History of the Catholic Church, vol 1 | Page 9

harshly of the rule of the Popes in Italy and Rome; but he never
wavered in his religious convictions, and never recognised that Pagan
literature and ideals should be judged by other than current Christian
standards.

The example of Petrarch was not followed, however, by several of the
later Humanists. His friend and disciple, Boccaccio (1313-75), imitated
his master in his love for the classics and in his zeal for classical culture,
and excelled him by acquiring, what Petrarch had failed utterly to
acquire, a good knowledge of Greek. Like Petrarch, he was assisted
largely by the Popes, and took service at the papal court. But his views
of life and morality were coloured by Paganism rather than by
Christianity. Many of his minor poems are steeped in indecency and
immorality, and reflect only too clearly the tendency to treachery and
deceit so characteristic of the Italian rulers of his day; while the
/Decameron/, his greatest work, is more like the production of a Pagan
writer than of one acquainted with Christian ethics and ideals. He
delighted in lampooning the clergy, particularly the monks, charging
them with ignorance, immorality, and hypocrisy. Such a line of conduct
was not likely to recommend the apostles of the new learning to the
admirers of Scholasticism, nor to create and foster a friendly alliance
between the two camps. Yet, personally, Boccaccio was not an enemy
of Christianity, and never aimed, as did some of the later Humanists, at
reviving Paganism under the guise of promoting literature. He was
unshaken in his acceptance of the Christian revelation, and, as the years
advanced, he began to realise the evil of his ways and the dangerous
character of his writings. Strange to say, it was to a body of the monks,
whom he delighted in attacking, that he bequeathed the valuable library
which he had brought together with such labour.
Had the Humanists contented themselves with advocating merely a
return to classical studies, and had the Scholastics recognised that
philosophy was not the only path to culture, it might have been possible
to avoid a conflict. But, unfortunately for religion, there were
extremists on both sides. On the one hand, some of the later Humanists,
influenced largely by the low moral tone of the age, aimed at nothing
less than the revival of Paganism, pure and simple; while, on the other,
not a few of the Scholastics insisted strongly that Pagan literature,
however perfect, should have no place in Christian education. Between
these two conflicting parties stood a large body of educated men, both
lay and cleric, who could see no irreconcilable opposition between
Christianity and the study of the classics, and who aimed at establishing

harmony by assigning to the classics the place in education willingly
accorded to them by many of the Fathers of the Church.
But the influence of this latter body could not effect a reconciliation. A
large section of the Humanists openly vindicated for themselves
freedom from the intellectual and moral restraints imposed by
Christianity. Laurentius Valla[5] (1405-57) in his work, /De Voluptate/,
championed free indulgence in all kinds of sensual pleasures, attacked
virginity as a crime against the human race, and ridiculed the idea of
continence and self-denial, while in his own life he showed himself a
faithful disciple of the Epicurianism that he propounded in his writings.
His denunciations, too, of the Popes as the usurping tyrants of Rome in
his work on the Constantine Donation were likely to do serious injury
to the head of the Church in his spiritual as well as in his temporal
capacity. But bad as were the compositions of Valla, they were
harmless when compared with the books and pamphlets of Beccadelli,
the Panormite, who devoted himself almost exclusively to what was
indecent and repulsive. Poggio Bracciolini in his work, /Facetiae/, and
Filelfo, though not equally bad, belong to the same category. In the
hands of these men the Renaissance had become, to a great extent, a
glorification of Pagan immorality. Their books were condemned by
many of the religious orders, but without avail. They were read and
enjoyed by thousands, in whom the wholesale corruption prevalent in
Florence, Siena, and Venice, had deadened all sense of morality.
A large number of the later Renaissance school were Christians only in
name. If the great body of them were judged by the heathen figures and
phraseology with which their works abound, they could hardly be
acquitted of Pagan tendencies; but in case of many of them these
excesses are to be attributed to pedantry rather than to defection from
the faith. In case of others, however, although they were wary in their
expressions lest they might forfeit their positions, Christian teaching
seems to have lost its hold upon their minds and hearts. Carlo
Marsuppini, Chancellor of Florence,