It follows
therefore that through ignorance of poetry we do not understand
Jerome, Augustine, Boethius, Lactantius, Sidonius, and very many
others, a catalogue of whom would more than fill a long chapter.
The Venerable Bede has very clearly discussed and determined this
doubtful point, as is related by that great compiler Gratian, the
repeater of numerous authors, who is as confused in form as he
was eager in collecting matter for his compilation. Now he
writes in his 37th section: Some read secular literature for
pleasure, taking delight in the inventions and elegant language
of the poets; but others study this literature for the sake of
scholarship, that by their reading they may learn to detest the
errors of the Gentiles and may devoutly apply what they find
useful in them to the use of sacred learning. Such men study
secular literature in a laudable manner. So far Bede.
Taking this salutary instruction to heart, let the detractors of
those who study the poets henceforth hold their peace, and let
not those who are ignorant of these things require that others
should be as ignorant as themselves, for this is the consolation
of the wretched. And therefore let every man see that his own
intentions are upright, and he may thus make of any subject,
observing the limitations of virtue, a study acceptable to God.
And if he have found profit in poetry, as the great Virgil
relates that he had done in Ennius, he will not have done amiss.
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