Of the Advancement of Learning

...the discredit and disgrace which learning has received. All of this comes from ignorance, but an ignorance appearing in various disguises: sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of theologians original: "Divines"; sometimes in the severity and arrogance of politicians original: "Politiques"; and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned men themselves.

I hear the first group [the theologians] say that knowledge consists of things that are to be accepted only with great limitation and caution. They argue that aspiring to too much knowledge was the original temptation and sin that led to the Fall of Man; that knowledge has something of the serpent in it, and therefore, when it enters a man, it makes him swell with pride. Knowledge puffs up original: "Scientia inflat," 1 Corinthians 8:1. They point out that Solomon gives a judgment original: "Censure": Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh Ecclesiastes 12:12. And again in another place: In much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow original: "contristation," Ecclesiastes 1:18.

They also note that Saint Paul gives a warning original: "Caveat": Beware lest anyone spoil you through hollow and deceptive philosophy Colossians 2:8. Furthermore, they argue that experience demonstrates how learned men have often been arch-heretics, how intellectual eras have been inclined toward atheism, and how the contemplation of "second causes" Natural laws and physical explanations for how the world works detracts original: "derogate" from our dependence upon God, who is the "first cause" The ultimate origin and creator of all things.

To reveal the ignorance and error of this opinion, and the misunderstanding of its foundations, it will clearly appear that these men do not observe or consider one thing: it was not the pure knowledge of nature and the universe original: "universality"—a knowledge by whose light