226 JEROME CARDAN 



entering the room. Just as he was on the threshold 

 the intruder uttered the . words, " TV sin casa" and 

 straightway vanished. This apparition puzzled him 

 greatly, and he alludes to it again in chapter xlvii. 

 of the De Vita Propria. Ultimately he dismisses it 

 with the remark that the explanation of such phe- 

 nomena is rather the duty of theologians than of philo- 

 sophers. 



With regard to matters of religious belief he seems 

 to have taken as a rule of conduct the remark above 

 written, and left them to the care of professional 

 experts, for very few of his recorded opinions throw 

 any light upon his views of the dogmas and doctrines 

 of the Church. Whatever the tenor of these opinions 

 may have been, he never proclaimed them definitely. 

 Probably they interested him little, for he was not 

 the man to keep silent over a subject which he had 

 greatly at heart. He gave a general assent to the 

 teaching of the Church, taking up the mental attitude 

 of the vast majority of the learned men of his time, and 

 expected that the Church would do all that was neces- 

 sary for him in its own particular province. If he regarded 

 Erasmus and Luther as disturbers of the faith and heretics, 

 he did not say so, nor did he censure their activity. 

 (Erasmus he praises highly in the opening words of the 

 horoscope which he drew for him. Gen. Ex., p. 496.) But 

 he had certainly no desire to emulate them or give them 

 his support. The world of letters and science was wide 

 enough even for his active spirit ; the world lying behind 

 the veil he left to the exploration of those inquirers who 

 might have a taste for such a venture. Still every page 

 of his life's record shows how strong was his bent towards 

 the supernatural; but the phase of the supernatural which 

 he chose for study was one which Churchmen, as a rule, 



