he success policy was pursued most openly and unreservedly was
the Italian Renaissance. The effect on all virtue, especially on
truthfulness of speech and character, was destructive, and all the mores
of the period were marked by the choice of the code of conduct which
disregards truth. The most deep-lying and far-reaching cause of societal
change was the accumulation of capital and the development of a
capitalistic class. New developments in the arts awakened hope and
enterprise, and produced a "boundless passion for discovery" in every
direction.[2227] The mediaeval church system did not contain as much
obscurantism in Italy as in some other countries, and the interests of
the Italians were intertwined with the hierarchical interests of Rome in
many ways. It flattered Italian pride and served Italian interests that
Rome should be the center of the Christian world. Every person had ties
with the church establishment either directly or by relatives. In spite
of philosophic freedom of thought or moral contempt for the clergy, "it
was a point of good society and refined taste to support the church."
"It was easy for Germans and Englishmen to reason calmly about
dethroning the papal hierarchy. Italians, however they might loathe the
temporal power, could not willingly forego the spiritual primacy of the
civilized world." Thus the Renaissance pursued its aims, which were
distinctly worldly, with a superficial good-fellowship towards the
church institution.[2228] "The attitude of the upper and middle classes
of Italy towards the church, at the height of the Renaissance, is a
combination of deep and contemptuous dislike with accommodation towards
the hierarchy as a body deeply interwoven with actual life, and with a
feeling of dependence on sacraments and ritual. All this was crossed,
too, by the influence of great and holy preachers."[2229]

+719. Divergence between convictions and conduct.+ This means that faith
in Christian doctrine was gone, but that the ecclesiastical system was a
tolerated humbug which served many interests. Burckhardt quotes[2230] a
passage from Guicciardini in which the latter says that he had held
positions under many popes, which compelled him to wish for their
greatness, on account of his own advantage. Otherwise he would have
loved Martin Luther, not in order to escape the restraints of the
current church doctrine, but in order to see the corrupt crew brought to
order, so that they must have learne