[78] This appears to have been the character also of the Expositions of Marsilio Ficino. See Fragment on ‘Romans.’—Ficini Opera, ed. 1696, pp. 426-472.
[79] The names of Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Augustine are mentioned, but incidentally, and without any quotations of any length being given from them.
[80] ‘—est ex vehementia loquendi imperfecta et suspensa sententia.’—MSS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 23, in loco. Rom. ix. 22.
[81] ‘Ita Paulus mira prudentia et arte temperat orationem suam in hac epistola, et eam quasi librat tam pari lance, et Judeos et Gentes simul, etc.’—Ibid. fol. 26.
[82] MSS. Gg. 4, 26, fols. 59b, 61a.
[83] Ibid. fol. 60. ‘Sed ille homo magno animo, fide, et amore Christi, fuit paratus non solum ligari,’ &c.
[84] Ibid. fols. 42-45 (in loco, Rom. xiii.). In these pages Colet compares with great care the information to be collected from passages in the Epistle to the Romans and in the Acts of the Apostles with what is recorded by Suetonius, and admires St. Paul’s ‘sapientissima admonitio opportune sane adhibita.’—Ibid. fols. 42b and 43a. Again, at fol. 44a, Colet says, ‘Hæc autem refero ut magna Pauli consideratio et prudentia animadvertatur; qui cum non ignoravit Claudium Cesarem tenuisse rempublicam, qui fuit homo vario ingenio et improbis moribus, &c.’...
[85] In his exposition of Romans (chap. iv.) he says:—‘Sed caute circumspicienda sunt omnia Pauli, antequam de ejus mente aliqua feratur sentencia. Nunquam enim censuisset revocandum ad ecclesiam fornicatorem illum, quem tradidit Sathanæ in prima Epistola ad Corinthios, si peccatoribus post baptismum nullum penitendi locum reliquisset.’—Ibid. fol. 6b.
[86] It would be difficult in short quotations to give a correct impression of the doctrinal standpoint assumed by Colet in his exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. But it may be interesting to enquire, whether any connection can be traced between his views and those of Savonarola, on this point.
Now Villari states that a ‘fundamental point’ in Savonarola’s doctrine was his ‘conception of love, which he sometimes says is the same as grace,’ and that it was through this conception of love that Savonarola, ‘to a certain extent,’ explained the ‘mystery of human liberty and Divine omnipotence.’—Villari’s Savonarola and his Times, bk. i. c. vii. p. 110.