ABSTRACT
In his recent magisterial survey of the Radical Enlightenment in late-seventeenthand eighteenth-century Europe, Jonathan Israel has focused on the seminal role played by the Dutch philosopher, Benedict Spinoza, in promoting the cause of radical religious and philosophical speculation. Spinoza himself, as Israel is at pains to point out, was not an isolated figure but part of a much wider circle of radical freethinkers who exploited the relative tolerance of the Dutch republic in order to pursue their studies and promote a range of highly heterodox opinions. Typically, these included scathing attacks on the function of religion and the priesthood in early modern society combined with a growing scepticism concerning the role played by a providential God in the day-to-day workings of the universe. As part of this assault upon traditional religion, Spinoza and his allies decried the idea of an active and personal Devil, and poured scorn on those who continued to argue for the reality of demonic intervention in human affairs.1
