Page:Petrach, the first modern scholar and man of letters.djvu/403

 HE tendencies toward Paganism which the enthusiastic and exclusive study of the ancient classics produced among the Ital- ian Humanists of the fifteenth century are so well known that it is natural to ask what was the attitude of the founder of Humanism to- ward the generally accepted religious beliefs of his day.

The question of the propriety of reading pagan works had agitated the Church from the first, and the views of the devout had varied greatly. There had always been distinguished leaders, like Augustine, who made due use of pagan learning and eloquence, and defended a discriminating study of the heathen writers ; while others, among whom Gregory the Great was preëminent, had harshly condemned " the idle vanities of secular learning," for the rea- son "that the same mouth singeth not the praises of Jove and the praises of Christ." Many timid churchmen were fearful, like Jack 381