' The legends of the Church, in so
far as they contained arbitrary versions of the biblical miracles, were
freely ridiculed, and this reacted on the religious sense of the
people. Where Judaizing heretics are mentioned, we must understand
chiefly those who denied the Divinity of Christ, which was probably the
offence for which Giorgio da Novara was burnt at Bologna about the year
1500. But again at Bologna in the year 1497 the Dominican Inquisitor
was forced to let the physician Gabriele da Salo, who had powerful
patrons, escape with a simple expression of penitence, although he was
in the habit of maintaining that Jesus was not God, but son of Joseph
and Mary, and conceived in the usual way; that by his cunning he had
deceived the world to its ruin; that he may have died on the cross on
account of crimes which he had committed; that his religion would soon
come to an end; that his body was not really contained in the
sacrament, and that he performed his miracles, not through any divine
power, but through the influence of the heavenly bodies. This latter
statement is most characteristic of the time: Faith is gone, but magic
still holds its ground.
With respect to the moral government of the world, the humanists seldom
get beyond a cold and resigned consideration of the prevalent violence
and misrule.
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