Academic Exercise on the Abstinence of the Early Christians from Reading Profane Books

men burned with such a great love for literature that they endured every possible hardship to acquire an education. A desire for knowledge possessed Pythagoras, Democritus, and Plato, enticing them to travel through Egypt, Asia, and other distant regions. It is said that Cleanthes A Stoic philosopher who reportedly worked as a manual laborer, drawing water at night, so he could study philosophy during the day. supported himself by drawing water just so he could find time for his studies.

However, no matter how much wisdom these men possessed, it becomes clear when compared to the Christians that they achieved very little despite their great efforts. Because they lacked divine revelation original: "Oraculis divinis", referring to the Holy Scriptures., they were often led astray by false opinions. They embraced a cloud instead of Juno This refers to the myth of Ixion, who tried to seduce the goddess Juno but was tricked into embracing a cloud shaped like her. This resulted in the birth of the Centaurs. The author uses this as a metaphor for chasing illusions instead of the truth., taking the false for the true. In doing so, they gave birth to "centaurs" that were extremely harmful to Christian truth. When the ancient Christians saw this, they pursued those pagan writings with such hatred that they not only avoided reading them, but often judged that they should be offered to either Vulcan or Neptune. Vulcan and Neptune are the Roman gods of fire and the sea. The author means the Christians burned the books or threw them into the water to destroy them. Concerning this