hich he said such hard things of the Dominicans (_De Varietate
Rerum_, 1557, p. 572). He had indeed disclaimed it, but there it stood
unexpunged in the subsequent editions of the book; and, while considering
this detail, it may be remarked that Pius V. began his career as a member
of the Dominican Order, the practices of which Cardan had impugned. In the
first and second editions of the _De Subtilitate_ was another passage in
which the tenets of Islam and the circumstances of the birth of Christ
were handled in a way which caused grave scandal and offence.[227] This
passage indeed was expunged in the edition of 1560. The _Paralipomena_
were not in print and available, but what can be read in them to-day
doubtless reflects with accuracy the attitude of Cardan's mind towards
religious matters in 1570. Though the _Paralipomena_ were locked in his
desk, it is almost certain that the spirit with which they were inspired
would have infected Cardan's brain, and prompted him to repeat in words
the views on religion and a future state which he had already put on
paper, for he rarely let discretion interfere with the enunciation of any
opinion he favoured. In the _Paralipomena_ are many passages written in
the spirit of universalism, and treating of the divine principle as
something which animates wise men alone, wise men and philosophers of
every age and every clime, Aristotle being the head and chief. Plato and
Socrates and the Seven Sages adorn this illustrious circle, which includes
likewise the philosophers of Chaldea and Egypt. Opinions like these were
no longer the passport to Papal favour or even toleration. The age of the
humanist Popes was past, and the Puritan movement, stimulated into life by
the active competition of the Reformers, was beginning to show its
strength, so that a man who spoke in terms of respect or reverence
concerning Averroes or Plato would put himself in no light peril. Thus for
those of Cardan's enemies who were minded to search and listen it must
have been an easy task to formulate against him a charge of heresy,
specious enough to carry conviction to such a burning zealot as Pius V.
This Pope, in his new regulations for the maintenance of Church
discipline, requisitioned the services of physicians in the detection of
laxity of religious practices, or of unsoundness. "We forbid," he says in
one of his bulls, "every physician, who may be called to the bedside of a
patient, to visit for more than three