In the rest of Europe religion remained, till a
much later period. something given from without, and in practical life
egotism and sensuality alternated with devotion and repentance. The
latter had no spiritual competitors) as in Italy, or only to a far
smaller extent.
Further, the close and frequent relations of Italy with Byzantium and
the Mohammedan peoples had produced a dispassionate tolerance which
weakened the ethnographical conception of a privileged Christendom. And
when classical antiquity with its men and institutions became an ideal
of life) as well as the greatest of historical memories, ancient
speculation and skepticism obtained in many cases a complete mastery
over the minds of Italians. Since, again, the Italians were the first
modern people of Europe who gave themselves boldly to speculations on
freedom and necessity, and since they did so under violent and lawless
political circumstances, in which evil seemed often to win a splendid
and lasting victory, their belief in God began to waver, and their view
of the government of the world became fatalistic. And when their
passionate natures refused to rest in the sense of uncertainty, they
made a shift to help themselves out with ancient, Oriental, or medieval
superstition. They took to astrology and magic.
Finally, these intellectual giants, these representatives of the
Renaissance, show, in respect to religion, a quality which is common in
youthful natures.
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