Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/584

 568 INTELLECT AND FAITH. After this, scholarship, however heretical, had little to fear in Italy ; and the toleration thus extended to the most daring specu- lations offers abundant food for thought, when we remember that at this very time the Franciscans and Dominicans were turbulent- ly endeavoring to burn each other over the infinitesimal question as to whether the blood of Christ shed in the Passion remained on earth or not. It is true that in 1459 the Lombard inquisitor, Jacopo da Brescia, condemned to degradation and perpetual im- prisonment Doctor Zanino da Solcia, Canon of Bergamo, who en- tertained some crazy theories that the end of the world was ap- proaching, and that God had created another world populated by human beings, so that Adam was not the first man, together with some Averrhoistic tenets that it was the power of the stars, and not love for humanity that led Christ to the cross, and that Christ, Moses, and Mahomet governed mankind at their pleasure ; but 132, Ed. 1690).— Bayle, s. ▼. Yalle.— Raynald. ann. 1446, No. 9.— Paramo de Orig. Offic. S. Inq. p. 297.— Wagenmann. Real-Encykl. VIII. 492-3.— Creighton's Hist, of the Popes, II. 340. — vEn. Sylv. Comment, in Diet, et Fact. Alfonsi Regis Lib. I. — Erasmi Epistt. Lib. rv. Ep. 7; Lib. tii. Ep. 3. — Reusch, Der Index der Ver- botenen Biicher, I. 227. The immediate conviction wrought by Valla's criticism of the Donation of Constantine is shown in iEneas Sylvius's defence of the temporal power, where he abandons Constantine entirely, basing the territorial claims of the Holy See on the gifts of Charlemagne, and its authority over kings on the power of the keys and the headship granted to Peter (JEn. Sylvii Opp. inedd. pp. 571-81). Yet the Church soon rallied and renewed its claims. Arnaldo Albertino, In- quisitor of Valencia, in alluding to the Donation of Constantine, says, in 1533, that Lorenzo Valla endeavored to dispute its truth, but that every one else is united in maintaining it, so that to deny it is to come near heresy (Arn. Alber- tini Repetitio nova, Valentiae, 1534, col. 32-3). Curiously enough, he adds that it is asserted in the bull Unam Sanctam, which is not the case (I. Extrav. Com- mun. Lib. i. Tit. viii.). In fact, Boniface VIII. founded his claims on Christ, and a reference to Constantine would only weaken them. Valla's bitter and captious criticisms provoked sundry epigrams after his death. "Nunc postquam manes defunctus Valla petivit, Non audet Pluto verba Latina loqui. Jupiter hunc caeli dignatus parte fuisset, Censorem linguae scd timet esse suae." u Ohe ut Valla silet solitus qui pareere nulli est! Si quaeris quid agat nunc quoque mordet humum. v — (Bayle, 1. c).