44 THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



(14) So again we find that many of the ancient bishops and 

 fathers of the Church were excellently read and studied in all 

 the learning of the heathen ; insomuch that the edict of the 

 Emperor Julianus (whereby it was interdicted unto Christians 

 to be admitted into schools, lectures, or exercises of learning) 

 was esteemed and accounted a more pernicious engine and 

 machination against the Christian Faith than were all the 

 sanguinary prosecutions of his predecessors ; neither could 

 the emulation and jealousy of Gregory, the first of that name, 

 Bishop of Home, ever obtain the opinion of piety or devotion ; 

 but contrariwise received the censure of humour, malignity, 

 and pusillanimity, even amongst holy men ; in that he designed 

 to obliterate and extinguish the memory of heathen antiquity 

 and authors. But contrariwise it was the Christian Church, 

 which, amidst the inundations of the Scythians on the one 

 side from the north-west, and the Saracens from the east, did 

 preserve in the sacred lap and bosom thereof the precious 

 relics even of heathen learning, which otherwise had been 

 extinguished, as if no such thing had ever been. 



(15) And we see before our eyes, that in the age of ourselves 

 and our fathers, when it pleased God to call the Church of 

 Rome to account for their degenerate manners and ceremonies, 

 and sundry doctrines obnoxious and framed to uphold the 

 same abuses ; at one and the same time it was ordained by the 

 Divine Providence that there should attend withal a renova 

 tion and new spring of all other knowledges. And on the 

 other side we see the Jesuits, who partly in themselves, and 

 partly by the emulation and provocation of their example, 

 have much quickened and strengthened the state of learning ; 

 we see (I say) what notable service and reparation they have 

 done to the Roman see. 



(16) Wherefore, to conclude this part, let it be observed, that 

 there be two principal duties and services, besides ornament 

 and illustration, which philosophy and human learning do 

 perform to faith and religion. The one, because they are an 

 effectual inducement to the exaltation of the glory of God. 

 For as the Psalms and other Scriptures do often invite us to 

 consider and magnify the great and wonderful works of God, 

 so if we should rest only in the contemplation of the exterior 

 of them as they first offer themselves to our senses, we should 

 do a like injury unto the majesty of God, as if we should judge 

 or construe of the store of some excellent jeweller by that 

 only which is set out toward the street in his shop. The other, 

 because they minister a singular help and preservative against 

 unbelief and error. For our Saviour saith, &quot;You err, not 



