Seite - 296 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 6296 sophisms characteristic of a Jesuit.132 But such sentiments were never voiced in any serious, scientific publication on the parallax, nor did Lexell brand Hell for being Jesuit in his correspondence with him.133 Much more conspicuous is Hell’s polemic against French science as a whole. Whereas Hell in his survey of observations of the 1761 transit of Venus had extolled France as “the highly fer- tile parent and nurse of the best astronomers of our age,” in the De parallaxi Solis of 1772 he criticized virtually anything the French did.134 In the meantime, France had of course expelled the Jesuits (begun around 1761, finished by 1768) and was pressing the pope to order the same for every Catholic country. Hell is careful to protect against criticism not only his own observation from Vardø but also that of Jesuit missionaries in Beijing.135 In fact, the Viennese Jesuit ap- pears to have been more biased against Lalande—as a representative of French science—than anyone else, Lalande included, was against him as a Jesuit. Lal- ande, in his turn, reconciled himself fully with Father Hell. This is well illus- trated by the éloge read by him at the Académie des Sciences (the post-revolu- tionary Institut National) upon the death of his correspondent: The [Vardø] observation of Father Hell […] was a complete success; […] it is in fact one of five complete observations that were made at huge distances from each other, where the positioning of Venus during its pas- sage shifted the most. This has made us know the true distance of the Sun and all the planets from the Earth, an epoch-making feat in the history of astronomy, in which the name of Father Hell is deservedly inscribed. His expedition was just as rewarding, interesting, and painstaking as those made to the southern sea, to California, and Hudson Bay, for the sake of this famous transit of Venus in front of the Sun.136 132 Letters from Lexell to Wargentin in Stockholm, dated St. Petersburg, April 12, 1772, Sep- tember 7, 1772, and March 23/April 3, 1773 (all located in the cvh). 133 Lexell to Wargentin in Stockholm, dated St. Petersburg, March 23/April 3, 1773 (cvh): “I have ensured him, that I find such petty arts loathsome, childish and ridiculous; I thought that they were worthy of a Jesuit, but I did not say so.” It is also worth noting that Lexell developed a close friendship with the Jesuit Christian Mayer during his stay in St. Petersburg and recommended him to Wargentin; Lexell to Wargentin, St. Petersburg June 10/11, 1770 (cvh). Thus, neither Lexell nor Lalande were unequivocally biased against Je- suits as such. 134 Contrast Hell, “Observatio transitus Veneris […] 1761,” 36, and Hell, “De parallaxi Solis,” 111–14. 135 Hell, “De parallaxi Solis,” 79–80. 136 Joseph Jérôme de Lalande, Bibliographie astronomique: Avec l’histoire de l’astronomie depuis 1781 jusqu’à 1802 (Paris: Imprimerie de la République, 1803), 722.