blindly the opinion of any philosopher. In general it is evident that they did not hold to any decision of Aristotle or Plato, but that they received them with various modifications, and came to adopt at length through necessity as the clear product of their own reflection a middle age philosophy. In fact we find in the scholastics the greatest originality, and the utmost riches of thought *" If we turn to the Catholic philosophers of a later age, who were most distinguished for an enthusiastic attachment to the ancient philosophy, we shall find that the study of Pagan writers had never tainted the purity or cooled the fervour of their faith. If they would say, with the Count de Maistre, "Let us never leave a great question without having first heard Plato," they do not leave us to doubt whether they concluded with the Gospel. Marsilius Ficinus, who obtained so eminently the title of Platonist, says himself, that he has only followed the example of Augustin, and other most holy men, in respecting Plato, and in delaying in the Academy, in order to show the concord of Moses and Plato, and how the Christian dogmas are confirmed by the Socratic ↑. In his letter to Picus of Mirandula, he says, "that all his desire in studying the Platonic philosophy, is to make men Christians ." All the desire of Ambrosius Traversari, in translating the work of Diogenes Laertius, is to show that the more we study the heathen philosophy, the more we must admire the Christian religion. Alas! how different from the language of the scholars of a later period, who, like Heinsius and Scaliger, reserved all their eloquence for pompous orations in praise of the Stoical philosophy §-all their zeal for reprobating "the hive of Loiolites,"-all their enthusiasm for admiring Casaubon's divine castigations on Athenæus! "Tuæ divinæ in Athenæum castigationes adeo me rapiunt," says the latter, ut quam in illas incidi, ægre me ab illis revocari patiar." "There is no writer who has taught me so many or such great things as you in that divine work ||." 66 Indeed, the scholars of this reformed school seemed to avow that the state of things around them, which they Johan. Scotus und die + Epist. lib. vii. & viii. § Heinsii Orat. xxiv. Wissenschaft zeiner zeit. 1. 444. + Id. lib. xi. Jos. Scal. Epist. lib. i. 58, 59. so greatly admired, was only a return to that of the heathen world." In the writers even of the eighth century," says one of these, "we meet with a reminiscence of the ancient philosophy, which seems an anticipation of our modern humanity. Eginhard thinks and speaks like the most virtuous man of an enlightened age: by studying the monuments of the fine Roman civilization, he had divined our own*." What would that poor Ratherius, in the tenth century, who was counted, we are told, as the first amongst the Palatine philosophers, have thought of such a criterion to judge of the progress of philosophy? What would he have thought on hearing men affirm with Heeren, that the study of heathen literature might contribute to a salutary reform of the Church, and after sixteen centuries, place theology for the first time on its true basist, or with an English author of genius, that they lamented the ancient idolatry! "I visited the Pantheon," says a modern traveller, "and entered with a reverence approaching to superstition. I closed my eyes, and tried to pursuade myself the Pagan gods were in their niches, and the saints out of the question; I was vexed at coming to my senses and finding them all there—St. Andrew with his cross, and St. Agnes with her lamb; then I paced disconsolately into the portico." Where could a parallel be found to such a passage throughout the whole literature of sixteen centuries? Certainly, it is not from Catholic scholars that a descent can be traced by these men, who, with the same breath, attempt to prove the heathenism of the ancient Catholic state, and to complete their consistency, perhaps, are building heathen temples, as in Hanover, and placing upon them such an inscription as that which may be found there, "Genio Leibnitzi." The Catholic church would never lend her sanction, though only by silence, to such a spirit. She sent her scholars to behold God in the ancient monuments of human genius, but not to rebuild Paganism with their ruins. Marsilius Ficinus acknowledges, indeed, with gratitude, that if the books of Plato had not caused him to fall into some heresy, he owed his escape to the care of St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, for the vigilant pastor Villemain, Tableau de la Lit. au Moyen Age, i. † Gesch. d. Class. Lit. im Mittelalt. ii. 350. seeing the incredible ardour of the young canon for the works of this philosopher, feared that the beauty of the language might lead him astray, and therefore engaged him to suspend that reading until he had first studied the four books of St. Thomas against the Gentiles. The sermons of Savonarola, at which he was an assiduous assistant, completed the extirpation of any latent pride resulting from his love of the Platonic writings, which was contrary to the resolve of glorying alone in being a Christian*. The necessity for caution, indeed, was well observed all through the ages of faith. Hence, Francis Picus of Mirandula remarks, that all Christians ought not to consult the books of the Gentiles, "for some," he says, are so imbecile and infirm, that when they find them contradicting faith, they will hesitate; and others who guide souls to the heavenly Jerusalem cannot find time to study them+." But when minds were truly enlightened, to glory in such studies was the same as to glory in the Cross. Some condemned his illustrious uncle John Picus of Mirandula for his assiduous study of the ancients, objecting to all philosophy, on the ground that Adam, on account of science, was ejected from Paradise, and that it is extirpated by the example of Christ. But how magnificent was the reply of that admirable young man, the pride and ornament of his age, whose name the greatest of his contemporaries pronounced with an enthusiasm, which, perhaps, was never paralleled. "Let them permit me, who am a Christian born, of Christian parents, who bear the sign of Christ on my forehead, to exclaim with Paul, I am not a Jew, not an Ishmaelite, not a heretic; but I worship Jesus Christ, and I bear the cross of Jesus in my body, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I to the world 1." "I found in my late sickness," says Marsilius Ficinus, writing to Francis Marescalcho of Ferrara, "that human writings confer nearly nothing, and that the works of Christ console more than the words of all the philosophers." To a similar conclusion we find many coming in the middle ages, who, like Hugo Metellus, writing to St. Bernard, took a pride in styling themselves "the * Hist. des Hom. Illust. de l'Ord. S. D. tom. iii. 23. † De Studio Divin. et Hum. Philos. lib. i. c. 5. ‡ Apologia. late domestics of Aristotle, now the servants of Christ." Truly in these illustrious lovers of wisdom, was seen veri. fied, the prediction of the holy Fathers and the schoolmen, that to the pure all things are pure, and that even the philosophy of the Gentiles can reveal God. Francis of Mirandula says, "that his uncle John Picus had such an ardent love for God, that once when they were walking together in a certain orchard at Ferrara, talking on the love of Christ," he said to him in conclusion, "I will disclose a secret which is for your ear alone. As soon as I shall have finished my lucubrations, I am resolved to give all that I possess to the poor, and armed with a crucifix barefooted I will go through towns and cities and castles preaching Christ." "I heard afterwards," adds the nephew, "that he had resolved on entering the order of St. Dominick *.” The great and learned men, who in ages of faith had Plato and Aristotle on their tongues, had no less Christ enshrined within their hearts, to receive adoration there, and undivided love and glory. The Catholic scholars of the sixteenth century united the graces of the ancient literature with the simplicity and piety of the Christian. Like Picus of Mirandula, they might be heard saying, a cock to Æsculapius the physician, at our death, which is the true recovery †, shewing how well they had understood Plato, without leading any one to suspect that they did not die as monks or hermits die. Hermolaus Barbarus describes the last moments of Zachariah, the legate at Venice, as follows:—“ Such was his constancy that he did not once indicate the least possible sign of grief, so intrepid that he seemed about to move not from life, but only from one house to another. During three days continually he spoke or heard others speak of God, of religion, of the immortality of the soul. The extreme sacraments he not only did not defer receiving, but of his own accord he demanded them. All the senses of his mind and body, in which few men surpassed him, he preserved to the last. Nay, at the last he shewed himself more subtle than he ever did before. He had two little images, one of Christ, and the other of the blessed Virgin, which he kept pressed to his breast, and he expired kissing them. It is inexpressible the consolation derived from witnessing such a kind—do not say * Vita ejus. + De Hominumn Dignitate. of death, but of glorious resurrection to a better life." But we must proceed to consider the other studies which imparted a vision of God to the clean of heart. CHAPTER XV. THE holy Scriptures, in ages when they were understood as the church interprets them, and in ages when it was thought that every reader might interpret them according to his own judgment, have exercised a very different influence upon the human character, and led to results of a very dissimilar nature in the history of mankind. At the effects caused by their diffusion during the latter period we can but occasionally glance, since they do not form part of the subject of this history. On others may devolve the task of surveying wars and disputations, and murders, which were deemed acceptable to heaven, and men who sought and found themselves in the inspired books. Our path leads us to survey the beauty of a peaceful Paradise, the order and wisdom of a celestial world, and the felicity of men, who in the Scriptures, as in the book of nature, and as in the primeval records of the world, sought and beheld God. Jesus Christ wrote nothing, and it does not appear in what is written that he gave orders to his Apostles to write. There was no ground from earlier revelations to suppose that the divine light preparing for the world was to be diffused by writing; for, on the contrary, God had said by the mouth of Jeremiah, "I will write my law in their souls, and I will engrave it in their hearts." "Hence," the holy Fathers say, "that the church might have dispensed with Scripture, if Christians had remained in charity and truth." "Thus," St. Chrysostom says, 66 our life ought to be so pure, that we should have no need of the assistance of holy Scripture, and grace alone serving us in place of all books, the law of God would be written in our heart, not with ink, but by the impression of the Holy Spirit. God has sufficiently shewn us by what he L12 |