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The biographers of Pierre Fermat rate his career as simply brilliant, but at that they lose sight of one very significant detail. Exactly such a career tightly closes him all even the slightest opportunities to be engaged in science. They did not take into account the fact that there is a royal directive forbidding the posts of councilors of parliament for the people engaged in scientific research that may contradict the Holy Scriptures. But since Pierre became a senator, this will put a big fat cross on his dreams of being engaged in science on a professional basis. He will carry this cross for the rest of his life.
Moreover, as a Catholic he should not commit any mortal sin and is obliged to confess regularly once a year about the pardonable sins committed by him. As such a pardonable sin Pierre reports at confession about his moderate idleness after reading the books by Diophantus of Alexandria “Arithmetic” and “Tasks undertraining and pleasant, related to numbers”.
Pic. 6. Diophantus of Alexandria
The risk of falling into disfavor by such a sin fall was small because the book was published by Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac a flawless in every respect a high-ranking linguist and future member of the French Academy established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635. Here of course, there will be a question about the secret of confession. But if even in our time with respect to the Catholic Church this question looks very naïve, then what is to say about the times when the supreme executors of the royal power were cardinals. All priests were obliged to inform the authorities about what their parishioners live and especially officials in government posts. Information from the priests was also controlled, for which authorized inspectors were sent to the places.
Pic. 7. Bachet de Méziriac
It is understandable that Pierre could not expect anything good from meeting with such an inspector, but he had no choice and was ready to put up the complete impossibility of his dream. But then of course, he could not have known that he was destined to another fate and it was to decide at that very moment. It is even difficult to imagine his amazement when an arrived inspector turned out to be the priest Marin Merse
Pic. 8. Marin Merse
Pierre took it as the supreme wonder bestowed on him from heaven by the Almighty. And how else could this be understood since Reverend Father Merse
Historians in their studies see only pure randomness in the coincidence of interest to the numbers of Merse
Pic. 9. René Descartes
This implies the activity of the association of learned nobility created by Merse
As for Pierre Fermat who became a Senator, he found himself in a difficult position. His abilities were now in demand, but he could develop them only at his own expense and without the right of publication because no one has repealed the royal prescription for restricting appointments to the posts of advisers to parliaments and he had no other means to earn a living. So, for his future opponents, he will appear as a recluse who does not want to share the secrets of his scientific discoveries. Even his friend Blaise Pascal in one of his letters sincerely wondered why he did not publish his works. To this Fermat also sincerely replied, he did not at all want his name to appear in print. Well, he really could not refer to the royal directive, which does not allow any scientific activity on the position he occupies.
Pic. 10. Blaise Pascal
For Fermat everything was happened so that he had no opportunity to solve this problem otherwise as by his direct participation in the preparation of the royal decree on the creation of the French Academy of Sciences. This is indicated by his correspondence with Merse
But paradoxically in this life drama is distinctly seen a truly divine providence having lay a special mission to Senator Pierre de Fermat aimed at saving science from destruction. At that early age the science was still seemed as a beautiful tree, which by growing became more and more valuable and attractive. But with the development of science the features of perfection and harmony inherent in it, began to fade and the image of the beautiful creation of the mind more and more resembled a helpless little freak.
Pic. 11. Pierre de Carcavy
These first signs of trouble were noticed else by Fermat since controversies in his correspondence with colleagues appeared almost on empty place. It became clear that this tree has almost no roots. This means that science does not have a sufficiently strong foundation and for it there is a threat of the fate of the Pisa Tower. Then, in order for this magnificent building of science to serve its intended purpose, all creative forces will have to be used not for development, but for preventing its complete collapse.
For Fermat this theme was going past the limits of his physical possibilities and he considered it only from the point of view of generalizing methods for solving various arithmetic problems. It is so, because arithmetic is not some separate science, but the basis for all other sciences. If we have no arithmetic, then we have no any science generally. In this sense, the arithmetic tasks proposed by Fermat are of peculiar importance. Their peculiarity is that they teach people to think in general categories i.e. to find methods regulating the possibilities of computations for solving a wide range of tasks.