es.rationalism penetrated to the very heart of religious thought, bringing the formulation of an explicit rational religion. (Hibbard, 43)In this time there was a lot of people who believed that there was a God and he created the world but that he had takes no part in its functioning, otherwise known as deism. Another typical feeling was that of atheism, the belief that there is no God. Many serious men believed these thought in both Protestant and Catholic countries. Poussin lived a life of frugal simplicity, protested against growing luxury of the rich. One evening, after receiving his friend Cardinal Camillo Massimi in his house, Poussin himself carried the candle to light the great men to the door. The cardinal said he was upset to discover that the not have a single servant to do this work. Poussin replied:And I pity painter did your Eminence for having so many. (Hibbard, 44)Poussin was a Jansenist, which believed in the ideas of deterministic predestination brought about by Bishop Cornelius Jansen, whom they took there name from. Poussin once wrote to Chantelou:One must attain true virtue and wisdom in order to stand firm and remain unmoved before the assaults of mad blind fortune. (Hibbard, 44)He was expressing his thought as more of a Greek Philosopher than that of a Christian Philosopher. He also stated:One must accept the will of God, who orders things thus, and fate wills that they should happen in this way. (Hibbard, 45)In 1641 Poussin painted a large altarpiece for the church of the Jesuit Novitiate in Paris, that of which he had no scruples whatsoever in doing it. He searched for a subject and found The Miracle of St. Francis Xavier. The religious subjects that Poussin did paint were often arcane stories of Moses from the Old Testament, scenes of salvation that prefigure Christian Sacraments, and especially subjects that refer to baptism (Hibbard, 45). Poussin believed that virtue and wisdom could be t...
