d
upon thought during the rule of authority. These bonds held him
back--acting imperceptibly--as they held back Abelard and many other
daring spirits trained in the methods of the schoolmen, and allowed him to
do little more than range at large over the fields of fresh knowledge
which were destined to be reaped by later workers trained in other schools
and under different masters. Learning was still subject to authority,
though in milder degree, than when Thomas of Aquino dominated the mental
outlook of Europe, and the great majority of the men who posed as
Freethinkers, and sincerely believed themselves to be Freethinkers, were
unconsciously swayed by the associations of the method of teaching they
professed to despise. Their progress for the most part resembled the
movement of a squirrel in a rotatory cage, but though their efforts to
conquer the new world of knowledge were vain, it cannot be questioned that
the restrictions placed around them, while nullifying the result of their
investigations, stimulated enormously the activity of the brain and gave
it a formal discipline which proved of the highest value when the real
literary work of Modern Europe began. The futilities of the problems upon
which the scholastic thinkers exercised themselves gave occasion for the
satiric onslaught both of Rabelais and Erasmus. "Quaestio subtilissima,
utrum Chimaera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere secundas intentiones; et
fuit debatuta per decem hebdomadas in Consilio Constantiensi," and "Quid
consecrasset Petrus, si consecrasset eo tempore, quo corpus Christi
pendebet in cruce?" are samples which will be generally familiar, but the
very absurdity of these exercitations serves to prove how strenuous must
have been the temper of the times which preferred to exhaust itself over
such banalities as are typified by the extracts above written, rather than
remain inactive. The dogmas in learning were fixed as definitely as in
religion, and the solution of every question was found and duly recorded.
The Philosopher was allowed to strike out a new track, but if he valued
his life or his ease, he would take care to arrive finally at the
conclusion favoured by authority.

Cardan may with justice be classed both with men of science and men of
letters. In spite of the limitations just referred to it is certain that
as he surveyed the broadening horizon of the world of knowledge, he must
have felt the student's spasm of agony when he first real