[27] As to ribald blasphemies by the Roman clergy see Erasmus, Epist. xxvi, 34 (ed. le Clerc), cited by Hardwick, Church History: Middle Age, p. 378, note. [↑]
[28] Lit. Hist. of Europe, i, 142. Following Eichhorn, Hallam notes vindications by Marsilio Ficino, Alfonso de Spina (a converted Jew), Æneas Sylvius, and Pico di Mirandola; observing that the work of the first-named “differs little from modern apologies of the same class.” [↑]
[29] Cp. Ranke, History of the Popes, Bohn tr. ed. 1908, i, 58. [↑]
[30] Epist. above cited; Burigni, Vie d’Erasme, 1757, i, 148–49. [↑]
[31] Paul Canensius, cited by Ranke. [↑]
[32] This view seems to solve the mystery as to Perugino’s creed. Vasari (ed. Milanesi, iii, 589) calls him “persona di assai poca religione.” Mezzanotte (Della vita di P. Vanucci, etc. 1836, p. 172 sq.) indignantly rejects the statement, but notes that in Ciatti’s MS. annals of Perugia, ad ann. 1524, the mind of the painter is said to have been come una tavola rasa in religious matters. Mezzanotte holds that Pietro has been there confounded with a later Perugian painter. [↑]
[33] Leonardo da Vinci, Frammenti letterari e filosofici, trascelti par Dr. Edmondo Solmi. Firenze, 1900. Pensieri sulla scienza, 19, 20. [↑]
[34] Ib. 14, 22, 23, 24, 92. [↑]
[36] Some of the humanists called him unlettered (omo senza lettere), and he calls them gente stolta, a foolish tribe. [↑]