deserving of pity, inasmuch as they lacked the highest and ineffable gift. – Let us study philosophy so as to love wisdom. The real wisdom of God is Christ. – We must first be Christians. We must read philosophical, poetical, and historical works in such a manner that the Gospel of Christ shall ever find an echo in our hearts. Through it alone can we become wise and happy; without it, the more we have learned, the more ignorant and unhappy we shall be. On the Gospel alone, as upon the one immovable foundation, can human diligence build all true learning."[1]
Though Petrarch himself did not escape the influence of the dangerous elements contained in the writings of antiquity, still he never went so far as did his friend Boccaccio, whose writings breathe an atmosphere of pagan corruption. And yet not even this writer was an unbeliever, or an enemy to the Church.
As knowledge is good in itself and as its abuse never justifies its suppression, the Church considered the study of classical literature as a legitimate movement, productive of great fruit for spiritual and secular science. Thus we find so many ardent patrons of the new learning among the Popes and other ecclesiastical dignitaries. But there is a great danger in the one-sided enthusiasm for heathen literature. Everything depends on the manner in which the ancient authors are read and employed in education. They must be read and interpreted in the spirit of the Christian religion. This was not done by the radical humanists. They not only praised and admired the elegant style, the brilliant eloquence and poetry of the ancients, but wanted to effect a radical return to pagan thought and
- ↑ Epist. rer. fam. VI, 2. – Pastor, l. c., vol, I, p. 2.
