of opinions." From Pico's writings, Osiander "learned to extract and synthesize insights from many sources without becoming the slavish follower of any of them." The effect of Pico on Osiander was tempered by the influence of Nicholas of Cusa's and his idea of coincidentia oppositorum. Rather than having Pico's focus on human effort, Osiander followed Cusa's idea that understanding the Universe and its Creator only came from divine inspiration rather than intellectual organization. From these influences, Osiander held that in the area of philosophical speculation and scientific hypothesis there are "no heretics of the intellect", but when one gets past speculation into truth-claims the Bible is the ultimate measure. By holding Copernicianism was mathematical speculation, Osiander held that it would be silly to hold it up against the accounts of the Bible. Pico's influence on Osiander did not escape Rheticus, who reacted strongly against the Ad lectorem. As historian Robert S. Westman puts it, "The more profound source of Rheticus's ire however, was Osiander's view of astronomy as a disciple fundamentally incapable of knowing anything with certainty. For Rheticus, this extreme position surely must have resonated uncomfortably with Pico della Mirandola's attack on the foundations of divinatory astrology." In his Disputations, Pico had made a devastating attack on astrology. Because those who were making astrological predictions relied on astronomers to tell them where the planets were, they also became a target. Pico held that since astronomers who calculate planetary positions could not agree among themselves, how were they to be held as reliable? While Pico could bring into concordance writers like Aristotle, Plato, Plotinus, Averroes, Avicenna, and Aquinas, the lack of consensus he saw in astronomy was a proof to him of its fallibility alongside astrology. Pico pointed out that the astronomers' instruments were imprecise and any imperfection of even a degree made them worthless for astrology, people should not trust astrologists because they should not trust the numbers from astronomers. Pico pointed out that astronomers couldn't even tell where the Sun appeared in the order of the planets as they orbited the Earth (some put it close to the Moon, others among the planets). How, Pico asked, could astrologists possibly claim they could read what was going on when the astronomers they relied on could offer no precision on even basic questions? As Westman points out, to Rheticus "it would seem that Osiander now offered new grounds for endorsing