Theological hair-splitting reminded them only of the mediaeval scholasticism from which they had been emancipated by classical culture.

They were less interested in questions touching the salvation of the individual or the exact nature of the sacraments, than in metaphysical problems suggested by the study of antique philosophers, or new theories of the material universe.
[Footnote 10: See Berti's _Vita di G.Bruno_, pp.

105-108.] The indifference of these men in religion rendered it easy for them to conform in all external points to custom.

Their fundamental axiom was that a scientific thinker could hold one set of opinions as a philosopher, and another set as a Christian.

Their motto was the celebrated _Foris ut moris, intus ut libet_.[11] Nor were ecclesiastical authorities dissatisfied with this attitude during the ascendancy of humanistic culture.