The writings of Epicurus were no longer preserved,
and even at the close of the classical age a more or less one-sided
conception had been formed of his philosophy. Nevertheless, that phase
of Epicureanism which can be studied in Lucretius, and especially in
Cicero, is quite sufficient to make men familiar with a godless
universe. To what extent his teaching was actually understood, and
whether the name of the problematic Greek sage was not rather a
catchword for the multitude, it is hard to say. It is probable that the
Dominican Inquisition used it against men who could not be reached by a
more definite accusation. In the case of sceptics born before the time
was ripe, whom it was yet hard to convict of positive heretical
utterances, a moderate degree of luxurious living may have sufficed to
provoke the charge. The word is used in this conventional sense by
Giovanni Villani, when he explains the Florentine fires of 1115 and
1117 as a Divine judgement on heresies, among others, 'on the luxurious
and gluttonous sect of Epicureans.' The same writer says of Manfred,
'His life was Epicurean, since he believed neither in God, nor in the
Saints, but only in bodily pleasure.'
Dante speaks still more clearly in the ninth and tenth cantos of the
'Inferno.' That terrible fiery field covered with half-opened tombs,
from which issued cries of hopeless agony, was peopled by the two great
classes of those whom the Church had vanquished or expelled in the
thirteenth century.
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