THE LIFE OF GIOVANNI PICO OF MIRANDOLA

...so that he might report back what could be restored. For Pico had delegated this duty to him so that, as a faithful intermediary, he might more easily relieve the calamities and miseries of the poor citizens which might have otherwise remained hidden from him. He also very often gave alms—and I do not think this should be passed over in silence—from his own body. Jerome We know that many (to use the words of Saint Jerome) Saint Jerome (c. 347–420 AD) was a Church Father known for his Latin translation of the Bible and his writings on the ascetic life. have extended a hand to the needy, yet were overcome by the pleasures and allurements of the flesh. But he beat his own flesh, especially on those days which represent the torture and death of Christ for the sake of our salvation Beating his own body with whips in memory of that supreme benefit and for the expiation of sins. With my own eyes (may all things return to the glory of God), I often saw the whip. A cheerful face He was always of a cheerful and calm countenance, and of such a Gentle nature gentle nature that he testified to many listeners that he had never felt himself to be disturbed. I recall him saying to me in conversation that he believed he could not be moved to anger by any event (even if things went most poorly), Steadfastness of mind unless certain chests were lost in which his late-night labors and scholarly vigils were stored. But when he realized that he labored for the sake of the Greatest and Best God and His Church, and that he had dedicated all his works, studies, and actions to the same, he knew this could not happen unless God either commanded or permitted it. He trusted that he would not be saddened. Oh, happy mind! Which could no longer be cast down by any adversity, nor (as will become clear) be puffed up by any advantages.

Certainly, his skill in universal philosophy did not make him arrogant; nor did his knowledge of the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Arabic languages Knowledge of five languages—beyond Latin and Greek—render him prideful. Large riches did not inflate him, nor did the nobility of his lineage. Neither the beauty and elegance of his body, nor the great license to sin, could call him back to that soft and spacious "way of the many" A reference to the "broad path" mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew 7:13, leading to destruction.. What, then, could be so admirable that it might subvert his mind? What, I say, could be above him who (to use the words of Seneca) Seneca Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher who emphasized rising above the whims of Fortune. was "above fortune"? For he sometimes despised fortune, whether it was swollen with favorable winds or brought low by adverse ones, so that his mind might be joined to Christ and the citizens of the heavenly homeland with a spiritual glue.

This is clearly perceived by this argument: while he saw many in our time (alas!) bidding for and auctioning off the offices and dignities of the Church—not a few seeking, demanding, sighing for, and most strenuously buying them—Dignities offered by two kings and rejected he himself rejected such offers when they were made by two kings through intermediaries. Most grave witnesses are present; I myself am a witness. He replied that he did not wish to be initiated into the sacred orders, and thus he refused. Another man promised that he would give him secular dignities and ample revenues if he would visit his king; Pico, seeing that he was like an angel who would not leave the place where he had established himself, and having taken away all excuses, gave him such an answer that the man understood he did not seek dignities or riches. Rather, Wealth neglected for God and studies he had neglected them so that he might be free for God and his studies.

In Ferrara as well, some of his friends had persuaded Pandolfo Collenuccio of Pesaro Pandolfo Collenuccio (1444–1504) was a famous humanist, lawyer, and historian from Pesaro.—a man of sharp wit and wide reading, whom Pico used as a most intimate friend—to lead him by whatever means possible to seek the dignity of the cardinalate, or certainly to embrace it if the Pope offered it (which many thought would happen). Pandolfo, somewhat hesitating, attempted this, for he was not ignorant of the fact that Pico preferred everything else to being entangled in honors of this kind. Pico, with his characteristic greatness of soul, immediately ordered a response to be sent by letter using that prophetic phrase: "My thoughts are not your thoughts" original: "Nō ſunt cogitātiōnes meæ: cogitatiōnes uestræ" from Isaiah 55:8.. Perhaps he was contemplating that regarding the goods of the Church, the greatest part is owed by hereditary right to the poor, and that it is not fitting to lead a life of magnificent display. He also kept before his eyes the examples of the most holy men Ambrose, Augustine, Martin—Ambrose, Augustine, and Martin—among others, who fled from the offered dignity of the bishopric and for a long time refused that duty before they undertook it. Why say more, since he turned away not only from the cardinalate itself, but even from the supreme...