It is very remarkable to note the feeling on this point of some of the greatest northern scholars.

Erasmus, for example, writes: 'unus adhuc scrupulus habet animum meum, ne sub obtentu priscae literaturae renascentis caput erigere conetur Paganismus, ut sunt inter Christianos qui titulo paene duntaxat Christum agnoscunt, ceterum intus Gentilitatem spirant'-- Letter 207 (quoted by Milman in his Quarterly article on Erasmus).

Ascham and Melanchthon passed similar judgments upon the Italian scholars.

The nations of the north had the Italians at a disadvantage, for they entered into their labors, and all the dangerous work of sympathy with the ancient world, upon which modern scholarship was based, had been done in Italy before Germany and England came into the field.
Few things are more difficult than to estimate the exact condition of a people at any given period with regard to morality and religion.

And this difficulty is increased tenfold when the age presents such rapid transitions and such bewildering complexities as mark the Renaissance.
Yet we cannot omit to notice the attitude of the Italians at large in relation to the Church, and to determine in some degree the character of their national morality.