The Complete Works of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

THE LIFE OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA

At that time, his rivals did not dare to attack him openly or through free examination. Instead, they attempted to undermine him through underhanded tricks and hidden snares, The Latin "strophis et cuniculis" literally refers to "turns and underground tunnels," a metaphor for deceptive tactics. stabbing at him with clandestine arrows. Indeed, many were of this opinion Corrupted by a pestilential envy, they endeavored to stir up hatred against him for this reason above all: it was believed that many who had long labored in literary business—perhaps out of ambition or greed—felt they would be cast into shadow. They feared that if this young man, supported by his ancestral wealth and vast learning, were to succeed in the primary city of the world Rome by debating natural and divine matters (a glory that had not come to our men for many centuries), his doctrine and genius would pose a danger to them. And when they realized they could achieve nothing against his learning through honest means, they brought forth the engines of calumny. They cried out that thirteen of his nine hundred questions were suspect of heresy. Perhaps some joined them in this—as those questions were unfamiliar to their ears—attacking him with a zeal for the faith and under the pretext of religion, though perhaps with too little erudition. Yet, not long before, many celebrated doctors of theology had approved these same questions as pious and pure and had signed their names to them. Bonfrancesco, Bishop of Reggio Among this group was numbered Bonfrancesco, Bishop of Reggio, a man of all-encompassing learning, sharp judgment, and renowned gravity of character, who was serving at that time in Rome as the legate to the Supreme Pontiff for the Duke of Ferrara. Nevertheless, those chatterers The author uses the derogatory "Blaterones" to describe Pico's critics. attempted nothing against the Bishop, fearing they could not shake the reputation of a man who submitted whatever he handled to the correction of Mother Church and the Pontiff.

But Pico, not enduring this damage to his reputation, published his Apologia original: "Apologia"; a formal written defense of his ideas. It is certainly a varied and elegant work, filled with Apologia knowledge of many things worth knowing, and yet it was composed in only twenty nights. In this publication, it was made clearer than light that his conclusions were capable of a Catholic meaning, and that those who had previously barked at him should be convicted of insolence and ignorance. Like a most Christian man, he committed the book itself and whatever he might write in the future to the most holy judgment of Mother Church and her leader. Indeed, he was firmly persuaded that this ought to be done either expressly or tacitly, as if he were offering that saying of Augustine: I am able to err, but I cannot be a heretic, since one is a human failing, while the other belongs to a perverse and obstinate will. Pope Innocent VIII

However, when the Supreme Pontiff Innocent VIII received the Apologia and saw the explanations of those conclusions—which had previously been infested with calumnies—interpreted in a Catholic sense and relieved of the mark of crime, he nevertheless took action. Because some to whom the examination of the conclusions had been entrusted reported that traps could be set for the faithful if some of those questions (which lay about in a crude and unexplained manner, intended for debate) were to wander widely, he forbade the reading of the small book The original 900 theses in which they were contained. All of these matters are clearly seen in the Diploma (which they call a "Brief") of the Supreme Pontiff Alexander VI Alexander VI, under whom we now live. We have seen fit to hand this document over to the printers to be engraved alongside the Apologia itself.

In truth, at the conclusion of the Apologia, Pico had already done by whatever means he could what the Pontiff later provided for by authority. He had beseeched his friends and enemies, both the learned and the unlearned, to read the Apologia but to pass over the small book of unexplained conclusions without reading it. Note This was because it contained many things that should not be made common in the streets, but were intended for secret meeting and dispute among a few learned men. Following the Scholastic The traditional method of university teaching and debate in the Middle Ages. practice of the academies, he had proposed many of the impious dogmas of ancient philosophers—such as Alexander, Averroes Alexander Alexander of Aphrodisias and Averroes and many others—which he always asserted, professed, and preached, both publicly and privately, to deviate no less from the paths of the faith than from true and right philosophy. And in this manner, he spoke concerning that book of nine hundred conclusions.

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