re was a deeper issue than the revival of classical
learning, that there was a Christian as well as a pagan antiquity, and
that the knowledge of the early Church depended on Greek writings, and
was as essential a part of the Renaissance as the study of Homer or of
Pindar. The inference was drawn by Nicholas V, the first Renaissance
pontiff. He recognised the fact that a divine in full possession of
Hellenic literature would be a more competent defender of tradition, a
better writer, a stronger disputant, than the long line of scholastic
teachers. He saw that it would be the means of renovating theology
and disclosing the authentic and necessary evidences of historical
religion. The most enlightened ecclesiastics of that age understood
but vaguely that there was not only benefit and enrichment in a policy
that favoured the new learning, but the only possible escape from a
serious danger.

Religious knowledge in those days suffered not only from ignorance and
the defect of testimony, but from an excess of fiction and
falsification. Whenever a school was lacking in proofs for its
opinions, it straightway forged them, and was sure not to be found
out. A vast mass of literature arose, which no man, with medieval
implements, could detect, and effectually baffled and deceived the
student of tradition. At every point he was confronted by imaginary
canons and constitutions of the apostles, acts of Councils, decretals
of early Popes, writings of the Fathers from St. Clement to St. Cyril,
all of them composed for the purpose of deceiving.

The example of Lorenzo Valla made it certain that all this was about
to be exposed. The process that began with him lasted for two
centuries, to the patriarchs of authentic erudition, Ussher and
Pearson, Blondel and Launoy, the Bollandists of Antwerp and the
Benedictines of Saint-Maur. It became apparent that the divines of
many ages had been remarkable for their incapacity to find out
falsehood, and for their dexterity in propagating it, and it made no
little difference whether this tremendous exposure should be made by
enemies, and should constitute one series of disasters for religion.
This was prevented by the resolve of Pope Nicholas, that the Holy See
should sanction and encourage the movement with its influence, its
immense patronage, and all its opportunities. Therefore Valla, who
had narrowly escaped alive from the Inquisition, became a functionary
at the Vatican, and receiv