Abstract
Why would someone concerned with heresy, who defined it as private
opinion that flew in the face of doctrine sanctioned by the public
person, harbor such a detailed interest in heterodoxy? Hobbes's religious
beliefs ultimately remain a mystery, as perhaps they were
meant to: the private views of someone concerned to conform outwardly
to what his church required of him, and thereby avoid to
heresy, while maintaining intellectual autonomy. The hazard of
Hobbes's particular catechism is that he and his supporters could
never avoid the suspicion of insincerity. His preparedness to believe
whatever the prince demanded of him smacked of heresy in the more
usual sense, despite elaborate biblical exegesis designed to prove his
orthdoxy. Undoubtedly he realized it even as he wrote the last lines of
Leviathan, expressing the hope that "I cannot think it will be condemned
at this time, either by the Publique Judge of Doctrine, or by
any that desires the continuance of Publique Peace/7 Indicating an
intention to return to science, he continued, "I hope the Novelty will
as much please, as in the Doctrine of this Artificiall Body it useth to
offend" (Lev, Rev. and Conclusion, 491).