This mode of thought was extended with thorough consistency into
regions where we should hardly expect to meet with it. If the whole
outward and spiritual life of the individual is determined by the facts
of his birth, the same law also governs groups of individuals and
historical products --that is to say, nations and religions; and as the
constellation of these things changes, so do the things themselves. The
idea that each religion has its day, first came into Italian culture in
connection with these astrological beliefs. The conjunction of Jupiter
with Saturn brought forth, we are told, the faith of Israel; that of
Jupiter and Mars, the Chaldean; with the Sun, the Egyptian; with Venus,
the Mohammedan; with Mercury, the Christian; and the conjunction of
Jupiter with the Moon will one day bring forth the religion of
Antichrist. Cecco d'Ascoli had already blasphemously calculated the
nativity of Christ, and deduced from it his death upon the Cross. For
this he was burnt at the stake in 1327, at Florence. Doctrines of this
sort ended by simply darkening men's whole perceptions of spiritual
things.
So much more worthy then of recognition is the warfare which the clear
Italian spirit waged against this army of delusions. Notwithstanding
the great monumental glorification of astrology, as in the frescoes in
the Salone at Padua, and those in Borso's summer palace (Schifanoia) at
Ferrara, notwithstanding the shameless praises of even such a man as
the elder Beroaldus, there was no want of thoughtful and independent
minds to protest against it.
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