassine.html |url-status = live }}</ref> (The winter seems to have been mild,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/17/c017p055.pdf| title = "Severity of winter seasons in the northern Baltic Sea between 1529 and 1990: reconstruction and analysis" by S. Jevrejeva (2001), p. 6, Table 3| access-date = 27 January 2020| archive-date = 9 March 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210309061205/https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/17/c017p055.pdf| url-status = live}}</ref> except for the second half of January which was harsh as described by Descartes himself; however, "this remark was probably intended to be as much Descartes's take on the intellectual climate as it was about the weather.")<ref name="Smith" />

{{multiple image
|total_width = 400
|image1 = DescartesAshes.jpg
|image2 = Rene Descartes monument in the Adolf Fredriks Kyrka Stockholm 2.jpg
|footer = (left) The tomb of Descartes (middle, with detail of the inscription), in the [[Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés]], Paris; (right) memorial to Descartes, erected in the 1720s, in the Adolf Fredriks kyrka
}}

[[:de:Eike Pies|E. Pies]] has questioned this account, based on a letter by the Doctor van Wullen; however, Descartes had refused his treatment, and more arguments against its veracity have been raised since.<ref>Pies Е., ''Der Mordfall Descartes'', Solingen, 1996, and Ebert Т., ''Der rätselhafte Tod des René Descartes'', Aschaffenburg, Alibri, 2009. French translation: ''L'Énigme de la mort de Descartes'', Paris, Hermann, 2011</ref> In a 2009 book, German philosopher Theodor Ebert argues that Descartes was poisoned by Jacques Viogué, a Catholic missionary who opposed his religious views.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/14/rene-descartes-poisoned-catholic-priest |title = Descartes was "poisoned by Catholic priest" – ''The Guardian'', Feb 14 2010 |newspaper = The Guardian |date = 14 February 2010 |access-date = 8 October 2014 |archive-date = 9 September 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130909130505/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/14/rene-descartes-poisoned-catholic-priest |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ebert |first=Theodor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1XKvPwAACAAJ |title=Der rätselhafte Tod des René Descartes |year=2009 |publisher=[[:de:Alibri Verlag|Alibri Verlag]] |isbn=978-3-86569-048-7 |language=de |access-date=11 August 2020 |archive-date=16 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214228/https://books.google.com/books?id=1XKvPwAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> As evidence, Ebert suggests that [[Catherine Descartes]], the niece of René Descartes, made a veiled reference to the act of poisoning when her uncle was administered "communion" two days before his death, in her ''Report on the Death of M. Descartes, the Philosopher'' (1693).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ebert |first=Theodor |date=2019 |title=Did Descartes Die of Poisoning? |journal=Early Science and Medicine |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=142–185 |doi=10.1163/15733823-00242P02|s2cid=199305288 }}</ref>
<!--In May 1654, Queen Christina abdicated her throne to convert to Catholicism half a year later in [[Antwerp]]. -->

His last words were reported to have been:
{{blockquote|My soul, though has long been held captive. The hour has now come for  thee to quit thy prison, to leave the trammels of this body. Then to this separation with joy and courage!<ref>{{cite book |last=Green |first=Jonathon |author-link=Jonathon Green |title=Famous Last Words |publisher=Kyle Cathie |location=Enderby, Leicester |year=1997 |isbn= 978-1856-2626-44 |page=72}}</ref>}}

As a Catholic<ref name="books.google.be">{{cite book |last=Garstein |first=Oskar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJxEw4nVDXQC&q=queen+of+sweden+descartes+catholicism&pg=PA510 |title=Rome and the Counter-Reformation in Scandinavia: The Age of Gustavus Adolphus and Queen Christina of Sweden, 1622-1656 |year=1992 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-09395-9 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=3 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803081336/https://books.google.com/books?id=SJxEw4nVDXQC&q=queen+of+sweden+descartes+catholicism&pg=PA510 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="KrR-5EKLSQMC p. 207">{{cite book |last=Rodis-Lewis |first=Geneviève |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KrR-5EKLSQMC&q=descartes+catholic&pg=PA207 |title=Descartes: His Life and Thought |year=1999 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8627-2 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=25 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725133035/https://books.google.com/books?id=KrR-5EKLSQMC&q=descartes+catholic&pg=PA207 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gh_BAAAQBAJ p. 107">{{Cite book|last1=Oppy|first1=Graham|author1-link=Graham Oppy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Gh_BAAAQBAJ&q=descartes+catholicism&pg=PA107|title=Early Modern Philosophy of Religion: The History of Western Philosophy of Religion, volume 3|last2=Trakakis|first2=N. N.|author2-link=Nick Trakakis|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-54645-0|language=en|access-date=3 October 2020|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816024632/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Gh_BAAAQBAJ&q=descartes+catholicism&pg=PA107|url-status=live}}</ref> in a Protestant nation, he was interred in the churchyard of what was to become [[Adolf Fredrik Church]] in Stockholm, where mainly orphans had been buried. His manuscripts came into the possession of [[Claude Clerselier]], Chanut's brother-in-law, and "a devout Catholic who has begun the process of turning Descartes into a saint by cutting, adding and publishing his letters selectively."<ref>{{cite web |url = http://andrefabre.e-monsite.com/pages/histoire-de-la-medecine/descartes-in-sweden.html |title=Andrefabre.e-monsite.com |access-date=21 December 2014 |archive-date=5 November 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141105143616/http://andrefabre.e-monsite.com/pages/histoire-de-la-medecine/descartes-in-sweden.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[[Richard Watson (philosopher)|Watson, R.]], ''Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of René Descartes'' ([[Boston]]: [[David R. Godine, Publisher|David R. Godine]], 2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&pg=PA137 pp. 137–54] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725062333/https://books.google.com/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&pg=PA137 |date=25 July 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|137–154}} In 1663, the [[Pope Alexander VII|Pope]] placed Descartes's works on the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|''Index of Prohibited Books'']]. In 1666, sixteen years after his death, his remains were taken to France and buried in [[Saint-Étienne-du-Mont]]. In 1671, [[Louis XIV]] prohibited all lectures in [[Cartesianism]]. Although the [[National Convention]] in 1792 had planned to transfer his remains to the [[Panthéon]], he was reburied in the [[Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés]] in 1819, missing a finger and the skull.{{NoteTag|The remains however are not in the tomb in the present day.}} His alleged skull is in the [[Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris,<ref>{{cite web |url = https://strangeremains.com/2015/07/23/the-heads-of-these-5-people-were-stolen-from-their-graves/ |title = 5 historical figures whose heads have been stolen |date = 23 July 2015 |website = Strange Remains |access-date = 29 November 2016 |archive-date = 22 December 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161222005508/https://strangeremains.com/2015/07/23/the-heads-of-these-5-people-were-stolen-from-their-graves/ |url-status = live }}</ref> but some 2020 researches confirm that it may be a forgery. The original skull was probably divided into pieces in Sweden and given to private collectors; one of those pieces arrived at the [[University of Lund]] in 1691, where it is still preserved.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/descartes-alleged-skull-fragment | title=(Alleged) Piece of Descartes' Skull }}</ref>