Epicurus, Pliny, Lucian, Lucretius,—­Contemptorque Deum Mezentius, “professed atheists all” in their times:  though not simple atheists neither, as Cicogna proves, lib. 1. cap. 1. they scoffed only at those Pagan gods, their plurality, base and fictitious offices.  Gilbertus Cognatus labours much, and so doth Erasmus, to vindicate Lucian from scandal, and there be those that apologise for Epicurus, but all in vain; Lucian scoffs at all, Epicurus he denies all, and Lucretius his scholar defends him in it: 

[6664] “Humana ante oculua foede cum vita jaceret
        In terris oppressa gravi cum religione,
        Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat,
        Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans,” &c.

       “When human kind was drench’d in superstition,
        With ghastly looks aloft, which frighted mortal men,” &c.

He alone, like another Hercules, did vindicate the world from that monster.  Uncle [6665]Pliny, lib. 2. cap. 7. nat. hist. and lib. 7. cap. 55, in express words denies the immortality of the soul. [6666]Seneca doth little less, lib. 7. epist. 55. ad Lucilium, et lib. de consol. ad Martiam, or rather more.  Some Greek Commentators would put as much upon Job, that he should deny resurrection, &c., whom Pineda copiously confutes in cap. 7.  Job, vers. 9. Aristotle is hardly censured of some, both divines and philosophers.  St. Justin in Peraenetica ad Gentes, Greg.  Nazianzen. in disput. adversus Eun., Theodoret, lib. 5. de curat. graec. affec., Origen. lib. de principiis.  Pomponatius justifies in his Tract (so styled at least) De immortalitate Animae, Scaliger (who would forswear himself at any time, saith Patritius, in defence of his great master Aristotle), and Dandinus, lib. 3. de anima, acknowledge as much.  Averroes oppugns all spirits and supreme powers; of late Brunus (infelix Brunus, [6667]Kepler calls him), Machiavel, Caesar Vaninus lately burned at Toulouse in France, and Pet.  Aretine, have publicly maintained such atheistical paradoxes, [6668]with that Italian Boccaccio with his fable of three rings, &c., ex quo infert haud posse internosci, quae sit verior religio, Judaica, Mahometana, an Christiana, quoniam eadem signa, &c., “from which he infers, that it cannot be distinguished which is the true religion, Judaism, Mahommedanism, or Christianity,” &c. [6669]Marinus Mercennus suspects Cardan for his subtleties, Campanella, and Charron’s Book of Wisdom, with some other Tracts, to savour of [6670]atheism:  but amongst the rest that pestilent book de tribus mundi impostoribus, quem sine horrore (inquit) non legas, et mundi Cymbalum dialogis quatuor contentum, anno 1538, auctore Peresio, Parisiis excusum, [6671]&c.  And as there have been in all ages such blasphemous spirits, so there have not been wanting their patrons, protectors, disciples and adherents.