'Have you then been taught,' asked the prior, 'that it is sinful to
read Virgil and Statius, Livy and Cicero?'
'Not so, reverend father,' he replied modestly, his eyes falling
before the good-humoured gaze. 'But I was so ill instructed as to
think that to those who had withdrawn from the world it might not be
permitted.'
'Father Hieronymus had no such misgiving,' said the prior, 'for he
himself, at Bethlehem, taught children to read the ancient poets;
not unmindful that the blessed Paul himself, in those writings which
are the food of our spirit, takes occasion to cite from more than
one poet who knew not Christ. If you would urge the impurity and
idolatry which deface so many pages of the ancients, let me answer
you in full with a brief passage of the holy Augustine. "For," says
he, "as the Egyptians had not only idols to be detested by
Israelites, but also precious ornaments of gold and silver, to be
carried off by them in flight, so the science of the Gentiles is not
only composed of superstitions to be abhorred, but of liberal arts
to be used in the service of truth.
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