Marco Lombardo, a courtier from medieval Italy, explains that the world is full of wrongdoing. He states that fate is not predetermined; people have free will. If they did not, then there would be no joy in doing good deeds and no guilt in bad deeds. He states that people are drawn to what makes them happy, even if it is ultimately trivial and impermanent things. Those who are not enlightened only care about things that give them pleasure.
The only thing to keep people in check are rulers and law. Yet, there are no longer rulers that are capable of keeping people in check due to poor morals. The last good thing that Rome did was separating “the earthly and the heavenly”. When these elements are connected by force, nothing good arises.
The virtuous conquer sin, while the damned are conquered by it.