Warning examples from ancient and modern times the moral disorder
and the wretched existence of the scholars meet us in astonishing
abundance, and along with these, accusations of the most serious nature
are brought formally against them. Among these are anger, vanity,
obstinacy, self-adoration, dissolute private life, immorality of all
descriptions, heresy, theism; further, the habit of speaking without
conviction, a sinister influence on government, pedantry of speech,
thanklessness towards teachers, and abject flattery of the great, who
st give the scholar a taste of their favours and then leave m to
starve. The description is closed by a reference to the den age, when
no such thing as science existed on the earth. these charges, that of
heresy soon became the most dangers, and Gyraldus himself, when he
afterwards republished a perfectly harmless youthful work, was
compelled to take refuge neath the mantle of Duke Ercole II of Ferrara,
since men had the upper hand who held that people had better spend
their time on Christian themes than on mythological researches.
justifies himself on the ground that the latter, on the contrary, were
at such a time almost the only harmless branches of study, as they deal
with subjects of a perfectly neutral character.
But if it is the duty of the historian to seek for evidence in which
moral judgement is tempered by human sympathy, he 11 find no authority
comparable in value to the work so often quoted of Pierio Valeriano,
'On the Infelicity of the Scholar.
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