PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA
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to his acquaintance that Pico had after his death appeared unto him all compassed in
fire & showed unto him that he was such wise in purgatory punished for his
negligence & his unkindness. Now sith it is so that he is adjudged to that fire from
which he shall undoubtedly depart unto glory & no man is sure how long it shall be
first: & may be the shorter time for our intercessions: let every Christian body show
their charity upon him to help to speed him thither where after the long habitation
with the inhabitants of this dark world (to whom his goodly conversation gave great
light) & after the dark fire of purgatory (in which venial offences be cleansed) he may
shortly (if he be not already) enter the inaccessible & infinite light of heaven; where
he may in the presence of the sovereign Godhead so pray for us that we may the rather
by his intercession be partners of that unspeakable joy which we have prayed to bring
him speedily to. Amen.
Here endeth the life of Giovanni Pico Earl of Mirandola.
THOMAS MORE et al.
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Three Letters written by Pico Della Mirandola
Here followeth three epistles of the said Pico: of which three two be written
unto Giovanni Francesco his nephew, the third unto one Andrew Corneus a noble man
of Italy.
THE ARGUMENT & MATTER OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PICO UNTO
HIS NEPHEW GIOVANNI FRANCESCO.
It appeareth by this epistle that Giovanni Francesco the nephew of Pico had
broken his mind unto Pico and had made him of council in some secret godly purpose
which he intended to take upon him: but what this purpose should be upon this letter
can we not fully perceive. Now after that he thus intended, there fell unto him many
impediments & divers occasions which withstood his intent and in manner letted him
& pulled him back, wherefore Pico comforteth him in this epistle and exhorteth him to
perseverance, by such means as are in the epistle evident and plain enough.
Notwithstanding in the beginning of this letter where he saith that the flesh shall (but
if we take good heed) make us drunken in the cups of Circe and misshape us into the
likeness & figure of brute beasts: those words if thee perceive them not be in this wise
understanden. There was sometime a woman called Circe which by enchantment as
Virgil maketh mention used with a drink to turn as many men as received it into
divers likeness & figures of sundry beasts, some into lions, some into bears, some into
swine, some into wolves, which afterward walked ever tame about her house and
waited upon her in such use or service as she list to put unto them. In like wise the
flesh if it make us drunk in the wine of voluptuous pleasure or make the soul leave the
noble use of his reason & incline unto sensuality and affections of the body: then the
flesh changeth us from the figure of reasonable men in the likeness of unreasonable
beasts, and that diversely: after the convenience & similitude between our sensual
affections and the brutish properties of sundry beasts: as the proud hearted man into a
lion, the irous into a bear, the lecherous into a goat, the drunken glutton into a swine,
the ravenous extortioner into a wolf, the false deceiver into a fox, mocking jester into
an ape. From which beastly shape may we never be restored to our own likeness
again: unto the time we have cast up again the drink of the bodily affections by which
we were into these figures enchanted. When there cometh sometime a monstrous
beast to the town we run and are glad to pay some money to have sight thereof, but I
fear if men would look upon themselves advisedly: they should see a more monstrous
beast nearer home: for they should perceive themselves by the wretched inclination to
divers beastly passions changed in their soul not into the shape of one but of many
beasts, that is to say of all them whose brutish appetites they follow. Let us then
beware as Pico councelleth us it we be not drunken in the cups of Circe, that is to say
in the sensual affections of the flesh, lest we deform the image of God in our souls,
after whose image we be made, & make our self worse than idolaters, for if he be
odious to God which turneth the image of a beast into God: how much is he more
odious which turneth the image of God into a beast.
PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA
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GIOVANNI PICO EARL OF MIRANDOLA TO GIOVANNI FRANCESCO
HIS NEPHEW BY HIS BROTHER HEALTH IN HIM THAT IS VERY
HEALTH.
That thou hast had many evil occasions after thy departing which trouble thee
& stand against the virtuous purpose that thou hast taken there is no cause my son
why thou shouldst either marvel thereof, be sorry therefor, or dread it, but rather how
great a wonder were this if only to thee among mortal men the way lay open to heaven
without sweat, as though that now at erst the deceitful world & the cursed devil failed,
& as though thou were not yet in the flesh: which coveteth against the spirit: and
which false flesh (but if we watch & look well to our self) shall make us drunk in the
cups of Circe & so deform us into monstrous shapes of brutish & unreasonable beasts.
Remember also that of these evil occasions the holy apostle saint James saith thou
hast cause to be glad, writing in this wise. Gaudete fratres quum in temptationes
varias incideritis
. Be glad saith he my brethren when thee fall in divers temptations,
and not causeless: for what hope is there of glory if there be none hope of victory: or
what place is there for victory where there is no battle: he is called to the crown &
triumph which is provoked to the conflict & namely to that conflict: in which no man
may be overcome against his will, & in which we need none other strength to
vanquish but it we list ourselves to vanquish. Very happy is a Christian man sith that
the victory is both put in his own free will: & the reward of the victory shall be far
greater than we can either hope or wish. Tell me I pray thee my most dear son if there
be aught in this life of all those things: the delight whereof so vexeth and tosseth these
earthly minds. Is there I say one of those trifles: in the getting of which a man must
not suffer many labours many displeasures & many miseries ere he get it. The
merchant thinketh himself well served if after X years sailing, after a m.
incommodities, after a m. jeopardies of his life he may at last have a little the more
gathered together. Of the court & service of this world there is nothing that I need to
write unto thee, the wretchedness whereof the experience itself hath taught thee &
daily teacheth. In obtaining the favour of the princes, in purchasing the friendship of
the company in ambitious labour for offices & honours what an heap of heaviness
there is: how great anguish: how much business & trouble I may rather learn of thee
than teach thee, which holding myself content with my books & rest, of a child have
learned to live within my degree & as much as I may dwelling with myself nothing
out of myself labour for, or long for. Now then these earthly things slippery,
uncertain, vile & common also to us and brute beast sweating & panting we shall
unneth obtain: and look we then to heavenly things & goodly (which neither eye hath
seen nor ear hath heard nor heart hath thought) to be drawn slumbery & sleeping
maugre our teeth: as though neither God might reign nor those heavenly citizens live
without us. Certainly if this worldly felicity were gotten to us with idleness and ease:
then might some man that shrinketh from labour rather choose to serve the world than
God. But now if we be so laboured in the way of sin as much as in the way of God
and much more (whereof the damned wretches cry out: Lassati sumus in via
iniquitatis
. We be wearied in the way of wickedness, then must it needs be a point of
extreme madness if we had not lever labour there where we go from labour to reward
than where we go from labour to pain. I pass over how great peace & felicity it is to
the mind when a man hath nothing that grudgeth his conscience nor is not appalled
with the secret twitch of any privy crime. This pleasure undoubtedly far excelleth all
the pleasures that in this life may be obtained or desired: what thing is there to be
desired among the delights of this world: which in the seeking weary us, in the having
blindeth us, in the losing paineth us. Doubtest thou my son whether the minds of