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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15810-8.txt b/15810-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c01006 --- /dev/null +++ b/15810-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8235 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Age of Erasmus, by P. S. Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Age of Erasmus + Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London + +Author: P. S. Allen + +Release Date: May 10, 2005 [EBook #15810] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGE OF ERASMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + + LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK + TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY + + HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A. + PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY + + * * * * * + + + + + THE + AGE OF ERASMUS + + LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITIES + OF OXFORD AND LONDON + + BY + + P.S. ALLEN, M.A. + + FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD + + OXFORD + AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + 1914 + + + + + * * * * * + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE ADWERT ACADEMY + II. SCHOOLS + III. MONASTERIES + IV. UNIVERSITIES + V. ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK + VI. FORCE AND FRAUD + VII. PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS + VIII. THE POINT OF VIEW + IX. PILGRIMAGES + X. THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE + XI. ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN + + + * * * * * + + + + +I + +THE ADWERT ACADEMY + + +The importance of biography for the study of history can hardly be +overrated. In a sense it is true that history should be like the law +and 'care not about very small things'; concerning itself not so much +with individual personality as with fundamental causes affecting the +rise and fall of nations or the development of mental outlook from one +age to another. But even if this be conceded, we still must not forget +that the course of history is worked out by individuals, who, in spite +of the accidental condensation that the needs of human life thrust +upon them, are isolated at the last and alone--for no man may deliver +his brother. In consequence, it is only in periods when the stream of +personal record flows wide and deep that history begins to live, and +that we have a chance to view it through the eyes of the actors +instead of projecting upon it our own fancies and conceptions. + +One of the features that makes the study of the Renaissance so +fascinating is that in that age the stream of personal record, which +had been driven underground, its course choked and hidden beneath the +fallen masonry of the Roman Empire, emerges again unimpeded and flows +in ever-increasing volume. For reconstruction of the past we are no +longer limited to charters and institutions, or the mighty works of +men's hands. In place of a mental output, rigidly confined within +unbending modes of thought and expression, we have a literature that +reflects the varied phases of human life, that can discard romance and +look upon the commonplace; and instead of dry and meagre chronicles, +rarely producing evidence at first hand, we have rich store of memoirs +and private letters, by means of which we can form real pictures of +individuals--approaching almost to personal acquaintance and +intimacy--and regard the same events from many points of view, to +perception of the circumstances that 'alter cases'. + +The period of the Transalpine Renaissance corresponds roughly with the +life of Erasmus (1466-1536); from the days when Northern scholars +began to win fame for themselves in reborn Italy, until the width of +the humanistic outlook was narrowed and the progress of the reawakened +studies overwhelmed by the tornado of the Reformation. The aim of +these lectures is not so much to draw the outlines of the Renaissance +in the North as to present sketches of the world through which Erasmus +passed, and to view it as it appeared to him and to some of his +contemporaries, famous or obscure. And firstly of the generation that +preceded him in the wide but undefined region known then as Germany. + +The Cistercian Abbey of Adwert near Groningen, under the enlightened +governance of Henry of Rees (1449-85), was a centre to which were +attracted most of the scholars whose names are famous in the history +of Northern humanism in the second half of the fifteenth century: +Wessel, Agricola, Hegius, Langen, Vrye, and others. They came on +return from visits to Italy or the universities; men of affairs after +discharge of their missions; schoolmasters to rest on their holidays; +parish priests in quest of change: all found a welcome from the +hospitable Abbot, and their talk ranged far and wide, over the pursuit +of learning, till Adwert merited the name of an 'Academy'. + +Earliest of these is John Wessel (d. 1489), and perhaps also the most +notable; certainly the others looked up to him with a veneration which +seems to transcend the natural pre-eminence of seniority. +Unfortunately the details of his life have not been fully established. +Thirty years after his death, when it was too late for him to define +his own views, the Reformers claimed him for their own; and in +consequence his body has been wrangled over with the heat which seeks +not truth but victory. His father, Hermann Wessel, was a baker from +the Westphalian village of Gansfort or Goesevort, who settled in +Groningen. After some years in the town school, the boy was about to +be apprenticed to a trade, as his parents were too poor to help him +further; but the good Oda Jargis, hearing how well he had done at his +books, sent him to the school at Zwolle, in which the Brethren of the +Common Life took part. There, as at Groningen, he rose to the top, +and in his last years, as a first-form boy, also did some teaching in +the third form, according to the custom of the school. He came into +contact with Thomas à Kempis, who was then at the monastery of Mount +St. Agnes, half an hour outside Zwolle, and was profoundly influenced +by him. The course at Zwolle lasted eight years, and there is reason +to suppose that he completed it in full. He was lodged in the Parua +Domus, a hostel for fifty boys, and we are told that he and his next +neighbour made a hole through the wall which divided their +rooms--probably only a wooden partition--and taught one another: +Wessel imparting earthly wisdom, and receiving in exchange the fear +and love of the Lord. In the autumn of 1449 he matriculated at +Cologne, entering the Bursa Laurentiana; in December 1450 he was B.A., +and in February 1452, M.A. + +By 1455 he had arrived at Paris and entered upon his studies for the +theological degree. Within a year he conceived a profound distaste for +the philosophy dominant in the schools; and though he persevered for +some time, his frequent dissension from his teachers earned for him +the title of 'Magister contradictionis'. After this his movements +cannot be traced until 1470, when he was at Rome in the train of +Cardinal Francesco della Rovere. In the interval he studied medicine, +and, if report be true, travelled far; venturing into the East, just +when the fall of Constantinople had turned the tide of Hellenism +westward. In Greece he read Aristotle in the original, and learnt to +prefer Plato; in Egypt he sought in vain for the books of Solomon and +a mythical library of Hebrew treasures. + +In 1471 his Cardinal-patron was elected Pope as Sixtus IV. The +magnificence which characterized the poor peasant's son in his +dealings with Italy, in his embellishment of Rome and the Vatican, was +not lacking in his treatment of Wessel. 'Ask what you please as a +parting gift', he said to the scholar, who was preparing to set out +for Friesland. 'Give me books from your library, Greek and Hebrew', +was the request. 'What? No benefice, no grant of office or fees? Why +not?' 'Because I don't want them', came the quiet reply. The books +were forthcoming--one, a Greek Gospels, was perhaps the parent of a +copy which reached Erasmus for the second edition of his New +Testament. + +After his return to the North, Wessel was invited to Heidelberg, to +aid the Elector Palatine, Philip, in restoring the University, _c._ +1477. He was without the degree in theology which would have enabled +him to teach in that faculty, and was not even in orders: indeed a +proposal that he should qualify by entering the lowest grade and +receiving the tonsure, he contemptuously rejected. So the Theological +Faculty would not hear him, but to the students in Arts he lectured on +Greek and Hebrew and philosophy. For some years, too, he was physician +to David of Burgundy, Bishop of Utrecht, whom he cured of gout by +making him take baths of warm milk. The Bishop rewarded him by +shielding him from the attacks of the Dominicans, who were incensed +by his bold criticisms of Aquinas; and when age brought the desire for +rest, the Bishop set him over a house of nuns at Groningen, and bought +him the right to visit Mount St. Agnes whenever he liked, by paying +for the board and lodging of this welcome guest. + +Wessel's last years were happily spent. He was the acknowledged leader +of his society, and he divided his time between Mount St. Agnes and +the sisters at Groningen, with occasional visits to Adwert. There he +set about reviving the Abbey schools, one elementary, within its +walls, the other more advanced, in a village near by; and Abbot Rees +warmly supported him. Would-be pupils besought him to teach them Greek +and Hebrew. Admiring friends came to hear him talk, and brought their +sons to see this glory of their country--Lux mundi, as he was called. +Some fragments of his conversation have been preserved, the +unquestioned judgements which his hearers loyally received. Of the +Schoolmen he was contemptuous, with their honorific titles: 'doctor +angelic, doctor seraphic, doctor subtle, doctor irrefragable.' 'Was +Thomas (Aquinas) a doctor? So am I. Thomas scarcely knew Latin, and +that was his only tongue: I have a fair knowledge of the three +languages. Thomas saw Aristotle only as a phantom: I have read him in +Greece in his own words.' To Ostendorp, then a young man, but +afterwards to become head master of Deventer school, he gave the +counsel: 'Read the ancients, sacred and profane: modern doctors, with +their robes and distinctions, will soon be drummed out of town.' At +Mount St. Agnes once he was asked why he never used rosary nor book of +hours. 'I try', he replied, 'to pray always. I say the Lord's Prayer +once every day. Said once a year in the right spirit it would have +more weight than all these vain repetitions.' + +He loved to read aloud to the brethren on Sunday evenings; his +favourite passage being John xiii-xviii, the discourse at the Last +Supper. As he grew older, he sometimes stumbled over his words. He was +not an imposing figure, with his eyes somewhat a-squint and his slight +limp; and sometimes the younger monks fell into a titter, irreverent +souls, to hear him so eager in his reading and so unconscious. It was +not his eyesight that was at fault: to the end he could read the +smallest hand without any glasses, like his great namesake, John +Wesley, whom a German traveller noticed on the packet-boat between +Flushing and London reading the fine print of the Elzevir Virgil, with +his eyes unaided, though at an advanced age. + +On his death-bed Wessel was assailed with scepticism, and began to +doubt about the truth of the Christian religion. But the cloud was of +short duration. That supreme moment of revelation, which comes to +every man once, is no time for fear. Patient hope cast out +questioning, and he passed through the deep waters with his eyes on +the Cross which had been his guide through the life that was ending. + +Of Rudolph Agricola we know more than of the others; his striking +personality, it seems, moved many of his friends to put on record +their impressions of him. One of the best of these sketches is by +Goswin of Halen (d. 1530), who had been Wessel's servant at Groningen, +and had frequently met Agricola. Rudolph's father, Henry Huusman, was +the parish priest of Baflo, a village four hours to the north of +Groningen; his mother being a young woman of the place, who +subsequently married a local carrier. On 17 Feb. 1444 the priest was +elected to be warden of a college of nuns at Siloe, close to +Groningen, and in the same hour a messenger came running to him from +Baflo, claiming the reward of good news and announcing the birth of a +son. 'Good,' said the new warden; 'this is an auspicious day, for it +has twice made me father.' + +From the moment he could walk, the boy was passionately fond of music; +the sound of church bells would bring him toddling out into the +street, or the thrummings of the blind beggars as they went from house +to house playing for alms; and he would follow strolling pipers out of +the gates into the country, and only be driven back by a show of +violence. When he was taken to church, all through the mass his eyes +were riveted upon the organ and its bellows; and as he grew older he +made himself a syrinx with eight or nine pipes out of willow-bark. He +was taught to ride on horseback, and early became adept in +pole-jumping whilst in the saddle, an art which the Frieslanders of +that age had evolved to help their horses across the broad rhines of +their country. In 1456, when he was just 12, he matriculated at +Erfurt, and in May 1462 at Cologne. But the course of his education is +not clear, and though it is known that he reached the M.A. at Louvain, +the date of this degree is not certain. He is also said to have been +at the University of Paris. + +Of his life at Louvain some details are given by Geldenhauer (d. 1542) +in a sketch written about fifty years after Agricola's death. The +University had been founded in 1426 to meet the needs of Belgian +students, who for higher education had been obliged to go to Cologne +or Paris, or more distant universities. Agricola entered Kettle +College, which afterwards became the college of the Falcon, and soon +distinguished himself among his fellow-students. They admired the ease +with which he learnt French--not the rough dialect of Hainault, but +the polite language of the court. With many his musical tastes were a +bond of sympathy, in a way which recalls the evenings that Henry +Bradshaw used to spend among the musical societies of Bruges and Lille +when he was working in Belgian libraries; and on all sides men frankly +acknowledged his intellectual pre-eminence as they marked his quiet +readiness in debate and heard him pose the lecturers with acute +questions. By nature he was silent and absorbed, and often in company +he would sit deaf to all questions, his elbows on the table and biting +his nails. But when roused he was at once captivating; and this +unintended rudeness never lost him a friend. There was a small band of +true humanists, who, as Geldenhauer puts it, 'had begun to love purity +of Latin style'; to them he was insensibly attracted, and spent with +them over Cicero and Quintilian hours filched from the study of +Aristotle. Later in life he openly regretted having spent as much as +seven years over the scholastic philosophy, which he had learnt to +regard as profitless. + +From 1468 to 1479 he was for the most part in Italy, except for +occasional visits to the North, when we see him staying with his +father at Siloe, and, in 1474, teaching Greek to Hegius at Emmerich. +Many positions were offered to him already; gifts such as his have not +to stand waiting in the marketplace. But his wits were not homely, and +the world called him. Before he could settle he must see many men and +many cities, and learn what Italy had to teach him. + +For the first part of his time there, until 1473, he was at Pavia +studying law and rhetoric; but on his return from home in 1474 he went +to Ferrara in order to enjoy the better opportunities for learning +Greek afforded by the court of Duke Hercules of Este and its circle of +learned men. His description of the place is interesting: 'The town is +beautiful, and so are the women. The University has not so many +faculties as Pavia, nor are they so well attended; but _literae +humaniores_ seem to be in the very air. Indeed, Ferrara is the home of +the Muses--and of Venus.' One special delight to him was that the +Duke had a fine organ, and he was able to indulge what he describes as +his 'old weakness for the organs'. In October 1476, at the opening of +the winter term of the University, the customary oration before the +Duke was delivered by Rodolphus Agricola Phrysius. His eloquence +surprised the Italians, coming from so outlandish a person: 'a +Phrygian, I believe', said one to another, with a contemptuous shrug +of the shoulders. But Agricola, with his chestnut-brown hair and blue +eyes, was no Oriental; only a Frieslander from the North, whose cold +climate to the superb Italians seemed as benumbing to the intellect as +we consider that of the Esquimaux. + +During this period Agricola translated Isocrates _ad Demonicum_ and +the _Axiochus de contemnenda morte_, a dialogue wrongly attributed to +Plato, which was a favourite in Renaissance days. Also he completed +the chief composition of his lifetime, the _De inuentione dialectica_, +a considerable treatise on rhetoric. His favourite books, Geldenhauer +tells us, were Pliny's Natural History, the younger Pliny's Letters, +Quintilian's _Institutio Oratoria_, and selections from Cicero and +Plato. These were his travelling library, carried with him wherever he +went; two of them, Pliny's Letters and Quintilian, he had copied out +with his own hand. Other books, as he acquired them, he planted out in +friends' houses as pledges of return. + +In 1479 he left Italy and went home. On his way he stayed for some +months with the Bishop of Augsburg at Dillingen, on the Danube, and +there translated Lucian's _De non facile credendis delationibus_. A +manuscript of Homer sorely tempted him to stay on through the winter. +He felt that without Homer his knowledge of Greek was incomplete; and +he proposed to copy it out from beginning to end, or at any rate the +Iliad. But home called him, and he went on. At Spires, in quest of +manuscripts, he went with a friend to the cathedral library. He +describes it as not bad for Germany, though it contained nothing in +Greek, and only a few Latin manuscripts of any interest--a Livy and a +Pliny, very old, but much injured and the texts corrupt--and nothing +at all that could be called eloquence, that is to say, pure +literature. + +When he had been a little while in Groningen, the town council +bethought them to turn his talents and learning to some account. He +was a fine figure of a man, who would make a creditable show in +conducting their business; and for composing the elegant Latin +epistles, which every respectable corporation felt bound to rise to on +occasions, no one was better equipped than he. He was retained as town +secretary, and in the four years of his service went on frequent +embassies. During the first year we hear of him visiting his father at +Siloe, and contracting a friendship with one of the nuns[1]; to whom +he afterwards sent a work of Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, which he had +found in a manuscript at Roermond. Twice he visited Brussels on +embassy to Maximilian; and in the next year he followed the Archduke's +court for several months, visiting Antwerp, and making the +acquaintance of Barbiriau, the famous musician. Maximilian offered him +the post of tutor to his children and Latin secretary to himself; the +town of Antwerp invited him to become head of their school. He might +easily have accepted. He was not altogether happy at Groningen. His +countrymen had done him honour, but they had no real appreciation for +learning, and some of them were boorish and cross-grained. It was the +old story of Pegasus in harness; the practical men of business and the +scholar impatient of restraint. His parents, too, were now both +dead--in 1480, within a few months of each other--and such homes as he +had had, with his father amongst the nuns at Siloe and with his mother +in the house of her husband the tranter, were therefore closed to him. +And yet neither invitation attracted him. Friesland was his native +land; and for all his wanderings the love of it was in his blood. +Adwert, too, was near, and Wessel. He refused, and stayed on in his +irksome service. + + [1] In view of Geldenhauer's testimony to Agricola's high + character in this respect, we need not question, as does + Goswin of Halen, the nature of this intimacy. + +But in 1482 came an offer he could not resist. An old friend of Pavia +days, John of Dalberg, for whom he had written the oration customary +on his installation as Rector in 1474, had just been appointed Bishop +of Worms. He invited Agricola for a visit, and urged him to come and +join him; living partly as a friend in the Bishop's household, partly +lecturing at the neighbouring University of Heidelberg. The opening +was just such as Agricola wished, and he eagerly accepted; but +circumstances at Groningen prevented him from redeeming his promise +until the spring of 1484. For little more than a year he rejoiced in +the new position, which gave full scope for his abilities. Then he set +out to Rome with Dalberg, their business being to deliver the usual +oration of congratulation to Innocent VIII on his election. On the way +back he fell ill of a fever at Trent, and the Bishop had to leave him +behind. He recovered enough to struggle back to Heidelberg, but only +to die in Dalberg's arms on 27 Oct. 1485, at the age of 41. + +Few men of letters have made more impression on their contemporaries; +and yet his published writings are scanty. The generation that +followed sought for his manuscripts as though they were of the +classics; but thirty years elapsed before the _De inuentione +dialectica_ was printed, and more than fifty before there was a +collected edition. Besides his letters the only thing which has +permanent value is a short educational treatise, _De formando studio_, +which he wrote in 1484, and addressed to Barbiriau--some compensation +to the men of Antwerp for his refusal to come to them. His work was to +learn and to teach rather than to write. To learn Greek when few +others were learning it, and when the apparatus of grammar and +dictionary had to be made by the student for himself, was a task to +consume even abundant energies; and still more so, if Hebrew, too, was +to be acquired. But though he left little, the fire of his enthusiasm +did not perish with him; passing on by tradition, it kindled in others +whom he had not known, the flame of interest in the wisdom of the +ancients. + +Another member of the Adwert gatherings was Alexander of Heck in +Westphalia, hence called Hegius (1433-98). He was an older man than +Agricola, but was not ashamed to learn of him when an opportunity +offered to acquire Greek. His enthusiasm was for teaching; and to that +he gave his life, first at Wesel, then at Emmerich, and finally for +fifteen years at Deventer, where he had many eminent humanists under +his care--Erasmus, William Herman, Mutianus Rufus, Hermann Busch, John +Faber, John Murmell, Gerard Geldenhauer. Butzbach, who was the last +pupil he admitted, and who saw him buried in St. Lebuin's church on a +winter's evening at sunset, describes him at great length; and besides +his learning and simplicity, praises the liberality with which he gave +all that he had to help the needy: living in the house of another +(probably Richard Paffraet, the printer) and sharing expenses, and +leaving at his death no possessions but his books and a few clothes. +And yet he was master of a school which had over 2000 boys. + +Rudolph Langen of Munster (1438-1519) was another who was known at +Adwert. He matriculated at Erfurt in the same year as Agricola, and +was M.A. there in 1460. A canonry at Munster gave him maintenance for +his life, and he devoted his energies to learning. Twice he visited +Italy, in 1465 and 1486; and in 1498 he succeeded in establishing a +school at Munster on humanistic lines, and wished Hegius to become +head master, but in vain. Nevertheless it rapidly rivalled the fame of +Deventer. + +Finally, Antony Vrye (Liber) of Soest deserves record, since he has +contributed somewhat to our knowledge of Adwert. He also was a +schoolmaster, and taught at various times at Emmerich, Campen, +Amsterdam, and Alcmar. In 1477 he published a volume entitled +_Familiarium Epistolarum Compendium_, the composition of which +illustrates the catholic tastes of the humanists; for it contains +selections from the letters of Cicero, Jerome, Symmachus, and the +writers of the Italian Renaissance. But he chiefly merits our +gratitude for including in the book a number of letters which passed +between the visitors to Adwert and their friends, together with some +of his own. The pleasant relations existing in this little society may +be illustrated by the fact that when Vrye's son John had reached +student age, the Adwert friends subscribed to pay his expenses at a +university; and thus secured him an education which enabled him to +become Syndic of Campen. + +A few extracts from their letters will serve to show some of the +characteristics of the age, its wide interest in the past, theological +as well as classical; its eager search for manuscripts, and the +freedom with which its libraries were opened; its concern for +education, and its attitude towards the old learning; and the extent +of its actual achievements. The earliest of these letters that survive +are a series written by Langen from Adwert in the spring of 1469 to +Vrye at Soest. Despite the grave interest in serious study that the +letters show, there are human touches about them. One begins: 'You +promised faithfully to return, and yet you have not come. But I cannot +blame you; for the road is deep in mud, and I myself too am so feeble +a walker that I can imagine the weariness of others' feet.' Another +ends in haste, not with the departure of the post, but 'The servants +are waiting to conduct me to bed'. Here is a longer sample: + + +I. LANGEN TO VRYE: from Adwert, 27 Feb. <1469>. + + 'Why do you delay so long to gratify the wishes of our devout + friend Wolter? With my own hand I have transcribed the little + book of _Elegantiae_, as far as the section about the reckoning + of the Kalends. I greatly desire to have this precious work + complete; so do send me the portion we lack as soon as you can. + The little book will be my constant companion: I know nothing + that has such value in so narrow a span. How brilliant Valla + is! he has raised up Latin to glory from the bondage of the + barbarians. May the earth lie lightly on him and the spring + shine ever round his urn! Even if the book is not by Valla + himself, it must come from his school. + + 'I write in haste and with people talking all round me, from + whom politeness will not let me sit altogether aloof. But read + carefully and you will understand me. At least I hope this + letter won't be quite so barbarous as the monstrosities which + the usher from Osnabruck sends you every day: they sound like + the spells of witches to bring up their familiar spirits, or + the enchantments "Fecana kageti", &c., which open locks whoever + knocks. Poor Latin! it is worse handled than was Regulus by the + Carthaginians. Forgive this scrawl: I am writing by + candlelight.' + +We shall have other occasions to notice the admiration of the Northern +humanists for Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457), the master of Latin style, and +the audacious Canon of the Lateran, who could apply the spirit of +criticism not only to the New Testament but even to the Donation of +Constantine. + + +2. VRYE TO ARNOLD OF HILDESHEIM (Schoolmaster at Emmerich): <? +Cologne, _c._ 1477>. + + 'I have still a great many things to do, but I shall not begin + upon them till the printed books from Cologne arrive at + Deventer. My plan was to go to Heidelberg, Freiburg, Basle and + some of the universities in the East and then return to + Deventer through Saxony and Westphalia. But at Coblenz I met + four men from Strasburg who declared that Upper Germany was + almost all overrun by soldiers. This unexpected alarm has + compelled me to dispose of the 1500 copies of _The Revival of + Latin_ amongst the schools.[2] After visiting Deventer and + Zwolle I shall go to Louvain, and then, if it is safe, to + Paris. I thought you ought to know of this change in my plans; + that you might not be taken by surprise at finding me gone + westwards instead of into Upper Germany. + + 'Please take great pains over the correction of the + manuscripts.' + + [2] particularibus studiis. + + +3. AGRICOLA TO HEGIUS <at Emmerich>: from Groningen, 20 Sept. 1480. + + 'I was very sorry to learn from your letter that you had been + here just when I was away. There are so few opportunities of + meeting any one who cares for learning that you would have been + most welcome. My position becomes increasingly distasteful to + me: since I left Italy, I forget everything--the classics, + history, even how to write with any style. In prose I can get + neither ideas nor language. Such as come only serve to fill the + page with awkward, disjointed sentences. Verse I hardly ever + attempt, and when I do, there is no flow about it; sometimes + the lines almost refuse to scan. The fact is that I can find no + one here who is interested in these things. If only we were + together! + + 'My youngest brother Henry has been fired with the desire to + study. I have advised him against it, but as he persists, I do + not like to do more. For the last six months he has been with + Frederic Mormann at Munster, and has made some progress: but + now Mormann <who was one of the Brethren of the Common Life> + has been sent as Rector to a house <at Marburg>, and Henry has + come home. If you can have him, I should like him to come to + you. He will bring with him the usual furniture,[3] money will + be sent to him from time to time, and he will find himself a + lodging[4] wherever you advise. I should be glad to know + whether there are any teachers who give lessons out of school + hours, as Mormann does; and whether any one may go to them on + payment of a fee, whether candidates for orders[5] or not. I + should like him to get over the elements as quickly as + possible; for if boys are kept at them too long, they take a + dislike to the whole thing. The Pliny that you ask for shall + come to you soon. I use it a great deal; but nevertheless you + shall have it.' + + [3] victui necessaria, vt solent nostrates. Victus is commonly + used in the technical sense of 'board'; but here the meaning + probably is 'the usual outfit for a schoolboy'. Gebwiler, in + 1530, required a boy coming to his school at Hagenau to be + provided with 'a bed, sheets, pillow, and other necessaries'. + [4] diuersorium. + [5] capitiati. + +In answer to a question from Hegius, Agricola goes on to distinguish +the words mimus, histrio, persona, scurra, nebulo; with quotations +from Juvenal and Gellius. 'Leccator', he says, 'is a German word; like +several others that we have turned into bad Latin, reisa, +burgimagister, scultetus, or like the French passagium for a military +expedition, guerra for war, treuga for truce.' + +He then proceeds to more derivations in answer to Hegius. [Greek: +Anthrôpos] he considers a fundamental word, which, like homo, defies +analysis: but nevertheless he suggests [Greek: ana] and [Greek: +trepô], or [Greek: terpô], or [Greek: trephô]. To explain vesper he +cites Sallust, Catullus, Ovid, Pliny's Letters, Caesar's Civil War, +Persius and Suetonius. (We must remember that in those days a man's +quotations were culled from his memory, not from a dictionary or +concordance.) He goes on: 'About forming words by analogy, I rarely +allow myself to invent words which are not in the best authors, but +still perhaps I might use Socratitas, Platonitas, entitas, though +Valla I am sure would object. After all one must be free, when there +is necessity. Cicero, without any need, used Pietas and Lentulitas; +and Pollio talks of Livy's Patauinitas.' Other words explained are +tignum, asser, [Greek: dioikêsis]; and then Agricola proceeds to +correct a number of mistakes in Hegius' letter. Rather delicate work +it might seem; but there is such good humour between them that, though +the corrections extend to some length, it all ends pleasantly. + + +4. HEGIUS TO AGRICOLA; from Deventer, 17 Dec. <1484>. + +After apologies for not having written for a long while, he proceeds: + + 'You ask how my school is doing. Well, it is full again now; + but in summer the numbers rather fell off. The plague which + killed twenty of the boys, drove many others away, and + doubtless kept some from coming to us at all. + + 'Thank you for translating Lucian's Micyllus. I am sure that + all of us who read it, will be greatly pleased with it. As soon + as it comes, I will have it printed. If I may, I should much + like to ask you for an abridgement of your book on Dialectic: + it would be very valuable to students. I understand that you + have translated Isocrates' Education of Princes. If I had it + here, I would expound it to my pupils. For some of them, no + doubt, will be princes some day and have to govern. + + 'I have been reading Valla's book on the True Good, and have + become quite an Epicurean, estimating all things in terms of + pleasure. Also it has persuaded me that each virtue has its + contrary vice, rather than two vices as its extremes. I should + like to know whether the authorities at Heidelberg have + abandoned their Marsilius[6] on the question of universals, or + whether they still stick to him.' + + [6] Of Inghen, first Rector of Heidelberg University (1386), + the author of the _Parua Logicalia_. + + +5. AGRICOLA TO HEGIUS; from Worms, Tuesday <January 1485>, in reply. + +After thanks and personalities he writes: + + 'Certainly you shall have the Lucian, and I will dedicate it to + you: but not just yet, as I am too busy to revise it. My public + lectures take up a good deal of my time. I have a fairly large + audience; but their zeal is greater than their ability. The + majority of them are M.A.'s or students in the Arts course;[7] + who are obliged to spend all their time on their disputations, + so they have only a meagre part of the day left for these + studies. In consequence, as they can do so little, I am not + very active. + + 'In addition to this I am trying to keep up my Latin and Greek + (though they are fast slipping from me) and am beginning + Hebrew, which I find very difficult: indeed to my surprise it + costs me more effort than Greek did. However, I shall go on + with it as I have begun: also because I like to have something + new on hand, and much as I like Greek, its novelty has somewhat + worn off. I have made up my mind to devote my old age, if I + ever reach it, to theology. You know how I detest the + barbarisms of those who fill the schools. On their side they + are indignant with me for daring to question their decisions; + but this will not deter me. + + 'My greetings to your host, Master Richard (Paffraet), and his + wife. + + 'Worms, in great haste, on the third day of the week: as I have + determined to call it, instead of our unclassical Feria + secunda, tertia, &c., or the heathen names, Monday, Mars' day, + Mercury's day, Jove's day.' + + [7] Scholastici, vt nos dicimus, artium. + +We may notice the anticipation of the Quakers, who in a similar way +would only speak of first day and sixth month. + + +6. HEGIUS TO WESSEL; from Deventer <between 1483 and 1489>. + + 'I am sending you the Homilies of John Chrysostom, and hope + you will enjoy reading them. His golden words have always been + more acceptable to you than the precious metal itself from the + mint. + + 'I have been, as you know, at Cusanus' library, and found there + many Hebrew books which were quite unknown to me; also a few + Greek. I remember the names of the following: Epiphanius + against heresies, a very big book; Dionysius on the Hierarchy; + Athanasius against Arius; Climacus. + + 'These I left behind there, but I brought away with me: Basil + on the Hexaëmeron and some of his homilies on the Psalms; the + Epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles; Plutarch's Lives + of Romans and Greeks, and his Symposium; some writings on + grammar and mathematics; some poems on the Christian religion, + written, I think, by Gregory Nazianzen; some prayers, in Latin + and Greek. + + 'If there are any of these you lack, let me know and they shall + come to you: for everything I have is at your disposal. If you + could spare the Gospels in Greek, I should be grateful for the + loan of it. You enquire what books we are using in the school. + I have followed your advice; for literature which is dangerous + to morality is most injurious.' + +The library mentioned above was that of Nicholas Krebs (d. 1464), the +famous Cardinal who took part in the Council of Basle and was the +patron of Poggio. Cues on the Moselle was his birthplace, and gave him +his name Cusanus. In his later years he founded a hostel, the Bursa +Cusana, at Deventer, where he had been at school, and at Cues built a +hospital for aged men and women, with a grassy quadrangle and a chapel +of delicate Gothic; and there in a vaulted chamber supported by a +central column he deposited the manuscripts, mainly theological but +with some admixture of the classics, which he had gathered in the +course of his busy life. + +In 1496 we hear of another visit to it; when Dalberg, who was a prince +of humanists, led thither Reuchlin and a party of friends on a voyage +of discovery. Their course was from Worms to Oppenheim, where his +mother was still living: by boat to Coblenz and up the Moselle to +Cues: then over the hills to Dalburg, his ancestral home, and finally +to the abbey of Sponheim, near Kreuznach, where they admired the rich +collection of manuscripts in five languages formed by the learned +historian Trithemius, who was then Abbot. Whether this gay party of +pleasure also carried off any treasures from Cues is not recorded. + +But lest this view of the Adwert Academy should appear too uniformly +roseate, we will turn to the tradition of Reyner Praedinius (1510-59), +who was Rector of the town school at Groningen, and whose fame +attracted students thither from Italy, Spain, and Poland. He had in +his possession several manuscripts of Wessel's writings, some of them +unpublished; and he had been intimate with men who had known both +Wessel and Agricola. One of these--very likely Goswin of Halen--as a +boy had often served at table, when the two scholars were dining; and +had afterwards shown them the way home with a lantern. He used to say +that he had frequently pulled off Agricola's boots, when he came home +the worse for his potations; but that no one had ever seen Wessel +under the influence of wine. Wessel, indeed, lived to a green old age, +but killed himself by working too hard. + + + + +II + +SCHOOLS + + +Erasmus was born at Rotterdam on the vigil of SS. Simon and Jude, 27 +October: probably in 1466, but his utterances on the subject are +ambiguous. Around his parentage he wove a web of romance, from which +only one fact emerges clearly--that his father was at some time a +priest. Current gossip said that he was parish priest of Gouda; a +little town near Rotterdam, with a big church, which in the sixteenth +century its inhabitants were wealthy enough to adorn with some fine +stained glass. There in the town school, under a master who was +afterwards one of the guardians of his scanty patrimony, Erasmus' +schooldays began, and he made acquaintance with the Latin grammar of +Donatus. After an interval as chorister at Utrecht, he was sent by his +parents to the school at Deventer, which, with that of the +neighbouring and rival town of Zwolle, enjoyed pre-eminence among the +schools of the Netherlands at that date. It was connected with the +principal church of the town, St. Lebuin's; and doubtless among those +aisles and chapels, listening perhaps to the merry bells, whose chimes +still proclaim the quarters far and wide, he caught the first breath +of that new hope to which he was to devote his whole life. The school +was controlled by the canons of St. Lebuin, who appointed the head +master; but, as at Zwolle, some of the teachers were drawn from that +sober and learned order, the Brethren of the Common Life, whose parent +house was at Deventer. + +Of Erasmus' life in the school we have little knowledge. He tells us +that he was there in 1475, when preachers came from Rome announcing +the jubilee which Sixtus IV had so conveniently found possible to hold +after only twenty-five years. From one of his letters we can picture +him wandering by the river side among the barges, and marking the slow +growth of the bridge of boats which it took the town of Deventer +several years to throw across the rapid Yssel. He probably entered the +lowest class, the eighth, and by 1484, when at the age of eighteen he +left in consequence of the outbreak of plague mentioned in Hegius' +letter to Agricola, he had not made his way above the third; thus +giving little indication of his future fame. An explanation may +perhaps be found by supposing that his time in the choir at Utrecht +was an interlude in the Deventer period; but in any case the school in +his time was still 'barbarous', to use his own word, that is, it was +still modelled on the requirements of the scholastic courses, the +_literae inamoenae_, which from his earliest years he abhorred. +Zinthius (or Synthius), who was one of the Brethren, and Hegius +'brought a breath of something better', he tells us: but both of them +taught only in the higher forms, and Hegius he only heard during his +last year, on the festivals when the head master lectured to the whole +school together. + +A few years later the school numbered 2200 boys. It is difficult to us +to imagine such a throng gathered round one man. There were only eight +forms, which must therefore have had on an average 275 in each; and +even if subdivided into parallel classes, they must still have been +uncomfortably large to our modern ideas. On the title-pages of early +school-books are sometimes found woodcuts which represent the children +sitting, like the Indian schoolboy to-day, in crowds about their +master, taking only the barest amount of space, and content with the +steps of his desk or even the floor. Some idea of the character of the +teaching may be derived from the experiences of Thomas Platter +(1499-1582) at Breslau about thirty years later. 'In the school at St. +Elizabeth', he says, 'nine B.A.'s read lectures at the same hour and +in the same room. Greek had not yet penetrated into that part of the +world. No one had any printed books except the praeceptor, who had a +Terence.[8] What was read had first to be dictated, then pointed, then +construed, and at last explained.'[9] It was a wearisome business for +all concerned. The reading of a few lines of text, the punctuation, +the elaborate glosses full of wellnigh incomprehensible +abbreviations; all dictated slowly enough for a class of a hundred or +more to take down every word. Lessons in those days were indeed +readings. For a clever boy who was capable of going forward quickly, +they must have been great waste of time. + + [8] It is worth remarking that in the fifteenth century Terence + was regarded as a prose author, no attempt having been made + to determine his metres. As late as 1516 an edition was + printed in Paris in prose. + [9] Here, and later on, I follow Mrs. Finn's translation, 1839. + +At Deventer Erasmus began with elementary accidence. The books which +he first mentions, _Pater meus,_ a series of declensions, and +_Tempora_, the tenses, that is the conjugations of the verb, were +probably local productions of a simple nature which never found their +way into print. From this he proceeded to the versified Latin grammars +which mediaeval authorities on education had invented to supersede the +prose of Priscian and Donatus; metre being more adapted to the +learning by heart then so much in fashion. 'Praelegebatur Ebrardus et +Joannes de Garlandia', he says: a line or two was read out by the +master and then the commentary was dictated--the boys writing down as +much as they could catch. Let us see the kind of thing. Here are some +extracts from the _Textus Equiuocorum_ of John Garland, an Englishman +who taught at Toulouse in the thirteenth century. + + Latrat et amittit, humilis, vilis, negat, heret: + Est celeste Canis sidus, in amne natat. + +'Firstly it is a thing that barks': three verses of quotation follow. + +'Secondly it loses; canis being the name for the worst throw with the +dice': one verse of quotation. + +'Thirdly it is something humble: David to Saul, "After whom is the +King of Israel come out? after a dead dog? after a flea?" + +Fourthly it is something contemptible: Goliath to David, "Am I a dog +that thou comest to me with staves?" + +Fifthly it denies, like an apostate: "A dog returned to its vomit." + +Sixthly it adheres.' But here the interpreter goes astray under the +preoccupation of the times: 'heret significat hereticum et infidelem; +hence "It is not good to take the children's bread and cast it unto +dogs, that is to heretics and infidels." + +Seventhly it is a star; hence are named the dog days, in which that +star has dominion. + +Eighthly it swims in the sea; the dog fish.' + +The qualities of the dog are also expressed in this verse: 'Latrat in +ede canis, nat in equore, fulget in astris. Et venit canis +originaliter a cano--is.' So Garland, or his commentator, abridged. + +Of sal he says: + + Est sal prelatus, equor, sapientia, mimus, + Sal pultes condit, sal est cibus et reprehendit. + +Here again there is a full commentary; but the only interpretation +that we need notice is the first, 'Salt denotes a prelate of the +Church; for it is said in the Gospels, Ye are the salt of the earth.' +When he composed these lines, Garland must surely have had his eye on +ecclesiastical preferment. + +Another line is interesting, as illustrating the confusion between c +and t in mediaeval manuscripts: + + Est katonque malum, katademon nascitur inde. + +The commentary runs: 'Kathon est idem quod malum. Inde dicitur +kathodemon, i.e. spiritus malignus seu dyabolus, et venit a kathon, +i.e. malum, et demon, sciens, quasi mala sciens.' You will notice also +the inconstancy of h, and the indifference to orthography which allows +the same word to appear as katademon in the text and kathodemon in the +commentary. + +Garland's _Textus_ is mostly Latin; but in the last composition of his +life, the forty-two distiches entitled _Cornutus_, 'one on the horns +of a dilemma', he is mainly occupied with Greek words adopted into +Latin: using of course Latin characters. Some specimens will show the +mediaeval standards of Greek: I quote from the text and commentary +edited in 1481 by John Drolshagen, who was master of the sixth class +at Zwolle. + + Kyria chere geram cuius ph[=i]lantr[)o]pos est bar, Per te doxa + theos nect[=e]n [)e]t [)v]r[=a]n[)i]c[)i]s ymas. + +In the commentary we are told that Kyria means the Virgin: but we are +to be careful not to write it with two r's, for kirrios means a pig (I +suppose [Greek: choiros]), and it would never do to say Kirrieleyson. +Chere is of course [Greek: chaire], salue. Geran (geram in the text) +is interpreted sanctus, and seems from a lengthy discussion of it to +be connected with [Greek: gerôn] and [Greek: ieros].[10] Philantropos +(notice the quantities) is Christ, the Saviour. 'Bar Grece est filius +Latine.' 'Necten in Greco est venire Latine: vnde dicit Pristianus in +primo minoris, antropos necten, i.e. homo venit.' (For this remarkable +form I can only suggest [Greek: ênthein] or [Greek: hêkein]: -en is +probably the infinitive; ne might arise from en; and ct, through tt, +from th.) Ymas is explained as nobis, not vobis. The construction of +the distich is then given: 'Hail, sacred queen, whose son is the lover +of men; through thee divine and heavenly glory comes to us.' + +Again: + + 'Clauiculis firmis theos antropos impos et ir mis + Figor ob infirmi cosmos delicta, patir mi.' + +Impos = in pedibus. Ir = a hand (probably [Greek: cheir], +transliterated into hir, and h dropped) and mis is explained as = mei, +according to the form which occurs in Plautus and early Latin. The +lines are an address from Christ to God, and are interpreted: 'O my +father, I God and man am fastened with hard nails in my feet and hands +(upon the cross) for the sins of a weak world.' + +Another work dictated to Erasmus at Deventer was the metrical grammar +of Eberhard of Bethune in Artois, composed in the twelfth century. Its +name, _Graecismus_, was based upon a chapter, the eighth, devoted to +the elementary study of Greek--a feature which constituted an advance +on the current grammars of the age. A few extracts will show the +character of the assistance it offered to the would-be Greek scholar. + + [10] Cf. Gerasmus and Hierasmus as variations of the name + Herasmus or Erasmus. + + Quod sententia sit b[)o]l[)e] comprobat amphibol[=i]a, + Quodque fides br[)o]g[)e] sit comprobat Allobroga. + +The gloss explains the second line thus: 'Dicitur ab alleos quod est +alienum, et broge quod est fides, quasi alienus a fide'; and thus we +learn that the Allobroges were a Burgundian people who were always +breaking faith with the Romans. + + Constat apud Grecos quod tertia littera cima est, + Est quoque dulce c[)i]m[=e]n, inde c[)i]m[=e]t[)e]rium; + Est [)v]n[)i]uersal[=e] c[)a]t[)a], fitque c[)a]tholicus inde, ... + C[=a]ta breuis pariter, c[=a]talogus venit hinc. + Die decas esse decem, designans inde decanum ... + Delon obscurum, Delius inde venit. + Ductio sit gogos, hinc isagoga venit. + Estque geneth mulier, inde gen[=e]th[=e][=u]m. + +Here the confusion of c with t begins the misleading; which is carried +further by the gloss, 'Genetheum: locus subterraneus vbi habitant +mulieres ad laborandum, et dicitur a geneth quod est mulier, et thesis +positio, quia ibi ponebantur mulieres ad laborandum'; or 'Genetheum: +absconsio subterranea mulierum'. + + Estque decem gintos, dicas hinc esse viginti, + Vt pentecoste, coste valebit idem. + + Pos quoque pes tibi sit, compos tibi comprobat illud, + Atque p[)e]dos puer est, hinc pedagogus erit. + Dic zoen animam, die ind[=e] z[=o][)e]c[)a]isychen. + +This last word appears in eleven different forms in the manuscripts. +The gloss interprets it plainly as 'vita mea et anima mea'; but +without this aid it must have been unintelligible to most readers, +especially in such forms as zoychaysichen, zoycazyche, zoichasichen, +zoyasichem. + +The 'breath of something better' which Hegius and Zinthius brought was +seen in the substitution of the _Doctrinale_ of Alexander of +Ville-Dieu, near Avranches (_fl._ 1200), as the school Latin grammar. +This also is a metrical composition; and it has the merit of being +both shorter and also more correct. It was first printed at Venice by +Wendelin of Spires (_c._ 1470), and after a moderate success in Italy, +twenty-three editions in fourteen years, it was taken up in the North +and quickly attained great popularity. By 1500 more than 160 editions +had been printed, of the whole or of various parts, and in the next +twenty years there were nearly another hundred, before it was +superseded by more modern compositions, such as Linacre's grammar, +which held the field throughout Europe for a great part of the +sixteenth century. The number of Deventer editions of the _Doctrinale_ +is considerable, mostly containing the glosses of Hegius and Zinthius, +which overwhelm the text with commentary; a single distich often +receiving two pages of notes, so full of typographical abbreviations +and so closely packed together as to be almost illegible. This very +fullness, however, probably indicates a change in the method of +teaching, which by quickening it up must indeed have put new life into +it; for it would clearly have been impossible to dictate such lengthy +commentaries, or the boys would have made hardly any progress. + +Thirty years ago in England a schoolboy of eleven found himself +supplied with abridged Latin and Greek dictionaries, out of which to +build up larger familiarity with these languages. Erasmus at Deventer +had no such endowments. A school of those days would have been thought +excellently equipped if the head master and one or two of his +assistants had possessed, in manuscript or in print, one or other of +the famous vocabularies in which was amassed the etymological +knowledge of the Middle Ages. Great books are costly, and scholars are +ever poor. The normal method of acquiring a dictionary was, no doubt, +to construct it for oneself; the schoolboy laying foundations and +building upon them as he rose from form to form, and the mature +student constantly enlarging his plan throughout his life and adding +to it the treasures gained by wider reading. A sure method, though +necessarily circumscribed, at least in the beginning. We can imagine +how men so rooted and grounded must have shaken their heads over +'learning made easy', when the press had begun to diffuse cheap +dictionaries, which spared the younger generation such labour. + +Though they were scarcely 'for the use of schools', it will repay us +to examine some of the mediaeval dictionaries which lasted down to the +Renaissance in general use; for they formed the background of +educational resources, and from them we can estimate the standards of +teaching attained in the late fifteenth century. First the +_Catholicon_, compiled by John Balbi, a Dominican of Genoa, and +completed on 7 March 1286; a work of such importance to the age we are +considering that it was printed at Mainz as early as 1460, and there +were many editions later. Badius' at Paris, 1506, for instance, was +reprinted in 1510, 1511, 1514. In his preface Balbi announces that his +dictionary is to be on the alphabetical principle; and, what is even +more surprising to us, he goes on to explain at great length what the +alphabetical principle is. Thus: 'I am going to treat of amo and bibo. +I shall take amo before bibo, because a is the first letter in amo and +b is the first letter in bibo; and a is before b in the alphabet. +Again I have to treat of abeo and adeo. I shall take abeo before adeo, +because b is the second letter in abeo and d is the second letter in +adeo; and b is before d in the alphabet.' And so he goes on: amatus +will be treated before amor, imprudens before impudens, iusticia +before iustus, polisintheton before polissenus--the two last being +from the Greek. 'But note', he continues, 'that in polissenus, s is +the fifth letter and also the sixth, because s is repeated there. A +repetition is therefore equivalent to a double letter; and thus this +arrangement will show when l, m, n, r, s or indeed any other letter is +to be doubled. And in order that the reader may find quickly what he +seeks, whenever the first or second letter of a word is changed, we +shall mark it with azure blue.' His preface ends with an appeal. 'This +arrangement I have worked out with great labour; yet not I, but the +grace of God with me. I entreat you therefore, reader, do not contemn +my work as something rude and barbarous.' + +The most striking feature of the dictionary is its etymology. Almost +every word is supplied with a derivation, often very far-fetched. Thus +glisco is derived from 'glykis, quod est dulcis; que enim dulcia sunt +desiderare solemus': gliscere therefore is equivalent to desiderare, +crescere, pinguescere and several other words. After this we are not +surprised at the following account of a dormouse. 'Glis a glisco: +quoddam genus murium quod multum dormit. Et dicitur sic quod sompnus +facit glires pingues et crescere.' Here is another piece of natural +history. 'Irundo ab aer dicitur: quia non residens sed in aere capiens +cibos edat, quasi in aere edens.' There is simplicity in the +following: 'Nix a nubes, quia a nube venit.' Again: 'Ouis ab offero +vel obluo: quia antiquitus in inicio non tauri sed oues in sacrificio +mactarentur. Priscianus vero dicit quod descendit a Greco ... oys.' +Besides his philology the good Dominican was also a theologian; and +when he comes to the words upon which his world was built, he cannot +dismiss them as lightly as the snow. So Antichristus has two columns, +that is to say a folio page: confiteor 1½, conscientia 2¼, ordo 2½, +virgo two columns. + +Much light is thrown on Balbi's work by the dictionary of his +predecessor, Huguitio of Pisa, Bishop of Ferrara (d. 1210). The title +of this, _Liber deriuationum_, indicates its character. Instead of the +alphabetical principle the words are arranged according to their +etymology; all that are assigned to a given root being grouped +together. This made it necessary, or at any rate desirable, to find a +derivation for every word; and with ingenuity to aid this was done as +far as possible. Besides derivatives even compounds came under the +simple root; and in consequence it must have been extremely difficult +to find a word unless one already knew a good deal about it. It is no +wonder that the book was never printed; although it occurs frequently +in the catalogues of mediaeval libraries. + +A few examples will suffice. Under capio are found capax, captiuus, +capillus, caput with all its derivatives, anceps, praeceps, +principium, caper, capus, caupo, cippus, scipio, <s>ceptrum; and even +cassis and catena. Similarly under nubo come nubes, nebula, nebulo, +nix, niger, nimpha, limpha, limpidus. With such a book as one's only +support it was clearly of the highest importance to be good at +etymology; with ouis, for instance, not to be troubled by Priscian's +fanciful derivation from the Greek, but to know that it came from +offero, and was therefore to be found under fero; or again to look for +hirundo under aer. Nor need we be surprised at the strange derivations +upon which arguments were sometimes founded: that Sprenger, the +inquisitor, could explain femina 'quia minorem habet et seruat fidem'; +or the preacher over whom Erasmus' Folly makes merry, find authority +for burning heretics in the Apostle's command 'Haereticum deuita'. + +We are now in a position to understand Balbi's performance in the +_Catholicon_. From the apologetic tone of his preface it is clear that +he felt Huguitio's work to be the really scientific thing, the only +book that a scholar would consult: but evidently experience had shown +the difficulty of using it, and therefore for the weakness of lesser +men like himself he reverted to the sequence of the alphabet. In +cumbering himself with derivations, too, he shows that he knows his +place. He may have had a glimmering that some of them were absurd; and +that Priscian with his reference to the Greek was a safer guide. But +to a scholar brought up on Huguitio derivations were of the first +importance; and to leave them out would have been only another mark of +inferiority. + +Beyond Huguitio we may go back to Papias, a learned Lombard (_fl._ +1051), whose Vocabulary was still in use in the fifteenth century, and +was printed at Milan in 1476. The editions of it are far fewer than +those of the _Catholicon_; a fact which presumably points to the +superiority of the later work. Papias also used the alphabetical +principle; and his lengthy explanation of it, which lacks, however, +the lucidity of Balbi's, probably implies that his predecessors had +adopted the etymological arrangement by derivations, or the divisions +of Isidore according to subjects. In a few cases he makes concession +to etymology, by giving derivatives under their root, e.g. under ago +come all the words derived from it: but he has regard to the weak, and +places them also in their right alphabetical position. Not many +derivations are given; but one of them is well known. Lucus is defined +as 'locus amenus, vbi multae arbores sunt. Lucus dictus [Greek: kata +antiphrasin] quia caret luce pro nimia arborum vmbra; vel a colocando +crebris luminibus (_aliter_ uiminibus), siue a luce, quod in eo +lucebant funalia propter nemorum tenebras.' This in the hands of Balbi +becomes 'per contrarium lucus dicitur a lucendo', or, as we say +popularly, 'lucus a non lucendo.' December, again, is derived from +decem and imbres 'quibus abundare solet'; and so too the other +numbered months. + +It is noticeable that Papias has some knowledge of Greek, for +derivations in Greek letters occur, e.g. 'Acrocerauni: montes propter +altitudinem & fulminum iactus dicti. Graece enim fulmen [Greek: +keraunos] ceraunos dicitur, et acra [Greek: akra] sumitas'; and a +great many Greek and Hebrew words are given transliterated into Latin, +ballein, fagein, Ennosigaeus. Like Balbi, Papias travels outside the +limits of a mere dictionary, and his interests are not restricted to +theology. Aetas draws him into an account of the various ages of the +world, regnum into a view of its kingdoms. Carmen provokes 7 columns, +3½ folio pages, on metres; lapis 2 columns on precious stones. Italy +receives 2 columns, and ¾ of a column are given to St. Paul. +Contrariwise there is often great brevity in his interpretations: +'Samium locus est', 'heroici antiqui', 'mederi curare'. His treatment +of miraculum is interesting; 'A miracle is to raise the dead to life; +but it is a wonder (mirabile) for a fire to be kindled in the water, +or for a man to move his ears.' The next heading is mirabilia, for +which his examples are taken from the ends of the earth. He begins: +'Listen. Among the Garamantes is a spring so cold by day that you +cannot drink it, so hot at night that you cannot put your finger into +it.' A fig-tree in Egypt, apples of Sodom, the non-deciduous trees of +an island in India--these are the other travellers' tales which serve +him for wonders. + +The alphabetical method did not hold its own without struggle. It +prevailed in Robert Stephanus' Latin _Thesaurus_ (1532), the most +considerable work of its kind that had been compiled since the +invention of printing; but Dolet's Commentaries on the Latin Tongue +(1536), are practically a reversion to the arrangement by roots. Henry +Stephanus' Greek _Thesaurus_ (1572) and Scapula's well-known +abridgement of it (1579) are both radical; and as late as the +seventeenth century this method was employed in the first Dictionary +of the French Academy, which was designed in 1638 but not published +till 1694. That, however, was its last appearance. The preface to the +Academy's second Dictionary (1700 and 1718), after comparing the two +methods, says: 'The arrangement by roots is the most scientific, and +the most instructive to the student; but it is not suited to the +impatience of the French people, and so the Academy has felt obliged +to abandon it.'[11] The ordinary user of dictionaries to-day would be +surprised at being called impatient for expecting the words to be put +in alphabetical order. + + [11] Cf. R.C. Christie, _Étienne Dolet_, ch. xi. + +In mediaeval times there was one very real obstacle to the use of the +alphabetical method, and that was the uncertainty of spelling. Both +Papias and Balbi allude to it in their prefaces; but it did not deter +them from their enterprise. Even in the days of printing language +takes a long time to crystallize down into accepted forms, correct and +incorrect. You may see Dutchess with a t at Blenheim, well within the +eighteenth century, and forgo has only recently decided to give up its +e. In the days of manuscripts men spelt pretty much as they pleased, +making very free even with their own names; and uncritical copyists, +caring only to reproduce the word, and not troubling about the exact +orthography of their original, did nothing to check the ever-growing +variety. Such licence was agreeable for the imaginative, but it made +despairing work for the compilers of dictionaries. Some of their +difficulties may be given as examples. In the early days of minuscule +writing, when writing-material was still scarce, to save space it was +common to write the letter e with a reversed cedilla beneath it to +denote the diphthongs -ae and -oe. In the Middle Ages the cedilla was +commonly dropped, leaving the e plain; and so mostly it remained until +the sixteenth century revived the diphthong, or at least the two +double letters. + +At all periods down to 1600, some hands are found in which it is +impossible to distinguish between c and t; and hence in mediaeval +times, and even later, such forms as fatio, loto, pecieris, licterae +are not infrequently found for facio, loco, petieris, litterae. An +extreme example of the confusion which this variability must have +caused is in the case of the fourteenth-century annalist, Nicholas +Trivet, whose surname sometimes appears as Cerseth or Chereth. + +The doubling of consonants, too, was often a matter of doubt, and the +Middle Ages, possibly again for reasons of space, used many words with +single consonants instead of two--difficilimus, Salustius, consumare, +comodum, opidum, fuise. The letter h was the source of infinite +trouble. Sometimes it was surprisingly omitted, as in actenus, irundo, +Oratius, ortus--in the latter cases perhaps under Italian influence; +sometimes it appears unexpectedly, as in Therentius, Theutonia, +Thurcae, Hysidorus, habundare, and even haspirafio; or in abhominor, +where it bolstered up the derivation from homo: or it might change its +place from one consonant to another, as in calchographus, cartha. +Papias found it a great trouble, and indeed was quite muddled with it, +placing hyppocrita, hippomanes among the h's, but hippopedes and +several others under the i's, though without depriving them of initial +h. In France, h between two short i's was considered to need support, +and so we find michi, nichil, occurring quite regularly. The +difficulty of i and y was met by the suppression of the latter; so +that though it sometimes appears unexpectedly, as in hysteria, it is +only treated as i. Between f and ph there was much uncertainty; phas, +phanum, prophanus are well-known forms, or conversely Christofer, +flenbothomari, Flegeton. B and p were often confused, as in babtizare, +plasphemus; and p made its way into such words as ampnis, dampnum, +alumpnus. A triumph of absurd variation is achieved by Alexander +Neckam, who begins a sentence 'Coquinarii quocunt'. + +With the increased learning of the Renaissance these varieties +gradually disappear. The printers, too, rendered good service in +promoting uniformity, each firm having its standard orthography for +doubtful cases, as printers do to-day. The use of e for ae is abundant +in the first books printed North of the Alps; but it steadily +diminishes, and by 1500 has almost vanished. In manuscripts, where it +was easy to forget to add the cedilla, the plain e lasts much longer. +There was also confusion in the reverse direction. Well into the +sixteenth century the cedilla is often found wrongly added to words +such as puer, equus, eruditus, epistola; in 1550 the Froben firm was +still regularly printing aedo, aeditio; and in the index to an edition +of Aquinas, Venice, 1593, aenigma and Aegyptus, spelt in this way, are +only to be found under e. Other forms of error persisted long. To the +end of his life Erasmus usually wrote irito, oportunus; in 1524 he +could still use Oratius. The town of Boppard on the Rhine he styles +indifferently Bobardia or Popardia: just as, much later, editors +described the elder Camerarius of Bamberg as Bapenbergensis in 1583, +as Pabepergensis in 1595. As late as 1540 a little book was printed in +Paris to demonstrate that michi and nichil were incorrect. + +In such a state of flux we need not wonder that the mediaeval writers +of dictionaries found the alphabetical arrangement not the way of +simplification they had hoped, but rather to be full of pitfalls; nor +again that the men of the Renaissance thought the work of their +predecessors so lamentably inadequate. We shall do better to admire in +both cases the brilliance and constancy which could achieve so much +with such imperfect instruments. + +To complete our sketch of the books on which the scholars of the +fifteenth century had to rely we may consider two more. The first is +the great encyclopaedia of Vincent of Beauvais, a Dominican friar +(_c._ 1190-1264). It was printed in 1472-6 by Mentelin at Strasburg, +in six enormous volumes; and no one can properly appreciate the +magnitude of the work who has not tried to lift these volumes about. +Vincent was not the first to attempt this encyclopaedic enterprise, +for his work is based on that of another Frenchman, Helinand, who died +in 1229. In his preface he states that his prior had urged him to +reduce his _Speculum_ to a manual; being doubtless an old man, and +appalled at these colossal fruits of his friar's industry. But this +was too much for the proud author after all his labour. He did, +however, consent to cut it up into portions. The _Speculum naturale_ +gives a description of the world in all its parts, animal and +vegetable and mineral; the _Speculum doctrinale_ taught how to +practise the arts and sciences; the _Speculum historiale_ embraced the +world's history down to 1250; and the _Speculum morale_, which is +perhaps not by Vincent, found room for the philosophies. + +But few libraries can have possessed this work in full. Our other book +was much more compassable and more widely circulated. Its author was a +certain Johannes Marchesinus, of whom so little is known that his date +has been put both at 1300 and at 1466. Even the title of the book was +uncertain. Marchesinus names it Mammotrectus or Mammetractus, which he +explains as 'led by a pedagogue'; but a current form of the name was +Mammothreptus, which was interpreted as 'brought up by one's +grandmother'. The book consists of a commentary on the whole Bible, +chapter by chapter; and also upon the _Legenda Sanctorum_, upon +various sermons and homilies, responses, antiphons, and hymns, with +notes on the Hebrew months, ecclesiastical vestments, and other +subjects likely to be useful to students in the Church, especial +emphasis being laid on pronunciation and quantity. It was intended, +Marchesinus tells us in his preface, for the use of the poor clergy, +to aid them in writing sermons and in reading difficult Hebrew names; +and from the sympathy with which he enters into their troubles, it +seems clear that he knew them from personal experience. + +From its scope the book might be expected to be as large as Vincent's +_Speculum_, but in fact it can be printed in a quarto volume. It was +not intended to compete with the great commentaries of Peter the +Lombard, or Nicholas Lyra, or Hugh of St. Victor, which fill many +folios. It was to be within reach of the poor parish priest, and so +must not be costly. But the surprising part of the book is its +triviality. With so little space available, one would have expected to +find nothing admitted that was not important: but the fact is that it +has nothing which is not elementary. There is nothing historical, +nothing theological, only a few simple points of grammar and quantity. +For example, in the story of Deborah, Judges iv, the commentary runs +as follows: + + 2. Sisara: middle syllable short. + + 4. Debbora: middle syllable short. Prophetes masc., Prophetis + fem.; meaning, propheta. + + 10. Accersitis: last syllable but one long; meaning, vocatis. + + 15. Perterreo, perterres; meaning, in pauorem conuertere. + Active. + + 17. Cinci (the Kenites): middle syllable long. + + 15. Desilio, desilis, desilii or desiliui: middle syllable + short in trisyllables in the present; meaning, de aliquo salire + siue descendere festinanter. + + 21. clauus, masc., claui: meaning, acutum ferrum, malleus, + masc., mallei: meaning, martellus. + + tempus, neut.: meaning, pars capitis, for which some people say + timpus. + +For Daniel vi, the story of Daniel in the lions' den, the commentary +is even briefer: + + 6. surripuerunt: meaning, falso suggesserunt. Surripio, + surripis, surrepsi(!): meaning, latenter rapere, subtrahere, + furari. + + 10. comperisset; meaning, cognouisset. Comperio, comperis, + comperi: fourth conjugation. + + 20. affatus: meaning, allocutus. From affor, affaris; and + governs the accusative. + +We must not exalt ourselves above the author. He is very humble. 'Let +any imperfections in the book', says his preface, 'be attributed to +me: and if there is anything good, let it be thought to have come from +God.' He gave them of his best, explaining away such as he could of +the difficulties which had confronted him. But one can imagine the +disgust of even a moderate scholar if, wishing to study the Bible more +carefully, he could obtain access to nothing better than +Mammotrectus. + +Though Erasmus has not much to tell us of his time at Deventer, a +fuller account of the school may be found in the autobiography of John +Butzbach (_c._ 1478-1526), who for the last nineteen years of his life +was Prior of Laach.[12] Indeed, his narrative is so detailed and so +illustrative of the age that it may well detain us here. He was the +son of a weaver in the town of Miltenberg (hence Piemontanus) on the +Maine, above Aschaffenburg. At the age of six he was put to school and +already began to learn Latin; one of his nightly exercises that he +brought home with him being to get by heart a number of Latin words +for vocabulary. After a few years he came into trouble with his master +for laziness and truancy, and received a severe beating; his mother +intervened and got the master dismissed from his post, and Butzbach +was removed from the school. + + [12] Butzbach's manuscripts from Laach are now in the + University Library at Bonn, but have never been printed. + I have used a German translation by D.J. Becker, Regensburg, + 1869. + +An opportunity then offered for him to get a wider education. The son +of a neighbour who had commenced scholar, returned home for a time, +and offered to take Butzbach with him when he went off again to pursue +his courses for his degree. The consent of his parents was obtained; +and the scholar having received a liberal contribution towards +expenses, and Butzbach being equipped with new clothes, the pair set +out together. The boy was now ten, and looked forward hopefully to the +future; but the scholar quickly showed himself in his true colours. +He treated Butzbach as a fag, made him trudge behind carrying the +larger share of their bundles, and when they came to an inn feasted +royally himself off the money given to him for the boy, leaving him to +the charity of the innkeepers. At the end of two months the money was +spent, and they had found no place of settlement. Henceforward +Butzbach was set to beg, going from house to house in the villages +they passed, asking for food; and when this failed to produce enough, +he was required to steal. The scholar treated him shamefully and beat +him often; and as it was a well-known practice for fags, when begging, +to eat up delicacies at once, instead of bringing them in, Butzbach +was sometimes subjected to the regular test, being required to fill +his mouth with water and then spit it out into a basin for his master +to examine whether there were traces of fat. + +The scholar's aim was to find some school, having attached to it a +Bursa or hostel, in which they could obtain quarters; apparently he +was not yet qualified for a university. They made their way to +Bamberg, but there was no room for them in the Bursa. So on they went +into Bohemia, where at the town of Kaaden the rector of the school was +able to allot them a room--just a bare, unfurnished chamber, in which +they were permitted to settle. Such teaching as Butzbach received was +spasmodic and ineffectual, and after two years of this bondage he ran +away. For the next five years he was in Bohemia in private service, +longing for home, hating his durance among the heathen, as he called +the Bohemians for following John Hus, but lacking courage to make his +escape from masters who could send horsemen to scour the countryside +for fugitive servants and string them up to trees when caught. +However, at length the opportunity came, and after varying fortunes, +Butzbach made his way home to Miltenberg, to find his father dead and +his mother married again. + +For the substantial accuracy of Butzbach's narrative his character is +sufficient warranty. He was a pious, honest man, and at the time when +he wrote his autobiography at the request of his half-brother Philip, +he was already a monk at Laach. But the picture of a young student's +sufferings under an elder's cruelty can be paralleled with surprising +closeness from the autobiography of Thomas Platter, mentioned above; +the wandering from one school to another, the maltreatment, the +begging, the enforced stealing, all these are reproduced with just the +difference of surroundings. + +Platter's account of his life at Breslau is worth quoting. 'I was ill +three times in one winter, so that they were obliged to bring me into +the hospital; for the travelling scholars had a particular hospital +and physicians for themselves. Care was taken of the patients, and +they had good beds, only the vermin were so abundant that, like many +others, I lay much rather upon the floor than in the beds. Through the +winter the fags lay upon the floor in the school, but the Bacchants in +small chambers, of which at St. Elizabeth's there were several +hundreds. But in summer, when it was hot, we lay in the church-yard, +collected together grass such as is spread in summer on Saturdays in +the gentlemen's streets before the doors, and lay in it like pigs in +the straw. When it rained, we ran into the school, and when there was +thunder, we sang the whole night with the Subcantor, responses and +other sacred music. Now and then after supper in summer we went into +the beerhouses to beg for beer. The drunken Polish peasants would give +us so much that I often could not find my way to the school again, +though only a stone's throw from it.' Platter wrote his autobiography +at the age of 73, when his memories of his youth must have been +growing dim; but though on this account we must not press him in +details, his main outlines are doubtless correct. + +On his return, Butzbach was apprenticed to Aschaffenburg, to learn the +trade of tailoring; and having mastered this, he procured for himself, +in 1496, the position of a lay-brother in the Benedictine Abbey of +Johannisberg in the Rheingau, opposite Bingen. His duties were +manifold. Besides doing the tailoring of the community, he was +expected to make himself generally useful: to carry water and fetch +supplies, to look after guests, to attend the Abbot when he rode +abroad (on one occasion he was thrown thus into the company of Abbot +Trithemius of Sponheim, whose work on the Ecclesiastical writers of +his time he afterwards attempted to carry on), to help in the hay +harvest, and in gathering the grapes. Before a year was out he grew +tired of these humble duties, and bethought him anew of his father's +wish that he should become a professed monk. He had omens too. One +morning his father appeared to him as he was dressing, and smiled upon +him. Another day he was sitting at his work and talking about his wish +with an old monk who was sick and under his care. On the wall in front +of his table he had fastened a piece of bread, to be a reminder of the +host and of Christ's sufferings. Suddenly this fell to the ground. The +old man started up from his place by the stove, and steadying his +tottering limbs cried out aloud that this was a sign that the wish was +granted. He had the reputation among his fellows of being a prophet +and had foretold the day of his own death. Butzbach accepted the omen, +and obtained leave to go to school again. + +His choice was Deventer. One of the brethren wrote him an elegant +letter to Hegius applying for admission; and though, as he says, he +answered no questions in his entrance examination (which appears to +have been oral), on the strength of the letter he was admitted and +placed in the seventh class, a young man of twenty amongst the little +boys who were making a beginning at grammar. But he had no means of +support except occasional jobs of tailor's work, and hunger drove him +back to Johannisberg. There he might have continued, had not a chance +meeting with his mother, when he had ridden over to Frankfort with the +Abbot, given him a new spur. She could not bear to think of his +remaining a Lollhard, that is a lay-brother, all his days; and +pressing money privily into his hands, she besought the Abbot to let +him return to Deventer. In August 1498 he was there again, was +examined by Hegius, and was placed this time in the lowest class, the +eighth, in company with a number of stolid louts, who had fled to +school to escape being forced to serve as soldiers. There was reason +in their fears. The Duke of Gueldres was at war with the Bishop of +Utrecht. A hundred prisoners had been executed in the three days +before Butzbach's return, and as he strode into Deventer to take up +his books again, he may have seen their scarce-cold bodies swinging on +gibbets against the summer sunset. The schoolboy of to-day works in +happier surroundings. + +Butzbach's career henceforward was fortunate. He was taken up by a +good and pious woman, Gutta Kortenhorff, who without regular vows had +devoted herself to a life of abstinence and self-sacrifice; taking +special pleasure in helping young men who were preparing for the +Franciscan or the reformed Benedictine Orders. For nine months +Butzbach lived in her house, doubtless out of gratitude rendering such +service as he could to his kind patroness. From the eighth class he +passed direct into the sixth, and at Easter 1499 he was promoted into +the fifth. This entitled him to admission to the Domus Pauperum +maintained by the Brethren of the Common Life for boys who were +intending to become monks; and so he transferred himself thither for +the remainder of his course. But he suffered much from illness, and +five several times made up his mind to give up and return home--once +indeed this was only averted by a swelling of his feet, which for a +prolonged period made it impossible for him to walk. After six months +in the fifth, and a year in the fourth class, he was moved up into the +third, thus traversing in little over two years what had occupied +Erasmus for something like nine. + +Butzbach was by temperament inclined to glorify the past; in the +present he himself had a share, and therefore in his humility he +thought little of it. In consequence we must not take him too +literally in his account of the condition of the school; but it is too +interesting to pass over. 'In the old days', he says, 'Deventer was a +nursery for the Reformed Orders; they drew better boys, more suited to +religion, out of the fifth class, than they do now out of the second +or first, although now much better authors are read there. Formerly +there was nothing but the Parables of Alan <of Lille, _fl._ 1200>, the +moral distichs of Cato, Aesop's Fables, and a few others, whom the +moderns despise; but the boys worked hard, and made their own way over +difficulties. Now when even in small schools the choicest authors are +read, ancient and modern, prose and poetry, there is not the same +profit; for virtue and industry are declining. With the decay of that +school, religion also is decaying, especially in our Order, which drew +so many good men from there. And yet it is not a hundred years since +our reformation.' + +He does not indicate how far back he was turning his regretful gaze; +whether to the early years of the fifteenth century when Nicholas of +Cues was a scholar at Deventer, or to the more recent times of +Erasmus, who was about three school-generations ahead of him. But of +the books used there in the last quarter of the fifteenth century we +can form a clear notion from the productions of the Deventer printers, +Richard Paffraet and Jacobus of Breda. School-books then as now were +profitable undertakings, if printed cheap enough for the needy +student; and Paffraet, with Hegius living in his house, must have had +plenty of opportunities for anticipating the school's requirements. +Between 1477 and 1499 he printed Virgil's Eclogues, Cicero's _De +Senectute_ and _De Amicitia_, Horace's _Ars Poetica_, the _Axiochus_ +in Agricola's translation, Cyprian's Epistles, Prudentius' poems, +Juvencus' _Historia Euangelica_, and the _Legenda Aurea_: also the +grammar of Alexander with the commentary of Synthius and Hegius, +Agostino Dato's _Ars scribendi epistolas_, Aesop's Fables, and the +_Dialogus Creaturarum_, the latter two being moralized in a way which +must surely have pleased Butzbach. Jacobus of Breda, who began +printing at Deventer in 1486, produced Virgil's Eclogues, Cicero's _De +Senectute_ and _De Officiis_, Boethius' _De consolatione philosophiae_ +and _De disciplina scholarium_, Aesop, a poem by Baptista Mantuanus, +the 'Christian Virgil', Alan of Lille's _Parabolae_, Alexander, two +grammatical treatises by Synthius and the _Epistola mythologica_ of +Bartholomew of Cologne. + +This last, as being the work of a master in the school, deserves +attention; and also for its intrinsic interest. As its title implies, +it is cast in the form of a letter, addressed to a friend Pancratius; +and it is dated from Deventer 10 July 1489--nine years before Butzbach +entered the school. It opens with the customary apologies, and after +some ordinary topics the writer, Bartholomew, says that he is sending +back some books borrowed from Pancratius, including a Sidonius which +he has had on loan for three years. At this point there is a +transformation. Sidonius is personified and becomes the centre of a +series of semi-comic incidents, which afford an opportunity for +introducing various words for the common objects of everyday life; and +a glossary explains many of these with precision. There is a long and +vivid account of the waking of Sidonius from his three years' slumber. +The door has to be broken open, and Sidonius is found lying to all +appearances dead. A feather burnt under his nose produces slight signs +of life; and when a good beating with the bar of the door is +threatened, he at length rouses himself. Servants come in, and their +different duties are described. They fall to quarrelling and become +uproarious; and in the scuffle Sidonius is hurt. A lotion is prepared +for his bruises, and he is offered diet suitable for an invalid: +boiled sturgeon, washed down with wine or beer, the latter being from +Bremen or Hamburg. + +Afterwards the room is cleared up, and thus an opportunity is given to +describe it. Then a table is spread for the rest of the party, and +the various requisites are specified--tablecloth and napkins, pewter +plates, earthenware mugs, a salt-cellar and two brass stands for the +dishes. Bread is put round to each place, chairs are brought up with +cushions; and jugs of wine and beer placed in the centre of the table. +Finally a basin is brought with ewer and towel for the guests to wash +their hands, and as one o'clock strikes, dinner appears, and all sit +down together, including the servants. After the meal a dice-box and +board are produced; but one of the guests demurs, and it is put aside. +In the conversation that ensues it is arranged that Sidonius shall go +back to his master next morning after breakfast. The servant who is to +accompany him asks that they may go in a carriage; but this is +overruled, because of a recent accident in which one had been upset, +and it is determined that a Spanish palfrey of easy paces shall be +provided for Sidonius. At six supper is served; and then the curtain +falls, the letter relapsing into normal matters--inquiries for a +Euclid, regrets at being unable to send to Pancratius Hyginus and the +_Astronomica_ of Manilius. + +It is clear that the object of the book, which is of no great length, +was to give boys correct Latin words for the material objects of their +daily life: something like Bekker's _Gallus_ and _Charicles_ on a +small scale. In carrying out this idea Bartholomew of Cologne has +provided us with a sketch of the world that he knew. + + + + +III + +MONASTERIES + + +Erasmus was not fitted for the monastic life. This is not to say that +he was a bad man. Few men outside the ranks of the holy have worked +harder or made greater sacrifices to do God service. But his was a +free spirit. His work could only be done in his own way; and to live +according to another's rule fretted him beyond endurance. His +experience in the matter was not fortunate. In 1483 his mother died of +plague at Deventer, whither she had accompanied him. His father +recalled him next year to Gouda, but died soon afterwards; and his +guardians then sent him with his elder brother to a school kept by the +Brethren of the Common Life at Hertogenbosch--doubtless to a Domus +Pauperum for intending monks, such as Butzbach entered at Deventer; +for in this connexion Erasmus describes the schools of the Brethren as +seminaries for the regular orders. After two years they returned to +Gouda, and Erasmus begged to be sent to a university; but no means +were forthcoming, and the guardian prevailed upon the elder brother +Peter to enter the monastery of Sion, near Delft. Erasmus held out for +some time; but he was without resources and the influences at work +upon him were strong. One day he fell in with a school-friend, +Cornelius of Woerden, who had recently entered the house of +Augustinian canons at Steyn, near Gouda. In his loneliness any friend +was welcome. He paid visits to Steyn and saw that the life there +offered leisure and even possibilities of study; Cornelius, too, +seemed inclined to be a ready companion in literary pursuits. Urged by +his guardian, invited by his friend, he gave way at length to the +double pressure and entered Steyn. + +After a novitiate of a year, during which life was made easy to him, +he took his canonical vows; and soon began to repent of the step he +had made. For about seven years he lived in what seemed to him a +prison. There were, no doubt, good men amongst his fellow-canons. In +all his diatribes against monasticism he was ready to admit that the +Orders contained plenty of God-fearing souls, doing their duty +honestly; and the evidence shows clearly enough that this was correct. +It is, however, equally true that there were mediocrities among them, +and even worse; men with low standards and no ideals, who brought +their fellows to shame. Vows in those days were indissoluble, except +in rare cases; as a rule it was only by flight and disappearance for +ever that a man could escape social disgrace and the penalties +threatened by the spiritual arm to a renegade monk. To-day, when +orders can be laid down at the holder's will, the Church of England +contains priests of whom it cannot get rid. + +The good, even when they rule, do not always lead; nor are they always +learned. Erasmus found the atmosphere of Steyn hopelessly distasteful. +It was not that he was prevented from study. His compositions of this +period show a wide acquaintance with the classics and the Fathers; and +his style, though it had not yet attained to the ease and lucidity of +his later years, has much of the elegance beyond which his +contemporaries never advanced. The fact, too, that he left Steyn to +become Latin Secretary to a powerful bishop implies that he must have +had many opportunities for study and have made good use of them. But +from what he says it is clear that the tone of the place was set by +the mediocrities. We need not suppose that vice was rampant among +them, to shock the young and enthusiastic scholar. There was quite +enough to daunt him in the prospect of a life spent among the +narrow-minded. Sinners who feel waves of repentance may be better +house-mates than those who have worldly credit enough to make them +self-satisfied. + +Fortunately all houses of religion were not alike, any more than +colleges are alike to-day. Butzbach's lot was very different; and it +is a pleasant contrast to turn to his experiences at Laach, an +important Benedictine abbey some miles west of Andernach. In the +autumn of 1500, when he had been two years at Deventer, there appeared +one day in the school the Steward of the Abbey of Niederwerth, an +island in the Rhine below Coblenz. What the business was which had +brought him from his own monastery, is not stated; but he had also +been asked to do some recruiting for the Benedictines at Laach. The +Abbot there was nephew of the Prior at Niederwerth, and had taken +this opportunity to extend his quest further afield. The Steward +brought with him letters from the Abbot to the Rector of Deventer, now +Ostendorp, and also to the Brethren of the Common Life, asking for +some good and well-educated young men. The Rector's first appeal +evoked no response; so the Steward went on about his business. After +three weeks he returned, having visited other schools, but bringing no +one with him. Once more Ostendorp addressed the third and fourth +classes in impressive words. But all seemed in vain. The students had +paid their school fees for the half-year, and were ashamed to ask for +them back from the Rector and other teachers--into whose pockets they +appear to have gone direct. Their money paid for board and lodging +would have been sacrificed also. It happened, too, to be exceptionally +cold--not the weather in which any one would lightly set out on a +journey. We must remember that the calendar had not yet been +rectified, and that they were about ten days nearer to midwinter than +their dates show. + +On occasions the whole school came together to hear the Rector--it was +at such times, Erasmus tells us, that he heard Hegius. At one of these +gatherings during the Steward's second visit Butzbach was sitting next +to two friends from his own part of the world, Peter of Spires and +Paul of Kitzingen. They were above him in the school, having passed +their entrance examination before the Rector with such credit that +they were placed at once in the third class--a rare distinction--and +Paul indeed at the end of his first half-year had come out top and +passed into the second. The friends talked together of the life of the +cloister, of the happiness of study amid the practice of holiness and +in the presence of God. At the end Peter and Butzbach sought out the +Steward and gave him their names: Paul, the brilliant leader of the +trio, remained behind in the world, and became a professor at Cologne. + +Butzbach said farewell to the masters who had taught him, and to his +various benefactors in the town, all of whom applauded his decision. +On St. Barbara's Day, 4 Dec. 1500, the party set out, and were +accompanied out of the town by students who swarmed about them like +bees; Butzbach, when they at length took leave, urging them to follow +his example. Two days later they were at Emmerich, and after crossing +the Rhine on the ice, so bitter was the frost, they were overtaken by +the night at a convent and sought shelter. It proved to be a house of +Brigittines, with separate orders of men and women. One of the party, +a priest from Deventer, had a kinswoman among the nuns, but was not +allowed to see her. On 8 December the feast of the Conception of the +Virgin, as they passed through a village, the two priests asked leave +to say a mass for themselves in the parish church; and only with +difficulty obtained it from the pfarrer in charge, so great was the +jealousy between seculars and regulars. At night they found +hospitality in a Benedictine house at Neuss, where Butzbach notes the +peculiarity--which he discusses at length but is quite unable to +explain--that no one could be accepted as a monk with the name of +Peter. + +Next day the party was obliged to divide. Peter of Spires, who from +the first had been ailing and easily tired, was suffering acute pain +from a sore on his finger; so Butzbach remained behind with him in a +village, while the others went on to Cologne. After twenty-four hours +the sufferer was no better; and as sleep for either of them seemed +impossible, they arose at midnight, hired a cart, and journeying under +the stars, arrived at Cologne just as the gates were being opened. +They rejoined their friends, and the whole party was entertained in +the house of a rich widow, whose son, recently dead, had been a monk +at Niederwerth. + +The Steward had business at Cologne; so for two days the young men +were free to wander about the town, looking into the churches and +worried by the schoolboy tricks of the university students. Three days +journeying brought them late at night and dead tired to Niederwerth. +The aged Prior--he had been sixty years in the monastery--on learning +their destination showed them great courtesy and kindness; and when +they had supped, insisted, despite all their protests, on washing +their feet himself. Next day he showed them over the monastery, took +them into the rooms where the brethren were at work, and explained +what each of them had to do: 'just as though we were his equals,' says +Butzbach, on whom his modesty and friendliness made a deep impression. +Indeed, his conversation greatly strengthened them in their +determination to enter the religious life; although he did not conceal +from them the temptations which they might expect, from the Devil. + +On 17 December he gave them leave to proceed, and sent one of the +monastery servants and a lay-brother to escort them. Their way lay +through Coblenz; and Peter as a weaker vessel was sent on, to go +slowly ahead with the lay-brother, whilst the servant and Butzbach +stopped in the town to execute some commissions. But they had +under-estimated Peter's weakness. After a midday meal the second pair +set out briskly, in the comfortable reflection that the others were +already part-way to Laach. To their disgust as they crossed the bridge +over the Moselle, they found Peter and his companion lolling outside +an inn, unable to talk properly or to stand upright. The Prior's +warning against the Devil had been speedily justified. Peter had been +tempted to spend his last day of freedom in a carouse, and every penny +he possessed had gone over a fine dinner and costly wines. + +To Butzbach this was the more serious, because he had given his purse +to Peter to carry, and all that had gone too. Johannisberg still had +strong ties for him. He had found peace there and made friends, and it +was near his home. Many times, at silent moments as he journeyed along +from Deventer, it had come into his head to wonder whether Laach too +could give him peace, whether he could settle so far off. Now, if the +old ties should be too strong to resist, thanks to Peter, he would +have to set out on his way penniless. + +Sharp words brought the offenders to some measure of their senses; but +it was a dismal party that splashed along the muddy roads that +December afternoon. Evening brought them to Saffig, and hospitable +reception in the house of George von Leyen, brother of the Prior of +Niederwerth and father of the Abbot to whom they were going; and the +parents' praises of their son's goodness and kindness were comforting +to hear. Ten miles next morning brought them to Laach; and when they +came over the hill, and saw the great abbey with its towers and dome +beside the lake, which even in winter could smile amid its woods, +Butzbach felt that in all his travels he had seen no sight more +lovely. Their guide led them straight into the church, and as +Butzbach's eye glanced along the plain Romanesque columns, past the +gorgeous tomb of the founder, to the dim splendours of the choir, the +words of the familiar Psalm rose to his lips: 'Haec requies mea in +saeculum saeculi; hic habitabo, quoniam elegi eam.' Peace had come to +him at once, and he received it. + +After a generous meal in the refectory they were brought in to the +tall, dignified Abbot; and while they stood before him answering his +questions, they felt that he had not been praised more highly than was +his due. Abbot and Prior took them round the monastery; the latter a +busy little man in whom they could hardly recognize so exalted a +dignitary. At the back they found the brethren busy with the week's +washing. All crowded round them, full of questions and congratulations +and pleasant laughter. For three days they were lodged in the +guest-chambers, and then the Prior asked them whether they stood firm +in their wish to enter the Order. On their assent he expounded to them +the severities of the life, the self-abnegation that would be required +of them, bidding them consider whether they could face it; at the same +time instructing them in all the customs and practices of the house. +The dress was put upon them, they were led into the convent and cells +allotted to them; and told that till St. Benedict's Day (21 March) +they would be on probation. Before the day came Peter's spirit +faltered, and he went. But his weakness was not for long. He repented +and found his peace in a Cistercian house near Worms; and Butzbach's +sympathy went with him, back to the Upper Germany which both loved. + +The time of probation was hard to Butzbach; not because of the life, +which the good Prior tempered to his tenderness, but through the +temptations of the Devil, who seemed ever present with him. He was +specially tormented with the thought of Johannisberg, and the feeling +that he had deserted it. But the wise heads in charge of him gave +comfort and stablishment; and he persevered. On the Founder's Day, +1501, he entered upon the novitiate, which was followed a year later +by his profession; and in 1503 he was sent to Trèves and ordained +priest. + +In the course of his numerous writings Butzbach gives sketches of +many of the inmates of Laach. The senior brother at the time of his +arrival was Jacob of Breden in Westphalia, a man of strong character +and force of will. As a boy, when at school at Cleves, he was laughed +at for his provincial accent; and therefore determined henceforward to +speak nothing but Latin, with the result that he acquired a complete +mastery of it. He had at first joined the Brethren of the Common Life +at Zwolle, then became a Benedictine in St. Martin's at Cologne, and +came to Laach to introduce the Bursfeld reforms. So tender-hearted was +he that he would not kill even the insects which worried him, but +would catch them and throw them out of window. John of Andernach is +mentioned as having appeared to the brethren after his death; and he +and Godfrey of Cologne are praised for their skill in astronomy. We +hear of various activities among the monks. One is good at writing, +another at dictating and correcting, another has taste in painting +flowers and illuminating. Henry of Coblenz combined the offices of +precentor, master of the robes, gardener, glazier and barber; and also +unofficial counsellor to the young, who frequently turned to him for +sympathy. Antony of St. Hubert, besides the care of the refectory, was +bee-master and hive-maker; and a great preacher in German, though he +had come to Laach knowing only his native French. At the end of the +list came the lay-brothers and the pensioners (donati), one of whom +was nearly 100. + +Shortly after his ordination Butzbach was appointed master of the +novices, to superintend their education--which included learning the +Psalter by heart--until the time of their profession. He protested his +unfitness, but the Abbot held him to it nevertheless. The standard of +his pupils was low: many of them, though they came as Bachelors and +Masters of Arts from the universities, he judged not so good as boys +in the sixth form at Deventer. But he found lecturing in Latin +difficult; and so to make up his deficiencies he set himself to read +all the Latin classics and Fathers that he could find. One day two +young kinsmen of the Abbot were at dinner. They had been at Deventer +and then at Paris, and were full of their studies. Butzbach as +novice-master represented the humanities, and was called upon for a +poem. Readiness was not his strong point; as a preacher he never could +overcome his nervousness. He asked leave to retire to his cell, and +there in solitude wrung out some verses of compliment; which found +such favour that, to his regret, he was often called upon again. + +In 1507, when only thirty, he was made Prior, and thus became +responsible for much of the management of the abbey. In spite of this +he kept up his studies; but only at the cost of great physical +efforts, robbing himself of sleep and working through long hours of +the night. To this period, 1507-9, belongs his most considerable +undertaking, an _Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_, which had +its origin in his admiration for Trithemius. In his Johannisberg days, +as we have seen, he had met the great historian-abbot, though in a +humble capacity. His own Abbot shared with Trithemius the duty of +making the triennial visitations of the Benedictine houses in that +district; and Butzbach, as the Abbot's servant, often rode with them. +Trithemius noticed the young lay-brother who seemed so interested in +study, and occasionally gave him a word of encouragement. Indeed it +was the story of Trithemius' life--repeated with wonder by many +lips--which had spurred Butzbach on to go to Deventer: how as a boy he +had worked with his stepfather in the mill at Trittenheim, and at +twenty-one was still labouring with his hands. One day he was carting +material for a new pilgrimage-church on the hill, when the call came +to him. He returned home, put up his horse and wagon, and without a +word to any one walked off to Niederwesel to begin learning grammar +amongst the little boys; and yet in a short time he had risen to be +Abbot, and had won a wide reputation. + +At Laach Butzbach for the first time set eyes on Trithemius' works. +One of these was a _Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_, printed by +John Amorbach at Basle in 1494--a sort of theological _Who's Who_, +giving the names of authors ancient and modern with lists of their +writings. Butzbach continued it with an _Auctarium_, into which he +hooked almost every writer he could find, whether ecclesiastical or +not. It is a large book, still remaining in manuscript at Bonn, as it +was written out for him by two very inefficient novices. The date of +its composition is abundantly indicated by the notes with which he +terminates his notices of living authors: 'Viuit adhuc anno quo hec +scribimus 158' or 159.[13] Such a compilation, in so far as it deals +with contemporary writers, might have had considerable value; but +unfortunately, like some of Trithemius' work, it is an uncritical +performance and contains ridiculous blunders, which impair the credit +of its statements when they cannot be checked. Industry and devotion +to learning are not the sole qualifications for a scholar. + + [13] = 1509. By a reverse process Bruno Amorbach writes 10507 + for 1507. + +But it was not altogether a happy time for Butzbach, even though he +was honoured by correspondence with Trithemius. There were few among +the monks who actually sympathized with his studies; and from a +certain section they brought him actual persecution. When, as Prior, +he emphasized before the brethren the section in Benedict's rule which +enjoins to study, they mocked at him. 'No learning, no doubts' said +one. 'Much learning doth make thee mad' said another. 'Knowledge +puffeth up' said a third; and heeded not his gentle reply, 'but love +edifieth'. They protested against his allowing the novices to read +Latin poetry. They appealed to the Visitor and got the supplies of +money for the library cut off; even what he earned himself by saying +masses for the dead was no longer allowed to be appropriated to him +for the purchase of books. Finally when the visitation came round in +1509, they delated him for spending too much time on writing, to the +neglect of the business of the monastery. But here they overreached +themselves. The Visitors called for his books, opened them and saw +that they were good--possibly they found their own names among the +ecclesiastical writers. The Prior was acquitted, and the mouths of his +enemies were stopped. + +One cause of dissension in monasteries at this period was the +existence of an unreformed element among the monks; though in +Butzbach's time it had probably disappeared at Laach. Ever since the +Oriental practice of monasticism spread into the West, Christendom has +seen a continual series of endeavours towards better and purer ideals +of human life. Of all the monastic orders the Benedictine (520) was +the oldest and the most widely spread. But time had relaxed the +strictness of its observance; and indeed some of the younger orders, +such as the Cluniac (910) and the Cistercian (1098), had their origins +in efforts after a more godly life than what was then offered under +the Benedictine rule, the strictness of which they sought to restore. +In the fifteenth century reform of the monasteries was once more in +the air.[14] In 1422 a chapter of the Benedictine houses in the +provinces of Trèves and Cologne met at Trèves to discuss the question, +which had been raised again at the Council of Constance, and to +consider various schemes. The Abbot of St. Matthias' at Trèves, John +Rode, learning of the stricter code practised in St. James' at Liège +since the thirteenth century, introduced it into his house; borrowing +four monks from St. James' to help him in the process. A few years +later John Dederoth of Minden, Abbot of Bursfeld near Göttingen, after +examining the new practice at Trèves, decided to follow Rode's +example, and carried off four brethren from St. Matthias' to Bursfeld. +His influence led a number of neighbouring Benedictine houses to adopt +the new rule; and very soon a Bursfeld Union or Congregation was +formed of monasteries which had embraced what Butzbach calls 'our +reformation', with annual chapters and triennial visitations. + + [14] At this point and again later about Chezal-Benoît I have + made much use of Dom Berlière's _Mélanges d'histoire + bénédictine_, 3^e série, 1901. + +By the end of the fifteenth century there were more than a hundred +constituents of the Congregation. The usual method of introducing the +new practice was, as Rode and Dederoth had done, to borrow a number of +monks from a house already reformed, who either settled in the new +house or returned home when their work was done. As may be supposed, +the reforms were not everywhere welcomed. A zealous Abbot or Prior +returning with his band of foreigners was often met by opposition and +even forcible resistance. When Jacob of Breden, Butzbach's 'senior +brother', came in 1471 with seven others from St. Martin's at Cologne +to renew a right spirit in Laach, a number of the older monks resented +it, especially when he was made Prior for the purpose. One cannot but +sympathize with them. Jacob was only thirty-two, and it is a delicate +matter setting one's elders in the right way. At length the seniors +became exasperated and took to violence. Not content with belabouring +him in his cell, they attacked him one night with swords, and he only +escaped by leaping out of the dormitory window. The rest of his +company were ejected, and for three years found shelter in St. +Matthias' at Trèves, the parent house of the new rule; and it was not +till 1474 that the Archbishop, with the Pope's permission and the +co-operation of the civil official of the district, forced his way +into Laach and turned out the recalcitrants. + +But this movement for reform was not confined to Germany nor to the +Benedictines. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the house of +Augustinian canons at Windesheim near Zwolle instituted for itself a +new and stricter set of statutes, and soon gathered round it nearly a +hundred houses of both sexes, forming the Windesheim Congregation: +besides which, other monasteries bound themselves into smaller bodies +to observe the new statutes. Thus, for instance, Erasmus' convent at +Steyn was a member of the Chapter of Sion, with only a few others; two +of which were St. Mary's at Sion, near Delft, to which his brother +Peter belonged, and St. Michael's at Hem, near Schoonhoven. The fame +of Windesheim spread into France. In two successive years--1496, +7--parties were invited thence to reform French Benedictine houses. +The first, headed by John Mauburn of Brussels, was brought in by the +Abbot of St. Severinus' at Château-Landon near Fontainebleau. It was +completely successful and Château-Landon was made the head of a new +Chapter: after which Mauburn proceeded to reform the Abbey of Livry, a +few miles to the north-east of Paris. The second mission, though +promoted by influential men in Paris, had less result. St. Victor's, +the Benedictine Abbey which the Bishop of Paris wished to reform, was +one of the most important in his diocese; and its inmates were averse +from the proposed changes. For nine months the mission from Windesheim +sat in Paris, expounding, demonstrating, hoping to persuade. One of +the party, Cornelius Gerard of Gouda, an intimate friend of Erasmus' +youth, enjoyed himself greatly among the manuscripts in the abbey +library; but that was all. In August 1498 they went home, leaving St. +Victor's as they had found it. + +The strenuous endeavours made at this time towards monastic reform +from within may be illustrated from the lives of Guy Jouveneaux +(Juuenalis) and the brothers Fernand. Jouveneaux was a scholar of +eminence and professor in the University of Paris. Charles Fernand was +a native of Bruges, who, in spite of defective eyesight, which made it +necessary for him regularly to employ a reader, had studied in Italy, +had been Rector of Paris University, 1485-6, and had attained to +considerable skill in both classical learning and music. John Fernand, +the younger brother, also excelled in both these branches of study. +Symphorien Champier, the Lyons physician, speaks of him with +Jouveneaux as his teacher in Paris. Charles VIII made him chief +musician of the royal chapel. + +In 1479 Peter du Mas became Abbot of the Benedictine house at Chezal +Benoît, which lay in the forests, ten miles to the South of Bourges. +His first care was to restore the buildings, which had been partially +destroyed during the English wars earlier in the century. When that +was achieved, he set himself to reform the conditions of religious +observance, and for that purpose invited a band of monks from Cluny. +His policy was continued by his successor, Martin Fumeus, 1492-1500, +and a bull was obtained from Alexander VI in 1494 permitting the +foundation of a Congregatio Casalina, which was joined by a large +number of Benedictine houses in the neighbourhood: St. Sulpice, St. +Laurence and St. Menulphus at Bourges, St. Vincent at Le Mans, St. +Martin at Séez, St. Mary's at Nevers, and even by more distant +foundations, St. Peter's at Lyons and the great Abbey of St. Germain +des Prés at Paris. One point of the new practice, that Abbots should +be elected for only three years at a time, struck at the prevailing +abuse by which members of powerful families, non-resident and often +children, were intruded into rich benefices, to the great detriment of +their charges.[15] Consideration was also had of the rule adopted at +St. Justina's at Padua, the centre of reform in Northern Italy; and +thus it was not till 1516 that the new ordinances were finally +sanctioned by Leo X. + +[15] Thus the family of d'Illiers at this time almost monopolized the +see of Chartres; members of it holding the bishopric consecutively for +fifty years, the deanery for a hundred, the arch-deaconry and the rich +abbey of Bona Vallis also for fifty. + +About 1490, Jouveneaux, fired with enthusiasm by the success of du +Mas' reforms at Chezal Benoît, determined to quit his professor's +chair at Paris and take upon him the vows and the life of a monk under +du Mas' rule; and subsequently he was the means of bringing into the +Congregation the Abbey of St. Sulpice at Bourges, being invited +thither by John Labat, the Abbot, to introduce the new rule, and +himself succeeding to the abbacy for a triennial period. A year or two +after his retirement from the world, he was followed to Chezal Benoît +by Charles Fernand, who subsequently went on to St. Vincent's at Le +Mans. John Fernand also ended his days at St. Sulpice in Bourges. + +Charles Fernand is a personality who deserves more attention than he +has received. Whilst he was in the world he enjoyed considerable +esteem amongst the learned. He was a friend of Gaguin, and published a +commentary on Gaguin's poem on the Immaculate Conception; he also +dedicated to Gaguin a small volume of Familiar Letters. But his most +important literary work was done in the retirement of his cell: a +volume of Monastic Conversations, composed at sundry times, and +published in 1516; a treatise on Tranquillity (1512), in which he +gives an account of the motives which led him to take the monastic +habit; and a Mirror of the Monastic Life (1515), dwelling at length on +the ideals that should be held before the eyes of novices and animate +their lives when they were professed. Unfortunately his style is so +excessively elegant, with wide intervals between words closely +connected in sense, that he is difficult to read; and hence, perhaps, +in some measure the neglect which has been meted out to him. + +Of his four Monastic Conversations the first and the last are +concerned with the question whether monks should be allowed to read +the books of the Gentiles, that is to say, the classics. He handles +his theme sensibly and liberally. Piety, of course, is to come before +eloquence, and there is to be choice of books. Anything of loose +tendency is to be forbidden, but he would encourage the reading of +Cicero, Seneca, and Aristotle's Ethics. The last was only accessible +to himself, he says regretfully, in Latin, because he knew no Greek--a +loss which he greatly deplores, desiring to read the Greek Fathers. +The third conversation is about the Benedictine rule, directed to the +lawless monks who contended that they were only bound by the customs +of the particular monastery they had entered, and not by the general +ordinances of their founder. He combats at length the contention that +the world has grown old, and that latter-day men cannot be expected to +undergo the rigorous fasts and penances achieved by St. Antony and St. +Benedict. He is quite alive to the weakness of the age, to the need +for improvement in the monasteries; and the word Reformer is applied +with praise to the leaders of the movement. This was before the days +of Luther, though only just before. + +Incidentally, an argument is reported between a Christian and an +agnostic. After their diverse opinions have been rehearsed, the +Christian concludes with what is meant to be a crushing +reply--certainly it silences his opponent: 'On your own theory you +don't know what will happen after death. On mine you will prosper, if +you believe; if not, you will go to hell. Therefore safety lies in +believing mine.' + +There are one or two glimpses of the life of the monks. At the end of +one conversation, the other brother hears the bell ringing for prayers +and runs off to chapel; Fernand, being old and lame, will be forgiven +if he is a little late, and not fined of his dinner. In other ways +consideration was shown to him, and he was often sent to dine in the +infirmary, not being expected with his toothless jaws to munch the dry +crusts set before the rest of the house. This, it seems, was a custom +which had been learnt from St. Justina's at Padua, to put out the +stale crusts first, before the new bread, to break appetite upon: just +as in the old Quaker schools a hundred years ago, children were set +down to suet-pudding, and then broth, before the joint appeared; the +order being, 'No ball, no broth; no broth, no beef'. + +We are in a position to view from the inside another Benedictine house +at this period, that of Ottobeuren, near Memmingen, which lies about +mid-way between Augsburg and the east end of the Lake of Constance. +The source of our information is the correspondence of one of the +brothers, Nicholas Ellenbog (or Cubitus); 890 letters copied out in +his own hand, and only 80 of these printed. It is not so continuous a +narrative as Butzbach's, but the picture that it gives is rather more +pleasing. + +Nicholas' father was Ulrich Ellenbog, a physician of Memmingen, who +graduated as Doctor of Medicine from Pavia in 1459, and became first +Reader in Medicine at Ingolstadt. The letters introduce us to most of +his children. One son, Onofrius, went for a soldier, became attached +to Maximilian's train, and received a knighthood; another, Ulrich, +became M.D. at Siena, but died immediately afterwards; another, John, +became a parish priest. Of the daughters three remained in the world; +one, Elizabeth, married; another, Cunigunde, died of plague caught in +nursing some nuns. The fourth daughter, Barbara, at the age of nine +entered the convent of Heppach, and lived there forty-one years, +rising to be Prioress and then Abbess. We shall hear of her again. + +Nicholas Ellenbog, 1480 or 1481-1543, was the third son. After five +years at Heidelberg, 1497-1502, in which he met Wimpfeling and was +fellow-student, though a year senior, to Oecolampadius, he went off to +Cracow, the Polish university, which was then so flourishing as to +attract students from the west. Schurer, for example, the Strasburg +printer, was M.A. of Cracow in 1494; and some idea of the condition of +learning there may be gained from a book-seller's letter to Aldus from +Cracow, December 1505, ordering 100 copies of Constantine Lascaris' +Greek grammar. For some months Ellenbog heard lectures there on +astronomy, which remained a favourite subject with him throughout his +life. Then an impulse came to him to follow his father's footsteps in +medicine, and at the advice of friends he went back across half Europe +to Montpellier, which from its earliest days had been famous for its +medical faculty. In the long vacation of 1502 he spent two months with +a friend in the château of a nobleman among the Gascon hills, and on +their return journey they stayed for a fortnight in a house of +Dominican nuns. The sisters were strict in their observances, and gave +a good pattern of the unworldly life, which attracted Ellenbog +strongly. In 1503 he went home for the long vacation to Memmingen. On +the way he was taken by the plague, and with difficulty dragged +himself in to Ravensburg. For three months he lay ill, and death came +very close. As its unearthly glow irradiated the world around him, +reversing its light and shade, the visions of the nunnery recurred. He +vowed that if his life were still his to give, it should be given to +God's service; and on recovering he entered Ottobeuren. + +In his noviciate year he was under the guidance of a kind and +sympathetic novice-master, who allowed him to study quietly in his +cell to his heart's content; and during this period he composed what +he calls an epitome or breviary of Plato. Its precise character he +does not specify, but its second title suggests that it may have been +a collection of extracts from Plato: not from the Greek, for he had +little acquaintance with that yet, but presumably from such of Plato's +works as had been translated into Latin. On Ascension Day, 1504, which +appears from other indications to mean 15 August, he made his +profession, and in September 1505 he went to Augsburg to be ordained +as sub-deacon. Writing to a friend to give such news as he had +gathered on this outing, he tells a story to convict himself of hasty +judgement. During the ordination service he noticed that one of the +candidates, a bold-eyed fellow who had been at several universities, +and had been Rector at Siena, let his gaze wander over the ladies who +had come to see the ceremony, instead of keeping it fixed on the +altar. Ellenbog censured him in his mind, but later he noticed that as +the man kneeled before the bishop with folded hands to receive +unction, his eyes were filled with tears of repentance--others perhaps +would have called it merely emotion. + +On his way back to Ottobeuren, Ellenbog arrived at a village, where he +had counted on a night's rest, only to find it crowded with a +wedding-party; the followers of the bridegroom, who were escorting him +to the marriage on the morrow, a Sunday. It was with great difficulty +that he found shelter, in the house of a cobbler, who let him sleep +with his family in the straw; but it was so uncomfortable that before +dawn he crept out and started on his way under the moon. In the half +light he missed the road and found himself at the bride's castle; +where he learnt that her sister was just dead and the wedding +postponed. As he passed in that evening through the abbey-gate, there +was thankfulness in his heart that he was back out of the world and +its petty disappointments. + +On Low Sunday, 1506, he was ordained priest at Ottobeuren, and +celebrated his first mass. Some of his letters are to friends inviting +them to be present, and adjuring them to come empty-handed, without +the customary gifts. In these early years there was ample leisure for +study. In 1505 he began Greek, and in 1508 Hebrew. He speaks of +reading Aeneas Sylvius, Pico della Mirandola, Cyprian, Diogenes +Laertius, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Dionysius the Areopagite. He went on +with his astronomy, and cast horoscopes for his friends. Binding books +was one of his occupations; and in 1509, when a press was set up in +the monastery, he lent a hand in the printing. He was very fortunate +in his abbot, Leonard Widemann, who had been Steward when he entered +Ottobeuren, but was elected Abbot in 1508, and outlived him by three +years, dying in 1546. Widemann called upon him for service. +Immediately on election he made him Prior--at 28--and only released +him from this office after four years, to make him, though infinitely +reluctant, serve ten years more as Steward. + +But if the Abbot knew how to exact compliance, he knew also how to +reward. He gave Ellenbog every assistance in his studies, allowed him +to write hither and thither for books, made continual efforts to +procure him first a Hebrew and then a Greek Bible, wrote to Reuchlin +to find him a converted Jew as Hebrew teacher, and in 1516 built him a +new library; for which Ellenbog writes to a friend asking for verses +to put under the paintings of the Doctors of the Church, which are to +adorn the walls. As results of his studies we hear of him correcting +the abbey service-books, where for _stauros_, a scribe with no Greek +had written _scayros_, and explaining to the Abbot mistaken +interpretations in the passages read aloud in the refectory during +meals. One of these, in a book written by some one who had recently +been canonized--some mediaeval doctor--illustrates the learning of the +day; deriving [Greek: gastrimargia], gluttony, from _castrum_ and +_mergo_, 'quod gula mergat castrum mentis,' because gluttony drowns +the seat of reason. + +Of Ellenbog's official duties occasional mention is made in his +letters. As Steward he has to visit the tenants of the monastery; in +the autumn he journeys about the country buying wine. We hear of him +at Westerhaim, on the river Iller, settling a dispute among the +fishermen. On one of his journeys to fetch wine from Constance, at the +hospice there he fell in with a man who could fire balls out of a +machine by means of nitre, and who boasted that he could demolish with +this weapon a certain castle in the neighbourhood. Over supper they +began to argue, the artillerist maintaining that nitre was cold, and +that the explosion which discharged the balls was caused by the +contrariety between nitre and sulphur; Ellenbog contending that nitre +was hot, and supporting this view by scraps remembered from his +father's scientific conversation. + +The general life of the Abbey is also reflected. Ottobeuren lay on one +of the routes to Italy, and so they had plenty of visitors bringing +news from regions far off: a Carthusian, who had been in Ireland and +seen St. Patrick's cave; a party of Hungarian acrobats with dancing +bears; a young Cretan, John Bondius, who had seen the labyrinth of +Minos, but all walled up to prevent men from straying into it and +being lost. A great impression he made, when he dined with the Abbot; +he was so learned and polished, and spoke Latin so well for a Greek. +In 1514 Pellican, the Franciscan Visitor, passed on his way south, and +had a talk with Ellenbog, which was all too short, about Hebrew +learning. Next year came Eck, the theologian, the future champion of +orthodoxy, returning from Rome. Eck's mother and sisters were living +under the protection of the abbey--it is not clear whether they were +merely tenants, or whether they were occupying lay quarters within its +walls, as did Fernand's at St. Germain's in Paris. At any rate, Eck +came and made himself agreeable. He preached twice before the +brethren; and when he left, he promised to send them the latest news +from America. In 1511 a copy of Vespucci's narrative of his voyage had +been lent to the monastery, and had been read with great interest. + +A grave question arose whether the new races discovered in the West +were to be accounted as saved or damned. Ellenbog quotes Faber +Stapulensis' statement that nothing could be more bestial than the +condition of the Indians whom da Gama had discovered in 1498 in +Calicut, Cannanore, and Ceylon; it was to be feared that the Indians +of the West were no better. In writing to Ellenbog six months later to +say that he had no clear opinions on the question, Eck uses an +interesting expression: 'To ask what I think is like looking for +Arthur and his Britons.'[16] The reference is to the Arthurian legend +and the long-expected, never-fulfilled, return of the great king; but +the humanists usually leave the whole field of mediaeval romance +severely alone. + + [16] Arcturum cum Britannis exspectatis. For another allusion + to Arthur, see Pace, _De Fructu_, p. 83. + +One September morning, when the dew was still heavy, Ellenbog went out +with some brethren to gather apples. At the top of the orchard[17] one +of them called out that he had found 'a star'. It was a damp white +deposit on the grass, clammy and quivering, cold to the touch, very +sticky, with long tenacious filaments. Ellenbog had never seen +anything like it, but he found out that the peasants and the shepherds +believed such things to be droppings from shooting stars,[18] if not +actually fallen stars, and that they were thought to be a cure for +cancer. His letter describing it is to ask the opinion of a friend who +was a doctor, that is to say, the scientist of the age. + + [17] ortus. + [18] stellae emuncturam et purgamentum. + +The affairs of Ellenbog's family often appear. His father had been a +great collector of books, which he had corrected with his own hand, +and which at his death he had wished to be kept together as a common +heirloom for the whole family. A great many of them were medical, and +therefore it had seemed good that the enjoyment of the books should go +to Ulrich, the son who was studying medicine at Siena. On his way +home, after completing his course, Ulrich died; and Nicholas composed +a piteous appeal on behalf of the books, bewailing their fate that +after ten years of confinement their hope of being used had come to +nothing. Onofrius was the only brother from whom might be hoped a +younger generation of Ellenbogs, one of whom might study medicine. +Elizabeth's children were Geslers, and so apparently did not count. + +How long the books were kept together is not known. One of them is now +in the University Library at Cambridge, and has been excellently +described in an essay by the late Robert Proctor. It consists of +several volumes bound together: Henry of Rimini on the Cardinal +Virtues, the Journey of a penitent soul through Lent, a treatise _de +diuina predestinacione_, and John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, +_de oculo morali_--all of a definitely religious or moral character. +They are freely annotated by the father's hand, with marginalia which +throw light on his life and times, his dislike of the Venetians for +their anti-papal policy, his experiences as physician to the Abbey of +St. Ulrich in Augsburg, and the part that he played in the +introduction of printing there. On Lady Day, 1481, shortly after +Nicholas' birth, perhaps when he had lived just a week and seemed +likely to thrive, the father composed an address to his four living +sons--four being already dead--, and wrote it into this volume. He +adjures them to follow learning and goodness, and finally bids them +take every care of the books; and not let them be separated. This it +was which inspired Nicholas' appeal thirty years later, when Ulrich, +the son, was cut off, just as his eyes seemed about to follow his +father's up and down the pages. + +Ellenbog's letters to his sister Barbara are amusing. She was four or +five years older than he, but being a woman had not had his +opportunities. He begins by trying to teach her Latin. But the +difficulties were many, and apparently she did not progress far enough +to write in the tongue. At any rate, Ellenbog copied none of her +letters into his book; a fact which is to be deplored both from her +point of view and from ours. One would like to know what reply she +made to some of his homilies. She invited him once to come and see her +at Heppach, with leave from her Abbess. He replies cautiously that, if +he comes, he hopes they will be able to talk without being overheard; +for Onofrius had been once, and when he made a rather coarse remark, +there had been giggles outside the door. In 1512 Barbara became +Prioress, and Ellenbog took the opportunity to lecture her at length +upon spiritual pride and the importance of humility; sweetening his +dose of virtue with a present of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. + +Once she let fall some regrets that she had brought nothing into her +convent, and was dependent on it for food and clothing; evidently she +would have liked some share of the patrimony which had been divided +between her married sisters and the brothers who remained in the +world. Nicholas' reply was that Heppach, like other monasteries, was +well endowed; she had given herself, and that was quite enough. In +1515 Barbara was elected Abbess; and received another discourse about +spiritual pride. John and Elizabeth wrote to Nicholas saying that they +had been invited to Heppach to salute the new Reverend Mother, and +suggesting that he should come too. But his plain speaking had had its +reward, no invitation had come for him. Under the circumstances, he +writes, he could not think of going; besides he had been there several +times before, and had found it very dull; it was clearly John's duty +to go, as he had not been once in twenty years, although his parish +was only three miles from Heppach. However the breach was healed, and +a proper invitation came for Nicholas; but the business of his +stewardship prevented him from accepting. + +The relations with John, the parish priest of Wurtzen, are more +harmonious. There is a frequent exchange of presents, John sending +tools for wood-carving, and crayfish; which seem to have been common +in his neighbourhood, for Nicholas occasionally asks for them. The +only lecture is one passed on from Barbara. John had been created a +chaplain to Maximilian, an honorific title, with few or no duties; and +Barbara had feared that he might neglect the flock in his parish. On +another occasion Nicholas urges him to follow Elizabeth's advice, and +get an unmarried man to be his housekeeper. He had proposed to have a +man with a family; and Elizabeth was afraid for his reputation. John +was a frequent guest at Ottobeuren, and one of Nicholas' invitations +contains what is unusual among the humanists, an appreciation of the +charms of the country: 'Come,' he says, 'and hear the songs of the +birds, the shepherds' pipes and the children's horns, the choruses of +reapers and ploughmen, and the voices of the girls as they work in the +fields.' + +By his younger relatives, Ellenbog did his duty unfailingly. +Elizabeth's eldest son, John Gesler, was at school at Memmingen. When +a new schoolmaster was appointed, Ellenbog wrote to bespeak his +interest in the boy, and to suggest the books that he should read: +Donatus' Grammar and the letters of Filelfo. At 14 he persuaded the +parents to send John to Heidelberg, and took a great deal of trouble +in arranging that the boy should be lodged with his own teacher, Peter +of Wimpina. When two years later Elizabeth grew anxious about John's +health and proposed to take him with her to some of the numerous +baths, which then as now abounded in Germany and Switzerland, it was +again Nicholas who made the arrangements; and in 1515, when John had +left Heidelberg, Nicholas proposed to exchange letters with him daily, +in order that he might not forget his Latin. In January 1515 +Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Barbara, was married to a certain Conrad +Ankaryte. In December 1530 he writes to one of the nuns at Heppach to +announce that he has persuaded two girls, the children of this +marriage, to embrace the religious life. The elder, Anna, aged 13, was +forward with her education, as she was well acquainted with German +literature and was reading Latin with her father[19]; by the following +summer she would be ready to come to Heppach. For the younger, who was +not yet 7, he begged a few years' grace, though she was eager to come +at once. Truly children developed earlier in those days. + + [19] quae legere literas vernaculae linguae satis expedite + nouit, nunc per patrem imbuitur Latinis. + +The happiest time of Ellenbog's life began in the summer of 1522, when +after ten years' service he was allowed by the Abbot to resign his +Stewardship. His accounts were audited satisfactorily, and he was +discharged, to what seemed to him a riotous banquet of leisure. 'In +the quiet of my cell,' he wrote to his brother, 'I read, I write, I +meditate, I pray, I paint, I carve'. His interest in astronomy was +resumed, and he set himself to make dials for pocket use, on metal +rings or on round wooden sticks. The latter he turned for himself upon +a lathe; and for this work John sent him a present of boxwood, +juniper, and plane. By the New Year of 1523 he had made two sundials; +one which showed the time on five sides at once, he sent to John at +Wurtzen, the other to Barbara at Heppach. His cell looked South, and +thus he could study the movements of the moon and the planets, and +note the southing of the stars. He could turn his skill to profit, +too, and exchange his dials for pictures of the saints. + +In 1525 his peace was broken by the Peasants' Revolt, which swept like +a hurricane over South Germany. Hostility to religion was not one of +its moving causes, but the monks were vulnerable, and had always been +considered fair game, especially by local nobles whom in the plenitude +of their power they had not troubled to conciliate. The peasants of +the Rhine valley had not forgotten the burning of Limburg, near +Spires, by William of Hesse in 1504. The abbey church had scarcely a +rival in Germany, and the flames burned for twelve days. With such an +example, and with their prey unresisting, the peasants were not likely +to stay their hands. At Freiburg they brought to his death Gregory +Reisch, the learned Carthusian Prior of St. Johannisberg, the friend +of Maximilian. Ellenbog enumerates four monasteries burned in his +neighbourhood during the outbreak--three by the peasants incensed +against their landlords, and one by a noble who bore it a grudge. When +the first attack came in April, Ellenbog was staying at the monastery +of St. George, at Isny, about twenty miles away. The peasants there +destroyed everything belonging to the monks that they could find +outside the walls, and threatened dire treatment when they should +force their way in; but mercifully the walls were strong, and held +out. + +Ottobeuren was less fortunate. Being in the country, it had to rely +upon itself, and so fell an easy prey. The buildings were defaced, the +windows broken, the stoves and ovens wrecked, and all the ironwork +carried off. Scarcely a door remained on its hinges, and the furniture +of the rooms disappeared. The church was violated, its pictures +soiled, and its statues smashed; Christ's wounds should be wounds +indeed, hard voices cried, as axe and hammer rung over their pitiless +work. The library was emptied of its books. Walls and roofs and floors +were all that the monks found when they ventured back. Ellenbog, +however, fared better than many. A friendly brother had seized up some +of his books and papers and hidden them in the clock-tower; and the +abbey carpenter thinking this insecure had found them better cover, +presumably in his own house. The tempest over, calm soon returned. The +countryfolk, many of whom had remained friendly, began bringing back +spoil which they had wrested from wrongful possessors. Some of +Ellenbog's books were brought in; and as much as two years later he +recovered one of his astronomical instruments. He lost, however, a +number of his father's papers, which he had been on the point of +editing; a Hebrew Bible given to him by Onofrius; and the first two +books of his collection of his own letters. 'God knows whether they +will ever come back,' he wrote at the beginning of the third book; and +to him they never did. They are now safe at Stuttgart, though in +permanent divorce from the other seven books, which are in Paris. + +Ellenbog was no coward. In the autumn the vineyards belonging to the +Abbey were to be inspected, and the due tithes of wine exacted. Unless +this were done the monks would suffer lack; so some one had to be +sent, in spite of the last mutterings of the revolt. One vineyard lay +at Immenstadt, some distance to the South, and thus Ellenbog at Isny +was already part way thither. Moreover, having served as Steward, he +would know what was required. The Abbot sent down a horse and bade him +go: though the roads were held by armed outlaws, who were reported to +be specially hostile to monks. He was afraid; but he summoned his +courage and went. If the Abbey seemed a haven before, when he came +back to it from the experiences of his ordination at Augsburg, this +time it was a refuge and strength against the fear that lurketh in +forests and the imagination of pursuing footsteps. + + + + +IV + +UNIVERSITIES + + +In the autumn of 1495 Erasmus was at length at liberty to go to a +university. His patron, the Bishop of Cambray, gave him a small +allowance, and the authorities at Steyn were prevailed upon to +consent. His purpose was to obtain a Doctor's degree in Theology; and +so he entered the College of Montaigu at Paris, which had been founded +in 1388, but had fallen into decay and only recently been revived. In +1483 a certain John Standonck had volunteered to become Principal. By +his efforts the college buildings were restored; and by taking in rich +pupils he secured means to maintain the Domus Pauperum attached to the +College. He was an ardent, enthusiastic person, but rather lacking in +judgement; and starved his _pauperes_ in order to be able to have as +many as possible on the slender resources available. Erasmus, being +delicate and therewith fastidious, complained of the rough and meagre +fare--rotten eggs and stinking water; and with good reason, for it +made him ill, and he had to spend the summer of 1496 with his friends +in Holland. + +Having established himself in the college he introduced himself to the +literary circle in Paris, through its head, Robert Gaguin, the aged +General of the Maturins, who had served on many embassies, to Spain, +to Italy, to Germany, to England. Gaguin had written much himself, +and had been one of the promoters of printing in Paris. To know him +was to be known of many. Erasmus began by addressing to him a poem and +some florid letters, and showed him some of his work. Then an +opportunity came to do him a service. Gaguin had composed a history of +the French, and it was just coming through the press. At the end the +printer found himself with two pages of the last sheet unfilled, +despite ample spacing out, and the author was too ill to lend any +help. Erasmus heard of the difficulty, and came to the rescue with a +long and most elegant epistle to Gaguin, comparing him to Sallust and +Livy, and promising him immortality. Time has turned the tables: +Gaguin's name lives, not because of his history, but because the young +and unknown Augustinian canon thought fit to court his acquaintance. + +Once blooded with the printers, Erasmus went steadily on. In a few +months he published some poems of his own, on Christ and the +angels--_de casa natalitia Jesu_, a very rare volume, of which only +two copies are known. It was dedicated to a college friend, Hector +Boys, of Dundee, subsequently the first Principal of King's College, +Aberdeen, and historian of Scotland. It may be wondered what was +Erasmus' motive. A dedication of a book had a market value and usually +brought a return in proportion to the compliments laid on. Correctness +certainly required that the book should be sent to the Bishop of +Cambray. Boys was only a fellow-student, whose acquaintance Erasmus +had made at Montaigu. The explanation perhaps lies in the fact that +Bishop Elphinstone was then negotiating with Boys to come to Aberdeen; +in the newly-founded university Erasmus may have sighted hopes for +himself. The following year saw another volume produced by him; the +poems of his Gouda and Deventer friend, William Herman, with a few of +his own added. This time the Bishop of Cambray did not fail of his +due. + +When Erasmus came to Paris, he was nearly 29, older by far than the +ordinary arts student, but not old for the theological course, which +lasted longer than the others. To reach the first step, the Bachelor's +degree, he had to attend a number of lectures; and very tedious he +found them. Theologians are apt to be conservative. The method of +instruction had not advanced far beyond the dictation of text and +gloss and commentary, which had been current before the days of +printing. Erasmus yawned and dozed, or wrote letters to his friends +making fun of these 'barbarous Scotists'. 'You wouldn't know me,' he +says, 'if you could see me sitting under old Dunderhead, my brows knit +and looking thoroughly puzzled. They tell me that no one can +understand these mysteries who has any traffic with the Muses or the +Graces. So I am trying hard to forget my Latin: wit and elegance must +disappear. I think I am getting on; maybe some day they will recognize +me for their own.' They did, and he proceeded B.D.; when is not known, +but probably by Easter 1498. + +At the present day in England our systems are very set. A man +matriculates at a university and completes his course there: to change +even from one college to another is becoming almost unknown. Abroad, +however, things are more fluid, and students pass on from university +to university in search of the best teacher for special parts of their +course. So it was in Erasmus' time. A course of lectures attended in +one university could be reckoned in another; and thus men often +proceeded to their degrees within a short time of their matriculation. +Having taken his Bachelor's degree at Paris, Erasmus at once proposed +to convert it into a Doctor's in Italy; but one hope after another of +going there was disappointed. In 1506 he wished to take it in +Cambridge; but after obtaining his grace, he was offered a chance to +go to Italy as tutor to the sons of Henry VII's Italian physician. He +accepted with delight, and was made D.D. as he passed through Turin; +the formalities apparently requiring only a few days. + +The art of reasoning is an excellent thing; and so long as man +continues to live according to reason, some training in this art will +continue to be a part of education. Indeed, an elementary knowledge of +it is as necessary as an elementary acquaintance with the art of +arithmetic. Both arts have this in common that though their feet walk +upon the earth, their heads are lost in the clouds. A moderate +attainment of them is indispensable to all; but their higher +developments can only be comprehended by the acutest minds. In the +Middle Ages the art of reasoning had been raised to such a pitch of +perfection that it entirely dominated the schools. Its exponents were +so proud of it that its bounds were continually extended; and it +became impossible to obtain a university degree without a high level +of proficiency in disputation. For his examination a candidate was +required to dispute with all comers--in practice this came to be a +small number of appointed examiners, three or four--on questions which +had been announced beforehand. It was not a hasty affair--time was +allowed for reflection, and the examination might easily last several +hours or even all day. But clearly readiness in debate was likely to +count in a man's favour, and so besides knowledge of standard authors +to be adduced in support of opinions--the Bible, the Fathers, the +mediaeval commentators, the Canon Law and the glosses upon it--it was +important to a candidate to be able to handle a question properly, to +divide it up into its different parts by means of distinctions, to +shear off side issues, to examine the various facets which it +presented when approached from different points of view; and all this +without hesitation, and of course in Latin. + +In order to train candidates in this art, university and college +teachers gave frequent exhibitions of disputations, which from being +on any subject, de quolibet, were styled 'quodlibeticae questiones', +or 'disputationes'. A high dignitary presided, with the title of +'dominus quodlibetarius', and propounded questions, usually one +supported by arguments and two plain; and then the disputer, who +presumably came prepared, delivered his reply, clear cut into fine +distinctions and bristling with citations from recognized authorities. +Such work necessarily cost trouble and forethought, and the +hard-working teacher of the day, instead of printing his lectures on +philosophy or history or editing and commentating texts, gave to his +pupils in permanent form the quodlibetical disputations which the busy +among them had struggled to copy down into note-books, and over which +the inattentive, like Erasmus, had yawned. + +These are some of the subjects disputed at Louvain, 1488-1507, by +Adrian of Utrecht; first as a young doctor, then as professor of +theology, and finally for ten years as vice-chancellor, before he was +carried away to become tutor to Prince Charles, and entered upon the +public career which led him finally to Rome as Adrian VI. + + 1488. Whether to avoid offending one's neighbour it is + permissible to break a vow or oath duly made. + + 1491. Whether one is bound to act on the command of a superior, + contrary to one's own opinion, knowing that in former days the + matter had been regarded as doubtful. + + 1492. Whether it is lawful to administer the Eucharist or to + confer the benefit of absolution on one who declares that he + cannot abstain from crimes. + + 1493. Whether of the two is more likely to be healed and + offends God the less, the man who sins from ignorance or + infirmity, or the man who sins of deliberate intent. + + 1495. Whether a priest who gives advice that tithes ought not + to be paid on the fruits of one's own labours, can receive + remission of his sin without undergoing severe punishment. + + Whether transgression of human laws constitutes mortal sin. + + 1499. Whether prayer on behalf of many is as beneficial to the + individuals as if one prayed as long a time for each one. + + 1491. <? 1501> Whether it is permissible to give money to any + one to procure one a benefice by praising one's dignity and + merits to the provisor to the benefice. + +Here are some of John Briard of Ath, a notable theologian, who was +subsequently Vice-chancellor of Louvain: + + 1508. Whether a man who has confessed all his mortal sins but + has omitted his voluntary occasions of stumbling, is bound to + confess over again. + + Whether we are bound by the law of love to deliver a neighbour, + against his will, from oppression, infamy, or death, when we + cannot do so without hurt or danger to ourselves. + + Whether beneficed students on account of their studies are + excused from reading their canonical hours. + +We will now consider in brief Briard's handling of the following +question: 'Whether a prize of money won at Bruges or elsewhere by the +hazard known as the game of the pot, or what is commonly called the +lottery, may be retained with a clear conscience as a righteous +acquisition?' + + 'For the decision of this question I premise: + + 1. Firstly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because + it comes by good fortune, and not by one's own labour. + + The truth of this preamble is shown thus: If gain coming by + good fortune is unlawful, it follows that all gain arising from + division by lot is unlawful. But this is false: therefore, &c. + + The consequent is proved by the fact that all such gain rests + on good fortune. The falsity is shown by the opinions of almost + all the doctors who write on this subject: + + St. Thomas, 2.2, question 95, article 8, shows that there is + nothing wrong in dividing by lot, between friends who cannot + otherwise decide. + + In this opinion agree Alexander of Hales, part 2 of his + _Summa_, question 185, membrane 2; Angelus in his _Summa_ under + the word _sors_, section 2, after the gloss in _Summa 26_, + question 2; Antoninus, part 2, title 12, chapter 1, section 9. + + 2. Secondly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because + it comes without labour. This would exclude gifts. + + 3. Thirdly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because + it comes from cupidity, avarice, forbidden trade, or opus + peccaminosum <e.g. working on a saint's day>, unless there is + fraud, deception, or the like. + + See Petrus de Palude, book 4, distinction 15, question 3, + conclusion 4, about the gain arising from acting. Also Angelus + in his _Summa_ under _restitutio_, part 1, section 6. + + 4. Fourthly, that a work which brings public advantage, either + spiritual or temporal, is not necessarily unlawful because some + people are thereby provoked to sin. + + Otherwise it would be unlawful to manufacture arms or to make + war. + + On these premises I base the following propositions: + + 1. The lottery is not in itself unlawful. + + Proof. It is not prohibited by any law, divine, human, or + natural: divine, because it is not forbidden in Scripture; + human, because there is no law against it as there is against + hazard or dicing; natural, because it is not excluded as (_a_) + coming by good fortune, (_b_) provoking others to sin, (_c_) + vain and useless. + + _a_ and _b_ are proved by premiss 1 and 4. _c_ is proved + because we are supposing that the lottery is undertaken in + order that the city of Bruges may make a profit with which to + pay off some of its municipal debt, or be lightened of some of + its common burdens, so that its citizens may be free to + journey whither they please. (That this last refers among other + things to pilgrimage, may be inferred from a reference to the + Canon Law on the undertaking of journeys, chapter on Sacred + Churches.) + + 2. The lottery is not prohibited by the human laws forbidding + hazard and dice. + + Proof. The laws prohibiting these do not forbid the lottery, + nor can it be included under them by parity of reasoning. For + hazard is not forbidden because it depends on chance, or else + all gaming would be forbidden; and it is not forbidden to play + for small stakes or on the occasion of a party. But it (hazard) + is forbidden because, as Petrus de Palude says in book 4, + distinction 15, question 3, article 5, the person who loses is + wont to blaspheme; and also because men are tempted to lose + more than they can afford.' + +We need not follow the argument in detail, but the fourth proposition +is interesting, 'That there is an injustice in the lotteries as +practised by some cities, in that the creditors of the city are +compelled against their will to take part in the lottery, and so +probably make a loss, for fear of not recovering the money owed to +them'. After six propositions come two contrary arguments, which are +refuted by five and two considerations; and then there is a brief +summing up. + +Excellent reasoning this doubtless was, and the student who could +dispute over these intricacies for hours together, must have had at +least a competent knowledge of Latin, understanded of the examiners; +but it is not surprising that the humanists desired something better. + +The universities did not live upon the teaching of the colleges alone. +Scholars came from abroad and competed with the home-bred talent to +supply such private tuition as was required, and when their ability +had been proved, received licence from the university to teach +publicly. The advantage generally rested with the new-comer. _Omne +ignotum pro mirifico._ When there was so much to learn, so much +novelty that the stranger might bring with him, it was little wonder +that a new arrival aroused excitement, especially if he came with a +reputation. Teachers travelled from one university to another in +search of employment, and any one with a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew +was sure to find pupils and attentive audiences. So great was the +enthusiasm on both sides, that lectures often lasted for hours. + +Aleander, when he returned from Orleans to Paris in 1511, kept quiet +for a month, in order to awaken public interest. Then he announced a +course of lectures on Ausonius, to begin on 30 July. His device was +entirely successful. Two thousand people gathered, and he was obliged +to lead them over from his own college, de la Marche, to a larger +building, known as the Portico of Cambray. He had composed an +elaborate oration of twenty-four pages. 'It took me two hours and a +half to deliver,' he says, 'and would have taken four, if I hadn't +been a quick reader; but no one showed the least sign of fatigue, in +spite of the heat. My voice lasted very well. Next day I had nearly as +good an audience, although it was the day for the disputation at the +Sorbonne. On the day after, all seats were taken by 11, though I do +not begin till 1.' His success was not mere imagination. One who was +present tells us that men looked upon him as if he had come down from +heaven, and shouted 'Viuat, viuat', as they were accustomed to do to +Faustus Andrelinus, another witty Italian who was then lecturing in +Paris. A lecturer to-day who went on into the third hour would +scarcely be so popular. + +But Aleander was not alone in his powers of speech, and others besides +Parisians could listen. Butzbach tells us, not without humour, of a +certain Baldwin Bessel of Haarlem, a learned physician with a +wonderful memory, who was summoned to Laach to heal their Abbot, who +lay sick. On one occasion at Coblenz he harangued an audience of 300 +for three hours on end on the power of eloquence, and stimulated by +the sight of such a gathering, worked himself up in his peroration, +until he believed himself to be a second Cicero. His hearers perhaps +did not agree. Anyway, Butzbach is the only person who mentions him, +and he would have preferred a little less eloquence and a little more +medicine; for the Abbot, instead of recovering, died under the hands +of the new Cicero in two days. + +Besides lecturing at the university, young men also maintained +themselves by working for the printers, correcting proof-sheets and +composing complimentary prefaces and verses. Another service which +they could render to both printers and authors was to give public +'interpretations', as they were called, of new books on publication, +for the purpose of advertisement. These interpretations probably took +place at the printer's office, and were of the nature of a review, +describing the book's contents; and they were doubtless repeated at +frequent intervals before new groups of likely purchasers. + +Erasmus, however, had been sent to Paris to take a degree in Theology, +and his patrons expected him to occupy himself with this. When he +returned from Holland in 1496 he could not face again the rigours of +Montaigu, and so he took shelter in a boarding-house kept by a +termagant woman--'pessima mulier' the bursar of the German nation, her +landlords, called her when she would not pay her rent--, the wife of a +minor court official. So long as his supplies lasted, he kept strictly +to his work; but when the Bishop failed him, he was obliged to support +himself, and took to private teaching. Two of his pupils were young +men from Lubeck, who were under the care of a teacher from their own +part of the world, Augustine Vincent, a budding scholar, who +afterwards published an edition of Virgil, but who as yet was glad to +be helped by Erasmus. Another pair came from England, one a kinsman +of John Fisher, and were in the charge of a morose North-countryman. +In great poverty, Erasmus made his way somehow, occasionally writing +little treatises for his pupils, on a method of study, on +letter-writing--an important art in those days--, a paraphrase of the +_Elegantiae_ of Valla; and finally, one of his best-known works, the +Colloquies, had its origin in a little composition of this period, +which he refers to as 'sermones quosdam quotidianos quibus in +congressibus et conuiuiis vtimur'--a few formulas of address and +expressions of polite sentiments, which develop into brief +conversations. + +The poor scholar's hardships were mitigated by the generosity of a +friend. Whilst with the Bishop of Cambray Erasmus had made the +acquaintance of a young man from Bergen-op-Zoom, the Bishop's +ancestral home; one James Batt, who after education in Paris had +returned to be master of the public school in his native town. About +1498 Batt was engaged as private tutor to the son of Anne of +Borsselen, widow of an Admiral of Flanders and hereditary Lady of +Veere, an important sea-port town in Walcheren which then did much +trade with Scotland, and whose great, dumb cathedral and ornate +town-hall still tell to the handful of houses round them the story of +former greatness. From the first Batt applied himself to win his +patroness' favour to his clever and needy friend. Erasmus was invited +to visit them, money was sent for his journey; and within a short time +he was receiving pecuniary contributions from the Lady more frequently +than if she had been allowing him a pension. His letters to Batt--the +replies which came he never published--are remarkable reading, and do +credit to both sides. Conscious of high powers and pressed by urgent +need, Erasmus begins by begging without concealment, for money to keep +him going and give him leisure. But as time goes on and the Lady +wearies of much giving, Erasmus' tone grows sharper and more +insistent; until at last he scolds and upbraids his patient +correspondent for not extorting more, and even bids him put his own +needs in the background until Erasmus' are satisfied. Batt's name +deserves to be remembered as chief amongst faithful friends, for +putting up with such scant gratitude after his inexhaustible devotion; +and we must needs think more highly of Erasmus, if his friend could +accept such treatment at his hand and not be wounded. To the great +much littleness may be forgiven. The surprising thing is that Erasmus +should have allowed such letters to be published. + +In the summer of 1499 Erasmus was carried off to England by another +friend whom he had captivated, the young Lord Mountjoy, who had come +abroad to study until the child-bride whom he had already married +should be old enough to become his wife. After a summer spent among +bright-eyed English ladies at a country-house in Hertfordshire, then +studded with the hunting-boxes of the nobility, and a visit to London +which brought him into quick friendship with More, ten or eleven years +his junior, Erasmus persuaded his patron to take him for a while to +Oxford. Mountjoy promised but could not perform. The Earl of Warwick +was to be tried in Westminster Hall, and Mountjoy as a peer must be in +his place. So Erasmus rode in to Oxford, over Shotover and across +Milham ford, alone. + +As an Austin canon he had a claim on St. Mary's, a college which had +been established in 1435 at the instance of a number of Augustinian +abbots and priors, for the purpose of bringing young canons to Oxford +to profit by the life and studies of the university; in much the same +way that Mansfield and Manchester Colleges have joined us in recent +years. For two or three months he was here, enjoying the society of +the learned and attending Colet's lectures on the Epistles of St. +Paul; invited to dine in college halls, as a congenial visitor is +to-day, and spending the afternoons, not the evenings, in discussions +arising out of the conversation over the dinner-table. His ready wit +and natural vivacity, his wide reading and serious purpose, made +themselves felt. Even Colet the austere was delighted with him and +begged him to stay. He was lecturing himself on St. Paul; let Erasmus +take some part of the Old Testament and expound it to fascinated +audiences. Oxford laid her spell upon the young Dutch canon--upon whom +does she not?--but he was not yet ready. To give his life to sacred +studies was the purpose that was riveting itself upon him; but he +could not accomplish what he wished without Greek at the least--he +never made any serious attempt to learn Hebrew--and Greek was not to +be had in Oxford, hardly indeed anywhere in Western Europe outside +Italy and perhaps Spain. Indeed, for some years to come this +university was to display her characteristic, or may be her admirable, +caution towards the new light offered to her from without. + +We must bear in mind the well-reasoned hostility of the Church to--or +at least hesitation about--the revival of learning. In the period we +are considering the powers of evil were very real. Men instinctively +accepted the existence of a kingdom of darkness, extending its borders +over the sphere of knowledge as over the other sides of human +activity. Greek was the language of some of the most licentious +literature--Sappho's poems were burnt by the Church at Constantinople +in 1073--and of many detestable heresies; and thus though the Council +of Vienne, with missionary zeal, had recommended in 1311 that lectures +in Greek--as in other languages of the heretical East--should be +established in the universities of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and +Salamanca, the decree had not been carried out, and Greek was still +regarded with suspicion by the orthodox. Their opposition dies with +their lives, these guardians of the thing that is. Of the thing that +cometh they know, that 'if it be of God, they cannot overthrow it'. +The silent flooding in of the main is to them more to be desired than +the swift wave which in giving may destroy. Let us not think too +lightly of them because they feared shadows which the light of time +has dispelled. It needs no eyes to see where they were wrong: where +they were right--and they were right often enough--can only be seen by +taking trouble to inquire. + +Of the condition of learning in England in the second half of the +fifteenth century we do not yet know all that we might. Manuscripts +that men bought or had written for them, books that they read, +catalogues of libraries now scattered can tell us much, even though +the owners are dead and speak not. Single facts, like cards for +cardhouses, will not stand alone. There is still much to be done. +Great libraries are only just beginning to gather up the manuscript +minutiae which their books contain; to identify handwritings; to +decipher monograms; to collect facts. But some day when the work has +been done, we may well hope to be able to put bone to bone and breathe +new life into them in a way which will make valuable contributions to +our knowledge. + +There is sometimes an inclination now to underestimate the effect of +the Renaissance. The writers of that age were unsparingly contemptuous +of their predecessors, and their verdict was for long accepted almost +without question. The reaction against this has led to an undue +extolling of the Middle Ages. It is true enough that many of the +Schoolmen, though the humanists speak of them as hopelessly barbarous, +were capable of writing Latin which, if not strictly classical, had +yet an excellence of its own. But in view of the extracts given above +from Ebrardus and John Garland it can hardly be maintained that there +was much knowledge of Greek in Western Europe before the Renaissance. +England was not ahead of France and Germany in the fifteenth century; +and if Deventer school in 1475 was fed upon the monstrosities we have +seen, it is not likely that Winchester and Eton had any better fare. +Some sporadic examples there may have been of men who added a +knowledge of the Greek character to their reminiscences of the +_Graecismus_; just as at the present day it is not difficult to +acquire a faint acquaintance with Oriental languages, enough to +recognize the formation of words and plough out the letters, without +any real knowledge. Colet and Fisher only began to learn Greek in +their old age. One, the son of a Lord Mayor of London, made a name for +himself as a lecturer at Oxford, and was advanced to be Dean of St. +Paul's; the other, as head of a house at Cambridge and Chancellor of +the University, promoted the foundation of the Lady Margaret's two +colleges, Christ's and St. John's, which were to bring in the spirit +of the Renaissance. It is impossible to suppose that men of such +position would have spent the greater part of their lives without +Greek, if there had been any facilities for them to learn it when they +were young. Nor again would Erasmus, when teaching Greek at Cambridge +in 1511, have chosen the grammars of Gaza and Chrysoloras to lecture +upon, if his audience had been capable of anything better. Eminent +scholars do not teach the elements at a university if boys are already +learning them at school. + +The condition of things may fairly be gauged by Duke Humfrey's +collections for his library at Oxford. Of 130 books which he presented +to the University in 1439, not one is Greek; of 135 given in 1443, +only one--a vocabulary--is certainly Greek, four more are possibly, +but not probably so. A little later in the century four Oxford men +were pupils of Guarino in Ferrara; Grey (d. 1478) brought back +manuscripts to Balliol and became Bishop of Ely; Gunthorpe (d. 1498) +took his books with him to his deanery at Wells; but to only two of +the four is any definite knowledge of Greek credited--Fleming (d. +1483), who compiled a Greek-Latin dictionary, and Free (d. 1465), who +translated into Latin Synesius' treatise on baldness. + +A discovery recently made by Dr. James of Cambridge has thrown +unexpected light on the history of English scholarship at this period; +and as it affords an example of the fruits to be yielded by careful +research and synthesis, it may be detailed here. New Testament +scholars have long been interested in a manuscript of the Gospels +known, from its present habitation in the Leicester town-library, as +the Leicester Codex; its date being variously assigned to the +fourteenth or fifteenth century. In the handwriting there are some +marked characteristics which make it easy to recognize; and in course +of time other Greek manuscripts were discovered written by the same +hand, two Psalters in Cambridge libraries, a Plato and Aristotle in +the cathedral library at Durham, a Psalter and part of the lexicon of +Suidas in Corpus at Oxford. But no clue was forthcoming as to their +origin, until Dr. James found at Leiden a small Greek manuscript in +the same hand, containing some letters of Aeschines and Plato, and a +colophon stating that it had been written by Emmanuel of +Constantinople for George Neville, Archbishop of York, and completed +on 30 Dec. 1468. Where the various manuscripts were written and from +what originals is not plain--the Suidas perhaps from a manuscript +belonging at one time to Grosseteste; but the classical manuscripts +were probably done for Neville in England during the prosperous years +before his deportation to Calais in 1472, the Psalters and Gospels +probably after that date at Cambridge; for the Paston Letters show +that some of his disbanded household made their way to Cambridge, and +Dr. Rendel Harris has ingeniously demonstrated that one Psalter and +the Gospels were in fact at Cambridge with the Franciscans early in +the sixteenth century. The presence of a Greek scribe in England about +1470 is an important fact. + +Neville was released from prison through the intervention of Pope +Sixtus IV, who about 1475 sent to England another Greek scribe and +diplomatist, George Hermonymus of Sparta, charged with a letter to +Edward IV. Besides Andronicus Contoblacas at Basle, Hermonymus was at +the time the only Greek in Northern Europe who was prepared to teach +his native tongue; in consequence most of the humanists of the day, +Reuchlin, Erasmus, Budaeus and many others, turned to him for +instruction, though he was indeed a poor teacher. He secured the +Archbishop's release, and therewith a handsome reward to himself; but +lingering on, he found himself compelled to spend about a year in +London--in prison: some Italian merchants having trumped up against +him a charge of espionage, from which he only escaped by paying the +uttermost farthing. That he suffered such a disagreeable experience +perhaps indicates that no one in London was much interested in him or +his language. + +Another Greek who was copying manuscripts in England at this time was +John Serbopoulos, also of Constantinople, who between 1489 and 1500 +wrote a number of Greek manuscripts at Reading: two copies of Gaza's +Grammar, Isocrates _ad Demonicum_ and _ad Nicoclem_, several +commentators on Aristotle's Ethics, Chrysostom on St. Matthew, a +Psalter and the completion of the Corpus Suidas which his +fellow-countryman Emmanuel had begun. In one of his colophons (1494) +he specifies Reading Abbey as his place of abode; for the others he +merely says Reading. Possibly he was in the abbey the whole time; but +even a temporary visit, during which he wrote Gaza and Isocrates, is +an indication that one at least of the monastic houses was not hostile +to the revival of learning. + +Not that any doubt is possible on this point, since the researches of +Abbot Gasquet into the life of William Selling, who was Prior of +Christchurch, Canterbury, 1472-95. After entering the monastery, +about 1448, Selling was sent to finish his studies at Canterbury +College, the home of the Benedictines in Oxford.[20] In 1464 he was +allowed to go with a companion, William Hadley, to Italy; where they +spent two or three years over taking degrees in Theology, and heard +lectures at Padua, Bologna, and Rome. Twice in later years Selling +went to Italy again; and he brought back with him to England +manuscripts of Homer and Euripides, and Livy, and Cicero's _de +Republica_. Some of these have survived and are to be found in +Cambridge libraries; others perished in the fire which broke out when +Henry VIII's Visitors came to Canterbury to dissolve Christchurch. But +Selling's interest in learning was not confined to the collection of +manuscripts. A translation of a sermon of Chrysostom made by him in +1488 is extant; and an antiquarian visitor to Canterbury copied into +his note-book 'certain Greek terminations, as taught by Dr. Sellinge +of Christchurch'. + +[20] The Canterbury gate of Christ Church, Oxford, still marks its +site. A generation or so later Linacre and More were students there; +both having a connexion with Canterbury. + +Another Churchman of this period who was interested in the revival of +learning has recently been revealed to us by his books, John Shirwood, +Bishop of Durham, 1483-93. He was an adherent of Neville whom we +mentioned as the patron of Emmanuel of Constantinople; and having +risen to prosperity as Neville rose, he did not desert his patron when +Fortune's wheel went round. It does not appear that he was educated in +Italy; but for a number of years he was in Rome, as a lawyer engaged +in the Papal court; and to his good service there as King's proctor he +probably owed his advancement to Durham. Whilst at Rome, he bought +great numbers of the Latin classics, especially those which were +coming fresh from the press of Sweynheym and Pannartz. Cicero seems to +have held the first place in his affections, six volumes out of +forty-two; the Orations, the Epistles, _de Finibus_ and _de Oratore_, +the two last being duplicated. History is well represented with Livy, +Suetonius, Josephus, Plutarch, Polybius, and Dionysius of +Halicarnassus; the last four in translations. In poetry he had Plautus +and Terence, Horace, Martial, Juvenal, Seneca, and Statius; in +archaeology Vitruvius and Frontinus; of the Fathers, Jerome, +Lactantius, and the Confessions of Augustine. + +Twice after becoming Bishop Shirwood went to Rome again, as +ambassador; once in 1487 in company with Selling and Linacre: on the +second occasion, in 1492-3, he died. His books, however, had already +found their way home to Durham, where they were acquired by Foxe, +Shirwood's successor in the see; and Foxe subsequently presented them +to his newly-founded college of Corpus Christi in Oxford. It is +interesting to contrast Shirwood's collection with books presented to +the library of Durham monastery by John Auckland, who was Prior +1484-94. Not a single one of them is classical, not one printed; +Aquinas, Bernard, Anselm, Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus, Chrysostom in +Latin, Vincent de Beauvais, _Summa Bibliorum, Tractatus de scaccario +moralis iuxta mores hominum, Exempla de animalibus_. The Prior's +outlook was very different from the Bishop's. + +Leland tells us that Shirwood had also a number of Greek books, which +Tunstall found at Auckland in 1530; but only one of these has been +traced, a copy of Gaza's Grammar written by John Rhosus of Crete in +1479, and bought by Shirwood at Rome. Where the rest are no one knows; +doubtless scattered in many libraries, among people to whom the name +of Shirwood has no meaning. One wonders why Foxe did not secure them +for Corpus when he took the Latin books. He wanted Greek, but perhaps +he considered the set of Aldus' Greek texts which he actually gave to +Corpus, more worth having than Shirwood's manuscripts (for when +Shirwood was collecting in Italy, the first book printed in Greek, the +Florentine Homer, 1488, had not yet appeared): possibly he never saw +them. + +Time would fail us to tell of all the famous Englishmen who went to +study in Italy in the last years of the fifteenth century, let alone +those who went and did not win fame. Langton who became Bishop of +Winchester, and, not content with Wykeham's foundation, started a +school in his own palace at Wolvesey; Grocin, Linacre and William +Latimer, who took part in Aldus' Greek Aristotle; Colet; Lily who went +further afield, to Rhodes and Jerusalem; Tunstall and Stokesley and +Pace--all these were Oxford men, and yet few of them returned to +settle in Oxford and teach. Of their later lives much is known, though +not so much as we could wish; but their connexion with this +University cannot be precisely dated, because the university registers +for just this period, 1471-1505, are missing. We cannot tell just when +they graduated; and we miss the chance of contemporary notes added +occasionally to names of distinction. We cannot even discover to what +colleges they belonged. + +In the last half of the fifteenth century there had been a beginning +of Greek in Oxford. Thomas Chandler, Warden of New College, 1454-75, +had some knowledge of it; and under his auspices an Italian adventurer +of no merit, Cornelio Vitelli, came and taught here for a short time. +For about two years, 1491-3, Grocin returned to lecture on Greek, as +the result of his Italian studies. Colet was here about 1497-1505, +until he became Dean of St. Paul's; but his lectures, as we have said, +were on the Vulgate, not the Greek Testament. Of the rest that shadowy +and fugitive scholar, William Latimer, was the only one of this band +of Oxonians who definitely came back to live and work in the +University; and he perhaps did not cast in his lot here until 1513. +When he did return, he was not to be torn away again from his rooms at +All Souls, under the shadow of St. Mary's tower. In 1516 More and +Erasmus wished him to come and teach Greek to Fisher, Bishop of +Rochester; but could not prevail with him. It would seem strange +to-day for an Oxford scholar to be invited to become private tutor to +the Chancellor of the sister University: he would probably shrink, as +Latimer did, and find refuge in excuses. For eight or nine years, +Latimer said, his studies had led him elsewhere, and he had not +touched Latin and Greek. For the same reason he declared himself +unable to help Erasmus in preparing for the second edition of his New +Testament. What these studies were is nowhere told--Latimer's only +printed work is two letters, one a mere note to Aldus, the other a +long letter to Erasmus--but there is some reason to suppose that they +were musical. He urged, too, that it was useless to hope the Bishop +could make much progress in a month or two with such a language as +Greek, over which Grocin had spent two years in Italy, and Linacre, +Latimer, and Erasmus himself had laboured for many years: it would be +much better to send to Italy for some one who could reside for a long +time in the Bishop's household. + +Though he remained faithful to Oxford, Latimer in his later years held +two livings near Chipping Campden: in one, Weston-sub-Edge, he rebuilt +his parsonage-house and left his initials W.L. in the stonework, in +the other, Saintbury, there is a contemporary medallion of him in the +East window, showing the tall, thin figure which George Lily +describes. + +At the time of Erasmus' first visit to England, 1499, London was far +more a centre of the new intellectual life than either Oxford or +Cambridge. He rejoiced in his first meeting with Colet, and in their +walks in Oxford gardens in the soft October sunshine; his Prior at St. +Mary's was benign and helpful; and he found a young compatriot, John +Sixtin, of Bolsward in East Friesland, studying law, and engaged with +him in a contest of that arid elegance which the taste of the age +still demanded. But in London he found Grocin at his City living, +ready to lend him books, and perhaps already contemplating those +lectures delivered two years later, on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of +Dionysius, which brought him to such a surprising conclusion--a denial +of the attribution of them to Dionysius the Areopagite, which in +agreement with Colet he had set out to prove. In London was Linacre, +just returned from Venice, full of Aldus' Greek Aristotle; to a +supplementary volume of which he had sent a translation of Proclus' +Sphere, a mathematical work then highly esteemed. He had been working +on Aristotelian commentators, and was soon to lecture on the +_Meteorologica_--a course which More, who was working for the Bar in +London, attended. More himself not long afterwards lectured publicly +in London on Augustine's _de Ciuitate Dei_, also a favourite work with +the humanists. William Lily, returned from his pilgrimage, was at work +perhaps already as a schoolmaster in London; and vying with More in +translating the Greek Anthology into Latin elegiacs. Bernard Andreas, +the blind poet of Toulouse, after trying his fortune in vain at +Oxford, had insinuated himself into Henry VII's confidence, and was +now attached to the court as tutor to Prince Arthur--an office from +which Linacre attempted unsuccessfully to oust him--and busy with his +history of the king's reign: a project which enjoyed royal favour, and +was the forerunner of Polydore Vergil's creditable essay towards a +critical history of England. + +When Erasmus was again invited to England in 1505-6, the position had +not changed. He writes to a friend in Holland: 'There are in London +five or six men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek: even +in Italy I doubt that you would find their equals. Without wishing to +boast, it is a great pleasure to find that they think well of me.' To +Colet in the following year, when he had said farewell, he writes from +Paris: 'No place in the world has given me such friends as your City +of London: so true, so learned, so generous, so distinguished, so +unselfish, so numerous.' With the string of epithets we are not +concerned: the point to remark is that it is of London he writes, not +of either of the universities. + +Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Erasmus did not +at once accept Colet's proposition in 1499 that he should stay and +teach in Oxford. Whether provision was offered him or not, we do not +know: he might perhaps have stayed on by right at St. Mary's, but he +loved not the rule. We do know, however, that at Paris there certainly +was no provision for him. In quest of Greek, in quest of the proper +equipment for his life's work, he went back to the old precarious +existence, pupils and starvation, the dependence and the flattery that +he loathed. It is this last, indeed, that puts the sting into his +correspondence with Batt. That loyal friend, ever coaxing money out of +his complacent and generous patroness for dispatch to Paris, would +now and then ask for a letter to her, to make the claims of the absent +more vivid. At this Erasmus would boil over: 'Letters,' he writes, +'it's always letters. You seem to think I am made of adamant: or +perhaps that I have nothing else to do.' 'There is nothing I detest +more than these sycophantic epistles.' Well he might; for this is the +sort of thing he wrote. + +You will remember that the Lady of Veere was named Anne of Borsselen. +A letter of Erasmus to her begins: 'Three Annas were known to the +ancients; the sister of Dido, whom the Muses of the Romans have +consecrated to immortality; the wife of Elkanah, with whose praises +Jewish records resound; and the mother of the Virgin, who is the +object of Christian worship. Would that my poor talents might avail, +that posterity may know of your piety and snow-white purity, and count +you the fourth member of this glorious band! It was no mere chance +that conferred upon you this name, making your likeness to them +complete. Were they noble? So are you. Did they excel in piety? Yours, +too, redounds to heaven. Were they steadfast in affliction? Alas that +here, too, you are constrained to resemble them. Yet in my sorrow +comfort comes from this thought, that God sends suffering to bring +strength. Affliction it was that made the courage of Hercules, of +Aeneas, of Ulysses shine forth, that proved the patience of Job.' +This, of course, is only a brief epitome. After a great deal more in +this strain, he concludes: 'I send you a poem to St. Anne and some +prayers to address to the Virgin. She is ever ready to hear the +prayers of virgins, and you I count not a widow, but a virgin. That +when only a child you consented to marry, was mere deference to the +bidding of your parents and the future of your race; and your wedded +life was a model of patience. That now, when still no more than a +girl, you repel so many suitors is further proof of your maiden heart. +If, as I confidently presage, you persevere in this high course, I +shall count you not amongst the virgins of Scripture innumerable, not +amongst the eighty concubines of Solomon, but, with (I am sure) the +approval of Jerome, among the fifty queens.' + +The taste of that age liked the butter spread thick, and Erasmus' was +the best butter. He relieved his mind the same day in a letter to +Batt--which he did not shrink from publishing in the same volume with +his effusion to the Lady Anne: 'It is now a year since the money was +promised, and yet all you can say is, "I don't despair," "I will do my +best." I have heard that from you so often that it quite makes me +sick. The minx! She neglects her property to dally and flirt with her +fine gentleman' (a young man whom Erasmus feared she would marry, as +in fact she did, shortly afterwards). 'She has plenty of money to give +to those scoundrels in hoods, but nothing for me, who can write books +which will make her famous.' _In ira veritas._ But for Erasmus--and +Batt--the rather simpering statue of Anne on the front of the +town-hall at Veere would have little meaning for us to-day. + +We must not judge Erasmus too hardly in his double tongue. Scholars of +to-day, secure in their endowments, can hold their heads high; of +their obligations to pious Founders no utterance is required save +_coram Deo_--'vt nos his donis ad Tuam gloriam recte vtentes'. We hear +much now of the artistic temperament which brooks no control, which at +all costs must express its message to the world. No artist has ever +burned with a fiercer fire than did Erasmus for the high tasks which +his powers demanded of him; but at this period of his life there was +no pious Founder to make his way plain. Later on, in all time of his +wealth, he was generosity itself with his money, and inexorable in +refusing honours and places that would have hindered him from his +work. + + + + +V + +ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK + + +In August 1511 Erasmus returned to Cambridge. He was a different man +from the young scholar who had determined twelve years before that it +was no use for him to stay in Oxford. In the interval he had learnt +what he wanted--Greek; he had had his desire and visited Italy; and +now he came back to sit down to steady work, in accordance with his +promise to Colet, in accordance with the purpose of his life, to +advance the study of the Scriptures and the knowledge of God. It had +been no light matter to learn Greek. Books were not abundant, and the +only teacher to be had, Hermonymus of Sparta, was useless to him, +neither could nor would impart the classical Greek that scholars +wanted. So Erasmus was compelled to fall back on the best of all +methods, to teach himself. He had no Liddell and Scott, no Stephanus; +probably nothing better than a manuscript vocabulary copied from some +earlier scholar, and amplified by himself. No wonder that he found +Homer difficult and skipped over Lucian's long words. He exercised +himself in translation, from Lucian, from Libanius, from Euripides. +But that ready method of acquiring a new language--through the New +Testament, was probably not open to him, for copies of the Gospels in +Greek were rare, and not within the reach of a needy scholar's purse. +However, he persevered, and at length he was satisfied. He never +attained to Budaeus' mastery of Greek, but he had acquired a working +knowledge which carried him as far as he wished to go. + +His visit to Italy need not detain us long. Twenty-five years later he +wrote to an Italian nobleman with whom he was engaged in controversy, +to say that Italy had taught him nothing. 'When I came to Italy, I +knew more Greek and Latin than I do now.' In the excitement of +contention he perhaps 'remembered with advantages', for in Italy he +had one great opportunity. He had published in 1500 at Paris a +chrematistic work entitled _Collectanea Adagiorum_, a collection of +Latin proverbs with brief explanations designed to be useful to the +numerous public who aspired to write Latin with elegance. After the +book was out, as authors do, he went on collecting, and on his way to +Italy in 1506, he published a slightly enlarged edition, also in +Paris. In Italy he made acquaintance with Aldus, and after finishing +his year of superintendence over the pupils he had brought with him, +he went, about the beginning of 1508, to dwell in the Neacademia at +Venice. In September 1508 there appeared from Aldus' press a Volume on +the same subject, but very different in bulk; no longer _Collectanea +Adagiorum_, but _Adagiorum Chiliades_. The Paris volume, a thin +quarto, had contained about 800 proverbs, Aldus' had more than 3,000, +and the commentary became so amplified, with occasional lengthy +disquisitions on subjects moral and political, that nothing but a +folio size would accommodate it. + +Where this work was done, Erasmus does not specifically state. One +passage gives the impression that he had made his new collections in +England; but as one reason for his dissatisfaction with the first +edition was the absence of citations from the Greek, it seems more +probable that he really wrote the new book in Aldus' house at Venice. +There, surrounded by the scholars of the New Academy, Egnatius, +Carteromachus, Aleander, Urban of Belluno, besides Aldus himself and +his father-in-law Asulanus, having at hand all the wealth of the +Aldine Greek editions and the Greek manuscripts which were sent from +far and near to be printed, Erasmus was thoroughly equipped to +transform his quarto into folio, his hundreds into thousands. He tells +us that the compositors printed as he wrote, and that he had hard work +to keep pace with them. Some of his rough manuscripts--written rapidly +in his smooth hand and flowing sentences--survive still to help us +picture the scene. It is remarkable how little correction there is. +Here and there a whole page is drawn straight through, to be +rewritten, or a passage is inserted in the neat margin; but there is +little botching, little mending of words or transposing of phrases, +such as make the rough work of other humanists difficult reading. As +he wished the sentences to run, so they flowed on to his pages, and so +they actually were printed. + +The importance of Erasmus' time in Italy is, then, that he completed, +or at any rate published, the enlarged _Adagia_, his first +considerable work, a book which carried his name far and wide +throughout Europe, and won him fame amongst all who had pretensions to +scholarship. No one reads it to-day. Except the composition of the +schools, for which Erasmus is considered unclassical, there is little +Latin writing now; but in its youth the book had a great vogue, and +went through hundreds of reprints. + +This second visit of Erasmus to Cambridge was under pleasant +conditions. Fisher was interested in his work, and having been until +recently President of Queens'--the foundation of Margaret of Anjou, +which Elizabeth Woodville had succoured, York coming to the rescue of +Lancaster--he was able without difficulty to secure rooms in college +for his protégé. High up they are, at the head of a stair-case, where +undergraduates still cherish his name, and where his portrait--an +heirloom from one generation to another--may be seen surrounded by +prints of gentlemen in pink riding to hounds; quite a suitable +collocation for this very humanly minded scholar. Besides his own work +he lectured publicly for a few months. He began to teach Greek, and +lectured on the grammar of Chrysoloras. Finding that this did not +attract pupils, he changed to Gaza; which he evidently expected to be +more popular. But he did not persevere. If his position was public +(which is doubtful), there was no money to pay him for long; and it +is a sign of the state of the University, that he found it no use to +lecture on anything more advanced than grammar. The Schoolmen were +still strongly entrenched. + +Besides teaching Greek he also lectured on Jerome's Letters and his +Apology against Ruffinus, books which, as we shall see, he was working +at privately. He is said to have held for a time the professorship of +Divinity founded in Cambridge, as in Oxford, in 1497 by the Lady +Margaret, but the records are inadequate; and here too it is possible +that his teaching was a private venture. He had no regular income +except a pension from Lord Mountjoy, to which in 1512 Warham added the +living of Aldington in Kent; and these were supplemented by occasional +gifts from friends, which he courted by dedicating to them +translations from Plutarch and Lucian, Chrysostom and Basil. But this +was not enough. He was free in his tastes, and liked to be free in his +spending. He needed a horse to ride, and a boy to attend upon him. In +consequence we hear a good many complaints of penury, all through his +three years at Cambridge, 1511 to 1514. + +It is worth while to examine in detail the work that he completed +during this period on the Letters of Jerome and the New Testament. One +afternoon in Oxford in 1499 he had had a long discussion with Colet, +and in the course of it had argued strongly against a point of view +which Colet had derived from Jerome. Whether this set him on to read +Jerome again--he was already quite familiar with him--is not clear; +but a year later, when he was hard at work in Paris, he was already +engaged upon correcting the text of Jerome, and adding a commentary, +being specially interested in the Letters. So far did his admiration +carry him that he writes to a friend, 'I am perhaps biased; but when I +compare Cicero's style with Jerome's, I seem to feel something lacking +in the prince of eloquence himself'. After he left Paris in 1501, we +hear no more of Jerome till 1511. It may therefore fairly be argued +that his early work was done on manuscripts found in Paris libraries, +very likely those of the great abbeys of St. Victor or St. +Germain-des-Prés. + +Subsequently, in Cambridge, he again had access to manuscripts and +completed his recension of the Letters. Robert Aldridge, a young +Fellow of King's, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, speaks of working +with him at Jerome in Queens', probably helping him in collation. An +early catalogue of the Queens' library does not contain any mention of +Jerome, so that Erasmus had probably borrowed his manuscripts from +elsewhere--perhaps, like those of the New Testament, from the Chapter +Library at St. Paul's; for later on, when the book was in the press, +he returned from Basle to England to consult the manuscripts again, +and there is no reason to suppose that during his brief stay--not a +full month--he went outside London. If this surmise were correct, the +destruction of St. Paul's library in the fires of 1561 and 1666 would +explain why so little has been discovered about the manuscripts which +Erasmus had for his Jerome. He himself, in his prefaces, gives little +indication of them, beyond saying that they were very old and +mutilated, and that some of them were written in Lombardic and Gothic +characters. Perhaps some day a student of Jerome will arise who will +be able to throw light on the matter from examination of the text at +which Erasmus arrived. + +To the New Testament--the other work which occupied his time at +Cambridge--he had also turned his attention shortly after his return +to Paris in 1500, beginning a commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul. +At the first start he wrote four volumes of it, but then for some +reason threw it aside, and never completed it, though his mind +recurred to it at intervals; and on one occasion after a fall from his +horse, in which he injured his spine, he vowed to St. Paul that he +would finish it, if he recovered. Probably he felt that his vow was +redeemed by his Paraphrases of the New Testament, which he wrote a few +years later, beginning with St. Paul, and completing the Epistles +before he undertook the Gospels. + +His next work on the New Testament came to him at Louvain in 1504. +Walking out one day to the Abbey of Parc, outside the town--a house of +White Canons, Erasmus himself being a Black--he came upon a manuscript +in their library, the Annotations of Valla on the New Testament. There +was an affinity between his mind and that of the famous scholar-canon +of St. John Lateran, who, in spite of his dependence on Papal +patronage and favour, had been unable to keep his tongue from asking +awkward questions, from inquiring even into the authenticity of the +Donation of Constantine. Erasmus read the Annotations and liked their +critical, scholarly tone, and the frequent citations of the original +Greek. With the characteristic generosity of the age he was allowed to +carry the manuscript away and print it in Paris, with a dedication to +an Englishman, Christopher Fisher, perhaps a kinsman of the Bishop of +Rochester. + +From Paris he wrote to Colet to report progress, saying that he had +learnt Greek and was ready to turn to the Scriptures, and asking him +to interest English patrons in their common work. By this time Colet +himself had become a patron, having been appointed Dean of St. Paul's. +It is therefore not surprising to find that within a year Erasmus was +established in London, living in a bishop's house, endowed by his old +pupil Lord Mountjoy, and rejoicing in the society of the learned +friends gathered in the capital. Chief among these was Colet, who lent +him manuscripts from the Chapter Library of St. Paul's, and provided a +copyist to write out the fruits of his labours, a one-eyed Brabantine, +Peter Meghen by name, who acted also as Colet's private +letter-carrier. Meghen wrote a bold, well-marked hand, which is easily +recognizable, and in consequence his work has been traced in many +libraries. The British Museum has a treatise of Chrysostom, translated +by Selling, and written by Meghen for Urswick, afterwards Dean of +Windsor and Rector of Hackney, to present to Prior Goldstone of +Canterbury. (Urswick was frequently sent on embassies, and had +doubtless enjoyed the hospitality of Christchurch on his way between +London and Dover.) At Wells there are a Psalter and a translation of +Chrysostom on St. Matthew, which Urswick, as executor to Sir John +Huddelston, knight, caused Meghen to write in 1514 for presentation to +the Cistercians of Hailes, in Gloucestershire. The Bodleian has a +treatise written by him in 1528 for Nicholas Kratzer to present to +Henry VIII; and Wolsey's Lectionary at Christ Church, Oxford, is +probably in Meghen's hand. + +But what concern us here are some manuscripts in the British Museum +and the University Library at Cambridge, written by Meghen in 1506 and +1509 at Colet's order for presentation to his father, Sir Henry Colet, +Lord Mayor of London, and containing in parallel columns the Vulgate +and another Latin translation of the New Testament, 'per D. Erasmum +Roterodamum'. Part and possibly all of this work was done by Erasmus, +therefore, during this second residence in England in 1505-6. He tells +us that he received two Latin manuscripts from Colet, which he found +exceedingly difficult to decipher; but one cannot make a new +translation from the Latin. To the Greek manuscripts used on this +occasion he gives no clue. + +In connexion with this help and encouragement shown by Colet as Dean +to a foreign scholar, it is worth while to mention the visit to +London in 1509 of Cornelius Agrippa, the famous philosopher and +scientist, who had been sent to England by Maximilian on a diplomatic +errand, which he describes as 'a very secret business'. During his +stay, which lasted into 1510, he tells us that 'I laboured much over +the Epistles of St. Paul, in the company of John Colet, a man most +learned in Catholic doctrine, and of the purest life; and from him I +learnt many things that I did not know'. Erasmus was in England at the +time of this visit of Agrippa; but unfortunately he makes no allusion +to it, neither in his life of Colet, nor in his later correspondence +with Agrippa, nor, so far as I know, elsewhere in his works. If he had +done so, it might have solved a problem which is very curious in the +case of a public man of his fame and position, and of whom so much is +otherwise known. From the autumn of 1509, when he returned from Italy +and wrote the Praise of Folly in More's house in Bucklersbury, until +April 1511, when he went to Paris to print it, Erasmus completely +disappears from view. He published nothing, no letter that he wrote +survives, we have no clue to his movements. If it had been any one +else, we might almost conjecture that, like Hermonymus, he was in +prison. It was just during this period that Cornelius Agrippa was in +London. If either had mentioned the other, we should have a spark to +illumine this singular belt of darkness. + +When Erasmus returned to Cambridge in 1511, he was already familiar +with the field in which he was going to work; but the precise order in +which his scheme unfolded itself, whether the Greek text was his first +aim or an afterthought, is not clear, his utterances being perhaps +intentionally ambiguous. During these three years in Cambridge he +refers occasionally to the 'collation' and 'castigation' of the New +Testament, so that evidently he was engaged with the four Greek +manuscripts, which, according to an introduction in his first edition, +he had before him for his first recension. One of these has been +identified, the Leicester Codex written by Emmanuel of Constantinople, +which, as already mentioned, was with the Franciscans at Cambridge +early in the sixteenth century. + +By 1514 he was ready. In the last three years he had completed Jerome +and the New Testament, and had also prepared for the press some of +Seneca's philosophical writings, from manuscripts at King's and +Peterhouse; besides lesser pieces of work. A difficulty arose about +the printing. In 1512 he had been in negotiation with Badius Ascensius +of Paris to undertake Jerome and a new edition of the _Adagia_. What +actually happened is not known. But in December 1513 he writes to an +intimate friend that he has been badly treated about the _Adagia_ by +an agent--a travelling bookseller, who acted as go-between for +printers and authors and public; that instead of taking them to Badius +and offering him the refusal, the knavish fellow had gone straight to +Basle and sold them, with some other work of Erasmus, to a printer +who had only just completed an edition of the _Adagia_. Erasmus' +indignation does not ring true. It is highly probable that he was in +search of a printer with greater resources than Badius, who as yet had +produced nothing of any importance in Greek, and would therefore be +unable to do justice to the New Testament; and that accordingly he had +commissioned the agent to negotiate with a firm which by now had +established a great reputation--that of Amorbach and Froben, in Basle. +His attention had perhaps been aroused by a flattering mention of him +in a preface written in Froben's name for the pirated edition of the +_Adagia_, August 1513, to which Erasmus was referring in the letter +just quoted. Rumour had spread through Europe that Erasmus was +dead--it was repeated six months later in a book printed at +Vienna--and the Basle circle deplored the loss that this would mean to +learning. + +There were other reasons for this choice, apart from the excellence of +the printers. Erasmus had never been happy in Paris. He had often been +ill beside the sluggish Seine, and had only found his health again by +leaving it. The theologians were still predominant there, and Louis +XII had a way of interfering with scholars who discovered any freedom +of thought. Standonck, for instance, the refounder of Montaigu, had +had to disappear in 1499-1500. For Erasmus to sit in Paris for two or +three years while his books were being printed, would have been at +least a penance. But Basle was very different. The Rhine, dashing +against the piers of the bridge which joined the Great and Little +towns, brought fresh air and coolness and health. The University, +founded in 1460, was active and liberally minded. The town had +recently (1501) thrown in its lot with the confederacy of Swiss +cantons, thereby strengthening the political immunity which it had +long enjoyed. Between the citizens and the religious orders complete +concord prevailed; and finally, except Paris, there was no town North +of the Alps which could vie with Basle in the splendour and number of +the books which it produced. This is how a contemporary scholar[21] +writes of the city of his adoption. 'Basle to-day is a residence for a +king. The streets are clean, the houses uniform and pleasant, some of +them even magnificent, with spacious courts and gay gardens and many +delightful prospects; on to the grounds and trees beside St. Peter's, +over the Dominicans', or down to the Rhine. There is nothing to offend +the taste even of those who have been in Italy, except perhaps the use +of stoves instead of fires, and the dirt of the inns, which is +universal throughout Germany. The climate is singularly mild and +agreeable, and the citizens polite. A bridge joins the two towns, and +the situation on the river is splendid. Truly Basle is [Greek: +basileia], a queen of cities.' + + [21] Beatus Rhenanus, _Res Germanicae_, 1531, pp. 140, 1. + +In 1513 the two greatest printers of Basle were in partnership, John +Amorbach and John Froben. Amorbach, a native of the town of that name +in Franconia, had taken his M.A. in Paris, and then had worked for a +time in Koberger's press at Nuremberg. About 1475 he began to print at +Basle, and for nearly forty years devoted all his energies to +producing books that would promote good learning; being, however, far +too good a man of business to be indifferent to profit. His ambition +was to publish worthily the four Doctors of the Church. Ambrose +appeared in 1492, Augustine in 1506, and Jerome succeeded. The work +was divided amongst many scholars. Reuchlin helped with the Hebrew and +Greek, and spent two months in Amorbach's house in the summer of 1510 +to bring matters forward. Subsequently his province fell to Pellican, +the Franciscan Hebraist, and John Cono, a learned Dominican of +Nuremberg, who had mastered Greek at Venice and Padua, and had +recently returned from Italy with a store of Greek manuscripts copied +from the library of Musurus. Others who took part in the work were +Conrad Leontorius from the Engental; Sapidus, afterwards head master +of the Latin school at Schlettstadt; and Gregory Reisch, the learned +Prior of the Carthusians at Freiburg, who seems to have been specially +occupied with Jerome's Letters. + +Amorbach's sons, Bruno, Basil, and Boniface, were just growing up to +take their father's place, when he died on Christmas Day, 1513. The +eldest, Bruno, was born in 1485, and easily paired off with Basil, who +was a few years younger. They went to school together at Schlettstadt, +under Crato Hofman, in 1497. In 1500 they matriculated at Basle; in +1501 they went to Paris, where in 1504-5 they became B.A., and in 1506 +M.A. Bruno was enthusiastic for classical studies, and enjoyed life in +Paris, where he certainly had better opportunities, especially of +learning Greek, than he had at Basle; so his father allowed him to +stay on. Basil was destined for the law, and was sent to work under +Zasius at Freiburg. The youngest son, Boniface, 1495-1562, also went +to school at Schlettstadt; but when his time came for the university, +his father preferred to keep him at home under his own eye. He was +rather dissatisfied with Bruno, who as a Paris graduate had begun to +play the fine gentleman, and was spending his money handsomely, as +other young men have been known to do. The vigorous, straightforward +old printer had made the money himself by steady hard work, and he had +no intention of letting his son take life too easily. So he wrote him +a piece of his mind, in fine, forcible Latin. + + +JOHN AMORBACH TO HIS ELDEST SON, BRUNO, IN PARIS: from Basle, 23 July +1507. + + 'I cannot imagine, Bruno, what you do, to spend so much + money.[22] You took with you 7 crowns; and supposing that you + spent 2, or at the outside 3, on your journey, you must have + had 4 left--unless perhaps you paid for your companion, which I + did not tell you to do. Very likely his father has more money + than I have, but does not give it to him; no more do I give you + money to pay for other people. It is quite enough for me to + support you and your brothers, indeed more than enough. + + Then, directly you reached Paris, you received 12 crowns from + John Watensne. Also you had 9 for your horse, as you say in + your letter. Also 9 more from John Watensne, which I paid to + Wolfgang Lachner at the Easter fair at Frankfort; also 15 at + midsummer. Add these together and you will see that you have + had 52 crowns in 9 months. + + Perhaps you imagine that money comes to me anyhow. You know + that for the last two years I have not been printing. We are + living upon capital, the whole lot of us.[23] I have to provide + for my household.[24] I have to provide for your brother Basil, + and for Boniface, whom I have sent to Schlettstadt. I ought, + too, to do something for your sister: for several sober and + honourable men are at me about her, and I do not like to be + unfair towards her. So just remember that you are not the only + one. + + You may take it for sure that I cannot, and will not, give you + more than 22 or 23 crowns a year, or at the most 24. If you can + live on that at Paris, well: I will undertake to let you have + it for some years. But if it is not enough, come home and I + will feed you at my table. Think it over and let me know by the + next messenger: or else come yourself. + + I have been told on good authority that in the town (lodgings, + as opposed to a college) one can live quite decently on 16 or + at most 20 crowns: also that sometimes three or four students, + or more, take a house or a room, and then club together and + engage a cook, and that their weekly bills scarcely amount to a + teston <1/5 of a crown> a head. If that is so, join a party + like that and live carefully. + + Good-bye. Your mother sends her love. + + Your affectionate father, John Amorbach. + + [22] Bruno, satis admirari non possum quid agas vt tot pecunias + consumas. + [23] Consumimus omnes de capitali. + [24] Habeo prouidere domui meae. + +No answer came back, and on 18 August John Amorbach wrote again. Think +of a modern parent waiting a month for an answer to such a +communication and getting none! It might quite well have come. But +posts were slow and uncertain; and when he wrote again, the father's +righteous indignation had somewhat abated. It was not till 16 October +that Bruno replied, but with a very proper letter. He was a good +fellow, and knew what he owed to his father. After expressing his +regrets and determination to live within his allowance in future, he +goes on: 'There is a man just come from Italy, who is lecturing +publicly on Greek. <This was Francis Tissard of Amboise, who began +lecturing on Lascaris' Greek Grammar.> I have so long been wishing to +learn this language, and here at length is an opportunity. I have +plunged headlong into it, and with such a teacher I feel sure of +satisfying my desires, which are as eager as any inclinations of the +senses. So please allow me to stay a few months longer, and then I +shall be able to bring home some Greek with me. After that I will come +whenever you bid me.' Next summer he did return and settled down to +work in the press. It was well worth while, even for a scholar who was +eager to go on learning, and was inclined to grudge time given to +business: for with Jerome beginning and all the scholars whom we +mentioned coming in and out, Amorbach's house in Klein-Basel became an +'Academy' which could bear comparison with Aldus' at Venice. It was +worth Boniface's while, too, to take his course at Basle under such +circumstances; especially as in 1511 John Cono began to teach Greek +and Hebrew regularly to the printer's sons and to any one else who +wished to come and learn. It is worth noticing that not one of these +young men went to Italy for his humanistic education. + +Amorbach's partner, John Froben, 1460-1527, was a man after his own +heart: open and easy to deal with, but of dogged determination and +with great capacity for work. He was not a scholar. It is not known +whether he ever went to a University, and it is doubtful whether he +knew any Latin; certainly the numerous prefaces which appear in his +books under his name are not his own, but came from the pens of other +members of his circle. So the division came naturally, that Amorbach +organized the work and prepared manuscripts for the press, while +Froben had the printing under his charge. In later years, after +Amorbach's death, the marked advance in the output of the firm as +regards type and paper and title-pages and designs may be attributed +to Froben, who was man of business enough to realize the importance of +getting good men to serve him--Erasmus to edit books, Gerbell and +Oecolampadius to correct the proofs, Graf and Holbein to provide the +ornaments. For thirteen years he was Erasmus' printer-in-chief, and +produced edition after edition of his works, both small and great; and +whilst he lived, he had the call of almost everything that Erasmus +wrote. It is quite exceptional to find any book of Erasmus published +for the first time elsewhere during these years 1514-27. A few were +given to Martens at Louvain, mostly during Erasmus' residence there, +1517-21, one or two to Schurer at Strasburg, one or two more to a +Cologne printer; but for one of these there is evidence to show that +Froben had declined it, because his presses were too busy. It is +pleasant to find that the harmony of this long co-operation was never +disturbed. Erasmus occasionally lets fall a word of disapproval; but +what friends have ever seen eye to eye in all matters? + +When Froben died in October 1527 as the result of a fall from an upper +window, Erasmus wrote with most heartfelt sorrow a eulogy of his +friend. 'He was the soul of honesty himself, and slow to think evil of +others; so that he was often taken in. Of envy and jealousy he knew as +little as the blind do of colour. He was swift to forgive and to +forget even serious injuries. To me he was most generous, ever seeking +excuses to make me presents. If I ordered my servants to buy +anything, such as a piece of cloth for a new coat, he would get hold +of the bill and pay it off; and he would accept nothing himself, so +that it was only by similar artifices that I could make him any +return. He was enthusiastic for good learning, and felt his work to be +his own reward. It was delightful to see him with the first pages of +some new book in his hands, some author of whom he approved. His face +was radiant with pleasure, and you might have supposed that he had +already received a large return of profit. The excellence of his work +would bear comparison with that of the best printers of Venice and +Rome. Six years before his death he slipped down a flight of steps on +to a brickwork floor, and injured himself so severely that he never +properly recovered: but he always pretended that the effects had +passed away. Last year he was seized with a serious pain in his right +ankle, and the doctors could do nothing except to suggest that the +foot should be taken off. Some alleviation was brought by the skill of +a foreign physician, but there was still a great deal of pain in the +toes. However, he was not to be deterred from making the usual +journeys to Frankfort (in March and September for the book-fairs) and +rode on horseback both ways. We entreated him to take more care of +himself, to wear more clothes when it was cold; but he could not be +induced to give in to old age, and abandon the habits of a vigorous +lifetime. All lovers of good learning will unite to lament his loss.' + +If Erasmus was fortunate in his printer, he was still more fortunate +in the friend and confidant whom he found awaiting him at Basle, Beat +Bild of Rheinau, 1485-1547, known then and now as Beatus Rhenanus, one +of the choicest spirits of his own or any age. His father was a +butcher of Rheinau who left his home because of continued ravages by +the Rhine which threatened to sweep away the town. Settling in +Schlettstadt, a free city of the Empire near by, he rose to the +highest civic offices, and sent his son to the Latin school under +first Crato Hofman and then Gebwiler. Beatus was contemporary there +with Bruno and Basil Amorbach, and staying on longer than they did, +rose to be a 'praefect' in the school, which a few years later, +according to Thomas Platter, had 900 boys in it. This number seems +large for a town of perhaps not more than four or five thousand +inhabitants; but it was equalled by the school at Alcmar in the days +of Bartholomew of Cologne, and by Deventer, as we have seen, it was +far surpassed. In 1503 Beatus went to Paris, and there overtook the +Amorbach boys who had two years' start of him; becoming B.A. in 1504 +and M.A. in 1505, a year before Bruno. After his degree he stayed on +in Paris as corrector to the press of Henry Stephanus for two years; +and then returning home engaged himself in a similar capacity to +Schurer at Strasburg, also giving a hand with editions of new texts. +In 1511, attracted by the fame of the good Dominican, John Cono, he +went to Basle to work for the elder Amorbach and take lessons under +Cono with the sons. When Erasmus came, Beatus at once fell under his +spell, and subordinated his own projects to the requirements of his +friend's more important undertakings. + +That indeed is Beatus' great characteristic throughout his life. He +was well off, for his father 'by the blessing of God on his ingenious +endeavour had arisen to an ample estate'; and thus the son was not +obliged to seek reward. He gave himself, therefore, unstintingly to +any work that needed doing for his friends, editing, correcting, +supervising; and usually suppressing the part he had taken in it. His +own achievements are nevertheless considerable. The bibliographers +have discovered sixty-eight books in which he had a capital share; and +though a large number of these appear to be mere reprints of books +printed in France or Italy--the law of copyright in those days was, as +might be expected, uncertain--, there is a residue in which he really +did original work: some notes on the history and geography of Germany +which he composed, and editions of Pliny's Natural History, Tacitus, +Tertullian and Velleius Paterculus--the latter having an almost +romantic interest from the fortunes of the manuscript on which it is +based. A measure of the confidence which Erasmus subsequently reposed +in both his judgement and his good faith is that in 1519 and 1521, +when he had decided to publish some more of his letters, he just sent +to Beatus bundles of the rough drafts he had preserved, and told him +to select and edit them at his discretion. + +A sketch of Beatus, written at his death by John Sturm of Strasburg, +the friend of Ascham, gives a picture of the life he led at +Schlettstadt during his last twenty years: the plain, simple living in +the great house inherited from his father, without luxury or display, +attended upon by an old maidservant and a young servant-pupil, given +to friends but not allowing hospitality to infringe upon his work, +lapped in such quiet as to seem almost solitude; the daily round being +dinner at ten, in the afternoon a walk in his gardens outside the city +walls, and supper at six. Gentle and accommodating, modest and +diffident in spite of his learning, reluctant to talk of himself, and +slow to take offence--it is no wonder that he held the affections of +his friends. Well might Erasmus liken him to the blessed man of the +first Psalm, 'who shall be as a tree planted by the waterside.' + +We have seen Beatus' enthusiasm for queenly Basle. Of his native town +he was not so proud; though it has good Romanesque work in St. Fides' +church and rich Gothic in the minster, and though Wimpfeling had just +built a beautiful Renaissance house with Italian designs round its bay +window and medallions of Roman Emperors on the pilasters. The school, +too, was famous throughout Germany; and Lazarus Schurer had started a +creditable printing-press. Yet to Beatus the minster is only 'rather +good, but modern', the Dominicans' house 'mediocre', the nuns' +buildings 'unhealthy', the people 'simple and resourceless, as you +would expect with vine-growers, and too fond of drinking'. 'There is +nothing remarkable here', he says, 'but the fortifications; indeed we +are a stronghold rather than a city. The walls are circular, built of +elegant brick and with towers of some pretensions.' What pleased him +as much as anything was that the ramparts were covered in for almost +the whole of their length, and thus afforded protection to the +night-guards against what he calls 'celestial injuries'. + +One reason that we know Beatus so well is that his library has +survived almost intact, as well as a great number of letters which he +received. At his death he left his books to the town of Schlettstadt; +and there they still are, forming the major and by far the most +important part of the town library. It is a wonderful collection of +about a thousand volumes, some of them extremely rare; many bought by +him in his Paris days, some presents from friends sent or brought from +far with dedicatory inscriptions. Hardly a book has not his name and +the date when he acquired it, or other marks of his use. But they have +not yet come to their full usefulness, for there is no adequate +catalogue of them. In many cases their direct value has passed away. +No one wishes to read the classics or the Fathers in the texts current +in the sixteenth century; yet behind printed books lie manuscripts, +and from examination of manuscripts on which printed texts are based, +we can gather many useful indications to throw light on the tradition +of the classics, the gradual steps by which the past has come down to +us. Besides such texts there are multitudes of original compositions +of Beatus' own period, books of great value for the history of +scholarship; many of them requiring to be dated with more precision +than is attainable on the surface. It will be a signal service to +learning when a trained bibliographer takes Beatus Rhenanus' books in +hand and gives us a scientific catalogue. + +These were some of the friends who were in Basle when Erasmus first +began to think of sending his work there to be printed. By the summer +of 1514 the preliminary negotiations had been satisfactorily concluded +and he set out. The story which he tells of his arrival is well known. +Amorbach was now dead; so he marched into the printing-house and asked +for Froben. 'I handed him a letter from Erasmus, saying that I was a +familiar friend of his, and that he had charged me to arrange for the +publication of his works; that any undertaking I made would be as +valid as if made by him: finally, that I was so like Erasmus that to +see me was to see him. He laughed and saw through the joke. His +father-in-law, old Lachner, paid my bill at the inn, and carried me +off, horse and baggage to his house.' + +He was not at first sure whether he would stay: he might get the work +better done at Venice or at Rome. But the attractions of the printer's +house and circle were not to be resisted; and gradually, one after +another, the books which he had brought were undertaken by Froben, a +new edition of the _Adagia_, Seneca, the New Testament, Jerome. The +way in which the printing was carried out illustrates the critical +standards of the age. Erasmus was absent from Basle during the greater +part of the time when Seneca was coming through the press; and the +proofs were corrected by Beatus Rhenanus and a young man named Nesen. +Under such circumstances a modern author would feel that he had only +himself to thank for any defects in the book. Not so Erasmus. He boils +over with annoyance against the correctors for the blunders they let +pass. The idea that so magnificent a person as an editor or author +should correct proofs had not arisen. It was the business of the young +men who had been hired to do this drudgery; and all blame rested with +them. So far as the evidence goes, it was the same all through +Erasmus' life. In the case of one of his most virulent apologies +(1520) he says that he corrected all the proofs himself; but from the +stress he lays on the loss of time involved, it is clear that he +regarded this as something exceptional, and not to be repeated. With +the _Adagia_ published by Aldus (1508) he says that he cast his eye +over the final proofs, not in search of errors, but to see whether he +wished to make any changes. But in the main his books, like everybody +else's, were left to the care of others. + +The fact is that in the splendour of the new invention of printing, +the possibilities of accompanying error had not been realized. In just +the same spirit the idea went abroad that when a book had been +printed, its manuscript original had no value. We have seen how +Erasmus was allowed to carry off the manuscript of Valla from Louvain +to Paris. Aldus received codices from all parts of Europe, sent by +owners with the request that they should be printed; but no desire for +their return. In 1531 Simon Grynaeus came from Basle to Oxford and was +given precious texts from college libraries to take back with him and +have published. Generosity helped to mislead. To keep a manuscript to +oneself for personal enjoyment seemed churlish. If it were printed, +any one who wished might enjoy it. That any degeneration might come in +by the way, that the printed text might contain blunders, was not +perceived. The process seemed so straightforward, so mechanical; as +certain a method of reproduction as photography. But the human element +in it was overlooked. _Humanum est errare_. + +It was the same with the New Testament as with Seneca. When the form +of the work had been decided upon--a Greek text side by side with +Erasmus' translation, and notes at the end--two young scholars, +Gerbell and Oecolampadius, were installed in charge of the book. For +the Greek Erasmus had expected, he tells us, to find at Basle some +manuscript which he could give to the printers without further +trouble. But he was annoyed to find that there was none available +which was good enough, and he positively had to go through the one +that he selected from beginning to end before he could entrust it to +his correctors. In addition to this he put into their hands another +manuscript, which had been borrowed from Reuchlin; presumably to help +them in case they should have any difficulty in deciphering the +first. However, after a time he discovered that they were taking +liberties, and following the text of the second manuscript, wherever +they preferred its reading: as though the editing were in their own +hands. He took it from them and found another manuscript which agreed +more closely with the first. For the book of Revelation only one Greek +manuscript was available; and at the end five verses and a bit were +lacking through the loss of a leaf. Erasmus calmly translated them +back from the Latin, but had the grace to warn the reader of the fact +in his notes. + +As to the translation, an interesting point is that it is modified +considerably from the translation which he had made in 1505-6, and is +brought closer to the text of the Vulgate. In the second edition of +the New Testament, March 1519, he explains in a preliminary apology +that he had changed back in this way in 1516 from fear lest too great +divergence from the Vulgate might give offence. But the book was on +the whole so well received that he soon realized that the time was +ripe for more advanced scholarship. His earlier version was the best +that he could do, in simplicity of style and fidelity to the original. +Accordingly in 1519 he introduced it with the most minute care, even +such trivial variations as _ac_ or _-que_ for _et_ being restored. The +transformation was not without its effects. Numerous passages were +objected to by the orthodox; as for example, when he translates +[Greek: logos] in the first verse of St. John's Gospel by _sermo_, +instead of _verbum_, as in the Vulgate and the edition of 1516. + +The New Testament appeared in March 1516, dedicated by permission to +the Pope; in the following autumn came Jerome, in nine volumes, of +which four were by Erasmus, dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury: +and thus the Head of the Church and one of his most exalted suffragans +lent their sanction to an advancement of learning which theological +faculties in the universities viewed with the gravest suspicion. + +Erasmus had now reached his highest point. He had equipped himself +thoroughly for the work he desired to do. He was the acknowledged +leader of a large band of scholars, who looked to him for guidance and +were eagerly ready to second his efforts; and with the resources of +Froben's press at his disposal, nothing seemed beyond his powers and +his hopes. Wherever his books spread, his name was honoured, almost +reverenced. Material honours and wealth flowed in upon him; and he was +continually receiving enthusiastic homage from strangers. He saw +knowledge growing from more to more, and bringing with it reform of +the Church and that steady betterment of the evils of the world which +wise men in every age desire. In all this his part was to be that of a +leader: not the only one, but in the front rank. He enjoyed his +position, feeling that he was fitted for it; but he was not puffed up. +In his dreams of what he would do with his life, he had ever seen +himself advancing not the name of Erasmus but the glory of God. In +his later years he became impatient of criticism, and resented with +great bitterness even difference of opinion, unless expressed with the +utmost caution; to hostile critics his language is often quite +intolerable. But the spirit underlying this is not mere vanity. No +doubt it wounded him to be evil spoken of, to have his pre-eminence +called in question, to be shown to have made mistakes: but the real +ground of his resentment was rather vexation that anything should +arise to mar the unanimity of the humanist advance toward wider +knowledge. Conscious of singleness of purpose, it was a profound +disappointment to him to have his sincerity doubted, to be treated as +an enemy by men who should have been his friends. + +Into the discord of the years that followed I do not propose to enter. +They were years of disappointment to Erasmus; disappointment that grew +ever deeper, as he saw the steady growth of reform broken by the +sudden shocks of the Reformation and barred by subsequent reaction. +Throughout it all he never lost his faith in the spread of knowledge, +and gave his energies consistently to help this great cause. He +produced more editions of the Fathers, either wholly or in part: +Cyprian, Arnobius, Hilary, Jerome again, Chrysostom, Irenaeus, +Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, Lactantius, Alger, Basil, Haymo, and +Origen; the last named in the concluding months of his life. The +storms that beat round him could not stir him from his principles. To +neither reformer nor reactionary would he concede one jot, and in +consequence from each side he was vilified. He was drawn into a series +of deplorable controversies, which estranged him from many; but of his +real friends he lost not one. It is pleasant to see the devotion with +which Beatus Rhenanus and Boniface Amerbach comforted his last years; +never wavering in the service to which they had plighted themselves in +the enthusiasm of youth. + +The chance survival of the following note enables us to stand by +Erasmus' bedside in his last hours. It was written by one of the +Frobens, possibly his godson and namesake, Erasmius, to Boniface +Amerbach, and it may be dated early in July 1536, perhaps on the 11th, +the last sunset that Erasmus was to see. 'I have just visited the +Master, but without his knowing. He seems to me to fail very much: for +his tongue cleaves to his palate, so that you can scarcely understand +him when he speaks. He is drawing his breath so deep and quick, that I +cannot but wonder whether he will live through the night. So far he +has taken nothing to-day except some chicken-broth. I have sent for +Sebastian <Munster, the Hebraist>. If he comes, I will have him +introduced into the room, but without the Master's knowledge, in order +that he may hear what I have heard. I am sending you this word, so +that you may come quickly.' + +Erasmus' last words were in his own Dutch speech: 'Liever Got'. + +No account of Erasmus must omit to tell how he laboured for peace. +Well he might. In his youth he had seen his native Holland torn +between the Hoeks and the Cabeljaus, the Duke of Gueldres and the +Bishop of Utrecht, with occasional intervention by higher powers. Year +after year the war had dragged on, with no decisive settlement, no +relief to the poor. One of his friends, Cornelius Gerard, wrote a +prose narrative of it; another, William Herman, composed a poem of +Holland weeping for her children and would not be comforted. _Dulce +bellum inexpertis._ War sometimes seems purifying and ennobling to +those whose own lives have never been jeoparded, who have never seen +men die: but not so to those who have known and suffered. Throughout +his life Erasmus never wearied of ensuing peace; and for its sake he +reproved even kings. In 1504 he was allowed to deliver a panegyric of +congratulation before the Archduke Philip the Fair, who had just +returned from Spain to the Netherlands; and after sketching a picture +of a model prince, inculcated upon him the duty of maintaining peace. +In 1514 he wrote to one of his patrons, brother of the Bishop of +Cambray, a letter on the wickedness of war, obviously designed for +publication and actually translated into German by an admirer a few +years later, to give it wider circulation. In 1515 the enlarged +_Adagia_ contained an essay on the same theme, under the title quoted +above: words which, translated into English, were again and again +reprinted during the nineteenth century by Peace Associations and the +Society of Friends. In 1516 he was appointed Councillor to Philip's +son, Charles, who at 16 had just succeeded to the crowns of Spain. His +first offering to his young sovereign was counsel on the training of a +Christian prince, with due emphasis on his obligations for peace. In +1517 he greeted the new Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, with a +'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all lands', _Querela Pacis vndique +profligatae_. And besides these direct invocations, in his other +writings, his pen frequently returns upon the same high argument. For +a brief period in his life it seemed as though peace might come back. +Maximilian's death in 1519 followed by Charles' election to the Empire +placed the sovereignty of Western and Central Europe in the hands of +three young men, who were chivalrous and impressionable, Henry and +Francis and Charles: only the year before they had been treating for +universal peace. If they would really act in concord, it seemed as +though the Golden Age might return, and Christendom show a united face +against the watchful and unwearying Turk. But though the sky was +clear, the weather was what Oxfordshire folk call foxy. Strife of +nations, strife of creeds cannot in a moment be allayed. Suddenly the +little clouds upon the horizon swelled up and covered the heaven with +the darkness of night; and before the dawn broke into new hope, +Erasmus had laid down his pen for ever, and was at rest from his +service to the Prince of Peace. + + + + +VI + +FORCE AND FRAUD + + +As you stand on the Piazza dei Signori at Verona, at one side rises +the massive red-brick tower of the Scaliger palace, lofty, castellated +at its top, with here and there a small window, deep set in the old +masonry, and the light that is allowed to pass inwards, grudgingly +crossed by bars of rusty iron--a place of defence and perhaps of +tyranny, within which life is secure indeed, but grim and sombre. +Opposite, in an angle of the square, stands a very different building, +the Palazzo del Consiglio. It has only two storeys, but each of these +is high and airy; above is a fine chamber, through whose ample windows +streams in the sun; below is a pleasant loggia, supported by slender +columns. Marble cornices and balustrades give a sense of richness, and +the wall-spaces are bright with painting and ornament. The spacious +galleries invite to enjoyment, to pace their length in free +light-hearted talk, or to stand and watch the life moving below, with +the sense of gay predominance that the advantage of height confers. + +The two buildings typify most aptly the ages to which they belong: the +contrast between them is as the gulf between the Middle Ages and the +Renaissance. Step back in thought to the twelfth century, and we find +civilization struggling for its very existence. Few careers were +possible. Above all was the soldier, ruthlessly spreading murder and +desolation, and expecting no mercy when his own turn came; in the +middle were the merchant and the craftsman, relying on strong city +walls and union with their fellows, and the lawyer building up a +system, and profiting when men fell out; underneath was the peasant, +pitiably dependent on others. On all sides was bestial cruelty and +reckless ignorance: the overmastering care of life to find shelter and +protection. How strong, how luxuriously strong seemed that tower, with +so few apertures to admit the enemy and the pursuer! once inside, who +would wish to stir abroad? For the man who would think or study there +was only one way of life, to become sacrosanct in the direct service +of God. The Church, with splendid ideals before it, was exerting +itself to crush barbarism, and its forts were garrisoned by men of +spirit, whose courage was not that of the destroyer. In the +monasteries, if anywhere, was to be found that peace which the world +cannot give, the life of contemplation, in which can be felt the +hunger and thirst after knowledge. + +By the middle of the sixteenth century the scene has changed. Much +blood has flowed through the arches of time; and now the conqueror has +learnt from the Church to be merciful, from nascent science to be +strong. He can spread peace wherever his sword reaches; and fear that +of old ruled all under the sun, now can walk only in dark places. +Walls no longer bring comfort, and soon they are to be thrown down to +make way for the broad streets which will carry the movement outwards; +and, most significant change, the country house with 'its gardens and +its gallant walks' takes the place of the grange. From the thraldom of +terror what an escape, to light, air, freedom, activity! The gates of +joy are opened, the private citizen learns to live, to follow choice +not necessity, to give the reins to his spirit and take hold on the +gifts that Nature spreads before him. + +In the pursuit of peace, human progress has lain in the enlargement of +the units of government capable of holding together; from villages to +towns, from towns to provinces, from provinces to nations. The last +step had been the achievement of the Middle Ages, though even by the +end of the fifteenth century it was not yet complete: the twentieth +century finds us reaching forward to a new advance. We have spoken of +Erasmus' efforts to bring back peace from her exile, of the +experiences of his youth when Holland had wept for her children. In +1517, when he wrote his 'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all +lands', he was a man and one of Charles' councillors; but Holland was +still weeping and refusing comfort. She had good reason. The provinces +of the Netherlands were disunited, no sway imposed upon them with +strength enough first to restrain and then to knit together. On either +side of the Zuider Zee lay two bitter enemies: Holland, which had +accepted the Burgundian yoke, and Friesland, which after a long +struggle against foreign domination, had been reduced by the rule of +Saxon governors, Duke Albert and Duke George. To the south was +Gueldres, which, under its Duke, Charles of Egmont, had thrown in its +lot with France against Burgundy, and was continually instigating the +subjugated Frieslanders to rebellion. Then was war in the gates. + +This was the kind of thing that happened. In 1516, after a fresh +outbreak of the ceaseless struggle, Henry of Nassau, Stadhouder of +Holland and Zeeland, ordered that all Gueldrians or Frieslanders who +showed their faces in his dominions should be put to death; and some +who were resident at the Hague were executed on the charge of sending +aid to their compatriots. A raid by the Gueldrians ended in the +massacre of Nieuwpoort. Nassau replied by ravaging the country up to +the walls of Arnhem, the Gueldres capital. + +Duke Charles had terrible forces at command. A body of mercenary +troops, known as the Black Band, had been used by George of Saxony for +the repression of Friesland in 1514, and since then had been seeking +employment wherever they could find it. At the same time, one of the +conquered Frieslanders, known as Long Peter, had turned to piracy as +an effective way of revenging himself on Holland. Proclaiming himself +'King of the Sea', he seized every ship that came in his way, showing +no mercy to Hollanders and holding all others to ransom. + +In May 1517, the Duke, violating a truce not yet expired, renewed +hostilities. The Black Band, some of whom had strayed as far as Rouen +in quest of fighting, flocked back. At the end of June 3000 of them +crossed the Zuider Zee in Long Peter's ships and disembarked suddenly +at Medemblik, in North Holland. The town was quickly set on fire, and +everything destroyed except the citadel; the fleet carrying back the +first spoils. Then they marched southwards, burning what they list; +and happy were those whose offer of ransom was accepted, to escape +with plunder only. + +There was no fixed plan. The murderous horde wandered along, turning +to right or left as fancy suggested. After burning five country towns, +they appeared at Alcmar, the chief town of North Holland, into which +the most precious possessions of the neighbourhood had been hurriedly +conveyed. By a heavy payment, the burghers purchased immunity from the +flames; but for eight days the town was given up to the lust and +ferocity of an uncontrolled soldiery, from whose senseless destruction +it took thirty years to recover. Egmond, with its great abbey, was +pillaged; and then it was Haarlem's turn to suffer. But by this time +resistance had been organized. Troops had been called back from +garrison work in Friesland, and a strong line drawn in front of +Haarlem. Headed off, the Black Band turned suddenly away. Passing +Amsterdam and Culemborg, it penetrated down into South Holland, whence +it would be easy to pass back into Gueldres. Asperen was its next +prey. Three times the citizens beat off the cruel foe: a few more to +man their walls, and they might have driven him right away, to +overwhelm others less fortunate and less brave. + +But it was not to be. At the fourth attempt the marauders were +successful, and massacre ensued. Death to the men, worse than death to +the women: nor age nor innocence could touch those black hearts. A +schoolmaster with his boys fled into a church and hid trembling in the +rood-loft. Before long they were discovered. Thirsting for blood, some +of the monsters rushed up the steps and tossed the shrieking victims +over on to the pikes of their comrades below. When all the butchery +was finished, a few helpless and infirm survivors were dragged out of +hiding-places. The miserable creatures were driven out of the city and +the gates barred in their faces. For a month the Black Band held +Asperen as a standing camp, living upon the provisions stored up by +the dead. Then Nassau came with troops and drove them forth, pursuing +into Gueldres, where he burned '46 good villages' in revenge. The +sight of fire blazing to heaven is appalling enough when men are +ranged all on one side, and the battle is with the element alone. Our +peace-lapped imaginations cannot picture the terror of flames kindled +aforethought. As those poor fugitives scattered over the country, +cowering into the darkness out of the fire's searching glow, they +cannot but have recalled the words: 'Woe unto them that are with child +and to them that give suck in those days.' At least they could give +thanks that their flight was not in the winter. + +Meanwhile Long Peter had not been idle. On 14 August he had a great +battle with the Hollanders off Hoorn. Eleven ships he took, and cast +their crews into the sea: 500 men, save one, a Gueldrian, struggling +in the calm summer waters and stretching out their hands to a foe who +knew no pity. In September he surrounded a merchant fleet. The +Easterlings escaped at heavy ransom; but the crews of three Holland +vessels were flung to the waves. Then he carried the war on to the +land, to glean what the Black Band had left. With 1200 men he took +Hoorn by escalade; plunder-laden and sated, they returned to the sea. +Nothing was too small or too helpless for his rapacity. Along the +coast they picked up a barge of Enckhuizen. Its only crew, master and +mate, were thrown overboard, and Peter's fleet sailed upon its way. We +must remember that the provinces engaged in this internecine strife +were not widely diverse in race, and that to-day they are peacefully +united under one governance. + +The winter of 1517-18 was spent by the Black Band in Friesland. Three +thousand men who are prepared to take by force what is not given to +them, do not lie hungry in the cold. We may be sure that under them +the land had no rest. At Easter they began to move southwards in quest +of other victims and other employ. But as they halted between Venlo +and Roermond, resistance confronted them. Nassau had arrayed by his +side the Archbishop of Cologne and the Dukes of Juliers and Cleves: +the gates of the cities were closed and the ferry-boats that would +have carried them across the Maas had been kept on the other side. +Caught in a trap, the freebooters promised to lay down their weapons +and disperse. The disarmament proceeded quietly till one of the +company-leaders refused to part with a bombard, the new invention, of +which he was very proud. A trumpeter, seeing the man hesitate, sounded +a warning, and the containing troops stood on the alert. Readiness led +to action. Suddenly they fell on the helpless horde, for whom there +was no safety but in flight. A thousand were massacred before Nassau +and his confederates could check their men. + +Erasmus was about to set out from Louvain to Basle, to work at a new +edition of the New Testament. Bands such as these were, of course, a +peril to travellers. Half exultant, half disgusted, he wrote to More: +'These fellows were stripped before disbandment: so they will have all +the more excuse for fresh plundering. This is consideration for the +people! They were so hemmed in that not one of them could have +escaped: yet the Dukes were for letting them go scot-free. It was mere +chance that any of them were killed. Fortunately, a man blew his +trumpet: there was at once an uproar, and more than a thousand were +cut down. The Archbishop alone was sound. He said that, priest though +he was, if the matter were left to him, he would see that such things +should never occur again. The people understand the position, but are +obliged to acquiesce.' To Colet he exclaimed more bitterly: 'It is +cruel! The nobles care more for these ruffians than for their own +subjects. The fact is, they count on them to keep the people down.' +Let us be thankful that Europe to-day has no experience of such +mercenaries. + +A sign of the troubles of the times was the existence of the French +order of Trinitarians for the redemption of prisoners. This need had +been known even when Rome's power was at its height, for Cicero[25] +specifies the redemption of men captured by pirates as one of the ways +in which the generously minded were wont to spend their money. The +practice lasted down continuously through the Middle Ages. Gaguin, the +historian of France, Erasmus' first patron in Paris, was for many +years General of the Trinitarians, and made a journey to Granada to +redeem prisoners who had been taken fighting against the Moors. Even +in the eighteenth century, church offertories in England were asked +and given to loose captives out of prison. + + [25] _De Officiis_, 2. 16. + +Where the king's peace is not kept and the king's writ does not run, +men learn to rely on themselves. Those who protect themselves with +strength, discover the efficacy of force, and soon are not content to +apply it merely on the defensive. It is not surprising, therefore, to +find in Erasmus' day many cases of resort to violence to remedy +defective titles. Nowadays we never hear of a defeated candidate for +a coveted post trying to obtain by force and right of possession the +position which has been given to another. It is unthinkable, for +instance, that a Warden of Merton duly elected should have to eject +from college some disappointed rival who had possessed himself of the +Warden's office and house: as actually happened in 1562. It is, +perhaps, not so much that we have become more law-abiding, as that we +realize that any such attempt must be fruitless when the strong arm of +the State is at hand, ready to assert the rights of the lawful +claimant. + +In Erasmus' day might was often right. Thus in 1492 the Abbot of St. +Bertin's at St. Omer died, and the monks elected in his place a +certain James du Val, who was duly consecrated in July 1493. The +Bishop of Cambray, however, had had the abbey in his eye for his +younger brother Antony, who had been ejected ten years before by the +powerful family of Arenberg from the Abbey of St. Trond in Limburg, +and meanwhile had been living unemployed at Louvain. The Bishop +persuaded the Pope to annul du Val's election and appoint Antony in +his place, probably on some technical ground. Armed with this +permission he appeared at St. Omer in October 1493 and violently +installed his brother; who held the abbey undisturbed till his death +nearly forty years later. The Bishop's success with the Pope is the +more noteworthy, as for a period of seven years he himself had refused +to surrender an abbey near Mons to a papal nominee, who was not strong +enough to wrest it from him. Again, during the five years of the +English occupation of Tournay, 1513-18, there was a continual struggle +between two rival bishops, appointed when the see fell vacant in +1513--Wolsey nominated by Henry VIII and Louis Guillard by the Pope. +It goes without saying that Wolsey won; and Guillard did not get in +till 1519, the year after the evacuation by the English. + +Fernand tells a story of violence at the monastery of Souillac, which +was closely connected with his own at Chezal-Benoît. When the Abbot +died, a monk of St. Martin's at Tours, who was a native of Souillac, +with the aid of a brother who was a court official, got himself put in +as abbot before the monks had time to elect. They appealed to the +king, but quite in vain; for instead of giving ear to their complaint +he sent down a troop of soldiers to support the invading Abbot. It was +a grievous time for the poor monks. The garrison did whatever they +pleased: imprisoned the faithful servants of the monastery, introduced +hunting-dogs and birds, roared out their licentious choruses to the +sound of lute and pipe, and gave up the whole day to games of every +sort, in which the weaker brethren joined. Those who refused to do so +or to violate their vows by eating flesh were insulted; and as they +held divine service, coarse laughter and clamour interrupted them. +Strict watch was kept upon them, too, lest they should speak or write +to any one of their injuries. We need not deplore the passing of such +'good old days'. + +It is necessary to realize the certainty which in the sixteenth +century men allowed themselves to feel on subjects of the highest +importance; for nothing short of this intense conviction is adequate +to explain the ferocity with which they treated those over whom they +had triumphed in matters of religion. Burning at the stake was the +common method of expiation. The fires of Smithfield consumed brave, +humble victims, while Erasmus jested over the rising price of wood, In +France the Inquisition entrapped many men of literary distinction, +Louis de Berquin 1529, John de Caturce 1532, Stephen Dolet 1546; on +the charge of heresy or atheism which could only with great difficulty +be refuted. To kill a fellow-creature or to watch him put to death +would be physically impossible to most of us, in our unruffled lives; +where from year's-end to year's-end we hardly even hear a word spoken +in anger. In consequence it is difficult for us to understand the +indifference with which in the sixteenth century men of the most +advanced refinement regarded the sufferings of others. Between rival +combatants and claimants for thrones fierce measures are more +intelligible; especially in days when stone walls did not a prison +make--such a prison, at least, as the prisoner might not some day hope +to break. Things had improved somewhat since the Middle Ages. We hear +less of the varieties of mutilation, the blinding, loss of nose, +hands, breasts, which were the portion of either sex indiscriminately, +when the death-penalty had not been fully earned. But it was still +fashionable to suspend your adversary in a cage and torture him, or +to confine him for years in a dungeon which light and air could never +reach. The executions of heretics became public shows, carefully +arranged beforehand, and attended by rank and fashion; to whom to show +any sign of sensibility would have been disgrace. Impossible it seems +to believe. We must remember that the perpetrators of such noble acts +had persuaded themselves that they were serving God. They were as +confident as Joshua or as Jehu that they knew His will; and they had +no hesitation in carrying it out. + +If you may take a man's life in God's name, there can be no objection +to telling him a lie. The violation of the safe-conduct which brought +Hus to Constance was a fine precedent for breaking faith with a +heretic. When Luther came to Worms to answer for himself before +Emperor and Diet, the Pope's representatives reminded Charles of the +principle which had lighted the fires at Constance and ridded the +world of a dangerous fellow. Fortunately Charles had German subjects +to consider, and the Germans had a reputation for good faith of which +they were proud. Let us credit him too with some generosity; he was +scarcely 21, and the young find the arguments of expediency difficult. +Anyway, Luther with the help of his friends got off safely. The +intrigues and subterfuges of diplomatists are still very often +revolting to honest men. But there is some excuse for them; they act +on behalf of nations, who have to look to themselves for protection +and can rarely afford to be generous and aboveboard. But so barefaced +a violation of faith to an individual before the eyes of the world +would no longer be tolerated, not even in the name of the Lord. + +The following example will illustrate the ideas of the age about the +treatment of heretics; an example of faith continually broken and of +incredible cruelty. In 1545 the Cardinal de Tournon and Baron +d'Oppède, the first president of the Parliament of Aix, were moved to +extirpate that plague-spot of Southern France, the Vaudois communities +of Dauphiné, who went on still in their wickedness and heresy. The +intriguers prepared a decree revoking the letters patent of 1544, +which had suspended proceedings against the Vaudois; and when the +keeper of the seals refused to present it to the king for signature, +by unlawful means they presented it through a secretary and unlawfully +procured the affixion of the seals. But this was a mere trifle: +greater things were to follow. + +On 13 April 1545 the Baron entered the Vaudois territory at the head +of a body of troops, reinforced by the papal Vice-legate and a +fanatical mob of countryfolk. The inhabitants offered little +resistance, and soon villages were in flames on every side. At +Mérindol the soldiers found only one inhabitant, a poor idiot; all the +rest had fled. The Baron ordered him to be shot. Above by the castle +some women were discovered hiding in a church; after indescribable +outrages they were thrown headlong from the rocks. Cabrières being +fortified was prepared to stand a siege; but on a promise of their +lives and property the inhabitants opened the gates. Without a +moment's hesitation the Baron gave orders to put them all to death. +The soldiers refused to break plighted faith; but the mob had no +scruples and the ghastly work began. 'A multitude of women and +children had fled to the church: the furious horde rushed headlong +among them and committed all the crimes of which hell could dream. +Other women had hidden themselves in a barn. The Baron caused them to +be shut up there and fire set to the four corners. A soldier rushed to +save them and opened the door, but the women were driven back into the +fire with blows of pikes. Twenty-five women had taken shelter in a +cavern at some distance from the town. The Vice-legate caused a great +fire to be lighted at the entrance: five years afterwards the bones of +the victims were found in the inmost recesses.'[26] La Coste had the +same fate; the promise made and immediately violated, and then all the +terrors of hell. In the course of a few weeks 3000 men and women were +massacred, 256 executed, and six or seven hundred sent to the galleys; +while children unnumbered were sold as slaves. The offence of these +poor people was that they had been seeking in their own fashion to +draw nearer to the God of Love. + + [26] R.C. Christie, _Étienne Dolet_, ch. xxiv. + +But public morals ever lag behind private; and in the sixteenth +century private standards of truth and honour were not so high as they +are now. Here again we may find one main cause in the absence of +personal security. In these days of settled government, when thought +and speech are free, it is scarcely possible to realize what men's +outlook upon life must have been when walls had ears and a man's foes +might be those of his own household. In Henry VII's reign England had +not had time to forget the Wars of the Roses, and claimants to the +throne were still occasionally executed in the Tower. Even under the +mighty hand of Henry VIII ministers rose and fell with alarming +rapidity. When princes contend, private men do well to hold their +peace; lest light utterances be brought up against them so soon as +Fortune's wheel has swung to the top those that were underneath. In +matters of faith, too, it was supremely necessary to be careful; for +unguarded words might arouse suspicions of heresy, to be followed by +the frightful penalties with which heresy was extirpated. On great +questions, therefore, men must have kept their tongues and thoughts in +a strict reserve: candour and openness, those valuable solvents of +social humours, can only have been practised by the unwise. + +Truth is one of those things in which to him that hath shall be given. +It is a common jest in the East that professional witnesses come daily +to the law-courts waiting to be hired by either side. The harder truth +is to discover, with the less are men content. With many inducements +to dissimulation and no great expectations of personal honesty, men +are likely to traffic with expediency and to be adept in justifying +themselves when they forsake the truth. + +Some examples of this may be found in Erasmus' letters. When he was +in Italy in 1509, Henry VII died. His English patron, Lord Mountjoy, +was intimate with Henry VIII. A few weeks after the accession a letter +from Mountjoy reached Erasmus, inviting him to return to England and +promising much in the young king's name. The letter was in fact +written by Ammonius, an Italian, who afterwards became Latin secretary +to the king. He was recognized as one of the best scholars of the day; +and there can be no doubt that the letter was his composition. +Mountjoy was a sufficiently keen scholar to sit up late at night over +his books, and to be chosen as a companion to the young Prince Henry +in his studies; but such autograph letters by him as survive show that +he wrote with difficulty even in English, and it is impossible to +suppose that he would have kept an accomplished Latinist in his employ +merely to act as copyist to his effusions. Moreover, Erasmus, writing +a few years later, says that he recognized the letter as Ammonius' +work, not from the handwriting, which he had forgotten, but from the +style. Nevertheless he allowed it to be published in 1519 as his +patron's. Of his connivance in the matter there is actual proof; for +in 1517 he had the letter copied by one of his servant-pupils into a +letter-book, and added the heading himself. What he first wrote was: +'Andreas Ammonius Erasmo Roterodamo S.D.,' but afterwards he scratched +out Ammonius' name and wrote in 'Guilhelmus Montioius'. In a sense, of +course, he was correct; for the letter was written in Mountjoy's name. +But he cannot have been unaware that in an age which valued elegant +Latinity so highly, his patron would be gratified by the ascription. + +It was no great matter, and did no harm to any one. But it throws some +doubt on Erasmus' statement as to the scholarship of Henry VIII. When +Henry's book against Luther appeared in 1521, people said that Erasmus +had lent him a hand. In denying the insinuation Erasmus avers that +Henry was quite capable of doing the work himself, and adds that his +own suspicions of Henry's capacity had been dispelled by Mountjoy, who +when tutor to the young prince had preserved rough copies of Latin +letters written by Henry's own hand; and these he produced to convince +the doubter. Erasmus had a double motive in asserting Henry's +authorship, to play the courtier and to avoid provoking Luther; and +Mountjoy, as we have seen, is not above suspicion. But there is some +further evidence in support of them all, prince and patron and +scholar. Pace, Colet's successor at St. Paul's, speaks of hearing +Henry talk Latin quickly and readily; and Giustinian, the Venetian +ambassador, quotes a few remarks made to him by Henry in Latin by way +of greeting. Till more evidence is forthcoming, Erasmus must be let +off on this count with a Not proven. + +Another example of scant regard for truth is his disowning of the +_Julius Exclusus_. This was a witty dialogue, in Erasmus' best style, +on the death of Pope Julius II. The Pope is shown arriving at the gate +of heaven, accompanied by his Genius, a sort of guardian angel, and +amazed to find it locked, with no preparation at all for his +reception. His amazement grows when St. Peter at length appears and +makes it plain that the gate is not going to be opened, and that there +is no room in heaven for Julius with his record of wars and other +unchristian deeds; whereupon there is a fine set-to, and each party +receives some hard knocks. + +That Erasmus was its author there can be no doubt; for there is +evidence in two directions of the existence of a copy or copies of it +in his handwriting, and we cannot suppose that at that period of his +life, when he regularly had one or more servant-pupils in his employ, +he would have troubled to copy out with his own hand a work of that +length by another. There was nothing very outrageous in the dialogue, +nothing much more than there was in the _Moria_; but it was not the +sort of thing for a man to write who was so closely connected as +Erasmus was with the Papal see, and who wished to stand well with it +in the future. The _Julius_ appeared in print in 1517, of course +anonymously, and Erasmus was pleased with its reception; but he soon +found that people who were not in the secret were attributing it to +him. That would never do; so he set to work to repudiate it. The +friends that knew he exhorted to know nothing; the rest he endeavoured +to persuade that he was not the author, using many forms of +equivocation. He rises to his greatest heights in addressing +cardinals. To Campegio, then in London, he writes on 1 May 1519: + + 'How malicious some people are! Any scandalous book that comes + out they at once put down to me. That silly production, _Nemo_, + they said was mine; and people would have believed them, only + the author (Hutten) indignantly claimed it as his own. Then + those absurd Letters (of the Obscure Men): of course I was + thought to have had a hand in them. Finally, they began to say + that I was the author of this book of Luther; a person I have + hardly ever heard of, certainly I have not read his book. As + all these failed, they are trying to fasten on me an anonymous + dialogue which appears to make mock of Pope Julius. Five years + ago I glanced through it, I can hardly say I read it. + Afterwards I found a copy of it in Germany, under various + names. Some said it was by a Spaniard, name unknown; others + ascribed it to Faustus Andrelinus, others to Hieronymus Balbus. + For myself I do not quite know what to think. I have my + suspicions; but I haven't yet followed them up to my + satisfaction. Certainly whoever wrote it was very + foolish;'--that sentence was from his heart!--'but even more to + blame is the man who published it. To my surprise some people + attribute it to me, merely on the ground of style, when it is + nothing like my style, if I am any judge: though it would not + be very wonderful if others did write like me, seeing that my + books are in all men's hands. I am told that your Reverence is + inclined to doubt me: with a few minutes' conversation I am + sure I could dispel your suspicions. Let me assure you that + books of this kind written by others I have had suppressed: so + it is hardly likely that I should have published such a thing + myself, or ever wish to publish it.' + +Not bad that, from the author of the _Julius_. A fortnight later he +wrote to Wolsey to much the same effect, instancing as books that had +been attributed to him Hutten's _Nemo_ and _Febris_, Mosellanus' +_Oratio de trium linguarum ratione_, Fisher's reply to Faber, and even +More's _Utopia_. As to the _Julius_ he says: 'Plenty of people here +will tell you how indignant I was some years ago when I found the book +being privately passed about. I glanced through it (I can hardly be +said to have read it); and I tried vigorously to get it suppressed. +This is the work of the enemies of good learning, to try and fasten +this book upon me.' Finally, to clinch his argument, he asseverates +with audacious ingenuity: 'I have never written a book, and I never +will, to which I will not affix my own name.' + +Jortin points out that the only thing which Erasmus specifically +denies is the publication of the _Julius_. As we have seen, an author +of consequence in those days rarely troubled to correct his own +proof-sheets. Erasmus left his _Moria_ behind in Paris for Richard +Croke to see through the press; More committed his _Utopia_ to +Erasmus, who had it printed for him at Louvain; Linacre sent his +translations of Galen to Paris by the hands of Lupset, who supervised +the printing. It is therefore quite probable that Erasmus did not +personally superintend the publication of the _Julius_; but until +students of typography can tell us definitely which is the first +printed edition, and where it was printed, we cannot be certain. But +besides this point of practice born of convenience, there was another +born of modesty. With compositions that were purely literary--poems +and other creations of art and fancy, as opposed to more solid +productions--the convention arose of pretending that the publication +of them was due to the entreaties of friends, or even in some cases +that it had been carried out by ardent admirers without the author's +knowledge. Printing, with its ease of multiplication, had made +publication a far more definite act than it was in the days of +manuscripts. In the prefaces to his early compositions, Erasmus almost +always assumes this guise. More actually wrote to Warham and to +another friend that the _Utopia_ had been printed without his +knowledge. Of course this was not true, but nobody misunderstood him. +Dolet's _Orationes ad Tholosam_ appeared through the hand of a friend, +but with the most transparent figments. + +There was, therefore, abundant precedent for denying authorship. But +there is a difference between the light veil of modesty and clouds of +dust raised in apprehension. The publication of the _Julius_ certainly +placed Erasmus in a dilemma; he extricated himself by equivocation, +which barely escapes from direct untruth. It is possible that a public +man of his position at the present day might find himself driven to a +similar method of escape from a similar indiscretion.[27] But +experience has taught men not to write lampoons which they dare not +avow, and a more effective law of copyright protects them against +publication by pirate printers. + + [27] An example of this may be seen in the new _Life of Edward + Bulwer, First Lord Lytton_, 1913, ii. 71-6. Bulwer-Lytton's + letter, 15 March 1846, denying the authorship of the _New + Timon_, might almost have been translated from Erasmus' to + Campegio, except that it goes further in falsehood. + + + + +VII + +PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS + + +An interesting parallel is often drawn between Indian life to-day and +the life with which we are familiar in the Bible. The women grinding +at the mill, the men who take up their beds and walk, the groups that +gather at the well, the potter and his wheel, the marriage-feasts, the +waterpots standing ready to be filled, the maimed, the leper, and the +blind--all these are everyday sights in the streets and households of +modern India. + +But we may also make an instructive comparison between India and +mediaeval, or even Renaissance, Europe. As soon as one gets away from +the railway and the telegraph--indeed even where they have already +penetrated--one still finds in India conditions prevailing which +continued in Europe beyond the Middle Ages. The customary tie between +master and servant, lasting from one generation to another, preserves +the community of interest which prevented the feudal bond from being +irksome. The modern severance of classes, the modern desire for +aloofness, has not yet come. The servants are an integral part of the +household, sharing in its ceremonies and festivities, crowding into +their master's presence without impairing his privacy, and following +him as escort whenever he stirs abroad. The child-marriage which we +condemn in modern India, was frequently practised in Europe in the +sixteenth century, when the uncertainty of life made men wish to +secure the future of their children so far as they could. The +foster-mothers with whom young Mughal princes found a home, whose sons +they loved as their own brothers, had their counter-part in these +islands as late as the days of the great Lord Cork. Walled cities with +crowded houses looking into one another across narrow winding alleys, +were an inevitable condition of life in sixteenth-century Europe +before strong central government had made it safe to live outside the +gates. Even the houses of the great were dark, airless, cramped, with +tiny windows and dim, opaque glass; such as one may still see at +Compton Castle in Devonshire or the Château des Comtes at Ghent. +Communications moved slowly along unmetalled roads or up and down +rivers. Carriages with two or four horses were occasionally used; but +the ordinary traveller rode on horseback, and needy students coming to +a university walked, clubbing together for a packhorse to carry their +modest baggage. These are features which may still be matched in many +parts of India. + +The ravages of plague, the absence of sanitation, the recurrence of +famine and war, all combined in sixteenth-century Europe to produce an +uncertainty in the tenure of life, which modern India knows only too +well from all the causes except the last; but India does not follow +Europe in the resulting practice of frequent remarriage on both sides. +In Erasmus' day a marriage in which neither side had previously or +did subsequently contract a similar relation must have been quite +exceptional. A certain German lady, after one ordinary husband, became +the wife of three leading Reformers in succession, Oecolampadius, +Capito, and Bucer--almost an official position, it would seem. She +survived them all, and when Bucer died at Cambridge in 1551, was able +to return to Basle, to be buried beside Oecolampadius in the +Cathedral. Katherine Parr married four times. To her first husband, +who left her a widow at fifteen, she was a second wife; to her second, +a third wife; to her third, who was Henry VIII, a sixth; and only her +fourth was a bachelor. + +The custom of the year's 'doole' after the death of husband or wife +was just at this period breaking down. In 1488 Edward IV declined a +new marriage for his sister, Margaret of York, the new-made widow of +Charles the Bold, on the ground that 'after the usage of our realms no +estate or person honourable communeth of marriage within the year of +their dool'. But Tudor practice was very different. For Mary, Queen of +France, who married her Duke of Suffolk as soon as her six weeks of +white mourning were out, there was some excuse of urgency; Henry, too, +in his rapid marriage with Jane Seymour had special reasons. But +Katherine Parr, when her turn to marry him came, was but a few months +a widow; and later, in being on with her old love, Thomas Seymour, +when her grim master was only just dead, she had no motive beyond the +wishes of lovers long delayed. The Princess Mary, however, considered +this latter action highly improper. + +John Oporinus (Herbst), the Basle printer (1507-68), had a varied +experience; taking four widows to wife. At the age of 20 he +married--almost, it seems, out of a sense of duty--the widow of his +teacher, Xylotectus of Lucerne; an elderly lady who persecuted him +sorely, and once in a passion threw dirty water over him. After eight +years, two of which he had spent roving through Germany with +Paracelsus, she died, leaving her property to relations. Oporinus' +next widow had three children, girls, who grew up to share their +mother's expensive tastes. For nearly thirty years their extravagance +vexed him, though his wife had tact enough to keep from open quarrels. +Then one day he returned from the Frankfort fair to find her dead of +the plague. The same visitation, 1564, by carrying off first John +Herwagen the younger and then Ulrich Iselin, Professor of Law at +Basle, made two more widows, successively to bear Oporinus' name. +Herwagen's widow, Elizabeth Holzach, was a sweet woman, but died in +the fourth month of her new marriage, 17 July 1565. Iselin's was +Faustina, daughter of Boniface Amerbach, born in 1530. To her seven +children by Iselin, she added one for Oporinus, Emmanuel, born 25 Jan. +1568; but the father of 60 did not live six months to have pleasure in +his firstborn. + +With such frequent changes the marriage-tie cannot have given the same +personal attachment that is possible at the present day: indeed such +unions can scarcely have seemed more lasting than the temporary +associations of friends. One need only recall the bargainings that +occur in the Paston Letters to realize that there was not much romance +about their marriages, at any rate beforehand. Thus wrote Sir John +Paston in 1473 of a suitor for his sister Anne: 'As for Yelverton, he +said but late that he would have her if she had her money; and else +not.' + +Thomas More is rightly regarded as a man in whom the spirit burned +brighter and clearer than in most of his contemporaries; and yet his +matrimonial relations savour more of convenience or even of business +than of affection. For his first wife, we are told--and there is no +reason to doubt the story--, his fancy had lighted on an Essex girl, +the daughter of a country-gentleman; but on visiting her at home he +found that she had an elder sister not yet married. Feeling that to +have her younger sister married first would be a grief to the elder, +he 'inclined his affection' towards her and made her his wife in place +of his first choice. The interpretation that when he saw the elder +sister, he preferred her before the other, might be probable to-day: +to apply it to the story of More would be a case of that commonest of +'vulgar errors' in history,--judging the past by the ideas of the +present. For five or six years More lived with his girl-bride, whose +country training and unformed mind caused much trouble and difficulty +to them both. The unequal relation between them appears in a story +told by Erasmus; that More delighted her once by bringing home a +present of sham jewels, and apparently did not think it necessary to +undeceive her about them. Happiness came in time; but after bearing +him four children, she died. Within a month the widower came to his +father-confessor by night and obtained leave to be married next +morning. His new wife was a middle-aged lady of no charms--indeed she +seems to have been a regular shrew--who served him as a capable +housekeeper and looked after his children while they were young. But +she never engaged his affections; and it was his eldest daughter, +Margaret, who became the chosen partner of his joys and sorrows in +later years. + +The habitual remarriage of widows proceeded in part from the desire, +or even need, for a husband's protection; and in consequence it was +not only the young who were open to men's addresses. Beatus Rhenanus, +writing to a servant-pupil who had recently left him to launch forth +into the world, counsels him to marry, if possible, a rich and elderly +widow; in order that in a few years by her death he may find himself +equipped with an ample capital for his real start in life. Such advice +from a man like Beatus can only have been in jest: but if there had +not been some reality of actual practice, the jest would have fallen +flat. Indeed Beatus goes on to indicate that this course had been +taken by Reuchlin; whose elderly consort was, however, disobliging +enough to live for many years. The ill-success attending Oporinus' +essay in this direction we have already seen. + +But it was not so with all. Not infrequently Erasmus deplores the +imprudence of the young men who had left his service, in allowing +themselves to fall in love and marry without securing proper dowries +with their young brides. He was indeed, considering his natural +shrewdness, singularly ignorant of women; as his advice to youthful +husbands sometimes shows. To one, for example, who had written to +announce that before long he hoped to become a father, he replies with +congratulations, and then says: 'Now that your wife no longer needs +your care, you will be able to betake yourself to a university and +finish your studies'--advice which we may surely suppose was not +taken. + +During the insecurity of the Middle Ages, the seclusion of women for +their own protection had been severely necessary. In the East the +'purdah-system' reached the length of excluding women of the better +classes from the society of all men but those of their own family. Of +such rigidity in Europe I cannot find any traces except under Oriental +influence;[28] but there is no doubt that women's life at the +beginning of the Renaissance in the North was circumscribed. Such +higher education as they received was given at home, by father or +brothers or husband, or by private tutors. But there are not a few +examples of educated women. In the well-known Frisian family, the +Canters of Groningen, parents and children and even the maidservant +are said to have spoken regularly in Latin. Antony Vrye of Soest, one +of the Adwert circle, wrote to his wife in Latin; and his daughter +helped him with the teaching of Latin in the various schools over +which he presided, at Campen and Amsterdam and Alcmar. Pirckheimer's +sisters and daughters, Peutinger's wife, are famous for their +learning. In England throughout the Renaissance period the position of +women and their education steadily improved. Alice, Duchess of +Suffolk, the foundress of Ewelme, had an interest in literature; and +the great Lady Margaret, besides the endowments which are her memorial +at the universities, constantly fostered the efforts of Wynkyn de +Worde, and herself translated part of the _Imitatio_ from the French. +The Princess Mary, as the result of the liberal training of Vives and +other masters, could translate from Aquinas, take part in acting a +play of Terence, and read the letters of Jerome; and before she was +30, made a translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase of St. John's Gospel, +which formed part of the English version of those Paraphrases ordered +by Injunctions of Edward VI to be placed beside the Bible in every +parish church throughout the realm. + + [28] In 1729 the Abbé Fourmont found the seclusion of women + extensively practised in Athens for fear of the Turks; see + R.C. Christie, _Essays and Papers_, p. 69. + +More, for his dear 'school', engaged the best teachers he could find. +John Clement, afterwards Wolsey's first Reader in Humanity at Oxford, +and William Gonell, Erasmus' friend at Cambridge, read Sallust and +Livy with them. Nicholas Kratzer, the Bavarian mathematician, also one +of Wolsey's Readers at Oxford, taught them astronomy: to know the +pole-star and the dog, and to contemplate the 'high wonders of that +mighty and eternal workman', whom More could feel revealed himself +also to some 'good old idolater watching and worshipping the man in +the moon every frosty night'.[29] Richard Hyrde, the friend of +Gardiner and translator of Vives' _Instruction of a Christian Woman_, +continued the work after the 'school' had been moved to Chelsea;[30] +and when Margaret, eldest and best-beloved scholar, was married. Not +that this interfered. The love of learning once implanted brought her +with her husband to keep her place among her sisters in that bright +Academy. Her fame is well known, how the Bishop of Exeter sent her a +gold coin of Portugal in reward for an elegant epistle; how familiarly +she corresponded with Erasmus; how she emended the text of Cyprian, +imitated the Declamations of Quintilian, and translated the +Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. + + [29] More, _English Works_, 1557, f. 154 E. + [30] See F. Watson, _Vives and the Renascence Education of + Women_, 1912. + +It is evident that in England, for women as well as men, the seed of +the Renaissance had fallen on good ground. By the middle of the +century the gates of the kingdom of knowledge were open, and the +thoughtful were rejoicing in the infinite variety of their Paradise +regained. In 1547-8, Nicholas Udall, in a preface for Mary's +translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase, writes with enthusiasm: 'Neither +is it now any strange thing to hear gentlewomen, instead of most vain +communication about the moon shining in the water, to use grave and +substantial talk in Greek or Latin with their husbands in godly +matters. It is now no news in England to see young damsels in noble +houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other +instruments of vain trifling, to have continually in their hands +either Psalms, "Omelies" and other devout meditations, or else Paul's +Epistles or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly +both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French or Italian as +in English. It is now a common thing to see young virgins so "nouzled" +and trained in the study of letters that they willingly set all other +vain pastimes at nought for learning's sake.' It is melancholy to +reflect how soon the gates of the kingdom were to be closed again, and +its trees guarded by the flaming sword of theological certainty +mistaking itself for truth. + +Besides marriage, almost the only vocation open to women in the +fifteenth century was the monastic life. It was not uncommon for +several daughters in a family to embrace religion: parents, apart from +higher considerations, regarding it as a sure method of providing for +girls who did not wish to marry, or for whom they could not find +husbands. As heads of religious houses women held positions of great +dignity and influence, and discharged their duties worthily. Within +convent walls, too, it was possible for some women to become learned; +though in later times the achievements of Diemudis were never +rivalled. She was a nun at Wessobrunn in Bavaria at the end of the +eleventh century, and during her cloistered life her active pen wrote +out 47 volumes, including two complete Bibles, one of which was given +in exchange for an estate. + +We also hear of women of means, usually widows, dispensing hospitality +on a large scale to the needy and deserving. Wessel of Groningen, as +we saw, was adopted by a wealthy matron, who saw him shivering in the +street on a winter's day and fetched him into her house to warm. +Erasmus describes to us a Gouda lady, Berta de Heyen, whose kindness +he repeatedly enjoyed in his early years; and in addition to her +general charities mentions that she was wont to look out for promising +boys in the town school who were designing to enter the Church, +receive them into her family amongst her own children, and when their +courses were completed, bestir herself to procure them benefices--an +indication of the possession of influence outside her own home. He +goes on to say that when widowhood came to her, she refused to think +of a second marriage, and almost rejoiced to be released from the +bonds of matrimony, because she found herself free to practise her +liberality. But we must not lay too much stress on these latter +utterances. They come from a funeral oration composed after the good +lady's death, and addressed to her children, some of whom were nuns: +to whom therefore the conventional representation of the Church's +attitude towards marriage would be acceptable. Butzbach describes the +wife of a wealthy citizen of Deventer as entertaining daily six or +seven of the poorer clergy at her table, besides the alms that she +distributed continually before her own door. To him she frequently +gave food and clothes and money, with much sympathy. + +It is noticeable how the charity is represented as proceeding from the +wife and not from the husband. A mediaeval moralist urges wives to +make good their husbands' deficiencies in this respect; and against +the remark Ulrich Ellenbog, the father, notes that he had always left +this burden to his wife. The inference is probable that though the +sphere of women was in many ways restricted, they were within their +own dominion, the household, supreme--more so perhaps than they are +to-day. Yet in spite of this domestic authority, I do not see how we +can escape the conclusion that the real power rested with the husband, +when we read such passages as this in the _Utopia_, where, speaking of +punishment, More says: 'Parents chastise their children, husbands +their wives.' Indeed, it was recognized as one of the primary duties +of a husband, to see that his wife behaved properly. + +What we have been saying may be well illustrated by the letter just +alluded to from Antony Vrye 'to his dear wife, Berta of Groningen'. It +was written 'from Cologne in haste'; and as it appears in Vrye's +_Epistolarum Compendium_, it may be dated _c._ 1477. 'Your letter was +most welcome, and relieved me of anxiety about you all. I rejoice to +hear that the children are well and yourself; your mother too and the +whole household. You write that you are expecting me to return by 1 +March, to relieve you of all your cares. I wish indeed that I could; +but besides our own private matters, there is some public business for +me to discharge, and this will take time. So be diligent to look after +our affairs, and pray to God to keep you in health and free from +fault: my prolonged absence will make my return all the more joyful. +It is great pain to me to be absent from you so long, who art all my +life and happiness. But as I must, it falls to you to guard our honour +and property, and to care for our family. This, Jerome says, is the +part of a prudent housewife, and to cherish her own chastity. Bide +then at home, most loving wife, and be not tempted by such amusements +as delight the vulgar; but patiently and modestly await my return. I +too will be a faithful husband to you in everything. Be a chaste and +honoured mother to our boy and little girls; and cherish your mother +in return for the singular kindness she has showed us.' + +One feature of life at this time which materially affected the lives +of women, was the length of families and the accompanying infant +mortality. It was common enough in all classes down to the middle of +the last century; and it is still only too common among the poor. On +the walls of churches, more especially in towns, one frequently sees +tablets with long lists of children who seem to have been born only +to die: and yet the parents went on their way unthinking, and content +if from their annual harvest an occasional son or daughter grew up to +bless them. Examples of this may be collected on every side. Cole +(1467-1519), for instance, was the eldest of twenty-two sons and +daughters; and by 1499 he was the only child left to his parents. His +father, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, lived till 1510; the +mother of this great brood survived them all, and, so far as Erasmus +knew, was still living in 1521. + +Another case which may be cited is that of Anthony Koberger, the +celebrated Nuremberg printer, 1440-1513: and it is the more +interesting, since owing to his care for genealogy, we have accurate +records of his two marriages and his twenty-five children. The first +marriage produced eight, born between 1470 and 1483; of these, three +daughters lived to grow up and marry, but of the remaining +five--including three sons, all named Anthony, a fact which tells its +own tale--none reached a greater age than twelve years. In September +1491 the first wife died; and in August 1492--without observing the +full year's 'doole'--Anthony married again, the second wife being +herself the sixteenth child of her parents. At first there was only +disappointment; in 3½ years four children were born and died, two of +these being twins. But better times followed: of the remaining +thirteen only three died as infants. Anthony the fifth and John the +third, and three sons named after the three kings, Caspar, Melchior +and Balthasar, were more fortunate. When 21 years had brought 17 +children, the sequence ended abruptly with the death of Anthony the +father; leaving, out of the 25 he had received, only 13 children to +speak with his enemies in the gate. + +A family Bible now in the Bodleian[31] enumerates 16 children born to +the same parents in 24 years, 1550-74. One girl was married before she +was 16; one son at 20 died of exposure on his way home from Holland; +two reached 10, one 8, one 6. None of the remainder ten lived for one +year. + + [31] Biblia Latina, 1529, c. 2. + +Of public morals in the special sense of the term this is not the +place to speak in detail. But it may suitably be stated that +sixteenth-century standards in these matters were not so high as those +of the present day. 'If gold ruste, what shal iren do?' The highest +ecclesiastical authorities were unable to check a nominally celibate +priesthood from maintaining women-housekeepers who bore them families +of children and were in many cases decent and respectable wives to +them in all but name; indeed in Friesland the laity for obvious +reasons insisted upon this violation of clerical vows. A letter from +Zwingli, the Reformer, written in 1518 when he was parish priest of +Glarus, gives an astonishing view of his own practice. Under such +circumstances we need not wonder that the standards of the laity were +low. The highest record that I have met with is that of a Flemish +nobleman, who in addition to a large family including a Bishop of +Cambray and an Abbot of St. Omer, is said to have been also the +father of 36 bastards. Thomas More as a young man was not blameless. +But it is surprising to find that Erasmus in writing an appreciation +of More in 1519, when he was already a judge of the King's Bench, +stated the fact in quite explicit, though graceful, language; and +further, that More took no exception to the statement, which was +repeated in edition after edition. We can hardly imagine such a +passage being inserted in a modern biography of a public character, +even if it were written after his death. Just about the same time More +published among his epigrams some light-hearted Latin poems--doubtless +written in his youth--such as no public man with any regard for his +character would care to put his name to to-day. + +There is another matter to which some allusion must be made, the +grossness of the age, though here again detail is scarcely possible. +The conditions of life in the sixteenth century made it difficult to +draw a veil over the less pleasant side of human existence. The houses +were filthy; the streets so disgusting that on days when there was no +wind to disperse the mephitic vapours, prudent people kept their +windows shut. Dead bodies and lacerated limbs must have been frequent +sights. Under these circumstances we need not be surprised that men +spoke more plainly to one another and even to women than they do now. +Sir John Paston's conversations with the Duchess of Norfolk would make +less than duchesses blush now. The tales that Erasmus introduces into +his writings, the jests of his Colloquies, are often quite +unnecessarily coarse; but one which will illustrate our point may be +repeated. One winter's morning a stately matron entered St. Gudule's +at Brussels to attend mass. The heels of her shoes were caked with +snow, and on the smooth pavement of the church she slipped up. As she +fell, there escaped from her lips a single word, of mere obscenity. +The bystanders helped her to her feet, and amid their laughter she +slunk away, crimson with mortification, to hide herself in the crowd. +Nowadays great ladies have not such words at command. + +Theological controversy has a proverbial name for ferocity; in the +sixteenth century other qualities were added to this. In 1519 a young +Englishman named Lee, who was afterwards Archbishop of York, ventured +to criticize Erasmus' New Testament, with a vehemence which under the +circumstances was perhaps unsuitable. Erasmus of course resented this; +and his friends, to cool their indignation, wrote and published a +series of letters addressed to the offender: 'the Letters of some +erudite men, from which it is plain how great is the virulence of +Lee.' Among the contributors was Sapidus, head master of the famous +school at Schlettstadt, which was one of the first Latin schools of +the age. His letter to Lee concludes with a disgusting piece of +imagery, which would shock one if it proceeded from the most +unpleasantly minded schoolboy. One cannot conceive a Head Master of +Rugby appearing in print in such a way now. + + + + +VIII + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + +There is one thing in the world which is constantly with us, and which +has probably continued unchanged throughout all ages of history: the +weather. Yet Erasmus' writings contain no traces of that delight in +brilliant sunshine which most Northerners feel, nor of that wonder at +the beauties of the firmament which was so real to Homer. He +frequently remarks that the weather was pestilent, that the winds blew +and ceased not, that the sea was detestably rough and the clouds +everlasting; but of the praise which accompanies enjoyment there is +scarcely a word. His utmost is to say that the climate of a place is +salubrious. He often describes his journeys. As he rode on horseback +across the Alps or was carried down the Rhine in a boat, he must have +had ample opportunity to behold the glories which Nature sometimes +spreads before us in our Northern clime, and lavishes more constantly +on less favoured regions. But the loveliness of blue skies and serene +air, the glitter of distant snows, the soft radiance of the summer +moon, and the golden architrave of the sunset he had no eyes to see. + +Such indifference to the beauties of Nature admits, however, of some +explanation. With a scantier population than that which now covers the +earth, there was less agriculture and more of waste and unkempt +places not yet reduced to the service of mankind. Solitudes were +vaster and more complete. In a country so well cared for as England is +to-day, it is difficult to imagine how unpleasing can be the aspect of +land over which Nature still has the upper hand, how desolate and +dreadful the great mountain areas which men now have to seek at the +ends of the earth, where the smoke rises not and even the lone +goatherd has not penetrated. To-day our difficulty is to escape from +the thronging pressure of millions: we rarely experience what in the +sixteenth century must often have been felt--the shrinking to leave, +the joy of returning to, the kindly race of men. Ascham in the +_Toxophilus_ (1545), when discussing the relaxations open to the +scholar who has been 'sore at his book', urges that 'walking alone +into the field hath no token of courage in it'. But though this may +have been true by that time in the immediate neighbourhood of English +towns, it was not yet true abroad; for Thomas Starkey in his +_Dialogue_ (1538), almost as valuable a source as the _Utopia_, +praises foreign cities with their resident nobles by comparison with +English, which are neglected and dirty 'because gentlemen fly into the +country to live, and let cities, castles and towns fall into ruin and +decay'. + +It is tantalizing, too, considering how abundant are Erasmus' literary +remains, that we get so little description of places from him. He +travelled far and wide, in the Low Countries, up and down the Rhine, +through France, southwards to Rome and Naples. He was a year in +Venice, three years at Cambridge, eight years at Basle, six at +Freiburg. What precious information he might have given us about these +places, which then as now were full of interesting buildings and +treasures of art! what a mine of antiquarian detail, if he had +expatiated occasionally! But a meagre description of Constance, a word +or two about Basle in narrating an explosion there, glimpses of +Walsingham and Canterbury in his colloquy on pilgrimages--that is +almost all that can be culled from his works about the places he +visited. When he came to Oxford, Merton tower had been gladdening +men's eyes for scarcely fifty years, and the tower of Magdalen had +just risen to rival its beauty; Duke Humfrey's Library and the +Divinity School were still in their first glory, and the monks of St. +Frideswide were contemplating transforming the choir of their church +into the splendid Perpendicular such as Bray had achieved at +Westminster and Windsor for Henry VII. But Erasmus tells us nothing of +what he saw; only what he heard and said. This lack of enjoyment in +Nature, lack of interest in topography and archaeology, was probably +personal to him. It was not so with some of his friends. More and +Ellenbog, as we have seen, could feel the beauty in the night + + 'Of cloudless climes and starry skies'. + +Aleander in a diary records the exceptional brilliance of the planet +Jupiter at the end of September 1513. He pointed it out to his pupils +in the Collège de la Marche at Paris, and together they remarked that +its rays were strong enough to cast a shadow. Ellenbog enjoyed the +country, and Luther also was susceptible to its charms. Budaeus had a +villa to which he delighted to escape from Paris, and where he laid +out a fine estate. Beatus Rhenanus after thirty years retained +impressions of Louis XII's gardens at Tours and Blois and of a +'hanging garden' in Paris; and could write a detailed account of the +Fugger palace at Augsburg with its art treasures. Or think of the +painters. The Flemings of the fifteenth century had learnt from the +Italians to fit into their pictures landscapes seen through doors or +windows, gleaming in sunshine, green and bright. Van Eyck's 'Adoration +of the Lamb' is set in beautiful scenery; grassy slopes and banks +studded with flowers, soft swelling hills, and blue distances crowned +with the towers he knew so well, Utrecht and Maestricht and Cologne +and Bruges. Even in the interiors of Durer and Holbein, where no +window opens to let in the view, Nature is not left wholly +unrepresented; for flowers often stand upon the tables, carnations and +lilies and roses, arranged with taste and elegance. On the whole the +enjoyment of Nature formed but a small part in the outlook of that age +as compared with the prominence it receives in modern literature and +life; but we should be wrong in inferring that it was wholly absent. + +To the men of the fifteenth century the earth was still the centre of +the universe: the sun moved round it like a more magnificent planet, +and the stars had been created + + 'to shed down + Their stellar influence on all kinds that grow'. + +Aristarchus had seen the truth, though he could not establish it, in +the third century B.C. But Greek science had been forgotten in an age +which knew no Greek; and it was not till after Erasmus' death that an +obscure canon in a small Prussian town near Danzig--Nicholas +Copernicus, 1473-1543--found out anew the secret of the world. This +fruit of long cold watches on the tower of his church he printed with +full demonstration, but he scarcely dared to publish the book: indeed +a perfect copy only reached him a few days before his death. Even in +the next century Galileo had to face imprisonment and threats of +torture, because he would speak that which he knew. But when Erasmus +was born, the earth itself was but partially revealed. Men knew not +even whether it were round or flat; and the unplumbed sea could still +estrange. The voyages of the Vikings had passed out of mind, and the +eyes of Columbus and Vespucci had not yet seen the limits of that +western ocean which so long fascinated their gaze. Polo had roamed far +into the East; but as yet Diaz and da Gama had not crowned the hopes +which so often drew Henry the Navigator to his Portuguese headland. + +In the world of thought the conception of uniformity in Nature, +though formed and to some extent accepted among the advanced, was +still quite outside the ordinary mind. Miracles were an indispensable +adjunct to the equipment of every saint; and might even be wrought by +mere men, with the aid of the black arts. The Devil was an +ever-present personality, going about to entrap and destroy the +unwary. Clear-minded Luther held converse with him in his cell; and +lesser demons were seen or suspected on every side. Thus in 1523 the +Earl of Surrey writes to Wolsey describing a night attack on Jedburgh +in a Border foray. The horses took fright, and their sudden panic +threw all things into confusion. 'I dare not write', he says, 'the +wonders that my Lord Dacre and all his company do say they saw that +night, six times, of spirits and fearful sights. And universally all +their company say plainly the Devil was that night among them six +times.' In that gaunt and bleak Border country the traveller overtaken +by night may feel a disquieting awe even in these days when the rising +moon is no longer a lamp to guide enemies to the attack. Four hundred +years ago, when it lay blood-stained and scarred with a thousand +fights, bearing no crops to be fired, no homesteads to be sacked, we +need not wonder if teams of demons swept down in the darkness and +drove through and through the trembling ranks. + +Again, in 1552 Melanchthon writes thus to a friend: 'In some cases no +doubt the causes of madness and derangement are purely physical; but +it is also quite certain that at times men's bodies are entered by +devils who produce frenzies prognosticating things to come. Twelve +years ago there was a woman in Saxony who had no learning of books, +and yet, when she was vexed by a devil, after her paroxysms uttered +Greek and Latin prophecies of the war that should be there. In Italy, +too, I am told there was a woman, also quite unlearned, who during one +of her devilish torments was asked what is the best line of Virgil, +and replied, "Learn justice and to reverence the gods "'.[32] In this +second case it would seem that the Devil scarcely knew his own +business. + + [32] _Aen._ 6. 620. + +Sudden death descending upon the wicked was a judgement of heaven, +letting loose the powers of hell; and if the face of the corpse +chanced to turn black, there was never any doubt but that Satan had +flown off with the soul. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft were +rife; and an old woman had to be careful of the reputation of her cat. +Wanderers among the mountains saw dragons; in the forests elves peeped +at the woodmen from behind the trees, and fairies danced beneath the +moon in the open places. The world had not been sufficiently explored +for the absence of contrary experience to carry much weight; and the +means for the dissemination of news were quite inadequate. In +consequence men had not learnt to doubt the evidence of their senses +and to regard things as too strange to be true. It was felt that +anything might happen; and as a result almost everything did happen. + +For example, in 1500 there was an outbreak of crosses in two villages +not far from Sponheim; and next year the same thing happened at Liège. +They appeared on any clothing that was light enough of hue; coloured +crosses that no washing or treatment could remove. Men opened their +coats to find crosses on their shirts: a woman would look down at her +apron, and there, sure enough, was a cross. Clothes that had been +folded up and put away in presses, came out with the sacred sign upon +them. One day during the singing of the mass thirty men suddenly found +themselves marked with crosses. They lasted for nine or ten days, and +then gradually faded. It was afterwards remarked that where the +crosses had been, the plague followed. Such is Trithemius' account in +his chronicle: we may wonder how closely he had questioned his +informants. + +It is difficult for us to conceive a world in which news spreads +mainly by word of mouth. Morning and evening it is poured forth to us, +by many different agencies, in the daily press; and though many of +these succumb to the temptation to be sensational, among the better +sort there is a healthy rivalry which restrains exuberance and +promotes accuracy. There is safety, too, in numbers. News which +appears in one paper only, is looked at doubtfully until it is +confirmed by the rest; but even unanimity amongst all papers will +scarcely at first win acceptance for what is at all startling and out +of the common, until time and the absence of contradiction may perhaps +corroborate. In practice men of credit have learnt not to see the +sea-serpent. For a picture of conditions in the sixteenth century we +must sweep all the newspapers away. Kings had their heralds and towns +their public messengers who took and of course brought back news. +Caravans of merchants travelled along the great trade-routes; and +their tongues and ears were not idle. Private persons, too, sent their +servants on journeys to carry letters. But even so news had to travel +by word of mouth; for even when letters were sent, we may be sure that +any public news of importance beneath the seals and wafers had reached +the bearers also. + +But for what they told confirmation was not to be had for the asking. +Not till chance brought further messengers was it possible to +establish or contradict, and till then the first news held the field. +Rumour stalked gigantic over the earth, often spreading falsehood and +capturing belief, rarely, as in Indian bazars to-day, with mysterious +swiftness forestalling the truth. In such a world caution seems the +prime necessity; but men grow tired of caution when events are moving +fast and the air is full of 'flying tales'. The general tendency was +for them, if not to believe, at any rate to pass on, unverified +reports, from the impossibility of reaching certainty. In such a world +of bewilderment, sobriety of judgement does not thrive. + +Two examples may show the difficulty of learning the truth. In 1477 +Charles the Bold was killed at Nancy. That great Duke of Burgundy was +not a person to be hidden under a bed. Yet nearly six years later +reports were current that he had escaped from the battle and was in +concealment. Again, Erasmus, during his residence at Bologna in 1507, +made many friends. One of these was Paul Bombasius, a native of that +town, who became secretary to Cardinal Pucci, and lost his life at +Rome in May 1527, when the city was sacked by Charles V's troops; +another was the delightful John de Pins, afterwards diplomatist and +Bishop of Rieux. To him in 1532 Erasmus wrote asking for news of +Bombasius. The Bishop replied that he had heard a rumour of his death, +but hoped it was not true. Not till May 1535 could Erasmus report the +result of inquiries made through a friend visiting Bologna, that +Bombasius had fallen a victim to the Bourbon soldiery eight years +before. + +That the movements of the stars should affect human life is not easy +to disprove even now, to any one who is determined to maintain the +possibility of it; but under the training of modern science scarcely +any one retains such a belief. Of the influence formerly attributed to +the planets, traces survive in such epithets as mercurial, jovial, +saturnine. Comets appearing in the sky caused widespread alarm, and +any disasters that followed close were confidently connected with +them. The most learned scientists observed the stars and cast +horoscopes: Cardan, for instance, published a collection of the +horoscopes of great men. The Church looked askance on astrology, +suspecting it of connexion with forbidden arts; but it could not +check the observance of lucky days and the warnings of the heavens. +Even a Pope himself, Julius II, deferred his coronation until the +stars were in a fortunate conjunction. + +Every university student should be familiar with the story of Anthony +Dalaber, undergraduate of St. Alban's Hall in Oxford, which Froude +introduced into his _History of England_ from Foxe's _Book of +Martyrs_; it is the most vivid picture we have of university life in +the early sixteenth century. Dalaber was one of a company of young men +who were reading Lutheran books at Oxford. Wolsey, wishing to check +this, had sent down orders in February 1528 to arrest a certain Master +Garret, who was abetting them in the dissemination of heresy. The +Vice-Chancellor, who was the Rector of Lincoln, seized Dalaber and put +him in the stocks, but was too late for Garret, who had made off into +Dorsetshire. He took counsel with the Warden of New College and with +the Dean of Wolsey's new foundation, Cardinal College; and at length, +as they could find out nothing, being 'in extreme pensiveness', they +determined to consult an astrologer. They knew they were doing wrong. +Such inquiries were forbidden by the law of the Church, and they were +afraid; but they were more afraid of Wolsey. The man of science drew a +figure upon the floor of his secret chamber, and made his +calculations; at the end he reported that the fugitive was fled in a +tawny coat to the South-east. The trembling officials hastily +dispatched messengers to have the ports watched in Kent and Sussex, +hoping that their transgression might at least be justified by +success. They were successful: Master Garret _was_ caught--trying to +take ship at Bristol. It would need awesome circumstances indeed to +send a modern Vice-Chancellor through the night to inquire of an +astrologer. + +In the realm of medicine, too, magic and the supernatural had great +weight, and claimed a measure of success which is not unintelligible +in these days, when the value of the will as an ally in healing is +being understood. Erasmus, suffering from the stone, was presented by +a Hungarian physician with an astrological mug, shaped like a lion, +which was to cure his trouble. He used it and felt better, but was not +sure how much to attribute to the lion. The famous Linacre, one of the +founders of the College of Physicians, sent to Budaeus, a French court +official and the first Greek scholar of the age, one gold ring and +eighteen silver rings which had been blessed by Henry VIII, and had +thus been made preservative against convulsions; and Budaeus presented +them to his womenkind. We need not take this to imply that he thought +little of them; more probably he reflected that convulsions are most +frequent among the race of babies, and therefore distributed them +where they would be most useful. Anyway, it was Linacre who sent them. +With such notions abroad, quackery must have been rife, and serious +medical practitioners had many difficulties to contend with. Some idea +of these may be gained from a letter written by Wolfgang Rychard, a +physician of high repute at Ulm, to a friend at Erfurt, whither he was +thinking of sending his son to practise. He asks his friend to inquire +of the apothecaries what was the status of doctors, whether they were +allowed by the town council to hire houses for themselves and to live +freely without exactions, as at Tubingen and universities in the +South, or whether they were obliged to pay an annual fee to the town, +before they might serve mankind with their healing art. + +The feeble-minded and half-witted are nowadays caught up into asylums, +for better care, and to ensure that their trouble dies with them. Of +old it was thought that God gave them some recompense for their +affliction by putting into their mouths truths and prophecies which +were hidden from the wise; and thus the village soothsayer or witch +often held a strong position in local politics. But it is surprising +to find the Cardinal of Sion, Schinner, a clever and experienced +diplomatist, writing in 1516, with complete seriousness: 'A Swiss +idiot, who prophesies many true things, has foretold that the French +will surfer a heavy blow next month'; as though the intelligence would +really be of value to his correspondent. + +But the prophet's credit varied with his circumstances. Early in the +sixteenth century a Franciscan friar, naming himself Thomas of +Illyria, wandered about through Southern France, calling on men to +repent and rebuking the comfortable vices of the clergy. A wave of +serious thought spread with him, and all the accompaniments of a +religious revival, such as the twentieth century saw lately in Wales. +As the 'saintly man' set foot in villages and towns, games and +pleasures were suddenly abandoned, and the churches thronged to +overflowing. His words were gathered up, especially those with which +he wept over Guienne, that 'fair and delicious province, the Paradise +of the world', and foretold the coming of foes who should burn the +churches round Bordeaux while the townsmen looked on helplessly from +their walls. For a time he retired to a hermitage on a headland by +Arcachon, where miracles were quickly ascribed to him. An image of the +Virgin was washed ashore, to be the protectress of his chapel. His +prayers, and a cross drawn upon the sand, availed to rescue a ship +that was in peril on the sea. When English pirates had plundered his +shrine, the waves opened and swallowed them up. Later on he withdrew +to Rome, where he won the confidence of Clement VII, and he died at +Mentone. But his fame remained great in Guienne. Half a century +onward, during the war of 1570, when from Bordeaux men saw the church +of Lormont across the river burning in the name of religion, the old +folks shook their heads and recalled the words of the saintly Thomas. + +Less fortunate was a young Franconian herdsman, John Beheim, of +Niklashausen--a 'poor illiterate', Trithemius calls him. In the summer +of 1476, as he watched his flocks in the fields, he had a vision of +the gracious Mother of God, who bade him preach repentance to the +people. His fame soon spread, and multitudes gathered from great +distances to hear him. The nearest knelt to entreat his blessing, +those further off pressed up to touch him, and if possible, snatched +off pieces of his garments, till he was driven to speak from an upper +window. But his way was not plain. Instigated seemingly by others, he +began to touch things social: taxes should not be paid to princes, nor +tithes to clergy; rivers and forests were God's common gifts to men, +where all might fish or hunt at will. Such words were not to be borne. +The Bishop of Wurzburg, his diocesan, took counsel with the Archbishop +of Mainz; and the prophet was ordered to be burnt. But death only +increased his fame. Still greater crowds flocked to visit the scene of +his holy life, until in January 1477 the Archbishop had the church of +Niklashausen razed to the ground as the only means of suppressing this +popular canonization. + +We make a great mistake if we allow ourselves to suppose that because +that age knew less than ours, because its bounds were narrower and the +undispelled clouds lower down, it therefore thought itself feeble and +purblind. By contrast with the strenuous hurry-push of modern life +such movement as we can see, looking backwards, seems slow and +uncertain of its aim; before the power of modern armaments how +helpless all the might of Rome! It is easy to fall into the idea that +our mediaeval forefathers moved in the awkward attitudes of +pre-Raphaelite painting, that their speech sounded as quaint to them +as it does to us now, and that it was hardly possible for them to take +life seriously. But in fact each age is to itself modern, progressive, +up-to-date; the strong and active pushing their way forward, impatient +of trifling, and carrying their fellows with them. A future age that +has leapt from one planet to another, or even from one system to +another sun and its dependants, that has 'called forth Mazzaroth in +his seasons, and loosed the bands of Orion', that has covered the +earth with peace as with a garment and pierced the veil that cuts us +off from the dead, will look back to us as groping blindly in +darkness. But they will be wrong indeed if they think that we realize +our blindness. + +A still greater pitfall before us is that we read history not as men, +but as gods, knowing the event. The name of Marathon to us implies not +struggle, not danger, but triumph; and as we think of the little band +of Athenians defiling from the mountains and looking on the sea, with +the utmost determination we cannot quite enter into their thoughts. Of +how little avail must have seemed this handful of lives, their last +and best gift to Athens, against the might and majesty of Persia +afloat before them. We know of that runner and of the rejoicing that +broke out upon his words; and at the very opening of the scene the +darkness is pierced by a gleam they could not see, a gleam which for +us will not go out. Or think of Edwardes besieging the Sikhs in +Multan with his puny force, half of whom, when he began, were in +sympathy with the besieged. We know that the terrier's courage kept +the tiger in; and, conscious of that, we cannot really place ourselves +beside the young Engineer of 29, as with only one or two volunteers of +his own race round him he kept the field during those four burning +months in which British troops were not allowed to move. The tiger's +paw had crushed those whom he had hastened to avenge: he did not know, +as we know, that it was not to fall on him too. + +There is the same difficulty with the course of years. With the +history of four centuries before our minds, only by sustained effort +of thought can we realize that the men of 1514 looked onward to 1600, +as we to-day look towards 2000, as to a misty blank. We hardly trouble +our heads with the future. The air is full of speculations, of +attempts to forecast coming developments, the growth, the improvement +that is to be. But we do not really look forward, more than a little +way. The darkness is too dense: and besides, the needs of the present +are very urgent. As we think of the sixteenth century, behind Henry +VIII's breach with Rome, behind Edward VI's prayer-books, waits the +figure of Pole, steadfast, biding his time; coming to salute Mary with +the words of the angel to the Virgin; coming, as he hoped, to set +things right for ever. And behind Pole are the Elizabethan settlement +and the Puritans; ineradicable from our consciousness. To the +Englishmen of 1514 Henry VIII was the divine young king whose prowess +at Tournay, whose victory at Flodden seemed to his happy bride the +reward of his piety: the name of Luther was unknown: Pole was an +unconsidered child. Into their minds we cannot really enter unless we +can think away everything that has happened since and call up a mist +over the face of time. + + + + +IX + +PILGRIMAGES + + +To go on pilgrimage is an instinct which appears in most religions and +at all ages. The idea underlying the practice seems to be that God is +more nigh in some spots than in others, the desire to seek Him in a +place where He may be found: for where God is, there men hope to win +remission of sins. So widespread is this sentiment that both in +Catholic Europe and in Asia it is not possible to travel far without +coming upon sites invested in this way with a special holiness. The +objects which draw men to peregrinate may be divided into three +classes: natural features which are in themselves remarkable; places +difficult of access, which can only be reached at cost of risk and +effort; and sites which have been rendered holy by the visitation of +God or the preservation of sacred relics. But this classification is +not always clearly defined; for the same object of pilgrimage often +falls into two categories at once. + +Of striking natural features--self-created objects of veneration, as +the Hindus call them--many kinds are found. There are chasms from +which issue mysterious vapours, stimulating prophecy, such as Delphi, +or Jwala Mukhi, sacred to Hindus and Sikhs, or the Grotta del Cane, +near Naples. Caves with their dreadful gloom inspire a sense of +supernatural presence. Such are the cave of Trophonius in Boeotia, St. +Patrick's cave in Ireland, the grotto of Lourdes, Mariastein near +Basle, and the great fissure of Amarnath in Kashmir, with its icy +stalactite which is the special object of worship. Some of these add +to their sanctity by difficulty of access: St. Patrick's cave is on an +island in Lough Derg; Mariastein lies over the edge of a steep cliff; +Amarnath is hidden among lofty mountains at 17000 feet above the sea. + +Enormous stones, too, are apt to acquire holiness, arousing interest +by their vast mass; as though they could hardly have been brought into +independent existence, detached from the great earth, without some +direct intervention of divine power. Such are the stone at Delphi, or +the great rock, now enshrined in a Muhammadan mosque, which no doubt +caused men to go up to Jerusalem in Jebusite days, before Israel came +out of Egypt. (It is thought by pious Muhammadans to rest in the air +without support; their tradition being that at the time of Muhammad's +ascension into heaven this stone, which was his point of departure, +sought to accompany him but was detained by an angel. To the Hebrews +it was sacred as the rock on which Abraham was ready to offer Isaac; +and also as a stone which kept down within the earth the receded +waters of the Flood.) Meteoric stones have a sanctity as having fallen +from heaven: for example, the _lingam_ of Jagannath at Puri, and the +famous black stone at Mecca. Wells also, for obvious reasons, tend to +attract worship. + +Of places inaccessible to which pilgrims toil, some are the sources of +rivers, like Gangotri, whence springs the Ganges: others are islands, +such as the Îles de Lérins off Cannes, Iona and Lindisfarne, or many +off the West coast of Ireland: or distant headlands, like the Spanish +Finisterre, or Rameshwaram, the extreme southern cape of the Indian +peninsula. More numerous are those which lie high up on mountains or +above precipitous rocks; such as the many peaks of Sinai, the lake on +Haramuk in Kashmir, the cliffs of Rocamadour in Central France, which +Piers Plowman mentions,[33] or the grey cone of Athos. In a mild form +such places may frequently be seen, in the pilgrimage churches and +chapels which crown modest eminences beside many villages and towns of +Catholic Europe: akin no doubt to the high places and hill-altars +where lingered the heathen worship that the Israelite priests and +prophets were continually trying to exterminate. + + [33] Right so, if thou be religious, renne thou never ferthere + To Rome ne to Roquemadoure: but as thy rule techeth, + Holde thee to thine obedience: that heighway is to heaven. + +The third class of pilgrimage sites is of those which are sanctified +through association with divinities or saints or relics: Gaya in +Bihar, with its pilgrims' way leading pious Buddhists by long flights +of steps up and down the circle of hills, like the great way at +Bologna; Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury, Trèves; and Santiago (St. +James) de Compostella, rendered attractive also by remote distance. Or +a settlement of hermits in a wilderness might become a place of +pilgrimage, especially when death had heightened the fame enjoyed +during their lives: such as Gueremeh in Cappadocia, St. Bertrand among +the Pyrenees, or Einsiedeln above the Lake of Lucerne, where in 1487 +died Nicholas the Hermit, reputed to have lived for twenty years +without food. And we may make a special category for sacred houses; +the Bait-ullah or Qaabah at Mecca, the house of the Virgin at Loretto, +St. Columba's at Glencolumbkill, and the house in which St. Francis +died, in dei Angeli at Assisi. + +In many cases there is definite evidence to show that pilgrimage sites +remain sacred even when religions change. Mecca was a resort of +pilgrims in the first century B.C., 700 years before Muhammad. The +Central-Asian shrines visited by Buddhist pilgrims from China on their +way to India, Fa-hsien in the fifth and Hsuan-tsang in the seventh +century, are now appropriated to Islam. The so-called foot-mark on +Adam's Peak in Ceylon has been attributed by Brahmans to Siva, by +Buddhists to Sakyamuni, by Gnostics to Ieu, by Muhammadans to Adam, +and by the Portuguese Christians to either St. Thomas or the eunuch of +Candace, queen of Ethiopia.[34] + + [34] J.E. Tennent's _Ceylon_ (1860), ii. 133, quoted in Yule's + _Marco Polo_, ed. H. Cordier, 1903, ii. 321. + +In the age we are considering, we hear of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and +even Wolsey going as pilgrims to Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk; +and Colet took Erasmus with him to Canterbury. But the most renowned +places of Christian pilgrimage were Rome, Santiago, and Jerusalem. +Thither journeyed pilgrims in great numbers from all parts of Europe; +bishops and abbots and clergy, both regular and secular, noblemen of +every degree, wealthy merchants, scholars from the universities, civil +officials and courtiers, and occasionally even women. Piety or +superstition were doubtless the usual motives which led men to face +the very considerable perils of the journey; but besides this there +was probably in some cases the desire to see new scenes, and a love of +adventure for its own sake. Holiday travel was scarcely known in those +days. The discomforts were great, and there were still dangers of the +ordinary kind, even in the most settled parts of Europe. The beginning +of a story in one of More's English works shows how such travel was +regarded--as at least unwise, and perhaps extravagant: 'Now was there +a young gentleman which had married a merchant's wife. And having a +little wanton money which him thought burned out the bottom of his +purse, in the first year of his wedding he took his wife with him and +went over the sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and +France, and ride out one summer in those countries.' But in the +company of pilgrims there was some security, and accordingly the +adventurous availed themselves of such opportunities. Thus Peter Falk, +burgomaster of Freiburg in Switzerland, went on pilgrimage to +Jerusalem in 1515 and again in 1519; and had he not died on the second +journey, he was projecting a visit to Portugal and Spain, perhaps to +Compostella. He was a keen, interested man. A companion, who was a +Cambridge scholar, describes him as taking an ape with him on board to +make fun for his shipmates; wearing a gun hanging at his belt, being +curious in novelties; carefully noting the names of places and the +situations of towns, and using red ink to mark his guide-book. + +The literature of pilgrimages is abundant, and consists primarily in +narratives written by pilgrims themselves. A few of these were printed +by the writers in their own day; many have been published by +antiquarians in isolated periodicals; and in the volumes of the +Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society there is a collection of +translations. Professor Röhricht of Innsbruck has made a wonderful +bibliography of German pilgrims to the Holy Land, replete with +information and references. The narratives necessarily traverse the +same ground, and repeat one another in many points; often reproducing +from an early source exactly identical information of the guide-book +order as to sites, routes, preparations, precautions, and so forth. + +We have three English narratives of Erasmus' period: by William Wey, +Fellow of Eton, who went to Jerusalem in 1458 and again in 1462; by +Sir Richard Guilford, a Court official who made the journey in 1506; +and by Sir Richard Torkington, a parish priest from Norfolk, who went +in 1517. But besides these some Baedekers of the time survive; one +entitled 'Information for Pilgrims unto the Holy Land'[35] which was +printed by Wynkyn de Worde at Westminster in 1498, and again by him in +London in 1515 and 1524; another written by Hermann Kunig of Vach in +1495 and several times printed before 1521, 'Die Walfart und Strass zu +sant Jacob'[36] which gives the distance of each stage and notes inns +and hospitals at which shelter might be found. + + [35] It has been reproduced with an introduction by Mr. E.G. + Duff, London, 1893. + [36] It has been reproduced with an introduction by Professor + K. Häbler, Strasburg, 1899. + +The Compostella pilgrimage was popular for many reasons, and no doubt +began long before St. James had ousted St. Vincent from being +patron-saint of Spain. The spot was remote, literally then at the end +of the earth, 'beyond which', as another pilgrim says, 'there is no +land any more, only water'. There was a great stone, too, in which +later piety found the boat that had borne the saint's body from +Jerusalem. And there were islands to be visited, one a St. Michael's +Mount, round the shores of which should be gathered the cockle shells +that were the emblems of pilgrimage duly performed: though the less +active bought them at stalls high-heaped outside the cathedral doors, +and the rich had them copied in silver and gold. + +To the 'end of the earth' Northern Europe went most easily by sea, +all others by land. Convoys gathered in Dartmouth in the lengthening +days of spring, and crept along Slapton sands and round the unlighted +Start, until there was no land any more, and summoning their courage +they must steer out into the Bay of Biscay. This way went John of +Gaunt to St. James in 1386, to be crowned King of Castile in the great +Romanesque cathedral; and so, too, Chaucer must have pictured the Wyf +of Bath visiting 'Galice'. + +But Kunig's route lay overland: from Einsiedeln to Romans and Valence; +over the Rhone by the famed bridge of the Holy Spirit, which even +kings must cross on foot, to Uzès, Nîmes and Béziers; and then +westwards into the sandy scant-populated lands where the track was +scarcely to be found, except for the pilgrims' graves, often nameless, +sometimes perhaps marked with such simple inscriptions as may still be +seen on trees and crosses among the forests of the Alps. A Pyrenean +pass led him to Roncesvalles; at Logroño the ancient bridge brought +him over the Ebro, and so by Burgos and Leon to his journey's end, +blessing the patrons--Kings of France and England and Navarre, Dukes +of Burgundy--who had raised shelters for poor pilgrims on the way, and +above all the Catholic Kings whose munificence had built a huge serai +to welcome them in Santiago itself. + +For Jerusalem the usual point of departure was Venice. Pilgrims +congregated there from all parts of Western and Central Europe, and +there were regular services of ships, sailing mostly in the summer +months. The competition between shipmasters, or 'patrons', to secure +custom was very keen. Thus Torkington records: 'On 3 May the patron of +a new goodly ship with other merchants desired us pilgrims that we +would come aboard and see his ship within: which ship lay afore St. +Mark's Church. We all went in, and there they made us goodly cheer +with diverse subtilties, as comfits and march-panes and sweet wines. +Also 5 May the patron of another ship which lay in the sea five miles +from Venice, desired us all pilgrims that we would come and see his +ship. And the same day we all went with him; and there he provided for +us a marvellous good dinner, where we had all manner of good victuals +and wine.' Ultimately, Torkington sailed in a new ship of 800 +tons,[37] under a patron named Thomas Dodo. Only three days later +another ship set sail with a large party of German pilgrims. + +[37] If the figure is correct, she was a large vessel for the times; +for a century later, the _Pelican_, in which Drake sailed round the +world, was only 100 tons, the _Squirrel_, in which Sir Humfrey Gilbert +was cast away in an Atlantic gale, only 10. + +In all ages a great ship is a great wonder, representing for the time +the final triumph of the shipwright's art. The monster vessel that set +Lucian's friend dreaming at the Piraeus had but one mast; yet the +curious from Athens flocked down to see her extraordinary proportions +and to admire the sailors who had beaten up in her from Egypt against +the Etesian winds in only seventy days. She was the ship of the hour: +anything greater scarcely conceivable. Again, Macaulay returning from +India in 1837 compares his comfortable sailing-ship to a huge floating +hotel. Burton on his way to Mecca in 1853, when steaming across the +Bay of Biscay in a vessel of 2000 tons, prophesies that sea-sickness +is at an end now that such monsters ply across the ocean and laugh at +the storm. How puny do they seem beside the Olympic and Imperator, at +which we in our turn gaze wonderingly and think that engineering can +no further go. It is amusing to find the same proud admiration in a +traveller of 1517: 'Our ship was so great that when we came to land, +we could not run her upon the beach like a galley, but must remain in +deep water', the passengers going ashore in boats. + +Quite a number of contracts between patron and pilgrim have been +preserved. Some of the terms are as follows: 'that the ship shall be +properly armed and manned, and carry a barber and a physician; that it +shall only touch at the usual ports, and not stay more than three days +at Cyprus, because of malaria there.' The Holy Land was in Turkish +hands, and the Turks, though willing to receive the pilgrims, for the +sake of the money they brought into the country, were not sorry to +have opportunities of teaching the 'Christian dogs' their place. The +authorities maintained some semblance of order and justice, but took +little trouble to control their underlings; and in consequence the +pilgrims suffered all kinds of minor oppressions. It is not surprising +therefore to find that the contract stipulated that the patron should +accompany them on all their journeyings in the Holy Land, even as far +as the Jordan, and that he should pay all the tolls and tributes for +them, except the small tips, just as Cook does to-day, and also make +all arrangements for such pilgrims as wished to go on to Sinai. In +view of this last possibility the stipulation was sometimes made that +only half the passage-money should be paid at Venice; the other half +at Jaffa on the return-journey. If a pilgrim died on the journey, the +patron might not bury him at sea, unless there was no immediate +prospect of reaching land. + +The voyage outwards could be done in a month, but often took longer if +the weather was bad, or if long halts were made at Rhodes and Cyprus. +On shore the pilgrims worked as hard as any 'conducted' party to-day, +being herded about to one sacred site after another, to the Holy +Sepulchre, the vale of Josaphat, the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, the +mountains of Judea, the Jordan, and receiving in each place 'clean +absolution'. Twelve or thirteen days was a fair time to allow for all +this, including one or two days each way between Jaffa and Jerusalem; +but Guilford's party were given 22. On the other hand we hear of +another company which did it in nine. + +The Holy Land guide-book of which we spoke is full of practical advice +of all sorts: about distances, rates of exchange, terms of contract +with a ship-master, tributes to be paid to the Saracens, and finally +vocabularies of useful words, in Moresco, Greek, Turkish. Here are a +few specimens: + +'If ye shall go in a galley, make your covenant with the patron +betime; and choose you a place in the said galley in the overmost +stage. For in the lowest under it is right evil and smouldering hot +and stinking.' The fare in this to Jaffa and back from Venice, +including food, was 50 ducats, 'for to be in a good honest place, and +to have your ease in the galley and also to be cherished'. In a +carrick the fare was only 30 ducats: there 'choose you a chamber as +nigh the middes of the ship as ye may; for there is least rolling or +tumbling, to keep your brain and stomach in temper'. Amongst other +arrangements to be made with the patron, 'Covenant that ye come not at +Famagust in Cyprus for no thing. For many Englishmen and other also +have died. For that air is so corrupt there about, and the water there +also. Also see that the said patron give you every day hot meat twice +at two meals, the forenoon at dinner and the afternoon at supper. And +that the wine that ye shall drink be good, and the water fresh and not +stinking, if ye come to have better, and also the biscuit.' + +The traveller is recommended to buy in Venice a padlock with which to +keep his cabin locked, three barrels, two for wine and one for water, +and a chest to hold his stores and things: 'For though ye shall be at +table with the patron, yet notwithstanding, ye shall full ofttimes +have need to your own victuals, as bread, cheese, eggs, wine and other +to make your collation. For some time ye shall have feeble bread and +feeble wine and stinking water, so that many times ye will be right +fain to eat of your own.' Besides this he will want 'confections and +confortatives, green ginger, almonds, rice, figs, raisins great and +small, pepper, saffron, cloves and loaf sugar'. For equipment he +should take 'a little caldron, a frying-pan, dishes, plates, saucers, +cups of glass, a grater for bread and such necessaries'. 'Also ye +shall buy you a bed beside St. Mark's Church in Venice, where ye shall +have a featherbed, a mattress, a pillow, two pair sheets and a quilt' +for three ducats. 'And when ye come again, bring the same bed again, +and ye shall have a ducat and a half for it again, though it be broken +and worn. And mark his house and his name that ye bought it of, +against ye come to Venice.' Further needs are 'a cage for half a dozen +of hens or chickens' and 'half a bushel of millet seed for them': also +'a barrel for a siege for your chamber in the ship. It is full +necessary, if ye were sick, that ye come not in the air.' The malady +here considered is probably not that which is usually associated with +the sea; though pilgrims were not immune from this any more than from +other troubles. + +On coming to haven towns, 'if ye shall tarry there three days, go +betimes to land, for then ye may have lodging before another; for it +will be taken up anon'. Similarly at Jaffa in choosing a mount for the +ride up to Jerusalem 'be not too long behind your fellows; for an ye +come betime, ye may choose the best mule' and 'ye shall pay no more +for the best than for the worst'. 'Also take good heed to your knives +and other small japes that ye bear upon you: for the Saracens will go +talking by you and make good cheer; but they will steal from you if +they may.' 'Also when ye shall ride to flume Jordan, take with you out +of Jerusalem bread, wine, water, hard eggs and cheese and such +victuals as ye may have for two days. For by all that way there is +none to sell.' + +Let us turn now to an individual narrative,[38] that of Felix Fabri, a +learned and sensible Dominican of Ulm (1442-1502). He had already made +the journey once, out of piety, in 1480, with the company mentioned +above, which had only nine days on shore. He was desirous to go also +to St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai because she was his patroness-saint, +to whom he had devoted himself on entering the Dominican order on her +day (25 November) in 1452; and accordingly for the second time, in +1483, he procured from the Pope the permission, which every one +needed, to visit the Holy Land: those that went without this being +ipso facto excommunicate, until they did penance before the Warden of +the Franciscans at Jerusalem. He gives us a picture of all that he +went through, in the most minute details. During the day we see the +pilgrims crowded together on deck, some drinking and singing, others +playing dice or cards or that unfailing pastime for ship-life, chess. +Talking, reading, telling their beads, writing diaries, sleeping, +hunting in their clothes for vermin; so they spend their day. Some for +exercise climb up the rigging, or jump, or brandish heavy weights: +some drift about from one party to another, just watching what is +going on. Our good friar complains of the habits of the noblemen, who +gambled a great deal and were always making small wagers, which they +paid with a cup of Malmsey wine. He also tells how the patron, to +beguile the journey, produced a great piece of silk, which he offered +as a prize for the pilgrims to play for. + + [38] It has been translated by Mr. Aubrey Stewart for the + Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, vols. 7-10, 1892-3. + +At meal times, to which they are summoned by trumpets, the pilgrims +race on to the poop: for they cannot all find seats, and those that +come late have to sit among the crew. Noblemen, who have their own +servants, are too fastidious to mingle with the crowd; and pay extra +to the cooks,--poor, sweating fellows, toiling crossly in a tiny +galley--for food which their servants bring to them on the main-deck, +or even below. After the pilgrims, the captain and his council dine in +state off silver dishes; and the captain's wine is tasted before he +drinks it. At night all sleep below, in a cabin the dirt of which is +indescribable. They wrangle over the places where they shall spread +their beds, and knives are drawn. Some obstinately keep their candles +burning, even though missiles come flying. Others talk noisily; and +the drunken, even when quiet, snore. No wonder the poor friar longed +for the peace of his own cell at home in Ulm. + +Fabri has much practical advice to give. He bids his reader be careful +in going up and down the companion, veritably a ladder in those times; +not to sit down upon ropes, or on places covered with pitch, which +often melts in the sun; not to get in the way of the crew and make +them angry; not to drop things overboard or let his hat be blown off. +'Let the pilgrim beware of carrying a light upon deck at night; for +the mariners dislike this strangely, and cannot endure lights when +they are at work.' Small things are apt to be stolen, if left about: +for on board ship men have no other way to get what they want. 'While +you are writing, if you lay down your pen and turn your face away, +your pen will be lost, even though you be among men whom you know: and +if you lose it, you will have exceeding great trouble in getting +another.' + +To Fabri's annoyance the ship's company included one woman, an elderly +lady, who came on board at the last moment with her husband, a +Fleming. 'She seemed,' he says, 'when we first saw her, to be restless +and inquisitive; as indeed she was. She ran hither and thither +incessantly about the ship, and was full of curiosity, wanting to hear +and see everything, and made herself hated exceedingly. Her husband +was a decent man, and for his sake many held their tongues; but had he +not been there, it would have gone hard with her. This woman was a +thorn in the eyes of us all.' His delight was great, when she was left +behind at Rhodes, having strayed away to some church outside the town. +'Except her husband, no one was sorry.' But their peace was +short-lived, for this active lady procured a boat and overtook them at +Cyprus; and Fabri could not help pitying the straits she had been put +to. We may rather admire her courage in undertaking the pilgrimage at +all, and especially the resource which she displayed on this very +unpleasant emergency. + +On the eve of St. John Baptist, after dark, the sailors made St. +John's fire; stringing forty horn lanterns on a rope to the maintop, +amid shouts and trumpeting and clapping of hands. Upon which Fabri +makes this curious remark: 'Before this I never had beheld the +practice of clapping the hands for joy, as it is said in Psalm 46. Nor +could I have believed that the general clapping of many men's hands +would have such great power to move the human mind to rejoicing.' With +some misgiving he goes on to record that after the festivity the ship +was left to drive of itself, both pilgrims and sailors betaking +themselves to rest. + +At Cyprus they had a few days, and Fabri led some of his companions to +the summit of Mount Stavrovuni, near their port Salinae (Citium by the +salt lakes of Larnaka), to visit the Church of Holy Cross--the cross +of Dismas, the thief on the right hand, said to have been brought by +that great finder of relics, the Empress Helena. By the way he was +careful to explain that they must expect no miracle: 'we shall see +none in Jerusalem, so how can there be one here?' In the church he +read them a mass and preached, and at departing rang the church bell, +saying that they would hear no bells again till they returned to +Christendom. + +When they set sail again, all eyes were turned Eastwards: happy would +he be who should first sight the land of their desire. Fabri crept +forward to the prow of the galley and sat for hours upon the horns, +straining his gaze across the summer seas which whispered around the +ship's stem: almost, he confesses, cursing night when it fell and cut +off all hope till dawn. Before sunrise he was there again, and on 1 +July the watchman in the maintop gave the glad shout. The pilgrims +flocked up on deck and sang Te Deum with bounding joy. It was a tumult +of harsh voices; but to Fabri in his happiness their various +dissonance made sweet harmony. + +On reaching Jaffa they lay for some days awaiting permission to land. +At length all was ready. The ship's officers collected the tips due to +them, and the pilgrims were put on shore: falling to kiss the ground +as they struggled out of their boats through the surf. One by one they +were brought before Turkish officials, who took record of their names +and their fathers' names--an occasion on which noblemen often tried to +pass themselves off as of low degree, to escape the higher fees due. +Fabri notes that his Christian name, Felix, gave the official +recorders some trouble: that he pronounced it again and again for +them, but they could get nothing at all like it. Each pilgrim, when +entered, was hurried off by Saracens, like sheep into a pen, and +thrust into a row of caves along the sea-shore, known as St. Peter's +Cellars. If they had suffered on board ship, their sufferings were +multiplied now tenfold. Strict watch was kept upon them, and no one +was allowed to leave the caves. Within, the ground was covered with +semi-liquid filth. From the ship, as they lay waiting to land, Fabri +had noticed the Saracens running in and out of the caves; and he +argued that they were intentionally defiling them, to make it more +disagreeable to the Christian dogs. But this seems hardly necessary. +There had doubtless been other pilgrims before them. Droves of mankind +can tread ground into a foul swamp as cattle tread a farmyard. With +their feet the poor pilgrims managed to collect some of the impurities +together into a heap in the centre; each man clearing enough space to +lie down upon. Fabri found solace to his offended senses in thinking +of his dear Lord lying in a hard manger, amongst all the defilements +of the oxen. + +After a time came traders selling rushes and branches of trees to make +beds, unguents and perfumes and frankincense to burn, and attar of +roses from Damascus. Others brought bread and water and lettuces and +hot cakes made with eggs, which the pilgrims gladly bought; and, as +the day wore on, with the much going to and fro the ground was slowly +dried under their feet. At nightfall appeared a man armed, whom they +took to be the owner of the caves. With menaces he extorted from each +of them a penny, and in the morning again, before they could come out, +another penny; to their great indignation against the captains and +dragoman, who were sleeping in tents higher up the hill, and had by +contract undertaken all these charges. So long as they were there, the +pilgrims suffered continual annoyance from the Turks, who ran in among +them pilfering, breaking any wine bottles they found, and provoking +them to blows, in order to secure the fines of which the pilgrims +would then be mulcted. One young man was so disgusted at it all that +he went back on board and gave up his pilgrimage; living with the crew +till the party came back from Jerusalem. They were indeed entirely in +the hands of the Turks. It was not a case of moving when they were +inclined. When the Turks wished, they were allowed to go forward: till +then they were confined like prisoners. No date was fixed: the +pilgrims just had to wait in patience, hoping that tomorrow or +tomorrow or tomorrow would see them start. + +Fabri records, however, that there was some justice available. Petty +wrongs must go unredressed; but a pilgrim who had been gulled into +buying coloured glass as gems to the value of five ducats, recovered +his money by complaining to the local governor. A subordinate came +down, took the money from the fraudulent trader by force, and restored +it to its owner. Again Fabri testifies to the careful way in which the +escort protected the company from molestation on its way up to +Jerusalem. He is also at pains to refute the idea that the Turks +compelled them to ride on donkeys, lest the land should be defiled by +Christian feet: rather, he says, it is for our comfort and +convenience. And indeed there was sufficient refutation in the +regulation which compelled them to dismount on reaching any village +and proceed through its narrow streets on foot. + +Whilst waiting at Jaffa, Fabri to his great delight fell in with the +donkey-boy who had gone up with him three years before; and was able +to secure him again. The boy welcomed him, especially as Fabri had +brought him a present of two iron stirrups from Ulm; and all the way +served him most faithfully, picking him figs and grapes from the +gardens they passed, sharing water and biscuit, and even giving him a +goad for his mount--a concession which was not allowed to the ordinary +pilgrim. + +Their first march was to Ramlah, and on arrival they were penned for +the day into a great serai, built by a Duke of Burgundy. It was still +early, only 9 o'clock, for they had started before sunrise. After +barring the gate to keep out the Turks, they set up an altar and +celebrated mass. A sermon was preached by the Franciscan Warden of +Jerusalem, in the course of which he gave them advice as to their +behaviour towards those to whose tolerance they owed their position +there--counsels which forty years later the fiery spirit of Loyola +burned to set at nought, till the Franciscans were thankful to get him +safely out of Jerusalem without open flouting of the masters--: not to +go about alone; not to enter mosques or step over graves; not to +insult Saracens when at prayer or by touching their beards; not to +return blow for blow, but to make formal complaints; not to drink +wine openly; to observe decorum and not rush to be first at the sacred +sites; and generally to be circumspect in presence of the infidels, +lest they mark what was done amiss and say, 'O thou bad Christian', a +phrase which was familiar to them in both Italian and German. He +further charged them that they must on no account chip fragments off +the Holy Sepulchre and other sacred buildings; nor write their names +or coats of arms upon the walls; and finally, he advised them to be +careful in any money-transactions with Muhammadans, and to have no +dealings at all with either Eastern Christians or German Jews. + +After mass was over, they opened the gate and found the outer court +filled with traders who brought them excellent food: fowls ready +roasted, puddings of rice and milk, capital bread and eggs, and fruit +of every kind, grapes, pomegranates, apples, oranges (pomerancia), +lemons and water-melons; and in the afternoon they were allowed to go +and have hot baths in the splendid marble hamáms. In the evening came +a rumour that they were to proceed. They packed up their bundles and +sat waiting for an hour or two; and then the rumour proved to be +false. Meanwhile the sleeping-mats which they had hired for their stay +had been rolled up by their owners and carried off; and the pilgrims +had to sleep as best they might. Fabri made his way up on to the roof +and passed the night there. + +Waking early before sunrise he was much impressed to observe the +devotion of the Muhammadans at their morning prayers: the long rows of +kneeling figures, swaying forward together in reverent prostration, +the grave faces and solemn tones. Surely, as he looked, he must have +felt that God, even his God, was the God of all the earth, and would +be a Father to those that sought Him so earnestly. At any rate he +turned away, with a strong sense of contrast, to his own comrades +waking to the day with laughing chatter and no thought of prayer. An +episode of this halt was a visit from a Saracen fruit-seller upon whom +Fabri looked with curiosity. Then, taking the man's hat, he spat upon +it with every expression of disgust at its Saracen badge. The man, +instead of resenting it, looked cautiously round and then spat on the +badge himself, at the same time making the sign of the Cross. He was a +Christian who had been forced into conversion, probably in expiation +of some crime; and now hated his life. It was no uncommon thing. As +their procession wound through village streets, the pilgrims would +often see furtive signs made to them from inner chambers: unwilling +converts signalling the symbol that they loved, to eyes that were sure +to be sympathetic. + +As Fabri made his way along, his heart was glad. His foot was on holy +ground, and at every step new associations came floating into his +thoughts. These were the mountains to which Moses had looked from +Pisgah; here Jephthah's daughter had made plaint for her young life; +hither had come Mary in the joy of the angel's message; the stones on +which he stumbled might have felt the feet of Christ. At the hill +called Mount Joy they should have seen Jerusalem; but the air was +thick, and they could only make out the Mount of Olives. So they +toiled on along their dusty way, between dry stone walls and thirsty +vegetable-gardens, until, as they reached the crest of a low ridge, +suddenly like a flash of light it shone before them, the City, the +Holy City. + +At once their footsteps quickened with new life; and when at length +they found themselves in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy +Sepulchre, their pent-up emotions burst forth, into tears and groans, +sweet wailings and deep sighs. Some lay powerless on the ground, +forsaken by their strength and to all appearances dead. Others drifted +from one corner to another, beating their breasts, as though urged by +an evil spirit. Some knelt bare-kneed; as they prayed, stretching out +their arms like a rood. Others were shaken with such violent sobs that +they could only sit down and hold their heads in their hands. Some +lost all command of themselves, and, forgetting how to behave, sought +to please God with strange and childish gestures. On the other hand, +Fabri noted some who stood quite unmoved, and merely mocked at the +strange display: dull, unprofitable souls he calls them, brute beasts, +not having the spirit of God. Their self-contained temperament +misliked him, especially as thereafter they held aloof from those who +had given way to such enthusiasm or, as they felt it, weakness. + +We cannot company with the party to all the numerous sites that piety +bade them visit. It was prodigiously fatiguing for them under the July +sun, and the ranks grew thin as the weaker spirits fell out dead +tired, to rest awhile in hospitable cloister or by cooling well. Fabri +found it very toilsome to struggle after mental abstraction, to rise +to such heights as he desired of devotion and comprehension of all the +holy influences around him, to seize every opportunity of +contemplation and lose nothing; being soon thoroughly exhausted with +his bodily exertions. Some alleviation there was: when holy +women--nuns of his own Order, who had a house in Jerusalem--washed his +scapular and tunic for him, and wrought other works of charity for +which he was very grateful. + +The pilgrims had been warned not to wander away from their party. One +day as they went to the Dead Sea, they halted at a monastery; and +Fabri was tempted to ramble off alone to inspect a cliff which had +been hollowed out by hermits into innumerable caves. It was a +precipitous place; and at one point, where the path was narrow and the +cliff fell sheer below, he encountered an Eastern Christian. Seeing +that Fabri was afraid, the fellow began to trifle with him and +demanded money; and in the end Fabri was obliged to open his slender +purse. 'Ever since then', he says, 'I have abhorred the company of +Christians of that sort more than that of Saracens and Arabs, and have +trusted them less. Though perhaps he would not have thrown me down +the precipice, even had I given him nothing, yet it was wicked of him +to play with me in a place of such danger. If an Arab had done so, I +should have been pleased at his play, and should have held him to be a +good pagan; but I believe no good of that Christian.' When he rejoined +his party, the patron told him that the Eastern Christians were least +to be trusted of any men. + +On arrival at Jordan there was much excitement. To bathe in that +ancient river was thought to renew youth, and so all the pilgrims were +eager to immerse themselves; even women of 80--a rather doubtful +figure--plunging into the lukewarm stream. Some had brought bells to +be blessed with Jordan water, others strips of material for clothes; +and wealthier members of the party jumped in as they were, in order +that the robes they had on might bring them luck in the future. Three +things were forbidden to the pilgrims: (1) to swim across the stream, +because in the excitement of emotion and amongst such crowds +individuals had often been drowned; (2) to dive in, because the bottom +was muddy; (3) to carry away phials of Jordan water. The first +regulation was openly violated. On his first journey Fabri had swum +across, but on the return had been seized with panic and nearly +drowned. So this time he contented himself with drawing up his +garments round his neck and sitting down in the shallow water among +the crowd who were splashing about and jestingly baptizing one +another. The prohibition of Jordan water was to appease the shipmen; +for it was thought to cause storms when carried over the sea. + +We have not time to follow Fabri in more detail. On 24 August he left +Jerusalem with a small company of pilgrims who had not been deterred +from undertaking the journey to Sinai. There was much dispute about +the route they should follow. Some were for going by sea to +Alexandria, others wished to march down the sea coast; but finally +they made up their minds to go straight South across the desert. +Starting from Gaza on 9 September they reached St. Catherine's on the +22nd. Five days of very hard work sufficed for them to see all the +sacred sites and ascend the many towering peaks; and here again Fabri +impressed upon his companions that the days of miracles were over, and +that in these evil times God would show no more. On 27 September they +set forth again, and journeying through Midian reached Cairo on 8 +October; having picked up on the shore of the Red Sea oyster shells +which should be an abiding witness of their pilgrimage. On 5 November +they set sail from Alexandria; but summer had departed from the sea, +and the winds blew obstinately. Three times they beat up to Cape +Malea, before they could round the point and make sail for the North; +and it was not till 8 Jan. 1484 that they landed in Venice. The +pilgrimage was over after seven months, and with what Guilford's +chaplain calls 'large departing of our money'. + + + + +X + +THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE + + +Hitherto we have viewed the age mainly through the personality of +individuals. It remains to consider some of the features of the +Renaissance when it had spread across the Alps--to France, to Spain, +to Switzerland, to Germany, to England--and some of the contrasts that +it presents with the earlier movement in Italy. The story of the +Italian Renaissance has often been told; and we need not go back upon +it here. On the side of the revival of learning it was without doubt +the great age. The importance of its discoveries, the fervour of its +enthusiasm have never been equalled. But though it remains +pre-eminent, the period that followed it has an interest of its own +which is hardly less keen and presents the real issues at stake in a +clearer light. Awakened Italy felt itself the heiress of Rome, and +thus patriotism coloured its enthusiasm for the past. To the rest of +Western Europe this source of inspiration was not open. They were +compelled to examine more closely the aims before them; and thus +attained to a calmer and truer estimate of what they might hope to +gain from the study of the classics. It was not the revival of lost +glories, thoughts of a world held in the bonds of peace: in those +dreams the Transalpines had only the part of the conquered. Rather the +classics led them back to an age before Christianity; and pious souls +though they were, the scholar's instinct told them that they would +find there something to learn. Christianity had fixed men's eyes on +the future, on their own salvation in the life to come; and had +trained all knowledge, even Aristotle, to serve that end. In the great +days of Greece and Rome the world was free from this absorbing +preoccupation; and inquiring spirits were at liberty to find such +truth as they could, not merely the truth that they wished or must. + +Another point of difference between Italy and the Transalpines is in +the resistance offered to the Renaissance in the two regions. The +scholastic philosophy and theology was a creation of the North. The +greatest of the Schoolmen found their birth or training in France or +Germany, at the schools of Paris and Cologne; and with the names of +Duns, Hales, Holcot, Occam, Burley and Bradwardine our own islands +stand well to the fore. The situation is thus described by Aldus in a +letter written to the young prince of Carpi in October 1499, to +rejoice over some translations from the Greek just arrived from +Linacre in England: 'Of old it was barbarous learning that came to us +from Britain; it conquered Italy and still holds our castles. But now +they send us learned eloquence; with British aid we shall chase away +barbarity and come by our own again.' The teaching of the Schoolmen +made its way into Italy, but had little vogue; and with the Church, +through such Popes as Nicholas V, on the side of the Renaissance, +resistance almost disappeared. The humanists charging headlong +dissipated their foes in a moment, but were soon carried beyond the +field of battle, to fall into the hands of the forces of reaction. +Across the Alps, on the other hand, the Church and the universities +stood together and looked askance at the new movement, dreading what +it might bring forth. In consequence the ground was only won by slow +and painful efforts, but each advance, as it was made, was secured. + +The position may be further illustrated by comparing the first +productions of the press on either side of the Alps: in the early +days, before the export trade had developed, and when books were +produced mainly for the home market. The Germans who brought the art +down into Italy, Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome, Wendelin and Jenson +at Venice, printed scarcely anything that was not classical: Latin +authors and Latin translations from the Greek. Up in the North the +first printers of Germany, Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz, Mentelin at +Strasburg, rarely overstepped the boundaries of the mediaeval world +that was passing away or the modern that was taking its place. + +The appearance of the _Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_ in 1515 exposed +the scholastic teachers and their allies in the Church to such +widespread ridicule that it is not easy for us now to realize the +position which those dignitaries still held when Erasmus was young. +The stream of contempt poured upon them by the triumphant humanists +obscures the merit of their system as a gigantic and complete engine +of thought. Under its great masters, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, +Duns Scotus, scholasticism had been rounded into an instrument capable +of comprehending all knowledge and of expressing every refinement of +thought; and, as has been well said, the acute minds that created it, +if only they had extended their inquiries into natural science, might +easily have anticipated by centuries the discoveries of modern +days.[39] In expressing their distinctions the Schoolmen had thrown to +the winds the restraints of classical Latin and the care of elegance; +and with many of them language had degenerated into jargon. But in +their own eyes their position was unassailable. Their philosophy was +founded on Aristotle; and while they were proud of their master, they +were prouder still of the system they had created in his name: and +thus they felt no impulse to look backwards to the past. + + [39] Cf. F.G. Stokes, _Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_, 1909, p. + xvii. + +In the matter of language they had been led by a spirit of reaction. +The literature of later classical times had sacrificed matter to form; +and the schools had been dominated by teachers who trained boys to +declaim in elegant periods on any subject whatever, regardless of its +content; thus carrying to an extreme the precepts with which the great +orators had enforced the importance of style. The Schoolmen swung the +pendulum back, letting sound and froth go and thinking only of their +subject-matter, despising the classics. In their turn they were +confronted by the humanists, who reasserted the claims of form. + +There was sense in the humanist contention. It is very easy to say the +right thing in the wrong way; in other spheres than diplomacy the +choice of language is important. Words have a history of their own, +and often acquire associations independent of their meaning. Rhythm, +too, and clearness need attention. An unbalanced sentence goes +haltingly and jars; an ambiguous pronoun causes the reader to stumble. +An ill-written book, an ill-worded speech fail of their effects; it is +not merely by sympathy and character that men persuade. But of course +the humanists pushed the matter too far. Pendulums do not reach the +repose of the mean without many tos and fros. Elegance is good, but +the art of reasoning is not to be neglected. Of the length to which +they went Ascham's method of instruction in the _Scholemaster_ (1570) +is a good example. He wished his scholar to translate Cicero into +English, and then from the English to translate back into the actual +words of the Latin. The Ciceronians did not believe that the same +thing could be well said in many ways; rather there was one way which +transcended all others, and that Cicero had attained. Erasmus, +however, was no Ciceronian; and one of the reasons why he won such a +hold upon his own and subsequent generations was that, more than all +his contemporaries, he succeeded in establishing a reasonable accord +between the claims of form and matter in literature. + +In their neglect of the classics the Schoolmen had a powerful ally. +For obvious reasons the early and the mediaeval Church felt that much +of classical literature was injurious to the minds of the young, and +in consequence discouraged the use of it in schools. The classics were +allowed to perish, and their place was taken by Christian poets such +as Prudentius or Juvencus, by moralizations of Aesop, patchwork +compositions known as 'centos' on Scriptural themes, and the like. The +scholars, therefore, who went to Italy and came home to the North +carrying the new enthusiasm, had strenuous opposition to encounter. +The Schoolmen considered them impertinent, the Church counted them +immoral. To us who know which way the conflict ended, the savage blows +delivered by the humanists seem mere brutality; they lash their fallen +foes with what appears inhuman ferocity. But the truth is that the +struggle was not finished until well into the sixteenth century. Biel +of Tubingen, 'the last of the Schoolmen', lived till 1495. Between +1501 and 1515 a single printer, Wolff of Basle, produced five massive +volumes of the _Summae_ of mediaeval Doctors. Through the greater +part, therefore, of Erasmus' life the upholders of the old systems and +ideals, firmly entrenched by virtue of possession, succeeded in +maintaining their supremacy in the schools. + +Between the two periods of the revival of learning, the Italian and +the Transalpine, a marked line is drawn by the invention of printing, +_c._ 1455: when the one movement had run half its course, the other +scarcely begun. The achievements of the press in the diffusion of +knowledge are often extolled; and some of the resulting good and evil +is not hard to see. But the paramount service rendered to learning by +the printer's art was that it made possible a standard of critical +accuracy which was so much higher than what was known before as to be +almost a new creation. When books were manuscripts, laboriously +written out one at a time, there could be no security of identity +between original and copy; and even when a number of copies were made +from the same original, there was a practical certainty that there +would be no absolute uniformity among them. Mistakes were bound to +occur; not always at the same point, but here in one manuscript, there +in another. Or again, when two unrelated copies of the same book were +brought together, there was an antecedent probability that examination +would reveal differences: so that in general it was impossible to feel +that a fellow-scholar working on the same author was using the same +text. + +Even with writers of one's own day uniformity was hardly to be +attained. Not uncommonly, as a mark of attention, an author revised +manuscript copies of his works, which were to be presented to friends; +and besides correcting the copyists' errors, might add or cut out or +alter passages according to his later judgement. Subsequent copies +would doubtless follow his revision, and then the process might be +repeated; with the result that a reader could not tell to what stage +in the evolution of a work the text before him might belong: whether +it represented the earliest form of composition or the final form +reached perhaps many years afterwards. To understand the conditions +under which mediaeval scholars worked, it is of the utmost importance +to realize this state of uncertainty and flux. + +Not that in manuscript days there was indifference to accuracy. +Serious scholars and copyists laid great stress upon it. With +insistent fervour they implored one another to be careful, and to +collate what had been copied. But there are limits to human powers. +Collation is a dull business; and unless done with minute attention, +cannot be expected to yield perfect correctness. When a man has copied +a work of any length, it is hard for him to collate it with the +original slowly. Physically, of course, he easily might: but the +spirit is weak, and, weary of the ground already traversed once, urges +him to hurry forward, with the inevitable result. + +With a manuscript, too, the possible reward might well seem scarcely +worth the labour; for how could any permanence be ensured for critical +work? A scholar might expend his efforts over a corrupt author, might +compare his own manuscript with others far and near, and at length +arrive at a text really more correct. And yet what hope had he that +his labour was not lost? His manuscript would pass at his death into +other hands and might easily be overlooked and even perish. Like a +child's castle built upon the sand, his work would be overwhelmed by +the rising tide of oblivion. Such conditions are disheartening. + +Thus mediaeval standards of accuracy were of necessity low. In default +of good instruments we content ourselves with those we have. To draw a +line straight we use a ruler; but if one is not to be had, the edge of +a book or a table may supply its place. In the last resort we draw +roughly by hand, but with no illusions as to our success. So it was +with the scholar of the Middle Ages. His instruments were imperfect; +and he acquiesced in the best standards he could get: realizing no +doubt their defects, but knowing no better way. + +But with printing the position was at once changed. When the type had +been set up, it was possible to strike off a thousand copies of a +book, each of which was identical with all the rest. It became worth +while to spend abundant pains over seeking a good text and correcting +the proofs--though this latter point was not perceived at first--when +there was the assured prospect of such uniformity to follow. One +edition could be distinguished from another by the dates on title-page +and colophon; and work once done was done for all time, if enough +copies of a book were taken off. This necessarily produced a great +change in methods of study. Instead of a single manuscript, in places +perhaps hopelessly entangled, and always at the mercy of another +manuscript of equal or greater authority that might appear from the +blue with different readings, the scholar received a text which +represented a recension of, it may be, several manuscripts, and whose +roughnesses had been smoothed out by the care of editors more or less +competent. + +The precious volumes to which modern book-lovers reverently give the +title of 'Editio princeps', had almost as great honour in their own +day, before the credit of priority and antiquity had come to them; for +in them men saw the creation of a series of 'standard texts', norms to +which, until they were superseded, all future work upon the same +ground could be referred. As a result, too, of the improved +correctness of the texts, instead of being satisfied with the general +sense of an author, men were able to base edifices of precise argument +upon the verbal meaning of passages, in some confidence that their +structures would not be overset. + +But the new invention was not universally acclaimed. Trithemius with +his conservative mind quickly detected some weaknesses; and in 1492 he +composed a treatise 'In praise of scribes', in vain attempt to arrest +the flowing tide. 'Let no one say, "Why should I trouble to write +books, when they are appearing continually in such numbers? for a +moderate sum one can acquire a large library." What a difference +between the results achieved! A manuscript written on parchment will +last a thousand years: books printed on paper will scarcely live two +hundred. Besides, there will always be something to copy: not +everything can be printed. Even if it could, a true scribe ought not +to give up. His pen can perpetuate good works which otherwise would +soon perish. He must not be amazed by the present abundance that he +sees, but should look forward to the needs of the future. Though we +had thousands of volumes, we must not cease writing; for printed books +are never so good. Indeed they usually pay little heed to ornament and +orthography.' It is noticeable that only in this last point does +Trithemius claim for manuscripts superior accuracy. In the matter of +permanence we may wonder what he would have thought of modern paper. + +The first advance, then, rendered possible by the invention of +printing was to more uniform and better texts: the next step forward +was no less important. To scholars content with the general sense of a +work, a translation might be as acceptable as the original. Improved +standards of accuracy led men to perceive that an author must be +studied in his own tongue: in order that no shade of meaning might be +lost. Here again the two periods are easily distinguished. Nicholas V +set his scholars, Poggio and Valla, to translate the Greeks, Herodotus +and Thucydides, Aristotle and Diodorus. The feature of the later epoch +is the number of Greek editions which came out to supplant the +versions in common use. The credit for this advance in critical +scholarship must be given to Aldus for his Greek Aristotle, which +appeared in 1495-9; and he subsequently led the way with numerous +texts of the Greek classics. At the same time he proposed to apply the +same principle to Biblical study. As early as 1499 Grocin in a letter +alludes to Aldus' scheme of printing the whole Bible in the original +'three languages', Hebrew, Greek and Latin; and a specimen was +actually put forth in 1501. + +In this matter precedence might seem to lie with the Jewish printers, +who produced the Psalms in Hebrew in 1477, and the Old Testament +complete in 1488; but as the Jews never at any period ceased to read +their Scriptures in Hebrew, there was no question of recovery of an +original. Aldus did not live to carry his scheme out; and it was left +to Ximenes and the band of scholars that he gathered at Alcala, to +produce the first edition of the Bible complete in the original +tongues, the Complutensian Polyglott, containing the Hebrew side by +side with the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and for the Pentateuch a +Syriac paraphrase. The New Testament in this great enterprise was +finished in 1514, and the whole work was ready by 1517, shortly before +Ximenes' death. But as publication was delayed till 1522, the actual +priority rests with Erasmus, whose New Testament in Greek with a Latin +translation by himself appeared, as we have seen, in 1516. + +Thus by an accident Germany gained the credit of being the first to +assert this new principle, the importance of studying texts in the +original, in the field where resistance is most resolute and victory +is hardly won. And now it was about to enter upon a still greater +contest. Erasmus' New Testament encountered hostile criticism in many +quarters: conservative theologians made common cause with the friars +in condemning it. But at the very centre of the religion they +professed, the book was blessed by the chief priests. The Pope +accepted the dedication, and bishops wished they could read the Greek. +Far otherwise was it with the impending struggle of the Reformation: +there the cleavage of sides followed very different lines. Into that +wide field we cannot now expatiate; but it is important to notice an +element which the German Renaissance contributed to the Reformation, +and which played a considerable part in both movements--the +accentuation of German national feeling. + +At the middle of the fifteenth century Italy enjoyed undisputed +pre-eminence in the world of learning. The sudden splendour into which +the Renaissance had blazed up on Italian soil drew men's eyes thither +more than ever; and to its ancient universities students from the +North swarmed like bees. To graduate in Italy, to hear its famous +doctors, perhaps even to learn from one of the native Greeks brought +over out of the East, became first the ambition, and then the +indispensable requirement of every Northern scholar who could afford +it; and few of Erasmus' friends and colleagues had not at some time or +other made the pilgrimage to Italy. Consequence and success brought +the usual Nemesis. The Italian _hubris_ expressed itself in the +familiar Greek distinction between barbarian and home-born; and the +many nations from beyond the Alps found themselves united in a common +bond which they were not eager to share. We have seen the kind of gibe +with which Agricola's eloquence was greeted at Pavia. The more such +insults are deserved, the more they sting. We may be sure that in many +cases they were not forgotten. Celtis returning from Italy to +Ingolstadt in 1492 delivered his soul in an inaugural oration: 'The +ancient hatred between us can never be dissolved. But for the Alps we +should be eternally at war.' In other countries the feeling, though +less acute, was much the same. Thus in 1517 spoke Stephen Poncher, +bishop of Paris, after his first meeting with Erasmus: 'Italy has no +one to compare with him in literary gifts. In our own day Hermolaus +and Politian have rescued Latin from barbarism; and their services can +never be forgotten. When I was there, too, I met a number of men of +rare ability and learning. But with all respect to the Italians, I +must say that Erasmus eclipses every one, Transalpine and Cisalpine +alike.' + +Of the foreign 'nations' at the universities of Italy none was more +numerous than the German, a title which embraced many nationalities of +the North: not merely German-speaking races such as the Swiss and +Flemish and Dutch, but all who could by any stretch of imagination be +represented as descendants of the Goths; Swedes and Danes, Hungarians +and Bohemians, Lithuanians and Bulgars and Poles. That they went in +such numbers is not surprising. The prestige of Italian teaching was +great and well-established, whereas their own universities were few +and scarcely more than nascent; indeed, when the Council of Vienne had +ordained the teaching of Greek and other missionary languages in 1311, +its injunctions went to France and Italy and England and Spain: but +Germany had no university to which a missive could be directed. From +Southern Germany, too, and Switzerland and Austria, the distance was +small, notwithstanding the obvious Alps and the difficulties of the +passes. Even Celtis, in spite of his denunciations, sent on his best +pupils to Italy. So there were many who brought home with them to the +North recollections of lofty condescension and of ill-disguised +contempt for the foreigner: insults that they burned to repay. + +Italy might vaunt the glories of ancient Rome; but Germany also had +deeds to be proud of. Rome might have founded the World-empire; but +Charlemagne had conquered the dominions of the Caesars and made the +Empire Germanic. Classic antiquity, too, could not be denied to the +land and people whom Tacitus had described; and Germans were not slow +to claim the virtues found among them by the Roman historian. Arminius +became the national hero. German faith and honour, German simplicity, +German sincerity and candour--these are insisted upon by the +Transalpine humanists with a vehemence which suggests that while +priding themselves on the possession of such qualities, they marked +the lack of them in others. We may recall Ascham's horror of the +Englishman Italianated. Not that Germans could not make friends in +Italy. Scheurl loved his time at Bologna, and was eager to fight for +the Bentivogli against Julius II. Erasmus was made much of by the +Aldine Academy at Venice; and ten years later Hutten was charmed with +his reception there. But with many, conscious of their own defects[40] +and of the reality of Italian superiority, the charge of barbarism +must have rankled. To Luther in 1518 Italian is synonymous with +supercilious. + + [40] Thus a worthy abbot in the Inn valley, writing to Erasmus + in 1523, manages to achieve a Latin letter, but apologizes + for only being able to write in German characters. + +The rising German feeling expresses itself on all sides in the letters +of the humanists. A young Frieslander, studying at Oxford in 1499, +writes to a fellow-countryman there: 'Your verses have shown me what I +never could have believed, that German talents are no whit inferior to +Italian.' Hutten in 1516 writes of Reuchlin and Erasmus as 'the two +eyes of Germany, whom we must sedulously cherish; for it is through +them that our nation is ceasing to be barbarous'. Beatus Rhenanus, in +editing the poems of Janus Pannonius (d. 1472), says in his preface, +1518: 'Janus and Erasmus, Germans though they are and moderns, give me +as much satisfaction to read as do Politian and Hermolaus, or even +Virgil and Cicero.' Erasmus in 1518 writes to thank a canon of Mainz +who had entertained him at supper. After compliments on his host's +charming manners, his erudition free from superciliousness--if he +could have known Gibbon, he surely must have used those immortal words +of praise, 'a modest and learned ignorance'--and his wit and elegance +of speech, he goes on: 'One might have been listening to a Roman. Now +let the Italians go and taunt Germans with barbarism, if they dare!' +In 1519 a canon of Brixen in Tirol writes to Beatus: 'Would to God +that Germany had more men like you, to make her famous, and stand up +against those Italians, who give themselves such airs about their +learning; though men of credit now think that the helm has been +snatched from their hands by Erasmus.' This is how Zwingli writes in +1521 of an Italian who had attacked Luther and charged him with +ignorance: 'But we must make allowances for Italian conceit. In their +heads is always running the refrain, "Heaven and earth can show none +like to us". They cannot bear to see Germany outstripping them in +learning.' Rarely a different note is heard, evoked by rivalry perhaps +or the desire to encourage. Locher from Freiburg could call Leipzig +barbarous. Erasmus wrote to an Erfurt schoolmaster that he was glad to +see Germany softening under the influence of good learning and putting +off her wild woodland ways. But these are exceptions: towards +insolence from the South an unbroken front was preserved. + +In another direction the strong national feeling manifested itself; in +the study of German antiquity and the composition of histories.[41] +Maximilian, dipping his hands in literature, stimulated the +archaeological researches of Peutinger, patronized Trithemius and +Pirckheimer, and even instituted a royal historian, Stabius. Celtis +the versatile projected an elaborate _Germania illustrata_ on the +model of Flavio Biondo's work for Rome; and his description of +Nuremberg was designed to be the first instalment. As he conceived it, +the work was never carried out; but essays of varying importance on +this theme were produced by Cochlaeus, Pirckheimer, Aventinus and +Munster. The most ardent to extol Germany was Wimpfeling of +Schlettstadt, a man of serious temperament, who was prone to rush into +controversy in defence of the causes that he had at heart. His +education had all been got in Germany, and he was proud of his +country. His first effort to increase its praise was to instigate +Trithemius to put together a 'Catalogue of the illustrious men who +adorn Germany with their talents and writings'. The author's preface +(8 Feb. 1491) reveals unmistakably the animosity towards Italy: 'Some +people contemn our country as barren, and maintain that few men of +genius have flourished in it; hoping by disparagement of others to +swell their own praise. With all the resources of their eloquence they +trick out the slender achievements of their own countrymen; but +jealousy blinds them to the great virtues of the Germans, the mighty +deeds and brilliant intellects, the loyalty, enthusiasm and devotion +of this great nation. If they find in the classics any credit given +to us for valour or learning, they quickly hide it up; and in order to +trumpet their own excellences, they omit ours altogether. That is how +Pliny's narrative of the German wars was lost, and how so many +histories of our people have disappeared.' + + [41] Cf. A. Horawitz in Sybel's _Historische Zeitschrift_, xxv. + (1871), 66-101; and P. Joachimsen, _Geschichtsauffassung und + Geschichtschreibung in Deutschland unter dem Einfluss des + Humanismus_, pt. 1, 1910. + +The book was sent to Wimpfeling, who collected a few more names and +added a preface of his own (17 Sept. 1492) in the same strain. 'People +who think that Germany is still as barbarous as it was in the days of +Caesar should read what Jerome has to say about it. The abundance of +old books in existence shows that Germany had many learned men in the +past; who have left carefully written manuscripts on oratory, poetry, +natural philosophy, theology and all kinds of erudition. All down the +Rhine you will find the walls and roofs of monasteries adorned with +elegant epigrams which testify to German taste of old. To-day there +are Germans who can translate the Greek classics into Latin; and if +their style is not pure Ciceronian, let our detractors remember that +styles change with the times. Mankind is always discontented, and +prefers the old to the modern. I can quite understand that our German +philosophers adapted their style to their audiences and their lofty +subjects. So foreign critics had better let this provocative talk +alone for ever.' + +A few years later Wimpfeling edited a fourteenth-century treatise by +Lupold of Bebenburg entitled 'The zeal and fervour of the ancient +German princes towards the Christian religion and the servants of +God'; the intention of which clearly fell in with his desire. In his +preface, addressed to Dalberg, Agricola's patron, he tells a story +which explains a peculiarity occasionally found in mediaeval +manuscripts; of being written in sections by several different hands. +Some years before, the Patriarch of Aquileia was passing through +Spires. To divert the enforced leisure of a halt upon a journey, he +prowled round the libraries of the town; and in one discovered this +treatise of Lupold, which pleased him greatly. As he was to be off +again next morning, there was no time to have it copied, at least by +one hand: so the manuscript was cut up and distributed among a number +of scribes, and in the space of a night the desired copy was ready. +Subsequently Wimpfeling heard of the incident from one of the brethren +in the monastery, and obtained the original manuscript to publish. +When such things could happen, no wonder that some manuscripts are +imperfect and others have disappeared. + +Wimpfeling's next endeavour to assert the glories of Germany was +completed in 1502; but did not appear till 1505. It was based upon the +work of a friend, Sebastian Murrho of Colmar (d. 1494). The title, +_Defensio Germaniae_ or _Epithoma Germanorum_, sufficiently explains +its purpose. After a brief account of Germany in Roman times--his hero +being not Arminius, but 'the first German king, Arioviscus, who fought +with Julius Caesar',--and fuller records of the Germanic Emperors +since Charlemagne, Wimpfeling comes to the praise of his own days; +the men of learning, the famous soldiers, the architects who could +build the great tower of Strasburg, the painters, the inventors of +printing and of that terrible engine the bombard. But nearest to his +heart lay a question debated then as now: to whom should rightfully +belong the western part of the Rhine valley, between the river and the +Vosges? It was there that his home lay, Schlettstadt, one of the +fairest cities of the plain. With all the 'zeal and fervour of the +ancient German princes' he sets out to prove that it must be German: +'where are there any traces' he cries 'of the French language? There +are no books in French, no monuments, no letters, no epitaphs, no +deeds or documents. For seven or eight centuries there is nothing but +Latin or German.' The cathedral of Spires, the fine monastery of St. +Fides in his native town, supply him with a further argument: would +the good Dukes of Swabia have lavished so much money, the substance of +their fathers, upon Gallic soil, to pour it out among the French? With +such arguments he convinced himself and others. Almost at the same +time Peutinger put out a little volume of 'Conversations about the +wonderful antiquities of Germany'; supporting Wimpfeling with further +evidence and concluding satisfactorily that French had never ruled +over Germans. + +A work of very different calibre which appeared about this time was +the _Germaniae Exegesis_ of Francis Fritz, who Latinized his name into +Irenicus. Wimpfeling was growing grey when he had made his defence of +Germany: the new champion was a young man of 23, who had scarcely +emerged from his degree. The book was published in 1518; printed at +Hagenau by Anshelm at the cost of John Koberger, the great Nuremberg +printer, and fostered by Pirckheimer. In his later years Irenicus +became a Lutheran and displayed some dignity in refusing to sacrifice +his convictions to worldly interests; but at this time he was +enthusiastic and heady, and as a result his work is an uncritical +jumble. 'Puerile and silly' Erasmus called it, when he saw some of the +proof-sheets at Spires in 1518. 'A most unfortunate book', wrote +Beatus Rhenanus in 1525, 'without style and without judgement.' To +Aventinus in 1531 it was 'an impudent compilation from Stabius and +Trithemius, by a poor creature of the most despicable intelligence'. +But even a bad book can be a measure of the time, showing the ideas +current and the catchwords that were thought likely to attract the +reading public. It is much larger than Wimpfeling's Defence, and even +more miscellaneous; ranging over many aspects of Germany ancient and +modern. To us in the present inquiry its interest lies in the +frequency with which the excellence of Germany is asserted against +Italian sneers. The following specimen will illustrate this point, and +also explain Erasmus' epithets. In the chapter on the German language +(ii. 30) Irenicus is throughout engaged in refuting the charge of +German barbarism. 'It may be true', he says, 'that German is not so +much declined as Latin: but complexity does not necessarily bring +refinement. Germany is as rich in dialects as Italy, and to speak +German well merits high praise. Italian may be directly descended from +Latin; but German too has a considerable element of Latin and Greek +words. Guarino and Petrarch have written poetry in their vernaculars, +and so the Italians boast that their language is more suited to +poetry. But more than 1000 years ago Ovid wrote a book of German +poetry[42]; and Trebeta, son of Semiramis, is known to have been the +first person to compose in German.' + + [42] Ovid, _Pont._ 4. 13. 19: Getico sermone. + +In spite of such stuff, Pirckheimer, who saw the book in manuscript, +was delighted with it. 'You have achieved what many have wished but +few could have carried out. Every German must be obliged to you for +the lustre you have brought to the Fatherland.' After stating that he +had arranged with Koberger for the printing, he points out details +which might be improved: more stress might be laid on the connexion of +the Germans with the Goths, 'which the dregs of the Goths and +Lombards--by which I mean the Italians--try to snatch from us'; and +the universal conquests of the Goths might be more fully treated. +Finally he suggests that before publication the work should be +submitted to Stabius: 'the book deserves learned readers, and I should +wish it to be as perfect as possible.'[43] + + [43] The letter is printed in Pirckheimer's _Opera_, 1610, p. + 313: but is addressed wrongly, to Beatus Rhenanus. + +This brief survey may close with a far more considerable work, the +_Res Germanicae_ of Beatus Rhenanus, published in 1531; from which we +have made some extracts above. The book is sober and serious, and the +subject-matter is handled scientifically; but in his preface Beatus is +careful to point out that German history is as important as Roman, +modern as much worth studying as ancient. + +Such was the soil into which fell the seed that Luther went forth to +sow. When Tetzel came marching into German towns, with the Pope's Bull +borne before him on a cushion, and brandishing indulgences for the +living and the dead, when the coins were tinkling in the box, and the +souls, released by contract, were flying off out of purgatory, the +religious sense of thinking men was outraged by this travesty of the +Day of Judgement; but scarcely less were they angered to see the +tinkling coins, honest German money, flying off as rapidly as the +souls, to build palaces for the supercilious Italians. In the great +struggle of the Reformation the main issue was of course religious; +but even its leader could feel added bitterness in the knowledge that +this shocking traffic was ordained from Italy to benefit an Italian +Pope. If the sympathies of educated Germany had not already been +strongly moved in the same direction, it is conceivable that Luther's +intrepid protest might have lacked the support which carried it to +success. + + + + +XI + +ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN + +(A paper read before the third International Historical Congress, in +London, April 1913.) + + +Whatever may still be the troubles of the great, amongst men of +learning at any rate visits of ceremony are mercifully no longer in +fashion. At first sight one is inclined to find the cause of this in +an improved sense of the value of time. Modern inventions have taught +first the business man and then the world in general that time is +money. Improved communications with time-tables that may be relied +upon enable us to arrange our days in such a way as to be at least +more busy, if not more useful; and we have acquired a wholesome +respect for the time of others. But I do not think we should be right +in accounting for the change in this way. At all ages the scholar, +looking round him at tasks which exceed the capacity of a lifetime, +has been avaricious of the hours--'labuntur anni', 'pereunt et +imputantur' ever in his thoughts: and though the world of old moved +slower, the man of business has rarely belied his name. A more +plausible explanation is that the custom has died of surfeit. As +increased facilities of travel made the world smaller, the circle of +those that might be visited and saluted by the active grew boundless; +so that on both sides limits were desired. Another consideration is +that with new facilities came increased opportunities and hopes. +To-day we live in the happy consciousness that friends, however +distant, may be brought across the world to our doors by the urgencies +of business or pleasure; and thus no one knows what the coming year +may bring forth. In the sixteenth century men knew that opportunities +lost might never recur, and that they must seize or make them as best +they might. + +At that time visits of ceremony were in great vogue. Officials and +scholars alike groaned under them. After a visit to the Court Erasmus +writes: 'If Pollio (a disguised name, as he was writing of a man who +afterwards became an intimate friend) has been with you, you will +understand what I suffered at Brussels; every day hosts of Spanish +visitors, besides Italians and Germans.' A little later he apologizes +to a correspondent for having given him a chilly welcome: 'just then I +had escaped from Brussels, quite worn out with the salutations of +these persistent Spaniards.' The custom was widespread. An English +graduate, studying for a time at Louvain, congratulates himself on +having escaped from it at Cambridge. Clenardus found it thriving at +Salamanca; Casaubon complained of it at Montpellier; in Oxford it was +even obligatory for intending disputants in the schools to pay formal +visits beforehand to their examiners. + +In 1517 Erasmus' fame was at its zenith; and in consequence visitors +came to him from every side, some to seek counsel, others to adore. +His correspondence gives us many instances. In the spring of 1517, +when the Cardinal of Gurk attended Maximilian to the Netherlands, his +two secretaries, Richard Bartholinus of Perugia and Ursinus Velius, a +Silesian, prepared panegyrical verses with which to greet Erasmus if +they should have the good fortune to meet him. For some reason +Bartholinus alone came, and, presenting both the poems, elicited a +complimentary letter in reply. A more distinguished visitor received +less attention. In the summer of 1518 Erasmus was at Basle, printing +the notes to his second edition of the New Testament. The Bishop of +Pistoia, nephew of one of the most influential cardinals, and Papal +nuncio in Switzerland, also came to Basle. Wishing to see the great +scholar, he asked him to dinner. But Erasmus could not spare the time. +He declined, and in his place sent his friends, Beatus Rhenanus and +the young Amerbachs. Three times he made excuse; and at length the +Nuncio went on foot to seek in Froben's press the scholar who would +not come to him. What their conversation was we do not know; but +before leaving, the Nuncio ordered a copy of the Amerbach-Froben +Jerome to be sent to the binders and equipped with his arms and +adornments. + +Later in the year the enthusiastic Eobanus of Hesse appeared in +Louvain. He had come from Erfurt where he was teaching, and the main +purpose of his journey was to see Erasmus. His _Hodoeporicon_, +printed on his return, describes his course in detail. With a young +companion, John Werter, also from Erfurt, he entered Louvain in the +evening. Next morning early they sent in their 'callow' verses to the +great man, and followed shortly themselves. Erasmus came down to greet +them at the door with a kindly welcome, and Eobanus describes a +banquet to which he invited them, entertaining them with serious talk +and light-hearted jest. But it was at no light cost to Erasmus' time: +for when his admirers left five days later, he had been cajoled into +writing six letters of compliment, two to the travellers themselves +and four more to friends at Gotha and Erfurt. But this was not the +only cost. Eobanus imbued others of the Erfurt circle with his +hero-worship; and next year came two more, Jonas and Schalbe, to +trouble Erasmus' leisure, when he was taking a spring holiday at +Antwerp, 'by the sea', and to bear off more letters to Erfurt. The +spirit that animated these visitors is shown in a letter of John +Turzo, bishop of Breslau, a man of Erasmus' own age. In 1518 Ursinus +Velius, the disappointed secretary of the Cardinal of Gurk, had become +canon of Breslau on Turzo's presentation; and had doubtless talked to +his patron of Erasmus' attractive gifts. 'I am most eager to visit +you' wrote the Bishop, from Breslau. 'If ever I had heard that you +were anywhere within a week's journey from here, I should have rushed +over at once: indeed I would have gone as far as Belgium, if only the +business of my office allowed. The men of Cadiz who journeyed to Rome +to see Livy were not more eager.' + +A picture of the interruptions to which Erasmus was exposed is given +in a preface written in Froben's name for the new edition of Erasmus' +_Epigrammata_ combined with More's and with the _Utopia_, March 1518. +'Most of these verses' Froben is made to say 'were written not for +publication, but to give pleasure to friends; to whom he is always +very obliging. When he was here bringing out his New Testament and +Jerome, heavens! how he worked! toiling away untiringly day after day. +Never was any one more overwhelmed in composition; and yet certain +great persons thought themselves entitled to come and waste his time, +coaxing out of him a few lines of verse or a little letter. So +compliant was he that they made it very difficult for him. To refuse +seemed uncivil when they pressed him so. But to write when his mind +was intent elsewhere, and not a minute to spare from his labours----! +However, he did write, on the spur of the moment, turning aside for a +little to the groves of the Muses.' + +Some other visitors can be traced in this period. John Alexander +Brassicanus, poet laureate, came from Tubingen in September 1520 and +saw Erasmus at Antwerp; whence in reply to a letter of self-introduction +he bore away a complimentary letter that he afterwards printed, and +the sound piece of advice, that if he wished to become learned, he +must never think himself so. More distinguished was Ferdinand +Columbus, the explorer's natural son and heir, who in October 1520, +on one of those journeys on which he gathered his famous library, +received at Louvain a copy of Erasmus' _Antibarbari_, with his name +inscribed in it by the author. A visitor to whom we must pay more heed +was John Draco, one of the Erfurt circle, who in July 1520 came to pay +homage at Louvain. + +In the autumn of 1518 the agent of a Leipzig bookseller trading to +Prague received a letter to carry back with him and forward on to +Erasmus at Louvain. The writer was a certain Jan Slechta, a Bohemian +country gentleman, who was living at Kosteletz on the upper waters of +the Elbe, a few miles to the North-east of Prague. He was a man of +education and position. After taking his M.A. at Prague in 1484, he +had served for sixteen years as a secretary to King Ladislas of +Bohemia and Hungary; but about 1507, disgusted with the turmoils of +court life in that very troubled time, he had retired to his home, to +give his later years to the education of his son and the personal +management of his estates. The world of affairs had not extinguished +his love of learning. He was an intimate friend of Bohuslaus of +Hassenstein, scholar and traveller, and corresponded with him in +elegant Latin. Attracted by the reputation for eloquence won by the +notorious Hieronymus Balbus, he had persuaded him _c._ 1499 to come +and teach in Prague--a step which in view of Balbus' bad life he +afterwards deeply regretted. He was also the author of a dialogue on +the relations of body and soul, entitled _Microcosmus_; which with +characteristic modesty he kept for more than twenty years known only +to his intimate friends--indeed it was only in the last year of his +life that he composed a dedication for it, and it seems never to have +been printed. + +The tone of Slechta's thoughts in his later years was grave and +serious; as well it might be. The two kingdoms, then but loosely +united, were torn with internal factions and racial jealousies; while +in church towers and over city gates the bells hung ready to proclaim +to the countryside the advent of that ever-present menace, the Turk. +In the priesthood men could mark much that was amiss; and the seamless +robe of Christ was rent with schism, the candle that Hus and Jerome +had lighted a century before, still burning clearly among less sober +heresies, which drew down on it, as upon themselves, spasmodic +outbursts of retributive violence. Uneasy sat the crown on Ladislas' +head; and when Death, coming as a friend, took it from him in 1516, it +was only to thrust this sad office upon a ten-year-old boy, who after +ten more years of childish government was miserably to perish at +Mohacz. No wonder that Slechta and his friends looked anxiously upon +the future. 'The times of Hus and Wycliffe which our grandfathers +detested, seem golden beside our own' wrote Bohuslaus to Geiler of +Kaisersberg--a member of that grave circle of Strasburg humanists, +with which, it may be noted in passing, our Bohemians had much in +common. The letters of Slechta contain two disquisitions, one on the +frailties of a celibate clergy, the other on the duties of a parish +priest; advocating reforms by which he hoped to check the continuous +growth of 'those unutterable heretics, the Pyghards': by whom he meant +the Bohemian Brethren. + +What moved Slechta to correspond with Erasmus we do not know; possibly +a slighting reference in one of the latter's printed letters to 'those +schismatic Bohemians, who have infected most of Europe'. Slechta's +letter is unhappily lost; but from Erasmus' reply, dated 23 April 1519 +from Louvain, its general tenor may be gathered. It began, of course, +with eulogies of Erasmus and his work; and then, after some account of +the writer's life and fortunes, it proceeded to assure him that there +were persons in Bohemia who were not merely interested in good +learning but prepared to advance it. Finally it invited him to come to +Prague. Erasmus' answer to his unknown correspondent was courteous, +but firmly declined the invitation. 'What I can do at Prague I do not +see. It is considerate of you to offer me an escort for my journey; +but I confess I do not like regions where such company is necessary. +In this country one can go about wherever one likes, alone. I am sure +that, as you say, I should find among you plenty of learned and pious +men, who are not contaminated with the errors of schism. But how is it +that this division is suffered to remain? Better unity with some +hardship than to hold one's own at the cost of discord. I fear it is +money that stands in the way. Paul suffered the loss of all things +that he might win Christ. The world is full of cardinals and princes +and bishops; if only one of these would take up this matter in a truly +Christian spirit! If Paul were on the Pope's throne, I am sure he +would allow not only his revenues but his authority to be diminished, +if his loss would purchase unity.' Erasmus concludes cordially: 'If we +cannot meet, at any rate we can write. I will walk and talk with you +sometimes beside your Elbe, you shall come and dwell with me in +Brabant. Friendship can flourish without actual contact.' + +This letter was handed to Slechta on 11 September, four and a half +months after it was written. Nearly a year had elapsed since his +letter had been dispatched and he had given up hopes of a reply: so +that these amiable and encouraging words were the more welcome, and he +at once proceeded to act upon them. Within a month he had composed a +letter of some elegance, in which while subscribing to Erasmus' +prayers for unity, he pointed out the difficulties of the task. To the +remarks about coming to Prague he rejoined regretfully: 'I can quite +see that there is nothing for you to do here. There are many of us who +would have been glad of your coming; but I understand that we must +hope to see you at another time and elsewhere. That travellers in our +country need an escort you would not wonder if you could see how the +roads run, among lofty mountains shrouded in impenetrable forests. +These give cover to hordes of brigands, who prey upon travellers and +merchants, robbing and killing indifferently. Almost every month +there are punitive raids made from the towns, and brigands are +captured and put to death. But the pest seems ineradicable.' + +Slechta then proceeds to the religious troubles, and after expressing +general agreement with Erasmus, describes the three main parties into +which the life of Bohemia and Moravia was cloven. First the orthodox +Romanists, loyal to the Church and in unity with Germany and the rest +of Christendom; finding their adherents amongst the upper classes, +together with some of the King's cities and the monasteries, many of +which, though once rich, had now fallen into decay. Secondly, the +Utraquists, otherwise orthodox but practising communion in both kinds, +and at their services reading the Epistle and Gospel in the +vernacular: with some supporters among the nobility, a good many +gentry, and nearly thirty royal cities. After tracing their history +from the Council of Basle and briefly stating their views, he adds +that no one in the kingdom is able to propound a solution of the +difficulties existing. Thirdly, the Bohemian Brethren, whom he styles +Pyghards. This name, from the opprobrious sense in which it is +generally used, is now thought to be derived from the Beghards, a +mediaeval sect whose vagaries drew down upon it frequent persecution; +but Slechta traces it to a foreign vagabond who came from Picardy in +1422 and infected with his pestilent doctrines the army of John Ziska, +the Taborite, an army of those that were in distress, in debt, in +discontent. + +This sect, Slechta tells us, lasted continuously down to the times of +the late King Ladislas (d. 1516), and indeed increased considerably +under him; for his thoughts were much occupied with Hungary, and he +was content if Bohemia could be maintained in an outward appearance of +peace. Then follows a description of their opinions. 'The Pope and all +his officials they regard as Antichrist. They choose their own +bishops, rude unlettered laymen, with wives and families. They salute +one another as Brother and Sister; and recognize no authority but the +Bible. Their priests celebrate mass without vestments, use leavened +bread and only the Lord's Prayer. Transubstantiation they deny, and +the worship of the host they regard as idolatry. Vows to the saints, +prayers for the dead, and confession to priests they ridicule; and +they keep no holy days but Sundays, Christmas, Easter and Whitsun.' 'I +will not waste your time with more of these pernicious views. My +feeling is that if the two first-named parties could only be +reconciled, this nefarious sect might, with the aid of the King, be +exterminated or at any rate reduced to a better state of faith and +religion.' + +The roads in Bohemia might be dangerous, but the distance to Louvain +was not so great as it had seemed at first; for Erasmus' reply is +dated 1 Nov. 1519, only three weeks after Slechta's letter. He begins +again with the roads. 'Prevention is better than punishment. It would +be wiser if, instead of these avenging raids, the more frequented +roads could be cleared of forest on either side, and held by +block-houses and armed posts at intervals. Indeed it is somewhat +discreditable that the great towns and princes of Germany cannot +achieve what the Swiss do by co-operation and local action.' He then +turns to the religious dissensions, and in his passion for concord +exclaims that it would be better that a nation should be united in +error than so numerously divided: experience shows that there is no +opinion so wild but that some one will be found to embrace it. Of the +orthodox party he has nothing to say beyond extolling the system by +which the Pope might act as judge and father of all, and as supreme +court of appeal. To the Utraquists he would counsel conformity to the +practice of the majority; although unable to understand why the Church +should have allowed a practice instituted by Christ to fall into +disuse. + +Then he comes to the Brethren, and after admitting that they have +strayed further than the Utraquists from the rule of Christian life, +he continues: 'If they go on still in their wickedness, they must be +restrained; but this is not the duty of any one who likes, nor must +violence be used, lest the innocent suffer with the guilty. Their +practice of electing their own priests and bishops has authority in +antiquity; but it certainly is unfortunate if their choice falls on +men bad as well as unlearned. With the titles of Brother and Sister I +see no fault to find: it is a pity they are not more widely used among +Christians. To prefer God's word in the Bible to the judgements of +Doctors is sound: though to reject the latter altogether is as uniform +an error as to embrace them to the exclusion of everything else. To +celebrate the mass in everyday dress is not contrary to the truth; +but it is a pity to abandon customs sanctioned by use and authority: +though perhaps the Pope might be persuaded to concede to them the use +of their own rites, as he does to the Greeks and the Milanese. The +Lord's Prayer is, of course, part of our own use; and though it seems +narrow to confine themselves to this, I doubt whether they do worse +than those who weave in long strings of intercession from any source. +Their opinions about the sacraments are certainly impious; but at any +rate they are under no temptation to exploit these holy mysteries for +the sake of gain or futile glory or tyrannous imposition. I do not see +why they should reject vigils and fasts in moderation; but these are +matters for encouragement rather than positive command. About +festivals they seem to follow the usage current in the days of Jerome: +better, I think, than the modern calendar, full of saints-days which +end in riot and carouse, and on which the honest journeyman is +forbidden to work for his children's bread.' As Slechta read these +words, he must surely have felt as did Balak, the son of Zippor, when +he listened to the seer from Mesopotamia taking up his parable upon +Israel in the plains of Moab. The man whose eyes were open, had +blessed the Brethren instead of cursing them; and literary Europe +might well follow his lead. + +The history of the Bohemian Brethren is of exceptional interest, +affording an example of a community professing a plain, simple faith +and ruling their lives by modest conceptions of ordinary goodness, +who, guided by leaders almost unknown to the world, through the +trials of good and evil repute, through tribulation and prosperity, +kept serenely upon the path they had marked out for themselves, living +and growing into one of the most flourishing and devoted missionary +bodies of the present day. As is natural under such conditions, their +origin is not free from obscurity. Men connected them with the +Waldensians of Southern France, or traced them, as we have seen, to a +leader from Picardy. Through the fifteenth century they grew steadily +in strength and unity, sheltered by the toleration which Rome +unwillingly granted to the Utraquists as a result of the Compacts of +Basle; and as compared with other dissentient bodies their name was +singularly free from gross imputations. Throughout that age such +imputations were freely made and believed against heretics. This was +not unreasonable. In the low state of public and private morals faith +was regarded as an indispensable bulwark to conduct, the faith which +taught indeed that a man should love God and his neighbour, but +stablished him into practising what he professed, by lurid pictures of +the fate awaiting him if he did not. Without this bulwark it was not +thought possible that a man could lead a godly, righteous and sober +life; and so he was considered capable of every form of vice, if he +ventured to doubt the truth of those opinions on which the Church had +set its seal, in realms into which it now seems that human knowledge +cannot penetrate. + +At the beginning of the sixteenth century fresh attempts were being +made to win back the Brethren to orthodoxy; and in this work the +ardour of the Dominicans burned bright. In 1500 one of them, Henry +Institor, a Doctor of Theology, procured from Alexander VI bulls which +recognized him as 'Inquisitor into heresy throughout Germany and +Bohemia', and empowered him to collect heretical books and send them +to the Bishop of Olmutz, the chief see of Moravia, to be burned; also +to join to himself two or three other Masters of Theology and preach +against the heretics. These bulls are printed at the head of a great +volume written by Institor, with the title 'A shield for the faith of +the Holy Roman Church against the heresy of the Waldensians or +Pickards, who on all sides are infecting with virulent contagion +certain races in Germany and Bohemia, to hatred of the clergy and +enervation of the ecclesiastical power'. In 1501 the volume appeared +at Olmutz, with an enumeration of thirty-six erroneous articles in +which the Pickards denied the authority of the Church; followed of +course by a vigorous refutation. At the same time one of their own +countrymen, Augustine Kasenbrot of Olmutz was writing a series of open +letters on the Brethren and their views. + +But the most succinct account of the position is contained in an +attack made upon them by a learned and fair-minded Dominican, Jacobus +Lilienstayn. His book, 'a Treatise against the erroneous Waldensian +Brethren, commonly known as the Pickards, without rule, without law, +and without obedience, of whom there are many in Moravia, more than +in Bohemia', was composed in 1505 and is dedicated to the Dean of +Prague. It begins by setting forth five general and twelve special +errors of the Waldensians. The former are as follows: + + 1. They call the Gospels, the Epistles and the Acts, together + with the Old Testament where it agrees with the New, 'the Law + of Christ'; and they attack and deride the Doctors of the + Church. + + 2. They say the Pope has no more power in administering the + sacraments of the Church, and in other ecclesiastical matters, + than a simple priest has. + + 3. They say that in the practice of the Church nothing is to be + added to what Christ and the Apostles taught and did. + + 4. They hold the pure text of the Gospel without any gloss. + + 5. They allege that the Church is in error, and that they + themselves are the brethren of Christ and the true imitators of + the Apostles. + +Amongst the special errors are denials of the validity of indulgences +and of the efficacy of masses for the dead; and the general simplicity +of their conduct is shown in their practices at birth and death, +baptism requiring only pure water, not holy oil and the chrism, and +extreme unction banished from the death-bed. + +Finally the good Dominican gives a brief account of the life of these +Brethren 'without obedience'. In his preface he expresses his +difficulty in gathering the truth about them: 'for they are as +inconstant as the moon, and the practices alleged against them in the +past are denied by them to-day.' But he concludes honestly that though +their faith is 'abhominable' to true Christians, their life is good +enough. His good sense is further shown by his refusal to accept an +absurd story about their method of choosing their leaders. 'When one +of these is to be chosen', so ran the tale, 'the community meets +together. And as they sit in silence, the windows being open, a great +fly enters and buzzes over them, settling at length on the head of +one; who is then set apart for a season. And when he is brought back, +he is found to be learned in Latin and theology and whatever else is +necessary, though he were rude and ignorant before.' This Lilienstayn +finds clearly false: the simple life of the Brethren he illustrates by +their practice. 'They have Bibles in Bohemian, which they read. Their +women wear veils, and no colours, only black, white and grey. They all +labour with their hands.' Thus their life to him was 'good enough'. It +may remind us in many points of the Quakers. + +The attacks upon them led the Brethren to reply. In 1507 they composed +an _Apologia_ addressed to the King, to show that they were not +without rule, without law and without obedience, and to defend the +manner of their life. This was printed at Nuremberg in 1507, and again +in 1518; but of the original editions I have not been able to see a +copy. The attacks continued. In 1512 another ponderous volume +appeared, composed by Jacob Ziegler, the well-known Bavarian +scientist, to demonstrate the falsity of their opinions. What finally +impelled the Brethren to court countenance from Erasmus is not clear; +possibly the cool reception the Utraquists had had from Luther the +year before, with the rather contemptuous suggestion that their style +and opinions were more like Erasmus' than his own. The episode has +escaped Erasmus' biographers; and I cannot find any mention of it +except an allusion in one of his letters, and a description in a +treatise on the Brethren by Joachim Camerarius the elder (1500-1574). +Camerarius' book was not published till 1605; but we can perhaps trace +the source of his information. From 1518 onwards he spent some years +at Erfurt. In January 1521 Erasmus describes the visit of the +Brethren's envoys as having occurred six months before; at Antwerp, +according to Camerarius, where he may be traced in June 1520. If we +recall that it was in July that Draco came from Erfurt to pay his +visit of homage, it seems quite likely that on his return he may have +given to Camerarius the detailed record which the latter has +preserved. + +By that time Erasmus' name was well known in Central Europe. 'Both +from Hungary and Bohemia' he says in 1518 'bishops and men of position +write to thank me for my New Testament.' Apart from the learned world +there were others, too, who must have known him; for a Bohemian +translation had just appeared of the new preface to his _Enchiridion_, +a preface in which he had written with an almost Lutheran freedom +about abuses in the Church, and had extolled the life of simple +Christianity. This was a book to appeal at once to the Brethren. +Another of his works which may have had its effect in attracting them +was the _Julius Exclusus_. This exquisitely witty satire dealt freely +with the Pope and his office, the Pope whom the Brethren accounted no +more than a simple priest; and though its licence was too bold for +Erasmus ever to admit its authorship--indeed, as we have seen, he +consistently denied it--, it was attributed to him on all sides, in +company with others, his secret being on the whole well kept. The +_Julius_ was translated into Bohemian, somewhere about this time: but +from the nature of it, a kind of book to which publishers as well as +authors were loath to put their names, it cannot be definitely placed. +So it was, too, with the _Moria_, which had been translated by Gregory +Hruby Gelenski, father of the scholar, Sigismund Gelenius; but of +which no contemporary edition survives. + +If the Brethren had seen Erasmus' final letter to Slechta, they might +well have been encouraged to hope much from him. But of this there is +no indication. Slechta was hardly likely to communicate it to them; +and though such documents often leaked out against the owner's will, +its first appearance in print was in 1521, in Erasmus' _Epistolae ad +diuersos_. I cannot find any translation into a vernacular except a +German version by John Froben of Andernach which appeared at Nuremberg +in 1531. + +Whatever was the motive attraction, the Brethren sent as their +envoys, so Camerarius tells us, Nicholas Claudianus, a learned +physician, and Laurence Voticius (Woticky), a man of many +accomplishments, who died at a good age in 1565--a date, which, if it +be not a later interpolation, is an indication as to when Camerarius +composed his narrative.[44] They brought with them a copy of their +_Apologia_, printed at Nuremberg in 1511--a date which appears to be +wrong--and presented it to Erasmus at Antwerp with the request that he +would read it through and see if there was anything in it that he +would wish to have changed. If that were so, they would readily defer +to his criticisms; but if, as they hoped, he approved of what they +said, it would be a help and consolation to them if he would express +that opinion. + + [44] L. Camerarius, in his preface, 1 Jan. 1605, describes the + book as composed 'more than thirty years ago'. + +He took the book and said he would be glad to read it; but when after +a few days they came for his answer, he told them he had been too busy +to do more than glance through it: so far as he had gone, he found no +error and nothing that he would wish to alter. He declined, however, +to bear testimony about it, as this would bring them no help, and only +danger to himself. 'You must not think', he said, 'that any words of +mine will bring you support; indeed, my own influence, such as it is, +requires the backing of others. If it is true that my writings are of +any value to divine and useful learning, it seems to me unwise to +jeopardize their influence by proclaiming publicly the agreement +between us: such actions might lead to their being condemned and torn +from the hands of the public. Forgive me for this caution, you will +perhaps call it fear: and be assured that I wish you well and will +most gladly help you in other matters.' The envoys were disappointed, +Camerarius records, but took his refusal in good part: for they relied +not on the judgements of men to be the foundation of their heavenly +edifice of truth. The good sense of his words no doubt appealed to +them; for the Brethren were above all things moderate men, averse from +violence, convinced perhaps by their own experience that a display of +courage is unwise when it provokes opposition and raises obstacles to +progress. + +The matter was not, however, allowed to rest. In the same year an +appeal on behalf of the Brethren was made to Erasmus from another +quarter. One of the features of their movement had been the number of +the nobility who had become sympathizers, if not actual members of the +community. One of these was Artlebus of Boskowitz, a kinsman perhaps +of that 'nobilis virgo, Martha de Boskowitz' whom the Brethren in +addressing the King had adduced as one of their supporters. From the +castle of Znaim, his official residence as Supreme Captain of Moravia, +Artlebus wrote, telling Erasmus of the steady growth of the Brethren, +and of the futility of all attempts to withstand their doctrines by +argument; and sending him a copy of their Rule, with the request that +he would read it and frame thereupon a standard of Christian piety, +which all men, including the Brethren, might follow. He turned then +to praise Luther for the courageous fight he was making, and urged +Erasmus to join with him in sowing the seed of the Gospel. + +Erasmus' reply, dated 28 Jan. 1521 from Louvain, has no address but +'N. viro praepotenti'; and in consequence its connexion with Artlebus +of Boskowitz has escaped notice. As was to be expected, he declined +the proposal that he should set up a standard of Christian observance. +He might criticize with all freedom the practices of monks and clergy +and speak straightly of Papal iniquities: but the standard of the +Church was still the life of Christ, and he would not arrogate to +himself the right to draw the picture of this anew. He took the +opportunity to lament, as he had done to Slechta, the discord +prevailing in Bohemia, and to urge that a serious attempt should be +made to reconcile the Brethren to the Church. But since his +correspondence with Slechta the world had gone forward. Luther had +burned the Pope's bull at Wittenberg, and Aleander at Worms was +pressing the Diet to annihilate him. Erasmus has less to say to +Artlebus in favour of the Brethren than he had said to Slechta: +indeed, after the appeal for moderation, he goes no further than to +condemn the attitude of the opponents of the Papacy, doubtless +intending to include among them the Brethren. About Luther he would +give no decided opinion. 'It is absurd how men condemn Luther's books +without reading them. Some parts of Luther's writings are good; but +parts are not, and over these I skip. If Luther stands by the +Catholic Church, I will gladly join him.' Artlebus' reply is not +extant; but a sentence in a letter of Erasmus to Wolsey a year later +shows that the 'Bohemian Captain' was greatly vexed by the failure of +his overtures. + +This is the last trace of Erasmus' correspondence with Bohemia. But, +uncompromising as he had been in his refusal to both appeals, his +influence there was only just at its commencement, if we may judge by +the list of his works translated into Bohemian, which the Ghent +bibliography has brought to light. The translation of his preface to +the _Enchiridion_ was followed by his version of the _Saturnalia_ of +Lucian (first published in 1517) in 1520; the _Precatio dominica_ +(1523) in 1526; his version of the New Testament in 1533; some of the +Colloquies in 1534; the _De Ciuilitate_ (1530) in 1537; the Paraphrase +on St. Matthew (1522) and the _De puritate Ecclesiae_ (1536) in 1542; +the _De immensa Dei misericordia_ (1524) in 1558 and 1573; the +_Apophthegmata Graeciae sapientum_ (1514) in 12 editions between 1558 +and 1599; the _De praeparatione ad mortem_ (1534) in 1564 and 1786; +and the _Vidua Christiana_ (1529) in 1595. The envoys of the Brethren +were perhaps wise enough to see that they had much to learn from the +man who was courageous enough to preach caution and to let himself +appear afraid. + + * * * * * + + + + +INDEX + + +Aberdeen University, 103-4. + +accuracy, new standards of, 258-61. + +Adrian VI, 107. + +Agricola, R., 14-21, 25-9, 31, 32, 63. + +Agrippa, H.C., 143. + +Aldus, 126, 128, 129, 135-6, 151, 253, 262-3. + +Aleander, 112, 136, 209, 297. + +Alexander of Ville-Dieu, 41. + +alphabetical principle, 43, 47-9. + +America, 92. + +Amorbach: + Ba., 147-9; + Bo., 147-9, 151, 164, 193, 278; + Br., 147-51; + J., 77, 146-51. + +Andreas, B., 129. + +Andrelinus, Faustus, 113, 186. + +Aquinas, 12, 255. + +Arnold of Hildesheim, 24. + +Arthurian legend, 93. + +Artlebus of Boskowitz, 296-8. + +Ascham, 156, 208, 256, 266. + +Asperen, destruction of, 172. + +astrology, 216-18. + +Augustinian Canons, reformed, 81; + house at Oxford, 117. + + +Balbi, J., 43 seq., 49. + +Balbus, H., 186, 281. + +Bartholomew of Cologne, 63-5. + +Basle, 146. + +Batt, J., 115-16, 130. + +Beatus Rhenanus, 154-8, 164, 278; + his _Res Germanicae_, 146, 156, 275; + extracts from his letters, 195, 210, 267, 268, 273. + +Beheim, J., of Niklashausen, 220. + +Benedictines, at Neuss, 70; + at Ottobeuren, 86 seq.; + at Oxford, 124; + reformed, 61-2, 79-85. + +Bergen, Ant. of, abbot of St. Omer, 165, 176, 205. + +Bergen, Henry of, bp. of Cambray, 68, 102, 104, 176, 204. + +Bessel, B., 113. + +Black Band, 170-5. + +Bohuslaus of Hassenstein, 281-2. + +Bondius, J., 92. + +books, supervision of, by others, 155, 159-61, 187. + +Boys, H., 103. + +Brassicanus, J.A., 280. + +Breslau, 35, 58, 279. + +Brethren of the Common Life, 69, 75; + as teachers, 9, 25-6, 34, 61, 66. + +Briard, J., 108. + +Budaeus, 122, 135, 210, 218. + +Bursfeld reforms, 75, 80. + +Burgundy, David of, bp. of Utrecht, II; + Philip of, bp. of Utrecht, 166. + +Butzbach, 21, 56-62, 68-79, 113, 201. + + +Camerarius, J., 52, 293, 295. + +Canterbury; + Christchurch, 123-4; + pilgrimages to, 209, 228-9. + +Catholicon, 43-6. + +Celtis, C., 265, 266, 269. + +Château-Landon, 81-2. + +Chezal-Benoît, 83-4. + +child-marriage, 116. + +Colet, 117, 127, 128, 130, 138, 141-3, 175, 203, 229. + +Columbus, F., 280. + +Complutensian Polyglott, 263. + +Compostella, 231-2. + +Cono, J., 147, 151. + +Copernicus, N., 211. + +Cracow University, 87. + +Crete, labyrinth of Minos in, 92. + +Cues, library at, 30-1. + +Cusanus, N., 30. + + +Dalaber, A., 217. + +Dalberg, John of, bp. of Worms, 19, 20, 31, 271. + +Dederoth, J., 80. + +Deventer school, 21, 30, 33-6, 39, 60-4, 69, 76; + plague at, 27, 34; + printers, 63. + +Dominicans, 43, 52, 88, 146, 147, 238, 249, 290, 291. + +'doole', 192. + +Draco, J., 281, 293. + +Drolshagen, J., 38. + + +Ebrardus, 36, 39-41. + +Eck, J., 92. + +Ellenbog: + B., 87, 95-6, 99; + J., 87, 96-7, 99; + N., 87-101, 209, 210; + U., 87, 92, 94-5, 201; + U. jun., 87, 94. + +Emmanuel of Constantinople, 122. + +Eobanus of Hesse, 278-9. + +Erasmus, form of name, 39 n.; + early life, 11; + at school, 21, 11; + at Steyn, 66-8; + in Paris, 102-5, 114-15, 139-41; + in England, 116-17, 130; + at Oxford, 117, 128; + at Cambridge, 120, 134,137-44; + in Italy, 135-7; + rumour of death, 145; + at Basle, 158-64; + death, 164; + labours for peace, 164-6; + indifferent to Nature, 207-9; + uses astrological mug, 218; + pilgrimage to Canterbury, 229; + appreciations of, 265, 267-8; + visitors to, 277-81; + relations with the Bohemians, xi. + +WORKS. + _Adagia_, 135-7, 144, 158, 165; + _Antibarbari_, 281; + compositions in Paris, 115; + early poems, 103-4, 132; + editions of the Fathers, 163; + _Enchiridion_, 293; + _Epigrammata_, 280; + Jerome, 138-40, 158, 280; + _Julius Exclusus_, 184-9, 294; + _Moriae Encomium_, 46, 143, 187, 294; + New Testament, 11, 140, 158, 160-2, 263-4, 280; + Paraphrases, 197; + _Querla Pacis_, 166; + Seneca, 144, 158-9; + translations into Bohemian from, 293-4, 298. + + +Fabri, F., 238-51. + +families, length of, 202-4. + +Fernand, C., 82, 84-6, 92, 177; + J., 82, 84. + +Franciscans, 92, 144, 147; + at Jerusalem, 238, 245. + +Frankfort, book-fairs at, 149, 153. + +Froben, J., 151-3, 158. + + +Gaguin, 84, 102-3, 175. + +Garland, J., 36-9. + +Gebwiler, H., 26 n. + +Geldenhauer, G., 15, 16, 17, 18, 21. + +Gerard, Cornelius, 82, 165. + +Germany, national feeling in, 264-75; + historical studies in, 268-75. + +Goswin of Halen, 14, 31-2. + +Greek, study of, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 27-30, 38-41, 43-8, 85, 88, 90, + 91, 117, 120, 126, 127, 134, 137, 150, 151, 262-3; + manuscripts, 11, 18, 30, 31, 147, 160-1. + +Grocin, W., 126-9, 263. + +grossness, 205-6. + +Grynaeus, S., 160. + +Gueldres, 61, 165, 170-3. + + +Hebrew, study of, 11, 12, 29, 30, 47, 54, 90, 91, 92, 100, 117, 147, + 151, 263. + +Hegius, 16, 21, 25-30, 34-5, 41-2, 60, 61, 63, 69. + +Heidelberg University, 11, 20, 28, 87, 97. + +Helinand, 53. + +Henry VIII, scholarship of, 184. + +Herman, W., 21, 104, 165. + +Hermonymus of Sparta, 122, 134. + +Huguitio, 45. + +humanists, attitude towards mediaeval romance, 93; + feeling towards Nature, 207-10. + +Hungarian acrobats, 92. + +Hus, 58, 179, 282. + +Hyrde, R., 198. + + +India, religious condition of, 93. + +interpretations, 114. + +Irenicus, F., 272-4. + + +Jacobus of Breda, 63. + +Johannisberg, Abbey of, 59, 60, 72, 74, 76. + +Jouveneaux, G., 82, 84. + + +Kempis, Thomas à, 10. + +Koberger, A., 203-4. + +Kortenhorff, Gutta, 61. + +Kratzer, N., 142, 197. + +Kunig, H., 231-2. + + +Laach, 68, 73-81. + +Langen, R., 21, 23. + +Lascaris, C., 88, 150. + +Latimer, W., 126-8. + +Lily, W., 126, 129. + +Limburg, burning of, 99. + +Linacre, 41, 126, 129, 187, 218, 253. + +Lollhard, 60. + +London, scholars in, 128, 130. + +Louvain University, 15, 107-8. + +Loyola, 245. + +Luther, 212, 267, 268, 275, 293; + at Worms, 179; + Erasmus' attitude towards, 186, 298; + love of nature, 210. + + +Mammotrectus, 53-5. + +manuscripts, free lending of, 30, 136, 140-2, 160; + free access to, 82, 271. + +Marchesinus, J., 53. + +Mary, Princess, 193, 197, 198. + +Mas, P. du, 83. + +Mauburn, J., 81-2. + +medicine, practice of, 218-19. + +Meghen, P., 141-2. + +Melanchthon, 212. + +Merton College, Oxford, ejection of Warden, 176. + +Milanese rite, 288. + +morals, 204-5. + +More, T., 127, 129, 143, 197-8, 205, 229; + _Utopia_, 187, 188, 201; + matrimonial relations, 194-5; + love of Nature, 209. + +Mormann, F., 25-6. + + +news, dissemination of, 214-16. + + +Oda Jargis, 9, 200. + +Oporinus, J., 193. + +Ostendorp, 12, 69. + +Ottobeuren, 86-101. + + +Paffraet, R., 29, 63. + +Papias, 46-8, 49. + +Paris University, 10; + lectures at, 104, 112; + life in, 112-15, 145, 148-51; + Montaigu College, 102; + Collège de la Marche, 112, 210. + +Parr, Katherine, 192. + +Paston, Sir John, 194, 205. + +Pavia University, 16. + +Peasants' Revolt, 99-101. + +Pellican, C., 92, 147. + +Peter, name of, 71. + +Platter, T., 35, 58-9, 154. + +Poncher, S., 265. + +Praedinius, R., 31. + +Prague University, 281. + +press, early productions of, 254. + +prisoners, redemption of, 175. + +proofs, correction of, 159, 187. + + +Quakers, 29, 86, 292. + +quodlibetical disputations, 105-11. + + +Reading Abbey, 123. + +Rees, Henry of, 8, 12. + +Reisch, G., 99, 147. + +remarriage, 192-5. + +Reuchlin, 31, 91, 122, 147, 195, 267. + +Rode, J., 80. + +Roper, M., 195, 198. + +Rychard, W., 219. + + +St. Patrick's cave, 92, 226. + +Santiago de Compostella, 229, 231-2. + +Sapidus, J., 147, 206. + +Schinner, M., 219. + +Schlettstadt, 147, 154, 156-8, 206, 272. + +schools, books used in, 62-5, 257; + numbers of, 154. + +Selling, W., 123, 141. + +Serbopoulos, J., 123. + +Shirwood, J., 124-6. + +Sion, near Delft, 66, 81. + +Sixtus IV, 10, 11, 34, 122. + +Slechta, J., 281-8. + +Souillac, 177. + +spelling, uncertainty in, 49-52. + +Spires, libraries at, 18, 271. + +Sprenger, 46. + +Standonck, J., 102, 145. + +Synthius, _v._ Zinthius. + + +Thomas of Illyria, 219-20. + +Tournay, dispute over bishopric, 177. + +Trithemius, 31, 59, 76-8, 214, 269, 273; + 'In praise of scribes', 261-2. + +Trivet, Nic., 50. + +Turzo, J., 279. + + +Urswick, C., 142. + +Utraquists, 285, 287, 289, 293. + + +Valla, L., 23, 24, 27, 28, 115, 140-1, 262. + +Vaudois, 289; + crusade against, 180-1. + +Veere, Lady of, 115, 131. + +Vienne, Council of, 118, 266. + +Vincent of Beauvais, 52. + +visits of ceremony, 276-81. + +Vrye, A., 22-5, 197, 201-2. + +Vrye, J., 22. + + +Wesley, J., 13. + +Wessel, 9-13, 29-32, 200. + +Wimpfeling, 87, 269. + +Windesheim, 81. + +women, seclusion of, 196; + education of, 196-200; + position of, 200-2. + + +Ximenes, 263. + + +Zinthius, 34, 41-2, 63. + +Zwingli, 204, 268. + +Zwolle, 9, 10, 33, 34, 38. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note: + + _text_ represents text that was italicised in original. + [=x] represents letter 'x' with macron. + [)x] represents letter 'x' with crescent. + [Greek: xxx] contains transliteration of Greek in original. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Age of Erasmus, by P. 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Allen, M.A.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 50%; + height: 1px; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 3px; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + ol { list-style-type: upper-roman; + } + ol li { margin-left: 20%; + text-align: left; + } + p#toc { margin-left: 20%; + text-align: left; + } + ins.trans {text-decoration: none; + color: gray;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .ov {text-decoration: overline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + .indent {margin-left: 5% } + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {margin-top: 2em;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em;} + + .idx { margin: 2em 0em 2em 0em; + text-align: left;} + .idx span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Age of Erasmus, by P. S. Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Age of Erasmus + Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London + +Author: P. S. Allen + +Release Date: May 10, 2005 [EBook #15810] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGE OF ERASMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h2>OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS</h2> +<h4>LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK +TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY</h4> + +<h5>HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A.<br /> +PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY</h5> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h1>THE<br /> +AGE OF ERASMUS</h1> + +<h2>LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITIES +OF OXFORD AND LONDON</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>P.S. ALLEN, M.A.</h3> + +<h4>FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD</h4> + +<h5>OXFORD<br /> +AT THE CLARENDON PRESS<br /> +1914</h5> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> +<ol> +<li><a href="#I">THE ADWERT ACADEMY</a></li> +<li><a href="#II">SCHOOLS</a></li> +<li><a href="#III">MONASTERIES</a></li> +<li><a href="#IV">UNIVERSITIES</a></li> +<li><a href="#V">ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK</a></li> +<li><a href="#VI">FORCE AND FRAUD</a></li> +<li><a href="#VII">PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS</a></li> +<li><a href="#VII">THE POINT OF VIEW</a></li> +<li><a href="#IX">PILGRIMAGES</a></li> +<li><a href="#X">THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE</a></li> +<li><a href="#XI">ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN</a></li> +</ol> +<p id="toc"><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a><span class="pagenum">p 7</span><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a></p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h3>THE ADWERT ACADEMY</h3> + +<p>The importance of biography for the study of history can hardly be +overrated. In a sense it is true that history should be like the law +and 'care not about very small things'; concerning itself not so much +with individual personality as with fundamental causes affecting the +rise and fall of nations or the development of mental outlook from one +age to another. But even if this be conceded, we still must not forget +that the course of history is worked out by individuals, who, in spite +of the accidental condensation that the needs of human life thrust +upon them, are isolated at the last and alone—for no man may deliver +his brother. In consequence, it is only in periods when the stream of +personal record flows wide and deep that history begins to live, and +that we have a chance to view it through the eyes of the actors +instead of projecting upon it our own fancies and conceptions.</p> + +<p>One of the features that makes the study of the Renaissance so +fascinating is that in that age the stream of personal record, which +had been driven underground, its course choked and hidden beneath the +fallen masonry of the Roman Empire, emerges again unimpeded and flows +in ever-increasing volume. For reconstruction of the past we are no +longer <span class="pagenum">p 8</span><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>limited to charters and institutions, or the mighty works of +men's hands. In place of a mental output, rigidly confined within +unbending modes of thought and expression, we have a literature that +reflects the varied phases of human life, that can discard romance and +look upon the commonplace; and instead of dry and meagre chronicles, +rarely producing evidence at first hand, we have rich store of memoirs +and private letters, by means of which we can form real pictures of +individuals—approaching almost to personal acquaintance and +intimacy—and regard the same events from many points of view, to +perception of the circumstances that 'alter cases'.</p> + +<p>The period of the Transalpine Renaissance corresponds roughly with the +life of Erasmus (1466-1536); from the days when Northern scholars +began to win fame for themselves in reborn Italy, until the width of +the humanistic outlook was narrowed and the progress of the reawakened +studies overwhelmed by the tornado of the Reformation. The aim of +these lectures is not so much to draw the outlines of the Renaissance +in the North as to present sketches of the world through which Erasmus +passed, and to view it as it appeared to him and to some of his +contemporaries, famous or obscure. And firstly of the generation that +preceded him in the wide but undefined region known then as Germany.</p> + +<p>The Cistercian Abbey of Adwert near Groningen, under the enlightened +governance of Henry of Rees<span class="pagenum">p 9</span><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a> (1449-85), was a centre to which were +attracted most of the scholars whose names are famous in the history +of Northern humanism in the second half of the fifteenth century: +Wessel, Agricola, Hegius, Langen, Vrye, and others. They came on +return from visits to Italy or the universities; men of affairs after +discharge of their missions; schoolmasters to rest on their holidays; +parish priests in quest of change: all found a welcome from the +hospitable Abbot, and their talk ranged far and wide, over the pursuit +of learning, till Adwert merited the name of an 'Academy'.</p> + +<p>Earliest of these is John Wessel († 1489), and perhaps also the most +notable; certainly the others looked up to him with a veneration which +seems to transcend the natural pre-eminence of seniority. +Unfortunately the details of his life have not been fully established. +Thirty years after his death, when it was too late for him to define +his own views, the Reformers claimed him for their own; and in +consequence his body has been wrangled over with the heat which seeks +not truth but victory. His father, Hermann Wessel, was a baker from +the Westphalian village of Gansfort or Goesevort, who settled in +Groningen. After some years in the town school, the boy was about to +be apprenticed to a trade, as his parents were too poor to help him +further; but the good Oda Jargis, hearing how well he had done at his +books, sent him to the school at Zwolle, in which the Brethren of the +Common Life took part. There, as at Groningen, he rose to the <span class="pagenum">p 10</span><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>top, +and in his last years, as a first-form boy, also did some teaching in +the third form, according to the custom of the school. He came into +contact with Thomas à Kempis, who was then at the monastery of Mount +St. Agnes, half an hour outside Zwolle, and was profoundly influenced +by him. The course at Zwolle lasted eight years, and there is reason +to suppose that he completed it in full. He was lodged in the Parua +Domus, a hostel for fifty boys, and we are told that he and his next +neighbour made a hole through the wall which divided their +rooms—probably only a wooden partition—and taught one another: +Wessel imparting earthly wisdom, and receiving in exchange the fear +and love of the Lord. In the autumn of 1449 he matriculated at +Cologne, entering the Bursa Laurentiana; in December 1450 he was B.A., +and in February 1452, M.A.</p> + +<p>By 1455 he had arrived at Paris and entered upon his studies for the +theological degree. Within a year he conceived a profound distaste for +the philosophy dominant in the schools; and though he persevered for +some time, his frequent dissension from his teachers earned for him +the title of 'Magister contradictionis'. After this his movements +cannot be traced until 1470, when he was at Rome in the train of +Cardinal Francesco della Rovere. In the interval he studied medicine, +and, if report be true, travelled far; venturing into the East, just +when the fall of Constantinople had turned the tide of Hellenism +westward. In Greece he read Aristotle in the original, and learnt to +prefer Plato; in Egypt <span class="pagenum">p 11</span><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>he sought in vain for the books of Solomon and +a mythical library of Hebrew treasures.</p> + +<p>In 1471 his Cardinal-patron was elected Pope as Sixtus IV. The +magnificence which characterized the poor peasant's son in his +dealings with Italy, in his embellishment of Rome and the Vatican, was +not lacking in his treatment of Wessel. 'Ask what you please as a +parting gift', he said to the scholar, who was preparing to set out +for Friesland. 'Give me books from your library, Greek and Hebrew', +was the request. 'What? No benefice, no grant of office or fees? Why +not?' 'Because I don't want them', came the quiet reply. The books +were forthcoming—one, a Greek Gospels, was perhaps the parent of a +copy which reached Erasmus for the second edition of his New +Testament.</p> + +<p>After his return to the North, Wessel was invited to Heidelberg, to +aid the Elector Palatine, Philip, in restoring the University, <i>c.</i> +1477. He was without the degree in theology which would have enabled +him to teach in that faculty, and was not even in orders: indeed a +proposal that he should qualify by entering the lowest grade and +receiving the tonsure, he contemptuously rejected. So the Theological +Faculty would not hear him, but to the students in Arts he lectured on +Greek and Hebrew and philosophy. For some years, too, he was physician +to David of Burgundy, Bishop of Utrecht, whom he cured of gout by +making him take baths of warm milk. The Bishop rewarded him by +shielding him from the attacks of the Dominicans, who were <span class="pagenum">p 12</span><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>incensed +by his bold criticisms of Aquinas; and when age brought the desire for +rest, the Bishop set him over a house of nuns at Groningen, and bought +him the right to visit Mount St. Agnes whenever he liked, by paying +for the board and lodging of this welcome guest.</p> + +<p>Wessel's last years were happily spent. He was the acknowledged leader +of his society, and he divided his time between Mount St. Agnes and +the sisters at Groningen, with occasional visits to Adwert. There he +set about reviving the Abbey schools, one elementary, within its +walls, the other more advanced, in a village near by; and Abbot Rees +warmly supported him. Would-be pupils besought him to teach them Greek +and Hebrew. Admiring friends came to hear him talk, and brought their +sons to see this glory of their country—Lux mundi, as he was called. +Some fragments of his conversation have been preserved, the +unquestioned judgements which his hearers loyally received. Of the +Schoolmen he was contemptuous, with their honorific titles: 'doctor +angelic, doctor seraphic, doctor subtle, doctor irrefragable.' 'Was +Thomas (Aquinas) a doctor? So am I. Thomas scarcely knew Latin, and +that was his only tongue: I have a fair knowledge of the three +languages. Thomas saw Aristotle only as a phantom: I have read him in +Greece in his own words.' To Ostendorp, then a young man, but +afterwards to become head master of Deventer school, he gave the +counsel: 'Read the ancients, sacred and profane: modern doctors, with +<span class="pagenum">p 13</span><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>their robes and distinctions, will soon be drummed out of town.' At +Mount St. Agnes once he was asked why he never used rosary nor book of +hours. 'I try', he replied, 'to pray always. I say the Lord's Prayer +once every day. Said once a year in the right spirit it would have +more weight than all these vain repetitions.'</p> + +<p>He loved to read aloud to the brethren on Sunday evenings; his +favourite passage being John xiii-xviii, the discourse at the Last +Supper. As he grew older, he sometimes stumbled over his words. He was +not an imposing figure, with his eyes somewhat a-squint and his slight +limp; and sometimes the younger monks fell into a titter, irreverent +souls, to hear him so eager in his reading and so unconscious. It was +not his eyesight that was at fault: to the end he could read the +smallest hand without any glasses, like his great namesake, John +Wesley, whom a German traveller noticed on the packet-boat between +Flushing and London reading the fine print of the Elzevir Virgil, with +his eyes unaided, though at an advanced age.</p> + +<p>On his death-bed Wessel was assailed with scepticism, and began to +doubt about the truth of the Christian religion. But the cloud was of +short duration. That supreme moment of revelation, which comes to +every man once, is no time for fear. Patient hope cast out +questioning, and he passed through the deep waters with his eyes on +the Cross which had been his guide through the life that was ending.<span class="pagenum">p 14</span><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a></p> + +<p>Of Rudolph Agricola we know more than of the others; his striking +personality, it seems, moved many of his friends to put on record +their impressions of him. One of the best of these sketches is by +Goswin of Halen († 1530), who had been Wessel's servant at Groningen, +and had frequently met Agricola. Rudolph's father, Henry Huusman, was +the parish priest of Baflo, a village four hours to the north of +Groningen; his mother being a young woman of the place, who +subsequently married a local carrier. On 17 Feb. 1444 the priest was +elected to be warden of a college of nuns at Siloe, close to +Groningen, and in the same hour a messenger came running to him from +Baflo, claiming the reward of good news and announcing the birth of a +son. 'Good,' said the new warden; 'this is an auspicious day, for it +has twice made me father.'</p> + +<p>From the moment he could walk, the boy was passionately fond of music; +the sound of church bells would bring him toddling out into the +street, or the thrummings of the blind beggars as they went from house +to house playing for alms; and he would follow strolling pipers out of +the gates into the country, and only be driven back by a show of +violence. When he was taken to church, all through the mass his eyes +were riveted upon the organ and its bellows; and as he grew older he +made himself a syrinx with eight or nine pipes out of willow-bark. He +was taught to ride on horseback, and early became adept in +pole-jumping whilst in the saddle, an art which the Frieslanders of +that age <span class="pagenum">p 15</span><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>had evolved to help their horses across the broad rhines of +their country. In 1456, when he was just 12, he matriculated at +Erfurt, and in May 1462 at Cologne. But the course of his education is +not clear, and though it is known that he reached the M.A. at Louvain, +the date of this degree is not certain. He is also said to have been +at the University of Paris.</p> + +<p>Of his life at Louvain some details are given by Geldenhauer († 1542) +in a sketch written about fifty years after Agricola's death. The +University had been founded in 1426 to meet the needs of Belgian +students, who for higher education had been obliged to go to Cologne +or Paris, or more distant universities. Agricola entered Kettle +College, which afterwards became the college of the Falcon, and soon +distinguished himself among his fellow-students. They admired the ease +with which he learnt French—not the rough dialect of Hainault, but +the polite language of the court. With many his musical tastes were a +bond of sympathy, in a way which recalls the evenings that Henry +Bradshaw used to spend among the musical societies of Bruges and Lille +when he was working in Belgian libraries; and on all sides men frankly +acknowledged his intellectual pre-eminence as they marked his quiet +readiness in debate and heard him pose the lecturers with acute +questions. By nature he was silent and absorbed, and often in company +he would sit deaf to all questions, his elbows on the table and biting +his nails. But when roused he was at once <span class="pagenum">p 16</span><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>captivating; and this +unintended rudeness never lost him a friend. There was a small band of +true humanists, who, as Geldenhauer puts it, 'had begun to love purity +of Latin style'; to them he was insensibly attracted, and spent with +them over Cicero and Quintilian hours filched from the study of +Aristotle. Later in life he openly regretted having spent as much as +seven years over the scholastic philosophy, which he had learnt to +regard as profitless.</p> + +<p>From 1468 to 1479 he was for the most part in Italy, except for +occasional visits to the North, when we see him staying with his +father at Siloe, and, in 1474, teaching Greek to Hegius at Emmerich. +Many positions were offered to him already; gifts such as his have not +to stand waiting in the marketplace. But his wits were not homely, and +the world called him. Before he could settle he must see many men and +many cities, and learn what Italy had to teach him.</p> + +<p>For the first part of his time there, until 1473, he was at Pavia +studying law and rhetoric; but on his return from home in 1474 he went +to Ferrara in order to enjoy the better opportunities for learning +Greek afforded by the court of Duke Hercules of Este and its circle of +learned men. His description of the place is interesting: 'The town is +beautiful, and so are the women. The University has not so many +faculties as Pavia, nor are they so well attended; but <i>literae +humaniores</i> seem to be in the very air. Indeed, Ferrara is the home of +the<span class="pagenum">p 17</span><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a> Muses—and of Venus.' One special delight to him was that the +Duke had a fine organ, and he was able to indulge what he describes as +his 'old weakness for the organs'. In October 1476, at the opening of +the winter term of the University, the customary oration before the +Duke was delivered by Rodolphus Agricola Phrysius. His eloquence +surprised the Italians, coming from so outlandish a person: 'a +Phrygian, I believe', said one to another, with a contemptuous shrug +of the shoulders. But Agricola, with his chestnut-brown hair and blue +eyes, was no Oriental; only a Frieslander from the North, whose cold +climate to the superb Italians seemed as benumbing to the intellect as +we consider that of the Esquimaux.</p> + +<p>During this period Agricola translated Isocrates <i>ad Demonicum</i> and +the <i>Axiochus de contemnenda morte</i>, a dialogue wrongly attributed to +Plato, which was a favourite in Renaissance days. Also he completed +the chief composition of his lifetime, the <i>De inuentione dialectica</i>, +a considerable treatise on rhetoric. His favourite books, Geldenhauer +tells us, were Pliny's Natural History, the younger Pliny's Letters, +Quintilian's <i>Institutio Oratoria</i>, and selections from Cicero and +Plato. These were his travelling library, carried with him wherever he +went; two of them, Pliny's Letters and Quintilian, he had copied out +with his own hand. Other books, as he acquired them, he planted out in +friends' houses as pledges of return.</p> + +<p>In 1479 he left Italy and went home. On his <span class="pagenum">p 18</span><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>way he stayed for some +months with the Bishop of Augsburg at Dillingen, on the Danube, and +there translated Lucian's <i>De non facile credendis delationibus</i>. A +manuscript of Homer sorely tempted him to stay on through the winter. +He felt that without Homer his knowledge of Greek was incomplete; and +he proposed to copy it out from beginning to end, or at any rate the +Iliad. But home called him, and he went on. At Spires, in quest of +manuscripts, he went with a friend to the cathedral library. He +describes it as not bad for Germany, though it contained nothing in +Greek, and only a few Latin manuscripts of any interest—a Livy and a +Pliny, very old, but much injured and the texts corrupt—and nothing +at all that could be called eloquence, that is to say, pure +literature.</p> + +<p>When he had been a little while in Groningen, the town council +bethought them to turn his talents and learning to some account. He +was a fine figure of a man, who would make a creditable show in +conducting their business; and for composing the elegant Latin +epistles, which every respectable corporation felt bound to rise to on +occasions, no one was better equipped than he. He was retained as town +secretary, and in the four years of his service went on frequent +embassies. During the first year we hear of him visiting his father at +Siloe, and contracting a friendship with one of the nuns<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a>; <span class="pagenum">p 19</span><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>to whom +he afterwards sent a work of Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, which he had +found in a manuscript at Roermond. Twice he visited Brussels on +embassy to Maximilian; and in the next year he followed the Archduke's +court for several months, visiting Antwerp, and making the +acquaintance of Barbiriau, the famous musician. Maximilian offered him +the post of tutor to his children and Latin secretary to himself; the +town of Antwerp invited him to become head of their school. He might +easily have accepted. He was not altogether happy at Groningen. His +countrymen had done him honour, but they had no real appreciation for +learning, and some of them were boorish and cross-grained. It was the +old story of Pegasus in harness; the practical men of business and the +scholar impatient of restraint. His parents, too, were now both +dead—in 1480, within a few months of each other—and such homes as he +had had, with his father amongst the nuns at Siloe and with his mother +in the house of her husband the tranter, were therefore closed to him. +And yet neither invitation attracted him. Friesland was his native +land; and for all his wanderings the love of it was in his blood. +Adwert, too, was near, and Wessel. He refused, and stayed on in his +irksome service.</p> + +<p>But in 1482 came an offer he could not resist. An old friend of Pavia +days, John of Dalberg, for whom he had written the oration customary +on his installation as Rector in 1474, had just been appointed Bishop +of Worms. He invited Agricola <span class="pagenum">p 20</span><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>for a visit, and urged him to come and +join him; living partly as a friend in the Bishop's household, partly +lecturing at the neighbouring University of Heidelberg. The opening +was just such as Agricola wished, and he eagerly accepted; but +circumstances at Groningen prevented him from redeeming his promise +until the spring of 1484. For little more than a year he rejoiced in +the new position, which gave full scope for his abilities. Then he set +out to Rome with Dalberg, their business being to deliver the usual +oration of congratulation to Innocent VIII on his election. On the way +back he fell ill of a fever at Trent, and the Bishop had to leave him +behind. He recovered enough to struggle back to Heidelberg, but only +to die in Dalberg's arms on 27 Oct. 1485, at the age of 41.</p> + +<p>Few men of letters have made more impression on their contemporaries; +and yet his published writings are scanty. The generation that +followed sought for his manuscripts as though they were of the +classics; but thirty years elapsed before the <i>De inuentione +dialectica</i> was printed, and more than fifty before there was a +collected edition. Besides his letters the only thing which has +permanent value is a short educational treatise, <i>De formando studio</i>, +which he wrote in 1484, and addressed to Barbiriau—some compensation +to the men of Antwerp for his refusal to come to them. His work was to +learn and to teach rather than to write. To learn Greek when few +others were learning it, and when the apparatus of grammar and +dictionary had to be <span class="pagenum">p 21</span><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>made by the student for himself, was a task to +consume even abundant energies; and still more so, if Hebrew, too, was +to be acquired. But though he left little, the fire of his enthusiasm +did not perish with him; passing on by tradition, it kindled in others +whom he had not known, the flame of interest in the wisdom of the +ancients.</p> + +<p>Another member of the Adwert gatherings was Alexander of Heck in +Westphalia, hence called Hegius (1433-98). He was an older man than +Agricola, but was not ashamed to learn of him when an opportunity +offered to acquire Greek. His enthusiasm was for teaching; and to that +he gave his life, first at Wesel, then at Emmerich, and finally for +fifteen years at Deventer, where he had many eminent humanists under +his care—Erasmus, William Herman, Mutianus Rufus, Hermann Busch, John +Faber, John Murmell, Gerard Geldenhauer. Butzbach, who was the last +pupil he admitted, and who saw him buried in St. Lebuin's church on a +winter's evening at sunset, describes him at great length; and besides +his learning and simplicity, praises the liberality with which he gave +all that he had to help the needy: living in the house of another +(probably Richard Paffraet, the printer) and sharing expenses, and +leaving at his death no possessions but his books and a few clothes. +And yet he was master of a school which had over 2000 boys.</p> + +<p>Rudolph Langen of Munster (1438-1519) was another who was known at +Adwert. He matriculated at Erfurt in the same year as Agricola, and +<span class="pagenum">p 22</span><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>was M.A. there in 1460. A canonry at Munster gave him maintenance for +his life, and he devoted his energies to learning. Twice he visited +Italy, in 1465 and 1486; and in 1498 he succeeded in establishing a +school at Munster on humanistic lines, and wished Hegius to become +head master, but in vain. Nevertheless it rapidly rivalled the fame of +Deventer.</p> + +<p>Finally, Antony Vrye (Liber) of Soest deserves record, since he has +contributed somewhat to our knowledge of Adwert. He also was a +schoolmaster, and taught at various times at Emmerich, Campen, +Amsterdam, and Alcmar. In 1477 he published a volume entitled +<i>Familiarium Epistolarum Compendium</i>, the composition of which +illustrates the catholic tastes of the humanists; for it contains +selections from the letters of Cicero, Jerome, Symmachus, and the +writers of the Italian Renaissance. But he chiefly merits our +gratitude for including in the book a number of letters which passed +between the visitors to Adwert and their friends, together with some +of his own. The pleasant relations existing in this little society may +be illustrated by the fact that when Vrye's son John had reached +student age, the Adwert friends subscribed to pay his expenses at a +university; and thus secured him an education which enabled him to +become Syndic of Campen.</p> + +<p>A few extracts from their letters will serve to show some of the +characteristics of the age, its wide interest in the past, theological +as well as classical; its eager search for manuscripts, and the +freedom <span class="pagenum">p 23</span><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>with which its libraries were opened; its concern for +education, and its attitude towards the old learning; and the extent +of its actual achievements. The earliest of these letters that survive +are a series written by Langen from Adwert in the spring of 1469 to +Vrye at Soest. Despite the grave interest in serious study that the +letters show, there are human touches about them. One begins: 'You +promised faithfully to return, and yet you have not come. But I cannot +blame you; for the road is deep in mud, and I myself too am so feeble +a walker that I can imagine the weariness of others' feet.' Another +ends in haste, not with the departure of the post, but 'The servants +are waiting to conduct me to bed'. Here is a longer sample:</p> + + +<p>I. LANGEN TO VRYE: from Adwert, 27 Feb. <1469>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Why do you delay so long to gratify the wishes of our devout friend + Wolter? With my own hand I have transcribed the little book of + <i>Elegantiae</i>, as far as the section about the reckoning of the + Kalends. I greatly desire to have this precious work complete; so do + send me the portion we lack as soon as you can. The little book will + be my constant companion: I know nothing that has such value in so + narrow a span. How brilliant Valla is! he has raised up Latin to + glory from the bondage of the barbarians. May the earth lie lightly + on him and the spring shine ever round his urn! Even if the book is + not by Valla himself, it must come from his school.<span class="pagenum">p 24</span><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a></p> + +<p> 'I write in haste and with people talking all round me, from whom + politeness will not let me sit altogether aloof. But read carefully + and you will understand me. At least I hope this letter won't be + quite so barbarous as the monstrosities which the usher from + Osnabruck sends you every day: they sound like the spells of witches + to bring up their familiar spirits, or the enchantments "Fecana + kageti", &c., which open locks whoever knocks. Poor Latin! it is + worse handled than was Regulus by the Carthaginians. Forgive this + scrawl: I am writing by candlelight.' </p></div> + +<p>We shall have other occasions to notice the admiration of the Northern +humanists for Lorenzo Valla († 1457), the master of Latin style, and +the audacious Canon of the Lateran, who could apply the spirit of +criticism not only to the New Testament but even to the Donation of +Constantine.</p> + + +<p>2. VRYE TO ARNOLD OF HILDESHEIM (Schoolmaster at Emmerich): <? +Cologne, <i>c.</i> 1477>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I have still a great many things to do, but I shall not begin upon + them till the printed books from Cologne arrive at Deventer. My plan + was to go to Heidelberg, Freiburg, Basle and some of the universities + in the East and then return to Deventer through Saxony and + Westphalia. But at Coblenz I met four men from Strasburg who declared + that Upper Germany was almost all overrun by soldiers. This + unexpected alarm has compelled me to dispose of the 1500 copies of + <i>The Revival of Latin</i> amongst <span class="pagenum">p 25</span><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>the schools.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> After visiting + Deventer and Zwolle I shall go to Louvain, and then, if it is safe, + to Paris. I thought you ought to know of this change in my plans; + that you might not be taken by surprise at finding me gone westwards + instead of into Upper Germany.</p> + +<p> 'Please take great pains over the correction of the manuscripts.' </p></div> + +<p>3. AGRICOLA TO HEGIUS <at Emmerich>: from Groningen, 20 Sept. 1480.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I was very sorry to learn from your letter that you had been here + just when I was away. There are so few opportunities of meeting any + one who cares for learning that you would have been most welcome. My + position becomes increasingly distasteful to me: since I left Italy, + I forget everything—the classics, history, even how to write with + any style. In prose I can get neither ideas nor language. Such as + come only serve to fill the page with awkward, disjointed sentences. + Verse I hardly ever attempt, and when I do, there is no flow about + it; sometimes the lines almost refuse to scan. The fact is that I can + find no one here who is interested in these things. If only we were + together!</p> + +<p> 'My youngest brother Henry has been fired with the desire to study. I + have advised him against it, but as he persists, I do not like to do + more. For the last six months he has been with Frederic Mormann at + Munster, and has made some progress: but now<span class="pagenum">p 26</span><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a> Mormann <who was one of + the Brethren of the Common Life> has been sent as Rector to a house + <at Marburg>, and Henry has come home. If you can have him, I should + like him to come to you. He will bring with him the usual + furniture,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> money will be sent to him from time to time, and he + will find himself a lodging<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> wherever you advise. I should be glad + to know whether there are any teachers who give lessons out of school + hours, as Mormann does; and whether any one may go to them on payment + of a fee, whether candidates for orders<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> or not. I should like him + to get over the elements as quickly as possible; for if boys are kept + at them too long, they take a dislike to the whole thing. The Pliny + that you ask for shall come to you soon. I use it a great deal; but + nevertheless you shall have it.' </p></div> + +<p>In answer to a question from Hegius, Agricola goes on to distinguish +the words mimus, histrio, persona, scurra, nebulo; with quotations +from Juvenal and Gellius. 'Leccator', he says, 'is a German word; like +several others that we have turned into bad Latin, reisa, +burgimagister, scultetus, or like the French passagium for a military +expedition, guerra for war, treuga for truce.'</p> + +<p>He then proceeds to more derivations in answer <span class="pagenum">p 27</span><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>to Hegius. +<ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: Anthrôpos">Ανθωπος</ins> he considers a fundamental word, which, like homo, defies +analysis: but nevertheless he suggests +<ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: ana">ανα</ins> +and <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: trepô">τρεπω</ins>, +or <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: terpô">τερπω</ins>, +or <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: trephô">τρεφω</ins>. To explain vesper he +cites Sallust, Catullus, Ovid, Pliny's Letters, Caesar's Civil War, +Persius and Suetonius. (We must remember that in those days a man's +quotations were culled from his memory, not from a dictionary or +concordance.) He goes on: 'About forming words by analogy, I rarely +allow myself to invent words which are not in the best authors, but +still perhaps I might use Socratitas, Platonitas, entitas, though +Valla I am sure would object. After all one must be free, when there +is necessity. Cicero, without any need, used Pietas and Lentulitas; +and Pollio talks of Livy's Patauinitas.' Other words explained are +tignum, asser, <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: dioikêsis">διοικησις</ins>; and then Agricola proceeds to +correct a number of mistakes in Hegius' letter. Rather delicate work +it might seem; but there is such good humour between them that, though +the corrections extend to some length, it all ends pleasantly.</p> + + +<p>4. HEGIUS TO AGRICOLA; from Deventer, 17 Dec. <1484>.</p> + +<p>After apologies for not having written for a long while, he proceeds:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'You ask how my school is doing. Well, it is full again now; but in + summer the numbers rather fell off. The plague which killed twenty of + the boys, drove many others away, and doubtless kept some from coming + to us at all.<span class="pagenum">p 28</span><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a></p> + +<p> 'Thank you for translating Lucian's Micyllus. I am sure that all of + us who read it, will be greatly pleased with it. As soon as it comes, + I will have it printed. If I may, I should much like to ask you for + an abridgement of your book on Dialectic: it would be very valuable + to students. I understand that you have translated Isocrates' + Education of Princes. If I had it here, I would expound it to my + pupils. For some of them, no doubt, will be princes some day and have + to govern.</p> + +<p> 'I have been reading Valla's book on the True Good, and have become + quite an Epicurean, estimating all things in terms of pleasure. Also + it has persuaded me that each virtue has its contrary vice, rather + than two vices as its extremes. I should like to know whether the + authorities at Heidelberg have abandoned their Marsilius<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> on the + question of universals, or whether they still stick to him.' </p></div> + +<p>5. AGRICOLA TO HEGIUS; from Worms, Tuesday <January 1485>, in reply.</p> + +<p>After thanks and personalities he writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Certainly you shall have the Lucian, and I will dedicate it to you: + but not just yet, as I am too busy to revise it. My public lectures + take up a good deal of my time. I have a fairly large audience; but + their zeal is greater than their ability. The majority of them are + M.A.'s or students in the Arts course;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> who are obliged to spend + all their <span class="pagenum">p 29</span><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>time on their disputations, so they have only a meagre + part of the day left for these studies. In consequence, as they can + do so little, I am not very active.</p> + +<p> 'In addition to this I am trying to keep up my Latin and Greek + (though they are fast slipping from me) and am beginning Hebrew, + which I find very difficult: indeed to my surprise it costs me more + effort than Greek did. However, I shall go on with it as I have + begun: also because I like to have something new on hand, and much as + I like Greek, its novelty has somewhat worn off. I have made up my + mind to devote my old age, if I ever reach it, to theology. You know + how I detest the barbarisms of those who fill the schools. On their + side they are indignant with me for daring to question their + decisions; but this will not deter me.</p> + +<p> 'My greetings to your host, Master Richard (Paffraet), and his wife.</p> + +<p> 'Worms, in great haste, on the third day of the week: as I have + determined to call it, instead of our unclassical Feria secunda, + tertia, &c., or the heathen names, Monday, Mars' day, Mercury's day, + Jove's day.' </p></div> + +<p>We may notice the anticipation of the Quakers, who in a similar way +would only speak of first day and sixth month.</p> + +<p>6. HEGIUS TO WESSEL; from Deventer <between 1483 and 1489>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I am sending you the Homilies of John Chrysostom, and hope you will<span class="pagenum">p 30</span><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a> + enjoy reading them. His golden words have always been more acceptable + to you than the precious metal itself from the mint.</p> + +<p> 'I have been, as you know, at Cusanus' library, and found there many + Hebrew books which were quite unknown to me; also a few Greek. I + remember the names of the following: Epiphanius against heresies, a + very big book; Dionysius on the Hierarchy; Athanasius against Arius; + Climacus.</p> + +<p> 'These I left behind there, but I brought away with me: Basil on the + Hexaëmeron and some of his homilies on the Psalms; the Epistles of + Paul and the Acts of the Apostles; Plutarch's Lives of Romans and + Greeks, and his Symposium; some writings on grammar and mathematics; + some poems on the Christian religion, written, I think, by Gregory + Nazianzen; some prayers, in Latin and Greek.</p> + +<p> 'If there are any of these you lack, let me know and they shall come + to you: for everything I have is at your disposal. If you could spare + the Gospels in Greek, I should be grateful for the loan of it. You + enquire what books we are using in the school. I have followed your + advice; for literature which is dangerous to morality is most + injurious.' </p></div> + +<p>The library mentioned above was that of Nicholas Krebs († 1464), the +famous Cardinal who took part in the Council of Basle and was the +patron of Poggio. Cues on the Moselle was his birthplace, and gave him +his name Cusanus. In his later years he founded a hostel, the Bursa +Cusana, at Deventer, where he <span class="pagenum">p 31</span><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>had been at school, and at Cues built a +hospital for aged men and women, with a grassy quadrangle and a chapel +of delicate Gothic; and there in a vaulted chamber supported by a +central column he deposited the manuscripts, mainly theological but +with some admixture of the classics, which he had gathered in the +course of his busy life.</p> + +<p>In 1496 we hear of another visit to it; when Dalberg, who was a prince +of humanists, led thither Reuchlin and a party of friends on a voyage +of discovery. Their course was from Worms to Oppenheim, where his +mother was still living: by boat to Coblenz and up the Moselle to +Cues: then over the hills to Dalburg, his ancestral home, and finally +to the abbey of Sponheim, near Kreuznach, where they admired the rich +collection of manuscripts in five languages formed by the learned +historian Trithemius, who was then Abbot. Whether this gay party of +pleasure also carried off any treasures from Cues is not recorded.</p> + +<p>But lest this view of the Adwert Academy should appear too uniformly +roseate, we will turn to the tradition of Reyner Praedinius (1510-59), +who was Rector of the town school at Groningen, and whose fame +attracted students thither from Italy, Spain, and Poland. He had in +his possession several manuscripts of Wessel's writings, some of them +unpublished; and he had been intimate with men who had known both +Wessel and Agricola. One of these—very likely Goswin of Halen—as a +boy had often served at table, when the two scholars were <span class="pagenum">p 32</span><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>dining; and +had afterwards shown them the way home with a lantern. He used to say +that he had frequently pulled off Agricola's boots, when he came home +the worse for his potations; but that no one had ever seen Wessel +under the influence of wine. Wessel, indeed, lived to a green old age, +but killed himself by working too hard.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In view of Geldenhauer's testimony to Agricola's high +character in this respect, we need not question, as does Goswin of +Halen, the nature of this intimacy.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> particularibus studiis.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> victui necessaria, vt solent nostrates. Victus is +commonly used in the technical sense of 'board'; but here the meaning +probably is 'the usual outfit for a schoolboy'. Gebwiler, in 1530, +required a boy coming to his school at Hagenau to be provided with 'a +bed, sheets, pillow, and other necessaries'.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> diuersorium.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> capitiati.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Of Inghen, first Rector of Heidelberg University (1386), +the author of the <i>Parua Logicalia</i>.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Scholastici, vt nos dicimus, artium.<span class="pagenum">p 33</span><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> +<h3>SCHOOLS</h3> + + +<p>Erasmus was born at Rotterdam on the vigil of SS. Simon and Jude, 27 +October: probably in 1466, but his utterances on the subject are +ambiguous. Around his parentage he wove a web of romance, from which +only one fact emerges clearly—that his father was at some time a +priest. Current gossip said that he was parish priest of Gouda; a +little town near Rotterdam, with a big church, which in the sixteenth +century its inhabitants were wealthy enough to adorn with some fine +stained glass. There in the town school, under a master who was +afterwards one of the guardians of his scanty patrimony, Erasmus' +schooldays began, and he made acquaintance with the Latin grammar of +Donatus. After an interval as chorister at Utrecht, he was sent by his +parents to the school at Deventer, which, with that of the +neighbouring and rival town of Zwolle, enjoyed pre-eminence among the +schools of the Netherlands at that date. It was connected with the +principal church of the town, St. Lebuin's; and doubtless among those +aisles and chapels, listening perhaps to the merry bells, whose chimes +still proclaim the quarters far and wide, he caught the first breath +of that new hope to which he was to devote his <span class="pagenum">p 34</span><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>whole life. The school +was controlled by the canons of St. Lebuin, who appointed the head +master; but, as at Zwolle, some of the teachers were drawn from that +sober and learned order, the Brethren of the Common Life, whose parent +house was at Deventer.</p> + +<p>Of Erasmus' life in the school we have little knowledge. He tells us +that he was there in 1475, when preachers came from Rome announcing +the jubilee which Sixtus IV had so conveniently found possible to hold +after only twenty-five years. From one of his letters we can picture +him wandering by the river side among the barges, and marking the slow +growth of the bridge of boats which it took the town of Deventer +several years to throw across the rapid Yssel. He probably entered the +lowest class, the eighth, and by 1484, when at the age of eighteen he +left in consequence of the outbreak of plague mentioned in Hegius' +letter to Agricola, he had not made his way above the third; thus +giving little indication of his future fame. An explanation may +perhaps be found by supposing that his time in the choir at Utrecht +was an interlude in the Deventer period; but in any case the school in +his time was still 'barbarous', to use his own word, that is, it was +still modelled on the requirements of the scholastic courses, the +<i>literae inamoenae</i>, which from his earliest years he abhorred. +Zinthius (or Synthius), who was one of the Brethren, and Hegius +'brought a breath of something better', he tells us: but both of them +taught only in the higher forms, and Hegius <span class="pagenum">p 35</span><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>he only heard during his +last year, on the festivals when the head master lectured to the whole +school together.</p> + +<p>A few years later the school numbered 2200 boys. It is difficult to us +to imagine such a throng gathered round one man. There were only eight +forms, which must therefore have had on an average 275 in each; and +even if subdivided into parallel classes, they must still have been +uncomfortably large to our modern ideas. On the title-pages of early +school-books are sometimes found woodcuts which represent the children +sitting, like the Indian schoolboy to-day, in crowds about their +master, taking only the barest amount of space, and content with the +steps of his desk or even the floor. Some idea of the character of the +teaching may be derived from the experiences of Thomas Platter +(1499-1582) at Breslau about thirty years later. 'In the school at St. +Elizabeth', he says, 'nine B.A.'s read lectures at the same hour and +in the same room. Greek had not yet penetrated into that part of the +world. No one had any printed books except the praeceptor, who had a +Terence.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">1</a> What was read had first to be dictated, then pointed, then +construed, and at last explained.'<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">2</a> It was a wearisome business for +all concerned. The reading of a few lines of text, the punctuation, +the elaborate <span class="pagenum">p 36</span><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>glosses full of wellnigh incomprehensible +abbreviations; all dictated slowly enough for a class of a hundred or +more to take down every word. Lessons in those days were indeed +readings. For a clever boy who was capable of going forward quickly, +they must have been great waste of time.</p> + +<p>At Deventer Erasmus began with elementary accidence. The books which +he first mentions, <i>Pater meus,</i> a series of declensions, and +<i>Tempora</i>, the tenses, that is the conjugations of the verb, were +probably local productions of a simple nature which never found their +way into print. From this he proceeded to the versified Latin grammars +which mediaeval authorities on education had invented to supersede the +prose of Priscian and Donatus; metre being more adapted to the +learning by heart then so much in fashion. 'Praelegebatur Ebrardus et +Joannes de Garlandia', he says: a line or two was read out by the +master and then the commentary was dictated—the boys writing down as +much as they could catch. Let us see the kind of thing. Here are some +extracts from the <i>Textus Equiuocorum</i> of John Garland, an Englishman +who taught at Toulouse in the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Latrat et amittit, humilis, vilis, negat, heret:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Est celeste Canis sidus, in amne natat.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>'Firstly it is a thing that barks': three verses of quotation follow.</p> + +<p>'Secondly it loses; canis being the name for the worst throw with the +dice': one verse of quotation.<span class="pagenum">p 37</span><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a></p> + +<p>'Thirdly it is something humble: David to Saul, "After whom is the +King of Israel come out? after a dead dog? after a flea?"</p> + +<p>Fourthly it is something contemptible: Goliath to David, "Am I a dog +that thou comest to me with staves?"</p> + +<p>Fifthly it denies, like an apostate: "A dog returned to its vomit."</p> + +<p>Sixthly it adheres.' But here the interpreter goes astray under the +preoccupation of the times: 'heret significat hereticum et infidelem; +hence "It is not good to take the children's bread and cast it unto +dogs, that is to heretics and infidels."</p> + +<p>Seventhly it is a star; hence are named the dog days, in which that +star has dominion.</p> + +<p>Eighthly it swims in the sea; the dog fish.'</p> + +<p>The qualities of the dog are also expressed in this verse: 'Latrat in +ede canis, nat in equore, fulget in astris. Et venit canis +originaliter a cano—is.' So Garland, or his commentator, abridged.</p> + +<p>Of sal he says:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Est sal prelatus, equor, sapientia, mimus,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Sal pultes condit, sal est cibus et reprehendit.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Here again there is a full commentary; but the only interpretation +that we need notice is the first, 'Salt denotes a prelate of the +Church; for it is said in the Gospels, Ye are the salt of the earth.' +When he composed these lines, Garland must surely have had his eye on +ecclesiastical preferment.</p> + +<p>Another line is interesting, as illustrating the <span class="pagenum">p 38</span><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>confusion between c +and t in mediaeval manuscripts:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Est katonque malum, katademon nascitur inde. </p></div> + +<p>The commentary runs: 'Kathon est idem quod malum. Inde dicitur +kathodemon, i.e. spiritus malignus seu dyabolus, et venit a kathon, +i.e. malum, et demon, sciens, quasi mala sciens.' You will notice also +the inconstancy of h, and the indifference to orthography which allows +the same word to appear as katademon in the text and kathodemon in the +commentary.</p> + +<p>Garland's <i>Textus</i> is mostly Latin; but in the last composition of his +life, the forty-two distiches entitled <i>Cornutus</i>, 'one on the horns +of a dilemma', he is mainly occupied with Greek words adopted into +Latin: using of course Latin characters. Some specimens will show the +mediaeval standards of Greek: I quote from the text and commentary +edited in 1481 by John Drolshagen, who was master of the sixth class +at Zwolle.</p> + +<p class="poem">Kyria chere geram cuius phīlantrŏpos est bar,<br /> + Per te doxa theos nectēn ĕt [)v]rānĭcĭs ymas. </p> + +<p>In the commentary we are told that Kyria means the Virgin: but we are +to be careful not to write it with two r's, for kirrios means a pig (I +suppose <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: choiros">χοιρος</ins>), and it would never do to say Kirrieleyson. +Chere is of course <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: chaire">χαιρε</ins>, salue. Geran (geram in the text) +is interpreted sanctus, and seems from a lengthy discussion of it to +be connected with <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: gerôn">γερων</ins> and<span class="pagenum">p 39</span><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a> <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: ieros">ιερος</ins>.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">3</a> Philantropos +(notice the quantities) is Christ, the Saviour. 'Bar Grece est filius +Latine.' 'Necten in Greco est venire Latine: vnde dicit Pristianus in +primo minoris, antropos necten, i.e. homo venit.' (For this remarkable +form I can only suggest <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: ênthein">ηνθειν</ins> or <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: hêkein">´ηκειν</ins>: -en is +probably the infinitive; ne might arise from en; and ct, through tt, +from th.) Ymas is explained as nobis, not vobis. The construction of +the distich is then given: 'Hail, sacred queen, whose son is the lover +of men; through thee divine and heavenly glory comes to us.'</p> + +<p>Again:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +'Clauiculis firmis theos antropos impos et ir mis<br /> +<span class="i2">Figor ob infirmi cosmos delicta, patir mi.'</span> +</p> + +<p>Impos = in pedibus. Ir = a hand (probably <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: cheir">χειρ</ins>, +transliterated into hir, and h dropped) and mis is explained as = mei, +according to the form which occurs in Plautus and early Latin. The +lines are an address from Christ to God, and are interpreted: 'O my +father, I God and man am fastened with hard nails in my feet and hands +(upon the cross) for the sins of a weak world.'</p> + +<p>Another work dictated to Erasmus at Deventer was the metrical grammar +of Eberhard of Bethune in Artois, composed in the twelfth century. Its +name, <i>Graecismus</i>, was based upon a chapter, the eighth, devoted to +the elementary study of Greek—a feature which constituted an advance +on the <span class="pagenum">p 40</span><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>current grammars of the age. A few extracts will show the +character of the assistance it offered to the would-be Greek scholar.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Quod sententia sit bŏlĕcomprobat amphibolīa,<br /> +<span class="i2">Quodque fides brŏgĕsit comprobat Allobroga.</span> +</p> + +<p>The gloss explains the second line thus: 'Dicitur ab alleos quod est +alienum, et broge quod est fides, quasi alienus a fide'; and thus we +learn that the Allobroges were a Burgundian people who were always +breaking faith with the Romans.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Constat apud Grecos quod tertia littera cima est,<br /> +<span class="i2">Est quoque dulce cĭmēn, inde cĭmētĕrium;</span> +Est [)v]nĭuersalē cătă, fitque cătholicus inde, ...<br /> +<span class="i2">Cāta breuis pariter, cātalogus venit hinc.</span> +Die decas esse decem, designans inde decanum ...<br /> +<span class="i2">Delon obscurum, Delius inde venit.</span> +<span class="i2">Ductio sit gogos, hinc isagoga venit.</span> +<span class="i2">Estque geneth mulier, inde genēthēūm.</span> +</p> + +<p>Here the confusion of c with t begins the misleading; which is carried +further by the gloss, 'Genetheum: locus subterraneus vbi habitant +mulieres ad laborandum, et dicitur a geneth quod est mulier, et thesis +positio, quia ibi ponebantur mulieres ad laborandum'; or 'Genetheum: +absconsio subterranea mulierum'.<span class="pagenum">p 41</span><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a></p> + +<p class="poem"> +Estque decem gintos, dicas hinc esse viginti,<br /> +<span class="i2">Vt pentecoste, coste valebit idem.</span> +Pos quoque pes tibi sit, compos tibi comprobat illud,<br /> +<span class="i2">Atque pĕdos puer est, hinc pedagogus erit.</span> +<span class="i2">Dic zoen animam, die indē zōĕcăisychen.</span> +</p> + +<p>This last word appears in eleven different forms in the manuscripts. +The gloss interprets it plainly as 'vita mea et anima mea'; but +without this aid it must have been unintelligible to most readers, +especially in such forms as zoychaysichen, zoycazyche, zoichasichen, +zoyasichem.</p> + +<p>The 'breath of something better' which Hegius and Zinthius brought was +seen in the substitution of the <i>Doctrinale</i> of Alexander of +Ville-Dieu, near Avranches (<i>fl.</i> 1200), as the school Latin grammar. +This also is a metrical composition; and it has the merit of being +both shorter and also more correct. It was first printed at Venice by +Wendelin of Spires (<i>c.</i> 1470), and after a moderate success in Italy, +twenty-three editions in fourteen years, it was taken up in the North +and quickly attained great popularity. By 1500 more than 160 editions +had been printed, of the whole or of various parts, and in the next +twenty years there were nearly another hundred, before it was +superseded by more modern compositions, such as Linacre's grammar, +which held the field throughout Europe for a great part of the +sixteenth century. The number of Deventer editions of the <i>Doctrinale</i> +is considerable, mostly containing the glosses of Hegius and Zinthius, +which overwhelm <span class="pagenum">p 42</span><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>the text with commentary; a single distich often +receiving two pages of notes, so full of typographical abbreviations +and so closely packed together as to be almost illegible. This very +fullness, however, probably indicates a change in the method of +teaching, which by quickening it up must indeed have put new life into +it; for it would clearly have been impossible to dictate such lengthy +commentaries, or the boys would have made hardly any progress.</p> + +<p>Thirty years ago in England a schoolboy of eleven found himself +supplied with abridged Latin and Greek dictionaries, out of which to +build up larger familiarity with these languages. Erasmus at Deventer +had no such endowments. A school of those days would have been thought +excellently equipped if the head master and one or two of his +assistants had possessed, in manuscript or in print, one or other of +the famous vocabularies in which was amassed the etymological +knowledge of the Middle Ages. Great books are costly, and scholars are +ever poor. The normal method of acquiring a dictionary was, no doubt, +to construct it for oneself; the schoolboy laying foundations and +building upon them as he rose from form to form, and the mature +student constantly enlarging his plan throughout his life and adding +to it the treasures gained by wider reading. A sure method, though +necessarily circumscribed, at least in the beginning. We can imagine +how men so rooted and grounded must have shaken their heads over +'learning made <span class="pagenum">p 43</span><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>easy', when the press had begun to diffuse cheap +dictionaries, which spared the younger generation such labour.</p> + +<p>Though they were scarcely 'for the use of schools', it will repay us +to examine some of the mediaeval dictionaries which lasted down to the +Renaissance in general use; for they formed the background of +educational resources, and from them we can estimate the standards of +teaching attained in the late fifteenth century. First the +<i>Catholicon</i>, compiled by John Balbi, a Dominican of Genoa, and +completed on 7 March 1286; a work of such importance to the age we are +considering that it was printed at Mainz as early as 1460, and there +were many editions later. Badius' at Paris, 1506, for instance, was +reprinted in 1510, 1511, 1514. In his preface Balbi announces that his +dictionary is to be on the alphabetical principle; and, what is even +more surprising to us, he goes on to explain at great length what the +alphabetical principle is. Thus: 'I am going to treat of amo and bibo. +I shall take amo before bibo, because a is the first letter in amo and +b is the first letter in bibo; and a is before b in the alphabet. +Again I have to treat of abeo and adeo. I shall take abeo before adeo, +because b is the second letter in abeo and d is the second letter in +adeo; and b is before d in the alphabet.' And so he goes on: amatus +will be treated before amor, imprudens before impudens, iusticia +before iustus, polisintheton before polissenus—the two last being +from the Greek. 'But note', he continues, 'that <span class="pagenum">p 44</span><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>in polissenus, s is +the fifth letter and also the sixth, because s is repeated there. A +repetition is therefore equivalent to a double letter; and thus this +arrangement will show when l, m, n, r, s or indeed any other letter is +to be doubled. And in order that the reader may find quickly what he +seeks, whenever the first or second letter of a word is changed, we +shall mark it with azure blue.' His preface ends with an appeal. 'This +arrangement I have worked out with great labour; yet not I, but the +grace of God with me. I entreat you therefore, reader, do not contemn +my work as something rude and barbarous.'</p> + +<p>The most striking feature of the dictionary is its etymology. Almost +every word is supplied with a derivation, often very far-fetched. Thus +glisco is derived from 'glykis, quod est dulcis; que enim dulcia sunt +desiderare solemus': gliscere therefore is equivalent to desiderare, +crescere, pinguescere and several other words. After this we are not +surprised at the following account of a dormouse. 'Glis a glisco: +quoddam genus murium quod multum dormit. Et dicitur sic quod sompnus +facit glires pingues et crescere.' Here is another piece of natural +history. 'Irundo ab aer dicitur: quia non residens sed in aere capiens +cibos edat, quasi in aere edens.' There is simplicity in the +following: 'Nix a nubes, quia a nube venit.' Again: 'Ouis ab offero +vel obluo: quia antiquitus in inicio non tauri sed oues in sacrificio +mactarentur. Priscianus vero dicit quod descendit a Greco ... oys.' +Besides his philology the good Dominican was also a theologian; and +<span class="pagenum">p 45</span><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>when he comes to the words upon which his world was built, he cannot +dismiss them as lightly as the snow. So Antichristus has two columns, +that is to say a folio page: confiteor 1½, conscientia 2¼, ordo 2½, +virgo two columns.</p> + +<p>Much light is thrown on Balbi's work by the dictionary of his +predecessor, Huguitio of Pisa, Bishop of Ferrara († 1210). The title +of this, <i>Liber deriuationum</i>, indicates its character. Instead of the +alphabetical principle the words are arranged according to their +etymology; all that are assigned to a given root being grouped +together. This made it necessary, or at any rate desirable, to find a +derivation for every word; and with ingenuity to aid this was done as +far as possible. Besides derivatives even compounds came under the +simple root; and in consequence it must have been extremely difficult +to find a word unless one already knew a good deal about it. It is no +wonder that the book was never printed; although it occurs frequently +in the catalogues of mediaeval libraries.</p> + +<p>A few examples will suffice. Under capio are found capax, captiuus, +capillus, caput with all its derivatives, anceps, praeceps, +principium, caper, capus, caupo, cippus, scipio, <s>ceptrum; and even +cassis and catena. Similarly under nubo come nubes, nebula, nebulo, +nix, niger, nimpha, limpha, limpidus. With such a book as one's only +support it was clearly of the highest importance to be good at +etymology; with ouis, for instance, not to be troubled by Priscian's +fanciful derivation from the Greek, but to know that <span class="pagenum">p 46</span><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>it came from +offero, and was therefore to be found under fero; or again to look for +hirundo under aer. Nor need we be surprised at the strange derivations +upon which arguments were sometimes founded: that Sprenger, the +inquisitor, could explain femina 'quia minorem habet et seruat fidem'; +or the preacher over whom Erasmus' Folly makes merry, find authority +for burning heretics in the Apostle's command 'Haereticum deuita'.</p> + +<p>We are now in a position to understand Balbi's performance in the +<i>Catholicon</i>. From the apologetic tone of his preface it is clear that +he felt Huguitio's work to be the really scientific thing, the only +book that a scholar would consult: but evidently experience had shown +the difficulty of using it, and therefore for the weakness of lesser +men like himself he reverted to the sequence of the alphabet. In +cumbering himself with derivations, too, he shows that he knows his +place. He may have had a glimmering that some of them were absurd; and +that Priscian with his reference to the Greek was a safer guide. But +to a scholar brought up on Huguitio derivations were of the first +importance; and to leave them out would have been only another mark of +inferiority.</p> + +<p>Beyond Huguitio we may go back to Papias, a learned Lombard (<i>fl.</i> +1051), whose Vocabulary was still in use in the fifteenth century, and +was printed at Milan in 1476. The editions of it are far fewer than +those of the <i>Catholicon</i>; a fact which presumably points to the +superiority of the later work. Papias <span class="pagenum">p 47</span><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>also used the alphabetical +principle; and his lengthy explanation of it, which lacks, however, +the lucidity of Balbi's, probably implies that his predecessors had +adopted the etymological arrangement by derivations, or the divisions +of Isidore according to subjects. In a few cases he makes concession +to etymology, by giving derivatives under their root, e.g. under ago +come all the words derived from it: but he has regard to the weak, and +places them also in their right alphabetical position. Not many +derivations are given; but one of them is well known. Lucus is defined +as 'locus amenus, vbi multae arbores sunt. Lucus dictus +<ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: kata antiphrasin">κατα αντιφιρασιν</ins> +quia caret luce pro nimia arborum vmbra; vel a colocando +crebris luminibus (<i>aliter</i> uiminibus), siue a luce, quod in eo +lucebant funalia propter nemorum tenebras.' This in the hands of Balbi +becomes 'per contrarium lucus dicitur a lucendo', or, as we say +popularly, 'lucus a non lucendo.' December, again, is derived from +decem and imbres 'quibus abundare solet'; and so too the other +numbered months.</p> + +<p>It is noticeable that Papias has some knowledge of Greek, for +derivations in Greek letters occur, e.g. 'Acrocerauni: montes propter +altitudinem & fulminum iactus dicti. Graece enim fulmen +<ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: keraunos">κεραυνος</ins> ceraunos dicitur, et acra <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: akra">ακρα</ins> sumitas'; and a +great many Greek and Hebrew words are given transliterated into Latin, +ballein, fagein, Ennosigaeus. Like Balbi, Papias travels outside the +limits of a mere dictionary, and his interests are not restricted to +theology. Aetas draws him into an account of the <span class="pagenum">p 48</span><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>various ages of the +world, regnum into a view of its kingdoms. Carmen provokes 7 columns, +3½ folio pages, on metres; lapis 2 columns on precious stones. Italy +receives 2 columns, and ¾ of a column are given to St. Paul. +Contrariwise there is often great brevity in his interpretations: +'Samium locus est', 'heroici antiqui', 'mederi curare'. His treatment +of miraculum is interesting; 'A miracle is to raise the dead to life; +but it is a wonder (mirabile) for a fire to be kindled in the water, +or for a man to move his ears.' The next heading is mirabilia, for +which his examples are taken from the ends of the earth. He begins: +'Listen. Among the Garamantes is a spring so cold by day that you +cannot drink it, so hot at night that you cannot put your finger into +it.' A fig-tree in Egypt, apples of Sodom, the non-deciduous trees of +an island in India—these are the other travellers' tales which serve +him for wonders.</p> + +<p>The alphabetical method did not hold its own without struggle. It +prevailed in Robert Stephanus' Latin <i>Thesaurus</i> (1532), the most +considerable work of its kind that had been compiled since the +invention of printing; but Dolet's Commentaries on the Latin Tongue +(1536), are practically a reversion to the arrangement by roots. Henry +Stephanus' Greek <i>Thesaurus</i> (1572) and Scapula's well-known +abridgement of it (1579) are both radical; and as late as the +seventeenth century this method was employed in the first Dictionary +of the French Academy, which was designed in 1638 but not published +till<span class="pagenum">p 49</span><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a> 1694. That, however, was its last appearance. The preface to the +Academy's second Dictionary (1700 and 1718), after comparing the two +methods, says: 'The arrangement by roots is the most scientific, and +the most instructive to the student; but it is not suited to the +impatience of the French people, and so the Academy has felt obliged +to abandon it.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">4</a> The ordinary user of dictionaries to-day would be +surprised at being called impatient for expecting the words to be put +in alphabetical order.</p> + +<p>In mediaeval times there was one very real obstacle to the use of the +alphabetical method, and that was the uncertainty of spelling. Both +Papias and Balbi allude to it in their prefaces; but it did not deter +them from their enterprise. Even in the days of printing language +takes a long time to crystallize down into accepted forms, correct and +incorrect. You may see Dutchess with a t at Blenheim, well within the +eighteenth century, and forgo has only recently decided to give up its +e. In the days of manuscripts men spelt pretty much as they pleased, +making very free even with their own names; and uncritical copyists, +caring only to reproduce the word, and not troubling about the exact +orthography of their original, did nothing to check the ever-growing +variety. Such licence was agreeable for the imaginative, but it made +despairing work for the compilers of dictionaries. Some of their +difficulties may be given as examples. In the early days of minuscule +writing, when writing-<span class="pagenum">p 50</span><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>material was still scarce, to save space it was +common to write the letter e with a reversed cedilla beneath it to +denote the diphthongs -ae and -oe. In the Middle Ages the cedilla was +commonly dropped, leaving the e plain; and so mostly it remained until +the sixteenth century revived the diphthong, or at least the two +double letters.</p> + +<p>At all periods down to 1600, some hands are found in which it is +impossible to distinguish between c and t; and hence in mediaeval +times, and even later, such forms as fatio, loto, pecieris, licterae +are not infrequently found for facio, loco, petieris, litterae. An +extreme example of the confusion which this variability must have +caused is in the case of the fourteenth-century annalist, Nicholas +Trivet, whose surname sometimes appears as Cerseth or Chereth.</p> + +<p>The doubling of consonants, too, was often a matter of doubt, and the +Middle Ages, possibly again for reasons of space, used many words with +single consonants instead of two—difficilimus, Salustius, consumare, +comodum, opidum, fuise. The letter h was the source of infinite +trouble. Sometimes it was surprisingly omitted, as in actenus, irundo, +Oratius, ortus—in the latter cases perhaps under Italian influence; +sometimes it appears unexpectedly, as in Therentius, Theutonia, +Thurcae, Hysidorus, habundare, and even haspirafio; or in abhominor, +where it bolstered up the derivation from homo: or it might change its +place from one consonant to another, as in calchographus, cartha.<span class="pagenum">p 51</span><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a> +Papias found it a great trouble, and indeed was quite muddled with it, +placing hyppocrita, hippomanes among the h's, but hippopedes and +several others under the i's, though without depriving them of initial +h. In France, h between two short i's was considered to need support, +and so we find michi, nichil, occurring quite regularly. The +difficulty of i and y was met by the suppression of the latter; so +that though it sometimes appears unexpectedly, as in hysteria, it is +only treated as i. Between f and ph there was much uncertainty; phas, +phanum, prophanus are well-known forms, or conversely Christofer, +flenbothomari, Flegeton. B and p were often confused, as in babtizare, +plasphemus; and p made its way into such words as ampnis, dampnum, +alumpnus. A triumph of absurd variation is achieved by Alexander +Neckam, who begins a sentence 'Coquinarii quocunt'.</p> + +<p>With the increased learning of the Renaissance these varieties +gradually disappear. The printers, too, rendered good service in +promoting uniformity, each firm having its standard orthography for +doubtful cases, as printers do to-day. The use of e for ae is abundant +in the first books printed North of the Alps; but it steadily +diminishes, and by 1500 has almost vanished. In manuscripts, where it +was easy to forget to add the cedilla, the plain e lasts much longer. +There was also confusion in the reverse direction. Well into the +sixteenth century the cedilla is often found wrongly added to words +such as puer, equus, eruditus, epistola; <span class="pagenum">p 52</span><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>in 1550 the Froben firm was +still regularly printing aedo, aeditio; and in the index to an edition +of Aquinas, Venice, 1593, aenigma and Aegyptus, spelt in this way, are +only to be found under e. Other forms of error persisted long. To the +end of his life Erasmus usually wrote irito, oportunus; in 1524 he +could still use Oratius. The town of Boppard on the Rhine he styles +indifferently Bobardia or Popardia: just as, much later, editors +described the elder Camerarius of Bamberg as Bapenbergensis in 1583, +as Pabepergensis in 1595. As late as 1540 a little book was printed in +Paris to demonstrate that michi and nichil were incorrect.</p> + +<p>In such a state of flux we need not wonder that the mediaeval writers +of dictionaries found the alphabetical arrangement not the way of +simplification they had hoped, but rather to be full of pitfalls; nor +again that the men of the Renaissance thought the work of their +predecessors so lamentably inadequate. We shall do better to admire in +both cases the brilliance and constancy which could achieve so much +with such imperfect instruments.</p> + +<p>To complete our sketch of the books on which the scholars of the +fifteenth century had to rely we may consider two more. The first is +the great encyclopaedia of Vincent of Beauvais, a Dominican friar +(<i>c.</i> 1190-1264). It was printed in 1472-6 by Mentelin at Strasburg, +in six enormous volumes; and no one can properly appreciate the +magnitude of the work who has not tried to lift these volumes about. +Vincent was not the first to attempt this <span class="pagenum">p 53</span><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>encyclopaedic enterprise, +for his work is based on that of another Frenchman, Helinand, who died +in 1229. In his preface he states that his prior had urged him to +reduce his <i>Speculum</i> to a manual; being doubtless an old man, and +appalled at these colossal fruits of his friar's industry. But this +was too much for the proud author after all his labour. He did, +however, consent to cut it up into portions. The <i>Speculum naturale</i> +gives a description of the world in all its parts, animal and +vegetable and mineral; the <i>Speculum doctrinale</i> taught how to +practise the arts and sciences; the <i>Speculum historiale</i> embraced the +world's history down to 1250; and the <i>Speculum morale</i>, which is +perhaps not by Vincent, found room for the philosophies.</p> + +<p>But few libraries can have possessed this work in full. Our other book +was much more compassable and more widely circulated. Its author was a +certain Johannes Marchesinus, of whom so little is known that his date +has been put both at 1300 and at 1466. Even the title of the book was +uncertain. Marchesinus names it Mammotrectus or Mammetractus, which he +explains as 'led by a pedagogue'; but a current form of the name was +Mammothreptus, which was interpreted as 'brought up by one's +grandmother'. The book consists of a commentary on the whole Bible, +chapter by chapter; and also upon the <i>Legenda Sanctorum</i>, upon +various sermons and homilies, responses, antiphons, and hymns, with +notes on the Hebrew months, ecclesiastical vestments, and other +subjects likely to be useful to <span class="pagenum">p 54</span><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>students in the Church, especial +emphasis being laid on pronunciation and quantity. It was intended, +Marchesinus tells us in his preface, for the use of the poor clergy, +to aid them in writing sermons and in reading difficult Hebrew names; +and from the sympathy with which he enters into their troubles, it +seems clear that he knew them from personal experience.</p> + +<p>From its scope the book might be expected to be as large as Vincent's +<i>Speculum</i>, but in fact it can be printed in a quarto volume. It was +not intended to compete with the great commentaries of Peter the +Lombard, or Nicholas Lyra, or Hugh of St. Victor, which fill many +folios. It was to be within reach of the poor parish priest, and so +must not be costly. But the surprising part of the book is its +triviality. With so little space available, one would have expected to +find nothing admitted that was not important: but the fact is that it +has nothing which is not elementary. There is nothing historical, +nothing theological, only a few simple points of grammar and quantity. +For example, in the story of Deborah, Judges iv, the commentary runs +as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>2. Sisara: middle syllable short.</p> + +<p> 4. Debbora: middle syllable short. Prophetes masc., Prophetis fem.; + meaning, propheta.</p> + +<p> 10. Accersitis: last syllable but one long; meaning, vocatis.</p> + +<p> 15. Perterreo, perterres; meaning, in pauorem conuertere. Active.<span class="pagenum">p 55</span><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a></p> + +<p> 17. Cinci(the Kenites): middle syllable long.</p> + +<p> 15. Desilio, desilis, desilii or desiliui: middle syllable short in + trisyllables in the present; meaning, de aliquo salire siue + descendere festinanter.</p> + +<p> 21. clauus, masc., claui: meaning, acutum ferrum, malleus, masc., + mallei: meaning, martellus.</p> + +<p> tempus, neut.: meaning, pars capitis, for which some people say + timpus. </p></div> + +<p>For Daniel vi, the story of Daniel in the lions' den, the commentary +is even briefer:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>6. surripuerunt: meaning, falso suggesserunt. Surripio, surripis, + surrepsi(!): meaning, latenter rapere, subtrahere, furari.</p> + +<p> 10. comperisset; meaning, cognouisset. Comperio, comperis, comperi: + fourth conjugation.</p> + +<p> 20. affatus: meaning, allocutus. From affor, affaris; and governs the + accusative. </p></div> + +<p>We must not exalt ourselves above the author. He is very humble. 'Let +any imperfections in the book', says his preface, 'be attributed to +me: and if there is anything good, let it be thought to have come from +God.' He gave them of his best, explaining away such as he could of +the difficulties which had confronted him. But one can imagine the +disgust of even a moderate scholar if, wishing to study the Bible more +carefully, he could obtain access to nothing better than +Mammotrectus.<span class="pagenum">p 56</span><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a></p> + +<p>Though Erasmus has not much to tell us of his time at Deventer, a +fuller account of the school may be found in the autobiography of John +Butzbach (<i>c.</i> 1478-1526), who for the last nineteen years of his life +was Prior of Laach.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">5</a> Indeed, his narrative is so detailed and so +illustrative of the age that it may well detain us here. He was the +son of a weaver in the town of Miltenberg (hence Piemontanus) on the +Maine, above Aschaffenburg. At the age of six he was put to school and +already began to learn Latin; one of his nightly exercises that he +brought home with him being to get by heart a number of Latin words +for vocabulary. After a few years he came into trouble with his master +for laziness and truancy, and received a severe beating; his mother +intervened and got the master dismissed from his post, and Butzbach +was removed from the school.</p> + +<p>An opportunity then offered for him to get a wider education. The son +of a neighbour who had commenced scholar, returned home for a time, +and offered to take Butzbach with him when he went off again to pursue +his courses for his degree. The consent of his parents was obtained; +and the scholar having received a liberal contribution towards +expenses, and Butzbach being equipped with new clothes, the pair set +out together. The boy was now ten, and looked forward hopefully to the +future; but the scholar quickly showed himself in his true <span class="pagenum">p 57</span><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>colours. +He treated Butzbach as a fag, made him trudge behind carrying the +larger share of their bundles, and when they came to an inn feasted +royally himself off the money given to him for the boy, leaving him to +the charity of the innkeepers. At the end of two months the money was +spent, and they had found no place of settlement. Henceforward +Butzbach was set to beg, going from house to house in the villages +they passed, asking for food; and when this failed to produce enough, +he was required to steal. The scholar treated him shamefully and beat +him often; and as it was a well-known practice for fags, when begging, +to eat up delicacies at once, instead of bringing them in, Butzbach +was sometimes subjected to the regular test, being required to fill +his mouth with water and then spit it out into a basin for his master +to examine whether there were traces of fat.</p> + +<p>The scholar's aim was to find some school, having attached to it a +Bursa or hostel, in which they could obtain quarters; apparently he +was not yet qualified for a university. They made their way to +Bamberg, but there was no room for them in the Bursa. So on they went +into Bohemia, where at the town of Kaaden the rector of the school was +able to allot them a room—just a bare, unfurnished chamber, in which +they were permitted to settle. Such teaching as Butzbach received was +spasmodic and ineffectual, and after two years of this bondage he ran +away. For the next five years he was in Bohemia in private service, +longing for home, hating his durance among <span class="pagenum">p 58</span><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>the heathen, as he called +the Bohemians for following John Hus, but lacking courage to make his +escape from masters who could send horsemen to scour the countryside +for fugitive servants and string them up to trees when caught. +However, at length the opportunity came, and after varying fortunes, +Butzbach made his way home to Miltenberg, to find his father dead and +his mother married again.</p> + +<p>For the substantial accuracy of Butzbach's narrative his character is +sufficient warranty. He was a pious, honest man, and at the time when +he wrote his autobiography at the request of his half-brother Philip, +he was already a monk at Laach. But the picture of a young student's +sufferings under an elder's cruelty can be paralleled with surprising +closeness from the autobiography of Thomas Platter, mentioned above; +the wandering from one school to another, the maltreatment, the +begging, the enforced stealing, all these are reproduced with just the +difference of surroundings.</p> + +<p>Platter's account of his life at Breslau is worth quoting. 'I was ill +three times in one winter, so that they were obliged to bring me into +the hospital; for the travelling scholars had a particular hospital +and physicians for themselves. Care was taken of the patients, and +they had good beds, only the vermin were so abundant that, like many +others, I lay much rather upon the floor than in the beds. Through the +winter the fags lay upon the floor in the school, but the Bacchants in +small chambers, of which at St. Elizabeth's there were several +hundreds.<span class="pagenum">p 59</span><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a> But in summer, when it was hot, we lay in the church-yard, +collected together grass such as is spread in summer on Saturdays in +the gentlemen's streets before the doors, and lay in it like pigs in +the straw. When it rained, we ran into the school, and when there was +thunder, we sang the whole night with the Subcantor, responses and +other sacred music. Now and then after supper in summer we went into +the beerhouses to beg for beer. The drunken Polish peasants would give +us so much that I often could not find my way to the school again, +though only a stone's throw from it.' Platter wrote his autobiography +at the age of 73, when his memories of his youth must have been +growing dim; but though on this account we must not press him in +details, his main outlines are doubtless correct.</p> + +<p>On his return, Butzbach was apprenticed to Aschaffenburg, to learn the +trade of tailoring; and having mastered this, he procured for himself, +in 1496, the position of a lay-brother in the Benedictine Abbey of +Johannisberg in the Rheingau, opposite Bingen. His duties were +manifold. Besides doing the tailoring of the community, he was +expected to make himself generally useful: to carry water and fetch +supplies, to look after guests, to attend the Abbot when he rode +abroad (on one occasion he was thrown thus into the company of Abbot +Trithemius of Sponheim, whose work on the Ecclesiastical writers of +his time he afterwards attempted to carry on), to help in the hay +harvest, and in gathering the grapes. Before a year was out he grew +tired of <span class="pagenum">p 60</span><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>these humble duties, and bethought him anew of his father's +wish that he should become a professed monk. He had omens too. One +morning his father appeared to him as he was dressing, and smiled upon +him. Another day he was sitting at his work and talking about his wish +with an old monk who was sick and under his care. On the wall in front +of his table he had fastened a piece of bread, to be a reminder of the +host and of Christ's sufferings. Suddenly this fell to the ground. The +old man started up from his place by the stove, and steadying his +tottering limbs cried out aloud that this was a sign that the wish was +granted. He had the reputation among his fellows of being a prophet +and had foretold the day of his own death. Butzbach accepted the omen, +and obtained leave to go to school again.</p> + +<p>His choice was Deventer. One of the brethren wrote him an elegant +letter to Hegius applying for admission; and though, as he says, he +answered no questions in his entrance examination (which appears to +have been oral), on the strength of the letter he was admitted and +placed in the seventh class, a young man of twenty amongst the little +boys who were making a beginning at grammar. But he had no means of +support except occasional jobs of tailor's work, and hunger drove him +back to Johannisberg. There he might have continued, had not a chance +meeting with his mother, when he had ridden over to Frankfort with the +Abbot, given him a new spur. She could not bear to think of his +remaining a Lollhard, that is a lay-brother, all his days; <span class="pagenum">p 61</span><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>and +pressing money privily into his hands, she besought the Abbot to let +him return to Deventer. In August 1498 he was there again, was +examined by Hegius, and was placed this time in the lowest class, the +eighth, in company with a number of stolid louts, who had fled to +school to escape being forced to serve as soldiers. There was reason +in their fears. The Duke of Gueldres was at war with the Bishop of +Utrecht. A hundred prisoners had been executed in the three days +before Butzbach's return, and as he strode into Deventer to take up +his books again, he may have seen their scarce-cold bodies swinging on +gibbets against the summer sunset. The schoolboy of to-day works in +happier surroundings.</p> + +<p>Butzbach's career henceforward was fortunate. He was taken up by a +good and pious woman, Gutta Kortenhorff, who without regular vows had +devoted herself to a life of abstinence and self-sacrifice; taking +special pleasure in helping young men who were preparing for the +Franciscan or the reformed Benedictine Orders. For nine months +Butzbach lived in her house, doubtless out of gratitude rendering such +service as he could to his kind patroness. From the eighth class he +passed direct into the sixth, and at Easter 1499 he was promoted into +the fifth. This entitled him to admission to the Domus Pauperum +maintained by the Brethren of the Common Life for boys who were +intending to become monks; and so he transferred himself thither for +the remainder of his course. But he suffered much from illness, and +five several <span class="pagenum">p 62</span><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>times made up his mind to give up and return home—once +indeed this was only averted by a swelling of his feet, which for a +prolonged period made it impossible for him to walk. After six months +in the fifth, and a year in the fourth class, he was moved up into the +third, thus traversing in little over two years what had occupied +Erasmus for something like nine.</p> + +<p>Butzbach was by temperament inclined to glorify the past; in the +present he himself had a share, and therefore in his humility he +thought little of it. In consequence we must not take him too +literally in his account of the condition of the school; but it is too +interesting to pass over. 'In the old days', he says, 'Deventer was a +nursery for the Reformed Orders; they drew better boys, more suited to +religion, out of the fifth class, than they do now out of the second +or first, although now much better authors are read there. Formerly +there was nothing but the Parables of Alan <of Lille, <i>fl.</i> 1200>, the +moral distichs of Cato, Aesop's Fables, and a few others, whom the +moderns despise; but the boys worked hard, and made their own way over +difficulties. Now when even in small schools the choicest authors are +read, ancient and modern, prose and poetry, there is not the same +profit; for virtue and industry are declining. With the decay of that +school, religion also is decaying, especially in our Order, which drew +so many good men from there. And yet it is not a hundred years since +our reformation.'</p> + +<p>He does not indicate how far back he was turning <span class="pagenum">p 63</span><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>his regretful gaze; +whether to the early years of the fifteenth century when Nicholas of +Cues was a scholar at Deventer, or to the more recent times of +Erasmus, who was about three school-generations ahead of him. But of +the books used there in the last quarter of the fifteenth century we +can form a clear notion from the productions of the Deventer printers, +Richard Paffraet and Jacobus of Breda. School-books then as now were +profitable undertakings, if printed cheap enough for the needy +student; and Paffraet, with Hegius living in his house, must have had +plenty of opportunities for anticipating the school's requirements. +Between 1477 and 1499 he printed Virgil's Eclogues, Cicero's <i>De +Senectute</i> and <i>De Amicitia</i>, Horace's <i>Ars Poetica</i>, the <i>Axiochus</i> +in Agricola's translation, Cyprian's Epistles, Prudentius' poems, +Juvencus' <i>Historia Euangelica</i>, and the <i>Legenda Aurea</i>: also the +grammar of Alexander with the commentary of Synthius and Hegius, +Agostino Dato's <i>Ars scribendi epistolas</i>, Aesop's Fables, and the +<i>Dialogus Creaturarum</i>, the latter two being moralized in a way which +must surely have pleased Butzbach. Jacobus of Breda, who began +printing at Deventer in 1486, produced Virgil's Eclogues, Cicero's <i>De +Senectute</i> and <i>De Officiis</i>, Boethius' <i>De consolatione philosophiae</i> +and <i>De disciplina scholarium</i>, Aesop, a poem by Baptista Mantuanus, +the 'Christian Virgil', Alan of Lille's <i>Parabolae</i>, Alexander, two +grammatical treatises by Synthius and the <i>Epistola mythologica</i> of +Bartholomew of Cologne.<span class="pagenum">p 64</span><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a></p> + +<p>This last, as being the work of a master in the school, deserves +attention; and also for its intrinsic interest. As its title implies, +it is cast in the form of a letter, addressed to a friend Pancratius; +and it is dated from Deventer 10 July 1489—nine years before Butzbach +entered the school. It opens with the customary apologies, and after +some ordinary topics the writer, Bartholomew, says that he is sending +back some books borrowed from Pancratius, including a Sidonius which +he has had on loan for three years. At this point there is a +transformation. Sidonius is personified and becomes the centre of a +series of semi-comic incidents, which afford an opportunity for +introducing various words for the common objects of everyday life; and +a glossary explains many of these with precision. There is a long and +vivid account of the waking of Sidonius from his three years' slumber. +The door has to be broken open, and Sidonius is found lying to all +appearances dead. A feather burnt under his nose produces slight signs +of life; and when a good beating with the bar of the door is +threatened, he at length rouses himself. Servants come in, and their +different duties are described. They fall to quarrelling and become +uproarious; and in the scuffle Sidonius is hurt. A lotion is prepared +for his bruises, and he is offered diet suitable for an invalid: +boiled sturgeon, washed down with wine or beer, the latter being from +Bremen or Hamburg.</p> + +<p>Afterwards the room is cleared up, and thus an opportunity is given to +describe it. Then a table is <span class="pagenum">p 65</span><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>spread for the rest of the party, and +the various requisites are specified—tablecloth and napkins, pewter +plates, earthenware mugs, a salt-cellar and two brass stands for the +dishes. Bread is put round to each place, chairs are brought up with +cushions; and jugs of wine and beer placed in the centre of the table. +Finally a basin is brought with ewer and towel for the guests to wash +their hands, and as one o'clock strikes, dinner appears, and all sit +down together, including the servants. After the meal a dice-box and +board are produced; but one of the guests demurs, and it is put aside. +In the conversation that ensues it is arranged that Sidonius shall go +back to his master next morning after breakfast. The servant who is to +accompany him asks that they may go in a carriage; but this is +overruled, because of a recent accident in which one had been upset, +and it is determined that a Spanish palfrey of easy paces shall be +provided for Sidonius. At six supper is served; and then the curtain +falls, the letter relapsing into normal matters—inquiries for a +Euclid, regrets at being unable to send to Pancratius Hyginus and the +<i>Astronomica</i> of Manilius.</p> + +<p>It is clear that the object of the book, which is of no great length, +was to give boys correct Latin words for the material objects of their +daily life: something like Bekker's <i>Gallus</i> and <i>Charicles</i> on a +small scale. In carrying out this idea Bartholomew of Cologne has +provided us with a sketch of the world that he knew.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It is worth remarking that in the fifteenth century +Terence was regarded as a prose author, no attempt having been made to +determine his metres. As late as 1516 an edition was printed in Paris +in prose.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Here, and later on, I follow Mrs. Finn's translation, +1839.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Cf. Gerasmus and Hierasmus as variations of the name +Herasmus or Erasmus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Cf. R.C. Christie, <i>Étienne Dolet</i>, ch. xi.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Butzbach's manuscripts from Laach are now in the +University Library at Bonn, but have never been printed. I have used a +German translation by D.J. Becker, Regensburg, 1869.<span class="pagenum">p 66</span><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>MONASTERIES</h3> + + +<p>Erasmus was not fitted for the monastic life. This is not to say that +he was a bad man. Few men outside the ranks of the holy have worked +harder or made greater sacrifices to do God service. But his was a +free spirit. His work could only be done in his own way; and to live +according to another's rule fretted him beyond endurance. His +experience in the matter was not fortunate. In 1483 his mother died of +plague at Deventer, whither she had accompanied him. His father +recalled him next year to Gouda, but died soon afterwards; and his +guardians then sent him with his elder brother to a school kept by the +Brethren of the Common Life at Hertogenbosch—doubtless to a Domus +Pauperum for intending monks, such as Butzbach entered at Deventer; +for in this connexion Erasmus describes the schools of the Brethren as +seminaries for the regular orders. After two years they returned to +Gouda, and Erasmus begged to be sent to a university; but no means +were forthcoming, and the guardian prevailed upon the elder brother +Peter to enter the monastery of Sion, near Delft. Erasmus held out for +some time; but he was without resources and the influences at work +upon him were strong. One day he fell in with a school-friend, +Cornelius of Woerden, <span class="pagenum">p 67</span><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>who had recently entered the house of +Augustinian canons at Steyn, near Gouda. In his loneliness any friend +was welcome. He paid visits to Steyn and saw that the life there +offered leisure and even possibilities of study; Cornelius, too, +seemed inclined to be a ready companion in literary pursuits. Urged by +his guardian, invited by his friend, he gave way at length to the +double pressure and entered Steyn.</p> + +<p>After a novitiate of a year, during which life was made easy to him, +he took his canonical vows; and soon began to repent of the step he +had made. For about seven years he lived in what seemed to him a +prison. There were, no doubt, good men amongst his fellow-canons. In +all his diatribes against monasticism he was ready to admit that the +Orders contained plenty of God-fearing souls, doing their duty +honestly; and the evidence shows clearly enough that this was correct. +It is, however, equally true that there were mediocrities among them, +and even worse; men with low standards and no ideals, who brought +their fellows to shame. Vows in those days were indissoluble, except +in rare cases; as a rule it was only by flight and disappearance for +ever that a man could escape social disgrace and the penalties +threatened by the spiritual arm to a renegade monk. To-day, when +orders can be laid down at the holder's will, the Church of England +contains priests of whom it cannot get rid.</p> + +<p>The good, even when they rule, do not always lead; nor are they always +learned. Erasmus found the atmosphere of Steyn hopelessly distasteful. +It <span class="pagenum">p 68</span><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>was not that he was prevented from study. His compositions of this +period show a wide acquaintance with the classics and the Fathers; and +his style, though it had not yet attained to the ease and lucidity of +his later years, has much of the elegance beyond which his +contemporaries never advanced. The fact, too, that he left Steyn to +become Latin Secretary to a powerful bishop implies that he must have +had many opportunities for study and have made good use of them. But +from what he says it is clear that the tone of the place was set by +the mediocrities. We need not suppose that vice was rampant among +them, to shock the young and enthusiastic scholar. There was quite +enough to daunt him in the prospect of a life spent among the +narrow-minded. Sinners who feel waves of repentance may be better +house-mates than those who have worldly credit enough to make them +self-satisfied.</p> + +<p>Fortunately all houses of religion were not alike, any more than +colleges are alike to-day. Butzbach's lot was very different; and it +is a pleasant contrast to turn to his experiences at Laach, an +important Benedictine abbey some miles west of Andernach. In the +autumn of 1500, when he had been two years at Deventer, there appeared +one day in the school the Steward of the Abbey of Niederwerth, an +island in the Rhine below Coblenz. What the business was which had +brought him from his own monastery, is not stated; but he had also +been asked to do some recruiting for the Benedictines at Laach. The +Abbot there was nephew of the Prior at Niederwerth, <span class="pagenum">p 69</span><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>and had taken +this opportunity to extend his quest further afield. The Steward +brought with him letters from the Abbot to the Rector of Deventer, now +Ostendorp, and also to the Brethren of the Common Life, asking for +some good and well-educated young men. The Rector's first appeal +evoked no response; so the Steward went on about his business. After +three weeks he returned, having visited other schools, but bringing no +one with him. Once more Ostendorp addressed the third and fourth +classes in impressive words. But all seemed in vain. The students had +paid their school fees for the half-year, and were ashamed to ask for +them back from the Rector and other teachers—into whose pockets they +appear to have gone direct. Their money paid for board and lodging +would have been sacrificed also. It happened, too, to be exceptionally +cold—not the weather in which any one would lightly set out on a +journey. We must remember that the calendar had not yet been +rectified, and that they were about ten days nearer to midwinter than +their dates show.</p> + +<p>On occasions the whole school came together to hear the Rector—it was +at such times, Erasmus tells us, that he heard Hegius. At one of these +gatherings during the Steward's second visit Butzbach was sitting next +to two friends from his own part of the world, Peter of Spires and +Paul of Kitzingen. They were above him in the school, having passed +their entrance examination before the Rector with such credit that +they were placed at once in the third class—a rare distinction—and +Paul indeed at the end <span class="pagenum">p 70</span><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>of his first half-year had come out top and +passed into the second. The friends talked together of the life of the +cloister, of the happiness of study amid the practice of holiness and +in the presence of God. At the end Peter and Butzbach sought out the +Steward and gave him their names: Paul, the brilliant leader of the +trio, remained behind in the world, and became a professor at Cologne.</p> + +<p>Butzbach said farewell to the masters who had taught him, and to his +various benefactors in the town, all of whom applauded his decision. +On St. Barbara's Day, 4 Dec. 1500, the party set out, and were +accompanied out of the town by students who swarmed about them like +bees; Butzbach, when they at length took leave, urging them to follow +his example. Two days later they were at Emmerich, and after crossing +the Rhine on the ice, so bitter was the frost, they were overtaken by +the night at a convent and sought shelter. It proved to be a house of +Brigittines, with separate orders of men and women. One of the party, +a priest from Deventer, had a kinswoman among the nuns, but was not +allowed to see her. On 8 December the feast of the Conception of the +Virgin, as they passed through a village, the two priests asked leave +to say a mass for themselves in the parish church; and only with +difficulty obtained it from the pfarrer in charge, so great was the +jealousy between seculars and regulars. At night they found +hospitality in a Benedictine house at Neuss, where Butzbach notes the +peculiarity—which he discusses at length but <span class="pagenum">p 71</span><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>is quite unable to +explain—that no one could be accepted as a monk with the name of +Peter.</p> + +<p>Next day the party was obliged to divide. Peter of Spires, who from +the first had been ailing and easily tired, was suffering acute pain +from a sore on his finger; so Butzbach remained behind with him in a +village, while the others went on to Cologne. After twenty-four hours +the sufferer was no better; and as sleep for either of them seemed +impossible, they arose at midnight, hired a cart, and journeying under +the stars, arrived at Cologne just as the gates were being opened. +They rejoined their friends, and the whole party was entertained in +the house of a rich widow, whose son, recently dead, had been a monk +at Niederwerth.</p> + +<p>The Steward had business at Cologne; so for two days the young men +were free to wander about the town, looking into the churches and +worried by the schoolboy tricks of the university students. Three days +journeying brought them late at night and dead tired to Niederwerth. +The aged Prior—he had been sixty years in the monastery—on learning +their destination showed them great courtesy and kindness; and when +they had supped, insisted, despite all their protests, on washing +their feet himself. Next day he showed them over the monastery, took +them into the rooms where the brethren were at work, and explained +what each of them had to do: 'just as though we were his equals,' says +Butzbach, on whom his modesty and friendliness made a deep impression. +Indeed, his conversation greatly <span class="pagenum">p 72</span><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>strengthened them in their +determination to enter the religious life; although he did not conceal +from them the temptations which they might expect, from the Devil.</p> + +<p>On 17 December he gave them leave to proceed, and sent one of the +monastery servants and a lay-brother to escort them. Their way lay +through Coblenz; and Peter as a weaker vessel was sent on, to go +slowly ahead with the lay-brother, whilst the servant and Butzbach +stopped in the town to execute some commissions. But they had +under-estimated Peter's weakness. After a midday meal the second pair +set out briskly, in the comfortable reflection that the others were +already part-way to Laach. To their disgust as they crossed the bridge +over the Moselle, they found Peter and his companion lolling outside +an inn, unable to talk properly or to stand upright. The Prior's +warning against the Devil had been speedily justified. Peter had been +tempted to spend his last day of freedom in a carouse, and every penny +he possessed had gone over a fine dinner and costly wines.</p> + +<p>To Butzbach this was the more serious, because he had given his purse +to Peter to carry, and all that had gone too. Johannisberg still had +strong ties for him. He had found peace there and made friends, and it +was near his home. Many times, at silent moments as he journeyed along +from Deventer, it had come into his head to wonder whether Laach too +could give him peace, whether he could settle so far off. Now, if the +old ties should be too strong <span class="pagenum">p 73</span><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>to resist, thanks to Peter, he would +have to set out on his way penniless.</p> + +<p>Sharp words brought the offenders to some measure of their senses; but +it was a dismal party that splashed along the muddy roads that +December afternoon. Evening brought them to Saffig, and hospitable +reception in the house of George von Leyen, brother of the Prior of +Niederwerth and father of the Abbot to whom they were going; and the +parents' praises of their son's goodness and kindness were comforting +to hear. Ten miles next morning brought them to Laach; and when they +came over the hill, and saw the great abbey with its towers and dome +beside the lake, which even in winter could smile amid its woods, +Butzbach felt that in all his travels he had seen no sight more +lovely. Their guide led them straight into the church, and as +Butzbach's eye glanced along the plain Romanesque columns, past the +gorgeous tomb of the founder, to the dim splendours of the choir, the +words of the familiar Psalm rose to his lips: 'Haec requies mea in +saeculum saeculi; hic habitabo, quoniam elegi eam.' Peace had come to +him at once, and he received it.</p> + +<p>After a generous meal in the refectory they were brought in to the +tall, dignified Abbot; and while they stood before him answering his +questions, they felt that he had not been praised more highly than was +his due. Abbot and Prior took them round the monastery; the latter a +busy little man in whom they could hardly recognize so exalted a +dignitary.<span class="pagenum">p 74</span><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a> At the back they found the brethren busy with the week's +washing. All crowded round them, full of questions and congratulations +and pleasant laughter. For three days they were lodged in the +guest-chambers, and then the Prior asked them whether they stood firm +in their wish to enter the Order. On their assent he expounded to them +the severities of the life, the self-abnegation that would be required +of them, bidding them consider whether they could face it; at the same +time instructing them in all the customs and practices of the house. +The dress was put upon them, they were led into the convent and cells +allotted to them; and told that till St. Benedict's Day (21 March) +they would be on probation. Before the day came Peter's spirit +faltered, and he went. But his weakness was not for long. He repented +and found his peace in a Cistercian house near Worms; and Butzbach's +sympathy went with him, back to the Upper Germany which both loved.</p> + +<p>The time of probation was hard to Butzbach; not because of the life, +which the good Prior tempered to his tenderness, but through the +temptations of the Devil, who seemed ever present with him. He was +specially tormented with the thought of Johannisberg, and the feeling +that he had deserted it. But the wise heads in charge of him gave +comfort and stablishment; and he persevered. On the Founder's Day, +1501, he entered upon the novitiate, which was followed a year later +by his profession; and in 1503 he was sent to Trèves and ordained +priest.</p> + +<p>In the course of his numerous writings Butzbach <span class="pagenum">p 75</span><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>gives sketches of +many of the inmates of Laach. The senior brother at the time of his +arrival was Jacob of Breden in Westphalia, a man of strong character +and force of will. As a boy, when at school at Cleves, he was laughed +at for his provincial accent; and therefore determined henceforward to +speak nothing but Latin, with the result that he acquired a complete +mastery of it. He had at first joined the Brethren of the Common Life +at Zwolle, then became a Benedictine in St. Martin's at Cologne, and +came to Laach to introduce the Bursfeld reforms. So tender-hearted was +he that he would not kill even the insects which worried him, but +would catch them and throw them out of window. John of Andernach is +mentioned as having appeared to the brethren after his death; and he +and Godfrey of Cologne are praised for their skill in astronomy. We +hear of various activities among the monks. One is good at writing, +another at dictating and correcting, another has taste in painting +flowers and illuminating. Henry of Coblenz combined the offices of +precentor, master of the robes, gardener, glazier and barber; and also +unofficial counsellor to the young, who frequently turned to him for +sympathy. Antony of St. Hubert, besides the care of the refectory, was +bee-master and hive-maker; and a great preacher in German, though he +had come to Laach knowing only his native French. At the end of the +list came the lay-brothers and the pensioners (donati), one of whom +was nearly 100.</p> + +<p>Shortly after his ordination Butzbach was <span class="pagenum">p 76</span><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>appointed master of the +novices, to superintend their education—which included learning the +Psalter by heart—until the time of their profession. He protested his +unfitness, but the Abbot held him to it nevertheless. The standard of +his pupils was low: many of them, though they came as Bachelors and +Masters of Arts from the universities, he judged not so good as boys +in the sixth form at Deventer. But he found lecturing in Latin +difficult; and so to make up his deficiencies he set himself to read +all the Latin classics and Fathers that he could find. One day two +young kinsmen of the Abbot were at dinner. They had been at Deventer +and then at Paris, and were full of their studies. Butzbach as +novice-master represented the humanities, and was called upon for a +poem. Readiness was not his strong point; as a preacher he never could +overcome his nervousness. He asked leave to retire to his cell, and +there in solitude wrung out some verses of compliment; which found +such favour that, to his regret, he was often called upon again.</p> + +<p>In 1507, when only thirty, he was made Prior, and thus became +responsible for much of the management of the abbey. In spite of this +he kept up his studies; but only at the cost of great physical +efforts, robbing himself of sleep and working through long hours of +the night. To this period, 1507-9, belongs his most considerable +undertaking, an <i>Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis</i>, which had +its origin in his admiration for Trithemius. In his Johannisberg days, +as we have seen, he had met the great historian-abbot, <span class="pagenum">p 77</span><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>though in a +humble capacity. His own Abbot shared with Trithemius the duty of +making the triennial visitations of the Benedictine houses in that +district; and Butzbach, as the Abbot's servant, often rode with them. +Trithemius noticed the young lay-brother who seemed so interested in +study, and occasionally gave him a word of encouragement. Indeed it +was the story of Trithemius' life—repeated with wonder by many +lips—which had spurred Butzbach on to go to Deventer: how as a boy he +had worked with his stepfather in the mill at Trittenheim, and at +twenty-one was still labouring with his hands. One day he was carting +material for a new pilgrimage-church on the hill, when the call came +to him. He returned home, put up his horse and wagon, and without a +word to any one walked off to Niederwesel to begin learning grammar +amongst the little boys; and yet in a short time he had risen to be +Abbot, and had won a wide reputation.</p> + +<p>At Laach Butzbach for the first time set eyes on Trithemius' works. +One of these was a <i>Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis</i>, printed by +John Amorbach at Basle in 1494—a sort of theological <i>Who's Who</i>, +giving the names of authors ancient and modern with lists of their +writings. Butzbach continued it with an <i>Auctarium</i>, into which he +hooked almost every writer he could find, whether ecclesiastical or +not. It is a large book, still remaining in manuscript at Bonn, as it +was written out for him by two very inefficient novices. The date of +its composition is abundantly indicated by the notes with which he +<span class="pagenum">p 78</span><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>terminates his notices of living authors: 'Viuit adhuc anno quo hec +scribimus 158' or 159.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">1</a> Such a compilation, in so far as it deals +with contemporary writers, might have had considerable value; but +unfortunately, like some of Trithemius' work, it is an uncritical +performance and contains ridiculous blunders, which impair the credit +of its statements when they cannot be checked. Industry and devotion +to learning are not the sole qualifications for a scholar.</p> + +<p>But it was not altogether a happy time for Butzbach, even though he +was honoured by correspondence with Trithemius. There were few among +the monks who actually sympathized with his studies; and from a +certain section they brought him actual persecution. When, as Prior, +he emphasized before the brethren the section in Benedict's rule which +enjoins to study, they mocked at him. 'No learning, no doubts' said +one. 'Much learning doth make thee mad' said another. 'Knowledge +puffeth up' said a third; and heeded not his gentle reply, 'but love +edifieth'. They protested against his allowing the novices to read +Latin poetry. They appealed to the Visitor and got the supplies of +money for the library cut off; even what he earned himself by saying +masses for the dead was no longer allowed to be appropriated to him +for the purchase of books. Finally when the visitation came round in +1509, they delated him for spending too much time on <span class="pagenum">p 79</span><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>writing, to the +neglect of the business of the monastery. But here they overreached +themselves. The Visitors called for his books, opened them and saw +that they were good—possibly they found their own names among the +ecclesiastical writers. The Prior was acquitted, and the mouths of his +enemies were stopped.</p> + +<p>One cause of dissension in monasteries at this period was the +existence of an unreformed element among the monks; though in +Butzbach's time it had probably disappeared at Laach. Ever since the +Oriental practice of monasticism spread into the West, Christendom has +seen a continual series of endeavours towards better and purer ideals +of human life. Of all the monastic orders the Benedictine (520) was +the oldest and the most widely spread. But time had relaxed the +strictness of its observance; and indeed some of the younger orders, +such as the Cluniac (910) and the Cistercian (1098), had their origins +in efforts after a more godly life than what was then offered under +the Benedictine rule, the strictness of which they sought to restore. +In the fifteenth century reform of the monasteries was once more in +the air.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">2</a> In 1422 a chapter of the Benedictine houses in the +provinces of Trèves and Cologne met at Trèves to discuss the question, +which had been raised again at the Council of Constance, and to +consider various schemes. The<span class="pagenum">p 80</span><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a> Abbot of St. Matthias' at Trèves, John +Rode, learning of the stricter code practised in St. James' at Liège +since the thirteenth century, introduced it into his house; borrowing +four monks from St. James' to help him in the process. A few years +later John Dederoth of Minden, Abbot of Bursfeld near Göttingen, after +examining the new practice at Trèves, decided to follow Rode's +example, and carried off four brethren from St. Matthias' to Bursfeld. +His influence led a number of neighbouring Benedictine houses to adopt +the new rule; and very soon a Bursfeld Union or Congregation was +formed of monasteries which had embraced what Butzbach calls 'our +reformation', with annual chapters and triennial visitations.</p> + +<p>By the end of the fifteenth century there were more than a hundred +constituents of the Congregation. The usual method of introducing the +new practice was, as Rode and Dederoth had done, to borrow a number of +monks from a house already reformed, who either settled in the new +house or returned home when their work was done. As may be supposed, +the reforms were not everywhere welcomed. A zealous Abbot or Prior +returning with his band of foreigners was often met by opposition and +even forcible resistance. When Jacob of Breden, Butzbach's 'senior +brother', came in 1471 with seven others from St. Martin's at Cologne +to renew a right spirit in Laach, a number of the older monks resented +it, especially when he was made Prior for the purpose. One cannot but +sympathize with them. Jacob was only <span class="pagenum">p 81</span><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>thirty-two, and it is a delicate +matter setting one's elders in the right way. At length the seniors +became exasperated and took to violence. Not content with belabouring +him in his cell, they attacked him one night with swords, and he only +escaped by leaping out of the dormitory window. The rest of his +company were ejected, and for three years found shelter in St. +Matthias' at Trèves, the parent house of the new rule; and it was not +till 1474 that the Archbishop, with the Pope's permission and the +co-operation of the civil official of the district, forced his way +into Laach and turned out the recalcitrants.</p> + +<p>But this movement for reform was not confined to Germany nor to the +Benedictines. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the house of +Augustinian canons at Windesheim near Zwolle instituted for itself a +new and stricter set of statutes, and soon gathered round it nearly a +hundred houses of both sexes, forming the Windesheim Congregation: +besides which, other monasteries bound themselves into smaller bodies +to observe the new statutes. Thus, for instance, Erasmus' convent at +Steyn was a member of the Chapter of Sion, with only a few others; two +of which were St. Mary's at Sion, near Delft, to which his brother +Peter belonged, and St. Michael's at Hem, near Schoonhoven. The fame +of Windesheim spread into France. In two successive years—1496, +7—parties were invited thence to reform French Benedictine houses. +The first, headed by John Mauburn of Brussels, was brought in by the +Abbot of St. Severinus' at Château-Landon near Fontainebleau.<span class="pagenum">p 82</span><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a> It was +completely successful and Château-Landon was made the head of a new +Chapter: after which Mauburn proceeded to reform the Abbey of Livry, a +few miles to the north-east of Paris. The second mission, though +promoted by influential men in Paris, had less result. St. Victor's, +the Benedictine Abbey which the Bishop of Paris wished to reform, was +one of the most important in his diocese; and its inmates were averse +from the proposed changes. For nine months the mission from Windesheim +sat in Paris, expounding, demonstrating, hoping to persuade. One of +the party, Cornelius Gerard of Gouda, an intimate friend of Erasmus' +youth, enjoyed himself greatly among the manuscripts in the abbey +library; but that was all. In August 1498 they went home, leaving St. +Victor's as they had found it.</p> + +<p>The strenuous endeavours made at this time towards monastic reform +from within may be illustrated from the lives of Guy Jouveneaux +(Juuenalis) and the brothers Fernand. Jouveneaux was a scholar of +eminence and professor in the University of Paris. Charles Fernand was +a native of Bruges, who, in spite of defective eyesight, which made it +necessary for him regularly to employ a reader, had studied in Italy, +had been Rector of Paris University, 1485-6, and had attained to +considerable skill in both classical learning and music. John Fernand, +the younger brother, also excelled in both these branches of study. +Symphorien Champier, the Lyons physician, speaks of him with +Jouveneaux as his teacher in<span class="pagenum">p 83</span><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a> Paris. Charles VIII made him chief +musician of the royal chapel.</p> + +<p>In 1479 Peter du Mas became Abbot of the Benedictine house at Chezal +Benoît, which lay in the forests, ten miles to the South of Bourges. +His first care was to restore the buildings, which had been partially +destroyed during the English wars earlier in the century. When that +was achieved, he set himself to reform the conditions of religious +observance, and for that purpose invited a band of monks from Cluny. +His policy was continued by his successor, Martin Fumeus, 1492-1500, +and a bull was obtained from Alexander VI in 1494 permitting the +foundation of a Congregatio Casalina, which was joined by a large +number of Benedictine houses in the neighbourhood: St. Sulpice, St. +Laurence and St. Menulphus at Bourges, St. Vincent at Le Mans, St. +Martin at Séez, St. Mary's at Nevers, and even by more distant +foundations, St. Peter's at Lyons and the great Abbey of St. Germain +des Prés at Paris. One point of the new practice, that Abbots should +be elected for only three years at a time, struck at the prevailing +abuse by which members of powerful families, non-resident and often +children, were intruded into rich benefices, to the great detriment of +their charges.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">3</a> Consideration was also had of the rule adopted at +St. Justina's at Padua, <span class="pagenum">p 84</span><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>the centre of reform in Northern Italy; and +thus it was not till 1516 that the new ordinances were finally +sanctioned by Leo X.</p> + +<p>About 1490, Jouveneaux, fired with enthusiasm by the success of du +Mas' reforms at Chezal Benoît, determined to quit his professor's +chair at Paris and take upon him the vows and the life of a monk under +du Mas' rule; and subsequently he was the means of bringing into the +Congregation the Abbey of St. Sulpice at Bourges, being invited +thither by John Labat, the Abbot, to introduce the new rule, and +himself succeeding to the abbacy for a triennial period. A year or two +after his retirement from the world, he was followed to Chezal Benoît +by Charles Fernand, who subsequently went on to St. Vincent's at Le +Mans. John Fernand also ended his days at St. Sulpice in Bourges.</p> + +<p>Charles Fernand is a personality who deserves more attention than he +has received. Whilst he was in the world he enjoyed considerable +esteem amongst the learned. He was a friend of Gaguin, and published a +commentary on Gaguin's poem on the Immaculate Conception; he also +dedicated to Gaguin a small volume of Familiar Letters. But his most +important literary work was done in the retirement of his cell: a +volume of Monastic Conversations, composed at sundry times, and +published in 1516; a treatise on Tranquillity (1512), in which he +gives an account of the motives which led him to take the monastic +habit; and a Mirror of the Monastic Life (1515), dwelling at length on +the ideals that should <span class="pagenum">p 85</span><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>be held before the eyes of novices and animate +their lives when they were professed. Unfortunately his style is so +excessively elegant, with wide intervals between words closely +connected in sense, that he is difficult to read; and hence, perhaps, +in some measure the neglect which has been meted out to him.</p> + +<p>Of his four Monastic Conversations the first and the last are +concerned with the question whether monks should be allowed to read +the books of the Gentiles, that is to say, the classics. He handles +his theme sensibly and liberally. Piety, of course, is to come before +eloquence, and there is to be choice of books. Anything of loose +tendency is to be forbidden, but he would encourage the reading of +Cicero, Seneca, and Aristotle's Ethics. The last was only accessible +to himself, he says regretfully, in Latin, because he knew no Greek—a +loss which he greatly deplores, desiring to read the Greek Fathers. +The third conversation is about the Benedictine rule, directed to the +lawless monks who contended that they were only bound by the customs +of the particular monastery they had entered, and not by the general +ordinances of their founder. He combats at length the contention that +the world has grown old, and that latter-day men cannot be expected to +undergo the rigorous fasts and penances achieved by St. Antony and St. +Benedict. He is quite alive to the weakness of the age, to the need +for improvement in the monasteries; and the word Reformer is applied +with praise to the leaders of the movement.<span class="pagenum">p 86</span><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a> This was before the days +of Luther, though only just before.</p> + +<p>Incidentally, an argument is reported between a Christian and an +agnostic. After their diverse opinions have been rehearsed, the +Christian concludes with what is meant to be a crushing +reply—certainly it silences his opponent: 'On your own theory you +don't know what will happen after death. On mine you will prosper, if +you believe; if not, you will go to hell. Therefore safety lies in +believing mine.'</p> + +<p>There are one or two glimpses of the life of the monks. At the end of +one conversation, the other brother hears the bell ringing for prayers +and runs off to chapel; Fernand, being old and lame, will be forgiven +if he is a little late, and not fined of his dinner. In other ways +consideration was shown to him, and he was often sent to dine in the +infirmary, not being expected with his toothless jaws to munch the dry +crusts set before the rest of the house. This, it seems, was a custom +which had been learnt from St. Justina's at Padua, to put out the +stale crusts first, before the new bread, to break appetite upon: just +as in the old Quaker schools a hundred years ago, children were set +down to suet-pudding, and then broth, before the joint appeared; the +order being, 'No ball, no broth; no broth, no beef'.</p> + +<p>We are in a position to view from the inside another Benedictine house +at this period, that of Ottobeuren, near Memmingen, which lies about +mid-way between Augsburg and the east end of the Lake <span class="pagenum">p 87</span><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>of Constance. +The source of our information is the correspondence of one of the +brothers, Nicholas Ellenbog (or Cubitus); 890 letters copied out in +his own hand, and only 80 of these printed. It is not so continuous a +narrative as Butzbach's, but the picture that it gives is rather more +pleasing.</p> + +<p>Nicholas' father was Ulrich Ellenbog, a physician of Memmingen, who +graduated as Doctor of Medicine from Pavia in 1459, and became first +Reader in Medicine at Ingolstadt. The letters introduce us to most of +his children. One son, Onofrius, went for a soldier, became attached +to Maximilian's train, and received a knighthood; another, Ulrich, +became M.D. at Siena, but died immediately afterwards; another, John, +became a parish priest. Of the daughters three remained in the world; +one, Elizabeth, married; another, Cunigunde, died of plague caught in +nursing some nuns. The fourth daughter, Barbara, at the age of nine +entered the convent of Heppach, and lived there forty-one years, +rising to be Prioress and then Abbess. We shall hear of her again.</p> + +<p>Nicholas Ellenbog, 1480 or 1481-1543, was the third son. After five +years at Heidelberg, 1497-1502, in which he met Wimpfeling and was +fellow-student, though a year senior, to Oecolampadius, he went off to +Cracow, the Polish university, which was then so flourishing as to +attract students from the west. Schurer, for example, the Strasburg +printer, was M.A. of Cracow in 1494; and some idea of the condition of +learning there may be gained from a book-seller's letter to Aldus from +Cracow, December 1505, <span class="pagenum">p 88</span><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>ordering 100 copies of Constantine Lascaris' +Greek grammar. For some months Ellenbog heard lectures there on +astronomy, which remained a favourite subject with him throughout his +life. Then an impulse came to him to follow his father's footsteps in +medicine, and at the advice of friends he went back across half Europe +to Montpellier, which from its earliest days had been famous for its +medical faculty. In the long vacation of 1502 he spent two months with +a friend in the château of a nobleman among the Gascon hills, and on +their return journey they stayed for a fortnight in a house of +Dominican nuns. The sisters were strict in their observances, and gave +a good pattern of the unworldly life, which attracted Ellenbog +strongly. In 1503 he went home for the long vacation to Memmingen. On +the way he was taken by the plague, and with difficulty dragged +himself in to Ravensburg. For three months he lay ill, and death came +very close. As its unearthly glow irradiated the world around him, +reversing its light and shade, the visions of the nunnery recurred. He +vowed that if his life were still his to give, it should be given to +God's service; and on recovering he entered Ottobeuren.</p> + +<p>In his noviciate year he was under the guidance of a kind and +sympathetic novice-master, who allowed him to study quietly in his +cell to his heart's content; and during this period he composed what +he calls an epitome or breviary of Plato. Its precise character he +does not specify, but its second title suggests that it may have been +a collection of extracts from<span class="pagenum">p 89</span><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a> Plato: not from the Greek, for he had +little acquaintance with that yet, but presumably from such of Plato's +works as had been translated into Latin. On Ascension Day, 1504, which +appears from other indications to mean 15 August, he made his +profession, and in September 1505 he went to Augsburg to be ordained +as sub-deacon. Writing to a friend to give such news as he had +gathered on this outing, he tells a story to convict himself of hasty +judgement. During the ordination service he noticed that one of the +candidates, a bold-eyed fellow who had been at several universities, +and had been Rector at Siena, let his gaze wander over the ladies who +had come to see the ceremony, instead of keeping it fixed on the +altar. Ellenbog censured him in his mind, but later he noticed that as +the man kneeled before the bishop with folded hands to receive +unction, his eyes were filled with tears of repentance—others perhaps +would have called it merely emotion.</p> + +<p>On his way back to Ottobeuren, Ellenbog arrived at a village, where he +had counted on a night's rest, only to find it crowded with a +wedding-party; the followers of the bridegroom, who were escorting him +to the marriage on the morrow, a Sunday. It was with great difficulty +that he found shelter, in the house of a cobbler, who let him sleep +with his family in the straw; but it was so uncomfortable that before +dawn he crept out and started on his way under the moon. In the half +light he missed the road and found himself at the bride's castle; +where he learnt that her sister was just dead and the wedding +<span class="pagenum">p 90</span><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>postponed. As he passed in that evening through the abbey-gate, there +was thankfulness in his heart that he was back out of the world and +its petty disappointments.</p> + +<p>On Low Sunday, 1506, he was ordained priest at Ottobeuren, and +celebrated his first mass. Some of his letters are to friends inviting +them to be present, and adjuring them to come empty-handed, without +the customary gifts. In these early years there was ample leisure for +study. In 1505 he began Greek, and in 1508 Hebrew. He speaks of +reading Aeneas Sylvius, Pico della Mirandola, Cyprian, Diogenes +Laertius, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Dionysius the Areopagite. He went on +with his astronomy, and cast horoscopes for his friends. Binding books +was one of his occupations; and in 1509, when a press was set up in +the monastery, he lent a hand in the printing. He was very fortunate +in his abbot, Leonard Widemann, who had been Steward when he entered +Ottobeuren, but was elected Abbot in 1508, and outlived him by three +years, dying in 1546. Widemann called upon him for service. +Immediately on election he made him Prior—at 28—and only released +him from this office after four years, to make him, though infinitely +reluctant, serve ten years more as Steward.</p> + +<p>But if the Abbot knew how to exact compliance, he knew also how to +reward. He gave Ellenbog every assistance in his studies, allowed him +to write hither and thither for books, made continual efforts to +procure him first a Hebrew and then a Greek<span class="pagenum">p 91</span><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a> Bible, wrote to Reuchlin +to find him a converted Jew as Hebrew teacher, and in 1516 built him a +new library; for which Ellenbog writes to a friend asking for verses +to put under the paintings of the Doctors of the Church, which are to +adorn the walls. As results of his studies we hear of him correcting +the abbey service-books, where for <i>stauros</i>, a scribe with no Greek +had written <i>scayros</i>, and explaining to the Abbot mistaken +interpretations in the passages read aloud in the refectory during +meals. One of these, in a book written by some one who had recently +been canonized—some mediaeval doctor—illustrates the learning of the +day; deriving <ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: gastrimargia">γαστργια</ins>, gluttony, from <i>castrum</i> and +<i>mergo</i>, 'quod gula mergat castrum mentis,' because gluttony drowns +the seat of reason.</p> + +<p>Of Ellenbog's official duties occasional mention is made in his +letters. As Steward he has to visit the tenants of the monastery; in +the autumn he journeys about the country buying wine. We hear of him +at Westerhaim, on the river Iller, settling a dispute among the +fishermen. On one of his journeys to fetch wine from Constance, at the +hospice there he fell in with a man who could fire balls out of a +machine by means of nitre, and who boasted that he could demolish with +this weapon a certain castle in the neighbourhood. Over supper they +began to argue, the artillerist maintaining that nitre was cold, and +that the explosion which discharged the balls was caused by the +contrariety between nitre and sulphur; Ellenbog contending <span class="pagenum">p 92</span><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>that nitre +was hot, and supporting this view by scraps remembered from his +father's scientific conversation.</p> + +<p>The general life of the Abbey is also reflected. Ottobeuren lay on one +of the routes to Italy, and so they had plenty of visitors bringing +news from regions far off: a Carthusian, who had been in Ireland and +seen St. Patrick's cave; a party of Hungarian acrobats with dancing +bears; a young Cretan, John Bondius, who had seen the labyrinth of +Minos, but all walled up to prevent men from straying into it and +being lost. A great impression he made, when he dined with the Abbot; +he was so learned and polished, and spoke Latin so well for a Greek. +In 1514 Pellican, the Franciscan Visitor, passed on his way south, and +had a talk with Ellenbog, which was all too short, about Hebrew +learning. Next year came Eck, the theologian, the future champion of +orthodoxy, returning from Rome. Eck's mother and sisters were living +under the protection of the abbey—it is not clear whether they were +merely tenants, or whether they were occupying lay quarters within its +walls, as did Fernand's at St. Germain's in Paris. At any rate, Eck +came and made himself agreeable. He preached twice before the +brethren; and when he left, he promised to send them the latest news +from America. In 1511 a copy of Vespucci's narrative of his voyage had +been lent to the monastery, and had been read with great interest.</p> + +<p>A grave question arose whether the new races discovered in the West +were to be accounted as <span class="pagenum">p 93</span><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>saved or damned. Ellenbog quotes Faber +Stapulensis' statement that nothing could be more bestial than the +condition of the Indians whom da Gama had discovered in 1498 in +Calicut, Cannanore, and Ceylon; it was to be feared that the Indians +of the West were no better. In writing to Ellenbog six months later to +say that he had no clear opinions on the question, Eck uses an +interesting expression: 'To ask what I think is like looking for +Arthur and his Britons.'<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">4</a> The reference is to the Arthurian legend +and the long-expected, never-fulfilled, return of the great king; but +the humanists usually leave the whole field of mediaeval romance +severely alone.</p> + +<p>One September morning, when the dew was still heavy, Ellenbog went out +with some brethren to gather apples. At the top of the orchard<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">5</a> one +of them called out that he had found 'a star'. It was a damp white +deposit on the grass, clammy and quivering, cold to the touch, very +sticky, with long tenacious filaments. Ellenbog had never seen +anything like it, but he found out that the peasants and the shepherds +believed such things to be droppings from shooting stars,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">6</a> if not +actually fallen stars, and that they were thought to be a cure for +cancer. His letter describing it is to ask the opinion of a friend who +was a doctor, that is to say, the scientist of the age.</p> + +<p>The affairs of Ellenbog's family often appear. His <span class="pagenum">p 94</span><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>father had been a +great collector of books, which he had corrected with his own hand, +and which at his death he had wished to be kept together as a common +heirloom for the whole family. A great many of them were medical, and +therefore it had seemed good that the enjoyment of the books should go +to Ulrich, the son who was studying medicine at Siena. On his way +home, after completing his course, Ulrich died; and Nicholas composed +a piteous appeal on behalf of the books, bewailing their fate that +after ten years of confinement their hope of being used had come to +nothing. Onofrius was the only brother from whom might be hoped a +younger generation of Ellenbogs, one of whom might study medicine. +Elizabeth's children were Geslers, and so apparently did not count.</p> + +<p>How long the books were kept together is not known. One of them is now +in the University Library at Cambridge, and has been excellently +described in an essay by the late Robert Proctor. It consists of +several volumes bound together: Henry of Rimini on the Cardinal +Virtues, the Journey of a penitent soul through Lent, a treatise <i>de +diuina predestinacione</i>, and John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, +<i>de oculo morali</i>—all of a definitely religious or moral character. +They are freely annotated by the father's hand, with marginalia which +throw light on his life and times, his dislike of the Venetians for +their anti-papal policy, his experiences as physician to the Abbey of +St. Ulrich in Augsburg, and the part that he played in the +<span class="pagenum">p 95</span><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>introduction of printing there. On Lady Day, 1481, shortly after +Nicholas' birth, perhaps when he had lived just a week and seemed +likely to thrive, the father composed an address to his four living +sons—four being already dead—, and wrote it into this volume. He +adjures them to follow learning and goodness, and finally bids them +take every care of the books; and not let them be separated. This it +was which inspired Nicholas' appeal thirty years later, when Ulrich, +the son, was cut off, just as his eyes seemed about to follow his +father's up and down the pages.</p> + +<p>Ellenbog's letters to his sister Barbara are amusing. She was four or +five years older than he, but being a woman had not had his +opportunities. He begins by trying to teach her Latin. But the +difficulties were many, and apparently she did not progress far enough +to write in the tongue. At any rate, Ellenbog copied none of her +letters into his book; a fact which is to be deplored both from her +point of view and from ours. One would like to know what reply she +made to some of his homilies. She invited him once to come and see her +at Heppach, with leave from her Abbess. He replies cautiously that, if +he comes, he hopes they will be able to talk without being overheard; +for Onofrius had been once, and when he made a rather coarse remark, +there had been giggles outside the door. In 1512 Barbara became +Prioress, and Ellenbog took the opportunity to lecture her at length +upon spiritual pride and the importance of humility; <span class="pagenum">p 96</span><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>sweetening his +dose of virtue with a present of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.</p> + +<p>Once she let fall some regrets that she had brought nothing into her +convent, and was dependent on it for food and clothing; evidently she +would have liked some share of the patrimony which had been divided +between her married sisters and the brothers who remained in the +world. Nicholas' reply was that Heppach, like other monasteries, was +well endowed; she had given herself, and that was quite enough. In +1515 Barbara was elected Abbess; and received another discourse about +spiritual pride. John and Elizabeth wrote to Nicholas saying that they +had been invited to Heppach to salute the new Reverend Mother, and +suggesting that he should come too. But his plain speaking had had its +reward, no invitation had come for him. Under the circumstances, he +writes, he could not think of going; besides he had been there several +times before, and had found it very dull; it was clearly John's duty +to go, as he had not been once in twenty years, although his parish +was only three miles from Heppach. However the breach was healed, and +a proper invitation came for Nicholas; but the business of his +stewardship prevented him from accepting.</p> + +<p>The relations with John, the parish priest of Wurtzen, are more +harmonious. There is a frequent exchange of presents, John sending +tools for wood-carving, and crayfish; which seem to have been common +in his neighbourhood, for Nicholas <span class="pagenum">p 97</span><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>occasionally asks for them. The +only lecture is one passed on from Barbara. John had been created a +chaplain to Maximilian, an honorific title, with few or no duties; and +Barbara had feared that he might neglect the flock in his parish. On +another occasion Nicholas urges him to follow Elizabeth's advice, and +get an unmarried man to be his housekeeper. He had proposed to have a +man with a family; and Elizabeth was afraid for his reputation. John +was a frequent guest at Ottobeuren, and one of Nicholas' invitations +contains what is unusual among the humanists, an appreciation of the +charms of the country: 'Come,' he says, 'and hear the songs of the +birds, the shepherds' pipes and the children's horns, the choruses of +reapers and ploughmen, and the voices of the girls as they work in the +fields.'</p> + +<p>By his younger relatives, Ellenbog did his duty unfailingly. +Elizabeth's eldest son, John Gesler, was at school at Memmingen. When +a new schoolmaster was appointed, Ellenbog wrote to bespeak his +interest in the boy, and to suggest the books that he should read: +Donatus' Grammar and the letters of Filelfo. At 14 he persuaded the +parents to send John to Heidelberg, and took a great deal of trouble +in arranging that the boy should be lodged with his own teacher, Peter +of Wimpina. When two years later Elizabeth grew anxious about John's +health and proposed to take him with her to some of the numerous +baths, which then as now abounded in Germany and Switzerland, it was +again<span class="pagenum">p 98</span><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a> Nicholas who made the arrangements; and in 1515, when John had +left Heidelberg, Nicholas proposed to exchange letters with him daily, +in order that he might not forget his Latin. In January 1515 +Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Barbara, was married to a certain Conrad +Ankaryte. In December 1530 he writes to one of the nuns at Heppach to +announce that he has persuaded two girls, the children of this +marriage, to embrace the religious life. The elder, Anna, aged 13, was +forward with her education, as she was well acquainted with German +literature and was reading Latin with her father<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">7</a>; by the following +summer she would be ready to come to Heppach. For the younger, who was +not yet 7, he begged a few years' grace, though she was eager to come +at once. Truly children developed earlier in those days.</p> + +<p>The happiest time of Ellenbog's life began in the summer of 1522, when +after ten years' service he was allowed by the Abbot to resign his +Stewardship. His accounts were audited satisfactorily, and he was +discharged, to what seemed to him a riotous banquet of leisure. 'In +the quiet of my cell,' he wrote to his brother, 'I read, I write, I +meditate, I pray, I paint, I carve'. His interest in astronomy was +resumed, and he set himself to make dials for pocket use, on metal +rings or on round wooden sticks. The latter he turned for himself upon +a lathe; and <span class="pagenum">p 99</span><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>for this work John sent him a present of boxwood, +juniper, and plane. By the New Year of 1523 he had made two sundials; +one which showed the time on five sides at once, he sent to John at +Wurtzen, the other to Barbara at Heppach. His cell looked South, and +thus he could study the movements of the moon and the planets, and +note the southing of the stars. He could turn his skill to profit, +too, and exchange his dials for pictures of the saints.</p> + +<p>In 1525 his peace was broken by the Peasants' Revolt, which swept like +a hurricane over South Germany. Hostility to religion was not one of +its moving causes, but the monks were vulnerable, and had always been +considered fair game, especially by local nobles whom in the plenitude +of their power they had not troubled to conciliate. The peasants of +the Rhine valley had not forgotten the burning of Limburg, near +Spires, by William of Hesse in 1504. The abbey church had scarcely a +rival in Germany, and the flames burned for twelve days. With such an +example, and with their prey unresisting, the peasants were not likely +to stay their hands. At Freiburg they brought to his death Gregory +Reisch, the learned Carthusian Prior of St. Johannisberg, the friend +of Maximilian. Ellenbog enumerates four monasteries burned in his +neighbourhood during the outbreak—three by the peasants incensed +against their landlords, and one by a noble who bore it a grudge. When +the first attack came in April, Ellenbog was staying at the monastery +of St. George, at Isny, about twenty <span class="pagenum">p 100</span><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>miles away. The peasants there +destroyed everything belonging to the monks that they could find +outside the walls, and threatened dire treatment when they should +force their way in; but mercifully the walls were strong, and held +out.</p> + +<p>Ottobeuren was less fortunate. Being in the country, it had to rely +upon itself, and so fell an easy prey. The buildings were defaced, the +windows broken, the stoves and ovens wrecked, and all the ironwork +carried off. Scarcely a door remained on its hinges, and the furniture +of the rooms disappeared. The church was violated, its pictures +soiled, and its statues smashed; Christ's wounds should be wounds +indeed, hard voices cried, as axe and hammer rung over their pitiless +work. The library was emptied of its books. Walls and roofs and floors +were all that the monks found when they ventured back. Ellenbog, +however, fared better than many. A friendly brother had seized up some +of his books and papers and hidden them in the clock-tower; and the +abbey carpenter thinking this insecure had found them better cover, +presumably in his own house. The tempest over, calm soon returned. The +countryfolk, many of whom had remained friendly, began bringing back +spoil which they had wrested from wrongful possessors. Some of +Ellenbog's books were brought in; and as much as two years later he +recovered one of his astronomical instruments. He lost, however, a +number of his father's papers, which he had been on the point of +editing; a Hebrew Bible given to him by<span class="pagenum">p 101</span><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a> Onofrius; and the first two +books of his collection of his own letters. 'God knows whether they +will ever come back,' he wrote at the beginning of the third book; and +to him they never did. They are now safe at Stuttgart, though in +permanent divorce from the other seven books, which are in Paris.</p> + +<p>Ellenbog was no coward. In the autumn the vineyards belonging to the +Abbey were to be inspected, and the due tithes of wine exacted. Unless +this were done the monks would suffer lack; so some one had to be +sent, in spite of the last mutterings of the revolt. One vineyard lay +at Immenstadt, some distance to the South, and thus Ellenbog at Isny +was already part way thither. Moreover, having served as Steward, he +would know what was required. The Abbot sent down a horse and bade him +go: though the roads were held by armed outlaws, who were reported to +be specially hostile to monks. He was afraid; but he summoned his +courage and went. If the Abbey seemed a haven before, when he came +back to it from the experiences of his ordination at Augsburg, this +time it was a refuge and strength against the fear that lurketh in +forests and the imagination of pursuing footsteps.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> = 1509. By a reverse process Bruno Amorbach writes 10507 +for 1507.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> At this point and again later about Chezal-Benoît I have +made much use of Dom Berlière's <i>Mélanges d'histoire bénédictine</i>, 3^e +série, 1901.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Thus the family of d'Illiers at this time almost +monopolized the see of Chartres; members of it holding the bishopric +consecutively for fifty years, the deanery for a hundred, the +arch-deaconry and the rich abbey of Bona Vallis also for fifty.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Arcturum cum Britannis exspectatis. For another allusion +to Arthur, see Pace, <i>De Fructu</i>, p. 83.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> ortus.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> stellae emuncturam et purgamentum.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> quae legere literas vernaculae linguae satis expedite +nouit, nunc per patrem imbuitur Latinis.<span class="pagenum">p 102</span><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>UNIVERSITIES</h3> + + +<p>In the autumn of 1495 Erasmus was at length at liberty to go to a +university. His patron, the Bishop of Cambray, gave him a small +allowance, and the authorities at Steyn were prevailed upon to +consent. His purpose was to obtain a Doctor's degree in Theology; and +so he entered the College of Montaigu at Paris, which had been founded +in 1388, but had fallen into decay and only recently been revived. In +1483 a certain John Standonck had volunteered to become Principal. By +his efforts the college buildings were restored; and by taking in rich +pupils he secured means to maintain the Domus Pauperum attached to the +College. He was an ardent, enthusiastic person, but rather lacking in +judgement; and starved his <i>pauperes</i> in order to be able to have as +many as possible on the slender resources available. Erasmus, being +delicate and therewith fastidious, complained of the rough and meagre +fare—rotten eggs and stinking water; and with good reason, for it +made him ill, and he had to spend the summer of 1496 with his friends +in Holland.</p> + +<p>Having established himself in the college he introduced himself to the +literary circle in Paris, through its head, Robert Gaguin, the aged +General of the Maturins, who had served on many embassies, to Spain, +to Italy, to Germany, to England. Gaguin <span class="pagenum">p 103</span><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>had written much himself, +and had been one of the promoters of printing in Paris. To know him +was to be known of many. Erasmus began by addressing to him a poem and +some florid letters, and showed him some of his work. Then an +opportunity came to do him a service. Gaguin had composed a history of +the French, and it was just coming through the press. At the end the +printer found himself with two pages of the last sheet unfilled, +despite ample spacing out, and the author was too ill to lend any +help. Erasmus heard of the difficulty, and came to the rescue with a +long and most elegant epistle to Gaguin, comparing him to Sallust and +Livy, and promising him immortality. Time has turned the tables: +Gaguin's name lives, not because of his history, but because the young +and unknown Augustinian canon thought fit to court his acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Once blooded with the printers, Erasmus went steadily on. In a few +months he published some poems of his own, on Christ and the +angels—<i>de casa natalitia Jesu</i>, a very rare volume, of which only +two copies are known. It was dedicated to a college friend, Hector +Boys, of Dundee, subsequently the first Principal of King's College, +Aberdeen, and historian of Scotland. It may be wondered what was +Erasmus' motive. A dedication of a book had a market value and usually +brought a return in proportion to the compliments laid on. Correctness +certainly required that the book should be sent to the Bishop of +Cambray. Boys was only a fellow-student, whose acquaintance Erasmus +had made at<span class="pagenum">p 104</span><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a> Montaigu. The explanation perhaps lies in the fact that +Bishop Elphinstone was then negotiating with Boys to come to Aberdeen; +in the newly-founded university Erasmus may have sighted hopes for +himself. The following year saw another volume produced by him; the +poems of his Gouda and Deventer friend, William Herman, with a few of +his own added. This time the Bishop of Cambray did not fail of his +due.</p> + +<p>When Erasmus came to Paris, he was nearly 29, older by far than the +ordinary arts student, but not old for the theological course, which +lasted longer than the others. To reach the first step, the Bachelor's +degree, he had to attend a number of lectures; and very tedious he +found them. Theologians are apt to be conservative. The method of +instruction had not advanced far beyond the dictation of text and +gloss and commentary, which had been current before the days of +printing. Erasmus yawned and dozed, or wrote letters to his friends +making fun of these 'barbarous Scotists'. 'You wouldn't know me,' he +says, 'if you could see me sitting under old Dunderhead, my brows knit +and looking thoroughly puzzled. They tell me that no one can +understand these mysteries who has any traffic with the Muses or the +Graces. So I am trying hard to forget my Latin: wit and elegance must +disappear. I think I am getting on; maybe some day they will recognize +me for their own.' They did, and he proceeded B.D.; when is not known, +but probably by Easter 1498.<span class="pagenum">p 105</span><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a></p> + +<p>At the present day in England our systems are very set. A man +matriculates at a university and completes his course there: to change +even from one college to another is becoming almost unknown. Abroad, +however, things are more fluid, and students pass on from university +to university in search of the best teacher for special parts of their +course. So it was in Erasmus' time. A course of lectures attended in +one university could be reckoned in another; and thus men often +proceeded to their degrees within a short time of their matriculation. +Having taken his Bachelor's degree at Paris, Erasmus at once proposed +to convert it into a Doctor's in Italy; but one hope after another of +going there was disappointed. In 1506 he wished to take it in +Cambridge; but after obtaining his grace, he was offered a chance to +go to Italy as tutor to the sons of Henry VII's Italian physician. He +accepted with delight, and was made D.D. as he passed through Turin; +the formalities apparently requiring only a few days.</p> + +<p>The art of reasoning is an excellent thing; and so long as man +continues to live according to reason, some training in this art will +continue to be a part of education. Indeed, an elementary knowledge of +it is as necessary as an elementary acquaintance with the art of +arithmetic. Both arts have this in common that though their feet walk +upon the earth, their heads are lost in the clouds. A moderate +attainment of them is indispensable to all; but their higher +developments can only be comprehended by <span class="pagenum">p 106</span><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>the acutest minds. In the +Middle Ages the art of reasoning had been raised to such a pitch of +perfection that it entirely dominated the schools. Its exponents were +so proud of it that its bounds were continually extended; and it +became impossible to obtain a university degree without a high level +of proficiency in disputation. For his examination a candidate was +required to dispute with all comers—in practice this came to be a +small number of appointed examiners, three or four—on questions which +had been announced beforehand. It was not a hasty affair—time was +allowed for reflection, and the examination might easily last several +hours or even all day. But clearly readiness in debate was likely to +count in a man's favour, and so besides knowledge of standard authors +to be adduced in support of opinions—the Bible, the Fathers, the +mediaeval commentators, the Canon Law and the glosses upon it—it was +important to a candidate to be able to handle a question properly, to +divide it up into its different parts by means of distinctions, to +shear off side issues, to examine the various facets which it +presented when approached from different points of view; and all this +without hesitation, and of course in Latin.</p> + +<p>In order to train candidates in this art, university and college +teachers gave frequent exhibitions of disputations, which from being +on any subject, de quolibet, were styled 'quodlibeticae questiones', +or 'disputationes'. A high dignitary presided, with the title of +'dominus quodlibetarius', and propounded <span class="pagenum">p 107</span><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>questions, usually one +supported by arguments and two plain; and then the disputer, who +presumably came prepared, delivered his reply, clear cut into fine +distinctions and bristling with citations from recognized authorities. +Such work necessarily cost trouble and forethought, and the +hard-working teacher of the day, instead of printing his lectures on +philosophy or history or editing and commentating texts, gave to his +pupils in permanent form the quodlibetical disputations which the busy +among them had struggled to copy down into note-books, and over which +the inattentive, like Erasmus, had yawned.</p> + +<p>These are some of the subjects disputed at Louvain, 1488-1507, by +Adrian of Utrecht; first as a young doctor, then as professor of +theology, and finally for ten years as vice-chancellor, before he was +carried away to become tutor to Prince Charles, and entered upon the +public career which led him finally to Rome as Adrian VI.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1488. Whether to avoid offending one's neighbour it is permissible to + break a vow or oath duly made.</p> + +<p> 1491. Whether one is bound to act on the command of a superior, + contrary to one's own opinion, knowing that in former days the matter + had been regarded as doubtful.</p> + +<p> 1492. Whether it is lawful to administer the Eucharist or to confer + the benefit of absolution on one who declares that he cannot abstain + from crimes.<span class="pagenum">p 108</span><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a></p> + +<p> 1493. Whether of the two is more likely to be healed and offends God + the less, the man who sins from ignorance or infirmity, or the man + who sins of deliberate intent.</p> + +<p> 1495. Whether a priest who gives advice that tithes ought not to be + paid on the fruits of one's own labours, can receive remission of his + sin without undergoing severe punishment.</p> + +<p> Whether transgression of human laws constitutes mortal sin.</p> + +<p> 1499. Whether prayer on behalf of many is as beneficial to the + individuals as if one prayed as long a time for each one.</p> + +<p> 1491. <? 1501> Whether it is permissible to give money to any one to + procure one a benefice by praising one's dignity and merits to the + provisor to the benefice. </p></div> + +<p>Here are some of John Briard of Ath, a notable theologian, who was +subsequently Vice-chancellor of Louvain:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1508. Whether a man who has confessed all his mortal sins but has + omitted his voluntary occasions of stumbling, is bound to confess + over again.</p> + +<p> Whether we are bound by the law of love to deliver a neighbour, + against his will, from oppression, infamy, or death, when we cannot + do so without hurt or danger to ourselves.</p> + +<p> Whether beneficed students on account of their studies are excused + from reading their canonical hours. <span class="pagenum">p 109</span><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a></p></div> + +<p>We will now consider in brief Briard's handling of the following +question: 'Whether a prize of money won at Bruges or elsewhere by the +hazard known as the game of the pot, or what is commonly called the +lottery, may be retained with a clear conscience as a righteous +acquisition?'</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'For the decision of this question I premise:</p> + +<p> 1. Firstly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because it + comes by good fortune, and not by one's own labour.</p> + +<p> The truth of this preamble is shown thus: If gain coming by good + fortune is unlawful, it follows that all gain arising from division + by lot is unlawful. But this is false: therefore, &c.</p> + +<p> The consequent is proved by the fact that all such gain rests on good + fortune. The falsity is shown by the opinions of almost all the + doctors who write on this subject:</p> + +<p> St. Thomas, 2.2, question 95, article 8, shows that there is nothing + wrong in dividing by lot, between friends who cannot otherwise + decide.</p> + +<p> In this opinion agree Alexander of Hales, part 2 of his <i>Summa</i>, + question 185, membrane 2; Angelus in his <i>Summa</i> under the word + <i>sors</i>, section 2, after the gloss in <i>Summa 26</i>, question 2; + Antoninus, part 2, title 12, chapter 1, section 9.</p> + +<p> 2. Secondly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because it + comes without labour. This would exclude gifts.<span class="pagenum">p 110</span><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a></p> + +<p> 3. Thirdly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because it + comes from cupidity, avarice, forbidden trade, or opus peccaminosum + <e.g. working on a saint's day>, unless there is fraud, deception, or + the like.</p> + +<p> See Petrus de Palude, book 4, distinction 15, question 3, conclusion + 4, about the gain arising from acting. Also Angelus in his <i>Summa</i> + under <i>restitutio</i>, part 1, section 6.</p> + +<p> 4. Fourthly, that a work which brings public advantage, either + spiritual or temporal, is not necessarily unlawful because some + people are thereby provoked to sin.</p> + +<p> Otherwise it would be unlawful to manufacture arms or to make war.</p> + +<p> On these premises I base the following propositions:</p> + +<p> 1. The lottery is not in itself unlawful.</p> + +<p> Proof. It is not prohibited by any law, divine, human, or natural: + divine, because it is not forbidden in Scripture; human, because + there is no law against it as there is against hazard or dicing; + natural, because it is not excluded as (<i>a</i>) coming by good fortune, + (<i>b</i>) provoking others to sin, (<i>c</i>) vain and useless.</p> + +<p> <i>a</i> and <i>b</i> are proved by premiss 1 and 4. <i>c</i> is proved because we + are supposing that the lottery is undertaken in order that the city + of Bruges may make a profit with which to pay off some of its + municipal debt, or be lightened of some of its common burdens, so + that its <span class="pagenum">p 111</span><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>citizens may be free to journey whither they please. (That + this last refers among other things to pilgrimage, may be inferred + from a reference to the Canon Law on the undertaking of journeys, + chapter on Sacred Churches.)</p> + +<p> 2. The lottery is not prohibited by the human laws forbidding hazard + and dice.</p> + +<p> Proof. The laws prohibiting these do not forbid the lottery, nor can + it be included under them by parity of reasoning. For hazard is not + forbidden because it depends on chance, or else all gaming would be + forbidden; and it is not forbidden to play for small stakes or on the + occasion of a party. But it (hazard) is forbidden because, as Petrus + de Palude says in book 4, distinction 15, question 3, article 5, the + person who loses is wont to blaspheme; and also because men are + tempted to lose more than they can afford.' </p></div> + +<p>We need not follow the argument in detail, but the fourth proposition +is interesting, 'That there is an injustice in the lotteries as +practised by some cities, in that the creditors of the city are +compelled against their will to take part in the lottery, and so +probably make a loss, for fear of not recovering the money owed to +them'. After six propositions come two contrary arguments, which are +refuted by five and two considerations; and then there is a brief +summing up.</p> + +<p>Excellent reasoning this doubtless was, and the <span class="pagenum">p 112</span><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>student who could +dispute over these intricacies for hours together, must have had at +least a competent knowledge of Latin, understanded of the examiners; +but it is not surprising that the humanists desired something better.</p> + +<p>The universities did not live upon the teaching of the colleges alone. +Scholars came from abroad and competed with the home-bred talent to +supply such private tuition as was required, and when their ability +had been proved, received licence from the university to teach +publicly. The advantage generally rested with the new-comer. <i>Omne +ignotum pro mirifico.</i> When there was so much to learn, so much +novelty that the stranger might bring with him, it was little wonder +that a new arrival aroused excitement, especially if he came with a +reputation. Teachers travelled from one university to another in +search of employment, and any one with a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew +was sure to find pupils and attentive audiences. So great was the +enthusiasm on both sides, that lectures often lasted for hours.</p> + +<p>Aleander, when he returned from Orleans to Paris in 1511, kept quiet +for a month, in order to awaken public interest. Then he announced a +course of lectures on Ausonius, to begin on 30 July. His device was +entirely successful. Two thousand people gathered, and he was obliged +to lead them over from his own college, de la Marche, to a larger +building, known as the Portico of Cambray. He had composed an +elaborate oration of twenty-four <span class="pagenum">p 113</span><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>pages. 'It took me two hours and a +half to deliver,' he says, 'and would have taken four, if I hadn't +been a quick reader; but no one showed the least sign of fatigue, in +spite of the heat. My voice lasted very well. Next day I had nearly as +good an audience, although it was the day for the disputation at the +Sorbonne. On the day after, all seats were taken by 11, though I do +not begin till 1.' His success was not mere imagination. One who was +present tells us that men looked upon him as if he had come down from +heaven, and shouted 'Viuat, viuat', as they were accustomed to do to +Faustus Andrelinus, another witty Italian who was then lecturing in +Paris. A lecturer to-day who went on into the third hour would +scarcely be so popular.</p> + +<p>But Aleander was not alone in his powers of speech, and others besides +Parisians could listen. Butzbach tells us, not without humour, of a +certain Baldwin Bessel of Haarlem, a learned physician with a +wonderful memory, who was summoned to Laach to heal their Abbot, who +lay sick. On one occasion at Coblenz he harangued an audience of 300 +for three hours on end on the power of eloquence, and stimulated by +the sight of such a gathering, worked himself up in his peroration, +until he believed himself to be a second Cicero. His hearers perhaps +did not agree. Anyway, Butzbach is the only person who mentions him, +and he would have preferred a little less eloquence and a little more +medicine; for the Abbot, instead of recovering, died under the hands +of the new Cicero in two days.<span class="pagenum">p 114</span><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a></p> + +<p>Besides lecturing at the university, young men also maintained +themselves by working for the printers, correcting proof-sheets and +composing complimentary prefaces and verses. Another service which +they could render to both printers and authors was to give public +'interpretations', as they were called, of new books on publication, +for the purpose of advertisement. These interpretations probably took +place at the printer's office, and were of the nature of a review, +describing the book's contents; and they were doubtless repeated at +frequent intervals before new groups of likely purchasers.</p> + +<p>Erasmus, however, had been sent to Paris to take a degree in Theology, +and his patrons expected him to occupy himself with this. When he +returned from Holland in 1496 he could not face again the rigours of +Montaigu, and so he took shelter in a boarding-house kept by a +termagant woman—'pessima mulier' the bursar of the German nation, her +landlords, called her when she would not pay her rent—, the wife of a +minor court official. So long as his supplies lasted, he kept strictly +to his work; but when the Bishop failed him, he was obliged to support +himself, and took to private teaching. Two of his pupils were young +men from Lubeck, who were under the care of a teacher from their own +part of the world, Augustine Vincent, a budding scholar, who +afterwards published an edition of Virgil, but who as yet was glad to +be helped by Erasmus. Another pair came from England, one a kinsman +of<span class="pagenum">p 115</span><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a> John Fisher, and were in the charge of a morose North-countryman. +In great poverty, Erasmus made his way somehow, occasionally writing +little treatises for his pupils, on a method of study, on +letter-writing—an important art in those days—, a paraphrase of the +<i>Elegantiae</i> of Valla; and finally, one of his best-known works, the +Colloquies, had its origin in a little composition of this period, +which he refers to as 'sermones quosdam quotidianos quibus in +congressibus et conuiuiis vtimur'—a few formulas of address and +expressions of polite sentiments, which develop into brief +conversations.</p> + +<p>The poor scholar's hardships were mitigated by the generosity of a +friend. Whilst with the Bishop of Cambray Erasmus had made the +acquaintance of a young man from Bergen-op-Zoom, the Bishop's +ancestral home; one James Batt, who after education in Paris had +returned to be master of the public school in his native town. About +1498 Batt was engaged as private tutor to the son of Anne of +Borsselen, widow of an Admiral of Flanders and hereditary Lady of +Veere, an important sea-port town in Walcheren which then did much +trade with Scotland, and whose great, dumb cathedral and ornate +town-hall still tell to the handful of houses round them the story of +former greatness. From the first Batt applied himself to win his +patroness' favour to his clever and needy friend. Erasmus was invited +to visit them, money was sent for his journey; and within a short time +he was receiving pecuniary contributions from the Lady more frequently +than <span class="pagenum">p 116</span><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>if she had been allowing him a pension. His letters to Batt—the +replies which came he never published—are remarkable reading, and do +credit to both sides. Conscious of high powers and pressed by urgent +need, Erasmus begins by begging without concealment, for money to keep +him going and give him leisure. But as time goes on and the Lady +wearies of much giving, Erasmus' tone grows sharper and more +insistent; until at last he scolds and upbraids his patient +correspondent for not extorting more, and even bids him put his own +needs in the background until Erasmus' are satisfied. Batt's name +deserves to be remembered as chief amongst faithful friends, for +putting up with such scant gratitude after his inexhaustible devotion; +and we must needs think more highly of Erasmus, if his friend could +accept such treatment at his hand and not be wounded. To the great +much littleness may be forgiven. The surprising thing is that Erasmus +should have allowed such letters to be published.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1499 Erasmus was carried off to England by another +friend whom he had captivated, the young Lord Mountjoy, who had come +abroad to study until the child-bride whom he had already married +should be old enough to become his wife. After a summer spent among +bright-eyed English ladies at a country-house in Hertfordshire, then +studded with the hunting-boxes of the nobility, and a visit to London +which brought him into quick friendship with More, ten or eleven years +his junior, Erasmus persuaded his patron to take him for <span class="pagenum">p 117</span><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>a while to +Oxford. Mountjoy promised but could not perform. The Earl of Warwick +was to be tried in Westminster Hall, and Mountjoy as a peer must be in +his place. So Erasmus rode in to Oxford, over Shotover and across +Milham ford, alone.</p> + +<p>As an Austin canon he had a claim on St. Mary's, a college which had +been established in 1435 at the instance of a number of Augustinian +abbots and priors, for the purpose of bringing young canons to Oxford +to profit by the life and studies of the university; in much the same +way that Mansfield and Manchester Colleges have joined us in recent +years. For two or three months he was here, enjoying the society of +the learned and attending Colet's lectures on the Epistles of St. +Paul; invited to dine in college halls, as a congenial visitor is +to-day, and spending the afternoons, not the evenings, in discussions +arising out of the conversation over the dinner-table. His ready wit +and natural vivacity, his wide reading and serious purpose, made +themselves felt. Even Colet the austere was delighted with him and +begged him to stay. He was lecturing himself on St. Paul; let Erasmus +take some part of the Old Testament and expound it to fascinated +audiences. Oxford laid her spell upon the young Dutch canon—upon whom +does she not?—but he was not yet ready. To give his life to sacred +studies was the purpose that was riveting itself upon him; but he +could not accomplish what he wished without Greek at the least—he +never made any serious attempt to learn Hebrew—and Greek <span class="pagenum">p 118</span><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>was not to +be had in Oxford, hardly indeed anywhere in Western Europe outside +Italy and perhaps Spain. Indeed, for some years to come this +university was to display her characteristic, or may be her admirable, +caution towards the new light offered to her from without.</p> + +<p>We must bear in mind the well-reasoned hostility of the Church to—or +at least hesitation about—the revival of learning. In the period we +are considering the powers of evil were very real. Men instinctively +accepted the existence of a kingdom of darkness, extending its borders +over the sphere of knowledge as over the other sides of human +activity. Greek was the language of some of the most licentious +literature—Sappho's poems were burnt by the Church at Constantinople +in 1073—and of many detestable heresies; and thus though the Council +of Vienne, with missionary zeal, had recommended in 1311 that lectures +in Greek—as in other languages of the heretical East—should be +established in the universities of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and +Salamanca, the decree had not been carried out, and Greek was still +regarded with suspicion by the orthodox. Their opposition dies with +their lives, these guardians of the thing that is. Of the thing that +cometh they know, that 'if it be of God, they cannot overthrow it'. +The silent flooding in of the main is to them more to be desired than +the swift wave which in giving may destroy. Let us not think too +lightly of them because they feared shadows which the light of time +has dispelled. It needs no eyes to see <span class="pagenum">p 119</span><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>where they were wrong: where +they were right—and they were right often enough—can only be seen by +taking trouble to inquire.</p> + +<p>Of the condition of learning in England in the second half of the +fifteenth century we do not yet know all that we might. Manuscripts +that men bought or had written for them, books that they read, +catalogues of libraries now scattered can tell us much, even though +the owners are dead and speak not. Single facts, like cards for +cardhouses, will not stand alone. There is still much to be done. +Great libraries are only just beginning to gather up the manuscript +minutiae which their books contain; to identify handwritings; to +decipher monograms; to collect facts. But some day when the work has +been done, we may well hope to be able to put bone to bone and breathe +new life into them in a way which will make valuable contributions to +our knowledge.</p> + +<p>There is sometimes an inclination now to underestimate the effect of +the Renaissance. The writers of that age were unsparingly contemptuous +of their predecessors, and their verdict was for long accepted almost +without question. The reaction against this has led to an undue +extolling of the Middle Ages. It is true enough that many of the +Schoolmen, though the humanists speak of them as hopelessly barbarous, +were capable of writing Latin which, if not strictly classical, had +yet an excellence of its own. But in view of the extracts given above +from Ebrardus and John Garland it can hardly be <span class="pagenum">p 120</span><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>maintained that there +was much knowledge of Greek in Western Europe before the Renaissance. +England was not ahead of France and Germany in the fifteenth century; +and if Deventer school in 1475 was fed upon the monstrosities we have +seen, it is not likely that Winchester and Eton had any better fare. +Some sporadic examples there may have been of men who added a +knowledge of the Greek character to their reminiscences of the +<i>Graecismus</i>; just as at the present day it is not difficult to +acquire a faint acquaintance with Oriental languages, enough to +recognize the formation of words and plough out the letters, without +any real knowledge. Colet and Fisher only began to learn Greek in +their old age. One, the son of a Lord Mayor of London, made a name for +himself as a lecturer at Oxford, and was advanced to be Dean of St. +Paul's; the other, as head of a house at Cambridge and Chancellor of +the University, promoted the foundation of the Lady Margaret's two +colleges, Christ's and St. John's, which were to bring in the spirit +of the Renaissance. It is impossible to suppose that men of such +position would have spent the greater part of their lives without +Greek, if there had been any facilities for them to learn it when they +were young. Nor again would Erasmus, when teaching Greek at Cambridge +in 1511, have chosen the grammars of Gaza and Chrysoloras to lecture +upon, if his audience had been capable of anything better. Eminent +scholars do not teach the elements at a university if boys are already +learning them at school.<span class="pagenum">p 121</span><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a></p> + +<p>The condition of things may fairly be gauged by Duke Humfrey's +collections for his library at Oxford. Of 130 books which he presented +to the University in 1439, not one is Greek; of 135 given in 1443, +only one—a vocabulary—is certainly Greek, four more are possibly, +but not probably so. A little later in the century four Oxford men +were pupils of Guarino in Ferrara; Grey († 1478) brought back +manuscripts to Balliol and became Bishop of Ely; Gunthorpe († 1498) +took his books with him to his deanery at Wells; but to only two of +the four is any definite knowledge of Greek credited—Fleming († +1483), who compiled a Greek-Latin dictionary, and Free († 1465), who +translated into Latin Synesius' treatise on baldness.</p> + +<p>A discovery recently made by Dr. James of Cambridge has thrown +unexpected light on the history of English scholarship at this period; +and as it affords an example of the fruits to be yielded by careful +research and synthesis, it may be detailed here. New Testament +scholars have long been interested in a manuscript of the Gospels +known, from its present habitation in the Leicester town-library, as +the Leicester Codex; its date being variously assigned to the +fourteenth or fifteenth century. In the handwriting there are some +marked characteristics which make it easy to recognize; and in course +of time other Greek manuscripts were discovered written by the same +hand, two Psalters in Cambridge libraries, a Plato and Aristotle in +the cathedral library at Durham, a Psalter and part of <span class="pagenum">p 122</span><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>the lexicon of +Suidas in Corpus at Oxford. But no clue was forthcoming as to their +origin, until Dr. James found at Leiden a small Greek manuscript in +the same hand, containing some letters of Aeschines and Plato, and a +colophon stating that it had been written by Emmanuel of +Constantinople for George Neville, Archbishop of York, and completed +on 30 Dec. 1468. Where the various manuscripts were written and from +what originals is not plain—the Suidas perhaps from a manuscript +belonging at one time to Grosseteste; but the classical manuscripts +were probably done for Neville in England during the prosperous years +before his deportation to Calais in 1472, the Psalters and Gospels +probably after that date at Cambridge; for the Paston Letters show +that some of his disbanded household made their way to Cambridge, and +Dr. Rendel Harris has ingeniously demonstrated that one Psalter and +the Gospels were in fact at Cambridge with the Franciscans early in +the sixteenth century. The presence of a Greek scribe in England about +1470 is an important fact.</p> + +<p>Neville was released from prison through the intervention of Pope +Sixtus IV, who about 1475 sent to England another Greek scribe and +diplomatist, George Hermonymus of Sparta, charged with a letter to +Edward IV. Besides Andronicus Contoblacas at Basle, Hermonymus was at +the time the only Greek in Northern Europe who was prepared to teach +his native tongue; in consequence most of the humanists of the day, +Reuchlin, Erasmus, Budaeus and many <span class="pagenum">p 123</span><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>others, turned to him for +instruction, though he was indeed a poor teacher. He secured the +Archbishop's release, and therewith a handsome reward to himself; but +lingering on, he found himself compelled to spend about a year in +London—in prison: some Italian merchants having trumped up against +him a charge of espionage, from which he only escaped by paying the +uttermost farthing. That he suffered such a disagreeable experience +perhaps indicates that no one in London was much interested in him or +his language.</p> + +<p>Another Greek who was copying manuscripts in England at this time was +John Serbopoulos, also of Constantinople, who between 1489 and 1500 +wrote a number of Greek manuscripts at Reading: two copies of Gaza's +Grammar, Isocrates <i>ad Demonicum</i> and <i>ad Nicoclem</i>, several +commentators on Aristotle's Ethics, Chrysostom on St. Matthew, a +Psalter and the completion of the Corpus Suidas which his +fellow-countryman Emmanuel had begun. In one of his colophons (1494) +he specifies Reading Abbey as his place of abode; for the others he +merely says Reading. Possibly he was in the abbey the whole time; but +even a temporary visit, during which he wrote Gaza and Isocrates, is +an indication that one at least of the monastic houses was not hostile +to the revival of learning.</p> + +<p>Not that any doubt is possible on this point, since the researches of +Abbot Gasquet into the life of William Selling, who was Prior of +Christchurch, Canterbury, 1472-95. After entering the monastery, +<span class="pagenum">p 124</span><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>about 1448, Selling was sent to finish his studies at Canterbury +College, the home of the Benedictines in Oxford.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">1</a> In 1464 he was +allowed to go with a companion, William Hadley, to Italy; where they +spent two or three years over taking degrees in Theology, and heard +lectures at Padua, Bologna, and Rome. Twice in later years Selling +went to Italy again; and he brought back with him to England +manuscripts of Homer and Euripides, and Livy, and Cicero's <i>de +Republica</i>. Some of these have survived and are to be found in +Cambridge libraries; others perished in the fire which broke out when +Henry VIII's Visitors came to Canterbury to dissolve Christchurch. But +Selling's interest in learning was not confined to the collection of +manuscripts. A translation of a sermon of Chrysostom made by him in +1488 is extant; and an antiquarian visitor to Canterbury copied into +his note-book 'certain Greek terminations, as taught by Dr. Sellinge +of Christchurch'.</p> + +<p>Another Churchman of this period who was interested in the revival of +learning has recently been revealed to us by his books, John Shirwood, +Bishop of Durham, 1483-93. He was an adherent of Neville whom we +mentioned as the patron of Emmanuel of Constantinople; and having +risen to prosperity as Neville rose, he did not desert his patron when +Fortune's wheel went round. It does not appear that he was educated in +Italy; but for a number <span class="pagenum">p 125</span><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>of years he was in Rome, as a lawyer engaged +in the Papal court; and to his good service there as King's proctor he +probably owed his advancement to Durham. Whilst at Rome, he bought +great numbers of the Latin classics, especially those which were +coming fresh from the press of Sweynheym and Pannartz. Cicero seems to +have held the first place in his affections, six volumes out of +forty-two; the Orations, the Epistles, <i>de Finibus</i> and <i>de Oratore</i>, +the two last being duplicated. History is well represented with Livy, +Suetonius, Josephus, Plutarch, Polybius, and Dionysius of +Halicarnassus; the last four in translations. In poetry he had Plautus +and Terence, Horace, Martial, Juvenal, Seneca, and Statius; in +archaeology Vitruvius and Frontinus; of the Fathers, Jerome, +Lactantius, and the Confessions of Augustine.</p> + +<p>Twice after becoming Bishop Shirwood went to Rome again, as +ambassador; once in 1487 in company with Selling and Linacre: on the +second occasion, in 1492-3, he died. His books, however, had already +found their way home to Durham, where they were acquired by Foxe, +Shirwood's successor in the see; and Foxe subsequently presented them +to his newly-founded college of Corpus Christi in Oxford. It is +interesting to contrast Shirwood's collection with books presented to +the library of Durham monastery by John Auckland, who was Prior +1484-94. Not a single one of them is classical, not one printed; +Aquinas, Bernard, Anselm, Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus, Chrysostom in +Latin, Vincent de Beauvais, <i>Summa Bibliorum, Tractatus de scaccario +moralis <span class="pagenum">p 126</span><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>iuxta mores hominum, Exempla de animalibus</i>. The Prior's +outlook was very different from the Bishop's.</p> + +<p>Leland tells us that Shirwood had also a number of Greek books, which +Tunstall found at Auckland in 1530; but only one of these has been +traced, a copy of Gaza's Grammar written by John Rhosus of Crete in +1479, and bought by Shirwood at Rome. Where the rest are no one knows; +doubtless scattered in many libraries, among people to whom the name +of Shirwood has no meaning. One wonders why Foxe did not secure them +for Corpus when he took the Latin books. He wanted Greek, but perhaps +he considered the set of Aldus' Greek texts which he actually gave to +Corpus, more worth having than Shirwood's manuscripts (for when +Shirwood was collecting in Italy, the first book printed in Greek, the +Florentine Homer, 1488, had not yet appeared): possibly he never saw +them.</p> + +<p>Time would fail us to tell of all the famous Englishmen who went to +study in Italy in the last years of the fifteenth century, let alone +those who went and did not win fame. Langton who became Bishop of +Winchester, and, not content with Wykeham's foundation, started a +school in his own palace at Wolvesey; Grocin, Linacre and William +Latimer, who took part in Aldus' Greek Aristotle; Colet; Lily who went +further afield, to Rhodes and Jerusalem; Tunstall and Stokesley and +Pace—all these were Oxford men, and yet few of them returned to +settle in Oxford and teach. Of their later lives much is known, though +not so much as we could <span class="pagenum">p 127</span><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>wish; but their connexion with this +University cannot be precisely dated, because the university registers +for just this period, 1471-1505, are missing. We cannot tell just when +they graduated; and we miss the chance of contemporary notes added +occasionally to names of distinction. We cannot even discover to what +colleges they belonged.</p> + +<p>In the last half of the fifteenth century there had been a beginning +of Greek in Oxford. Thomas Chandler, Warden of New College, 1454-75, +had some knowledge of it; and under his auspices an Italian adventurer +of no merit, Cornelio Vitelli, came and taught here for a short time. +For about two years, 1491-3, Grocin returned to lecture on Greek, as +the result of his Italian studies. Colet was here about 1497-1505, +until he became Dean of St. Paul's; but his lectures, as we have said, +were on the Vulgate, not the Greek Testament. Of the rest that shadowy +and fugitive scholar, William Latimer, was the only one of this band +of Oxonians who definitely came back to live and work in the +University; and he perhaps did not cast in his lot here until 1513. +When he did return, he was not to be torn away again from his rooms at +All Souls, under the shadow of St. Mary's tower. In 1516 More and +Erasmus wished him to come and teach Greek to Fisher, Bishop of +Rochester; but could not prevail with him. It would seem strange +to-day for an Oxford scholar to be invited to become private tutor to +the Chancellor of the sister University: he would probably shrink, as +Latimer did, and find refuge in excuses. For eight or nine years, +Latimer <span class="pagenum">p 128</span><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>said, his studies had led him elsewhere, and he had not +touched Latin and Greek. For the same reason he declared himself +unable to help Erasmus in preparing for the second edition of his New +Testament. What these studies were is nowhere told—Latimer's only +printed work is two letters, one a mere note to Aldus, the other a +long letter to Erasmus—but there is some reason to suppose that they +were musical. He urged, too, that it was useless to hope the Bishop +could make much progress in a month or two with such a language as +Greek, over which Grocin had spent two years in Italy, and Linacre, +Latimer, and Erasmus himself had laboured for many years: it would be +much better to send to Italy for some one who could reside for a long +time in the Bishop's household.</p> + +<p>Though he remained faithful to Oxford, Latimer in his later years held +two livings near Chipping Campden: in one, Weston-sub-Edge, he rebuilt +his parsonage-house and left his initials W.L. in the stonework, in +the other, Saintbury, there is a contemporary medallion of him in the +East window, showing the tall, thin figure which George Lily +describes.</p> + +<p>At the time of Erasmus' first visit to England, 1499, London was far +more a centre of the new intellectual life than either Oxford or +Cambridge. He rejoiced in his first meeting with Colet, and in their +walks in Oxford gardens in the soft October sunshine; his Prior at St. +Mary's was benign and helpful; and he found a young compatriot, John<span class="pagenum">p 129</span><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a> +Sixtin, of Bolsward in East Friesland, studying law, and engaged with +him in a contest of that arid elegance which the taste of the age +still demanded. But in London he found Grocin at his City living, +ready to lend him books, and perhaps already contemplating those +lectures delivered two years later, on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of +Dionysius, which brought him to such a surprising conclusion—a denial +of the attribution of them to Dionysius the Areopagite, which in +agreement with Colet he had set out to prove. In London was Linacre, +just returned from Venice, full of Aldus' Greek Aristotle; to a +supplementary volume of which he had sent a translation of Proclus' +Sphere, a mathematical work then highly esteemed. He had been working +on Aristotelian commentators, and was soon to lecture on the +<i>Meteorologica</i>—a course which More, who was working for the Bar in +London, attended. More himself not long afterwards lectured publicly +in London on Augustine's <i>de Ciuitate Dei</i>, also a favourite work with +the humanists. William Lily, returned from his pilgrimage, was at work +perhaps already as a schoolmaster in London; and vying with More in +translating the Greek Anthology into Latin elegiacs. Bernard Andreas, +the blind poet of Toulouse, after trying his fortune in vain at +Oxford, had insinuated himself into Henry VII's confidence, and was +now attached to the court as tutor to Prince Arthur—an office from +which Linacre attempted unsuccessfully to oust him—and busy with his +history of the king's reign: a project which enjoyed royal favour, and +was <span class="pagenum">p 130</span><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>the forerunner of Polydore Vergil's creditable essay towards a +critical history of England.</p> + +<p>When Erasmus was again invited to England in 1505-6, the position had +not changed. He writes to a friend in Holland: 'There are in London +five or six men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek: even +in Italy I doubt that you would find their equals. Without wishing to +boast, it is a great pleasure to find that they think well of me.' To +Colet in the following year, when he had said farewell, he writes from +Paris: 'No place in the world has given me such friends as your City +of London: so true, so learned, so generous, so distinguished, so +unselfish, so numerous.' With the string of epithets we are not +concerned: the point to remark is that it is of London he writes, not +of either of the universities.</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Erasmus did not +at once accept Colet's proposition in 1499 that he should stay and +teach in Oxford. Whether provision was offered him or not, we do not +know: he might perhaps have stayed on by right at St. Mary's, but he +loved not the rule. We do know, however, that at Paris there certainly +was no provision for him. In quest of Greek, in quest of the proper +equipment for his life's work, he went back to the old precarious +existence, pupils and starvation, the dependence and the flattery that +he loathed. It is this last, indeed, that puts the sting into his +correspondence with Batt. That loyal friend, ever coaxing money out of +his complacent <span class="pagenum">p 131</span><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>and generous patroness for dispatch to Paris, would +now and then ask for a letter to her, to make the claims of the absent +more vivid. At this Erasmus would boil over: 'Letters,' he writes, +'it's always letters. You seem to think I am made of adamant: or +perhaps that I have nothing else to do.' 'There is nothing I detest +more than these sycophantic epistles.' Well he might; for this is the +sort of thing he wrote.</p> + +<p>You will remember that the Lady of Veere was named Anne of Borsselen. +A letter of Erasmus to her begins: 'Three Annas were known to the +ancients; the sister of Dido, whom the Muses of the Romans have +consecrated to immortality; the wife of Elkanah, with whose praises +Jewish records resound; and the mother of the Virgin, who is the +object of Christian worship. Would that my poor talents might avail, +that posterity may know of your piety and snow-white purity, and count +you the fourth member of this glorious band! It was no mere chance +that conferred upon you this name, making your likeness to them +complete. Were they noble? So are you. Did they excel in piety? Yours, +too, redounds to heaven. Were they steadfast in affliction? Alas that +here, too, you are constrained to resemble them. Yet in my sorrow +comfort comes from this thought, that God sends suffering to bring +strength. Affliction it was that made the courage of Hercules, of +Aeneas, of Ulysses shine forth, that proved the patience of Job.' +This, of course, is only a brief epitome. After a great <span class="pagenum">p 132</span><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>deal more in +this strain, he concludes: 'I send you a poem to St. Anne and some +prayers to address to the Virgin. She is ever ready to hear the +prayers of virgins, and you I count not a widow, but a virgin. That +when only a child you consented to marry, was mere deference to the +bidding of your parents and the future of your race; and your wedded +life was a model of patience. That now, when still no more than a +girl, you repel so many suitors is further proof of your maiden heart. +If, as I confidently presage, you persevere in this high course, I +shall count you not amongst the virgins of Scripture innumerable, not +amongst the eighty concubines of Solomon, but, with (I am sure) the +approval of Jerome, among the fifty queens.'</p> + +<p>The taste of that age liked the butter spread thick, and Erasmus' was +the best butter. He relieved his mind the same day in a letter to +Batt—which he did not shrink from publishing in the same volume with +his effusion to the Lady Anne: 'It is now a year since the money was +promised, and yet all you can say is, "I don't despair," "I will do my +best." I have heard that from you so often that it quite makes me +sick. The minx! She neglects her property to dally and flirt with her +fine gentleman' (a young man whom Erasmus feared she would marry, as +in fact she did, shortly afterwards). 'She has plenty of money to give +to those scoundrels in hoods, but nothing for me, who can write books +which will make her famous.' <i>In ira veritas.</i> But for Erasmus—and +Batt—the rather <span class="pagenum">p 133</span><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>simpering statue of Anne on the front of the +town-hall at Veere would have little meaning for us to-day.</p> + +<p>We must not judge Erasmus too hardly in his double tongue. Scholars of +to-day, secure in their endowments, can hold their heads high; of +their obligations to pious Founders no utterance is required save +<i>coram Deo</i>—'vt nos his donis ad Tuam gloriam recte vtentes'. We hear +much now of the artistic temperament which brooks no control, which at +all costs must express its message to the world. No artist has ever +burned with a fiercer fire than did Erasmus for the high tasks which +his powers demanded of him; but at this period of his life there was +no pious Founder to make his way plain. Later on, in all time of his +wealth, he was generosity itself with his money, and inexorable in +refusing honours and places that would have hindered him from his +work.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnote</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Canterbury gate of Christ Church, Oxford, still +marks its site. A generation or so later Linacre and More were +students there; both having a connexion with Canterbury.<span class="pagenum">p 134</span><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK</h3> + + +<p>In August 1511 Erasmus returned to Cambridge. He was a different man +from the young scholar who had determined twelve years before that it +was no use for him to stay in Oxford. In the interval he had learnt +what he wanted—Greek; he had had his desire and visited Italy; and +now he came back to sit down to steady work, in accordance with his +promise to Colet, in accordance with the purpose of his life, to +advance the study of the Scriptures and the knowledge of God. It had +been no light matter to learn Greek. Books were not abundant, and the +only teacher to be had, Hermonymus of Sparta, was useless to him, +neither could nor would impart the classical Greek that scholars +wanted. So Erasmus was compelled to fall back on the best of all +methods, to teach himself. He had no Liddell and Scott, no Stephanus; +probably nothing better than a manuscript vocabulary copied from some +earlier scholar, and amplified by himself. No wonder that he found +Homer difficult and skipped over Lucian's long words. He exercised +himself in translation, from Lucian, from Libanius, from Euripides. +But that ready method of acquiring a new language—through the New +Testament, was probably not open to him, for copies of the Gospels in +Greek were rare, <span class="pagenum">p 135</span><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>and not within the reach of a needy scholar's purse. +However, he persevered, and at length he was satisfied. He never +attained to Budaeus' mastery of Greek, but he had acquired a working +knowledge which carried him as far as he wished to go.</p> + +<p>His visit to Italy need not detain us long. Twenty-five years later he +wrote to an Italian nobleman with whom he was engaged in controversy, +to say that Italy had taught him nothing. 'When I came to Italy, I +knew more Greek and Latin than I do now.' In the excitement of +contention he perhaps 'remembered with advantages', for in Italy he +had one great opportunity. He had published in 1500 at Paris a +chrematistic work entitled <i>Collectanea Adagiorum</i>, a collection of +Latin proverbs with brief explanations designed to be useful to the +numerous public who aspired to write Latin with elegance. After the +book was out, as authors do, he went on collecting, and on his way to +Italy in 1506, he published a slightly enlarged edition, also in +Paris. In Italy he made acquaintance with Aldus, and after finishing +his year of superintendence over the pupils he had brought with him, +he went, about the beginning of 1508, to dwell in the Neacademia at +Venice. In September 1508 there appeared from Aldus' press a Volume on +the same subject, but very different in bulk; no longer <i>Collectanea +Adagiorum</i>, but <i>Adagiorum Chiliades</i>. The Paris volume, a thin +quarto, had contained about 800 proverbs, Aldus' had more than 3,000, +and the commentary became so amplified, with occasional lengthy +disquisitions <span class="pagenum">p 136</span><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>on subjects moral and political, that nothing but a +folio size would accommodate it.</p> + +<p>Where this work was done, Erasmus does not specifically state. One +passage gives the impression that he had made his new collections in +England; but as one reason for his dissatisfaction with the first +edition was the absence of citations from the Greek, it seems more +probable that he really wrote the new book in Aldus' house at Venice. +There, surrounded by the scholars of the New Academy, Egnatius, +Carteromachus, Aleander, Urban of Belluno, besides Aldus himself and +his father-in-law Asulanus, having at hand all the wealth of the +Aldine Greek editions and the Greek manuscripts which were sent from +far and near to be printed, Erasmus was thoroughly equipped to +transform his quarto into folio, his hundreds into thousands. He tells +us that the compositors printed as he wrote, and that he had hard work +to keep pace with them. Some of his rough manuscripts—written rapidly +in his smooth hand and flowing sentences—survive still to help us +picture the scene. It is remarkable how little correction there is. +Here and there a whole page is drawn straight through, to be +rewritten, or a passage is inserted in the neat margin; but there is +little botching, little mending of words or transposing of phrases, +such as make the rough work of other humanists difficult reading. As +he wished the sentences to run, so they flowed on to his pages, and so +they actually were printed.<span class="pagenum">p 137</span><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a></p> + +<p>The importance of Erasmus' time in Italy is, then, that he completed, +or at any rate published, the enlarged <i>Adagia</i>, his first +considerable work, a book which carried his name far and wide +throughout Europe, and won him fame amongst all who had pretensions to +scholarship. No one reads it to-day. Except the composition of the +schools, for which Erasmus is considered unclassical, there is little +Latin writing now; but in its youth the book had a great vogue, and +went through hundreds of reprints.</p> + +<p>This second visit of Erasmus to Cambridge was under pleasant +conditions. Fisher was interested in his work, and having been until +recently President of Queens'—the foundation of Margaret of Anjou, +which Elizabeth Woodville had succoured, York coming to the rescue of +Lancaster—he was able without difficulty to secure rooms in college +for his protégé. High up they are, at the head of a stair-case, where +undergraduates still cherish his name, and where his portrait—an +heirloom from one generation to another—may be seen surrounded by +prints of gentlemen in pink riding to hounds; quite a suitable +collocation for this very humanly minded scholar. Besides his own work +he lectured publicly for a few months. He began to teach Greek, and +lectured on the grammar of Chrysoloras. Finding that this did not +attract pupils, he changed to Gaza; which he evidently expected to be +more popular. But he did not persevere. If his position was public +(which is doubtful), there was no money <span class="pagenum">p 138</span><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>to pay him for long; and it +is a sign of the state of the University, that he found it no use to +lecture on anything more advanced than grammar. The Schoolmen were +still strongly entrenched.</p> + +<p>Besides teaching Greek he also lectured on Jerome's Letters and his +Apology against Ruffinus, books which, as we shall see, he was working +at privately. He is said to have held for a time the professorship of +Divinity founded in Cambridge, as in Oxford, in 1497 by the Lady +Margaret, but the records are inadequate; and here too it is possible +that his teaching was a private venture. He had no regular income +except a pension from Lord Mountjoy, to which in 1512 Warham added the +living of Aldington in Kent; and these were supplemented by occasional +gifts from friends, which he courted by dedicating to them +translations from Plutarch and Lucian, Chrysostom and Basil. But this +was not enough. He was free in his tastes, and liked to be free in his +spending. He needed a horse to ride, and a boy to attend upon him. In +consequence we hear a good many complaints of penury, all through his +three years at Cambridge, 1511 to 1514.</p> + +<p>It is worth while to examine in detail the work that he completed +during this period on the Letters of Jerome and the New Testament. One +afternoon in Oxford in 1499 he had had a long discussion with Colet, +and in the course of it had argued strongly against a point of view +which Colet had derived from Jerome. Whether this set him on to read +Jerome again—he was already quite familiar with <span class="pagenum">p 139</span><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>him—is not clear; +but a year later, when he was hard at work in Paris, he was already +engaged upon correcting the text of Jerome, and adding a commentary, +being specially interested in the Letters. So far did his admiration +carry him that he writes to a friend, 'I am perhaps biased; but when I +compare Cicero's style with Jerome's, I seem to feel something lacking +in the prince of eloquence himself'. After he left Paris in 1501, we +hear no more of Jerome till 1511. It may therefore fairly be argued +that his early work was done on manuscripts found in Paris libraries, +very likely those of the great abbeys of St. Victor or St. +Germain-des-Prés.</p> + +<p>Subsequently, in Cambridge, he again had access to manuscripts and +completed his recension of the Letters. Robert Aldridge, a young +Fellow of King's, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, speaks of working +with him at Jerome in Queens', probably helping him in collation. An +early catalogue of the Queens' library does not contain any mention of +Jerome, so that Erasmus had probably borrowed his manuscripts from +elsewhere—perhaps, like those of the New Testament, from the Chapter +Library at St. Paul's; for later on, when the book was in the press, +he returned from Basle to England to consult the manuscripts again, +and there is no reason to suppose that during his brief stay—not a +full month—he went outside London. If this surmise were correct, the +destruction of St. Paul's library in the fires of 1561 and 1666 would +explain why so little has been discovered about the manuscripts which<span class="pagenum">p 140</span><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a> +Erasmus had for his Jerome. He himself, in his prefaces, gives little +indication of them, beyond saying that they were very old and +mutilated, and that some of them were written in Lombardic and Gothic +characters. Perhaps some day a student of Jerome will arise who will +be able to throw light on the matter from examination of the text at +which Erasmus arrived.</p> + +<p>To the New Testament—the other work which occupied his time at +Cambridge—he had also turned his attention shortly after his return +to Paris in 1500, beginning a commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul. +At the first start he wrote four volumes of it, but then for some +reason threw it aside, and never completed it, though his mind +recurred to it at intervals; and on one occasion after a fall from his +horse, in which he injured his spine, he vowed to St. Paul that he +would finish it, if he recovered. Probably he felt that his vow was +redeemed by his Paraphrases of the New Testament, which he wrote a few +years later, beginning with St. Paul, and completing the Epistles +before he undertook the Gospels.</p> + +<p>His next work on the New Testament came to him at Louvain in 1504. +Walking out one day to the Abbey of Parc, outside the town—a house of +White Canons, Erasmus himself being a Black—he came upon a manuscript +in their library, the Annotations of Valla on the New Testament. There +was an affinity between his mind and that of the famous scholar-canon +of St. John Lateran, who, in <span class="pagenum">p 141</span><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>spite of his dependence on Papal +patronage and favour, had been unable to keep his tongue from asking +awkward questions, from inquiring even into the authenticity of the +Donation of Constantine. Erasmus read the Annotations and liked their +critical, scholarly tone, and the frequent citations of the original +Greek. With the characteristic generosity of the age he was allowed to +carry the manuscript away and print it in Paris, with a dedication to +an Englishman, Christopher Fisher, perhaps a kinsman of the Bishop of +Rochester.</p> + +<p>From Paris he wrote to Colet to report progress, saying that he had +learnt Greek and was ready to turn to the Scriptures, and asking him +to interest English patrons in their common work. By this time Colet +himself had become a patron, having been appointed Dean of St. Paul's. +It is therefore not surprising to find that within a year Erasmus was +established in London, living in a bishop's house, endowed by his old +pupil Lord Mountjoy, and rejoicing in the society of the learned +friends gathered in the capital. Chief among these was Colet, who lent +him manuscripts from the Chapter Library of St. Paul's, and provided a +copyist to write out the fruits of his labours, a one-eyed Brabantine, +Peter Meghen by name, who acted also as Colet's private +letter-carrier. Meghen wrote a bold, well-marked hand, which is easily +recognizable, and in consequence his work has been traced in many +libraries. The British Museum has a treatise of Chrysostom, translated +by Selling, and written by<span class="pagenum">p 142</span><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a> Meghen for Urswick, afterwards Dean of +Windsor and Rector of Hackney, to present to Prior Goldstone of +Canterbury. (Urswick was frequently sent on embassies, and had +doubtless enjoyed the hospitality of Christchurch on his way between +London and Dover.) At Wells there are a Psalter and a translation of +Chrysostom on St. Matthew, which Urswick, as executor to Sir John +Huddelston, knight, caused Meghen to write in 1514 for presentation to +the Cistercians of Hailes, in Gloucestershire. The Bodleian has a +treatise written by him in 1528 for Nicholas Kratzer to present to +Henry VIII; and Wolsey's Lectionary at Christ Church, Oxford, is +probably in Meghen's hand.</p> + +<p>But what concern us here are some manuscripts in the British Museum +and the University Library at Cambridge, written by Meghen in 1506 and +1509 at Colet's order for presentation to his father, Sir Henry Colet, +Lord Mayor of London, and containing in parallel columns the Vulgate +and another Latin translation of the New Testament, 'per D. Erasmum +Roterodamum'. Part and possibly all of this work was done by Erasmus, +therefore, during this second residence in England in 1505-6. He tells +us that he received two Latin manuscripts from Colet, which he found +exceedingly difficult to decipher; but one cannot make a new +translation from the Latin. To the Greek manuscripts used on this +occasion he gives no clue.</p> + +<p>In connexion with this help and encouragement shown by Colet as Dean +to a foreign scholar, it is <span class="pagenum">p 143</span><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>worth while to mention the visit to +London in 1509 of Cornelius Agrippa, the famous philosopher and +scientist, who had been sent to England by Maximilian on a diplomatic +errand, which he describes as 'a very secret business'. During his +stay, which lasted into 1510, he tells us that 'I laboured much over +the Epistles of St. Paul, in the company of John Colet, a man most +learned in Catholic doctrine, and of the purest life; and from him I +learnt many things that I did not know'. Erasmus was in England at the +time of this visit of Agrippa; but unfortunately he makes no allusion +to it, neither in his life of Colet, nor in his later correspondence +with Agrippa, nor, so far as I know, elsewhere in his works. If he had +done so, it might have solved a problem which is very curious in the +case of a public man of his fame and position, and of whom so much is +otherwise known. From the autumn of 1509, when he returned from Italy +and wrote the Praise of Folly in More's house in Bucklersbury, until +April 1511, when he went to Paris to print it, Erasmus completely +disappears from view. He published nothing, no letter that he wrote +survives, we have no clue to his movements. If it had been any one +else, we might almost conjecture that, like Hermonymus, he was in +prison. It was just during this period that Cornelius Agrippa was in +London. If either had mentioned the other, we should have a spark to +illumine this singular belt of darkness.</p> + +<p>When Erasmus returned to Cambridge in 1511, <span class="pagenum">p 144</span><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>he was already familiar +with the field in which he was going to work; but the precise order in +which his scheme unfolded itself, whether the Greek text was his first +aim or an afterthought, is not clear, his utterances being perhaps +intentionally ambiguous. During these three years in Cambridge he +refers occasionally to the 'collation' and 'castigation' of the New +Testament, so that evidently he was engaged with the four Greek +manuscripts, which, according to an introduction in his first edition, +he had before him for his first recension. One of these has been +identified, the Leicester Codex written by Emmanuel of Constantinople, +which, as already mentioned, was with the Franciscans at Cambridge +early in the sixteenth century.</p> + +<p>By 1514 he was ready. In the last three years he had completed Jerome +and the New Testament, and had also prepared for the press some of +Seneca's philosophical writings, from manuscripts at King's and +Peterhouse; besides lesser pieces of work. A difficulty arose about +the printing. In 1512 he had been in negotiation with Badius Ascensius +of Paris to undertake Jerome and a new edition of the <i>Adagia</i>. What +actually happened is not known. But in December 1513 he writes to an +intimate friend that he has been badly treated about the <i>Adagia</i> by +an agent—a travelling bookseller, who acted as go-between for +printers and authors and public; that instead of taking them to Badius +and offering him the refusal, the knavish fellow had gone straight to +Basle and sold them, with some other <span class="pagenum">p 145</span><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>work of Erasmus, to a printer +who had only just completed an edition of the <i>Adagia</i>. Erasmus' +indignation does not ring true. It is highly probable that he was in +search of a printer with greater resources than Badius, who as yet had +produced nothing of any importance in Greek, and would therefore be +unable to do justice to the New Testament; and that accordingly he had +commissioned the agent to negotiate with a firm which by now had +established a great reputation—that of Amorbach and Froben, in Basle. +His attention had perhaps been aroused by a flattering mention of him +in a preface written in Froben's name for the pirated edition of the +<i>Adagia</i>, August 1513, to which Erasmus was referring in the letter +just quoted. Rumour had spread through Europe that Erasmus was +dead—it was repeated six months later in a book printed at +Vienna—and the Basle circle deplored the loss that this would mean to +learning.</p> + +<p>There were other reasons for this choice, apart from the excellence of +the printers. Erasmus had never been happy in Paris. He had often been +ill beside the sluggish Seine, and had only found his health again by +leaving it. The theologians were still predominant there, and Louis +XII had a way of interfering with scholars who discovered any freedom +of thought. Standonck, for instance, the refounder of Montaigu, had +had to disappear in 1499-1500. For Erasmus to sit in Paris for two or +three years while his books were being printed, would have been at +least a penance. But Basle was very <span class="pagenum">p 146</span><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>different. The Rhine, dashing +against the piers of the bridge which joined the Great and Little +towns, brought fresh air and coolness and health. The University, +founded in 1460, was active and liberally minded. The town had +recently (1501) thrown in its lot with the confederacy of Swiss +cantons, thereby strengthening the political immunity which it had +long enjoyed. Between the citizens and the religious orders complete +concord prevailed; and finally, except Paris, there was no town North +of the Alps which could vie with Basle in the splendour and number of +the books which it produced. This is how a contemporary scholar<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">1</a> +writes of the city of his adoption. 'Basle to-day is a residence for a +king. The streets are clean, the houses uniform and pleasant, some of +them even magnificent, with spacious courts and gay gardens and many +delightful prospects; on to the grounds and trees beside St. Peter's, +over the Dominicans', or down to the Rhine. There is nothing to offend +the taste even of those who have been in Italy, except perhaps the use +of stoves instead of fires, and the dirt of the inns, which is +universal throughout Germany. The climate is singularly mild and +agreeable, and the citizens polite. A bridge joins the two towns, and +the situation on the river is splendid. Truly Basle is +<ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: basileia"> +βασιλεια</ins>, a queen of cities.'</p> + +<p>In 1513 the two greatest printers of Basle were in partnership, John +Amorbach and John Froben. Amorbach, a native of the town of that name +in<span class="pagenum">p 147</span><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a> Franconia, had taken his M.A. in Paris, and then had worked for a +time in Koberger's press at Nuremberg. About 1475 he began to print at +Basle, and for nearly forty years devoted all his energies to +producing books that would promote good learning; being, however, far +too good a man of business to be indifferent to profit. His ambition +was to publish worthily the four Doctors of the Church. Ambrose +appeared in 1492, Augustine in 1506, and Jerome succeeded. The work +was divided amongst many scholars. Reuchlin helped with the Hebrew and +Greek, and spent two months in Amorbach's house in the summer of 1510 +to bring matters forward. Subsequently his province fell to Pellican, +the Franciscan Hebraist, and John Cono, a learned Dominican of +Nuremberg, who had mastered Greek at Venice and Padua, and had +recently returned from Italy with a store of Greek manuscripts copied +from the library of Musurus. Others who took part in the work were +Conrad Leontorius from the Engental; Sapidus, afterwards head master +of the Latin school at Schlettstadt; and Gregory Reisch, the learned +Prior of the Carthusians at Freiburg, who seems to have been specially +occupied with Jerome's Letters.</p> + +<p>Amorbach's sons, Bruno, Basil, and Boniface, were just growing up to +take their father's place, when he died on Christmas Day, 1513. The +eldest, Bruno, was born in 1485, and easily paired off with Basil, who +was a few years younger. They went to school together at Schlettstadt, +under Crato<span class="pagenum">p 148</span><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a> Hofman, in 1497. In 1500 they matriculated at Basle; in +1501 they went to Paris, where in 1504-5 they became B.A., and in 1506 +M.A. Bruno was enthusiastic for classical studies, and enjoyed life in +Paris, where he certainly had better opportunities, especially of +learning Greek, than he had at Basle; so his father allowed him to +stay on. Basil was destined for the law, and was sent to work under +Zasius at Freiburg. The youngest son, Boniface, 1495-1562, also went +to school at Schlettstadt; but when his time came for the university, +his father preferred to keep him at home under his own eye. He was +rather dissatisfied with Bruno, who as a Paris graduate had begun to +play the fine gentleman, and was spending his money handsomely, as +other young men have been known to do. The vigorous, straightforward +old printer had made the money himself by steady hard work, and he had +no intention of letting his son take life too easily. So he wrote him +a piece of his mind, in fine, forcible Latin.</p> + +<p>JOHN AMORBACH TO HIS ELDEST SON, BRUNO, IN PARIS: from Basle, 23 July +1507.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I cannot imagine, Bruno, what you do, to spend so much money.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">2</a> + You took with you 7 crowns; and supposing that you spent 2, or at the + outside 3, on your journey, you must have had 4 left—unless perhaps + you paid for your companion, which I did not tell you to do. Very + likely his father has more <span class="pagenum">p 149</span><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>money than I have, but does not give it + to him; no more do I give you money to pay for other people. It is + quite enough for me to support you and your brothers, indeed more + than enough.</p> + +<p> Then, directly you reached Paris, you received 12 crowns from John + Watensne. Also you had 9 for your horse, as you say in your letter. + Also 9 more from John Watensne, which I paid to Wolfgang Lachner at + the Easter fair at Frankfort; also 15 at midsummer. Add these + together and you will see that you have had 52 crowns in 9 months.</p> + +<p> Perhaps you imagine that money comes to me anyhow. You know that for + the last two years I have not been printing. We are living upon + capital, the whole lot of us.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">3</a> I have to provide for my + household.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">4</a> I have to provide for your brother Basil, and for + Boniface, whom I have sent to Schlettstadt. I ought, too, to do + something for your sister: for several sober and honourable men are + at me about her, and I do not like to be unfair towards her. So just + remember that you are not the only one.</p> + +<p> You may take it for sure that I cannot, and will not, give you more + than 22 or 23 crowns a year, or at the most 24. If you can live on + that at Paris, well: I will undertake to let you have it for some + years. But if it is not enough, come home and I will feed you at my + table. Think it over and let me know by the next messenger: or else + come yourself.</p> + +<p> I have been told on good authority that in the <span class="pagenum">p 150</span><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>town (lodgings, as + opposed to a college) one can live quite decently on 16 or at most 20 + crowns: also that sometimes three or four students, or more, take a + house or a room, and then club together and engage a cook, and that + their weekly bills scarcely amount to a teston <1/5 of a crown> a + head. If that is so, join a party like that and live carefully.</p> + +<p class="indent"> Good-bye. Your mother sends her love.</p> + +<p class="right"> Your affectionate father, <br /> +John Amorbach. </p></div> + +<p>No answer came back, and on 18 August John Amorbach wrote again. Think +of a modern parent waiting a month for an answer to such a +communication and getting none! It might quite well have come. But +posts were slow and uncertain; and when he wrote again, the father's +righteous indignation had somewhat abated. It was not till 16 October +that Bruno replied, but with a very proper letter. He was a good +fellow, and knew what he owed to his father. After expressing his +regrets and determination to live within his allowance in future, he +goes on: 'There is a man just come from Italy, who is lecturing +publicly on Greek. <This was Francis Tissard of Amboise, who began +lecturing on Lascaris' Greek Grammar.> I have so long been wishing to +learn this language, and here at length is an opportunity. I have +plunged headlong into it, and with such a teacher I feel sure of +satisfying my desires, which are as eager as any inclinations of the +senses. So please allow me to stay a few months longer, and then<span class="pagenum">p 151</span><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a> I +shall be able to bring home some Greek with me. After that I will come +whenever you bid me.' Next summer he did return and settled down to +work in the press. It was well worth while, even for a scholar who was +eager to go on learning, and was inclined to grudge time given to +business: for with Jerome beginning and all the scholars whom we +mentioned coming in and out, Amorbach's house in Klein-Basel became an +'Academy' which could bear comparison with Aldus' at Venice. It was +worth Boniface's while, too, to take his course at Basle under such +circumstances; especially as in 1511 John Cono began to teach Greek +and Hebrew regularly to the printer's sons and to any one else who +wished to come and learn. It is worth noticing that not one of these +young men went to Italy for his humanistic education.</p> + +<p>Amorbach's partner, John Froben, 1460-1527, was a man after his own +heart: open and easy to deal with, but of dogged determination and +with great capacity for work. He was not a scholar. It is not known +whether he ever went to a University, and it is doubtful whether he +knew any Latin; certainly the numerous prefaces which appear in his +books under his name are not his own, but came from the pens of other +members of his circle. So the division came naturally, that Amorbach +organized the work and prepared manuscripts for the press, while +Froben had the printing under his charge. In later years, after +Amorbach's death, the marked advance in the output of the firm as +regards <span class="pagenum">p 152</span><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>type and paper and title-pages and designs may be attributed +to Froben, who was man of business enough to realize the importance of +getting good men to serve him—Erasmus to edit books, Gerbell and +Oecolampadius to correct the proofs, Graf and Holbein to provide the +ornaments. For thirteen years he was Erasmus' printer-in-chief, and +produced edition after edition of his works, both small and great; and +whilst he lived, he had the call of almost everything that Erasmus +wrote. It is quite exceptional to find any book of Erasmus published +for the first time elsewhere during these years 1514-27. A few were +given to Martens at Louvain, mostly during Erasmus' residence there, +1517-21, one or two to Schurer at Strasburg, one or two more to a +Cologne printer; but for one of these there is evidence to show that +Froben had declined it, because his presses were too busy. It is +pleasant to find that the harmony of this long co-operation was never +disturbed. Erasmus occasionally lets fall a word of disapproval; but +what friends have ever seen eye to eye in all matters?</p> + +<p>When Froben died in October 1527 as the result of a fall from an upper +window, Erasmus wrote with most heartfelt sorrow a eulogy of his +friend. 'He was the soul of honesty himself, and slow to think evil of +others; so that he was often taken in. Of envy and jealousy he knew as +little as the blind do of colour. He was swift to forgive and to +forget even serious injuries. To me he was most generous, ever seeking +excuses to make me presents. If I ordered my <span class="pagenum">p 153</span><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>servants to buy +anything, such as a piece of cloth for a new coat, he would get hold +of the bill and pay it off; and he would accept nothing himself, so +that it was only by similar artifices that I could make him any +return. He was enthusiastic for good learning, and felt his work to be +his own reward. It was delightful to see him with the first pages of +some new book in his hands, some author of whom he approved. His face +was radiant with pleasure, and you might have supposed that he had +already received a large return of profit. The excellence of his work +would bear comparison with that of the best printers of Venice and +Rome. Six years before his death he slipped down a flight of steps on +to a brickwork floor, and injured himself so severely that he never +properly recovered: but he always pretended that the effects had +passed away. Last year he was seized with a serious pain in his right +ankle, and the doctors could do nothing except to suggest that the +foot should be taken off. Some alleviation was brought by the skill of +a foreign physician, but there was still a great deal of pain in the +toes. However, he was not to be deterred from making the usual +journeys to Frankfort (in March and September for the book-fairs) and +rode on horseback both ways. We entreated him to take more care of +himself, to wear more clothes when it was cold; but he could not be +induced to give in to old age, and abandon the habits of a vigorous +lifetime. All lovers of good learning will unite to lament his loss.'</p> + +<p>If Erasmus was fortunate in his printer, he was <span class="pagenum">p 154</span><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>still more fortunate +in the friend and confidant whom he found awaiting him at Basle, Beat +Bild of Rheinau, 1485-1547, known then and now as Beatus Rhenanus, one +of the choicest spirits of his own or any age. His father was a +butcher of Rheinau who left his home because of continued ravages by +the Rhine which threatened to sweep away the town. Settling in +Schlettstadt, a free city of the Empire near by, he rose to the +highest civic offices, and sent his son to the Latin school under +first Crato Hofman and then Gebwiler. Beatus was contemporary there +with Bruno and Basil Amorbach, and staying on longer than they did, +rose to be a 'praefect' in the school, which a few years later, +according to Thomas Platter, had 900 boys in it. This number seems +large for a town of perhaps not more than four or five thousand +inhabitants; but it was equalled by the school at Alcmar in the days +of Bartholomew of Cologne, and by Deventer, as we have seen, it was +far surpassed. In 1503 Beatus went to Paris, and there overtook the +Amorbach boys who had two years' start of him; becoming B.A. in 1504 +and M.A. in 1505, a year before Bruno. After his degree he stayed on +in Paris as corrector to the press of Henry Stephanus for two years; +and then returning home engaged himself in a similar capacity to +Schurer at Strasburg, also giving a hand with editions of new texts. +In 1511, attracted by the fame of the good Dominican, John Cono, he +went to Basle to work for the elder Amorbach and take lessons under +Cono with the sons. When Erasmus came, Beatus <span class="pagenum">p 155</span><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>at once fell under his +spell, and subordinated his own projects to the requirements of his +friend's more important undertakings.</p> + +<p>That indeed is Beatus' great characteristic throughout his life. He +was well off, for his father 'by the blessing of God on his ingenious +endeavour had arisen to an ample estate'; and thus the son was not +obliged to seek reward. He gave himself, therefore, unstintingly to +any work that needed doing for his friends, editing, correcting, +supervising; and usually suppressing the part he had taken in it. His +own achievements are nevertheless considerable. The bibliographers +have discovered sixty-eight books in which he had a capital share; and +though a large number of these appear to be mere reprints of books +printed in France or Italy—the law of copyright in those days was, as +might be expected, uncertain—, there is a residue in which he really +did original work: some notes on the history and geography of Germany +which he composed, and editions of Pliny's Natural History, Tacitus, +Tertullian and Velleius Paterculus—the latter having an almost +romantic interest from the fortunes of the manuscript on which it is +based. A measure of the confidence which Erasmus subsequently reposed +in both his judgement and his good faith is that in 1519 and 1521, +when he had decided to publish some more of his letters, he just sent +to Beatus bundles of the rough drafts he had preserved, and told him +to select and edit them at his discretion.</p> + +<p>A sketch of Beatus, written at his death by<span class="pagenum">p 156</span><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a> John Sturm of Strasburg, +the friend of Ascham, gives a picture of the life he led at +Schlettstadt during his last twenty years: the plain, simple living in +the great house inherited from his father, without luxury or display, +attended upon by an old maidservant and a young servant-pupil, given +to friends but not allowing hospitality to infringe upon his work, +lapped in such quiet as to seem almost solitude; the daily round being +dinner at ten, in the afternoon a walk in his gardens outside the city +walls, and supper at six. Gentle and accommodating, modest and +diffident in spite of his learning, reluctant to talk of himself, and +slow to take offence—it is no wonder that he held the affections of +his friends. Well might Erasmus liken him to the blessed man of the +first Psalm, 'who shall be as a tree planted by the waterside.'</p> + +<p>We have seen Beatus' enthusiasm for queenly Basle. Of his native town +he was not so proud; though it has good Romanesque work in St. Fides' +church and rich Gothic in the minster, and though Wimpfeling had just +built a beautiful Renaissance house with Italian designs round its bay +window and medallions of Roman Emperors on the pilasters. The school, +too, was famous throughout Germany; and Lazarus Schurer had started a +creditable printing-press. Yet to Beatus the minster is only 'rather +good, but modern', the Dominicans' house 'mediocre', the nuns' +buildings 'unhealthy', the people 'simple and resourceless, as you +would expect with vine-growers, and too fond of drinking'.<span class="pagenum">p 157</span><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a> 'There is +nothing remarkable here', he says, 'but the fortifications; indeed we +are a stronghold rather than a city. The walls are circular, built of +elegant brick and with towers of some pretensions.' What pleased him +as much as anything was that the ramparts were covered in for almost +the whole of their length, and thus afforded protection to the +night-guards against what he calls 'celestial injuries'.</p> + +<p>One reason that we know Beatus so well is that his library has +survived almost intact, as well as a great number of letters which he +received. At his death he left his books to the town of Schlettstadt; +and there they still are, forming the major and by far the most +important part of the town library. It is a wonderful collection of +about a thousand volumes, some of them extremely rare; many bought by +him in his Paris days, some presents from friends sent or brought from +far with dedicatory inscriptions. Hardly a book has not his name and +the date when he acquired it, or other marks of his use. But they have +not yet come to their full usefulness, for there is no adequate +catalogue of them. In many cases their direct value has passed away. +No one wishes to read the classics or the Fathers in the texts current +in the sixteenth century; yet behind printed books lie manuscripts, +and from examination of manuscripts on which printed texts are based, +we can gather many useful indications to throw light on the tradition +of the classics, the gradual steps by which the past has come down to +us.<span class="pagenum">p 158</span><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a> Besides such texts there are multitudes of original compositions +of Beatus' own period, books of great value for the history of +scholarship; many of them requiring to be dated with more precision +than is attainable on the surface. It will be a signal service to +learning when a trained bibliographer takes Beatus Rhenanus' books in +hand and gives us a scientific catalogue.</p> + +<p>These were some of the friends who were in Basle when Erasmus first +began to think of sending his work there to be printed. By the summer +of 1514 the preliminary negotiations had been satisfactorily concluded +and he set out. The story which he tells of his arrival is well known. +Amorbach was now dead; so he marched into the printing-house and asked +for Froben. 'I handed him a letter from Erasmus, saying that I was a +familiar friend of his, and that he had charged me to arrange for the +publication of his works; that any undertaking I made would be as +valid as if made by him: finally, that I was so like Erasmus that to +see me was to see him. He laughed and saw through the joke. His +father-in-law, old Lachner, paid my bill at the inn, and carried me +off, horse and baggage to his house.'</p> + +<p>He was not at first sure whether he would stay: he might get the work +better done at Venice or at Rome. But the attractions of the printer's +house and circle were not to be resisted; and gradually, one after +another, the books which he had brought were undertaken by Froben, a +new edition of the <i>Adagia</i>, Seneca, the New Testament, Jerome. The +<span class="pagenum">p 159</span><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>way in which the printing was carried out illustrates the critical +standards of the age. Erasmus was absent from Basle during the greater +part of the time when Seneca was coming through the press; and the +proofs were corrected by Beatus Rhenanus and a young man named Nesen. +Under such circumstances a modern author would feel that he had only +himself to thank for any defects in the book. Not so Erasmus. He boils +over with annoyance against the correctors for the blunders they let +pass. The idea that so magnificent a person as an editor or author +should correct proofs had not arisen. It was the business of the young +men who had been hired to do this drudgery; and all blame rested with +them. So far as the evidence goes, it was the same all through +Erasmus' life. In the case of one of his most virulent apologies +(1520) he says that he corrected all the proofs himself; but from the +stress he lays on the loss of time involved, it is clear that he +regarded this as something exceptional, and not to be repeated. With +the <i>Adagia</i> published by Aldus (1508) he says that he cast his eye +over the final proofs, not in search of errors, but to see whether he +wished to make any changes. But in the main his books, like everybody +else's, were left to the care of others.</p> + +<p>The fact is that in the splendour of the new invention of printing, +the possibilities of accompanying error had not been realized. In just +the same spirit the idea went abroad that when a book had been +printed, its manuscript original had no value. We have seen how +Erasmus was allowed to carry off <span class="pagenum">p 160</span><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>the manuscript of Valla from Louvain +to Paris. Aldus received codices from all parts of Europe, sent by +owners with the request that they should be printed; but no desire for +their return. In 1531 Simon Grynaeus came from Basle to Oxford and was +given precious texts from college libraries to take back with him and +have published. Generosity helped to mislead. To keep a manuscript to +oneself for personal enjoyment seemed churlish. If it were printed, +any one who wished might enjoy it. That any degeneration might come in +by the way, that the printed text might contain blunders, was not +perceived. The process seemed so straightforward, so mechanical; as +certain a method of reproduction as photography. But the human element +in it was overlooked. <i>Humanum est errare</i>.</p> + +<p>It was the same with the New Testament as with Seneca. When the form +of the work had been decided upon—a Greek text side by side with +Erasmus' translation, and notes at the end—two young scholars, +Gerbell and Oecolampadius, were installed in charge of the book. For +the Greek Erasmus had expected, he tells us, to find at Basle some +manuscript which he could give to the printers without further +trouble. But he was annoyed to find that there was none available +which was good enough, and he positively had to go through the one +that he selected from beginning to end before he could entrust it to +his correctors. In addition to this he put into their hands another +manuscript, which had been borrowed from Reuchlin; presumably to help +them <span class="pagenum">p 161</span><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>in case they should have any difficulty in deciphering the +first. However, after a time he discovered that they were taking +liberties, and following the text of the second manuscript, wherever +they preferred its reading: as though the editing were in their own +hands. He took it from them and found another manuscript which agreed +more closely with the first. For the book of Revelation only one Greek +manuscript was available; and at the end five verses and a bit were +lacking through the loss of a leaf. Erasmus calmly translated them +back from the Latin, but had the grace to warn the reader of the fact +in his notes.</p> + +<p>As to the translation, an interesting point is that it is modified +considerably from the translation which he had made in 1505-6, and is +brought closer to the text of the Vulgate. In the second edition of +the New Testament, March 1519, he explains in a preliminary apology +that he had changed back in this way in 1516 from fear lest too great +divergence from the Vulgate might give offence. But the book was on +the whole so well received that he soon realized that the time was +ripe for more advanced scholarship. His earlier version was the best +that he could do, in simplicity of style and fidelity to the original. +Accordingly in 1519 he introduced it with the most minute care, even +such trivial variations as <i>ac</i> or <i>-que</i> for <i>et</i> being restored. The +transformation was not without its effects. Numerous passages were +objected to by the orthodox; as for example, when he translates +<ins class="trans" title="Transliteration: logos">λογος</ins> in the first <span class="pagenum">p 162</span><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>verse of St. John's Gospel by <i>sermo</i>, +instead of <i>verbum</i>, as in the Vulgate and the edition of 1516.</p> + +<p>The New Testament appeared in March 1516, dedicated by permission to +the Pope; in the following autumn came Jerome, in nine volumes, of +which four were by Erasmus, dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury: +and thus the Head of the Church and one of his most exalted suffragans +lent their sanction to an advancement of learning which theological +faculties in the universities viewed with the gravest suspicion.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had now reached his highest point. He had equipped himself +thoroughly for the work he desired to do. He was the acknowledged +leader of a large band of scholars, who looked to him for guidance and +were eagerly ready to second his efforts; and with the resources of +Froben's press at his disposal, nothing seemed beyond his powers and +his hopes. Wherever his books spread, his name was honoured, almost +reverenced. Material honours and wealth flowed in upon him; and he was +continually receiving enthusiastic homage from strangers. He saw +knowledge growing from more to more, and bringing with it reform of +the Church and that steady betterment of the evils of the world which +wise men in every age desire. In all this his part was to be that of a +leader: not the only one, but in the front rank. He enjoyed his +position, feeling that he was fitted for it; but he was not puffed up. +In his dreams of what he would do with his life, he had ever seen +himself advancing not the name of Erasmus <span class="pagenum">p 163</span><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>but the glory of God. In +his later years he became impatient of criticism, and resented with +great bitterness even difference of opinion, unless expressed with the +utmost caution; to hostile critics his language is often quite +intolerable. But the spirit underlying this is not mere vanity. No +doubt it wounded him to be evil spoken of, to have his pre-eminence +called in question, to be shown to have made mistakes: but the real +ground of his resentment was rather vexation that anything should +arise to mar the unanimity of the humanist advance toward wider +knowledge. Conscious of singleness of purpose, it was a profound +disappointment to him to have his sincerity doubted, to be treated as +an enemy by men who should have been his friends.</p> + +<p>Into the discord of the years that followed I do not propose to enter. +They were years of disappointment to Erasmus; disappointment that grew +ever deeper, as he saw the steady growth of reform broken by the +sudden shocks of the Reformation and barred by subsequent reaction. +Throughout it all he never lost his faith in the spread of knowledge, +and gave his energies consistently to help this great cause. He +produced more editions of the Fathers, either wholly or in part: +Cyprian, Arnobius, Hilary, Jerome again, Chrysostom, Irenaeus, +Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, Lactantius, Alger, Basil, Haymo, and +Origen; the last named in the concluding months of his life. The +storms that beat round him could not stir him from his principles. To +neither reformer nor reactionary would he concede one jot, <span class="pagenum">p 164</span><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>and in +consequence from each side he was vilified. He was drawn into a series +of deplorable controversies, which estranged him from many; but of his +real friends he lost not one. It is pleasant to see the devotion with +which Beatus Rhenanus and Boniface Amerbach comforted his last years; +never wavering in the service to which they had plighted themselves in +the enthusiasm of youth.</p> + +<p>The chance survival of the following note enables us to stand by +Erasmus' bedside in his last hours. It was written by one of the +Frobens, possibly his godson and namesake, Erasmius, to Boniface +Amerbach, and it may be dated early in July 1536, perhaps on the 11th, +the last sunset that Erasmus was to see. 'I have just visited the +Master, but without his knowing. He seems to me to fail very much: for +his tongue cleaves to his palate, so that you can scarcely understand +him when he speaks. He is drawing his breath so deep and quick, that I +cannot but wonder whether he will live through the night. So far he +has taken nothing to-day except some chicken-broth. I have sent for +Sebastian <Munster, the Hebraist>. If he comes, I will have him +introduced into the room, but without the Master's knowledge, in order +that he may hear what I have heard. I am sending you this word, so +that you may come quickly.'</p> + +<p>Erasmus' last words were in his own Dutch speech: 'Liever Got'.</p> + +<p>No account of Erasmus must omit to tell how he laboured for peace. +Well he might. In his youth <span class="pagenum">p 165</span><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>he had seen his native Holland torn +between the Hoeks and the Cabeljaus, the Duke of Gueldres and the +Bishop of Utrecht, with occasional intervention by higher powers. Year +after year the war had dragged on, with no decisive settlement, no +relief to the poor. One of his friends, Cornelius Gerard, wrote a +prose narrative of it; another, William Herman, composed a poem of +Holland weeping for her children and would not be comforted. <i>Dulce +bellum inexpertis.</i> War sometimes seems purifying and ennobling to +those whose own lives have never been jeoparded, who have never seen +men die: but not so to those who have known and suffered. Throughout +his life Erasmus never wearied of ensuing peace; and for its sake he +reproved even kings. In 1504 he was allowed to deliver a panegyric of +congratulation before the Archduke Philip the Fair, who had just +returned from Spain to the Netherlands; and after sketching a picture +of a model prince, inculcated upon him the duty of maintaining peace. +In 1514 he wrote to one of his patrons, brother of the Bishop of +Cambray, a letter on the wickedness of war, obviously designed for +publication and actually translated into German by an admirer a few +years later, to give it wider circulation. In 1515 the enlarged +<i>Adagia</i> contained an essay on the same theme, under the title quoted +above: words which, translated into English, were again and again +reprinted during the nineteenth century by Peace Associations and the +Society of Friends. In 1516 he was appointed Councillor to<span class="pagenum">p 166</span><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a> Philip's +son, Charles, who at 16 had just succeeded to the crowns of Spain. His +first offering to his young sovereign was counsel on the training of a +Christian prince, with due emphasis on his obligations for peace. In +1517 he greeted the new Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, with a +'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all lands', <i>Querela Pacis vndique +profligatae</i>. And besides these direct invocations, in his other +writings, his pen frequently returns upon the same high argument. For +a brief period in his life it seemed as though peace might come back. +Maximilian's death in 1519 followed by Charles' election to the Empire +placed the sovereignty of Western and Central Europe in the hands of +three young men, who were chivalrous and impressionable, Henry and +Francis and Charles: only the year before they had been treating for +universal peace. If they would really act in concord, it seemed as +though the Golden Age might return, and Christendom show a united face +against the watchful and unwearying Turk. But though the sky was +clear, the weather was what Oxfordshire folk call foxy. Strife of +nations, strife of creeds cannot in a moment be allayed. Suddenly the +little clouds upon the horizon swelled up and covered the heaven with +the darkness of night; and before the dawn broke into new hope, +Erasmus had laid down his pen for ever, and was at rest from his +service to the Prince of Peace.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Beatus Rhenanus, <i>Res Germanicae</i>, 1531, pp. 140, 1.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Bruno, satis admirari non possum quid agas vt tot +pecunias consumas.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Consumimus omnes de capitali.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Habeo prouidere domui meae.<span class="pagenum">p 167</span><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>FORCE AND FRAUD</h3> + +<p>As you stand on the Piazza dei Signori at Verona, at one side rises +the massive red-brick tower of the Scaliger palace, lofty, castellated +at its top, with here and there a small window, deep set in the old +masonry, and the light that is allowed to pass inwards, grudgingly +crossed by bars of rusty iron—a place of defence and perhaps of +tyranny, within which life is secure indeed, but grim and sombre. +Opposite, in an angle of the square, stands a very different building, +the Palazzo del Consiglio. It has only two storeys, but each of these +is high and airy; above is a fine chamber, through whose ample windows +streams in the sun; below is a pleasant loggia, supported by slender +columns. Marble cornices and balustrades give a sense of richness, and +the wall-spaces are bright with painting and ornament. The spacious +galleries invite to enjoyment, to pace their length in free +light-hearted talk, or to stand and watch the life moving below, with +the sense of gay predominance that the advantage of height confers.</p> + +<p>The two buildings typify most aptly the ages to which they belong: the +contrast between them is as the gulf between the Middle Ages and the +Renaissance. Step back in thought to the twelfth century, <span class="pagenum">p 168</span><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>and we find +civilization struggling for its very existence. Few careers were +possible. Above all was the soldier, ruthlessly spreading murder and +desolation, and expecting no mercy when his own turn came; in the +middle were the merchant and the craftsman, relying on strong city +walls and union with their fellows, and the lawyer building up a +system, and profiting when men fell out; underneath was the peasant, +pitiably dependent on others. On all sides was bestial cruelty and +reckless ignorance: the overmastering care of life to find shelter and +protection. How strong, how luxuriously strong seemed that tower, with +so few apertures to admit the enemy and the pursuer! once inside, who +would wish to stir abroad? For the man who would think or study there +was only one way of life, to become sacrosanct in the direct service +of God. The Church, with splendid ideals before it, was exerting +itself to crush barbarism, and its forts were garrisoned by men of +spirit, whose courage was not that of the destroyer. In the +monasteries, if anywhere, was to be found that peace which the world +cannot give, the life of contemplation, in which can be felt the +hunger and thirst after knowledge.</p> + +<p>By the middle of the sixteenth century the scene has changed. Much +blood has flowed through the arches of time; and now the conqueror has +learnt from the Church to be merciful, from nascent science to be +strong. He can spread peace wherever his sword reaches; and fear that +of old ruled all under the sun, now can walk only in dark places. +Walls <span class="pagenum">p 169</span><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>no longer bring comfort, and soon they are to be thrown down to +make way for the broad streets which will carry the movement outwards; +and, most significant change, the country house with 'its gardens and +its gallant walks' takes the place of the grange. From the thraldom of +terror what an escape, to light, air, freedom, activity! The gates of +joy are opened, the private citizen learns to live, to follow choice +not necessity, to give the reins to his spirit and take hold on the +gifts that Nature spreads before him.</p> + +<p>In the pursuit of peace, human progress has lain in the enlargement of +the units of government capable of holding together; from villages to +towns, from towns to provinces, from provinces to nations. The last +step had been the achievement of the Middle Ages, though even by the +end of the fifteenth century it was not yet complete: the twentieth +century finds us reaching forward to a new advance. We have spoken of +Erasmus' efforts to bring back peace from her exile, of the +experiences of his youth when Holland had wept for her children. In +1517, when he wrote his 'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all +lands', he was a man and one of Charles' councillors; but Holland was +still weeping and refusing comfort. She had good reason. The provinces +of the Netherlands were disunited, no sway imposed upon them with +strength enough first to restrain and then to knit together. On either +side of the Zuider Zee lay two bitter enemies: Holland, which had +accepted the<span class="pagenum">p 170</span><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a> Burgundian yoke, and Friesland, which after a long +struggle against foreign domination, had been reduced by the rule of +Saxon governors, Duke Albert and Duke George. To the south was +Gueldres, which, under its Duke, Charles of Egmont, had thrown in its +lot with France against Burgundy, and was continually instigating the +subjugated Frieslanders to rebellion. Then was war in the gates.</p> + +<p>This was the kind of thing that happened. In 1516, after a fresh +outbreak of the ceaseless struggle, Henry of Nassau, Stadhouder of +Holland and Zeeland, ordered that all Gueldrians or Frieslanders who +showed their faces in his dominions should be put to death; and some +who were resident at the Hague were executed on the charge of sending +aid to their compatriots. A raid by the Gueldrians ended in the +massacre of Nieuwpoort. Nassau replied by ravaging the country up to +the walls of Arnhem, the Gueldres capital.</p> + +<p>Duke Charles had terrible forces at command. A body of mercenary +troops, known as the Black Band, had been used by George of Saxony for +the repression of Friesland in 1514, and since then had been seeking +employment wherever they could find it. At the same time, one of the +conquered Frieslanders, known as Long Peter, had turned to piracy as +an effective way of revenging himself on Holland. Proclaiming himself +'King of the Sea', he seized every ship that came in his way, showing +no mercy to Hollanders and holding all others to ransom.<span class="pagenum">p 171</span><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a></p> + +<p>In May 1517, the Duke, violating a truce not yet expired, renewed +hostilities. The Black Band, some of whom had strayed as far as Rouen +in quest of fighting, flocked back. At the end of June 3000 of them +crossed the Zuider Zee in Long Peter's ships and disembarked suddenly +at Medemblik, in North Holland. The town was quickly set on fire, and +everything destroyed except the citadel; the fleet carrying back the +first spoils. Then they marched southwards, burning what they list; +and happy were those whose offer of ransom was accepted, to escape +with plunder only.</p> + +<p>There was no fixed plan. The murderous horde wandered along, turning +to right or left as fancy suggested. After burning five country towns, +they appeared at Alcmar, the chief town of North Holland, into which +the most precious possessions of the neighbourhood had been hurriedly +conveyed. By a heavy payment, the burghers purchased immunity from the +flames; but for eight days the town was given up to the lust and +ferocity of an uncontrolled soldiery, from whose senseless destruction +it took thirty years to recover. Egmond, with its great abbey, was +pillaged; and then it was Haarlem's turn to suffer. But by this time +resistance had been organized. Troops had been called back from +garrison work in Friesland, and a strong line drawn in front of +Haarlem. Headed off, the Black Band turned suddenly away. Passing +Amsterdam and Culemborg, it penetrated down into South Holland, whence +it would be easy to pass back into Gueldres.<span class="pagenum">p 172</span><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a> Asperen was its next +prey. Three times the citizens beat off the cruel foe: a few more to +man their walls, and they might have driven him right away, to +overwhelm others less fortunate and less brave.</p> + +<p>But it was not to be. At the fourth attempt the marauders were +successful, and massacre ensued. Death to the men, worse than death to +the women: nor age nor innocence could touch those black hearts. A +schoolmaster with his boys fled into a church and hid trembling in the +rood-loft. Before long they were discovered. Thirsting for blood, some +of the monsters rushed up the steps and tossed the shrieking victims +over on to the pikes of their comrades below. When all the butchery +was finished, a few helpless and infirm survivors were dragged out of +hiding-places. The miserable creatures were driven out of the city and +the gates barred in their faces. For a month the Black Band held +Asperen as a standing camp, living upon the provisions stored up by +the dead. Then Nassau came with troops and drove them forth, pursuing +into Gueldres, where he burned '46 good villages' in revenge. The +sight of fire blazing to heaven is appalling enough when men are +ranged all on one side, and the battle is with the element alone. Our +peace-lapped imaginations cannot picture the terror of flames kindled +aforethought. As those poor fugitives scattered over the country, +cowering into the darkness out of the fire's searching glow, they +cannot but have recalled the words: 'Woe unto them that are with child +and to them that give <span class="pagenum">p 173</span><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>suck in those days.' At least they could give +thanks that their flight was not in the winter.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Long Peter had not been idle. On 14 August he had a great +battle with the Hollanders off Hoorn. Eleven ships he took, and cast +their crews into the sea: 500 men, save one, a Gueldrian, struggling +in the calm summer waters and stretching out their hands to a foe who +knew no pity. In September he surrounded a merchant fleet. The +Easterlings escaped at heavy ransom; but the crews of three Holland +vessels were flung to the waves. Then he carried the war on to the +land, to glean what the Black Band had left. With 1200 men he took +Hoorn by escalade; plunder-laden and sated, they returned to the sea. +Nothing was too small or too helpless for his rapacity. Along the +coast they picked up a barge of Enckhuizen. Its only crew, master and +mate, were thrown overboard, and Peter's fleet sailed upon its way. We +must remember that the provinces engaged in this internecine strife +were not widely diverse in race, and that to-day they are peacefully +united under one governance.</p> + +<p>The winter of 1517-18 was spent by the Black Band in Friesland. Three +thousand men who are prepared to take by force what is not given to +them, do not lie hungry in the cold. We may be sure that under them +the land had no rest. At Easter they began to move southwards in quest +of other victims and other employ. But as they halted between Venlo +and Roermond, resistance confronted them. Nassau had arrayed by his +side <span class="pagenum">p 174</span><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>the Archbishop of Cologne and the Dukes of Juliers and Cleves: +the gates of the cities were closed and the ferry-boats that would +have carried them across the Maas had been kept on the other side. +Caught in a trap, the freebooters promised to lay down their weapons +and disperse. The disarmament proceeded quietly till one of the +company-leaders refused to part with a bombard, the new invention, of +which he was very proud. A trumpeter, seeing the man hesitate, sounded +a warning, and the containing troops stood on the alert. Readiness led +to action. Suddenly they fell on the helpless horde, for whom there +was no safety but in flight. A thousand were massacred before Nassau +and his confederates could check their men.</p> + +<p>Erasmus was about to set out from Louvain to Basle, to work at a new +edition of the New Testament. Bands such as these were, of course, a +peril to travellers. Half exultant, half disgusted, he wrote to More: +'These fellows were stripped before disbandment: so they will have all +the more excuse for fresh plundering. This is consideration for the +people! They were so hemmed in that not one of them could have +escaped: yet the Dukes were for letting them go scot-free. It was mere +chance that any of them were killed. Fortunately, a man blew his +trumpet: there was at once an uproar, and more than a thousand were +cut down. The Archbishop alone was sound. He said that, priest though +he was, if the matter were left to him, he would see that such things +should never occur again. The <span class="pagenum">p 175</span><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>people understand the position, but are +obliged to acquiesce.' To Colet he exclaimed more bitterly: 'It is +cruel! The nobles care more for these ruffians than for their own +subjects. The fact is, they count on them to keep the people down.' +Let us be thankful that Europe to-day has no experience of such +mercenaries.</p> + +<p>A sign of the troubles of the times was the existence of the French +order of Trinitarians for the redemption of prisoners. This need had +been known even when Rome's power was at its height, for Cicero<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">1</a> +specifies the redemption of men captured by pirates as one of the ways +in which the generously minded were wont to spend their money. The +practice lasted down continuously through the Middle Ages. Gaguin, the +historian of France, Erasmus' first patron in Paris, was for many +years General of the Trinitarians, and made a journey to Granada to +redeem prisoners who had been taken fighting against the Moors. Even +in the eighteenth century, church offertories in England were asked +and given to loose captives out of prison.</p> + +<p>Where the king's peace is not kept and the king's writ does not run, +men learn to rely on themselves. Those who protect themselves with +strength, discover the efficacy of force, and soon are not content to +apply it merely on the defensive. It is not surprising, therefore, to +find in Erasmus' day many cases of resort to violence to remedy +defective titles. Nowadays we never hear of a defeated candidate for +<span class="pagenum">p 176</span><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>a coveted post trying to obtain by force and right of possession the +position which has been given to another. It is unthinkable, for +instance, that a Warden of Merton duly elected should have to eject +from college some disappointed rival who had possessed himself of the +Warden's office and house: as actually happened in 1562. It is, +perhaps, not so much that we have become more law-abiding, as that we +realize that any such attempt must be fruitless when the strong arm of +the State is at hand, ready to assert the rights of the lawful +claimant.</p> + +<p>In Erasmus' day might was often right. Thus in 1492 the Abbot of St. +Bertin's at St. Omer died, and the monks elected in his place a +certain James du Val, who was duly consecrated in July 1493. The +Bishop of Cambray, however, had had the abbey in his eye for his +younger brother Antony, who had been ejected ten years before by the +powerful family of Arenberg from the Abbey of St. Trond in Limburg, +and meanwhile had been living unemployed at Louvain. The Bishop +persuaded the Pope to annul du Val's election and appoint Antony in +his place, probably on some technical ground. Armed with this +permission he appeared at St. Omer in October 1493 and violently +installed his brother; who held the abbey undisturbed till his death +nearly forty years later. The Bishop's success with the Pope is the +more noteworthy, as for a period of seven years he himself had refused +to surrender an abbey near Mons to a papal nominee, who was not strong +enough to wrest it from him. Again, during <span class="pagenum">p 177</span><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>the five years of the +English occupation of Tournay, 1513-18, there was a continual struggle +between two rival bishops, appointed when the see fell vacant in +1513—Wolsey nominated by Henry VIII and Louis Guillard by the Pope. +It goes without saying that Wolsey won; and Guillard did not get in +till 1519, the year after the evacuation by the English.</p> + +<p>Fernand tells a story of violence at the monastery of Souillac, which +was closely connected with his own at Chezal-Benoît. When the Abbot +died, a monk of St. Martin's at Tours, who was a native of Souillac, +with the aid of a brother who was a court official, got himself put in +as abbot before the monks had time to elect. They appealed to the +king, but quite in vain; for instead of giving ear to their complaint +he sent down a troop of soldiers to support the invading Abbot. It was +a grievous time for the poor monks. The garrison did whatever they +pleased: imprisoned the faithful servants of the monastery, introduced +hunting-dogs and birds, roared out their licentious choruses to the +sound of lute and pipe, and gave up the whole day to games of every +sort, in which the weaker brethren joined. Those who refused to do so +or to violate their vows by eating flesh were insulted; and as they +held divine service, coarse laughter and clamour interrupted them. +Strict watch was kept upon them, too, lest they should speak or write +to any one of their injuries. We need not deplore the passing of such +'good old days'.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to realize the certainty which in the <span class="pagenum">p 178</span><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>sixteenth +century men allowed themselves to feel on subjects of the highest +importance; for nothing short of this intense conviction is adequate +to explain the ferocity with which they treated those over whom they +had triumphed in matters of religion. Burning at the stake was the +common method of expiation. The fires of Smithfield consumed brave, +humble victims, while Erasmus jested over the rising price of wood, In +France the Inquisition entrapped many men of literary distinction, +Louis de Berquin 1529, John de Caturce 1532, Stephen Dolet 1546; on +the charge of heresy or atheism which could only with great difficulty +be refuted. To kill a fellow-creature or to watch him put to death +would be physically impossible to most of us, in our unruffled lives; +where from year's-end to year's-end we hardly even hear a word spoken +in anger. In consequence it is difficult for us to understand the +indifference with which in the sixteenth century men of the most +advanced refinement regarded the sufferings of others. Between rival +combatants and claimants for thrones fierce measures are more +intelligible; especially in days when stone walls did not a prison +make—such a prison, at least, as the prisoner might not some day hope +to break. Things had improved somewhat since the Middle Ages. We hear +less of the varieties of mutilation, the blinding, loss of nose, +hands, breasts, which were the portion of either sex indiscriminately, +when the death-penalty had not been fully earned. But it was still +fashionable to suspend your adversary in a cage and torture him, <span class="pagenum">p 179</span><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>or +to confine him for years in a dungeon which light and air could never +reach. The executions of heretics became public shows, carefully +arranged beforehand, and attended by rank and fashion; to whom to show +any sign of sensibility would have been disgrace. Impossible it seems +to believe. We must remember that the perpetrators of such noble acts +had persuaded themselves that they were serving God. They were as +confident as Joshua or as Jehu that they knew His will; and they had +no hesitation in carrying it out.</p> + +<p>If you may take a man's life in God's name, there can be no objection +to telling him a lie. The violation of the safe-conduct which brought +Hus to Constance was a fine precedent for breaking faith with a +heretic. When Luther came to Worms to answer for himself before +Emperor and Diet, the Pope's representatives reminded Charles of the +principle which had lighted the fires at Constance and ridded the +world of a dangerous fellow. Fortunately Charles had German subjects +to consider, and the Germans had a reputation for good faith of which +they were proud. Let us credit him too with some generosity; he was +scarcely 21, and the young find the arguments of expediency difficult. +Anyway, Luther with the help of his friends got off safely. The +intrigues and subterfuges of diplomatists are still very often +revolting to honest men. But there is some excuse for them; they act +on behalf of nations, who have to look to themselves for protection +and can rarely afford to be generous and aboveboard. But so barefaced +<span class="pagenum">p 180</span><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>a violation of faith to an individual before the eyes of the world +would no longer be tolerated, not even in the name of the Lord.</p> + +<p>The following example will illustrate the ideas of the age about the +treatment of heretics; an example of faith continually broken and of +incredible cruelty. In 1545 the Cardinal de Tournon and Baron +d'Oppède, the first president of the Parliament of Aix, were moved to +extirpate that plague-spot of Southern France, the Vaudois communities +of Dauphiné, who went on still in their wickedness and heresy. The +intriguers prepared a decree revoking the letters patent of 1544, +which had suspended proceedings against the Vaudois; and when the +keeper of the seals refused to present it to the king for signature, +by unlawful means they presented it through a secretary and unlawfully +procured the affixion of the seals. But this was a mere trifle: +greater things were to follow.</p> + +<p>On 13 April 1545 the Baron entered the Vaudois territory at the head +of a body of troops, reinforced by the papal Vice-legate and a +fanatical mob of countryfolk. The inhabitants offered little +resistance, and soon villages were in flames on every side. At +Mérindol the soldiers found only one inhabitant, a poor idiot; all the +rest had fled. The Baron ordered him to be shot. Above by the castle +some women were discovered hiding in a church; after indescribable +outrages they were thrown headlong from the rocks. Cabrières being +fortified was prepared to stand a siege; but on a promise of their +lives and property the inhabitants <span class="pagenum">p 181</span><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>opened the gates. Without a +moment's hesitation the Baron gave orders to put them all to death. +The soldiers refused to break plighted faith; but the mob had no +scruples and the ghastly work began. 'A multitude of women and +children had fled to the church: the furious horde rushed headlong +among them and committed all the crimes of which hell could dream. +Other women had hidden themselves in a barn. The Baron caused them to +be shut up there and fire set to the four corners. A soldier rushed to +save them and opened the door, but the women were driven back into the +fire with blows of pikes. Twenty-five women had taken shelter in a +cavern at some distance from the town. The Vice-legate caused a great +fire to be lighted at the entrance: five years afterwards the bones of +the victims were found in the inmost recesses.'<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">2</a> La Coste had the +same fate; the promise made and immediately violated, and then all the +terrors of hell. In the course of a few weeks 3000 men and women were +massacred, 256 executed, and six or seven hundred sent to the galleys; +while children unnumbered were sold as slaves. The offence of these +poor people was that they had been seeking in their own fashion to +draw nearer to the God of Love.</p> + +<p>But public morals ever lag behind private; and in the sixteenth +century private standards of truth and honour were not so high as they +are now. Here again we may find one main cause in the absence of +personal security. In these days of settled government, <span class="pagenum">p 182</span><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>when thought +and speech are free, it is scarcely possible to realize what men's +outlook upon life must have been when walls had ears and a man's foes +might be those of his own household. In Henry VII's reign England had +not had time to forget the Wars of the Roses, and claimants to the +throne were still occasionally executed in the Tower. Even under the +mighty hand of Henry VIII ministers rose and fell with alarming +rapidity. When princes contend, private men do well to hold their +peace; lest light utterances be brought up against them so soon as +Fortune's wheel has swung to the top those that were underneath. In +matters of faith, too, it was supremely necessary to be careful; for +unguarded words might arouse suspicions of heresy, to be followed by +the frightful penalties with which heresy was extirpated. On great +questions, therefore, men must have kept their tongues and thoughts in +a strict reserve: candour and openness, those valuable solvents of +social humours, can only have been practised by the unwise.</p> + +<p>Truth is one of those things in which to him that hath shall be given. +It is a common jest in the East that professional witnesses come daily +to the law-courts waiting to be hired by either side. The harder truth +is to discover, with the less are men content. With many inducements +to dissimulation and no great expectations of personal honesty, men +are likely to traffic with expediency and to be adept in justifying +themselves when they forsake the truth.</p> + +<p>Some examples of this may be found in Erasmus'<span class="pagenum">p 183</span><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a> letters. When he was +in Italy in 1509, Henry VII died. His English patron, Lord Mountjoy, +was intimate with Henry VIII. A few weeks after the accession a letter +from Mountjoy reached Erasmus, inviting him to return to England and +promising much in the young king's name. The letter was in fact +written by Ammonius, an Italian, who afterwards became Latin secretary +to the king. He was recognized as one of the best scholars of the day; +and there can be no doubt that the letter was his composition. +Mountjoy was a sufficiently keen scholar to sit up late at night over +his books, and to be chosen as a companion to the young Prince Henry +in his studies; but such autograph letters by him as survive show that +he wrote with difficulty even in English, and it is impossible to +suppose that he would have kept an accomplished Latinist in his employ +merely to act as copyist to his effusions. Moreover, Erasmus, writing +a few years later, says that he recognized the letter as Ammonius' +work, not from the handwriting, which he had forgotten, but from the +style. Nevertheless he allowed it to be published in 1519 as his +patron's. Of his connivance in the matter there is actual proof; for +in 1517 he had the letter copied by one of his servant-pupils into a +letter-book, and added the heading himself. What he first wrote was: +'Andreas Ammonius Erasmo Roterodamo S.D.,' but afterwards he scratched +out Ammonius' name and wrote in 'Guilhelmus Montioius'. In a sense, of +course, he was correct; for the letter was written in Mountjoy's name. +But he <span class="pagenum">p 184</span><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>cannot have been unaware that in an age which valued elegant +Latinity so highly, his patron would be gratified by the ascription.</p> + +<p>It was no great matter, and did no harm to any one. But it throws some +doubt on Erasmus' statement as to the scholarship of Henry VIII. When +Henry's book against Luther appeared in 1521, people said that Erasmus +had lent him a hand. In denying the insinuation Erasmus avers that +Henry was quite capable of doing the work himself, and adds that his +own suspicions of Henry's capacity had been dispelled by Mountjoy, who +when tutor to the young prince had preserved rough copies of Latin +letters written by Henry's own hand; and these he produced to convince +the doubter. Erasmus had a double motive in asserting Henry's +authorship, to play the courtier and to avoid provoking Luther; and +Mountjoy, as we have seen, is not above suspicion. But there is some +further evidence in support of them all, prince and patron and +scholar. Pace, Colet's successor at St. Paul's, speaks of hearing +Henry talk Latin quickly and readily; and Giustinian, the Venetian +ambassador, quotes a few remarks made to him by Henry in Latin by way +of greeting. Till more evidence is forthcoming, Erasmus must be let +off on this count with a Not proven.</p> + +<p>Another example of scant regard for truth is his disowning of the +<i>Julius Exclusus</i>. This was a witty dialogue, in Erasmus' best style, +on the death of Pope Julius II. The Pope is shown arriving at the gate +of heaven, accompanied by his Genius, a sort <span class="pagenum">p 185</span><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>of guardian angel, and +amazed to find it locked, with no preparation at all for his +reception. His amazement grows when St. Peter at length appears and +makes it plain that the gate is not going to be opened, and that there +is no room in heaven for Julius with his record of wars and other +unchristian deeds; whereupon there is a fine set-to, and each party +receives some hard knocks.</p> + +<p>That Erasmus was its author there can be no doubt; for there is +evidence in two directions of the existence of a copy or copies of it +in his handwriting, and we cannot suppose that at that period of his +life, when he regularly had one or more servant-pupils in his employ, +he would have troubled to copy out with his own hand a work of that +length by another. There was nothing very outrageous in the dialogue, +nothing much more than there was in the <i>Moria</i>; but it was not the +sort of thing for a man to write who was so closely connected as +Erasmus was with the Papal see, and who wished to stand well with it +in the future. The <i>Julius</i> appeared in print in 1517, of course +anonymously, and Erasmus was pleased with its reception; but he soon +found that people who were not in the secret were attributing it to +him. That would never do; so he set to work to repudiate it. The +friends that knew he exhorted to know nothing; the rest he endeavoured +to persuade that he was not the author, using many forms of +equivocation. He rises to his greatest heights in addressing +cardinals. To Campegio, then in London, he writes on 1 May 1519:<span class="pagenum">p 186</span><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'How malicious some people are! Any scandalous book that comes out + they at once put down to me. That silly production, <i>Nemo</i>, they said + was mine; and people would have believed them, only the author + (Hutten) indignantly claimed it as his own. Then those absurd Letters + (of the Obscure Men): of course I was thought to have had a hand in + them. Finally, they began to say that I was the author of this book + of Luther; a person I have hardly ever heard of, certainly I have not + read his book. As all these failed, they are trying to fasten on me + an anonymous dialogue which appears to make mock of Pope Julius. Five + years ago I glanced through it, I can hardly say I read it. + Afterwards I found a copy of it in Germany, under various names. Some + said it was by a Spaniard, name unknown; others ascribed it to + Faustus Andrelinus, others to Hieronymus Balbus. For myself I do not + quite know what to think. I have my suspicions; but I haven't yet + followed them up to my satisfaction. Certainly whoever wrote it was + very foolish;'—that sentence was from his heart!—'but even more to + blame is the man who published it. To my surprise some people + attribute it to me, merely on the ground of style, when it is nothing + like my style, if I am any judge: though it would not be very + wonderful if others did write like me, seeing that my books are in + all men's hands. I am told that your Reverence is inclined to doubt + me: with a few minutes' conversation I am sure I could dispel your + suspicions. Let me assure you that books of this kind written by + <span class="pagenum">p 187</span><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>others I have had suppressed: so it is hardly likely that I should + have published such a thing myself, or ever wish to publish it.' </p></div> + +<p>Not bad that, from the author of the <i>Julius</i>. A fortnight later he +wrote to Wolsey to much the same effect, instancing as books that had +been attributed to him Hutten's <i>Nemo</i> and <i>Febris</i>, Mosellanus' +<i>Oratio de trium linguarum ratione</i>, Fisher's reply to Faber, and even +More's <i>Utopia</i>. As to the <i>Julius</i> he says: 'Plenty of people here +will tell you how indignant I was some years ago when I found the book +being privately passed about. I glanced through it (I can hardly be +said to have read it); and I tried vigorously to get it suppressed. +This is the work of the enemies of good learning, to try and fasten +this book upon me.' Finally, to clinch his argument, he asseverates +with audacious ingenuity: 'I have never written a book, and I never +will, to which I will not affix my own name.'</p> + +<p>Jortin points out that the only thing which Erasmus specifically +denies is the publication of the <i>Julius</i>. As we have seen, an author +of consequence in those days rarely troubled to correct his own +proof-sheets. Erasmus left his <i>Moria</i> behind in Paris for Richard +Croke to see through the press; More committed his <i>Utopia</i> to +Erasmus, who had it printed for him at Louvain; Linacre sent his +translations of Galen to Paris by the hands of Lupset, who supervised +the printing. It is therefore quite probable that Erasmus did not +personally superintend the publication of the <i>Julius</i>; but until +<span class="pagenum">p 188</span><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>students of typography can tell us definitely which is the first +printed edition, and where it was printed, we cannot be certain. But +besides this point of practice born of convenience, there was another +born of modesty. With compositions that were purely literary—poems +and other creations of art and fancy, as opposed to more solid +productions—the convention arose of pretending that the publication +of them was due to the entreaties of friends, or even in some cases +that it had been carried out by ardent admirers without the author's +knowledge. Printing, with its ease of multiplication, had made +publication a far more definite act than it was in the days of +manuscripts. In the prefaces to his early compositions, Erasmus almost +always assumes this guise. More actually wrote to Warham and to +another friend that the <i>Utopia</i> had been printed without his +knowledge. Of course this was not true, but nobody misunderstood him. +Dolet's <i>Orationes ad Tholosam</i> appeared through the hand of a friend, +but with the most transparent figments.</p> + +<p>There was, therefore, abundant precedent for denying authorship. But +there is a difference between the light veil of modesty and clouds of +dust raised in apprehension. The publication of the <i>Julius</i> certainly +placed Erasmus in a dilemma; he extricated himself by equivocation, +which barely escapes from direct untruth. It is possible that a public +man of his position at the present day might find himself driven to a +similar method of <span class="pagenum">p 189</span><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>escape from a similar indiscretion.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">3</a> But +experience has taught men not to write lampoons which they dare not +avow, and a more effective law of copyright protects them against +publication by pirate printers.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>De Officiis</i>, 2. 16.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> R.C. Christie, <i>Étienne Dolet</i>, ch. xxiv.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> An example of this may be seen in the new <i>Life of +Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton</i>, 1913, ii. 71-6. Bulwer-Lytton's +letter, 15 March 1846, denying the authorship of the <i>New Timon</i>, +might almost have been translated from Erasmus' to Campegio, except +that it goes further in falsehood.<span class="pagenum">p 190</span><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS</h3> + + +<p>An interesting parallel is often drawn between Indian life to-day and +the life with which we are familiar in the Bible. The women grinding +at the mill, the men who take up their beds and walk, the groups that +gather at the well, the potter and his wheel, the marriage-feasts, the +waterpots standing ready to be filled, the maimed, the leper, and the +blind—all these are everyday sights in the streets and households of +modern India.</p> + +<p>But we may also make an instructive comparison between India and +mediaeval, or even Renaissance, Europe. As soon as one gets away from +the railway and the telegraph—indeed even where they have already +penetrated—one still finds in India conditions prevailing which +continued in Europe beyond the Middle Ages. The customary tie between +master and servant, lasting from one generation to another, preserves +the community of interest which prevented the feudal bond from being +irksome. The modern severance of classes, the modern desire for +aloofness, has not yet come. The servants are an integral part of the +household, sharing in its ceremonies and festivities, crowding into +their master's presence without impairing his privacy, and following +him as escort whenever he stirs abroad. The child-marriage which we +condemn in modern<span class="pagenum">p 191</span><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a> India, was frequently practised in Europe in the +sixteenth century, when the uncertainty of life made men wish to +secure the future of their children so far as they could. The +foster-mothers with whom young Mughal princes found a home, whose sons +they loved as their own brothers, had their counter-part in these +islands as late as the days of the great Lord Cork. Walled cities with +crowded houses looking into one another across narrow winding alleys, +were an inevitable condition of life in sixteenth-century Europe +before strong central government had made it safe to live outside the +gates. Even the houses of the great were dark, airless, cramped, with +tiny windows and dim, opaque glass; such as one may still see at +Compton Castle in Devonshire or the Château des Comtes at Ghent. +Communications moved slowly along unmetalled roads or up and down +rivers. Carriages with two or four horses were occasionally used; but +the ordinary traveller rode on horseback, and needy students coming to +a university walked, clubbing together for a packhorse to carry their +modest baggage. These are features which may still be matched in many +parts of India.</p> + +<p>The ravages of plague, the absence of sanitation, the recurrence of +famine and war, all combined in sixteenth-century Europe to produce an +uncertainty in the tenure of life, which modern India knows only too +well from all the causes except the last; but India does not follow +Europe in the resulting practice of frequent remarriage on both sides. +In Erasmus'<span class="pagenum">p 192</span><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a> day a marriage in which neither side had previously or +did subsequently contract a similar relation must have been quite +exceptional. A certain German lady, after one ordinary husband, became +the wife of three leading Reformers in succession, Oecolampadius, +Capito, and Bucer—almost an official position, it would seem. She +survived them all, and when Bucer died at Cambridge in 1551, was able +to return to Basle, to be buried beside Oecolampadius in the +Cathedral. Katherine Parr married four times. To her first husband, +who left her a widow at fifteen, she was a second wife; to her second, +a third wife; to her third, who was Henry VIII, a sixth; and only her +fourth was a bachelor.</p> + +<p>The custom of the year's 'doole' after the death of husband or wife +was just at this period breaking down. In 1488 Edward IV declined a +new marriage for his sister, Margaret of York, the new-made widow of +Charles the Bold, on the ground that 'after the usage of our realms no +estate or person honourable communeth of marriage within the year of +their dool'. But Tudor practice was very different. For Mary, Queen of +France, who married her Duke of Suffolk as soon as her six weeks of +white mourning were out, there was some excuse of urgency; Henry, too, +in his rapid marriage with Jane Seymour had special reasons. But +Katherine Parr, when her turn to marry him came, was but a few months +a widow; and later, in being on with her old love, Thomas Seymour, +when her grim master was only just dead, she had no motive beyond the +wishes of lovers long <span class="pagenum">p 193</span><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>delayed. The Princess Mary, however, considered +this latter action highly improper.</p> + +<p>John Oporinus (Herbst), the Basle printer (1507-68), had a varied +experience; taking four widows to wife. At the age of 20 he +married—almost, it seems, out of a sense of duty—the widow of his +teacher, Xylotectus of Lucerne; an elderly lady who persecuted him +sorely, and once in a passion threw dirty water over him. After eight +years, two of which he had spent roving through Germany with +Paracelsus, she died, leaving her property to relations. Oporinus' +next widow had three children, girls, who grew up to share their +mother's expensive tastes. For nearly thirty years their extravagance +vexed him, though his wife had tact enough to keep from open quarrels. +Then one day he returned from the Frankfort fair to find her dead of +the plague. The same visitation, 1564, by carrying off first John +Herwagen the younger and then Ulrich Iselin, Professor of Law at +Basle, made two more widows, successively to bear Oporinus' name. +Herwagen's widow, Elizabeth Holzach, was a sweet woman, but died in +the fourth month of her new marriage, 17 July 1565. Iselin's was +Faustina, daughter of Boniface Amerbach, born in 1530. To her seven +children by Iselin, she added one for Oporinus, Emmanuel, born 25 Jan. +1568; but the father of 60 did not live six months to have pleasure in +his firstborn.</p> + +<p>With such frequent changes the marriage-tie cannot have given the same +personal attachment that is possible at the present day: indeed such +<span class="pagenum">p 194</span><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>unions can scarcely have seemed more lasting than the temporary +associations of friends. One need only recall the bargainings that +occur in the Paston Letters to realize that there was not much romance +about their marriages, at any rate beforehand. Thus wrote Sir John +Paston in 1473 of a suitor for his sister Anne: 'As for Yelverton, he +said but late that he would have her if she had her money; and else +not.'</p> + +<p>Thomas More is rightly regarded as a man in whom the spirit burned +brighter and clearer than in most of his contemporaries; and yet his +matrimonial relations savour more of convenience or even of business +than of affection. For his first wife, we are told—and there is no +reason to doubt the story—, his fancy had lighted on an Essex girl, +the daughter of a country-gentleman; but on visiting her at home he +found that she had an elder sister not yet married. Feeling that to +have her younger sister married first would be a grief to the elder, +he 'inclined his affection' towards her and made her his wife in place +of his first choice. The interpretation that when he saw the elder +sister, he preferred her before the other, might be probable to-day: +to apply it to the story of More would be a case of that commonest of +'vulgar errors' in history,—judging the past by the ideas of the +present. For five or six years More lived with his girl-bride, whose +country training and unformed mind caused much trouble and difficulty +to them both. The unequal relation between them appears in a story +told by Erasmus; that More delighted her once <span class="pagenum">p 195</span><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>by bringing home a +present of sham jewels, and apparently did not think it necessary to +undeceive her about them. Happiness came in time; but after bearing +him four children, she died. Within a month the widower came to his +father-confessor by night and obtained leave to be married next +morning. His new wife was a middle-aged lady of no charms—indeed she +seems to have been a regular shrew—who served him as a capable +housekeeper and looked after his children while they were young. But +she never engaged his affections; and it was his eldest daughter, +Margaret, who became the chosen partner of his joys and sorrows in +later years.</p> + +<p>The habitual remarriage of widows proceeded in part from the desire, +or even need, for a husband's protection; and in consequence it was +not only the young who were open to men's addresses. Beatus Rhenanus, +writing to a servant-pupil who had recently left him to launch forth +into the world, counsels him to marry, if possible, a rich and elderly +widow; in order that in a few years by her death he may find himself +equipped with an ample capital for his real start in life. Such advice +from a man like Beatus can only have been in jest: but if there had +not been some reality of actual practice, the jest would have fallen +flat. Indeed Beatus goes on to indicate that this course had been +taken by Reuchlin; whose elderly consort was, however, disobliging +enough to live for many years. The ill-success attending Oporinus' +essay in this direction we have already seen.<span class="pagenum">p 196</span><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a></p> + +<p>But it was not so with all. Not infrequently Erasmus deplores the +imprudence of the young men who had left his service, in allowing +themselves to fall in love and marry without securing proper dowries +with their young brides. He was indeed, considering his natural +shrewdness, singularly ignorant of women; as his advice to youthful +husbands sometimes shows. To one, for example, who had written to +announce that before long he hoped to become a father, he replies with +congratulations, and then says: 'Now that your wife no longer needs +your care, you will be able to betake yourself to a university and +finish your studies'—advice which we may surely suppose was not +taken.</p> + +<p>During the insecurity of the Middle Ages, the seclusion of women for +their own protection had been severely necessary. In the East the +'purdah-system' reached the length of excluding women of the better +classes from the society of all men but those of their own family. Of +such rigidity in Europe I cannot find any traces except under Oriental +influence;<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">1</a> but there is no doubt that women's life at the +beginning of the Renaissance in the North was circumscribed. Such +higher education as they received was given at home, by father or +brothers or husband, or by private tutors. But there are not a few +examples of educated women. In the well-known Frisian family, the +Canters of Groningen, <span class="pagenum">p 197</span><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>parents and children and even the maidservant +are said to have spoken regularly in Latin. Antony Vrye of Soest, one +of the Adwert circle, wrote to his wife in Latin; and his daughter +helped him with the teaching of Latin in the various schools over +which he presided, at Campen and Amsterdam and Alcmar. Pirckheimer's +sisters and daughters, Peutinger's wife, are famous for their +learning. In England throughout the Renaissance period the position of +women and their education steadily improved. Alice, Duchess of +Suffolk, the foundress of Ewelme, had an interest in literature; and +the great Lady Margaret, besides the endowments which are her memorial +at the universities, constantly fostered the efforts of Wynkyn de +Worde, and herself translated part of the <i>Imitatio</i> from the French. +The Princess Mary, as the result of the liberal training of Vives and +other masters, could translate from Aquinas, take part in acting a +play of Terence, and read the letters of Jerome; and before she was +30, made a translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase of St. John's Gospel, +which formed part of the English version of those Paraphrases ordered +by Injunctions of Edward VI to be placed beside the Bible in every +parish church throughout the realm.</p> + +<p>More, for his dear 'school', engaged the best teachers he could find. +John Clement, afterwards Wolsey's first Reader in Humanity at Oxford, +and William Gonell, Erasmus' friend at Cambridge, read Sallust and +Livy with them. Nicholas Kratzer, the Bavarian mathematician, also one +of Wolsey's<span class="pagenum">p 198</span><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a> Readers at Oxford, taught them astronomy: to know the +pole-star and the dog, and to contemplate the 'high wonders of that +mighty and eternal workman', whom More could feel revealed himself +also to some 'good old idolater watching and worshipping the man in +the moon every frosty night'.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">2</a> Richard Hyrde, the friend of +Gardiner and translator of Vives' <i>Instruction of a Christian Woman</i>, +continued the work after the 'school' had been moved to Chelsea;<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">3</a> +and when Margaret, eldest and best-beloved scholar, was married. Not +that this interfered. The love of learning once implanted brought her +with her husband to keep her place among her sisters in that bright +Academy. Her fame is well known, how the Bishop of Exeter sent her a +gold coin of Portugal in reward for an elegant epistle; how familiarly +she corresponded with Erasmus; how she emended the text of Cyprian, +imitated the Declamations of Quintilian, and translated the +Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius.</p> + +<p>It is evident that in England, for women as well as men, the seed of +the Renaissance had fallen on good ground. By the middle of the +century the gates of the kingdom of knowledge were open, and the +thoughtful were rejoicing in the infinite variety of their Paradise +regained. In 1547-8, Nicholas Udall, in a preface for Mary's +translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase, writes with enthusiasm: 'Neither +is it now any <span class="pagenum">p 199</span><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>strange thing to hear gentlewomen, instead of most vain +communication about the moon shining in the water, to use grave and +substantial talk in Greek or Latin with their husbands in godly +matters. It is now no news in England to see young damsels in noble +houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other +instruments of vain trifling, to have continually in their hands +either Psalms, "Omelies" and other devout meditations, or else Paul's +Epistles or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly +both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French or Italian as +in English. It is now a common thing to see young virgins so "nouzled" +and trained in the study of letters that they willingly set all other +vain pastimes at nought for learning's sake.' It is melancholy to +reflect how soon the gates of the kingdom were to be closed again, and +its trees guarded by the flaming sword of theological certainty +mistaking itself for truth.</p> + +<p>Besides marriage, almost the only vocation open to women in the +fifteenth century was the monastic life. It was not uncommon for +several daughters in a family to embrace religion: parents, apart from +higher considerations, regarding it as a sure method of providing for +girls who did not wish to marry, or for whom they could not find +husbands. As heads of religious houses women held positions of great +dignity and influence, and discharged their duties worthily. Within +convent walls, too, it was possible for some women to become learned; +though <span class="pagenum">p 200</span><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>in later times the achievements of Diemudis were never +rivalled. She was a nun at Wessobrunn in Bavaria at the end of the +eleventh century, and during her cloistered life her active pen wrote +out 47 volumes, including two complete Bibles, one of which was given +in exchange for an estate.</p> + +<p>We also hear of women of means, usually widows, dispensing hospitality +on a large scale to the needy and deserving. Wessel of Groningen, as +we saw, was adopted by a wealthy matron, who saw him shivering in the +street on a winter's day and fetched him into her house to warm. +Erasmus describes to us a Gouda lady, Berta de Heyen, whose kindness +he repeatedly enjoyed in his early years; and in addition to her +general charities mentions that she was wont to look out for promising +boys in the town school who were designing to enter the Church, +receive them into her family amongst her own children, and when their +courses were completed, bestir herself to procure them benefices—an +indication of the possession of influence outside her own home. He +goes on to say that when widowhood came to her, she refused to think +of a second marriage, and almost rejoiced to be released from the +bonds of matrimony, because she found herself free to practise her +liberality. But we must not lay too much stress on these latter +utterances. They come from a funeral oration composed after the good +lady's death, and addressed to her children, some of whom were nuns: +to whom therefore the conventional representation of the Church's +attitude <span class="pagenum">p 201</span><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>towards marriage would be acceptable. Butzbach describes the +wife of a wealthy citizen of Deventer as entertaining daily six or +seven of the poorer clergy at her table, besides the alms that she +distributed continually before her own door. To him she frequently +gave food and clothes and money, with much sympathy.</p> + +<p>It is noticeable how the charity is represented as proceeding from the +wife and not from the husband. A mediaeval moralist urges wives to +make good their husbands' deficiencies in this respect; and against +the remark Ulrich Ellenbog, the father, notes that he had always left +this burden to his wife. The inference is probable that though the +sphere of women was in many ways restricted, they were within their +own dominion, the household, supreme—more so perhaps than they are +to-day. Yet in spite of this domestic authority, I do not see how we +can escape the conclusion that the real power rested with the husband, +when we read such passages as this in the <i>Utopia</i>, where, speaking of +punishment, More says: 'Parents chastise their children, husbands +their wives.' Indeed, it was recognized as one of the primary duties +of a husband, to see that his wife behaved properly.</p> + +<p>What we have been saying may be well illustrated by the letter just +alluded to from Antony Vrye 'to his dear wife, Berta of Groningen'. It +was written 'from Cologne in haste'; and as it appears in Vrye's +<i>Epistolarum Compendium</i>, it may be dated <i>c.</i> 1477. 'Your letter was +most welcome, and relieved me of <span class="pagenum">p 202</span><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>anxiety about you all. I rejoice to +hear that the children are well and yourself; your mother too and the +whole household. You write that you are expecting me to return by 1 +March, to relieve you of all your cares. I wish indeed that I could; +but besides our own private matters, there is some public business for +me to discharge, and this will take time. So be diligent to look after +our affairs, and pray to God to keep you in health and free from +fault: my prolonged absence will make my return all the more joyful. +It is great pain to me to be absent from you so long, who art all my +life and happiness. But as I must, it falls to you to guard our honour +and property, and to care for our family. This, Jerome says, is the +part of a prudent housewife, and to cherish her own chastity. Bide +then at home, most loving wife, and be not tempted by such amusements +as delight the vulgar; but patiently and modestly await my return. I +too will be a faithful husband to you in everything. Be a chaste and +honoured mother to our boy and little girls; and cherish your mother +in return for the singular kindness she has showed us.'</p> + +<p>One feature of life at this time which materially affected the lives +of women, was the length of families and the accompanying infant +mortality. It was common enough in all classes down to the middle of +the last century; and it is still only too common among the poor. On +the walls of churches, more especially in towns, one frequently sees +tablets with long lists of children who seem to have been <span class="pagenum">p 203</span><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>born only +to die: and yet the parents went on their way unthinking, and content +if from their annual harvest an occasional son or daughter grew up to +bless them. Examples of this may be collected on every side. Cole +(1467-1519), for instance, was the eldest of twenty-two sons and +daughters; and by 1499 he was the only child left to his parents. His +father, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, lived till 1510; the +mother of this great brood survived them all, and, so far as Erasmus +knew, was still living in 1521.</p> + +<p>Another case which may be cited is that of Anthony Koberger, the +celebrated Nuremberg printer, 1440-1513: and it is the more +interesting, since owing to his care for genealogy, we have accurate +records of his two marriages and his twenty-five children. The first +marriage produced eight, born between 1470 and 1483; of these, three +daughters lived to grow up and marry, but of the remaining +five—including three sons, all named Anthony, a fact which tells its +own tale—none reached a greater age than twelve years. In September +1491 the first wife died; and in August 1492—without observing the +full year's 'doole'—Anthony married again, the second wife being +herself the sixteenth child of her parents. At first there was only +disappointment; in 3½ years four children were born and died, two of +these being twins. But better times followed: of the remaining +thirteen only three died as infants. Anthony the fifth and John the +third, and three sons named after the three kings, Caspar, Melchior +and Balthasar, were <span class="pagenum">p 204</span><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>more fortunate. When 21 years had brought 17 +children, the sequence ended abruptly with the death of Anthony the +father; leaving, out of the 25 he had received, only 13 children to +speak with his enemies in the gate.</p> + +<p>A family Bible now in the Bodleian<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">4</a> enumerates 16 children born to +the same parents in 24 years, 1550-74. One girl was married before she +was 16; one son at 20 died of exposure on his way home from Holland; +two reached 10, one 8, one 6. None of the remainder ten lived for one +year.</p> + +<p>Of public morals in the special sense of the term this is not the +place to speak in detail. But it may suitably be stated that +sixteenth-century standards in these matters were not so high as those +of the present day. 'If gold ruste, what shal iren do?' The highest +ecclesiastical authorities were unable to check a nominally celibate +priesthood from maintaining women-housekeepers who bore them families +of children and were in many cases decent and respectable wives to +them in all but name; indeed in Friesland the laity for obvious +reasons insisted upon this violation of clerical vows. A letter from +Zwingli, the Reformer, written in 1518 when he was parish priest of +Glarus, gives an astonishing view of his own practice. Under such +circumstances we need not wonder that the standards of the laity were +low. The highest record that I have met with is that of a Flemish +nobleman, who in addition to a large family including a Bishop of +Cambray <span class="pagenum">p 205</span><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>and an Abbot of St. Omer, is said to have been also the +father of 36 bastards. Thomas More as a young man was not blameless. +But it is surprising to find that Erasmus in writing an appreciation +of More in 1519, when he was already a judge of the King's Bench, +stated the fact in quite explicit, though graceful, language; and +further, that More took no exception to the statement, which was +repeated in edition after edition. We can hardly imagine such a +passage being inserted in a modern biography of a public character, +even if it were written after his death. Just about the same time More +published among his epigrams some light-hearted Latin poems—doubtless +written in his youth—such as no public man with any regard for his +character would care to put his name to to-day.</p> + +<p>There is another matter to which some allusion must be made, the +grossness of the age, though here again detail is scarcely possible. +The conditions of life in the sixteenth century made it difficult to +draw a veil over the less pleasant side of human existence. The houses +were filthy; the streets so disgusting that on days when there was no +wind to disperse the mephitic vapours, prudent people kept their +windows shut. Dead bodies and lacerated limbs must have been frequent +sights. Under these circumstances we need not be surprised that men +spoke more plainly to one another and even to women than they do now. +Sir John Paston's conversations with the Duchess of Norfolk would make +less than duchesses blush now. The tales that Erasmus <span class="pagenum">p 206</span><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>introduces into +his writings, the jests of his Colloquies, are often quite +unnecessarily coarse; but one which will illustrate our point may be +repeated. One winter's morning a stately matron entered St. Gudule's +at Brussels to attend mass. The heels of her shoes were caked with +snow, and on the smooth pavement of the church she slipped up. As she +fell, there escaped from her lips a single word, of mere obscenity. +The bystanders helped her to her feet, and amid their laughter she +slunk away, crimson with mortification, to hide herself in the crowd. +Nowadays great ladies have not such words at command.</p> + +<p>Theological controversy has a proverbial name for ferocity; in the +sixteenth century other qualities were added to this. In 1519 a young +Englishman named Lee, who was afterwards Archbishop of York, ventured +to criticize Erasmus' New Testament, with a vehemence which under the +circumstances was perhaps unsuitable. Erasmus of course resented this; +and his friends, to cool their indignation, wrote and published a +series of letters addressed to the offender: 'the Letters of some +erudite men, from which it is plain how great is the virulence of +Lee.' Among the contributors was Sapidus, head master of the famous +school at Schlettstadt, which was one of the first Latin schools of +the age. His letter to Lee concludes with a disgusting piece of +imagery, which would shock one if it proceeded from the most +unpleasantly minded schoolboy. One cannot conceive a Head Master of +Rugby appearing in print in such a way now.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In 1729 the Abbé Fourmont found the seclusion of women +extensively practised in Athens for fear of the Turks; see R.C. +Christie, <i>Essays and Papers</i>, p. 69.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> More, <i>English Works</i>, 1557, f. 154 E.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See F. Watson, <i>Vives and the Renascence Education of +Women</i>, 1912.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Biblia Latina, 1529, c. 2.<span class="pagenum">p 207</span><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE POINT OF VIEW</h3> + +<p>There is one thing in the world which is constantly with us, and which +has probably continued unchanged throughout all ages of history: the +weather. Yet Erasmus' writings contain no traces of that delight in +brilliant sunshine which most Northerners feel, nor of that wonder at +the beauties of the firmament which was so real to Homer. He +frequently remarks that the weather was pestilent, that the winds blew +and ceased not, that the sea was detestably rough and the clouds +everlasting; but of the praise which accompanies enjoyment there is +scarcely a word. His utmost is to say that the climate of a place is +salubrious. He often describes his journeys. As he rode on horseback +across the Alps or was carried down the Rhine in a boat, he must have +had ample opportunity to behold the glories which Nature sometimes +spreads before us in our Northern clime, and lavishes more constantly +on less favoured regions. But the loveliness of blue skies and serene +air, the glitter of distant snows, the soft radiance of the summer +moon, and the golden architrave of the sunset he had no eyes to see.</p> + +<p>Such indifference to the beauties of Nature admits, however, of some +explanation. With a scantier population than that which now covers the +earth, <span class="pagenum">p 208</span><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>there was less agriculture and more of waste and unkempt +places not yet reduced to the service of mankind. Solitudes were +vaster and more complete. In a country so well cared for as England is +to-day, it is difficult to imagine how unpleasing can be the aspect of +land over which Nature still has the upper hand, how desolate and +dreadful the great mountain areas which men now have to seek at the +ends of the earth, where the smoke rises not and even the lone +goatherd has not penetrated. To-day our difficulty is to escape from +the thronging pressure of millions: we rarely experience what in the +sixteenth century must often have been felt—the shrinking to leave, +the joy of returning to, the kindly race of men. Ascham in the +<i>Toxophilus</i> (1545), when discussing the relaxations open to the +scholar who has been 'sore at his book', urges that 'walking alone +into the field hath no token of courage in it'. But though this may +have been true by that time in the immediate neighbourhood of English +towns, it was not yet true abroad; for Thomas Starkey in his +<i>Dialogue</i> (1538), almost as valuable a source as the <i>Utopia</i>, +praises foreign cities with their resident nobles by comparison with +English, which are neglected and dirty 'because gentlemen fly into the +country to live, and let cities, castles and towns fall into ruin and +decay'.</p> + +<p>It is tantalizing, too, considering how abundant are Erasmus' literary +remains, that we get so little description of places from him. He +travelled far and wide, in the Low Countries, up and down the<span class="pagenum">p 209</span><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a> Rhine, +through France, southwards to Rome and Naples. He was a year in +Venice, three years at Cambridge, eight years at Basle, six at +Freiburg. What precious information he might have given us about these +places, which then as now were full of interesting buildings and +treasures of art! what a mine of antiquarian detail, if he had +expatiated occasionally! But a meagre description of Constance, a word +or two about Basle in narrating an explosion there, glimpses of +Walsingham and Canterbury in his colloquy on pilgrimages—that is +almost all that can be culled from his works about the places he +visited. When he came to Oxford, Merton tower had been gladdening +men's eyes for scarcely fifty years, and the tower of Magdalen had +just risen to rival its beauty; Duke Humfrey's Library and the +Divinity School were still in their first glory, and the monks of St. +Frideswide were contemplating transforming the choir of their church +into the splendid Perpendicular such as Bray had achieved at +Westminster and Windsor for Henry VII. But Erasmus tells us nothing of +what he saw; only what he heard and said. This lack of enjoyment in +Nature, lack of interest in topography and archaeology, was probably +personal to him. It was not so with some of his friends. More and +Ellenbog, as we have seen, could feel the beauty in the night</p> + +<p class="center">'Of cloudless climes and starry skies'.</p> + +<p>Aleander in a diary records the exceptional brilliance of the planet +Jupiter at the end of September 1513.<span class="pagenum">p 210</span><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a> He pointed it out to his pupils +in the Collège de la Marche at Paris, and together they remarked that +its rays were strong enough to cast a shadow. Ellenbog enjoyed the +country, and Luther also was susceptible to its charms. Budaeus had a +villa to which he delighted to escape from Paris, and where he laid +out a fine estate. Beatus Rhenanus after thirty years retained +impressions of Louis XII's gardens at Tours and Blois and of a +'hanging garden' in Paris; and could write a detailed account of the +Fugger palace at Augsburg with its art treasures. Or think of the +painters. The Flemings of the fifteenth century had learnt from the +Italians to fit into their pictures landscapes seen through doors or +windows, gleaming in sunshine, green and bright. Van Eyck's 'Adoration +of the Lamb' is set in beautiful scenery; grassy slopes and banks +studded with flowers, soft swelling hills, and blue distances crowned +with the towers he knew so well, Utrecht and Maestricht and Cologne +and Bruges. Even in the interiors of Durer and Holbein, where no +window opens to let in the view, Nature is not left wholly +unrepresented; for flowers often stand upon the tables, carnations and +lilies and roses, arranged with taste and elegance. On the whole the +enjoyment of Nature formed but a small part in the outlook of that age +as compared with the prominence it receives in modern literature and +life; but we should be wrong in inferring that it was wholly absent.</p> + +<p>To the men of the fifteenth century the earth <span class="pagenum">p 211</span><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>was still the centre of +the universe: the sun moved round it like a more magnificent planet, +and the stars had been created</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i8">'to shed down</span> +<span class="i0">Their stellar influence on all kinds that grow'.</span> +</div> + +<p>Aristarchus had seen the truth, though he could not establish it, in +the third century B.C. But Greek science had been forgotten in an age +which knew no Greek; and it was not till after Erasmus' death that an +obscure canon in a small Prussian town near Danzig—Nicholas +Copernicus, 1473-1543—found out anew the secret of the world. This +fruit of long cold watches on the tower of his church he printed with +full demonstration, but he scarcely dared to publish the book: indeed +a perfect copy only reached him a few days before his death. Even in +the next century Galileo had to face imprisonment and threats of +torture, because he would speak that which he knew. But when Erasmus +was born, the earth itself was but partially revealed. Men knew not +even whether it were round or flat; and the unplumbed sea could still +estrange. The voyages of the Vikings had passed out of mind, and the +eyes of Columbus and Vespucci had not yet seen the limits of that +western ocean which so long fascinated their gaze. Polo had roamed far +into the East; but as yet Diaz and da Gama had not crowned the hopes +which so often drew Henry the Navigator to his Portuguese headland.</p> + +<p>In the world of thought the conception of <span class="pagenum">p 212</span><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>uniformity in Nature, +though formed and to some extent accepted among the advanced, was +still quite outside the ordinary mind. Miracles were an indispensable +adjunct to the equipment of every saint; and might even be wrought by +mere men, with the aid of the black arts. The Devil was an +ever-present personality, going about to entrap and destroy the +unwary. Clear-minded Luther held converse with him in his cell; and +lesser demons were seen or suspected on every side. Thus in 1523 the +Earl of Surrey writes to Wolsey describing a night attack on Jedburgh +in a Border foray. The horses took fright, and their sudden panic +threw all things into confusion. 'I dare not write', he says, 'the +wonders that my Lord Dacre and all his company do say they saw that +night, six times, of spirits and fearful sights. And universally all +their company say plainly the Devil was that night among them six +times.' In that gaunt and bleak Border country the traveller overtaken +by night may feel a disquieting awe even in these days when the rising +moon is no longer a lamp to guide enemies to the attack. Four hundred +years ago, when it lay blood-stained and scarred with a thousand +fights, bearing no crops to be fired, no homesteads to be sacked, we +need not wonder if teams of demons swept down in the darkness and +drove through and through the trembling ranks.</p> + +<p>Again, in 1552 Melanchthon writes thus to a friend: 'In some cases no +doubt the causes of madness and derangement are purely physical; but +it is also <span class="pagenum">p 213</span><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>quite certain that at times men's bodies are entered by +devils who produce frenzies prognosticating things to come. Twelve +years ago there was a woman in Saxony who had no learning of books, +and yet, when she was vexed by a devil, after her paroxysms uttered +Greek and Latin prophecies of the war that should be there. In Italy, +too, I am told there was a woman, also quite unlearned, who during one +of her devilish torments was asked what is the best line of Virgil, +and replied, "Learn justice and to reverence the gods "'.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">1</a> In this +second case it would seem that the Devil scarcely knew his own +business.</p> + +<p>Sudden death descending upon the wicked was a judgement of heaven, +letting loose the powers of hell; and if the face of the corpse +chanced to turn black, there was never any doubt but that Satan had +flown off with the soul. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft were +rife; and an old woman had to be careful of the reputation of her cat. +Wanderers among the mountains saw dragons; in the forests elves peeped +at the woodmen from behind the trees, and fairies danced beneath the +moon in the open places. The world had not been sufficiently explored +for the absence of contrary experience to carry much weight; and the +means for the dissemination of news were quite inadequate. In +consequence men had not learnt to doubt the evidence of their senses +and to regard things as too strange to be true. It was felt that +anything might happen; and as a result almost everything did happen.<span class="pagenum">p 214</span><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a></p> + +<p>For example, in 1500 there was an outbreak of crosses in two villages +not far from Sponheim; and next year the same thing happened at Liège. +They appeared on any clothing that was light enough of hue; coloured +crosses that no washing or treatment could remove. Men opened their +coats to find crosses on their shirts: a woman would look down at her +apron, and there, sure enough, was a cross. Clothes that had been +folded up and put away in presses, came out with the sacred sign upon +them. One day during the singing of the mass thirty men suddenly found +themselves marked with crosses. They lasted for nine or ten days, and +then gradually faded. It was afterwards remarked that where the +crosses had been, the plague followed. Such is Trithemius' account in +his chronicle: we may wonder how closely he had questioned his +informants.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for us to conceive a world in which news spreads +mainly by word of mouth. Morning and evening it is poured forth to us, +by many different agencies, in the daily press; and though many of +these succumb to the temptation to be sensational, among the better +sort there is a healthy rivalry which restrains exuberance and +promotes accuracy. There is safety, too, in numbers. News which +appears in one paper only, is looked at doubtfully until it is +confirmed by the rest; but even unanimity amongst all papers will +scarcely at first win acceptance for what is at all startling and out +of the common, until time and the absence of contradiction may perhaps +corroborate. In practice men of credit have <span class="pagenum">p 215</span><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>learnt not to see the +sea-serpent. For a picture of conditions in the sixteenth century we +must sweep all the newspapers away. Kings had their heralds and towns +their public messengers who took and of course brought back news. +Caravans of merchants travelled along the great trade-routes; and +their tongues and ears were not idle. Private persons, too, sent their +servants on journeys to carry letters. But even so news had to travel +by word of mouth; for even when letters were sent, we may be sure that +any public news of importance beneath the seals and wafers had reached +the bearers also.</p> + +<p>But for what they told confirmation was not to be had for the asking. +Not till chance brought further messengers was it possible to +establish or contradict, and till then the first news held the field. +Rumour stalked gigantic over the earth, often spreading falsehood and +capturing belief, rarely, as in Indian bazars to-day, with mysterious +swiftness forestalling the truth. In such a world caution seems the +prime necessity; but men grow tired of caution when events are moving +fast and the air is full of 'flying tales'. The general tendency was +for them, if not to believe, at any rate to pass on, unverified +reports, from the impossibility of reaching certainty. In such a world +of bewilderment, sobriety of judgement does not thrive.</p> + +<p>Two examples may show the difficulty of learning the truth. In 1477 +Charles the Bold was killed at Nancy. That great Duke of Burgundy was +not a person to be hidden under a bed. Yet nearly six <span class="pagenum">p 216</span><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>years later +reports were current that he had escaped from the battle and was in +concealment. Again, Erasmus, during his residence at Bologna in 1507, +made many friends. One of these was Paul Bombasius, a native of that +town, who became secretary to Cardinal Pucci, and lost his life at +Rome in May 1527, when the city was sacked by Charles V's troops; +another was the delightful John de Pins, afterwards diplomatist and +Bishop of Rieux. To him in 1532 Erasmus wrote asking for news of +Bombasius. The Bishop replied that he had heard a rumour of his death, +but hoped it was not true. Not till May 1535 could Erasmus report the +result of inquiries made through a friend visiting Bologna, that +Bombasius had fallen a victim to the Bourbon soldiery eight years +before.</p> + +<p>That the movements of the stars should affect human life is not easy +to disprove even now, to any one who is determined to maintain the +possibility of it; but under the training of modern science scarcely +any one retains such a belief. Of the influence formerly attributed to +the planets, traces survive in such epithets as mercurial, jovial, +saturnine. Comets appearing in the sky caused widespread alarm, and +any disasters that followed close were confidently connected with +them. The most learned scientists observed the stars and cast +horoscopes: Cardan, for instance, published a collection of the +horoscopes of great men. The Church looked askance on astrology, +suspecting it of connexion with forbidden arts; but it could not +<span class="pagenum">p 217</span><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>check the observance of lucky days and the warnings of the heavens. +Even a Pope himself, Julius II, deferred his coronation until the +stars were in a fortunate conjunction.</p> + +<p>Every university student should be familiar with the story of Anthony +Dalaber, undergraduate of St. Alban's Hall in Oxford, which Froude +introduced into his <i>History of England</i> from Foxe's <i>Book of +Martyrs</i>; it is the most vivid picture we have of university life in +the early sixteenth century. Dalaber was one of a company of young men +who were reading Lutheran books at Oxford. Wolsey, wishing to check +this, had sent down orders in February 1528 to arrest a certain Master +Garret, who was abetting them in the dissemination of heresy. The +Vice-Chancellor, who was the Rector of Lincoln, seized Dalaber and put +him in the stocks, but was too late for Garret, who had made off into +Dorsetshire. He took counsel with the Warden of New College and with +the Dean of Wolsey's new foundation, Cardinal College; and at length, +as they could find out nothing, being 'in extreme pensiveness', they +determined to consult an astrologer. They knew they were doing wrong. +Such inquiries were forbidden by the law of the Church, and they were +afraid; but they were more afraid of Wolsey. The man of science drew a +figure upon the floor of his secret chamber, and made his +calculations; at the end he reported that the fugitive was fled in a +tawny coat to the South-east. The trembling officials hastily +dispatched messengers to have the <span class="pagenum">p 218</span><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>ports watched in Kent and Sussex, +hoping that their transgression might at least be justified by +success. They were successful: Master Garret <i>was</i> caught—trying to +take ship at Bristol. It would need awesome circumstances indeed to +send a modern Vice-Chancellor through the night to inquire of an +astrologer.</p> + +<p>In the realm of medicine, too, magic and the supernatural had great +weight, and claimed a measure of success which is not unintelligible +in these days, when the value of the will as an ally in healing is +being understood. Erasmus, suffering from the stone, was presented by +a Hungarian physician with an astrological mug, shaped like a lion, +which was to cure his trouble. He used it and felt better, but was not +sure how much to attribute to the lion. The famous Linacre, one of the +founders of the College of Physicians, sent to Budaeus, a French court +official and the first Greek scholar of the age, one gold ring and +eighteen silver rings which had been blessed by Henry VIII, and had +thus been made preservative against convulsions; and Budaeus presented +them to his womenkind. We need not take this to imply that he thought +little of them; more probably he reflected that convulsions are most +frequent among the race of babies, and therefore distributed them +where they would be most useful. Anyway, it was Linacre who sent them. +With such notions abroad, quackery must have been rife, and serious +medical practitioners had many difficulties to contend with. Some idea +of <span class="pagenum">p 219</span><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>these may be gained from a letter written by Wolfgang Rychard, a +physician of high repute at Ulm, to a friend at Erfurt, whither he was +thinking of sending his son to practise. He asks his friend to inquire +of the apothecaries what was the status of doctors, whether they were +allowed by the town council to hire houses for themselves and to live +freely without exactions, as at Tubingen and universities in the +South, or whether they were obliged to pay an annual fee to the town, +before they might serve mankind with their healing art.</p> + +<p>The feeble-minded and half-witted are nowadays caught up into asylums, +for better care, and to ensure that their trouble dies with them. Of +old it was thought that God gave them some recompense for their +affliction by putting into their mouths truths and prophecies which +were hidden from the wise; and thus the village soothsayer or witch +often held a strong position in local politics. But it is surprising +to find the Cardinal of Sion, Schinner, a clever and experienced +diplomatist, writing in 1516, with complete seriousness: 'A Swiss +idiot, who prophesies many true things, has foretold that the French +will surfer a heavy blow next month'; as though the intelligence would +really be of value to his correspondent.</p> + +<p>But the prophet's credit varied with his circumstances. Early in the +sixteenth century a Franciscan friar, naming himself Thomas of +Illyria, wandered about through Southern France, calling on men to +repent and rebuking the comfortable <span class="pagenum">p 220</span><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>vices of the clergy. A wave of +serious thought spread with him, and all the accompaniments of a +religious revival, such as the twentieth century saw lately in Wales. +As the 'saintly man' set foot in villages and towns, games and +pleasures were suddenly abandoned, and the churches thronged to +overflowing. His words were gathered up, especially those with which +he wept over Guienne, that 'fair and delicious province, the Paradise +of the world', and foretold the coming of foes who should burn the +churches round Bordeaux while the townsmen looked on helplessly from +their walls. For a time he retired to a hermitage on a headland by +Arcachon, where miracles were quickly ascribed to him. An image of the +Virgin was washed ashore, to be the protectress of his chapel. His +prayers, and a cross drawn upon the sand, availed to rescue a ship +that was in peril on the sea. When English pirates had plundered his +shrine, the waves opened and swallowed them up. Later on he withdrew +to Rome, where he won the confidence of Clement VII, and he died at +Mentone. But his fame remained great in Guienne. Half a century +onward, during the war of 1570, when from Bordeaux men saw the church +of Lormont across the river burning in the name of religion, the old +folks shook their heads and recalled the words of the saintly Thomas.</p> + +<p>Less fortunate was a young Franconian herdsman, John Beheim, of +Niklashausen—a 'poor illiterate', Trithemius calls him. In the summer +of 1476, as he watched his flocks in the fields, he had a vision <span class="pagenum">p 221</span><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>of +the gracious Mother of God, who bade him preach repentance to the +people. His fame soon spread, and multitudes gathered from great +distances to hear him. The nearest knelt to entreat his blessing, +those further off pressed up to touch him, and if possible, snatched +off pieces of his garments, till he was driven to speak from an upper +window. But his way was not plain. Instigated seemingly by others, he +began to touch things social: taxes should not be paid to princes, nor +tithes to clergy; rivers and forests were God's common gifts to men, +where all might fish or hunt at will. Such words were not to be borne. +The Bishop of Wurzburg, his diocesan, took counsel with the Archbishop +of Mainz; and the prophet was ordered to be burnt. But death only +increased his fame. Still greater crowds flocked to visit the scene of +his holy life, until in January 1477 the Archbishop had the church of +Niklashausen razed to the ground as the only means of suppressing this +popular canonization.</p> + +<p>We make a great mistake if we allow ourselves to suppose that because +that age knew less than ours, because its bounds were narrower and the +undispelled clouds lower down, it therefore thought itself feeble and +purblind. By contrast with the strenuous hurry-push of modern life +such movement as we can see, looking backwards, seems slow and +uncertain of its aim; before the power of modern armaments how +helpless all the might of Rome! It is easy to fall into the idea that +our <span class="pagenum">p 222</span><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>mediaeval forefathers moved in the awkward attitudes of +pre-Raphaelite painting, that their speech sounded as quaint to them +as it does to us now, and that it was hardly possible for them to take +life seriously. But in fact each age is to itself modern, progressive, +up-to-date; the strong and active pushing their way forward, impatient +of trifling, and carrying their fellows with them. A future age that +has leapt from one planet to another, or even from one system to +another sun and its dependants, that has 'called forth Mazzaroth in +his seasons, and loosed the bands of Orion', that has covered the +earth with peace as with a garment and pierced the veil that cuts us +off from the dead, will look back to us as groping blindly in +darkness. But they will be wrong indeed if they think that we realize +our blindness.</p> + +<p>A still greater pitfall before us is that we read history not as men, +but as gods, knowing the event. The name of Marathon to us implies not +struggle, not danger, but triumph; and as we think of the little band +of Athenians defiling from the mountains and looking on the sea, with +the utmost determination we cannot quite enter into their thoughts. Of +how little avail must have seemed this handful of lives, their last +and best gift to Athens, against the might and majesty of Persia +afloat before them. We know of that runner and of the rejoicing that +broke out upon his words; and at the very opening of the scene the +darkness is pierced by a gleam they could not see, a gleam which for +us will not go <span class="pagenum">p 223</span><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>out. Or think of Edwardes besieging the Sikhs in +Multan with his puny force, half of whom, when he began, were in +sympathy with the besieged. We know that the terrier's courage kept +the tiger in; and, conscious of that, we cannot really place ourselves +beside the young Engineer of 29, as with only one or two volunteers of +his own race round him he kept the field during those four burning +months in which British troops were not allowed to move. The tiger's +paw had crushed those whom he had hastened to avenge: he did not know, +as we know, that it was not to fall on him too.</p> + +<p>There is the same difficulty with the course of years. With the +history of four centuries before our minds, only by sustained effort +of thought can we realize that the men of 1514 looked onward to 1600, +as we to-day look towards 2000, as to a misty blank. We hardly trouble +our heads with the future. The air is full of speculations, of +attempts to forecast coming developments, the growth, the improvement +that is to be. But we do not really look forward, more than a little +way. The darkness is too dense: and besides, the needs of the present +are very urgent. As we think of the sixteenth century, behind Henry +VIII's breach with Rome, behind Edward VI's prayer-books, waits the +figure of Pole, steadfast, biding his time; coming to salute Mary with +the words of the angel to the Virgin; coming, as he hoped, to set +things right for ever. And behind Pole are the Elizabethan settlement +and the Puritans; ineradicable from our consciousness. To the +English<span class="pagenum">p 224</span><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>men of 1514 Henry VIII was the divine young king whose prowess +at Tournay, whose victory at Flodden seemed to his happy bride the +reward of his piety: the name of Luther was unknown: Pole was an +unconsidered child. Into their minds we cannot really enter unless we +can think away everything that has happened since and call up a mist +over the face of time.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnote</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Aen.</i> 6. 620.<span class="pagenum">p 225</span><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>PILGRIMAGES</h3> + + +<p>To go on pilgrimage is an instinct which appears in most religions and +at all ages. The idea underlying the practice seems to be that God is +more nigh in some spots than in others, the desire to seek Him in a +place where He may be found: for where God is, there men hope to win +remission of sins. So widespread is this sentiment that both in +Catholic Europe and in Asia it is not possible to travel far without +coming upon sites invested in this way with a special holiness. The +objects which draw men to peregrinate may be divided into three +classes: natural features which are in themselves remarkable; places +difficult of access, which can only be reached at cost of risk and +effort; and sites which have been rendered holy by the visitation of +God or the preservation of sacred relics. But this classification is +not always clearly defined; for the same object of pilgrimage often +falls into two categories at once.</p> + +<p>Of striking natural features—self-created objects of veneration, as +the Hindus call them—many kinds are found. There are chasms from +which issue mysterious vapours, stimulating prophecy, such as Delphi, +or Jwala Mukhi, sacred to Hindus and Sikhs, or the Grotta del Cane, +near Naples. Caves with <span class="pagenum">p 226</span><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>their dreadful gloom inspire a sense of +supernatural presence. Such are the cave of Trophonius in Boeotia, St. +Patrick's cave in Ireland, the grotto of Lourdes, Mariastein near +Basle, and the great fissure of Amarnath in Kashmir, with its icy +stalactite which is the special object of worship. Some of these add +to their sanctity by difficulty of access: St. Patrick's cave is on an +island in Lough Derg; Mariastein lies over the edge of a steep cliff; +Amarnath is hidden among lofty mountains at 17000 feet above the sea.</p> + +<p>Enormous stones, too, are apt to acquire holiness, arousing interest +by their vast mass; as though they could hardly have been brought into +independent existence, detached from the great earth, without some +direct intervention of divine power. Such are the stone at Delphi, or +the great rock, now enshrined in a Muhammadan mosque, which no doubt +caused men to go up to Jerusalem in Jebusite days, before Israel came +out of Egypt. (It is thought by pious Muhammadans to rest in the air +without support; their tradition being that at the time of Muhammad's +ascension into heaven this stone, which was his point of departure, +sought to accompany him but was detained by an angel. To the Hebrews +it was sacred as the rock on which Abraham was ready to offer Isaac; +and also as a stone which kept down within the earth the receded +waters of the Flood.) Meteoric stones have a sanctity as having fallen +from heaven: for example, the <i>lingam</i> of Jagannath at Puri, and the +famous black stone at Mecca.<span class="pagenum">p 227</span><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a> Wells also, for obvious reasons, tend to +attract worship.</p> + +<p>Of places inaccessible to which pilgrims toil, some are the sources of +rivers, like Gangotri, whence springs the Ganges: others are islands, +such as the Îles de Lérins off Cannes, Iona and Lindisfarne, or many +off the West coast of Ireland: or distant headlands, like the Spanish +Finisterre, or Rameshwaram, the extreme southern cape of the Indian +peninsula. More numerous are those which lie high up on mountains or +above precipitous rocks; such as the many peaks of Sinai, the lake on +Haramuk in Kashmir, the cliffs of Rocamadour in Central France, which +Piers Plowman mentions,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">1</a> or the grey cone of Athos. In a mild form +such places may frequently be seen, in the pilgrimage churches and +chapels which crown modest eminences beside many villages and towns of +Catholic Europe: akin no doubt to the high places and hill-altars +where lingered the heathen worship that the Israelite priests and +prophets were continually trying to exterminate.</p> + + +<p>The third class of pilgrimage sites is of those which are sanctified +through association with divinities or saints or relics: Gaya in +Bihar, with its pilgrims' way leading pious Buddhists by long flights +of steps up and down the circle of hills, like the great way at +Bologna; Jerusalem, Rome,<span class="pagenum">p 228</span><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a> Canterbury, Trèves; and Santiago (St. +James) de Compostella, rendered attractive also by remote distance. Or +a settlement of hermits in a wilderness might become a place of +pilgrimage, especially when death had heightened the fame enjoyed +during their lives: such as Gueremeh in Cappadocia, St. Bertrand among +the Pyrenees, or Einsiedeln above the Lake of Lucerne, where in 1487 +died Nicholas the Hermit, reputed to have lived for twenty years +without food. And we may make a special category for sacred houses; +the Bait-ullah or Qaabah at Mecca, the house of the Virgin at Loretto, +St. Columba's at Glencolumbkill, and the house in which St. Francis +died, in dei Angeli at Assisi.</p> + +<p>In many cases there is definite evidence to show that pilgrimage sites +remain sacred even when religions change. Mecca was a resort of +pilgrims in the first century B.C., 700 years before Muhammad. The +Central-Asian shrines visited by Buddhist pilgrims from China on their +way to India, Fa-hsien in the fifth and Hsuan-tsang in the seventh +century, are now appropriated to Islam. The so-called foot-mark on +Adam's Peak in Ceylon has been attributed by Brahmans to Siva, by +Buddhists to Sakyamuni, by Gnostics to Ieu, by Muhammadans to Adam, +and by the Portuguese Christians to either St. Thomas or the eunuch of +Candace, queen of Ethiopia.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">2</a></p> + +<p>In the age we are considering, we hear of Henry VII,<span class="pagenum">p 229</span><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a> Henry VIII, and +even Wolsey going as pilgrims to Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk; +and Colet took Erasmus with him to Canterbury. But the most renowned +places of Christian pilgrimage were Rome, Santiago, and Jerusalem. +Thither journeyed pilgrims in great numbers from all parts of Europe; +bishops and abbots and clergy, both regular and secular, noblemen of +every degree, wealthy merchants, scholars from the universities, civil +officials and courtiers, and occasionally even women. Piety or +superstition were doubtless the usual motives which led men to face +the very considerable perils of the journey; but besides this there +was probably in some cases the desire to see new scenes, and a love of +adventure for its own sake. Holiday travel was scarcely known in those +days. The discomforts were great, and there were still dangers of the +ordinary kind, even in the most settled parts of Europe. The beginning +of a story in one of More's English works shows how such travel was +regarded—as at least unwise, and perhaps extravagant: 'Now was there +a young gentleman which had married a merchant's wife. And having a +little wanton money which him thought burned out the bottom of his +purse, in the first year of his wedding he took his wife with him and +went over the sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and +France, and ride out one summer in those countries.' But in the +company of pilgrims there was some security, and accordingly the +adventurous availed themselves of such opportunities. Thus Peter Falk, +burgomaster <span class="pagenum">p 230</span><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>of Freiburg in Switzerland, went on pilgrimage to +Jerusalem in 1515 and again in 1519; and had he not died on the second +journey, he was projecting a visit to Portugal and Spain, perhaps to +Compostella. He was a keen, interested man. A companion, who was a +Cambridge scholar, describes him as taking an ape with him on board to +make fun for his shipmates; wearing a gun hanging at his belt, being +curious in novelties; carefully noting the names of places and the +situations of towns, and using red ink to mark his guide-book.</p> + +<p>The literature of pilgrimages is abundant, and consists primarily in +narratives written by pilgrims themselves. A few of these were printed +by the writers in their own day; many have been published by +antiquarians in isolated periodicals; and in the volumes of the +Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society there is a collection of +translations. Professor Röhricht of Innsbruck has made a wonderful +bibliography of German pilgrims to the Holy Land, replete with +information and references. The narratives necessarily traverse the +same ground, and repeat one another in many points; often reproducing +from an early source exactly identical information of the guide-book +order as to sites, routes, preparations, precautions, and so forth.</p> + +<p>We have three English narratives of Erasmus' period: by William Wey, +Fellow of Eton, who went to Jerusalem in 1458 and again in 1462; by +Sir Richard Guilford, a Court official who made the journey in 1506; +and by Sir Richard Torkington, <span class="pagenum">p 231</span><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>a parish priest from Norfolk, who went +in 1517. But besides these some Baedekers of the time survive; one +entitled 'Information for Pilgrims unto the Holy Land'<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">3</a> which was +printed by Wynkyn de Worde at Westminster in 1498, and again by him in +London in 1515 and 1524; another written by Hermann Kunig of Vach in +1495 and several times printed before 1521, 'Die Walfart und Strass zu +sant Jacob'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">4</a> which gives the distance of each stage and notes inns +and hospitals at which shelter might be found.</p> + +<p>The Compostella pilgrimage was popular for many reasons, and no doubt +began long before St. James had ousted St. Vincent from being +patron-saint of Spain. The spot was remote, literally then at the end +of the earth, 'beyond which', as another pilgrim says, 'there is no +land any more, only water'. There was a great stone, too, in which +later piety found the boat that had borne the saint's body from +Jerusalem. And there were islands to be visited, one a St. Michael's +Mount, round the shores of which should be gathered the cockle shells +that were the emblems of pilgrimage duly performed: though the less +active bought them at stalls high-heaped outside the cathedral doors, +and the rich had them copied in silver and gold.</p> + +<p>To the 'end of the earth' Northern Europe went <span class="pagenum">p 232</span><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>most easily by sea, +all others by land. Convoys gathered in Dartmouth in the lengthening +days of spring, and crept along Slapton sands and round the unlighted +Start, until there was no land any more, and summoning their courage +they must steer out into the Bay of Biscay. This way went John of +Gaunt to St. James in 1386, to be crowned King of Castile in the great +Romanesque cathedral; and so, too, Chaucer must have pictured the Wyf +of Bath visiting 'Galice'.</p> + +<p>But Kunig's route lay overland: from Einsiedeln to Romans and Valence; +over the Rhone by the famed bridge of the Holy Spirit, which even +kings must cross on foot, to Uzès, Nîmes and Béziers; and then +westwards into the sandy scant-populated lands where the track was +scarcely to be found, except for the pilgrims' graves, often nameless, +sometimes perhaps marked with such simple inscriptions as may still be +seen on trees and crosses among the forests of the Alps. A Pyrenean +pass led him to Roncesvalles; at Logroño the ancient bridge brought +him over the Ebro, and so by Burgos and Leon to his journey's end, +blessing the patrons—Kings of France and England and Navarre, Dukes +of Burgundy—who had raised shelters for poor pilgrims on the way, and +above all the Catholic Kings whose munificence had built a huge serai +to welcome them in Santiago itself.</p> + +<p>For Jerusalem the usual point of departure was Venice. Pilgrims +congregated there from all parts of Western and Central Europe, and +there were <span class="pagenum">p 233</span><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>regular services of ships, sailing mostly in the summer +months. The competition between shipmasters, or 'patrons', to secure +custom was very keen. Thus Torkington records: 'On 3 May the patron of +a new goodly ship with other merchants desired us pilgrims that we +would come aboard and see his ship within: which ship lay afore St. +Mark's Church. We all went in, and there they made us goodly cheer +with diverse subtilties, as comfits and march-panes and sweet wines. +Also 5 May the patron of another ship which lay in the sea five miles +from Venice, desired us all pilgrims that we would come and see his +ship. And the same day we all went with him; and there he provided for +us a marvellous good dinner, where we had all manner of good victuals +and wine.' Ultimately, Torkington sailed in a new ship of 800 +tons,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">5</a> under a patron named Thomas Dodo. Only three days later +another ship set sail with a large party of German pilgrims.</p> + +<p>In all ages a great ship is a great wonder, representing for the time +the final triumph of the shipwright's art. The monster vessel that set +Lucian's friend dreaming at the Piraeus had but one mast; yet the +curious from Athens flocked down to see her extraordinary proportions +and to admire the sailors who had beaten up in her from Egypt against +the Etesian winds in only seventy days. She was <span class="pagenum">p 234</span><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>the ship of the hour: +anything greater scarcely conceivable. Again, Macaulay returning from +India in 1837 compares his comfortable sailing-ship to a huge floating +hotel. Burton on his way to Mecca in 1853, when steaming across the +Bay of Biscay in a vessel of 2000 tons, prophesies that sea-sickness +is at an end now that such monsters ply across the ocean and laugh at +the storm. How puny do they seem beside the Olympic and Imperator, at +which we in our turn gaze wonderingly and think that engineering can +no further go. It is amusing to find the same proud admiration in a +traveller of 1517: 'Our ship was so great that when we came to land, +we could not run her upon the beach like a galley, but must remain in +deep water', the passengers going ashore in boats.</p> + +<p>Quite a number of contracts between patron and pilgrim have been +preserved. Some of the terms are as follows: 'that the ship shall be +properly armed and manned, and carry a barber and a physician; that it +shall only touch at the usual ports, and not stay more than three days +at Cyprus, because of malaria there.' The Holy Land was in Turkish +hands, and the Turks, though willing to receive the pilgrims, for the +sake of the money they brought into the country, were not sorry to +have opportunities of teaching the 'Christian dogs' their place. The +authorities maintained some semblance of order and justice, but took +little trouble to control their underlings; and in consequence the +pilgrims suffered all kinds of minor oppressions. It is not surprising +<span class="pagenum">p 235</span><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>therefore to find that the contract stipulated that the patron should +accompany them on all their journeyings in the Holy Land, even as far +as the Jordan, and that he should pay all the tolls and tributes for +them, except the small tips, just as Cook does to-day, and also make +all arrangements for such pilgrims as wished to go on to Sinai. In +view of this last possibility the stipulation was sometimes made that +only half the passage-money should be paid at Venice; the other half +at Jaffa on the return-journey. If a pilgrim died on the journey, the +patron might not bury him at sea, unless there was no immediate +prospect of reaching land.</p> + +<p>The voyage outwards could be done in a month, but often took longer if +the weather was bad, or if long halts were made at Rhodes and Cyprus. +On shore the pilgrims worked as hard as any 'conducted' party to-day, +being herded about to one sacred site after another, to the Holy +Sepulchre, the vale of Josaphat, the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, the +mountains of Judea, the Jordan, and receiving in each place 'clean +absolution'. Twelve or thirteen days was a fair time to allow for all +this, including one or two days each way between Jaffa and Jerusalem; +but Guilford's party were given 22. On the other hand we hear of +another company which did it in nine.</p> + +<p>The Holy Land guide-book of which we spoke is full of practical advice +of all sorts: about distances, rates of exchange, terms of contract +with a ship-master, tributes to be paid to the Saracens, and finally +<span class="pagenum">p 236</span><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>vocabularies of useful words, in Moresco, Greek, Turkish. Here are a +few specimens:</p> + +<p>'If ye shall go in a galley, make your covenant with the patron +betime; and choose you a place in the said galley in the overmost +stage. For in the lowest under it is right evil and smouldering hot +and stinking.' The fare in this to Jaffa and back from Venice, +including food, was 50 ducats, 'for to be in a good honest place, and +to have your ease in the galley and also to be cherished'. In a +carrick the fare was only 30 ducats: there 'choose you a chamber as +nigh the middes of the ship as ye may; for there is least rolling or +tumbling, to keep your brain and stomach in temper'. Amongst other +arrangements to be made with the patron, 'Covenant that ye come not at +Famagust in Cyprus for no thing. For many Englishmen and other also +have died. For that air is so corrupt there about, and the water there +also. Also see that the said patron give you every day hot meat twice +at two meals, the forenoon at dinner and the afternoon at supper. And +that the wine that ye shall drink be good, and the water fresh and not +stinking, if ye come to have better, and also the biscuit.'</p> + +<p>The traveller is recommended to buy in Venice a padlock with which to +keep his cabin locked, three barrels, two for wine and one for water, +and a chest to hold his stores and things: 'For though ye shall be at +table with the patron, yet notwithstanding, ye shall full ofttimes +have need to your own victuals, as bread, cheese, eggs, wine and other +<span class="pagenum">p 237</span><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>to make your collation. For some time ye shall have feeble bread and +feeble wine and stinking water, so that many times ye will be right +fain to eat of your own.' Besides this he will want 'confections and +confortatives, green ginger, almonds, rice, figs, raisins great and +small, pepper, saffron, cloves and loaf sugar'. For equipment he +should take 'a little caldron, a frying-pan, dishes, plates, saucers, +cups of glass, a grater for bread and such necessaries'. 'Also ye +shall buy you a bed beside St. Mark's Church in Venice, where ye shall +have a featherbed, a mattress, a pillow, two pair sheets and a quilt' +for three ducats. 'And when ye come again, bring the same bed again, +and ye shall have a ducat and a half for it again, though it be broken +and worn. And mark his house and his name that ye bought it of, +against ye come to Venice.' Further needs are 'a cage for half a dozen +of hens or chickens' and 'half a bushel of millet seed for them': also +'a barrel for a siege for your chamber in the ship. It is full +necessary, if ye were sick, that ye come not in the air.' The malady +here considered is probably not that which is usually associated with +the sea; though pilgrims were not immune from this any more than from +other troubles.</p> + +<p>On coming to haven towns, 'if ye shall tarry there three days, go +betimes to land, for then ye may have lodging before another; for it +will be taken up anon'. Similarly at Jaffa in choosing a mount for the +ride up to Jerusalem 'be not too long behind your fellows; for an ye +come betime, ye may choose <span class="pagenum">p 238</span><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>the best mule' and 'ye shall pay no more +for the best than for the worst'. 'Also take good heed to your knives +and other small japes that ye bear upon you: for the Saracens will go +talking by you and make good cheer; but they will steal from you if +they may.' 'Also when ye shall ride to flume Jordan, take with you out +of Jerusalem bread, wine, water, hard eggs and cheese and such +victuals as ye may have for two days. For by all that way there is +none to sell.'</p> + +<p>Let us turn now to an individual narrative,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">6</a> that of Felix Fabri, a +learned and sensible Dominican of Ulm (1442-1502). He had already made +the journey once, out of piety, in 1480, with the company mentioned +above, which had only nine days on shore. He was desirous to go also +to St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai because she was his patroness-saint, +to whom he had devoted himself on entering the Dominican order on her +day (25 November) in 1452; and accordingly for the second time, in +1483, he procured from the Pope the permission, which every one +needed, to visit the Holy Land: those that went without this being +ipso facto excommunicate, until they did penance before the Warden of +the Franciscans at Jerusalem. He gives us a picture of all that he +went through, in the most minute details. During the day we see the +pilgrims crowded together on deck, some drinking and singing, others +playing dice or cards or that unfailing pastime for ship-life, <span class="pagenum">p 239</span><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>chess. +Talking, reading, telling their beads, writing diaries, sleeping, +hunting in their clothes for vermin; so they spend their day. Some for +exercise climb up the rigging, or jump, or brandish heavy weights: +some drift about from one party to another, just watching what is +going on. Our good friar complains of the habits of the noblemen, who +gambled a great deal and were always making small wagers, which they +paid with a cup of Malmsey wine. He also tells how the patron, to +beguile the journey, produced a great piece of silk, which he offered +as a prize for the pilgrims to play for.</p> + +<p>At meal times, to which they are summoned by trumpets, the pilgrims +race on to the poop: for they cannot all find seats, and those that +come late have to sit among the crew. Noblemen, who have their own +servants, are too fastidious to mingle with the crowd; and pay extra +to the cooks,—poor, sweating fellows, toiling crossly in a tiny +galley—for food which their servants bring to them on the main-deck, +or even below. After the pilgrims, the captain and his council dine in +state off silver dishes; and the captain's wine is tasted before he +drinks it. At night all sleep below, in a cabin the dirt of which is +indescribable. They wrangle over the places where they shall spread +their beds, and knives are drawn. Some obstinately keep their candles +burning, even though missiles come flying. Others talk noisily; and +the drunken, even when quiet, snore. No wonder the poor friar longed +for the peace of his own cell at home in Ulm.<span class="pagenum">p 240</span><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a></p> + +<p>Fabri has much practical advice to give. He bids his reader be careful +in going up and down the companion, veritably a ladder in those times; +not to sit down upon ropes, or on places covered with pitch, which +often melts in the sun; not to get in the way of the crew and make +them angry; not to drop things overboard or let his hat be blown off. +'Let the pilgrim beware of carrying a light upon deck at night; for +the mariners dislike this strangely, and cannot endure lights when +they are at work.' Small things are apt to be stolen, if left about: +for on board ship men have no other way to get what they want. 'While +you are writing, if you lay down your pen and turn your face away, +your pen will be lost, even though you be among men whom you know: and +if you lose it, you will have exceeding great trouble in getting +another.'</p> + +<p>To Fabri's annoyance the ship's company included one woman, an elderly +lady, who came on board at the last moment with her husband, a +Fleming. 'She seemed,' he says, 'when we first saw her, to be restless +and inquisitive; as indeed she was. She ran hither and thither +incessantly about the ship, and was full of curiosity, wanting to hear +and see everything, and made herself hated exceedingly. Her husband +was a decent man, and for his sake many held their tongues; but had he +not been there, it would have gone hard with her. This woman was a +thorn in the eyes of us all.' His delight was great, when she was left +behind at Rhodes, having strayed away to some church outside the town. +'Except her <span class="pagenum">p 241</span><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>husband, no one was sorry.' But their peace was +short-lived, for this active lady procured a boat and overtook them at +Cyprus; and Fabri could not help pitying the straits she had been put +to. We may rather admire her courage in undertaking the pilgrimage at +all, and especially the resource which she displayed on this very +unpleasant emergency.</p> + +<p>On the eve of St. John Baptist, after dark, the sailors made St. +John's fire; stringing forty horn lanterns on a rope to the maintop, +amid shouts and trumpeting and clapping of hands. Upon which Fabri +makes this curious remark: 'Before this I never had beheld the +practice of clapping the hands for joy, as it is said in Psalm 46. Nor +could I have believed that the general clapping of many men's hands +would have such great power to move the human mind to rejoicing.' With +some misgiving he goes on to record that after the festivity the ship +was left to drive of itself, both pilgrims and sailors betaking +themselves to rest.</p> + +<p>At Cyprus they had a few days, and Fabri led some of his companions to +the summit of Mount Stavrovuni, near their port Salinae (Citium by the +salt lakes of Larnaka), to visit the Church of Holy Cross—the cross +of Dismas, the thief on the right hand, said to have been brought by +that great finder of relics, the Empress Helena. By the way he was +careful to explain that they must expect no miracle: 'we shall see +none in Jerusalem, so how can there be one here?' In the church he +read them a mass and preached, and at departing rang <span class="pagenum">p 242</span><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>the church bell, +saying that they would hear no bells again till they returned to +Christendom.</p> + +<p>When they set sail again, all eyes were turned Eastwards: happy would +he be who should first sight the land of their desire. Fabri crept +forward to the prow of the galley and sat for hours upon the horns, +straining his gaze across the summer seas which whispered around the +ship's stem: almost, he confesses, cursing night when it fell and cut +off all hope till dawn. Before sunrise he was there again, and on 1 +July the watchman in the maintop gave the glad shout. The pilgrims +flocked up on deck and sang Te Deum with bounding joy. It was a tumult +of harsh voices; but to Fabri in his happiness their various +dissonance made sweet harmony.</p> + +<p>On reaching Jaffa they lay for some days awaiting permission to land. +At length all was ready. The ship's officers collected the tips due to +them, and the pilgrims were put on shore: falling to kiss the ground +as they struggled out of their boats through the surf. One by one they +were brought before Turkish officials, who took record of their names +and their fathers' names—an occasion on which noblemen often tried to +pass themselves off as of low degree, to escape the higher fees due. +Fabri notes that his Christian name, Felix, gave the official +recorders some trouble: that he pronounced it again and again for +them, but they could get nothing at all like it. Each pilgrim, when +entered, was hurried off by Saracens, like sheep into a pen, and +thrust into a row of caves along the sea-shore, known as St. Peter's<span class="pagenum">p 243</span><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a> +Cellars. If they had suffered on board ship, their sufferings were +multiplied now tenfold. Strict watch was kept upon them, and no one +was allowed to leave the caves. Within, the ground was covered with +semi-liquid filth. From the ship, as they lay waiting to land, Fabri +had noticed the Saracens running in and out of the caves; and he +argued that they were intentionally defiling them, to make it more +disagreeable to the Christian dogs. But this seems hardly necessary. +There had doubtless been other pilgrims before them. Droves of mankind +can tread ground into a foul swamp as cattle tread a farmyard. With +their feet the poor pilgrims managed to collect some of the impurities +together into a heap in the centre; each man clearing enough space to +lie down upon. Fabri found solace to his offended senses in thinking +of his dear Lord lying in a hard manger, amongst all the defilements +of the oxen.</p> + +<p>After a time came traders selling rushes and branches of trees to make +beds, unguents and perfumes and frankincense to burn, and attar of +roses from Damascus. Others brought bread and water and lettuces and +hot cakes made with eggs, which the pilgrims gladly bought; and, as +the day wore on, with the much going to and fro the ground was slowly +dried under their feet. At nightfall appeared a man armed, whom they +took to be the owner of the caves. With menaces he extorted from each +of them a penny, and in the morning again, before they could come out, +another penny; to their <span class="pagenum">p 244</span><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>great indignation against the captains and +dragoman, who were sleeping in tents higher up the hill, and had by +contract undertaken all these charges. So long as they were there, the +pilgrims suffered continual annoyance from the Turks, who ran in among +them pilfering, breaking any wine bottles they found, and provoking +them to blows, in order to secure the fines of which the pilgrims +would then be mulcted. One young man was so disgusted at it all that +he went back on board and gave up his pilgrimage; living with the crew +till the party came back from Jerusalem. They were indeed entirely in +the hands of the Turks. It was not a case of moving when they were +inclined. When the Turks wished, they were allowed to go forward: till +then they were confined like prisoners. No date was fixed: the +pilgrims just had to wait in patience, hoping that tomorrow or +tomorrow or tomorrow would see them start.</p> + +<p>Fabri records, however, that there was some justice available. Petty +wrongs must go unredressed; but a pilgrim who had been gulled into +buying coloured glass as gems to the value of five ducats, recovered +his money by complaining to the local governor. A subordinate came +down, took the money from the fraudulent trader by force, and restored +it to its owner. Again Fabri testifies to the careful way in which the +escort protected the company from molestation on its way up to +Jerusalem. He is also at pains to refute the idea that the Turks +compelled them to ride on donkeys, lest the land should be <span class="pagenum">p 245</span><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>defiled by +Christian feet: rather, he says, it is for our comfort and +convenience. And indeed there was sufficient refutation in the +regulation which compelled them to dismount on reaching any village +and proceed through its narrow streets on foot.</p> + +<p>Whilst waiting at Jaffa, Fabri to his great delight fell in with the +donkey-boy who had gone up with him three years before; and was able +to secure him again. The boy welcomed him, especially as Fabri had +brought him a present of two iron stirrups from Ulm; and all the way +served him most faithfully, picking him figs and grapes from the +gardens they passed, sharing water and biscuit, and even giving him a +goad for his mount—a concession which was not allowed to the ordinary +pilgrim.</p> + +<p>Their first march was to Ramlah, and on arrival they were penned for +the day into a great serai, built by a Duke of Burgundy. It was still +early, only 9 o'clock, for they had started before sunrise. After +barring the gate to keep out the Turks, they set up an altar and +celebrated mass. A sermon was preached by the Franciscan Warden of +Jerusalem, in the course of which he gave them advice as to their +behaviour towards those to whose tolerance they owed their position +there—counsels which forty years later the fiery spirit of Loyola +burned to set at nought, till the Franciscans were thankful to get him +safely out of Jerusalem without open flouting of the masters—: not to +go about alone; not to enter mosques or step over graves; not to +insult Saracens when at prayer or by touching their beards; not to +<span class="pagenum">p 246</span><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>return blow for blow, but to make formal complaints; not to drink +wine openly; to observe decorum and not rush to be first at the sacred +sites; and generally to be circumspect in presence of the infidels, +lest they mark what was done amiss and say, 'O thou bad Christian', a +phrase which was familiar to them in both Italian and German. He +further charged them that they must on no account chip fragments off +the Holy Sepulchre and other sacred buildings; nor write their names +or coats of arms upon the walls; and finally, he advised them to be +careful in any money-transactions with Muhammadans, and to have no +dealings at all with either Eastern Christians or German Jews.</p> + +<p>After mass was over, they opened the gate and found the outer court +filled with traders who brought them excellent food: fowls ready +roasted, puddings of rice and milk, capital bread and eggs, and fruit +of every kind, grapes, pomegranates, apples, oranges (pomerancia), +lemons and water-melons; and in the afternoon they were allowed to go +and have hot baths in the splendid marble hamáms. In the evening came +a rumour that they were to proceed. They packed up their bundles and +sat waiting for an hour or two; and then the rumour proved to be +false. Meanwhile the sleeping-mats which they had hired for their stay +had been rolled up by their owners and carried off; and the pilgrims +had to sleep as best they might. Fabri made his way up on to the roof +and passed the night there.</p> + +<p>Waking early before sunrise he was much impressed <span class="pagenum">p 247</span><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>to observe the +devotion of the Muhammadans at their morning prayers: the long rows of +kneeling figures, swaying forward together in reverent prostration, +the grave faces and solemn tones. Surely, as he looked, he must have +felt that God, even his God, was the God of all the earth, and would +be a Father to those that sought Him so earnestly. At any rate he +turned away, with a strong sense of contrast, to his own comrades +waking to the day with laughing chatter and no thought of prayer. An +episode of this halt was a visit from a Saracen fruit-seller upon whom +Fabri looked with curiosity. Then, taking the man's hat, he spat upon +it with every expression of disgust at its Saracen badge. The man, +instead of resenting it, looked cautiously round and then spat on the +badge himself, at the same time making the sign of the Cross. He was a +Christian who had been forced into conversion, probably in expiation +of some crime; and now hated his life. It was no uncommon thing. As +their procession wound through village streets, the pilgrims would +often see furtive signs made to them from inner chambers: unwilling +converts signalling the symbol that they loved, to eyes that were sure +to be sympathetic.</p> + +<p>As Fabri made his way along, his heart was glad. His foot was on holy +ground, and at every step new associations came floating into his +thoughts. These were the mountains to which Moses had looked from +Pisgah; here Jephthah's daughter had made plaint for her young life; +hither had come Mary in the <span class="pagenum">p 248</span><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>joy of the angel's message; the stones on +which he stumbled might have felt the feet of Christ. At the hill +called Mount Joy they should have seen Jerusalem; but the air was +thick, and they could only make out the Mount of Olives. So they +toiled on along their dusty way, between dry stone walls and thirsty +vegetable-gardens, until, as they reached the crest of a low ridge, +suddenly like a flash of light it shone before them, the City, the +Holy City.</p> + +<p>At once their footsteps quickened with new life; and when at length +they found themselves in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy +Sepulchre, their pent-up emotions burst forth, into tears and groans, +sweet wailings and deep sighs. Some lay powerless on the ground, +forsaken by their strength and to all appearances dead. Others drifted +from one corner to another, beating their breasts, as though urged by +an evil spirit. Some knelt bare-kneed; as they prayed, stretching out +their arms like a rood. Others were shaken with such violent sobs that +they could only sit down and hold their heads in their hands. Some +lost all command of themselves, and, forgetting how to behave, sought +to please God with strange and childish gestures. On the other hand, +Fabri noted some who stood quite unmoved, and merely mocked at the +strange display: dull, unprofitable souls he calls them, brute beasts, +not having the spirit of God. Their self-contained temperament +misliked him, especially as thereafter they held aloof from those who +had given way to such enthusiasm or, as they felt it, weakness.<span class="pagenum">p 249</span><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a></p> + +<p>We cannot company with the party to all the numerous sites that piety +bade them visit. It was prodigiously fatiguing for them under the July +sun, and the ranks grew thin as the weaker spirits fell out dead +tired, to rest awhile in hospitable cloister or by cooling well. Fabri +found it very toilsome to struggle after mental abstraction, to rise +to such heights as he desired of devotion and comprehension of all the +holy influences around him, to seize every opportunity of +contemplation and lose nothing; being soon thoroughly exhausted with +his bodily exertions. Some alleviation there was: when holy +women—nuns of his own Order, who had a house in Jerusalem—washed his +scapular and tunic for him, and wrought other works of charity for +which he was very grateful.</p> + +<p>The pilgrims had been warned not to wander away from their party. One +day as they went to the Dead Sea, they halted at a monastery; and +Fabri was tempted to ramble off alone to inspect a cliff which had +been hollowed out by hermits into innumerable caves. It was a +precipitous place; and at one point, where the path was narrow and the +cliff fell sheer below, he encountered an Eastern Christian. Seeing +that Fabri was afraid, the fellow began to trifle with him and +demanded money; and in the end Fabri was obliged to open his slender +purse. 'Ever since then', he says, 'I have abhorred the company of +Christians of that sort more than that of Saracens and Arabs, and have +trusted them less. Though perhaps he would not have thrown me <span class="pagenum">p 250</span><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>down +the precipice, even had I given him nothing, yet it was wicked of him +to play with me in a place of such danger. If an Arab had done so, I +should have been pleased at his play, and should have held him to be a +good pagan; but I believe no good of that Christian.' When he rejoined +his party, the patron told him that the Eastern Christians were least +to be trusted of any men.</p> + +<p>On arrival at Jordan there was much excitement. To bathe in that +ancient river was thought to renew youth, and so all the pilgrims were +eager to immerse themselves; even women of 80—a rather doubtful +figure—plunging into the lukewarm stream. Some had brought bells to +be blessed with Jordan water, others strips of material for clothes; +and wealthier members of the party jumped in as they were, in order +that the robes they had on might bring them luck in the future. Three +things were forbidden to the pilgrims: (1) to swim across the stream, +because in the excitement of emotion and amongst such crowds +individuals had often been drowned; (2) to dive in, because the bottom +was muddy; (3) to carry away phials of Jordan water. The first +regulation was openly violated. On his first journey Fabri had swum +across, but on the return had been seized with panic and nearly +drowned. So this time he contented himself with drawing up his +garments round his neck and sitting down in the shallow water among +the crowd who were splashing about and jestingly baptizing one +another. The prohibition of Jordan water was to appease the <span class="pagenum">p 251</span><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>shipmen; +for it was thought to cause storms when carried over the sea.</p> + +<p>We have not time to follow Fabri in more detail. On 24 August he left +Jerusalem with a small company of pilgrims who had not been deterred +from undertaking the journey to Sinai. There was much dispute about +the route they should follow. Some were for going by sea to +Alexandria, others wished to march down the sea coast; but finally +they made up their minds to go straight South across the desert. +Starting from Gaza on 9 September they reached St. Catherine's on the +22nd. Five days of very hard work sufficed for them to see all the +sacred sites and ascend the many towering peaks; and here again Fabri +impressed upon his companions that the days of miracles were over, and +that in these evil times God would show no more. On 27 September they +set forth again, and journeying through Midian reached Cairo on 8 +October; having picked up on the shore of the Red Sea oyster shells +which should be an abiding witness of their pilgrimage. On 5 November +they set sail from Alexandria; but summer had departed from the sea, +and the winds blew obstinately. Three times they beat up to Cape +Malea, before they could round the point and make sail for the North; +and it was not till 8 Jan. 1484 that they landed in Venice. The +pilgrimage was over after seven months, and with what Guilford's +chaplain calls 'large departing of our money'.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +<span class="i0">Right so, if thou be religious, renne thou never ferthere</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To Rome ne to Roquemadoure: but as thy rule techeth,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Holde thee to thine obedience: that heighway is to heaven.</span> +</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> J.E. Tennent's <i>Ceylon</i> (1860), ii. 133, quoted in +Yule's <i>Marco Polo</i>, ed. H. Cordier, 1903, ii. 321.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> It has been reproduced with an introduction by Mr. E.G. +Duff, London, 1893.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> It has been reproduced with an introduction by Professor +K. Häbler, Strasburg, 1899.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> If the figure is correct, she was a large vessel for the +times; for a century later, the <i>Pelican</i>, in which Drake sailed round +the world, was only 100 tons, the <i>Squirrel</i>, in which Sir Humfrey +Gilbert was cast away in an Atlantic gale, only 10.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It has been translated by Mr. Aubrey Stewart for the +Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, vols. 7-10, 1892-3.<span class="pagenum">p 252</span><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE</h3> + + +<p>Hitherto we have viewed the age mainly through the personality of +individuals. It remains to consider some of the features of the +Renaissance when it had spread across the Alps—to France, to Spain, +to Switzerland, to Germany, to England—and some of the contrasts that +it presents with the earlier movement in Italy. The story of the +Italian Renaissance has often been told; and we need not go back upon +it here. On the side of the revival of learning it was without doubt +the great age. The importance of its discoveries, the fervour of its +enthusiasm have never been equalled. But though it remains +pre-eminent, the period that followed it has an interest of its own +which is hardly less keen and presents the real issues at stake in a +clearer light. Awakened Italy felt itself the heiress of Rome, and +thus patriotism coloured its enthusiasm for the past. To the rest of +Western Europe this source of inspiration was not open. They were +compelled to examine more closely the aims before them; and thus +attained to a calmer and truer estimate of what they might hope to +gain from the study of the classics. It was not the revival of lost +glories, thoughts of a world held in the bonds of <span class="pagenum">p 253</span><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>peace: in those +dreams the Transalpines had only the part of the conquered. Rather the +classics led them back to an age before Christianity; and pious souls +though they were, the scholar's instinct told them that they would +find there something to learn. Christianity had fixed men's eyes on +the future, on their own salvation in the life to come; and had +trained all knowledge, even Aristotle, to serve that end. In the great +days of Greece and Rome the world was free from this absorbing +preoccupation; and inquiring spirits were at liberty to find such +truth as they could, not merely the truth that they wished or must.</p> + +<p>Another point of difference between Italy and the Transalpines is in +the resistance offered to the Renaissance in the two regions. The +scholastic philosophy and theology was a creation of the North. The +greatest of the Schoolmen found their birth or training in France or +Germany, at the schools of Paris and Cologne; and with the names of +Duns, Hales, Holcot, Occam, Burley and Bradwardine our own islands +stand well to the fore. The situation is thus described by Aldus in a +letter written to the young prince of Carpi in October 1499, to +rejoice over some translations from the Greek just arrived from +Linacre in England: 'Of old it was barbarous learning that came to us +from Britain; it conquered Italy and still holds our castles. But now +they send us learned eloquence; with British aid we shall chase away +barbarity and come by our own again.' The teaching of the Schoolmen +made its way into Italy, but had <span class="pagenum">p 254</span><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>little vogue; and with the Church, +through such Popes as Nicholas V, on the side of the Renaissance, +resistance almost disappeared. The humanists charging headlong +dissipated their foes in a moment, but were soon carried beyond the +field of battle, to fall into the hands of the forces of reaction. +Across the Alps, on the other hand, the Church and the universities +stood together and looked askance at the new movement, dreading what +it might bring forth. In consequence the ground was only won by slow +and painful efforts, but each advance, as it was made, was secured.</p> + +<p>The position may be further illustrated by comparing the first +productions of the press on either side of the Alps: in the early +days, before the export trade had developed, and when books were +produced mainly for the home market. The Germans who brought the art +down into Italy, Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome, Wendelin and Jenson +at Venice, printed scarcely anything that was not classical: Latin +authors and Latin translations from the Greek. Up in the North the +first printers of Germany, Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz, Mentelin at +Strasburg, rarely overstepped the boundaries of the mediaeval world +that was passing away or the modern that was taking its place.</p> + +<p>The appearance of the <i>Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum</i> in 1515 exposed +the scholastic teachers and their allies in the Church to such +widespread ridicule that it is not easy for us now to realize the +position which those dignitaries still held when<span class="pagenum">p 255</span><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a> Erasmus was young. +The stream of contempt poured upon them by the triumphant humanists +obscures the merit of their system as a gigantic and complete engine +of thought. Under its great masters, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, +Duns Scotus, scholasticism had been rounded into an instrument capable +of comprehending all knowledge and of expressing every refinement of +thought; and, as has been well said, the acute minds that created it, +if only they had extended their inquiries into natural science, might +easily have anticipated by centuries the discoveries of modern +days.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">1</a> In expressing their distinctions the Schoolmen had thrown to +the winds the restraints of classical Latin and the care of elegance; +and with many of them language had degenerated into jargon. But in +their own eyes their position was unassailable. Their philosophy was +founded on Aristotle; and while they were proud of their master, they +were prouder still of the system they had created in his name: and +thus they felt no impulse to look backwards to the past.</p> + +<p>In the matter of language they had been led by a spirit of reaction. +The literature of later classical times had sacrificed matter to form; +and the schools had been dominated by teachers who trained boys to +declaim in elegant periods on any subject whatever, regardless of its +content; thus carrying to an extreme the precepts with which the great +orators had enforced the importance of style. The Schoolmen swung the +pendulum back, letting sound and froth <span class="pagenum">p 256</span><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>go and thinking only of their +subject-matter, despising the classics. In their turn they were +confronted by the humanists, who reasserted the claims of form.</p> + +<p>There was sense in the humanist contention. It is very easy to say the +right thing in the wrong way; in other spheres than diplomacy the +choice of language is important. Words have a history of their own, +and often acquire associations independent of their meaning. Rhythm, +too, and clearness need attention. An unbalanced sentence goes +haltingly and jars; an ambiguous pronoun causes the reader to stumble. +An ill-written book, an ill-worded speech fail of their effects; it is +not merely by sympathy and character that men persuade. But of course +the humanists pushed the matter too far. Pendulums do not reach the +repose of the mean without many tos and fros. Elegance is good, but +the art of reasoning is not to be neglected. Of the length to which +they went Ascham's method of instruction in the <i>Scholemaster</i> (1570) +is a good example. He wished his scholar to translate Cicero into +English, and then from the English to translate back into the actual +words of the Latin. The Ciceronians did not believe that the same +thing could be well said in many ways; rather there was one way which +transcended all others, and that Cicero had attained. Erasmus, +however, was no Ciceronian; and one of the reasons why he won such a +hold upon his own and subsequent generations was that, more than all +his contemporaries, he succeeded in establishing a reasonable <span class="pagenum">p 257</span><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>accord +between the claims of form and matter in literature.</p> + +<p>In their neglect of the classics the Schoolmen had a powerful ally. +For obvious reasons the early and the mediaeval Church felt that much +of classical literature was injurious to the minds of the young, and +in consequence discouraged the use of it in schools. The classics were +allowed to perish, and their place was taken by Christian poets such +as Prudentius or Juvencus, by moralizations of Aesop, patchwork +compositions known as 'centos' on Scriptural themes, and the like. The +scholars, therefore, who went to Italy and came home to the North +carrying the new enthusiasm, had strenuous opposition to encounter. +The Schoolmen considered them impertinent, the Church counted them +immoral. To us who know which way the conflict ended, the savage blows +delivered by the humanists seem mere brutality; they lash their fallen +foes with what appears inhuman ferocity. But the truth is that the +struggle was not finished until well into the sixteenth century. Biel +of Tubingen, 'the last of the Schoolmen', lived till 1495. Between +1501 and 1515 a single printer, Wolff of Basle, produced five massive +volumes of the <i>Summae</i> of mediaeval Doctors. Through the greater +part, therefore, of Erasmus' life the upholders of the old systems and +ideals, firmly entrenched by virtue of possession, succeeded in +maintaining their supremacy in the schools.</p> + +<p>Between the two periods of the revival of learning, <span class="pagenum">p 258</span><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>the Italian and +the Transalpine, a marked line is drawn by the invention of printing, +<i>c.</i> 1455: when the one movement had run half its course, the other +scarcely begun. The achievements of the press in the diffusion of +knowledge are often extolled; and some of the resulting good and evil +is not hard to see. But the paramount service rendered to learning by +the printer's art was that it made possible a standard of critical +accuracy which was so much higher than what was known before as to be +almost a new creation. When books were manuscripts, laboriously +written out one at a time, there could be no security of identity +between original and copy; and even when a number of copies were made +from the same original, there was a practical certainty that there +would be no absolute uniformity among them. Mistakes were bound to +occur; not always at the same point, but here in one manuscript, there +in another. Or again, when two unrelated copies of the same book were +brought together, there was an antecedent probability that examination +would reveal differences: so that in general it was impossible to feel +that a fellow-scholar working on the same author was using the same +text.</p> + +<p>Even with writers of one's own day uniformity was hardly to be +attained. Not uncommonly, as a mark of attention, an author revised +manuscript copies of his works, which were to be presented to friends; +and besides correcting the copyists' errors, might add or cut out or +alter passages according <span class="pagenum">p 259</span><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>to his later judgement. Subsequent copies +would doubtless follow his revision, and then the process might be +repeated; with the result that a reader could not tell to what stage +in the evolution of a work the text before him might belong: whether +it represented the earliest form of composition or the final form +reached perhaps many years afterwards. To understand the conditions +under which mediaeval scholars worked, it is of the utmost importance +to realize this state of uncertainty and flux.</p> + +<p>Not that in manuscript days there was indifference to accuracy. +Serious scholars and copyists laid great stress upon it. With +insistent fervour they implored one another to be careful, and to +collate what had been copied. But there are limits to human powers. +Collation is a dull business; and unless done with minute attention, +cannot be expected to yield perfect correctness. When a man has copied +a work of any length, it is hard for him to collate it with the +original slowly. Physically, of course, he easily might: but the +spirit is weak, and, weary of the ground already traversed once, urges +him to hurry forward, with the inevitable result.</p> + +<p>With a manuscript, too, the possible reward might well seem scarcely +worth the labour; for how could any permanence be ensured for critical +work? A scholar might expend his efforts over a corrupt author, might +compare his own manuscript with others far and near, and at length +arrive at a text really more correct. And yet what hope had he <span class="pagenum">p 260</span><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>that +his labour was not lost? His manuscript would pass at his death into +other hands and might easily be overlooked and even perish. Like a +child's castle built upon the sand, his work would be overwhelmed by +the rising tide of oblivion. Such conditions are disheartening.</p> + +<p>Thus mediaeval standards of accuracy were of necessity low. In default +of good instruments we content ourselves with those we have. To draw a +line straight we use a ruler; but if one is not to be had, the edge of +a book or a table may supply its place. In the last resort we draw +roughly by hand, but with no illusions as to our success. So it was +with the scholar of the Middle Ages. His instruments were imperfect; +and he acquiesced in the best standards he could get: realizing no +doubt their defects, but knowing no better way.</p> + +<p>But with printing the position was at once changed. When the type had +been set up, it was possible to strike off a thousand copies of a +book, each of which was identical with all the rest. It became worth +while to spend abundant pains over seeking a good text and correcting +the proofs—though this latter point was not perceived at first—when +there was the assured prospect of such uniformity to follow. One +edition could be distinguished from another by the dates on title-page +and colophon; and work once done was done for all time, if enough +copies of a book were taken off. This necessarily produced a great +change in methods of study. Instead of a single manuscript, in places +perhaps hopelessly <span class="pagenum">p 261</span><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>entangled, and always at the mercy of another +manuscript of equal or greater authority that might appear from the +blue with different readings, the scholar received a text which +represented a recension of, it may be, several manuscripts, and whose +roughnesses had been smoothed out by the care of editors more or less +competent.</p> + +<p>The precious volumes to which modern book-lovers reverently give the +title of 'Editio princeps', had almost as great honour in their own +day, before the credit of priority and antiquity had come to them; for +in them men saw the creation of a series of 'standard texts', norms to +which, until they were superseded, all future work upon the same +ground could be referred. As a result, too, of the improved +correctness of the texts, instead of being satisfied with the general +sense of an author, men were able to base edifices of precise argument +upon the verbal meaning of passages, in some confidence that their +structures would not be overset.</p> + +<p>But the new invention was not universally acclaimed. Trithemius with +his conservative mind quickly detected some weaknesses; and in 1492 he +composed a treatise 'In praise of scribes', in vain attempt to arrest +the flowing tide. 'Let no one say, "Why should I trouble to write +books, when they are appearing continually in such numbers? for a +moderate sum one can acquire a large library." What a difference +between the results achieved! A manuscript written on parchment will +last a thousand years: books printed on paper will scarcely <span class="pagenum">p 262</span><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>live two +hundred. Besides, there will always be something to copy: not +everything can be printed. Even if it could, a true scribe ought not +to give up. His pen can perpetuate good works which otherwise would +soon perish. He must not be amazed by the present abundance that he +sees, but should look forward to the needs of the future. Though we +had thousands of volumes, we must not cease writing; for printed books +are never so good. Indeed they usually pay little heed to ornament and +orthography.' It is noticeable that only in this last point does +Trithemius claim for manuscripts superior accuracy. In the matter of +permanence we may wonder what he would have thought of modern paper.</p> + +<p>The first advance, then, rendered possible by the invention of +printing was to more uniform and better texts: the next step forward +was no less important. To scholars content with the general sense of a +work, a translation might be as acceptable as the original. Improved +standards of accuracy led men to perceive that an author must be +studied in his own tongue: in order that no shade of meaning might be +lost. Here again the two periods are easily distinguished. Nicholas V +set his scholars, Poggio and Valla, to translate the Greeks, Herodotus +and Thucydides, Aristotle and Diodorus. The feature of the later epoch +is the number of Greek editions which came out to supplant the +versions in common use. The credit for this advance in critical +scholarship must be given to Aldus for his Greek Aristotle, which +appeared in 1495-9; and he subsequently led the <span class="pagenum">p 263</span><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>way with numerous +texts of the Greek classics. At the same time he proposed to apply the +same principle to Biblical study. As early as 1499 Grocin in a letter +alludes to Aldus' scheme of printing the whole Bible in the original +'three languages', Hebrew, Greek and Latin; and a specimen was +actually put forth in 1501.</p> + +<p>In this matter precedence might seem to lie with the Jewish printers, +who produced the Psalms in Hebrew in 1477, and the Old Testament +complete in 1488; but as the Jews never at any period ceased to read +their Scriptures in Hebrew, there was no question of recovery of an +original. Aldus did not live to carry his scheme out; and it was left +to Ximenes and the band of scholars that he gathered at Alcala, to +produce the first edition of the Bible complete in the original +tongues, the Complutensian Polyglott, containing the Hebrew side by +side with the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and for the Pentateuch a +Syriac paraphrase. The New Testament in this great enterprise was +finished in 1514, and the whole work was ready by 1517, shortly before +Ximenes' death. But as publication was delayed till 1522, the actual +priority rests with Erasmus, whose New Testament in Greek with a Latin +translation by himself appeared, as we have seen, in 1516.</p> + +<p>Thus by an accident Germany gained the credit of being the first to +assert this new principle, the importance of studying texts in the +original, in the field where resistance is most resolute and victory +is hardly won. And now it was about to enter upon <span class="pagenum">p 264</span><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>a still greater +contest. Erasmus' New Testament encountered hostile criticism in many +quarters: conservative theologians made common cause with the friars +in condemning it. But at the very centre of the religion they +professed, the book was blessed by the chief priests. The Pope +accepted the dedication, and bishops wished they could read the Greek. +Far otherwise was it with the impending struggle of the Reformation: +there the cleavage of sides followed very different lines. Into that +wide field we cannot now expatiate; but it is important to notice an +element which the German Renaissance contributed to the Reformation, +and which played a considerable part in both movements—the +accentuation of German national feeling.</p> + +<p>At the middle of the fifteenth century Italy enjoyed undisputed +pre-eminence in the world of learning. The sudden splendour into which +the Renaissance had blazed up on Italian soil drew men's eyes thither +more than ever; and to its ancient universities students from the +North swarmed like bees. To graduate in Italy, to hear its famous +doctors, perhaps even to learn from one of the native Greeks brought +over out of the East, became first the ambition, and then the +indispensable requirement of every Northern scholar who could afford +it; and few of Erasmus' friends and colleagues had not at some time or +other made the pilgrimage to Italy. Consequence and success brought +the usual Nemesis. The Italian <i>hubris</i> expressed itself in the +familiar Greek distinction between barbarian and home-born; and the +<span class="pagenum">p 265</span><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>many nations from beyond the Alps found themselves united in a common +bond which they were not eager to share. We have seen the kind of gibe +with which Agricola's eloquence was greeted at Pavia. The more such +insults are deserved, the more they sting. We may be sure that in many +cases they were not forgotten. Celtis returning from Italy to +Ingolstadt in 1492 delivered his soul in an inaugural oration: 'The +ancient hatred between us can never be dissolved. But for the Alps we +should be eternally at war.' In other countries the feeling, though +less acute, was much the same. Thus in 1517 spoke Stephen Poncher, +bishop of Paris, after his first meeting with Erasmus: 'Italy has no +one to compare with him in literary gifts. In our own day Hermolaus +and Politian have rescued Latin from barbarism; and their services can +never be forgotten. When I was there, too, I met a number of men of +rare ability and learning. But with all respect to the Italians, I +must say that Erasmus eclipses every one, Transalpine and Cisalpine +alike.'</p> + +<p>Of the foreign 'nations' at the universities of Italy none was more +numerous than the German, a title which embraced many nationalities of +the North: not merely German-speaking races such as the Swiss and +Flemish and Dutch, but all who could by any stretch of imagination be +represented as descendants of the Goths; Swedes and Danes, Hungarians +and Bohemians, Lithuanians and Bulgars and Poles. That they went in +such numbers is not surprising. The prestige of Italian teaching <span class="pagenum">p 266</span><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>was +great and well-established, whereas their own universities were few +and scarcely more than nascent; indeed, when the Council of Vienne had +ordained the teaching of Greek and other missionary languages in 1311, +its injunctions went to France and Italy and England and Spain: but +Germany had no university to which a missive could be directed. From +Southern Germany, too, and Switzerland and Austria, the distance was +small, notwithstanding the obvious Alps and the difficulties of the +passes. Even Celtis, in spite of his denunciations, sent on his best +pupils to Italy. So there were many who brought home with them to the +North recollections of lofty condescension and of ill-disguised +contempt for the foreigner: insults that they burned to repay.</p> + +<p>Italy might vaunt the glories of ancient Rome; but Germany also had +deeds to be proud of. Rome might have founded the World-empire; but +Charlemagne had conquered the dominions of the Caesars and made the +Empire Germanic. Classic antiquity, too, could not be denied to the +land and people whom Tacitus had described; and Germans were not slow +to claim the virtues found among them by the Roman historian. Arminius +became the national hero. German faith and honour, German simplicity, +German sincerity and candour—these are insisted upon by the +Transalpine humanists with a vehemence which suggests that while +priding themselves on the possession of such qualities, they marked +the lack of them in others. We may recall Ascham's horror of the +Englishman Italianated. Not that<span class="pagenum">p 267</span><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a> Germans could not make friends in +Italy. Scheurl loved his time at Bologna, and was eager to fight for +the Bentivogli against Julius II. Erasmus was made much of by the +Aldine Academy at Venice; and ten years later Hutten was charmed with +his reception there. But with many, conscious of their own defects<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +and of the reality of Italian superiority, the charge of barbarism +must have rankled. To Luther in 1518 Italian is synonymous with +supercilious.</p> + +<p>The rising German feeling expresses itself on all sides in the letters +of the humanists. A young Frieslander, studying at Oxford in 1499, +writes to a fellow-countryman there: 'Your verses have shown me what I +never could have believed, that German talents are no whit inferior to +Italian.' Hutten in 1516 writes of Reuchlin and Erasmus as 'the two +eyes of Germany, whom we must sedulously cherish; for it is through +them that our nation is ceasing to be barbarous'. Beatus Rhenanus, in +editing the poems of Janus Pannonius († 1472), says in his preface, +1518: 'Janus and Erasmus, Germans though they are and moderns, give me +as much satisfaction to read as do Politian and Hermolaus, or even +Virgil and Cicero.' Erasmus in 1518 writes to thank a canon of Mainz +who had entertained him at supper. After compliments on his host's +charming manners, his erudition free from superciliousness—<span class="pagenum">p 268</span><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>if he +could have known Gibbon, he surely must have used those immortal words +of praise, 'a modest and learned ignorance'—and his wit and elegance +of speech, he goes on: 'One might have been listening to a Roman. Now +let the Italians go and taunt Germans with barbarism, if they dare!' +In 1519 a canon of Brixen in Tirol writes to Beatus: 'Would to God +that Germany had more men like you, to make her famous, and stand up +against those Italians, who give themselves such airs about their +learning; though men of credit now think that the helm has been +snatched from their hands by Erasmus.' This is how Zwingli writes in +1521 of an Italian who had attacked Luther and charged him with +ignorance: 'But we must make allowances for Italian conceit. In their +heads is always running the refrain, "Heaven and earth can show none +like to us". They cannot bear to see Germany outstripping them in +learning.' Rarely a different note is heard, evoked by rivalry perhaps +or the desire to encourage. Locher from Freiburg could call Leipzig +barbarous. Erasmus wrote to an Erfurt schoolmaster that he was glad to +see Germany softening under the influence of good learning and putting +off her wild woodland ways. But these are exceptions: towards +insolence from the South an unbroken front was preserved.</p> + +<p>In another direction the strong national feeling manifested itself; in +the study of German antiquity and the composition of histories.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">3</a> +Maximilian, <span class="pagenum">p 269</span><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>dipping his hands in literature, stimulated the +archaeological researches of Peutinger, patronized Trithemius and +Pirckheimer, and even instituted a royal historian, Stabius. Celtis +the versatile projected an elaborate <i>Germania illustrata</i> on the +model of Flavio Biondo's work for Rome; and his description of +Nuremberg was designed to be the first instalment. As he conceived it, +the work was never carried out; but essays of varying importance on +this theme were produced by Cochlaeus, Pirckheimer, Aventinus and +Munster. The most ardent to extol Germany was Wimpfeling of +Schlettstadt, a man of serious temperament, who was prone to rush into +controversy in defence of the causes that he had at heart. His +education had all been got in Germany, and he was proud of his +country. His first effort to increase its praise was to instigate +Trithemius to put together a 'Catalogue of the illustrious men who +adorn Germany with their talents and writings'. The author's preface +(8 Feb. 1491) reveals unmistakably the animosity towards Italy: 'Some +people contemn our country as barren, and maintain that few men of +genius have flourished in it; hoping by disparagement of others to +swell their own praise. With all the resources of their eloquence they +trick out the slender achievements of their own countrymen; but +jealousy blinds them to the great virtues of the Germans, the mighty +deeds and brilliant intellects, the loyalty, enthusiasm and devotion +of this <span class="pagenum">p 270</span><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>great nation. If they find in the classics any credit given +to us for valour or learning, they quickly hide it up; and in order to +trumpet their own excellences, they omit ours altogether. That is how +Pliny's narrative of the German wars was lost, and how so many +histories of our people have disappeared.'</p> + +<p>The book was sent to Wimpfeling, who collected a few more names and +added a preface of his own (17 Sept. 1492) in the same strain. 'People +who think that Germany is still as barbarous as it was in the days of +Caesar should read what Jerome has to say about it. The abundance of +old books in existence shows that Germany had many learned men in the +past; who have left carefully written manuscripts on oratory, poetry, +natural philosophy, theology and all kinds of erudition. All down the +Rhine you will find the walls and roofs of monasteries adorned with +elegant epigrams which testify to German taste of old. To-day there +are Germans who can translate the Greek classics into Latin; and if +their style is not pure Ciceronian, let our detractors remember that +styles change with the times. Mankind is always discontented, and +prefers the old to the modern. I can quite understand that our German +philosophers adapted their style to their audiences and their lofty +subjects. So foreign critics had better let this provocative talk +alone for ever.'</p> + +<p>A few years later Wimpfeling edited a fourteenth-century treatise by +Lupold of Bebenburg entitled 'The zeal and fervour of the ancient +German <span class="pagenum">p 271</span><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>princes towards the Christian religion and the servants of +God'; the intention of which clearly fell in with his desire. In his +preface, addressed to Dalberg, Agricola's patron, he tells a story +which explains a peculiarity occasionally found in mediaeval +manuscripts; of being written in sections by several different hands. +Some years before, the Patriarch of Aquileia was passing through +Spires. To divert the enforced leisure of a halt upon a journey, he +prowled round the libraries of the town; and in one discovered this +treatise of Lupold, which pleased him greatly. As he was to be off +again next morning, there was no time to have it copied, at least by +one hand: so the manuscript was cut up and distributed among a number +of scribes, and in the space of a night the desired copy was ready. +Subsequently Wimpfeling heard of the incident from one of the brethren +in the monastery, and obtained the original manuscript to publish. +When such things could happen, no wonder that some manuscripts are +imperfect and others have disappeared.</p> + +<p>Wimpfeling's next endeavour to assert the glories of Germany was +completed in 1502; but did not appear till 1505. It was based upon the +work of a friend, Sebastian Murrho of Colmar († 1494). The title, +<i>Defensio Germaniae</i> or <i>Epithoma Germanorum</i>, sufficiently explains +its purpose. After a brief account of Germany in Roman times—his hero +being not Arminius, but 'the first German king, Arioviscus, who fought +with Julius Caesar',—and fuller records of the Germanic Emperors +since Charlemagne,<span class="pagenum">p 272</span><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a> Wimpfeling comes to the praise of his own days; +the men of learning, the famous soldiers, the architects who could +build the great tower of Strasburg, the painters, the inventors of +printing and of that terrible engine the bombard. But nearest to his +heart lay a question debated then as now: to whom should rightfully +belong the western part of the Rhine valley, between the river and the +Vosges? It was there that his home lay, Schlettstadt, one of the +fairest cities of the plain. With all the 'zeal and fervour of the +ancient German princes' he sets out to prove that it must be German: +'where are there any traces' he cries 'of the French language? There +are no books in French, no monuments, no letters, no epitaphs, no +deeds or documents. For seven or eight centuries there is nothing but +Latin or German.' The cathedral of Spires, the fine monastery of St. +Fides in his native town, supply him with a further argument: would +the good Dukes of Swabia have lavished so much money, the substance of +their fathers, upon Gallic soil, to pour it out among the French? With +such arguments he convinced himself and others. Almost at the same +time Peutinger put out a little volume of 'Conversations about the +wonderful antiquities of Germany'; supporting Wimpfeling with further +evidence and concluding satisfactorily that French had never ruled +over Germans.</p> + +<p>A work of very different calibre which appeared about this time was +the <i>Germaniae Exegesis</i> of Francis Fritz, who Latinized his name into +Irenicus. Wim<span class="pagenum">p 273</span><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>pfeling was growing grey when he had made his defence of +Germany: the new champion was a young man of 23, who had scarcely +emerged from his degree. The book was published in 1518; printed at +Hagenau by Anshelm at the cost of John Koberger, the great Nuremberg +printer, and fostered by Pirckheimer. In his later years Irenicus +became a Lutheran and displayed some dignity in refusing to sacrifice +his convictions to worldly interests; but at this time he was +enthusiastic and heady, and as a result his work is an uncritical +jumble. 'Puerile and silly' Erasmus called it, when he saw some of the +proof-sheets at Spires in 1518. 'A most unfortunate book', wrote +Beatus Rhenanus in 1525, 'without style and without judgement.' To +Aventinus in 1531 it was 'an impudent compilation from Stabius and +Trithemius, by a poor creature of the most despicable intelligence'. +But even a bad book can be a measure of the time, showing the ideas +current and the catchwords that were thought likely to attract the +reading public. It is much larger than Wimpfeling's Defence, and even +more miscellaneous; ranging over many aspects of Germany ancient and +modern. To us in the present inquiry its interest lies in the +frequency with which the excellence of Germany is asserted against +Italian sneers. The following specimen will illustrate this point, and +also explain Erasmus' epithets. In the chapter on the German language +(ii. 30) Irenicus is throughout engaged in refuting the charge of +German barbarism. 'It may be true', he says, 'that German is not so +<span class="pagenum">p 274</span><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>much declined as Latin: but complexity does not necessarily bring +refinement. Germany is as rich in dialects as Italy, and to speak +German well merits high praise. Italian may be directly descended from +Latin; but German too has a considerable element of Latin and Greek +words. Guarino and Petrarch have written poetry in their vernaculars, +and so the Italians boast that their language is more suited to +poetry. But more than 1000 years ago Ovid wrote a book of German +poetry<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">4</a>; and Trebeta, son of Semiramis, is known to have been the +first person to compose in German.'</p> + +<p>In spite of such stuff, Pirckheimer, who saw the book in manuscript, +was delighted with it. 'You have achieved what many have wished but +few could have carried out. Every German must be obliged to you for +the lustre you have brought to the Fatherland.' After stating that he +had arranged with Koberger for the printing, he points out details +which might be improved: more stress might be laid on the connexion of +the Germans with the Goths, 'which the dregs of the Goths and +Lombards—by which I mean the Italians—try to snatch from us'; and +the universal conquests of the Goths might be more fully treated. +Finally he suggests that before publication the work should be +submitted to Stabius: 'the book deserves learned readers, and I should +wish it to be as perfect as possible.'<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> + +<p>This brief survey may close with a far more considerable work, the +<i>Res Germanicae</i> of Beatus Rhenanus, published in 1531; from which we +have made some extracts above. The book is sober and serious, and the +subject-matter is handled scientifically; but in his preface Beatus is +careful to point out that German history is as important as Roman, +modern as much worth studying as ancient.</p> + +<p>Such was the soil into which fell the seed that Luther went forth to +sow. When Tetzel came marching into German towns, with the Pope's Bull +borne before him on a cushion, and brandishing indulgences for the +living and the dead, when the coins were tinkling in the box, and the +souls, released by contract, were flying off out of purgatory, the +religious sense of thinking men was outraged by this travesty of the +Day of Judgement; but scarcely less were they angered to see the +tinkling coins, honest German money, flying off as rapidly as the +souls, to build palaces for the supercilious Italians. In the great +struggle of the Reformation the main issue was of course religious; +but even its leader could feel added bitterness in the knowledge that +this shocking traffic was ordained from Italy to benefit an Italian +Pope. If the sympathies of educated Germany had not already been +strongly moved in the same direction, it is conceivable that Luther's +intrepid protest might have lacked the support which carried it to +success.<span class="pagenum">p 276</span><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnotes</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>Cf. F.G. Stokes, <i>Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum</i>, 1909, +p. xvii.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>Thus a worthy abbot in the Inn valley, writing to +Erasmus in 1523, manages to achieve a Latin letter, but apologizes for +only being able to write in German characters.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>Cf. A. Horawitz in Sybel's <i>Historische Zeitschrift</i>, +xxv. (1871), 66-101; and P. Joachimsen, <i>Geschichtsauffassung und +Geschichtschreibung in Deutschland unter dem Einfluss des Humanismus</i>, +pt. 1, 1910.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Ovid, <i>Pont.</i> 4. 13. 19: Getico sermone.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The letter is printed in Pirckheimer's <i>Opera</i>, 1610, p. +313: but is addressed wrongly, to Beatus Rhenanus.<span class="pagenum">p 275</span><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN</h3> + +<p class="center">(A paper read before the third International Historical Congress, in +London, April 1913.)</p> + + +<p>Whatever may still be the troubles of the great, amongst men of +learning at any rate visits of ceremony are mercifully no longer in +fashion. At first sight one is inclined to find the cause of this in +an improved sense of the value of time. Modern inventions have taught +first the business man and then the world in general that time is +money. Improved communications with time-tables that may be relied +upon enable us to arrange our days in such a way as to be at least +more busy, if not more useful; and we have acquired a wholesome +respect for the time of others. But I do not think we should be right +in accounting for the change in this way. At all ages the scholar, +looking round him at tasks which exceed the capacity of a lifetime, +has been avaricious of the hours—'labuntur anni', 'pereunt et +imputantur' ever in his thoughts: and though the world of old moved +slower, the man of business has rarely belied his name. A more +plausible explanation is that the custom has died of surfeit. As +increased facilities of travel made the world smaller, the circle of +those that might be visited <span class="pagenum">p 277</span><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>and saluted by the active grew boundless; +so that on both sides limits were desired. Another consideration is +that with new facilities came increased opportunities and hopes. +To-day we live in the happy consciousness that friends, however +distant, may be brought across the world to our doors by the urgencies +of business or pleasure; and thus no one knows what the coming year +may bring forth. In the sixteenth century men knew that opportunities +lost might never recur, and that they must seize or make them as best +they might.</p> + +<p>At that time visits of ceremony were in great vogue. Officials and +scholars alike groaned under them. After a visit to the Court Erasmus +writes: 'If Pollio (a disguised name, as he was writing of a man who +afterwards became an intimate friend) has been with you, you will +understand what I suffered at Brussels; every day hosts of Spanish +visitors, besides Italians and Germans.' A little later he apologizes +to a correspondent for having given him a chilly welcome: 'just then I +had escaped from Brussels, quite worn out with the salutations of +these persistent Spaniards.' The custom was widespread. An English +graduate, studying for a time at Louvain, congratulates himself on +having escaped from it at Cambridge. Clenardus found it thriving at +Salamanca; Casaubon complained of it at Montpellier; in Oxford it was +even obligatory for intending disputants in the schools to pay formal +visits beforehand to their examiners.</p> + +<p>In 1517 Erasmus' fame was at its zenith; and in <span class="pagenum">p 278</span><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>consequence visitors +came to him from every side, some to seek counsel, others to adore. +His correspondence gives us many instances. In the spring of 1517, +when the Cardinal of Gurk attended Maximilian to the Netherlands, his +two secretaries, Richard Bartholinus of Perugia and Ursinus Velius, a +Silesian, prepared panegyrical verses with which to greet Erasmus if +they should have the good fortune to meet him. For some reason +Bartholinus alone came, and, presenting both the poems, elicited a +complimentary letter in reply. A more distinguished visitor received +less attention. In the summer of 1518 Erasmus was at Basle, printing +the notes to his second edition of the New Testament. The Bishop of +Pistoia, nephew of one of the most influential cardinals, and Papal +nuncio in Switzerland, also came to Basle. Wishing to see the great +scholar, he asked him to dinner. But Erasmus could not spare the time. +He declined, and in his place sent his friends, Beatus Rhenanus and +the young Amerbachs. Three times he made excuse; and at length the +Nuncio went on foot to seek in Froben's press the scholar who would +not come to him. What their conversation was we do not know; but +before leaving, the Nuncio ordered a copy of the Amerbach-Froben +Jerome to be sent to the binders and equipped with his arms and +adornments.</p> + +<p>Later in the year the enthusiastic Eobanus of Hesse appeared in +Louvain. He had come from Erfurt where he was teaching, and the main +purpose of his journey was to see Erasmus. His <i>Hodoeporicon</i>, +<span class="pagenum">p 279</span><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>printed on his return, describes his course in detail. With a young +companion, John Werter, also from Erfurt, he entered Louvain in the +evening. Next morning early they sent in their 'callow' verses to the +great man, and followed shortly themselves. Erasmus came down to greet +them at the door with a kindly welcome, and Eobanus describes a +banquet to which he invited them, entertaining them with serious talk +and light-hearted jest. But it was at no light cost to Erasmus' time: +for when his admirers left five days later, he had been cajoled into +writing six letters of compliment, two to the travellers themselves +and four more to friends at Gotha and Erfurt. But this was not the +only cost. Eobanus imbued others of the Erfurt circle with his +hero-worship; and next year came two more, Jonas and Schalbe, to +trouble Erasmus' leisure, when he was taking a spring holiday at +Antwerp, 'by the sea', and to bear off more letters to Erfurt. The +spirit that animated these visitors is shown in a letter of John +Turzo, bishop of Breslau, a man of Erasmus' own age. In 1518 Ursinus +Velius, the disappointed secretary of the Cardinal of Gurk, had become +canon of Breslau on Turzo's presentation; and had doubtless talked to +his patron of Erasmus' attractive gifts. 'I am most eager to visit +you' wrote the Bishop, from Breslau. 'If ever I had heard that you +were anywhere within a week's journey from here, I should have rushed +over at once: indeed I would have gone as far as Belgium, if only the +business of my office allowed. The men of Cadiz <span class="pagenum">p 280</span><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a>who journeyed to Rome +to see Livy were not more eager.'</p> + +<p>A picture of the interruptions to which Erasmus was exposed is given +in a preface written in Froben's name for the new edition of Erasmus' +<i>Epigrammata</i> combined with More's and with the <i>Utopia</i>, March 1518. +'Most of these verses' Froben is made to say 'were written not for +publication, but to give pleasure to friends; to whom he is always +very obliging. When he was here bringing out his New Testament and +Jerome, heavens! how he worked! toiling away untiringly day after day. +Never was any one more overwhelmed in composition; and yet certain +great persons thought themselves entitled to come and waste his time, +coaxing out of him a few lines of verse or a little letter. So +compliant was he that they made it very difficult for him. To refuse +seemed uncivil when they pressed him so. But to write when his mind +was intent elsewhere, and not a minute to spare from his labours——! +However, he did write, on the spur of the moment, turning aside for a +little to the groves of the Muses.'</p> + +<p>Some other visitors can be traced in this period. John Alexander +Brassicanus, poet laureate, came from Tubingen in September 1520 and +saw Erasmus at Antwerp; whence in reply to a letter of +self-introduction he bore away a complimentary letter that he +afterwards printed, and the sound piece of advice, that if he wished +to become learned, he must never think himself so. More distinguished +was Ferdinand Columbus, the explorer's natural son and <span class="pagenum">p 281</span><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>heir, who in +October 1520, on one of those journeys on which he gathered his famous +library, received at Louvain a copy of Erasmus' <i>Antibarbari</i>, with +his name inscribed in it by the author. A visitor to whom we must pay +more heed was John Draco, one of the Erfurt circle, who in July 1520 +came to pay homage at Louvain.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1518 the agent of a Leipzig bookseller trading to +Prague received a letter to carry back with him and forward on to +Erasmus at Louvain. The writer was a certain Jan Slechta, a Bohemian +country gentleman, who was living at Kosteletz on the upper waters of +the Elbe, a few miles to the North-east of Prague. He was a man of +education and position. After taking his M.A. at Prague in 1484, he +had served for sixteen years as a secretary to King Ladislas of +Bohemia and Hungary; but about 1507, disgusted with the turmoils of +court life in that very troubled time, he had retired to his home, to +give his later years to the education of his son and the personal +management of his estates. The world of affairs had not extinguished +his love of learning. He was an intimate friend of Bohuslaus of +Hassenstein, scholar and traveller, and corresponded with him in +elegant Latin. Attracted by the reputation for eloquence won by the +notorious Hieronymus Balbus, he had persuaded him <i>c.</i> 1499 to come +and teach in Prague—a step which in view of Balbus' bad life he +afterwards deeply regretted. He was also the author of a dialogue on +the relations of body and soul, entitled <i>Microcosmus</i>; which <span class="pagenum">p 282</span><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>with +characteristic modesty he kept for more than twenty years known only +to his intimate friends—indeed it was only in the last year of his +life that he composed a dedication for it, and it seems never to have +been printed.</p> + +<p>The tone of Slechta's thoughts in his later years was grave and +serious; as well it might be. The two kingdoms, then but loosely +united, were torn with internal factions and racial jealousies; while +in church towers and over city gates the bells hung ready to proclaim +to the countryside the advent of that ever-present menace, the Turk. +In the priesthood men could mark much that was amiss; and the seamless +robe of Christ was rent with schism, the candle that Hus and Jerome +had lighted a century before, still burning clearly among less sober +heresies, which drew down on it, as upon themselves, spasmodic +outbursts of retributive violence. Uneasy sat the crown on Ladislas' +head; and when Death, coming as a friend, took it from him in 1516, it +was only to thrust this sad office upon a ten-year-old boy, who after +ten more years of childish government was miserably to perish at +Mohacz. No wonder that Slechta and his friends looked anxiously upon +the future. 'The times of Hus and Wycliffe which our grandfathers +detested, seem golden beside our own' wrote Bohuslaus to Geiler of +Kaisersberg—a member of that grave circle of Strasburg humanists, +with which, it may be noted in passing, our Bohemians had much in +common. The letters of Slechta contain two disquisitions, one on the +frailties of a celibate <span class="pagenum">p 283</span><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>clergy, the other on the duties of a parish +priest; advocating reforms by which he hoped to check the continuous +growth of 'those unutterable heretics, the Pyghards': by whom he meant +the Bohemian Brethren.</p> + +<p>What moved Slechta to correspond with Erasmus we do not know; possibly +a slighting reference in one of the latter's printed letters to 'those +schismatic Bohemians, who have infected most of Europe'. Slechta's +letter is unhappily lost; but from Erasmus' reply, dated 23 April 1519 +from Louvain, its general tenor may be gathered. It began, of course, +with eulogies of Erasmus and his work; and then, after some account of +the writer's life and fortunes, it proceeded to assure him that there +were persons in Bohemia who were not merely interested in good +learning but prepared to advance it. Finally it invited him to come to +Prague. Erasmus' answer to his unknown correspondent was courteous, +but firmly declined the invitation. 'What I can do at Prague I do not +see. It is considerate of you to offer me an escort for my journey; +but I confess I do not like regions where such company is necessary. +In this country one can go about wherever one likes, alone. I am sure +that, as you say, I should find among you plenty of learned and pious +men, who are not contaminated with the errors of schism. But how is it +that this division is suffered to remain? Better unity with some +hardship than to hold one's own at the cost of discord. I fear it is +money that stands in the way. Paul suffered the loss of all things +that <span class="pagenum">p 284</span><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>he might win Christ. The world is full of cardinals and princes +and bishops; if only one of these would take up this matter in a truly +Christian spirit! If Paul were on the Pope's throne, I am sure he +would allow not only his revenues but his authority to be diminished, +if his loss would purchase unity.' Erasmus concludes cordially: 'If we +cannot meet, at any rate we can write. I will walk and talk with you +sometimes beside your Elbe, you shall come and dwell with me in +Brabant. Friendship can flourish without actual contact.'</p> + +<p>This letter was handed to Slechta on 11 September, four and a half +months after it was written. Nearly a year had elapsed since his +letter had been dispatched and he had given up hopes of a reply: so +that these amiable and encouraging words were the more welcome, and he +at once proceeded to act upon them. Within a month he had composed a +letter of some elegance, in which while subscribing to Erasmus' +prayers for unity, he pointed out the difficulties of the task. To the +remarks about coming to Prague he rejoined regretfully: 'I can quite +see that there is nothing for you to do here. There are many of us who +would have been glad of your coming; but I understand that we must +hope to see you at another time and elsewhere. That travellers in our +country need an escort you would not wonder if you could see how the +roads run, among lofty mountains shrouded in impenetrable forests. +These give cover to hordes of brigands, who prey upon travellers and +merchants, robbing and killing indifferently. Almost <span class="pagenum">p 285</span><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>every month +there are punitive raids made from the towns, and brigands are +captured and put to death. But the pest seems ineradicable.'</p> + +<p>Slechta then proceeds to the religious troubles, and after expressing +general agreement with Erasmus, describes the three main parties into +which the life of Bohemia and Moravia was cloven. First the orthodox +Romanists, loyal to the Church and in unity with Germany and the rest +of Christendom; finding their adherents amongst the upper classes, +together with some of the King's cities and the monasteries, many of +which, though once rich, had now fallen into decay. Secondly, the +Utraquists, otherwise orthodox but practising communion in both kinds, +and at their services reading the Epistle and Gospel in the +vernacular: with some supporters among the nobility, a good many +gentry, and nearly thirty royal cities. After tracing their history +from the Council of Basle and briefly stating their views, he adds +that no one in the kingdom is able to propound a solution of the +difficulties existing. Thirdly, the Bohemian Brethren, whom he styles +Pyghards. This name, from the opprobrious sense in which it is +generally used, is now thought to be derived from the Beghards, a +mediaeval sect whose vagaries drew down upon it frequent persecution; +but Slechta traces it to a foreign vagabond who came from Picardy in +1422 and infected with his pestilent doctrines the army of John Ziska, +the Taborite, an army of those that were in distress, in debt, in +discontent.</p> + +<p>This sect, Slechta tells us, lasted continuously <span class="pagenum">p 286</span><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>down to the times of +the late King Ladislas († 1516), and indeed increased considerably +under him; for his thoughts were much occupied with Hungary, and he +was content if Bohemia could be maintained in an outward appearance of +peace. Then follows a description of their opinions. 'The Pope and all +his officials they regard as Antichrist. They choose their own +bishops, rude unlettered laymen, with wives and families. They salute +one another as Brother and Sister; and recognize no authority but the +Bible. Their priests celebrate mass without vestments, use leavened +bread and only the Lord's Prayer. Transubstantiation they deny, and +the worship of the host they regard as idolatry. Vows to the saints, +prayers for the dead, and confession to priests they ridicule; and +they keep no holy days but Sundays, Christmas, Easter and Whitsun.' 'I +will not waste your time with more of these pernicious views. My +feeling is that if the two first-named parties could only be +reconciled, this nefarious sect might, with the aid of the King, be +exterminated or at any rate reduced to a better state of faith and +religion.'</p> + +<p>The roads in Bohemia might be dangerous, but the distance to Louvain +was not so great as it had seemed at first; for Erasmus' reply is +dated 1 Nov. 1519, only three weeks after Slechta's letter. He begins +again with the roads. 'Prevention is better than punishment. It would +be wiser if, instead of these avenging raids, the more frequented +roads could be cleared of forest on either side, and held by +block-houses and armed posts at intervals. Indeed it <span class="pagenum">p 287</span><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>is somewhat +discreditable that the great towns and princes of Germany cannot +achieve what the Swiss do by co-operation and local action.' He then +turns to the religious dissensions, and in his passion for concord +exclaims that it would be better that a nation should be united in +error than so numerously divided: experience shows that there is no +opinion so wild but that some one will be found to embrace it. Of the +orthodox party he has nothing to say beyond extolling the system by +which the Pope might act as judge and father of all, and as supreme +court of appeal. To the Utraquists he would counsel conformity to the +practice of the majority; although unable to understand why the Church +should have allowed a practice instituted by Christ to fall into +disuse.</p> + +<p>Then he comes to the Brethren, and after admitting that they have +strayed further than the Utraquists from the rule of Christian life, +he continues: 'If they go on still in their wickedness, they must be +restrained; but this is not the duty of any one who likes, nor must +violence be used, lest the innocent suffer with the guilty. Their +practice of electing their own priests and bishops has authority in +antiquity; but it certainly is unfortunate if their choice falls on +men bad as well as unlearned. With the titles of Brother and Sister I +see no fault to find: it is a pity they are not more widely used among +Christians. To prefer God's word in the Bible to the judgements of +Doctors is sound: though to reject the latter altogether is as uniform +an error as to embrace them to the exclusion of everything else. To +celebrate the <span class="pagenum">p 288</span><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>mass in everyday dress is not contrary to the truth; +but it is a pity to abandon customs sanctioned by use and authority: +though perhaps the Pope might be persuaded to concede to them the use +of their own rites, as he does to the Greeks and the Milanese. The +Lord's Prayer is, of course, part of our own use; and though it seems +narrow to confine themselves to this, I doubt whether they do worse +than those who weave in long strings of intercession from any source. +Their opinions about the sacraments are certainly impious; but at any +rate they are under no temptation to exploit these holy mysteries for +the sake of gain or futile glory or tyrannous imposition. I do not see +why they should reject vigils and fasts in moderation; but these are +matters for encouragement rather than positive command. About +festivals they seem to follow the usage current in the days of Jerome: +better, I think, than the modern calendar, full of saints-days which +end in riot and carouse, and on which the honest journeyman is +forbidden to work for his children's bread.' As Slechta read these +words, he must surely have felt as did Balak, the son of Zippor, when +he listened to the seer from Mesopotamia taking up his parable upon +Israel in the plains of Moab. The man whose eyes were open, had +blessed the Brethren instead of cursing them; and literary Europe +might well follow his lead.</p> + +<p>The history of the Bohemian Brethren is of exceptional interest, +affording an example of a community professing a plain, simple faith +and ruling their lives by modest conceptions of ordinary goodness, +who, <span class="pagenum">p 289</span><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>guided by leaders almost unknown to the world, through the +trials of good and evil repute, through tribulation and prosperity, +kept serenely upon the path they had marked out for themselves, living +and growing into one of the most flourishing and devoted missionary +bodies of the present day. As is natural under such conditions, their +origin is not free from obscurity. Men connected them with the +Waldensians of Southern France, or traced them, as we have seen, to a +leader from Picardy. Through the fifteenth century they grew steadily +in strength and unity, sheltered by the toleration which Rome +unwillingly granted to the Utraquists as a result of the Compacts of +Basle; and as compared with other dissentient bodies their name was +singularly free from gross imputations. Throughout that age such +imputations were freely made and believed against heretics. This was +not unreasonable. In the low state of public and private morals faith +was regarded as an indispensable bulwark to conduct, the faith which +taught indeed that a man should love God and his neighbour, but +stablished him into practising what he professed, by lurid pictures of +the fate awaiting him if he did not. Without this bulwark it was not +thought possible that a man could lead a godly, righteous and sober +life; and so he was considered capable of every form of vice, if he +ventured to doubt the truth of those opinions on which the Church had +set its seal, in realms into which it now seems that human knowledge +cannot penetrate.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the sixteenth century fresh <span class="pagenum">p 290</span><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>attempts were being +made to win back the Brethren to orthodoxy; and in this work the +ardour of the Dominicans burned bright. In 1500 one of them, Henry +Institor, a Doctor of Theology, procured from Alexander VI bulls which +recognized him as 'Inquisitor into heresy throughout Germany and +Bohemia', and empowered him to collect heretical books and send them +to the Bishop of Olmutz, the chief see of Moravia, to be burned; also +to join to himself two or three other Masters of Theology and preach +against the heretics. These bulls are printed at the head of a great +volume written by Institor, with the title 'A shield for the faith of +the Holy Roman Church against the heresy of the Waldensians or +Pickards, who on all sides are infecting with virulent contagion +certain races in Germany and Bohemia, to hatred of the clergy and +enervation of the ecclesiastical power'. In 1501 the volume appeared +at Olmutz, with an enumeration of thirty-six erroneous articles in +which the Pickards denied the authority of the Church; followed of +course by a vigorous refutation. At the same time one of their own +countrymen, Augustine Kasenbrot of Olmutz was writing a series of open +letters on the Brethren and their views.</p> + +<p>But the most succinct account of the position is contained in an +attack made upon them by a learned and fair-minded Dominican, Jacobus +Lilienstayn. His book, 'a Treatise against the erroneous Waldensian +Brethren, commonly known as the Pickards, without rule, without law, +and without obedience, of whom there are many in Moravia, more than +in<span class="pagenum">p 291</span><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a> Bohemia', was composed in 1505 and is dedicated to the Dean of +Prague. It begins by setting forth five general and twelve special +errors of the Waldensians. The former are as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. They call the Gospels, the Epistles and the Acts, together with the +Old Testament where it agrees with the New, 'the Law of Christ'; and +they attack and deride the Doctors of the Church.</p> + +<p>2. They say the Pope has no more power in administering the sacraments +of the Church, and in other ecclesiastical matters, than a simple +priest has.</p> + +<p>3. They say that in the practice of the Church nothing is to be added +to what Christ and the Apostles taught and did.</p> + +<p>4. They hold the pure text of the Gospel without any gloss.</p> + +<p>5. They allege that the Church is in error, and that they themselves +are the brethren of Christ and the true imitators of the Apostles.</p> +</div> + +<p>Amongst the special errors are denials of the validity of indulgences +and of the efficacy of masses for the dead; and the general simplicity +of their conduct is shown in their practices at birth and death, +baptism requiring only pure water, not holy oil and the chrism, and +extreme unction banished from the death-bed.</p> + +<p>Finally the good Dominican gives a brief account of the life of these +Brethren 'without obedience'. In his preface he expresses his +difficulty in gathering <span class="pagenum">p 292</span><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>the truth about them: 'for they are as +inconstant as the moon, and the practices alleged against them in the +past are denied by them to-day.' But he concludes honestly that though +their faith is 'abhominable' to true Christians, their life is good +enough. His good sense is further shown by his refusal to accept an +absurd story about their method of choosing their leaders. 'When one +of these is to be chosen', so ran the tale, 'the community meets +together. And as they sit in silence, the windows being open, a great +fly enters and buzzes over them, settling at length on the head of +one; who is then set apart for a season. And when he is brought back, +he is found to be learned in Latin and theology and whatever else is +necessary, though he were rude and ignorant before.' This Lilienstayn +finds clearly false: the simple life of the Brethren he illustrates by +their practice. 'They have Bibles in Bohemian, which they read. Their +women wear veils, and no colours, only black, white and grey. They all +labour with their hands.' Thus their life to him was 'good enough'. It +may remind us in many points of the Quakers.</p> + +<p>The attacks upon them led the Brethren to reply. In 1507 they composed +an <i>Apologia</i> addressed to the King, to show that they were not +without rule, without law and without obedience, and to defend the +manner of their life. This was printed at Nuremberg in 1507, and again +in 1518; but of the original editions I have not been able to see a +copy. The attacks continued. In 1512 another ponderous <span class="pagenum">p 293</span><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>volume +appeared, composed by Jacob Ziegler, the well-known Bavarian +scientist, to demonstrate the falsity of their opinions. What finally +impelled the Brethren to court countenance from Erasmus is not clear; +possibly the cool reception the Utraquists had had from Luther the +year before, with the rather contemptuous suggestion that their style +and opinions were more like Erasmus' than his own. The episode has +escaped Erasmus' biographers; and I cannot find any mention of it +except an allusion in one of his letters, and a description in a +treatise on the Brethren by Joachim Camerarius the elder (1500-1574). +Camerarius' book was not published till 1605; but we can perhaps trace +the source of his information. From 1518 onwards he spent some years +at Erfurt. In January 1521 Erasmus describes the visit of the +Brethren's envoys as having occurred six months before; at Antwerp, +according to Camerarius, where he may be traced in June 1520. If we +recall that it was in July that Draco came from Erfurt to pay his +visit of homage, it seems quite likely that on his return he may have +given to Camerarius the detailed record which the latter has +preserved.</p> + +<p>By that time Erasmus' name was well known in Central Europe. 'Both +from Hungary and Bohemia' he says in 1518 'bishops and men of position +write to thank me for my New Testament.' Apart from the learned world +there were others, too, who must have known him; for a Bohemian +translation had just appeared of the new preface to his <i>Enchiridion</i>, +a preface in which he had written with an almost<span class="pagenum">p 294</span><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a> Lutheran freedom +about abuses in the Church, and had extolled the life of simple +Christianity. This was a book to appeal at once to the Brethren. +Another of his works which may have had its effect in attracting them +was the <i>Julius Exclusus</i>. This exquisitely witty satire dealt freely +with the Pope and his office, the Pope whom the Brethren accounted no +more than a simple priest; and though its licence was too bold for +Erasmus ever to admit its authorship—indeed, as we have seen, he +consistently denied it—, it was attributed to him on all sides, in +company with others, his secret being on the whole well kept. The +<i>Julius</i> was translated into Bohemian, somewhere about this time: but +from the nature of it, a kind of book to which publishers as well as +authors were loath to put their names, it cannot be definitely placed. +So it was, too, with the <i>Moria</i>, which had been translated by Gregory +Hruby Gelenski, father of the scholar, Sigismund Gelenius; but of +which no contemporary edition survives.</p> + +<p>If the Brethren had seen Erasmus' final letter to Slechta, they might +well have been encouraged to hope much from him. But of this there is +no indication. Slechta was hardly likely to communicate it to them; +and though such documents often leaked out against the owner's will, +its first appearance in print was in 1521, in Erasmus' <i>Epistolae ad +diuersos</i>. I cannot find any translation into a vernacular except a +German version by John Froben of Andernach which appeared at Nuremberg +in 1531.</p> + +<p>Whatever was the motive attraction, the Brethren <span class="pagenum">p 295</span><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>sent as their +envoys, so Camerarius tells us, Nicholas Claudianus, a learned +physician, and Laurence Voticius (Woticky), a man of many +accomplishments, who died at a good age in 1565—a date, which, if it +be not a later interpolation, is an indication as to when Camerarius +composed his narrative.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">1</a> They brought with them a copy of their +<i>Apologia</i>, printed at Nuremberg in 1511—a date which appears to be +wrong—and presented it to Erasmus at Antwerp with the request that he +would read it through and see if there was anything in it that he +would wish to have changed. If that were so, they would readily defer +to his criticisms; but if, as they hoped, he approved of what they +said, it would be a help and consolation to them if he would express +that opinion.</p> + +<p>He took the book and said he would be glad to read it; but when after +a few days they came for his answer, he told them he had been too busy +to do more than glance through it: so far as he had gone, he found no +error and nothing that he would wish to alter. He declined, however, +to bear testimony about it, as this would bring them no help, and only +danger to himself. 'You must not think', he said, 'that any words of +mine will bring you support; indeed, my own influence, such as it is, +requires the backing of others. If it is true that my writings are of +any value to divine and useful learning, it seems to me unwise to +jeopardize their influence by proclaiming publicly the agreement +between us: such actions <span class="pagenum">p 296</span><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>might lead to their being condemned and torn +from the hands of the public. Forgive me for this caution, you will +perhaps call it fear: and be assured that I wish you well and will +most gladly help you in other matters.' The envoys were disappointed, +Camerarius records, but took his refusal in good part: for they relied +not on the judgements of men to be the foundation of their heavenly +edifice of truth. The good sense of his words no doubt appealed to +them; for the Brethren were above all things moderate men, averse from +violence, convinced perhaps by their own experience that a display of +courage is unwise when it provokes opposition and raises obstacles to +progress.</p> + +<p>The matter was not, however, allowed to rest. In the same year an +appeal on behalf of the Brethren was made to Erasmus from another +quarter. One of the features of their movement had been the number of +the nobility who had become sympathizers, if not actual members of the +community. One of these was Artlebus of Boskowitz, a kinsman perhaps +of that 'nobilis virgo, Martha de Boskowitz' whom the Brethren in +addressing the King had adduced as one of their supporters. From the +castle of Znaim, his official residence as Supreme Captain of Moravia, +Artlebus wrote, telling Erasmus of the steady growth of the Brethren, +and of the futility of all attempts to withstand their doctrines by +argument; and sending him a copy of their Rule, with the request that +he would read it and frame thereupon a standard of Christian piety, +which all men, <span class="pagenum">p 297</span><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>including the Brethren, might follow. He turned then +to praise Luther for the courageous fight he was making, and urged +Erasmus to join with him in sowing the seed of the Gospel.</p> + +<p>Erasmus' reply, dated 28 Jan. 1521 from Louvain, has no address but +'N. viro praepotenti'; and in consequence its connexion with Artlebus +of Boskowitz has escaped notice. As was to be expected, he declined +the proposal that he should set up a standard of Christian observance. +He might criticize with all freedom the practices of monks and clergy +and speak straightly of Papal iniquities: but the standard of the +Church was still the life of Christ, and he would not arrogate to +himself the right to draw the picture of this anew. He took the +opportunity to lament, as he had done to Slechta, the discord +prevailing in Bohemia, and to urge that a serious attempt should be +made to reconcile the Brethren to the Church. But since his +correspondence with Slechta the world had gone forward. Luther had +burned the Pope's bull at Wittenberg, and Aleander at Worms was +pressing the Diet to annihilate him. Erasmus has less to say to +Artlebus in favour of the Brethren than he had said to Slechta: +indeed, after the appeal for moderation, he goes no further than to +condemn the attitude of the opponents of the Papacy, doubtless +intending to include among them the Brethren. About Luther he would +give no decided opinion. 'It is absurd how men condemn Luther's books +without reading them. Some parts of Luther's writings are good; but +parts are not, <span class="pagenum">p 298</span><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>and over these I skip. If Luther stands by the +Catholic Church, I will gladly join him.' Artlebus' reply is not +extant; but a sentence in a letter of Erasmus to Wolsey a year later +shows that the 'Bohemian Captain' was greatly vexed by the failure of +his overtures.</p> + +<p>This is the last trace of Erasmus' correspondence with Bohemia. But, +uncompromising as he had been in his refusal to both appeals, his +influence there was only just at its commencement, if we may judge by +the list of his works translated into Bohemian, which the Ghent +bibliography has brought to light. The translation of his preface to +the <i>Enchiridion</i> was followed by his version of the <i>Saturnalia</i> of +Lucian (first published in 1517) in 1520; the <i>Precatio dominica</i> +(1523) in 1526; his version of the New Testament in 1533; some of the +Colloquies in 1534; the <i>De Ciuilitate</i> (1530) in 1537; the Paraphrase +on St. Matthew (1522) and the <i>De puritate Ecclesiae</i> (1536) in 1542; +the <i>De immensa Dei misericordia</i> (1524) in 1558 and 1573; the +<i>Apophthegmata Graeciae sapientum</i> (1514) in 12 editions between 1558 +and 1599; the <i>De praeparatione ad mortem</i> (1534) in 1564 and 1786; +and the <i>Vidua Christiana</i> (1529) in 1595. The envoys of the Brethren +were perhaps wise enough to see that they had much to learn from the +man who was courageous enough to preach caution and to let himself +appear afraid.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="center">Footnote</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> L. Camerarius, in his preface, 1 Jan. 1605, describes +the book as composed 'more than thirty years ago '.<span class="pagenum">p 299</span><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a></p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + +<div class="idx"> +<p> +Aberdeen University, <a href="#Page_103">103-4</a>.<br /> +accuracy, new standards of, <a href="#Page_258">258-61</a>.<br /> +Adrian VI, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> +Agricola, R., <a href="#Page_14">14-21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25-9</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<br /> +Agrippa, H.C., <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br /> +Aldus, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135-6</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262-3</a>.<br /> +Aleander, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<br /> +Alexander of Ville-Dieu, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.<br /> +alphabetical principle, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47-9</a>.<br /> +America, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +Amorbach:<br /> +<span class="i2">Ba., <a href="#Page_147">147-9</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Bo., <a href="#Page_147">147-9</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Br., <a href="#Page_147">147-51</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">J., <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146-51</a>.</span> +Andreas, B., <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +Andrelinus, Faustus, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>. +Aquinas, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.<br /> +Arnold of Hildesheim, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<br /> +Arthurian legend, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br /> +Artlebus of Boskowitz, <a href="#Page_296">296-8</a>.<br /> +Ascham, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.<br /> +Asperen, destruction of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> +astrology, <a href="#Page_216">216-18</a>.<br /> +Augustinian Canons, reformed, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">house at Oxford, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</span> +</p> + +<p><br />Balbi, J., 43 seq., <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.<br /> +Balbus, H., <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> +Bartholomew of Cologne, <a href="#Page_63">63-5</a>.<br /> +Basle, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +Batt, J., <a href="#Page_115">115-16</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +Beatus Rhenanus, <a href="#Page_154">154-8</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">his <i>Res Germanicae</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">extracts from his letters, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</span> +Beheim, J., of Niklashausen, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /> +Benedictines, at Neuss, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">at Ottobeuren, 86 seq.;</span> +<span class="i2">at Oxford, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">reformed, <a href="#Page_61">61-2</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79-85</a>.</span> +Bergen, Ant. of, abbot of St. Omer, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +Bergen, Henry of, bp. of Cambray, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +Bessel, B., <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> +Black Band, <a href="#Page_170">170-5</a>.<br /> +Bohuslaus of Hassenstein, <a href="#Page_281">281-2</a>.<br /> +Bondius, J., <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +books, supervision of, by others, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159-61</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br /> +Boys, H., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +Brassicanus, J.A., <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.<br /> +Breslau, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.<br /> +Brethren of the Common Life, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">as teachers, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25-6</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</span> +Briard, J., <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br /> +Budaeus, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.<br /> +Bursfeld reforms, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /><span class="pagenum">p 300</span><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a> +Burgundy, David of, bp. of Utrecht, II;<br /> +<span class="i2">Philip of, bp. of Utrecht, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span> +Butzbach, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-62</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68-79</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Camerarius, J., <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.<br /> +Canterbury;<br /> +<span class="i2">Christchurch, <a href="#Page_123">123-4</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">pilgrimages to, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228-9</a>.</span> +Catholicon, <a href="#Page_43">43-6</a>.<br /> +Celtis, C., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.<br /> +Château-Landon, <a href="#Page_81">81-2</a>.<br /> +Chezal-Benoît, <a href="#Page_83">83-4</a>.<br /> +child-marriage, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.<br /> +Colet, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141-3</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br /> +Columbus, F., <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.<br /> +Complutensian Polyglott, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /> +Compostella, <a href="#Page_231">231-2</a>.<br /> +Cono, J., <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br /> +Copernicus, N., <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br /> +Cracow University, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br /> +Crete, labyrinth of Minos in, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +Cues, library at, <a href="#Page_30">30-1</a>.<br /> +Cusanus, N., <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Dalaber, A., <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> +Dalberg, John of, bp. of Worms, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.<br /> +Dederoth, J., <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /> +Deventer school, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33-6</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60-4</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">plague at, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">printers, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</span> +Dominicans, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.<br /> +'doole', <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +Draco, J., <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.<br /> +Drolshagen, J., <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Ebrardus, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39-41</a>.<br /> +Eck, J., <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +Ellenbog:<br /> +<span class="i2">B., <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95-6</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">J., <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96-7</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">N., <a href="#Page_87">87-101</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">U., <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94-5</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">U. jun., <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</span> +Emmanuel of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> +Eobanus of Hesse, <a href="#Page_278">278-9</a>.<br /> +Erasmus, form of name, 39 n.;<br /> +<span class="i2">early life, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">at school, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">at Steyn, <a href="#Page_66">66-8</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">in Paris, <a href="#Page_102">102-5</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114-15</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139-41</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">in England, <a href="#Page_116">116-17</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">at Oxford, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">at Cambridge, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>,137-44;</span> +<span class="i2">in Italy, <a href="#Page_135">135-7</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">rumour of death, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">at Basle, <a href="#Page_158">158-64</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">death, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">labours for peace, <a href="#Page_164">164-6</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">indifferent to Nature, <a href="#Page_207">207-9</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">uses astrological mug, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">pilgrimage to Canterbury, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">appreciations of, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267-8</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">visitors to, <a href="#Page_277">277-81</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">relations with the Bohemians, xi.</span> +WORKS.<br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Adagia</i>, <a href="#Page_135">135-7</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Antibarbari</i>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">compositions in Paris, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">early poems, <a href="#Page_103">103-4</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">editions of the Fathers, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Enchiridion</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Epigrammata</i>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Jerome, <a href="#Page_138">138-40</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Julius Exclusus</i>, <a href="#Page_184">184-9</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Moriae Encomium</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">New Testament, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160-2</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263-4</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Paraphrases, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Querla Pacis</i>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><span class="pagenum">p 301</span><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a> +<span class="i2">Seneca, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158-9</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">translations into Bohemian from, <a href="#Page_293">293-4</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</span> +</p> +<p><br /> +Fabri, F., <a href="#Page_238">238-51</a>.<br /> +families, length of, <a href="#Page_202">202-4</a>.<br /> +Fernand, C., <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-6</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">J., <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</span> +Franciscans, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">at Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</span> +Frankfort, book-fairs at, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +Froben, J., <a href="#Page_151">151-3</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Gaguin, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-3</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +Garland, J., <a href="#Page_36">36-9</a>.<br /> +Gebwiler, H., 26 n.<br /> +Geldenhauer, G., <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +Gerard, Cornelius, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +Germany, national feeling in, <a href="#Page_264">264-75</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">historical studies in, <a href="#Page_268">268-75</a>.</span> +Goswin of Halen, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31-2</a>.<br /> +Greek, study of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27-30</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38-41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43-8</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262-3</a>; +<span class="i2">manuscripts, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160-1</a>.</span> +Grocin, W., <a href="#Page_126">126-9</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /> +grossness, <a href="#Page_205">205-6</a>.<br /> +Grynaeus, S., <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +Gueldres, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170-3</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Hebrew, study of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>,<br /> +<span class="i2">151, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</span> +Hegius, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25-30</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34-5</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41-2</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +Heidelberg University, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br /> +Helinand, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +Henry VIII, scholarship of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +Herman, W., <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +Hermonymus of Sparta, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +Huguitio, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.<br /> +humanists, attitude towards mediaeval romance, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">feeling towards Nature, <a href="#Page_207">207-10</a>.</span> +Hungarian acrobats, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +Hus, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.<br /> +Hyrde, R., <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +India, religious condition of, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br /> +interpretations, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br /> +Irenicus, F., <a href="#Page_272">272-4</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Jacobus of Breda, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<br /> +Johannisberg, Abbey of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.<br /> +Jouveneaux, G., <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Kempis, Thomas à, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.<br /> +Koberger, A., <a href="#Page_203">203-4</a>.<br /> +Kortenhorff, Gutta, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +Kratzer, N., <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> +Kunig, H., <a href="#Page_231">231-2</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Laach, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73-81</a>.<br /> +Langen, R., <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +Lascaris, C., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +Latimer, W., <a href="#Page_126">126-8</a>.<br /> +Lily, W., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +Limburg, burning of, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +Linacre, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.<br /> +Lollhard, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.<br /><span class="pagenum">p 302</span><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a> +London, scholars in, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +Louvain University, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107-8</a>.<br /> +Loyola, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br /> +Luther, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">at Worms, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Erasmus' attitude towards, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">love of nature, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</span> +</p> +<p><br /> +Mammotrectus, <a href="#Page_53">53-5</a>.<br /> +manuscripts, free lending of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-2</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">free access to, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</span> +Marchesinus, J., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +Mary, Princess, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br /> +Mas, P. du, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> +Mauburn, J., <a href="#Page_81">81-2</a>.<br /> +medicine, practice of, <a href="#Page_218">218-19</a>.<br /> +Meghen, P., <a href="#Page_141">141-2</a>.<br /> +Melanchthon, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.<br /> +Merton College, Oxford, ejection of Warden, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.<br /> +Milanese rite, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.<br /> +morals, <a href="#Page_204">204-5</a>.<br /> +More, T., <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197-8</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Utopia</i>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">matrimonial relations, <a href="#Page_194">194-5</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">love of Nature, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</span> +Mormann, F., <a href="#Page_25">25-6</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +news, dissemination of, <a href="#Page_214">214-16</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Oda Jargis, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br /> +Oporinus, J., <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> +Ostendorp, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +Ottobeuren, <a href="#Page_86">86-101</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Paffraet, R., <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<br /> +Papias, <a href="#Page_46">46-8</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.<br /> +Paris University, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">lectures at, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">life in, <a href="#Page_112">112-15</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148-51</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Montaigu College, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">Collège de la Marche, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</span> +Parr, Katherine, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +Paston, Sir John, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +Pavia University, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.<br /> +Peasants' Revolt, <a href="#Page_99">99-101</a>.<br /> +Pellican, C., <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +Peter, name of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> +Platter, T., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58-9</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +Poncher, S., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.<br /> +Praedinius, R., <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +Prague University, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> +press, early productions of, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.<br /> +prisoners, redemption of, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +proofs, correction of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Quakers, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.<br /> +quodlibetical disputations, <a href="#Page_105">105-11</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Reading Abbey, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br /> +Rees, Henry of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +Reisch, G., <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +remarriage, <a href="#Page_192">192-5</a>.<br /> +Reuchlin, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.<br /> +Rode, J., <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /> +Roper, M., <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br /> +Rychard, W., <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +St. Patrick's cave, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /> +Santiago de Compostella, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231-2</a>.<br /> +Sapidus, J., <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> +Schinner, M., <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br /> +Schlettstadt, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156-8</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.<br /><span class="pagenum">p 303</span><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a> +<br /> +schools, books used in, <a href="#Page_62">62-5</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">numbers of, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</span> +Selling, W., <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +Serbopoulos, J., <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br /> +Shirwood, J., <a href="#Page_124">124-6</a>.<br /> +Sion, near Delft, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> +Sixtus IV, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> +Slechta, J., <a href="#Page_281">281-8</a>.<br /> +Souillac, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +spelling, uncertainty in, <a href="#Page_49">49-52</a>.<br /> +Spires, libraries at, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.<br /> +Sprenger, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.<br /> +Standonck, J., <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +Synthius, <i>v.</i> Zinthius.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Thomas of Illyria, <a href="#Page_219">219-20</a>.<br /> +Tournay, dispute over bishopric, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +Trithemius, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76-8</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">'In praise of scribes', <a href="#Page_261">261-2</a>.</span> +Trivet, Nic., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> +Turzo, J., <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Urswick, C., <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> +Utraquists, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Valla, L., <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-1</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.<br /> +Vaudois, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">crusade against, <a href="#Page_180">180-1</a>.</span> +Veere, Lady of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +Vienne, Council of, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.<br /> +Vincent of Beauvais, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.<br /> +visits of ceremony, <a href="#Page_276">276-81</a>.<br /> +Vrye, A., <a href="#Page_22">22-5</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201-2</a>.<br /> +Vrye, J., <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Wesley, J., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +Wessel, <a href="#Page_9">9-13</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29-32</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br /> +Wimpfeling, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.<br /> +Windesheim, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> +women, seclusion of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;<br /> +<span class="i2">education of, <a href="#Page_196">196-200</a>;</span> +<span class="i2">position of, <a href="#Page_200">200-2</a>.</span> +</p> +<p><br /> +Ximenes, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +Zinthius, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41-2</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<br /> +Zwingli, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.<br /> +Zwolle, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>. +</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Age of Erasmus, by P. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Age of Erasmus + Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London + +Author: P. S. Allen + +Release Date: May 10, 2005 [EBook #15810] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGE OF ERASMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + + LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK + TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY + + HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A. + PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY + + * * * * * + + + + + THE + AGE OF ERASMUS + + LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITIES + OF OXFORD AND LONDON + + BY + + P.S. ALLEN, M.A. + + FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD + + OXFORD + AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + 1914 + + + + + * * * * * + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE ADWERT ACADEMY + II. SCHOOLS + III. MONASTERIES + IV. UNIVERSITIES + V. ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK + VI. FORCE AND FRAUD + VII. PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS + VIII. THE POINT OF VIEW + IX. PILGRIMAGES + X. THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE + XI. ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN + + + * * * * * + + + + +I + +THE ADWERT ACADEMY + + +The importance of biography for the study of history can hardly be +overrated. In a sense it is true that history should be like the law +and 'care not about very small things'; concerning itself not so much +with individual personality as with fundamental causes affecting the +rise and fall of nations or the development of mental outlook from one +age to another. But even if this be conceded, we still must not forget +that the course of history is worked out by individuals, who, in spite +of the accidental condensation that the needs of human life thrust +upon them, are isolated at the last and alone--for no man may deliver +his brother. In consequence, it is only in periods when the stream of +personal record flows wide and deep that history begins to live, and +that we have a chance to view it through the eyes of the actors +instead of projecting upon it our own fancies and conceptions. + +One of the features that makes the study of the Renaissance so +fascinating is that in that age the stream of personal record, which +had been driven underground, its course choked and hidden beneath the +fallen masonry of the Roman Empire, emerges again unimpeded and flows +in ever-increasing volume. For reconstruction of the past we are no +longer limited to charters and institutions, or the mighty works of +men's hands. In place of a mental output, rigidly confined within +unbending modes of thought and expression, we have a literature that +reflects the varied phases of human life, that can discard romance and +look upon the commonplace; and instead of dry and meagre chronicles, +rarely producing evidence at first hand, we have rich store of memoirs +and private letters, by means of which we can form real pictures of +individuals--approaching almost to personal acquaintance and +intimacy--and regard the same events from many points of view, to +perception of the circumstances that 'alter cases'. + +The period of the Transalpine Renaissance corresponds roughly with the +life of Erasmus (1466-1536); from the days when Northern scholars +began to win fame for themselves in reborn Italy, until the width of +the humanistic outlook was narrowed and the progress of the reawakened +studies overwhelmed by the tornado of the Reformation. The aim of +these lectures is not so much to draw the outlines of the Renaissance +in the North as to present sketches of the world through which Erasmus +passed, and to view it as it appeared to him and to some of his +contemporaries, famous or obscure. And firstly of the generation that +preceded him in the wide but undefined region known then as Germany. + +The Cistercian Abbey of Adwert near Groningen, under the enlightened +governance of Henry of Rees (1449-85), was a centre to which were +attracted most of the scholars whose names are famous in the history +of Northern humanism in the second half of the fifteenth century: +Wessel, Agricola, Hegius, Langen, Vrye, and others. They came on +return from visits to Italy or the universities; men of affairs after +discharge of their missions; schoolmasters to rest on their holidays; +parish priests in quest of change: all found a welcome from the +hospitable Abbot, and their talk ranged far and wide, over the pursuit +of learning, till Adwert merited the name of an 'Academy'. + +Earliest of these is John Wessel (d. 1489), and perhaps also the most +notable; certainly the others looked up to him with a veneration which +seems to transcend the natural pre-eminence of seniority. +Unfortunately the details of his life have not been fully established. +Thirty years after his death, when it was too late for him to define +his own views, the Reformers claimed him for their own; and in +consequence his body has been wrangled over with the heat which seeks +not truth but victory. His father, Hermann Wessel, was a baker from +the Westphalian village of Gansfort or Goesevort, who settled in +Groningen. After some years in the town school, the boy was about to +be apprenticed to a trade, as his parents were too poor to help him +further; but the good Oda Jargis, hearing how well he had done at his +books, sent him to the school at Zwolle, in which the Brethren of the +Common Life took part. There, as at Groningen, he rose to the top, +and in his last years, as a first-form boy, also did some teaching in +the third form, according to the custom of the school. He came into +contact with Thomas a Kempis, who was then at the monastery of Mount +St. Agnes, half an hour outside Zwolle, and was profoundly influenced +by him. The course at Zwolle lasted eight years, and there is reason +to suppose that he completed it in full. He was lodged in the Parua +Domus, a hostel for fifty boys, and we are told that he and his next +neighbour made a hole through the wall which divided their +rooms--probably only a wooden partition--and taught one another: +Wessel imparting earthly wisdom, and receiving in exchange the fear +and love of the Lord. In the autumn of 1449 he matriculated at +Cologne, entering the Bursa Laurentiana; in December 1450 he was B.A., +and in February 1452, M.A. + +By 1455 he had arrived at Paris and entered upon his studies for the +theological degree. Within a year he conceived a profound distaste for +the philosophy dominant in the schools; and though he persevered for +some time, his frequent dissension from his teachers earned for him +the title of 'Magister contradictionis'. After this his movements +cannot be traced until 1470, when he was at Rome in the train of +Cardinal Francesco della Rovere. In the interval he studied medicine, +and, if report be true, travelled far; venturing into the East, just +when the fall of Constantinople had turned the tide of Hellenism +westward. In Greece he read Aristotle in the original, and learnt to +prefer Plato; in Egypt he sought in vain for the books of Solomon and +a mythical library of Hebrew treasures. + +In 1471 his Cardinal-patron was elected Pope as Sixtus IV. The +magnificence which characterized the poor peasant's son in his +dealings with Italy, in his embellishment of Rome and the Vatican, was +not lacking in his treatment of Wessel. 'Ask what you please as a +parting gift', he said to the scholar, who was preparing to set out +for Friesland. 'Give me books from your library, Greek and Hebrew', +was the request. 'What? No benefice, no grant of office or fees? Why +not?' 'Because I don't want them', came the quiet reply. The books +were forthcoming--one, a Greek Gospels, was perhaps the parent of a +copy which reached Erasmus for the second edition of his New +Testament. + +After his return to the North, Wessel was invited to Heidelberg, to +aid the Elector Palatine, Philip, in restoring the University, _c._ +1477. He was without the degree in theology which would have enabled +him to teach in that faculty, and was not even in orders: indeed a +proposal that he should qualify by entering the lowest grade and +receiving the tonsure, he contemptuously rejected. So the Theological +Faculty would not hear him, but to the students in Arts he lectured on +Greek and Hebrew and philosophy. For some years, too, he was physician +to David of Burgundy, Bishop of Utrecht, whom he cured of gout by +making him take baths of warm milk. The Bishop rewarded him by +shielding him from the attacks of the Dominicans, who were incensed +by his bold criticisms of Aquinas; and when age brought the desire for +rest, the Bishop set him over a house of nuns at Groningen, and bought +him the right to visit Mount St. Agnes whenever he liked, by paying +for the board and lodging of this welcome guest. + +Wessel's last years were happily spent. He was the acknowledged leader +of his society, and he divided his time between Mount St. Agnes and +the sisters at Groningen, with occasional visits to Adwert. There he +set about reviving the Abbey schools, one elementary, within its +walls, the other more advanced, in a village near by; and Abbot Rees +warmly supported him. Would-be pupils besought him to teach them Greek +and Hebrew. Admiring friends came to hear him talk, and brought their +sons to see this glory of their country--Lux mundi, as he was called. +Some fragments of his conversation have been preserved, the +unquestioned judgements which his hearers loyally received. Of the +Schoolmen he was contemptuous, with their honorific titles: 'doctor +angelic, doctor seraphic, doctor subtle, doctor irrefragable.' 'Was +Thomas (Aquinas) a doctor? So am I. Thomas scarcely knew Latin, and +that was his only tongue: I have a fair knowledge of the three +languages. Thomas saw Aristotle only as a phantom: I have read him in +Greece in his own words.' To Ostendorp, then a young man, but +afterwards to become head master of Deventer school, he gave the +counsel: 'Read the ancients, sacred and profane: modern doctors, with +their robes and distinctions, will soon be drummed out of town.' At +Mount St. Agnes once he was asked why he never used rosary nor book of +hours. 'I try', he replied, 'to pray always. I say the Lord's Prayer +once every day. Said once a year in the right spirit it would have +more weight than all these vain repetitions.' + +He loved to read aloud to the brethren on Sunday evenings; his +favourite passage being John xiii-xviii, the discourse at the Last +Supper. As he grew older, he sometimes stumbled over his words. He was +not an imposing figure, with his eyes somewhat a-squint and his slight +limp; and sometimes the younger monks fell into a titter, irreverent +souls, to hear him so eager in his reading and so unconscious. It was +not his eyesight that was at fault: to the end he could read the +smallest hand without any glasses, like his great namesake, John +Wesley, whom a German traveller noticed on the packet-boat between +Flushing and London reading the fine print of the Elzevir Virgil, with +his eyes unaided, though at an advanced age. + +On his death-bed Wessel was assailed with scepticism, and began to +doubt about the truth of the Christian religion. But the cloud was of +short duration. That supreme moment of revelation, which comes to +every man once, is no time for fear. Patient hope cast out +questioning, and he passed through the deep waters with his eyes on +the Cross which had been his guide through the life that was ending. + +Of Rudolph Agricola we know more than of the others; his striking +personality, it seems, moved many of his friends to put on record +their impressions of him. One of the best of these sketches is by +Goswin of Halen (d. 1530), who had been Wessel's servant at Groningen, +and had frequently met Agricola. Rudolph's father, Henry Huusman, was +the parish priest of Baflo, a village four hours to the north of +Groningen; his mother being a young woman of the place, who +subsequently married a local carrier. On 17 Feb. 1444 the priest was +elected to be warden of a college of nuns at Siloe, close to +Groningen, and in the same hour a messenger came running to him from +Baflo, claiming the reward of good news and announcing the birth of a +son. 'Good,' said the new warden; 'this is an auspicious day, for it +has twice made me father.' + +From the moment he could walk, the boy was passionately fond of music; +the sound of church bells would bring him toddling out into the +street, or the thrummings of the blind beggars as they went from house +to house playing for alms; and he would follow strolling pipers out of +the gates into the country, and only be driven back by a show of +violence. When he was taken to church, all through the mass his eyes +were riveted upon the organ and its bellows; and as he grew older he +made himself a syrinx with eight or nine pipes out of willow-bark. He +was taught to ride on horseback, and early became adept in +pole-jumping whilst in the saddle, an art which the Frieslanders of +that age had evolved to help their horses across the broad rhines of +their country. In 1456, when he was just 12, he matriculated at +Erfurt, and in May 1462 at Cologne. But the course of his education is +not clear, and though it is known that he reached the M.A. at Louvain, +the date of this degree is not certain. He is also said to have been +at the University of Paris. + +Of his life at Louvain some details are given by Geldenhauer (d. 1542) +in a sketch written about fifty years after Agricola's death. The +University had been founded in 1426 to meet the needs of Belgian +students, who for higher education had been obliged to go to Cologne +or Paris, or more distant universities. Agricola entered Kettle +College, which afterwards became the college of the Falcon, and soon +distinguished himself among his fellow-students. They admired the ease +with which he learnt French--not the rough dialect of Hainault, but +the polite language of the court. With many his musical tastes were a +bond of sympathy, in a way which recalls the evenings that Henry +Bradshaw used to spend among the musical societies of Bruges and Lille +when he was working in Belgian libraries; and on all sides men frankly +acknowledged his intellectual pre-eminence as they marked his quiet +readiness in debate and heard him pose the lecturers with acute +questions. By nature he was silent and absorbed, and often in company +he would sit deaf to all questions, his elbows on the table and biting +his nails. But when roused he was at once captivating; and this +unintended rudeness never lost him a friend. There was a small band of +true humanists, who, as Geldenhauer puts it, 'had begun to love purity +of Latin style'; to them he was insensibly attracted, and spent with +them over Cicero and Quintilian hours filched from the study of +Aristotle. Later in life he openly regretted having spent as much as +seven years over the scholastic philosophy, which he had learnt to +regard as profitless. + +From 1468 to 1479 he was for the most part in Italy, except for +occasional visits to the North, when we see him staying with his +father at Siloe, and, in 1474, teaching Greek to Hegius at Emmerich. +Many positions were offered to him already; gifts such as his have not +to stand waiting in the marketplace. But his wits were not homely, and +the world called him. Before he could settle he must see many men and +many cities, and learn what Italy had to teach him. + +For the first part of his time there, until 1473, he was at Pavia +studying law and rhetoric; but on his return from home in 1474 he went +to Ferrara in order to enjoy the better opportunities for learning +Greek afforded by the court of Duke Hercules of Este and its circle of +learned men. His description of the place is interesting: 'The town is +beautiful, and so are the women. The University has not so many +faculties as Pavia, nor are they so well attended; but _literae +humaniores_ seem to be in the very air. Indeed, Ferrara is the home of +the Muses--and of Venus.' One special delight to him was that the +Duke had a fine organ, and he was able to indulge what he describes as +his 'old weakness for the organs'. In October 1476, at the opening of +the winter term of the University, the customary oration before the +Duke was delivered by Rodolphus Agricola Phrysius. His eloquence +surprised the Italians, coming from so outlandish a person: 'a +Phrygian, I believe', said one to another, with a contemptuous shrug +of the shoulders. But Agricola, with his chestnut-brown hair and blue +eyes, was no Oriental; only a Frieslander from the North, whose cold +climate to the superb Italians seemed as benumbing to the intellect as +we consider that of the Esquimaux. + +During this period Agricola translated Isocrates _ad Demonicum_ and +the _Axiochus de contemnenda morte_, a dialogue wrongly attributed to +Plato, which was a favourite in Renaissance days. Also he completed +the chief composition of his lifetime, the _De inuentione dialectica_, +a considerable treatise on rhetoric. His favourite books, Geldenhauer +tells us, were Pliny's Natural History, the younger Pliny's Letters, +Quintilian's _Institutio Oratoria_, and selections from Cicero and +Plato. These were his travelling library, carried with him wherever he +went; two of them, Pliny's Letters and Quintilian, he had copied out +with his own hand. Other books, as he acquired them, he planted out in +friends' houses as pledges of return. + +In 1479 he left Italy and went home. On his way he stayed for some +months with the Bishop of Augsburg at Dillingen, on the Danube, and +there translated Lucian's _De non facile credendis delationibus_. A +manuscript of Homer sorely tempted him to stay on through the winter. +He felt that without Homer his knowledge of Greek was incomplete; and +he proposed to copy it out from beginning to end, or at any rate the +Iliad. But home called him, and he went on. At Spires, in quest of +manuscripts, he went with a friend to the cathedral library. He +describes it as not bad for Germany, though it contained nothing in +Greek, and only a few Latin manuscripts of any interest--a Livy and a +Pliny, very old, but much injured and the texts corrupt--and nothing +at all that could be called eloquence, that is to say, pure +literature. + +When he had been a little while in Groningen, the town council +bethought them to turn his talents and learning to some account. He +was a fine figure of a man, who would make a creditable show in +conducting their business; and for composing the elegant Latin +epistles, which every respectable corporation felt bound to rise to on +occasions, no one was better equipped than he. He was retained as town +secretary, and in the four years of his service went on frequent +embassies. During the first year we hear of him visiting his father at +Siloe, and contracting a friendship with one of the nuns[1]; to whom +he afterwards sent a work of Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, which he had +found in a manuscript at Roermond. Twice he visited Brussels on +embassy to Maximilian; and in the next year he followed the Archduke's +court for several months, visiting Antwerp, and making the +acquaintance of Barbiriau, the famous musician. Maximilian offered him +the post of tutor to his children and Latin secretary to himself; the +town of Antwerp invited him to become head of their school. He might +easily have accepted. He was not altogether happy at Groningen. His +countrymen had done him honour, but they had no real appreciation for +learning, and some of them were boorish and cross-grained. It was the +old story of Pegasus in harness; the practical men of business and the +scholar impatient of restraint. His parents, too, were now both +dead--in 1480, within a few months of each other--and such homes as he +had had, with his father amongst the nuns at Siloe and with his mother +in the house of her husband the tranter, were therefore closed to him. +And yet neither invitation attracted him. Friesland was his native +land; and for all his wanderings the love of it was in his blood. +Adwert, too, was near, and Wessel. He refused, and stayed on in his +irksome service. + + [1] In view of Geldenhauer's testimony to Agricola's high + character in this respect, we need not question, as does + Goswin of Halen, the nature of this intimacy. + +But in 1482 came an offer he could not resist. An old friend of Pavia +days, John of Dalberg, for whom he had written the oration customary +on his installation as Rector in 1474, had just been appointed Bishop +of Worms. He invited Agricola for a visit, and urged him to come and +join him; living partly as a friend in the Bishop's household, partly +lecturing at the neighbouring University of Heidelberg. The opening +was just such as Agricola wished, and he eagerly accepted; but +circumstances at Groningen prevented him from redeeming his promise +until the spring of 1484. For little more than a year he rejoiced in +the new position, which gave full scope for his abilities. Then he set +out to Rome with Dalberg, their business being to deliver the usual +oration of congratulation to Innocent VIII on his election. On the way +back he fell ill of a fever at Trent, and the Bishop had to leave him +behind. He recovered enough to struggle back to Heidelberg, but only +to die in Dalberg's arms on 27 Oct. 1485, at the age of 41. + +Few men of letters have made more impression on their contemporaries; +and yet his published writings are scanty. The generation that +followed sought for his manuscripts as though they were of the +classics; but thirty years elapsed before the _De inuentione +dialectica_ was printed, and more than fifty before there was a +collected edition. Besides his letters the only thing which has +permanent value is a short educational treatise, _De formando studio_, +which he wrote in 1484, and addressed to Barbiriau--some compensation +to the men of Antwerp for his refusal to come to them. His work was to +learn and to teach rather than to write. To learn Greek when few +others were learning it, and when the apparatus of grammar and +dictionary had to be made by the student for himself, was a task to +consume even abundant energies; and still more so, if Hebrew, too, was +to be acquired. But though he left little, the fire of his enthusiasm +did not perish with him; passing on by tradition, it kindled in others +whom he had not known, the flame of interest in the wisdom of the +ancients. + +Another member of the Adwert gatherings was Alexander of Heck in +Westphalia, hence called Hegius (1433-98). He was an older man than +Agricola, but was not ashamed to learn of him when an opportunity +offered to acquire Greek. His enthusiasm was for teaching; and to that +he gave his life, first at Wesel, then at Emmerich, and finally for +fifteen years at Deventer, where he had many eminent humanists under +his care--Erasmus, William Herman, Mutianus Rufus, Hermann Busch, John +Faber, John Murmell, Gerard Geldenhauer. Butzbach, who was the last +pupil he admitted, and who saw him buried in St. Lebuin's church on a +winter's evening at sunset, describes him at great length; and besides +his learning and simplicity, praises the liberality with which he gave +all that he had to help the needy: living in the house of another +(probably Richard Paffraet, the printer) and sharing expenses, and +leaving at his death no possessions but his books and a few clothes. +And yet he was master of a school which had over 2000 boys. + +Rudolph Langen of Munster (1438-1519) was another who was known at +Adwert. He matriculated at Erfurt in the same year as Agricola, and +was M.A. there in 1460. A canonry at Munster gave him maintenance for +his life, and he devoted his energies to learning. Twice he visited +Italy, in 1465 and 1486; and in 1498 he succeeded in establishing a +school at Munster on humanistic lines, and wished Hegius to become +head master, but in vain. Nevertheless it rapidly rivalled the fame of +Deventer. + +Finally, Antony Vrye (Liber) of Soest deserves record, since he has +contributed somewhat to our knowledge of Adwert. He also was a +schoolmaster, and taught at various times at Emmerich, Campen, +Amsterdam, and Alcmar. In 1477 he published a volume entitled +_Familiarium Epistolarum Compendium_, the composition of which +illustrates the catholic tastes of the humanists; for it contains +selections from the letters of Cicero, Jerome, Symmachus, and the +writers of the Italian Renaissance. But he chiefly merits our +gratitude for including in the book a number of letters which passed +between the visitors to Adwert and their friends, together with some +of his own. The pleasant relations existing in this little society may +be illustrated by the fact that when Vrye's son John had reached +student age, the Adwert friends subscribed to pay his expenses at a +university; and thus secured him an education which enabled him to +become Syndic of Campen. + +A few extracts from their letters will serve to show some of the +characteristics of the age, its wide interest in the past, theological +as well as classical; its eager search for manuscripts, and the +freedom with which its libraries were opened; its concern for +education, and its attitude towards the old learning; and the extent +of its actual achievements. The earliest of these letters that survive +are a series written by Langen from Adwert in the spring of 1469 to +Vrye at Soest. Despite the grave interest in serious study that the +letters show, there are human touches about them. One begins: 'You +promised faithfully to return, and yet you have not come. But I cannot +blame you; for the road is deep in mud, and I myself too am so feeble +a walker that I can imagine the weariness of others' feet.' Another +ends in haste, not with the departure of the post, but 'The servants +are waiting to conduct me to bed'. Here is a longer sample: + + +I. LANGEN TO VRYE: from Adwert, 27 Feb. <1469>. + + 'Why do you delay so long to gratify the wishes of our devout + friend Wolter? With my own hand I have transcribed the little + book of _Elegantiae_, as far as the section about the reckoning + of the Kalends. I greatly desire to have this precious work + complete; so do send me the portion we lack as soon as you can. + The little book will be my constant companion: I know nothing + that has such value in so narrow a span. How brilliant Valla + is! he has raised up Latin to glory from the bondage of the + barbarians. May the earth lie lightly on him and the spring + shine ever round his urn! Even if the book is not by Valla + himself, it must come from his school. + + 'I write in haste and with people talking all round me, from + whom politeness will not let me sit altogether aloof. But read + carefully and you will understand me. At least I hope this + letter won't be quite so barbarous as the monstrosities which + the usher from Osnabruck sends you every day: they sound like + the spells of witches to bring up their familiar spirits, or + the enchantments "Fecana kageti", &c., which open locks whoever + knocks. Poor Latin! it is worse handled than was Regulus by the + Carthaginians. Forgive this scrawl: I am writing by + candlelight.' + +We shall have other occasions to notice the admiration of the Northern +humanists for Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457), the master of Latin style, and +the audacious Canon of the Lateran, who could apply the spirit of +criticism not only to the New Testament but even to the Donation of +Constantine. + + +2. VRYE TO ARNOLD OF HILDESHEIM (Schoolmaster at Emmerich): <? +Cologne, _c._ 1477>. + + 'I have still a great many things to do, but I shall not begin + upon them till the printed books from Cologne arrive at + Deventer. My plan was to go to Heidelberg, Freiburg, Basle and + some of the universities in the East and then return to + Deventer through Saxony and Westphalia. But at Coblenz I met + four men from Strasburg who declared that Upper Germany was + almost all overrun by soldiers. This unexpected alarm has + compelled me to dispose of the 1500 copies of _The Revival of + Latin_ amongst the schools.[2] After visiting Deventer and + Zwolle I shall go to Louvain, and then, if it is safe, to + Paris. I thought you ought to know of this change in my plans; + that you might not be taken by surprise at finding me gone + westwards instead of into Upper Germany. + + 'Please take great pains over the correction of the + manuscripts.' + + [2] particularibus studiis. + + +3. AGRICOLA TO HEGIUS <at Emmerich>: from Groningen, 20 Sept. 1480. + + 'I was very sorry to learn from your letter that you had been + here just when I was away. There are so few opportunities of + meeting any one who cares for learning that you would have been + most welcome. My position becomes increasingly distasteful to + me: since I left Italy, I forget everything--the classics, + history, even how to write with any style. In prose I can get + neither ideas nor language. Such as come only serve to fill the + page with awkward, disjointed sentences. Verse I hardly ever + attempt, and when I do, there is no flow about it; sometimes + the lines almost refuse to scan. The fact is that I can find no + one here who is interested in these things. If only we were + together! + + 'My youngest brother Henry has been fired with the desire to + study. I have advised him against it, but as he persists, I do + not like to do more. For the last six months he has been with + Frederic Mormann at Munster, and has made some progress: but + now Mormann <who was one of the Brethren of the Common Life> + has been sent as Rector to a house <at Marburg>, and Henry has + come home. If you can have him, I should like him to come to + you. He will bring with him the usual furniture,[3] money will + be sent to him from time to time, and he will find himself a + lodging[4] wherever you advise. I should be glad to know + whether there are any teachers who give lessons out of school + hours, as Mormann does; and whether any one may go to them on + payment of a fee, whether candidates for orders[5] or not. I + should like him to get over the elements as quickly as + possible; for if boys are kept at them too long, they take a + dislike to the whole thing. The Pliny that you ask for shall + come to you soon. I use it a great deal; but nevertheless you + shall have it.' + + [3] victui necessaria, vt solent nostrates. Victus is commonly + used in the technical sense of 'board'; but here the meaning + probably is 'the usual outfit for a schoolboy'. Gebwiler, in + 1530, required a boy coming to his school at Hagenau to be + provided with 'a bed, sheets, pillow, and other necessaries'. + [4] diuersorium. + [5] capitiati. + +In answer to a question from Hegius, Agricola goes on to distinguish +the words mimus, histrio, persona, scurra, nebulo; with quotations +from Juvenal and Gellius. 'Leccator', he says, 'is a German word; like +several others that we have turned into bad Latin, reisa, +burgimagister, scultetus, or like the French passagium for a military +expedition, guerra for war, treuga for truce.' + +He then proceeds to more derivations in answer to Hegius. [Greek: +Anthropos] he considers a fundamental word, which, like homo, defies +analysis: but nevertheless he suggests [Greek: ana] and [Greek: +trepo], or [Greek: terpo], or [Greek: trepho]. To explain vesper he +cites Sallust, Catullus, Ovid, Pliny's Letters, Caesar's Civil War, +Persius and Suetonius. (We must remember that in those days a man's +quotations were culled from his memory, not from a dictionary or +concordance.) He goes on: 'About forming words by analogy, I rarely +allow myself to invent words which are not in the best authors, but +still perhaps I might use Socratitas, Platonitas, entitas, though +Valla I am sure would object. After all one must be free, when there +is necessity. Cicero, without any need, used Pietas and Lentulitas; +and Pollio talks of Livy's Patauinitas.' Other words explained are +tignum, asser, [Greek: dioikesis]; and then Agricola proceeds to +correct a number of mistakes in Hegius' letter. Rather delicate work +it might seem; but there is such good humour between them that, though +the corrections extend to some length, it all ends pleasantly. + + +4. HEGIUS TO AGRICOLA; from Deventer, 17 Dec. <1484>. + +After apologies for not having written for a long while, he proceeds: + + 'You ask how my school is doing. Well, it is full again now; + but in summer the numbers rather fell off. The plague which + killed twenty of the boys, drove many others away, and + doubtless kept some from coming to us at all. + + 'Thank you for translating Lucian's Micyllus. I am sure that + all of us who read it, will be greatly pleased with it. As soon + as it comes, I will have it printed. If I may, I should much + like to ask you for an abridgement of your book on Dialectic: + it would be very valuable to students. I understand that you + have translated Isocrates' Education of Princes. If I had it + here, I would expound it to my pupils. For some of them, no + doubt, will be princes some day and have to govern. + + 'I have been reading Valla's book on the True Good, and have + become quite an Epicurean, estimating all things in terms of + pleasure. Also it has persuaded me that each virtue has its + contrary vice, rather than two vices as its extremes. I should + like to know whether the authorities at Heidelberg have + abandoned their Marsilius[6] on the question of universals, or + whether they still stick to him.' + + [6] Of Inghen, first Rector of Heidelberg University (1386), + the author of the _Parua Logicalia_. + + +5. AGRICOLA TO HEGIUS; from Worms, Tuesday <January 1485>, in reply. + +After thanks and personalities he writes: + + 'Certainly you shall have the Lucian, and I will dedicate it to + you: but not just yet, as I am too busy to revise it. My public + lectures take up a good deal of my time. I have a fairly large + audience; but their zeal is greater than their ability. The + majority of them are M.A.'s or students in the Arts course;[7] + who are obliged to spend all their time on their disputations, + so they have only a meagre part of the day left for these + studies. In consequence, as they can do so little, I am not + very active. + + 'In addition to this I am trying to keep up my Latin and Greek + (though they are fast slipping from me) and am beginning + Hebrew, which I find very difficult: indeed to my surprise it + costs me more effort than Greek did. However, I shall go on + with it as I have begun: also because I like to have something + new on hand, and much as I like Greek, its novelty has somewhat + worn off. I have made up my mind to devote my old age, if I + ever reach it, to theology. You know how I detest the + barbarisms of those who fill the schools. On their side they + are indignant with me for daring to question their decisions; + but this will not deter me. + + 'My greetings to your host, Master Richard (Paffraet), and his + wife. + + 'Worms, in great haste, on the third day of the week: as I have + determined to call it, instead of our unclassical Feria + secunda, tertia, &c., or the heathen names, Monday, Mars' day, + Mercury's day, Jove's day.' + + [7] Scholastici, vt nos dicimus, artium. + +We may notice the anticipation of the Quakers, who in a similar way +would only speak of first day and sixth month. + + +6. HEGIUS TO WESSEL; from Deventer <between 1483 and 1489>. + + 'I am sending you the Homilies of John Chrysostom, and hope + you will enjoy reading them. His golden words have always been + more acceptable to you than the precious metal itself from the + mint. + + 'I have been, as you know, at Cusanus' library, and found there + many Hebrew books which were quite unknown to me; also a few + Greek. I remember the names of the following: Epiphanius + against heresies, a very big book; Dionysius on the Hierarchy; + Athanasius against Arius; Climacus. + + 'These I left behind there, but I brought away with me: Basil + on the Hexaemeron and some of his homilies on the Psalms; the + Epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles; Plutarch's Lives + of Romans and Greeks, and his Symposium; some writings on + grammar and mathematics; some poems on the Christian religion, + written, I think, by Gregory Nazianzen; some prayers, in Latin + and Greek. + + 'If there are any of these you lack, let me know and they shall + come to you: for everything I have is at your disposal. If you + could spare the Gospels in Greek, I should be grateful for the + loan of it. You enquire what books we are using in the school. + I have followed your advice; for literature which is dangerous + to morality is most injurious.' + +The library mentioned above was that of Nicholas Krebs (d. 1464), the +famous Cardinal who took part in the Council of Basle and was the +patron of Poggio. Cues on the Moselle was his birthplace, and gave him +his name Cusanus. In his later years he founded a hostel, the Bursa +Cusana, at Deventer, where he had been at school, and at Cues built a +hospital for aged men and women, with a grassy quadrangle and a chapel +of delicate Gothic; and there in a vaulted chamber supported by a +central column he deposited the manuscripts, mainly theological but +with some admixture of the classics, which he had gathered in the +course of his busy life. + +In 1496 we hear of another visit to it; when Dalberg, who was a prince +of humanists, led thither Reuchlin and a party of friends on a voyage +of discovery. Their course was from Worms to Oppenheim, where his +mother was still living: by boat to Coblenz and up the Moselle to +Cues: then over the hills to Dalburg, his ancestral home, and finally +to the abbey of Sponheim, near Kreuznach, where they admired the rich +collection of manuscripts in five languages formed by the learned +historian Trithemius, who was then Abbot. Whether this gay party of +pleasure also carried off any treasures from Cues is not recorded. + +But lest this view of the Adwert Academy should appear too uniformly +roseate, we will turn to the tradition of Reyner Praedinius (1510-59), +who was Rector of the town school at Groningen, and whose fame +attracted students thither from Italy, Spain, and Poland. He had in +his possession several manuscripts of Wessel's writings, some of them +unpublished; and he had been intimate with men who had known both +Wessel and Agricola. One of these--very likely Goswin of Halen--as a +boy had often served at table, when the two scholars were dining; and +had afterwards shown them the way home with a lantern. He used to say +that he had frequently pulled off Agricola's boots, when he came home +the worse for his potations; but that no one had ever seen Wessel +under the influence of wine. Wessel, indeed, lived to a green old age, +but killed himself by working too hard. + + + + +II + +SCHOOLS + + +Erasmus was born at Rotterdam on the vigil of SS. Simon and Jude, 27 +October: probably in 1466, but his utterances on the subject are +ambiguous. Around his parentage he wove a web of romance, from which +only one fact emerges clearly--that his father was at some time a +priest. Current gossip said that he was parish priest of Gouda; a +little town near Rotterdam, with a big church, which in the sixteenth +century its inhabitants were wealthy enough to adorn with some fine +stained glass. There in the town school, under a master who was +afterwards one of the guardians of his scanty patrimony, Erasmus' +schooldays began, and he made acquaintance with the Latin grammar of +Donatus. After an interval as chorister at Utrecht, he was sent by his +parents to the school at Deventer, which, with that of the +neighbouring and rival town of Zwolle, enjoyed pre-eminence among the +schools of the Netherlands at that date. It was connected with the +principal church of the town, St. Lebuin's; and doubtless among those +aisles and chapels, listening perhaps to the merry bells, whose chimes +still proclaim the quarters far and wide, he caught the first breath +of that new hope to which he was to devote his whole life. The school +was controlled by the canons of St. Lebuin, who appointed the head +master; but, as at Zwolle, some of the teachers were drawn from that +sober and learned order, the Brethren of the Common Life, whose parent +house was at Deventer. + +Of Erasmus' life in the school we have little knowledge. He tells us +that he was there in 1475, when preachers came from Rome announcing +the jubilee which Sixtus IV had so conveniently found possible to hold +after only twenty-five years. From one of his letters we can picture +him wandering by the river side among the barges, and marking the slow +growth of the bridge of boats which it took the town of Deventer +several years to throw across the rapid Yssel. He probably entered the +lowest class, the eighth, and by 1484, when at the age of eighteen he +left in consequence of the outbreak of plague mentioned in Hegius' +letter to Agricola, he had not made his way above the third; thus +giving little indication of his future fame. An explanation may +perhaps be found by supposing that his time in the choir at Utrecht +was an interlude in the Deventer period; but in any case the school in +his time was still 'barbarous', to use his own word, that is, it was +still modelled on the requirements of the scholastic courses, the +_literae inamoenae_, which from his earliest years he abhorred. +Zinthius (or Synthius), who was one of the Brethren, and Hegius +'brought a breath of something better', he tells us: but both of them +taught only in the higher forms, and Hegius he only heard during his +last year, on the festivals when the head master lectured to the whole +school together. + +A few years later the school numbered 2200 boys. It is difficult to us +to imagine such a throng gathered round one man. There were only eight +forms, which must therefore have had on an average 275 in each; and +even if subdivided into parallel classes, they must still have been +uncomfortably large to our modern ideas. On the title-pages of early +school-books are sometimes found woodcuts which represent the children +sitting, like the Indian schoolboy to-day, in crowds about their +master, taking only the barest amount of space, and content with the +steps of his desk or even the floor. Some idea of the character of the +teaching may be derived from the experiences of Thomas Platter +(1499-1582) at Breslau about thirty years later. 'In the school at St. +Elizabeth', he says, 'nine B.A.'s read lectures at the same hour and +in the same room. Greek had not yet penetrated into that part of the +world. No one had any printed books except the praeceptor, who had a +Terence.[8] What was read had first to be dictated, then pointed, then +construed, and at last explained.'[9] It was a wearisome business for +all concerned. The reading of a few lines of text, the punctuation, +the elaborate glosses full of wellnigh incomprehensible +abbreviations; all dictated slowly enough for a class of a hundred or +more to take down every word. Lessons in those days were indeed +readings. For a clever boy who was capable of going forward quickly, +they must have been great waste of time. + + [8] It is worth remarking that in the fifteenth century Terence + was regarded as a prose author, no attempt having been made + to determine his metres. As late as 1516 an edition was + printed in Paris in prose. + [9] Here, and later on, I follow Mrs. Finn's translation, 1839. + +At Deventer Erasmus began with elementary accidence. The books which +he first mentions, _Pater meus,_ a series of declensions, and +_Tempora_, the tenses, that is the conjugations of the verb, were +probably local productions of a simple nature which never found their +way into print. From this he proceeded to the versified Latin grammars +which mediaeval authorities on education had invented to supersede the +prose of Priscian and Donatus; metre being more adapted to the +learning by heart then so much in fashion. 'Praelegebatur Ebrardus et +Joannes de Garlandia', he says: a line or two was read out by the +master and then the commentary was dictated--the boys writing down as +much as they could catch. Let us see the kind of thing. Here are some +extracts from the _Textus Equiuocorum_ of John Garland, an Englishman +who taught at Toulouse in the thirteenth century. + + Latrat et amittit, humilis, vilis, negat, heret: + Est celeste Canis sidus, in amne natat. + +'Firstly it is a thing that barks': three verses of quotation follow. + +'Secondly it loses; canis being the name for the worst throw with the +dice': one verse of quotation. + +'Thirdly it is something humble: David to Saul, "After whom is the +King of Israel come out? after a dead dog? after a flea?" + +Fourthly it is something contemptible: Goliath to David, "Am I a dog +that thou comest to me with staves?" + +Fifthly it denies, like an apostate: "A dog returned to its vomit." + +Sixthly it adheres.' But here the interpreter goes astray under the +preoccupation of the times: 'heret significat hereticum et infidelem; +hence "It is not good to take the children's bread and cast it unto +dogs, that is to heretics and infidels." + +Seventhly it is a star; hence are named the dog days, in which that +star has dominion. + +Eighthly it swims in the sea; the dog fish.' + +The qualities of the dog are also expressed in this verse: 'Latrat in +ede canis, nat in equore, fulget in astris. Et venit canis +originaliter a cano--is.' So Garland, or his commentator, abridged. + +Of sal he says: + + Est sal prelatus, equor, sapientia, mimus, + Sal pultes condit, sal est cibus et reprehendit. + +Here again there is a full commentary; but the only interpretation +that we need notice is the first, 'Salt denotes a prelate of the +Church; for it is said in the Gospels, Ye are the salt of the earth.' +When he composed these lines, Garland must surely have had his eye on +ecclesiastical preferment. + +Another line is interesting, as illustrating the confusion between c +and t in mediaeval manuscripts: + + Est katonque malum, katademon nascitur inde. + +The commentary runs: 'Kathon est idem quod malum. Inde dicitur +kathodemon, i.e. spiritus malignus seu dyabolus, et venit a kathon, +i.e. malum, et demon, sciens, quasi mala sciens.' You will notice also +the inconstancy of h, and the indifference to orthography which allows +the same word to appear as katademon in the text and kathodemon in the +commentary. + +Garland's _Textus_ is mostly Latin; but in the last composition of his +life, the forty-two distiches entitled _Cornutus_, 'one on the horns +of a dilemma', he is mainly occupied with Greek words adopted into +Latin: using of course Latin characters. Some specimens will show the +mediaeval standards of Greek: I quote from the text and commentary +edited in 1481 by John Drolshagen, who was master of the sixth class +at Zwolle. + + Kyria chere geram cuius ph[=i]lantr[)o]pos est bar, Per te doxa + theos nect[=e]n [)e]t [)v]r[=a]n[)i]c[)i]s ymas. + +In the commentary we are told that Kyria means the Virgin: but we are +to be careful not to write it with two r's, for kirrios means a pig (I +suppose [Greek: choiros]), and it would never do to say Kirrieleyson. +Chere is of course [Greek: chaire], salue. Geran (geram in the text) +is interpreted sanctus, and seems from a lengthy discussion of it to +be connected with [Greek: geron] and [Greek: ieros].[10] Philantropos +(notice the quantities) is Christ, the Saviour. 'Bar Grece est filius +Latine.' 'Necten in Greco est venire Latine: vnde dicit Pristianus in +primo minoris, antropos necten, i.e. homo venit.' (For this remarkable +form I can only suggest [Greek: enthein] or [Greek: hekein]: -en is +probably the infinitive; ne might arise from en; and ct, through tt, +from th.) Ymas is explained as nobis, not vobis. The construction of +the distich is then given: 'Hail, sacred queen, whose son is the lover +of men; through thee divine and heavenly glory comes to us.' + +Again: + + 'Clauiculis firmis theos antropos impos et ir mis + Figor ob infirmi cosmos delicta, patir mi.' + +Impos = in pedibus. Ir = a hand (probably [Greek: cheir], +transliterated into hir, and h dropped) and mis is explained as = mei, +according to the form which occurs in Plautus and early Latin. The +lines are an address from Christ to God, and are interpreted: 'O my +father, I God and man am fastened with hard nails in my feet and hands +(upon the cross) for the sins of a weak world.' + +Another work dictated to Erasmus at Deventer was the metrical grammar +of Eberhard of Bethune in Artois, composed in the twelfth century. Its +name, _Graecismus_, was based upon a chapter, the eighth, devoted to +the elementary study of Greek--a feature which constituted an advance +on the current grammars of the age. A few extracts will show the +character of the assistance it offered to the would-be Greek scholar. + + [10] Cf. Gerasmus and Hierasmus as variations of the name + Herasmus or Erasmus. + + Quod sententia sit b[)o]l[)e] comprobat amphibol[=i]a, + Quodque fides br[)o]g[)e] sit comprobat Allobroga. + +The gloss explains the second line thus: 'Dicitur ab alleos quod est +alienum, et broge quod est fides, quasi alienus a fide'; and thus we +learn that the Allobroges were a Burgundian people who were always +breaking faith with the Romans. + + Constat apud Grecos quod tertia littera cima est, + Est quoque dulce c[)i]m[=e]n, inde c[)i]m[=e]t[)e]rium; + Est [)v]n[)i]uersal[=e] c[)a]t[)a], fitque c[)a]tholicus inde, ... + C[=a]ta breuis pariter, c[=a]talogus venit hinc. + Die decas esse decem, designans inde decanum ... + Delon obscurum, Delius inde venit. + Ductio sit gogos, hinc isagoga venit. + Estque geneth mulier, inde gen[=e]th[=e][=u]m. + +Here the confusion of c with t begins the misleading; which is carried +further by the gloss, 'Genetheum: locus subterraneus vbi habitant +mulieres ad laborandum, et dicitur a geneth quod est mulier, et thesis +positio, quia ibi ponebantur mulieres ad laborandum'; or 'Genetheum: +absconsio subterranea mulierum'. + + Estque decem gintos, dicas hinc esse viginti, + Vt pentecoste, coste valebit idem. + + Pos quoque pes tibi sit, compos tibi comprobat illud, + Atque p[)e]dos puer est, hinc pedagogus erit. + Dic zoen animam, die ind[=e] z[=o][)e]c[)a]isychen. + +This last word appears in eleven different forms in the manuscripts. +The gloss interprets it plainly as 'vita mea et anima mea'; but +without this aid it must have been unintelligible to most readers, +especially in such forms as zoychaysichen, zoycazyche, zoichasichen, +zoyasichem. + +The 'breath of something better' which Hegius and Zinthius brought was +seen in the substitution of the _Doctrinale_ of Alexander of +Ville-Dieu, near Avranches (_fl._ 1200), as the school Latin grammar. +This also is a metrical composition; and it has the merit of being +both shorter and also more correct. It was first printed at Venice by +Wendelin of Spires (_c._ 1470), and after a moderate success in Italy, +twenty-three editions in fourteen years, it was taken up in the North +and quickly attained great popularity. By 1500 more than 160 editions +had been printed, of the whole or of various parts, and in the next +twenty years there were nearly another hundred, before it was +superseded by more modern compositions, such as Linacre's grammar, +which held the field throughout Europe for a great part of the +sixteenth century. The number of Deventer editions of the _Doctrinale_ +is considerable, mostly containing the glosses of Hegius and Zinthius, +which overwhelm the text with commentary; a single distich often +receiving two pages of notes, so full of typographical abbreviations +and so closely packed together as to be almost illegible. This very +fullness, however, probably indicates a change in the method of +teaching, which by quickening it up must indeed have put new life into +it; for it would clearly have been impossible to dictate such lengthy +commentaries, or the boys would have made hardly any progress. + +Thirty years ago in England a schoolboy of eleven found himself +supplied with abridged Latin and Greek dictionaries, out of which to +build up larger familiarity with these languages. Erasmus at Deventer +had no such endowments. A school of those days would have been thought +excellently equipped if the head master and one or two of his +assistants had possessed, in manuscript or in print, one or other of +the famous vocabularies in which was amassed the etymological +knowledge of the Middle Ages. Great books are costly, and scholars are +ever poor. The normal method of acquiring a dictionary was, no doubt, +to construct it for oneself; the schoolboy laying foundations and +building upon them as he rose from form to form, and the mature +student constantly enlarging his plan throughout his life and adding +to it the treasures gained by wider reading. A sure method, though +necessarily circumscribed, at least in the beginning. We can imagine +how men so rooted and grounded must have shaken their heads over +'learning made easy', when the press had begun to diffuse cheap +dictionaries, which spared the younger generation such labour. + +Though they were scarcely 'for the use of schools', it will repay us +to examine some of the mediaeval dictionaries which lasted down to the +Renaissance in general use; for they formed the background of +educational resources, and from them we can estimate the standards of +teaching attained in the late fifteenth century. First the +_Catholicon_, compiled by John Balbi, a Dominican of Genoa, and +completed on 7 March 1286; a work of such importance to the age we are +considering that it was printed at Mainz as early as 1460, and there +were many editions later. Badius' at Paris, 1506, for instance, was +reprinted in 1510, 1511, 1514. In his preface Balbi announces that his +dictionary is to be on the alphabetical principle; and, what is even +more surprising to us, he goes on to explain at great length what the +alphabetical principle is. Thus: 'I am going to treat of amo and bibo. +I shall take amo before bibo, because a is the first letter in amo and +b is the first letter in bibo; and a is before b in the alphabet. +Again I have to treat of abeo and adeo. I shall take abeo before adeo, +because b is the second letter in abeo and d is the second letter in +adeo; and b is before d in the alphabet.' And so he goes on: amatus +will be treated before amor, imprudens before impudens, iusticia +before iustus, polisintheton before polissenus--the two last being +from the Greek. 'But note', he continues, 'that in polissenus, s is +the fifth letter and also the sixth, because s is repeated there. A +repetition is therefore equivalent to a double letter; and thus this +arrangement will show when l, m, n, r, s or indeed any other letter is +to be doubled. And in order that the reader may find quickly what he +seeks, whenever the first or second letter of a word is changed, we +shall mark it with azure blue.' His preface ends with an appeal. 'This +arrangement I have worked out with great labour; yet not I, but the +grace of God with me. I entreat you therefore, reader, do not contemn +my work as something rude and barbarous.' + +The most striking feature of the dictionary is its etymology. Almost +every word is supplied with a derivation, often very far-fetched. Thus +glisco is derived from 'glykis, quod est dulcis; que enim dulcia sunt +desiderare solemus': gliscere therefore is equivalent to desiderare, +crescere, pinguescere and several other words. After this we are not +surprised at the following account of a dormouse. 'Glis a glisco: +quoddam genus murium quod multum dormit. Et dicitur sic quod sompnus +facit glires pingues et crescere.' Here is another piece of natural +history. 'Irundo ab aer dicitur: quia non residens sed in aere capiens +cibos edat, quasi in aere edens.' There is simplicity in the +following: 'Nix a nubes, quia a nube venit.' Again: 'Ouis ab offero +vel obluo: quia antiquitus in inicio non tauri sed oues in sacrificio +mactarentur. Priscianus vero dicit quod descendit a Greco ... oys.' +Besides his philology the good Dominican was also a theologian; and +when he comes to the words upon which his world was built, he cannot +dismiss them as lightly as the snow. So Antichristus has two columns, +that is to say a folio page: confiteor 11/2, conscientia 21/4, ordo 21/2, +virgo two columns. + +Much light is thrown on Balbi's work by the dictionary of his +predecessor, Huguitio of Pisa, Bishop of Ferrara (d. 1210). The title +of this, _Liber deriuationum_, indicates its character. Instead of the +alphabetical principle the words are arranged according to their +etymology; all that are assigned to a given root being grouped +together. This made it necessary, or at any rate desirable, to find a +derivation for every word; and with ingenuity to aid this was done as +far as possible. Besides derivatives even compounds came under the +simple root; and in consequence it must have been extremely difficult +to find a word unless one already knew a good deal about it. It is no +wonder that the book was never printed; although it occurs frequently +in the catalogues of mediaeval libraries. + +A few examples will suffice. Under capio are found capax, captiuus, +capillus, caput with all its derivatives, anceps, praeceps, +principium, caper, capus, caupo, cippus, scipio, <s>ceptrum; and even +cassis and catena. Similarly under nubo come nubes, nebula, nebulo, +nix, niger, nimpha, limpha, limpidus. With such a book as one's only +support it was clearly of the highest importance to be good at +etymology; with ouis, for instance, not to be troubled by Priscian's +fanciful derivation from the Greek, but to know that it came from +offero, and was therefore to be found under fero; or again to look for +hirundo under aer. Nor need we be surprised at the strange derivations +upon which arguments were sometimes founded: that Sprenger, the +inquisitor, could explain femina 'quia minorem habet et seruat fidem'; +or the preacher over whom Erasmus' Folly makes merry, find authority +for burning heretics in the Apostle's command 'Haereticum deuita'. + +We are now in a position to understand Balbi's performance in the +_Catholicon_. From the apologetic tone of his preface it is clear that +he felt Huguitio's work to be the really scientific thing, the only +book that a scholar would consult: but evidently experience had shown +the difficulty of using it, and therefore for the weakness of lesser +men like himself he reverted to the sequence of the alphabet. In +cumbering himself with derivations, too, he shows that he knows his +place. He may have had a glimmering that some of them were absurd; and +that Priscian with his reference to the Greek was a safer guide. But +to a scholar brought up on Huguitio derivations were of the first +importance; and to leave them out would have been only another mark of +inferiority. + +Beyond Huguitio we may go back to Papias, a learned Lombard (_fl._ +1051), whose Vocabulary was still in use in the fifteenth century, and +was printed at Milan in 1476. The editions of it are far fewer than +those of the _Catholicon_; a fact which presumably points to the +superiority of the later work. Papias also used the alphabetical +principle; and his lengthy explanation of it, which lacks, however, +the lucidity of Balbi's, probably implies that his predecessors had +adopted the etymological arrangement by derivations, or the divisions +of Isidore according to subjects. In a few cases he makes concession +to etymology, by giving derivatives under their root, e.g. under ago +come all the words derived from it: but he has regard to the weak, and +places them also in their right alphabetical position. Not many +derivations are given; but one of them is well known. Lucus is defined +as 'locus amenus, vbi multae arbores sunt. Lucus dictus [Greek: kata +antiphrasin] quia caret luce pro nimia arborum vmbra; vel a colocando +crebris luminibus (_aliter_ uiminibus), siue a luce, quod in eo +lucebant funalia propter nemorum tenebras.' This in the hands of Balbi +becomes 'per contrarium lucus dicitur a lucendo', or, as we say +popularly, 'lucus a non lucendo.' December, again, is derived from +decem and imbres 'quibus abundare solet'; and so too the other +numbered months. + +It is noticeable that Papias has some knowledge of Greek, for +derivations in Greek letters occur, e.g. 'Acrocerauni: montes propter +altitudinem & fulminum iactus dicti. Graece enim fulmen [Greek: +keraunos] ceraunos dicitur, et acra [Greek: akra] sumitas'; and a +great many Greek and Hebrew words are given transliterated into Latin, +ballein, fagein, Ennosigaeus. Like Balbi, Papias travels outside the +limits of a mere dictionary, and his interests are not restricted to +theology. Aetas draws him into an account of the various ages of the +world, regnum into a view of its kingdoms. Carmen provokes 7 columns, +31/2 folio pages, on metres; lapis 2 columns on precious stones. Italy +receives 2 columns, and 3/4 of a column are given to St. Paul. +Contrariwise there is often great brevity in his interpretations: +'Samium locus est', 'heroici antiqui', 'mederi curare'. His treatment +of miraculum is interesting; 'A miracle is to raise the dead to life; +but it is a wonder (mirabile) for a fire to be kindled in the water, +or for a man to move his ears.' The next heading is mirabilia, for +which his examples are taken from the ends of the earth. He begins: +'Listen. Among the Garamantes is a spring so cold by day that you +cannot drink it, so hot at night that you cannot put your finger into +it.' A fig-tree in Egypt, apples of Sodom, the non-deciduous trees of +an island in India--these are the other travellers' tales which serve +him for wonders. + +The alphabetical method did not hold its own without struggle. It +prevailed in Robert Stephanus' Latin _Thesaurus_ (1532), the most +considerable work of its kind that had been compiled since the +invention of printing; but Dolet's Commentaries on the Latin Tongue +(1536), are practically a reversion to the arrangement by roots. Henry +Stephanus' Greek _Thesaurus_ (1572) and Scapula's well-known +abridgement of it (1579) are both radical; and as late as the +seventeenth century this method was employed in the first Dictionary +of the French Academy, which was designed in 1638 but not published +till 1694. That, however, was its last appearance. The preface to the +Academy's second Dictionary (1700 and 1718), after comparing the two +methods, says: 'The arrangement by roots is the most scientific, and +the most instructive to the student; but it is not suited to the +impatience of the French people, and so the Academy has felt obliged +to abandon it.'[11] The ordinary user of dictionaries to-day would be +surprised at being called impatient for expecting the words to be put +in alphabetical order. + + [11] Cf. R.C. Christie, _Etienne Dolet_, ch. xi. + +In mediaeval times there was one very real obstacle to the use of the +alphabetical method, and that was the uncertainty of spelling. Both +Papias and Balbi allude to it in their prefaces; but it did not deter +them from their enterprise. Even in the days of printing language +takes a long time to crystallize down into accepted forms, correct and +incorrect. You may see Dutchess with a t at Blenheim, well within the +eighteenth century, and forgo has only recently decided to give up its +e. In the days of manuscripts men spelt pretty much as they pleased, +making very free even with their own names; and uncritical copyists, +caring only to reproduce the word, and not troubling about the exact +orthography of their original, did nothing to check the ever-growing +variety. Such licence was agreeable for the imaginative, but it made +despairing work for the compilers of dictionaries. Some of their +difficulties may be given as examples. In the early days of minuscule +writing, when writing-material was still scarce, to save space it was +common to write the letter e with a reversed cedilla beneath it to +denote the diphthongs -ae and -oe. In the Middle Ages the cedilla was +commonly dropped, leaving the e plain; and so mostly it remained until +the sixteenth century revived the diphthong, or at least the two +double letters. + +At all periods down to 1600, some hands are found in which it is +impossible to distinguish between c and t; and hence in mediaeval +times, and even later, such forms as fatio, loto, pecieris, licterae +are not infrequently found for facio, loco, petieris, litterae. An +extreme example of the confusion which this variability must have +caused is in the case of the fourteenth-century annalist, Nicholas +Trivet, whose surname sometimes appears as Cerseth or Chereth. + +The doubling of consonants, too, was often a matter of doubt, and the +Middle Ages, possibly again for reasons of space, used many words with +single consonants instead of two--difficilimus, Salustius, consumare, +comodum, opidum, fuise. The letter h was the source of infinite +trouble. Sometimes it was surprisingly omitted, as in actenus, irundo, +Oratius, ortus--in the latter cases perhaps under Italian influence; +sometimes it appears unexpectedly, as in Therentius, Theutonia, +Thurcae, Hysidorus, habundare, and even haspirafio; or in abhominor, +where it bolstered up the derivation from homo: or it might change its +place from one consonant to another, as in calchographus, cartha. +Papias found it a great trouble, and indeed was quite muddled with it, +placing hyppocrita, hippomanes among the h's, but hippopedes and +several others under the i's, though without depriving them of initial +h. In France, h between two short i's was considered to need support, +and so we find michi, nichil, occurring quite regularly. The +difficulty of i and y was met by the suppression of the latter; so +that though it sometimes appears unexpectedly, as in hysteria, it is +only treated as i. Between f and ph there was much uncertainty; phas, +phanum, prophanus are well-known forms, or conversely Christofer, +flenbothomari, Flegeton. B and p were often confused, as in babtizare, +plasphemus; and p made its way into such words as ampnis, dampnum, +alumpnus. A triumph of absurd variation is achieved by Alexander +Neckam, who begins a sentence 'Coquinarii quocunt'. + +With the increased learning of the Renaissance these varieties +gradually disappear. The printers, too, rendered good service in +promoting uniformity, each firm having its standard orthography for +doubtful cases, as printers do to-day. The use of e for ae is abundant +in the first books printed North of the Alps; but it steadily +diminishes, and by 1500 has almost vanished. In manuscripts, where it +was easy to forget to add the cedilla, the plain e lasts much longer. +There was also confusion in the reverse direction. Well into the +sixteenth century the cedilla is often found wrongly added to words +such as puer, equus, eruditus, epistola; in 1550 the Froben firm was +still regularly printing aedo, aeditio; and in the index to an edition +of Aquinas, Venice, 1593, aenigma and Aegyptus, spelt in this way, are +only to be found under e. Other forms of error persisted long. To the +end of his life Erasmus usually wrote irito, oportunus; in 1524 he +could still use Oratius. The town of Boppard on the Rhine he styles +indifferently Bobardia or Popardia: just as, much later, editors +described the elder Camerarius of Bamberg as Bapenbergensis in 1583, +as Pabepergensis in 1595. As late as 1540 a little book was printed in +Paris to demonstrate that michi and nichil were incorrect. + +In such a state of flux we need not wonder that the mediaeval writers +of dictionaries found the alphabetical arrangement not the way of +simplification they had hoped, but rather to be full of pitfalls; nor +again that the men of the Renaissance thought the work of their +predecessors so lamentably inadequate. We shall do better to admire in +both cases the brilliance and constancy which could achieve so much +with such imperfect instruments. + +To complete our sketch of the books on which the scholars of the +fifteenth century had to rely we may consider two more. The first is +the great encyclopaedia of Vincent of Beauvais, a Dominican friar +(_c._ 1190-1264). It was printed in 1472-6 by Mentelin at Strasburg, +in six enormous volumes; and no one can properly appreciate the +magnitude of the work who has not tried to lift these volumes about. +Vincent was not the first to attempt this encyclopaedic enterprise, +for his work is based on that of another Frenchman, Helinand, who died +in 1229. In his preface he states that his prior had urged him to +reduce his _Speculum_ to a manual; being doubtless an old man, and +appalled at these colossal fruits of his friar's industry. But this +was too much for the proud author after all his labour. He did, +however, consent to cut it up into portions. The _Speculum naturale_ +gives a description of the world in all its parts, animal and +vegetable and mineral; the _Speculum doctrinale_ taught how to +practise the arts and sciences; the _Speculum historiale_ embraced the +world's history down to 1250; and the _Speculum morale_, which is +perhaps not by Vincent, found room for the philosophies. + +But few libraries can have possessed this work in full. Our other book +was much more compassable and more widely circulated. Its author was a +certain Johannes Marchesinus, of whom so little is known that his date +has been put both at 1300 and at 1466. Even the title of the book was +uncertain. Marchesinus names it Mammotrectus or Mammetractus, which he +explains as 'led by a pedagogue'; but a current form of the name was +Mammothreptus, which was interpreted as 'brought up by one's +grandmother'. The book consists of a commentary on the whole Bible, +chapter by chapter; and also upon the _Legenda Sanctorum_, upon +various sermons and homilies, responses, antiphons, and hymns, with +notes on the Hebrew months, ecclesiastical vestments, and other +subjects likely to be useful to students in the Church, especial +emphasis being laid on pronunciation and quantity. It was intended, +Marchesinus tells us in his preface, for the use of the poor clergy, +to aid them in writing sermons and in reading difficult Hebrew names; +and from the sympathy with which he enters into their troubles, it +seems clear that he knew them from personal experience. + +From its scope the book might be expected to be as large as Vincent's +_Speculum_, but in fact it can be printed in a quarto volume. It was +not intended to compete with the great commentaries of Peter the +Lombard, or Nicholas Lyra, or Hugh of St. Victor, which fill many +folios. It was to be within reach of the poor parish priest, and so +must not be costly. But the surprising part of the book is its +triviality. With so little space available, one would have expected to +find nothing admitted that was not important: but the fact is that it +has nothing which is not elementary. There is nothing historical, +nothing theological, only a few simple points of grammar and quantity. +For example, in the story of Deborah, Judges iv, the commentary runs +as follows: + + 2. Sisara: middle syllable short. + + 4. Debbora: middle syllable short. Prophetes masc., Prophetis + fem.; meaning, propheta. + + 10. Accersitis: last syllable but one long; meaning, vocatis. + + 15. Perterreo, perterres; meaning, in pauorem conuertere. + Active. + + 17. Cinci (the Kenites): middle syllable long. + + 15. Desilio, desilis, desilii or desiliui: middle syllable + short in trisyllables in the present; meaning, de aliquo salire + siue descendere festinanter. + + 21. clauus, masc., claui: meaning, acutum ferrum, malleus, + masc., mallei: meaning, martellus. + + tempus, neut.: meaning, pars capitis, for which some people say + timpus. + +For Daniel vi, the story of Daniel in the lions' den, the commentary +is even briefer: + + 6. surripuerunt: meaning, falso suggesserunt. Surripio, + surripis, surrepsi(!): meaning, latenter rapere, subtrahere, + furari. + + 10. comperisset; meaning, cognouisset. Comperio, comperis, + comperi: fourth conjugation. + + 20. affatus: meaning, allocutus. From affor, affaris; and + governs the accusative. + +We must not exalt ourselves above the author. He is very humble. 'Let +any imperfections in the book', says his preface, 'be attributed to +me: and if there is anything good, let it be thought to have come from +God.' He gave them of his best, explaining away such as he could of +the difficulties which had confronted him. But one can imagine the +disgust of even a moderate scholar if, wishing to study the Bible more +carefully, he could obtain access to nothing better than +Mammotrectus. + +Though Erasmus has not much to tell us of his time at Deventer, a +fuller account of the school may be found in the autobiography of John +Butzbach (_c._ 1478-1526), who for the last nineteen years of his life +was Prior of Laach.[12] Indeed, his narrative is so detailed and so +illustrative of the age that it may well detain us here. He was the +son of a weaver in the town of Miltenberg (hence Piemontanus) on the +Maine, above Aschaffenburg. At the age of six he was put to school and +already began to learn Latin; one of his nightly exercises that he +brought home with him being to get by heart a number of Latin words +for vocabulary. After a few years he came into trouble with his master +for laziness and truancy, and received a severe beating; his mother +intervened and got the master dismissed from his post, and Butzbach +was removed from the school. + + [12] Butzbach's manuscripts from Laach are now in the + University Library at Bonn, but have never been printed. + I have used a German translation by D.J. Becker, Regensburg, + 1869. + +An opportunity then offered for him to get a wider education. The son +of a neighbour who had commenced scholar, returned home for a time, +and offered to take Butzbach with him when he went off again to pursue +his courses for his degree. The consent of his parents was obtained; +and the scholar having received a liberal contribution towards +expenses, and Butzbach being equipped with new clothes, the pair set +out together. The boy was now ten, and looked forward hopefully to the +future; but the scholar quickly showed himself in his true colours. +He treated Butzbach as a fag, made him trudge behind carrying the +larger share of their bundles, and when they came to an inn feasted +royally himself off the money given to him for the boy, leaving him to +the charity of the innkeepers. At the end of two months the money was +spent, and they had found no place of settlement. Henceforward +Butzbach was set to beg, going from house to house in the villages +they passed, asking for food; and when this failed to produce enough, +he was required to steal. The scholar treated him shamefully and beat +him often; and as it was a well-known practice for fags, when begging, +to eat up delicacies at once, instead of bringing them in, Butzbach +was sometimes subjected to the regular test, being required to fill +his mouth with water and then spit it out into a basin for his master +to examine whether there were traces of fat. + +The scholar's aim was to find some school, having attached to it a +Bursa or hostel, in which they could obtain quarters; apparently he +was not yet qualified for a university. They made their way to +Bamberg, but there was no room for them in the Bursa. So on they went +into Bohemia, where at the town of Kaaden the rector of the school was +able to allot them a room--just a bare, unfurnished chamber, in which +they were permitted to settle. Such teaching as Butzbach received was +spasmodic and ineffectual, and after two years of this bondage he ran +away. For the next five years he was in Bohemia in private service, +longing for home, hating his durance among the heathen, as he called +the Bohemians for following John Hus, but lacking courage to make his +escape from masters who could send horsemen to scour the countryside +for fugitive servants and string them up to trees when caught. +However, at length the opportunity came, and after varying fortunes, +Butzbach made his way home to Miltenberg, to find his father dead and +his mother married again. + +For the substantial accuracy of Butzbach's narrative his character is +sufficient warranty. He was a pious, honest man, and at the time when +he wrote his autobiography at the request of his half-brother Philip, +he was already a monk at Laach. But the picture of a young student's +sufferings under an elder's cruelty can be paralleled with surprising +closeness from the autobiography of Thomas Platter, mentioned above; +the wandering from one school to another, the maltreatment, the +begging, the enforced stealing, all these are reproduced with just the +difference of surroundings. + +Platter's account of his life at Breslau is worth quoting. 'I was ill +three times in one winter, so that they were obliged to bring me into +the hospital; for the travelling scholars had a particular hospital +and physicians for themselves. Care was taken of the patients, and +they had good beds, only the vermin were so abundant that, like many +others, I lay much rather upon the floor than in the beds. Through the +winter the fags lay upon the floor in the school, but the Bacchants in +small chambers, of which at St. Elizabeth's there were several +hundreds. But in summer, when it was hot, we lay in the church-yard, +collected together grass such as is spread in summer on Saturdays in +the gentlemen's streets before the doors, and lay in it like pigs in +the straw. When it rained, we ran into the school, and when there was +thunder, we sang the whole night with the Subcantor, responses and +other sacred music. Now and then after supper in summer we went into +the beerhouses to beg for beer. The drunken Polish peasants would give +us so much that I often could not find my way to the school again, +though only a stone's throw from it.' Platter wrote his autobiography +at the age of 73, when his memories of his youth must have been +growing dim; but though on this account we must not press him in +details, his main outlines are doubtless correct. + +On his return, Butzbach was apprenticed to Aschaffenburg, to learn the +trade of tailoring; and having mastered this, he procured for himself, +in 1496, the position of a lay-brother in the Benedictine Abbey of +Johannisberg in the Rheingau, opposite Bingen. His duties were +manifold. Besides doing the tailoring of the community, he was +expected to make himself generally useful: to carry water and fetch +supplies, to look after guests, to attend the Abbot when he rode +abroad (on one occasion he was thrown thus into the company of Abbot +Trithemius of Sponheim, whose work on the Ecclesiastical writers of +his time he afterwards attempted to carry on), to help in the hay +harvest, and in gathering the grapes. Before a year was out he grew +tired of these humble duties, and bethought him anew of his father's +wish that he should become a professed monk. He had omens too. One +morning his father appeared to him as he was dressing, and smiled upon +him. Another day he was sitting at his work and talking about his wish +with an old monk who was sick and under his care. On the wall in front +of his table he had fastened a piece of bread, to be a reminder of the +host and of Christ's sufferings. Suddenly this fell to the ground. The +old man started up from his place by the stove, and steadying his +tottering limbs cried out aloud that this was a sign that the wish was +granted. He had the reputation among his fellows of being a prophet +and had foretold the day of his own death. Butzbach accepted the omen, +and obtained leave to go to school again. + +His choice was Deventer. One of the brethren wrote him an elegant +letter to Hegius applying for admission; and though, as he says, he +answered no questions in his entrance examination (which appears to +have been oral), on the strength of the letter he was admitted and +placed in the seventh class, a young man of twenty amongst the little +boys who were making a beginning at grammar. But he had no means of +support except occasional jobs of tailor's work, and hunger drove him +back to Johannisberg. There he might have continued, had not a chance +meeting with his mother, when he had ridden over to Frankfort with the +Abbot, given him a new spur. She could not bear to think of his +remaining a Lollhard, that is a lay-brother, all his days; and +pressing money privily into his hands, she besought the Abbot to let +him return to Deventer. In August 1498 he was there again, was +examined by Hegius, and was placed this time in the lowest class, the +eighth, in company with a number of stolid louts, who had fled to +school to escape being forced to serve as soldiers. There was reason +in their fears. The Duke of Gueldres was at war with the Bishop of +Utrecht. A hundred prisoners had been executed in the three days +before Butzbach's return, and as he strode into Deventer to take up +his books again, he may have seen their scarce-cold bodies swinging on +gibbets against the summer sunset. The schoolboy of to-day works in +happier surroundings. + +Butzbach's career henceforward was fortunate. He was taken up by a +good and pious woman, Gutta Kortenhorff, who without regular vows had +devoted herself to a life of abstinence and self-sacrifice; taking +special pleasure in helping young men who were preparing for the +Franciscan or the reformed Benedictine Orders. For nine months +Butzbach lived in her house, doubtless out of gratitude rendering such +service as he could to his kind patroness. From the eighth class he +passed direct into the sixth, and at Easter 1499 he was promoted into +the fifth. This entitled him to admission to the Domus Pauperum +maintained by the Brethren of the Common Life for boys who were +intending to become monks; and so he transferred himself thither for +the remainder of his course. But he suffered much from illness, and +five several times made up his mind to give up and return home--once +indeed this was only averted by a swelling of his feet, which for a +prolonged period made it impossible for him to walk. After six months +in the fifth, and a year in the fourth class, he was moved up into the +third, thus traversing in little over two years what had occupied +Erasmus for something like nine. + +Butzbach was by temperament inclined to glorify the past; in the +present he himself had a share, and therefore in his humility he +thought little of it. In consequence we must not take him too +literally in his account of the condition of the school; but it is too +interesting to pass over. 'In the old days', he says, 'Deventer was a +nursery for the Reformed Orders; they drew better boys, more suited to +religion, out of the fifth class, than they do now out of the second +or first, although now much better authors are read there. Formerly +there was nothing but the Parables of Alan <of Lille, _fl._ 1200>, the +moral distichs of Cato, Aesop's Fables, and a few others, whom the +moderns despise; but the boys worked hard, and made their own way over +difficulties. Now when even in small schools the choicest authors are +read, ancient and modern, prose and poetry, there is not the same +profit; for virtue and industry are declining. With the decay of that +school, religion also is decaying, especially in our Order, which drew +so many good men from there. And yet it is not a hundred years since +our reformation.' + +He does not indicate how far back he was turning his regretful gaze; +whether to the early years of the fifteenth century when Nicholas of +Cues was a scholar at Deventer, or to the more recent times of +Erasmus, who was about three school-generations ahead of him. But of +the books used there in the last quarter of the fifteenth century we +can form a clear notion from the productions of the Deventer printers, +Richard Paffraet and Jacobus of Breda. School-books then as now were +profitable undertakings, if printed cheap enough for the needy +student; and Paffraet, with Hegius living in his house, must have had +plenty of opportunities for anticipating the school's requirements. +Between 1477 and 1499 he printed Virgil's Eclogues, Cicero's _De +Senectute_ and _De Amicitia_, Horace's _Ars Poetica_, the _Axiochus_ +in Agricola's translation, Cyprian's Epistles, Prudentius' poems, +Juvencus' _Historia Euangelica_, and the _Legenda Aurea_: also the +grammar of Alexander with the commentary of Synthius and Hegius, +Agostino Dato's _Ars scribendi epistolas_, Aesop's Fables, and the +_Dialogus Creaturarum_, the latter two being moralized in a way which +must surely have pleased Butzbach. Jacobus of Breda, who began +printing at Deventer in 1486, produced Virgil's Eclogues, Cicero's _De +Senectute_ and _De Officiis_, Boethius' _De consolatione philosophiae_ +and _De disciplina scholarium_, Aesop, a poem by Baptista Mantuanus, +the 'Christian Virgil', Alan of Lille's _Parabolae_, Alexander, two +grammatical treatises by Synthius and the _Epistola mythologica_ of +Bartholomew of Cologne. + +This last, as being the work of a master in the school, deserves +attention; and also for its intrinsic interest. As its title implies, +it is cast in the form of a letter, addressed to a friend Pancratius; +and it is dated from Deventer 10 July 1489--nine years before Butzbach +entered the school. It opens with the customary apologies, and after +some ordinary topics the writer, Bartholomew, says that he is sending +back some books borrowed from Pancratius, including a Sidonius which +he has had on loan for three years. At this point there is a +transformation. Sidonius is personified and becomes the centre of a +series of semi-comic incidents, which afford an opportunity for +introducing various words for the common objects of everyday life; and +a glossary explains many of these with precision. There is a long and +vivid account of the waking of Sidonius from his three years' slumber. +The door has to be broken open, and Sidonius is found lying to all +appearances dead. A feather burnt under his nose produces slight signs +of life; and when a good beating with the bar of the door is +threatened, he at length rouses himself. Servants come in, and their +different duties are described. They fall to quarrelling and become +uproarious; and in the scuffle Sidonius is hurt. A lotion is prepared +for his bruises, and he is offered diet suitable for an invalid: +boiled sturgeon, washed down with wine or beer, the latter being from +Bremen or Hamburg. + +Afterwards the room is cleared up, and thus an opportunity is given to +describe it. Then a table is spread for the rest of the party, and +the various requisites are specified--tablecloth and napkins, pewter +plates, earthenware mugs, a salt-cellar and two brass stands for the +dishes. Bread is put round to each place, chairs are brought up with +cushions; and jugs of wine and beer placed in the centre of the table. +Finally a basin is brought with ewer and towel for the guests to wash +their hands, and as one o'clock strikes, dinner appears, and all sit +down together, including the servants. After the meal a dice-box and +board are produced; but one of the guests demurs, and it is put aside. +In the conversation that ensues it is arranged that Sidonius shall go +back to his master next morning after breakfast. The servant who is to +accompany him asks that they may go in a carriage; but this is +overruled, because of a recent accident in which one had been upset, +and it is determined that a Spanish palfrey of easy paces shall be +provided for Sidonius. At six supper is served; and then the curtain +falls, the letter relapsing into normal matters--inquiries for a +Euclid, regrets at being unable to send to Pancratius Hyginus and the +_Astronomica_ of Manilius. + +It is clear that the object of the book, which is of no great length, +was to give boys correct Latin words for the material objects of their +daily life: something like Bekker's _Gallus_ and _Charicles_ on a +small scale. In carrying out this idea Bartholomew of Cologne has +provided us with a sketch of the world that he knew. + + + + +III + +MONASTERIES + + +Erasmus was not fitted for the monastic life. This is not to say that +he was a bad man. Few men outside the ranks of the holy have worked +harder or made greater sacrifices to do God service. But his was a +free spirit. His work could only be done in his own way; and to live +according to another's rule fretted him beyond endurance. His +experience in the matter was not fortunate. In 1483 his mother died of +plague at Deventer, whither she had accompanied him. His father +recalled him next year to Gouda, but died soon afterwards; and his +guardians then sent him with his elder brother to a school kept by the +Brethren of the Common Life at Hertogenbosch--doubtless to a Domus +Pauperum for intending monks, such as Butzbach entered at Deventer; +for in this connexion Erasmus describes the schools of the Brethren as +seminaries for the regular orders. After two years they returned to +Gouda, and Erasmus begged to be sent to a university; but no means +were forthcoming, and the guardian prevailed upon the elder brother +Peter to enter the monastery of Sion, near Delft. Erasmus held out for +some time; but he was without resources and the influences at work +upon him were strong. One day he fell in with a school-friend, +Cornelius of Woerden, who had recently entered the house of +Augustinian canons at Steyn, near Gouda. In his loneliness any friend +was welcome. He paid visits to Steyn and saw that the life there +offered leisure and even possibilities of study; Cornelius, too, +seemed inclined to be a ready companion in literary pursuits. Urged by +his guardian, invited by his friend, he gave way at length to the +double pressure and entered Steyn. + +After a novitiate of a year, during which life was made easy to him, +he took his canonical vows; and soon began to repent of the step he +had made. For about seven years he lived in what seemed to him a +prison. There were, no doubt, good men amongst his fellow-canons. In +all his diatribes against monasticism he was ready to admit that the +Orders contained plenty of God-fearing souls, doing their duty +honestly; and the evidence shows clearly enough that this was correct. +It is, however, equally true that there were mediocrities among them, +and even worse; men with low standards and no ideals, who brought +their fellows to shame. Vows in those days were indissoluble, except +in rare cases; as a rule it was only by flight and disappearance for +ever that a man could escape social disgrace and the penalties +threatened by the spiritual arm to a renegade monk. To-day, when +orders can be laid down at the holder's will, the Church of England +contains priests of whom it cannot get rid. + +The good, even when they rule, do not always lead; nor are they always +learned. Erasmus found the atmosphere of Steyn hopelessly distasteful. +It was not that he was prevented from study. His compositions of this +period show a wide acquaintance with the classics and the Fathers; and +his style, though it had not yet attained to the ease and lucidity of +his later years, has much of the elegance beyond which his +contemporaries never advanced. The fact, too, that he left Steyn to +become Latin Secretary to a powerful bishop implies that he must have +had many opportunities for study and have made good use of them. But +from what he says it is clear that the tone of the place was set by +the mediocrities. We need not suppose that vice was rampant among +them, to shock the young and enthusiastic scholar. There was quite +enough to daunt him in the prospect of a life spent among the +narrow-minded. Sinners who feel waves of repentance may be better +house-mates than those who have worldly credit enough to make them +self-satisfied. + +Fortunately all houses of religion were not alike, any more than +colleges are alike to-day. Butzbach's lot was very different; and it +is a pleasant contrast to turn to his experiences at Laach, an +important Benedictine abbey some miles west of Andernach. In the +autumn of 1500, when he had been two years at Deventer, there appeared +one day in the school the Steward of the Abbey of Niederwerth, an +island in the Rhine below Coblenz. What the business was which had +brought him from his own monastery, is not stated; but he had also +been asked to do some recruiting for the Benedictines at Laach. The +Abbot there was nephew of the Prior at Niederwerth, and had taken +this opportunity to extend his quest further afield. The Steward +brought with him letters from the Abbot to the Rector of Deventer, now +Ostendorp, and also to the Brethren of the Common Life, asking for +some good and well-educated young men. The Rector's first appeal +evoked no response; so the Steward went on about his business. After +three weeks he returned, having visited other schools, but bringing no +one with him. Once more Ostendorp addressed the third and fourth +classes in impressive words. But all seemed in vain. The students had +paid their school fees for the half-year, and were ashamed to ask for +them back from the Rector and other teachers--into whose pockets they +appear to have gone direct. Their money paid for board and lodging +would have been sacrificed also. It happened, too, to be exceptionally +cold--not the weather in which any one would lightly set out on a +journey. We must remember that the calendar had not yet been +rectified, and that they were about ten days nearer to midwinter than +their dates show. + +On occasions the whole school came together to hear the Rector--it was +at such times, Erasmus tells us, that he heard Hegius. At one of these +gatherings during the Steward's second visit Butzbach was sitting next +to two friends from his own part of the world, Peter of Spires and +Paul of Kitzingen. They were above him in the school, having passed +their entrance examination before the Rector with such credit that +they were placed at once in the third class--a rare distinction--and +Paul indeed at the end of his first half-year had come out top and +passed into the second. The friends talked together of the life of the +cloister, of the happiness of study amid the practice of holiness and +in the presence of God. At the end Peter and Butzbach sought out the +Steward and gave him their names: Paul, the brilliant leader of the +trio, remained behind in the world, and became a professor at Cologne. + +Butzbach said farewell to the masters who had taught him, and to his +various benefactors in the town, all of whom applauded his decision. +On St. Barbara's Day, 4 Dec. 1500, the party set out, and were +accompanied out of the town by students who swarmed about them like +bees; Butzbach, when they at length took leave, urging them to follow +his example. Two days later they were at Emmerich, and after crossing +the Rhine on the ice, so bitter was the frost, they were overtaken by +the night at a convent and sought shelter. It proved to be a house of +Brigittines, with separate orders of men and women. One of the party, +a priest from Deventer, had a kinswoman among the nuns, but was not +allowed to see her. On 8 December the feast of the Conception of the +Virgin, as they passed through a village, the two priests asked leave +to say a mass for themselves in the parish church; and only with +difficulty obtained it from the pfarrer in charge, so great was the +jealousy between seculars and regulars. At night they found +hospitality in a Benedictine house at Neuss, where Butzbach notes the +peculiarity--which he discusses at length but is quite unable to +explain--that no one could be accepted as a monk with the name of +Peter. + +Next day the party was obliged to divide. Peter of Spires, who from +the first had been ailing and easily tired, was suffering acute pain +from a sore on his finger; so Butzbach remained behind with him in a +village, while the others went on to Cologne. After twenty-four hours +the sufferer was no better; and as sleep for either of them seemed +impossible, they arose at midnight, hired a cart, and journeying under +the stars, arrived at Cologne just as the gates were being opened. +They rejoined their friends, and the whole party was entertained in +the house of a rich widow, whose son, recently dead, had been a monk +at Niederwerth. + +The Steward had business at Cologne; so for two days the young men +were free to wander about the town, looking into the churches and +worried by the schoolboy tricks of the university students. Three days +journeying brought them late at night and dead tired to Niederwerth. +The aged Prior--he had been sixty years in the monastery--on learning +their destination showed them great courtesy and kindness; and when +they had supped, insisted, despite all their protests, on washing +their feet himself. Next day he showed them over the monastery, took +them into the rooms where the brethren were at work, and explained +what each of them had to do: 'just as though we were his equals,' says +Butzbach, on whom his modesty and friendliness made a deep impression. +Indeed, his conversation greatly strengthened them in their +determination to enter the religious life; although he did not conceal +from them the temptations which they might expect, from the Devil. + +On 17 December he gave them leave to proceed, and sent one of the +monastery servants and a lay-brother to escort them. Their way lay +through Coblenz; and Peter as a weaker vessel was sent on, to go +slowly ahead with the lay-brother, whilst the servant and Butzbach +stopped in the town to execute some commissions. But they had +under-estimated Peter's weakness. After a midday meal the second pair +set out briskly, in the comfortable reflection that the others were +already part-way to Laach. To their disgust as they crossed the bridge +over the Moselle, they found Peter and his companion lolling outside +an inn, unable to talk properly or to stand upright. The Prior's +warning against the Devil had been speedily justified. Peter had been +tempted to spend his last day of freedom in a carouse, and every penny +he possessed had gone over a fine dinner and costly wines. + +To Butzbach this was the more serious, because he had given his purse +to Peter to carry, and all that had gone too. Johannisberg still had +strong ties for him. He had found peace there and made friends, and it +was near his home. Many times, at silent moments as he journeyed along +from Deventer, it had come into his head to wonder whether Laach too +could give him peace, whether he could settle so far off. Now, if the +old ties should be too strong to resist, thanks to Peter, he would +have to set out on his way penniless. + +Sharp words brought the offenders to some measure of their senses; but +it was a dismal party that splashed along the muddy roads that +December afternoon. Evening brought them to Saffig, and hospitable +reception in the house of George von Leyen, brother of the Prior of +Niederwerth and father of the Abbot to whom they were going; and the +parents' praises of their son's goodness and kindness were comforting +to hear. Ten miles next morning brought them to Laach; and when they +came over the hill, and saw the great abbey with its towers and dome +beside the lake, which even in winter could smile amid its woods, +Butzbach felt that in all his travels he had seen no sight more +lovely. Their guide led them straight into the church, and as +Butzbach's eye glanced along the plain Romanesque columns, past the +gorgeous tomb of the founder, to the dim splendours of the choir, the +words of the familiar Psalm rose to his lips: 'Haec requies mea in +saeculum saeculi; hic habitabo, quoniam elegi eam.' Peace had come to +him at once, and he received it. + +After a generous meal in the refectory they were brought in to the +tall, dignified Abbot; and while they stood before him answering his +questions, they felt that he had not been praised more highly than was +his due. Abbot and Prior took them round the monastery; the latter a +busy little man in whom they could hardly recognize so exalted a +dignitary. At the back they found the brethren busy with the week's +washing. All crowded round them, full of questions and congratulations +and pleasant laughter. For three days they were lodged in the +guest-chambers, and then the Prior asked them whether they stood firm +in their wish to enter the Order. On their assent he expounded to them +the severities of the life, the self-abnegation that would be required +of them, bidding them consider whether they could face it; at the same +time instructing them in all the customs and practices of the house. +The dress was put upon them, they were led into the convent and cells +allotted to them; and told that till St. Benedict's Day (21 March) +they would be on probation. Before the day came Peter's spirit +faltered, and he went. But his weakness was not for long. He repented +and found his peace in a Cistercian house near Worms; and Butzbach's +sympathy went with him, back to the Upper Germany which both loved. + +The time of probation was hard to Butzbach; not because of the life, +which the good Prior tempered to his tenderness, but through the +temptations of the Devil, who seemed ever present with him. He was +specially tormented with the thought of Johannisberg, and the feeling +that he had deserted it. But the wise heads in charge of him gave +comfort and stablishment; and he persevered. On the Founder's Day, +1501, he entered upon the novitiate, which was followed a year later +by his profession; and in 1503 he was sent to Treves and ordained +priest. + +In the course of his numerous writings Butzbach gives sketches of +many of the inmates of Laach. The senior brother at the time of his +arrival was Jacob of Breden in Westphalia, a man of strong character +and force of will. As a boy, when at school at Cleves, he was laughed +at for his provincial accent; and therefore determined henceforward to +speak nothing but Latin, with the result that he acquired a complete +mastery of it. He had at first joined the Brethren of the Common Life +at Zwolle, then became a Benedictine in St. Martin's at Cologne, and +came to Laach to introduce the Bursfeld reforms. So tender-hearted was +he that he would not kill even the insects which worried him, but +would catch them and throw them out of window. John of Andernach is +mentioned as having appeared to the brethren after his death; and he +and Godfrey of Cologne are praised for their skill in astronomy. We +hear of various activities among the monks. One is good at writing, +another at dictating and correcting, another has taste in painting +flowers and illuminating. Henry of Coblenz combined the offices of +precentor, master of the robes, gardener, glazier and barber; and also +unofficial counsellor to the young, who frequently turned to him for +sympathy. Antony of St. Hubert, besides the care of the refectory, was +bee-master and hive-maker; and a great preacher in German, though he +had come to Laach knowing only his native French. At the end of the +list came the lay-brothers and the pensioners (donati), one of whom +was nearly 100. + +Shortly after his ordination Butzbach was appointed master of the +novices, to superintend their education--which included learning the +Psalter by heart--until the time of their profession. He protested his +unfitness, but the Abbot held him to it nevertheless. The standard of +his pupils was low: many of them, though they came as Bachelors and +Masters of Arts from the universities, he judged not so good as boys +in the sixth form at Deventer. But he found lecturing in Latin +difficult; and so to make up his deficiencies he set himself to read +all the Latin classics and Fathers that he could find. One day two +young kinsmen of the Abbot were at dinner. They had been at Deventer +and then at Paris, and were full of their studies. Butzbach as +novice-master represented the humanities, and was called upon for a +poem. Readiness was not his strong point; as a preacher he never could +overcome his nervousness. He asked leave to retire to his cell, and +there in solitude wrung out some verses of compliment; which found +such favour that, to his regret, he was often called upon again. + +In 1507, when only thirty, he was made Prior, and thus became +responsible for much of the management of the abbey. In spite of this +he kept up his studies; but only at the cost of great physical +efforts, robbing himself of sleep and working through long hours of +the night. To this period, 1507-9, belongs his most considerable +undertaking, an _Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_, which had +its origin in his admiration for Trithemius. In his Johannisberg days, +as we have seen, he had met the great historian-abbot, though in a +humble capacity. His own Abbot shared with Trithemius the duty of +making the triennial visitations of the Benedictine houses in that +district; and Butzbach, as the Abbot's servant, often rode with them. +Trithemius noticed the young lay-brother who seemed so interested in +study, and occasionally gave him a word of encouragement. Indeed it +was the story of Trithemius' life--repeated with wonder by many +lips--which had spurred Butzbach on to go to Deventer: how as a boy he +had worked with his stepfather in the mill at Trittenheim, and at +twenty-one was still labouring with his hands. One day he was carting +material for a new pilgrimage-church on the hill, when the call came +to him. He returned home, put up his horse and wagon, and without a +word to any one walked off to Niederwesel to begin learning grammar +amongst the little boys; and yet in a short time he had risen to be +Abbot, and had won a wide reputation. + +At Laach Butzbach for the first time set eyes on Trithemius' works. +One of these was a _Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_, printed by +John Amorbach at Basle in 1494--a sort of theological _Who's Who_, +giving the names of authors ancient and modern with lists of their +writings. Butzbach continued it with an _Auctarium_, into which he +hooked almost every writer he could find, whether ecclesiastical or +not. It is a large book, still remaining in manuscript at Bonn, as it +was written out for him by two very inefficient novices. The date of +its composition is abundantly indicated by the notes with which he +terminates his notices of living authors: 'Viuit adhuc anno quo hec +scribimus 158' or 159.[13] Such a compilation, in so far as it deals +with contemporary writers, might have had considerable value; but +unfortunately, like some of Trithemius' work, it is an uncritical +performance and contains ridiculous blunders, which impair the credit +of its statements when they cannot be checked. Industry and devotion +to learning are not the sole qualifications for a scholar. + + [13] = 1509. By a reverse process Bruno Amorbach writes 10507 + for 1507. + +But it was not altogether a happy time for Butzbach, even though he +was honoured by correspondence with Trithemius. There were few among +the monks who actually sympathized with his studies; and from a +certain section they brought him actual persecution. When, as Prior, +he emphasized before the brethren the section in Benedict's rule which +enjoins to study, they mocked at him. 'No learning, no doubts' said +one. 'Much learning doth make thee mad' said another. 'Knowledge +puffeth up' said a third; and heeded not his gentle reply, 'but love +edifieth'. They protested against his allowing the novices to read +Latin poetry. They appealed to the Visitor and got the supplies of +money for the library cut off; even what he earned himself by saying +masses for the dead was no longer allowed to be appropriated to him +for the purchase of books. Finally when the visitation came round in +1509, they delated him for spending too much time on writing, to the +neglect of the business of the monastery. But here they overreached +themselves. The Visitors called for his books, opened them and saw +that they were good--possibly they found their own names among the +ecclesiastical writers. The Prior was acquitted, and the mouths of his +enemies were stopped. + +One cause of dissension in monasteries at this period was the +existence of an unreformed element among the monks; though in +Butzbach's time it had probably disappeared at Laach. Ever since the +Oriental practice of monasticism spread into the West, Christendom has +seen a continual series of endeavours towards better and purer ideals +of human life. Of all the monastic orders the Benedictine (520) was +the oldest and the most widely spread. But time had relaxed the +strictness of its observance; and indeed some of the younger orders, +such as the Cluniac (910) and the Cistercian (1098), had their origins +in efforts after a more godly life than what was then offered under +the Benedictine rule, the strictness of which they sought to restore. +In the fifteenth century reform of the monasteries was once more in +the air.[14] In 1422 a chapter of the Benedictine houses in the +provinces of Treves and Cologne met at Treves to discuss the question, +which had been raised again at the Council of Constance, and to +consider various schemes. The Abbot of St. Matthias' at Treves, John +Rode, learning of the stricter code practised in St. James' at Liege +since the thirteenth century, introduced it into his house; borrowing +four monks from St. James' to help him in the process. A few years +later John Dederoth of Minden, Abbot of Bursfeld near Goettingen, after +examining the new practice at Treves, decided to follow Rode's +example, and carried off four brethren from St. Matthias' to Bursfeld. +His influence led a number of neighbouring Benedictine houses to adopt +the new rule; and very soon a Bursfeld Union or Congregation was +formed of monasteries which had embraced what Butzbach calls 'our +reformation', with annual chapters and triennial visitations. + + [14] At this point and again later about Chezal-Benoit I have + made much use of Dom Berliere's _Melanges d'histoire + benedictine_, 3^e serie, 1901. + +By the end of the fifteenth century there were more than a hundred +constituents of the Congregation. The usual method of introducing the +new practice was, as Rode and Dederoth had done, to borrow a number of +monks from a house already reformed, who either settled in the new +house or returned home when their work was done. As may be supposed, +the reforms were not everywhere welcomed. A zealous Abbot or Prior +returning with his band of foreigners was often met by opposition and +even forcible resistance. When Jacob of Breden, Butzbach's 'senior +brother', came in 1471 with seven others from St. Martin's at Cologne +to renew a right spirit in Laach, a number of the older monks resented +it, especially when he was made Prior for the purpose. One cannot but +sympathize with them. Jacob was only thirty-two, and it is a delicate +matter setting one's elders in the right way. At length the seniors +became exasperated and took to violence. Not content with belabouring +him in his cell, they attacked him one night with swords, and he only +escaped by leaping out of the dormitory window. The rest of his +company were ejected, and for three years found shelter in St. +Matthias' at Treves, the parent house of the new rule; and it was not +till 1474 that the Archbishop, with the Pope's permission and the +co-operation of the civil official of the district, forced his way +into Laach and turned out the recalcitrants. + +But this movement for reform was not confined to Germany nor to the +Benedictines. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the house of +Augustinian canons at Windesheim near Zwolle instituted for itself a +new and stricter set of statutes, and soon gathered round it nearly a +hundred houses of both sexes, forming the Windesheim Congregation: +besides which, other monasteries bound themselves into smaller bodies +to observe the new statutes. Thus, for instance, Erasmus' convent at +Steyn was a member of the Chapter of Sion, with only a few others; two +of which were St. Mary's at Sion, near Delft, to which his brother +Peter belonged, and St. Michael's at Hem, near Schoonhoven. The fame +of Windesheim spread into France. In two successive years--1496, +7--parties were invited thence to reform French Benedictine houses. +The first, headed by John Mauburn of Brussels, was brought in by the +Abbot of St. Severinus' at Chateau-Landon near Fontainebleau. It was +completely successful and Chateau-Landon was made the head of a new +Chapter: after which Mauburn proceeded to reform the Abbey of Livry, a +few miles to the north-east of Paris. The second mission, though +promoted by influential men in Paris, had less result. St. Victor's, +the Benedictine Abbey which the Bishop of Paris wished to reform, was +one of the most important in his diocese; and its inmates were averse +from the proposed changes. For nine months the mission from Windesheim +sat in Paris, expounding, demonstrating, hoping to persuade. One of +the party, Cornelius Gerard of Gouda, an intimate friend of Erasmus' +youth, enjoyed himself greatly among the manuscripts in the abbey +library; but that was all. In August 1498 they went home, leaving St. +Victor's as they had found it. + +The strenuous endeavours made at this time towards monastic reform +from within may be illustrated from the lives of Guy Jouveneaux +(Juuenalis) and the brothers Fernand. Jouveneaux was a scholar of +eminence and professor in the University of Paris. Charles Fernand was +a native of Bruges, who, in spite of defective eyesight, which made it +necessary for him regularly to employ a reader, had studied in Italy, +had been Rector of Paris University, 1485-6, and had attained to +considerable skill in both classical learning and music. John Fernand, +the younger brother, also excelled in both these branches of study. +Symphorien Champier, the Lyons physician, speaks of him with +Jouveneaux as his teacher in Paris. Charles VIII made him chief +musician of the royal chapel. + +In 1479 Peter du Mas became Abbot of the Benedictine house at Chezal +Benoit, which lay in the forests, ten miles to the South of Bourges. +His first care was to restore the buildings, which had been partially +destroyed during the English wars earlier in the century. When that +was achieved, he set himself to reform the conditions of religious +observance, and for that purpose invited a band of monks from Cluny. +His policy was continued by his successor, Martin Fumeus, 1492-1500, +and a bull was obtained from Alexander VI in 1494 permitting the +foundation of a Congregatio Casalina, which was joined by a large +number of Benedictine houses in the neighbourhood: St. Sulpice, St. +Laurence and St. Menulphus at Bourges, St. Vincent at Le Mans, St. +Martin at Seez, St. Mary's at Nevers, and even by more distant +foundations, St. Peter's at Lyons and the great Abbey of St. Germain +des Pres at Paris. One point of the new practice, that Abbots should +be elected for only three years at a time, struck at the prevailing +abuse by which members of powerful families, non-resident and often +children, were intruded into rich benefices, to the great detriment of +their charges.[15] Consideration was also had of the rule adopted at +St. Justina's at Padua, the centre of reform in Northern Italy; and +thus it was not till 1516 that the new ordinances were finally +sanctioned by Leo X. + +[15] Thus the family of d'Illiers at this time almost monopolized the +see of Chartres; members of it holding the bishopric consecutively for +fifty years, the deanery for a hundred, the arch-deaconry and the rich +abbey of Bona Vallis also for fifty. + +About 1490, Jouveneaux, fired with enthusiasm by the success of du +Mas' reforms at Chezal Benoit, determined to quit his professor's +chair at Paris and take upon him the vows and the life of a monk under +du Mas' rule; and subsequently he was the means of bringing into the +Congregation the Abbey of St. Sulpice at Bourges, being invited +thither by John Labat, the Abbot, to introduce the new rule, and +himself succeeding to the abbacy for a triennial period. A year or two +after his retirement from the world, he was followed to Chezal Benoit +by Charles Fernand, who subsequently went on to St. Vincent's at Le +Mans. John Fernand also ended his days at St. Sulpice in Bourges. + +Charles Fernand is a personality who deserves more attention than he +has received. Whilst he was in the world he enjoyed considerable +esteem amongst the learned. He was a friend of Gaguin, and published a +commentary on Gaguin's poem on the Immaculate Conception; he also +dedicated to Gaguin a small volume of Familiar Letters. But his most +important literary work was done in the retirement of his cell: a +volume of Monastic Conversations, composed at sundry times, and +published in 1516; a treatise on Tranquillity (1512), in which he +gives an account of the motives which led him to take the monastic +habit; and a Mirror of the Monastic Life (1515), dwelling at length on +the ideals that should be held before the eyes of novices and animate +their lives when they were professed. Unfortunately his style is so +excessively elegant, with wide intervals between words closely +connected in sense, that he is difficult to read; and hence, perhaps, +in some measure the neglect which has been meted out to him. + +Of his four Monastic Conversations the first and the last are +concerned with the question whether monks should be allowed to read +the books of the Gentiles, that is to say, the classics. He handles +his theme sensibly and liberally. Piety, of course, is to come before +eloquence, and there is to be choice of books. Anything of loose +tendency is to be forbidden, but he would encourage the reading of +Cicero, Seneca, and Aristotle's Ethics. The last was only accessible +to himself, he says regretfully, in Latin, because he knew no Greek--a +loss which he greatly deplores, desiring to read the Greek Fathers. +The third conversation is about the Benedictine rule, directed to the +lawless monks who contended that they were only bound by the customs +of the particular monastery they had entered, and not by the general +ordinances of their founder. He combats at length the contention that +the world has grown old, and that latter-day men cannot be expected to +undergo the rigorous fasts and penances achieved by St. Antony and St. +Benedict. He is quite alive to the weakness of the age, to the need +for improvement in the monasteries; and the word Reformer is applied +with praise to the leaders of the movement. This was before the days +of Luther, though only just before. + +Incidentally, an argument is reported between a Christian and an +agnostic. After their diverse opinions have been rehearsed, the +Christian concludes with what is meant to be a crushing +reply--certainly it silences his opponent: 'On your own theory you +don't know what will happen after death. On mine you will prosper, if +you believe; if not, you will go to hell. Therefore safety lies in +believing mine.' + +There are one or two glimpses of the life of the monks. At the end of +one conversation, the other brother hears the bell ringing for prayers +and runs off to chapel; Fernand, being old and lame, will be forgiven +if he is a little late, and not fined of his dinner. In other ways +consideration was shown to him, and he was often sent to dine in the +infirmary, not being expected with his toothless jaws to munch the dry +crusts set before the rest of the house. This, it seems, was a custom +which had been learnt from St. Justina's at Padua, to put out the +stale crusts first, before the new bread, to break appetite upon: just +as in the old Quaker schools a hundred years ago, children were set +down to suet-pudding, and then broth, before the joint appeared; the +order being, 'No ball, no broth; no broth, no beef'. + +We are in a position to view from the inside another Benedictine house +at this period, that of Ottobeuren, near Memmingen, which lies about +mid-way between Augsburg and the east end of the Lake of Constance. +The source of our information is the correspondence of one of the +brothers, Nicholas Ellenbog (or Cubitus); 890 letters copied out in +his own hand, and only 80 of these printed. It is not so continuous a +narrative as Butzbach's, but the picture that it gives is rather more +pleasing. + +Nicholas' father was Ulrich Ellenbog, a physician of Memmingen, who +graduated as Doctor of Medicine from Pavia in 1459, and became first +Reader in Medicine at Ingolstadt. The letters introduce us to most of +his children. One son, Onofrius, went for a soldier, became attached +to Maximilian's train, and received a knighthood; another, Ulrich, +became M.D. at Siena, but died immediately afterwards; another, John, +became a parish priest. Of the daughters three remained in the world; +one, Elizabeth, married; another, Cunigunde, died of plague caught in +nursing some nuns. The fourth daughter, Barbara, at the age of nine +entered the convent of Heppach, and lived there forty-one years, +rising to be Prioress and then Abbess. We shall hear of her again. + +Nicholas Ellenbog, 1480 or 1481-1543, was the third son. After five +years at Heidelberg, 1497-1502, in which he met Wimpfeling and was +fellow-student, though a year senior, to Oecolampadius, he went off to +Cracow, the Polish university, which was then so flourishing as to +attract students from the west. Schurer, for example, the Strasburg +printer, was M.A. of Cracow in 1494; and some idea of the condition of +learning there may be gained from a book-seller's letter to Aldus from +Cracow, December 1505, ordering 100 copies of Constantine Lascaris' +Greek grammar. For some months Ellenbog heard lectures there on +astronomy, which remained a favourite subject with him throughout his +life. Then an impulse came to him to follow his father's footsteps in +medicine, and at the advice of friends he went back across half Europe +to Montpellier, which from its earliest days had been famous for its +medical faculty. In the long vacation of 1502 he spent two months with +a friend in the chateau of a nobleman among the Gascon hills, and on +their return journey they stayed for a fortnight in a house of +Dominican nuns. The sisters were strict in their observances, and gave +a good pattern of the unworldly life, which attracted Ellenbog +strongly. In 1503 he went home for the long vacation to Memmingen. On +the way he was taken by the plague, and with difficulty dragged +himself in to Ravensburg. For three months he lay ill, and death came +very close. As its unearthly glow irradiated the world around him, +reversing its light and shade, the visions of the nunnery recurred. He +vowed that if his life were still his to give, it should be given to +God's service; and on recovering he entered Ottobeuren. + +In his noviciate year he was under the guidance of a kind and +sympathetic novice-master, who allowed him to study quietly in his +cell to his heart's content; and during this period he composed what +he calls an epitome or breviary of Plato. Its precise character he +does not specify, but its second title suggests that it may have been +a collection of extracts from Plato: not from the Greek, for he had +little acquaintance with that yet, but presumably from such of Plato's +works as had been translated into Latin. On Ascension Day, 1504, which +appears from other indications to mean 15 August, he made his +profession, and in September 1505 he went to Augsburg to be ordained +as sub-deacon. Writing to a friend to give such news as he had +gathered on this outing, he tells a story to convict himself of hasty +judgement. During the ordination service he noticed that one of the +candidates, a bold-eyed fellow who had been at several universities, +and had been Rector at Siena, let his gaze wander over the ladies who +had come to see the ceremony, instead of keeping it fixed on the +altar. Ellenbog censured him in his mind, but later he noticed that as +the man kneeled before the bishop with folded hands to receive +unction, his eyes were filled with tears of repentance--others perhaps +would have called it merely emotion. + +On his way back to Ottobeuren, Ellenbog arrived at a village, where he +had counted on a night's rest, only to find it crowded with a +wedding-party; the followers of the bridegroom, who were escorting him +to the marriage on the morrow, a Sunday. It was with great difficulty +that he found shelter, in the house of a cobbler, who let him sleep +with his family in the straw; but it was so uncomfortable that before +dawn he crept out and started on his way under the moon. In the half +light he missed the road and found himself at the bride's castle; +where he learnt that her sister was just dead and the wedding +postponed. As he passed in that evening through the abbey-gate, there +was thankfulness in his heart that he was back out of the world and +its petty disappointments. + +On Low Sunday, 1506, he was ordained priest at Ottobeuren, and +celebrated his first mass. Some of his letters are to friends inviting +them to be present, and adjuring them to come empty-handed, without +the customary gifts. In these early years there was ample leisure for +study. In 1505 he began Greek, and in 1508 Hebrew. He speaks of +reading Aeneas Sylvius, Pico della Mirandola, Cyprian, Diogenes +Laertius, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Dionysius the Areopagite. He went on +with his astronomy, and cast horoscopes for his friends. Binding books +was one of his occupations; and in 1509, when a press was set up in +the monastery, he lent a hand in the printing. He was very fortunate +in his abbot, Leonard Widemann, who had been Steward when he entered +Ottobeuren, but was elected Abbot in 1508, and outlived him by three +years, dying in 1546. Widemann called upon him for service. +Immediately on election he made him Prior--at 28--and only released +him from this office after four years, to make him, though infinitely +reluctant, serve ten years more as Steward. + +But if the Abbot knew how to exact compliance, he knew also how to +reward. He gave Ellenbog every assistance in his studies, allowed him +to write hither and thither for books, made continual efforts to +procure him first a Hebrew and then a Greek Bible, wrote to Reuchlin +to find him a converted Jew as Hebrew teacher, and in 1516 built him a +new library; for which Ellenbog writes to a friend asking for verses +to put under the paintings of the Doctors of the Church, which are to +adorn the walls. As results of his studies we hear of him correcting +the abbey service-books, where for _stauros_, a scribe with no Greek +had written _scayros_, and explaining to the Abbot mistaken +interpretations in the passages read aloud in the refectory during +meals. One of these, in a book written by some one who had recently +been canonized--some mediaeval doctor--illustrates the learning of the +day; deriving [Greek: gastrimargia], gluttony, from _castrum_ and +_mergo_, 'quod gula mergat castrum mentis,' because gluttony drowns +the seat of reason. + +Of Ellenbog's official duties occasional mention is made in his +letters. As Steward he has to visit the tenants of the monastery; in +the autumn he journeys about the country buying wine. We hear of him +at Westerhaim, on the river Iller, settling a dispute among the +fishermen. On one of his journeys to fetch wine from Constance, at the +hospice there he fell in with a man who could fire balls out of a +machine by means of nitre, and who boasted that he could demolish with +this weapon a certain castle in the neighbourhood. Over supper they +began to argue, the artillerist maintaining that nitre was cold, and +that the explosion which discharged the balls was caused by the +contrariety between nitre and sulphur; Ellenbog contending that nitre +was hot, and supporting this view by scraps remembered from his +father's scientific conversation. + +The general life of the Abbey is also reflected. Ottobeuren lay on one +of the routes to Italy, and so they had plenty of visitors bringing +news from regions far off: a Carthusian, who had been in Ireland and +seen St. Patrick's cave; a party of Hungarian acrobats with dancing +bears; a young Cretan, John Bondius, who had seen the labyrinth of +Minos, but all walled up to prevent men from straying into it and +being lost. A great impression he made, when he dined with the Abbot; +he was so learned and polished, and spoke Latin so well for a Greek. +In 1514 Pellican, the Franciscan Visitor, passed on his way south, and +had a talk with Ellenbog, which was all too short, about Hebrew +learning. Next year came Eck, the theologian, the future champion of +orthodoxy, returning from Rome. Eck's mother and sisters were living +under the protection of the abbey--it is not clear whether they were +merely tenants, or whether they were occupying lay quarters within its +walls, as did Fernand's at St. Germain's in Paris. At any rate, Eck +came and made himself agreeable. He preached twice before the +brethren; and when he left, he promised to send them the latest news +from America. In 1511 a copy of Vespucci's narrative of his voyage had +been lent to the monastery, and had been read with great interest. + +A grave question arose whether the new races discovered in the West +were to be accounted as saved or damned. Ellenbog quotes Faber +Stapulensis' statement that nothing could be more bestial than the +condition of the Indians whom da Gama had discovered in 1498 in +Calicut, Cannanore, and Ceylon; it was to be feared that the Indians +of the West were no better. In writing to Ellenbog six months later to +say that he had no clear opinions on the question, Eck uses an +interesting expression: 'To ask what I think is like looking for +Arthur and his Britons.'[16] The reference is to the Arthurian legend +and the long-expected, never-fulfilled, return of the great king; but +the humanists usually leave the whole field of mediaeval romance +severely alone. + + [16] Arcturum cum Britannis exspectatis. For another allusion + to Arthur, see Pace, _De Fructu_, p. 83. + +One September morning, when the dew was still heavy, Ellenbog went out +with some brethren to gather apples. At the top of the orchard[17] one +of them called out that he had found 'a star'. It was a damp white +deposit on the grass, clammy and quivering, cold to the touch, very +sticky, with long tenacious filaments. Ellenbog had never seen +anything like it, but he found out that the peasants and the shepherds +believed such things to be droppings from shooting stars,[18] if not +actually fallen stars, and that they were thought to be a cure for +cancer. His letter describing it is to ask the opinion of a friend who +was a doctor, that is to say, the scientist of the age. + + [17] ortus. + [18] stellae emuncturam et purgamentum. + +The affairs of Ellenbog's family often appear. His father had been a +great collector of books, which he had corrected with his own hand, +and which at his death he had wished to be kept together as a common +heirloom for the whole family. A great many of them were medical, and +therefore it had seemed good that the enjoyment of the books should go +to Ulrich, the son who was studying medicine at Siena. On his way +home, after completing his course, Ulrich died; and Nicholas composed +a piteous appeal on behalf of the books, bewailing their fate that +after ten years of confinement their hope of being used had come to +nothing. Onofrius was the only brother from whom might be hoped a +younger generation of Ellenbogs, one of whom might study medicine. +Elizabeth's children were Geslers, and so apparently did not count. + +How long the books were kept together is not known. One of them is now +in the University Library at Cambridge, and has been excellently +described in an essay by the late Robert Proctor. It consists of +several volumes bound together: Henry of Rimini on the Cardinal +Virtues, the Journey of a penitent soul through Lent, a treatise _de +diuina predestinacione_, and John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, +_de oculo morali_--all of a definitely religious or moral character. +They are freely annotated by the father's hand, with marginalia which +throw light on his life and times, his dislike of the Venetians for +their anti-papal policy, his experiences as physician to the Abbey of +St. Ulrich in Augsburg, and the part that he played in the +introduction of printing there. On Lady Day, 1481, shortly after +Nicholas' birth, perhaps when he had lived just a week and seemed +likely to thrive, the father composed an address to his four living +sons--four being already dead--, and wrote it into this volume. He +adjures them to follow learning and goodness, and finally bids them +take every care of the books; and not let them be separated. This it +was which inspired Nicholas' appeal thirty years later, when Ulrich, +the son, was cut off, just as his eyes seemed about to follow his +father's up and down the pages. + +Ellenbog's letters to his sister Barbara are amusing. She was four or +five years older than he, but being a woman had not had his +opportunities. He begins by trying to teach her Latin. But the +difficulties were many, and apparently she did not progress far enough +to write in the tongue. At any rate, Ellenbog copied none of her +letters into his book; a fact which is to be deplored both from her +point of view and from ours. One would like to know what reply she +made to some of his homilies. She invited him once to come and see her +at Heppach, with leave from her Abbess. He replies cautiously that, if +he comes, he hopes they will be able to talk without being overheard; +for Onofrius had been once, and when he made a rather coarse remark, +there had been giggles outside the door. In 1512 Barbara became +Prioress, and Ellenbog took the opportunity to lecture her at length +upon spiritual pride and the importance of humility; sweetening his +dose of virtue with a present of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. + +Once she let fall some regrets that she had brought nothing into her +convent, and was dependent on it for food and clothing; evidently she +would have liked some share of the patrimony which had been divided +between her married sisters and the brothers who remained in the +world. Nicholas' reply was that Heppach, like other monasteries, was +well endowed; she had given herself, and that was quite enough. In +1515 Barbara was elected Abbess; and received another discourse about +spiritual pride. John and Elizabeth wrote to Nicholas saying that they +had been invited to Heppach to salute the new Reverend Mother, and +suggesting that he should come too. But his plain speaking had had its +reward, no invitation had come for him. Under the circumstances, he +writes, he could not think of going; besides he had been there several +times before, and had found it very dull; it was clearly John's duty +to go, as he had not been once in twenty years, although his parish +was only three miles from Heppach. However the breach was healed, and +a proper invitation came for Nicholas; but the business of his +stewardship prevented him from accepting. + +The relations with John, the parish priest of Wurtzen, are more +harmonious. There is a frequent exchange of presents, John sending +tools for wood-carving, and crayfish; which seem to have been common +in his neighbourhood, for Nicholas occasionally asks for them. The +only lecture is one passed on from Barbara. John had been created a +chaplain to Maximilian, an honorific title, with few or no duties; and +Barbara had feared that he might neglect the flock in his parish. On +another occasion Nicholas urges him to follow Elizabeth's advice, and +get an unmarried man to be his housekeeper. He had proposed to have a +man with a family; and Elizabeth was afraid for his reputation. John +was a frequent guest at Ottobeuren, and one of Nicholas' invitations +contains what is unusual among the humanists, an appreciation of the +charms of the country: 'Come,' he says, 'and hear the songs of the +birds, the shepherds' pipes and the children's horns, the choruses of +reapers and ploughmen, and the voices of the girls as they work in the +fields.' + +By his younger relatives, Ellenbog did his duty unfailingly. +Elizabeth's eldest son, John Gesler, was at school at Memmingen. When +a new schoolmaster was appointed, Ellenbog wrote to bespeak his +interest in the boy, and to suggest the books that he should read: +Donatus' Grammar and the letters of Filelfo. At 14 he persuaded the +parents to send John to Heidelberg, and took a great deal of trouble +in arranging that the boy should be lodged with his own teacher, Peter +of Wimpina. When two years later Elizabeth grew anxious about John's +health and proposed to take him with her to some of the numerous +baths, which then as now abounded in Germany and Switzerland, it was +again Nicholas who made the arrangements; and in 1515, when John had +left Heidelberg, Nicholas proposed to exchange letters with him daily, +in order that he might not forget his Latin. In January 1515 +Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Barbara, was married to a certain Conrad +Ankaryte. In December 1530 he writes to one of the nuns at Heppach to +announce that he has persuaded two girls, the children of this +marriage, to embrace the religious life. The elder, Anna, aged 13, was +forward with her education, as she was well acquainted with German +literature and was reading Latin with her father[19]; by the following +summer she would be ready to come to Heppach. For the younger, who was +not yet 7, he begged a few years' grace, though she was eager to come +at once. Truly children developed earlier in those days. + + [19] quae legere literas vernaculae linguae satis expedite + nouit, nunc per patrem imbuitur Latinis. + +The happiest time of Ellenbog's life began in the summer of 1522, when +after ten years' service he was allowed by the Abbot to resign his +Stewardship. His accounts were audited satisfactorily, and he was +discharged, to what seemed to him a riotous banquet of leisure. 'In +the quiet of my cell,' he wrote to his brother, 'I read, I write, I +meditate, I pray, I paint, I carve'. His interest in astronomy was +resumed, and he set himself to make dials for pocket use, on metal +rings or on round wooden sticks. The latter he turned for himself upon +a lathe; and for this work John sent him a present of boxwood, +juniper, and plane. By the New Year of 1523 he had made two sundials; +one which showed the time on five sides at once, he sent to John at +Wurtzen, the other to Barbara at Heppach. His cell looked South, and +thus he could study the movements of the moon and the planets, and +note the southing of the stars. He could turn his skill to profit, +too, and exchange his dials for pictures of the saints. + +In 1525 his peace was broken by the Peasants' Revolt, which swept like +a hurricane over South Germany. Hostility to religion was not one of +its moving causes, but the monks were vulnerable, and had always been +considered fair game, especially by local nobles whom in the plenitude +of their power they had not troubled to conciliate. The peasants of +the Rhine valley had not forgotten the burning of Limburg, near +Spires, by William of Hesse in 1504. The abbey church had scarcely a +rival in Germany, and the flames burned for twelve days. With such an +example, and with their prey unresisting, the peasants were not likely +to stay their hands. At Freiburg they brought to his death Gregory +Reisch, the learned Carthusian Prior of St. Johannisberg, the friend +of Maximilian. Ellenbog enumerates four monasteries burned in his +neighbourhood during the outbreak--three by the peasants incensed +against their landlords, and one by a noble who bore it a grudge. When +the first attack came in April, Ellenbog was staying at the monastery +of St. George, at Isny, about twenty miles away. The peasants there +destroyed everything belonging to the monks that they could find +outside the walls, and threatened dire treatment when they should +force their way in; but mercifully the walls were strong, and held +out. + +Ottobeuren was less fortunate. Being in the country, it had to rely +upon itself, and so fell an easy prey. The buildings were defaced, the +windows broken, the stoves and ovens wrecked, and all the ironwork +carried off. Scarcely a door remained on its hinges, and the furniture +of the rooms disappeared. The church was violated, its pictures +soiled, and its statues smashed; Christ's wounds should be wounds +indeed, hard voices cried, as axe and hammer rung over their pitiless +work. The library was emptied of its books. Walls and roofs and floors +were all that the monks found when they ventured back. Ellenbog, +however, fared better than many. A friendly brother had seized up some +of his books and papers and hidden them in the clock-tower; and the +abbey carpenter thinking this insecure had found them better cover, +presumably in his own house. The tempest over, calm soon returned. The +countryfolk, many of whom had remained friendly, began bringing back +spoil which they had wrested from wrongful possessors. Some of +Ellenbog's books were brought in; and as much as two years later he +recovered one of his astronomical instruments. He lost, however, a +number of his father's papers, which he had been on the point of +editing; a Hebrew Bible given to him by Onofrius; and the first two +books of his collection of his own letters. 'God knows whether they +will ever come back,' he wrote at the beginning of the third book; and +to him they never did. They are now safe at Stuttgart, though in +permanent divorce from the other seven books, which are in Paris. + +Ellenbog was no coward. In the autumn the vineyards belonging to the +Abbey were to be inspected, and the due tithes of wine exacted. Unless +this were done the monks would suffer lack; so some one had to be +sent, in spite of the last mutterings of the revolt. One vineyard lay +at Immenstadt, some distance to the South, and thus Ellenbog at Isny +was already part way thither. Moreover, having served as Steward, he +would know what was required. The Abbot sent down a horse and bade him +go: though the roads were held by armed outlaws, who were reported to +be specially hostile to monks. He was afraid; but he summoned his +courage and went. If the Abbey seemed a haven before, when he came +back to it from the experiences of his ordination at Augsburg, this +time it was a refuge and strength against the fear that lurketh in +forests and the imagination of pursuing footsteps. + + + + +IV + +UNIVERSITIES + + +In the autumn of 1495 Erasmus was at length at liberty to go to a +university. His patron, the Bishop of Cambray, gave him a small +allowance, and the authorities at Steyn were prevailed upon to +consent. His purpose was to obtain a Doctor's degree in Theology; and +so he entered the College of Montaigu at Paris, which had been founded +in 1388, but had fallen into decay and only recently been revived. In +1483 a certain John Standonck had volunteered to become Principal. By +his efforts the college buildings were restored; and by taking in rich +pupils he secured means to maintain the Domus Pauperum attached to the +College. He was an ardent, enthusiastic person, but rather lacking in +judgement; and starved his _pauperes_ in order to be able to have as +many as possible on the slender resources available. Erasmus, being +delicate and therewith fastidious, complained of the rough and meagre +fare--rotten eggs and stinking water; and with good reason, for it +made him ill, and he had to spend the summer of 1496 with his friends +in Holland. + +Having established himself in the college he introduced himself to the +literary circle in Paris, through its head, Robert Gaguin, the aged +General of the Maturins, who had served on many embassies, to Spain, +to Italy, to Germany, to England. Gaguin had written much himself, +and had been one of the promoters of printing in Paris. To know him +was to be known of many. Erasmus began by addressing to him a poem and +some florid letters, and showed him some of his work. Then an +opportunity came to do him a service. Gaguin had composed a history of +the French, and it was just coming through the press. At the end the +printer found himself with two pages of the last sheet unfilled, +despite ample spacing out, and the author was too ill to lend any +help. Erasmus heard of the difficulty, and came to the rescue with a +long and most elegant epistle to Gaguin, comparing him to Sallust and +Livy, and promising him immortality. Time has turned the tables: +Gaguin's name lives, not because of his history, but because the young +and unknown Augustinian canon thought fit to court his acquaintance. + +Once blooded with the printers, Erasmus went steadily on. In a few +months he published some poems of his own, on Christ and the +angels--_de casa natalitia Jesu_, a very rare volume, of which only +two copies are known. It was dedicated to a college friend, Hector +Boys, of Dundee, subsequently the first Principal of King's College, +Aberdeen, and historian of Scotland. It may be wondered what was +Erasmus' motive. A dedication of a book had a market value and usually +brought a return in proportion to the compliments laid on. Correctness +certainly required that the book should be sent to the Bishop of +Cambray. Boys was only a fellow-student, whose acquaintance Erasmus +had made at Montaigu. The explanation perhaps lies in the fact that +Bishop Elphinstone was then negotiating with Boys to come to Aberdeen; +in the newly-founded university Erasmus may have sighted hopes for +himself. The following year saw another volume produced by him; the +poems of his Gouda and Deventer friend, William Herman, with a few of +his own added. This time the Bishop of Cambray did not fail of his +due. + +When Erasmus came to Paris, he was nearly 29, older by far than the +ordinary arts student, but not old for the theological course, which +lasted longer than the others. To reach the first step, the Bachelor's +degree, he had to attend a number of lectures; and very tedious he +found them. Theologians are apt to be conservative. The method of +instruction had not advanced far beyond the dictation of text and +gloss and commentary, which had been current before the days of +printing. Erasmus yawned and dozed, or wrote letters to his friends +making fun of these 'barbarous Scotists'. 'You wouldn't know me,' he +says, 'if you could see me sitting under old Dunderhead, my brows knit +and looking thoroughly puzzled. They tell me that no one can +understand these mysteries who has any traffic with the Muses or the +Graces. So I am trying hard to forget my Latin: wit and elegance must +disappear. I think I am getting on; maybe some day they will recognize +me for their own.' They did, and he proceeded B.D.; when is not known, +but probably by Easter 1498. + +At the present day in England our systems are very set. A man +matriculates at a university and completes his course there: to change +even from one college to another is becoming almost unknown. Abroad, +however, things are more fluid, and students pass on from university +to university in search of the best teacher for special parts of their +course. So it was in Erasmus' time. A course of lectures attended in +one university could be reckoned in another; and thus men often +proceeded to their degrees within a short time of their matriculation. +Having taken his Bachelor's degree at Paris, Erasmus at once proposed +to convert it into a Doctor's in Italy; but one hope after another of +going there was disappointed. In 1506 he wished to take it in +Cambridge; but after obtaining his grace, he was offered a chance to +go to Italy as tutor to the sons of Henry VII's Italian physician. He +accepted with delight, and was made D.D. as he passed through Turin; +the formalities apparently requiring only a few days. + +The art of reasoning is an excellent thing; and so long as man +continues to live according to reason, some training in this art will +continue to be a part of education. Indeed, an elementary knowledge of +it is as necessary as an elementary acquaintance with the art of +arithmetic. Both arts have this in common that though their feet walk +upon the earth, their heads are lost in the clouds. A moderate +attainment of them is indispensable to all; but their higher +developments can only be comprehended by the acutest minds. In the +Middle Ages the art of reasoning had been raised to such a pitch of +perfection that it entirely dominated the schools. Its exponents were +so proud of it that its bounds were continually extended; and it +became impossible to obtain a university degree without a high level +of proficiency in disputation. For his examination a candidate was +required to dispute with all comers--in practice this came to be a +small number of appointed examiners, three or four--on questions which +had been announced beforehand. It was not a hasty affair--time was +allowed for reflection, and the examination might easily last several +hours or even all day. But clearly readiness in debate was likely to +count in a man's favour, and so besides knowledge of standard authors +to be adduced in support of opinions--the Bible, the Fathers, the +mediaeval commentators, the Canon Law and the glosses upon it--it was +important to a candidate to be able to handle a question properly, to +divide it up into its different parts by means of distinctions, to +shear off side issues, to examine the various facets which it +presented when approached from different points of view; and all this +without hesitation, and of course in Latin. + +In order to train candidates in this art, university and college +teachers gave frequent exhibitions of disputations, which from being +on any subject, de quolibet, were styled 'quodlibeticae questiones', +or 'disputationes'. A high dignitary presided, with the title of +'dominus quodlibetarius', and propounded questions, usually one +supported by arguments and two plain; and then the disputer, who +presumably came prepared, delivered his reply, clear cut into fine +distinctions and bristling with citations from recognized authorities. +Such work necessarily cost trouble and forethought, and the +hard-working teacher of the day, instead of printing his lectures on +philosophy or history or editing and commentating texts, gave to his +pupils in permanent form the quodlibetical disputations which the busy +among them had struggled to copy down into note-books, and over which +the inattentive, like Erasmus, had yawned. + +These are some of the subjects disputed at Louvain, 1488-1507, by +Adrian of Utrecht; first as a young doctor, then as professor of +theology, and finally for ten years as vice-chancellor, before he was +carried away to become tutor to Prince Charles, and entered upon the +public career which led him finally to Rome as Adrian VI. + + 1488. Whether to avoid offending one's neighbour it is + permissible to break a vow or oath duly made. + + 1491. Whether one is bound to act on the command of a superior, + contrary to one's own opinion, knowing that in former days the + matter had been regarded as doubtful. + + 1492. Whether it is lawful to administer the Eucharist or to + confer the benefit of absolution on one who declares that he + cannot abstain from crimes. + + 1493. Whether of the two is more likely to be healed and + offends God the less, the man who sins from ignorance or + infirmity, or the man who sins of deliberate intent. + + 1495. Whether a priest who gives advice that tithes ought not + to be paid on the fruits of one's own labours, can receive + remission of his sin without undergoing severe punishment. + + Whether transgression of human laws constitutes mortal sin. + + 1499. Whether prayer on behalf of many is as beneficial to the + individuals as if one prayed as long a time for each one. + + 1491. <? 1501> Whether it is permissible to give money to any + one to procure one a benefice by praising one's dignity and + merits to the provisor to the benefice. + +Here are some of John Briard of Ath, a notable theologian, who was +subsequently Vice-chancellor of Louvain: + + 1508. Whether a man who has confessed all his mortal sins but + has omitted his voluntary occasions of stumbling, is bound to + confess over again. + + Whether we are bound by the law of love to deliver a neighbour, + against his will, from oppression, infamy, or death, when we + cannot do so without hurt or danger to ourselves. + + Whether beneficed students on account of their studies are + excused from reading their canonical hours. + +We will now consider in brief Briard's handling of the following +question: 'Whether a prize of money won at Bruges or elsewhere by the +hazard known as the game of the pot, or what is commonly called the +lottery, may be retained with a clear conscience as a righteous +acquisition?' + + 'For the decision of this question I premise: + + 1. Firstly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because + it comes by good fortune, and not by one's own labour. + + The truth of this preamble is shown thus: If gain coming by + good fortune is unlawful, it follows that all gain arising from + division by lot is unlawful. But this is false: therefore, &c. + + The consequent is proved by the fact that all such gain rests + on good fortune. The falsity is shown by the opinions of almost + all the doctors who write on this subject: + + St. Thomas, 2.2, question 95, article 8, shows that there is + nothing wrong in dividing by lot, between friends who cannot + otherwise decide. + + In this opinion agree Alexander of Hales, part 2 of his + _Summa_, question 185, membrane 2; Angelus in his _Summa_ under + the word _sors_, section 2, after the gloss in _Summa 26_, + question 2; Antoninus, part 2, title 12, chapter 1, section 9. + + 2. Secondly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because + it comes without labour. This would exclude gifts. + + 3. Thirdly, that gain is not to be considered unlawful because + it comes from cupidity, avarice, forbidden trade, or opus + peccaminosum <e.g. working on a saint's day>, unless there is + fraud, deception, or the like. + + See Petrus de Palude, book 4, distinction 15, question 3, + conclusion 4, about the gain arising from acting. Also Angelus + in his _Summa_ under _restitutio_, part 1, section 6. + + 4. Fourthly, that a work which brings public advantage, either + spiritual or temporal, is not necessarily unlawful because some + people are thereby provoked to sin. + + Otherwise it would be unlawful to manufacture arms or to make + war. + + On these premises I base the following propositions: + + 1. The lottery is not in itself unlawful. + + Proof. It is not prohibited by any law, divine, human, or + natural: divine, because it is not forbidden in Scripture; + human, because there is no law against it as there is against + hazard or dicing; natural, because it is not excluded as (_a_) + coming by good fortune, (_b_) provoking others to sin, (_c_) + vain and useless. + + _a_ and _b_ are proved by premiss 1 and 4. _c_ is proved + because we are supposing that the lottery is undertaken in + order that the city of Bruges may make a profit with which to + pay off some of its municipal debt, or be lightened of some of + its common burdens, so that its citizens may be free to + journey whither they please. (That this last refers among other + things to pilgrimage, may be inferred from a reference to the + Canon Law on the undertaking of journeys, chapter on Sacred + Churches.) + + 2. The lottery is not prohibited by the human laws forbidding + hazard and dice. + + Proof. The laws prohibiting these do not forbid the lottery, + nor can it be included under them by parity of reasoning. For + hazard is not forbidden because it depends on chance, or else + all gaming would be forbidden; and it is not forbidden to play + for small stakes or on the occasion of a party. But it (hazard) + is forbidden because, as Petrus de Palude says in book 4, + distinction 15, question 3, article 5, the person who loses is + wont to blaspheme; and also because men are tempted to lose + more than they can afford.' + +We need not follow the argument in detail, but the fourth proposition +is interesting, 'That there is an injustice in the lotteries as +practised by some cities, in that the creditors of the city are +compelled against their will to take part in the lottery, and so +probably make a loss, for fear of not recovering the money owed to +them'. After six propositions come two contrary arguments, which are +refuted by five and two considerations; and then there is a brief +summing up. + +Excellent reasoning this doubtless was, and the student who could +dispute over these intricacies for hours together, must have had at +least a competent knowledge of Latin, understanded of the examiners; +but it is not surprising that the humanists desired something better. + +The universities did not live upon the teaching of the colleges alone. +Scholars came from abroad and competed with the home-bred talent to +supply such private tuition as was required, and when their ability +had been proved, received licence from the university to teach +publicly. The advantage generally rested with the new-comer. _Omne +ignotum pro mirifico._ When there was so much to learn, so much +novelty that the stranger might bring with him, it was little wonder +that a new arrival aroused excitement, especially if he came with a +reputation. Teachers travelled from one university to another in +search of employment, and any one with a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew +was sure to find pupils and attentive audiences. So great was the +enthusiasm on both sides, that lectures often lasted for hours. + +Aleander, when he returned from Orleans to Paris in 1511, kept quiet +for a month, in order to awaken public interest. Then he announced a +course of lectures on Ausonius, to begin on 30 July. His device was +entirely successful. Two thousand people gathered, and he was obliged +to lead them over from his own college, de la Marche, to a larger +building, known as the Portico of Cambray. He had composed an +elaborate oration of twenty-four pages. 'It took me two hours and a +half to deliver,' he says, 'and would have taken four, if I hadn't +been a quick reader; but no one showed the least sign of fatigue, in +spite of the heat. My voice lasted very well. Next day I had nearly as +good an audience, although it was the day for the disputation at the +Sorbonne. On the day after, all seats were taken by 11, though I do +not begin till 1.' His success was not mere imagination. One who was +present tells us that men looked upon him as if he had come down from +heaven, and shouted 'Viuat, viuat', as they were accustomed to do to +Faustus Andrelinus, another witty Italian who was then lecturing in +Paris. A lecturer to-day who went on into the third hour would +scarcely be so popular. + +But Aleander was not alone in his powers of speech, and others besides +Parisians could listen. Butzbach tells us, not without humour, of a +certain Baldwin Bessel of Haarlem, a learned physician with a +wonderful memory, who was summoned to Laach to heal their Abbot, who +lay sick. On one occasion at Coblenz he harangued an audience of 300 +for three hours on end on the power of eloquence, and stimulated by +the sight of such a gathering, worked himself up in his peroration, +until he believed himself to be a second Cicero. His hearers perhaps +did not agree. Anyway, Butzbach is the only person who mentions him, +and he would have preferred a little less eloquence and a little more +medicine; for the Abbot, instead of recovering, died under the hands +of the new Cicero in two days. + +Besides lecturing at the university, young men also maintained +themselves by working for the printers, correcting proof-sheets and +composing complimentary prefaces and verses. Another service which +they could render to both printers and authors was to give public +'interpretations', as they were called, of new books on publication, +for the purpose of advertisement. These interpretations probably took +place at the printer's office, and were of the nature of a review, +describing the book's contents; and they were doubtless repeated at +frequent intervals before new groups of likely purchasers. + +Erasmus, however, had been sent to Paris to take a degree in Theology, +and his patrons expected him to occupy himself with this. When he +returned from Holland in 1496 he could not face again the rigours of +Montaigu, and so he took shelter in a boarding-house kept by a +termagant woman--'pessima mulier' the bursar of the German nation, her +landlords, called her when she would not pay her rent--, the wife of a +minor court official. So long as his supplies lasted, he kept strictly +to his work; but when the Bishop failed him, he was obliged to support +himself, and took to private teaching. Two of his pupils were young +men from Lubeck, who were under the care of a teacher from their own +part of the world, Augustine Vincent, a budding scholar, who +afterwards published an edition of Virgil, but who as yet was glad to +be helped by Erasmus. Another pair came from England, one a kinsman +of John Fisher, and were in the charge of a morose North-countryman. +In great poverty, Erasmus made his way somehow, occasionally writing +little treatises for his pupils, on a method of study, on +letter-writing--an important art in those days--, a paraphrase of the +_Elegantiae_ of Valla; and finally, one of his best-known works, the +Colloquies, had its origin in a little composition of this period, +which he refers to as 'sermones quosdam quotidianos quibus in +congressibus et conuiuiis vtimur'--a few formulas of address and +expressions of polite sentiments, which develop into brief +conversations. + +The poor scholar's hardships were mitigated by the generosity of a +friend. Whilst with the Bishop of Cambray Erasmus had made the +acquaintance of a young man from Bergen-op-Zoom, the Bishop's +ancestral home; one James Batt, who after education in Paris had +returned to be master of the public school in his native town. About +1498 Batt was engaged as private tutor to the son of Anne of +Borsselen, widow of an Admiral of Flanders and hereditary Lady of +Veere, an important sea-port town in Walcheren which then did much +trade with Scotland, and whose great, dumb cathedral and ornate +town-hall still tell to the handful of houses round them the story of +former greatness. From the first Batt applied himself to win his +patroness' favour to his clever and needy friend. Erasmus was invited +to visit them, money was sent for his journey; and within a short time +he was receiving pecuniary contributions from the Lady more frequently +than if she had been allowing him a pension. His letters to Batt--the +replies which came he never published--are remarkable reading, and do +credit to both sides. Conscious of high powers and pressed by urgent +need, Erasmus begins by begging without concealment, for money to keep +him going and give him leisure. But as time goes on and the Lady +wearies of much giving, Erasmus' tone grows sharper and more +insistent; until at last he scolds and upbraids his patient +correspondent for not extorting more, and even bids him put his own +needs in the background until Erasmus' are satisfied. Batt's name +deserves to be remembered as chief amongst faithful friends, for +putting up with such scant gratitude after his inexhaustible devotion; +and we must needs think more highly of Erasmus, if his friend could +accept such treatment at his hand and not be wounded. To the great +much littleness may be forgiven. The surprising thing is that Erasmus +should have allowed such letters to be published. + +In the summer of 1499 Erasmus was carried off to England by another +friend whom he had captivated, the young Lord Mountjoy, who had come +abroad to study until the child-bride whom he had already married +should be old enough to become his wife. After a summer spent among +bright-eyed English ladies at a country-house in Hertfordshire, then +studded with the hunting-boxes of the nobility, and a visit to London +which brought him into quick friendship with More, ten or eleven years +his junior, Erasmus persuaded his patron to take him for a while to +Oxford. Mountjoy promised but could not perform. The Earl of Warwick +was to be tried in Westminster Hall, and Mountjoy as a peer must be in +his place. So Erasmus rode in to Oxford, over Shotover and across +Milham ford, alone. + +As an Austin canon he had a claim on St. Mary's, a college which had +been established in 1435 at the instance of a number of Augustinian +abbots and priors, for the purpose of bringing young canons to Oxford +to profit by the life and studies of the university; in much the same +way that Mansfield and Manchester Colleges have joined us in recent +years. For two or three months he was here, enjoying the society of +the learned and attending Colet's lectures on the Epistles of St. +Paul; invited to dine in college halls, as a congenial visitor is +to-day, and spending the afternoons, not the evenings, in discussions +arising out of the conversation over the dinner-table. His ready wit +and natural vivacity, his wide reading and serious purpose, made +themselves felt. Even Colet the austere was delighted with him and +begged him to stay. He was lecturing himself on St. Paul; let Erasmus +take some part of the Old Testament and expound it to fascinated +audiences. Oxford laid her spell upon the young Dutch canon--upon whom +does she not?--but he was not yet ready. To give his life to sacred +studies was the purpose that was riveting itself upon him; but he +could not accomplish what he wished without Greek at the least--he +never made any serious attempt to learn Hebrew--and Greek was not to +be had in Oxford, hardly indeed anywhere in Western Europe outside +Italy and perhaps Spain. Indeed, for some years to come this +university was to display her characteristic, or may be her admirable, +caution towards the new light offered to her from without. + +We must bear in mind the well-reasoned hostility of the Church to--or +at least hesitation about--the revival of learning. In the period we +are considering the powers of evil were very real. Men instinctively +accepted the existence of a kingdom of darkness, extending its borders +over the sphere of knowledge as over the other sides of human +activity. Greek was the language of some of the most licentious +literature--Sappho's poems were burnt by the Church at Constantinople +in 1073--and of many detestable heresies; and thus though the Council +of Vienne, with missionary zeal, had recommended in 1311 that lectures +in Greek--as in other languages of the heretical East--should be +established in the universities of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and +Salamanca, the decree had not been carried out, and Greek was still +regarded with suspicion by the orthodox. Their opposition dies with +their lives, these guardians of the thing that is. Of the thing that +cometh they know, that 'if it be of God, they cannot overthrow it'. +The silent flooding in of the main is to them more to be desired than +the swift wave which in giving may destroy. Let us not think too +lightly of them because they feared shadows which the light of time +has dispelled. It needs no eyes to see where they were wrong: where +they were right--and they were right often enough--can only be seen by +taking trouble to inquire. + +Of the condition of learning in England in the second half of the +fifteenth century we do not yet know all that we might. Manuscripts +that men bought or had written for them, books that they read, +catalogues of libraries now scattered can tell us much, even though +the owners are dead and speak not. Single facts, like cards for +cardhouses, will not stand alone. There is still much to be done. +Great libraries are only just beginning to gather up the manuscript +minutiae which their books contain; to identify handwritings; to +decipher monograms; to collect facts. But some day when the work has +been done, we may well hope to be able to put bone to bone and breathe +new life into them in a way which will make valuable contributions to +our knowledge. + +There is sometimes an inclination now to underestimate the effect of +the Renaissance. The writers of that age were unsparingly contemptuous +of their predecessors, and their verdict was for long accepted almost +without question. The reaction against this has led to an undue +extolling of the Middle Ages. It is true enough that many of the +Schoolmen, though the humanists speak of them as hopelessly barbarous, +were capable of writing Latin which, if not strictly classical, had +yet an excellence of its own. But in view of the extracts given above +from Ebrardus and John Garland it can hardly be maintained that there +was much knowledge of Greek in Western Europe before the Renaissance. +England was not ahead of France and Germany in the fifteenth century; +and if Deventer school in 1475 was fed upon the monstrosities we have +seen, it is not likely that Winchester and Eton had any better fare. +Some sporadic examples there may have been of men who added a +knowledge of the Greek character to their reminiscences of the +_Graecismus_; just as at the present day it is not difficult to +acquire a faint acquaintance with Oriental languages, enough to +recognize the formation of words and plough out the letters, without +any real knowledge. Colet and Fisher only began to learn Greek in +their old age. One, the son of a Lord Mayor of London, made a name for +himself as a lecturer at Oxford, and was advanced to be Dean of St. +Paul's; the other, as head of a house at Cambridge and Chancellor of +the University, promoted the foundation of the Lady Margaret's two +colleges, Christ's and St. John's, which were to bring in the spirit +of the Renaissance. It is impossible to suppose that men of such +position would have spent the greater part of their lives without +Greek, if there had been any facilities for them to learn it when they +were young. Nor again would Erasmus, when teaching Greek at Cambridge +in 1511, have chosen the grammars of Gaza and Chrysoloras to lecture +upon, if his audience had been capable of anything better. Eminent +scholars do not teach the elements at a university if boys are already +learning them at school. + +The condition of things may fairly be gauged by Duke Humfrey's +collections for his library at Oxford. Of 130 books which he presented +to the University in 1439, not one is Greek; of 135 given in 1443, +only one--a vocabulary--is certainly Greek, four more are possibly, +but not probably so. A little later in the century four Oxford men +were pupils of Guarino in Ferrara; Grey (d. 1478) brought back +manuscripts to Balliol and became Bishop of Ely; Gunthorpe (d. 1498) +took his books with him to his deanery at Wells; but to only two of +the four is any definite knowledge of Greek credited--Fleming (d. +1483), who compiled a Greek-Latin dictionary, and Free (d. 1465), who +translated into Latin Synesius' treatise on baldness. + +A discovery recently made by Dr. James of Cambridge has thrown +unexpected light on the history of English scholarship at this period; +and as it affords an example of the fruits to be yielded by careful +research and synthesis, it may be detailed here. New Testament +scholars have long been interested in a manuscript of the Gospels +known, from its present habitation in the Leicester town-library, as +the Leicester Codex; its date being variously assigned to the +fourteenth or fifteenth century. In the handwriting there are some +marked characteristics which make it easy to recognize; and in course +of time other Greek manuscripts were discovered written by the same +hand, two Psalters in Cambridge libraries, a Plato and Aristotle in +the cathedral library at Durham, a Psalter and part of the lexicon of +Suidas in Corpus at Oxford. But no clue was forthcoming as to their +origin, until Dr. James found at Leiden a small Greek manuscript in +the same hand, containing some letters of Aeschines and Plato, and a +colophon stating that it had been written by Emmanuel of +Constantinople for George Neville, Archbishop of York, and completed +on 30 Dec. 1468. Where the various manuscripts were written and from +what originals is not plain--the Suidas perhaps from a manuscript +belonging at one time to Grosseteste; but the classical manuscripts +were probably done for Neville in England during the prosperous years +before his deportation to Calais in 1472, the Psalters and Gospels +probably after that date at Cambridge; for the Paston Letters show +that some of his disbanded household made their way to Cambridge, and +Dr. Rendel Harris has ingeniously demonstrated that one Psalter and +the Gospels were in fact at Cambridge with the Franciscans early in +the sixteenth century. The presence of a Greek scribe in England about +1470 is an important fact. + +Neville was released from prison through the intervention of Pope +Sixtus IV, who about 1475 sent to England another Greek scribe and +diplomatist, George Hermonymus of Sparta, charged with a letter to +Edward IV. Besides Andronicus Contoblacas at Basle, Hermonymus was at +the time the only Greek in Northern Europe who was prepared to teach +his native tongue; in consequence most of the humanists of the day, +Reuchlin, Erasmus, Budaeus and many others, turned to him for +instruction, though he was indeed a poor teacher. He secured the +Archbishop's release, and therewith a handsome reward to himself; but +lingering on, he found himself compelled to spend about a year in +London--in prison: some Italian merchants having trumped up against +him a charge of espionage, from which he only escaped by paying the +uttermost farthing. That he suffered such a disagreeable experience +perhaps indicates that no one in London was much interested in him or +his language. + +Another Greek who was copying manuscripts in England at this time was +John Serbopoulos, also of Constantinople, who between 1489 and 1500 +wrote a number of Greek manuscripts at Reading: two copies of Gaza's +Grammar, Isocrates _ad Demonicum_ and _ad Nicoclem_, several +commentators on Aristotle's Ethics, Chrysostom on St. Matthew, a +Psalter and the completion of the Corpus Suidas which his +fellow-countryman Emmanuel had begun. In one of his colophons (1494) +he specifies Reading Abbey as his place of abode; for the others he +merely says Reading. Possibly he was in the abbey the whole time; but +even a temporary visit, during which he wrote Gaza and Isocrates, is +an indication that one at least of the monastic houses was not hostile +to the revival of learning. + +Not that any doubt is possible on this point, since the researches of +Abbot Gasquet into the life of William Selling, who was Prior of +Christchurch, Canterbury, 1472-95. After entering the monastery, +about 1448, Selling was sent to finish his studies at Canterbury +College, the home of the Benedictines in Oxford.[20] In 1464 he was +allowed to go with a companion, William Hadley, to Italy; where they +spent two or three years over taking degrees in Theology, and heard +lectures at Padua, Bologna, and Rome. Twice in later years Selling +went to Italy again; and he brought back with him to England +manuscripts of Homer and Euripides, and Livy, and Cicero's _de +Republica_. Some of these have survived and are to be found in +Cambridge libraries; others perished in the fire which broke out when +Henry VIII's Visitors came to Canterbury to dissolve Christchurch. But +Selling's interest in learning was not confined to the collection of +manuscripts. A translation of a sermon of Chrysostom made by him in +1488 is extant; and an antiquarian visitor to Canterbury copied into +his note-book 'certain Greek terminations, as taught by Dr. Sellinge +of Christchurch'. + +[20] The Canterbury gate of Christ Church, Oxford, still marks its +site. A generation or so later Linacre and More were students there; +both having a connexion with Canterbury. + +Another Churchman of this period who was interested in the revival of +learning has recently been revealed to us by his books, John Shirwood, +Bishop of Durham, 1483-93. He was an adherent of Neville whom we +mentioned as the patron of Emmanuel of Constantinople; and having +risen to prosperity as Neville rose, he did not desert his patron when +Fortune's wheel went round. It does not appear that he was educated in +Italy; but for a number of years he was in Rome, as a lawyer engaged +in the Papal court; and to his good service there as King's proctor he +probably owed his advancement to Durham. Whilst at Rome, he bought +great numbers of the Latin classics, especially those which were +coming fresh from the press of Sweynheym and Pannartz. Cicero seems to +have held the first place in his affections, six volumes out of +forty-two; the Orations, the Epistles, _de Finibus_ and _de Oratore_, +the two last being duplicated. History is well represented with Livy, +Suetonius, Josephus, Plutarch, Polybius, and Dionysius of +Halicarnassus; the last four in translations. In poetry he had Plautus +and Terence, Horace, Martial, Juvenal, Seneca, and Statius; in +archaeology Vitruvius and Frontinus; of the Fathers, Jerome, +Lactantius, and the Confessions of Augustine. + +Twice after becoming Bishop Shirwood went to Rome again, as +ambassador; once in 1487 in company with Selling and Linacre: on the +second occasion, in 1492-3, he died. His books, however, had already +found their way home to Durham, where they were acquired by Foxe, +Shirwood's successor in the see; and Foxe subsequently presented them +to his newly-founded college of Corpus Christi in Oxford. It is +interesting to contrast Shirwood's collection with books presented to +the library of Durham monastery by John Auckland, who was Prior +1484-94. Not a single one of them is classical, not one printed; +Aquinas, Bernard, Anselm, Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus, Chrysostom in +Latin, Vincent de Beauvais, _Summa Bibliorum, Tractatus de scaccario +moralis iuxta mores hominum, Exempla de animalibus_. The Prior's +outlook was very different from the Bishop's. + +Leland tells us that Shirwood had also a number of Greek books, which +Tunstall found at Auckland in 1530; but only one of these has been +traced, a copy of Gaza's Grammar written by John Rhosus of Crete in +1479, and bought by Shirwood at Rome. Where the rest are no one knows; +doubtless scattered in many libraries, among people to whom the name +of Shirwood has no meaning. One wonders why Foxe did not secure them +for Corpus when he took the Latin books. He wanted Greek, but perhaps +he considered the set of Aldus' Greek texts which he actually gave to +Corpus, more worth having than Shirwood's manuscripts (for when +Shirwood was collecting in Italy, the first book printed in Greek, the +Florentine Homer, 1488, had not yet appeared): possibly he never saw +them. + +Time would fail us to tell of all the famous Englishmen who went to +study in Italy in the last years of the fifteenth century, let alone +those who went and did not win fame. Langton who became Bishop of +Winchester, and, not content with Wykeham's foundation, started a +school in his own palace at Wolvesey; Grocin, Linacre and William +Latimer, who took part in Aldus' Greek Aristotle; Colet; Lily who went +further afield, to Rhodes and Jerusalem; Tunstall and Stokesley and +Pace--all these were Oxford men, and yet few of them returned to +settle in Oxford and teach. Of their later lives much is known, though +not so much as we could wish; but their connexion with this +University cannot be precisely dated, because the university registers +for just this period, 1471-1505, are missing. We cannot tell just when +they graduated; and we miss the chance of contemporary notes added +occasionally to names of distinction. We cannot even discover to what +colleges they belonged. + +In the last half of the fifteenth century there had been a beginning +of Greek in Oxford. Thomas Chandler, Warden of New College, 1454-75, +had some knowledge of it; and under his auspices an Italian adventurer +of no merit, Cornelio Vitelli, came and taught here for a short time. +For about two years, 1491-3, Grocin returned to lecture on Greek, as +the result of his Italian studies. Colet was here about 1497-1505, +until he became Dean of St. Paul's; but his lectures, as we have said, +were on the Vulgate, not the Greek Testament. Of the rest that shadowy +and fugitive scholar, William Latimer, was the only one of this band +of Oxonians who definitely came back to live and work in the +University; and he perhaps did not cast in his lot here until 1513. +When he did return, he was not to be torn away again from his rooms at +All Souls, under the shadow of St. Mary's tower. In 1516 More and +Erasmus wished him to come and teach Greek to Fisher, Bishop of +Rochester; but could not prevail with him. It would seem strange +to-day for an Oxford scholar to be invited to become private tutor to +the Chancellor of the sister University: he would probably shrink, as +Latimer did, and find refuge in excuses. For eight or nine years, +Latimer said, his studies had led him elsewhere, and he had not +touched Latin and Greek. For the same reason he declared himself +unable to help Erasmus in preparing for the second edition of his New +Testament. What these studies were is nowhere told--Latimer's only +printed work is two letters, one a mere note to Aldus, the other a +long letter to Erasmus--but there is some reason to suppose that they +were musical. He urged, too, that it was useless to hope the Bishop +could make much progress in a month or two with such a language as +Greek, over which Grocin had spent two years in Italy, and Linacre, +Latimer, and Erasmus himself had laboured for many years: it would be +much better to send to Italy for some one who could reside for a long +time in the Bishop's household. + +Though he remained faithful to Oxford, Latimer in his later years held +two livings near Chipping Campden: in one, Weston-sub-Edge, he rebuilt +his parsonage-house and left his initials W.L. in the stonework, in +the other, Saintbury, there is a contemporary medallion of him in the +East window, showing the tall, thin figure which George Lily +describes. + +At the time of Erasmus' first visit to England, 1499, London was far +more a centre of the new intellectual life than either Oxford or +Cambridge. He rejoiced in his first meeting with Colet, and in their +walks in Oxford gardens in the soft October sunshine; his Prior at St. +Mary's was benign and helpful; and he found a young compatriot, John +Sixtin, of Bolsward in East Friesland, studying law, and engaged with +him in a contest of that arid elegance which the taste of the age +still demanded. But in London he found Grocin at his City living, +ready to lend him books, and perhaps already contemplating those +lectures delivered two years later, on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of +Dionysius, which brought him to such a surprising conclusion--a denial +of the attribution of them to Dionysius the Areopagite, which in +agreement with Colet he had set out to prove. In London was Linacre, +just returned from Venice, full of Aldus' Greek Aristotle; to a +supplementary volume of which he had sent a translation of Proclus' +Sphere, a mathematical work then highly esteemed. He had been working +on Aristotelian commentators, and was soon to lecture on the +_Meteorologica_--a course which More, who was working for the Bar in +London, attended. More himself not long afterwards lectured publicly +in London on Augustine's _de Ciuitate Dei_, also a favourite work with +the humanists. William Lily, returned from his pilgrimage, was at work +perhaps already as a schoolmaster in London; and vying with More in +translating the Greek Anthology into Latin elegiacs. Bernard Andreas, +the blind poet of Toulouse, after trying his fortune in vain at +Oxford, had insinuated himself into Henry VII's confidence, and was +now attached to the court as tutor to Prince Arthur--an office from +which Linacre attempted unsuccessfully to oust him--and busy with his +history of the king's reign: a project which enjoyed royal favour, and +was the forerunner of Polydore Vergil's creditable essay towards a +critical history of England. + +When Erasmus was again invited to England in 1505-6, the position had +not changed. He writes to a friend in Holland: 'There are in London +five or six men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek: even +in Italy I doubt that you would find their equals. Without wishing to +boast, it is a great pleasure to find that they think well of me.' To +Colet in the following year, when he had said farewell, he writes from +Paris: 'No place in the world has given me such friends as your City +of London: so true, so learned, so generous, so distinguished, so +unselfish, so numerous.' With the string of epithets we are not +concerned: the point to remark is that it is of London he writes, not +of either of the universities. + +Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Erasmus did not +at once accept Colet's proposition in 1499 that he should stay and +teach in Oxford. Whether provision was offered him or not, we do not +know: he might perhaps have stayed on by right at St. Mary's, but he +loved not the rule. We do know, however, that at Paris there certainly +was no provision for him. In quest of Greek, in quest of the proper +equipment for his life's work, he went back to the old precarious +existence, pupils and starvation, the dependence and the flattery that +he loathed. It is this last, indeed, that puts the sting into his +correspondence with Batt. That loyal friend, ever coaxing money out of +his complacent and generous patroness for dispatch to Paris, would +now and then ask for a letter to her, to make the claims of the absent +more vivid. At this Erasmus would boil over: 'Letters,' he writes, +'it's always letters. You seem to think I am made of adamant: or +perhaps that I have nothing else to do.' 'There is nothing I detest +more than these sycophantic epistles.' Well he might; for this is the +sort of thing he wrote. + +You will remember that the Lady of Veere was named Anne of Borsselen. +A letter of Erasmus to her begins: 'Three Annas were known to the +ancients; the sister of Dido, whom the Muses of the Romans have +consecrated to immortality; the wife of Elkanah, with whose praises +Jewish records resound; and the mother of the Virgin, who is the +object of Christian worship. Would that my poor talents might avail, +that posterity may know of your piety and snow-white purity, and count +you the fourth member of this glorious band! It was no mere chance +that conferred upon you this name, making your likeness to them +complete. Were they noble? So are you. Did they excel in piety? Yours, +too, redounds to heaven. Were they steadfast in affliction? Alas that +here, too, you are constrained to resemble them. Yet in my sorrow +comfort comes from this thought, that God sends suffering to bring +strength. Affliction it was that made the courage of Hercules, of +Aeneas, of Ulysses shine forth, that proved the patience of Job.' +This, of course, is only a brief epitome. After a great deal more in +this strain, he concludes: 'I send you a poem to St. Anne and some +prayers to address to the Virgin. She is ever ready to hear the +prayers of virgins, and you I count not a widow, but a virgin. That +when only a child you consented to marry, was mere deference to the +bidding of your parents and the future of your race; and your wedded +life was a model of patience. That now, when still no more than a +girl, you repel so many suitors is further proof of your maiden heart. +If, as I confidently presage, you persevere in this high course, I +shall count you not amongst the virgins of Scripture innumerable, not +amongst the eighty concubines of Solomon, but, with (I am sure) the +approval of Jerome, among the fifty queens.' + +The taste of that age liked the butter spread thick, and Erasmus' was +the best butter. He relieved his mind the same day in a letter to +Batt--which he did not shrink from publishing in the same volume with +his effusion to the Lady Anne: 'It is now a year since the money was +promised, and yet all you can say is, "I don't despair," "I will do my +best." I have heard that from you so often that it quite makes me +sick. The minx! She neglects her property to dally and flirt with her +fine gentleman' (a young man whom Erasmus feared she would marry, as +in fact she did, shortly afterwards). 'She has plenty of money to give +to those scoundrels in hoods, but nothing for me, who can write books +which will make her famous.' _In ira veritas._ But for Erasmus--and +Batt--the rather simpering statue of Anne on the front of the +town-hall at Veere would have little meaning for us to-day. + +We must not judge Erasmus too hardly in his double tongue. Scholars of +to-day, secure in their endowments, can hold their heads high; of +their obligations to pious Founders no utterance is required save +_coram Deo_--'vt nos his donis ad Tuam gloriam recte vtentes'. We hear +much now of the artistic temperament which brooks no control, which at +all costs must express its message to the world. No artist has ever +burned with a fiercer fire than did Erasmus for the high tasks which +his powers demanded of him; but at this period of his life there was +no pious Founder to make his way plain. Later on, in all time of his +wealth, he was generosity itself with his money, and inexorable in +refusing honours and places that would have hindered him from his +work. + + + + +V + +ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK + + +In August 1511 Erasmus returned to Cambridge. He was a different man +from the young scholar who had determined twelve years before that it +was no use for him to stay in Oxford. In the interval he had learnt +what he wanted--Greek; he had had his desire and visited Italy; and +now he came back to sit down to steady work, in accordance with his +promise to Colet, in accordance with the purpose of his life, to +advance the study of the Scriptures and the knowledge of God. It had +been no light matter to learn Greek. Books were not abundant, and the +only teacher to be had, Hermonymus of Sparta, was useless to him, +neither could nor would impart the classical Greek that scholars +wanted. So Erasmus was compelled to fall back on the best of all +methods, to teach himself. He had no Liddell and Scott, no Stephanus; +probably nothing better than a manuscript vocabulary copied from some +earlier scholar, and amplified by himself. No wonder that he found +Homer difficult and skipped over Lucian's long words. He exercised +himself in translation, from Lucian, from Libanius, from Euripides. +But that ready method of acquiring a new language--through the New +Testament, was probably not open to him, for copies of the Gospels in +Greek were rare, and not within the reach of a needy scholar's purse. +However, he persevered, and at length he was satisfied. He never +attained to Budaeus' mastery of Greek, but he had acquired a working +knowledge which carried him as far as he wished to go. + +His visit to Italy need not detain us long. Twenty-five years later he +wrote to an Italian nobleman with whom he was engaged in controversy, +to say that Italy had taught him nothing. 'When I came to Italy, I +knew more Greek and Latin than I do now.' In the excitement of +contention he perhaps 'remembered with advantages', for in Italy he +had one great opportunity. He had published in 1500 at Paris a +chrematistic work entitled _Collectanea Adagiorum_, a collection of +Latin proverbs with brief explanations designed to be useful to the +numerous public who aspired to write Latin with elegance. After the +book was out, as authors do, he went on collecting, and on his way to +Italy in 1506, he published a slightly enlarged edition, also in +Paris. In Italy he made acquaintance with Aldus, and after finishing +his year of superintendence over the pupils he had brought with him, +he went, about the beginning of 1508, to dwell in the Neacademia at +Venice. In September 1508 there appeared from Aldus' press a Volume on +the same subject, but very different in bulk; no longer _Collectanea +Adagiorum_, but _Adagiorum Chiliades_. The Paris volume, a thin +quarto, had contained about 800 proverbs, Aldus' had more than 3,000, +and the commentary became so amplified, with occasional lengthy +disquisitions on subjects moral and political, that nothing but a +folio size would accommodate it. + +Where this work was done, Erasmus does not specifically state. One +passage gives the impression that he had made his new collections in +England; but as one reason for his dissatisfaction with the first +edition was the absence of citations from the Greek, it seems more +probable that he really wrote the new book in Aldus' house at Venice. +There, surrounded by the scholars of the New Academy, Egnatius, +Carteromachus, Aleander, Urban of Belluno, besides Aldus himself and +his father-in-law Asulanus, having at hand all the wealth of the +Aldine Greek editions and the Greek manuscripts which were sent from +far and near to be printed, Erasmus was thoroughly equipped to +transform his quarto into folio, his hundreds into thousands. He tells +us that the compositors printed as he wrote, and that he had hard work +to keep pace with them. Some of his rough manuscripts--written rapidly +in his smooth hand and flowing sentences--survive still to help us +picture the scene. It is remarkable how little correction there is. +Here and there a whole page is drawn straight through, to be +rewritten, or a passage is inserted in the neat margin; but there is +little botching, little mending of words or transposing of phrases, +such as make the rough work of other humanists difficult reading. As +he wished the sentences to run, so they flowed on to his pages, and so +they actually were printed. + +The importance of Erasmus' time in Italy is, then, that he completed, +or at any rate published, the enlarged _Adagia_, his first +considerable work, a book which carried his name far and wide +throughout Europe, and won him fame amongst all who had pretensions to +scholarship. No one reads it to-day. Except the composition of the +schools, for which Erasmus is considered unclassical, there is little +Latin writing now; but in its youth the book had a great vogue, and +went through hundreds of reprints. + +This second visit of Erasmus to Cambridge was under pleasant +conditions. Fisher was interested in his work, and having been until +recently President of Queens'--the foundation of Margaret of Anjou, +which Elizabeth Woodville had succoured, York coming to the rescue of +Lancaster--he was able without difficulty to secure rooms in college +for his protege. High up they are, at the head of a stair-case, where +undergraduates still cherish his name, and where his portrait--an +heirloom from one generation to another--may be seen surrounded by +prints of gentlemen in pink riding to hounds; quite a suitable +collocation for this very humanly minded scholar. Besides his own work +he lectured publicly for a few months. He began to teach Greek, and +lectured on the grammar of Chrysoloras. Finding that this did not +attract pupils, he changed to Gaza; which he evidently expected to be +more popular. But he did not persevere. If his position was public +(which is doubtful), there was no money to pay him for long; and it +is a sign of the state of the University, that he found it no use to +lecture on anything more advanced than grammar. The Schoolmen were +still strongly entrenched. + +Besides teaching Greek he also lectured on Jerome's Letters and his +Apology against Ruffinus, books which, as we shall see, he was working +at privately. He is said to have held for a time the professorship of +Divinity founded in Cambridge, as in Oxford, in 1497 by the Lady +Margaret, but the records are inadequate; and here too it is possible +that his teaching was a private venture. He had no regular income +except a pension from Lord Mountjoy, to which in 1512 Warham added the +living of Aldington in Kent; and these were supplemented by occasional +gifts from friends, which he courted by dedicating to them +translations from Plutarch and Lucian, Chrysostom and Basil. But this +was not enough. He was free in his tastes, and liked to be free in his +spending. He needed a horse to ride, and a boy to attend upon him. In +consequence we hear a good many complaints of penury, all through his +three years at Cambridge, 1511 to 1514. + +It is worth while to examine in detail the work that he completed +during this period on the Letters of Jerome and the New Testament. One +afternoon in Oxford in 1499 he had had a long discussion with Colet, +and in the course of it had argued strongly against a point of view +which Colet had derived from Jerome. Whether this set him on to read +Jerome again--he was already quite familiar with him--is not clear; +but a year later, when he was hard at work in Paris, he was already +engaged upon correcting the text of Jerome, and adding a commentary, +being specially interested in the Letters. So far did his admiration +carry him that he writes to a friend, 'I am perhaps biased; but when I +compare Cicero's style with Jerome's, I seem to feel something lacking +in the prince of eloquence himself'. After he left Paris in 1501, we +hear no more of Jerome till 1511. It may therefore fairly be argued +that his early work was done on manuscripts found in Paris libraries, +very likely those of the great abbeys of St. Victor or St. +Germain-des-Pres. + +Subsequently, in Cambridge, he again had access to manuscripts and +completed his recension of the Letters. Robert Aldridge, a young +Fellow of King's, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, speaks of working +with him at Jerome in Queens', probably helping him in collation. An +early catalogue of the Queens' library does not contain any mention of +Jerome, so that Erasmus had probably borrowed his manuscripts from +elsewhere--perhaps, like those of the New Testament, from the Chapter +Library at St. Paul's; for later on, when the book was in the press, +he returned from Basle to England to consult the manuscripts again, +and there is no reason to suppose that during his brief stay--not a +full month--he went outside London. If this surmise were correct, the +destruction of St. Paul's library in the fires of 1561 and 1666 would +explain why so little has been discovered about the manuscripts which +Erasmus had for his Jerome. He himself, in his prefaces, gives little +indication of them, beyond saying that they were very old and +mutilated, and that some of them were written in Lombardic and Gothic +characters. Perhaps some day a student of Jerome will arise who will +be able to throw light on the matter from examination of the text at +which Erasmus arrived. + +To the New Testament--the other work which occupied his time at +Cambridge--he had also turned his attention shortly after his return +to Paris in 1500, beginning a commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul. +At the first start he wrote four volumes of it, but then for some +reason threw it aside, and never completed it, though his mind +recurred to it at intervals; and on one occasion after a fall from his +horse, in which he injured his spine, he vowed to St. Paul that he +would finish it, if he recovered. Probably he felt that his vow was +redeemed by his Paraphrases of the New Testament, which he wrote a few +years later, beginning with St. Paul, and completing the Epistles +before he undertook the Gospels. + +His next work on the New Testament came to him at Louvain in 1504. +Walking out one day to the Abbey of Parc, outside the town--a house of +White Canons, Erasmus himself being a Black--he came upon a manuscript +in their library, the Annotations of Valla on the New Testament. There +was an affinity between his mind and that of the famous scholar-canon +of St. John Lateran, who, in spite of his dependence on Papal +patronage and favour, had been unable to keep his tongue from asking +awkward questions, from inquiring even into the authenticity of the +Donation of Constantine. Erasmus read the Annotations and liked their +critical, scholarly tone, and the frequent citations of the original +Greek. With the characteristic generosity of the age he was allowed to +carry the manuscript away and print it in Paris, with a dedication to +an Englishman, Christopher Fisher, perhaps a kinsman of the Bishop of +Rochester. + +From Paris he wrote to Colet to report progress, saying that he had +learnt Greek and was ready to turn to the Scriptures, and asking him +to interest English patrons in their common work. By this time Colet +himself had become a patron, having been appointed Dean of St. Paul's. +It is therefore not surprising to find that within a year Erasmus was +established in London, living in a bishop's house, endowed by his old +pupil Lord Mountjoy, and rejoicing in the society of the learned +friends gathered in the capital. Chief among these was Colet, who lent +him manuscripts from the Chapter Library of St. Paul's, and provided a +copyist to write out the fruits of his labours, a one-eyed Brabantine, +Peter Meghen by name, who acted also as Colet's private +letter-carrier. Meghen wrote a bold, well-marked hand, which is easily +recognizable, and in consequence his work has been traced in many +libraries. The British Museum has a treatise of Chrysostom, translated +by Selling, and written by Meghen for Urswick, afterwards Dean of +Windsor and Rector of Hackney, to present to Prior Goldstone of +Canterbury. (Urswick was frequently sent on embassies, and had +doubtless enjoyed the hospitality of Christchurch on his way between +London and Dover.) At Wells there are a Psalter and a translation of +Chrysostom on St. Matthew, which Urswick, as executor to Sir John +Huddelston, knight, caused Meghen to write in 1514 for presentation to +the Cistercians of Hailes, in Gloucestershire. The Bodleian has a +treatise written by him in 1528 for Nicholas Kratzer to present to +Henry VIII; and Wolsey's Lectionary at Christ Church, Oxford, is +probably in Meghen's hand. + +But what concern us here are some manuscripts in the British Museum +and the University Library at Cambridge, written by Meghen in 1506 and +1509 at Colet's order for presentation to his father, Sir Henry Colet, +Lord Mayor of London, and containing in parallel columns the Vulgate +and another Latin translation of the New Testament, 'per D. Erasmum +Roterodamum'. Part and possibly all of this work was done by Erasmus, +therefore, during this second residence in England in 1505-6. He tells +us that he received two Latin manuscripts from Colet, which he found +exceedingly difficult to decipher; but one cannot make a new +translation from the Latin. To the Greek manuscripts used on this +occasion he gives no clue. + +In connexion with this help and encouragement shown by Colet as Dean +to a foreign scholar, it is worth while to mention the visit to +London in 1509 of Cornelius Agrippa, the famous philosopher and +scientist, who had been sent to England by Maximilian on a diplomatic +errand, which he describes as 'a very secret business'. During his +stay, which lasted into 1510, he tells us that 'I laboured much over +the Epistles of St. Paul, in the company of John Colet, a man most +learned in Catholic doctrine, and of the purest life; and from him I +learnt many things that I did not know'. Erasmus was in England at the +time of this visit of Agrippa; but unfortunately he makes no allusion +to it, neither in his life of Colet, nor in his later correspondence +with Agrippa, nor, so far as I know, elsewhere in his works. If he had +done so, it might have solved a problem which is very curious in the +case of a public man of his fame and position, and of whom so much is +otherwise known. From the autumn of 1509, when he returned from Italy +and wrote the Praise of Folly in More's house in Bucklersbury, until +April 1511, when he went to Paris to print it, Erasmus completely +disappears from view. He published nothing, no letter that he wrote +survives, we have no clue to his movements. If it had been any one +else, we might almost conjecture that, like Hermonymus, he was in +prison. It was just during this period that Cornelius Agrippa was in +London. If either had mentioned the other, we should have a spark to +illumine this singular belt of darkness. + +When Erasmus returned to Cambridge in 1511, he was already familiar +with the field in which he was going to work; but the precise order in +which his scheme unfolded itself, whether the Greek text was his first +aim or an afterthought, is not clear, his utterances being perhaps +intentionally ambiguous. During these three years in Cambridge he +refers occasionally to the 'collation' and 'castigation' of the New +Testament, so that evidently he was engaged with the four Greek +manuscripts, which, according to an introduction in his first edition, +he had before him for his first recension. One of these has been +identified, the Leicester Codex written by Emmanuel of Constantinople, +which, as already mentioned, was with the Franciscans at Cambridge +early in the sixteenth century. + +By 1514 he was ready. In the last three years he had completed Jerome +and the New Testament, and had also prepared for the press some of +Seneca's philosophical writings, from manuscripts at King's and +Peterhouse; besides lesser pieces of work. A difficulty arose about +the printing. In 1512 he had been in negotiation with Badius Ascensius +of Paris to undertake Jerome and a new edition of the _Adagia_. What +actually happened is not known. But in December 1513 he writes to an +intimate friend that he has been badly treated about the _Adagia_ by +an agent--a travelling bookseller, who acted as go-between for +printers and authors and public; that instead of taking them to Badius +and offering him the refusal, the knavish fellow had gone straight to +Basle and sold them, with some other work of Erasmus, to a printer +who had only just completed an edition of the _Adagia_. Erasmus' +indignation does not ring true. It is highly probable that he was in +search of a printer with greater resources than Badius, who as yet had +produced nothing of any importance in Greek, and would therefore be +unable to do justice to the New Testament; and that accordingly he had +commissioned the agent to negotiate with a firm which by now had +established a great reputation--that of Amorbach and Froben, in Basle. +His attention had perhaps been aroused by a flattering mention of him +in a preface written in Froben's name for the pirated edition of the +_Adagia_, August 1513, to which Erasmus was referring in the letter +just quoted. Rumour had spread through Europe that Erasmus was +dead--it was repeated six months later in a book printed at +Vienna--and the Basle circle deplored the loss that this would mean to +learning. + +There were other reasons for this choice, apart from the excellence of +the printers. Erasmus had never been happy in Paris. He had often been +ill beside the sluggish Seine, and had only found his health again by +leaving it. The theologians were still predominant there, and Louis +XII had a way of interfering with scholars who discovered any freedom +of thought. Standonck, for instance, the refounder of Montaigu, had +had to disappear in 1499-1500. For Erasmus to sit in Paris for two or +three years while his books were being printed, would have been at +least a penance. But Basle was very different. The Rhine, dashing +against the piers of the bridge which joined the Great and Little +towns, brought fresh air and coolness and health. The University, +founded in 1460, was active and liberally minded. The town had +recently (1501) thrown in its lot with the confederacy of Swiss +cantons, thereby strengthening the political immunity which it had +long enjoyed. Between the citizens and the religious orders complete +concord prevailed; and finally, except Paris, there was no town North +of the Alps which could vie with Basle in the splendour and number of +the books which it produced. This is how a contemporary scholar[21] +writes of the city of his adoption. 'Basle to-day is a residence for a +king. The streets are clean, the houses uniform and pleasant, some of +them even magnificent, with spacious courts and gay gardens and many +delightful prospects; on to the grounds and trees beside St. Peter's, +over the Dominicans', or down to the Rhine. There is nothing to offend +the taste even of those who have been in Italy, except perhaps the use +of stoves instead of fires, and the dirt of the inns, which is +universal throughout Germany. The climate is singularly mild and +agreeable, and the citizens polite. A bridge joins the two towns, and +the situation on the river is splendid. Truly Basle is [Greek: +basileia], a queen of cities.' + + [21] Beatus Rhenanus, _Res Germanicae_, 1531, pp. 140, 1. + +In 1513 the two greatest printers of Basle were in partnership, John +Amorbach and John Froben. Amorbach, a native of the town of that name +in Franconia, had taken his M.A. in Paris, and then had worked for a +time in Koberger's press at Nuremberg. About 1475 he began to print at +Basle, and for nearly forty years devoted all his energies to +producing books that would promote good learning; being, however, far +too good a man of business to be indifferent to profit. His ambition +was to publish worthily the four Doctors of the Church. Ambrose +appeared in 1492, Augustine in 1506, and Jerome succeeded. The work +was divided amongst many scholars. Reuchlin helped with the Hebrew and +Greek, and spent two months in Amorbach's house in the summer of 1510 +to bring matters forward. Subsequently his province fell to Pellican, +the Franciscan Hebraist, and John Cono, a learned Dominican of +Nuremberg, who had mastered Greek at Venice and Padua, and had +recently returned from Italy with a store of Greek manuscripts copied +from the library of Musurus. Others who took part in the work were +Conrad Leontorius from the Engental; Sapidus, afterwards head master +of the Latin school at Schlettstadt; and Gregory Reisch, the learned +Prior of the Carthusians at Freiburg, who seems to have been specially +occupied with Jerome's Letters. + +Amorbach's sons, Bruno, Basil, and Boniface, were just growing up to +take their father's place, when he died on Christmas Day, 1513. The +eldest, Bruno, was born in 1485, and easily paired off with Basil, who +was a few years younger. They went to school together at Schlettstadt, +under Crato Hofman, in 1497. In 1500 they matriculated at Basle; in +1501 they went to Paris, where in 1504-5 they became B.A., and in 1506 +M.A. Bruno was enthusiastic for classical studies, and enjoyed life in +Paris, where he certainly had better opportunities, especially of +learning Greek, than he had at Basle; so his father allowed him to +stay on. Basil was destined for the law, and was sent to work under +Zasius at Freiburg. The youngest son, Boniface, 1495-1562, also went +to school at Schlettstadt; but when his time came for the university, +his father preferred to keep him at home under his own eye. He was +rather dissatisfied with Bruno, who as a Paris graduate had begun to +play the fine gentleman, and was spending his money handsomely, as +other young men have been known to do. The vigorous, straightforward +old printer had made the money himself by steady hard work, and he had +no intention of letting his son take life too easily. So he wrote him +a piece of his mind, in fine, forcible Latin. + + +JOHN AMORBACH TO HIS ELDEST SON, BRUNO, IN PARIS: from Basle, 23 July +1507. + + 'I cannot imagine, Bruno, what you do, to spend so much + money.[22] You took with you 7 crowns; and supposing that you + spent 2, or at the outside 3, on your journey, you must have + had 4 left--unless perhaps you paid for your companion, which I + did not tell you to do. Very likely his father has more money + than I have, but does not give it to him; no more do I give you + money to pay for other people. It is quite enough for me to + support you and your brothers, indeed more than enough. + + Then, directly you reached Paris, you received 12 crowns from + John Watensne. Also you had 9 for your horse, as you say in + your letter. Also 9 more from John Watensne, which I paid to + Wolfgang Lachner at the Easter fair at Frankfort; also 15 at + midsummer. Add these together and you will see that you have + had 52 crowns in 9 months. + + Perhaps you imagine that money comes to me anyhow. You know + that for the last two years I have not been printing. We are + living upon capital, the whole lot of us.[23] I have to provide + for my household.[24] I have to provide for your brother Basil, + and for Boniface, whom I have sent to Schlettstadt. I ought, + too, to do something for your sister: for several sober and + honourable men are at me about her, and I do not like to be + unfair towards her. So just remember that you are not the only + one. + + You may take it for sure that I cannot, and will not, give you + more than 22 or 23 crowns a year, or at the most 24. If you can + live on that at Paris, well: I will undertake to let you have + it for some years. But if it is not enough, come home and I + will feed you at my table. Think it over and let me know by the + next messenger: or else come yourself. + + I have been told on good authority that in the town (lodgings, + as opposed to a college) one can live quite decently on 16 or + at most 20 crowns: also that sometimes three or four students, + or more, take a house or a room, and then club together and + engage a cook, and that their weekly bills scarcely amount to a + teston <1/5 of a crown> a head. If that is so, join a party + like that and live carefully. + + Good-bye. Your mother sends her love. + + Your affectionate father, John Amorbach. + + [22] Bruno, satis admirari non possum quid agas vt tot pecunias + consumas. + [23] Consumimus omnes de capitali. + [24] Habeo prouidere domui meae. + +No answer came back, and on 18 August John Amorbach wrote again. Think +of a modern parent waiting a month for an answer to such a +communication and getting none! It might quite well have come. But +posts were slow and uncertain; and when he wrote again, the father's +righteous indignation had somewhat abated. It was not till 16 October +that Bruno replied, but with a very proper letter. He was a good +fellow, and knew what he owed to his father. After expressing his +regrets and determination to live within his allowance in future, he +goes on: 'There is a man just come from Italy, who is lecturing +publicly on Greek. <This was Francis Tissard of Amboise, who began +lecturing on Lascaris' Greek Grammar.> I have so long been wishing to +learn this language, and here at length is an opportunity. I have +plunged headlong into it, and with such a teacher I feel sure of +satisfying my desires, which are as eager as any inclinations of the +senses. So please allow me to stay a few months longer, and then I +shall be able to bring home some Greek with me. After that I will come +whenever you bid me.' Next summer he did return and settled down to +work in the press. It was well worth while, even for a scholar who was +eager to go on learning, and was inclined to grudge time given to +business: for with Jerome beginning and all the scholars whom we +mentioned coming in and out, Amorbach's house in Klein-Basel became an +'Academy' which could bear comparison with Aldus' at Venice. It was +worth Boniface's while, too, to take his course at Basle under such +circumstances; especially as in 1511 John Cono began to teach Greek +and Hebrew regularly to the printer's sons and to any one else who +wished to come and learn. It is worth noticing that not one of these +young men went to Italy for his humanistic education. + +Amorbach's partner, John Froben, 1460-1527, was a man after his own +heart: open and easy to deal with, but of dogged determination and +with great capacity for work. He was not a scholar. It is not known +whether he ever went to a University, and it is doubtful whether he +knew any Latin; certainly the numerous prefaces which appear in his +books under his name are not his own, but came from the pens of other +members of his circle. So the division came naturally, that Amorbach +organized the work and prepared manuscripts for the press, while +Froben had the printing under his charge. In later years, after +Amorbach's death, the marked advance in the output of the firm as +regards type and paper and title-pages and designs may be attributed +to Froben, who was man of business enough to realize the importance of +getting good men to serve him--Erasmus to edit books, Gerbell and +Oecolampadius to correct the proofs, Graf and Holbein to provide the +ornaments. For thirteen years he was Erasmus' printer-in-chief, and +produced edition after edition of his works, both small and great; and +whilst he lived, he had the call of almost everything that Erasmus +wrote. It is quite exceptional to find any book of Erasmus published +for the first time elsewhere during these years 1514-27. A few were +given to Martens at Louvain, mostly during Erasmus' residence there, +1517-21, one or two to Schurer at Strasburg, one or two more to a +Cologne printer; but for one of these there is evidence to show that +Froben had declined it, because his presses were too busy. It is +pleasant to find that the harmony of this long co-operation was never +disturbed. Erasmus occasionally lets fall a word of disapproval; but +what friends have ever seen eye to eye in all matters? + +When Froben died in October 1527 as the result of a fall from an upper +window, Erasmus wrote with most heartfelt sorrow a eulogy of his +friend. 'He was the soul of honesty himself, and slow to think evil of +others; so that he was often taken in. Of envy and jealousy he knew as +little as the blind do of colour. He was swift to forgive and to +forget even serious injuries. To me he was most generous, ever seeking +excuses to make me presents. If I ordered my servants to buy +anything, such as a piece of cloth for a new coat, he would get hold +of the bill and pay it off; and he would accept nothing himself, so +that it was only by similar artifices that I could make him any +return. He was enthusiastic for good learning, and felt his work to be +his own reward. It was delightful to see him with the first pages of +some new book in his hands, some author of whom he approved. His face +was radiant with pleasure, and you might have supposed that he had +already received a large return of profit. The excellence of his work +would bear comparison with that of the best printers of Venice and +Rome. Six years before his death he slipped down a flight of steps on +to a brickwork floor, and injured himself so severely that he never +properly recovered: but he always pretended that the effects had +passed away. Last year he was seized with a serious pain in his right +ankle, and the doctors could do nothing except to suggest that the +foot should be taken off. Some alleviation was brought by the skill of +a foreign physician, but there was still a great deal of pain in the +toes. However, he was not to be deterred from making the usual +journeys to Frankfort (in March and September for the book-fairs) and +rode on horseback both ways. We entreated him to take more care of +himself, to wear more clothes when it was cold; but he could not be +induced to give in to old age, and abandon the habits of a vigorous +lifetime. All lovers of good learning will unite to lament his loss.' + +If Erasmus was fortunate in his printer, he was still more fortunate +in the friend and confidant whom he found awaiting him at Basle, Beat +Bild of Rheinau, 1485-1547, known then and now as Beatus Rhenanus, one +of the choicest spirits of his own or any age. His father was a +butcher of Rheinau who left his home because of continued ravages by +the Rhine which threatened to sweep away the town. Settling in +Schlettstadt, a free city of the Empire near by, he rose to the +highest civic offices, and sent his son to the Latin school under +first Crato Hofman and then Gebwiler. Beatus was contemporary there +with Bruno and Basil Amorbach, and staying on longer than they did, +rose to be a 'praefect' in the school, which a few years later, +according to Thomas Platter, had 900 boys in it. This number seems +large for a town of perhaps not more than four or five thousand +inhabitants; but it was equalled by the school at Alcmar in the days +of Bartholomew of Cologne, and by Deventer, as we have seen, it was +far surpassed. In 1503 Beatus went to Paris, and there overtook the +Amorbach boys who had two years' start of him; becoming B.A. in 1504 +and M.A. in 1505, a year before Bruno. After his degree he stayed on +in Paris as corrector to the press of Henry Stephanus for two years; +and then returning home engaged himself in a similar capacity to +Schurer at Strasburg, also giving a hand with editions of new texts. +In 1511, attracted by the fame of the good Dominican, John Cono, he +went to Basle to work for the elder Amorbach and take lessons under +Cono with the sons. When Erasmus came, Beatus at once fell under his +spell, and subordinated his own projects to the requirements of his +friend's more important undertakings. + +That indeed is Beatus' great characteristic throughout his life. He +was well off, for his father 'by the blessing of God on his ingenious +endeavour had arisen to an ample estate'; and thus the son was not +obliged to seek reward. He gave himself, therefore, unstintingly to +any work that needed doing for his friends, editing, correcting, +supervising; and usually suppressing the part he had taken in it. His +own achievements are nevertheless considerable. The bibliographers +have discovered sixty-eight books in which he had a capital share; and +though a large number of these appear to be mere reprints of books +printed in France or Italy--the law of copyright in those days was, as +might be expected, uncertain--, there is a residue in which he really +did original work: some notes on the history and geography of Germany +which he composed, and editions of Pliny's Natural History, Tacitus, +Tertullian and Velleius Paterculus--the latter having an almost +romantic interest from the fortunes of the manuscript on which it is +based. A measure of the confidence which Erasmus subsequently reposed +in both his judgement and his good faith is that in 1519 and 1521, +when he had decided to publish some more of his letters, he just sent +to Beatus bundles of the rough drafts he had preserved, and told him +to select and edit them at his discretion. + +A sketch of Beatus, written at his death by John Sturm of Strasburg, +the friend of Ascham, gives a picture of the life he led at +Schlettstadt during his last twenty years: the plain, simple living in +the great house inherited from his father, without luxury or display, +attended upon by an old maidservant and a young servant-pupil, given +to friends but not allowing hospitality to infringe upon his work, +lapped in such quiet as to seem almost solitude; the daily round being +dinner at ten, in the afternoon a walk in his gardens outside the city +walls, and supper at six. Gentle and accommodating, modest and +diffident in spite of his learning, reluctant to talk of himself, and +slow to take offence--it is no wonder that he held the affections of +his friends. Well might Erasmus liken him to the blessed man of the +first Psalm, 'who shall be as a tree planted by the waterside.' + +We have seen Beatus' enthusiasm for queenly Basle. Of his native town +he was not so proud; though it has good Romanesque work in St. Fides' +church and rich Gothic in the minster, and though Wimpfeling had just +built a beautiful Renaissance house with Italian designs round its bay +window and medallions of Roman Emperors on the pilasters. The school, +too, was famous throughout Germany; and Lazarus Schurer had started a +creditable printing-press. Yet to Beatus the minster is only 'rather +good, but modern', the Dominicans' house 'mediocre', the nuns' +buildings 'unhealthy', the people 'simple and resourceless, as you +would expect with vine-growers, and too fond of drinking'. 'There is +nothing remarkable here', he says, 'but the fortifications; indeed we +are a stronghold rather than a city. The walls are circular, built of +elegant brick and with towers of some pretensions.' What pleased him +as much as anything was that the ramparts were covered in for almost +the whole of their length, and thus afforded protection to the +night-guards against what he calls 'celestial injuries'. + +One reason that we know Beatus so well is that his library has +survived almost intact, as well as a great number of letters which he +received. At his death he left his books to the town of Schlettstadt; +and there they still are, forming the major and by far the most +important part of the town library. It is a wonderful collection of +about a thousand volumes, some of them extremely rare; many bought by +him in his Paris days, some presents from friends sent or brought from +far with dedicatory inscriptions. Hardly a book has not his name and +the date when he acquired it, or other marks of his use. But they have +not yet come to their full usefulness, for there is no adequate +catalogue of them. In many cases their direct value has passed away. +No one wishes to read the classics or the Fathers in the texts current +in the sixteenth century; yet behind printed books lie manuscripts, +and from examination of manuscripts on which printed texts are based, +we can gather many useful indications to throw light on the tradition +of the classics, the gradual steps by which the past has come down to +us. Besides such texts there are multitudes of original compositions +of Beatus' own period, books of great value for the history of +scholarship; many of them requiring to be dated with more precision +than is attainable on the surface. It will be a signal service to +learning when a trained bibliographer takes Beatus Rhenanus' books in +hand and gives us a scientific catalogue. + +These were some of the friends who were in Basle when Erasmus first +began to think of sending his work there to be printed. By the summer +of 1514 the preliminary negotiations had been satisfactorily concluded +and he set out. The story which he tells of his arrival is well known. +Amorbach was now dead; so he marched into the printing-house and asked +for Froben. 'I handed him a letter from Erasmus, saying that I was a +familiar friend of his, and that he had charged me to arrange for the +publication of his works; that any undertaking I made would be as +valid as if made by him: finally, that I was so like Erasmus that to +see me was to see him. He laughed and saw through the joke. His +father-in-law, old Lachner, paid my bill at the inn, and carried me +off, horse and baggage to his house.' + +He was not at first sure whether he would stay: he might get the work +better done at Venice or at Rome. But the attractions of the printer's +house and circle were not to be resisted; and gradually, one after +another, the books which he had brought were undertaken by Froben, a +new edition of the _Adagia_, Seneca, the New Testament, Jerome. The +way in which the printing was carried out illustrates the critical +standards of the age. Erasmus was absent from Basle during the greater +part of the time when Seneca was coming through the press; and the +proofs were corrected by Beatus Rhenanus and a young man named Nesen. +Under such circumstances a modern author would feel that he had only +himself to thank for any defects in the book. Not so Erasmus. He boils +over with annoyance against the correctors for the blunders they let +pass. The idea that so magnificent a person as an editor or author +should correct proofs had not arisen. It was the business of the young +men who had been hired to do this drudgery; and all blame rested with +them. So far as the evidence goes, it was the same all through +Erasmus' life. In the case of one of his most virulent apologies +(1520) he says that he corrected all the proofs himself; but from the +stress he lays on the loss of time involved, it is clear that he +regarded this as something exceptional, and not to be repeated. With +the _Adagia_ published by Aldus (1508) he says that he cast his eye +over the final proofs, not in search of errors, but to see whether he +wished to make any changes. But in the main his books, like everybody +else's, were left to the care of others. + +The fact is that in the splendour of the new invention of printing, +the possibilities of accompanying error had not been realized. In just +the same spirit the idea went abroad that when a book had been +printed, its manuscript original had no value. We have seen how +Erasmus was allowed to carry off the manuscript of Valla from Louvain +to Paris. Aldus received codices from all parts of Europe, sent by +owners with the request that they should be printed; but no desire for +their return. In 1531 Simon Grynaeus came from Basle to Oxford and was +given precious texts from college libraries to take back with him and +have published. Generosity helped to mislead. To keep a manuscript to +oneself for personal enjoyment seemed churlish. If it were printed, +any one who wished might enjoy it. That any degeneration might come in +by the way, that the printed text might contain blunders, was not +perceived. The process seemed so straightforward, so mechanical; as +certain a method of reproduction as photography. But the human element +in it was overlooked. _Humanum est errare_. + +It was the same with the New Testament as with Seneca. When the form +of the work had been decided upon--a Greek text side by side with +Erasmus' translation, and notes at the end--two young scholars, +Gerbell and Oecolampadius, were installed in charge of the book. For +the Greek Erasmus had expected, he tells us, to find at Basle some +manuscript which he could give to the printers without further +trouble. But he was annoyed to find that there was none available +which was good enough, and he positively had to go through the one +that he selected from beginning to end before he could entrust it to +his correctors. In addition to this he put into their hands another +manuscript, which had been borrowed from Reuchlin; presumably to help +them in case they should have any difficulty in deciphering the +first. However, after a time he discovered that they were taking +liberties, and following the text of the second manuscript, wherever +they preferred its reading: as though the editing were in their own +hands. He took it from them and found another manuscript which agreed +more closely with the first. For the book of Revelation only one Greek +manuscript was available; and at the end five verses and a bit were +lacking through the loss of a leaf. Erasmus calmly translated them +back from the Latin, but had the grace to warn the reader of the fact +in his notes. + +As to the translation, an interesting point is that it is modified +considerably from the translation which he had made in 1505-6, and is +brought closer to the text of the Vulgate. In the second edition of +the New Testament, March 1519, he explains in a preliminary apology +that he had changed back in this way in 1516 from fear lest too great +divergence from the Vulgate might give offence. But the book was on +the whole so well received that he soon realized that the time was +ripe for more advanced scholarship. His earlier version was the best +that he could do, in simplicity of style and fidelity to the original. +Accordingly in 1519 he introduced it with the most minute care, even +such trivial variations as _ac_ or _-que_ for _et_ being restored. The +transformation was not without its effects. Numerous passages were +objected to by the orthodox; as for example, when he translates +[Greek: logos] in the first verse of St. John's Gospel by _sermo_, +instead of _verbum_, as in the Vulgate and the edition of 1516. + +The New Testament appeared in March 1516, dedicated by permission to +the Pope; in the following autumn came Jerome, in nine volumes, of +which four were by Erasmus, dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury: +and thus the Head of the Church and one of his most exalted suffragans +lent their sanction to an advancement of learning which theological +faculties in the universities viewed with the gravest suspicion. + +Erasmus had now reached his highest point. He had equipped himself +thoroughly for the work he desired to do. He was the acknowledged +leader of a large band of scholars, who looked to him for guidance and +were eagerly ready to second his efforts; and with the resources of +Froben's press at his disposal, nothing seemed beyond his powers and +his hopes. Wherever his books spread, his name was honoured, almost +reverenced. Material honours and wealth flowed in upon him; and he was +continually receiving enthusiastic homage from strangers. He saw +knowledge growing from more to more, and bringing with it reform of +the Church and that steady betterment of the evils of the world which +wise men in every age desire. In all this his part was to be that of a +leader: not the only one, but in the front rank. He enjoyed his +position, feeling that he was fitted for it; but he was not puffed up. +In his dreams of what he would do with his life, he had ever seen +himself advancing not the name of Erasmus but the glory of God. In +his later years he became impatient of criticism, and resented with +great bitterness even difference of opinion, unless expressed with the +utmost caution; to hostile critics his language is often quite +intolerable. But the spirit underlying this is not mere vanity. No +doubt it wounded him to be evil spoken of, to have his pre-eminence +called in question, to be shown to have made mistakes: but the real +ground of his resentment was rather vexation that anything should +arise to mar the unanimity of the humanist advance toward wider +knowledge. Conscious of singleness of purpose, it was a profound +disappointment to him to have his sincerity doubted, to be treated as +an enemy by men who should have been his friends. + +Into the discord of the years that followed I do not propose to enter. +They were years of disappointment to Erasmus; disappointment that grew +ever deeper, as he saw the steady growth of reform broken by the +sudden shocks of the Reformation and barred by subsequent reaction. +Throughout it all he never lost his faith in the spread of knowledge, +and gave his energies consistently to help this great cause. He +produced more editions of the Fathers, either wholly or in part: +Cyprian, Arnobius, Hilary, Jerome again, Chrysostom, Irenaeus, +Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, Lactantius, Alger, Basil, Haymo, and +Origen; the last named in the concluding months of his life. The +storms that beat round him could not stir him from his principles. To +neither reformer nor reactionary would he concede one jot, and in +consequence from each side he was vilified. He was drawn into a series +of deplorable controversies, which estranged him from many; but of his +real friends he lost not one. It is pleasant to see the devotion with +which Beatus Rhenanus and Boniface Amerbach comforted his last years; +never wavering in the service to which they had plighted themselves in +the enthusiasm of youth. + +The chance survival of the following note enables us to stand by +Erasmus' bedside in his last hours. It was written by one of the +Frobens, possibly his godson and namesake, Erasmius, to Boniface +Amerbach, and it may be dated early in July 1536, perhaps on the 11th, +the last sunset that Erasmus was to see. 'I have just visited the +Master, but without his knowing. He seems to me to fail very much: for +his tongue cleaves to his palate, so that you can scarcely understand +him when he speaks. He is drawing his breath so deep and quick, that I +cannot but wonder whether he will live through the night. So far he +has taken nothing to-day except some chicken-broth. I have sent for +Sebastian <Munster, the Hebraist>. If he comes, I will have him +introduced into the room, but without the Master's knowledge, in order +that he may hear what I have heard. I am sending you this word, so +that you may come quickly.' + +Erasmus' last words were in his own Dutch speech: 'Liever Got'. + +No account of Erasmus must omit to tell how he laboured for peace. +Well he might. In his youth he had seen his native Holland torn +between the Hoeks and the Cabeljaus, the Duke of Gueldres and the +Bishop of Utrecht, with occasional intervention by higher powers. Year +after year the war had dragged on, with no decisive settlement, no +relief to the poor. One of his friends, Cornelius Gerard, wrote a +prose narrative of it; another, William Herman, composed a poem of +Holland weeping for her children and would not be comforted. _Dulce +bellum inexpertis._ War sometimes seems purifying and ennobling to +those whose own lives have never been jeoparded, who have never seen +men die: but not so to those who have known and suffered. Throughout +his life Erasmus never wearied of ensuing peace; and for its sake he +reproved even kings. In 1504 he was allowed to deliver a panegyric of +congratulation before the Archduke Philip the Fair, who had just +returned from Spain to the Netherlands; and after sketching a picture +of a model prince, inculcated upon him the duty of maintaining peace. +In 1514 he wrote to one of his patrons, brother of the Bishop of +Cambray, a letter on the wickedness of war, obviously designed for +publication and actually translated into German by an admirer a few +years later, to give it wider circulation. In 1515 the enlarged +_Adagia_ contained an essay on the same theme, under the title quoted +above: words which, translated into English, were again and again +reprinted during the nineteenth century by Peace Associations and the +Society of Friends. In 1516 he was appointed Councillor to Philip's +son, Charles, who at 16 had just succeeded to the crowns of Spain. His +first offering to his young sovereign was counsel on the training of a +Christian prince, with due emphasis on his obligations for peace. In +1517 he greeted the new Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, with a +'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all lands', _Querela Pacis vndique +profligatae_. And besides these direct invocations, in his other +writings, his pen frequently returns upon the same high argument. For +a brief period in his life it seemed as though peace might come back. +Maximilian's death in 1519 followed by Charles' election to the Empire +placed the sovereignty of Western and Central Europe in the hands of +three young men, who were chivalrous and impressionable, Henry and +Francis and Charles: only the year before they had been treating for +universal peace. If they would really act in concord, it seemed as +though the Golden Age might return, and Christendom show a united face +against the watchful and unwearying Turk. But though the sky was +clear, the weather was what Oxfordshire folk call foxy. Strife of +nations, strife of creeds cannot in a moment be allayed. Suddenly the +little clouds upon the horizon swelled up and covered the heaven with +the darkness of night; and before the dawn broke into new hope, +Erasmus had laid down his pen for ever, and was at rest from his +service to the Prince of Peace. + + + + +VI + +FORCE AND FRAUD + + +As you stand on the Piazza dei Signori at Verona, at one side rises +the massive red-brick tower of the Scaliger palace, lofty, castellated +at its top, with here and there a small window, deep set in the old +masonry, and the light that is allowed to pass inwards, grudgingly +crossed by bars of rusty iron--a place of defence and perhaps of +tyranny, within which life is secure indeed, but grim and sombre. +Opposite, in an angle of the square, stands a very different building, +the Palazzo del Consiglio. It has only two storeys, but each of these +is high and airy; above is a fine chamber, through whose ample windows +streams in the sun; below is a pleasant loggia, supported by slender +columns. Marble cornices and balustrades give a sense of richness, and +the wall-spaces are bright with painting and ornament. The spacious +galleries invite to enjoyment, to pace their length in free +light-hearted talk, or to stand and watch the life moving below, with +the sense of gay predominance that the advantage of height confers. + +The two buildings typify most aptly the ages to which they belong: the +contrast between them is as the gulf between the Middle Ages and the +Renaissance. Step back in thought to the twelfth century, and we find +civilization struggling for its very existence. Few careers were +possible. Above all was the soldier, ruthlessly spreading murder and +desolation, and expecting no mercy when his own turn came; in the +middle were the merchant and the craftsman, relying on strong city +walls and union with their fellows, and the lawyer building up a +system, and profiting when men fell out; underneath was the peasant, +pitiably dependent on others. On all sides was bestial cruelty and +reckless ignorance: the overmastering care of life to find shelter and +protection. How strong, how luxuriously strong seemed that tower, with +so few apertures to admit the enemy and the pursuer! once inside, who +would wish to stir abroad? For the man who would think or study there +was only one way of life, to become sacrosanct in the direct service +of God. The Church, with splendid ideals before it, was exerting +itself to crush barbarism, and its forts were garrisoned by men of +spirit, whose courage was not that of the destroyer. In the +monasteries, if anywhere, was to be found that peace which the world +cannot give, the life of contemplation, in which can be felt the +hunger and thirst after knowledge. + +By the middle of the sixteenth century the scene has changed. Much +blood has flowed through the arches of time; and now the conqueror has +learnt from the Church to be merciful, from nascent science to be +strong. He can spread peace wherever his sword reaches; and fear that +of old ruled all under the sun, now can walk only in dark places. +Walls no longer bring comfort, and soon they are to be thrown down to +make way for the broad streets which will carry the movement outwards; +and, most significant change, the country house with 'its gardens and +its gallant walks' takes the place of the grange. From the thraldom of +terror what an escape, to light, air, freedom, activity! The gates of +joy are opened, the private citizen learns to live, to follow choice +not necessity, to give the reins to his spirit and take hold on the +gifts that Nature spreads before him. + +In the pursuit of peace, human progress has lain in the enlargement of +the units of government capable of holding together; from villages to +towns, from towns to provinces, from provinces to nations. The last +step had been the achievement of the Middle Ages, though even by the +end of the fifteenth century it was not yet complete: the twentieth +century finds us reaching forward to a new advance. We have spoken of +Erasmus' efforts to bring back peace from her exile, of the +experiences of his youth when Holland had wept for her children. In +1517, when he wrote his 'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all +lands', he was a man and one of Charles' councillors; but Holland was +still weeping and refusing comfort. She had good reason. The provinces +of the Netherlands were disunited, no sway imposed upon them with +strength enough first to restrain and then to knit together. On either +side of the Zuider Zee lay two bitter enemies: Holland, which had +accepted the Burgundian yoke, and Friesland, which after a long +struggle against foreign domination, had been reduced by the rule of +Saxon governors, Duke Albert and Duke George. To the south was +Gueldres, which, under its Duke, Charles of Egmont, had thrown in its +lot with France against Burgundy, and was continually instigating the +subjugated Frieslanders to rebellion. Then was war in the gates. + +This was the kind of thing that happened. In 1516, after a fresh +outbreak of the ceaseless struggle, Henry of Nassau, Stadhouder of +Holland and Zeeland, ordered that all Gueldrians or Frieslanders who +showed their faces in his dominions should be put to death; and some +who were resident at the Hague were executed on the charge of sending +aid to their compatriots. A raid by the Gueldrians ended in the +massacre of Nieuwpoort. Nassau replied by ravaging the country up to +the walls of Arnhem, the Gueldres capital. + +Duke Charles had terrible forces at command. A body of mercenary +troops, known as the Black Band, had been used by George of Saxony for +the repression of Friesland in 1514, and since then had been seeking +employment wherever they could find it. At the same time, one of the +conquered Frieslanders, known as Long Peter, had turned to piracy as +an effective way of revenging himself on Holland. Proclaiming himself +'King of the Sea', he seized every ship that came in his way, showing +no mercy to Hollanders and holding all others to ransom. + +In May 1517, the Duke, violating a truce not yet expired, renewed +hostilities. The Black Band, some of whom had strayed as far as Rouen +in quest of fighting, flocked back. At the end of June 3000 of them +crossed the Zuider Zee in Long Peter's ships and disembarked suddenly +at Medemblik, in North Holland. The town was quickly set on fire, and +everything destroyed except the citadel; the fleet carrying back the +first spoils. Then they marched southwards, burning what they list; +and happy were those whose offer of ransom was accepted, to escape +with plunder only. + +There was no fixed plan. The murderous horde wandered along, turning +to right or left as fancy suggested. After burning five country towns, +they appeared at Alcmar, the chief town of North Holland, into which +the most precious possessions of the neighbourhood had been hurriedly +conveyed. By a heavy payment, the burghers purchased immunity from the +flames; but for eight days the town was given up to the lust and +ferocity of an uncontrolled soldiery, from whose senseless destruction +it took thirty years to recover. Egmond, with its great abbey, was +pillaged; and then it was Haarlem's turn to suffer. But by this time +resistance had been organized. Troops had been called back from +garrison work in Friesland, and a strong line drawn in front of +Haarlem. Headed off, the Black Band turned suddenly away. Passing +Amsterdam and Culemborg, it penetrated down into South Holland, whence +it would be easy to pass back into Gueldres. Asperen was its next +prey. Three times the citizens beat off the cruel foe: a few more to +man their walls, and they might have driven him right away, to +overwhelm others less fortunate and less brave. + +But it was not to be. At the fourth attempt the marauders were +successful, and massacre ensued. Death to the men, worse than death to +the women: nor age nor innocence could touch those black hearts. A +schoolmaster with his boys fled into a church and hid trembling in the +rood-loft. Before long they were discovered. Thirsting for blood, some +of the monsters rushed up the steps and tossed the shrieking victims +over on to the pikes of their comrades below. When all the butchery +was finished, a few helpless and infirm survivors were dragged out of +hiding-places. The miserable creatures were driven out of the city and +the gates barred in their faces. For a month the Black Band held +Asperen as a standing camp, living upon the provisions stored up by +the dead. Then Nassau came with troops and drove them forth, pursuing +into Gueldres, where he burned '46 good villages' in revenge. The +sight of fire blazing to heaven is appalling enough when men are +ranged all on one side, and the battle is with the element alone. Our +peace-lapped imaginations cannot picture the terror of flames kindled +aforethought. As those poor fugitives scattered over the country, +cowering into the darkness out of the fire's searching glow, they +cannot but have recalled the words: 'Woe unto them that are with child +and to them that give suck in those days.' At least they could give +thanks that their flight was not in the winter. + +Meanwhile Long Peter had not been idle. On 14 August he had a great +battle with the Hollanders off Hoorn. Eleven ships he took, and cast +their crews into the sea: 500 men, save one, a Gueldrian, struggling +in the calm summer waters and stretching out their hands to a foe who +knew no pity. In September he surrounded a merchant fleet. The +Easterlings escaped at heavy ransom; but the crews of three Holland +vessels were flung to the waves. Then he carried the war on to the +land, to glean what the Black Band had left. With 1200 men he took +Hoorn by escalade; plunder-laden and sated, they returned to the sea. +Nothing was too small or too helpless for his rapacity. Along the +coast they picked up a barge of Enckhuizen. Its only crew, master and +mate, were thrown overboard, and Peter's fleet sailed upon its way. We +must remember that the provinces engaged in this internecine strife +were not widely diverse in race, and that to-day they are peacefully +united under one governance. + +The winter of 1517-18 was spent by the Black Band in Friesland. Three +thousand men who are prepared to take by force what is not given to +them, do not lie hungry in the cold. We may be sure that under them +the land had no rest. At Easter they began to move southwards in quest +of other victims and other employ. But as they halted between Venlo +and Roermond, resistance confronted them. Nassau had arrayed by his +side the Archbishop of Cologne and the Dukes of Juliers and Cleves: +the gates of the cities were closed and the ferry-boats that would +have carried them across the Maas had been kept on the other side. +Caught in a trap, the freebooters promised to lay down their weapons +and disperse. The disarmament proceeded quietly till one of the +company-leaders refused to part with a bombard, the new invention, of +which he was very proud. A trumpeter, seeing the man hesitate, sounded +a warning, and the containing troops stood on the alert. Readiness led +to action. Suddenly they fell on the helpless horde, for whom there +was no safety but in flight. A thousand were massacred before Nassau +and his confederates could check their men. + +Erasmus was about to set out from Louvain to Basle, to work at a new +edition of the New Testament. Bands such as these were, of course, a +peril to travellers. Half exultant, half disgusted, he wrote to More: +'These fellows were stripped before disbandment: so they will have all +the more excuse for fresh plundering. This is consideration for the +people! They were so hemmed in that not one of them could have +escaped: yet the Dukes were for letting them go scot-free. It was mere +chance that any of them were killed. Fortunately, a man blew his +trumpet: there was at once an uproar, and more than a thousand were +cut down. The Archbishop alone was sound. He said that, priest though +he was, if the matter were left to him, he would see that such things +should never occur again. The people understand the position, but are +obliged to acquiesce.' To Colet he exclaimed more bitterly: 'It is +cruel! The nobles care more for these ruffians than for their own +subjects. The fact is, they count on them to keep the people down.' +Let us be thankful that Europe to-day has no experience of such +mercenaries. + +A sign of the troubles of the times was the existence of the French +order of Trinitarians for the redemption of prisoners. This need had +been known even when Rome's power was at its height, for Cicero[25] +specifies the redemption of men captured by pirates as one of the ways +in which the generously minded were wont to spend their money. The +practice lasted down continuously through the Middle Ages. Gaguin, the +historian of France, Erasmus' first patron in Paris, was for many +years General of the Trinitarians, and made a journey to Granada to +redeem prisoners who had been taken fighting against the Moors. Even +in the eighteenth century, church offertories in England were asked +and given to loose captives out of prison. + + [25] _De Officiis_, 2. 16. + +Where the king's peace is not kept and the king's writ does not run, +men learn to rely on themselves. Those who protect themselves with +strength, discover the efficacy of force, and soon are not content to +apply it merely on the defensive. It is not surprising, therefore, to +find in Erasmus' day many cases of resort to violence to remedy +defective titles. Nowadays we never hear of a defeated candidate for +a coveted post trying to obtain by force and right of possession the +position which has been given to another. It is unthinkable, for +instance, that a Warden of Merton duly elected should have to eject +from college some disappointed rival who had possessed himself of the +Warden's office and house: as actually happened in 1562. It is, +perhaps, not so much that we have become more law-abiding, as that we +realize that any such attempt must be fruitless when the strong arm of +the State is at hand, ready to assert the rights of the lawful +claimant. + +In Erasmus' day might was often right. Thus in 1492 the Abbot of St. +Bertin's at St. Omer died, and the monks elected in his place a +certain James du Val, who was duly consecrated in July 1493. The +Bishop of Cambray, however, had had the abbey in his eye for his +younger brother Antony, who had been ejected ten years before by the +powerful family of Arenberg from the Abbey of St. Trond in Limburg, +and meanwhile had been living unemployed at Louvain. The Bishop +persuaded the Pope to annul du Val's election and appoint Antony in +his place, probably on some technical ground. Armed with this +permission he appeared at St. Omer in October 1493 and violently +installed his brother; who held the abbey undisturbed till his death +nearly forty years later. The Bishop's success with the Pope is the +more noteworthy, as for a period of seven years he himself had refused +to surrender an abbey near Mons to a papal nominee, who was not strong +enough to wrest it from him. Again, during the five years of the +English occupation of Tournay, 1513-18, there was a continual struggle +between two rival bishops, appointed when the see fell vacant in +1513--Wolsey nominated by Henry VIII and Louis Guillard by the Pope. +It goes without saying that Wolsey won; and Guillard did not get in +till 1519, the year after the evacuation by the English. + +Fernand tells a story of violence at the monastery of Souillac, which +was closely connected with his own at Chezal-Benoit. When the Abbot +died, a monk of St. Martin's at Tours, who was a native of Souillac, +with the aid of a brother who was a court official, got himself put in +as abbot before the monks had time to elect. They appealed to the +king, but quite in vain; for instead of giving ear to their complaint +he sent down a troop of soldiers to support the invading Abbot. It was +a grievous time for the poor monks. The garrison did whatever they +pleased: imprisoned the faithful servants of the monastery, introduced +hunting-dogs and birds, roared out their licentious choruses to the +sound of lute and pipe, and gave up the whole day to games of every +sort, in which the weaker brethren joined. Those who refused to do so +or to violate their vows by eating flesh were insulted; and as they +held divine service, coarse laughter and clamour interrupted them. +Strict watch was kept upon them, too, lest they should speak or write +to any one of their injuries. We need not deplore the passing of such +'good old days'. + +It is necessary to realize the certainty which in the sixteenth +century men allowed themselves to feel on subjects of the highest +importance; for nothing short of this intense conviction is adequate +to explain the ferocity with which they treated those over whom they +had triumphed in matters of religion. Burning at the stake was the +common method of expiation. The fires of Smithfield consumed brave, +humble victims, while Erasmus jested over the rising price of wood, In +France the Inquisition entrapped many men of literary distinction, +Louis de Berquin 1529, John de Caturce 1532, Stephen Dolet 1546; on +the charge of heresy or atheism which could only with great difficulty +be refuted. To kill a fellow-creature or to watch him put to death +would be physically impossible to most of us, in our unruffled lives; +where from year's-end to year's-end we hardly even hear a word spoken +in anger. In consequence it is difficult for us to understand the +indifference with which in the sixteenth century men of the most +advanced refinement regarded the sufferings of others. Between rival +combatants and claimants for thrones fierce measures are more +intelligible; especially in days when stone walls did not a prison +make--such a prison, at least, as the prisoner might not some day hope +to break. Things had improved somewhat since the Middle Ages. We hear +less of the varieties of mutilation, the blinding, loss of nose, +hands, breasts, which were the portion of either sex indiscriminately, +when the death-penalty had not been fully earned. But it was still +fashionable to suspend your adversary in a cage and torture him, or +to confine him for years in a dungeon which light and air could never +reach. The executions of heretics became public shows, carefully +arranged beforehand, and attended by rank and fashion; to whom to show +any sign of sensibility would have been disgrace. Impossible it seems +to believe. We must remember that the perpetrators of such noble acts +had persuaded themselves that they were serving God. They were as +confident as Joshua or as Jehu that they knew His will; and they had +no hesitation in carrying it out. + +If you may take a man's life in God's name, there can be no objection +to telling him a lie. The violation of the safe-conduct which brought +Hus to Constance was a fine precedent for breaking faith with a +heretic. When Luther came to Worms to answer for himself before +Emperor and Diet, the Pope's representatives reminded Charles of the +principle which had lighted the fires at Constance and ridded the +world of a dangerous fellow. Fortunately Charles had German subjects +to consider, and the Germans had a reputation for good faith of which +they were proud. Let us credit him too with some generosity; he was +scarcely 21, and the young find the arguments of expediency difficult. +Anyway, Luther with the help of his friends got off safely. The +intrigues and subterfuges of diplomatists are still very often +revolting to honest men. But there is some excuse for them; they act +on behalf of nations, who have to look to themselves for protection +and can rarely afford to be generous and aboveboard. But so barefaced +a violation of faith to an individual before the eyes of the world +would no longer be tolerated, not even in the name of the Lord. + +The following example will illustrate the ideas of the age about the +treatment of heretics; an example of faith continually broken and of +incredible cruelty. In 1545 the Cardinal de Tournon and Baron +d'Oppede, the first president of the Parliament of Aix, were moved to +extirpate that plague-spot of Southern France, the Vaudois communities +of Dauphine, who went on still in their wickedness and heresy. The +intriguers prepared a decree revoking the letters patent of 1544, +which had suspended proceedings against the Vaudois; and when the +keeper of the seals refused to present it to the king for signature, +by unlawful means they presented it through a secretary and unlawfully +procured the affixion of the seals. But this was a mere trifle: +greater things were to follow. + +On 13 April 1545 the Baron entered the Vaudois territory at the head +of a body of troops, reinforced by the papal Vice-legate and a +fanatical mob of countryfolk. The inhabitants offered little +resistance, and soon villages were in flames on every side. At +Merindol the soldiers found only one inhabitant, a poor idiot; all the +rest had fled. The Baron ordered him to be shot. Above by the castle +some women were discovered hiding in a church; after indescribable +outrages they were thrown headlong from the rocks. Cabrieres being +fortified was prepared to stand a siege; but on a promise of their +lives and property the inhabitants opened the gates. Without a +moment's hesitation the Baron gave orders to put them all to death. +The soldiers refused to break plighted faith; but the mob had no +scruples and the ghastly work began. 'A multitude of women and +children had fled to the church: the furious horde rushed headlong +among them and committed all the crimes of which hell could dream. +Other women had hidden themselves in a barn. The Baron caused them to +be shut up there and fire set to the four corners. A soldier rushed to +save them and opened the door, but the women were driven back into the +fire with blows of pikes. Twenty-five women had taken shelter in a +cavern at some distance from the town. The Vice-legate caused a great +fire to be lighted at the entrance: five years afterwards the bones of +the victims were found in the inmost recesses.'[26] La Coste had the +same fate; the promise made and immediately violated, and then all the +terrors of hell. In the course of a few weeks 3000 men and women were +massacred, 256 executed, and six or seven hundred sent to the galleys; +while children unnumbered were sold as slaves. The offence of these +poor people was that they had been seeking in their own fashion to +draw nearer to the God of Love. + + [26] R.C. Christie, _Etienne Dolet_, ch. xxiv. + +But public morals ever lag behind private; and in the sixteenth +century private standards of truth and honour were not so high as they +are now. Here again we may find one main cause in the absence of +personal security. In these days of settled government, when thought +and speech are free, it is scarcely possible to realize what men's +outlook upon life must have been when walls had ears and a man's foes +might be those of his own household. In Henry VII's reign England had +not had time to forget the Wars of the Roses, and claimants to the +throne were still occasionally executed in the Tower. Even under the +mighty hand of Henry VIII ministers rose and fell with alarming +rapidity. When princes contend, private men do well to hold their +peace; lest light utterances be brought up against them so soon as +Fortune's wheel has swung to the top those that were underneath. In +matters of faith, too, it was supremely necessary to be careful; for +unguarded words might arouse suspicions of heresy, to be followed by +the frightful penalties with which heresy was extirpated. On great +questions, therefore, men must have kept their tongues and thoughts in +a strict reserve: candour and openness, those valuable solvents of +social humours, can only have been practised by the unwise. + +Truth is one of those things in which to him that hath shall be given. +It is a common jest in the East that professional witnesses come daily +to the law-courts waiting to be hired by either side. The harder truth +is to discover, with the less are men content. With many inducements +to dissimulation and no great expectations of personal honesty, men +are likely to traffic with expediency and to be adept in justifying +themselves when they forsake the truth. + +Some examples of this may be found in Erasmus' letters. When he was +in Italy in 1509, Henry VII died. His English patron, Lord Mountjoy, +was intimate with Henry VIII. A few weeks after the accession a letter +from Mountjoy reached Erasmus, inviting him to return to England and +promising much in the young king's name. The letter was in fact +written by Ammonius, an Italian, who afterwards became Latin secretary +to the king. He was recognized as one of the best scholars of the day; +and there can be no doubt that the letter was his composition. +Mountjoy was a sufficiently keen scholar to sit up late at night over +his books, and to be chosen as a companion to the young Prince Henry +in his studies; but such autograph letters by him as survive show that +he wrote with difficulty even in English, and it is impossible to +suppose that he would have kept an accomplished Latinist in his employ +merely to act as copyist to his effusions. Moreover, Erasmus, writing +a few years later, says that he recognized the letter as Ammonius' +work, not from the handwriting, which he had forgotten, but from the +style. Nevertheless he allowed it to be published in 1519 as his +patron's. Of his connivance in the matter there is actual proof; for +in 1517 he had the letter copied by one of his servant-pupils into a +letter-book, and added the heading himself. What he first wrote was: +'Andreas Ammonius Erasmo Roterodamo S.D.,' but afterwards he scratched +out Ammonius' name and wrote in 'Guilhelmus Montioius'. In a sense, of +course, he was correct; for the letter was written in Mountjoy's name. +But he cannot have been unaware that in an age which valued elegant +Latinity so highly, his patron would be gratified by the ascription. + +It was no great matter, and did no harm to any one. But it throws some +doubt on Erasmus' statement as to the scholarship of Henry VIII. When +Henry's book against Luther appeared in 1521, people said that Erasmus +had lent him a hand. In denying the insinuation Erasmus avers that +Henry was quite capable of doing the work himself, and adds that his +own suspicions of Henry's capacity had been dispelled by Mountjoy, who +when tutor to the young prince had preserved rough copies of Latin +letters written by Henry's own hand; and these he produced to convince +the doubter. Erasmus had a double motive in asserting Henry's +authorship, to play the courtier and to avoid provoking Luther; and +Mountjoy, as we have seen, is not above suspicion. But there is some +further evidence in support of them all, prince and patron and +scholar. Pace, Colet's successor at St. Paul's, speaks of hearing +Henry talk Latin quickly and readily; and Giustinian, the Venetian +ambassador, quotes a few remarks made to him by Henry in Latin by way +of greeting. Till more evidence is forthcoming, Erasmus must be let +off on this count with a Not proven. + +Another example of scant regard for truth is his disowning of the +_Julius Exclusus_. This was a witty dialogue, in Erasmus' best style, +on the death of Pope Julius II. The Pope is shown arriving at the gate +of heaven, accompanied by his Genius, a sort of guardian angel, and +amazed to find it locked, with no preparation at all for his +reception. His amazement grows when St. Peter at length appears and +makes it plain that the gate is not going to be opened, and that there +is no room in heaven for Julius with his record of wars and other +unchristian deeds; whereupon there is a fine set-to, and each party +receives some hard knocks. + +That Erasmus was its author there can be no doubt; for there is +evidence in two directions of the existence of a copy or copies of it +in his handwriting, and we cannot suppose that at that period of his +life, when he regularly had one or more servant-pupils in his employ, +he would have troubled to copy out with his own hand a work of that +length by another. There was nothing very outrageous in the dialogue, +nothing much more than there was in the _Moria_; but it was not the +sort of thing for a man to write who was so closely connected as +Erasmus was with the Papal see, and who wished to stand well with it +in the future. The _Julius_ appeared in print in 1517, of course +anonymously, and Erasmus was pleased with its reception; but he soon +found that people who were not in the secret were attributing it to +him. That would never do; so he set to work to repudiate it. The +friends that knew he exhorted to know nothing; the rest he endeavoured +to persuade that he was not the author, using many forms of +equivocation. He rises to his greatest heights in addressing +cardinals. To Campegio, then in London, he writes on 1 May 1519: + + 'How malicious some people are! Any scandalous book that comes + out they at once put down to me. That silly production, _Nemo_, + they said was mine; and people would have believed them, only + the author (Hutten) indignantly claimed it as his own. Then + those absurd Letters (of the Obscure Men): of course I was + thought to have had a hand in them. Finally, they began to say + that I was the author of this book of Luther; a person I have + hardly ever heard of, certainly I have not read his book. As + all these failed, they are trying to fasten on me an anonymous + dialogue which appears to make mock of Pope Julius. Five years + ago I glanced through it, I can hardly say I read it. + Afterwards I found a copy of it in Germany, under various + names. Some said it was by a Spaniard, name unknown; others + ascribed it to Faustus Andrelinus, others to Hieronymus Balbus. + For myself I do not quite know what to think. I have my + suspicions; but I haven't yet followed them up to my + satisfaction. Certainly whoever wrote it was very + foolish;'--that sentence was from his heart!--'but even more to + blame is the man who published it. To my surprise some people + attribute it to me, merely on the ground of style, when it is + nothing like my style, if I am any judge: though it would not + be very wonderful if others did write like me, seeing that my + books are in all men's hands. I am told that your Reverence is + inclined to doubt me: with a few minutes' conversation I am + sure I could dispel your suspicions. Let me assure you that + books of this kind written by others I have had suppressed: so + it is hardly likely that I should have published such a thing + myself, or ever wish to publish it.' + +Not bad that, from the author of the _Julius_. A fortnight later he +wrote to Wolsey to much the same effect, instancing as books that had +been attributed to him Hutten's _Nemo_ and _Febris_, Mosellanus' +_Oratio de trium linguarum ratione_, Fisher's reply to Faber, and even +More's _Utopia_. As to the _Julius_ he says: 'Plenty of people here +will tell you how indignant I was some years ago when I found the book +being privately passed about. I glanced through it (I can hardly be +said to have read it); and I tried vigorously to get it suppressed. +This is the work of the enemies of good learning, to try and fasten +this book upon me.' Finally, to clinch his argument, he asseverates +with audacious ingenuity: 'I have never written a book, and I never +will, to which I will not affix my own name.' + +Jortin points out that the only thing which Erasmus specifically +denies is the publication of the _Julius_. As we have seen, an author +of consequence in those days rarely troubled to correct his own +proof-sheets. Erasmus left his _Moria_ behind in Paris for Richard +Croke to see through the press; More committed his _Utopia_ to +Erasmus, who had it printed for him at Louvain; Linacre sent his +translations of Galen to Paris by the hands of Lupset, who supervised +the printing. It is therefore quite probable that Erasmus did not +personally superintend the publication of the _Julius_; but until +students of typography can tell us definitely which is the first +printed edition, and where it was printed, we cannot be certain. But +besides this point of practice born of convenience, there was another +born of modesty. With compositions that were purely literary--poems +and other creations of art and fancy, as opposed to more solid +productions--the convention arose of pretending that the publication +of them was due to the entreaties of friends, or even in some cases +that it had been carried out by ardent admirers without the author's +knowledge. Printing, with its ease of multiplication, had made +publication a far more definite act than it was in the days of +manuscripts. In the prefaces to his early compositions, Erasmus almost +always assumes this guise. More actually wrote to Warham and to +another friend that the _Utopia_ had been printed without his +knowledge. Of course this was not true, but nobody misunderstood him. +Dolet's _Orationes ad Tholosam_ appeared through the hand of a friend, +but with the most transparent figments. + +There was, therefore, abundant precedent for denying authorship. But +there is a difference between the light veil of modesty and clouds of +dust raised in apprehension. The publication of the _Julius_ certainly +placed Erasmus in a dilemma; he extricated himself by equivocation, +which barely escapes from direct untruth. It is possible that a public +man of his position at the present day might find himself driven to a +similar method of escape from a similar indiscretion.[27] But +experience has taught men not to write lampoons which they dare not +avow, and a more effective law of copyright protects them against +publication by pirate printers. + + [27] An example of this may be seen in the new _Life of Edward + Bulwer, First Lord Lytton_, 1913, ii. 71-6. Bulwer-Lytton's + letter, 15 March 1846, denying the authorship of the _New + Timon_, might almost have been translated from Erasmus' to + Campegio, except that it goes further in falsehood. + + + + +VII + +PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS + + +An interesting parallel is often drawn between Indian life to-day and +the life with which we are familiar in the Bible. The women grinding +at the mill, the men who take up their beds and walk, the groups that +gather at the well, the potter and his wheel, the marriage-feasts, the +waterpots standing ready to be filled, the maimed, the leper, and the +blind--all these are everyday sights in the streets and households of +modern India. + +But we may also make an instructive comparison between India and +mediaeval, or even Renaissance, Europe. As soon as one gets away from +the railway and the telegraph--indeed even where they have already +penetrated--one still finds in India conditions prevailing which +continued in Europe beyond the Middle Ages. The customary tie between +master and servant, lasting from one generation to another, preserves +the community of interest which prevented the feudal bond from being +irksome. The modern severance of classes, the modern desire for +aloofness, has not yet come. The servants are an integral part of the +household, sharing in its ceremonies and festivities, crowding into +their master's presence without impairing his privacy, and following +him as escort whenever he stirs abroad. The child-marriage which we +condemn in modern India, was frequently practised in Europe in the +sixteenth century, when the uncertainty of life made men wish to +secure the future of their children so far as they could. The +foster-mothers with whom young Mughal princes found a home, whose sons +they loved as their own brothers, had their counter-part in these +islands as late as the days of the great Lord Cork. Walled cities with +crowded houses looking into one another across narrow winding alleys, +were an inevitable condition of life in sixteenth-century Europe +before strong central government had made it safe to live outside the +gates. Even the houses of the great were dark, airless, cramped, with +tiny windows and dim, opaque glass; such as one may still see at +Compton Castle in Devonshire or the Chateau des Comtes at Ghent. +Communications moved slowly along unmetalled roads or up and down +rivers. Carriages with two or four horses were occasionally used; but +the ordinary traveller rode on horseback, and needy students coming to +a university walked, clubbing together for a packhorse to carry their +modest baggage. These are features which may still be matched in many +parts of India. + +The ravages of plague, the absence of sanitation, the recurrence of +famine and war, all combined in sixteenth-century Europe to produce an +uncertainty in the tenure of life, which modern India knows only too +well from all the causes except the last; but India does not follow +Europe in the resulting practice of frequent remarriage on both sides. +In Erasmus' day a marriage in which neither side had previously or +did subsequently contract a similar relation must have been quite +exceptional. A certain German lady, after one ordinary husband, became +the wife of three leading Reformers in succession, Oecolampadius, +Capito, and Bucer--almost an official position, it would seem. She +survived them all, and when Bucer died at Cambridge in 1551, was able +to return to Basle, to be buried beside Oecolampadius in the +Cathedral. Katherine Parr married four times. To her first husband, +who left her a widow at fifteen, she was a second wife; to her second, +a third wife; to her third, who was Henry VIII, a sixth; and only her +fourth was a bachelor. + +The custom of the year's 'doole' after the death of husband or wife +was just at this period breaking down. In 1488 Edward IV declined a +new marriage for his sister, Margaret of York, the new-made widow of +Charles the Bold, on the ground that 'after the usage of our realms no +estate or person honourable communeth of marriage within the year of +their dool'. But Tudor practice was very different. For Mary, Queen of +France, who married her Duke of Suffolk as soon as her six weeks of +white mourning were out, there was some excuse of urgency; Henry, too, +in his rapid marriage with Jane Seymour had special reasons. But +Katherine Parr, when her turn to marry him came, was but a few months +a widow; and later, in being on with her old love, Thomas Seymour, +when her grim master was only just dead, she had no motive beyond the +wishes of lovers long delayed. The Princess Mary, however, considered +this latter action highly improper. + +John Oporinus (Herbst), the Basle printer (1507-68), had a varied +experience; taking four widows to wife. At the age of 20 he +married--almost, it seems, out of a sense of duty--the widow of his +teacher, Xylotectus of Lucerne; an elderly lady who persecuted him +sorely, and once in a passion threw dirty water over him. After eight +years, two of which he had spent roving through Germany with +Paracelsus, she died, leaving her property to relations. Oporinus' +next widow had three children, girls, who grew up to share their +mother's expensive tastes. For nearly thirty years their extravagance +vexed him, though his wife had tact enough to keep from open quarrels. +Then one day he returned from the Frankfort fair to find her dead of +the plague. The same visitation, 1564, by carrying off first John +Herwagen the younger and then Ulrich Iselin, Professor of Law at +Basle, made two more widows, successively to bear Oporinus' name. +Herwagen's widow, Elizabeth Holzach, was a sweet woman, but died in +the fourth month of her new marriage, 17 July 1565. Iselin's was +Faustina, daughter of Boniface Amerbach, born in 1530. To her seven +children by Iselin, she added one for Oporinus, Emmanuel, born 25 Jan. +1568; but the father of 60 did not live six months to have pleasure in +his firstborn. + +With such frequent changes the marriage-tie cannot have given the same +personal attachment that is possible at the present day: indeed such +unions can scarcely have seemed more lasting than the temporary +associations of friends. One need only recall the bargainings that +occur in the Paston Letters to realize that there was not much romance +about their marriages, at any rate beforehand. Thus wrote Sir John +Paston in 1473 of a suitor for his sister Anne: 'As for Yelverton, he +said but late that he would have her if she had her money; and else +not.' + +Thomas More is rightly regarded as a man in whom the spirit burned +brighter and clearer than in most of his contemporaries; and yet his +matrimonial relations savour more of convenience or even of business +than of affection. For his first wife, we are told--and there is no +reason to doubt the story--, his fancy had lighted on an Essex girl, +the daughter of a country-gentleman; but on visiting her at home he +found that she had an elder sister not yet married. Feeling that to +have her younger sister married first would be a grief to the elder, +he 'inclined his affection' towards her and made her his wife in place +of his first choice. The interpretation that when he saw the elder +sister, he preferred her before the other, might be probable to-day: +to apply it to the story of More would be a case of that commonest of +'vulgar errors' in history,--judging the past by the ideas of the +present. For five or six years More lived with his girl-bride, whose +country training and unformed mind caused much trouble and difficulty +to them both. The unequal relation between them appears in a story +told by Erasmus; that More delighted her once by bringing home a +present of sham jewels, and apparently did not think it necessary to +undeceive her about them. Happiness came in time; but after bearing +him four children, she died. Within a month the widower came to his +father-confessor by night and obtained leave to be married next +morning. His new wife was a middle-aged lady of no charms--indeed she +seems to have been a regular shrew--who served him as a capable +housekeeper and looked after his children while they were young. But +she never engaged his affections; and it was his eldest daughter, +Margaret, who became the chosen partner of his joys and sorrows in +later years. + +The habitual remarriage of widows proceeded in part from the desire, +or even need, for a husband's protection; and in consequence it was +not only the young who were open to men's addresses. Beatus Rhenanus, +writing to a servant-pupil who had recently left him to launch forth +into the world, counsels him to marry, if possible, a rich and elderly +widow; in order that in a few years by her death he may find himself +equipped with an ample capital for his real start in life. Such advice +from a man like Beatus can only have been in jest: but if there had +not been some reality of actual practice, the jest would have fallen +flat. Indeed Beatus goes on to indicate that this course had been +taken by Reuchlin; whose elderly consort was, however, disobliging +enough to live for many years. The ill-success attending Oporinus' +essay in this direction we have already seen. + +But it was not so with all. Not infrequently Erasmus deplores the +imprudence of the young men who had left his service, in allowing +themselves to fall in love and marry without securing proper dowries +with their young brides. He was indeed, considering his natural +shrewdness, singularly ignorant of women; as his advice to youthful +husbands sometimes shows. To one, for example, who had written to +announce that before long he hoped to become a father, he replies with +congratulations, and then says: 'Now that your wife no longer needs +your care, you will be able to betake yourself to a university and +finish your studies'--advice which we may surely suppose was not +taken. + +During the insecurity of the Middle Ages, the seclusion of women for +their own protection had been severely necessary. In the East the +'purdah-system' reached the length of excluding women of the better +classes from the society of all men but those of their own family. Of +such rigidity in Europe I cannot find any traces except under Oriental +influence;[28] but there is no doubt that women's life at the +beginning of the Renaissance in the North was circumscribed. Such +higher education as they received was given at home, by father or +brothers or husband, or by private tutors. But there are not a few +examples of educated women. In the well-known Frisian family, the +Canters of Groningen, parents and children and even the maidservant +are said to have spoken regularly in Latin. Antony Vrye of Soest, one +of the Adwert circle, wrote to his wife in Latin; and his daughter +helped him with the teaching of Latin in the various schools over +which he presided, at Campen and Amsterdam and Alcmar. Pirckheimer's +sisters and daughters, Peutinger's wife, are famous for their +learning. In England throughout the Renaissance period the position of +women and their education steadily improved. Alice, Duchess of +Suffolk, the foundress of Ewelme, had an interest in literature; and +the great Lady Margaret, besides the endowments which are her memorial +at the universities, constantly fostered the efforts of Wynkyn de +Worde, and herself translated part of the _Imitatio_ from the French. +The Princess Mary, as the result of the liberal training of Vives and +other masters, could translate from Aquinas, take part in acting a +play of Terence, and read the letters of Jerome; and before she was +30, made a translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase of St. John's Gospel, +which formed part of the English version of those Paraphrases ordered +by Injunctions of Edward VI to be placed beside the Bible in every +parish church throughout the realm. + + [28] In 1729 the Abbe Fourmont found the seclusion of women + extensively practised in Athens for fear of the Turks; see + R.C. Christie, _Essays and Papers_, p. 69. + +More, for his dear 'school', engaged the best teachers he could find. +John Clement, afterwards Wolsey's first Reader in Humanity at Oxford, +and William Gonell, Erasmus' friend at Cambridge, read Sallust and +Livy with them. Nicholas Kratzer, the Bavarian mathematician, also one +of Wolsey's Readers at Oxford, taught them astronomy: to know the +pole-star and the dog, and to contemplate the 'high wonders of that +mighty and eternal workman', whom More could feel revealed himself +also to some 'good old idolater watching and worshipping the man in +the moon every frosty night'.[29] Richard Hyrde, the friend of +Gardiner and translator of Vives' _Instruction of a Christian Woman_, +continued the work after the 'school' had been moved to Chelsea;[30] +and when Margaret, eldest and best-beloved scholar, was married. Not +that this interfered. The love of learning once implanted brought her +with her husband to keep her place among her sisters in that bright +Academy. Her fame is well known, how the Bishop of Exeter sent her a +gold coin of Portugal in reward for an elegant epistle; how familiarly +she corresponded with Erasmus; how she emended the text of Cyprian, +imitated the Declamations of Quintilian, and translated the +Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. + + [29] More, _English Works_, 1557, f. 154 E. + [30] See F. Watson, _Vives and the Renascence Education of + Women_, 1912. + +It is evident that in England, for women as well as men, the seed of +the Renaissance had fallen on good ground. By the middle of the +century the gates of the kingdom of knowledge were open, and the +thoughtful were rejoicing in the infinite variety of their Paradise +regained. In 1547-8, Nicholas Udall, in a preface for Mary's +translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase, writes with enthusiasm: 'Neither +is it now any strange thing to hear gentlewomen, instead of most vain +communication about the moon shining in the water, to use grave and +substantial talk in Greek or Latin with their husbands in godly +matters. It is now no news in England to see young damsels in noble +houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other +instruments of vain trifling, to have continually in their hands +either Psalms, "Omelies" and other devout meditations, or else Paul's +Epistles or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly +both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French or Italian as +in English. It is now a common thing to see young virgins so "nouzled" +and trained in the study of letters that they willingly set all other +vain pastimes at nought for learning's sake.' It is melancholy to +reflect how soon the gates of the kingdom were to be closed again, and +its trees guarded by the flaming sword of theological certainty +mistaking itself for truth. + +Besides marriage, almost the only vocation open to women in the +fifteenth century was the monastic life. It was not uncommon for +several daughters in a family to embrace religion: parents, apart from +higher considerations, regarding it as a sure method of providing for +girls who did not wish to marry, or for whom they could not find +husbands. As heads of religious houses women held positions of great +dignity and influence, and discharged their duties worthily. Within +convent walls, too, it was possible for some women to become learned; +though in later times the achievements of Diemudis were never +rivalled. She was a nun at Wessobrunn in Bavaria at the end of the +eleventh century, and during her cloistered life her active pen wrote +out 47 volumes, including two complete Bibles, one of which was given +in exchange for an estate. + +We also hear of women of means, usually widows, dispensing hospitality +on a large scale to the needy and deserving. Wessel of Groningen, as +we saw, was adopted by a wealthy matron, who saw him shivering in the +street on a winter's day and fetched him into her house to warm. +Erasmus describes to us a Gouda lady, Berta de Heyen, whose kindness +he repeatedly enjoyed in his early years; and in addition to her +general charities mentions that she was wont to look out for promising +boys in the town school who were designing to enter the Church, +receive them into her family amongst her own children, and when their +courses were completed, bestir herself to procure them benefices--an +indication of the possession of influence outside her own home. He +goes on to say that when widowhood came to her, she refused to think +of a second marriage, and almost rejoiced to be released from the +bonds of matrimony, because she found herself free to practise her +liberality. But we must not lay too much stress on these latter +utterances. They come from a funeral oration composed after the good +lady's death, and addressed to her children, some of whom were nuns: +to whom therefore the conventional representation of the Church's +attitude towards marriage would be acceptable. Butzbach describes the +wife of a wealthy citizen of Deventer as entertaining daily six or +seven of the poorer clergy at her table, besides the alms that she +distributed continually before her own door. To him she frequently +gave food and clothes and money, with much sympathy. + +It is noticeable how the charity is represented as proceeding from the +wife and not from the husband. A mediaeval moralist urges wives to +make good their husbands' deficiencies in this respect; and against +the remark Ulrich Ellenbog, the father, notes that he had always left +this burden to his wife. The inference is probable that though the +sphere of women was in many ways restricted, they were within their +own dominion, the household, supreme--more so perhaps than they are +to-day. Yet in spite of this domestic authority, I do not see how we +can escape the conclusion that the real power rested with the husband, +when we read such passages as this in the _Utopia_, where, speaking of +punishment, More says: 'Parents chastise their children, husbands +their wives.' Indeed, it was recognized as one of the primary duties +of a husband, to see that his wife behaved properly. + +What we have been saying may be well illustrated by the letter just +alluded to from Antony Vrye 'to his dear wife, Berta of Groningen'. It +was written 'from Cologne in haste'; and as it appears in Vrye's +_Epistolarum Compendium_, it may be dated _c._ 1477. 'Your letter was +most welcome, and relieved me of anxiety about you all. I rejoice to +hear that the children are well and yourself; your mother too and the +whole household. You write that you are expecting me to return by 1 +March, to relieve you of all your cares. I wish indeed that I could; +but besides our own private matters, there is some public business for +me to discharge, and this will take time. So be diligent to look after +our affairs, and pray to God to keep you in health and free from +fault: my prolonged absence will make my return all the more joyful. +It is great pain to me to be absent from you so long, who art all my +life and happiness. But as I must, it falls to you to guard our honour +and property, and to care for our family. This, Jerome says, is the +part of a prudent housewife, and to cherish her own chastity. Bide +then at home, most loving wife, and be not tempted by such amusements +as delight the vulgar; but patiently and modestly await my return. I +too will be a faithful husband to you in everything. Be a chaste and +honoured mother to our boy and little girls; and cherish your mother +in return for the singular kindness she has showed us.' + +One feature of life at this time which materially affected the lives +of women, was the length of families and the accompanying infant +mortality. It was common enough in all classes down to the middle of +the last century; and it is still only too common among the poor. On +the walls of churches, more especially in towns, one frequently sees +tablets with long lists of children who seem to have been born only +to die: and yet the parents went on their way unthinking, and content +if from their annual harvest an occasional son or daughter grew up to +bless them. Examples of this may be collected on every side. Cole +(1467-1519), for instance, was the eldest of twenty-two sons and +daughters; and by 1499 he was the only child left to his parents. His +father, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, lived till 1510; the +mother of this great brood survived them all, and, so far as Erasmus +knew, was still living in 1521. + +Another case which may be cited is that of Anthony Koberger, the +celebrated Nuremberg printer, 1440-1513: and it is the more +interesting, since owing to his care for genealogy, we have accurate +records of his two marriages and his twenty-five children. The first +marriage produced eight, born between 1470 and 1483; of these, three +daughters lived to grow up and marry, but of the remaining +five--including three sons, all named Anthony, a fact which tells its +own tale--none reached a greater age than twelve years. In September +1491 the first wife died; and in August 1492--without observing the +full year's 'doole'--Anthony married again, the second wife being +herself the sixteenth child of her parents. At first there was only +disappointment; in 31/2 years four children were born and died, two of +these being twins. But better times followed: of the remaining +thirteen only three died as infants. Anthony the fifth and John the +third, and three sons named after the three kings, Caspar, Melchior +and Balthasar, were more fortunate. When 21 years had brought 17 +children, the sequence ended abruptly with the death of Anthony the +father; leaving, out of the 25 he had received, only 13 children to +speak with his enemies in the gate. + +A family Bible now in the Bodleian[31] enumerates 16 children born to +the same parents in 24 years, 1550-74. One girl was married before she +was 16; one son at 20 died of exposure on his way home from Holland; +two reached 10, one 8, one 6. None of the remainder ten lived for one +year. + + [31] Biblia Latina, 1529, c. 2. + +Of public morals in the special sense of the term this is not the +place to speak in detail. But it may suitably be stated that +sixteenth-century standards in these matters were not so high as those +of the present day. 'If gold ruste, what shal iren do?' The highest +ecclesiastical authorities were unable to check a nominally celibate +priesthood from maintaining women-housekeepers who bore them families +of children and were in many cases decent and respectable wives to +them in all but name; indeed in Friesland the laity for obvious +reasons insisted upon this violation of clerical vows. A letter from +Zwingli, the Reformer, written in 1518 when he was parish priest of +Glarus, gives an astonishing view of his own practice. Under such +circumstances we need not wonder that the standards of the laity were +low. The highest record that I have met with is that of a Flemish +nobleman, who in addition to a large family including a Bishop of +Cambray and an Abbot of St. Omer, is said to have been also the +father of 36 bastards. Thomas More as a young man was not blameless. +But it is surprising to find that Erasmus in writing an appreciation +of More in 1519, when he was already a judge of the King's Bench, +stated the fact in quite explicit, though graceful, language; and +further, that More took no exception to the statement, which was +repeated in edition after edition. We can hardly imagine such a +passage being inserted in a modern biography of a public character, +even if it were written after his death. Just about the same time More +published among his epigrams some light-hearted Latin poems--doubtless +written in his youth--such as no public man with any regard for his +character would care to put his name to to-day. + +There is another matter to which some allusion must be made, the +grossness of the age, though here again detail is scarcely possible. +The conditions of life in the sixteenth century made it difficult to +draw a veil over the less pleasant side of human existence. The houses +were filthy; the streets so disgusting that on days when there was no +wind to disperse the mephitic vapours, prudent people kept their +windows shut. Dead bodies and lacerated limbs must have been frequent +sights. Under these circumstances we need not be surprised that men +spoke more plainly to one another and even to women than they do now. +Sir John Paston's conversations with the Duchess of Norfolk would make +less than duchesses blush now. The tales that Erasmus introduces into +his writings, the jests of his Colloquies, are often quite +unnecessarily coarse; but one which will illustrate our point may be +repeated. One winter's morning a stately matron entered St. Gudule's +at Brussels to attend mass. The heels of her shoes were caked with +snow, and on the smooth pavement of the church she slipped up. As she +fell, there escaped from her lips a single word, of mere obscenity. +The bystanders helped her to her feet, and amid their laughter she +slunk away, crimson with mortification, to hide herself in the crowd. +Nowadays great ladies have not such words at command. + +Theological controversy has a proverbial name for ferocity; in the +sixteenth century other qualities were added to this. In 1519 a young +Englishman named Lee, who was afterwards Archbishop of York, ventured +to criticize Erasmus' New Testament, with a vehemence which under the +circumstances was perhaps unsuitable. Erasmus of course resented this; +and his friends, to cool their indignation, wrote and published a +series of letters addressed to the offender: 'the Letters of some +erudite men, from which it is plain how great is the virulence of +Lee.' Among the contributors was Sapidus, head master of the famous +school at Schlettstadt, which was one of the first Latin schools of +the age. His letter to Lee concludes with a disgusting piece of +imagery, which would shock one if it proceeded from the most +unpleasantly minded schoolboy. One cannot conceive a Head Master of +Rugby appearing in print in such a way now. + + + + +VIII + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + +There is one thing in the world which is constantly with us, and which +has probably continued unchanged throughout all ages of history: the +weather. Yet Erasmus' writings contain no traces of that delight in +brilliant sunshine which most Northerners feel, nor of that wonder at +the beauties of the firmament which was so real to Homer. He +frequently remarks that the weather was pestilent, that the winds blew +and ceased not, that the sea was detestably rough and the clouds +everlasting; but of the praise which accompanies enjoyment there is +scarcely a word. His utmost is to say that the climate of a place is +salubrious. He often describes his journeys. As he rode on horseback +across the Alps or was carried down the Rhine in a boat, he must have +had ample opportunity to behold the glories which Nature sometimes +spreads before us in our Northern clime, and lavishes more constantly +on less favoured regions. But the loveliness of blue skies and serene +air, the glitter of distant snows, the soft radiance of the summer +moon, and the golden architrave of the sunset he had no eyes to see. + +Such indifference to the beauties of Nature admits, however, of some +explanation. With a scantier population than that which now covers the +earth, there was less agriculture and more of waste and unkempt +places not yet reduced to the service of mankind. Solitudes were +vaster and more complete. In a country so well cared for as England is +to-day, it is difficult to imagine how unpleasing can be the aspect of +land over which Nature still has the upper hand, how desolate and +dreadful the great mountain areas which men now have to seek at the +ends of the earth, where the smoke rises not and even the lone +goatherd has not penetrated. To-day our difficulty is to escape from +the thronging pressure of millions: we rarely experience what in the +sixteenth century must often have been felt--the shrinking to leave, +the joy of returning to, the kindly race of men. Ascham in the +_Toxophilus_ (1545), when discussing the relaxations open to the +scholar who has been 'sore at his book', urges that 'walking alone +into the field hath no token of courage in it'. But though this may +have been true by that time in the immediate neighbourhood of English +towns, it was not yet true abroad; for Thomas Starkey in his +_Dialogue_ (1538), almost as valuable a source as the _Utopia_, +praises foreign cities with their resident nobles by comparison with +English, which are neglected and dirty 'because gentlemen fly into the +country to live, and let cities, castles and towns fall into ruin and +decay'. + +It is tantalizing, too, considering how abundant are Erasmus' literary +remains, that we get so little description of places from him. He +travelled far and wide, in the Low Countries, up and down the Rhine, +through France, southwards to Rome and Naples. He was a year in +Venice, three years at Cambridge, eight years at Basle, six at +Freiburg. What precious information he might have given us about these +places, which then as now were full of interesting buildings and +treasures of art! what a mine of antiquarian detail, if he had +expatiated occasionally! But a meagre description of Constance, a word +or two about Basle in narrating an explosion there, glimpses of +Walsingham and Canterbury in his colloquy on pilgrimages--that is +almost all that can be culled from his works about the places he +visited. When he came to Oxford, Merton tower had been gladdening +men's eyes for scarcely fifty years, and the tower of Magdalen had +just risen to rival its beauty; Duke Humfrey's Library and the +Divinity School were still in their first glory, and the monks of St. +Frideswide were contemplating transforming the choir of their church +into the splendid Perpendicular such as Bray had achieved at +Westminster and Windsor for Henry VII. But Erasmus tells us nothing of +what he saw; only what he heard and said. This lack of enjoyment in +Nature, lack of interest in topography and archaeology, was probably +personal to him. It was not so with some of his friends. More and +Ellenbog, as we have seen, could feel the beauty in the night + + 'Of cloudless climes and starry skies'. + +Aleander in a diary records the exceptional brilliance of the planet +Jupiter at the end of September 1513. He pointed it out to his pupils +in the College de la Marche at Paris, and together they remarked that +its rays were strong enough to cast a shadow. Ellenbog enjoyed the +country, and Luther also was susceptible to its charms. Budaeus had a +villa to which he delighted to escape from Paris, and where he laid +out a fine estate. Beatus Rhenanus after thirty years retained +impressions of Louis XII's gardens at Tours and Blois and of a +'hanging garden' in Paris; and could write a detailed account of the +Fugger palace at Augsburg with its art treasures. Or think of the +painters. The Flemings of the fifteenth century had learnt from the +Italians to fit into their pictures landscapes seen through doors or +windows, gleaming in sunshine, green and bright. Van Eyck's 'Adoration +of the Lamb' is set in beautiful scenery; grassy slopes and banks +studded with flowers, soft swelling hills, and blue distances crowned +with the towers he knew so well, Utrecht and Maestricht and Cologne +and Bruges. Even in the interiors of Durer and Holbein, where no +window opens to let in the view, Nature is not left wholly +unrepresented; for flowers often stand upon the tables, carnations and +lilies and roses, arranged with taste and elegance. On the whole the +enjoyment of Nature formed but a small part in the outlook of that age +as compared with the prominence it receives in modern literature and +life; but we should be wrong in inferring that it was wholly absent. + +To the men of the fifteenth century the earth was still the centre of +the universe: the sun moved round it like a more magnificent planet, +and the stars had been created + + 'to shed down + Their stellar influence on all kinds that grow'. + +Aristarchus had seen the truth, though he could not establish it, in +the third century B.C. But Greek science had been forgotten in an age +which knew no Greek; and it was not till after Erasmus' death that an +obscure canon in a small Prussian town near Danzig--Nicholas +Copernicus, 1473-1543--found out anew the secret of the world. This +fruit of long cold watches on the tower of his church he printed with +full demonstration, but he scarcely dared to publish the book: indeed +a perfect copy only reached him a few days before his death. Even in +the next century Galileo had to face imprisonment and threats of +torture, because he would speak that which he knew. But when Erasmus +was born, the earth itself was but partially revealed. Men knew not +even whether it were round or flat; and the unplumbed sea could still +estrange. The voyages of the Vikings had passed out of mind, and the +eyes of Columbus and Vespucci had not yet seen the limits of that +western ocean which so long fascinated their gaze. Polo had roamed far +into the East; but as yet Diaz and da Gama had not crowned the hopes +which so often drew Henry the Navigator to his Portuguese headland. + +In the world of thought the conception of uniformity in Nature, +though formed and to some extent accepted among the advanced, was +still quite outside the ordinary mind. Miracles were an indispensable +adjunct to the equipment of every saint; and might even be wrought by +mere men, with the aid of the black arts. The Devil was an +ever-present personality, going about to entrap and destroy the +unwary. Clear-minded Luther held converse with him in his cell; and +lesser demons were seen or suspected on every side. Thus in 1523 the +Earl of Surrey writes to Wolsey describing a night attack on Jedburgh +in a Border foray. The horses took fright, and their sudden panic +threw all things into confusion. 'I dare not write', he says, 'the +wonders that my Lord Dacre and all his company do say they saw that +night, six times, of spirits and fearful sights. And universally all +their company say plainly the Devil was that night among them six +times.' In that gaunt and bleak Border country the traveller overtaken +by night may feel a disquieting awe even in these days when the rising +moon is no longer a lamp to guide enemies to the attack. Four hundred +years ago, when it lay blood-stained and scarred with a thousand +fights, bearing no crops to be fired, no homesteads to be sacked, we +need not wonder if teams of demons swept down in the darkness and +drove through and through the trembling ranks. + +Again, in 1552 Melanchthon writes thus to a friend: 'In some cases no +doubt the causes of madness and derangement are purely physical; but +it is also quite certain that at times men's bodies are entered by +devils who produce frenzies prognosticating things to come. Twelve +years ago there was a woman in Saxony who had no learning of books, +and yet, when she was vexed by a devil, after her paroxysms uttered +Greek and Latin prophecies of the war that should be there. In Italy, +too, I am told there was a woman, also quite unlearned, who during one +of her devilish torments was asked what is the best line of Virgil, +and replied, "Learn justice and to reverence the gods "'.[32] In this +second case it would seem that the Devil scarcely knew his own +business. + + [32] _Aen._ 6. 620. + +Sudden death descending upon the wicked was a judgement of heaven, +letting loose the powers of hell; and if the face of the corpse +chanced to turn black, there was never any doubt but that Satan had +flown off with the soul. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft were +rife; and an old woman had to be careful of the reputation of her cat. +Wanderers among the mountains saw dragons; in the forests elves peeped +at the woodmen from behind the trees, and fairies danced beneath the +moon in the open places. The world had not been sufficiently explored +for the absence of contrary experience to carry much weight; and the +means for the dissemination of news were quite inadequate. In +consequence men had not learnt to doubt the evidence of their senses +and to regard things as too strange to be true. It was felt that +anything might happen; and as a result almost everything did happen. + +For example, in 1500 there was an outbreak of crosses in two villages +not far from Sponheim; and next year the same thing happened at Liege. +They appeared on any clothing that was light enough of hue; coloured +crosses that no washing or treatment could remove. Men opened their +coats to find crosses on their shirts: a woman would look down at her +apron, and there, sure enough, was a cross. Clothes that had been +folded up and put away in presses, came out with the sacred sign upon +them. One day during the singing of the mass thirty men suddenly found +themselves marked with crosses. They lasted for nine or ten days, and +then gradually faded. It was afterwards remarked that where the +crosses had been, the plague followed. Such is Trithemius' account in +his chronicle: we may wonder how closely he had questioned his +informants. + +It is difficult for us to conceive a world in which news spreads +mainly by word of mouth. Morning and evening it is poured forth to us, +by many different agencies, in the daily press; and though many of +these succumb to the temptation to be sensational, among the better +sort there is a healthy rivalry which restrains exuberance and +promotes accuracy. There is safety, too, in numbers. News which +appears in one paper only, is looked at doubtfully until it is +confirmed by the rest; but even unanimity amongst all papers will +scarcely at first win acceptance for what is at all startling and out +of the common, until time and the absence of contradiction may perhaps +corroborate. In practice men of credit have learnt not to see the +sea-serpent. For a picture of conditions in the sixteenth century we +must sweep all the newspapers away. Kings had their heralds and towns +their public messengers who took and of course brought back news. +Caravans of merchants travelled along the great trade-routes; and +their tongues and ears were not idle. Private persons, too, sent their +servants on journeys to carry letters. But even so news had to travel +by word of mouth; for even when letters were sent, we may be sure that +any public news of importance beneath the seals and wafers had reached +the bearers also. + +But for what they told confirmation was not to be had for the asking. +Not till chance brought further messengers was it possible to +establish or contradict, and till then the first news held the field. +Rumour stalked gigantic over the earth, often spreading falsehood and +capturing belief, rarely, as in Indian bazars to-day, with mysterious +swiftness forestalling the truth. In such a world caution seems the +prime necessity; but men grow tired of caution when events are moving +fast and the air is full of 'flying tales'. The general tendency was +for them, if not to believe, at any rate to pass on, unverified +reports, from the impossibility of reaching certainty. In such a world +of bewilderment, sobriety of judgement does not thrive. + +Two examples may show the difficulty of learning the truth. In 1477 +Charles the Bold was killed at Nancy. That great Duke of Burgundy was +not a person to be hidden under a bed. Yet nearly six years later +reports were current that he had escaped from the battle and was in +concealment. Again, Erasmus, during his residence at Bologna in 1507, +made many friends. One of these was Paul Bombasius, a native of that +town, who became secretary to Cardinal Pucci, and lost his life at +Rome in May 1527, when the city was sacked by Charles V's troops; +another was the delightful John de Pins, afterwards diplomatist and +Bishop of Rieux. To him in 1532 Erasmus wrote asking for news of +Bombasius. The Bishop replied that he had heard a rumour of his death, +but hoped it was not true. Not till May 1535 could Erasmus report the +result of inquiries made through a friend visiting Bologna, that +Bombasius had fallen a victim to the Bourbon soldiery eight years +before. + +That the movements of the stars should affect human life is not easy +to disprove even now, to any one who is determined to maintain the +possibility of it; but under the training of modern science scarcely +any one retains such a belief. Of the influence formerly attributed to +the planets, traces survive in such epithets as mercurial, jovial, +saturnine. Comets appearing in the sky caused widespread alarm, and +any disasters that followed close were confidently connected with +them. The most learned scientists observed the stars and cast +horoscopes: Cardan, for instance, published a collection of the +horoscopes of great men. The Church looked askance on astrology, +suspecting it of connexion with forbidden arts; but it could not +check the observance of lucky days and the warnings of the heavens. +Even a Pope himself, Julius II, deferred his coronation until the +stars were in a fortunate conjunction. + +Every university student should be familiar with the story of Anthony +Dalaber, undergraduate of St. Alban's Hall in Oxford, which Froude +introduced into his _History of England_ from Foxe's _Book of +Martyrs_; it is the most vivid picture we have of university life in +the early sixteenth century. Dalaber was one of a company of young men +who were reading Lutheran books at Oxford. Wolsey, wishing to check +this, had sent down orders in February 1528 to arrest a certain Master +Garret, who was abetting them in the dissemination of heresy. The +Vice-Chancellor, who was the Rector of Lincoln, seized Dalaber and put +him in the stocks, but was too late for Garret, who had made off into +Dorsetshire. He took counsel with the Warden of New College and with +the Dean of Wolsey's new foundation, Cardinal College; and at length, +as they could find out nothing, being 'in extreme pensiveness', they +determined to consult an astrologer. They knew they were doing wrong. +Such inquiries were forbidden by the law of the Church, and they were +afraid; but they were more afraid of Wolsey. The man of science drew a +figure upon the floor of his secret chamber, and made his +calculations; at the end he reported that the fugitive was fled in a +tawny coat to the South-east. The trembling officials hastily +dispatched messengers to have the ports watched in Kent and Sussex, +hoping that their transgression might at least be justified by +success. They were successful: Master Garret _was_ caught--trying to +take ship at Bristol. It would need awesome circumstances indeed to +send a modern Vice-Chancellor through the night to inquire of an +astrologer. + +In the realm of medicine, too, magic and the supernatural had great +weight, and claimed a measure of success which is not unintelligible +in these days, when the value of the will as an ally in healing is +being understood. Erasmus, suffering from the stone, was presented by +a Hungarian physician with an astrological mug, shaped like a lion, +which was to cure his trouble. He used it and felt better, but was not +sure how much to attribute to the lion. The famous Linacre, one of the +founders of the College of Physicians, sent to Budaeus, a French court +official and the first Greek scholar of the age, one gold ring and +eighteen silver rings which had been blessed by Henry VIII, and had +thus been made preservative against convulsions; and Budaeus presented +them to his womenkind. We need not take this to imply that he thought +little of them; more probably he reflected that convulsions are most +frequent among the race of babies, and therefore distributed them +where they would be most useful. Anyway, it was Linacre who sent them. +With such notions abroad, quackery must have been rife, and serious +medical practitioners had many difficulties to contend with. Some idea +of these may be gained from a letter written by Wolfgang Rychard, a +physician of high repute at Ulm, to a friend at Erfurt, whither he was +thinking of sending his son to practise. He asks his friend to inquire +of the apothecaries what was the status of doctors, whether they were +allowed by the town council to hire houses for themselves and to live +freely without exactions, as at Tubingen and universities in the +South, or whether they were obliged to pay an annual fee to the town, +before they might serve mankind with their healing art. + +The feeble-minded and half-witted are nowadays caught up into asylums, +for better care, and to ensure that their trouble dies with them. Of +old it was thought that God gave them some recompense for their +affliction by putting into their mouths truths and prophecies which +were hidden from the wise; and thus the village soothsayer or witch +often held a strong position in local politics. But it is surprising +to find the Cardinal of Sion, Schinner, a clever and experienced +diplomatist, writing in 1516, with complete seriousness: 'A Swiss +idiot, who prophesies many true things, has foretold that the French +will surfer a heavy blow next month'; as though the intelligence would +really be of value to his correspondent. + +But the prophet's credit varied with his circumstances. Early in the +sixteenth century a Franciscan friar, naming himself Thomas of +Illyria, wandered about through Southern France, calling on men to +repent and rebuking the comfortable vices of the clergy. A wave of +serious thought spread with him, and all the accompaniments of a +religious revival, such as the twentieth century saw lately in Wales. +As the 'saintly man' set foot in villages and towns, games and +pleasures were suddenly abandoned, and the churches thronged to +overflowing. His words were gathered up, especially those with which +he wept over Guienne, that 'fair and delicious province, the Paradise +of the world', and foretold the coming of foes who should burn the +churches round Bordeaux while the townsmen looked on helplessly from +their walls. For a time he retired to a hermitage on a headland by +Arcachon, where miracles were quickly ascribed to him. An image of the +Virgin was washed ashore, to be the protectress of his chapel. His +prayers, and a cross drawn upon the sand, availed to rescue a ship +that was in peril on the sea. When English pirates had plundered his +shrine, the waves opened and swallowed them up. Later on he withdrew +to Rome, where he won the confidence of Clement VII, and he died at +Mentone. But his fame remained great in Guienne. Half a century +onward, during the war of 1570, when from Bordeaux men saw the church +of Lormont across the river burning in the name of religion, the old +folks shook their heads and recalled the words of the saintly Thomas. + +Less fortunate was a young Franconian herdsman, John Beheim, of +Niklashausen--a 'poor illiterate', Trithemius calls him. In the summer +of 1476, as he watched his flocks in the fields, he had a vision of +the gracious Mother of God, who bade him preach repentance to the +people. His fame soon spread, and multitudes gathered from great +distances to hear him. The nearest knelt to entreat his blessing, +those further off pressed up to touch him, and if possible, snatched +off pieces of his garments, till he was driven to speak from an upper +window. But his way was not plain. Instigated seemingly by others, he +began to touch things social: taxes should not be paid to princes, nor +tithes to clergy; rivers and forests were God's common gifts to men, +where all might fish or hunt at will. Such words were not to be borne. +The Bishop of Wurzburg, his diocesan, took counsel with the Archbishop +of Mainz; and the prophet was ordered to be burnt. But death only +increased his fame. Still greater crowds flocked to visit the scene of +his holy life, until in January 1477 the Archbishop had the church of +Niklashausen razed to the ground as the only means of suppressing this +popular canonization. + +We make a great mistake if we allow ourselves to suppose that because +that age knew less than ours, because its bounds were narrower and the +undispelled clouds lower down, it therefore thought itself feeble and +purblind. By contrast with the strenuous hurry-push of modern life +such movement as we can see, looking backwards, seems slow and +uncertain of its aim; before the power of modern armaments how +helpless all the might of Rome! It is easy to fall into the idea that +our mediaeval forefathers moved in the awkward attitudes of +pre-Raphaelite painting, that their speech sounded as quaint to them +as it does to us now, and that it was hardly possible for them to take +life seriously. But in fact each age is to itself modern, progressive, +up-to-date; the strong and active pushing their way forward, impatient +of trifling, and carrying their fellows with them. A future age that +has leapt from one planet to another, or even from one system to +another sun and its dependants, that has 'called forth Mazzaroth in +his seasons, and loosed the bands of Orion', that has covered the +earth with peace as with a garment and pierced the veil that cuts us +off from the dead, will look back to us as groping blindly in +darkness. But they will be wrong indeed if they think that we realize +our blindness. + +A still greater pitfall before us is that we read history not as men, +but as gods, knowing the event. The name of Marathon to us implies not +struggle, not danger, but triumph; and as we think of the little band +of Athenians defiling from the mountains and looking on the sea, with +the utmost determination we cannot quite enter into their thoughts. Of +how little avail must have seemed this handful of lives, their last +and best gift to Athens, against the might and majesty of Persia +afloat before them. We know of that runner and of the rejoicing that +broke out upon his words; and at the very opening of the scene the +darkness is pierced by a gleam they could not see, a gleam which for +us will not go out. Or think of Edwardes besieging the Sikhs in +Multan with his puny force, half of whom, when he began, were in +sympathy with the besieged. We know that the terrier's courage kept +the tiger in; and, conscious of that, we cannot really place ourselves +beside the young Engineer of 29, as with only one or two volunteers of +his own race round him he kept the field during those four burning +months in which British troops were not allowed to move. The tiger's +paw had crushed those whom he had hastened to avenge: he did not know, +as we know, that it was not to fall on him too. + +There is the same difficulty with the course of years. With the +history of four centuries before our minds, only by sustained effort +of thought can we realize that the men of 1514 looked onward to 1600, +as we to-day look towards 2000, as to a misty blank. We hardly trouble +our heads with the future. The air is full of speculations, of +attempts to forecast coming developments, the growth, the improvement +that is to be. But we do not really look forward, more than a little +way. The darkness is too dense: and besides, the needs of the present +are very urgent. As we think of the sixteenth century, behind Henry +VIII's breach with Rome, behind Edward VI's prayer-books, waits the +figure of Pole, steadfast, biding his time; coming to salute Mary with +the words of the angel to the Virgin; coming, as he hoped, to set +things right for ever. And behind Pole are the Elizabethan settlement +and the Puritans; ineradicable from our consciousness. To the +Englishmen of 1514 Henry VIII was the divine young king whose prowess +at Tournay, whose victory at Flodden seemed to his happy bride the +reward of his piety: the name of Luther was unknown: Pole was an +unconsidered child. Into their minds we cannot really enter unless we +can think away everything that has happened since and call up a mist +over the face of time. + + + + +IX + +PILGRIMAGES + + +To go on pilgrimage is an instinct which appears in most religions and +at all ages. The idea underlying the practice seems to be that God is +more nigh in some spots than in others, the desire to seek Him in a +place where He may be found: for where God is, there men hope to win +remission of sins. So widespread is this sentiment that both in +Catholic Europe and in Asia it is not possible to travel far without +coming upon sites invested in this way with a special holiness. The +objects which draw men to peregrinate may be divided into three +classes: natural features which are in themselves remarkable; places +difficult of access, which can only be reached at cost of risk and +effort; and sites which have been rendered holy by the visitation of +God or the preservation of sacred relics. But this classification is +not always clearly defined; for the same object of pilgrimage often +falls into two categories at once. + +Of striking natural features--self-created objects of veneration, as +the Hindus call them--many kinds are found. There are chasms from +which issue mysterious vapours, stimulating prophecy, such as Delphi, +or Jwala Mukhi, sacred to Hindus and Sikhs, or the Grotta del Cane, +near Naples. Caves with their dreadful gloom inspire a sense of +supernatural presence. Such are the cave of Trophonius in Boeotia, St. +Patrick's cave in Ireland, the grotto of Lourdes, Mariastein near +Basle, and the great fissure of Amarnath in Kashmir, with its icy +stalactite which is the special object of worship. Some of these add +to their sanctity by difficulty of access: St. Patrick's cave is on an +island in Lough Derg; Mariastein lies over the edge of a steep cliff; +Amarnath is hidden among lofty mountains at 17000 feet above the sea. + +Enormous stones, too, are apt to acquire holiness, arousing interest +by their vast mass; as though they could hardly have been brought into +independent existence, detached from the great earth, without some +direct intervention of divine power. Such are the stone at Delphi, or +the great rock, now enshrined in a Muhammadan mosque, which no doubt +caused men to go up to Jerusalem in Jebusite days, before Israel came +out of Egypt. (It is thought by pious Muhammadans to rest in the air +without support; their tradition being that at the time of Muhammad's +ascension into heaven this stone, which was his point of departure, +sought to accompany him but was detained by an angel. To the Hebrews +it was sacred as the rock on which Abraham was ready to offer Isaac; +and also as a stone which kept down within the earth the receded +waters of the Flood.) Meteoric stones have a sanctity as having fallen +from heaven: for example, the _lingam_ of Jagannath at Puri, and the +famous black stone at Mecca. Wells also, for obvious reasons, tend to +attract worship. + +Of places inaccessible to which pilgrims toil, some are the sources of +rivers, like Gangotri, whence springs the Ganges: others are islands, +such as the Iles de Lerins off Cannes, Iona and Lindisfarne, or many +off the West coast of Ireland: or distant headlands, like the Spanish +Finisterre, or Rameshwaram, the extreme southern cape of the Indian +peninsula. More numerous are those which lie high up on mountains or +above precipitous rocks; such as the many peaks of Sinai, the lake on +Haramuk in Kashmir, the cliffs of Rocamadour in Central France, which +Piers Plowman mentions,[33] or the grey cone of Athos. In a mild form +such places may frequently be seen, in the pilgrimage churches and +chapels which crown modest eminences beside many villages and towns of +Catholic Europe: akin no doubt to the high places and hill-altars +where lingered the heathen worship that the Israelite priests and +prophets were continually trying to exterminate. + + [33] Right so, if thou be religious, renne thou never ferthere + To Rome ne to Roquemadoure: but as thy rule techeth, + Holde thee to thine obedience: that heighway is to heaven. + +The third class of pilgrimage sites is of those which are sanctified +through association with divinities or saints or relics: Gaya in +Bihar, with its pilgrims' way leading pious Buddhists by long flights +of steps up and down the circle of hills, like the great way at +Bologna; Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury, Treves; and Santiago (St. +James) de Compostella, rendered attractive also by remote distance. Or +a settlement of hermits in a wilderness might become a place of +pilgrimage, especially when death had heightened the fame enjoyed +during their lives: such as Gueremeh in Cappadocia, St. Bertrand among +the Pyrenees, or Einsiedeln above the Lake of Lucerne, where in 1487 +died Nicholas the Hermit, reputed to have lived for twenty years +without food. And we may make a special category for sacred houses; +the Bait-ullah or Qaabah at Mecca, the house of the Virgin at Loretto, +St. Columba's at Glencolumbkill, and the house in which St. Francis +died, in dei Angeli at Assisi. + +In many cases there is definite evidence to show that pilgrimage sites +remain sacred even when religions change. Mecca was a resort of +pilgrims in the first century B.C., 700 years before Muhammad. The +Central-Asian shrines visited by Buddhist pilgrims from China on their +way to India, Fa-hsien in the fifth and Hsuan-tsang in the seventh +century, are now appropriated to Islam. The so-called foot-mark on +Adam's Peak in Ceylon has been attributed by Brahmans to Siva, by +Buddhists to Sakyamuni, by Gnostics to Ieu, by Muhammadans to Adam, +and by the Portuguese Christians to either St. Thomas or the eunuch of +Candace, queen of Ethiopia.[34] + + [34] J.E. Tennent's _Ceylon_ (1860), ii. 133, quoted in Yule's + _Marco Polo_, ed. H. Cordier, 1903, ii. 321. + +In the age we are considering, we hear of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and +even Wolsey going as pilgrims to Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk; +and Colet took Erasmus with him to Canterbury. But the most renowned +places of Christian pilgrimage were Rome, Santiago, and Jerusalem. +Thither journeyed pilgrims in great numbers from all parts of Europe; +bishops and abbots and clergy, both regular and secular, noblemen of +every degree, wealthy merchants, scholars from the universities, civil +officials and courtiers, and occasionally even women. Piety or +superstition were doubtless the usual motives which led men to face +the very considerable perils of the journey; but besides this there +was probably in some cases the desire to see new scenes, and a love of +adventure for its own sake. Holiday travel was scarcely known in those +days. The discomforts were great, and there were still dangers of the +ordinary kind, even in the most settled parts of Europe. The beginning +of a story in one of More's English works shows how such travel was +regarded--as at least unwise, and perhaps extravagant: 'Now was there +a young gentleman which had married a merchant's wife. And having a +little wanton money which him thought burned out the bottom of his +purse, in the first year of his wedding he took his wife with him and +went over the sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and +France, and ride out one summer in those countries.' But in the +company of pilgrims there was some security, and accordingly the +adventurous availed themselves of such opportunities. Thus Peter Falk, +burgomaster of Freiburg in Switzerland, went on pilgrimage to +Jerusalem in 1515 and again in 1519; and had he not died on the second +journey, he was projecting a visit to Portugal and Spain, perhaps to +Compostella. He was a keen, interested man. A companion, who was a +Cambridge scholar, describes him as taking an ape with him on board to +make fun for his shipmates; wearing a gun hanging at his belt, being +curious in novelties; carefully noting the names of places and the +situations of towns, and using red ink to mark his guide-book. + +The literature of pilgrimages is abundant, and consists primarily in +narratives written by pilgrims themselves. A few of these were printed +by the writers in their own day; many have been published by +antiquarians in isolated periodicals; and in the volumes of the +Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society there is a collection of +translations. Professor Roehricht of Innsbruck has made a wonderful +bibliography of German pilgrims to the Holy Land, replete with +information and references. The narratives necessarily traverse the +same ground, and repeat one another in many points; often reproducing +from an early source exactly identical information of the guide-book +order as to sites, routes, preparations, precautions, and so forth. + +We have three English narratives of Erasmus' period: by William Wey, +Fellow of Eton, who went to Jerusalem in 1458 and again in 1462; by +Sir Richard Guilford, a Court official who made the journey in 1506; +and by Sir Richard Torkington, a parish priest from Norfolk, who went +in 1517. But besides these some Baedekers of the time survive; one +entitled 'Information for Pilgrims unto the Holy Land'[35] which was +printed by Wynkyn de Worde at Westminster in 1498, and again by him in +London in 1515 and 1524; another written by Hermann Kunig of Vach in +1495 and several times printed before 1521, 'Die Walfart und Strass zu +sant Jacob'[36] which gives the distance of each stage and notes inns +and hospitals at which shelter might be found. + + [35] It has been reproduced with an introduction by Mr. E.G. + Duff, London, 1893. + [36] It has been reproduced with an introduction by Professor + K. Haebler, Strasburg, 1899. + +The Compostella pilgrimage was popular for many reasons, and no doubt +began long before St. James had ousted St. Vincent from being +patron-saint of Spain. The spot was remote, literally then at the end +of the earth, 'beyond which', as another pilgrim says, 'there is no +land any more, only water'. There was a great stone, too, in which +later piety found the boat that had borne the saint's body from +Jerusalem. And there were islands to be visited, one a St. Michael's +Mount, round the shores of which should be gathered the cockle shells +that were the emblems of pilgrimage duly performed: though the less +active bought them at stalls high-heaped outside the cathedral doors, +and the rich had them copied in silver and gold. + +To the 'end of the earth' Northern Europe went most easily by sea, +all others by land. Convoys gathered in Dartmouth in the lengthening +days of spring, and crept along Slapton sands and round the unlighted +Start, until there was no land any more, and summoning their courage +they must steer out into the Bay of Biscay. This way went John of +Gaunt to St. James in 1386, to be crowned King of Castile in the great +Romanesque cathedral; and so, too, Chaucer must have pictured the Wyf +of Bath visiting 'Galice'. + +But Kunig's route lay overland: from Einsiedeln to Romans and Valence; +over the Rhone by the famed bridge of the Holy Spirit, which even +kings must cross on foot, to Uzes, Nimes and Beziers; and then +westwards into the sandy scant-populated lands where the track was +scarcely to be found, except for the pilgrims' graves, often nameless, +sometimes perhaps marked with such simple inscriptions as may still be +seen on trees and crosses among the forests of the Alps. A Pyrenean +pass led him to Roncesvalles; at Logrono the ancient bridge brought +him over the Ebro, and so by Burgos and Leon to his journey's end, +blessing the patrons--Kings of France and England and Navarre, Dukes +of Burgundy--who had raised shelters for poor pilgrims on the way, and +above all the Catholic Kings whose munificence had built a huge serai +to welcome them in Santiago itself. + +For Jerusalem the usual point of departure was Venice. Pilgrims +congregated there from all parts of Western and Central Europe, and +there were regular services of ships, sailing mostly in the summer +months. The competition between shipmasters, or 'patrons', to secure +custom was very keen. Thus Torkington records: 'On 3 May the patron of +a new goodly ship with other merchants desired us pilgrims that we +would come aboard and see his ship within: which ship lay afore St. +Mark's Church. We all went in, and there they made us goodly cheer +with diverse subtilties, as comfits and march-panes and sweet wines. +Also 5 May the patron of another ship which lay in the sea five miles +from Venice, desired us all pilgrims that we would come and see his +ship. And the same day we all went with him; and there he provided for +us a marvellous good dinner, where we had all manner of good victuals +and wine.' Ultimately, Torkington sailed in a new ship of 800 +tons,[37] under a patron named Thomas Dodo. Only three days later +another ship set sail with a large party of German pilgrims. + +[37] If the figure is correct, she was a large vessel for the times; +for a century later, the _Pelican_, in which Drake sailed round the +world, was only 100 tons, the _Squirrel_, in which Sir Humfrey Gilbert +was cast away in an Atlantic gale, only 10. + +In all ages a great ship is a great wonder, representing for the time +the final triumph of the shipwright's art. The monster vessel that set +Lucian's friend dreaming at the Piraeus had but one mast; yet the +curious from Athens flocked down to see her extraordinary proportions +and to admire the sailors who had beaten up in her from Egypt against +the Etesian winds in only seventy days. She was the ship of the hour: +anything greater scarcely conceivable. Again, Macaulay returning from +India in 1837 compares his comfortable sailing-ship to a huge floating +hotel. Burton on his way to Mecca in 1853, when steaming across the +Bay of Biscay in a vessel of 2000 tons, prophesies that sea-sickness +is at an end now that such monsters ply across the ocean and laugh at +the storm. How puny do they seem beside the Olympic and Imperator, at +which we in our turn gaze wonderingly and think that engineering can +no further go. It is amusing to find the same proud admiration in a +traveller of 1517: 'Our ship was so great that when we came to land, +we could not run her upon the beach like a galley, but must remain in +deep water', the passengers going ashore in boats. + +Quite a number of contracts between patron and pilgrim have been +preserved. Some of the terms are as follows: 'that the ship shall be +properly armed and manned, and carry a barber and a physician; that it +shall only touch at the usual ports, and not stay more than three days +at Cyprus, because of malaria there.' The Holy Land was in Turkish +hands, and the Turks, though willing to receive the pilgrims, for the +sake of the money they brought into the country, were not sorry to +have opportunities of teaching the 'Christian dogs' their place. The +authorities maintained some semblance of order and justice, but took +little trouble to control their underlings; and in consequence the +pilgrims suffered all kinds of minor oppressions. It is not surprising +therefore to find that the contract stipulated that the patron should +accompany them on all their journeyings in the Holy Land, even as far +as the Jordan, and that he should pay all the tolls and tributes for +them, except the small tips, just as Cook does to-day, and also make +all arrangements for such pilgrims as wished to go on to Sinai. In +view of this last possibility the stipulation was sometimes made that +only half the passage-money should be paid at Venice; the other half +at Jaffa on the return-journey. If a pilgrim died on the journey, the +patron might not bury him at sea, unless there was no immediate +prospect of reaching land. + +The voyage outwards could be done in a month, but often took longer if +the weather was bad, or if long halts were made at Rhodes and Cyprus. +On shore the pilgrims worked as hard as any 'conducted' party to-day, +being herded about to one sacred site after another, to the Holy +Sepulchre, the vale of Josaphat, the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, the +mountains of Judea, the Jordan, and receiving in each place 'clean +absolution'. Twelve or thirteen days was a fair time to allow for all +this, including one or two days each way between Jaffa and Jerusalem; +but Guilford's party were given 22. On the other hand we hear of +another company which did it in nine. + +The Holy Land guide-book of which we spoke is full of practical advice +of all sorts: about distances, rates of exchange, terms of contract +with a ship-master, tributes to be paid to the Saracens, and finally +vocabularies of useful words, in Moresco, Greek, Turkish. Here are a +few specimens: + +'If ye shall go in a galley, make your covenant with the patron +betime; and choose you a place in the said galley in the overmost +stage. For in the lowest under it is right evil and smouldering hot +and stinking.' The fare in this to Jaffa and back from Venice, +including food, was 50 ducats, 'for to be in a good honest place, and +to have your ease in the galley and also to be cherished'. In a +carrick the fare was only 30 ducats: there 'choose you a chamber as +nigh the middes of the ship as ye may; for there is least rolling or +tumbling, to keep your brain and stomach in temper'. Amongst other +arrangements to be made with the patron, 'Covenant that ye come not at +Famagust in Cyprus for no thing. For many Englishmen and other also +have died. For that air is so corrupt there about, and the water there +also. Also see that the said patron give you every day hot meat twice +at two meals, the forenoon at dinner and the afternoon at supper. And +that the wine that ye shall drink be good, and the water fresh and not +stinking, if ye come to have better, and also the biscuit.' + +The traveller is recommended to buy in Venice a padlock with which to +keep his cabin locked, three barrels, two for wine and one for water, +and a chest to hold his stores and things: 'For though ye shall be at +table with the patron, yet notwithstanding, ye shall full ofttimes +have need to your own victuals, as bread, cheese, eggs, wine and other +to make your collation. For some time ye shall have feeble bread and +feeble wine and stinking water, so that many times ye will be right +fain to eat of your own.' Besides this he will want 'confections and +confortatives, green ginger, almonds, rice, figs, raisins great and +small, pepper, saffron, cloves and loaf sugar'. For equipment he +should take 'a little caldron, a frying-pan, dishes, plates, saucers, +cups of glass, a grater for bread and such necessaries'. 'Also ye +shall buy you a bed beside St. Mark's Church in Venice, where ye shall +have a featherbed, a mattress, a pillow, two pair sheets and a quilt' +for three ducats. 'And when ye come again, bring the same bed again, +and ye shall have a ducat and a half for it again, though it be broken +and worn. And mark his house and his name that ye bought it of, +against ye come to Venice.' Further needs are 'a cage for half a dozen +of hens or chickens' and 'half a bushel of millet seed for them': also +'a barrel for a siege for your chamber in the ship. It is full +necessary, if ye were sick, that ye come not in the air.' The malady +here considered is probably not that which is usually associated with +the sea; though pilgrims were not immune from this any more than from +other troubles. + +On coming to haven towns, 'if ye shall tarry there three days, go +betimes to land, for then ye may have lodging before another; for it +will be taken up anon'. Similarly at Jaffa in choosing a mount for the +ride up to Jerusalem 'be not too long behind your fellows; for an ye +come betime, ye may choose the best mule' and 'ye shall pay no more +for the best than for the worst'. 'Also take good heed to your knives +and other small japes that ye bear upon you: for the Saracens will go +talking by you and make good cheer; but they will steal from you if +they may.' 'Also when ye shall ride to flume Jordan, take with you out +of Jerusalem bread, wine, water, hard eggs and cheese and such +victuals as ye may have for two days. For by all that way there is +none to sell.' + +Let us turn now to an individual narrative,[38] that of Felix Fabri, a +learned and sensible Dominican of Ulm (1442-1502). He had already made +the journey once, out of piety, in 1480, with the company mentioned +above, which had only nine days on shore. He was desirous to go also +to St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai because she was his patroness-saint, +to whom he had devoted himself on entering the Dominican order on her +day (25 November) in 1452; and accordingly for the second time, in +1483, he procured from the Pope the permission, which every one +needed, to visit the Holy Land: those that went without this being +ipso facto excommunicate, until they did penance before the Warden of +the Franciscans at Jerusalem. He gives us a picture of all that he +went through, in the most minute details. During the day we see the +pilgrims crowded together on deck, some drinking and singing, others +playing dice or cards or that unfailing pastime for ship-life, chess. +Talking, reading, telling their beads, writing diaries, sleeping, +hunting in their clothes for vermin; so they spend their day. Some for +exercise climb up the rigging, or jump, or brandish heavy weights: +some drift about from one party to another, just watching what is +going on. Our good friar complains of the habits of the noblemen, who +gambled a great deal and were always making small wagers, which they +paid with a cup of Malmsey wine. He also tells how the patron, to +beguile the journey, produced a great piece of silk, which he offered +as a prize for the pilgrims to play for. + + [38] It has been translated by Mr. Aubrey Stewart for the + Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, vols. 7-10, 1892-3. + +At meal times, to which they are summoned by trumpets, the pilgrims +race on to the poop: for they cannot all find seats, and those that +come late have to sit among the crew. Noblemen, who have their own +servants, are too fastidious to mingle with the crowd; and pay extra +to the cooks,--poor, sweating fellows, toiling crossly in a tiny +galley--for food which their servants bring to them on the main-deck, +or even below. After the pilgrims, the captain and his council dine in +state off silver dishes; and the captain's wine is tasted before he +drinks it. At night all sleep below, in a cabin the dirt of which is +indescribable. They wrangle over the places where they shall spread +their beds, and knives are drawn. Some obstinately keep their candles +burning, even though missiles come flying. Others talk noisily; and +the drunken, even when quiet, snore. No wonder the poor friar longed +for the peace of his own cell at home in Ulm. + +Fabri has much practical advice to give. He bids his reader be careful +in going up and down the companion, veritably a ladder in those times; +not to sit down upon ropes, or on places covered with pitch, which +often melts in the sun; not to get in the way of the crew and make +them angry; not to drop things overboard or let his hat be blown off. +'Let the pilgrim beware of carrying a light upon deck at night; for +the mariners dislike this strangely, and cannot endure lights when +they are at work.' Small things are apt to be stolen, if left about: +for on board ship men have no other way to get what they want. 'While +you are writing, if you lay down your pen and turn your face away, +your pen will be lost, even though you be among men whom you know: and +if you lose it, you will have exceeding great trouble in getting +another.' + +To Fabri's annoyance the ship's company included one woman, an elderly +lady, who came on board at the last moment with her husband, a +Fleming. 'She seemed,' he says, 'when we first saw her, to be restless +and inquisitive; as indeed she was. She ran hither and thither +incessantly about the ship, and was full of curiosity, wanting to hear +and see everything, and made herself hated exceedingly. Her husband +was a decent man, and for his sake many held their tongues; but had he +not been there, it would have gone hard with her. This woman was a +thorn in the eyes of us all.' His delight was great, when she was left +behind at Rhodes, having strayed away to some church outside the town. +'Except her husband, no one was sorry.' But their peace was +short-lived, for this active lady procured a boat and overtook them at +Cyprus; and Fabri could not help pitying the straits she had been put +to. We may rather admire her courage in undertaking the pilgrimage at +all, and especially the resource which she displayed on this very +unpleasant emergency. + +On the eve of St. John Baptist, after dark, the sailors made St. +John's fire; stringing forty horn lanterns on a rope to the maintop, +amid shouts and trumpeting and clapping of hands. Upon which Fabri +makes this curious remark: 'Before this I never had beheld the +practice of clapping the hands for joy, as it is said in Psalm 46. Nor +could I have believed that the general clapping of many men's hands +would have such great power to move the human mind to rejoicing.' With +some misgiving he goes on to record that after the festivity the ship +was left to drive of itself, both pilgrims and sailors betaking +themselves to rest. + +At Cyprus they had a few days, and Fabri led some of his companions to +the summit of Mount Stavrovuni, near their port Salinae (Citium by the +salt lakes of Larnaka), to visit the Church of Holy Cross--the cross +of Dismas, the thief on the right hand, said to have been brought by +that great finder of relics, the Empress Helena. By the way he was +careful to explain that they must expect no miracle: 'we shall see +none in Jerusalem, so how can there be one here?' In the church he +read them a mass and preached, and at departing rang the church bell, +saying that they would hear no bells again till they returned to +Christendom. + +When they set sail again, all eyes were turned Eastwards: happy would +he be who should first sight the land of their desire. Fabri crept +forward to the prow of the galley and sat for hours upon the horns, +straining his gaze across the summer seas which whispered around the +ship's stem: almost, he confesses, cursing night when it fell and cut +off all hope till dawn. Before sunrise he was there again, and on 1 +July the watchman in the maintop gave the glad shout. The pilgrims +flocked up on deck and sang Te Deum with bounding joy. It was a tumult +of harsh voices; but to Fabri in his happiness their various +dissonance made sweet harmony. + +On reaching Jaffa they lay for some days awaiting permission to land. +At length all was ready. The ship's officers collected the tips due to +them, and the pilgrims were put on shore: falling to kiss the ground +as they struggled out of their boats through the surf. One by one they +were brought before Turkish officials, who took record of their names +and their fathers' names--an occasion on which noblemen often tried to +pass themselves off as of low degree, to escape the higher fees due. +Fabri notes that his Christian name, Felix, gave the official +recorders some trouble: that he pronounced it again and again for +them, but they could get nothing at all like it. Each pilgrim, when +entered, was hurried off by Saracens, like sheep into a pen, and +thrust into a row of caves along the sea-shore, known as St. Peter's +Cellars. If they had suffered on board ship, their sufferings were +multiplied now tenfold. Strict watch was kept upon them, and no one +was allowed to leave the caves. Within, the ground was covered with +semi-liquid filth. From the ship, as they lay waiting to land, Fabri +had noticed the Saracens running in and out of the caves; and he +argued that they were intentionally defiling them, to make it more +disagreeable to the Christian dogs. But this seems hardly necessary. +There had doubtless been other pilgrims before them. Droves of mankind +can tread ground into a foul swamp as cattle tread a farmyard. With +their feet the poor pilgrims managed to collect some of the impurities +together into a heap in the centre; each man clearing enough space to +lie down upon. Fabri found solace to his offended senses in thinking +of his dear Lord lying in a hard manger, amongst all the defilements +of the oxen. + +After a time came traders selling rushes and branches of trees to make +beds, unguents and perfumes and frankincense to burn, and attar of +roses from Damascus. Others brought bread and water and lettuces and +hot cakes made with eggs, which the pilgrims gladly bought; and, as +the day wore on, with the much going to and fro the ground was slowly +dried under their feet. At nightfall appeared a man armed, whom they +took to be the owner of the caves. With menaces he extorted from each +of them a penny, and in the morning again, before they could come out, +another penny; to their great indignation against the captains and +dragoman, who were sleeping in tents higher up the hill, and had by +contract undertaken all these charges. So long as they were there, the +pilgrims suffered continual annoyance from the Turks, who ran in among +them pilfering, breaking any wine bottles they found, and provoking +them to blows, in order to secure the fines of which the pilgrims +would then be mulcted. One young man was so disgusted at it all that +he went back on board and gave up his pilgrimage; living with the crew +till the party came back from Jerusalem. They were indeed entirely in +the hands of the Turks. It was not a case of moving when they were +inclined. When the Turks wished, they were allowed to go forward: till +then they were confined like prisoners. No date was fixed: the +pilgrims just had to wait in patience, hoping that tomorrow or +tomorrow or tomorrow would see them start. + +Fabri records, however, that there was some justice available. Petty +wrongs must go unredressed; but a pilgrim who had been gulled into +buying coloured glass as gems to the value of five ducats, recovered +his money by complaining to the local governor. A subordinate came +down, took the money from the fraudulent trader by force, and restored +it to its owner. Again Fabri testifies to the careful way in which the +escort protected the company from molestation on its way up to +Jerusalem. He is also at pains to refute the idea that the Turks +compelled them to ride on donkeys, lest the land should be defiled by +Christian feet: rather, he says, it is for our comfort and +convenience. And indeed there was sufficient refutation in the +regulation which compelled them to dismount on reaching any village +and proceed through its narrow streets on foot. + +Whilst waiting at Jaffa, Fabri to his great delight fell in with the +donkey-boy who had gone up with him three years before; and was able +to secure him again. The boy welcomed him, especially as Fabri had +brought him a present of two iron stirrups from Ulm; and all the way +served him most faithfully, picking him figs and grapes from the +gardens they passed, sharing water and biscuit, and even giving him a +goad for his mount--a concession which was not allowed to the ordinary +pilgrim. + +Their first march was to Ramlah, and on arrival they were penned for +the day into a great serai, built by a Duke of Burgundy. It was still +early, only 9 o'clock, for they had started before sunrise. After +barring the gate to keep out the Turks, they set up an altar and +celebrated mass. A sermon was preached by the Franciscan Warden of +Jerusalem, in the course of which he gave them advice as to their +behaviour towards those to whose tolerance they owed their position +there--counsels which forty years later the fiery spirit of Loyola +burned to set at nought, till the Franciscans were thankful to get him +safely out of Jerusalem without open flouting of the masters--: not to +go about alone; not to enter mosques or step over graves; not to +insult Saracens when at prayer or by touching their beards; not to +return blow for blow, but to make formal complaints; not to drink +wine openly; to observe decorum and not rush to be first at the sacred +sites; and generally to be circumspect in presence of the infidels, +lest they mark what was done amiss and say, 'O thou bad Christian', a +phrase which was familiar to them in both Italian and German. He +further charged them that they must on no account chip fragments off +the Holy Sepulchre and other sacred buildings; nor write their names +or coats of arms upon the walls; and finally, he advised them to be +careful in any money-transactions with Muhammadans, and to have no +dealings at all with either Eastern Christians or German Jews. + +After mass was over, they opened the gate and found the outer court +filled with traders who brought them excellent food: fowls ready +roasted, puddings of rice and milk, capital bread and eggs, and fruit +of every kind, grapes, pomegranates, apples, oranges (pomerancia), +lemons and water-melons; and in the afternoon they were allowed to go +and have hot baths in the splendid marble hamams. In the evening came +a rumour that they were to proceed. They packed up their bundles and +sat waiting for an hour or two; and then the rumour proved to be +false. Meanwhile the sleeping-mats which they had hired for their stay +had been rolled up by their owners and carried off; and the pilgrims +had to sleep as best they might. Fabri made his way up on to the roof +and passed the night there. + +Waking early before sunrise he was much impressed to observe the +devotion of the Muhammadans at their morning prayers: the long rows of +kneeling figures, swaying forward together in reverent prostration, +the grave faces and solemn tones. Surely, as he looked, he must have +felt that God, even his God, was the God of all the earth, and would +be a Father to those that sought Him so earnestly. At any rate he +turned away, with a strong sense of contrast, to his own comrades +waking to the day with laughing chatter and no thought of prayer. An +episode of this halt was a visit from a Saracen fruit-seller upon whom +Fabri looked with curiosity. Then, taking the man's hat, he spat upon +it with every expression of disgust at its Saracen badge. The man, +instead of resenting it, looked cautiously round and then spat on the +badge himself, at the same time making the sign of the Cross. He was a +Christian who had been forced into conversion, probably in expiation +of some crime; and now hated his life. It was no uncommon thing. As +their procession wound through village streets, the pilgrims would +often see furtive signs made to them from inner chambers: unwilling +converts signalling the symbol that they loved, to eyes that were sure +to be sympathetic. + +As Fabri made his way along, his heart was glad. His foot was on holy +ground, and at every step new associations came floating into his +thoughts. These were the mountains to which Moses had looked from +Pisgah; here Jephthah's daughter had made plaint for her young life; +hither had come Mary in the joy of the angel's message; the stones on +which he stumbled might have felt the feet of Christ. At the hill +called Mount Joy they should have seen Jerusalem; but the air was +thick, and they could only make out the Mount of Olives. So they +toiled on along their dusty way, between dry stone walls and thirsty +vegetable-gardens, until, as they reached the crest of a low ridge, +suddenly like a flash of light it shone before them, the City, the +Holy City. + +At once their footsteps quickened with new life; and when at length +they found themselves in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy +Sepulchre, their pent-up emotions burst forth, into tears and groans, +sweet wailings and deep sighs. Some lay powerless on the ground, +forsaken by their strength and to all appearances dead. Others drifted +from one corner to another, beating their breasts, as though urged by +an evil spirit. Some knelt bare-kneed; as they prayed, stretching out +their arms like a rood. Others were shaken with such violent sobs that +they could only sit down and hold their heads in their hands. Some +lost all command of themselves, and, forgetting how to behave, sought +to please God with strange and childish gestures. On the other hand, +Fabri noted some who stood quite unmoved, and merely mocked at the +strange display: dull, unprofitable souls he calls them, brute beasts, +not having the spirit of God. Their self-contained temperament +misliked him, especially as thereafter they held aloof from those who +had given way to such enthusiasm or, as they felt it, weakness. + +We cannot company with the party to all the numerous sites that piety +bade them visit. It was prodigiously fatiguing for them under the July +sun, and the ranks grew thin as the weaker spirits fell out dead +tired, to rest awhile in hospitable cloister or by cooling well. Fabri +found it very toilsome to struggle after mental abstraction, to rise +to such heights as he desired of devotion and comprehension of all the +holy influences around him, to seize every opportunity of +contemplation and lose nothing; being soon thoroughly exhausted with +his bodily exertions. Some alleviation there was: when holy +women--nuns of his own Order, who had a house in Jerusalem--washed his +scapular and tunic for him, and wrought other works of charity for +which he was very grateful. + +The pilgrims had been warned not to wander away from their party. One +day as they went to the Dead Sea, they halted at a monastery; and +Fabri was tempted to ramble off alone to inspect a cliff which had +been hollowed out by hermits into innumerable caves. It was a +precipitous place; and at one point, where the path was narrow and the +cliff fell sheer below, he encountered an Eastern Christian. Seeing +that Fabri was afraid, the fellow began to trifle with him and +demanded money; and in the end Fabri was obliged to open his slender +purse. 'Ever since then', he says, 'I have abhorred the company of +Christians of that sort more than that of Saracens and Arabs, and have +trusted them less. Though perhaps he would not have thrown me down +the precipice, even had I given him nothing, yet it was wicked of him +to play with me in a place of such danger. If an Arab had done so, I +should have been pleased at his play, and should have held him to be a +good pagan; but I believe no good of that Christian.' When he rejoined +his party, the patron told him that the Eastern Christians were least +to be trusted of any men. + +On arrival at Jordan there was much excitement. To bathe in that +ancient river was thought to renew youth, and so all the pilgrims were +eager to immerse themselves; even women of 80--a rather doubtful +figure--plunging into the lukewarm stream. Some had brought bells to +be blessed with Jordan water, others strips of material for clothes; +and wealthier members of the party jumped in as they were, in order +that the robes they had on might bring them luck in the future. Three +things were forbidden to the pilgrims: (1) to swim across the stream, +because in the excitement of emotion and amongst such crowds +individuals had often been drowned; (2) to dive in, because the bottom +was muddy; (3) to carry away phials of Jordan water. The first +regulation was openly violated. On his first journey Fabri had swum +across, but on the return had been seized with panic and nearly +drowned. So this time he contented himself with drawing up his +garments round his neck and sitting down in the shallow water among +the crowd who were splashing about and jestingly baptizing one +another. The prohibition of Jordan water was to appease the shipmen; +for it was thought to cause storms when carried over the sea. + +We have not time to follow Fabri in more detail. On 24 August he left +Jerusalem with a small company of pilgrims who had not been deterred +from undertaking the journey to Sinai. There was much dispute about +the route they should follow. Some were for going by sea to +Alexandria, others wished to march down the sea coast; but finally +they made up their minds to go straight South across the desert. +Starting from Gaza on 9 September they reached St. Catherine's on the +22nd. Five days of very hard work sufficed for them to see all the +sacred sites and ascend the many towering peaks; and here again Fabri +impressed upon his companions that the days of miracles were over, and +that in these evil times God would show no more. On 27 September they +set forth again, and journeying through Midian reached Cairo on 8 +October; having picked up on the shore of the Red Sea oyster shells +which should be an abiding witness of their pilgrimage. On 5 November +they set sail from Alexandria; but summer had departed from the sea, +and the winds blew obstinately. Three times they beat up to Cape +Malea, before they could round the point and make sail for the North; +and it was not till 8 Jan. 1484 that they landed in Venice. The +pilgrimage was over after seven months, and with what Guilford's +chaplain calls 'large departing of our money'. + + + + +X + +THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE + + +Hitherto we have viewed the age mainly through the personality of +individuals. It remains to consider some of the features of the +Renaissance when it had spread across the Alps--to France, to Spain, +to Switzerland, to Germany, to England--and some of the contrasts that +it presents with the earlier movement in Italy. The story of the +Italian Renaissance has often been told; and we need not go back upon +it here. On the side of the revival of learning it was without doubt +the great age. The importance of its discoveries, the fervour of its +enthusiasm have never been equalled. But though it remains +pre-eminent, the period that followed it has an interest of its own +which is hardly less keen and presents the real issues at stake in a +clearer light. Awakened Italy felt itself the heiress of Rome, and +thus patriotism coloured its enthusiasm for the past. To the rest of +Western Europe this source of inspiration was not open. They were +compelled to examine more closely the aims before them; and thus +attained to a calmer and truer estimate of what they might hope to +gain from the study of the classics. It was not the revival of lost +glories, thoughts of a world held in the bonds of peace: in those +dreams the Transalpines had only the part of the conquered. Rather the +classics led them back to an age before Christianity; and pious souls +though they were, the scholar's instinct told them that they would +find there something to learn. Christianity had fixed men's eyes on +the future, on their own salvation in the life to come; and had +trained all knowledge, even Aristotle, to serve that end. In the great +days of Greece and Rome the world was free from this absorbing +preoccupation; and inquiring spirits were at liberty to find such +truth as they could, not merely the truth that they wished or must. + +Another point of difference between Italy and the Transalpines is in +the resistance offered to the Renaissance in the two regions. The +scholastic philosophy and theology was a creation of the North. The +greatest of the Schoolmen found their birth or training in France or +Germany, at the schools of Paris and Cologne; and with the names of +Duns, Hales, Holcot, Occam, Burley and Bradwardine our own islands +stand well to the fore. The situation is thus described by Aldus in a +letter written to the young prince of Carpi in October 1499, to +rejoice over some translations from the Greek just arrived from +Linacre in England: 'Of old it was barbarous learning that came to us +from Britain; it conquered Italy and still holds our castles. But now +they send us learned eloquence; with British aid we shall chase away +barbarity and come by our own again.' The teaching of the Schoolmen +made its way into Italy, but had little vogue; and with the Church, +through such Popes as Nicholas V, on the side of the Renaissance, +resistance almost disappeared. The humanists charging headlong +dissipated their foes in a moment, but were soon carried beyond the +field of battle, to fall into the hands of the forces of reaction. +Across the Alps, on the other hand, the Church and the universities +stood together and looked askance at the new movement, dreading what +it might bring forth. In consequence the ground was only won by slow +and painful efforts, but each advance, as it was made, was secured. + +The position may be further illustrated by comparing the first +productions of the press on either side of the Alps: in the early +days, before the export trade had developed, and when books were +produced mainly for the home market. The Germans who brought the art +down into Italy, Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome, Wendelin and Jenson +at Venice, printed scarcely anything that was not classical: Latin +authors and Latin translations from the Greek. Up in the North the +first printers of Germany, Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz, Mentelin at +Strasburg, rarely overstepped the boundaries of the mediaeval world +that was passing away or the modern that was taking its place. + +The appearance of the _Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_ in 1515 exposed +the scholastic teachers and their allies in the Church to such +widespread ridicule that it is not easy for us now to realize the +position which those dignitaries still held when Erasmus was young. +The stream of contempt poured upon them by the triumphant humanists +obscures the merit of their system as a gigantic and complete engine +of thought. Under its great masters, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, +Duns Scotus, scholasticism had been rounded into an instrument capable +of comprehending all knowledge and of expressing every refinement of +thought; and, as has been well said, the acute minds that created it, +if only they had extended their inquiries into natural science, might +easily have anticipated by centuries the discoveries of modern +days.[39] In expressing their distinctions the Schoolmen had thrown to +the winds the restraints of classical Latin and the care of elegance; +and with many of them language had degenerated into jargon. But in +their own eyes their position was unassailable. Their philosophy was +founded on Aristotle; and while they were proud of their master, they +were prouder still of the system they had created in his name: and +thus they felt no impulse to look backwards to the past. + + [39] Cf. F.G. Stokes, _Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_, 1909, p. + xvii. + +In the matter of language they had been led by a spirit of reaction. +The literature of later classical times had sacrificed matter to form; +and the schools had been dominated by teachers who trained boys to +declaim in elegant periods on any subject whatever, regardless of its +content; thus carrying to an extreme the precepts with which the great +orators had enforced the importance of style. The Schoolmen swung the +pendulum back, letting sound and froth go and thinking only of their +subject-matter, despising the classics. In their turn they were +confronted by the humanists, who reasserted the claims of form. + +There was sense in the humanist contention. It is very easy to say the +right thing in the wrong way; in other spheres than diplomacy the +choice of language is important. Words have a history of their own, +and often acquire associations independent of their meaning. Rhythm, +too, and clearness need attention. An unbalanced sentence goes +haltingly and jars; an ambiguous pronoun causes the reader to stumble. +An ill-written book, an ill-worded speech fail of their effects; it is +not merely by sympathy and character that men persuade. But of course +the humanists pushed the matter too far. Pendulums do not reach the +repose of the mean without many tos and fros. Elegance is good, but +the art of reasoning is not to be neglected. Of the length to which +they went Ascham's method of instruction in the _Scholemaster_ (1570) +is a good example. He wished his scholar to translate Cicero into +English, and then from the English to translate back into the actual +words of the Latin. The Ciceronians did not believe that the same +thing could be well said in many ways; rather there was one way which +transcended all others, and that Cicero had attained. Erasmus, +however, was no Ciceronian; and one of the reasons why he won such a +hold upon his own and subsequent generations was that, more than all +his contemporaries, he succeeded in establishing a reasonable accord +between the claims of form and matter in literature. + +In their neglect of the classics the Schoolmen had a powerful ally. +For obvious reasons the early and the mediaeval Church felt that much +of classical literature was injurious to the minds of the young, and +in consequence discouraged the use of it in schools. The classics were +allowed to perish, and their place was taken by Christian poets such +as Prudentius or Juvencus, by moralizations of Aesop, patchwork +compositions known as 'centos' on Scriptural themes, and the like. The +scholars, therefore, who went to Italy and came home to the North +carrying the new enthusiasm, had strenuous opposition to encounter. +The Schoolmen considered them impertinent, the Church counted them +immoral. To us who know which way the conflict ended, the savage blows +delivered by the humanists seem mere brutality; they lash their fallen +foes with what appears inhuman ferocity. But the truth is that the +struggle was not finished until well into the sixteenth century. Biel +of Tubingen, 'the last of the Schoolmen', lived till 1495. Between +1501 and 1515 a single printer, Wolff of Basle, produced five massive +volumes of the _Summae_ of mediaeval Doctors. Through the greater +part, therefore, of Erasmus' life the upholders of the old systems and +ideals, firmly entrenched by virtue of possession, succeeded in +maintaining their supremacy in the schools. + +Between the two periods of the revival of learning, the Italian and +the Transalpine, a marked line is drawn by the invention of printing, +_c._ 1455: when the one movement had run half its course, the other +scarcely begun. The achievements of the press in the diffusion of +knowledge are often extolled; and some of the resulting good and evil +is not hard to see. But the paramount service rendered to learning by +the printer's art was that it made possible a standard of critical +accuracy which was so much higher than what was known before as to be +almost a new creation. When books were manuscripts, laboriously +written out one at a time, there could be no security of identity +between original and copy; and even when a number of copies were made +from the same original, there was a practical certainty that there +would be no absolute uniformity among them. Mistakes were bound to +occur; not always at the same point, but here in one manuscript, there +in another. Or again, when two unrelated copies of the same book were +brought together, there was an antecedent probability that examination +would reveal differences: so that in general it was impossible to feel +that a fellow-scholar working on the same author was using the same +text. + +Even with writers of one's own day uniformity was hardly to be +attained. Not uncommonly, as a mark of attention, an author revised +manuscript copies of his works, which were to be presented to friends; +and besides correcting the copyists' errors, might add or cut out or +alter passages according to his later judgement. Subsequent copies +would doubtless follow his revision, and then the process might be +repeated; with the result that a reader could not tell to what stage +in the evolution of a work the text before him might belong: whether +it represented the earliest form of composition or the final form +reached perhaps many years afterwards. To understand the conditions +under which mediaeval scholars worked, it is of the utmost importance +to realize this state of uncertainty and flux. + +Not that in manuscript days there was indifference to accuracy. +Serious scholars and copyists laid great stress upon it. With +insistent fervour they implored one another to be careful, and to +collate what had been copied. But there are limits to human powers. +Collation is a dull business; and unless done with minute attention, +cannot be expected to yield perfect correctness. When a man has copied +a work of any length, it is hard for him to collate it with the +original slowly. Physically, of course, he easily might: but the +spirit is weak, and, weary of the ground already traversed once, urges +him to hurry forward, with the inevitable result. + +With a manuscript, too, the possible reward might well seem scarcely +worth the labour; for how could any permanence be ensured for critical +work? A scholar might expend his efforts over a corrupt author, might +compare his own manuscript with others far and near, and at length +arrive at a text really more correct. And yet what hope had he that +his labour was not lost? His manuscript would pass at his death into +other hands and might easily be overlooked and even perish. Like a +child's castle built upon the sand, his work would be overwhelmed by +the rising tide of oblivion. Such conditions are disheartening. + +Thus mediaeval standards of accuracy were of necessity low. In default +of good instruments we content ourselves with those we have. To draw a +line straight we use a ruler; but if one is not to be had, the edge of +a book or a table may supply its place. In the last resort we draw +roughly by hand, but with no illusions as to our success. So it was +with the scholar of the Middle Ages. His instruments were imperfect; +and he acquiesced in the best standards he could get: realizing no +doubt their defects, but knowing no better way. + +But with printing the position was at once changed. When the type had +been set up, it was possible to strike off a thousand copies of a +book, each of which was identical with all the rest. It became worth +while to spend abundant pains over seeking a good text and correcting +the proofs--though this latter point was not perceived at first--when +there was the assured prospect of such uniformity to follow. One +edition could be distinguished from another by the dates on title-page +and colophon; and work once done was done for all time, if enough +copies of a book were taken off. This necessarily produced a great +change in methods of study. Instead of a single manuscript, in places +perhaps hopelessly entangled, and always at the mercy of another +manuscript of equal or greater authority that might appear from the +blue with different readings, the scholar received a text which +represented a recension of, it may be, several manuscripts, and whose +roughnesses had been smoothed out by the care of editors more or less +competent. + +The precious volumes to which modern book-lovers reverently give the +title of 'Editio princeps', had almost as great honour in their own +day, before the credit of priority and antiquity had come to them; for +in them men saw the creation of a series of 'standard texts', norms to +which, until they were superseded, all future work upon the same +ground could be referred. As a result, too, of the improved +correctness of the texts, instead of being satisfied with the general +sense of an author, men were able to base edifices of precise argument +upon the verbal meaning of passages, in some confidence that their +structures would not be overset. + +But the new invention was not universally acclaimed. Trithemius with +his conservative mind quickly detected some weaknesses; and in 1492 he +composed a treatise 'In praise of scribes', in vain attempt to arrest +the flowing tide. 'Let no one say, "Why should I trouble to write +books, when they are appearing continually in such numbers? for a +moderate sum one can acquire a large library." What a difference +between the results achieved! A manuscript written on parchment will +last a thousand years: books printed on paper will scarcely live two +hundred. Besides, there will always be something to copy: not +everything can be printed. Even if it could, a true scribe ought not +to give up. His pen can perpetuate good works which otherwise would +soon perish. He must not be amazed by the present abundance that he +sees, but should look forward to the needs of the future. Though we +had thousands of volumes, we must not cease writing; for printed books +are never so good. Indeed they usually pay little heed to ornament and +orthography.' It is noticeable that only in this last point does +Trithemius claim for manuscripts superior accuracy. In the matter of +permanence we may wonder what he would have thought of modern paper. + +The first advance, then, rendered possible by the invention of +printing was to more uniform and better texts: the next step forward +was no less important. To scholars content with the general sense of a +work, a translation might be as acceptable as the original. Improved +standards of accuracy led men to perceive that an author must be +studied in his own tongue: in order that no shade of meaning might be +lost. Here again the two periods are easily distinguished. Nicholas V +set his scholars, Poggio and Valla, to translate the Greeks, Herodotus +and Thucydides, Aristotle and Diodorus. The feature of the later epoch +is the number of Greek editions which came out to supplant the +versions in common use. The credit for this advance in critical +scholarship must be given to Aldus for his Greek Aristotle, which +appeared in 1495-9; and he subsequently led the way with numerous +texts of the Greek classics. At the same time he proposed to apply the +same principle to Biblical study. As early as 1499 Grocin in a letter +alludes to Aldus' scheme of printing the whole Bible in the original +'three languages', Hebrew, Greek and Latin; and a specimen was +actually put forth in 1501. + +In this matter precedence might seem to lie with the Jewish printers, +who produced the Psalms in Hebrew in 1477, and the Old Testament +complete in 1488; but as the Jews never at any period ceased to read +their Scriptures in Hebrew, there was no question of recovery of an +original. Aldus did not live to carry his scheme out; and it was left +to Ximenes and the band of scholars that he gathered at Alcala, to +produce the first edition of the Bible complete in the original +tongues, the Complutensian Polyglott, containing the Hebrew side by +side with the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and for the Pentateuch a +Syriac paraphrase. The New Testament in this great enterprise was +finished in 1514, and the whole work was ready by 1517, shortly before +Ximenes' death. But as publication was delayed till 1522, the actual +priority rests with Erasmus, whose New Testament in Greek with a Latin +translation by himself appeared, as we have seen, in 1516. + +Thus by an accident Germany gained the credit of being the first to +assert this new principle, the importance of studying texts in the +original, in the field where resistance is most resolute and victory +is hardly won. And now it was about to enter upon a still greater +contest. Erasmus' New Testament encountered hostile criticism in many +quarters: conservative theologians made common cause with the friars +in condemning it. But at the very centre of the religion they +professed, the book was blessed by the chief priests. The Pope +accepted the dedication, and bishops wished they could read the Greek. +Far otherwise was it with the impending struggle of the Reformation: +there the cleavage of sides followed very different lines. Into that +wide field we cannot now expatiate; but it is important to notice an +element which the German Renaissance contributed to the Reformation, +and which played a considerable part in both movements--the +accentuation of German national feeling. + +At the middle of the fifteenth century Italy enjoyed undisputed +pre-eminence in the world of learning. The sudden splendour into which +the Renaissance had blazed up on Italian soil drew men's eyes thither +more than ever; and to its ancient universities students from the +North swarmed like bees. To graduate in Italy, to hear its famous +doctors, perhaps even to learn from one of the native Greeks brought +over out of the East, became first the ambition, and then the +indispensable requirement of every Northern scholar who could afford +it; and few of Erasmus' friends and colleagues had not at some time or +other made the pilgrimage to Italy. Consequence and success brought +the usual Nemesis. The Italian _hubris_ expressed itself in the +familiar Greek distinction between barbarian and home-born; and the +many nations from beyond the Alps found themselves united in a common +bond which they were not eager to share. We have seen the kind of gibe +with which Agricola's eloquence was greeted at Pavia. The more such +insults are deserved, the more they sting. We may be sure that in many +cases they were not forgotten. Celtis returning from Italy to +Ingolstadt in 1492 delivered his soul in an inaugural oration: 'The +ancient hatred between us can never be dissolved. But for the Alps we +should be eternally at war.' In other countries the feeling, though +less acute, was much the same. Thus in 1517 spoke Stephen Poncher, +bishop of Paris, after his first meeting with Erasmus: 'Italy has no +one to compare with him in literary gifts. In our own day Hermolaus +and Politian have rescued Latin from barbarism; and their services can +never be forgotten. When I was there, too, I met a number of men of +rare ability and learning. But with all respect to the Italians, I +must say that Erasmus eclipses every one, Transalpine and Cisalpine +alike.' + +Of the foreign 'nations' at the universities of Italy none was more +numerous than the German, a title which embraced many nationalities of +the North: not merely German-speaking races such as the Swiss and +Flemish and Dutch, but all who could by any stretch of imagination be +represented as descendants of the Goths; Swedes and Danes, Hungarians +and Bohemians, Lithuanians and Bulgars and Poles. That they went in +such numbers is not surprising. The prestige of Italian teaching was +great and well-established, whereas their own universities were few +and scarcely more than nascent; indeed, when the Council of Vienne had +ordained the teaching of Greek and other missionary languages in 1311, +its injunctions went to France and Italy and England and Spain: but +Germany had no university to which a missive could be directed. From +Southern Germany, too, and Switzerland and Austria, the distance was +small, notwithstanding the obvious Alps and the difficulties of the +passes. Even Celtis, in spite of his denunciations, sent on his best +pupils to Italy. So there were many who brought home with them to the +North recollections of lofty condescension and of ill-disguised +contempt for the foreigner: insults that they burned to repay. + +Italy might vaunt the glories of ancient Rome; but Germany also had +deeds to be proud of. Rome might have founded the World-empire; but +Charlemagne had conquered the dominions of the Caesars and made the +Empire Germanic. Classic antiquity, too, could not be denied to the +land and people whom Tacitus had described; and Germans were not slow +to claim the virtues found among them by the Roman historian. Arminius +became the national hero. German faith and honour, German simplicity, +German sincerity and candour--these are insisted upon by the +Transalpine humanists with a vehemence which suggests that while +priding themselves on the possession of such qualities, they marked +the lack of them in others. We may recall Ascham's horror of the +Englishman Italianated. Not that Germans could not make friends in +Italy. Scheurl loved his time at Bologna, and was eager to fight for +the Bentivogli against Julius II. Erasmus was made much of by the +Aldine Academy at Venice; and ten years later Hutten was charmed with +his reception there. But with many, conscious of their own defects[40] +and of the reality of Italian superiority, the charge of barbarism +must have rankled. To Luther in 1518 Italian is synonymous with +supercilious. + + [40] Thus a worthy abbot in the Inn valley, writing to Erasmus + in 1523, manages to achieve a Latin letter, but apologizes + for only being able to write in German characters. + +The rising German feeling expresses itself on all sides in the letters +of the humanists. A young Frieslander, studying at Oxford in 1499, +writes to a fellow-countryman there: 'Your verses have shown me what I +never could have believed, that German talents are no whit inferior to +Italian.' Hutten in 1516 writes of Reuchlin and Erasmus as 'the two +eyes of Germany, whom we must sedulously cherish; for it is through +them that our nation is ceasing to be barbarous'. Beatus Rhenanus, in +editing the poems of Janus Pannonius (d. 1472), says in his preface, +1518: 'Janus and Erasmus, Germans though they are and moderns, give me +as much satisfaction to read as do Politian and Hermolaus, or even +Virgil and Cicero.' Erasmus in 1518 writes to thank a canon of Mainz +who had entertained him at supper. After compliments on his host's +charming manners, his erudition free from superciliousness--if he +could have known Gibbon, he surely must have used those immortal words +of praise, 'a modest and learned ignorance'--and his wit and elegance +of speech, he goes on: 'One might have been listening to a Roman. Now +let the Italians go and taunt Germans with barbarism, if they dare!' +In 1519 a canon of Brixen in Tirol writes to Beatus: 'Would to God +that Germany had more men like you, to make her famous, and stand up +against those Italians, who give themselves such airs about their +learning; though men of credit now think that the helm has been +snatched from their hands by Erasmus.' This is how Zwingli writes in +1521 of an Italian who had attacked Luther and charged him with +ignorance: 'But we must make allowances for Italian conceit. In their +heads is always running the refrain, "Heaven and earth can show none +like to us". They cannot bear to see Germany outstripping them in +learning.' Rarely a different note is heard, evoked by rivalry perhaps +or the desire to encourage. Locher from Freiburg could call Leipzig +barbarous. Erasmus wrote to an Erfurt schoolmaster that he was glad to +see Germany softening under the influence of good learning and putting +off her wild woodland ways. But these are exceptions: towards +insolence from the South an unbroken front was preserved. + +In another direction the strong national feeling manifested itself; in +the study of German antiquity and the composition of histories.[41] +Maximilian, dipping his hands in literature, stimulated the +archaeological researches of Peutinger, patronized Trithemius and +Pirckheimer, and even instituted a royal historian, Stabius. Celtis +the versatile projected an elaborate _Germania illustrata_ on the +model of Flavio Biondo's work for Rome; and his description of +Nuremberg was designed to be the first instalment. As he conceived it, +the work was never carried out; but essays of varying importance on +this theme were produced by Cochlaeus, Pirckheimer, Aventinus and +Munster. The most ardent to extol Germany was Wimpfeling of +Schlettstadt, a man of serious temperament, who was prone to rush into +controversy in defence of the causes that he had at heart. His +education had all been got in Germany, and he was proud of his +country. His first effort to increase its praise was to instigate +Trithemius to put together a 'Catalogue of the illustrious men who +adorn Germany with their talents and writings'. The author's preface +(8 Feb. 1491) reveals unmistakably the animosity towards Italy: 'Some +people contemn our country as barren, and maintain that few men of +genius have flourished in it; hoping by disparagement of others to +swell their own praise. With all the resources of their eloquence they +trick out the slender achievements of their own countrymen; but +jealousy blinds them to the great virtues of the Germans, the mighty +deeds and brilliant intellects, the loyalty, enthusiasm and devotion +of this great nation. If they find in the classics any credit given +to us for valour or learning, they quickly hide it up; and in order to +trumpet their own excellences, they omit ours altogether. That is how +Pliny's narrative of the German wars was lost, and how so many +histories of our people have disappeared.' + + [41] Cf. A. Horawitz in Sybel's _Historische Zeitschrift_, xxv. + (1871), 66-101; and P. Joachimsen, _Geschichtsauffassung und + Geschichtschreibung in Deutschland unter dem Einfluss des + Humanismus_, pt. 1, 1910. + +The book was sent to Wimpfeling, who collected a few more names and +added a preface of his own (17 Sept. 1492) in the same strain. 'People +who think that Germany is still as barbarous as it was in the days of +Caesar should read what Jerome has to say about it. The abundance of +old books in existence shows that Germany had many learned men in the +past; who have left carefully written manuscripts on oratory, poetry, +natural philosophy, theology and all kinds of erudition. All down the +Rhine you will find the walls and roofs of monasteries adorned with +elegant epigrams which testify to German taste of old. To-day there +are Germans who can translate the Greek classics into Latin; and if +their style is not pure Ciceronian, let our detractors remember that +styles change with the times. Mankind is always discontented, and +prefers the old to the modern. I can quite understand that our German +philosophers adapted their style to their audiences and their lofty +subjects. So foreign critics had better let this provocative talk +alone for ever.' + +A few years later Wimpfeling edited a fourteenth-century treatise by +Lupold of Bebenburg entitled 'The zeal and fervour of the ancient +German princes towards the Christian religion and the servants of +God'; the intention of which clearly fell in with his desire. In his +preface, addressed to Dalberg, Agricola's patron, he tells a story +which explains a peculiarity occasionally found in mediaeval +manuscripts; of being written in sections by several different hands. +Some years before, the Patriarch of Aquileia was passing through +Spires. To divert the enforced leisure of a halt upon a journey, he +prowled round the libraries of the town; and in one discovered this +treatise of Lupold, which pleased him greatly. As he was to be off +again next morning, there was no time to have it copied, at least by +one hand: so the manuscript was cut up and distributed among a number +of scribes, and in the space of a night the desired copy was ready. +Subsequently Wimpfeling heard of the incident from one of the brethren +in the monastery, and obtained the original manuscript to publish. +When such things could happen, no wonder that some manuscripts are +imperfect and others have disappeared. + +Wimpfeling's next endeavour to assert the glories of Germany was +completed in 1502; but did not appear till 1505. It was based upon the +work of a friend, Sebastian Murrho of Colmar (d. 1494). The title, +_Defensio Germaniae_ or _Epithoma Germanorum_, sufficiently explains +its purpose. After a brief account of Germany in Roman times--his hero +being not Arminius, but 'the first German king, Arioviscus, who fought +with Julius Caesar',--and fuller records of the Germanic Emperors +since Charlemagne, Wimpfeling comes to the praise of his own days; +the men of learning, the famous soldiers, the architects who could +build the great tower of Strasburg, the painters, the inventors of +printing and of that terrible engine the bombard. But nearest to his +heart lay a question debated then as now: to whom should rightfully +belong the western part of the Rhine valley, between the river and the +Vosges? It was there that his home lay, Schlettstadt, one of the +fairest cities of the plain. With all the 'zeal and fervour of the +ancient German princes' he sets out to prove that it must be German: +'where are there any traces' he cries 'of the French language? There +are no books in French, no monuments, no letters, no epitaphs, no +deeds or documents. For seven or eight centuries there is nothing but +Latin or German.' The cathedral of Spires, the fine monastery of St. +Fides in his native town, supply him with a further argument: would +the good Dukes of Swabia have lavished so much money, the substance of +their fathers, upon Gallic soil, to pour it out among the French? With +such arguments he convinced himself and others. Almost at the same +time Peutinger put out a little volume of 'Conversations about the +wonderful antiquities of Germany'; supporting Wimpfeling with further +evidence and concluding satisfactorily that French had never ruled +over Germans. + +A work of very different calibre which appeared about this time was +the _Germaniae Exegesis_ of Francis Fritz, who Latinized his name into +Irenicus. Wimpfeling was growing grey when he had made his defence of +Germany: the new champion was a young man of 23, who had scarcely +emerged from his degree. The book was published in 1518; printed at +Hagenau by Anshelm at the cost of John Koberger, the great Nuremberg +printer, and fostered by Pirckheimer. In his later years Irenicus +became a Lutheran and displayed some dignity in refusing to sacrifice +his convictions to worldly interests; but at this time he was +enthusiastic and heady, and as a result his work is an uncritical +jumble. 'Puerile and silly' Erasmus called it, when he saw some of the +proof-sheets at Spires in 1518. 'A most unfortunate book', wrote +Beatus Rhenanus in 1525, 'without style and without judgement.' To +Aventinus in 1531 it was 'an impudent compilation from Stabius and +Trithemius, by a poor creature of the most despicable intelligence'. +But even a bad book can be a measure of the time, showing the ideas +current and the catchwords that were thought likely to attract the +reading public. It is much larger than Wimpfeling's Defence, and even +more miscellaneous; ranging over many aspects of Germany ancient and +modern. To us in the present inquiry its interest lies in the +frequency with which the excellence of Germany is asserted against +Italian sneers. The following specimen will illustrate this point, and +also explain Erasmus' epithets. In the chapter on the German language +(ii. 30) Irenicus is throughout engaged in refuting the charge of +German barbarism. 'It may be true', he says, 'that German is not so +much declined as Latin: but complexity does not necessarily bring +refinement. Germany is as rich in dialects as Italy, and to speak +German well merits high praise. Italian may be directly descended from +Latin; but German too has a considerable element of Latin and Greek +words. Guarino and Petrarch have written poetry in their vernaculars, +and so the Italians boast that their language is more suited to +poetry. But more than 1000 years ago Ovid wrote a book of German +poetry[42]; and Trebeta, son of Semiramis, is known to have been the +first person to compose in German.' + + [42] Ovid, _Pont._ 4. 13. 19: Getico sermone. + +In spite of such stuff, Pirckheimer, who saw the book in manuscript, +was delighted with it. 'You have achieved what many have wished but +few could have carried out. Every German must be obliged to you for +the lustre you have brought to the Fatherland.' After stating that he +had arranged with Koberger for the printing, he points out details +which might be improved: more stress might be laid on the connexion of +the Germans with the Goths, 'which the dregs of the Goths and +Lombards--by which I mean the Italians--try to snatch from us'; and +the universal conquests of the Goths might be more fully treated. +Finally he suggests that before publication the work should be +submitted to Stabius: 'the book deserves learned readers, and I should +wish it to be as perfect as possible.'[43] + + [43] The letter is printed in Pirckheimer's _Opera_, 1610, p. + 313: but is addressed wrongly, to Beatus Rhenanus. + +This brief survey may close with a far more considerable work, the +_Res Germanicae_ of Beatus Rhenanus, published in 1531; from which we +have made some extracts above. The book is sober and serious, and the +subject-matter is handled scientifically; but in his preface Beatus is +careful to point out that German history is as important as Roman, +modern as much worth studying as ancient. + +Such was the soil into which fell the seed that Luther went forth to +sow. When Tetzel came marching into German towns, with the Pope's Bull +borne before him on a cushion, and brandishing indulgences for the +living and the dead, when the coins were tinkling in the box, and the +souls, released by contract, were flying off out of purgatory, the +religious sense of thinking men was outraged by this travesty of the +Day of Judgement; but scarcely less were they angered to see the +tinkling coins, honest German money, flying off as rapidly as the +souls, to build palaces for the supercilious Italians. In the great +struggle of the Reformation the main issue was of course religious; +but even its leader could feel added bitterness in the knowledge that +this shocking traffic was ordained from Italy to benefit an Italian +Pope. If the sympathies of educated Germany had not already been +strongly moved in the same direction, it is conceivable that Luther's +intrepid protest might have lacked the support which carried it to +success. + + + + +XI + +ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN + +(A paper read before the third International Historical Congress, in +London, April 1913.) + + +Whatever may still be the troubles of the great, amongst men of +learning at any rate visits of ceremony are mercifully no longer in +fashion. At first sight one is inclined to find the cause of this in +an improved sense of the value of time. Modern inventions have taught +first the business man and then the world in general that time is +money. Improved communications with time-tables that may be relied +upon enable us to arrange our days in such a way as to be at least +more busy, if not more useful; and we have acquired a wholesome +respect for the time of others. But I do not think we should be right +in accounting for the change in this way. At all ages the scholar, +looking round him at tasks which exceed the capacity of a lifetime, +has been avaricious of the hours--'labuntur anni', 'pereunt et +imputantur' ever in his thoughts: and though the world of old moved +slower, the man of business has rarely belied his name. A more +plausible explanation is that the custom has died of surfeit. As +increased facilities of travel made the world smaller, the circle of +those that might be visited and saluted by the active grew boundless; +so that on both sides limits were desired. Another consideration is +that with new facilities came increased opportunities and hopes. +To-day we live in the happy consciousness that friends, however +distant, may be brought across the world to our doors by the urgencies +of business or pleasure; and thus no one knows what the coming year +may bring forth. In the sixteenth century men knew that opportunities +lost might never recur, and that they must seize or make them as best +they might. + +At that time visits of ceremony were in great vogue. Officials and +scholars alike groaned under them. After a visit to the Court Erasmus +writes: 'If Pollio (a disguised name, as he was writing of a man who +afterwards became an intimate friend) has been with you, you will +understand what I suffered at Brussels; every day hosts of Spanish +visitors, besides Italians and Germans.' A little later he apologizes +to a correspondent for having given him a chilly welcome: 'just then I +had escaped from Brussels, quite worn out with the salutations of +these persistent Spaniards.' The custom was widespread. An English +graduate, studying for a time at Louvain, congratulates himself on +having escaped from it at Cambridge. Clenardus found it thriving at +Salamanca; Casaubon complained of it at Montpellier; in Oxford it was +even obligatory for intending disputants in the schools to pay formal +visits beforehand to their examiners. + +In 1517 Erasmus' fame was at its zenith; and in consequence visitors +came to him from every side, some to seek counsel, others to adore. +His correspondence gives us many instances. In the spring of 1517, +when the Cardinal of Gurk attended Maximilian to the Netherlands, his +two secretaries, Richard Bartholinus of Perugia and Ursinus Velius, a +Silesian, prepared panegyrical verses with which to greet Erasmus if +they should have the good fortune to meet him. For some reason +Bartholinus alone came, and, presenting both the poems, elicited a +complimentary letter in reply. A more distinguished visitor received +less attention. In the summer of 1518 Erasmus was at Basle, printing +the notes to his second edition of the New Testament. The Bishop of +Pistoia, nephew of one of the most influential cardinals, and Papal +nuncio in Switzerland, also came to Basle. Wishing to see the great +scholar, he asked him to dinner. But Erasmus could not spare the time. +He declined, and in his place sent his friends, Beatus Rhenanus and +the young Amerbachs. Three times he made excuse; and at length the +Nuncio went on foot to seek in Froben's press the scholar who would +not come to him. What their conversation was we do not know; but +before leaving, the Nuncio ordered a copy of the Amerbach-Froben +Jerome to be sent to the binders and equipped with his arms and +adornments. + +Later in the year the enthusiastic Eobanus of Hesse appeared in +Louvain. He had come from Erfurt where he was teaching, and the main +purpose of his journey was to see Erasmus. His _Hodoeporicon_, +printed on his return, describes his course in detail. With a young +companion, John Werter, also from Erfurt, he entered Louvain in the +evening. Next morning early they sent in their 'callow' verses to the +great man, and followed shortly themselves. Erasmus came down to greet +them at the door with a kindly welcome, and Eobanus describes a +banquet to which he invited them, entertaining them with serious talk +and light-hearted jest. But it was at no light cost to Erasmus' time: +for when his admirers left five days later, he had been cajoled into +writing six letters of compliment, two to the travellers themselves +and four more to friends at Gotha and Erfurt. But this was not the +only cost. Eobanus imbued others of the Erfurt circle with his +hero-worship; and next year came two more, Jonas and Schalbe, to +trouble Erasmus' leisure, when he was taking a spring holiday at +Antwerp, 'by the sea', and to bear off more letters to Erfurt. The +spirit that animated these visitors is shown in a letter of John +Turzo, bishop of Breslau, a man of Erasmus' own age. In 1518 Ursinus +Velius, the disappointed secretary of the Cardinal of Gurk, had become +canon of Breslau on Turzo's presentation; and had doubtless talked to +his patron of Erasmus' attractive gifts. 'I am most eager to visit +you' wrote the Bishop, from Breslau. 'If ever I had heard that you +were anywhere within a week's journey from here, I should have rushed +over at once: indeed I would have gone as far as Belgium, if only the +business of my office allowed. The men of Cadiz who journeyed to Rome +to see Livy were not more eager.' + +A picture of the interruptions to which Erasmus was exposed is given +in a preface written in Froben's name for the new edition of Erasmus' +_Epigrammata_ combined with More's and with the _Utopia_, March 1518. +'Most of these verses' Froben is made to say 'were written not for +publication, but to give pleasure to friends; to whom he is always +very obliging. When he was here bringing out his New Testament and +Jerome, heavens! how he worked! toiling away untiringly day after day. +Never was any one more overwhelmed in composition; and yet certain +great persons thought themselves entitled to come and waste his time, +coaxing out of him a few lines of verse or a little letter. So +compliant was he that they made it very difficult for him. To refuse +seemed uncivil when they pressed him so. But to write when his mind +was intent elsewhere, and not a minute to spare from his labours----! +However, he did write, on the spur of the moment, turning aside for a +little to the groves of the Muses.' + +Some other visitors can be traced in this period. John Alexander +Brassicanus, poet laureate, came from Tubingen in September 1520 and +saw Erasmus at Antwerp; whence in reply to a letter of self-introduction +he bore away a complimentary letter that he afterwards printed, and +the sound piece of advice, that if he wished to become learned, he +must never think himself so. More distinguished was Ferdinand +Columbus, the explorer's natural son and heir, who in October 1520, +on one of those journeys on which he gathered his famous library, +received at Louvain a copy of Erasmus' _Antibarbari_, with his name +inscribed in it by the author. A visitor to whom we must pay more heed +was John Draco, one of the Erfurt circle, who in July 1520 came to pay +homage at Louvain. + +In the autumn of 1518 the agent of a Leipzig bookseller trading to +Prague received a letter to carry back with him and forward on to +Erasmus at Louvain. The writer was a certain Jan Slechta, a Bohemian +country gentleman, who was living at Kosteletz on the upper waters of +the Elbe, a few miles to the North-east of Prague. He was a man of +education and position. After taking his M.A. at Prague in 1484, he +had served for sixteen years as a secretary to King Ladislas of +Bohemia and Hungary; but about 1507, disgusted with the turmoils of +court life in that very troubled time, he had retired to his home, to +give his later years to the education of his son and the personal +management of his estates. The world of affairs had not extinguished +his love of learning. He was an intimate friend of Bohuslaus of +Hassenstein, scholar and traveller, and corresponded with him in +elegant Latin. Attracted by the reputation for eloquence won by the +notorious Hieronymus Balbus, he had persuaded him _c._ 1499 to come +and teach in Prague--a step which in view of Balbus' bad life he +afterwards deeply regretted. He was also the author of a dialogue on +the relations of body and soul, entitled _Microcosmus_; which with +characteristic modesty he kept for more than twenty years known only +to his intimate friends--indeed it was only in the last year of his +life that he composed a dedication for it, and it seems never to have +been printed. + +The tone of Slechta's thoughts in his later years was grave and +serious; as well it might be. The two kingdoms, then but loosely +united, were torn with internal factions and racial jealousies; while +in church towers and over city gates the bells hung ready to proclaim +to the countryside the advent of that ever-present menace, the Turk. +In the priesthood men could mark much that was amiss; and the seamless +robe of Christ was rent with schism, the candle that Hus and Jerome +had lighted a century before, still burning clearly among less sober +heresies, which drew down on it, as upon themselves, spasmodic +outbursts of retributive violence. Uneasy sat the crown on Ladislas' +head; and when Death, coming as a friend, took it from him in 1516, it +was only to thrust this sad office upon a ten-year-old boy, who after +ten more years of childish government was miserably to perish at +Mohacz. No wonder that Slechta and his friends looked anxiously upon +the future. 'The times of Hus and Wycliffe which our grandfathers +detested, seem golden beside our own' wrote Bohuslaus to Geiler of +Kaisersberg--a member of that grave circle of Strasburg humanists, +with which, it may be noted in passing, our Bohemians had much in +common. The letters of Slechta contain two disquisitions, one on the +frailties of a celibate clergy, the other on the duties of a parish +priest; advocating reforms by which he hoped to check the continuous +growth of 'those unutterable heretics, the Pyghards': by whom he meant +the Bohemian Brethren. + +What moved Slechta to correspond with Erasmus we do not know; possibly +a slighting reference in one of the latter's printed letters to 'those +schismatic Bohemians, who have infected most of Europe'. Slechta's +letter is unhappily lost; but from Erasmus' reply, dated 23 April 1519 +from Louvain, its general tenor may be gathered. It began, of course, +with eulogies of Erasmus and his work; and then, after some account of +the writer's life and fortunes, it proceeded to assure him that there +were persons in Bohemia who were not merely interested in good +learning but prepared to advance it. Finally it invited him to come to +Prague. Erasmus' answer to his unknown correspondent was courteous, +but firmly declined the invitation. 'What I can do at Prague I do not +see. It is considerate of you to offer me an escort for my journey; +but I confess I do not like regions where such company is necessary. +In this country one can go about wherever one likes, alone. I am sure +that, as you say, I should find among you plenty of learned and pious +men, who are not contaminated with the errors of schism. But how is it +that this division is suffered to remain? Better unity with some +hardship than to hold one's own at the cost of discord. I fear it is +money that stands in the way. Paul suffered the loss of all things +that he might win Christ. The world is full of cardinals and princes +and bishops; if only one of these would take up this matter in a truly +Christian spirit! If Paul were on the Pope's throne, I am sure he +would allow not only his revenues but his authority to be diminished, +if his loss would purchase unity.' Erasmus concludes cordially: 'If we +cannot meet, at any rate we can write. I will walk and talk with you +sometimes beside your Elbe, you shall come and dwell with me in +Brabant. Friendship can flourish without actual contact.' + +This letter was handed to Slechta on 11 September, four and a half +months after it was written. Nearly a year had elapsed since his +letter had been dispatched and he had given up hopes of a reply: so +that these amiable and encouraging words were the more welcome, and he +at once proceeded to act upon them. Within a month he had composed a +letter of some elegance, in which while subscribing to Erasmus' +prayers for unity, he pointed out the difficulties of the task. To the +remarks about coming to Prague he rejoined regretfully: 'I can quite +see that there is nothing for you to do here. There are many of us who +would have been glad of your coming; but I understand that we must +hope to see you at another time and elsewhere. That travellers in our +country need an escort you would not wonder if you could see how the +roads run, among lofty mountains shrouded in impenetrable forests. +These give cover to hordes of brigands, who prey upon travellers and +merchants, robbing and killing indifferently. Almost every month +there are punitive raids made from the towns, and brigands are +captured and put to death. But the pest seems ineradicable.' + +Slechta then proceeds to the religious troubles, and after expressing +general agreement with Erasmus, describes the three main parties into +which the life of Bohemia and Moravia was cloven. First the orthodox +Romanists, loyal to the Church and in unity with Germany and the rest +of Christendom; finding their adherents amongst the upper classes, +together with some of the King's cities and the monasteries, many of +which, though once rich, had now fallen into decay. Secondly, the +Utraquists, otherwise orthodox but practising communion in both kinds, +and at their services reading the Epistle and Gospel in the +vernacular: with some supporters among the nobility, a good many +gentry, and nearly thirty royal cities. After tracing their history +from the Council of Basle and briefly stating their views, he adds +that no one in the kingdom is able to propound a solution of the +difficulties existing. Thirdly, the Bohemian Brethren, whom he styles +Pyghards. This name, from the opprobrious sense in which it is +generally used, is now thought to be derived from the Beghards, a +mediaeval sect whose vagaries drew down upon it frequent persecution; +but Slechta traces it to a foreign vagabond who came from Picardy in +1422 and infected with his pestilent doctrines the army of John Ziska, +the Taborite, an army of those that were in distress, in debt, in +discontent. + +This sect, Slechta tells us, lasted continuously down to the times of +the late King Ladislas (d. 1516), and indeed increased considerably +under him; for his thoughts were much occupied with Hungary, and he +was content if Bohemia could be maintained in an outward appearance of +peace. Then follows a description of their opinions. 'The Pope and all +his officials they regard as Antichrist. They choose their own +bishops, rude unlettered laymen, with wives and families. They salute +one another as Brother and Sister; and recognize no authority but the +Bible. Their priests celebrate mass without vestments, use leavened +bread and only the Lord's Prayer. Transubstantiation they deny, and +the worship of the host they regard as idolatry. Vows to the saints, +prayers for the dead, and confession to priests they ridicule; and +they keep no holy days but Sundays, Christmas, Easter and Whitsun.' 'I +will not waste your time with more of these pernicious views. My +feeling is that if the two first-named parties could only be +reconciled, this nefarious sect might, with the aid of the King, be +exterminated or at any rate reduced to a better state of faith and +religion.' + +The roads in Bohemia might be dangerous, but the distance to Louvain +was not so great as it had seemed at first; for Erasmus' reply is +dated 1 Nov. 1519, only three weeks after Slechta's letter. He begins +again with the roads. 'Prevention is better than punishment. It would +be wiser if, instead of these avenging raids, the more frequented +roads could be cleared of forest on either side, and held by +block-houses and armed posts at intervals. Indeed it is somewhat +discreditable that the great towns and princes of Germany cannot +achieve what the Swiss do by co-operation and local action.' He then +turns to the religious dissensions, and in his passion for concord +exclaims that it would be better that a nation should be united in +error than so numerously divided: experience shows that there is no +opinion so wild but that some one will be found to embrace it. Of the +orthodox party he has nothing to say beyond extolling the system by +which the Pope might act as judge and father of all, and as supreme +court of appeal. To the Utraquists he would counsel conformity to the +practice of the majority; although unable to understand why the Church +should have allowed a practice instituted by Christ to fall into +disuse. + +Then he comes to the Brethren, and after admitting that they have +strayed further than the Utraquists from the rule of Christian life, +he continues: 'If they go on still in their wickedness, they must be +restrained; but this is not the duty of any one who likes, nor must +violence be used, lest the innocent suffer with the guilty. Their +practice of electing their own priests and bishops has authority in +antiquity; but it certainly is unfortunate if their choice falls on +men bad as well as unlearned. With the titles of Brother and Sister I +see no fault to find: it is a pity they are not more widely used among +Christians. To prefer God's word in the Bible to the judgements of +Doctors is sound: though to reject the latter altogether is as uniform +an error as to embrace them to the exclusion of everything else. To +celebrate the mass in everyday dress is not contrary to the truth; +but it is a pity to abandon customs sanctioned by use and authority: +though perhaps the Pope might be persuaded to concede to them the use +of their own rites, as he does to the Greeks and the Milanese. The +Lord's Prayer is, of course, part of our own use; and though it seems +narrow to confine themselves to this, I doubt whether they do worse +than those who weave in long strings of intercession from any source. +Their opinions about the sacraments are certainly impious; but at any +rate they are under no temptation to exploit these holy mysteries for +the sake of gain or futile glory or tyrannous imposition. I do not see +why they should reject vigils and fasts in moderation; but these are +matters for encouragement rather than positive command. About +festivals they seem to follow the usage current in the days of Jerome: +better, I think, than the modern calendar, full of saints-days which +end in riot and carouse, and on which the honest journeyman is +forbidden to work for his children's bread.' As Slechta read these +words, he must surely have felt as did Balak, the son of Zippor, when +he listened to the seer from Mesopotamia taking up his parable upon +Israel in the plains of Moab. The man whose eyes were open, had +blessed the Brethren instead of cursing them; and literary Europe +might well follow his lead. + +The history of the Bohemian Brethren is of exceptional interest, +affording an example of a community professing a plain, simple faith +and ruling their lives by modest conceptions of ordinary goodness, +who, guided by leaders almost unknown to the world, through the +trials of good and evil repute, through tribulation and prosperity, +kept serenely upon the path they had marked out for themselves, living +and growing into one of the most flourishing and devoted missionary +bodies of the present day. As is natural under such conditions, their +origin is not free from obscurity. Men connected them with the +Waldensians of Southern France, or traced them, as we have seen, to a +leader from Picardy. Through the fifteenth century they grew steadily +in strength and unity, sheltered by the toleration which Rome +unwillingly granted to the Utraquists as a result of the Compacts of +Basle; and as compared with other dissentient bodies their name was +singularly free from gross imputations. Throughout that age such +imputations were freely made and believed against heretics. This was +not unreasonable. In the low state of public and private morals faith +was regarded as an indispensable bulwark to conduct, the faith which +taught indeed that a man should love God and his neighbour, but +stablished him into practising what he professed, by lurid pictures of +the fate awaiting him if he did not. Without this bulwark it was not +thought possible that a man could lead a godly, righteous and sober +life; and so he was considered capable of every form of vice, if he +ventured to doubt the truth of those opinions on which the Church had +set its seal, in realms into which it now seems that human knowledge +cannot penetrate. + +At the beginning of the sixteenth century fresh attempts were being +made to win back the Brethren to orthodoxy; and in this work the +ardour of the Dominicans burned bright. In 1500 one of them, Henry +Institor, a Doctor of Theology, procured from Alexander VI bulls which +recognized him as 'Inquisitor into heresy throughout Germany and +Bohemia', and empowered him to collect heretical books and send them +to the Bishop of Olmutz, the chief see of Moravia, to be burned; also +to join to himself two or three other Masters of Theology and preach +against the heretics. These bulls are printed at the head of a great +volume written by Institor, with the title 'A shield for the faith of +the Holy Roman Church against the heresy of the Waldensians or +Pickards, who on all sides are infecting with virulent contagion +certain races in Germany and Bohemia, to hatred of the clergy and +enervation of the ecclesiastical power'. In 1501 the volume appeared +at Olmutz, with an enumeration of thirty-six erroneous articles in +which the Pickards denied the authority of the Church; followed of +course by a vigorous refutation. At the same time one of their own +countrymen, Augustine Kasenbrot of Olmutz was writing a series of open +letters on the Brethren and their views. + +But the most succinct account of the position is contained in an +attack made upon them by a learned and fair-minded Dominican, Jacobus +Lilienstayn. His book, 'a Treatise against the erroneous Waldensian +Brethren, commonly known as the Pickards, without rule, without law, +and without obedience, of whom there are many in Moravia, more than +in Bohemia', was composed in 1505 and is dedicated to the Dean of +Prague. It begins by setting forth five general and twelve special +errors of the Waldensians. The former are as follows: + + 1. They call the Gospels, the Epistles and the Acts, together + with the Old Testament where it agrees with the New, 'the Law + of Christ'; and they attack and deride the Doctors of the + Church. + + 2. They say the Pope has no more power in administering the + sacraments of the Church, and in other ecclesiastical matters, + than a simple priest has. + + 3. They say that in the practice of the Church nothing is to be + added to what Christ and the Apostles taught and did. + + 4. They hold the pure text of the Gospel without any gloss. + + 5. They allege that the Church is in error, and that they + themselves are the brethren of Christ and the true imitators of + the Apostles. + +Amongst the special errors are denials of the validity of indulgences +and of the efficacy of masses for the dead; and the general simplicity +of their conduct is shown in their practices at birth and death, +baptism requiring only pure water, not holy oil and the chrism, and +extreme unction banished from the death-bed. + +Finally the good Dominican gives a brief account of the life of these +Brethren 'without obedience'. In his preface he expresses his +difficulty in gathering the truth about them: 'for they are as +inconstant as the moon, and the practices alleged against them in the +past are denied by them to-day.' But he concludes honestly that though +their faith is 'abhominable' to true Christians, their life is good +enough. His good sense is further shown by his refusal to accept an +absurd story about their method of choosing their leaders. 'When one +of these is to be chosen', so ran the tale, 'the community meets +together. And as they sit in silence, the windows being open, a great +fly enters and buzzes over them, settling at length on the head of +one; who is then set apart for a season. And when he is brought back, +he is found to be learned in Latin and theology and whatever else is +necessary, though he were rude and ignorant before.' This Lilienstayn +finds clearly false: the simple life of the Brethren he illustrates by +their practice. 'They have Bibles in Bohemian, which they read. Their +women wear veils, and no colours, only black, white and grey. They all +labour with their hands.' Thus their life to him was 'good enough'. It +may remind us in many points of the Quakers. + +The attacks upon them led the Brethren to reply. In 1507 they composed +an _Apologia_ addressed to the King, to show that they were not +without rule, without law and without obedience, and to defend the +manner of their life. This was printed at Nuremberg in 1507, and again +in 1518; but of the original editions I have not been able to see a +copy. The attacks continued. In 1512 another ponderous volume +appeared, composed by Jacob Ziegler, the well-known Bavarian +scientist, to demonstrate the falsity of their opinions. What finally +impelled the Brethren to court countenance from Erasmus is not clear; +possibly the cool reception the Utraquists had had from Luther the +year before, with the rather contemptuous suggestion that their style +and opinions were more like Erasmus' than his own. The episode has +escaped Erasmus' biographers; and I cannot find any mention of it +except an allusion in one of his letters, and a description in a +treatise on the Brethren by Joachim Camerarius the elder (1500-1574). +Camerarius' book was not published till 1605; but we can perhaps trace +the source of his information. From 1518 onwards he spent some years +at Erfurt. In January 1521 Erasmus describes the visit of the +Brethren's envoys as having occurred six months before; at Antwerp, +according to Camerarius, where he may be traced in June 1520. If we +recall that it was in July that Draco came from Erfurt to pay his +visit of homage, it seems quite likely that on his return he may have +given to Camerarius the detailed record which the latter has +preserved. + +By that time Erasmus' name was well known in Central Europe. 'Both +from Hungary and Bohemia' he says in 1518 'bishops and men of position +write to thank me for my New Testament.' Apart from the learned world +there were others, too, who must have known him; for a Bohemian +translation had just appeared of the new preface to his _Enchiridion_, +a preface in which he had written with an almost Lutheran freedom +about abuses in the Church, and had extolled the life of simple +Christianity. This was a book to appeal at once to the Brethren. +Another of his works which may have had its effect in attracting them +was the _Julius Exclusus_. This exquisitely witty satire dealt freely +with the Pope and his office, the Pope whom the Brethren accounted no +more than a simple priest; and though its licence was too bold for +Erasmus ever to admit its authorship--indeed, as we have seen, he +consistently denied it--, it was attributed to him on all sides, in +company with others, his secret being on the whole well kept. The +_Julius_ was translated into Bohemian, somewhere about this time: but +from the nature of it, a kind of book to which publishers as well as +authors were loath to put their names, it cannot be definitely placed. +So it was, too, with the _Moria_, which had been translated by Gregory +Hruby Gelenski, father of the scholar, Sigismund Gelenius; but of +which no contemporary edition survives. + +If the Brethren had seen Erasmus' final letter to Slechta, they might +well have been encouraged to hope much from him. But of this there is +no indication. Slechta was hardly likely to communicate it to them; +and though such documents often leaked out against the owner's will, +its first appearance in print was in 1521, in Erasmus' _Epistolae ad +diuersos_. I cannot find any translation into a vernacular except a +German version by John Froben of Andernach which appeared at Nuremberg +in 1531. + +Whatever was the motive attraction, the Brethren sent as their +envoys, so Camerarius tells us, Nicholas Claudianus, a learned +physician, and Laurence Voticius (Woticky), a man of many +accomplishments, who died at a good age in 1565--a date, which, if it +be not a later interpolation, is an indication as to when Camerarius +composed his narrative.[44] They brought with them a copy of their +_Apologia_, printed at Nuremberg in 1511--a date which appears to be +wrong--and presented it to Erasmus at Antwerp with the request that he +would read it through and see if there was anything in it that he +would wish to have changed. If that were so, they would readily defer +to his criticisms; but if, as they hoped, he approved of what they +said, it would be a help and consolation to them if he would express +that opinion. + + [44] L. Camerarius, in his preface, 1 Jan. 1605, describes the + book as composed 'more than thirty years ago'. + +He took the book and said he would be glad to read it; but when after +a few days they came for his answer, he told them he had been too busy +to do more than glance through it: so far as he had gone, he found no +error and nothing that he would wish to alter. He declined, however, +to bear testimony about it, as this would bring them no help, and only +danger to himself. 'You must not think', he said, 'that any words of +mine will bring you support; indeed, my own influence, such as it is, +requires the backing of others. If it is true that my writings are of +any value to divine and useful learning, it seems to me unwise to +jeopardize their influence by proclaiming publicly the agreement +between us: such actions might lead to their being condemned and torn +from the hands of the public. Forgive me for this caution, you will +perhaps call it fear: and be assured that I wish you well and will +most gladly help you in other matters.' The envoys were disappointed, +Camerarius records, but took his refusal in good part: for they relied +not on the judgements of men to be the foundation of their heavenly +edifice of truth. The good sense of his words no doubt appealed to +them; for the Brethren were above all things moderate men, averse from +violence, convinced perhaps by their own experience that a display of +courage is unwise when it provokes opposition and raises obstacles to +progress. + +The matter was not, however, allowed to rest. In the same year an +appeal on behalf of the Brethren was made to Erasmus from another +quarter. One of the features of their movement had been the number of +the nobility who had become sympathizers, if not actual members of the +community. One of these was Artlebus of Boskowitz, a kinsman perhaps +of that 'nobilis virgo, Martha de Boskowitz' whom the Brethren in +addressing the King had adduced as one of their supporters. From the +castle of Znaim, his official residence as Supreme Captain of Moravia, +Artlebus wrote, telling Erasmus of the steady growth of the Brethren, +and of the futility of all attempts to withstand their doctrines by +argument; and sending him a copy of their Rule, with the request that +he would read it and frame thereupon a standard of Christian piety, +which all men, including the Brethren, might follow. He turned then +to praise Luther for the courageous fight he was making, and urged +Erasmus to join with him in sowing the seed of the Gospel. + +Erasmus' reply, dated 28 Jan. 1521 from Louvain, has no address but +'N. viro praepotenti'; and in consequence its connexion with Artlebus +of Boskowitz has escaped notice. As was to be expected, he declined +the proposal that he should set up a standard of Christian observance. +He might criticize with all freedom the practices of monks and clergy +and speak straightly of Papal iniquities: but the standard of the +Church was still the life of Christ, and he would not arrogate to +himself the right to draw the picture of this anew. He took the +opportunity to lament, as he had done to Slechta, the discord +prevailing in Bohemia, and to urge that a serious attempt should be +made to reconcile the Brethren to the Church. But since his +correspondence with Slechta the world had gone forward. Luther had +burned the Pope's bull at Wittenberg, and Aleander at Worms was +pressing the Diet to annihilate him. Erasmus has less to say to +Artlebus in favour of the Brethren than he had said to Slechta: +indeed, after the appeal for moderation, he goes no further than to +condemn the attitude of the opponents of the Papacy, doubtless +intending to include among them the Brethren. About Luther he would +give no decided opinion. 'It is absurd how men condemn Luther's books +without reading them. Some parts of Luther's writings are good; but +parts are not, and over these I skip. If Luther stands by the +Catholic Church, I will gladly join him.' Artlebus' reply is not +extant; but a sentence in a letter of Erasmus to Wolsey a year later +shows that the 'Bohemian Captain' was greatly vexed by the failure of +his overtures. + +This is the last trace of Erasmus' correspondence with Bohemia. But, +uncompromising as he had been in his refusal to both appeals, his +influence there was only just at its commencement, if we may judge by +the list of his works translated into Bohemian, which the Ghent +bibliography has brought to light. The translation of his preface to +the _Enchiridion_ was followed by his version of the _Saturnalia_ of +Lucian (first published in 1517) in 1520; the _Precatio dominica_ +(1523) in 1526; his version of the New Testament in 1533; some of the +Colloquies in 1534; the _De Ciuilitate_ (1530) in 1537; the Paraphrase +on St. Matthew (1522) and the _De puritate Ecclesiae_ (1536) in 1542; +the _De immensa Dei misericordia_ (1524) in 1558 and 1573; the +_Apophthegmata Graeciae sapientum_ (1514) in 12 editions between 1558 +and 1599; the _De praeparatione ad mortem_ (1534) in 1564 and 1786; +and the _Vidua Christiana_ (1529) in 1595. The envoys of the Brethren +were perhaps wise enough to see that they had much to learn from the +man who was courageous enough to preach caution and to let himself +appear afraid. + + * * * * * + + + + +INDEX + + +Aberdeen University, 103-4. + +accuracy, new standards of, 258-61. + +Adrian VI, 107. + +Agricola, R., 14-21, 25-9, 31, 32, 63. + +Agrippa, H.C., 143. + +Aldus, 126, 128, 129, 135-6, 151, 253, 262-3. + +Aleander, 112, 136, 209, 297. + +Alexander of Ville-Dieu, 41. + +alphabetical principle, 43, 47-9. + +America, 92. + +Amorbach: + Ba., 147-9; + Bo., 147-9, 151, 164, 193, 278; + Br., 147-51; + J., 77, 146-51. + +Andreas, B., 129. + +Andrelinus, Faustus, 113, 186. + +Aquinas, 12, 255. + +Arnold of Hildesheim, 24. + +Arthurian legend, 93. + +Artlebus of Boskowitz, 296-8. + +Ascham, 156, 208, 256, 266. + +Asperen, destruction of, 172. + +astrology, 216-18. + +Augustinian Canons, reformed, 81; + house at Oxford, 117. + + +Balbi, J., 43 seq., 49. + +Balbus, H., 186, 281. + +Bartholomew of Cologne, 63-5. + +Basle, 146. + +Batt, J., 115-16, 130. + +Beatus Rhenanus, 154-8, 164, 278; + his _Res Germanicae_, 146, 156, 275; + extracts from his letters, 195, 210, 267, 268, 273. + +Beheim, J., of Niklashausen, 220. + +Benedictines, at Neuss, 70; + at Ottobeuren, 86 seq.; + at Oxford, 124; + reformed, 61-2, 79-85. + +Bergen, Ant. of, abbot of St. Omer, 165, 176, 205. + +Bergen, Henry of, bp. of Cambray, 68, 102, 104, 176, 204. + +Bessel, B., 113. + +Black Band, 170-5. + +Bohuslaus of Hassenstein, 281-2. + +Bondius, J., 92. + +books, supervision of, by others, 155, 159-61, 187. + +Boys, H., 103. + +Brassicanus, J.A., 280. + +Breslau, 35, 58, 279. + +Brethren of the Common Life, 69, 75; + as teachers, 9, 25-6, 34, 61, 66. + +Briard, J., 108. + +Budaeus, 122, 135, 210, 218. + +Bursfeld reforms, 75, 80. + +Burgundy, David of, bp. of Utrecht, II; + Philip of, bp. of Utrecht, 166. + +Butzbach, 21, 56-62, 68-79, 113, 201. + + +Camerarius, J., 52, 293, 295. + +Canterbury; + Christchurch, 123-4; + pilgrimages to, 209, 228-9. + +Catholicon, 43-6. + +Celtis, C., 265, 266, 269. + +Chateau-Landon, 81-2. + +Chezal-Benoit, 83-4. + +child-marriage, 116. + +Colet, 117, 127, 128, 130, 138, 141-3, 175, 203, 229. + +Columbus, F., 280. + +Complutensian Polyglott, 263. + +Compostella, 231-2. + +Cono, J., 147, 151. + +Copernicus, N., 211. + +Cracow University, 87. + +Crete, labyrinth of Minos in, 92. + +Cues, library at, 30-1. + +Cusanus, N., 30. + + +Dalaber, A., 217. + +Dalberg, John of, bp. of Worms, 19, 20, 31, 271. + +Dederoth, J., 80. + +Deventer school, 21, 30, 33-6, 39, 60-4, 69, 76; + plague at, 27, 34; + printers, 63. + +Dominicans, 43, 52, 88, 146, 147, 238, 249, 290, 291. + +'doole', 192. + +Draco, J., 281, 293. + +Drolshagen, J., 38. + + +Ebrardus, 36, 39-41. + +Eck, J., 92. + +Ellenbog: + B., 87, 95-6, 99; + J., 87, 96-7, 99; + N., 87-101, 209, 210; + U., 87, 92, 94-5, 201; + U. jun., 87, 94. + +Emmanuel of Constantinople, 122. + +Eobanus of Hesse, 278-9. + +Erasmus, form of name, 39 n.; + early life, 11; + at school, 21, 11; + at Steyn, 66-8; + in Paris, 102-5, 114-15, 139-41; + in England, 116-17, 130; + at Oxford, 117, 128; + at Cambridge, 120, 134,137-44; + in Italy, 135-7; + rumour of death, 145; + at Basle, 158-64; + death, 164; + labours for peace, 164-6; + indifferent to Nature, 207-9; + uses astrological mug, 218; + pilgrimage to Canterbury, 229; + appreciations of, 265, 267-8; + visitors to, 277-81; + relations with the Bohemians, xi. + +WORKS. + _Adagia_, 135-7, 144, 158, 165; + _Antibarbari_, 281; + compositions in Paris, 115; + early poems, 103-4, 132; + editions of the Fathers, 163; + _Enchiridion_, 293; + _Epigrammata_, 280; + Jerome, 138-40, 158, 280; + _Julius Exclusus_, 184-9, 294; + _Moriae Encomium_, 46, 143, 187, 294; + New Testament, 11, 140, 158, 160-2, 263-4, 280; + Paraphrases, 197; + _Querla Pacis_, 166; + Seneca, 144, 158-9; + translations into Bohemian from, 293-4, 298. + + +Fabri, F., 238-51. + +families, length of, 202-4. + +Fernand, C., 82, 84-6, 92, 177; + J., 82, 84. + +Franciscans, 92, 144, 147; + at Jerusalem, 238, 245. + +Frankfort, book-fairs at, 149, 153. + +Froben, J., 151-3, 158. + + +Gaguin, 84, 102-3, 175. + +Garland, J., 36-9. + +Gebwiler, H., 26 n. + +Geldenhauer, G., 15, 16, 17, 18, 21. + +Gerard, Cornelius, 82, 165. + +Germany, national feeling in, 264-75; + historical studies in, 268-75. + +Goswin of Halen, 14, 31-2. + +Greek, study of, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 27-30, 38-41, 43-8, 85, 88, 90, + 91, 117, 120, 126, 127, 134, 137, 150, 151, 262-3; + manuscripts, 11, 18, 30, 31, 147, 160-1. + +Grocin, W., 126-9, 263. + +grossness, 205-6. + +Grynaeus, S., 160. + +Gueldres, 61, 165, 170-3. + + +Hebrew, study of, 11, 12, 29, 30, 47, 54, 90, 91, 92, 100, 117, 147, + 151, 263. + +Hegius, 16, 21, 25-30, 34-5, 41-2, 60, 61, 63, 69. + +Heidelberg University, 11, 20, 28, 87, 97. + +Helinand, 53. + +Henry VIII, scholarship of, 184. + +Herman, W., 21, 104, 165. + +Hermonymus of Sparta, 122, 134. + +Huguitio, 45. + +humanists, attitude towards mediaeval romance, 93; + feeling towards Nature, 207-10. + +Hungarian acrobats, 92. + +Hus, 58, 179, 282. + +Hyrde, R., 198. + + +India, religious condition of, 93. + +interpretations, 114. + +Irenicus, F., 272-4. + + +Jacobus of Breda, 63. + +Johannisberg, Abbey of, 59, 60, 72, 74, 76. + +Jouveneaux, G., 82, 84. + + +Kempis, Thomas a, 10. + +Koberger, A., 203-4. + +Kortenhorff, Gutta, 61. + +Kratzer, N., 142, 197. + +Kunig, H., 231-2. + + +Laach, 68, 73-81. + +Langen, R., 21, 23. + +Lascaris, C., 88, 150. + +Latimer, W., 126-8. + +Lily, W., 126, 129. + +Limburg, burning of, 99. + +Linacre, 41, 126, 129, 187, 218, 253. + +Lollhard, 60. + +London, scholars in, 128, 130. + +Louvain University, 15, 107-8. + +Loyola, 245. + +Luther, 212, 267, 268, 275, 293; + at Worms, 179; + Erasmus' attitude towards, 186, 298; + love of nature, 210. + + +Mammotrectus, 53-5. + +manuscripts, free lending of, 30, 136, 140-2, 160; + free access to, 82, 271. + +Marchesinus, J., 53. + +Mary, Princess, 193, 197, 198. + +Mas, P. du, 83. + +Mauburn, J., 81-2. + +medicine, practice of, 218-19. + +Meghen, P., 141-2. + +Melanchthon, 212. + +Merton College, Oxford, ejection of Warden, 176. + +Milanese rite, 288. + +morals, 204-5. + +More, T., 127, 129, 143, 197-8, 205, 229; + _Utopia_, 187, 188, 201; + matrimonial relations, 194-5; + love of Nature, 209. + +Mormann, F., 25-6. + + +news, dissemination of, 214-16. + + +Oda Jargis, 9, 200. + +Oporinus, J., 193. + +Ostendorp, 12, 69. + +Ottobeuren, 86-101. + + +Paffraet, R., 29, 63. + +Papias, 46-8, 49. + +Paris University, 10; + lectures at, 104, 112; + life in, 112-15, 145, 148-51; + Montaigu College, 102; + College de la Marche, 112, 210. + +Parr, Katherine, 192. + +Paston, Sir John, 194, 205. + +Pavia University, 16. + +Peasants' Revolt, 99-101. + +Pellican, C., 92, 147. + +Peter, name of, 71. + +Platter, T., 35, 58-9, 154. + +Poncher, S., 265. + +Praedinius, R., 31. + +Prague University, 281. + +press, early productions of, 254. + +prisoners, redemption of, 175. + +proofs, correction of, 159, 187. + + +Quakers, 29, 86, 292. + +quodlibetical disputations, 105-11. + + +Reading Abbey, 123. + +Rees, Henry of, 8, 12. + +Reisch, G., 99, 147. + +remarriage, 192-5. + +Reuchlin, 31, 91, 122, 147, 195, 267. + +Rode, J., 80. + +Roper, M., 195, 198. + +Rychard, W., 219. + + +St. Patrick's cave, 92, 226. + +Santiago de Compostella, 229, 231-2. + +Sapidus, J., 147, 206. + +Schinner, M., 219. + +Schlettstadt, 147, 154, 156-8, 206, 272. + +schools, books used in, 62-5, 257; + numbers of, 154. + +Selling, W., 123, 141. + +Serbopoulos, J., 123. + +Shirwood, J., 124-6. + +Sion, near Delft, 66, 81. + +Sixtus IV, 10, 11, 34, 122. + +Slechta, J., 281-8. + +Souillac, 177. + +spelling, uncertainty in, 49-52. + +Spires, libraries at, 18, 271. + +Sprenger, 46. + +Standonck, J., 102, 145. + +Synthius, _v._ Zinthius. + + +Thomas of Illyria, 219-20. + +Tournay, dispute over bishopric, 177. + +Trithemius, 31, 59, 76-8, 214, 269, 273; + 'In praise of scribes', 261-2. + +Trivet, Nic., 50. + +Turzo, J., 279. + + +Urswick, C., 142. + +Utraquists, 285, 287, 289, 293. + + +Valla, L., 23, 24, 27, 28, 115, 140-1, 262. + +Vaudois, 289; + crusade against, 180-1. + +Veere, Lady of, 115, 131. + +Vienne, Council of, 118, 266. + +Vincent of Beauvais, 52. + +visits of ceremony, 276-81. + +Vrye, A., 22-5, 197, 201-2. + +Vrye, J., 22. + + +Wesley, J., 13. + +Wessel, 9-13, 29-32, 200. + +Wimpfeling, 87, 269. + +Windesheim, 81. + +women, seclusion of, 196; + education of, 196-200; + position of, 200-2. + + +Ximenes, 263. + + +Zinthius, 34, 41-2, 63. + +Zwingli, 204, 268. + +Zwolle, 9, 10, 33, 34, 38. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note: + + _text_ represents text that was italicised in original. + [=x] represents letter 'x' with macron. + [)x] represents letter 'x' with crescent. + [Greek: xxx] contains transliteration of Greek in original. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Age of Erasmus, by P. 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