THE LIFE OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA

...he had applied his mind to the Church. For he who obeys neither Christ nor His Church is an enemy; or, being impious, he accepts no dogma that must be believed, but instead sows false idols and worships demons under these images. Alternatively, such a person might observe the Mosaic Law according to the rite of the most lost Jews; or follow the unspeakable Muhammad, enslaved to his detestable decrees. Or perhaps they live a Christian life in name only, but not in deeds or a sincere mind, perverting the teachings of the Gospel and refusing to consent to the Catholic Church. Such a person kicks back with an obstinate heart, or accepts the Gospel not with a pure faith, but one adulterated and profaned by various superstitions. Or, even if they receive the faith as something solid, bright, and constant, they oppose it with their works.

Therefore, Pico summoned these seven "captains"—under whom the rest are contained like common soldiers—to a confrontation, intending to fight them with their own weapons. Against the impious philosophers, who, depressed by the yoke of no religion and devoted to no deity, worship only natural reason, he fought using those very same reasons. Against the Hebrews, he battled most powerfully with the sentences of the Old Testament and the specific authorities of the Jewish school Pico was famous for using the Kabbalah and other Jewish mystical texts to argue for Christian truths.. Against the Muslims, he joined battle by relying on the Quran original: "Alcorano".

The worshippers of idols he prostrated with many wounds and great force, especially those entangled in vain superstitions who worship divining astrology Also known as "judicial astrology," the practice of predicting human affairs and future events by the stars, which Pico argued interfered with human free will.. He sharply criticized them with both true philosophy and the specific logic of the astrologers. He had already pursued their madness in twelve books—indeed, the most perfect books—out of thirteen intended for this purpose. Finally, he had individually exploded hydromancy divination by water, geomancy divination by earth/sand, pyromancy divination by fire, haruspicy divination by inspecting entrails, and other vanities of that kind.

But he directed his battle-line original: "cuneum," literally a wedge-shaped military formation specifically against the "prophesying" astrologers, battering them with all his strength. He showed that their futile dogmas and worthless superstitions catch at various errors for support, whether they are weighing the moments of a birth-chart original: "geneseos", or choosing "favorable" hours, or reconciling the hexagonal or trigonal "aspects" Technical terms for the angular distances between planets in a horoscope. which they call "benign." Not even the mad Orestes A figure from Greek tragedy used here as a proverb for insanity. would believe such things. Nor was he content to have utterly overturned all of astrology; he also wished to show the astrologers of our time—who are mostly ignorant of the Greek language—that:

Astrology, the most vain of all professions, has been made even more vain (if such a thing can be said) by perverse translations. He translated Ptolemy's Centiloquium from Greek into Latin. While writing against them, as if doing something else entirely, he translated the "Fruits" of Ptolemy (commonly called the Centiloquium A collection of 100 aphorisms on astrology attributed to Ptolemy.) from the Greek into the Latin language and graced it with a most elegant exposition. In this book, he demonstrated that many "errors," so to speak, are contained in that common vulgar translation, which the ignorant practitioners of that art have nonetheless always guarded among their secrets like a precious treasure.

Regarding those who hold wrong opinions about the faith of Christ and do not obey the command of Mother Church—whom we call by the more common name heretics—he attacked them with a "new instrument" of logic and excellent arguments. Nearly ninety heresies are publicly known; but Pico, having searched through everything, found two hundred. He proposed not only to eliminate and put these to flight one by one, but also to teach from which part of "philosophy not rightly understood" they had drawn or "propped up" original: "furcillassent," literally to support with a pitchfork their errors.

Finally, he turned with great vehemence against those Christians whose faith is seen without works. Note He diligently explored how it could be possible that men believe there is a fire established in the center of the earth where the bodies of the damned will suffer perpetual punishment, and other such unimaginable tortures of soul and body, as well as the immense joys of seeing the Deity which bless the souls joined to their bodies—and yet, while hearing the words of the Church that compel them to believe, they still run riot in injustice and brood over amassing riches. Nothing is less...