[Footnote 117: I will select three singular examples of this
classic enthusiasm. I. At the synod of Florence, Gemistus
Pletho said, in familiar conversation to George of
Trebizond, that in a short time mankind would unanimously
renounce the Gospel and the Koran, for a religion similar to
that of the Gentiles, (Leo Allatius, apud Fabricium, tom. x.
p. 751.) 2. Paul II. persecuted the Roman academy, which had
been founded by Pomponius Laetus; and the principal members
were accused of heresy, impiety, and paganism, (Tiraboschi,
tom. vi. P. i. p. 81, 82.) 3. In the next century, some
scholars and poets in France celebrated the success of
Jodelle's tragedy of Cleopatra, by a festival of Bacchus,
and, as it is said, by the sacrifice of a goat, (Bayle,
Dictionnaire, Jodelle. Fontenelle, tom. iii. p. 56- 61.)
Yet the spirit of bigotry might often discern a serious
impiety in the sportive play of fancy and learning.]