Yet the true Ciceronianism, which
rejected every phrase which could not be justified out of the great
authority, did not appear till the end of the fifteenth century, when
the grammatical writings of Lorenzo Valla had begun to tell on all
Italy, and when the opinions of the Roman historians of literature had
been sifted and compared. Then every shade of difference in the style
of the ancients was studied with closer and doser attention till the
consoling conclusion was at last reached that in Cicero alone was the
perfect model to be found, or, if all forms of literature were to be
embraced, in 'that immortal and almost heavenly age of Cicero.' Men
like Pietro Bembo and Pierio Valeriano now turned all their energies to
this one object. Even those who had long resisted the tendency, and had
formed for themselves an archaic style from the earlier authors,
yielded at last, and joined in the worship of Cicero. Longolius, at
Bembo's advice, determined to read nothing but Cicero for five years
long, and finally took an oath to use no word which did not occur in
this author. It was this temper which broke out at last in the great
war among the scholars, in which Erasmus and the elder Scaliger led the
battle.
For all the admirers of Cicero were by no means so one-sided as to
consider him the only source of language.
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