 Given the importance of the immortality of the soul to Catholic doctrine, Pomponazzi considered the ramifications of the soul’s mortality to ethics and the possibility of human happiness and blessedness (see Cuttini 2012). He countered the argument that immortality of the soul is necessary for a happy end achieved by perfecting the intellect by contending that achieving such intellectual perfection is only possible for someone with superior intellectual ability and of sound health, who has withdrawn from worldly affairs. Yet, such individuals are extremely rare—“even in long centuries, barely one is found”—and the human race and its societies do not permit all humans to devote themselves to philosophy (ch. 13). To the potential objection that belief in the mortality of the soul encourages immoral acts since some persons would choose to commit crimes because there would be no punishment or rewards after death, Pomponazzi responded that there are sufficient motivations for virtue without considerations of the afterlife. In his view, the essential reward of virtue is virtue itself, which is humankind’s greatest good and brings security and peace of mind. Accordingly, the religious teachings of immortality are not true according to the principles of natural philosophy but were introduced in order to persuade those incapable of understanding philosophy to behave in a moral fashion, thereby allowing society to function (ch. 14).