CHAP. I. Henry VII. and Morton, while sufficiently enlightened to A.D. 1496. pursue maritime discovery, to reform after a fashion the monasteries under their rule, and ready even to combine to reform the morals of the Pope himself in order to avert the dreaded recurrence of a schism,1 were not easy to pursue these purposes without the sanction of Papal bulls, and without showing their zeal for the Papacy by crushing out free thought with an iron heel and zealously persecuting heretics, whether their faith were that of the Moor, the Lollard, or the Jew.

The revival of learning,

The fall of Constantinople, which had sounded almost like the death-knell of Christendom, had proved itself in truth the chief cause of her revival. The advance of the Saracens upon Europe had already told upon the European mind. The West has always had much to learn from the East. It was, for instance, by translation from Arabic versions that Aristotle had gained such influence over those very same scholastic minds to which his native Greek was an abomination.

This further triumph of infidel arms also influenced Christian thought. Eastern languages and Eastern philosophies began to be studied afresh in the West. Exiles who had fled into Italy had brought with them their Eastern lore. The invention of printing had come just in time to aid the revival of learning. The

1 See British Museum Library, under the head Garcilaso,' No. 1445, g 23, being the draft of private instructions from Ferdinand and Isabella to the special English Ambassador, and headed, 'Year 1498. 'The King and Queen concerning 'the correction of Alexander VI.' The original Spanish MS. was in the

hands of the late B. B. Wiffen, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, near Woburn, and an English translation of this important document was reprinted by him in the Life of Valdes, prefixed to a translation of his CX Considerations. Lond. Quaritch, 1865, p. 24.

A.D. 1496.

printing press was pouring out in clear and beautiful CHAP. I. type new editions of the Greek and Latin classics. Art and science with literature sprang up once more into life in Italy; and to Italy, and especially to Florence, which, under the patronage of the splendid court of Lorenzo de' Medici, seemed to form the most attractive centre, students from all nations eagerly thronged.

on religion.

It was of necessity that the sudden reproduction Its effect of the Greek philosophy and the works of the older Revival Neo-Platonists in Italy should sooner or later produce Platonism. a new crisis in religion. A thousand years before, Christianity and Neo-Platonism had been brought into the closest contact. Christianity was then in its youth-comparatively pure-and in the struggle for mastery had easily prevailed. Not that Neo-Platonism was indeed a mere phantom which vanished and left no trace behind it. By no means. Through the pseudo-Dionysian writings it not only influenced profoundly the theology of medieval mystics, but also entered largely even into the Scholastic system. It was thus absorbed into Christian theology though lost as a philosophy.

Now, after the lapse of a thousand years, the same battle had to be fought again. But with this terrible difference; that now Christianity, in the impurest form it had ever assumed-a grotesque perversion of Christianity-had to cope with the purest and noblest of the Greek philosophies. It was, therefore, almost a The matter of course that, under the patronage of Lorenzo Academy. de' Medici, the Platonic Academy under Marsilio Ficino. Ficino should carry everything before it. Whether the story were literally true of Ficino himself or not,

Platonic

CHAP. I. that he kept a lamp burning in his chamber before a A.D. 1496. bust of Plato, as well as before that of the Virgin, it was at least symbolically true of the most accomplished minds of Florence.

Plato and

Christianity.

Questions which had slept since the days of Julian and his successors were discussed again under Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. The leading minds of Italy were once more seeking for a reconciliation between Plato and Christianity in the works of the pseudoDionysius, Macrobius, Plotinus, Proclus, and other Neo-Platonists. There was the same anxious endeavour, as a thousand years earlier, to fuse all philosophies into one. Plato and Aristotle must be reconciled, as well as Christianity and Plato. The old world was becoming once more the possession of the new. It was felt to be the recovery of a lost inheritance, and everything of antiquity, whether Greek, Roman, Jewish, Persian, or Arabian, was regarded as a treasure. It was the fault of the Christian Church if the grotesque form of Christianity held up by her to a reawakening world seemed less pure and holy than the aspirations of Pagan philosophers. It would be by no merit of hers, but solely by its own intrinsic power, if Christianity should retain its hold upon the mind of Europe, in spite of its ecclesiastical defenders.

Christianity brought into disrepute by the conduct of professed Christians, was compelled to rest as of old upon its own intrinsic merits, to stand the test of the most searching scientific criticisms which Florentine philosophers were able to apply to it. Men versed in Plato and Aristotle were not without some notion of the value of intrinsic evidence, and the methods of inductive enquiry. Ficino himself thought

it well, discarding the accustomed scholastic interpreters, CHAP. I. to turn the light of his Platonic lamp upon the Christian A.D. 1496. religion. From his work, 'De Religione Christianâ,' dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, and written in 1474, some notion may be gained of the method and results of his criticism. That its nature should be rightly understood is important in connection with the history of the Oxford Reformers.

Christianâ

Ficino commences his argument by demonstrating The De that religion is natural to man; and having, on Pla- Religione tonic authority, pointed out the truth of the one com- of Ficino. mon religion, and that all religions have something of good in them, he turns to the Christian religion in particular. Its truth he tries to prove by a chain of reasoning of which the following are some of the links.

6

3

He first shows that the disciples of Jesus were not 'deceivers ;'1 and he supports this by examining, in a separate chapter, 'in what spirit the disciples of Christ 'laboured :'2 concluding, after a careful analysis of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, that they did not seek their own advantage or honour but the glory of 'Christ alone.' Then he shows that the disciples of 'Christ were not deceived by anyone,' and that the Christian religion was founded, not in human wisdom, but 'in the wisdom and power of God;' that Christ was 'no astrologer,' but derived his authority from God.'5 He adduced further the evidence of miracles, in which he had no difficulty in believing, for he gave two instances of miracles which had occurred in Florence only four years previously, and in which he declared to

1 Chap. v.

2 Chap. vi.

3 Chap. vii.

1 Chap. viii.

5 Chap. ix.

CHAP. I. Lorenzo de' Medici, that, philosopher as he was, he A.D. 1496. believed.1 After citing the testimony of some Gentile

of Ficino in support of Chris

tianity.

2

writers, and of the Coran of the Mahometans, and discussing in the light of Plato, Zoroaster, and Dionysius, the doctrine of the 'logos,' and the fitness of the incarnation, he showed that the result of the coming of Christ was that men are drawn to love with their whole heart a God who in his immense love had himself become man. After dwelling on the way in which Christ lightened the burden of sin,3 on the errors he dispelled, the truths he taught, and the example he Argument set,5 Ficino proceeds in two short chapters to adduce the testimony of the Sibyls.' This was natural to a writer whose bias it was to regard as genuine whatever could be proved to be ancient. But it is only fair to state that he relies much more fully and discusses at far greater length the prophecies of the Ancient Hebrew prophets, vindicating the Christian rendering of certain passages in the Old Testament against the Jews, who accused the Christians of having perverted and depraved them. He concludes by asserting, that if there be much in Christianity which surpasses human comprehension, this is a proof of its divine character rather than otherwise. These are his final words. If these 'things be divine, they must exceed the capacity of any 'human mind. Faith (as Aristotle has it) is the founda'tion of knowledge. By faith alone (as the Platonists 'prove) we ascend to God. "I believed (said David) "and therefore have I spoken." Believing, therefore,

Chaps. xxiv. and xxv. 7 Chaps. xxvi.-xxxiv.

8

Chap. xxxvi.