Despite their individual differences, all the Christian humanists were motivated by an optimistic belief that they could reform society and restore the unity of Christendom by means of the New Learning, for they were convinced that a proper understanding of Christian and classical antiquity would lead to true piety and piety to reform. It is for this reason that they established and supported schools, disseminated the classics in printed form, and prepared new editions of the Bible and the writings of the church fathers.

The Christian humanists were not, however, revolutionaries. They exposed corruption and other evils in existing institutions, but they did not advocate their abolition. They were more concerned with proper conduct that with theology, with learning than with faith and love, and with nature than with grace. Yet they questioned no fundamental doctrines of the church. To preserve the solidarity of the medieval Christian community, most of them refused to follow the Protestant leaders in their separation from Catholicism.

Harold J. Grimm, The Reformation Era 1500-1650, 64.