It was, indeed, the attitude of Popes like Leo, Cardinals like Bembo.

And it only revealed its essential weakness when the tide of general opinion, under the blast of Teutonic revolutionary ideas, turned violently in favor of formal orthodoxy.

Then indeed it became dangerous to adopt the position of a Pomponazzo.
[Footnote 11: This maxim is ascribed to the materialistic philosopher Cremonini.] The mental attitude of such men is so well illustrated by a letter written by Celio Calcagnini to Peregrino Morato, that I shall not hesitate to transcribe it here.

It seems that Morato had sent his correspondent some treatise on the theological questions then in dispute; and Calcagnini replies: 'I have read the book relating to the controversies so much agitated at present.

I have thought on its contents, and weighed them in the balance of reason.