But Christianity was a religion of men, and therefore human. If its
exaggerations were natural, its reservations and its reactions were also
natural. There were men whose admiration continued to be roused and
whose affections continued to be touched by Virgil and Horace. There
were men whose reason as well as whose instinct impelled them to employ
the classic authors and the classic arts in the service of the new
religion. Christianity possessed no distinct and separate media of
expression and no separate body of knowledge which could bear fruit as
matter of instruction. Pagan art and literature were indispensable
whether for the study of history or of mere humanity. Christianity was
therefore compelled to employ the old forms of art, which involved the
use of the old instrumentalities of literary education. When, finally,
paganism had fallen under its repeated assaults, what had been forced
use became a matter of choice, and the classics were taken under the
Church's protection and marked with her approval.
The data regarding Horace in the Middle Age are few, but they are clear.
We need not examine them all in order to draw conclusions.
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