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diff --git a/22900-h/22900-h.htm b/22900-h/22900-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d80d2b --- /dev/null +++ b/22900-h/22900-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11773 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Erasmus, and the Age of Reformation, by Johan Huizinga + </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: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .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; color: black; 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;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .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 {border: dashed 1px;} + .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 br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, by Johan Huizinga + +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: Erasmus and the Age of Reformation + +Author: Johan Huizinga + +Release Date: October 5, 2007 [EBook #22900] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ERASMUS AND THE AGE OF REFORMATION *** + + + + +Produced by John Hagerson, Juliet Sutherland, David King, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h1>ERASMUS AND THE AGE OF REFORMATION</h1> +<h3>By</h3> +<h2>JOHAN HUIZINGA</h2> + +<h3>with a selection from +the letters of Erasmus</h3> + + +<p class="center">HARPER TORCHBOOKS / The Cloister Library<br/> +HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS<br/> +<br/> +NEW YORK, EVANSTON, AND LONDON</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/frontispiece.png"> +<img src="images/frontispiece-th.png" width="250" height="465" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">WOODCUT BY HANS HOLBEIN. 1535</p> + + +<p><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></p> + +<p>Huizinga's text was translated from the Dutch +by F. Hopman and first published by Charles +Scribner's Sons in 1924. The section from +the Letters of Erasmus was translated by +Barbara Flower.</p> + +<p>Reprinted by arrangement with Phaidon +Press, Ltd., London</p> + +<p>Originally published under the title: "Erasmus +of Rotterdam"</p> + +<p>First <span class="smcap">HARPER TORCHBOOK</span> edition published 1957</p> + +<p>Library of Congress catalogue card number 57-10119<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<p><a href="#preface"><i>Preface by G. N. Clark</i></a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_i">Chapter I. CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH, 1466-88</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_ii">Chapter II. IN THE MONASTERY, 1488-95</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_iii">Chapter III. THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, 1495-9</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_iv">Chapter IV. FIRST STAY IN ENGLAND, 1499-1500</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_v">Chapter V. ERASMUS AS A HUMANIST</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_vi">Chapter VI. THEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS, 1501</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_vii">Chapter VII. YEARS OF TROUBLE—LOUVAIN, PARIS, ENGLAND, 1502-6</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_viii">Chapter VIII. IN ITALY, 1506-9</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_ix">Chapter IX. THE PRAISE OF FOLLY</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_x">Chapter X. THIRD STAY IN ENGLAND, 1509-14</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xi">Chapter XI. A LIGHT OF THEOLOGY, 1514-16</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xii">Chapter XII. ERASMUS'S MIND</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xiii">Chapter XIII. ERASMUS'S MIND (<i>continued</i>)</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xiv">Chapter XIV. ERASMUS'S CHARACTER</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xv">Chapter XV. AT LOUVAIN, 1517-18</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xvi">Chapter XVI. FIRST YEARS OF THE REFORMATION</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xvii">Chapter XVII. ERASMUS AT BASLE, 1521-9</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xviii">Chapter XVIII. CONTROVERSY WITH LUTHER AND GROWING CONSERVATISM, 1524-6</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xix">Chapter XIX. AT WAR WITH HUMANISTS AND REFORMERS, 1528-9</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xx">Chapter XX. LAST YEARS</a></p> +<p><a href="#chapter_xxi">Chapter XXI. CONCLUSION</a></p> +<p><a href="#letters">SELECTED LETTERS OF ERASMUS</a></p> +<p><a href="#illustrations">List of Illustrations</a></p> +<p><a href="#index">Index of Names</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="preface" id="preface"></a>PREFACE</h2> + +<p><i>by G.N. Clark, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford</i></p> + + +<p>Rather more than twenty years ago, on a spring morning +of alternate cloud and sunshine, I acted as guide to Johan +Huizinga, the author of this book, when he was on a visit +to Oxford. As it was not his first stay in the city, and he knew +the principal buildings already, we looked at some of the less +famous. Even with a man who was well known all over the +world as a writer, I expected that these two or three hours +would be much like the others I had spent in the same capacity +with other visitors; but this proved to be a day to remember. +He understood the purposes of these ancient buildings, the +intentions of their founders and builders; but that was to be +expected from an historian who had written upon the history +of universities and learning. What surprised and delighted me +was his seeing eye. He told me which of the decorative <i>motifs</i> +on the Tower of the Four Orders were usual at the time when +it was built, and which were less common. At All Souls he +pointed out the seldom appreciated merits of Hawksmoor's +twin towers. His eye was not merely informed but sensitive. +I remembered that I had heard of his talent for drawing, and +as we walked and talked I felt the influence of a strong, quiet +personality deep down in which an artist's perceptiveness was +fused with a determination to search for historical truth.</p> + +<p>Huizinga's great success and reputation came suddenly +when he was over forty. Until that time his powers were +ripening, not so much slowly as secretly. His friends knew +that he was unique, but neither he nor they foresaw what +direction his studies would take. He was born in 1872 in +Groningen, the most northerly of the chief towns of the +Netherlands, and there he went to school and to the University. +He studied Dutch history and literature and also Oriental +languages and mythology and sociology; he was a good +linguist and he steadily accumulated great learning, but he +was neither an infant prodigy nor a universal scholar. Science<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +and current affairs scarcely interested him, and until his +maturity imagination seemed to satisfy him more than +research. Until he was over thirty he was a schoolmaster at +Haarlem, a teacher of history; but it was still uncertain +whether European or Oriental studies would claim him in +the end. For two or three years before giving up school-teaching +he lectured in the University of Amsterdam on +Sanskrit, and it was almost an accident that he became +professor of history in the University of his native town. All +through his life it was characteristic of him that after a spell +of creative work, when he had finished a book, he would +turn aside from the subject that had absorbed him and plunge +into some other subject or period, so that the books and +articles in the eight volumes of his collected works (with one +more volume still to come) cover a very wide range. As time +went on he examined aspects of history which at first he had +passed over, and he acquired a clear insight into the political +and economic life of the past. It has been well said of him that +he never became either a pedant or a doctrinaire. During the +ten years that he spent as professor at Groningen, he found +himself. He was happily married, with a growing family, and +the many elements of his mind drew together into a unity. +His sensitiveness to style and beauty came to terms with his +conscientious scholarship. He was rooted in the traditional +freedoms of his national and academic environment, but his +curiosity, like the historical adventures of his people and his +profession, was not limited by time or space or prejudice. He +came more and more definitely to find his central theme in +civilization as a realized ideal, something that men have +created in an endless variety of forms, but always in order +to raise the level of their lives.</p> + +<p>While this interior fulfilment was bringing Huizinga to his +best, the world about him changed completely. In 1914, +Holland became a neutral country surrounded by nations at +war. In 1914, also, his wife died, and it was as a lonely widower +that he was appointed in the next year to the chair of general +history at Leyden, which he was to hold for the rest of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> +academic life. Yet the year after the end of the war saw the +publication of his masterpiece, the book which gave him his +high place among historical writers and was translated as +<i>The Waning of the Middle Ages</i>. This is a study of the forms of +life and thought in France and the Netherlands in the fourteenth +and fifteenth centuries, the last phase of one of the great +European eras of civilization. In England, where the Middle +Ages had been idealized for generations, some of its leading +thoughts did not seem so novel as they did in Holland, where +many people regarded the Renaissance and more still regarded +the Reformation as a new beginning of a better world; but in +England and America, which had been drawn, unlike Holland, +into the vortex of war, it had the poignancy of a recall to the +standards of reasonableness. It will long maintain its place as +a historical book and as a work of literature.</p> + +<p>The shorter book on Erasmus is a companion to this great +work. It was first published in 1924 and so belongs to the same +best period of the author. Its subject is the central intellectual +figure of the next generation after the period which Huizinga +called the waning, or rather the autumn, of the Middle Ages; +but Erasmus was also, as will appear from many of its pages, +a man for whom he had a very special sympathy. Something +of what he wrote about Erasmus might also have been written +about himself, or at least about his own response to the +transformation of the world that he had known.</p> + +<p>This is not the place for an analysis of that questioning and +illuminating response, nor for a considered estimate of +Huizinga's work as a whole; but there is room for a word +about his last years. He was recognized as one of the intellectual +leaders of his country, and a second marriage in 1937 +brought back his private happiness; but the shadows were +darkening over the western world. From the time when +national socialism began to reveal itself in Germany, he took +his stand against it with perfect simplicity and calm. After the +invasion of Holland he addressed these memorable words to +some of his colleagues: 'When it comes, as it soon will, to +defending our University and the freedom of science and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> +learning in the Netherlands, we must be ready to give everything +for that: our possessions, our freedom, and even our +lives'. The Germans closed the University. For a time they +held Johan Huizinga, now an old man and in failing health, +as a hostage; then they banished him to open arrest in a remote +parish in the eastern part of the country. Even in these conditions +he still wrote, and wrote well. In the last winter of the +war the liberating armies approached and he suffered the +hardships of the civilian population in a theatre of war; but +his spirit was unbroken. He died on 1 February 1945, a few +weeks before his country was set free.</p> + +<p>G. N. CLARK</p> + +<p>Oriel College, Oxford</p> + +<p>April 1952<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_i" id="chapter_i"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH</h3> + +<h3>1466-88</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Low Countries in the fifteenth century—The Burgundian power—Connections +with the German Empire and with France—The northern +Netherlands outskirts in every sense—Movement of <i>Devotio moderna</i>: +brethren of the Common Life and Windesheim monasteries—Erasmus's +birth: 1466—His relations and name—At school at Gouda, Deventer and +Bois-le-Duc—He takes the vows: probably in 1488</p></div> + + +<p>When Erasmus was born Holland had for about twenty years +formed part of the territory which the dukes of Burgundy had +succeeded in uniting under their dominion—that complexity +of lands, half French in population, like Burgundy, Artois, +Hainault, Namur; half Dutch like Flanders, Brabant, Zealand, +Holland. The appellation 'Holland' was, as yet, strictly limited +to the county of that name (the present provinces of North and +South Holland), with which Zealand, too, had long since been +united. The remaining territories which, together with those +last mentioned, make up the present kingdom of the Netherlands, +had not yet been brought under Burgundian dominion, +although the dukes had cast their eyes on them. In the bishopric +of Utrecht, whose power extended to the regions on the far +side of the river Ysel, Burgundian influence had already begun +to make itself manifest. The projected conquest of Friesland +was a political inheritance of the counts of Holland, who preceded +the Burgundians. The duchy of Guelders, alone, still +preserved its independence inviolate, being more closely +connected with the neighbouring German territories, and +consequently with the Empire itself.</p> + +<p>All these lands—about this time they began to be regarded +collectively under the name of 'Low Countries by the Sea'—had +in most respects the character of outskirts. The authority +of the German emperors had for some centuries been little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +more than imaginary. Holland and Zealand hardly shared the +dawning sense of a national German union. They had too long +looked to France in matters political. Since 1299 a French-speaking +dynasty, that of Hainault, had ruled Holland. Even +the house of Bavaria that succeeded it about the middle of the +fourteenth century had not restored closer contact with the +Empire, but had itself, on the contrary, early become Gallicized, +attracted as it was by Paris and soon twined about by +the tentacles of Burgundy to which it became linked by means +of a double marriage.</p> + +<p>The northern half of the Low Countries were 'outskirts' +also in ecclesiastical and cultural matters. Brought over rather +late to the cause of Christianity (the end of the eighth century), +they had, as borderlands, remained united under a single +bishop: the bishop of Utrecht. The meshes of ecclesiastical +organization were wider here than elsewhere. They had no +university. Paris remained, even after the designing policy of +the Burgundian dukes had founded the university of Louvain +in 1425, the centre of doctrine and science for the northern +Netherlands. From the point of view of the wealthy towns of +Flanders and Brabant, now the heart of the Burgundian possessions, +Holland and Zealand formed a wretched little country +of boatmen and peasants. Chivalry, which the dukes of +Burgundy attempted to invest with new splendour, had but +moderately thrived among the nobles of Holland. The Dutch +had not enriched courtly literature, in which Flanders and +Brabant zealously strove to follow the French example, by +any contribution worth mentioning.</p> + +<p>Whatever was coming up in Holland flowered unseen; it +was not of a sort to attract the attention of Christendom. It +was a brisk navigation and trade, mostly transit trade, by +which the Hollanders already began to emulate the German +Hansa, and which brought them into continual contact with +France and Spain, England and Scotland, Scandinavia, North +Germany and the Rhine from Cologne upward. It was herring +fishery, a humble trade, but the source of great prosperity—a +rising industry, shared by a number of small towns.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not one of those towns in Holland and Zealand, neither +Dordrecht nor Leyden, Haarlem, Middelburg, Amsterdam, +could compare with Ghent, Bruges, Lille, Antwerp or Brussels +in the south. It is true that in the towns of Holland also the +highest products of the human mind germinated, but those +towns themselves were still too small and too poor to be +centres of art and science. The most eminent men were irresistibly +drawn to one of the great foci of secular and ecclesiastical +culture. Sluter, the great sculptor, went to Burgundy, +took service with the dukes, and bequeathed no specimen of +his art to the land of his birth. Dirk Bouts, the artist of Haarlem, +removed to Louvain, where his best work is preserved; +what was left at Haarlem has perished. At Haarlem, too, and +earlier, perhaps, than anywhere else, obscure experiments were +being made in that great art, craving to be brought forth, +which was to change the world: the art of printing.</p> + +<p>There was yet another characteristic spiritual phenomenon, +which originated here and gave its peculiar stamp to life in +these countries. It was a movement designed to give depth and +fervour to religious life; started by a burgher of Deventer, +Geert Groote, toward the end of the fourteenth century. It had +embodied itself in two closely connected forms—the fraterhouses, +where the brethren of the Common Life lived together +without altogether separating from the world, and the congregation +of the monastery of Windesheim, of the order of +the regular Augustinian canons. Originating in the regions on +the banks of the Ysel, between the two small towns of Deventer +and Zwolle, and so on the outskirts of the diocese of +Utrecht, this movement soon spread, eastward to Westphalia, +northward to Groningen and the Frisian country, westward +to Holland proper. Fraterhouses were erected everywhere and +monasteries of the Windesheim congregation were established +or affiliated. The movement was spoken of as 'modern devotion', +<i>devotio moderna</i>. It was rather a matter of sentiment and +practice than of definite doctrine. The truly Catholic character +of the movement had early been acknowledged by the church +authorities. Sincerity and modesty, simplicity and industry,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +and, above all, constant ardour of religious emotion and +thought, were its objects. Its energies were devoted to tending +the sick and other works of charity, but especially to instruction +and the art of writing. It is in this that it especially differed +from the revival of the Franciscan and Dominican orders of +about the same time, which turned to preaching. The Windesheimians +and the Hieronymians (as the brethren of the Common +Life were also called) exerted their crowning activities +in the seclusion of the schoolroom and the silence of the writing +cell. The schools of the brethren soon drew pupils from a wide +area. In this way the foundations were laid, both here in the +northern Netherlands and in lower Germany, for a generally +diffused culture among the middle classes; a culture of a very +narrow, strictly ecclesiastical nature, indeed, but which for +that very reason was fit to permeate broad layers of the people.</p> + +<p>What the Windesheimians themselves produced in the way +of devotional literature is chiefly limited to edifying booklets +and biographies of their own members; writings which were +distinguished rather by their pious tenor and sincerity than by +daring or novel thoughts.</p> + +<p>But of them all, the greatest was that immortal work of +Thomas à Kempis, Canon of Saint Agnietenberg, near Zwolle, +the <i>Imitatio Christi</i>.</p> + +<p>Foreigners visiting these regions north of the Scheldt and +the Meuse laughed at the rude manners and the deep drinking +of the inhabitants, but they also mentioned their sincere piety. +These countries were already, what they have ever remained, +somewhat contemplative and self-contained, better adapted +for speculating on the world and for reproving it than for +astonishing it with dazzling wit.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Rotterdam and Gouda, situated upward of twelve miles +apart in the lowest region of Holland, an extremely watery +region, were not among the first towns of the county. They +were small country towns, ranking after Dordrecht, Haarlem, +Leyden, and rapidly rising Amsterdam. They were not centres +of culture. Erasmus was born at Rotterdam on 27 October,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +most probably in the year 1466. The illegitimacy of his birth +has thrown a veil of mystery over his descent and kinship. It is +possible that Erasmus himself learned the circumstances of his +coming into the world only in his later years. Acutely sensitive +to the taint in his origin, he did more to veil the secret than to +reveal it. The picture which he painted of it in his ripe age was +romantic and pathetic. He imagined that his father when a +young man made love to a girl, a physician's daughter, in the +hope of marrying her. The parents and brothers of the young +fellow, indignant, tried to persuade him to take holy orders. +The young man fled before the child was born. He went to +Rome and made a living by copying. His relations sent him +false tidings that his beloved had died; out of grief he became +a priest and devoted himself to religion altogether. Returned +to his native country he discovered the deceit. He abstained +from all contact with her whom he now could no longer +marry, but took great pains to give his son a liberal education. +The mother continued to care for the child, till an early death +took her from him. The father soon followed her to the grave. +To Erasmus's recollection he was only twelve or thirteen years +old when his mother died. It seems to be practically certain +that her death did not occur before 1483, when, therefore, he +was already seventeen years old. His sense of chronology was +always remarkably ill developed.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately it is beyond doubt that Erasmus himself +knew, or had known, that not all particulars of this version +were correct. In all probability his father was already a priest +at the time of the relationship to which he owed his life; in any +case it was not the impatience of a betrothed couple, but an +irregular alliance of long standing, of which a brother, Peter, +had been born three years before.</p> + +<p>We can only vaguely discern the outlines of a numerous and +commonplace middle-class family. The father had nine +brothers, who were all married. The grandparents on his +father's side and the uncles on his mother's side attained to a +very great age. It is strange that a host of cousins—their progeny—has +not boasted of a family connection with the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +Erasmus. Their descendants have not even been traced. What +were their names? The fact that in burgher circles family +names had, as yet, become anything but fixed, makes it difficult +to trace Erasmus's kinsmen. Usually people were called by +their own and their father's name; but it also happened that +the father's name became fixed and adhered to the following +generation. Erasmus calls his father Gerard, his brother Peter +Gerard, while a papal letter styles Erasmus himself Erasmus +Rogerii. Possibly the father was called Roger Gerard or +Gerards.</p> + +<p>Although Erasmus and his brother were born at Rotterdam, +there is much that points to the fact that his father's kin did +not belong there, but at Gouda. At any rate they had near +relatives at Gouda.</p> + +<p>Erasmus was his Christian name. There is nothing strange +in the choice, although it was rather unusual. St. Erasmus was +one of the fourteen Holy Martyrs, whose worship so much +engrossed the attention of the multitude in the fifteenth +century. Perhaps the popular belief that the intercession of St. +Erasmus conferred wealth, had some weight in choosing the +name. Up to the time when he became better acquainted with +Greek, he used the form Herasmus. Later on he regretted that +he had not also given that name the more correct and melodious +form Erasmius. On a few occasions he half jocularly +called himself so, and his godchild, Johannes Froben's son, +always used this form.</p> + +<p>It was probably for similar aesthetic considerations that he +soon altered the barbaric Rotterdammensis to Roterdamus, +later Roterodamus, which he perhaps accentuated as a proparoxytone. +Desiderius was an addition selected by himself, +which he first used in 1496; it is possible that the study of his +favourite author Jerome, among whose correspondents there +is a Desiderius, suggested the name to him. When, therefore, +the full form, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, first appears, +in the second edition of the <i>Adagia</i>, published by Josse Badius +at Paris in 1506, it is an indication that Erasmus, then forty +years of age, had found himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>Circumstances had not made it easy for him to find his way. +Almost in his infancy, when hardly four years old, he thinks, +he had been put to school at Gouda, together with his brother. +He was nine years old when his father sent him to Deventer to +continue his studies in the famous school of the chapter of +St. Lebuin. His mother accompanied him. His stay at Deventer +must have lasted, with an interval during which he was a choir +boy in the minster at Utrecht, from 1475 to 1484. Erasmus's +explicit declaration that he was fourteen years old when he +left Deventer may be explained by assuming that in later years +he confused his temporary absence from Deventer (when at +Utrecht) with the definite end of his stay at Deventer. Reminiscences +of his life there repeatedly crop up in Erasmus's writings. +Those concerning the teaching he got inspired him with +little gratitude; the school was still barbaric, then, he said; +ancient medieval text-books were used there of whose silliness +and cumbrousness we can hardly conceive. Some of the +masters were of the brotherhood of the Common Life. One +of them, Johannes Synthen, brought to his task a certain degree +of understanding of classic antiquity in its purer form. Toward +the end of Erasmus's residence Alexander Hegius was placed at +the head of the school, a friend of the Frisian humanist, Rudolf +Agricola, who on his return from Italy was gaped at by his +compatriots as a prodigy. On festal days, when the rector made +his oration before all the pupils, Erasmus heard Hegius; on one +single occasion he listened to the celebrated Agricola himself, +which left a deep impression on his mind.</p> + +<p>His mother's death of the plague that ravaged the town +brought Erasmus's school-time at Deventer to a sudden close. +His father called him and his brother back to Gouda, only to die +himself soon afterwards. He must have been a man of culture. +For he knew Greek, had heard the famous humanists in Italy, +had copied classic authors and left a library of some value.</p> + +<p>Erasmus and his brother were now under the protection of +three guardians whose care and intentions he afterwards placed +in an unfavourable light. How far he exaggerated their treatment +of him it is difficult to decide. That the guardians, among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +whom one Peter Winckel, schoolmaster at Gouda, occupied +the principal place, had little sympathy with the new classicism, +about which their ward already felt enthusiastic, need +not be doubted. 'If you should write again so elegantly, please +to add a commentary', the schoolmaster replied grumblingly +to an epistle on which Erasmus, then fourteen years old, had +expended much care. That the guardians sincerely considered +it a work pleasing to God to persuade the youths to enter a +monastery can no more be doubted than that this was for +them the easiest way to get rid of their task. For Erasmus this +pitiful business assumes the colour of a grossly selfish attempt +to cloak dishonest administration; an altogether reprehensible +abuse of power and authority. More than this: in later years it +obscured for him the image of his own brother, with whom +he had been on terms of cordial intimacy.</p> + +<p>Winckel sent the two young fellows, twenty-one and +eighteen years old, to school again, this time at Bois-le-Duc. +There they lived in the Fraterhouse itself, to which the school +was attached. There was nothing here of the glory that had +shone about Deventer. The brethren, says Erasmus, knew of +no other purpose than that of destroying all natural gifts, with +blows, reprimands and severity, in order to fit the soul for the +monastery. This, he thought, was just what his guardians were +aiming at; although ripe for the university they were deliberately +kept away from it. In this way more than two years +were wasted.</p> + +<p>One of his two masters, one Rombout, who liked young +Erasmus, tried hard to prevail on him to join the brethren of +the Common Life. In later years Erasmus occasionally regretted +that he had not yielded; for the brethren took no such +irrevocable vows as were now in store for him.</p> + +<p>An epidemic of the plague became the occasion for the +brothers to leave Bois-le-Duc and return to Gouda. Erasmus +was attacked by a fever that sapped his power of resistance, of +which he now stood in such need. The guardians (one of the +three had died in the meantime) now did their utmost to make +the two young men enter a monastery. They had good cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +for it, as they had ill administered the slender fortune of their +wards, and, says Erasmus, refused to render an account. Later +he saw everything connected with this dark period of his life +in the most gloomy colours—except himself. Himself he sees +as a boy of not yet sixteen years (it is nearly certain that he +must have been twenty already) weakened by fever, but nevertheless +resolute and sensible in refusing. He has persuaded his +brother to fly with him and to go to a university. The one +guardian is a narrow-minded tyrant, the other, Winckel's +brother, a merchant, a frivolous coaxer. Peter, the elder of the +youths, yields first and enters the monastery of Sion, near +Delft (of the order of the regular Augustinian canons), where +the guardian had found a place for him. Erasmus resisted +longer. Only after a visit to the monastery of Steyn or Emmaus, +near Gouda, belonging to the same order, where he +found a schoolfellow from Deventer, who pointed out the +bright side of monastic life, did Erasmus yield and enter +Steyn, where soon after, probably in 1488, he took the vows.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_ii" id="chapter_ii"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>IN THE MONASTERY</h3> + +<h3>1488-95</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus as an Augustinian canon at Steyn—His friends—Letters to +Servatius—Humanism in the monasteries: Latin poetry—Aversion to +cloister-life—He leaves Steyn to enter the service of the Bishop of Cambray: +1493—James Batt—<i>Antibarbari</i>—He gets leave to study at Paris: 1495</p></div> + + +<p>In his later life—under the influence of the gnawing regret +which his monkhood and all the trouble he took to escape +from it caused him—the picture of all the events leading up +to his entering the convent became distorted in his mind. +Brother Peter, to whom he still wrote in a cordial vein +from Steyn, became a worthless fellow, even his evil spirit, a +Judas. The schoolfellow whose advice had been decisive now +appeared a traitor, prompted by self-interest, who himself had +chosen convent-life merely out of laziness and the love of good +cheer.</p> + +<p>The letters that Erasmus wrote from Steyn betray no vestige +of his deep-seated aversion to monastic life, which afterwards +he asks us to believe he had felt from the outset. We may, of +course, assume that the supervision of his superiors prevented +him from writing all that was in his heart, and that in the +depths of his being there had always existed the craving for +freedom and for more civilized intercourse than Steyn could +offer. Still he must have found in the monastery some of the +good things that his schoolfellow had led him to expect. That +at this period he should have written a 'Praise of Monastic +Life', 'to please a friend who wanted to decoy a cousin', as he +himself says, is one of those naïve assertions, invented afterwards, +of which Erasmus never saw the unreasonable quality.</p> + +<p>He found at Steyn a fair degree of freedom, some food for +an intellect craving for classic antiquity, and friendships with +men of the same turn of mind. There were three who especially +attracted him. Of the schoolfellow who had induced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +him to become a monk, we hear no more. His friends are +Servatius Roger of Rotterdam and William Hermans of +Gouda, both his companions at Steyn, and the older Cornelius +Gerard of Gouda, usually called Aurelius (a quasi-latinization +of Goudanus), who spent most of his time in the monastery of +Lopsen, near Leyden. With them he read and conversed +sociably and jestingly; with them he exchanged letters when +they were not together.</p> + +<p>Out of the letters to Servatius there rises the picture of an +Erasmus whom we shall never find again—a young man of +more than feminine sensitiveness; of a languishing need for +sentimental friendship. In writing to Servatius, Erasmus runs +the whole gamut of an ardent lover. As often as the image of +his friend presents itself to his mind tears break from his eyes. +Weeping he re-reads his friend's letter every hour. But he is +mortally dejected and anxious, for the friend proves averse to +this excessive attachment. 'What do you want from me?' he +asks. 'What is wrong with you?' the other replies. Erasmus +cannot bear to find that this friendship is not fully returned. +'Do not be so reserved; do tell me what is wrong! I repose my +hope in you alone; I have become yours so completely that you +have left me naught of myself. You know my pusillanimity, +which when it has no one on whom to lean and rest, makes +me so desperate that life becomes a burden.'</p> + +<p>Let us remember this. Erasmus never again expresses himself +so passionately. He has given us here the clue by which we +may understand much of what he becomes in his later years.</p> + +<p>These letters have sometimes been taken as mere literary +exercises; the weakness they betray and the complete absence +of all reticence, seem to tally ill with his habit of cloaking his +most intimate feelings which, afterwards, Erasmus never quite +relinquishes. Dr. Allen, who leaves this question undecided, +nevertheless inclines to regard the letters as sincere effusions, +and to me they seem so, incontestably. This exuberant friendship +accords quite well with the times and the person.</p> + +<p>Sentimental friendships were as much in vogue in secular +circles during the fifteenth century as towards the end of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +eighteenth century. Each court had its pairs of friends, who +dressed alike, and shared room, bed, and heart. Nor was this +cult of fervent friendship restricted to the sphere of aristocratic +life. It was among the specific characteristics of the <i>devotio +moderna</i>, as, for the rest, it seems from its very nature to be +inseparably bound up with pietism. To observe one another +with sympathy, to watch and note each other's inner life, was +a customary and approved occupation among the brethren of +the Common Life and the Windesheim monks. And though +Steyn and Sion were not of the Windesheim congregation, the +spirit of the <i>devotio moderna</i> was prevalent there.</p> + +<p>As for Erasmus himself, he has rarely revealed the foundation +of his character more completely than when he declared +to Servatius: 'My mind is such that I think nothing can rank +higher than friendship in this life, nothing should be desired +more ardently, nothing should be treasured more jealously'. +A violent affection of a similar nature troubled him even at a +later date when the purity of his motives was questioned. +Afterwards he speaks of youth as being used to conceive a +fervent affection for certain comrades. Moreover, the classic +examples of friends, Orestes and Pylades, Damon and Pythias, +Theseus and Pirithous, as also David and Jonathan, were ever +present before his mind's eye. A young and very tender heart, +marked by many feminine traits, replete with all the sentiment +and with all the imaginings of classic literature, who was debarred +from love and found himself placed against his wish in a +coarse and frigid environment, was likely to become somewhat +excessive in his affections.</p> + +<p>He was obliged to moderate them. Servatius would have +none of so jealous and exacting a friendship and, probably at +the cost of more humiliation and shame than appears in his +letters, young Erasmus resigns himself, to be more guarded in +expressing his feelings in the future. The sentimental Erasmus +disappears for good and presently makes room for the witty +latinist, who surpasses his older friends, and chats with them +about poetry and literature, advises them about their Latin +style, and lectures them if necessary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>The opportunities for acquiring the new taste for classic +antiquity cannot have been so scanty at Deventer, and in the +monastery itself, as Erasmus afterwards would have us believe, +considering the authors he already knew at this time. +We may conjecture, also, that the books left by his father, +possibly brought by him from Italy, contributed to Erasmus's +culture, though it would be strange that, prone as he was to +disparage his schools and his monastery, he should not have +mentioned the fact. Moreover, we know that the humanistic +knowledge of his youth was not exclusively his own, in spite +of all he afterwards said about Dutch ignorance and obscurantism. +Cornelius Aurelius and William Hermans likewise +possessed it.</p> + +<p>In a letter to Cornelius he mentions the following authors +as his poetic models—Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Statius, +Martial, Claudian, Persius, Lucan, Tibullus, Propertius. In +prose he imitates Cicero, Quintilian, Sallust, and Terence, +whose metrical character had not yet been recognized. Among +Italian humanists he was especially acquainted with Lorenzo +Valla, who on account of his <i>Elegantiae</i> passed with him for +the pioneer of <i>bonae literae</i>; but Filelfo, Aeneas Sylvius, +Guarino, Poggio, and others, were also not unknown to him. +In ecclesiastical literature he was particularly well read in +Jerome. It remains remarkable that the education which +Erasmus received in the schools of the <i>devotio moderna</i> with +their ultra-puritanical object, their rigid discipline intent +on breaking the personality, could produce such a mind as he +manifests in his monastic period—the mind of an accomplished +humanist. He is only interested in writing Latin verses and in +the purity of his Latin style. We look almost in vain for piety in +the correspondence with Cornelius of Gouda and William +Hermans. They manipulate with ease the most difficult Latin +metres and the rarest terms of mythology. Their subject-matter +is bucolic or amatory, and, if devotional, their classicism deprives +it of the accent of piety. The prior of the neighbouring +monastery of Hem, at whose request Erasmus sang the +Archangel Michael, did not dare to paste up his Sapphic ode:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +it was so 'poetic', he thought, as to seem almost Greek. In +those days poetic meant classic. Erasmus himself thought he +had made it so bald that it was nearly prose—'the times were +so barren, then', he afterwards sighed.</p> + +<p>These young poets felt themselves the guardians of a new +light amidst the dullness and barbarism which oppressed them. +They readily believed each other's productions to be immortal, +as every band of youthful poets does, and dreamt of a +future of poetic glory for Steyn by which it would vie with +Mantua. Their environment of clownish, narrow-minded +conventional divines—for as such they saw them—neither +acknowledged nor encouraged them. Erasmus's strong propensity +to fancy himself menaced and injured tinged this position +with the martyrdom of oppressed talent. To Cornelius +he complains in fine Horatian measure of the contempt in +which poetry was held; his fellow-monk orders him to let his +pen, accustomed to writing poetry, rest. Consuming envy +forces him to give up making verses. A horrid barbarism prevails, +the country laughs at the laurel-bringing art of high-seated +Apollo; the coarse peasant orders the learned poet to +write verses. 'Though I had mouths as many as the stars that +twinkle in the silent firmament on quiet nights, or as many as +the roses that the mild gale of spring strews on the ground, I +could not complain of all the evils by which the sacred art of +poetry is oppressed in these days. I am tired of writing poetry.' +Of this effusion Cornelius made a dialogue which highly +pleased Erasmus.</p> + +<p>Though in this art nine-tenths may be rhetorical fiction and +sedulous imitation, we ought not, on that account, to undervalue +the enthusiasm inspiring the young poets. Let us, who +have mostly grown blunt to the charms of Latin, not think too +lightly of the elation felt by one who, after learning this language +out of the most absurd primers and according to the +most ridiculous methods, nevertheless discovered it in its +purity, and afterwards came to handle it in the charming +rhythm of some artful metre, in the glorious precision of its +structure and in all the melodiousness of its sound.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-i.png"> +<img src="images/plate-i.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate I. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 51</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/plate-ii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-ii-th.png" width="600" height="224" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate II. VIEW OF ROTTERDAM, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nec si quot placidis ignea noctibus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scintillant tacito sydera culmine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nec si quot tepidum flante Favonio<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ver suffundit humo rosas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tot sint ora mihi...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Was it strange that the youth who could say this felt himself +a poet?—or who, together with his friend, could sing of spring +in a Meliboean song of fifty distichs? Pedantic work, if you +like, laboured literary exercises, and yet full of the freshness +and the vigour which spring from the Latin itself.</p> + +<p>Out of these moods was to come the first comprehensive +work that Erasmus was to undertake, the manuscript of which +he was afterwards to lose, to recover in part, and to publish +only after many years—the <i>Antibarbari</i>, which he commenced +at Steyn, according to Dr. Allen. In the version in which eventually +the first book of the <i>Antibarbari</i> appeared, it reflects, it is +true, a somewhat later phase of Erasmus's life, that which +began after he had left the monastery; neither is the comfortable +tone of his witty defence of profane literature any longer +that of the poet at Steyn. But the ideal of a free and noble life +of friendly intercourse and the uninterrupted study of the +Ancients had already occurred to him within the convent +walls.</p> + +<p>In the course of years those walls probably hemmed him in +more and more closely. Neither learned and poetic correspondence +nor the art of painting with which he occupied himself,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +together with one Sasboud, could sweeten the oppression of +monastic life and a narrow-minded, unfriendly environment. +Of the later period of his life in the monastery, no letters at all +have been preserved, according to Dr. Allen's carefully considered +dating. Had he dropped his correspondence out of +spleen, or had his superiors forbidden him to keep it up, or are +we merely left in the dark because of accidental loss? We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +know nothing about the circumstances and the frame of mind +in which Erasmus was ordained on 25 April 1492, by the +Bishop of Utrecht, David of Burgundy. Perhaps his taking +holy orders was connected with his design to leave the monastery. +He himself afterwards declared that he had but rarely +read mass. He got his chance to leave the monastery when +offered the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambray, Henry +of Bergen. Erasmus owed this preferment to his fame as a +Latinist and a man of letters; for it was with a view to a journey +to Rome, where the bishop hoped to obtain a cardinal's +hat, that Erasmus entered his service. The authorization of the +Bishop of Utrecht had been obtained, and also that of the prior +and the general of the order. Of course, there was no question +yet of taking leave for good, since, as the bishop's servant, +Erasmus continued to wear his canon's dress. He had prepared +for his departure in the deepest secrecy. There is something +touching in the glimpse we get of his friend and fellow-poet, +William Hermans, waiting in vain outside of Gouda to see his +friend just for a moment, when on his way south he would +pass the town. It seems there had been consultations between +them as to leaving Steyn together, and Erasmus, on his part, +had left him ignorant of his plans. William had to console himself +with the literature that might be had at Steyn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Erasmus, then twenty-five years old—for in all probability +the year when he left the monastery was 1493—now set foot +on the path of a career that was very common and much +coveted at that time: that of an intellectual in the shadow of the +great. His patron belonged to one of the numerous Belgian +noble families, which had risen in the service of the Burgundians +and were interestedly devoted to the prosperity of that +house. The Glimes were lords of the important town of +Bergen-op-Zoom, which, situated between the River Scheldt +and the Meuse delta, was one of the links between the northern +and the southern Netherlands. Henry, the Bishop of +Cambray, had just been appointed chancellor of the Order of +the Golden Fleece, the most distinguished spiritual dignity at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +court, which although now Habsburg in fact, was still named +after Burgundy. The service of such an important personage +promised almost unbounded honour and profit. Many a man +would under the circumstances, at the cost of some patience, +some humiliation, and a certain laxity of principle, have risen +even to be a bishop. But Erasmus was never a man to make the +most of his situation.</p> + +<p>Serving the bishop proved to be rather a disappointment. +Erasmus had to accompany him on his frequent migrations +from one residence to another in Bergen, Brussels, or Mechlin. +He was very busy, but the exact nature of his duties is unknown. +The journey to Rome, the acme of things desirable +to every divine or student, did not come off. The bishop, +although taking a cordial interest in him for some months, was +less accommodating than he had expected. And so we shortly +find Erasmus once more in anything but a cheerful frame of +mind. 'The hardest fate,' he calls his own, which robs him of +all his old sprightliness. Opportunities to study he has none. +He now envies his friend William, who at Steyn in the little +cell can write beautiful poetry, favoured by his 'lucky stars'. +It befits him, Erasmus, only to weep and sigh; it has already so +dulled his mind and withered his heart that his former studies +no longer appeal to him. There is rhetorical exaggeration in +this and we shall not take his pining for the monastery too +seriously, but still it is clear that deep dejection had mastered +him. Contact with the world of politics and ambition had +probably unsettled Erasmus. He never had any aptitude for it. +The hard realities of life frightened and distressed him. When +forced to occupy himself with them he saw nothing but bitterness +and confusion about him. 'Where is gladness or repose? +Wherever I turn my eyes I only see disaster and harshness. +And in such a bustle and clamour about me you wish me to +find leisure for the work of the Muses?'</p> + +<p>Real leisure Erasmus was never to find during his life. All +his reading, all his writing, he did hastily, <i>tumultuarie</i>, as he +calls it repeatedly. Yet he must nevertheless have worked with +intensest concentration and an incredible power of assimilation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +Whilst staying with the bishop he visited the monastery of +Groenendael near Brussels, where in former times Ruysbroeck +wrote. Possibly Erasmus did not hear the inmates speak of +Ruysbroeck and he would certainly have taken little pleasure +in the writings of the great mystic. But in the library he found +the works of St. Augustine and these he devoured. The monks +of Groenendael were surprised at his diligence. He took the +volumes with him even to his bedroom.</p> + +<p>He occasionally found time to compose at this period. At +Halsteren, near Bergen-op-Zoom, where the bishop had a +country house, he revised the <i>Antibarbari</i>, begun at Steyn, and +elaborated it in the form of a dialogue. It would seem as if he +sought compensation for the agitation of his existence in an +atmosphere of idyllic repose and cultured conversation. He +conveys us to the scene (he will afterwards use it repeatedly) +which ever remained the ideal pleasure of life to him: a garden +or a garden house outside the town, where in the gladness of +a fine day a small number of friends meet to talk during a +simple meal or a quiet walk, in Platonic serenity, about things +of the mind. The personages whom he introduces, besides +himself, are his best friends. They are the valued and faithful +friend whom he got to know at Bergen, James Batt, schoolmaster +and afterwards also clerk of that town, and his old +friend William Hermans of Steyn, whose literary future he +continued somewhat to promote. William, arriving unexpectedly +from Holland, meets the others, who are later joined +by the Burgomaster of Bergen and the town physician. In a +lightly jesting, placid tone they engage in a discussion about +the appreciation of poetry and literature—Latin literature. +These are not incompatible with true devotion, as barbarous +dullness wants us to believe. A cloud of witnesses is there to +prove it, among them and above all St. Augustine, whom +Erasmus had studied recently, and St. Jerome, with whom +Erasmus had been longer acquainted and whose mind was, +indeed, more congenial to him. Solemnly, in ancient Roman +guise, war is declared on the enemies of classic culture. O ye +Goths, by what right do you occupy, not only the Latin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +provinces (the <i>disciplinae liberales</i> are meant) but the capital, +that is Latinity itself?</p> + +<p>It was Batt who, when his prospects with the Bishop of +Cambray ended in disappointment, helped to find a way out +for Erasmus. He himself had studied at Paris, and thither +Erasmus also hoped to go, now that Rome was denied him. +The bishop's consent and the promise of a stipend were obtained +and Erasmus departed for the most famous of all universities, +that of Paris, probably in the late summer of 1495. +Batt's influence and efforts had procured him this lucky chance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<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> Allen No. 16.12 cf. IV p. xx, and <i>vide</i> LB. IV 756, where surveying +the years of his youth he also writes 'Pingere dum meditor tenueis sine +corpore formas'.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_iii" id="chapter_iii"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS</h3> + +<h3>1495-9</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The University of Paris—Traditions and schools of Philosophy and +Theology—The College of Montaigu—Erasmus's dislike of scholasticism—Relations +with the humanist, Robert Gaguin, 1495—How to earn a living—First +drafts of several of his educational works—Travelling to Holland and +back—Batt and the Lady of Veere—To England with Lord Mountjoy: 1499</p></div> + +<p>The University of Paris was, more than any other place in +Christendom, the scene of the collision and struggle of opinions +and parties. University life in the Middle Ages was in general +tumultuous and agitated. The forms of scientific intercourse +themselves entailed an element of irritability: never-ending +disputations, frequent elections and rowdyism of the students. +To those were added old and new quarrels of all sorts of orders, +schools and groups. The different colleges contended among +themselves, the secular clergy were at variance with the +regular. The Thomists and the Scotists, together called the +Ancients, had been disputing at Paris for half a century with +the Terminists, or Moderns, the followers of Ockam and +Buridan. In 1482 some sort of peace was concluded between +those two groups. Both schools were on their last legs, stuck +fast in sterile technical disputes, in systematizing and subdividing, +a method of terms and words by which science and +philosophy benefited no longer. The theological colleges of +the Dominicans and Franciscans at Paris were declining; theological +teaching was taken over by the secular colleges of +Navarre and Sorbonne, but in the old style.</p> + +<p>The general traditionalism had not prevented humanism +from penetrating Paris also during the last quarter of the +fifteenth century. Refinement of Latin style and the taste for +classic poetry here, too, had their fervent champions, just as +revived Platonism, which had sprung up in Italy. The +Parisian humanists were partly Italians as Girolamo Balbi and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +Fausto Andrelini, but at that time a Frenchman was considered +to be their leader, Robert Gaguin, general of the order of the +Mathurins or Trinitarians, diplomatist, French poet and +humanist. Side by side with the new Platonism a clearer understanding +of Aristotle penetrated, which had also come from +Italy. Shortly before Erasmus's arrival Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples +had returned from Italy, where he had visited the Platonists, +such as Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Ermolao +Barbaro, the reviver of Aristotle. Though theoretical theology +and philosophy generally were conservative at Paris, yet here +as well as elsewhere movements to reform the Church were +not wanting. The authority of Jean Gerson, the University's +great chancellor (about 1400), had not yet been forgotten. But +reform by no means meant inclination to depart from the +doctrine of the Church; it aimed, in the first place, at restoration +and purification of the monastic orders and afterwards at +the extermination of abuses which the Church acknowledged +and lamented as existing within its fold. In that spirit of reformation +of spiritual life the Dutch movement of the <i>devotio +moderna</i> had recently begun to make itself felt, also, at Paris. +The chief of its promoters was John Standonck of Mechlin, +educated by the brethren of the Common Life at Gouda and +imbued with their spirit in its most rigorous form. He was an +ascetic more austere than the spirit of the Windesheimians, +strict indeed but yet moderate, required; far beyond ecclesiastical +circles his name was proverbial on account of his abstinence—he +had definitely denied himself the use of meat. As +provisor of the college of Montaigu he had instituted the most +stringent rules there, enforced by chastisement for the slightest +faults. To the college he had annexed a home for poor scholars, +where they lived in a semi-monastic community.</p> + +<p>To this man Erasmus had been recommended by the Bishop +of Cambray. Though he did not join the community of poor +students—he was nearly thirty years old—he came to know all +the privations of the system. They embittered the earlier part +of his stay at Paris and instilled in him a deep, permanent +aversion to abstinence and austerity. Had he come to Paris for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +this—to experience the dismal and depressing influences of his +youth anew in a more stringent form?</p> + +<p>The purpose for which Erasmus went to Paris was chiefly to +obtain the degree of doctor of theology. This was not too +difficult for him: as a regular he was exempt from previous +study in the faculty of arts, and his learning and astonishing +intelligence and energy enabled him to prepare in a short time +for the examinations and disputations required. Yet he did not +attain this object at Paris. His stay, which with interruptions +lasted, first till 1499, to be continued later, became to him a +period of difficulties and exasperations, of struggle to make his +way by all the humiliating means which at the time were indispensable +to that end; of dawning success, too, which, however, +failed to gratify him.</p> + +<p>The first cause of his reverses was a physical one; he could +not endure the hard life in the college of Montaigu. The +addled eggs and squalid bedrooms stuck in his memory all his +life; there he thinks he contracted the beginnings of his later +infirmity. In the <i>Colloquia</i> he has commemorated with abhorrence +Standonck's system of abstinence, privation and +chastisement. For the rest his stay there lasted only until the +spring of 1496.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he had begun his theological studies. He attended +lectures on the Bible and on the Book of the Sentences, the +medieval handbook of theology and still the one most frequently +used. He was even allowed to give some lessons in the +college on Holy Scripture. He preached a few sermons in +honour of the Saints, probably in the neighbouring abbey of +St. Geneviève. But his heart was not in all this. The subtleties +of the schools could not please him. That aversion to all +scholasticism, which he rejected in one sweeping condemnation, +struck root in his mind, which, however broad, always +judged unjustly that for which it had no room. 'Those studies +can make a man opinionated and contentious; can they make +him wise? They exhaust the mind by a certain jejune and +barren subtlety, without fertilizing or inspiring it. By their +stammering and by the stains of their impure style they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +disfigure theology which had been enriched and adorned by +the eloquence of the ancients. They involve everything whilst +trying to resolve everything.' 'Scotist', with Erasmus, became +a handy epithet for all schoolmen, nay, for everything superannuated +and antiquated. He would rather lose the whole of +Scotus than Cicero's or Plutarch's works. These he feels the +better for reading, whereas he rises from the study of scholasticism +frigidly disposed towards true virtue, but irritated into +a disputatious mood.</p> + +<p>It would, no doubt, have been difficult for Erasmus to find +in the arid traditionalism which prevailed in the University of +Paris the heyday of scholastic philosophy and theology. From +the disputations which he heard in the Sorbonne he brought +back nothing but the habit of scoffing at doctors of theology, +or as he always ironically calls them by their title of honour: +<i>Magistri nostri</i>. Yawning, he sat among 'those holy Scotists' +with their wrinkled brows, staring eyes, and puzzled faces, and +on his return home he writes a disrespectful fantasy to his +young friend Thomas Grey, telling him how he sleeps the +sleep of Epimenides with the divines of the Sorbonne. Epimenides +awoke after his forty-seven years of slumber, but the +majority of our present theologians will never wake up. What +may Epimenides have dreamt? What but subtleties of the +Scotists: quiddities, formalities, etc.! Epimenides himself was +reborn in Scotus, or rather, Epimenides was Scotus's prototype. +For did not he, too, write theological books, in which he tied +such syllogistic knots as he would never have been able to +loosen? The Sorbonne preserves Epimenides's skin written +over with mysterious letters, as an oracle which men may only +see after having borne the title of <i>Magister noster</i> for fifteen +years.</p> + +<p>It is not a far cry from caricatures like these to the <i>Sorbonistres</i> +and the <i>Barbouillamenta Scoti</i> of Rabelais. 'It is said', thus +Erasmus concludes his <i>boutade</i>, 'that no one can understand +the mysteries of this science who has had the least intercourse +with the Muses or the Graces. All that you have learned in the +way of <i>bonae literae</i> has to be unlearned first; if you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +drunk of Helicon you must first vomit the draught. I do my +utmost to say nothing according to the Latin taste, and nothing +graceful or witty; and I am already making progress, and there +is hope that one day they will acknowledge Erasmus.'</p> + +<p>It was not only the dryness of the method and the barrenness +of the system which revolted Erasmus. It was also the +qualities of his own mind, which, in spite of all its breadth and +acuteness, did not tend to penetrate deeply into philosophical +or dogmatic speculations. For it was not only scholasticism +that repelled him; the youthful Platonism and the rejuvenated +Aristotelianism taught by Lefèvre d'Étaples also failed to +attract him. For the present he remained a humanist of +aesthetic bias, with the substratum of a biblical and moral disposition, +resting mainly on the study of his favourite Jerome. +For a long time to come Erasmus considered himself, and also +introduced himself, as a poet and an orator, by which latter +term he meant what we call a man of letters.</p> + +<p>Immediately on arriving at Paris he must have sought contact +with the headquarters of literary humanism. The obscure +Dutch regular introduced himself in a long letter (not preserved) +full of eulogy, accompanied by a much-laboured +poem, to the general, not only of the Trinitarians but, at the +same time, of Parisian humanists, Robert Gaguin. The great +man answered very obligingly: 'From your lyrical specimen I +conclude that you are a scholar; my friendship is at your disposal; +do not be so profuse in your praise, that looks like +flattery'. The correspondence had hardly begun when Erasmus +found a splendid opportunity to render this illustrious personage +a service and, at the same time, in the shadow of his name, +make himself known to the reading public. The matter is also +of importance because it affords us an opportunity, for the first +time, to notice the connection that is always found between +Erasmus's career as a man of letters and a scholar and the +technical conditions of the youthful art of printing.</p> + +<p>Gaguin was an all-round man and his Latin text-book of the +history of France, <i>De origine et gestis Francorum Compendium</i>, +was just being printed. It was the first specimen of humanistic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +historiography in France. The printer had finished his work +on 30 September 1495, but of the 136 leaves, two remained +blank. This was not permissible according to the notions of +that time. Gaguin was ill and could not help matters. By +judicious spacing the compositor managed to fill up folio 135 +with a poem by Gaguin, the colophon and two panegyrics by +Faustus Andrelinus and another humanist. Even then there +was need of matter, and Erasmus dashed into the breach and +furnished a long commendatory letter, completely filling the +superfluous blank space of folio 136.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In this way his name and +style suddenly became known to the numerous public which +was interested in Gaguin's historical work, and at the same +time he acquired another title to Gaguin's protection, on +whom the exceptional qualities of Erasmus's diction had evidently +not been lost. That his history would remain known +chiefly because it had been a stepping stone to Erasmus, +Gaguin could hardly have anticipated.</p> + +<p>Although Erasmus had now, as a follower of Gaguin, been +introduced into the world of Parisian humanists, the road to +fame, which had latterly begun to lead through the printing +press, was not yet easy for him. He showed the <i>Antibarbari</i> to +Gaguin, who praised them, but no suggestion of publication +resulted. A slender volume of Latin poems by Erasmus was +published in Paris in 1496, dedicated to Hector Boys, a Scotchman, +with whom he had become acquainted at Montaigu. +But the more important writings at which he worked during +his stay in Paris all appeared in print much later.</p> + +<p>While intercourse with men like Robert Gaguin and Faustus +Andrelinus might be honourable, it was not directly profitable. +The support of the Bishop of Cambray was scantier than +he wished. In the spring of 1496 he fell ill and left Paris. Going +first to Bergen, he had a kind welcome from his patron, the +bishop; and then, having recovered his health, he went on to +Holland to his friends. It was his intention to stay there, he says.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +The friends themselves, however, urged him to return to +Paris, which he did in the autumn of 1496. He carried poetry +by William Hermans and a letter from this poet to Gaguin. A +printer was found for the poems and Erasmus also brought his +friend and fellow-poet into contact with Faustus Andrelinus.</p> + +<p>The position of a man who wished to live by intellectual +labour was far from easy at that time and not always dignified. +He had either to live on church prebends or on distinguished +patrons, or on both. But such a prebend was difficult to get +and patrons were uncertain and often disappointing. The publishers +paid considerable copy-fees only to famous authors. As +a rule the writer received a number of copies of his work and +that was all. His chief advantage came from a dedication to +some distinguished personage, who could compliment him +for it with a handsome gift. There were authors who made it a +practice to dedicate the same work repeatedly to different +persons. Erasmus has afterwards defended himself explicitly from +that suspicion and carefully noted how many of those whom +he honoured with a dedication gave nothing or very little.</p> + +<p>The first need, therefore, to a man in Erasmus's circumstances +was to find a Maecenas. Maecenas with the humanists was +almost synonymous with paymaster. Under the adage <i>Ne +bos quidem pereat</i> Erasmus has given a description of the +decent way of obtaining a Maecenas. Consequently, when his +conduct in these years appears to us to be actuated, more than +once, by an undignified pushing spirit, we should not gauge it +by our present standards. These were his years of weakness.</p> + +<p>On his return to Paris he did not again lodge in Montaigu. +He tried to make a living by giving lessons to young men of +fortune. A merchant's sons of Lübeck, Christian and Henry +Northoff, who lodged with one Augustine Vincent, were his +pupils. He composed beautiful letters for them, witty, fluent +and a trifle scented. At the same time he taught two young +Englishmen, Thomas Grey and Robert Fisher, and conceived +such a doting affection for Grey as to lead to trouble with +the youth's guardian, a Scotchman, by whom Erasmus was +excessively vexed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>Paris did not fail to exercise its refining influence on Erasmus. +It made his style affectedly refined and sparkling—he pretends +to disdain the rustic products of his youth in Holland. In the +meantime, the works through which afterwards his influence +was to spread over the whole world began to grow, but only +to the benefit of a few readers. They remained unprinted as +yet. For the Northoffs was composed the little compendium +of polite conversation (in Latin), <i>Familiarium colloquiorum +formulae</i>, the nucleus of the world-famous <i>Colloquia</i>. For +Robert Fisher he wrote the first draft of <i>De conscribendis +epistolis</i>, the great dissertation on the art of letter-writing +(Latin letters), probably also the paraphrase of Valla's <i>Elegantiae</i>, +a treatise on pure Latin, which had been a beacon-light of +culture to Erasmus in his youth. <i>De copia verborum ac rerum</i> was +also such a help for beginners, to provide them with a vocabulary +and abundance of turns and expressions; and also the germs +of a larger work: <i>De ratione studii</i>, a manual for arranging +courses of study, lay in the same line.</p> + +<p>It was a life of uncertainty and unrest. The bishop gave but +little support. Erasmus was not in good health and felt continually +depressed. He made plans for a journey to Italy, but +did not see much chance of effecting them. In the summer of +1498 he again travelled to Holland and to the bishop. In +Holland his friends were little pleased with his studies. It was +feared that he was contracting debts at Paris. Current reports +about him were not favourable. He found the bishop, in the +commotion of his departure for England on a mission, irritable +and full of complaints. It became more and more evident +that he would have to look out for another patron. Perhaps he +might turn to the Lady of Veere, Anna of Borselen, with +whom his faithful and helpful friend Batt had now taken +service, as a tutor to her son, in the castle of Tournehem, +between Calais and Saint Omer.</p> + +<p>Upon his return to Paris, Erasmus resumed his old life, but +it was hateful slavery to him. Batt had an invitation for him +to come to Tournehem, but he could not yet bear to leave +Paris. Here he had now as a pupil the young Lord Mountjoy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +William Blount. That meant two strings to his bow. Batt is +incited to prepare the ground for him with Anna of Veere; +William Hermans is charged with writing letters to Mountjoy, +in which he is to praise the latter's love of literature. 'You +should display an erudite integrity, commend me, and proffer +your services kindly. Believe me, William, your reputation, +too, will benefit by it. He is a young man of great authority +with his own folk; you will have some one to distribute your +writings in England. I pray you again and again, if you love +me, take this to heart.'</p> + +<p>The visit to Tournehem took place at the beginning of +1499, followed by another journey to Holland. Henceforward +Anna of Veere passed for his patroness. In Holland he saw his +friend William Hermans and told him that he thought of +leaving for Bologna after Easter. The Dutch journey was one +of unrest and bustle; he was in a hurry to return to Paris, not to +miss any opportunity which Mountjoy's affection might offer +him. He worked hard at the various writings on which he was +engaged, as hard as his health permitted after the difficult +journey in winter. He was busily occupied in collecting the +money for travelling to Italy, now postponed until August. +But evidently Batt could not obtain as much for him as he had +hoped, and, in May, Erasmus suddenly gave up the Italian plan, +and left for England with Mountjoy at the latter's request.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<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> Allen No. 43, p. 145, where the particulars of the case are expounded +with peculiar acuteness and conclusions drawn with regard to the +chronology of Erasmus's stay at Paris.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_iv" id="chapter_iv"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>FIRST STAY IN ENGLAND</h3> + +<h3>1499-1500</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>First stay in England: 1499-1500—Oxford: John Colet—Erasmus's +aspirations directed towards divinity—He is as yet mainly a literate—Fisher +and More—Mishap at Dover when leaving England: 1500—Back in France +he composes the <i>Adagia</i>—Years of trouble and penury</p></div> + + +<p>Erasmus's first stay in England, which lasted from the early +summer of 1499 till the beginning of 1500, was to become for +him a period of inward ripening. He came there as an erudite +poet, the protégé of a nobleman of rank, on the road to closer +contact with the great world which knew how to appreciate +and reward literary merit. He left the country with the fervent +desire in future to employ his gifts, in so far as circumstances +would permit, in more serious tasks. This change was brought +about by two new friends whom he found in England, whose +personalities were far above those who had hitherto crossed +his path: John Colet and Thomas More.</p> + +<p>During all the time of his sojourn in England Erasmus is in +high spirits, for him. At first it is still the man of the world who +speaks, the refined man of letters, who must needs show his +brilliant genius. Aristocratic life, of which he evidently had +seen but little at the Bishop of Cambray's and the Lady of +Veere's at Tournehem, pleased him fairly well, it seems. 'Here +in England', he writes in a light vein to Faustus Andrelinus, +'we have, indeed, progressed somewhat. The Erasmus whom +you know is almost a good hunter already, not too bad a +horseman, a not unpractised courtier. He salutes a little more +courteously, he smiles more kindly. If you are wise, you also +will alight here.' And he teases the volatile poet by telling him +about the charming girls and the laudable custom, which he +found in England, of accompanying all compliments by kisses.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<p>It even fell to his lot to make the acquaintance of royalty. +From Mountjoy's estate at Greenwich, More, in the course of +a walk, took him to Eltham Palace, where the royal children +were educated. There he saw, surrounded by the whole royal +household, the youthful Henry, who was to be Henry VIII, +a boy of nine years, together with two little sisters and a young +prince, who was still an infant in arms. Erasmus was ashamed +that he had nothing to offer and, on returning home, he composed +(not without exertion, for he had not written poetry at +all for some time) a panegyric on England, which he presented +to the prince with a graceful dedication.</p> + +<p>In October Erasmus was at Oxford which, at first, did not +please him, but whither Mountjoy was to follow him. He had +been recommended to John Colet, who declared that he +required no recommendations: he already knew Erasmus from +the letter to Gaguin in the latter's historical work and thought +very highly of his learning. There followed during the remainder +of Erasmus's stay at Oxford a lively intercourse, in +conversation and in correspondence, which definitely decided +the bent of Erasmus's many-sided mind.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a href="images/plate-iii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-iii-th.png" width="300" height="344" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate III. JOHN COLET, DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S</p> + +<p>John Colet, who did not differ much from Erasmus in +point of age, had found his intellectual path earlier and more +easily. Born of well-to-do parents (his father was a London +magistrate and twice lord mayor), he had been able leisurely +to prosecute his studies. Not seduced by quite such a brilliant +genius as Erasmus possessed into literary digressions, he had +from the beginning fixed his attention on theology. He knew +Plato and Plotinus, though not in Greek, was very well read +in the older Fathers and also respectably acquainted with +scholasticism, not to mention his knowledge of mathematics, +law, history and the English poets. In 1496 he had established +himself at Oxford. Without possessing a degree in divinity, he +expounded St. Paul's epistles. Although, owing to his +ignorance of Greek, he was restricted to the Vulgate, he tried +to penetrate to the original meaning of the sacred texts, +discarding the later commentaries.</p> + +<p>Colet had a deeply serious nature, always warring against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +the tendencies of his vigorous being, and he kept within +bounds his pride and the love of pleasure. He had a keen +sense of humour, which, without doubt, endeared him to +Erasmus. He was an enthusiast. When defending a point in +theology his ardour changed the sound of his voice, the look +in his eyes, and a lofty spirit permeated his whole person.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-iv.png"> +<img src="images/plate-iv.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate IV. SIR THOMAS MORE, 1527</p> + +<p>Out of his intercourse with Colet came the first of Erasmus's +theological writings. At the end of a discussion regarding +Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemane, in which Erasmus +had defended the usual view that Christ's fear of suffering +proceeded from his human nature, Colet had exhorted him to +think further about the matter. They exchanged letters about +it and finally Erasmus committed both their opinions to paper +in the form of a 'Little disputation concerning the anguish, +fear and sadness of Jesus', <i>Disputatiuncula de tedio, pavore, +tristicia Jesu</i>, etc., being an elaboration of these letters.</p> + +<p>While the tone of this pamphlet is earnest and pious, it is +not truly fervent. The man of letters is not at once and completely +superseded. 'See, Colet,' thus Erasmus ends his first +letter, referring half ironically to himself, 'how I can observe +the rules of propriety in concluding such a theologic disputation +with poetic fables (he had made use of a few mythologic +metaphors). But as Horace says, <i>Naturam expellas furca, tamen +usque recurret</i>.'</p> + +<p>This ambiguous position which Erasmus still occupied, also +in things of the mind, appears still more clearly from the +report which he sent to his new friend, the Frisian John Sixtin, +a Latin poet like himself, of another disputation with Colet, +at a repast, probably in the hall of Magdalen College, where +Wolsey, too, was perhaps present. To his fellow-poet, Erasmus +writes as a poet, loosely and with some affectation. It was a +meal such as he liked, and afterwards frequently pictured in +his <i>Colloquies</i>: cultured company, good food, moderate +drinking, noble conversation. Colet presided. On his right +hand sat the prior Charnock of St. Mary's College, where +Erasmus resided (he had also been present at the disputation +about Christ's agony). On his left was a divine whose name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +is not mentioned, an advocate of scholasticism; next to him +came Erasmus, 'that the poet should not be wanting at the +banquet'. The discussion was about Cain's guilt by which he +displeased the Lord. Colet defended the opinion that Cain had +injured God by doubting the Creator's goodness, and, in +reliance on his own industry, tilling the earth, whereas Abel +tended the sheep and was content with what grew of itself. +The divine contended with syllogisms, Erasmus with arguments +of 'rhetoric'. But Colet kindled, and got the better of +both. After a while, when the dispute had lasted long enough +and had become more serious than was suitable for table-talk—'then +I said, in order to play my part, the part of the poet +that is—to abate the contention and at the same time cheer the +meal with a pleasant tale: "it is a very old story, it has to be +unearthed from the very oldest authors. I will tell you what I +found about it in literature, if you will promise me first that +you will not look upon it as a fable."'</p> + +<p>And now he relates a witty story of some very ancient +codex in which he had read how Cain, who had often heard +his parents speak of the glorious vegetation of Paradise, where +the ears of corn were as high as the alders with us, had prevailed +upon the angel who guarded it, to give him some +Paradisal grains. God would not mind it, if only he left the +apples alone. The speech by which the angel is incited to disobey +the Almighty is a masterpiece of Erasmian wit. 'Do you +find it pleasant to stand there by the gate with a big sword? +We have just begun to use dogs for that sort of work. It is not +so bad on earth and it will be better still; we shall learn, no +doubt, to cure diseases. What that forbidden knowledge +matters I do not see very clearly. Though, in that matter, +too, unwearied industry surmounts all obstacles.' In this +way the guardian is seduced. But when God beholds the +miraculous effect of Cain's agricultural management, punishment +does not fail to ensue. A more delicate way of combining +Genesis and the Prometheus myth no humanist had +yet invented.</p> + +<p>But still, though Erasmus went on conducting himself as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +man of letters among his fellow-poets, his heart was no longer +in those literary exercises. It is one of the peculiarities of +Erasmus's mental growth that it records no violent crises. We +never find him engaged in those bitter inward struggles which +are in the experience of so many great minds. His transition +from interest in literary matters to interest in religious matters +is not in the nature of a process of conversion. There is no +Tarsus in Erasmus's life. The transition takes place gradually +and is never complete. For many years to come Erasmus can, +without suspicion of hypocrisy, at pleasure, as his interests or +his moods require, play the man of letters or the theologian. +He is a man with whom the deeper currents of the soul +gradually rise to the surface; who raises himself to the height +of his ethical consciousness under the stress of circumstances, +rather than at the spur of some irresistible impulse.</p> + +<p>The desire to turn only to matters of faith he shows early. +'I have resolved', he writes in his monastic period to Cornelius +of Gouda, 'to write no more poems in the future, except such +as savour of praise of the saints, or of sanctity itself.' But that +was the youthful pious resolve of a moment. During all the +years previous to the first voyage to England, Erasmus's writings, +and especially his letters, betray a worldly disposition. It +only leaves him in moments of illness and weariness. Then +the world displeases him and he despises his own ambition; he +desires to live in holy quiet, musing on Scripture and shedding +tears over his old errors. But these are utterances inspired by +the occasion, which one should not take too seriously.</p> + +<p>It was Colet's word and example which first changed +Erasmus's desultory occupation with theological studies into a +firm and lasting resolve to make their pursuit the object of his +life. Colet urged him to expound the Pentateuch or the prophet +Isaiah at Oxford, just as he himself treated of Paul's +epistles. Erasmus declined; he could not do it. This bespoke +insight and self-knowledge, by which he surpassed Colet. The +latter's intuitive Scripture interpretation without knowledge +of the original language failed to satisfy Erasmus. 'You are +acting imprudently, my dear Colet, in trying to obtain water<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +from a pumice-stone (in the words of Plautus). How shall I +be so impudent as to teach that which I have not learned myself? +How shall I warm others while shivering and trembling +with cold?... You complain that you find yourself deceived +in your expectations regarding me. But I have never promised +you such a thing; you have deceived yourself by refusing to +believe me when I was telling you the truth regarding myself. +Neither did I come here to teach poetics or rhetoric (Colet had +hinted at that); these have ceased to be sweet to me, since they +ceased to be necessary to me. I decline the one task because it +does not come up to my aim in life; the other because it is +beyond my strength ... But when, one day, I shall be conscious +that the necessary power is in me, I, too, shall choose +your part and devote to the assertion of divinity, if no excellent, +yet sincere labour.'</p> + +<p>The inference which Erasmus drew first of all was that he +should know Greek better than he had thus far been able to +learn it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile his stay in England was rapidly drawing to a +close; he had to return to Paris. Towards the end of his sojourn +he wrote to his former pupil, Robert Fisher, who was in Italy, +in a high-pitched tone about the satisfaction which he experienced +in England. A most pleasant and wholesome climate +(he was most sensitive to it); so much humanity and erudition—not +of the worn-out and trivial sort, but of the recondite, +genuine, ancient, Latin and Greek stamp—that he need hardly +any more long to go to Italy. In Colet he thought he heard +Plato himself. Grocyn, the Grecian scholar; Linacre, the +learned physician, who would not admire them! And whose +spirit was ever softer, sweeter or happier than that of Thomas +More!</p> + +<p>A disagreeable incident occurred as Erasmus was leaving +English soil in January 1500. Unfortunately it not only obscured +his pleasant memories of the happy island, but also +placed another obstacle in the path of his career, and left in +his supersensitive soul a sting which vexed him for years +afterwards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>The livelihood which he had been gaining at Paris of late +years was precarious. The support from the bishop had +probably been withdrawn; that of Anna of Veere had trickled +but languidly; he could not too firmly rely on Mountjoy. +Under these circumstances a modest fund, some provision +against a rainy day, was of the highest consequence. Such +savings he brought from England, twenty pounds. An act of +Edward III, re-enacted by Henry VII not long before, prohibited +the export of gold and silver, but More and Mountjoy +had assured Erasmus that he could safely take his money with +him, if only it was not in English coin. At Dover he learned +that the custom-house officers were of a different opinion. He +might only keep six 'angels'—the rest was left behind in the +hands of the officials and was evidently confiscated.</p> + +<p>The shock which this incident gave him perhaps contributed +to his fancying himself threatened by robbers and murderers +on the road from Calais to Paris. The loss of his money +plunged him afresh into perplexity as to his support from day +to day. It forced him to resume the profession of a <i>bel esprit</i>, +which he already began to loathe, and to take all the humiliating +steps to get what was due to it from patrons. And, above +all, it affected his mental balance and his dignity. Yet this mishap +had its great advantage for the world, and for Erasmus, +too, after all. To it the world owes the <i>Adagia</i>; and he the +fame, which began with this work.</p> + +<p>The feelings with which his misfortune at Dover inspired +Erasmus were bitter anger and thirst for revenge. A few +months later he writes to Batt: 'Things with me are as they +are wont to be in such cases: the wound received in England +begins to smart only now that it has become inveterate, and +that the more as I cannot have my revenge in any way'. And +six months later, 'I shall swallow it. An occasion may offer +itself, no doubt, to be even with them.' Yet meanwhile true +insight told this man, whose strength did not always attain to +his ideals, that the English, whom he had just seen in such a +favourable light, let alone his special friends among them, +were not accessories to the misfortune. He never reproached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +More and Mountjoy, whose inaccurate information, he tells +us, had done the harm. At the same time his interest, which he +always saw in the garb of virtue, told him that now especially +it would be essential not to break off his relations with +England, and that this gave him a splendid chance of strengthening +them. Afterwards he explained this with a naïveté which +often causes his writings, especially where he tries to suppress +or cloak matters, to read like confessions.</p> + +<p>'Returning to Paris a poor man, I understood that many +would expect I should take revenge with my pen for this +mishap, after the fashion of men of letters, by writing something +venomous against the king or against England. At the +same time I was afraid that William Mountjoy, having indirectly +caused my loss of money, would be apprehensive of +losing my affection. In order, therefore, both to put the expectations +of those people to shame, and to make known that I +was not so unfair as to blame the country for a private wrong, +or so inconsiderate as, because of a small loss, to risk making +the king displeased with myself or with my friends in England, +and at the same time to give my friend Mountjoy a proof that +I was no less kindly disposed towards him than before, I +resolved to publish something as quickly as possible. As I had +nothing ready, I hastily brought together, by a few days' +reading, a collection of Adagia, in the supposition that such a +booklet, however it might turn out, by its mere usefulness +would get into the hands of students. In this way I demonstrated +that my friendship had not cooled off at all. Next, in a +poem I subjoined, I protested that I was not angry with the +king or with the country at being deprived of my money. And +my scheme was not ill received. That moderation and candour +procured me a good many friends in England at the time—erudite, +upright and influential men.'</p> + +<p>This is a characteristic specimen of semi-ethical conduct. In +this way Erasmus succeeded in dealing with his indignation, +so that later on he could declare, when the recollection came +up occasionally, 'At one blow I had lost all my fortune, but I +was so unconcerned that I returned to my books all the more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +cheerfully and ardently'. But his friends knew how deep the +wound had been. 'Now (on hearing that Henry VIII had +ascended the throne) surely all bitterness must have suddenly +left your soul,' Mountjoy writes to him in 1509, possibly +through the pen of Ammonius.</p> + +<p>The years after his return to France were difficult ones. He +was in great need of money and was forced to do what he +could, as a man of letters, with his talents and knowledge. +He had again to be the <i>homo poeticus</i> or <i>rhetoricus</i>. He writes +polished letters full of mythology and modest mendicity. As a +poet he had a reputation; as a poet he could expect support. +Meanwhile the elevating picture of his theological activities +remained present before his mind's eye. It nerves him to +energy and perseverance. 'It is incredible', he writes to Batt, +'how my soul yearns to finish all my works, at the same time +becoming somewhat proficient in Greek, and afterwards to +devote myself entirely to the sacred learning after which my +soul has been hankering for a long time. I am in fairly good +health, so I shall have to strain every nerve this year (1501) to +get the work we gave the printer published, and by dealing +with theological problems, to expose our cavillers, who are +very numerous, as they deserve. If three more years of life are +granted me, I shall be beyond the reach of envy.'</p> + +<p>Here we see him in a frame of mind to accomplish great +things, though not merely under the impulse of true devotion. +Already he sees the restoration of genuine divinity as his task; +unfortunately the effusion is contained in a letter in which he +instructs the faithful Batt as to how he should handle the Lady +of Veere in order to wheedle money out of her.</p> + +<p>For years to come the efforts to make a living were to cause +him almost constant tribulations and petty cares. He had had +more than enough of France and desired nothing better than +to leave it. Part of the year 1500 he spent at Orléans. Adversity +made him narrow. There is the story of his relations with +Augustine Vincent Caminade, a humanist of lesser rank (he +ended as syndic of Middelburg), who took young men as +lodgers. It is too long to detail here, but remarkable enough as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +revealing Erasmus's psychology, for it shows how deeply he +mistrusted his friends. There are also his relations with +Jacobus Voecht, in whose house he evidently lived gratuitously +and for whom he managed to procure a rich lodger in the +person of an illegitimate brother of the Bishop of Cambray. +At this time, Erasmus asserts, the bishop (Antimaecenas he +now calls him) set Standonck to dog him in Paris.</p> + +<p>Much bitterness there is in the letters of this period. Erasmus +is suspicious, irritable, exacting, sometimes rude in writing to +his friends. He cannot bear William Hermans any longer +because of his epicureanism and his lack of energy, to which +he, Erasmus, certainly was a stranger. But what grieves us +most is the way he speaks to honest Batt. He is highly praised, +certainly. Erasmus promises to make him immortal, too. But +how offended he is, when Batt cannot at once comply with his +imperious demands. How almost shameless are his instructions +as to what Batt is to tell the Lady of Veere, in order to solicit +her favour for Erasmus. And how meagre the expressions of +his sorrow, when the faithful Batt is taken from him by death +in the first half of 1502.</p> + +<p>It is as if Erasmus had revenged himself on Batt for having +been obliged to reveal himself to his true friend in need more +completely than he cared to appear to anyone; or for having +disavowed to Anna of Borselen his fundamental convictions, +his most refined taste, for the sake of a meagre gratuity. He has +paid homage to her in that ponderous Burgundian style with +which dynasties in the Netherlands were familiar, and which +must have been hateful to him. He has flattered her formal +piety. 'I send you a few prayers, by means of which you could, +as by incantations, call down, even against her will, from +Heaven, so to say, not the moon, but her who gave birth to +the sun of justice.'</p> + +<p>Did you smile your delicate smile, O author of the <i>Colloquies</i>, +while writing this? So much the worse for you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<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> Allen No. 103.17. Cf. <i>Chr. Matrim. inst.</i> LB. V. 678 and <i>Cent +nouvelles</i> 2.63, 'ung baiser, dont les dames et demoiselles du dit pays +d'Angleterre sont assez libérales de l'accorder'.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_v" id="chapter_v"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS AS A HUMANIST</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Significance of the <i>Adagia</i> and similar works of later years—Erasmus as a +divulger of classical culture—Latin—Estrangement from Holland—Erasmus +as a Netherlander</p></div> + + +<p>Meanwhile renown came to Erasmus as the fruit of those +literary studies which, as he said, had ceased to be dear to him. +In 1500 that work appeared which Erasmus had written after +his misfortune at Dover, and had dedicated to Mountjoy, the +<i>Adagiorum Collectanea</i>. It was a collection of about eight +hundred proverbial sayings drawn from the Latin authors of +antiquity and elucidated for the use of those who aspired to +write an elegant Latin style. In the dedication Erasmus pointed +out the profit an author may derive, both in ornamenting his +style and in strengthening his argumentation, from having at +his disposal a good supply of sentences hallowed by their +antiquity. He proposes to offer such a help to his readers. +What he actually gave was much more. He familiarized a much +wider circle than the earlier humanists had reached with the +spirit of antiquity.</p> + +<p>Until this time the humanists had, to some extent, monopolized +the treasures of classic culture, in order to parade their +knowledge of which the multitude remained destitute, and so +to become strange prodigies of learning and elegance. With +his irresistible need of teaching and his sincere love for +humanity and its general culture, Erasmus introduced the +classic spirit, in so far as it could be reflected in the soul of a +sixteenth-century Christian, among the people. Not he alone; +but none more extensively and more effectively. Not among +all the people, it is true, for by writing in Latin he limited his +direct influence to the educated classes, which in those days +were the upper classes.</p> + +<p>Erasmus made current the classic spirit. Humanism ceased +to be the exclusive privilege of a few. According to Beatus +Rhenanus he had been reproached by some humanists, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +about to publish the <i>Adagia</i>, for divulging the mysteries of +their craft. But he desired that the book of antiquity should +be open to all.</p> + +<p>The literary and educational works of Erasmus, the chief of +which were begun in his Parisian period, though most of them +appeared much later, have, in truth, brought about a transmutation +of the general modes of expression and of argumentation. +It should be repeated over and over again that this was +not achieved by him single-handed; countless others at that +time were similarly engaged. But we have only to cast an eye +on the broad current of editions of the <i>Adagia</i>, of the <i>Colloquia</i>, +etc., to realize of how much greater consequence he was in +this respect than all the others. 'Erasmus' is the only name in +all the host of humanists which has remained a household +word all over the globe.</p> + +<p>Here we will anticipate the course of Erasmus's life for a +moment, to enumerate the principal works of this sort. Some +years later the <i>Adagia</i> increased from hundreds to thousands, +through which not only Latin, but also Greek, wisdom spoke. +In 1514 he published in the same manner a collection of +similitudes, <i>Parabolae</i>. It was a partial realization of what he +had conceived to supplement the <i>Adagia</i>—metaphors, saws, +allusions, poetical and scriptural allegories, all to be dealt with +in a similar way. Towards the end of his life he published a +similar thesaurus of the witty anecdotes and the striking words +or deeds of wisdom of antiquity, the <i>Apophthegmata</i>. In addition +to these collections, we find manuals of a more grammatical +nature, also piled up treasury-like: 'On the stock of +expressions', <i>De copia verborum et rerum</i>, 'On letter-writing', +<i>De conscribendis epistolis</i>, not to mention works of less importance. +By a number of Latin translations of Greek authors +Erasmus had rendered a point of prospect accessible to those +who did not wish to climb the whole mountain. And, finally, +as inimitable models of the manner in which to apply all +that knowledge, there were the <i>Colloquia</i> and that almost +countless multitude of letters which have flowed from +Erasmus's pen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>All this collectively made up antiquity (in such quantity and +quality as it was obtainable in the sixteenth century) exhibited +in an emporium where it might be had at retail. Each +student could get what was to his taste; everything was to be +had there in a great variety of designs. 'You may read my +<i>Adagia</i> in such a manner', says Erasmus (of the later augmented +edition), 'that as soon as you have finished one, you +may imagine you have finished the whole book.' He himself +made indices to facilitate its use.</p> + +<p>In the world of scholasticism he alone had up to now been +considered an authority who had mastered the technicalities +of its system of thought and its mode of expression in all its +details and was versed in biblical knowledge, logic and philosophy. +Between scholastic parlance and the spontaneously +written popular languages, there yawned a wide gulf. Humanism +since Petrarch had substituted for the rigidly syllogistic +structure of an argument the loose style of the antique, free, +suggestive phrase. In this way the language of the learned +approached the natural manner of expression of daily life and +raised the popular languages, even where it continued to use +Latin, to its own level.</p> + +<p>The wealth of subject-matter was found with no one in +greater abundance than with Erasmus. What knowledge of +life, what ethics, all supported by the indisputable authority of +the Ancients, all expressed in that fine, airy form for which he +was admired. And such knowledge of antiquities in addition +to all this! Illimitable was the craving for and illimitable the +power to absorb what is extraordinary in real life. This was +one of the principal characteristics of the spirit of the Renaissance. +These minds never had their desired share of striking +incidents, curious details, rarities and anomalies. There was, as +yet, no symptom of that mental dyspepsia of later periods, +which can no longer digest reality and relishes it no more. +Men revelled in plenty.</p> + +<p>And yet, were not Erasmus and his fellow-workers as +leaders of civilization on a wrong track? Was it true reality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +they were aiming at? Was their proud Latinity not a fatal +error? There is one of the crucial points of history.</p> + +<p>A present-day reader who should take up the <i>Adagia</i> or the +<i>Apophthegmata</i> with a view to enriching his own life (for they +were meant for this purpose and it is what gave them value), +would soon ask himself: 'What matter to us, apart from strictly +philological or historical considerations, those endless details +concerning obscure personages of antique society, of Phrygians, +of Thessalians? They are nothing to me.' And—he will +continue—they really mattered nothing to Erasmus's contemporaries +either. The stupendous history of the sixteenth +century was not enacted in classic phrases or turns; it was not +based on classic interests or views of life. There were no +Phrygians and Thessalians, no Agesilauses or Dionysiuses. The +humanists created out of all this a mental realm, emancipated +from the limitations of time.</p> + +<p>And did their own times pass without being influenced by +them? That is the question, and we shall not attempt to answer +it: to what extent did humanism influence the course of events?</p> + +<p>In any case Erasmus and his coadjutors greatly heightened +the international character of civilization which had existed +throughout the Middle Ages because of Latin and of the +Church. If they thought they were really making Latin a +vehicle for daily international use, they overrated their power. +It was, no doubt, an amusing fancy and a witty exercise to +plan, in such an international <i>milieu</i> as the Parisian student +world, such models of sports and games in Latin as the <i>Colloquiorum +formulae</i> offered. But can Erasmus have seriously +thought that the next generation would play at marbles in +Latin?</p> + +<p>Still, intellectual intercourse undoubtedly became very +easy in so wide a circle as had not been within reach in Europe +since the fall of the Roman Empire. Henceforth it was no +longer the clergy alone, and an occasional literate, but a +numerous multitude of sons of burghers and nobles, qualifying +for some magisterial office, who passed through a +grammar-school and found Erasmus in their path.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>Erasmus could not have attained to his world-wide celebrity +if it had not been for Latin. To make his native tongue a universal +language was beyond him. It may well puzzle a fellow-countryman +of Erasmus to guess what a talent like his, with +his power of observation, his delicacy of expression, his gusto +and wealth, might have meant to Dutch literature. Just imagine +the <i>Colloquia</i> written in the racy Dutch of the sixteenth +century! What could he not have produced if, instead of gleaning +and commenting upon classic Adagia, he had, for his +themes, availed himself of the proverbs of the vernacular? +To us such a proverb is perhaps even more sapid than the +sometimes slightly finical turns praised by Erasmus.</p> + +<p>This, however, is to reason unhistorically; this was not what +the times required and what Erasmus could give. It is quite +clear why Erasmus could only write in Latin. Moreover, in +the vernacular everything would have appeared too direct, +too personal, too real, for his taste. He could not do without +that thin veil of vagueness, of remoteness, in which everything +is wrapped when expressed in Latin. His fastidious mind would +have shrunk from the pithy coarseness of a Rabelais, or the +rustic violence of Luther's German.</p> + +<p>Estrangement from his native tongue had begun for Erasmus +as early as the days when he learned reading and writing. +Estrangement from the land of his birth set in when he left the +monastery of Steyn. It was furthered not a little by the ease +with which he handled Latin. Erasmus, who could express +himself as well in Latin as in his mother tongue, and even +better, consequently lacked the experience of, after all, feeling +thoroughly at home and of being able to express himself fully, +only among his compatriots. There was, however, another +psychological influence which acted to alienate him from +Holland. After he had seen at Paris the perspectives of his own +capacities, he became confirmed in the conviction that +Holland failed to appreciate him, that it distrusted and slandered +him. Perhaps there was indeed some ground for this +conviction. But, partly, it was also a reaction of injured self-love. +In Holland people knew too much about him. They had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +seen him in his smallnesses and feebleness. There he had been +obliged to obey others—he who, above all things, wanted to +be free. Distaste of the narrow-mindedness, the coarseness and +intemperance which he knew to prevail there, were summed +up, within him, in a general condemnatory judgement of the +Dutch character.</p> + +<p>Henceforth he spoke as a rule about Holland with a sort of +apologetic contempt. 'I see that you are content with Dutch +fame,' he writes to his old friend William Hermans, who like +Cornelius Aurelius had begun to devote his best forces to the +history of his native country. 'In Holland the air is good for +me,' he writes elsewhere, 'but the extravagant carousals annoy +me; add to this the vulgar uncultured character of the people, +the violent contempt of study, no fruit of learning, the most +egregious envy.' And excusing the imperfection of his juvenilia, +he says: 'At that time I wrote not for Italians, but for +Hollanders, that is to say, for the dullest ears'. And, in another +place, 'eloquence is demanded from a Dutchman, that is, from +a more hopeless person than a B[oe]otian'. And again, 'If the +story is not very witty, remember it is a Dutch story'. No +doubt, false modesty had its share in such sayings.</p> + +<p>After 1496 he visited Holland only on hasty journeys. There +is no evidence that after 1501 he ever set foot on Dutch soil. +He dissuaded his own compatriots abroad from returning to +Holland.</p> + +<p>Still, now and again, a cordial feeling of sympathy for his +native country stirred within him. Just where he would have +had an opportunity, in explaining Martial's <i>Auris Batava</i> in the +<i>Adagia</i>, for venting his spleen, he availed himself of the chance +of writing an eloquent panegyric on what was dearest to him +in Holland, 'a country that I am always bound to honour and +revere, as that which gave me birth. Would I might be a +credit to it, just as, on the other hand, I need not be ashamed +of it.' Their reputed boorishness rather redounds to their +honour. 'If a "Batavian ear" means a horror of Martial's +obscene jokes, I could wish that all Christians might have +Dutch ears. When we consider their morals, no nation is more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +inclined to humanity and benevolence, less savage or cruel. +Their mind is upright and void of cunning and all humbug. +If they are somewhat sensual and excessive at meals, it results +partly from their plentiful supply: nowhere is import so easy +and fertility so great. What an extent of lush meadows, how +many navigable rivers! Nowhere are so many towns crowded +together within so small an area; not large towns, indeed, but +excellently governed. Their cleanliness is praised by everybody. +Nowhere are such large numbers of moderately learned +persons found, though extraordinary and exquisite erudition +is rather rare.'</p> + +<p>They were Erasmus's own most cherished ideals which he +here ascribes to his compatriots—gentleness, sincerity, simplicity, +purity. He sounds that note of love for Holland on +other occasions. When speaking of lazy women, he adds: 'In +France there are large numbers of them, but in Holland we +find countless wives who by their industry support their idling +and revelling husbands'. And in the colloquy entitled 'The +Shipwreck', the people who charitably take in the castaways +are Hollanders. 'There is no more humane people than this, +though surrounded by violent nations.'</p> + +<p>In addressing English readers it is perhaps not superfluous +to point out once again that Erasmus when speaking of +Holland, or using the epithet 'Batavian', refers to the county +of Holland, which at present forms the provinces of North +and South Holland of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and +stretches from the Wadden islands to the estuaries of the +Meuse. Even the nearest neighbours, such as Zealanders and +Frisians, are not included in this appellation.</p> + +<p>But it is a different matter when Erasmus speaks of <i>patria</i>, +the fatherland, or of <i>nostras</i>, a compatriot. In those days a +national consciousness was just budding all over the Netherlands. +A man still felt himself a Hollander, a Frisian, a Fleming, +a Brabantine in the first place; but the community of language +and customs, and still more the strong political influence which +for nearly a century had been exercised by the Burgundian +dynasty, which had united most of these low countries under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +its sway, had cemented a feeling of solidarity which did not +even halt at the linguistic frontier in Belgium. It was still +rather a strong Burgundian patriotism (even after Habsburg +had <i>de facto</i> occupied the place of Burgundy) than a strictly +Netherlandish feeling of nationality. People liked, by using +a heraldic symbol, to designate the Netherlander as 'the +Lions'. Erasmus, too, employs the term. In his works we +gradually see the narrower Hollandish patriotism gliding into +the Burgundian Netherlandish. In the beginning, <i>patria</i> with +him still means Holland proper, but soon it meant the Netherlands. +It is curious to trace how by degrees his feelings regarding +Holland, made up of disgust and attachment, are transferred +to the Low Countries in general. 'In my youth', he says +in 1535, repeating himself, 'I did not write for Italians but +for Hollanders, the people of Brabant and Flemings.' So they +now all share the reputation of bluntness. To Louvain is applied +what formerly was said of Holland: there are too many compotations; +nothing can be done without a drinking bout. Nowhere, +he repeatedly complains, is there so little sense of the +<i>bonae literae</i>, nowhere is study so despised as in the Netherlands, +and nowhere are there more cavillers and slanderers. +But also his affection has expanded. When Longolius of +Brabant plays the Frenchman, Erasmus is vexed: 'I devoted +nearly three days to Longolius; he was uncommonly pleasing, +except only that he is too French, whereas it is well known +that he is one of us'.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> When Charles V has obtained the crown +of Spain, Erasmus notes: 'a singular stroke of luck, but I pray +that it may also prove a blessing to the fatherland, and not only +to the prince'. When his strength was beginning to fail he +began to think more and more of returning to his native +country. 'King Ferdinand invites me, with large promises, to +come to Vienna,' he writes from Basle, 1 October 1528, 'but +nowhere would it please me better to rest than in Brabant.'</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a href="images/plate-v.png"> +<img src="images/plate-v-th.png" width="300" height="379" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate V. Doodles by Erasmus in the margin of one of his manuscripts.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-vi.png"> +<img src="images/plate-vi-th.png" width="250" height="293" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate VI. A manuscript page of Erasmus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<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> Allen No. 1026.4, cf. 914, intr. p. 473. Later Erasmus was made to +believe that Longolius was a Hollander, cf. LBE. 1507 A.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_vi" id="chapter_vi"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS</h3> + +<h3>1501</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At Tournehem: 1501—The restoration of theology now the aim of his +life—He learns Greek—John Vitrier—<i>Enchiridion Militis Christiani</i></p></div> + + +<p>The lean years continued with Erasmus. His livelihood remained +uncertain, and he had no fixed abode. It is remarkable +that, in spite of his precarious means of support, his movements +were ever guided rather by the care for his health than for his +sustenance, and his studies rather by his burning desire to +penetrate to the purest sources of knowledge than by his +advantage. Repeatedly the fear of the plague drives him on: +in 1500 from Paris to Orléans, where he first lodges with +Augustine Caminade; but when one of the latter's boarders +falls ill, Erasmus moves. Perhaps it was the impressions dating +from his youth at Deventer that made him so excessively +afraid of the plague, which in those days raged practically +without intermission. Faustus Andrelinus sent a servant to +upbraid him in his name with cowardice: 'That would be an +intolerable insult', Erasmus answers, 'if I were a Swiss soldier, +but a poet's soul, loving peace and shady places, is proof against +it'. In the spring of 1501 he leaves Paris once more for fear of +the plague: 'the frequent burials frighten me', he writes to +Augustine.</p> + +<p>He travelled first to Holland, where, at Steyn, he obtained +leave to spend another year outside the monastery, for the sake +of study; his friends would be ashamed if he returned, after +so many years of study, without having acquired some +authority. At Haarlem he visited his friend William Hermans, +then turned to the south, once again to pay his respects to the +Bishop of Cambray, probably at Brussels. Thence he went to +Veere, but found no opportunity to talk to his patroness. In +July 1501, he subsided into quietness at the castle of Tournehem +with his faithful friend Batt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>In all his comings and goings he does not for a moment lose +sight of his ideals of study. Since his return from England he is +mastered by two desires: to edit Jerome, the great Father of +the Church, and, especially, to learn Greek thoroughly. 'You +understand how much all this matters to my fame, nay, to my +preservation,' he writes (from Orléans towards the end of +1500) to Batt. But, indeed, had Erasmus been an ordinary +fame and success hunter he might have had recourse to plenty +of other expedients. It was the ardent desire to penetrate to the +source and to make others understand that impelled him, even +when he availed himself of these projects of study to raise a +little money. 'Listen,' he writes to Batt, 'to what more I desire +from you. You must wrest a gift from the abbot (of Saint +Bertin). You know the man's disposition; invent some modest +and plausible reason for begging. Tell him that I purpose +something grand, viz., to restore the whole of Jerome, however +comprehensive he may be, and spoiled, mutilated, entangled +by the ignorance of divines; and to re-insert the Greek +passages. I venture to say, I shall be able to lay open the antiquities +and the style of Jerome, understood by no one as yet. +Tell him that I shall want not a few books for the purpose, and +moreover the help of Greeks, and that therefore I require +support. In saying this, Battus, you will be telling no lies. For +I really mean to do all this.'</p> + +<p>He was, indeed, in a serious mood on this point, as he was +soon to prove to the world. His conquest of Greek was a +veritable feat of heroism. He had learned the simplest rudiments +at Deventer, but these evidently amounted to very +little. In March, 1500, he writes to Batt: 'Greek is nearly killing +me, but I have no time and I have no money to buy books +or to take a master'. When Augustine Caminade wants his +Homer back which he had lent to him, Erasmus complains: +'You deprive me of my sole consolation in my tedium. For I +so burn with love for this author, though I cannot understand +him, that I feast my eyes and re-create my mind by looking at +him.' Was Erasmus aware that in saying this he almost literally +reproduced feelings which Petrarch had expressed a hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +and fifty years before? But he had already begun to study. +Whether he had a master is not quite clear, but it is probable. +He finds the language difficult at first. Then gradually he ventures +to call himself 'a candidate in this language', and he +begins with more confidence to scatter Greek quotations +through his letters. It occupies him night and day and he urges +all his friends to procure Greek books for him. In the autumn +of 1502 he declares that he can properly write all he wants in +Greek, and that extempore. He was not deceived in his expectation +that Greek would open his eyes to the right understanding +of Holy Scripture. Three years of nearly uninterrupted study +amply rewarded him for his trouble. Hebrew, which he had +also taken up, he abandoned. At that time (1504) he made +translations from the Greek, he employed it critically in his +theological studies, he taught it, amongst others, to William +Cop, the French physician-humanist. A few years later he +was to find little in Italy to improve his proficiency in Greek; +he was afterwards inclined to believe that he carried more of +the two ancient languages to that country than he brought back.</p> + +<p>Nothing testifies more to the enthusiasm with which +Erasmus applied himself to Greek than his zeal to make his +best friends share in its blessings. Batt, he decided, should learn +Greek. But Batt had no time, and Latin appealed more to him. +When Erasmus goes to Haarlem to visit William Hermans, it +is to make him a Greek scholar too; he has brought a handbag +full of books. But he had only his trouble for his pains. +William did not take at all kindly to this study and Erasmus +was so disappointed that he not only considered his money and +trouble thrown away, but also thought he had lost a friend.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he was still undecided where he should go in the +near future. To England, to Italy, or back to Paris? In the end +he made a fairly long stay as a guest, from the autumn of 1501 +till the following summer, first at Saint Omer, with the prior +of Saint Bertin, and afterwards at the castle of Courtebourne, +not far off.</p> + +<p>At Saint Omer, Erasmus became acquainted with a man +whose image he was afterwards to place beside that of Colet as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +that of a true divine, and of a good monk at the same time: +Jean Vitrier, the warden of the Franciscan monastery at Saint +Omer. Erasmus must have felt attracted to a man who was +burdened with a condemnation pronounced by the Sorbonne +on account of his too frank expressions regarding the abuses +of monastic life. Vitrier had not given up the life on that +account, but he devoted himself to reforming monasteries and +convents. Having progressed from scholasticism to Saint Paul, +he had formed a very liberal conception of Christian life, +strongly opposed to practices and ceremonies. This man, +without doubt, considerably influenced the origin of one of +Erasmus's most celebrated and influential works, the <i>Enchiridion +militis Christiani</i>.</p> + +<p>Erasmus himself afterwards confessed that the <i>Enchiridion</i> +was born by chance. He did not reflect that some outward +circumstance is often made to serve an inward impulse. The +outward circumstance was that the castle of Tournehem was +frequented by a soldier, a friend of Batt, a man of very dissolute +conduct, who behaved very badly towards his pious wife, +and who was, moreover, an uncultured and violent hater of +priests.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> For the rest he was of a kindly disposition and excepted +Erasmus from his hatred of divines. The wife used her +influence with Batt to get Erasmus to write something which +might bring her husband to take an interest in religion. Erasmus +complied with the request and Jean Vitrier concurred so +cordially with the views expressed in these notes that Erasmus +afterwards elaborated them at Louvain; in 1504 they were +published at Antwerp by Dirck Maertensz.</p> + +<p>This is the outward genesis of the <i>Enchiridion</i>. But the inward +cause was that sooner or later Erasmus was bound to +formulate his attitude towards the religious conduct of the +life of his day and towards ceremonial and soulless conceptions +of Christian duty, which were an eyesore to him.</p> + +<p>In point of form the <i>Enchiridion</i> is a manual for an illiterate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +soldier to attain to an attitude of mind worthy of Christ; as +with a finger he will point out to him the shortest path to +Christ. He assumes the friend to be weary of life at court—a +common theme of contemporary literature. Only for a few +days does Erasmus interrupt the work of his life, the purification +of theology, to comply with his friend's request for +instruction. To keep up a soldierly style he chooses the title, +<i>Enchiridion</i>, the Greek word that even in antiquity meant both +a poniard and a manual:<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> 'The poniard of the militant Christian'.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +He reminds him of the duty of watchfulness and enumerates +the weapons of Christ's militia. Self-knowledge is the +beginning of wisdom. The general rules of the Christian +conduct of life are followed by a number of remedies for +particular sins and faults.</p> + +<p>Such is the outward frame. But within this scope Erasmus +finds an opportunity, for the first time, to develop his theological +programme. This programme calls upon us to return +to Scripture. It should be the endeavour of every Christian to +understand Scripture in its purity and original meaning. To +that end he should prepare himself by the study of the +Ancients, orators, poets, philosophers; Plato especially. Also +the great Fathers of the Church, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine +will be found useful, but not the large crowd of subsequent +exegetists. The argument chiefly aims at subverting the conception +of religion as a continual observance of ceremonies. +This is Judaic ritualism and of no value. It is better to understand +a single verse of the psalms well, by this means to deepen +one's understanding of God and of oneself, and to draw a +moral and line of conduct from it, than to read the whole +psalter without attention. If the ceremonies do not renew the +soul they are valueless and hurtful. 'Many are wont to count<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +how many masses they have heard every day, and referring to +them as to something very important, as though they owed +Christ nothing else, they return to their former habits after +leaving church.' 'Perhaps you sacrifice every day and yet you +live for yourself. You worship the saints, you like to touch +their relics; do you want to earn Peter and Paul? Then copy +the faith of the one and the charity of the other and you will +have done more than if you had walked to Rome ten times.' +He does not reject formulae and practices; he does not want to +shake the faith of the humble but he cannot suffer that Christ +is offered a cult made up of practices only. And why is it the +monks, above all, who contribute to the deterioration of +faith? 'I am ashamed to tell how superstitiously most of them +observe certain petty ceremonies, invented by puny human +minds (and not even for this purpose), how hatefully they +want to force others to conform to them, how implicitly they +trust them, how boldly they condemn others.'</p> + +<p>Let Paul teach them true Christianity. 'Stand fast therefore +in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not +entangled again with the yoke of bondage.' This word to the +Galatians contains the doctrine of Christian liberty, which +soon at the Reformation was to resound so loudly. Erasmus +did not apply it here in a sense derogatory to the dogmatics of +the Catholic Church; but still it is a fact that the <i>Enchiridion</i> +prepared many minds to give up much that he still wanted to +keep.</p> + +<p>The note of the <i>Enchiridion</i> is already what was to remain +the note of Erasmus's life-work: how revolting it is that in this +world the substance and the shadow differ so and that the +world reverences those whom it should not reverence; that a +hedge of infatuation, routine and thoughtlessness prevents +mankind from seeing things in their true proportions. He +expresses it later in the <i>Praise of Folly</i> and in the <i>Colloquies</i>. +It is not merely religious feeling, it is equally social feeling that +inspired him. Under the heading: Opinions worthy of a +Christian, he laments the extremes of pride of class, national +hostility, professional envy, and rivalry between religious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +orders, which keep men apart. Let everybody sincerely concern +himself about his brother. 'Throwing dice cost you a +thousand gold pieces in one night, and meanwhile some +wretched girl, compelled by poverty, sold her modesty; and a +soul is lost for which Christ gave his own. You say, what is +that to me? I mind my own business, according to my lights. +And yet you, holding such opinions, consider yourself a Christian, +who are not even a man!'</p> + +<p>In the <i>Enchiridion</i> of the militant Christian, Erasmus had for +the first time said the things which he had most at heart, with +fervour and indignation, with sincerity and courage. And yet +one would hardly say that this booklet was born of an irresistible +impulse of ardent piety. Erasmus treats it, as we have +seen, as a trifle, composed at the request of a friend in a couple +of days stolen from his studies (though, strictly speaking, this +only holds good of the first draft, which he elaborated afterwards). +The chief object of his studies he had already conceived +to be the restoration of theology. One day he will +expound Paul, 'that the slanderers who consider it the height +of piety to know nothing of <i>bonae literae</i>, may understand that +we in our youth embraced the cultured literature of the +Ancients, and that we acquired a correct knowledge of the +two languages, Greek and Latin—not without many vigils—not +for the purpose of vainglory or childish satisfaction, but +because, long before, we premeditated adorning the temple of +the Lord (which some have too much desecrated by their +ignorance and barbarism) according to our strength, with +help from foreign parts, so that also in noble minds the love of +Holy Scripture may be kindled'. Is it not still the Humanist +who speaks?</p> + +<p>We hear, moreover, the note of personal justification. It is +sounded also in a letter to Colet written towards the close of +1504, accompanying the edition of the <i>Lucubrationes</i> in which +the <i>Enchiridion</i> was first published. 'I did not write the +<i>Enchiridion</i> to parade my invention or eloquence, but only +that I might correct the error of those whose religion is usually +composed of more than Judaic ceremonies and observances of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +a material sort, and who neglect the things that conduce to +piety.' He adds, and this is typically humanistic, 'I have tried +to give the reader a sort of art of piety, as others have written +the theory of certain sciences'.</p> + +<p>The art of piety! Erasmus might have been surprised had he +known that another treatise, written more than sixty years +before, by another canon of the Low Countries would continue +to appeal much longer and much more urgently to the +world than his manual: the <i>Imitatio Christi</i> by Thomas à +Kempis.</p> + +<p>The <i>Enchiridion</i>, collected with some other pieces into a +volume of <i>Lucubrationes</i>, did not meet with such a great and +speedy success as had been bestowed upon the <i>Adagia</i>. That +Erasmus's speculations on true piety were considered too bold +was certainly not the cause. They contained nothing antagonistic +to the teachings of the Church, so that even at the +time of the Counter-Reformation, when the Church had +become highly suspicious of everything that Erasmus had +written, the divines who drew up the <i>index expurgatorius</i> of +his work found only a few passages in the <i>Enchiridion</i> to expunge. +Moreover, Erasmus had inserted in the volume some +writings of unsuspected Catholic tenor. For a long time it was +in great repute, especially with theologians and monks. A +famous preacher at Antwerp used to say that a sermon might +be found in every page of the <i>Enchiridion</i>. But the book only +obtained its great influence in wide cultured circles when, +upheld by Erasmus's world-wide reputation, it was available +in a number of translations, English, Czech, German, Dutch, +Spanish, and French. But then it began to fall under suspicion, +for that was the time when Luther had unchained the great +struggle. 'Now they have begun to nibble at the <i>Enchiridion</i> +also, that used to be so popular with divines,' Erasmus writes +in 1526. For the rest it was only two passages to which the +orthodox critics objected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<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> That this man should have been John of Trazegnies as Allen thinks +possible and Renaudet accepts, is still all too uncertain; A. 164 t. I. p. +373; Renaudet, Préréforme 428.</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> In 1500 (A. 123.21) Erasmus speaks of the <i>Enchiridion</i> of the Father +Augustine, cf. 135, 138; in 1501, A. 152.33, he calls the <i>Officia</i> of Cicero +a 'pugiunculus'—a dagger. So the appellation had been in his mind for +some time.</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> <i>Miles</i> with Erasmus has no longer the meaning of 'knight' which it +had in medieval Latin.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_vii" id="chapter_vii"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>YEARS OF TROUBLE—LOUVAIN, PARIS, ENGLAND</h3> + +<h3>1502-6</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Death of Batt: 1502—First stay at Louvain: 1502-4—Translations from the +Greek—At Paris again—Valla's <i>Annotationes</i> on the New Testament—Second +stay in England: 1505-6—More patrons and friends—Departure for +Italy: 1506—<i>Carmen Alpestre</i></p></div> + + +<p>Circumstances continued to remain unfavourable for +Erasmus. 'This year fortune has truly been raging violently +against me,' he writes in the autumn of 1502. In the spring his +good friend Batt had died. It is a pity that no letters written by +Erasmus directly after his bereavement have come down to us. +We should be glad to have for that faithful helper a monument +in addition to that which Erasmus erected to his memory +in the <i>Antibarbari</i>. Anna of Veere had remarried and, as a +patroness, might henceforth be left out of account. In October +1502, Henry of Bergen passed away. 'I have commemorated +the Bishop of Cambray in three Latin epitaphs and a Greek +one; they sent me but six guilders, that also in death he should +remain true to himself.' In Francis of Busleiden, Archbishop of +Besançon, he lost at about the same time a prospective new +patron. He still felt shut out from Paris, Cologne and England +by the danger of the plague.</p> + +<p>In the late summer of 1502 he went to Louvain, 'flung +thither by the plague,' he says. The university of Louvain, +established in 1425 to wean the Netherlands in spiritual +matters from Paris, was, at the beginning of the sixteenth +century, one of the strongholds of theological tradition, which, +however, did not prevent the progress of classical studies. How +else should Adrian of Utrecht, later pope but at that time Dean +of Saint Peter's and professor of theology, have forthwith +undertaken to get him a professorship? Erasmus declined the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +offer, however, 'for certain reasons,' he says. Considering his +great distress, the reasons must have been cogent indeed. One +of them which he mentioned is not very clear to us: 'I am here +so near to Dutch tongues which know how to hurt much, it is +true, but have not learned to profit any one'. His spirit of +liberty and his ardent love of the studies to which he wanted +to devote himself entirely, were, no doubt, his chief reasons +for declining.</p> + +<p>But he had to make a living. Life at Louvain was expensive +and he had no regular earnings. He wrote some prefaces and +dedicated to the Bishop of Arras, Chancellor of the University, +the first translation from the Greek: some <i>Declamationes</i> by +Libanius. When in the autumn of 1503 Philip le Beau was +expected back in the Netherlands from his journey to Spain +Erasmus wrote, with sighs of distaste, a panegyric to celebrate +the safe return of the prince. It cost him much trouble. 'It +occupies me day and night,' says the man who composed with +such incredible facility, when his heart was in the work. +'What is harder than to write with aversion; what is more useless +than to write something by which we unlearn good +writing?' It must be acknowledged that he really flattered as +sparingly as possible; the practice was so repulsive to him that +in his preface he roundly owned that, to tell the truth, this +whole class of composition was not to his taste.</p> + +<p>At the end of 1504 Erasmus was back at Paris, at last. +Probably he had always meant to return and looked upon his +stay at Louvain as a temporary exile. The circumstances under +which he left Louvain are unknown to us, because of the +almost total lack of letters of the year 1504. In any case, he +hoped that at Paris he would sooner be able to attain his great +end of devoting himself entirely to the study of theology. 'I +cannot tell you, dear Colet,' he writes towards the end of +1504, 'how I hurry on, with all sails set, to holy literature; how +I dislike everything that keeps me back, or retards me. But the +disfavour of Fortune, who always looks at me with the same +face, has been the reason why I have not been able to get clear +of those vexations. So I returned to France with the purpose,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +if I cannot solve them, at any rate of ridding myself of them in +one way or another. After that I shall devote myself, with all +my heart, to the <i>divinae literae</i>, to give up the remainder of my +life to them.' If only he can find the means to work for some +months entirely for himself and disentangle himself from profane +literature. Can Colet not find out for him how matters +stand with regard to the proceeds of the hundred copies of the +<i>Adagia</i> which, at one time, he sent to England at his own +expense? The liberty of a few months may be bought for little +money.</p> + +<p>There is something heroic in Erasmus scorning to make +money out of his facile talents and enviable knowledge of the +humanities, daring indigence so as to be able to realize his +shining ideal of restoring theology.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that the same Italian humanist who in his +youth had been his guide and example on the road to pure +Latinity and classic antiquity, Lorenzo Valla, by chance became +his leader and an outpost in the field of critical theology. +In the summer of 1504, hunting in the old library of the +Premonstratensian monastery of Parc, near Louvain ('in no +preserves is hunting a greater delight'), he found a manuscript +of Valla's <i>Annotationes</i> on the New Testament. It was a +collection of critical notes on the text of the Gospels, the +Epistles and Revelation. That the text of the Vulgate was not +stainless had been acknowledged by Rome itself as early as the +thirteenth century. Monastic orders and individual divines had +set themselves to correct it, but that purification had not +amounted to much, in spite of Nicholas of Lyra's work in the +fourteenth century.</p> + +<p>It was probably the falling in with Valla's <i>Annotationes</i> which +led Erasmus, who was formerly more inspired with the resolution +to edit Jerome and to comment upon Paul (he was to do +both at a later date), to turn to the task of taking up the New +Testament as a whole, in order to restore it in its purity. In +March 1505 already Josse Badius at Paris printed Valla's +<i>Annotationes</i> for Erasmus, as a sort of advertisement of what he +himself one day hoped to achieve. It was a feat of courage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +Erasmus did not conceal from himself that Valla, the humanist, +had an ill name with divines, and that there would be an outcry +about 'the intolerable temerity of the <i>homo grammaticus</i>, who +after having harassed all the <i>disciplinae</i>, did not scruple to assail +holy literature with his petulant pen'. It was another programme +much more explicit and defiant than the <i>Enchiridion</i> had been.</p> + +<p>Once more it is not clear why and how Erasmus left Paris +again for England in the autumn of 1505. He speaks of serious +reasons and the advice of sensible people. He mentions one +reason: lack of money. The reprint of the <i>Adagia</i>, published by +John Philippi at Paris in 1505, had probably helped him +through, for the time being; the edition cannot have been to +his taste, for he had been dissatisfied with his work and wanted +to extend it by weaving his new Greek knowledge into it. +From Holland a warning voice had sounded, the voice of his +superior and friend Servatius, demanding an account of his +departure from Paris. Evidently his Dutch friends had still no +confidence in Erasmus, his work, and his future.</p> + +<p>In many respects that future appeared more favourable to +him in England than it had seemed anywhere, thus far. There +he found the old friends, men of consideration and importance: +Mountjoy, with whom, on his arrival, he stayed some months, +Colet, and More. There he found some excellent Greek +scholars, whose conversation promised to be profitable and +amusing; not Colet, who knew little Greek, but More, +Linacre, Grocyn, Latimer, and Tunstall. He soon came in +contact with some high ecclesiastics who were to be his +friends and patrons: Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, +John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and William Warham, +Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon he would also find a friend +whose congenial spirit and interests, to some extent, made up +for the loss of Batt: the Italian Andrew Ammonius, of Lucca. +And lastly, the king promised him an ecclesiastical benefice. It +was not long before Erasmus was armed with a dispensation +from Pope Julius II, dated 4 January 1506, cancelling the +obstacles in the way of accepting an English benefice.</p> + +<p>Translations from Greek into Latin were for him an easy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +and speedy means to obtain favour and support: a dialogue by +Lucian, followed by others, for Foxe; the <i>Hecuba</i> and the +<i>Iphigenia</i> of Euripides for Warham. He now also thought of +publishing his letters.</p> + +<p>Clearly his relations with Holland were not yet satisfactory. +Servatius did not reply to his letters. Erasmus ever felt hanging +over him a menace to his career and his liberty embodied in +the figure of that friend, to whom he was linked by so many +silken ties, yonder in the monastery of Steyn, where his return +was looked forward to, sooner or later, as a beacon-light of +Christendom. Did the prior know of the papal dispensation +exempting Erasmus from the 'statutes and customs of the +monastery of Steyn in Holland, of the order of Saint Augustine?' +Probably he did. On 1 April 1506, Erasmus writes to +him: 'Here in London I am, it seems, greatly esteemed by +the most eminent and erudite men of all England. The king +has promised me a curacy: the visit of the prince necessitated +a postponement of this business.'<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>He immediately adds: 'I am deliberating again how best to +devote the remainder of my life (how much that will be, I do +not know) entirely to piety, to Christ. I see life, even when it +is long, as evanescent and dwindling; I know that I am of a +delicate constitution and that my strength has been encroached +upon, not a little, by study and also, somewhat, by misfortune. +I see that no deliverance can be hoped from study, +and that it seems as if we had to begin over again, day after +day. Therefore I have resolved, content with my mediocrity +(especially now that I have learned as much Greek as suffices +me), to apply myself to meditation about death and the training +of my soul. I should have done so before and have husbanded +the precious years when they were at their best. But +though it is a tardy husbandry that people practise when only +little remains at the bottom, we should be the more economical +accordingly as the quantity and quality of what is left +diminishes.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>Was it a fit of melancholy which made Erasmus write those +words of repentance and renunciation? Was he surprised in +the middle of the pursuit of his life's aim by the consciousness +of the vanity of his endeavours, the consciousness, too, of a +great fatigue? Is this the deepest foundation of Erasmus's being, +which he reveals for a moment to his old and intimate friend? +It may be doubted. The passage tallies very ill with the first +sentences of the letter, which are altogether concerned with +success and prospects. In a letter he wrote the next day, also +to Gouda and to a trusted friend, there is no trace of the mood: +he is again thinking of his future. We do not notice that the +tremendous zeal with which he continues his studies is relaxed +for a moment. And there are other indications that towards +Servatius, who knew him better than he could wish, and who, +moreover, as prior of Steyn, had a threatening power over +him, he purposely demeaned himself as though he despised +the world.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile nothing came of the English prebend. But suddenly +the occasion offered to which Erasmus had so often +looked forward: the journey to Italy. The court-physician of +Henry VII, Giovanni Battista Boerio, of Genoa, was looking +for a master to accompany his sons in their journey to the +universities of Italy. Erasmus accepted the post, which charged +him neither with the duties of tuition nor with attending to +the young fellows, but only with supervising and guiding +their studies. In the beginning of June 1506, he found himself +on French soil once more. For two summer months the party +of travellers stayed at Paris and Erasmus availed himself of the +opportunity to have several of his works, which he had +brought from England, printed at Paris. He was by now a +well-known and favourite author, gladly welcomed by the +old friends (he had been reputed dead) and made much of. +Josse Badius printed all Erasmus offered him: the translations +of Euripides and Lucian, a collection of <i>Epigrammata</i>, a new +but still unaltered edition of the <i>Adagia</i>.</p> + +<p>In August the journey was continued. As he rode on horseback +along the Alpine roads the most important poem Erasmus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +has written, the echo of an abandoned pursuit, originated. +He had been vexed about his travelling company, had abstained +from conversing with them, and sought consolation in +composing poetry. The result was the ode which he called +<i>Carmen equestre vel potius alpestre</i>, about the inconveniences of +old age, dedicated to his friend William Cop.</p> + +<p>Erasmus was one of those who early feel old. He was not +forty and yet fancied himself across the threshold of old age. +How quickly it had come! He looks back on the course of his +life: he sees himself playing with nuts as a child, as a boy eager +for study, as a youth engrossed in poetry and scholasticism, +also in painting. He surveys his enormous erudition, his study +of Greek, his aspiration to scholarly fame. In the midst of all +this, old age has suddenly come. What remains to him? And +again we hear the note of renunciation of the world and of +devotion to Christ. Farewell jests and trifles, farewell philosophy +and poetry, a pure heart full of Christ is all he desires +henceforward.</p> + +<p>Here, in the stillness of the Alpine landscape, there arose +something more of Erasmus's deepest aspirations than in the +lament to Servatius. But in this case, too, it is a stray element +of his soul, not the strong impulse that gave direction and fullness +to his life and with irresistible pressure urged him on to +ever new studies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A. 189, Philip le Beau, who had unexpectedly come to England +because of a storm, which obliged Mountjoy to do court-service.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_viii" id="chapter_viii"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>IN ITALY</h3> + +<h3>1506-9</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus in Italy: 1506-9—He takes his degree at Turin—Bologna and +Pope Julius II—Erasmus in Venice with Aldus: 1507-8—The art of +printing—Alexander Stewart—To Rome: 1509—News of Henry VIII's +accession—Erasmus leaves Italy</p></div> + + +<p>At Turin Erasmus received, directly upon his arrival, on +4 September 1506, the degree of doctor of theology. That he +did not attach much value to the degree is easy to understand. +He regarded it, however, as an official warrant of his competence +as a writer on theological subjects, which would +strengthen his position when assailed by the suspicion of +his critics. He writes disdainfully about the title, even to his +Dutch friends who in former days had helped him on in his +studies for the express purpose of obtaining the doctor's +degree. As early as 1501, to Anna of Borselen he writes, 'Go +to Italy and obtain the doctor's degree? Foolish projects, both +of them. But one should conform to the customs of the times.' +Again to Servatius and Johannes Obrecht, half apologetically, +he says: 'I have obtained the doctor's degree in theology, and +that quite contrary to my intention, only because I was overcome +by the prayers of friends.'</p> + +<p>Bologna was now the destination of his journey. But when +Erasmus arrived there, a war was in progress which forced +him to retire to Florence for a time. Pope Julius II, allied with +the French, at the head of an army, marched on Bologna to +conquer it from the Bentivogli. This purpose was soon +attained, and Bologna was a safe place to return to. On +11 November 1506, Erasmus witnessed the triumphal entry of +the martial pope.</p> + +<p>Of these days nothing but short, hasty letters of his have +come down to us. They speak of unrest and rumours of war. +There is nothing to show that he was impressed by the beauty +of the Italy of the Renaissance. The scanty correspondence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +dating from his stay in Italy mentions neither architecture, nor +sculpture, nor pictures. When much later he happened to +remember his visit to the Chartreuse of Pavia, it is only to give +an instance of useless waste and magnificence. Books alone +seemed to occupy and attract Erasmus in Italy.</p> + +<p>At Bologna, Erasmus served as a mentor to the young +Boerios to the end of the year for which he had bound himself. +It seemed a very long time to him. He could not stand +any encroachment upon his liberty. He felt caught in the contract +as in a net. The boys, it seems, were intelligent enough, if +not so brilliant as Erasmus had seen them in his first joy; but +with their private tutor Clyfton, whom he at first extolled to the +sky, he was soon at loggerheads. At Bologna he experienced +many vexations for which his new relations with Paul +Bombasius could only in part indemnify him. He worked +there at an enlarged edition of his <i>Adagia</i>, which now, by the +addition of the Greek ones, increased from eight hundred to +some thousands of items.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-vii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-vii-th.png" width="250" height="323" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate VII. Title-page of the <i>Adagia</i>, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1508</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/plate-viii-1.png"> +<img src="images/plate-viii-1-th.png" width="400" height="306" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/plate-viii-2.png"> +<img src="images/plate-viii-2-th.png" width="400" height="293" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate VIII. VIEW OF VENICE, 1493</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 336px;"> +<img src="images/plate-ix-1.png" width="336" height="324" alt="" title=""/> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 342px;"> +<img src="images/plate-ix-2.png" width="342" height="316" alt="" title=""/> +</div> +<p class="center">Plate IX. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ALDUS MANUTIUS. +On the reverse the Aldine emblem</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-x.png"> +<img src="images/plate-x-th.png" width="250" height="334" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate X. A page from the <i>Praise of Folly</i> with a drawing +by Holbein of Erasmus at his desk.</p> + +<p>From Bologna, in October 1507, Erasmus addressed a letter +to the famous Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius, in which he +requested him to publish, anew, the two translated dramas of +Euripides, as the edition of Badius was out of print and too +defective for his taste. What made Aldus attractive in his eyes +was, no doubt, besides the fame of the business, though it was +languishing at the time, the printer's beautiful type—'those +most magnificent letters, especially those very small ones'. +Erasmus was one of those true book-lovers who pledge their +heart to a type or a size of a book, not because of any artistic +preference, but because of readableness and handiness, which +to them are of the very greatest importance. What he asked of +Aldus was a small book at a low price. Towards the end of the +year their relations had gone so far that Erasmus gave up his +projected journey to Rome, for the time, to remove to Venice, +there personally to superintend the publication of his works. +Now there was no longer merely the question of a little book +of translations, but Aldus had declared himself willing to print +the enormously increased collection of the <i>Adagia</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>Beatus Rhenanus tells a story which, no doubt, he had heard +from Erasmus himself: how Erasmus on his arrival at Venice +had gone straight to the printing-office and was kept waiting +there for a long time. Aldus was correcting proofs and thought +his visitor was one of those inquisitive people by whom he +used to be pestered. When he turned out to be Erasmus, he +welcomed him cordially and procured him board and lodging +in the house of his father-in-law, Andrea Asolani. Fully eight +months did Erasmus live there, in the environment which, in +future, was to be his true element: the printing-office. He was +in a fever of hurried work, about which he would often sigh, +but which, after all, was congenial to him. The augmented +collection of the <i>Adagia</i> had not yet been made ready for the +press at Bologna. 'With great temerity on my part,' Erasmus +himself testifies, 'we began to work at the same time, I to +write, Aldus to print.' Meanwhile the literary friends of the +New Academy whom he got to know at Venice, Johannes +Lascaris, Baptista Egnatius, Marcus Musurus and the young +Jerome Aleander, with whom, at Asolani's, he shared room +and bed, brought him new Greek authors, unprinted as yet, +furnishing fresh material for augmenting the <i>Adagia</i>. These +were no inconsiderable additions: Plato in the original, +Plutarch's <i>Lives</i> and <i>Moralia</i>, Pindar, Pausanias, and others. +Even people whom he did not know and who took an interest +in his work, brought new material to him. Amid the noise of +the press-room, Erasmus, to the surprise of his publisher, sat +and wrote, usually from memory, so busily occupied that, as +he picturesquely expressed it, he had no time to scratch his +ears. He was lord and master of the printing-office. A special +corrector had been assigned to him; he made his textual +changes in the last impression. Aldus also read the proofs. +'Why?' asked Erasmus. 'Because I am studying at the same +time,' was the reply. Meanwhile Erasmus suffered from the +first attack of his tormenting nephrolithic malady; he ascribed +it to the food he got at Asolani's and later took revenge by +painting that boarding-house and its landlord in very spiteful +colours in the <i>Colloquies</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>When in September 1508, the edition of the <i>Adagia</i> was +ready, Aldus wanted Erasmus to remain in order to write more +for him. Till December he continued to work at Venice on +editions of Plautus, Terence, and Seneca's tragedies. Visions of +joint labour to publish all that classic antiquity still held in the +way of hidden treasures, together with Hebrew and Chaldean +stores, floated before his mind.</p> + +<p>Erasmus belonged to the generation which had grown up +together with the youthful art of printing. To the world of +those days it was still like a newly acquired organ; people felt +rich, powerful, happy in the possession of this 'almost divine +implement'. The figure of Erasmus and his <i>[oe]uvre</i> were only +rendered possible by the art of printing. He was its glorious +triumph and, equally, in a sense, its victim. What would +Erasmus have been without the printing-press? To broadcast +the ancient documents, to purify and restore them was his life's +passion. The certainty that the printed book places exactly the +same text in the hands of thousands of readers, was to him a +consolation that former generations had lacked.</p> + +<p>Erasmus is one of the first who, after his name as an author +was established, worked directly and continually for the press. +It was his strength, but also his weakness. It enabled him to +exercise an immediate influence on the reading public of Europe +such as had emanated from none before him; to become +a focus of culture in the full sense of the word, an intellectual +central station, a touchstone of the spirit of the time. Imagine +for a moment what it would have meant if a still greater +mind than his, say Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, that universal +spirit who had helped in nursing the art of printing in its +earliest infancy, could have availed himself of the art as it +was placed at the disposal of Erasmus!</p> + +<p>The dangerous aspect of this situation was that printing +enabled Erasmus, having once become a centre and an +authority, to address the world at large immediately about all +that occurred to him. Much of his later mental labour is, after +all, really but repetition, ruminating digression, unnecessary +vindication from assaults to which his greatness alone would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +have been a sufficient answer, futilities which he might have +better left alone. Much of this work written directly for the +press is journalism at bottom, and we do Erasmus an injustice +by applying to it the tests of lasting excellence. The consciousness +that we can reach the whole world at once with our +writings is a stimulant which unwittingly influences our mode +of expression, a luxury that only the highest spirits can bear +with impunity.</p> + +<p>The link between Erasmus and book-printing was Latin. +Without his incomparable Latinity his position as an author +would have been impossible. The art of printing undoubtedly +furthered the use of Latin. It was the Latin publications which +in those days promised success and a large sale for a publisher, +and established his reputation, for they were broadcast all over +the world. The leading publishers were themselves scholars +filled with enthusiasm for humanism. Cultured and well-to-do +people acted as proof-readers to printers; such as Peter Gilles, +the friend of Erasmus and More, the town clerk of Antwerp, +who corrected proof-sheets for Dirck Maertensz. The great +printing-offices were, in a local sense, too, the foci of intellectual +intercourse. The fact that England had lagged behind, thus far, +in the evolution of the art of printing, contributed not a little, +no doubt, to prevent Erasmus from settling there, where so +many ties held and so many advantages allured him.</p> + +<p>To find a permanent place of residence was, indeed, and +apart from this fact, very hard for him. Towards the end of +1508 he accepted the post of tutor in rhetorics to the young +Alexander Stewart, a natural son of James IV of Scotland, and +already, in spite of his youth, Archbishop of Saint Andrews, +now a student at Padua. The danger of war soon drove them +from upper Italy to Siena. Here Erasmus obtained leave to +visit Rome. He arrived there early in 1509, no longer an unknown +canon from the northern regions but a celebrated and +honoured author. All the charms of the Eternal City lay open +to him and he must have felt keenly gratified by the consideration +and courtesy with which cardinals and prelates, such +as Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Leo X, Domenico Grimani,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +Riario and others, treated him. It seems that he was even +offered some post in the curia. But he had to return to his +youthful archbishop with whom he thereupon visited Rome +again, incognito, and afterwards travelled in the neighbourhood +of Naples. He inspected the cave of the Sibylla of +Cumae, but what it meant to him we do not know. This entire +period following his departure from Padua and all that follows +till the spring of 1511—in certain respects the most important +part of his life—remains unrecorded in a single letter +that has come down to us. Here and there he has occasionally, +and at a much later date, touched upon some impressions of +Rome,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> but the whole remains vague and dim. It is the incubation +period of the <i>Praise of Folly</i> that is thus obscured from +view.</p> + +<p>On 21 April 1509, King Henry VII of England died. His +successor was the young prince whom Erasmus had saluted at +Eltham in 1499, to whom he had dedicated his poem in praise +of Great Britain, and who, during his stay at Bologna, had +distinguished him by a Latin letter as creditable to Erasmus as +to the fifteen-year-old royal latinist.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> If ever the chance of +obtaining a patron seemed favourable, it was now, when this +promising lover of letters ascended the throne as Henry VIII. +Lord Mountjoy, Erasmus's most faithful Maecenas, thought so, +too, and pointed out the fact to him in a letter of 27 May 1509. +It was a pleasure to see, he wrote, how vigorous, how upright +and just, how zealous in the cause of literature and men of +letters was the conduct of the youthful prince. Mountjoy—or +Ammonius, who probably drew up the flowery document for +him—was exultant. A laughing sky and tears of joy are the +themes of the letter. Evidently, however, Erasmus himself +had, on his side, already sounded Mountjoy as to his chances, +as soon as the tidings of Henry VII's death became known at +Rome; not without lamentations about cares and weakened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +health. 'The Archbishop of Canterbury', Mountjoy was able +to apprise Erasmus, 'is not only continually engrossed in your +<i>Adagia</i> and praises you to the skies, but he also promises you +a benefice on your return and sends you five pounds for +travelling expenses,' which sum was doubled by Mountjoy.</p> + +<p>We do not know whether Erasmus really hesitated before +he reached his decision. Cardinal Grimani, he asserts, tried to +hold him back, but in vain, for in July, 1509, he left Rome and +Italy, never to return.</p> + +<p>As he crossed the Alps for the second time, not on the +French side now, but across the Splügen, through Switzerland, +his genius touched him again, as had happened in those high +regions three years before on the road to Italy. But this time +it was not in the guise of the Latin Muse, who then drew from +him such artful and pathetic poetical meditations about his +past life and pious vows for the future;—it was something +much more subtle and grand: the <i>Praise of Folly</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> LBE. No. 1175 <i>c.</i> 1375, visit to Grimani.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A. 206, where from Allen's introduction one can form an opinion +about the prince's share in the composition.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_ix" id="chapter_ix"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE PRAISE OF FOLLY</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Moriae Encomium, The Praise of Folly</i>: 1509, as a work of art—Folly, +the motor of all life: Indispensable, salutary, cause and support of states and +of heroism—Folly keeps the world going—Vital energy incorporated with +folly—Lack of folly makes unfit for life—Need of self-complacency—Humbug +beats truth—Knowledge a plague—Satire of all secular and +ecclesiastical vocations—Two themes throughout the work—The highest +folly: Ecstasy—The <i>Moria</i> to be taken as a gay jest—Confusion of fools +and lunatics—Erasmus treats his <i>Moria</i> slightingly—Its value</p></div> + + +<p>While he rode over the mountain passes,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Erasmus's restless +spirit, now unfettered for some days by set tasks, occupied +itself with everything he had studied and read in the last few +years, and with everything he had seen. What ambition, what +self-deception, what pride and conceit filled the world! He +thought of Thomas More, whom he was now to see again—that +most witty and wise of all his friends, with that curious +name <i>Moros</i>, the Greek word for a fool, which so ill became his +personality. Anticipating the gay jests which More's conversation +promised, there grew in his mind that masterpiece of +humour and wise irony, <i>Moriae Encomium</i>, the <i>Praise of Folly</i>. +The world as the scene of universal folly; folly as the indispensable +element making life and society possible and all this +put into the mouth of Stultitia—Folly—itself (true antitype of +Minerva), who in a panegyric on her own power and usefulness, +praises herself. As to form it is a <i>Declamatio</i>, such as he +had translated from the Greek of Libanius. As to the spirit, +a revival of Lucian, whose <i>Gallus</i>, translated by him three +years before, may have suggested the theme. It must have been +in the incomparably lucid moments of that brilliant intellect. +All the particulars of classic reading which the year before he +worked up in the new edition of the <i>Adagia</i> were still at his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +immediate disposal in that retentive and capacious memory. +Reflecting at his ease on all that wisdom of the ancients, he +secreted the juices required for his expostulation.</p> + +<p>He arrived in London, took up his abode in More's house +in Bucklersbury, and there, tortured by nephritic pains, he +wrote down in a few days, without having his books with +him, the perfect work of art that must have been ready in his +mind. Stultitia was truly born in the manner of her serious +sister Pallas.</p> + +<p>As to form and imagery the <i>Moria</i> is faultless, the product of +the inspired moments of creative impulse. The figure of an +orator confronting her public is sustained to the last in a +masterly way. We see the faces of the auditors light up with +glee when Folly appears in the pulpit; we hear the applause +interrupting her words. There is a wealth of fancy, coupled +with so much soberness of line and colour, such reserve, that +the whole presents a perfect instance of that harmony which +is the essence of Renaissance expression. There is no exuberance, +in spite of the multiplicity of matter and thought, but a +temperateness, a smoothness, an airiness and clearness which +are as gladdening as they are relaxing. In order perfectly to +realize the artistic perfection of Erasmus's book we should +compare it with Rabelais.</p> + +<p>'Without me', says Folly, 'the world cannot exist for a +moment. For is not all that is done at all among mortals, full of +folly; is it not performed by fools and for fools?' 'No society, +no cohabitation can be pleasant or lasting without folly; so +much so, that a people could not stand its prince, nor the +master his man, nor the maid her mistress, nor the tutor his +pupil, nor the friend his friend, nor the wife her husband for a +moment longer, if they did not now and then err together, +now flatter each other; now sensibly conniving at things, now +smearing themselves with some honey of folly.' In that sentence +the summary of the <i>Laus</i> is contained. Folly here is +worldly wisdom, resignation and lenient judgement.</p> + +<p>He who pulls off the masks in the comedy of life is ejected. +What is the whole life of mortals but a sort of play in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +each actor appears on the boards in his specific mask and acts +his part till the stage-manager calls him off? He acts wrongly +who does not adapt himself to existing conditions, and demands +that the game shall be a game no longer. It is the part +of the truly sensible to mix with all people, either conniving +readily at their folly, or affably erring like themselves.</p> + +<p>And the necessary driving power of all human action is +'Philautia', Folly's own sister: self-love. He who does not +please himself effects little. Take away that condiment of life +and the word of the orator cools, the poet is laughed at, the +artist perishes with his art.</p> + +<p>Folly in the garb of pride, of vanity, of vainglory, is the +hidden spring of all that is considered high and great in this +world. The state with its posts of honour, patriotism and +national pride; the stateliness of ceremonies, the delusion of +caste and nobility—what is it but folly? War, the most foolish +thing of all, is the origin of all heroism. What prompted the +Deciuses, what Curtius, to sacrifice themselves? Vainglory. It +is this folly which produces states; through her, empires, +religion, law-courts, exist.</p> + +<p>This is bolder and more chilling than Machiavelli, more +detached than Montaigne. But Erasmus will not have it +credited to him: it is Folly who speaks. He purposely makes us +tread the round of the <i>circulus vitiosus</i>, as in the old saw: A +Cretan said, all Cretans are liars.</p> + +<p>Wisdom is to folly as reason is to passion. And there is much +more passion than reason in the world. That which keeps the +world going, the fount of life, is folly. For what else is love? +Why do people marry, if not out of folly, which sees no objections? +All enjoyment and amusement is only a condiment of +folly. When a wise man wishes to become a father, he has first +to play the fool. For what is more foolish than the game of +procreation?</p> + +<p>Unperceived the orator has incorporated here with folly +all that is vitality and the courage of life. Folly is spontaneous +energy that no one can do without. He who is perfectly +sensible and serious cannot live. The more people get away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +from me, Stultitia, the less they live. Why do we kiss and +cuddle little children, if not because they are still so delightfully +foolish. And what else makes youth so elegant?</p> + +<p>Now look at the truly serious and sensible. They are awkward +at everything, at meal-time, at a dance, in playing, in +social intercourse. If they have to buy, or to contract, things +are sure to go wrong. Quintilian says that stage fright bespeaks +the intelligent orator, who knows his faults. Right! But does +not, then, Quintilian confess openly that wisdom is an impediment +to good execution? And has not Stultitia the right +to claim prudence for herself, if the wise, out of shame, out of +bashfulness, undertake nothing in circumstances where fools +pluckily set to work?</p> + +<p>Here Erasmus goes to the root of the matter in a psychological +sense. Indeed the consciousness of falling short in +achievement is the brake clogging action, is the great inertia +retarding the progress of the world. Did he know himself for +one who is awkward when not bending over his books, but +confronting men and affairs?</p> + +<p>Folly is gaiety and lightheartedness, indispensable to happiness. +The man of mere reason without passion is a stone +image, blunt and without any human feeling, a spectre or +monster, from whom all fly, deaf to all natural emotions, +susceptible neither to love nor compassion. Nothing escapes +him, in nothing he errs; he sees through everything, he weighs +everything accurately, he forgives nothing, he is only satisfied +with himself; he alone is healthy; he alone is king, he alone is +free. It is the hideous figure of the doctrinaire which Erasmus +is thinking of. Which state, he exclaims, would desire such an +absolutely wise man for a magistrate?</p> + +<p>He who devotes himself to tasting all the bitterness of life +with wise insight would forthwith deprive himself of life. +Only folly is a remedy: to err, to be mistaken, to be ignorant +is to be human. How much better it is in marriage to be blind +to a wife's shortcomings than to make away with oneself out +of jealousy and to fill the world with tragedy! Adulation is +virtue. There is no cordial devotion without a little adulation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +It is the soul of eloquence, of medicine and poetry; it is the +honey and the sweetness of all human customs.</p> + +<p>Again a series of valuable social qualities is slyly incorporated +with folly: benevolence, kindness, inclination to +approve and to admire.</p> + +<p>But especially to approve of oneself. There is no pleasing +others without beginning by flattering ourselves a little and +approving of ourselves. What would the world be if everyone +was not proud of his standing, his calling, so that no +person would change places with another in point of good +appearance, of fancy, of good family, of landed property?</p> + +<p>Humbug is the right thing. Why should any one desire true +erudition? The more incompetent a man, the pleasanter his +life is and the more he is admired. Look at professors, poets, +orators. Man's mind is so made that he is more impressed by +lies than by the truth. Go to church: if the priest deals with +serious subjects the whole congregation is dozing, yawning, +feeling bored. But when he begins to tell some cock-and-bull +story, they awake, sit up, and hang on his lips.</p> + +<p>To be deceived, philosophers say, is a misfortune, but not +to be deceived is a superlative misfortune. If it is human to err, +why should a man be called unhappy because he errs, since he +was so born and made, and it is the fate of all? Do we pity a +man because he cannot fly or does not walk on four legs? We +might as well call the horse unhappy because it does not learn +grammar or eat cakes. No creature is unhappy, if it lives +according to its nature. The sciences were invented to our +utmost destruction; far from conducing to our happiness, they +are even in its way, though for its sake they are supposed to +have been invented. By the agency of evil demons they have +stolen into human life with the other pests. For did not the +simple-minded people of the Golden Age live happily, unprovided +with any science, only led by nature and instinct? +What did they want grammar for, when all spoke the same +language? Why have dialectics, when there were no quarrels +and no differences of opinion? Why jurisprudence, when there +were no bad morals from which good laws sprang? They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +were too religious to investigate with impious curiosity the +secrets of nature, the size, motions, influence of the stars, the +hidden cause of things.</p> + +<p>It is the old idea, which germinated in antiquity, here lightly +touched upon by Erasmus, afterwards proclaimed by Rousseau +in bitter earnest: civilization is a plague.</p> + +<p>Wisdom is misfortune, but self-conceit is happiness. Grammarians, +who wield the sceptre of wisdom—schoolmasters, +that is—would be the most wretched of all people if I, Folly, +did not mitigate the discomforts of their miserable calling by a +sort of sweet frenzy. But what holds good of schoolmasters, +also holds good of poets, orators, authors. For them, too, all +happiness merely consists in vanity and delusion. The lawyers are +no better off and after them come the philosophers. Next there +is a numerous procession of clergy: divines, monks, bishops, +cardinals, popes, only interrupted by princes and courtiers.</p> + +<p>In the chapters<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> which review these offices and callings, satire +has shifted its ground a little. Throughout the work two themes +are intertwined: that of salutary folly, which is true wisdom, +and that of deluded wisdom, which is pure folly. As they are +both put into the mouth of Folly, we should have to invert +them both to get truth, if Folly ... were not wisdom. Now +it is clear that the first is the principal theme. Erasmus starts +from it; and he returns to it. Only in the middle, as he reviews +human accomplishments and dignities in their universal +foolishness, the second theme predominates and the book +becomes an ordinary satire on human folly, of which there +are many though few are so delicate. But in the other parts it +is something far deeper.</p> + +<p>Occasionally the satire runs somewhat off the line, when +Stultitia directly censures what Erasmus wishes to censure; for +instance, indulgences, silly belief in wonders, selfish worship +of the saints; or gamblers whom she, Folly, ought to praise; or +the spirit of systematizing and levelling, and the jealousy of +the monks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>For contemporary readers the importance of the <i>Laus +Stultitiae</i> was, to a great extent, in the direct satire. Its lasting +value is in those passages where we truly grant that folly is +wisdom and the reverse. Erasmus knows the aloofness of the +ground of all things: all consistent thinking out of the dogmas +of faith leads to absurdity. Only look at the theological quiddities +of effete scholasticism. The apostles would not have +understood them: in the eyes of latter-day divines they would +have been fools. Holy Scripture itself sides with folly. 'The +foolishness of God is wiser than men,' says Saint Paul. 'But +God hath chosen the foolish things of the world.' 'It pleased +God by the foolishness (of preaching) to save them that +believe.' Christ loved the simple-minded and the ignorant: +children, women, poor fishermen, nay, even such animals as +are farthest removed from vulpine cunning: the ass which he +wished to ride, the dove, the lamb, the sheep.</p> + +<p>Here there is a great deal behind the seemingly light jest: +'Christian religion seems in general to have some affinity +with a certain sort of folly'. Was it not thought the apostles +were full of new wine? And did not the judge say: 'Paul, thou +art beside thyself'? When are we beside ourselves? When the +spirit breaks its fetters and tries to escape from its prison and +aspires to liberty. That is madness, but it is also other-worldliness +and the highest wisdom. True happiness is in selflessness, +in the furore of lovers, whom Plato calls happiest of all. +The more absolute love is, the greater and more rapturous +is the frenzy. Heavenly bliss itself is the greatest insanity; +truly pious people enjoy its shadow on earth already in their +meditations.</p> + +<p>Here Stultitia breaks off her discourse, apologizing in a few +words in case she may have been too petulant or talkative, and +leaves the pulpit. 'So farewell, applaud, live happily, and drink, +Moria's illustrious initiates.'</p> + +<p>It was an unrivalled feat of art even in these last chapters +neither to lose the light comical touch, nor to lapse into undisguised +profanation. It was only feasible by veritable dancing +on the tight-rope of sophistry. In the <i>Moria</i> Erasmus is all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +the time hovering on the brink of profound truths. But what a +boon it was—still granted to those times—to be able to treat +of all this in a vein of pleasantry. For this should be impressed +upon our minds: that the <i>Moriae Encomium</i> is a true, gay jest. +The laugh is more delicate, but no less hearty than Rabelais's. +'Valete, plaudite, vivite, bibite.' 'All common people abound +to such a degree, and everywhere, in so many forms of folly +that a thousand Democrituses would be insufficient to laugh at +them all (and they would require another Democritus to laugh +at them).'</p> + +<p>How could one take the <i>Moria</i> too seriously, when even +More's <i>Utopia</i>, which is a true companion-piece to it and makes +such a grave impression on us, is treated by its author and +Erasmus as a mere jest? There is a place where the <i>Laus</i> seems +to touch both More and Rabelais; the place where Stultitia +speaks of her father, Plutus, the god of wealth, at whose beck +all things are turned topsy-turvy, according to whose will all +human affairs are regulated—war and peace, government and +counsel, justice and treaties. He has begotten her on the +nymph Youth, not a senile, purblind Plutus, but a fresh god, +warm with youth and nectar, like another Gargantua.</p> + +<p>The figure of Folly, of gigantic size, looms large in the +period of the Renaissance. She wears a fool's cap and bells. +People laughed loudly and with unconcern at all that was +foolish, without discriminating between species of folly. It is +remarkable that even in the <i>Laus</i>, delicate as it is, the author +does not distinguish between the unwise or the silly, between +fools and lunatics. Holbein, illustrating Erasmus, knows but of +one representation of a fool: with a staff and ass's ears. Erasmus +speaks without clear transition, now of foolish persons and +now of real lunatics. They are happiest of all, he makes Stultitia +say: they are not frightened by spectres and apparitions; +they are not tortured by the fear of impending calamities; +everywhere they bring mirth, jests, frolic and laughter. Evidently +he here means harmless imbeciles, who, indeed, were +often used as jesters. This identification of denseness and +insanity is kept up, however, like the confusion of the comic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +and the simply ridiculous, and all this is well calculated to +make us feel how wide the gap has already become that +separates us from Erasmus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In later years he always spoke slightingly of his <i>Moria</i>. He +considered it so unimportant, he says, as to be unworthy of +publication, yet no work of his had been received with such +applause. It was a trifle and not at all in keeping with his +character. More had made him write it, as if a camel were +made to dance. But these disparaging utterances were not +without a secondary purpose. The <i>Moria</i> had not brought him +only success and pleasure. The exceedingly susceptible age in +which he lived had taken the satire in very bad part, where it +seemed to glance at offices and orders, although in his preface +he had tried to safeguard himself from the reproach of +irreverence. His airy play with the texts of Holy Scripture had +been too venturesome for many. His friend Martin van Dorp +upbraided him with having made a mock of eternal life. +Erasmus did what he could to convince evil-thinkers that the +purpose of the <i>Moria</i> was no other than to exhort people to be +virtuous. In affirming this he did his work injustice: it was +much more than that. But in 1515 he was no longer what he +had been in 1509. Repeatedly he had been obliged to defend +his most witty work. Had he known that it would offend, he +might have kept it back, he writes in 1517 to an acquaintance +at Louvain. Even towards the end of his life, he warded off the +insinuations of Alberto Pio of Carpi in a lengthy expostulation.</p> + +<p>Erasmus made no further ventures in the genre of the +<i>Praise of Folly</i>. One might consider the treatise <i>Lingua</i>, which +he published in 1525, as an attempt to make a companion-piece +to the <i>Moria</i>. The book is called <i>Of the Use and Abuse +of the Tongue</i>. In the opening pages there is something that +reminds us of the style of the <i>Laus</i>, but it lacks all the charm +both of form and of thought.</p> + +<p>Should one pity Erasmus because, of all his publications, +collected in ten folio volumes, only the <i>Praise of Folly</i> has +remained a really popular book? It is, apart from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +<i>Colloquies</i>, perhaps the only one of his works that is still +read for its own sake. The rest is now only studied from a +historical point of view, for the sake of becoming acquainted +with his person or his times. It seems to me that perfect justice +has been done in this case. The <i>Praise of Folly</i> is his best +work. He wrote other books, more erudite, some more pious—some +perhaps of equal or greater influence on his time. +But each has had its day. <i>Moriae Encomium</i> alone was to be +immortal. For only when humour illuminated that mind did it +become truly profound. In the <i>Praise of Folly</i> Erasmus gave +something that no one else could have given to the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 225px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xi.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xi-th.png" width="225" height="343" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XI. The last page of the <i>Praise of Folly</i>, with +Holbein's drawing of Folly descending from the pulpit</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xii-th.png" width="250" height="376" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XII. THE PRINTING PRESS OF JOSSE BADIUS</p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> That he conceived the work in the Alps follows from the fact that +he tells us explicitly that it happened while riding, whereas, after passing +through Switzerland, he travelled by boat. A. 1, IV 216.62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Erasmus did not divide the book into chapters. It was done by an +editor as late as 1765.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_x" id="chapter_x"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THIRD STAY IN ENGLAND</h3> + +<h3>1509-14</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Third stay in England: 1509-14—No information about two years of +Erasmus's life: 1509 summer, till 1511 spring—Poverty—Erasmus at +Cambridge—Relations with Badius, the Paris publisher—A mistake profitable +to Johannes Froben at Basle—Erasmus leaves England: 1514—<i>Julius +Exclusus</i>—Epistle against war</p></div> + + +<p>From the moment when Erasmus, back from Italy in the +early summer of 1509, is hidden from view in the house of +More, to write the <i>Praise of Folly</i>, until nearly two years +later when he comes to view again on the road to Paris to have +the book printed by Gilles Gourmont, every trace of his life +has been obliterated. Of the letters which during that period +he wrote and received, not a single one has been preserved. +Perhaps it was the happiest time of his life, for it was partly +spent with his tried patron, Mountjoy, and also in the house +of More in that noble and witty circle which to Erasmus +appeared ideal. That house was also frequented by the friend +whom Erasmus had made during his former sojourn in +England, and whose mind was perhaps more congenial to +him than any other, Andrew Ammonius. It is not improbable +that during these months he was able to work without interruption +at the studies to which he was irresistibly attracted, +without cares as to the immediate future, and not yet burdened +by excessive renown, which afterwards was to cause +him as much trouble and loss as joy.</p> + +<p>That future was still uncertain. As soon as he no longer +enjoys More's hospitality, the difficulties and complaints +recommence. Continual poverty, uncertainty and dependence +were extraordinarily galling to a mind requiring above all +things liberty. At Paris he charged Badius with a new, revised +edition of the <i>Adagia</i>, though the Aldine might still be had +there at a moderate price. The <i>Laus</i>, which had just appeared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +at Gourmont's, was reprinted at Strassburg as early as 1511, +with a courteous letter by Jacob Wimpfeling to Erasmus, but +evidently without his being consulted in the matter. By that +time he was back in England, had been laid up in London with +a bad attack of the sweating sickness, and thence had gone to +Queens' College, Cambridge, where he had resided before. +From Cambridge he writes to Colet, 24 August 1511, in a vein +of comical despair. The journey from London had been disastrous: +a lame horse, no victuals for the road, rain and thunder. +'But I am almost pleased at this, I see the track of Christian +poverty.' A chance to make some money he does not see; he +will be obliged to spend everything he can wrest from his +Maecenases—he, born under a wrathful Mercury.</p> + +<p>This may sound somewhat gloomier than it was meant, but +a few weeks later he writes again: 'Oh, this begging; you laugh +at me, I know. But I hate myself for it and am fully determined, +either to obtain some fortune, which will relieve me +from cringing, or to imitate Diogenes altogether.' This refers +to a dedication of a translation of Basilius's Commentaries on +Isaiah to John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester.</p> + +<p>Colet, who had never known pecuniary cares himself, did +not well understand these sallies of Erasmus. He replies to +them with delicate irony and covert rebuke, which Erasmus, +in his turn, pretends not to understand. He was now 'in want +in the midst of plenty', <i>simul et in media copia et in summa inopia</i>. +That is to say, he was engaged in preparing for Badius's press +the <i>De copia verborum ac rerum</i>, formerly begun at Paris; it was +dedicated to Colet. 'I ask you, who can be more impudent or +abject than I, who for such a long time already have been +openly begging in England?'</p> + +<p>Writing to Ammonius he bitterly regrets having left Rome +and Italy; how prosperity had smiled upon him there! In the +same way he would afterwards lament that he had not +permanently established himself in England. If he had only +embraced the opportunity! he thinks. Was not Erasmus rather +one of those people whom good fortune cannot help?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +He remained in trouble and his tone grows more bitter. 'I +am preparing some bait against the 1st of January, though it is +pretty sure to be in vain,' he writes to Ammonius, referring to +new translations of Lucian and Plutarch.</p> + +<p>At Cambridge Erasmus lectured on divinity and Greek, but +it brought him little success and still less profit. The long-wished-for +prebend, indeed, had at last been given him, in the +form of the rectory of Aldington, in Kent, to which Archbishop +William Warham, his patron, appointed him in 1512. +Instead of residing he was allowed to draw a pension of +twenty pounds a year. The archbishop affirms explicitly that, +contrary to his custom, he had granted this favour to Erasmus, +because he, 'a light of learning in Latin and Greek literature, +had, out of love for England, disdained to live in Italy, +France, or Germany, in order to pass the rest of his life here, +with his friends'. We see how nations already begin to vie +with each other for the honour of sheltering Erasmus.</p> + +<p>Relief from all cares the post did not bring. Intercourse and +correspondence with Colet was a little soured under the light +veil of jests and kindness by his constant need of money. Seeking +new resources by undertaking new labours, or preparing +new editions of his old books, remained a hard necessity for +Erasmus. The great works upon which he had set his heart, +and to which he had given all his energies at Cambridge, held +out no promise of immediate profit. His serious theological +labours ranked above all others; and in these hard years, he +devoted his best strength to preparation for the great edition +of Jerome's works and emendation of the text of the New +Testament, a task inspired, encouraged and promoted by Colet.</p> + +<p>For his living other books had to serve. He had a sufficient +number now, and the printers were eager enough about them, +though the profit which the author made by them was not +large. After leaving Aldus at Venice, Erasmus had returned to +the publisher who had printed for him as early as 1505—Josse +Badius, of Brabant, who, at Paris, had established the Ascensian +Press (called after his native place, Assche) and who, a scholar +himself, rivalled Aldus in point of the accuracy of his editions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +of the classics. At the time when Erasmus took the <i>Moria</i> to +Gourmont, at Paris, he had charged Badius with a new edition, +still to be revised, of the <i>Adagia</i>. Why the <i>Moria</i> was published +by another, we cannot tell; perhaps Badius did not like it at +first. From the <i>Adagia</i> he promised himself the more profit, +but that was a long work, the alterations and preface of which +he was still waiting for Erasmus to send. He felt very sure of +his ground, for everyone knew that he, Badius, was preparing +the new edition. Yet a rumour reached him that in Germany +the Aldine edition was being reprinted. So there was some +hurry to finish it, he wrote to Erasmus in May 1512.</p> + +<p>Badius, meanwhile, had much more work of Erasmus in +hand, or on approval: the <i>Copia</i>, which, shortly afterwards, +was published by him; the <i>Moria</i>, of which, at the same time, +a new edition, the fifth, already had appeared; the dialogues by +Lucian; the Euripides and Seneca translations, which were to +follow. He hoped to add Jerome's letters to these. For the +<i>Adagia</i> they had agreed upon a copy-fee of fifteen guilders; for +Jerome's letters Badius was willing to give the same sum and +as much again for the rest of the consignment. 'Ah, you will +say, what a very small sum! I own that by no remuneration +could your genius, industry, knowledge and labour be requited, +but the gods will requite you and your own virtue will +be the finest reward. You have already deserved exceedingly +well of Greek and Roman literature; you will in this same way +deserve well of sacred and divine, and you will help your little +Badius, who has a numerous family and no earnings besides +his daily trade.'</p> + +<p>Erasmus must have smiled ruefully on receiving Badius's +letter. But he accepted the proposal readily. He promised to +prepare everything for the press and, on 5 January 1513, he +finished, in London, the preface to the revised <i>Adagia</i>, for +which Badius was waiting. But then something happened. An +agent who acted as a mediator with authors for several publishers +in Germany and France, one Francis Berckman, of +Cologne, took the revised copy of the <i>Adagia</i> with the preface +entrusted to him by Erasmus to hand over to Badius, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +to Paris, but to Basle, to Johannes Froben, who had just, without +Erasmus's leave, reprinted the Venetian edition! Erasmus +pretended to be indignant at this mistake or perfidy, but it is +only too clear that he did not regret it. Six months later he +betook himself with bag and baggage to Basle, to enter with +that same Froben into those most cordial relations by which +their names are united. Beatus Rhenanus, afterwards, made no +secret of the fact that a connection with the house of Froben, +then still called Amerbach and Froben, had seemed attractive +to Erasmus ever since he had heard of the <i>Adagia</i> being +reprinted.</p> + +<p>Without conclusive proofs of his complicity, we do not like +to accuse Erasmus of perfidy towards Badius, though his attitude +is curious, to say the least. But we do want to commemorate +the dignified tone in which Badius, who held strict +notions, as those times went, about copyright, replied, when +Berckman afterwards had come to offer him a sort of explanation +of the case. He declares himself satisfied, though Erasmus +had, since that time, caused him losses in more ways, amongst +others by printing a new edition of the <i>Copia</i> at Strassburg. +'If, however, it is agreeable to your interests and honour, I +shall suffer it, and that with equanimity.' Their relations were +not broken off. In all this we should not lose sight of the fact +that publishing at that time was yet a quite new commercial +phenomenon and that new commercial forms and relations of +trade are wont to be characterized by uncertainty, confusion +and lack of established business morals.</p> + +<p>The stay at Cambridge gradually became irksome to +Erasmus. 'For some months already', he writes to Ammonius +in November 1513, 'we have been leading a true snail's life, +staying at home and plodding. It is very lonely here; most +people have gone for fear of the plague, but even when they +are all here, it is lonely.' The cost of sustenance is unbearable +and he makes no money at all. If he does not succeed, that +winter, in making a nest for himself, he is resolved to fly +away, he does not know where. 'If to no other end, to die +elsewhere.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>Added to the stress of circumstances, the plague, reappearing +again and again, and attacks of his kidney-trouble, there +came the state of war, which depressed and alarmed Erasmus. +In the spring of 1513 the English raid on France, long prepared, +took place. In co-operation with Maximilian's army +the English had beaten the French near Guinegate and compelled +Therouanne to surrender, and afterwards Tournay. +Meanwhile the Scotch invaded England, to be decisively +beaten near Flodden. Their king, James IV, perished together +with his natural son, Erasmus's pupil and travelling companion +in Italy, Alexander, Archbishop of Saint Andrews.</p> + +<p>Crowned with martial fame, Henry VIII returned in +November to meet his parliament. Erasmus did not share the +universal joy and enthusiastic admiration. 'We are circumscribed +here by the plague, threatened by robbers; we drink +wine of the worst (because there is no import from France), +but, <i>io triumphe!</i> we are the conquerors of the world!'</p> + +<p>His deep aversion to the clamour of war, and all it represented, +stimulated Erasmus's satirical faculties. It is true that he +flattered the English national pride by an epigram on the rout +of the French near Guinegate, but soon he went deeper. He +remembered how war had impeded his movements in Italy; +how the entry of the pope-conqueror, Julius II, into Bologna +had outraged his feelings. 'The high priest Julius wages +war, conquers, triumphs and truly plays the part of Julius +(Caesar)' he had written then. Pope Julius, he thought, +had been the cause of all the wars spreading more and more +over Europe. Now the Pope had died in the beginning of the +year 1513.</p> + +<p>And in the deepest secrecy, between his work on the New +Testament and Jerome, Erasmus took revenge on the martial +Pope, for the misery of the times, by writing the masterly +satire, entitled <i>Julius exclusus</i>, in which the Pope appears in all +his glory before the gate of the Heavenly Paradise to plead his +cause and find himself excluded. The theme was not new to +him; for had he not made something similar in the witty Cain +fable, by which, at one time, he had cheered a dinner-party at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +Oxford? But that was an innocent jest to which his pious +fellow-guests had listened with pleasure. To the satire about +the defunct Pope many would, no doubt, also gladly listen, +but Erasmus had to be careful about it. The folly of all the +world might be ridiculed, but not the worldly propensities of +the recently deceased Pope. Therefore, though he helped in +circulating copies of the manuscript, Erasmus did his utmost, +for the rest of his life, to preserve its anonymity, and when it +was universally known and had appeared in print, and he was +presumed to be the author, he always cautiously denied the +fact; although he was careful to use such terms as to avoid a +formal denial. The first edition of the <i>Julius</i> was published at +Basle, not by Froben, Erasmus's ordinary publisher, but by +Cratander, probably in the year 1518.</p> + +<p>Erasmus's need of protesting against warfare had not been +satisfied by writing the <i>Julius</i>. In March 1514, no longer at +Cambridge, but in London, he wrote a letter to his former +patron, the Abbot of Saint Bertin, Anthony of Bergen, in +which he enlarges upon the folly of waging war. Would that +a Christian peace were concluded between Christian princes! +Perhaps the abbot might contribute to that consummation +through his influence with the youthful Charles V and especially +with his grandfather Maximilian. Erasmus states quite +frankly that the war has suddenly changed the spirit of +England. He would like to return to his native country if the +prince would procure him the means to live there in peace. It +is a remarkable fact and of true Erasmian naïveté that he cannot +help mixing up his personal interests with his sincere +indignation at the atrocities disgracing a man and a Christian. +'The war has suddenly altered the spirit of this island. The cost +of living rises every day and generosity decreases. Through +lack of wine I nearly perished by gravel, contracted by taking +bad stuff. We are confined in this island, more than ever, so +that even letters are not carried abroad.'</p> + +<p>This was the first of Erasmus's anti-war writings. He expanded +it into the adage <i>Dulce bellum inexpertis</i>, which was +inserted into the <i>Adagia</i> edition of 1515, published by Froben<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +and afterwards also printed separately. Hereafter we shall +follow up this line of Erasmus's ideas as a whole.</p> + +<p>Though the summer of 1514 was to bring peace between +England and France, Erasmus had now definitely made up his +mind to leave England. He sent his trunks to Antwerp, to his +friend Peter Gilles and prepared to go to the Netherlands, after +a short visit to Mountjoy at the castle of Hammes near Calais. +Shortly before his departure from London he had a curious +interview with a papal diplomat, working in the cause of peace, +Count Canossa, at Ammonius's house on the Thames. +Ammonius passed him off on Erasmus as a merchant. After +the meal the Italian sounded him as to a possible return to +Rome, where he might be the first in place instead of living +alone among a barbarous nation. Erasmus replied that he lived +in a land that contained the greatest number of excellent +scholars, among whom he would be content with the humblest +place. This compliment was his farewell to England, which +had favoured him so. Some days later, in the first half of +July 1514, he was on the other side of the Channel. On three +more occasions he paid short visits to England, but he lived +there no more.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 325px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xiii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xiii-th.png" width="325" height="512" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XIII. JOHANNES FROBEN, 1522-3. +Reproduced by gracious permission of H.M. The Queen</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 325px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xiv.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xiv-th.png" width="325" height="481" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XIV. THE PRINTER'S EMBLEM OF JOHANNES FROBEN<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xi" id="chapter_xi"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>A LIGHT OF THEOLOGY</h3> + +<h3>1514-16</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>On the way to success and satisfaction—His Prior calls him back to Steyn—He +refuses to comply—First journey to Basle: 1514-16—Cordial welcome in +Germany—Johannes Froben—Editions of Jerome and the New Testament—A +Councillor to Prince Charles: <i>Institutio Principis Christiani</i>, 1515—Definitive +dispensation from Monastic Vows: 1517—Fame—Erasmus as +a spiritual centre—His correspondence—Letter-writing as an art—Its +dangers—A glorious age at hand</p></div> + + +<p>Erasmus had, as was usual with him, enveloped his departure +from England with mystery. It was given out that he was +going to Rome to redeem a pledge. Probably he had already +determined to try his fortune in the Netherlands; not in +Holland, but in the neighbourhood of the princely court in +Brabant. The chief object of his journey, however, was to visit +Froben's printing-office at Basle, personally to supervise the +publication of the numerous works, old and new, which he +brought with him, among them the material for his chosen +task, the New Testament and Jerome, by which he hoped to +effect the restoration of theology, which he had long felt to be +his life-work. It is easy thus to imagine his anxiety when during +the crossing he discovered that his hand-bag, containing the +manuscripts, was found to have been taken on board another +ship. He felt bereft, having lost the labour of so many years; a +sorrow so great, he writes, as only parents can feel at the loss of +their children.</p> + +<p>To his joy, however, he found his manuscripts safe on the +other side. At the castle of Hammes near Calais, he stayed for +some days, the guest of Mountjoy. There, on 7 July, a letter +found him, written on 18 April by his superior, the prior of +Steyn, his old friend Servatius Rogerus, recalling him to the +monastery after so many years of absence. The letter had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +already been in the hands of more than one prying person, +before it reached him by mere chance.</p> + +<p>It was a terrific blow, which struck him in the midst of his +course to his highest aspirations. Erasmus took counsel for a +day and then sent a refusal. To his old friend, in addressing +whom he always found the most serious accents of his being, +he wrote a letter which he meant to be a justification and which +was self-contemplation, much deeper and more sincere than +the one which, at a momentous turning-point of his life, had +drawn from him his <i>Carmen Alpestre</i>.</p> + +<p>He calls upon God to be his witness that he would follow +the purest inspiration of his life. But to return to the monastery! +He reminds Servatius of the circumstances under which he +entered it, as they lived in his memory: the pressure of his +relations, his false modesty. He points out to him how ill +monastic life had suited his constitution, how it outraged his +love of freedom, how detrimental it would be to his delicate +health, if now resumed. Had he, then, lived a worse life in the +world? Literature had kept him from many vices. His restless +life could not redound to his dishonour, though only with +diffidence did he dare to appeal to the examples of Solon, +Pythagoras, St. Paul and his favourite Jerome. Had he not +everywhere won recognition from friends and patrons? He +enumerates them: cardinals, archbishops, bishops, Mountjoy, the +Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and, lastly, John Colet. +Was there, then, any objection to his works: the <i>Enchiridion</i>, +the <i>Adagia</i>? (He did not mention the <i>Moria</i>.) The best was still +to follow: Jerome and the New Testament. The fact that, +since his stay in Italy, he had laid aside the habit of his order +and wore a common clerical dress, he could excuse on a +number of grounds.</p> + +<p>The conclusion was: I shall not return to Holland. 'I know +that I shall not be able to stand the air and the food there; all +eyes will be directed to me. I shall return to the country, an +old and grey man, who left it as a youth; I shall return a +valetudinarian; I shall be exposed to the contempt even of the +lowest, I, who am accustomed to be honoured even by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +greatest.' 'It is not possible', he concludes, 'to speak out +frankly in a letter. I am now going to Basle and thence to +Rome, perhaps, but on my return I shall try to visit you ... I +have heard of the deaths of William, Francis and Andrew (his +old Dutch friends). Remember me to Master Henry and the +others who live with you; I am disposed towards them as +befits me. For those old tragedies I ascribe to my errors, or if +you like to my fate. Do not omit to commend me to Christ in +your prayers. If I knew for sure that it would be pleasing to +Him that I should return to live with you, I should prepare +for the journey this very day. Farewell, my former sweetest +companion, now my venerable father.'</p> + +<p>Underlying the immediate motives of his high theological +aspirations, this refusal was doubtless actuated by his ancient, +inveterate, psychological incentives of disgust and shame.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Through the southern Netherlands, where he visited several +friends and patrons and renewed his acquaintance with the +University of Louvain, Erasmus turned to the Rhine and +reached Basle in the second half of August 1514. There such +pleasures of fame awaited him as he had never yet tasted. +The German humanists hailed him as the light of the world—in +letters, receptions and banquets. They were more solemn +and enthusiastic than Erasmus had found the scholars of +France, England and Italy, to say nothing of his compatriots; +and they applauded him emphatically as being a German himself +and an ornament of Germany. At his first meeting with +Froben, Erasmus permitted himself the pleasure of a jocular +deception: he pretended to be a friend and agent of himself, to +enjoy to the full the joy of being recognized. The German +environment was rather to his mind: '<i>My</i> Germany, which to +my regret and shame I got to know so late'.</p> + +<p>Soon the work for which he had come was in full swing. He +was in his element once more, as he had been at Venice six +years before: working hard in a large printing-office, surrounded +by scholars, who heaped upon him homage and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +kindness in those rare moments of leisure which he permitted +himself. 'I move in a most agreeable Museon: so many men of +learning, and of such exceptional learning!'</p> + +<p>Some translations of the lesser works of Plutarch were published +by Froben in August. The <i>Adagia</i> was passing through +the press again with corrections and additions, and the preface +which was originally destined for Badius. At the same time +Dirck Maertensz, at Louvain, was also at work for Erasmus, +who had, on passing through the town, entrusted him with a +collection of easy Latin texts; also M. Schürer at Strassburg, +who prepared the <i>Parabolae sive similia</i> for him. For Froben, +too, Erasmus was engaged on a Seneca, which appeared in +1515, together with a work on Latin construction. But Jerome +and the New Testament remained his chief occupation.</p> + +<p>Jerome's works had been Erasmus's love in early youth, +especially his letters. The plan of preparing a correct edition of +the great Father of the Church was conceived in 1500, if not +earlier, and he had worked at it ever since, at intervals. In 1513 +he writes to Ammonius: 'My enthusiasm for emending and +annotating Jerome is such that I feel as though inspired by +some god. I have almost completely emended him already by +collating many old manuscripts. And this I do at incredibly +great expense.' In 1512 he negotiated with Badius about an +edition of the letters. Froben's partner, Johannes Amerbach, +who died before Erasmus's arrival, had been engaged for years +on an edition of Jerome. Several scholars, Reuchlin among +others, had assisted in the undertaking when Erasmus offered +himself and all his material. He became the actual editor. Of +the nine volumes, in which Froben published the work in +1516, the first four contained Erasmus's edition of Jerome's +letters; the others had been corrected by him and provided +with forewords.</p> + +<p>His work upon the New Testament was, if possible, still +nearer his heart. By its growth it had gradually changed its +nature. Since the time when Valla's <i>Annotationes</i> had directed +his attention to textual criticism of the Vulgate, Erasmus had, +probably during his second stay in England from 1505 to 1506,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +at the instance of Colet, made a new translation of the New +Testament from the Greek original, which translation differed +greatly from the Vulgate. Besides Colet, few had seen it. Later, +Erasmus understood it was necessary to publish also a new +edition of the Greek text, with his notes. As to this he had +made a provisional arrangement with Froben, shortly after +his arrival at Basle. Afterwards he considered that it would be +better to have it printed in Italy, and was on the point of going +there when, possibly persuaded by new offers from Froben, he +suddenly changed his plan of travel and in the spring of 1515 +made a short trip to England—probably, among other reasons, +for the purpose of securing a copy of his translation of the New +Testament, which he had left behind there. In the summer he +was back at Basle and resumed the work in Froben's printing-office. +In the beginning of 1516 the <i>Novum Instrumentum</i> +appeared, containing the purified Greek text with notes, +together with a Latin translation in which Erasmus had altered +too great deviations from the Vulgate.</p> + +<p>From the moment of the appearance of two such important +and, as regards the second, such daring theological +works by Erasmus as Jerome and the New Testament, we +may say that he had made himself the centre of the scientific +study of divinity, as he was at the same time the centre and +touchstone of classic erudition and literary taste. His authority +constantly increased in all countries, his correspondence was +prodigiously augmented.</p> + +<p>But while his mental growth was accomplished, his financial +position was not assured. The years 1515 to 1517 are +among the most restless of his life; he is still looking out for +every chance which presents itself, a canonry at Tournay, a +prebend in England, a bishopric in Sicily, always half jocularly +regretting the good chances he missed in former times, +jesting about his pursuit of fortune, lamenting about his +'spouse, execrable poverty, which even yet I have not succeeded +in shaking off my shoulders'. And, after all, ever more +the victim of his own restlessness than of the disfavour of fate. +He is now fifty years old and still he is, as he says, 'sowing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +without knowing what I shall reap'. This, however, only refers +to his career, not to his life-work.</p> + +<p>In the course of 1515 a new and promising patron, John +le Sauvage, Chancellor of Brabant, had succeeded in procuring +for him the title of councillor of the prince, the youthful +Charles V. In the beginning of 1516 he was nominated: it was +a mere title of honour, promising a yearly pension of 200 +florins, which, however, was paid but irregularly. To habilitate +himself as a councillor of the prince, Erasmus wrote the +<i>Institutio Principis Christiani</i>, a treatise about the education of +a prince, which in accordance with Erasmus's nature and +inclination deals rather with moral than with political matters, +and is in striking contrast with that other work, written some +years earlier, <i>il Principe</i> by Machiavelli.</p> + +<p>When his work at Basle ceased for the time being, in the +spring of 1516, Erasmus journeyed to the Netherlands. At +Brussels he met the chancellor, who, in addition to the prince's +pension, procured him a prebend at Courtray, which, like the +English benefice mentioned above, was compounded for by +money payments. At Antwerp lived one of the great friends +who helped in his support all his life: Peter Gilles, the young +town clerk, in whose house he stayed as often as he came to +Antwerp. Peter Gilles is the man who figures in More's +<i>Utopia</i> as the person in whose garden the sailor tells his +experiences; it was in these days that Gilles helped Dirck +Maertensz, at Louvain, to pass the first edition of the <i>Utopia</i> +through the press. Later Quentin Metsys was to paint him and +Erasmus, joined in a diptych; a present for Thomas More and +for us a vivid memorial of one of the best things Erasmus ever +knew: this triple friendship.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1516 Erasmus made another short trip to +England. He stayed with More, saw Colet again, also Warham, +Fisher, and the other friends. But it was not to visit old +friends that he went there. A pressing and delicate matter impelled +him. Now that prebends and church dignities began to +be presented to him, it was more urgent than ever that the +impediments in the way of a free ecclesiastical career should be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +permanently obviated. He was provided with a dispensation +of Pope Julius II, authorizing him to accept English prebends, +and another exempting him from the obligation of wearing +the habit of his order. But both were of limited scope, and +insufficient. The fervent impatience with which he conducted +this matter of his definite discharge from the order makes it +probable that, as Dr. Allen presumes, the threat of his recall to +Steyn had, since his refusal to Servatius in 1514, hung over his +head. There was nothing he feared and detested so much.</p> + +<p>With his friend Ammonius he drew up, in London, a very +elaborate paper, addressed to the apostolic chancery, in which +he recounts the story of his own life as that of one Florentius: +his half-enforced entrance to the monastery, the troubles +which monastic life had brought him, the circumstances which +had induced him to lay his monk's dress aside. It is a passionate +apology, pathetic and ornate. The letter, as we know it, +does not contain a direct request. In an appendix at the end, +written in cipher, of which he sent the key in sympathetic ink +in another letter, the chancery was requested to obviate the +impediments which Erasmus's illegitimate birth placed in the +way of his promotion. The addressee, Lambertus Grunnius, +apostolic secretary, was most probably an imaginary personage.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> +So much mystery did Erasmus use when his vital +interests were at stake.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Worcester, Silvestro Gigli, who was setting +out to the Lateran Council, as the envoy of England, took +upon himself to deliver the letter and to plead Erasmus's cause. +Erasmus, having meanwhile at the end of August returned to +the Netherlands, awaited the upshot of his kind offices in the +greatest suspense. The matter was finally settled in January +1517. In two letters bearing the signature of Sadolet, Leo X +condoned Erasmus's transgressions of ecclesiastical law, +relieved him of the obligation to wear the dress of his order, +allowed him to live in the world and authorized him to hold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +church benefices in spite of any disqualifications arising from +illegitimacy of birth.</p> + +<p>So much his great fame had now achieved. The Pope had +moreover accepted the dedication of the edition of the New +Testament, and had, through Sadolet, expressed himself in +very gracious terms about Erasmus's work in general. Rome +itself seemed to further his endeavours in all respects.</p> + +<p>Erasmus now thought of establishing himself permanently +in the Netherlands, to which everything pointed. Louvain +seemed to be the most suitable abode, the centre of studies, +where he had already spent two years in former times. But +Louvain did not attract him. It was the stronghold of conservative +theology. Martin van Dorp, a Dutchman like +Erasmus, and professor of divinity at Louvain, had, in 1514, +in the name of his faculty, rebuked Erasmus in a letter for the +audacity of the <i>Praise of Folly</i>, his derision of divines and +also his temerity in correcting the text of the New Testament. +Erasmus had defended himself elaborately. At present war was +being waged in a much wider field: for or against Reuchlin, +the great Hebrew scholar, for whom the authors of the +<i>Epistolae obscurorum virorum</i> had so sensationally taken up the +cudgels. At Louvain Erasmus was regarded with the same +suspicion with which he distrusted Dorp and the other Louvain +divines. He stayed during the remainder of 1516 and the +first half of 1517 at Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent, often in the +house of Peter Gilles. In February 1517, there came tempting +offers from France. Budaeus, Cop, Étienne Poncher, Bishop of +Paris, wrote to him that the king, the youthful Francis I, +would present him with a generous prebend if he would come +to Paris. Erasmus, always shy of being tied down, only wrote +polite, evasive answers, and did not go.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the meantime he received the news of the papal absolution. +In connection with this he had, once more, to visit +England, little dreaming that it would be the last time he should +set foot on British soil. In Ammonius's house of Saint Stephen's +Chapel at Westminster on 9 April 1517, the ceremony of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +absolution took place, ridding Erasmus for good of the nightmare +which had oppressed him since his youth. At last he +was free!</p> + +<p>Invitations and specious promises now came to him from all +sides. Mountjoy and Wolsey spoke of high ecclesiastical +honours which awaited him in England. Budaeus kept pressing +him to remove to France. Cardinal Ximenes wanted to +attach him to the University of Alcalá, in Spain. The Duke of +Saxony offered him a chair at Leipzig. Pirckheimer boasted of +the perfections of the free imperial city of Nuremberg. +Erasmus, meanwhile, overwhelmed again with the labour of +writing and editing, according to his wont, did not definitely +decline any of these offers; neither did he accept any. He +always wanted to keep all his strings on his bow at the same +time. In the early summer of 1517 he was asked to accompany +the court of the youthful Charles, who was on the point of +leaving the Netherlands for Spain. But he declined. His +departure to Spain would have meant a long interruption of +immediate contact with the great publishing centres, Basle, +Louvain, Strassburg, Paris, and that, in turn, would have +meant postponement of his life-work. When, in the beginning +of July, the prince set out for Middelburg, there to take ship +for Spain, Erasmus started for Louvain.</p> + +<p>He was thus destined to go to this university environment, +although it displeased him in so many respects. There he +would have academic duties, young latinists would follow him +about to get their poems and letters corrected by him and all +those divines, whom he distrusted, would watch him at close +quarters. But it was only to be for a few months. 'I have +removed to Louvain', he writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury, +'till I shall decide which residence is best suited to old +age, which is already knocking at the gate importunately.'</p> + +<p>As it turned out, he was to spend four years (1517-21) at +Louvain. His life was now becoming more stationary, but +because of outward circumstances rather than of inward quiet. +He kept deliberating all those years whether he should go to +England, Germany or France, hoping at last to find the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +brilliant position which he had always coveted and never had +been able or willing to grasp.</p> + +<p>The years 1516-18 may be called the culmination of +Erasmus's career. Applauding crowds surrounded him more +and more. The minds of men were seemingly prepared for +something great to happen and they looked to Erasmus as the +man! At Brussels, he was continually bothered with visits from +Spaniards, Italians and Germans who wanted to boast of +their interviews with him. The Spaniards, with their verbose +solemnity, particularly bored him. Most exuberant of all were +the eulogies with which the German humanists greeted him in +their letters. This had begun already on his first journey to +Basle in 1514. 'Great Rotterdamer', 'ornament of Germany', +'ornament of the world' were some of the simplest effusions. +Town councils waited upon him, presents of wine and public +banquets were of common occurrence. No one expresses himself +so hyperbolically as the jurist Ulrich Zasius of Freiburg. 'I +am pointed out in public', he asserts, 'as the man who has +received a letter from Erasmus.' 'Thrice greatest hero, you +great Jove' is a moderate apostrophe for him. 'The Swiss', +Zwingli writes in 1516, 'account it a great glory to have seen +Erasmus.' 'I know and I teach nothing but Erasmus now,' +writes Wolfgang Capito. Ulrich von Hutten and Henry +Glareanus both imagine themselves placed beside Erasmus, +as Alcibiades stood beside Socrates. And Beatus Rhenanus +devotes to him a life of earnest admiration and helpfulness that +was to prove of much more value than these exuberant +panegyrics. There is an element of national exaltation in this +German enthusiasm for Erasmus: it is the violently stimulated +mood into which Luther's word will fall anon.</p> + +<p>The other nations also chimed in with praise, though a little +later and a little more soberly. Colet and Tunstall promise him +immortality, Étienne Poncher exalts him above the celebrated +Italian humanists, Germain de Brie declares that French +scholars have ceased reading any authors but Erasmus, and +Budaeus announces that all Western Christendom resounds +with his name.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>This increase of glory manifested itself in different ways. +Almost every year the rumour of his death was spread abroad, +malignantly, as he himself thinks. Again, all sorts of writings +were ascribed to him in which he had no share whatever, +amongst others the <i>Epistolae obscurorum virorum</i>.</p> + +<p>But, above all, his correspondence increased immensely. The +time was long since past when he asked More to procure him +more correspondents. Letters now kept pouring in to him, +from all sides, beseeching him to reply. A former pupil +laments with tears that he cannot show a single note written +by Erasmus. Scholars respectfully sought an introduction from +one of his friends, before venturing to address him. In this +respect Erasmus was a man of heroic benevolence, and tried to +answer what he could, although so overwhelmed by letters +every day that he hardly found time to read them. 'If I do not +answer, I seem unkind,' says Erasmus, and that thought was +intolerable.</p> + +<p>We should bear in mind that letter-writing, at that time, +occupied more or less the place of the newspaper at present, or +rather of the literary monthly, which arose fairly directly out +of erudite correspondence. It was, as in antiquity—which in +this respect was imitated better and more profitably, perhaps, +than in any other sphere—an art. Even before 1500 Erasmus +had, at Paris, described that art in the treatise, <i>De conscribendis +epistolis</i>, which was to appear in print in 1522. People wrote, +as a rule, with a view to later publication, for a wider circle, or +at any rate, with the certainty that the recipient would show +the letter to others. A fine Latin letter was a gem, which a man +envied his neighbour. Erasmus writes to Budaeus: 'Tunstall +has devoured your letter to me and re-read it as many as three +or four times; I had literally to tear it from his hands.'</p> + +<p>Unfortunately fate did not always take into consideration +the author's intentions as to publicity, semi-publicity or strict +secrecy. Often letters passed through many hands before +reaching their destination, as did Servatius's letter to Erasmus +in 1514. 'Do be careful about letters,' he writes more than +once; 'waylayers are on the lookout to intercept them.' Yet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +with the curious precipitation that characterizes him, Erasmus +was often very careless as to what he wrote. From an early age +he preserved and cared for his letters, yet nevertheless, through +his itinerant life, many were lost. He could not control their +publication. As early as 1509 a friend sent him a manuscript +volume of his own (Erasmus's) letters, that he had picked up +for sale at Rome. Erasmus had it burnt at once. Since 1515 he +himself superintended the publication of his letters; at first +only a few important ones; afterwards in 1516 a selection of +letters from friends to him, and after that ever larger collections +till, at the end of his life, there appeared a new collection +almost every year. No article was so much in demand on +the book market as letters by Erasmus, and no wonder. They +were models of excellent style, tasteful Latin, witty expression +and elegant erudition.</p> + +<p>The semi-private, semi-public character of the letters often +made them compromising. What one could say to a friend in +confidence might possibly injure when many read it. Erasmus, +who never was aware how injuriously he expressed himself, +repeatedly gave rise to misunderstanding and estrangement. +Manners, so to say, had not yet adapted themselves to the new +art of printing, which increased the publicity of the written +word a thousandfold. Only gradually under this new influence +was the separation effected between the public word, intended +for the press, and the private communication, which remains +in writing and is read only by the recipient.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, with the growth of Erasmus's fame, his earlier +writings, too, had risen in the public estimation. The great +success of the <i>Enchiridion militis christiani</i> had begun about +1515, when the times were much riper for it than eleven years +before. 'The <i>Moria</i> is embraced as the highest wisdom,' writes +John Watson to him in 1516. In the same year we find a word +used, for the first time, which expresses better than anything +else how much Erasmus had become a centre of authority: +<i>Erasmiani</i>. So his German friends called themselves, according +to Johannes Sapidus. More than a year later Dr. Johannes Eck +employs the word still in a rather friendly sense, as a generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +current term: 'all scholars in Germany are Erasmians,' he says. +But Erasmus did not like the word. 'I find nothing in myself', +he replies, 'why anyone should wish to be an Erasmicus, and, +altogether, I hate those party names. We are all followers of +Christ, and to His glory we all drudge, each for his part.' But +he knows that now the question is: for or against him! From +the brilliant latinist and the man of wit of his prime he had +become the international pivot on which the civilization of his +age hinged. He could not help beginning to feel himself the +brain, the heart and the conscience of his times. It might even +appear to him that he was called to speak the great redeeming +word or, perhaps, that he had already spoken it. The faith in +an easy triumph of pure knowledge and Christian meekness in +a near future speaks from the preface of Erasmus's edition of +the New Testament.</p> + +<p>How clear did the future look in those years! In this period +Erasmus repeatedly reverts to the glad motif of a golden age, +which is on the point of dawning. Perennial peace is before +the door. The highest princes of the world, Francis I of France, +Charles, King of Spain, Henry VIII of England, and the emperor +Maximilian have ensured peace by the strongest ties. +Uprightness and Christian piety will flourish together with +the revival of letters and the sciences. As at a given signal the +mightiest minds conspire to restore a high standard of culture. +We may congratulate the age, it will be a golden one.</p> + +<p>But Erasmus does not sound this note long. It is heard for +the last time in 1519; after which the dream of universal happiness +about to dawn gives place to the usual complaint about +the badness of the times everywhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> For a full translation of this important letter see pp. <a href="#Page_212">212-18</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The name Grunnius may have been taken from Jerome's epistles, +where it is a nickname for a certain Ruffinus, whom Jerome disliked +very much. It appears again in a letter of 5 March 1531, LB. X 1590 A.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xii" id="chapter_xii"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS'S MIND</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus's mind: Ethical and aesthetic tendencies, aversion to all that is +unreasonable, silly and cumbrous—His vision of antiquity pervaded by +Christian faith—Renascence of good learning—The ideal life of serene +harmony and happy wisdom—Love of the decorous and smooth—His mind +neither philosophic nor historical, but strongly philological and moralistic—Freedom, +clearness, purity, simplicity—Faith in nature—Educational +and social ideas</p></div> + + +<p>What made Erasmus the man from whom his contemporaries +expected their salvation, on whose lips they hung to +catch the word of deliverance? He seemed to them the bearer +of a new liberty of the mind, a new clearness, purity and simplicity +of knowledge, a new harmony of healthy and right +living. He was to them as the possessor of newly discovered, +untold wealth which he had only to distribute.</p> + +<p>What was there in the mind of the great Rotterdamer which +promised so much to the world?</p> + +<p>The negative aspect of Erasmus's mind may be defined as a +heartfelt aversion to everything unreasonable, insipid, purely +formal, with which the undisturbed growth of medieval +culture had overburdened and overcrowded the world of +thought. As often as he thinks of the ridiculous text-books out +of which Latin was taught in his youth, disgust rises in his +mind, and he execrates them—Mammetrectus, Brachylogus, +Ebrardus and all the rest—as a heap of rubbish which ought to +be cleared away. But this aversion to the superannuated, +which had become useless and soulless, extended much +farther. He found society, and especially religious life, full of +practices, ceremonies, traditions and conceptions, from which +the spirit seemed to have departed. He does not reject them offhand +and altogether: what revolts him is that they are so often +performed without understanding and right feeling. But to his +mind, highly susceptible to the foolish and ridiculous things,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +and with a delicate need of high decorum and inward dignity, +all that sphere of ceremony and tradition displays itself as a +useless, nay, a hurtful scene of human stupidity and selfishness. +And, intellectualist as he is, with his contempt for ignorance, +he seems unaware that those religious observances, after all, may +contain valuable sentiments of unexpressed and unformulated +piety.</p> + +<p>Through his treatises, his letters, his <i>Colloquies</i> especially, +there always passes—as if one was looking at a gallery of +Brueghel's pictures—a procession of ignorant and covetous +monks who by their sanctimony and humbug impose upon +the trustful multitude and fare sumptuously themselves. As +a fixed motif (such motifs are numerous with Erasmus) +there always recurs his gibe about the superstition that a +person was saved by dying in the gown of a Franciscan or a +Dominican.</p> + +<p>Fasting, prescribed prayers, the observance of holy days, +should not be altogether neglected, but they become displeasing +to God when we repose our trust in them and forget +charity. The same holds good of confession, indulgence, all +sorts of blessings. Pilgrimages are worthless. The veneration +of the Saints and of their relics is full of superstition and foolishness. +The people think they will be preserved from disasters +during the day if only they have looked at the painted image of +Saint Christopher in the morning. 'We kiss the shoes of the +saints and their dirty handkerchiefs and we leave their books, +their most holy and efficacious relics, neglected.'</p> + +<p>Erasmus's dislike of what seemed antiquated and worn out +in his days, went farther still. It comprised the whole intellectual +scheme of medieval theology and philosophy. In the +syllogistic system he found only subtlety and arid ingenuity. +All symbolism and allegory were fundamentally alien to him +and indifferent, though he occasionally tried his hand at an +allegory; and he never was mystically inclined.</p> + +<p>Now here it is just as much the deficiencies of his own mind +as the qualities of the system which made him unable to +appreciate it. While he struck at the abuse of ceremonies and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +of Church practices both with noble indignation and well-aimed +mockery, a proud irony to which he was not fully +entitled preponderates in his condemnation of scholastic +theology which he could not quite understand. It was easy +always to talk with a sneer of the conservative divines of his +time as <i>magistri nostri</i>.</p> + +<p>His noble indignation hurt only those who deserved castigation +and strengthened what was valuable, but his mockery +hurt the good as well as the bad in spite of him, assailed both +the institution and persons, and injured without elevating +them. The individualist Erasmus never understood what it +meant to offend the honour of an office, an order, or an establishment, +especially when that institution is the most sacred of +all, the Church itself.</p> + +<p>Erasmus's conception of the Church was no longer purely +Catholic. Of that glorious structure of medieval-Christian +civilization with its mystic foundation, its strict hierarchic +construction, its splendidly fitting symmetry he saw hardly +anything but its load of outward details and ornament. Instead +of the world which Thomas Aquinas and Dante had described, +according to their vision, Erasmus saw another world, full +of charm and elevated feeling, and this he held up before his +compatriots.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xv.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xv-th.png" width="250" height="340" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XV. THE HANDS OF ERASMUS</p> + +<p>It was the world of Antiquity, but illuminated throughout +by Christian faith. It was a world that had never existed as +such. For with the historical reality which the times of Constantine +and the great fathers of the Church had manifested—that +of declining Latinity and deteriorating Hellenism, the +oncoming barbarism and the oncoming Byzantinism—it had +nothing in common. Erasmus's imagined world was an amalgamation +of pure classicism (this meant for him, Cicero, +Horace, Plutarch; for to the flourishing period of the Greek +mind he remained after all a stranger) and pure, biblical +Christianity. Could it be a union? Not really. In Erasmus's +mind the light falls, just as we saw in the history of his career, +alternately on the pagan antique and on the Christian. But the +warp of his mind is Christian; his classicism only serves him as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +a form, and from Antiquity he only chooses those elements +which in ethical tendency are in conformity with his Christian +ideal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-xvi.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xvi.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XVI. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 57</p> + +<p>And because of this, Erasmus, although he appeared after a +century of earlier Humanism, is yet new to his time. The +union of Antiquity and the Christian spirit which had haunted +the mind of Petrarch, the father of Humanism, which was lost +sight of by his disciples, enchanted as they were by the irresistible +brilliance of the antique beauty of form, this union was +brought about by Erasmus.</p> + +<p>What pure Latinity and the classic spirit meant to Erasmus +we cannot feel as he did because its realization does not mean +to us, as to him, a difficult conquest and a glorious triumph. +To feel it thus one must have acquired, in a hard school, the +hatred of barbarism, which already during his first years of +authorship had suggested the composition of the <i>Antibarbari</i>. +The abusive term for all that is old and rude is already Gothic, +Goths. The term barbarism as used by Erasmus comprised +much of what we value most in the medieval spirit. Erasmus's +conception of the great intellectual crisis of his day was distinctly +dualistic. He saw it as a struggle between old and new, +which, to him, meant evil and good. In the advocates of tradition +he saw only obscurantism, conservatism, and ignorant +opposition to <i>bonae literae</i>, that is, the good cause for which he +and his partisans battled. Of the rise of that higher culture +Erasmus had already formed the conception which has since +dominated the history of the Renaissance. It was a revival, +begun two or three hundred years before his time, in which, +besides literature, all the plastic arts shared. Side by side with +the terms restitution and reflorescence the word renascence +crops up repeatedly in his writings. 'The world is coming to +its senses as if awaking out of a deep sleep. Still there are some +left who recalcitrate pertinaciously, clinging convulsively with +hands and feet to their old ignorance. They fear that if <i>bonae +literae</i> are reborn and the world grows wise, it will come to +light that they have known nothing.' They do not know how +pious the Ancients could be, what sanctity characterizes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +Socrates, Virgil, and Horace, or Plutarch's <i>Moralia</i>, how rich +the history of Antiquity is in examples of forgiveness and true +virtue. We should call nothing profane that is pious and conduces +to good morals. No more dignified view of life was ever +found than that which Cicero propounds in <i>De Senectute</i>.</p> + +<p>In order to understand Erasmus's mind and the charm which +it had for his contemporaries, one must begin with the ideal +of life that was present before his inward eye as a splendid +dream. It is not his own in particular. The whole Renaissance +cherished that wish of reposeful, blithe, and yet serious intercourse +of good and wise friends in the cool shade of a house +under trees, where serenity and harmony would dwell. The +age yearned for the realization of simplicity, sincerity, truth +and nature. Their imagination was always steeped in the +essence of Antiquity, though, at heart, it is more nearly connected +with medieval ideals than they themselves were aware. +In the circle of the Medici it is the idyll of Careggi, in Rabelais +it embodies itself in the fancy of the abbey of Thélème; it +finds voice in More's <i>Utopia</i> and in the work of Montaigne. +In Erasmus's writings that ideal wish ever recurs in the shape of +a friendly walk, followed by a meal in a garden-house. It is +found as an opening scene of the <i>Antibarbari</i>, in the numerous +descriptions of meals with Colet, and the numerous <i>Convivia</i> +of the <i>Colloquies</i>. Especially in the <i>Convivium religiosum</i> +Erasmus has elaborately pictured his dream, and it would be +worth while to compare it, on the one hand with Thélème, +and on the other with the fantastic design of a pleasure garden +which Bernard Palissy describes. The little Dutch eighteenth-century +country-seats and garden-houses in which the national +spirit took great delight are the fulfilment of a purely Erasmian +ideal. The host of the <i>Convivium religiosum</i> says: 'To me +a simple country-house, a nest, is pleasanter than any palace, +and, if he be king who lives in freedom and according to his +wishes, surely I am king here'.</p> + +<p>Life's true joy is in virtue and piety. If they are Epicureans +who live pleasantly, then none are more truly Epicureans than +they who live in holiness and piety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>The ideal joy of life is also perfectly idyllic in so far that it +requires an aloofness from earthly concerns and contempt for +all that is sordid. It is foolish to be interested in all that happens +in the world; to pride oneself on one's knowledge of the +market, of the King of England's plans, the news from Rome, +conditions in Denmark. The sensible old man of the <i>Colloquium +Senile</i> has an easy post of honour, a safe mediocrity, he +judges no one and nothing and smiles upon all the world. +Quiet for oneself, surrounded by books—that is of all things +most desirable.</p> + +<p>On the outskirts of this ideal of serenity and harmony +numerous flowers of aesthetic value blow, such as Erasmus's +sense of decorum, his great need of kindly courtesy, his +pleasure in gentle and obliging treatment, in cultured and +easy manners. Close by are some of his intellectual peculiarities. +He hates the violent and extravagant. Therefore the +choruses of the Greek drama displease him. The merit of his +own poems he sees in the fact that they pass passion by, they +abstain from pathos altogether—'there is not a single storm +in them, no mountain torrent overflowing its banks, no +exaggeration whatever. There is great frugality in words. My +poetry would rather keep within bounds than exceed them, +rather hug the shore than cleave the high seas.' In another +place he says: 'I am always most pleased by a poem that does +not differ too much from prose, but prose of the best sort, be +it understood. As Philoxenus accounted those the most palatable +fishes that are no true fishes and the most savoury meat +what is no meat, the most pleasant voyage, that along the +shores, and the most agreeable walk, that along the water's +edge; so I take especial pleasure in a rhetorical poem and a +poetical oration, so that poetry is tasted in prose and the +reverse.' That is the man of half-tones, of fine shadings, of the +thought that is never completely expressed. But he adds: 'Farfetched +conceits may please others; to me the chief concern +seems to be that we draw our speech from the matter itself and +apply ourselves less to showing off our invention than to +present the thing.' That is the realist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>From this conception results his admirable, simple clarity, +the excellent division and presentation of his argument. But it +also causes his lack of depth and the prolixity by which he is +characterized. His machine runs too smoothly. In the endless +<i>apologiae</i> of his later years, ever new arguments occur to him; +new passages to point, or quotations to support, his idea. He +praises laconism, but never practises it. Erasmus never coins a +sentence which, rounded off and pithy, becomes a proverb and +in this manner lives. There are no current quotations from +Erasmus. The collector of the <i>Adagia</i> has created no new +ones of his own.</p> + +<p>The true occupation for a mind like his was paraphrasing, +in which, indeed, he amply indulged. Soothing down and +unfolding was just the work he liked. It is characteristic that he +paraphrased the whole New Testament except the Apocalypse.</p> + +<p>Erasmus's mind was neither philosophic nor historic. His was +neither the work of exact, logical discrimination, nor of grasping +the deep sense of the way of the world in broad historical +visions in which the particulars themselves, in their multiplicity +and variegation, form the image. His mind is philological +in the fullest sense of the word. But by that alone he +would not have conquered and captivated the world. His +mind was at the same time of a deeply ethical and rather strong +aesthetic trend and those three together have made him great.</p> + +<p>The foundation of Erasmus's mind is his fervent desire of +freedom, clearness, purity, simplicity and rest. It is an old +ideal of life to which he gave new substance by the wealth of +his mind. Without liberty, life is no life; and there is no liberty +without repose. The fact that he never took sides definitely +resulted from an urgent need of perfect independence. Each +engagement, even a temporary one, was felt as a fetter by +Erasmus. An interlocutor in the <i>Colloquies</i>, in which he so +often, spontaneously, reveals his own ideals of life, declares +himself determined neither to marry, nor to take holy orders, +nor to enter a monastery, nor into any connection from which +he will afterwards be unable to free himself—at least not before +he knows himself completely. 'When will that be? Never,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +perhaps.' 'On no other account do I congratulate myself more +than on the fact that I have never attached myself to any party,' +Erasmus says towards the end of his life.</p> + +<p>Liberty should be spiritual liberty in the first place. 'But he +that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no +man,' is the word of Saint Paul. To what purpose should he +require prescriptions who, of his own accord, does better +things than human laws require? What arrogance it is to bind +by institutions a man who is clearly led by the inspirations of +the divine spirit!</p> + +<p>In Erasmus we already find the beginning of that optimism +which judges upright man good enough to dispense with fixed +forms and rules. As More, in <i>Utopia</i>, and Rabelais, Erasmus +relies already on the dictates of nature, which produces man +as inclined to good and which we may follow, provided we +are imbued with faith and piety.</p> + +<p>In this line of confidence in what is natural and desire of the +simple and reasonable, Erasmus's educational and social ideas +lie. Here he is far ahead of his times. It would be an attractive +undertaking to discuss Erasmus's educational ideals more fully. +They foreshadow exactly those of the eighteenth century. The +child should learn in playing, by means of things that are agreeable +to its mind, from pictures. Its faults should be gently +corrected. The flogging and abusive schoolmaster is Erasmus's +abomination; the office itself is holy and venerable to him. +Education should begin from the moment of birth. Probably +Erasmus attached too much value to classicism, here as elsewhere: +his friend Peter Gilles should implant the rudiments of +the ancient languages in his two-year-old son, that he may +greet his father with endearing stammerings in Greek and +Latin. But what gentleness and clear good sense shines from +all Erasmus says about instruction and education!</p> + +<p>The same holds good of his views about marriage and +woman. In the problem of sexual relations he distinctly sides +with the woman from deep conviction. There is a great deal +of tenderness and delicate feeling in his conception of the +position of the girl and the woman. Few characters of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +<i>Colloquies</i> have been drawn with so much sympathy as the girl +with the lover and the cultured woman in the witty conversation +with the abbot. Erasmus's ideal of marriage is truly +social and hygienic. Let us beget children for the State and for +Christ, says the lover, children endowed by their upright +parents with a good disposition, children who see the good +example at home which is to guide them. Again and again he +reverts to the mother's duty to suckle the child herself. He +indicates how the house should be arranged, in a simple and +cleanly manner; he occupies himself with the problem of useful +children's dress. Who stood up at that time, as he did, for +the fallen girl, and for the prostitute compelled by necessity? +Who saw so clearly the social danger of marriages of persons +infected with the new scourge of Europe, so violently abhorred +by Erasmus? He would wish that such a marriage should +at once be declared null and void by the Pope. Erasmus does +not hold with the easy social theory, still quite current in +the literature of his time, which casts upon women all the +blame of adultery and lewdness. With the savages who live in +a state of nature, he says, the adultery of men is punished, but +that of women is forgiven.</p> + +<p>Here it appears, at the same time, that Erasmus knew, be it +half in jest, the conception of natural virtue and happiness of +naked islanders in a savage state. It soon crops up again in +Montaigne and the following centuries develop it into a +literary dogma.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xiii" id="chapter_xiii"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS'S MIND-CONTINUED</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus's mind: Intellectual tendencies—The world encumbered by beliefs +and forms—Truth must be simple—Back to the pure sources—Holy +Scripture in the original languages—Biblical humanism—Critical work on +the texts of Scripture—Practice better than dogma—Erasmus's talent and +wit—Delight in words and things—Prolixity—Observation of details—A +veiled realism—Ambiguousness—The 'Nuance'—Inscrutability of the +ultimate ground of all things</p></div> + + +<p>Simplicity, naturalness, purity, and reasonableness, those +are to Erasmus the dominant requirements, also when we pass +from his ethical and aesthetic concepts to his intellectual point +of view; indeed, the two can hardly be kept apart.</p> + +<p>The world, says Erasmus, is overloaded with human constitutions +and opinions and scholastic dogmas, and overburdened +with the tyrannical authority of orders, and because of +all this the strength of gospel doctrine is flagging. Faith requires +simplification, he argued. What would the Turks say of our +scholasticism? Colet wrote to him one day: 'There is no end +to books and science. Let us, therefore, leave all roundabout +roads and go by a short cut to the truth.'</p> + +<p>Truth must be simple. 'The language of truth is simple, says +Seneca; well then, nothing is simpler nor truer than Christ.' +'I should wish', Erasmus says elsewhere, 'that this simple and +pure Christ might be deeply impressed upon the mind of +men, and that I deem best attainable in this way, that we, +supported by our knowledge of the original languages, should +philosophize <i>at the sources</i> themselves.'</p> + +<p>Here a new watchword comes to the fore: back to the +sources! It is not merely an intellectual, philological requirement; +it is equally an ethical and aesthetic necessity of life. The +original and pure, all that is not yet overgrown or has not +passed through many hands, has such a potent charm. Erasmus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +compared it to an apple which we ourselves pick off the tree. +To recall the world to the ancient simplicity of science, to lead +it back from the now turbid pools to those living and most +pure fountain-heads, those most limpid sources of gospel doctrine—thus +he saw the task of divinity. The metaphor of the +limpid water is not without meaning here; it reveals the +psychological quality of Erasmus's fervent principle.</p> + +<p>'How is it', he exclaims, 'that people give themselves so +much trouble about the details of all sorts of remote philosophical +systems and neglect to go to the sources of Christianity +itself?' 'Although this wisdom, which is so excellent +that once for all it put the wisdom of all the world to shame, +may be drawn from these few books, as from a crystalline +source, with far less trouble than is the wisdom of Aristotle +from so many thorny books and with much more fruit.... +The equipment for that journey is simple and at everyone's +immediate disposal. This philosophy is accessible to everybody. +Christ desires that his mysteries shall be spread as widely +as possible. I should wish that all good wives read the Gospel +and Paul's Epistles; that they were translated into all languages; +that out of these the husbandman sang while ploughing, +the weaver at his loom; that with such stories the traveller +should beguile his wayfaring.... This sort of philosophy is +rather a matter of disposition than of syllogisms, rather of life +than of disputation, rather of inspiration than of erudition, +rather of transformation than of logic.... What is the philosophy +of Christ, which he himself calls <i>Renascentia</i>, but the +insaturation of Nature created good?—moreover, though no +one has taught us this so absolutely and effectively as Christ, yet +also in pagan books much may be found that is in accordance +with it.'</p> + +<p>Such was the view of life of this biblical humanist. As often +as Erasmus reverts to these matters, his voice sounds clearest. +'Let no one', he says in the preface to the notes to the New +Testament, 'take up this work, as he takes up Gellius's <i>Noctes +atticae</i> or Poliziano's Miscellanies.... We are in the presence +of holy things; here it is no question of eloquence, these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +matters are best recommended to the world by simplicity and +purity; it would be ridiculous to display human erudition here, +impious to pride oneself on human eloquence.' But Erasmus +never was so eloquent himself as just then.</p> + +<p>What here raises him above his usual level of force and +fervour is the fact that he fights a battle, the battle for the right +of biblical criticism. It revolts him that people should study +Holy Scripture in the Vulgate when they know that the texts +show differences and are corrupt, although we have the Greek +text by which to go back to the original form and primary +meaning.</p> + +<p>He is now reproached because he dares, as a mere grammarian, +to assail the text of Holy Scripture on the score of +futile mistakes or irregularities. 'Details they are, yes, but +because of these details we sometimes see even great divines +stumble and rave.' Philological trifling is necessary. 'Why are +we so precise as to our food, our clothes, our money-matters +and why does this accuracy displease us in divine literature +alone? He crawls along the ground, they say, he wearies himself +out about words and syllables! Why do we slight any +word of Him whom we venerate and worship under the name +of the Word? But, be it so! Let whoever wishes imagine that +I have not been able to achieve anything better, and out of +sluggishness of mind and coldness of heart or lack of erudition +have taken this lowest task upon myself; it is still a Christian +idea to think all work good that is done with pious zeal. We +bring along the bricks, but to build the temple of God.'</p> + +<p>He does not want to be intractable. Let the Vulgate be kept +for use in the liturgy, for sermons, in schools, but he who, at +home, reads our edition, will understand his own the better +in consequence. He, Erasmus, is prepared to render account +and acknowledge himself to have been wrong when convicted +of error.</p> + +<p>Erasmus perhaps never quite realized how much his philological-critical +method must shake the foundations of the +Church. He was surprised at his adversaries 'who could not +but believe that all their authority would perish at once when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +the sacred books might be read in a purified form, and when +people tried to understand them in the original'. He did not +feel what the unassailable authority of a sacred book meant. +He rejoices because Holy Scripture is approached so much +more closely, because all sorts of shadings are brought to light +by considering not only what is said but also by whom, for +whom, at what time, on what occasion, what precedes and +what follows, in short, by the method of historical philological +criticism. To him it seemed so especially pious when reading +Scripture and coming across a place which seemed contrary to +the doctrine of Christ or the divinity of his nature, to believe +rather that one did not understand the phrase <i>or that the text +might be corrupt</i>. Unperceived he passed from emendation of +the different versions to the correction of the contents. The +epistles were not all written by the apostles to whom they are +attributed. The apostles themselves made mistakes, at times.</p> + +<p>The foundation of his spiritual life was no longer a unity to +Erasmus. It was, on the one hand, a strong desire for an upright, +simple, pure and homely belief, the earnest wish to be +a good Christian. But it was also the irresistible intellectual and +aesthetic need of the good taste, the harmony, the clear and +exact expression of the Ancients, the dislike of what was cumbrous +and involved. Erasmus thought that good learning +might render good service for the necessary purification of the +faith and its forms. The measure of church hymns should be +corrected. That Christian expression and classicism were incompatible, +he never believed. The man who in the sphere of +sacred studies asked every author for his credentials remained +unconscious of the fact that he acknowledged the authority of +the Ancients without any evidence. How naïvely he appeals to +Antiquity, again and again, to justify some bold feat! He is +critical, they say? Were not the Ancients critical? He permits +himself to insert digressions? So did the Ancients, etc.</p> + +<p>Erasmus is in profound sympathy with that revered Antiquity +by his fundamental conviction that it is the practice of +life which matters. Not he is the great philosopher who knows +the tenets of the Stoics or Peripatetics by rote—but he who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +expresses the meaning of philosophy by his life and his morals, +for that is its purpose. He is truly a divine who teaches, not by +artful syllogisms, but by his disposition, by his face and his +eyes, by his life itself, that wealth should be despised. To live +up to that standard is what Christ himself calls <i>Renascentia</i>. +Erasmus uses the word in the Christian sense only. But in that +sense it is closely allied to the idea of the Renaissance as a +historical phenomenon. The worldly and pagan sides of the +Renaissance have nearly always been overrated. Erasmus is, +much more than Aretino or Castiglione, the representative of +the spirit of his age, one over whose Christian sentiment the +sweet gale of Antiquity had passed. And that very union of +strong Christian endeavour and the spirit of Antiquity is the +explanation of Erasmus's wonderful success.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The mere intention and the contents of the mind do not +influence the world, if the form of expression does not cooperate. +In Erasmus the quality of his talent is a very important +factor. His perfect clearness and ease of expression, his +liveliness, wit, imagination, gusto and humour have lent a +charm to all he wrote which to his contemporaries was irresistible +and captivates even us, as soon as we read him. In all +that constitutes his talent, Erasmus is perfectly and altogether +a representative of the Renaissance. There is, in the first place, +his eternal <i>à propos</i>. What he writes is never vague, never +dark—it is always plausible. Everything seemingly flows +of itself like a fountain. It always rings true as to tone, +turn of phrase and accent. It has almost the light harmony +of Ariosto. And it is, like Ariosto, never tragic, never truly +heroic. It carries us away, indeed, but it is never itself truly +enraptured.</p> + +<p>The more artistic aspects of Erasmus's talent come out most +clearly—though they are everywhere in evidence—in those +two recreations after more serious labour, the <i>Moriae Encomium</i> +and the <i>Colloquia</i>. But just those two have been of +enormous importance for his influence upon his times. For +while Jerome reached tens of readers and the New Testament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +hundreds, the <i>Moria</i> and <i>Colloquies</i> went out to thousands. And +their importance is heightened in that Erasmus has nowhere +else expressed himself so spontaneously.</p> + +<p>In each of the Colloquies, even in the first purely formulary +ones, there is the sketch for a comedy, a novelette or a +satire. There is hardly a sentence without its 'point', an expression +without a vivid fancy. There are unrivalled niceties. +The abbot of the <i>Abbatis et eruditae colloquium</i> is a Molière +character. It should be noticed how well Erasmus always sustains +his characters and his scenes, because he <i>sees</i> them. In +'The woman in childbed' he never forgets for a moment that +Eutrapelus is an artist. At the end of 'The game of knucklebones', +when the interlocutors, after having elucidated the +whole nomenclature of the Latin game of knuckle-bones, are +going to play themselves, Carolus says: 'but shut the door +first, lest the cook should see us playing like two boys'.</p> + +<p>As Holbein illustrated the <i>Moria</i>, we should wish to possess +the <i>Colloquia</i> with illustrations by Brueghel, so closely allied is +Erasmus's witty clear vision of incidents to that of this great +master. The procession of drunkards on Palm Sunday, the +saving of the shipwrecked crew, the old men waiting for the +travelling cart while the drivers are still drinking, all these are +Dutch genre pieces of the best sort.</p> + +<p>We like to speak of the realism of the Renaissance. Erasmus +is certainly a realist in the sense of having an insatiable hunger +for knowledge of the tangible world. He wants to know things +and their names: the particulars of each thing, be it never so +remote, such as those terms of games and rules of games of the +Romans. Read carefully the description of the decorative +painting on the garden-house of the <i>Convivium religiosum</i>: it is +nothing but an object lesson, a graphic representation of the +forms of reality.</p> + +<p>In its joy over the material universe and the supple, pliant +word, the Renaissance revels in a profusion of imagery and +expressions. The resounding enumerations of names and +things, which Rabelais always gives, are not unknown to +Erasmus, but he uses them for intellectual and useful purposes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +In <i>De copia verborum ac rerum</i> one feat of varied power of expression +succeeds another—he gives fifty ways of saying: +'Your letter has given me much pleasure,' or, 'I think that it is +going to rain'. The aesthetic impulse is here that of a theme +and variations: to display all the wealth and mutations of the +logic of language. Elsewhere, too, Erasmus indulges this proclivity +for accumulating the treasures of his genius; he and his +contemporaries can never restrain themselves from giving all +the instances instead of one: in <i>Ratio verae theologiae</i>, in <i>De +pronuntiatione</i>, in <i>Lingua</i>, in <i>Ecclesiastes</i>. The collections of +<i>Adagia</i>, <i>Parabolae</i>, and <i>Apophthegmata</i> are altogether based on +this eagerness of the Renaissance (which, by the way, was an +inheritance of the Middle Ages themselves) to luxuriate in the +wealth of the tangible world, to revel in words and things.</p> + +<p>The senses are open for the nice observation of the curious. +Though Erasmus does not know that need of proving the +secrets of nature, which inspired a Leonardo da Vinci, a +Paracelsus, a Vesalius, he is also, by his keen observation, a +child of his time. For peculiarities in the habits and customs of +nations he has an open eye. He notices the gait of Swiss +soldiers, how dandies sit, how Picards pronounce French. He +notices that in old pictures the sitters are always represented +with half-closed eyes and tightly shut lips, as signs of modesty, +and how some Spaniards still honour this expression in life, +while German art prefers lips pouting as for a kiss. His lively +sense of anecdote, to which he gives the rein in all his writings, +belongs here.</p> + +<p>And, in spite of all his realism, the world which Erasmus sees +and renders, is not altogether that of the sixteenth century. +Everything is veiled by Latin. Between the author's mind and +reality intervenes his antique diction. At bottom the world of +his mind is imaginary. It is a subdued and limited sixteenth-century +reality which he reflects. Together with its coarseness +he lacks all that is violent and direct in his times. Compared +with the artists, with Luther and Calvin, with the statesmen, +the navigators, the soldiers and the scientists, Erasmus confronts +the world as a recluse. It is only the influence of Latin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +In spite of all his receptiveness and sensitiveness, Erasmus is +never fully in contact with life. All through his work not a +bird sings, not a wind rustles.</p> + +<p>But that reserve or fear of directness is not merely a negative +quality. It also results from a consciousness of the indefiniteness +of the ground of all things, from the awe of the ambiguity +of all that is. If Erasmus so often hovers over the borderline +between earnestness and mockery, if he hardly ever gives an +incisive conclusion, it is not only due to cautiousness, and fear +to commit himself. Everywhere he sees the shadings, the blending +of the meaning of words. The terms of things are no +longer to him, as to the man of the Middle Ages, as crystals +mounted in gold, or as stars in the firmament. 'I like assertions +so little that I would easily take sides with the sceptics whereever +it is allowed by the inviolable authority of Holy Scripture +and the decrees of the Church.' 'What is exempt from error?' +All subtle contentions of theological speculation arise from a +dangerous curiosity and lead to impious audacity. What have +all the great controversies about the Trinity and the Virgin +Mary profited? 'We have defined so much that without +danger to our salvation might have remained unknown or +undecided.... The essentials of our religion are peace and +unanimity. These can hardly exist unless we make definitions +about as few points as possible and leave many questions to +individual judgement. Numerous problems are now postponed +till the oecumenical Council. It would be much better to put +off such questions till the time when the glass shall be removed +and the darkness cleared away, and we shall see God face to +face.'</p> + +<p>'There are sanctuaries in the sacred studies which God has +not willed that we should probe, and if we try to penetrate +there, we grope in ever deeper darkness the farther we proceed, +so that we recognize, in this manner, too, the inscrutable +majesty of divine wisdom and the imbecility of human +understanding.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xiv" id="chapter_xiv"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS'S CHARACTER</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus's character: Need of purity and cleanliness—Delicacy—Dislike of +contention, need of concord and friendship—Aversion to disturbance of any +kind—Too much concerned about other men's opinions—Need of self-justification—Himself +never in the wrong—Correlation between inclinations +and convictions—Ideal image of himself—Dissatisfaction with himself—Self-centredness—A +solitary at heart—Fastidiousness—Suspiciousness—Morbid +mistrust—Unhappiness—Restlessness—Unsolved contradictions of his being—Horror +of lies—Reserve and insinuation</p></div> + + +<p>Erasmus's powerful mind met with a great response in the +heart of his contemporaries and had a lasting influence on the +march of civilization. But one of the heroes of history he cannot +be called. Was not his failure to attain to still loftier +heights partly due to the fact that his character was not on a +level with the elevation of his mind?</p> + +<p>And yet that character, a very complicated one, though he +took himself to be the simplest man in the world, was determined +by the same factors which determined the structure of +his mind. Again and again we find in his inclinations the +correlates of his convictions.</p> + +<p>At the root of his moral being we find—a key to the understanding +of his character—that same profound need of purity +which drove him to the sources of sacred science. Purity in the +material and the moral sense is what he desires for himself and +others, always and in all things. Few things revolt him so much +as the practices of vintners who doctor wine and dealers who +adulterate food. If he continually chastens his language and +style, or exculpates himself from mistakes, it is the same impulse +which prompts his passionate desire for cleanliness and +brightness, of the home and of the body. He has a violent dislike +of stuffy air and smelly substances. He regularly takes a +roundabout way to avoid a malodorous lane; he loathes +shambles and fishmongers' shops. Fetors spread infection, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +thinks. Erasmus had, earlier than most people, antiseptic ideas +about the danger of infection in the foul air of crowded inns, +in the breath of confessants, in baptismal water. Throw aside +common cups, he pleaded; let everybody shave himself, let us +be cleanly as to bed-sheets, let us not kiss each other by way of +greeting. The fear of the horrible venereal disease, imported +into Europe during his lifetime, and of which Erasmus +watched the unbridled propagation with solicitude, increases +his desire for purity. Too little is being done to stop it, he +thinks. He cautions against suspected inns; he wants to have +measures taken against the marriages of syphilitic persons. +In his undignified attitude towards Hutten his physical and +moral aversion to the man's evil plays an unmistakable part.</p> + +<p>Erasmus is a delicate soul in all his fibres. His body forces +him to be that. He is highly sensitive, among other things very +susceptible to cold, 'the scholars' disorder', as he calls it. Early +in life already the painful malady of the stone begins to torment +him, which he resisted so bravely when his work was at +stake. He always speaks in a coddling tone about his little +body, which cannot stand fasting, which must be kept fit by +some exercise, namely riding, and for which he carefully tries +to select a suitable climate. He is at times circumstantial in the +description of his ailments.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> He has to be very careful in the +matter of his sleep; if once he wakes up, he finds it difficult to +go to sleep again, and because of that has often to lose the +morning, the best time to work and which is so dear to him. +He cannot stand cold, wind and fog, but still less overheated +rooms. How he has execrated the German stoves, which are +burned nearly all the year through and made Germany almost +unbearable to him! Of his fear of illness we have spoken above. +It is not only the plague which he flees—for fear of catching +cold he gives up a journey from Louvain to Antwerp, where +his friend Peter Gilles is in mourning. Although he realizes +quite well that 'often a great deal of the disease is in the +imagination', yet his own imagination leaves him no peace. +Nevertheless, when he is seriously ill he does not fear death.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> +<p>His hygienics amount to temperance, cleanliness and fresh +air, this last item in moderation: he takes the vicinity of the sea +to be unwholesome and is afraid of draughts. His friend Gilles, +who is ill, he advises: 'Do not take too much medicine, keep +quiet and do not get angry'. Though there is a 'Praise of +Medicine' among his works, he does not think highly of +physicians and satirizes them more than once in the <i>Colloquies</i>.</p> + +<p>Also in his outward appearance there were certain features +betraying his delicacy. He was of medium height, well-made, +of a fair complexion with blond hair and blue eyes, a cheerful +face, a very articulate mode of speech, but a thin voice.</p> + +<p>In the moral sphere Erasmus's delicacy is represented by his +great need of friendship and concord, his dislike of contention. +With him peace and harmony rank above all other considerations, +and he confesses them to be the guiding principles +of his actions. He would, if it might be, have all the world as a +friend. 'Wittingly I discharge no one from my friendship,' he +says. And though he was sometimes capricious and exacting +towards his friends, yet a truly great friend he was: witness the +many who never forsook him, or whom he, after a temporary +estrangement, always won back—More, Peter Gilles, Fisher, +Ammonius, Budaeus, and others too numerous to mention. +'He was most constant in keeping up friendships,' says Beatus +Rhenanus, whose own attachment to Erasmus is a proof of the +strong affection he could inspire.</p> + +<p>At the root of this desire of friendship lies a great and sincere +need of affection. Remember the effusions of almost feminine +affection towards Servatius during his monastic period. But at +the same time it is a sort of moral serenity that makes him so: +an aversion to disturbance, to whatever is harsh and inharmonious. +He calls it 'a certain occult natural sense' which +makes him abhor strife. He cannot abide being at loggerheads +with anyone. He always hoped and wanted, he says, to keep +his pen unbloody, to attack no one, to provoke no one, even +if he were attacked. But his enemies had not willed it, and in +later years he became well accustomed to bitter polemics, with +Lefèvre d'Étaples, with Lee, with Egmondanus, with Hutten,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +with Luther, with Beda, with the Spaniards, and the Italians. +At first it is still noticeable how he suffers by it, how contention +wounds him, so that he cannot bear the pain in silence. +'Do let us be friends again,' he begs Lefèvre, who does not +reply. The time which he had to devote to his polemics he +regards as lost. 'I feel myself getting more heavy every day,' +he writes in 1520, 'not so much on account of my age as +because of the restless labour of my studies, nay more even +by the weariness of disputes than by the work, which, in +itself, is agreeable.' And how much strife was still in store for +him then!</p> + +<p>If only Erasmus had been less concerned about public +opinion! But that seemed impossible: he had a fear of men, or, +we may call it, a fervent need of justification. He would always +see beforehand, and usually in exaggerated colours, the effect +his word or deed would have upon men. Of himself, it was +certainly true as he once wrote: that the craving for fame has +less sharp spurs than the fear of ignominy. Erasmus is with +Rousseau among those who cannot bear the consciousness of +guilt, out of a sort of mental cleanliness. Not to be able to repay +a benefit with interest, makes him ashamed and sad. He cannot +abide 'dunning creditors, unperformed duty, neglect of the +need of a friend'. If he cannot discharge the obligation, he +explains it away. The Dutch historian Fruin has quite correctly +observed: 'Whatever Erasmus did contrary to his duty +and his rightly understood interests was the fault of circumstances +or wrong advice; he is never to blame himself'. And +what he has thus justified for himself becomes with him universal +law: 'God relieves people of pernicious vows, if only +they repent of them,' says the man who himself had broken a +vow.</p> + +<p>There is in Erasmus a dangerous fusion between inclination +and conviction. The correlations between his idiosyncrasies +and his precepts are undeniable. This has special reference to +his point of view in the matter of fasting and abstinence from +meat. He too frequently vents his own aversion to fish, or talks +of his inability to postpone meals, not to make this connection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +clear to everybody. In the same way his personal experience in +the monastery passes into his disapproval, on principle, of +monastic life.</p> + +<p>The distortion of the image of his youth in his memory, to +which we have referred, is based on that need of self-justification. +It is all unconscious interpretation of the undeniable facts +to suit the ideal which Erasmus had made of himself and to +which he honestly thinks he answers. The chief features of +that self-conceived picture are a remarkable, simple sincerity +and frankness, which make it impossible to him to dissemble; +inexperience and carelessness in the ordinary concerns of life +and a total lack of ambition. All this is true in the first instance: +there is a superficial Erasmus who answers to that image, but +it is not the whole Erasmus; there is a deeper one who is almost +the opposite and whom he himself does not know because he +will not know him. Possibly because behind this there is a still +deeper being, which is truly good.</p> + +<p>Does he not ascribe weaknesses to himself? Certainly. He is, +in spite of his self-coddling, ever dissatisfied with himself and +his work. <i>Putidulus</i>, he calls himself, meaning the quality of +never being content with himself. It is that peculiarity which +makes him dissatisfied with any work of his directly after it +has appeared, so that he always keeps revising and supplementing. +'Pusillanimous' he calls himself in writing to Colet. +But again he cannot help giving himself credit for acknowledging +that quality, nay, converting that quality itself into a +virtue: it is modesty, the opposite of boasting and self-love.</p> + +<p>This bashfulness about himself is the reason that he does not +love his own physiognomy, and is only persuaded with difficulty +by his friends to sit for a portrait. His own appearance is +not heroic or dignified enough for him, and he is not duped +by an artist who flatters him: 'Heigh-ho,' he exclaims, on +seeing Holbein's thumbnail sketch illustrating the <i>Moria</i>: +'if Erasmus still looked like that, he would take a wife at +once'. It is that deep trait of dissatisfaction that suggests the +inscription on his portraits: 'his writings will show you a +better image'.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>Erasmus's modesty and the contempt which he displays of +the fame that fell to his lot are of a somewhat rhetorical +character. But in this we should not so much see a personal +trait of Erasmus as a general form common to all humanists. +On the other hand, this mood cannot be called altogether +artificial. His books, which he calls his children, have not +turned out well. He does not think they will live. He does not +set store by his letters: he publishes them because his friends +insist upon it. He writes his poems to try a new pen. He hopes +that geniuses will soon appear who will eclipse him, so that +Erasmus will pass for a stammerer. What is fame? A pagan +survival. He is fed up with it to repletion and would do +nothing more gladly than cast it off.</p> + +<p>Sometimes another note escapes him. If Lee would help +him in his endeavours, Erasmus would make him immortal, +he had told the former in their first conversation. And he +threatens an unknown adversary, 'If you go on so impudently +to assail my good name, then take care that my gentleness +does not give way and I cause you to be ranked, after a +thousand years, among the venomous sycophants, among the +idle boasters, among the incompetent physicians'.</p> + +<p>The self-centred element in Erasmus must needs increase +accordingly as he in truth became a centre and objective point +of ideas and culture. There really was a time when it must +seem to him that the world hinged upon him, and that it +awaited the redeeming word from him. What a widespread +enthusiastic following he had, how many warm friends and +venerators! There is something naïve in the way in which he +thinks it requisite to treat all his friends, in an open letter, to a +detailed, rather repellent account of an illness that attacked +him on the way back from Basle to Louvain. <i>His</i> part, <i>his</i> +position, <i>his</i> name, this more and more becomes the aspect +under which he sees world-events. Years will come in which +his whole enormous correspondence is little more than one +protracted self-defence.</p> + +<p>Yet this man who has so many friends is nevertheless solitary +at heart. And in the depth of that heart he desires to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +alone. He is of a most retiring disposition; he is <i>a recluse</i>. 'I +have always wished to be alone, and there is nothing I hate so +much as sworn partisans.' Erasmus is one of those whom contact +with others weakens. The less he has to address and to +consider others, friends or enemies, the more truly he utters +his deepest soul. Intercourse with particular people always +causes little scruples in him, intentional amenities, coquetry, +reticences, reserves, spiteful hits, evasions. Therefore it should +not be thought that we get to know him to the core from his +letters. Natures like his, which all contact with men unsettles, +give their best and deepest when they speak impersonally and +to all.</p> + +<p>After the early effusions of sentimental affection he no longer +opens his heart unreservedly to others. At bottom he feels +separated from all and on the alert towards all. There is a great +fear in him that others will touch his soul or disturb the image +he has made of himself. The attitude of warding off reveals +itself as fastidiousness and as bashfulness. Budaeus hit the mark +when he exclaimed jocularly: '<i>Fastidiosule!</i> You little fastidious +person!' Erasmus himself interprets the dominating trait +of his being as maidenly coyness. The excessive sensitiveness to +the stain attaching to his birth results from it. But his friend +Ammonius speaks of his <i>subrustica verecundia</i>, his somewhat +rustic <i>gaucherie</i>. There is, indeed, often something of the small +man about Erasmus, who is hampered by greatness and +therefore shuns the great, because, at bottom, they obsess him +and he feels them to be inimical to his being.</p> + +<p>It seems a hard thing to say that genuine loyalty and fervent +gratefulness were strange to Erasmus. And yet such was his +nature. In characters like his a kind of mental cramp keeps +back the effusions of the heart. He subscribes to the adage: +'Love so, as if you may hate one day, and hate so, as if you +may love one day'. He cannot bear benefits. In his inmost soul +he continually retires before everybody. He who considers +himself the pattern of simple unsuspicion, is indeed in the +highest degree suspicious towards all his friends. The dead +Ammonius, who had helped him so zealously in the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +delicate concerns, is not secure from it. 'You are always unfairly +distrustful towards me,' Budaeus complains. 'What!' +exclaims Erasmus, 'you will find few people who are so little +distrustful in friendship as myself.'</p> + +<p>When at the height of his fame the attention of the world +was indeed fixed on all he spoke or did, there was some +ground for a certain feeling on his part of being always +watched and threatened. But when he was yet an unknown +man of letters, in his Parisian years, we continually find traces +in him of a mistrust of the people about him that can only be +regarded as a morbid feeling. During the last period of his life +this feeling attaches especially to two enemies, Eppendorf and +Aleander. Eppendorf employs spies everywhere who watch +Erasmus's correspondence with his friends. Aleander continually +sets people to combat him, and lies in wait for him wherever +he can. His interpretation of the intentions of his assailants +has the ingenious self-centred element which passes the +borderline of sanity. He sees the whole world full of calumny +and ambuscades threatening his peace: nearly all those who +once were his best friends have become his bitterest enemies; +they wag their venomous tongues at banquets, in conversation, +in the confessional, in sermons, in lectures, at court, in +vehicles and ships. The minor enemies, like troublesome +vermin, drive him to weariness of life, or to death by insomnia. +He compares his tortures to the martyrdom of Saint +Sebastian, pierced by arrows. But his is worse, for there is no end +to it. For years he has daily been dying a thousand deaths and +that alone; for his friends, if such there are, are deterred by envy.</p> + +<p>He mercilessly pillories his patrons in a row for their stinginess. +Now and again there suddenly comes to light an undercurrent +of aversion and hatred which we did not suspect. +Where had more good things fallen to his lot than in England? +Which country had he always praised more? But suddenly +a bitter and unfounded reproach escapes him. England is +responsible for his having become faithless to his monastic +vows, 'for no other reason do I hate Britain more than for this, +though it has always been pestilent to me'.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>He seldom allows himself to go so far. His expressions of +hatred or spite are, as a rule, restricted to the feline. They are +aimed at friends and enemies, Budaeus, Lypsius, as well as +Hutten and Beda. Occasionally we are struck by the expression +of coarse pleasure at another's misfortune. But in all this, +as regards malice, we should not measure Erasmus by our +ideas of delicacy and gentleness. Compared with most of his +contemporaries he remains moderate and refined.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Erasmus never felt happy, was never content. This may +perhaps surprise us for a moment, when we think of his cheerful, +never-failing energy, of his gay jests and his humour. But +upon reflection this unhappy feeling tallies very well with his +character. It also proceeds from his general attitude of warding +off. Even when in high spirits he considers himself in all respects +an unhappy man. 'The most miserable of all men, the +thrice-wretched Erasmus,' he calls himself in fine Greek terms. +His life 'is an Iliad of calamities, a chain of misfortunes. How +can anyone envy <i>me</i>?' To no one has Fortune been so constantly +hostile as to him. She has sworn his destruction, thus he +sang in his youth in a poetical complaint addressed to Gaguin: +from earliest infancy the same sad and hard fate has been constantly +pursuing him. Pandora's whole box seems to have been +poured out over him.</p> + +<p>This unhappy feeling takes the special form of his having +been charged by unlucky stars with Herculean labour, without +profit or pleasure to himself:<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> troubles and vexations +without end. His life might have been so much easier if he had +taken his chances. He should never have left Italy; or he ought +to have stayed in England. 'But an immoderate love of liberty +caused me to wrestle long with faithless friends and inveterate +poverty.' Elsewhere he says more resignedly: 'But we are +driven by fate'.</p> + +<p>That immoderate love of liberty had indeed been as fate to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +him. He had always been the great seeker of quiet and liberty +who found liberty late and quiet never. By no means ever to +bind himself, to incur no obligations which might become +fetters—again that fear of the entanglements of life. Thus he +remained the great restless one. He was never truly satisfied +with anything, least of all with what he produced himself. +'Why, then, do you overwhelm us with so many books', +someone at Louvain objected, 'if you do not really approve of +any of them?' And Erasmus answers with Horace's word: 'In +the first place, because I cannot sleep'.</p> + +<p>A sleepless energy, it was that indeed. He cannot rest. Still +half seasick and occupied with his trunks, he is already thinking +about an answer to Dorp's letter, just received, censuring +the <i>Moria</i>. We should fully realize what it means that time +after time Erasmus, who, by nature, loved quiet and was fearful, +and fond of comfort, cleanliness and good fare, undertakes +troublesome and dangerous journeys, even voyages, which he +detests, for the sake of his work and of that alone.</p> + +<p>He is not only restless, but also precipitate. Helped by an +incomparably retentive and capacious memory he writes at +haphazard. He never becomes anacoluthic; his talent is too +refined and sure for that; but he does repeat himself and is +unnecessarily circumstantial. 'I rather pour out than write +everything,' he says. He compares his publications to parturitions, +nay, to abortions. He does not select his subjects, he +tumbles into them, and having once taken up a subject he +finishes without intermission. For years he has read only +<i>tumultuarie</i>, up and down all literature; he no longer finds time +really to refresh his mind by reading, and to work so as to +please himself. On that account he envied Budaeus.</p> + +<p>'Do not publish too hastily,' More warns him: 'you are +watched to be caught in inexactitudes.' Erasmus knows it: he +will correct all later, he will ever have to revise and to polish +everything. He hates the labour of revising and correcting, +but he submits to it, and works passionately, 'in the treadmill +of Basle', and, he says, finishes the work of six years in eight +months.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>In that recklessness and precipitation with which Erasmus +labours there is again one of the unsolved contradictions of his +being. He <i>is</i> precipitate and careless; he <i>wants</i> to be careful and +cautious; his mind drives him to be the first, his nature restrains +him, but usually only after the word has been written and published. +The result is a continual intermingling of explosion and +reserve.</p> + +<p>The way in which Erasmus always tries to shirk definite +statements irritates us. How carefully he always tries to represent +the <i>Colloquies</i>, in which he had spontaneously revealed +so much of his inner convictions, as mere trifling committed +to paper to please his friends. They are only meant to teach +correct Latin! And if anything is said in them touching matters +of faith, it is not I who say it, is it? As often as he censures +classes or offices in the <i>Adagia</i>, princes above all, he warns the +readers not to regard his words as aimed at particular persons.</p> + +<p>Erasmus was a master of reserve. He knew, even when he +held definite views, how to avoid direct decisions, not only +from caution, but also because he saw the eternal ambiguity of +human issues.</p> + +<p>Erasmus ascribes to himself an unusual horror of lies. On +seeing a liar, he says, he was corporeally affected. As a boy he +already violently disliked mendacious boys, such as the little +braggart of whom he tells in the <i>Colloquies</i>. That this reaction +of aversion is genuine is not contradicted by the fact +that we catch Erasmus himself in untruths. Inconsistencies, +flattery, pieces of cunning, white lies, serious suppression of +facts, simulated sentiments of respect or sorrow—they may all +be pointed out in his letters. He once disavowed his deepest +conviction for a gratuity from Anne of Borselen by flattering +her bigotry. He requested his best friend Batt to tell lies in his +behalf. He most sedulously denied his authorship of the Julius +dialogue, for fear of the consequences, even to More, and +always in such a way as to avoid saying outright, 'I did not +write it'. Those who know other humanists, and know how +frequently and impudently they lied, will perhaps think more +lightly of Erasmus's sins.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>For the rest, even during his lifetime he did not escape +punishment for his eternal reserve, his proficiency in semi-conclusions +and veiled truths, insinuations and slanderous +allusions. The accusation of perfidy was often cast in his teeth, +sometimes in serious indignation. 'You are always engaged in +bringing suspicion upon others,' Edward Lee exclaims. 'How +dare you usurp the office of a general censor, and condemn +what you have hardly ever tasted? How dare you despise all +but yourself? Falsely and insultingly do you expose your +antagonist in the <i>Colloquia</i>.' Lee quotes the spiteful passage +referring to himself, and then exclaims: 'Now from these +words the world may come to know its divine, its censor, its +modest and sincere author, that Erasmian diffidence, earnest, +decency and honesty! Erasmian modesty has long been proverbial. +You are always using the words "false accusations". +You say: if I was consciously guilty of the smallest of all his +(Lee's) false accusations, I should not dare to approach the +Lord's table!—O man, who are you, to judge another, a +servant who stands or falls before his Lord?'</p> + +<p>This was the first violent attack from the conservative side, +in the beginning of 1520, when the mighty struggle which +Luther's action had unchained kept the world in ever greater +suspense. Six months later followed the first serious reproaches +on the part of radical reformers. Ulrich von Hutten, the +impetuous, somewhat foggy-headed knight, who wanted to +see Luther's cause triumph as the national cause of Germany, +turns to Erasmus, whom, at one time, he had enthusiastically +acclaimed as the man of the new weal, with the urgent appeal +not to forsake the cause of the reformation or to compromise +it. 'You have shown yourself fearful in the affair of Reuchlin; +now in that of Luther you do your utmost to convince his +adversaries that you are altogether averse from it, though we +know better. Do not disown us. You know how triumphantly +certain letters of yours are circulated, in which, to +protect yourself from suspicion, you rather meanly fasten it on +others ... If you are now afraid to incur a little hostility for +<i>my</i> sake, concede me at least that you will not allow yourself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +out of fear for another, to be tempted to renounce me; rather +be silent about me.'</p> + +<p>Those were bitter reproaches. In the man who had to +swallow them there was a puny Erasmus who deserved those +reproaches, who took offence at them, but did not take them +to heart, who continued to act with prudent reserve till +Hutten's friendship was turned to hatred. In him was also a +great Erasmus who knew how, under the passion and infatuation +with which the parties combated each other, the Truth he +sought, and the Love he hoped would subdue the world, were +obscured; who knew the God whom he professed too high to +take sides. Let us try ever to see of that great Erasmus as much +as the petty one permits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Cf. the letter to Beatus Rhenanus, pp. <a href="#Page_227">227-8</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Ad. 2001 LB. II, 717B, 77 c. 58A. On the book which Erasmus holds +in his hand in Holbein's portrait at Longford Castle, we read in Greek: +The Labours of Hercules.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xv" id="chapter_xv"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>AT LOUVAIN</h3> + +<h3>1517-18</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus at Louvain, 1517—He expects the renovation of the Church as +the fruit of good learning—Controversy with Lefèvre d'Étaples—Second +journey to Basle, 1518—He revises the edition of the New Testament—Controversies +with Latomus, Briard and Lee—Erasmus regards the opposition +of conservative theology merely as a conspiracy against good learning</p></div> + + +<p>When Erasmus established himself at Louvain in the summer +of 1517 he had a vague presentiment that great changes were +at hand. 'I fear', he writes in September, 'that a great subversion +of affairs is being brought about here, if God's favour +and the piety and wisdom of princes do not concern themselves +about human matters.' But the forms which that great change +would assume he did not in the least realize.</p> + +<p>He regarded his removal as merely temporary. It was only +to last 'till we shall have seen which place of residence is best +fit for old age, which is already knocking'. There is something +pathetic in the man who desires nothing but quiet and +liberty, and who through his own restlessness, and his inability +not to concern himself about other people, never found a +really fixed abode or true independence. Erasmus is one of +those people who always seem to say: tomorrow, tomorrow! +I must first deal with this, and then ... As soon as he shall be +ready with the new edition of the New Testament and shall +have extricated himself from troublesome and disagreeable +theological controversies, in which he finds himself entangled +against his wish, he will sleep, hide himself, 'sing for himself +and the Muses'. But that time never came.</p> + +<p>Where to live when he shall be free? Spain, to which +Cardinal Ximenes called him, did not appeal to him. From +Germany, he says, the stoves and the insecurity deter him. +In England the servitude which was required of him there +revolted him. But in the Netherlands themselves, he did not feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +at his ease, either: 'Here I am barked at a great deal, and there +is no remuneration; though I desired it ever so much, I could +not bear to stay there long'. Yet he remained for four years.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had good friends in the University of Louvain. At +first he put up with his old host Johannes Paludanus, Rhetor +of the University, whose house he exchanged that summer for +quarters in the College of the Lily. Martin Dorp, a Dutchman +like himself, had not been estranged from him by their polemics +about the <i>Moria</i>; his good will was of great importance +to Erasmus, because of the important place Dorp occupied in +the theological faculty. And lastly, though his old patron, +Adrian of Utrecht, afterwards Pope, had by that time been +called away from Louvain to higher dignities, his influence +had not diminished in consequence, but rather increased; for +just about that time he had been made a cardinal.</p> + +<p>Erasmus was received with great complaisance by the +Louvain divines. Their leader, the vice-chancellor of the +University, Jean Briard of Ath, repeatedly expressed his +approval of the edition of the New Testament, to Erasmus's +great satisfaction. Soon Erasmus found himself a member of +the theological faculty. Yet he did not feel at his ease among +the Louvain theologians. The atmosphere was a great deal less +congenial to him than that of the world of the English scholars. +Here he felt a spirit which he did not understand and distrusted +in consequence.</p> + +<p>In the years in which the Reformation began, Erasmus was +the victim of a great misunderstanding, the result of the fact +that his delicate, aesthetic, hovering spirit understood neither +the profoundest depths of the faith nor the hard necessities of +human society. He was neither mystic nor realist. Luther was +both. To Erasmus the great problem of Church and State and +society, seemed simple. Nothing was required but restoration +and purification by a return to the original, unspoilt sources +of Christianity. A number of accretions to the faith, rather +ridiculous than revolting, had to be cleared away. All should +be reduced to the nucleus of faith, Christ and the Gospel. +Forms, ceremonies, speculations should make room for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +practice of true piety. The Gospel was easily intelligible to +everybody and within everybody's reach. And the means to +reach all this was good learning, <i>bonae literae</i>. Had he not himself, +by his editions of the New Testament and of Jerome, and +even earlier by the now famous <i>Enchiridion</i>, done most of +what had to be done? 'I hope that what now pleases the +upright, will soon please all.' As early as the beginning of 1517 +Erasmus had written to Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, in the +tone of one who has accomplished the great task. 'Well then, +take you the torch from us. The work will henceforth be a +great deal easier and cause far less hatred and envy. <i>We</i> have +lived through the first shock.'</p> + +<p>Budaeus writes to Tunstall in May 1517: 'Was anyone born +under such inauspicious Graces that the dull and obscure +discipline (scholasticism) does not revolt him, since sacred +literature, too, cleansed by Erasmus's diligence, has regained +its ancient purity and brightness? But it is still much greater +that he should have effected by the same labour the emergence +of sacred truth itself out of that Cimmerian darkness, +even though divinity is not yet quite free from the dirt of the +sophist school. If that should occur one day, it will be owing +to the beginnings made in our times.' The philologist Budaeus +believed even more firmly than Erasmus that faith was a +matter of erudition.</p> + +<p>It could not but vex Erasmus that not everyone accepted +the cleansed truth at once. How could people continue to +oppose themselves to what, to him, seemed as clear as daylight +and so simple? He, who so sincerely would have liked to +live in peace with all the world, found himself involved in a +series of polemics. To let the opposition of opponents pass unnoticed +was forbidden not only by his character, for ever +striving to justify himself in the eyes of the world, but also by +the custom of his time, so eager for dispute.</p> + +<p>There were, first of all, his polemics with Jacques Lefèvre +d'Étaples, or in Latinized form, Faber Stapulensis, the Parisian +theologian, who as a preparer of the Reformation may, more +than anyone else, be ranked with Erasmus. At the moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +when Erasmus got into the travelling cart which was to take +him to Louvain, a friend drew his attention to a passage in the +new edition of Faber's commentary on St. Paul's epistles, in +which he controverted Erasmus's note on the Second Epistle +to the Hebrews, verse 7. Erasmus at once bought Faber's book, +and soon published an <i>Apologia</i>. It concerned Christ's relation +to God and the angels, but the dogmatic point at issue hinged, +after all, on a philological interpretation of Erasmus.</p> + +<p>Not yet accustomed to much direct wrangling, Erasmus was +violently agitated by the matter, the more as he esteemed +Faber highly and considered him a congenial spirit. 'What on +earth has occurred to the man? Have others set him on +against me? All theologians agree that I am right,' he asserts. +It makes him nervous that Faber does not reply again at once. +Badius has told Peter Gilles that Faber is sorry about it. Erasmus +in a dignified letter appeals to their friendship; he will +suffer himself to be taught and censured. Then again he growls: +Let him be careful. And he thinks that his controversy +with Faber keeps the world in suspense: there is not a +meal at which the guests do not side with one or the other +of them. But finally the combat abated and the friendship +was preserved.</p> + +<p>Towards Easter 1518, Erasmus contemplated a new journey +to Basle, there to pass through the press, during a few months +of hard labour, the corrected edition of the New Testament. +He did not fail to request the chiefs of conservative divinity at +Louvain beforehand to state their objections to his work. +Briard of Ath declared he had found nothing offensive in it, +after he had first been told all sorts of bad things about it. +'Then the new edition will please you much better,' Erasmus +had said. His friend Dorp and James Latomus, also one of the +chief divines, had expressed themselves in the same sense, and +the Carmelite Nicholas of Egmond had said that he had never +read Erasmus's work. Only a young Englishman, Edward +Lee, who was studying Greek at Louvain, had summarized a +number of criticisms into ten conclusions. Erasmus had got +rid of the matter by writing to Lee that he had not been able to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +get hold of his conclusions and therefore could not make use of +them. But his youthful critic had not put up with being slighted +so, and worked out his objections in a more circumstantial +treatise.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xvii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xvii-th.png" width="375" height="272" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XVII. VIEW OF BASLE, 1548</p> + +<p>Thus Erasmus set out for Basle once more in May 1518. He +had been obliged to ask all his English friends (of whom +Ammonius had been taken from him by death in 1517) for +support to defray the expenses of the journey; he kept holding +out to them the prospect that, after his work was finished, he +would return to England. In a letter to Martin Lypsius, as he +was going up the Rhine, he answered Lee's criticism, which +had irritated him extremely. In revising his edition he not only +took it but little into account, but ventured, moreover, this +time to print his own translation of the New Testament of +1506 without any alterations. At the same time he obtained +for the new edition a letter of approval from the Pope, a +redoubtable weapon against his cavillers.</p> + +<p>At Basle Erasmus worked again like a horse in a treadmill. +But he was really in his element. Even before the second edition +of the New Testament, the <i>Enchiridion</i> and the <i>Institutio +Principis Christiani</i> were reprinted by Froben. On his return +journey, Erasmus, whose work had been hampered all +through the summer by indisposition, and who had, on that +account, been unable to finish it, fell seriously ill. He reached +Louvain with difficulty (21 September 1518). It might be the +pestilence, and Erasmus, ever much afraid of contagion himself, +now took all precautions to safeguard his friends against +it. He avoided his quarters in the College of the Lily, and +found shelter with his most trusted friend, Dirck Maertensz, +the printer. But in spite of rumours of the plague and his +warnings, first Dorp and afterwards also Ath came, at once, to +visit him. Evidently the Louvain professors did not mean so +badly by him, after all.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xviii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xviii-th.png" width="250" height="348" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XVIII. Title-page of the New Testament printed by Froben in 1520</p> + +<p>But the differences between Erasmus and the Louvain +faculty were deeply rooted. Lee, hurt by the little attention +paid by Erasmus to his objections, prepared a new critique, +but kept it from Erasmus, for the present, which irritated the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +latter and made him nervous. In the meantime a new opponent +arose. Directly after his return to Louvain, Erasmus had +taken much trouble to promote the establishment of the +<i>Collegium Trilingue</i>, projected and endowed by Jerome +Busleiden, in his testament, to be founded in the university. +The three biblical languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, were +to be taught there. Now when James Latomus, a member of +the theological faculty and a man whom he esteemed, in a +dialogue about the study of those three languages and of +theology, doubted the utility of the former, Erasmus judged +himself concerned, and answered Latomus in an <i>Apologia</i>. +About the same time (spring 1519) he got into trouble with +the vice-chancellor himself. Erasmus thought that Ath had +publicly censured him with regard to his 'Praise of Marriage', +which had recently appeared. Though Ath withdrew at once, +Erasmus could not abstain from writing an <i>Apologia</i>, however +moderate. Meanwhile the smouldering quarrel with Lee +assumed ever more hateful forms. In vain did Erasmus's +English friends attempt to restrain their young, ambitious +compatriot. Erasmus on his part irritated him furtively. He +reveals in this whole dispute a lack of self-control and dignity +which shows his weakest side. Usually so anxious as to decorum +he now lapses into invectives: The British adder, Satan, +even the old taunt ascribing a tail to Englishmen has to serve +once more. The points at issue disappear altogether behind +the bitter mutual reproaches. In his unrestrained anger, +Erasmus avails himself of the most unworthy weapons. He +eggs his German friends on to write against Lee and to ridicule +him in all his folly and brag, and then he assures all his English +friends: 'All Germany is literally furious with Lee; I have the +greatest trouble in keeping them back'.</p> + +<p>Alack! Germany had other causes of disturbance: it is 1520 +and the three great polemics of Luther were setting the world +on fire.</p> + +<p>Though one may excuse the violence and the petty spitefulness +of Erasmus in this matter, as resulting from an +over-sensitive heart falling somewhat short in really manly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +qualities, yet it is difficult to deny that he failed completely to +understand both the arguments of his adversaries and the great +movements of his time.</p> + +<p>It was very easy for Erasmus to mock the narrow-mindedness +of conservative divines who thought that there would be +an end to faith in Holy Scripture as soon as the emendation of +the text was attempted. '"They correct the Holy Gospel, nay, +the Pater Noster itself!" the preacher exclaims indignantly +in the sermon before his surprised congregation. As if I cavilled +at Matthew and Luke, and not at those who, out of ignorance +and carelessness, have corrupted them. What do people wish? +That the Church should possess Holy Scripture as correct as +possible, or not?' This reasoning seemed to Erasmus, with his +passionate need of purity, a conclusive refutation. But instinct +did not deceive his adversaries, when it told them that +doctrine itself was at stake if the linguistic judgement of a +single individual might decide as to the correct version of a +text. And Erasmus wished to avoid the inferences which +assailed doctrine. He was not aware of the fact that his conceptions +of the Church, the sacraments and the dogmas were +no longer purely Catholic, because they had become subordinated +to his philological insight. He could not be aware of +it because, in spite of all his natural piety and his fervent +ethical sentiments, he lacked the mystic insight which is the +foundation of every creed.</p> + +<p>It was this personal lack in Erasmus which made him unable +to understand the real grounds of the resistance of Catholic +orthodoxy. How was it possible that so many, and among +them men of high consideration, refused to accept what to +him seemed so clear and irrefutable! He interpreted the fact +in a highly personal way. He, the man who would so gladly +have lived in peace with all the world, who so yearned for +sympathy and recognition, and bore enmity with difficulty, +saw the ranks of haters and opponents increase about him. He +did not understand how they feared his mocking acrimony, +how many wore the scar of a wound that the <i>Moria</i> had made. +That real and supposed hatred troubled Erasmus. He sees his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +enemies as a sect. It is especially the Dominicans and the +Carmelites who are ill-affected towards the new scientific +theology. Just then a new adversary had arisen at Louvain in +the person of his compatriot Nicholas of Egmond, prior of +the Carmelites, henceforth an object of particular abhorrence +to him. It is remarkable that at Louvain Erasmus found his +fiercest opponents in some compatriots, in the narrower sense +of the word: Vincent Dirks of Haarlem, William of Vianen, +Ruurd Tapper. The persecution increases: the venom of +slander spreads more and more every day and becomes more +deadly; the greatest untruths are impudently preached about +him; he calls in the help of Ath, the vice-chancellor, against +them. But it is no use; the hidden enemies laugh; let him write +for the erudite, who are few; we shall bark to stir up the +people. After 1520 he writes again and again: 'I am stoned +every day'.</p> + +<p>But Erasmus, however much he might see himself, not +without reason, at the centre, could, in 1519 and 1520, no +longer be blind to the fact that the great struggle did not concern +him alone. On all sides the battle was being fought. +What is it, that great commotion about matters of spirit and +of faith?</p> + +<p>The answer which Erasmus gave himself was this: it is a +great and wilful conspiracy on the part of the conservatives to +suffocate good learning and make the old ignorance triumph. +This idea recurs innumerable times in his letters after the +middle of 1518. 'I know quite certainly', he writes on 21 March +1519 to one of his German friends, 'that the barbarians on +all sides have conspired to leave no stone unturned till they +have suppressed <i>bonae literae</i>.' 'Here we are still fighting with +the protectors of the old ignorance'; cannot Wolsey persuade +the Pope to stop it here? All that appertains to ancient and +cultured literature is called 'poetry' by those narrow-minded +fellows. By that word they indicate everything that savours +of a more elegant doctrine, that is to say all that they have not +learned themselves. All the tumult, the whole tragedy—under +these terms he usually refers to the great theological struggle—originates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +in the hatred of <i>bonae literae</i>. 'This is the source and +hot-bed of all this tragedy; incurable hatred of linguistic study +and the <i>bonae literae</i>.' 'Luther provokes those enemies, whom +it is impossible to conquer, though their cause is a bad one. +And meanwhile envy harasses the <i>bonae literae</i>, which are +attacked at his (Luther's) instigation by these gadflies. They +are already nearly insufferable, when things do not go well +with them; but who can stand them when they triumph? +Either I am blind, or they aim at something else than Luther. +They are preparing to conquer the phalanx of the Muses.'</p> + +<p>This was written by Erasmus to a member of the University +of Leipzig in December 1520. This one-sided and +academic conception of the great events, a conception which +arose in the study of a recluse bending over his books, did +more than anything else to prevent Erasmus from understanding +the true nature and purport of the Reformation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xvi" id="chapter_xvi"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>FIRST YEARS OF THE REFORMATION</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Beginning of the relations between Erasmus and Luther—Archbishop Albert +of Mayence, 1517—Progress of the Reformation—Luther tries to bring +about a <i>rapprochement</i> with Erasmus, March 1519—Erasmus keeps aloof; +fancies he may yet act as a conciliator—His attitude becomes ambiguous—He +denies ever more emphatically all relations with Luther and resolves to +remain a spectator—He is pressed by either camp to take sides—Aleander in +the Netherlands—The Diet of Worms, 1521—Erasmus leaves Louvain to +safeguard his freedom, October 1521</p></div> + + +<p>About the close of 1516, Erasmus received a letter from the +librarian and secretary of Frederick, elector of Saxony, +George Spalatinus, written in the respectful and reverential +tone in which the great man was now approached. 'We all +esteem you here most highly; the elector has all your books in +his library and intends to buy everything you may publish in +future.' But the object of Spalatinus's letter was the execution +of a friend's commission. An Augustinian ecclesiastic, a great +admirer of Erasmus, had requested him to direct his attention +to the fact that in his interpretation of St. Paul, especially in +that of the epistle to the Romans, Erasmus had failed to conceive +the idea of <i>justitia</i> correctly, had paid too little attention +to original sin: he might profit by reading Augustine.</p> + +<p>The nameless Austin Friar was Luther, then still unknown +outside the circle of the Wittenberg University, in which he +was a professor, and the criticism regarded the cardinal point +of his hardly acquired conviction: justification by faith.</p> + +<p>Erasmus paid little attention to this letter. He received so +many of that sort, containing still more praise and no criticism. +If he answered it, the reply did not reach Spalatinus, and later +Erasmus completely forgot the whole letter.</p> + +<p>Nine months afterwards, in September 1517, when Erasmus +had been at Louvain for a short time, he received an honourable +invitation, written by the first prelate of the Empire, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +young Archbishop of Mayence, Albert of Brandenburg. +The archbishop would be pleased to see him on an occasion: he +greatly admired his work (he knew it so little as to speak of +Erasmus's emendation of the Old Testament, instead of the +New) and hoped that he would one day write some lives of +saints in elegant style.</p> + +<p>The young Hohenzoller, advocate of the new light of +classical studies, whose attention had probably been drawn to +Erasmus by Hutten and Capito, who sojourned at his court, +had recently become engaged in one of the boldest political +and financial transactions of his time. His elevation to the see of +Mayence, at the age of twenty-four, had necessitated a papal +dispensation, as he also wished to keep the archbishopric of +Magdeburg and the see of Halberstadt. This accumulation of +ecclesiastical offices had to be made subservient to the Brandenburg +policy which opposed the rival house of Saxony. The +Pope granted the dispensation in return for a great sum of +money, but to facilitate its payment he accorded to the archbishop +a liberal indulgence for the whole archbishopric of +Mayence, Magdeburg and the Brandenburg territories. +Albert, to whom half the proceeds were tacitly left, raised a +loan with the house of Fugger, and this charged itself with the +indulgence traffic.</p> + +<p>When in December 1517, Erasmus answered the archbishop, +Luther's propositions against indulgences, provoked +by the Archbishop of Mayence's instructions regarding their +colportage, had already been posted up (31 October 1517), +and were circulated throughout Germany, rousing the whole +Church. They were levelled at the same abuses which Erasmus +combated, the mechanical, atomistical, and juridical conception +of religion. But how different was their practical effect, as +compared with Erasmus's pacific endeavour to purify the +Church by lenient means!</p> + +<p>'Lives of saints?' Erasmus asked replying to the archbishop. +'I have tried in my poor way to add a little light to the prince +of saints himself. For the rest, your endeavour, in addition to +so many difficult matters of government, and at such an early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +age, to get the lives of the saints purged of old women's tales +and disgusting style, is extremely laudable. For nothing should be +suffered in the Church that is not perfectly pure or refined,' And +he concludes with a magnificent eulogy of the excellent prelate.</p> + +<p>During the greater part of 1518, Erasmus was too much +occupied by his own affairs—the journey to Basle and his red-hot +labours there, and afterwards his serious illness—to concern +himself much with Luther's business. In March he sends +Luther's theses to More, without comment, and, in passing, +complains to Colet about the impudence with which Rome +disseminates indulgences. Luther, now declared a heretic and +summoned to appear at Augsburg, stands before the legate +Cajetanus and refuses to recant. Seething enthusiasm surrounds +him. Just about that time Erasmus writes to one of Luther's +partisans, John Lang, in very favourable terms about his work. +The theses have pleased everybody. 'I see that the monarchy +of the Pope at Rome, as it is now, is a pestilence to Christendom, +but I do not know if it is expedient to touch that sore +openly. That would be a matter for princes, but I fear that +these will act in concert with the Pope to secure part of the +spoils. I do not understand what possessed Eck to take up arms +against Luther.' The letter did not find its way into any of the +collections.</p> + +<p>The year 1519 brought the struggle attending the election +of an emperor, after old Maximilian had died in January, and +the attempt of the curia to regain ground with lenity. Germany +was expecting the long-projected disputation between +Johannes Eck and Andreas Karlstadt which, in truth, would +concern Luther. How could Erasmus, who himself was involved +that year in so many polemics, have foreseen that the +Leipzig disputation, which was to lead Luther to the consequence +of rejecting the highest ecclesiastical authority, would +remain of lasting importance in the history of the world, +whereas his quarrel with Lee would be forgotten?</p> + +<p>On 28 March 1519 Luther addressed himself personally to +Erasmus for the first time. 'I speak with you so often, and you +with me, Erasmus, our ornament and our hope; and we do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +not know each other as yet.' He rejoices to find that Erasmus +displeases many, for this he regards as a sign that God has +blessed him. Now that his, Luther's, name begins to get +known too, a longer silence between them might be wrongly +interpreted. 'Therefore, my Erasmus, amiable man, if you +think fit, acknowledge also this little brother in Christ, who +really admires you and feels friendly disposed towards you, +and for the rest would deserve no better, because of his +ignorance, than to lie, unknown, buried in a corner.'</p> + +<p>There was a very definite purpose in this somewhat rustically +cunning and half ironical letter. Luther wanted, if +possible, to make Erasmus show his colours, to win him, the +powerful authority, touchstone of science and culture, for the +cause which he advocated. In his heart Luther had long been +aware of the deep gulf separating him from Erasmus. As early +as March 1517, six months before his public appearance, he +wrote about Erasmus to John Lang: 'human matters weigh +heavier with him than divine,' an opinion that so many have +pronounced about Erasmus—obvious, and yet unfair.</p> + +<p>The attempt, on the part of Luther, to effect a <i>rapprochement</i> +was a reason for Erasmus to retire at once. Now began that +extremely ambiguous policy of Erasmus to preserve peace by +his authority as a light of the world and to steer a middle course +without committing himself. In that attitude the great and the +petty side of his personality are inextricably intertwined. The +error because of which most historians have seen Erasmus's +attitude towards the Reformation either in far too unfavourable +a light or—as for instance the German historian Kalkoff—much +too heroic and far-seeing, is that they erroneously regard +him as psychologically homogeneous. Just that he is not. His +double-sidedness roots in the depths of his being. Many of his +utterances during the struggle proceed directly from his fear +and lack of character, also from his inveterate dislike of siding +with a person or a cause; but behind that is always his deep and +fervent conviction that neither of the conflicting opinions can +completely express the truth, that human hatred and purblindness +infatuate men's minds. And with that conviction is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +allied the noble illusion that it might yet be possible to preserve +the peace by moderation, insight, and kindliness.</p> + +<p>In April 1519 Erasmus addressed himself by letter to the +elector Frederick of Saxony, Luther's patron. He begins by +alluding to his dedication of Suetonius two years before; but +his real purpose is to say something about Luther. Luther's +writings, he says, have given the Louvain obscurants plenty of +reason to inveigh against the <i>bonae literae</i>, to decry all scholars. +He himself does not know Luther and has glanced through +his writings only cursorily as yet, but everyone praises his life. +How little in accordance with theological gentleness it is to +condemn him offhand, and that before the indiscreet vulgar! +For has he not proposed a dispute, and submitted himself to +everybody's judgement? No one has, so far, admonished, +taught, convinced him. Every error is not at once heresy.</p> + +<p>The best of Christianity is a life worthy of Christ. Where +we find that, we should not rashly suspect people of heresy. +Why do we so uncharitably persecute the lapses of others, +though none of us is free from error? Why do we rather want +to conquer than cure, suppress than instruct?</p> + +<p>But he concludes with a word that could not but please +Luther's friends, who so hoped for his support. 'May the duke +prevent an innocent man from being surrendered under the +cloak of piety to the impiety of a few. This is also the wish of +Pope Leo, who has nothing more at heart than that innocence +be safe.'</p> + +<p>At this same time Erasmus does his best to keep Froben back +from publishing Luther's writings, 'that they may not fan the +hatred of the <i>bonae literae</i> still more'. And he keeps repeating: +I do not know Luther, I have not read his writings. He makes +this declaration to Luther himself, in his reply to the latter's +epistle of 28 March. This letter of Erasmus, dated 30 May 1519, +should be regarded as a newspaper leader<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>, to acquaint the +public with his attitude towards the Luther question. Luther +does not know the tragedies which his writings have caused +at Louvain. People here think that Erasmus has helped him in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +composing them and call him the standard bearer of the party! +That seemed to them a fitting pretext to suppress the <i>bonae +literae</i>. 'I have declared that you are perfectly unknown to +me, that I have not yet read your books and therefore neither +approve nor disapprove anything.' 'I reserve myself, so far as I +may, to be of use to the reviving studies. Discreet moderation +seems likely to bring better progress than impetuosity. It was +by this that Christ subjugated the world.'</p> + +<p>On the same day he writes to John Lang, one of Luther's +friends and followers, a short note, not meant for publication: +'I hope that the endeavours of yourself and your party will be +successful. Here the Papists rave violently.... All the best +minds are rejoiced at Luther's boldness: I do not doubt he will +be careful that things do not end in a quarrel of parties!... +We shall never triumph over feigned Christians unless we first +abolish the tyranny of the Roman see, and of its satellites, the +Dominicans, the Franciscans and the Carmelites. But no one +could attempt that without a serious tumult.'</p> + +<p>As the gulf widens, Erasmus's protestations that he has +nothing to do with Luther become much more frequent. +Relations at Louvain grow ever more disagreeable and the +general sentiment about him ever more unkind. In August +1519 he turns to the Pope himself for protection against his +opponents. He still fails to see how wide the breach is. He still +takes it all to be quarrels of scholars. King Henry of England +and King Francis of France in their own countries have imposed +silence upon the quarrellers and slanderers; if only the +Pope would do the same!</p> + +<p>In October he was once more reconciled with the Louvain +faculty. It was just at this time that Colet died in London, the +man who had, better perhaps than anyone else, understood +Erasmus's standpoint. Kindred spirits in Germany still looked up +to Erasmus as the great man who was on the alert to interpose +at the right moment and who had made moderation the watchword, +until the time should come to give his friends the signal.</p> + +<p>But in the increasing noise of the battle his voice already +sounded less powerfully than before. A letter to Cardinal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +Albert of Mayence, 19 October 1519, of about the same +content as that of Frederick of Saxony written in the preceding +spring, was at once circulated by Luther's friends; and by +the advocates of conservatism, in spite of the usual protestation, +'I do not know Luther', it was made to serve against Erasmus.</p> + +<p>It became more and more clear that the mediating and conciliatory +position which Erasmus wished to take up would +soon be altogether untenable. The inquisitor Jacob Hoogstraten +had come from Cologne, where he was a member of +the University, to Louvain, to work against Luther there, as +he had worked against Reuchlin. On 7 November 1519 the +Louvain faculty, following the example of that of Cologne, +proceeded to take the decisive step: the solemn condemnation +of a number of Luther's opinions. In future no place could be +less suitable to Erasmus than Louvain, the citadel of action +against reformers. It is surprising that he remained there +another two years.</p> + +<p>The expectation that he would be able to speak the conciliating +word was paling. For the rest he failed to see the true +proportions. During the first months of 1520 his attention was +almost entirely taken up by his own polemics with Lee, a +paltry incident in the great revolution. The desire to keep aloof +got more and more the upper hand of him. In June he writes +to Melanchthon: 'I see that matters begin to look like sedition. +It is perhaps necessary that scandals occur, but I should prefer +not to be the author.' He has, he thinks, by his influence with +Wolsey, prevented the burning of Luther's writings in +England, which had been ordered. But he was mistaken. The +burning had taken place in London, as early as 12 May.</p> + +<p>The best proof that Erasmus had practically given up his +hope to play a conciliatory part may be found in what follows. +In the summer of 1520 the famous meeting between the three +monarchs, Henry VIII, Francis I and Charles V, took place +at Calais. Erasmus was to go there in the train of his prince. +How would such a congress of princes—where in peaceful +conclave the interests of France, England, Spain, the German +Empire, and a considerable part of Italy, were represented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +together—have affected Erasmus's imagination, if his ideal had +remained unshaken! But there are no traces of this. Erasmus +was at Calais in July 1520, had some conversation with Henry +VIII there, and greeted More, but it does not appear that he +attached any other importance to the journey than that of an +opportunity, for the last time, to greet his English friends.</p> + +<p>It was awkward for Erasmus that just at this time, when the +cause of faith took so much harsher forms, his duties as counsellor +to the youthful Charles, now back from Spain to be +crowned as emperor, circumscribed his liberty more than +before. In the summer of 1520 appeared, based on the incriminating +material furnished by the Louvain faculty, the papal +bull declaring Luther to be a heretic, and, unless he should +speedily recant, excommunicating him. 'I fear the worst for +the unfortunate Luther,' Erasmus writes, 9 September 1520, +'so does conspiracy rage everywhere, so are princes incensed +with him on all sides, and, most of all, Pope Leo. Would +Luther had followed my advice and abstained from those +hostile and seditious actions!... They will not rest until they +have quite subverted the study of languages and the good +learning.... Out of the hatred against these and the stupidity +of monks did this tragedy first arise.... I do not meddle with +it. For the rest, a bishopric is waiting for me if I choose to +write against Luther.'</p> + +<p>Indeed, Erasmus had become, by virtue of his enormous +celebrity, as circumstances would have it, more and more a +valuable asset in the great policy of emperor and pope. People +wanted to use his name and make him choose sides. And that +he would not do for any consideration. He wrote evasively to +the Pope about his relations with Luther without altogether +disavowing him. How zealously he defends himself from the +suspicion of being on Luther's side as noisy monks make out +in their sermons, who summarily link the two in their scoffing +disparagement.</p> + +<p>But by the other side also he is pressed to choose sides and +to speak out. Towards the end of October 1520 the coronation +of the emperor took place at Aix-la-Chapelle. Erasmus was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +perhaps present; in any case he accompanied the Emperor +to Cologne. There, on 5 November, he had an interview +about Luther with the Elector Frederick of Saxony. He was +persuaded to write down the result of that discussion in the +form of twenty-two <i>Axiomata concerning Luther's cause</i>. Against +his intention they were printed at once.</p> + +<p>Erasmus's hesitation in those days between the repudiation +and the approbation of Luther is not discreditable to him. It is +the tragic defect running through his whole personality: his +refusal or inability ever to draw ultimate conclusions. Had he +only been a calculating and selfish nature, afraid of losing his +life, he would long since have altogether forsaken Luther's +cause. It is his misfortune affecting his fame, that he continually +shows his weaknesses, whereas what is great in him lies deep.</p> + +<p>At Cologne Erasmus also met the man with whom, as a +promising young humanist, fourteen years younger than himself, +he had, for some months, shared a room in the house of +Aldus's father-in-law, at Venice: Hieronymus Aleander, now +sent to the Emperor as a papal nuncio, to persuade him to +conform his imperial policy to that of the Pope, in the matter +of the great ecclesiastical question, and give effect to the papal +excommunication by the imperial ban.</p> + +<p>It must have been somewhat painful for Erasmus that his +friend had so far surpassed him in power and position, and was +now called to bring by diplomatic means the solution which +he himself would have liked to see achieved by ideal harmony, +good will and toleration. He had never trusted Aleander, and +was more than ever on his guard against him. As a humanist, +in spite of brilliant gifts, Aleander was by far Erasmus's inferior, +and had never, like him, risen from literature to serious +theological studies; he had simply prospered in the service +of Church magnates (whom Erasmus had given up early). +This man was now invested with the highest mediating +powers.</p> + +<p>To what degree of exasperation Erasmus's most violent +antagonists at Louvain had now been reduced is seen from +the witty and slightly malicious account he gives Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +More of his meeting with Egmondanus before the Rector of +the university, who wanted to reconcile them. Still things did +not look so black as Ulrich von Hutten thought, when he +wrote to Erasmus: 'Do you think that you are still safe, now +that Luther's books are burned? Fly, and save yourself for us!'</p> + +<p>Ever more emphatic do Erasmus's protestations become that +he has nothing to do with Luther. Long ago he had already +requested him not to mention his name, and Luther promised +it: 'Very well, then, I shall not again refer to you, neither will +other good friends, since it troubles you'. Ever louder, too, are +Erasmus's complaints about the raving of the monks at him, +and his demands that the mendicant orders be deprived of the +right to preach.</p> + +<p>In April 1521 comes the moment in the world's history to +which Christendom has been looking forward: Luther at the +Diet of Worms, holding fast to his opinions, confronted by +the highest authority in the Empire. So great is the rejoicing +in Germany that for a moment it may seem that the Emperor's +power is in danger rather than Luther and his adherents. 'If I +had been present', writes Erasmus, 'I should have endeavoured +that this tragedy would have been so tempered by moderate +arguments that it could not afterwards break out again to the +still greater detriment of the world.'</p> + +<p>The imperial sentence was pronounced: within the Empire +(as in the Burgundian Netherlands before that time) Luther's +books were to be burned, his adherents arrested and their +goods confiscated, and Luther was to be given up to the +authorities. Erasmus hopes that now relief will follow. 'The +Luther tragedy is at an end with us here; would it had never +appeared on the stage.' In these days Albrecht Dürer, on +hearing the false news of Luther's death, wrote in the diary of +his journey that passionate exclamation: 'O Erasmus of +Rotterdam, where will you be? Hear, you knight of Christ, +ride forth beside the Lord Christ, protect the truth, obtain the +martyr's crown. For you are but an old manikin. I have heard +you say that you have allowed yourself two more years, in +which you are still fit to do some work; spend them well, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +behalf of the Gospel and the true Christian faith.... O +Erasmus, be on this side, that God may be proud of you.'</p> + +<p>It expresses confidence in Erasmus's power, but at bottom is +the expectation that he will not do all this. Dürer had rightly +understood Erasmus.</p> + +<p>The struggle abated nowise, least of all at Louvain. Latomus, +the most dignified and able of Louvain divines, had now +become one of the most serious opponents of Luther and, in so +doing, touched Erasmus, too, indirectly. To Nicholas of +Egmond, the Carmelite, another of Erasmus's compatriots had +been added as a violent antagonist, Vincent Dirks of Haarlem, +a Dominican. Erasmus addresses himself to the faculty, to +defend himself against the new attacks, and to explain why he +has never written against Luther. He will read him, he will +soon take up something to quiet the tumult. He succeeds in +getting Aleander, who arrived at Louvain in June, to prohibit +preaching against him. The Pope still hopes that Aleander will +succeed in bringing back Erasmus, with whom he is again on +friendly terms, to the right track.</p> + +<p>But Erasmus began to consider the only exit which was now +left to him: to leave Louvain and the Netherlands to regain +his menaced independence. The occasion to depart had long +ago presented itself: the third edition of his New Testament +called him to Basle once more. It would not be a permanent +departure, and he purposed to return to Louvain. On 28 +October (his birthday) he left the town where he had spent +four difficult years. His chambers in the College of the Lily +were reserved for him and he left his books behind. On +15 November he reached Basle.</p> + +<p>Soon the rumour spread that out of fear of Aleander he had +saved himself by flight. But the idea, revived again in our days +in spite of Erasmus's own painstaking denial, that Aleander +should have cunningly and expressly driven him from the +Netherlands, is inherently improbable. So far as the Church +was concerned, Erasmus would at almost any point be more +dangerous than at Louvain, in the headquarters of conservatism, +under immediate control of the strict Burgundian government,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +where, it seemed, he could sooner or later be pressed into the +service of the anti-Lutheran policy.</p> + +<p>It was this contingency, as Dr. Allen has correctly pointed +out, which he feared and evaded. Not for his bodily safety did +he emigrate; Erasmus would not have been touched—he was +far too valuable an asset for such measures. It was his mental +independence, so dear to him above all else, that he felt to be +threatened; and, to safeguard that, he did not return to +Louvain.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 575px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xix.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xix-th.png" width="575" height="412" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XIX. THE HOUSE AT ANDERLECHT WHERE ERASMUS LIVED FROM MAY TO NOVEMBER 1521</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xx.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xx-th.png" width="300" height="520" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XX. ERASMUS'S STUDY AT ANDERLECHT<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Translation on pp. <a href="#Page_229">229</a> ff.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xvii" id="chapter_xvii"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>ERASMUS AT BASLE</h3> + +<h3>1521-9</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Basle his dwelling-place for nearly eight years: 1521-9—Political thought +of Erasmus—Concord and peace—Anti-war writings—Opinions concerning +princes and government—New editions of several Fathers—The +<i>Colloquia</i>—Controversies +with Stunica, Beda, etc.—Quarrel with Hutten—Eppendorff</p></div> + + +<p>It is only towards the evening of life that the picture of +Erasmus acquires the features with which it was to go down +to posterity. Only at Basle—delivered from the troublesome +pressure of parties wanting to enlist him, transplanted from an +environment of haters and opponents at Louvain to a circle of +friends, kindred spirits, helpers and admirers, emancipated +from the courts of princes, independent of the patronage of +the great, unremittingly devoting his tremendous energy to +the work that was dear to him—did he become Holbein's +Erasmus. In those late years he approaches most closely to the +ideal of his personal life.</p> + +<p>He did not think that there were still fifteen years in store +for him. Long before, in fact, since he became forty years old +in 1506, Erasmus had been in an old-age mood. 'The last act of +the play has begun,' he keeps saying after 1517.</p> + +<p>He now felt practically independent as to money matters. +Many years had passed before he could say that. But peace of +mind did not come with competence. It never came. He never +became truly placid and serene, as Holbein's picture seems to +represent him. He was always too much concerned about what +people said or thought of him. Even at Basle he did not feel +thoroughly at home. He still speaks repeatedly of a removal in +the near future to Rome, to France, to England, or back to the +Netherlands. Physical rest, at any rate, which was not in him, +was granted him by circumstances: for nearly eight years he +now remained at Basle, and then he lived at Freiburg for six.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>Erasmus at Basle is a man whose ideals of the world and +society have failed him. What remains of that happy expectation +of a golden age of peace and light, in which he had believed +as late as 1517? What of his trust in good will and +rational insight, in which he wrote the <i>Institutio Principis +Christiani</i> for the youthful Charles V? To Erasmus all the weal +of state and society had always been merely a matter of +personal morality and intellectual enlightenment. By recommending +and spreading those two he at one time thought +he had introduced the great renovation himself. From the +moment when he saw that the conflict would lead to an +exasperated struggle he refused any longer to be anything but +a spectator. As an actor in the great ecclesiastical combat +Erasmus had voluntarily left the stage.</p> + +<p>But he does not give up his ideal. 'Let us resist,' he concludes +an Epistle about gospel philosophy, 'not by taunts and threats, +not by force of arms and injustice, but by simple discretion, +by benefits, by gentleness and tolerance.' Towards the close +of his life, he prays: 'If Thou, O God, deignst to renew that +Holy Spirit in the hearts of all, then also will those external +disasters cease.... Bring order to this chaos, Lord Jesus, let +Thy Spirit spread over these waters of sadly troubled dogmas.'</p> + +<p>Concord, peace, sense of duty and kindliness, were all +valued highly by Erasmus; yet he rarely saw them realized in +practical life. He becomes disillusioned. After the short spell +of political optimism he never speaks of the times any more +but in bitter terms—a most criminal age, he says—and again, +the most unhappy and most depraved age imaginable. In vain +had he always written in the cause of peace: <i>Querela pacis</i>, the +complaint of peace, the adage <i>Dulce bellum inexpertis</i>, war is +sweet to those who have not known it, <i>Oratio de pace et discordia</i>, +and more still. Erasmus thought rather highly of his +pacifistic labours: 'that polygraph, who never leaves off +persecuting war by means of his pen', thus he makes a character +of the <i>Colloquies</i> designate himself. According to a tradition +noted by Melanchthon, Pope Julius is said to have called him +before him in connection with his advice about the war with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +Venice,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and to have remarked to him angrily that he should +stop writing on the concerns of princes: 'You do not understand +those things!'</p> + +<p>Erasmus had, in spite of a certain innate moderation, a +wholly non-political mind. He lived too much outside of +practical reality, and thought too naïvely of the corrigibility +of mankind, to realize the difficulties and necessities of government. +His ideas about a good administration were extremely +primitive, and, as is often the case with scholars of a strong +ethical bias, very revolutionary at bottom, though he never +dreamed of drawing the practical inferences. His friendship +with political and juridical thinkers, as More, Budaeus and +Zasius, had not changed him. Questions of forms of government, +law or right, did not exist for him. Economic problems +he saw in idyllic simplicity. The prince should reign gratuitously +and impose as few taxes as possible. 'The good prince +has all that loving citizens possess.' The unemployed should be +simply driven away. We feel in closer contact with the world +of facts when he enumerates the works of peace for the prince: +the cleaning of towns, building of bridges, halls, and streets, +draining of pools, shifting of river-beds, the diking and reclamation +of moors. It is the Netherlander who speaks here, +and at the same time the man in whom the need of cleansing +and clearing away is a fundamental trait of character.</p> + +<p>Vague politicians like Erasmus are prone to judge princes +very severely, since they take them to be responsible for all +wrongs. Erasmus praises them personally, but condemns them +in general. From the kings of his time he had for a long time +expected peace in Church and State. They had disappointed +him. But his severe judgement of princes he derived rather from +classical reading than from political experience of his own +times. In the later editions of the <i>Adagia</i> he often reverts to +princes, their task and their neglect of duty, without ever mentioning +special princes. 'There are those who sow the seeds of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +dissension between their townships in order to fleece the poor +unhindered and to satisfy their gluttony by the hunger of +innocent citizens.' In the adage <i>Scarabeus aquilam quaerit</i> he +represents the prince under the image of the Eagle as the great +cruel robber and persecutor. In another, <i>Aut regem aut fatuum +nasci oportere</i>, and in <i>Dulce bellum inexpertis</i> he utters his frequently +quoted dictum: 'The people found and develop +towns, the folly of princes devastates them.' 'The princes +conspire with the Pope, and perhaps with the Turk, against +the happiness of the people,' he writes to Colet in +1518.</p> + +<p>He was an academic critic writing from his study. A revolutionary +purpose was as foreign to Erasmus as it was to More +when writing the <i>Utopia</i>. 'Bad monarchs should perhaps be +suffered now and then. The remedy should not be tried.' It +may be doubted whether Erasmus exercised much real influence +on his contemporaries by means of his diatribes against +princes. One would fain believe that his ardent love of peace +and bitter arraignment of the madness of war had some effect. +They have undoubtedly spread pacific sentiments in the broad +circles of intellectuals who read Erasmus, but unfortunately +the history of the sixteenth century shows little evidence that +such sentiments bore fruit in actual practice. However this +may be, Erasmus's strength was not in these political declamations. +He could never be a leader of men with their passions +and their harsh interests.</p> + +<p>His life-work lay elsewhere. Now, at Basle, though tormented +more and more frequently by his painful complaint +which he had already carried for so many years, he could +devote himself more fully than ever before to the great task +he had set himself: the opening up of the pure sources of +Christianity, the exposition of the truth of the Gospel in all the +simple comprehensibility in which he saw it. In a broad stream +flowed the editions of the Fathers, of classic authors, the new +editions of the New Testament, of the <i>Adagia</i>, of his own +Letters, together with Paraphrases of the New Testament, +Commentaries on Psalms, and a number of new theological, +moral and philological treatises. In 1522 he was ill for months<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +on end; yet in that year Arnobius and the third edition of the +New Testament succeeded Cyprian, whom he had already +annotated at Louvain and edited in 1520, closely followed by +Hilary in 1523 and next by a new edition of Jerome in 1524. +Later appeared Irenaeus, 1526; Ambrose, 1527; Augustine, +1528-9, and a Latin translation of Chrysostom in 1530. The +rapid succession of these comprehensive works proves that the +work was done as Erasmus always worked: hastily, with an +extraordinary power of concentration and a surprising command +of his mnemonic faculty, but without severe criticism +and the painful accuracy that modern philology requires in +such editions.</p> + +<p>Neither the polemical Erasmus nor the witty humorist +had been lost in the erudite divine and the disillusioned +reformer. The paper-warrior we would further gladly have +dispensed with, but not the humorist, for many treasures of +literature. But the two are linked inseparably as the <i>Colloquies</i> +prove.</p> + +<p>What was said about the <i>Moria</i> may be repeated here: if in +the literature of the world only the <i>Colloquies</i> and the <i>Moria</i> +have remained alive, that choice of history is right. Not in the +sense that in literature only Erasmus's pleasantest, lightest and +most readable works were preserved, whereas the ponderous +theological erudition was silently relegated to the shelves of +libraries. It was indeed Erasmus's best work that was kept alive +in the <i>Moria</i> and the <i>Colloquies</i>. With these his sparkling +wit has charmed the world. If only we had space here to assign +to the Erasmus of the <i>Colloquies</i> his just and lofty place in +that brilliant constellation of sixteenth-century followers of +Democritus: Rabelais, Ariosto, Montaigne, Cervantes, and +Ben Jonson!</p> + +<p>When Erasmus gave the <i>Colloquies</i> their definite form at +Basle, they had already had a long and curious genesis. At first +they had been no more than <i>Familiarium colloquiorum formulae</i>, +models of colloquial Latin conversation, written at Paris +before 1500, for the use of his pupils. Augustine Caminade, +the shabby friend who was fond of living on young Erasmus's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +genius, had collected them and had turned them to advantage +within a limited compass. He had long been dead when one +Lambert Hollonius of Liége sold the manuscript that he had +got from Caminade to Froben at Basle. Beatus Rhenanus, +although then already Erasmus's trusted friend, had it printed +at once without the latter's knowledge. That was in 1518. +Erasmus was justly offended at it, the more so as the book was +full of slovenly blunders and solecisms. So he at once prepared +a better edition himself, published by Maertensz at Louvain in +1519. At that time the work really contained but one true dialogue, +the nucleus of the later <i>Convivium profanum</i>. The rest +were formulae of etiquette and short talks. But already in this +form it was, apart from its usefulness to latinists, so full of +happy wit and humorous invention that it became very popular. +Even before 1522 it had appeared in twenty-five editions, +mostly reprints, at Antwerp, Paris, Strassburg, Cologne, +Cracow, Deventer, Leipzig, London, Vienna, Mayence.</p> + +<p>At Basle Erasmus himself revised an edition which was published +in March 1522 by Froben, dedicated to the latter's +six-year-old son, the author's godchild, Johannes Erasmius +Froben. Soon after he did more than revise. In 1523 and 1524 +first ten new dialogues, afterwards four, and again six, were +added to the <i>Formulae</i>, and at last in 1526 the title was changed +to <i>Familiarium colloquiorum opus</i>. It remained dedicated to the +boy Froben and went on growing with each new edition: a +rich and motley collection of dialogues, each a masterpiece of +literary form, well-knit, spontaneous, convincing, unsurpassed +in lightness, vivacity and fluent Latin; each one a finished one-act +play. From that year on, the stream of editions and translations +flowed almost uninterruptedly for two centuries.</p> + +<p>Erasmus's mind had lost nothing of its acuteness and freshness +when, so many years after the <i>Moria</i>, he again set foot in the +field of satire. As to form, the <i>Colloquies</i> are less confessedly +satirical than the <i>Moria</i>. With its telling subject, the <i>Praise of +Folly</i>, the latter at once introduces itself as a satire: whereas, +at first sight, the <i>Colloquies</i> might seem to be mere innocent +genre-pieces. But as to the contents, they are more satirical,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +at least more directly so. The <i>Moria</i>, as a satire, is philosophical +and general; the <i>Colloquia</i> are up to date and special. +At the same time they combine more the positive and +negative elements. In the <i>Moria</i> Erasmus's own ideal dwells +unexpressed behind the representation; in the <i>Colloquia</i> he +continually and clearly puts it in the foreground. On this +account they form, notwithstanding all the jests and mockery, +a profoundly serious moral treatise and are closely akin to the +<i>Enchiridion militis Christiani</i>. What Erasmus really demanded +of the world and of mankind, how he pictured to himself that +passionately desired, purified Christian society of good morals, +fervent faith, simplicity and moderation, kindliness, toleration +and peace—this we can nowhere else find so clearly and well-expressed +as in the <i>Colloquia</i>. In these last fifteen years of his +life Erasmus resumes, by means of a series of moral-dogmatic +disquisitions, the topics he broached in the <i>Enchiridion</i>: the +exposition of simple, general Christian conduct; untrammelled +and natural ethics. That is his message of redemption. +It came to many out of <i>Exomologesis</i>, <i>De esu carnium</i>, <i>Lingua</i>, +<i>Institutio christiani matrimonii</i>, <i>Vidua christiana</i>, +<i>Ecclesiastes</i>. But, to far larger numbers, the message was contained in the +<i>Colloquies</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Colloquia</i> gave rise to much more hatred and contest +than the <i>Moria</i>, and not without reason, for in them Erasmus +attacked persons. He allowed himself the pleasure of ridiculing +his Louvain antagonists. Lee had already been introduced as a +sycophant and braggart into the edition of 1519, and when the +quarrel was assuaged, in 1522, the reference was expunged. +Vincent Dirks was caricatured in <i>The Funeral</i> (1526) as a +covetous friar, who extorts from the dying testaments in +favour of his order. He remained. Later sarcastic observations +were added about Beda and numbers of others. The adherents +of Oecolampadius took a figure with a long nose in the +<i>Colloquies</i> for their leader: 'Oh, no,' replied Erasmus, 'it is +meant for quite another person.' Henceforth all those who were +at loggerheads with Erasmus, and they were many, ran the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +risk of being pilloried in the <i>Colloquia</i>. It was no wonder that +this work, especially with its scourging mockery of the +monastic orders, became the object of controversy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Erasmus never emerged from his polemics. He was, no +doubt, serious when he said that, in his heart, he abhorred and +had never desired them; but his caustic mind often got the +better of his heart, and having once begun to quarrel he undoubtedly +enjoyed giving his mockery the rein and wielding +his facile dialectic pen. For understanding his personality it is +unnecessary here to deal at large with all those fights on paper. +Only the most important ones need be mentioned.</p> + +<p>Since 1516 a pot had been boiling for Erasmus in Spain. A +theologian of the University at Alcalá, Diego Lopez Zuñiga, +or, in Latin, Stunica, had been preparing Annotations to the +edition of the New Testament: 'a second Lee', said Erasmus. +At first Cardinal Ximenes had prohibited the publication, but +in 1520, after his death, the storm broke. For some years +Stunica kept persecuting Erasmus with his criticism, to the +latter's great vexation; at last there followed a <i>rapprochement</i>, +probably as Erasmus became more conservative, and a kindly +attitude on the part of Stunica.</p> + +<p>No less long and violent was the quarrel with the syndic of +the Sorbonne, Noel Bedier or Beda, which began in 1522. The +Sorbonne was prevailed upon to condemn several of Erasmus's +dicta as heretical in 1526. The effort of Beda to implicate +Erasmus in the trial of Louis de Berquin, who had translated +the condemned writings and who was eventually burned at +the stake for faith's sake in 1529, made the matter still more +disagreeable for Erasmus.</p> + +<p>It is clear enough that both at Paris and at Louvain in the +circles of the theological faculties the chief cause of exasperation +was in the <i>Colloquia</i>. Egmondanus and Vincent Dirks did +not forgive Erasmus for having acridly censured their station +and their personalities.</p> + +<p>More courteous than the aforementioned polemics was the +fight with a high-born Italian, Alberto Pio, prince of Carpi;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +acrid and bitter was one with a group of Spanish monks, who +brought the Inquisition to bear upon him. In Spain 'Erasmistas' +was the name of those who inclined to more liberal +conceptions of the creed.</p> + +<p>In this way the matter accumulated for the volume of +Erasmus's works which contains, according to his own arrangement, +all his <i>Apologiae</i>: not 'excuses', but 'vindications'. +'Miserable man that I am; they just fill a volume,' exclaimed +Erasmus.</p> + +<p>Two of his polemics merit a somewhat closer examination: +that with Ulrich von Hutten and that with Luther.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxi.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxi-th.png" width="250" height="368" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXI. MARTIN LUTHER AS A MONK</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxii-th.png" width="250" height="373" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXII. ULRICH VON HUTTEN</p> + +<p>Hutten, knight and humanist, the enthusiastic herald of a +national German uplift, the ardent hater of papacy and supporter +of Luther, was certainly a hot-head and perhaps somewhat +of a muddle-head. He had applauded Erasmus when the +latter still seemed to be the coming man and had afterwards +besought him to take Luther's side. Erasmus had soon discovered +that this noisy partisan might compromise him. Had +not one of Hutten's rash satires been ascribed to him, Erasmus? +There came a time when Hutten could no longer abide Erasmus. +His knightly instinct reacted on the very weaknesses of +Erasmus's character: the fear of committing himself and the +inclination to repudiate a supporter in time of danger. +Erasmus knew that weakness himself: 'Not all have strength +enough for martyrdom,' he writes to Richard Pace in 1521. 'I +fear that I shall, in case it results in a tumult, follow St. Peter's +example.' But this acknowledgement does not discharge him +from the burden of Hutten's reproaches which he flung at him +in fiery language in 1523. In this quarrel Erasmus's own fame +pays the penalty of his fault. For nowhere does he show himself +so undignified and puny as in that 'Sponge against +Hutten's mire', which the latter did not live to read. Hutten, +disillusioned and forsaken, died at an early age in 1523, and +Erasmus did not scruple to publish the venomous pamphlet +against his former friend after his demise.</p> + +<p>Hutten, however, was avenged upon Erasmus living. One +of his adherents, Henry of Eppendorff, inherited Hutten's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +bitter disgust with Erasmus and persecuted him for years. +Getting hold of one of Erasmus's letters in which he was +denounced, he continually threatened him with an action for +defamation of character. Eppendorff's hostility so thoroughly +exasperated Erasmus that he fancied he could detect his machinations +and spies everywhere even after the actual persecution +had long ceased.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Melanchthon, <i>Opera, Corpus Reformatorum</i>, XII 266, where he refers +to <i>Querela pacis</i>, which, however, was not written before 1517; <i>vide</i> A. +603 and I p. 37.10.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xviii" id="chapter_xviii"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>CONTROVERSY WITH LUTHER AND GROWING CONSERVATISM</h3> + +<h3>1524-6</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus persuaded to write against Luther—<i>De Libero Arbitrio</i>: 1524—Luther's +answer: <i>De Servo Arbitrio</i>—Erasmus's indefiniteness contrasted +with Luther's extreme rigour—Erasmus henceforth on the side of conservatism—The +Bishop of Basle and Oecolampadius—Erasmus's half-hearted +dogmatics: confession, ceremonies, worship of the Saints, Eucharist—<i>Institutio +Christiani Matrimonii</i>: 1526—He feels surrounded by enemies</p></div> + + +<p>At length Erasmus was led, in spite of all, to do what he had +always tried to avoid: he wrote against Luther. But it did not +in the least resemble the <i>geste</i> Erasmus at one time contemplated, +in the cause of peace in Christendom and uniformity +of faith, to call a halt to the impetuous Luther, and thereby to +recall the world to its senses. In the great act of the Reformation +their polemics were merely an after-play. Not Erasmus +alone was disillusioned and tired—Luther too was past his +heroic prime, circumscribed by conditions, forced into the +world of affairs, a disappointed man.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had wished to persevere in his resolution to remain +a spectator of the great tragedy. 'If, as appears from the +wonderful success of Luther's cause, God wills all this'—thus +did Erasmus reason—'and He has perhaps judged such a +drastic surgeon as Luther necessary for the corruption of +these times, then it is not my business to withstand him.' But +he was not left in peace. While he went on protesting that he +had nothing to do with Luther and differed widely from him, +the defenders of the old Church adhered to the standpoint +urged as early as 1520 by Nicholas of Egmond before the +rector of Louvain: 'So long as he refuses to write against +Luther, we take him to be a Lutheran'. So matters stood. +'That you are looked upon as a Lutheran here is certain,' +Vives writes to him from the Netherlands in 1522.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ever stronger became the pressure to write against Luther. +From Henry VIII came a call, communicated by Erasmus's +old friend Tunstall, from George of Saxony, from Rome +itself, whence Pope Adrian VI, his old patron, had urged him +shortly before his death.</p> + +<p>Erasmus thought he could refuse no longer. He tried some +dialogues in the style of the <i>Colloquies</i>, but did not get on +with them; and probably they would not have pleased those +who were desirous of enlisting his services. Between Luther +and Erasmus himself there had been no personal correspondence, +since the former had promised him, in 1520; 'Well +then, Erasmus, I shall not mention your name again.' Now +that Erasmus had prepared to attack Luther, however, there +came an epistle from the latter, written on 15 April 1524, in +which the reformer, in his turn, requested Erasmus in his own +words: 'Please remain now what you have always professed +yourself desirous of being: a mere spectator of our tragedy'. +There is a ring of ironical contempt in Luther's words, but +Erasmus called the letter 'rather humane; I had not the courage +to reply with equal humanity, because of the sycophants'.</p> + +<p>In order to be able to combat Luther with a clear conscience +Erasmus had naturally to choose a point on which he differed +from Luther in his heart. It was not one of the more superficial +parts of the Church's structure. For these he either, with +Luther, cordially rejected, such as ceremonies, observances, +fasting, etc., or, though more moderately than Luther, he had +his doubts about them, as the sacraments or the primacy of +St. Peter. So he naturally came to the point where the deepest +gulf yawned between their natures, between their conceptions +of the essence of faith, and thus to the central and eternal +problem of good and evil, guilt and compulsion, liberty and +bondage, God and man. Luther confessed in his reply that here +indeed the vital point had been touched.</p> + +<p><i>De libero arbitrio diatribe</i> (<i>A Disquisition upon Free Will</i>) +appeared in September 1524. Was Erasmus qualified to write +about such a subject? In conformity with his method and with +his evident purpose to vindicate authority and tradition, this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +time, Erasmus developed the argument that Scripture teaches, +doctors affirm, philosophers prove, and human reason testifies +man's will to be free. Without acknowledgement of free will +the terms of God's justice and God's mercy remain without +meaning. What would be the sense of the teachings, reproofs, +admonitions of Scripture (Timothy iii.) if all happened according +to mere and inevitable necessity? To what purpose is +obedience praised, if for good and evil works we are equally +but tools to God, as the hatchet to the carpenter? And if this +were so, it would be dangerous to reveal such a doctrine to +the multitude, for morality is dependent on the consciousness +of freedom.</p> + +<p>Luther received the treatise of his antagonist with disgust +and contempt. In writing his reply, however, he suppressed +these feelings outwardly and observed the rules of courtesy. +But his inward anger is revealed in the contents itself of <i>De +servo arbitrio</i> (<i>On the Will not free</i>). For here he really did +what Erasmus had just reproached him with—trying to heal +a dislocated member by tugging at it in the opposite direction. +More fiercely than ever before, his formidable boorish mind +drew the startling inferences of his burning faith. Without any +reserve he now accepted all the extremes of absolute determinism. +In order to confute indeterminism in explicit terms, +he was now forced to have recourse to those primitive metaphors +of exalted faith striving to express the inexpressible: +God's two wills, which do not coincide, God's 'eternal hatred +of mankind, a hatred not only on account of demerits and the +works of free will, but a hatred that existed even before the +world was created', and that metaphor of the human will, +which, as a riding beast, stands in the middle between God and +the devil and which is mounted by one or the other without +being able to move towards either of the two contending +riders. If anywhere, Luther's doctrine in <i>De Servo Arbitrio</i> means +a recrudescence of faith and a straining of religious conceptions.</p> + +<p>But it was Luther who here stood on the rockbed of a profound +and mystic faith in which the absolute conscience of the +eternal pervades all. In him all conceptions, like dry straw, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +consumed in the glow of God's majesty, for him each human +co-operation to attain to salvation was a profanation of God's +glory. Erasmus's mind after all did not truly <i>live</i> in the ideas +which were here disputed, of sin and grace, of redemption and +the glory of God as the final cause of all that is.</p> + +<p>Was, then, Erasmus's cause in all respects inferior? Was +Luther right at the core? Perhaps. Dr. Murray rightly reminds +us of Hegel's saying that tragedy is not the conflict between +right and wrong, but the conflict between right and right. The +combat of Luther and Erasmus proceeded beyond the point +at which our judgement is forced to halt and has to accept an +equivalence, nay, a compatibility of affirmation and negation. +And this fact, that they here were fighting with words and +metaphors in a sphere beyond that of what may be known and +expressed, was understood by Erasmus. Erasmus, the man of +the fine shades, for whom ideas eternally blended into each +other and interchanged, called a Proteus by Luther; Luther +the man of over-emphatic expression about all matters. The +Dutchman, who sees the sea, was opposed to the German, who +looks out on mountain tops.</p> + +<p>'This is quite true that we cannot speak of God but with +inadequate words.' 'Many problems should be deferred, not +to the oecumenical Council, but till the time when, the glass +and the darkness having been taken away, we shall see God +face to face.' 'What is free of error?' 'There are in sacred +literature certain sanctuaries into which God has not willed +that we should penetrate further.'</p> + +<p>The Catholic Church had on the point of free will reserved +to itself some slight proviso, left a little elbow-room to the +consciousness of human liberty <i>under</i> grace. Erasmus conceived +that liberty in a considerably broader spirit. Luther absolutely +denied it. The opinion of contemporaries was at first too +much dominated by their participation in the great struggle as +such: they applauded Erasmus, because he struck boldly at +Luther, or the other way about, according to their sympathies. +Not only Vives applauded Erasmus, but also more +orthodox Catholics such as Sadolet. The German humanists,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +unwilling, for the most part, to break with the ancient +Church, were moved by Erasmus's attack to turn their backs +still more upon Luther: Mutianus, Zasius, and Pirckheimer. +Even Melanchthon inclined to Erasmus's standpoint. Others, +like Capito, once a zealous supporter, now washed their +hands of him. Soon Calvin with the iron cogency of his +argument was completely to take Luther's side.</p> + +<p>It is worth while to quote the opinion of a contemporary +Catholic scholar about the relations of Erasmus and Luther. +'Erasmus,' says F. X. Kiefl,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> 'with his concept of free, unspoiled +human nature was intrinsically much more foreign to +the Church than Luther. He only combated it, however, with +haughty scepticism: for which reason Luther with subtle +psychology upbraided him for liking to speak of the shortcomings +and the misery of the Church of Christ in such a way +that his readers could not help laughing, instead of bringing +his charges, with deep sighs, as beseemed before God.'</p> + +<p>The <i>Hyperaspistes</i>, a voluminous treatise in which Erasmus +again addressed Luther, was nothing but an epilogue, which +need not be discussed here at length.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had thus, at last, openly taken sides. For, apart +from the dogmatical point at issue itself, the most important +part about <i>De libero arbitrio</i> was that in it he had expressly +turned against the individual religious conceptions and had +spoken in favour of the authority and tradition of the Church. +He always regarded himself as a Catholic. 'Neither death nor +life shall draw me from the communion of the Catholic +Church,' he writes in 1522, and in the <i>Hyperaspistes</i> in 1526: +'I have never been an apostate from the Catholic Church. I +know that in this Church, which you call the Papist Church, +there are many who displease me, but such I also see in your +Church. One bears more easily the evils to which one is accustomed. +Therefore I bear with this Church, until I shall see a +better, and it cannot help bearing with me, until I shall myself +be better. And he does not sail badly who steers a middle +course between two several evils.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>But was it possible to keep to that course? On either side +people turned away from him. 'I who, formerly, in countless +letters was addressed as thrice great hero, Prince of letters, Sun +of studies, Maintainer of true theology, am now ignored, or +represented in quite different colours,' he writes. How many +of his old friends and congenial spirits had already gone!</p> + +<p>A sufficient number remained, however, who thought and +hoped as Erasmus did. His untiring pen still continued to +propagate, especially by means of his letters, the moderating +and purifying influence of his mind throughout all the countries +of Europe. Scholars, high church dignitaries, nobles, +students, and civil magistrates were his correspondents. The +Bishop of Basle himself, Christopher of Utenheim, was a man +after Erasmus's heart. A zealous advocate of humanism, he had +attempted, as early as 1503, to reform the clergy of his bishopric +by means of synodal statutes, without much success; afterwards +he had called scholars like Oecolampadius, Capito and +Wimpfeling to Basle. That was before the great struggle +began, which was soon to carry away Oecolampadius and +Capito much further than the Bishop of Basle or Erasmus +approved. In 1522 Erasmus addressed the bishop in a treatise +<i>De interdicto esu carnium</i> (<i>On the Prohibition of eating Meat</i>). +This was one of the last occasions on which he directly opposed +the established order.</p> + +<p>The bishop, however, could no longer control the movement. +A considerable number of the commonalty of Basle +and the majority of the council, were already on the side of +radical Reformation. About a year after Erasmus, Johannes +Oecolampadius, whose first residence at Basle had also coincided +with his (at that time he had helped Erasmus with +Hebrew for the edition of the New Testament), returned to +the town with the intention of organizing the resistance to the +old order there. In 1523 the council appointed him professor +of Holy Scripture in the University; at the same time four +Catholic professors lost their places. He succeeded in obtaining +general permission for unlicensed preaching. Soon a far more +hot-headed agitator, the impetuous Guillaume Farel, also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +arrived for active work at Basle and in the environs. He is the +man who will afterwards reform Geneva and persuade Calvin +to stay there.</p> + +<p>Though at first Oecolampadius began to introduce novelties +into the church service with caution, Erasmus saw these +innovations with alarm. Especially the fanaticism of Farel, +whom he hated bitterly. It was these men who retarded what he +still desired and thought possible: a compromise. His lambent +spirit, which never fully decided in favour of a definite +opinion, had, with regard to most of the disputed points, +gradually fixed on a half-conservative midway standpoint, by +means of which, without denying his deepest conviction, he +tried to remain faithful to the Church. In 1524 he had expressed +his sentiments about confession in the treatise <i>Exomologesis</i> +(<i>On the Way to confess</i>). He accepts it halfway: if not instituted +by Christ or the Apostles, it was, in any case, by the Fathers. +It should be piously preserved. Confession is of excellent use, +though, at times, a great evil. In this way he tries 'to admonish +either party', 'neither to agree with nor to assail' the deniers, +'though inclining to the side of the believers'.</p> + +<p>In the long list of his polemics he gradually finds opportunities +to define his views somewhat; circumstantially, for +instance, in the answers to Alberto Pio, of 1525 and 1529. Subsequently +it is always done in the form of an <i>Apologia</i>, whether +he is attacked for the <i>Colloquia</i>, for the <i>Moria</i>, Jerome, the +<i>Paraphrases</i> or anything else. At last he recapitulates his views +to some extent in <i>De amabili Ecclesiae concordia</i> (<i>On the Amiable +Concord of the Church</i>), of 1533, which, however, ranks +hardly any more among his reformatory endeavours.</p> + +<p>On most points Erasmus succeeds in finding moderate and +conservative formulae. Even with regard to ceremonies he no +longer merely rejects. He finds a kind word to say even for +fasting, which he had always abhorred, for the veneration of +relics and for Church festivals. He does not want to abolish the +worship of the Saints: it no longer entails danger of idolatry. +He is even willing to admit the images: 'He who takes the +imagery out of life deprives it of its highest pleasure; we often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +discern more in images than we conceive from the written +word'. Regarding Christ's substantial presence in the sacrament +of the altar he holds fast to the Catholic view, but without +fervour, only on the ground of the Church's consensus, +and because he cannot believe that Christ, who is truth and +love, would have suffered His bride to cling so long to so horrid +an error as to worship a crust of bread instead of Him. But for +these reasons he might, at need, accept Oecolampadius's view.</p> + +<p>From the period at Basle dates one of the purest and most +beneficent moral treatises of Erasmus's, the <i>Institutio Christiani +matrimonii</i> (<i>On Christian Marriage</i>) of 1526, written for +Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England, quite in the spirit of +the <i>Enchiridion</i>, save for a certain diffuseness betraying old age. +Later follows <i>De vidua Christiana</i>, <i>The Christian Widow</i>, for +Mary of Hungary, which is as impeccable but less interesting.</p> + +<p>All this did not disarm the defenders of the old Church. +They held fast to the clear picture of Erasmus's creed that arose +from the <i>Colloquies</i> and that could not be called purely +Catholic. There it appeared only too clearly that, however +much Erasmus might desire to leave the letter intact, his heart +was not in the convictions which were vital to the Catholic +Church. Consequently the <i>Colloquies</i> were later, when +Erasmus's works were expurgated, placed on the index in the +lump, with the <i>Moria</i> and a few other works. The rest is <i>caute +legenda</i>, to be read with caution. Much was rejected of the +Annotations to the New Testament, of the <i>Paraphrases</i> and the +<i>Apologiae</i>, very little of the <i>Enchiridion</i>, of the <i>Ratio verae +theologiae</i>, and even of the <i>Exomologesis</i>. But this was after the +fight against the living Erasmus had long been over.</p> + +<p>So long as he remained at Basle, or elsewhere, as the centre +of a large intellectual group whose force could not be estimated, +just because it did not stand out as a party—it was not +known what turn he might yet take, what influence his mind +might yet have on the Church. He remained a king of minds in +his quiet study. The hatred that was felt for him, the watching +of all his words and actions, were of a nature as only falls to the +lot of the acknowledged great. The chorus of enemies who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +laid the fault of the whole Reformation on Erasmus was not +silenced. 'He laid the eggs which Luther and Zwingli have +hatched.' With vexation Erasmus quoted ever new specimens +of narrow-minded, malicious and stupid controversy. At +Constance there lived a doctor who had hung his portrait on +the wall merely to spit at it as often as he passed it. Erasmus +jestingly compares his fate to that of Saint Cassianus, who was +stabbed to death by his pupils with pencils. Had he not been +pierced to the quick for many years by the pens and tongues +of countless people and did he not live in that torment without +death bringing the end? The keen sensitiveness to opposition +was seated very deeply with Erasmus. And he could never +forbear irritating others into opposing him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Luther's religiöse Psyche</i>, Hochland XV, 1917, p. 21.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xix" id="chapter_xix"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>AT WAR WITH HUMANISTS AND REFORMERS</h3> + +<h3>1528-9</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Erasmus turns against the excesses of humanism: its paganism and pedantic +classicism—<i>Ciceronianus</i>: 1528—It brings him new enemies—The +Reformation carried through at Basle—He emigrates to Freiburg: 1529—His +view concerning the results of the Reformation</p></div> + + +<p>Nothing is more characteristic of the independence which +Erasmus reserved for himself regarding all movements of his +time than the fact that he also joined issue in the camp of the +humanists. In 1528 there were published by Froben (the chief +of the firm of Johannes Froben had just died) two dialogues in +one volume from Erasmus's hand: one about the correct +pronunciation of Latin and Greek, and one entitled <i>Ciceronianus</i> +or <i>On the Best Diction</i>, i.e. in writing and speaking Latin. +Both were proofs that Erasmus had lost nothing of his liveliness +and wit. The former treatise was purely philological, and +as such has had great influence; the other was satirical as well. +It had a long history.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had always regarded classical studies as the panacea +of civilization, provided they were made serviceable to pure +Christianity. His sincere ethical feeling made him recoil from +the obscenity of a Poggio and the immorality of the early +Italian humanists. At the same time his delicate and natural +taste told him that a pedantic and servile imitation of antique +models could never produce the desired result. Erasmus knew +Latin too well to be strictly classical; his Latin was alive and +required freedom. In his early works we find taunts about the +over-precise Latin purists: one had declared a newly found fragment +of Cicero to be thoroughly barbaric; 'among all sorts of +authors none are so insufferable to me as those apes of Cicero'.</p> + +<p>In spite of the great expectations he cherished of classical +studies for pure Christianity, he saw one danger: 'that under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +the cloak of reviving ancient literature paganism tries to rear +its head, as there are those among Christians who acknowledge +Christ only in name but inwardly breathe heathenism'. This he +writes in 1517 to Capito. In Italy scholars devote themselves +too exclusively and in too pagan guise to <i>bonae literae</i>. He considered +it his special task to assist in bringing it about that those +<i>bonae literae</i> 'which with the Italians have thus far been almost +pagan, shall get used to speaking of Christ'.</p> + +<p>How it must have vexed Erasmus that in Italy of all +countries he was, at the same time and in one breath, charged +with heresy and questioned in respect to his knowledge and +integrity as a scholar. Italians accused him of plagiarism and +trickery. He complained of it to Aleander, who, he thought, +had a hand in it.</p> + +<p>In a letter of 13 October 1527, to a professor at Toledo, we +find the <i>ébauche</i> of the <i>Ciceronianus</i>. In addition to the haters +of classic studies for the sake of orthodox belief, writes Erasmus, +'lately another and new sort of enemies has broken from +their ambush. These are troubled that the <i>bonae literae</i> speak of +Christ, as though nothing can be elegant but what is pagan. To +their ears <i>Jupiter optimus maximus</i> sounds more pleasant than +<i>Jesus Christus redemptor mundi</i>, and <i>patres conscripti</i> more agreeable +than <i>sancti apostoli</i>.... They account it a greater dishonour +to be no Ciceronian than no Christian, as if Cicero, if +he should now come to life again, would not speak of Christian +things in other words than in his time he spoke of his own +religion!... What is the sense of this hateful swaggering with +the name Ciceronian? I will tell you briefly, in your ear. With +that pearl-powder they cover the paganism that is dearer to +them than the glory of Christ.' To Erasmus Cicero's style is by +no means the ideal one. He prefers something more solid, +succinct, vigorous, less polished, more manly. He who sometimes +has to write a book in a day has no time to polish his +style, often not even to read it over.... 'What do I care for +an empty dish of words, ten words here and there mumped +from Cicero: I want all Cicero's spirit.' These are apes at +whom one may laugh, for far more serious than these things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +are the tumults of the so-called new Gospel, to which he next +proceeds in this letter.</p> + +<p>And so, in the midst of all his polemics and bitter vindication, +he allowed himself once more the pleasure of giving the +reins to his love of scoffing, but, as in the <i>Moria</i> and <i>Colloquia</i>, +ennobled by an almost passionate sincerity of Christian +disposition and a natural sense of measure. The <i>Ciceronianus</i> +is a masterpiece of ready, many-sided knowledge, of convincing +eloquence, and of easy handling of a wealth of arguments. +With splendid, quiet and yet lively breadth flows the +long conversation between Bulephorus, representing Erasmus's +opinions, Hypologus, the interested inquirer, and Nosoponus, +the zealous Ciceronian, who, to preserve a perfect purity +of mind, breakfasts off ten currants.</p> + +<p>Erasmus in drawing Nosoponus had evidently, in the main, +alluded to one who could no longer reply: Christopher +Longolius, who had died in 1522.</p> + +<p>The core of the <i>Ciceronianus</i> is where Erasmus points out +the danger to Christian faith of a too zealous classicism. He +exclaims urgently: 'It is paganism, believe me, Nosoponus, it +is paganism that charms our ear and our soul in such things. +We are Christians in name alone.' Why does a classic proverb +sound better to us than a quotation from the Bible: <i>corchorum +inter olera</i>, 'chick-weed among the vegetables', better than +'Saul among the prophets'? As a sample of the absurdity of +Ciceronianism, he gives a translation of a dogmatic sentence +in classical language: 'Optimi maximique Jovis interpres ac +filius, servator, rex, juxta vatum responsa, ex Olympo devolavit +in terras,' for: Jesus Christ, the Word and the Son of the +eternal Father, came into the world according to the prophets. +Most humanists wrote indeed in that style.</p> + +<p>Was Erasmus aware that he here attacked his own past? +After all, was it not exactly the same thing which he had done, +to the indignation of his opponents, when translating <i>Logos</i> +by <i>Sermo</i> instead of by <i>Verbum</i>? Had he not himself desired +that in the church hymns the metre should be corrected, not +to mention his own classical odes and paeans to Mary and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +Saints? And was his warning against the partiality for classic +proverbs and turns applicable to anything more than to the +<i>Adagia</i>?</p> + +<p>We here see the aged Erasmus on the path of reaction, +which might eventually have led him far from humanism. In +his combat with humanistic purism he foreshadows a Christian +puritanism.</p> + +<p>As always his mockery procured him a new flood of invectives. +Bembo and Sadolet, the masters of pure Latin, could +afford to smile at it, but the impetuous Julius Caesar Scaliger +violently inveighed against him, especially to avenge Longolius's +memory. Erasmus's perpetual feeling of being persecuted +got fresh food: he again thought that Aleander was at the +bottom of it. 'The Italians set the imperial court against me,' +he writes in 1530. A year later all is quiet again. He writes +jestingly: 'Upon my word, I am going to change my style +after Budaeus's model and to become a Ciceronian according +to the example of Sadolet and Bembo'. But even near the close +of his life he was engaged in a new contest with Italians, +because he had hurt their national pride; 'they rage at me on all +sides with slanderous libels, as at the enemy of Italy and Cicero'.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There were, as he had said himself, other difficulties touching +him more closely. Conditions at Basle had for years been +developing in a direction which distressed and alarmed him. +When he established himself there in 1521, it might still have +seemed to him as if the bishop, old Christopher of Utenheim, +a great admirer of Erasmus and a man after his heart, would +succeed in effecting a reformation at Basle, as he desired it; +abolishing acknowledged abuses, but remaining within the fold +of the Church. In that very year, 1521, however, the emancipation +of the municipality from the bishop's power—it had +been in progress since Basle, in 1501, had joined the Swiss +Confederacy—was consummated. Henceforth the council +was number one, now no longer exclusively made up of +aristocratic elements. In vain did the bishop ally himself +with his colleagues of Constance and Lausanne to maintain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +Catholicism. In the town the new creed got more and more +the upper hand. When, however, in 1525, it had come to open +tumults against the Catholic service, the council became more +cautious and tried to reform more heedfully.</p> + +<p>Oecolampadius desired this, too. Relations between him +and Erasmus were precarious. Erasmus himself had at one +time directed the religious thought of the impulsive, sensitive, +restless young man. When he had, in 1520, suddenly sought +refuge in a convent, he had expressly justified that step towards +Erasmus, the condemner of binding vows. And now +they saw each other again at Basle, in 1522: Oecolampadius +having left the monastery, a convinced adherent and apostle +of the new doctrine; Erasmus, the great spectator which he +wished to be. Erasmus treated his old coadjutor coolly, and as +the latter progressed, retreated more and more. Yet he kept +steering a middle course and in 1525 gave some moderate +advice to the council, which meanwhile had turned more +Catholic again.</p> + +<p>The old bishop, who for some years had no longer resided +in his town, in 1527 requested the chapter to relieve him of +his office, and died shortly afterwards. Then events moved +very quickly. After Berne had, meanwhile, reformed itself in +1528, Oecolampadius demanded a decision also for Basle. +Since the close of 1528 the town had been on the verge of civil +war. A popular rising put an end to the resistance of the +Council and cleared it of Catholic members; and in February +1529 the old service was prohibited, the images were removed +from the churches, the convents abolished, and the University +suspended. Oecolampadius became the first minister in the +'Münster' and leader of the Basle church, for which he soon +drew up a reformatory ordinance. The new bishop remained +at Porrentruy, and the chapter removed to Freiburg.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 275px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxiii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxiii-th.png" width="275" height="454" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXIII. ERASMUS'S RESIDENCE AT FREIBURG, 1529-31</p> + +<p>The moment of departure had now come for Erasmus. His +position at Basle in 1529 somewhat resembled, but in a +reversed sense, the one at Louvain in 1521. Then the Catholics +wanted to avail themselves of his services against Luther, now +the Evangelicals would fain have kept him at Basle. For his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +name was still as a banner. His presence would strengthen the +position of reformed Basle; on the one hand, because, as people +reasoned, if he were not of the same mind as the reformers, +he would have left the town long ago; on the other hand, +because his figure seemed to guarantee moderation and might +attract many hesitating minds.</p> + +<p>It was, therefore, again to safeguard his independence that +Erasmus changed his residence. It was a great wrench this +time. Old age and invalidism had made the restless man a +stay-at-home. As he foresaw trouble from the side of the +municipality, he asked Archduke Ferdinand—who for his +brother Charles V governed the German empire and just then +presided over the Diet of Speyer—to send him a safe conduct +for the whole empire and an invitation, moreover, to come to +court, which he did not dream of accepting. As place of refuge +he had selected the not far distant town of Freiburg im Breisgau, +which was directly under the strict government of the +Austrian house, and where he, therefore, need not be afraid +of such a turn of affairs as that at Basle. It was, moreover, a +juncture at which the imperial authority and the Catholic +cause in Germany seemed again to be gaining ground rapidly.</p> + +<p>Erasmus would not or could not keep his departure a secret. +He sent the most precious of his possessions in advance, and +when this had drawn attention to his plan, he purposely invited +Oecolampadius to a farewell talk. The reformer declared +his sincere friendship for Erasmus, which the latter did not +decline, provided he granted him to differ on certain points of +dogma. Oecolampadius tried to keep him from leaving the +town, and, when it proved too late for that, to persuade him +to return later. They took leave with a handshake. Erasmus +had desired to join his boat at a distant landing-stage, but the +Council would not allow this: he had to start from the usual +place near the Rhine bridge. A numerous crowd witnessed his +embarkation, 13 April 1529. Some friends were there to see +him off. No unfavourable demonstration occurred.</p> + +<p>His reception at Freiburg convinced him that, in spite of all, +he was still the celebrated and admired prince of letters. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +Council placed at his disposal the large, though unfinished, +house built for the Emperor Maximilian himself; a professor +of theology offered him his garden. Anthony Fugger had +tried to draw him to Augsburg by means of a yearly allowance. +For the rest he considered Freiburg by no means a permanent +place of abode. 'I have resolved to remain here this winter and +then to fly with the swallows to the place whither God shall +call me.' But he soon recognized the great advantage which +Freiburg offered. The climate, to which he was so sensitive, +turned out better than he expected, and the position of the +town was extremely favourable for emigrating to France, +should circumstances require this, or for dropping down the +Rhine back to the Netherlands, whither many always called +him. In 1531 he bought a house at Freiburg.</p> + +<p>The old Erasmus at Freiburg, ever more tormented by his +painful malady, much more disillusioned than when he left +Louvain in 1521, of more confirmed views as to the great +ecclesiastical strife, will only be fully revealed to us when his +correspondence with Boniface Amerbach, the friend whom +he left behind at Basle—a correspondence not found complete +in the older collections—has been edited by Dr. Allen's care. +From no period of Erasmus's life, it seems, may so much +be gleaned, in point of knowledge of his daily habits and +thoughts, as from these very years. Work went on without +a break in that great scholar's workshop where he directs his +famuli, who hunt manuscripts for him, and then copy and +examine them, and whence he sends forth his letters all over +Europe. In the series of editions of the Fathers followed Basil +and new editions of Chrysostom and Cyprian; his editions of +classic authors were augmented by the works of Aristotle. He +revised and republished the <i>Colloquies</i> three more times, the +<i>Adages</i> and the New Testament once more. Occasional +writings of a moral or politico-theological nature kept flowing +from his pen.</p> + +<p>From the cause of the Reformation he was now quite +estranged. 'Pseudevangelici', he contumeliously calls the +reformed. 'I might have been a corypheus in Luther's church,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +he writes in 1528, 'but I preferred to incur the hatred of all +Germany to being separate from the community of the +Church.' The authorities should have paid a little less attention +at first to Luther's proceedings; then the fire would never +have spread so violently. He had always urged theologians to +let minor concerns which only contain an appearance of piety +rest, and to turn to the sources of Scripture. Now it was too +late. Towns and countries united ever more closely for or +against the Reformation. 'If, what I pray may never happen,' +he writes to Sadolet in 1530, 'you should see horrible commotions +of the world arise, not so fatal for Germany as for the +Church, then remember Erasmus prophesied it.' To Beatus +Rhenanus he frequently said that, had he known that an age +like theirs was coming, he would never have written many +things, or would not have written them as he had.</p> + +<p>'Just look,' he exclaims, 'at the Evangelical people, have +they become any better? Do they yield less to luxury, lust and +greed? Show me a man whom that Gospel has changed from +a toper to a temperate man, from a brute to a gentle creature, +from a miser into a liberal person, from a shameless to a chaste +being. I will show you many who have become even worse +than they were.' Now they have thrown the images out of +the churches and abolished mass (he is thinking of Basle especially): +has anything better come instead? 'I have never +entered their churches, but I have seen them return from hearing +the sermon, as if inspired by an evil spirit, the faces of all +showing a curious wrath and ferocity, and there was no one +except one old man who saluted me properly, when I passed +in the company of some distinguished persons.'</p> + +<p>He hated that spirit of absolute assuredness so inseparably +bound up with the reformers. 'Zwingli and Bucer may be +inspired by the Spirit, Erasmus from himself is nothing but a +man and cannot comprehend what is of the Spirit.'</p> + +<p>There was a group among the reformed to whom Erasmus +in his heart of hearts was more nearly akin than to the +Lutherans or Zwinglians with their rigid dogmatism: the +Anabaptists. He rejected the doctrine from which they derived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +their name, and abhorred the anarchic element in them. He +remained far too much the man of spiritual decorum to +identify himself with these irregular believers. But he was not +blind to the sincerity of their moral aspirations and sympathized +with their dislike of brute force and the patience with +which they bore persecution. 'They are praised more than all +others for the innocence of their life,' he writes in 1529. Just +in the last part of his life came the episode of the violent +revolutionary proceedings of the fanatic Anabaptists; it goes +without saying that Erasmus speaks of it only with horror.</p> + +<p>One of the best historians of the Reformation, Walter +Köhler, calls Erasmus one of the spiritual fathers of Anabaptism. +And certain it is that in its later, peaceful development +it has important traits in common with Erasmus: a +tendency to acknowledge free will, a certain rationalistic +trend, a dislike of an exclusive conception of a Church. It +seems possible to prove that the South German Anabaptist +Hans Denk derived opinions directly from Erasmus. For a +considerable part, however, this community of ideas must, +no doubt, have been based on peculiarities of religious consciousness +in the Netherlands, whence Erasmus sprang, and +where Anabaptism found such a receptive soil. Erasmus was +certainly never aware of these connections.</p> + +<p>Some remarkable evidence regarding Erasmus's altered +attitude towards the old and the new Church is shown by +what follows.</p> + +<p>The reproach he had formerly so often flung at the advocates +of conservatism that they hated the <i>bonae literae</i>, so dear to +him, and wanted to stifle them, he now uses against the +evangelical party. 'Wherever Lutherism is dominant the study +of literature is extinguished. Why else,' he continues, using a +remarkable sophism, 'are Luther and Melanchthon compelled +to call back the people so urgently to the love of letters?' +'Just compare the University of Wittenberg with that of +Louvain or Paris!... Printers say that before this Gospel +came they used to dispose of 3,000 volumes more quickly than +now of 600. A sure proof that studies flourish!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xx" id="chapter_xx"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>LAST YEARS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Religious and political contrasts grow sharper—The coming strife in +Germany still suspended—Erasmus finishes his <i>Ecclesiastes</i>—Death of +Fisher and More—Erasmus back at Basle: 1535—Pope Paul III wants to +make him write in favour of the cause of the Council—Favours declined by +Erasmus—<i>De Puritate Ecclesiae</i>—The end: 12 July 1536</p></div> + + +<p>During the last years of Erasmus's life all the great issues +which kept the world in suspense were rapidly taking +threatening forms. Wherever compromise or reunion had +before still seemed possible, sharp conflicts, clearly outlined +party-groupings, binding formulae were now barring the +way to peace. While in the spring of 1529 Erasmus prepared +for his departure from Basle, a strong Catholic majority of the +Diet at Speyer got the 'recess' of 1526, favourable for the +Evangelicals, revoked, only the Lutherans among them keeping +what they had obtained; and secured a prohibition of any +further changes or novelties. The Zwinglians and Anabaptists +were not allowed to enjoy the least tolerance. This was immediately +followed by the Protest of the chief evangelical +princes and towns, which henceforth was to give the name to +all anti-Catholics together (19 April 1529). And not only +between Catholics and Protestants in the Empire did the +rupture become complete. Even before the end of that year +the question of the Lord's supper proved an insuperable stumbling-block +in the way of a real union of Zwinglians and +Lutherans. Luther parted from Zwingli at the colloquy of +Marburg with the words, 'Your spirit differs from ours'.</p> + +<p>In Switzerland civil war had openly broken out between +the Catholic and the Evangelical cantons, only calmed for a +short time by the first peace of Kappel. The treaties of Cambray +and Barcelona, which in 1529 restored at least political +peace in Christendom for the time being, could no longer +draw from old Erasmus jubilations about a coming golden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +age, like those with which the concord of 1516 had inspired +him. A month later the Turks appeared before Vienna.</p> + +<p>All these occurrences could not but distress and alarm +Erasmus. But he was outside them. When reading his letters +of that period we are more than ever impressed by the fact +that, for all the width and liveliness of his mind, he is remote +from the great happenings of his time. Beyond a certain circle +of interests, touching his own ideas or his person, his perceptions +are vague and weak. If he still meddles occasionally with +questions of the day, he does so in the moralizing manner, by +means of generalities, without emphasis: his 'Advice about +declaring war on the Turks' (March 1530) is written in the +form of an interpretation of Psalm 28, and so vague that, at +the close, he himself anticipates that the reader may exclaim: +'But now say clearly: do you think that war should be +declared or not?'</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1530 the Diet met again at Augsburg +under the auspices of the Emperor himself to try once more +'to attain to a good peace and Christian truth'. The Augsburg +Confession, defended all too weakly by Melanchthon, was +read here, disputed, and declared refuted by the Emperor.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had no share in all this. Many had exhorted him +in letters to come to Augsburg; but he had in vain expected a +summons from the Emperor. At the instance of the Emperor's +counsellors he had postponed his proposed removal to +Brabant in that autumn till after the decision of the Diet. But +his services were not needed for the drastic resolution of +repression with which the Emperor closed the session in +November.</p> + +<p>The great struggle in Germany seemed to be approaching: +the resolutions of Augsburg were followed by the formation +of the League of Schmalkalden uniting all Protestant territories +and towns of Germany in their opposition to the +Emperor. In the same year (1531) Zwingli was killed in the +battle of Kappel against the Catholic cantons, soon to be followed +by Oecolampadius, who died at Basle. 'It is right', +writes Erasmus, 'that those two leaders have perished. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +Mars had been favourable to them, we should now have been +done for.'</p> + +<p>In Switzerland a sort of equilibrium had set in; at any rate +matters had come to a standstill; in Germany the inevitable +struggle was postponed for many years. The Emperor had +understood that, to combat the German Protestants effectively, +he should first get the Pope to hold the Council which would +abolish the acknowledged abuses of the Church. The religious +peace of Nuremberg (1532) put the seal upon this turn of +imperial policy.</p> + +<p>It might seem as if before long the advocates of moderate +reform and of a compromise might after all get a chance of +being heard. But Erasmus had become too old to actively +participate in the decisions (if he had ever seriously considered +such participation). He does write a treatise, though, in 1533, +'On the sweet concord of the Church', like his 'Advice on +the Turks' in the form of an interpretation of a psalm (83). +But it would seem as if the old vivacity of his style and his +power of expression, so long unimpaired, now began to flag. +The same remark applies to an essay 'On the preparation for +death', published the same year. His voice was growing weaker.</p> + +<p>During these years he turned his attention chiefly to the +completion of the great work which more than any other +represented for him the summing up and complete exposition +of his moral-theological ideas: <i>Ecclesiastes</i> or, <i>On the Way to +preach</i>. Erasmus had always regarded preaching as the most +dignified part of an ecclesiastic's duties. As preachers, he had +most highly valued Colet and Vitrarius. As early as 1519 his +friend, John Becar of Borselen, urged him to follow up the +<i>Enchiridion</i> of the Christian soldier and the <i>Institutio</i> of the +Christian prince, by the true instruction of the Christian +preacher. 'Later, later,' Erasmus had promised him, 'at +present I have too much work, but I hope to undertake it +soon.' In 1523 he had already made a sketch and some notes +for it. It was meant for John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, +Erasmus's great friend and brother-spirit, who eagerly looked +forward to it and urged the author to finish it. The work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +gradually grew into the most voluminous of Erasmus's original +writings: a forest of a work, <i>operis sylvam</i>, he calls it himself. +In four books he treated his subject, the art of preaching well +and decorously, with an inexhaustible abundance of examples, +illustrations, schemes, etc. But was it possible that a work, +conceived already by the Erasmus of 1519, and upon which +he had been so long engaged, while he himself had gradually +given up the boldness of his earlier years, could still be a +revelation in 1533, as the <i>Enchiridion</i> had been in its day?</p> + +<p><i>Ecclesiastes</i> is the work of a mind fatigued, which no longer +sharply reacts upon the needs of his time. As the result of a +correct, intellectual, tasteful instruction in a suitable manner +of preaching, in accordance with the purity of the Gospel, +Erasmus expects to see society improve. 'The people become +more obedient to the authorities, more respectful towards the +law, more peaceable. Between husband and wife comes +greater concord, more perfect faithfulness, greater dislike of +adultery. Servants obey more willingly, artisans work better, +merchants cheat no more.'</p> + +<p>At the same time that Erasmus took this work to Froben, +at Basle, to print, a book of a young Frenchman, who had +recently fled from France to Basle, passed through the press of +another Basle printer, Thomas Platter. It too was to be a manual +of the life of faith: the <i>Institution of the Christian Religion</i>, by +Calvin.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Even before Erasmus had quite completed the <i>Ecclesiastes</i>, +the man for whom the work had been meant was no more. +Instead of to the Bishop of Rochester, Erasmus dedicated his +voluminous work to the Bishop of Augsburg, Christopher of +Stadion. John Fisher, to set a seal on his spiritual endeavours, +resembling those of Erasmus in so many respects, had left +behind, as a testimony to the world, for which Erasmus knew +himself too weak, that of martyrdom. On 22 June 1535, he +was beheaded by command of Henry VIII. He died for being +faithful to the old Church. Together with More he had steadfastly +refused to take the oath to the Statute of Supremacy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +Not two weeks after Fisher, Thomas More mounted the +scaffold. The fate of those two noblest of his friends grieved +Erasmus. It moved him to do what for years he had no +longer done: to write a poem. But rather than in the fine +Latin measure of that <i>Carmen heroïcum</i> one would have liked +to hear his emotion in language of sincere dismay and indignation +in his letters. They are hardly there. In the words devoted +to Fisher's death in the preface to the <i>Ecclesiastes</i> there is no +heartfelt emotion. Also in his letters of those days, he speaks +with reserve. 'Would More had never meddled with that +dangerous business, and left the theological cause to the +theologians.' As if More had died for aught but simply for his +conscience!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When Erasmus wrote these words, he was no longer at +Freiburg. He had in June 1535 gone to Basle, to work in +Froben's printing-office, as of old; the <i>Ecclesiastes</i> was at last +going to press and still required careful supervision and the +final touches during the process; the <i>Adagia</i> had to be reprinted, +and a Latin edition of Origenes was in preparation. +The old, sick man was cordially received by the many friends +who still lived at Basle. Hieronymus Froben, Johannes's son, +who after his father's death managed the business with two +relatives, sheltered him in his house <i>Zum Luft</i>. In the hope of +his return a room had been built expressly for him and fitted +up as was convenient for him. Erasmus found that at Basle the +ecclesiastical storms which had formerly driven him away +had subsided. Quiet and order had returned. He did feel a +spirit of distrust in the air, it is true, 'but I think that, on +account of my age, of habit, and of what little erudition I +possess, I have now got so far that I may live in safety anywhere'. +At first he had regarded the removal as an experiment. +He did not mean to stay at Basle. If his health could not stand +the change of air, he would return to his fine, well-appointed, +comfortable house at Freiburg. If he should prove able to bear +it, then the choice was between the Netherlands (probably +Brussels, Malines or Antwerp, perhaps Louvain) or Burgundy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +in particular Besançon. Towards the end of his life he clung to +the illusion which he had been cherishing for a long time that +Burgundy wine alone was good for him and kept his malady +in check. There is something pathetic in the proportions which +this wine-question gradually assumes: that it is so dear at Basle +might be overlooked, but the thievish wagoners drink up or +spoil what is imported.</p> + +<p>In August he doubted greatly whether he will return to +Freiburg. In October he sold his house and part of his furniture +and had the rest transported to Basle. After the summer +he hardly left his room, and was mostly bedridden.</p> + +<p>Though the formidable worker in him still yearned for +more years and time to labour, his soul was ready for death. +Happy he had never felt; only during the last years he utters +his longing for the end. He was still, curiously enough, subject +to the delusion of being in the thick of the struggle. 'In this +arena I shall have to fall,' he writes in 1533. 'Only this consoles +me, that near at hand already, the general haven comes in +sight, which, if Christ be favourable, will bring the end of all +labour and trouble.' Two years later his voice sounds more +urgent: 'That the Lord might deign to call me out of this +raving world to His rest'.</p> + +<p>Most of his old friends were gone. Warham and Mountjoy +had passed away before More and Fisher; Peter Gilles, so +many years younger than he, had departed in 1533; also +Pirckheimer had been dead for years. Beatus Rhenanus shows +him to us, during the last months of his life, re-perusing his +friends' letters of the last few years, and repeating: 'This one, +too, is dead'. As he grew more solitary, his suspiciousness and +his feeling of being persecuted became stronger. 'My friends +decrease, my enemies increase,' he writes in 1532, when +Warham has died and Aleander has risen still higher. In the +autumn of 1535 he thinks that all his former servant-pupils +betray him, even the best beloved ones like Quirin Talesius and +Charles Utenhove. They do not write to him, he complains.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxiv.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxiv-th.png" width="350" height="474" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXIV. CARDINAL JEROME ALEANDER</p> + +<p>In October 1534, Pope Clement VII was succeeded by +Paul III, who at once zealously took up the Council-question.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +The meeting of a Council was, in the eyes of many, the only +means by which union could be restored to the Church, and +now a chance of realizing this seemed nigh. At once the most +learned theologians were invited to help in preparing the +great work. Erasmus did not omit, in January 1535, to address +to the new Pope a letter of congratulation, in which he professed +his willingness to co-operate in bringing about the +pacification of the Church, and warned the Pope to steer a +cautious middle course. On 31 May followed a reply full of +kindliness and acknowledgement. The Pope exhorted Erasmus, +'that you too, graced by God with so much laudable talent +and learning, may help Us in this pious work, which is so +agreeable to your mind, to defend, with Us, the Catholic +religion, by the spoken and the written word, before and +during the Council, and in this manner by this last work of +piety, as by the best act to close a life of religion and so many +writings, to refute your accusers and rouse your admirers to +fresh efforts.'</p> + +<p>Would Erasmus in years of greater strength have seen his +way to co-operate actively in the council of the great? Undoubtedly, +the Pope's exhortation correctly represented his +inclination. But once faced by the necessity of hard, clear +resolutions, what would he have effected? Would his spirit of +peace and toleration, of reserve and compromise, have brought +alleviation and warded off the coming struggle? He was spared +the experiment.</p> + +<p>He knew himself too weak to be able to think of strenuous +church-political propaganda any more. Soon there came +proofs that the kindly feelings at Rome were sincere. There +had been some question also of numbering Erasmus among +the cardinals who were to be nominated with a view to the +Council; a considerable benefice connected with the church +of Deventer was already offered him. But Erasmus urged the +Roman friends who were thus active in his behalf to cease their +kind offices; he would accept nothing, he a man who lived +from day to day in expectation of death and often hoping for +it, who could hardly ever leave his room—would people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +instigate <i>him</i> to hunt for deaneries and cardinals' hats! He had +subsistence enough to last him. He wanted to die independent.</p> + +<p>Yet his pen did not rest. The <i>Ecclesiastes</i> had been printed +and published and <i>Origenes</i> was still to follow. Instead of the +important and brilliant task to which Rome called him, he +devoted his last strength to a simple deed of friendly cordiality. +The friend to whose share the honour fell to receive from the +old, death-sick author a last composition prepared expressly +for him, amidst the most terrible pains, was the most modest +of the number who had not lost their faith in him. No prelate +or prince, no great wit or admired divine, but Christopher +Eschenfelder, customs officer at Boppard on the Rhine. On his +passage in 1518 Erasmus had, with glad surprise, found him +to be a reader of his work and a man of culture.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> That friendship +had been a lasting one. Eschenfelder had asked Erasmus to +dedicate the interpretation of some psalm to him (a form of +composition often preferred by Erasmus of late). About the +close of 1535 he remembered that request. He had forgotten +whether Eschenfelder had indicated a particular psalm and +chose one at haphazard, Psalm 14, calling the treatise 'On the +purity of the Christian Church'. He expressly dedicated it to +'the publican' in January 1536. It is not remarkable among his +writings as to contents and form, but it was to be his last.</p> + +<p>On 12 February 1536, Erasmus made his final preparations. +In 1527 he had already made a will with detailed clauses for +the printing of his complete works by Froben. In 1534 he drew +up an accurate inventory of his belongings. He sold his library +to the Polish nobleman Johannes a Lasco. The arrangements of +1536 testify to two things which had played an important part +in his life: his relations with the house of Froben and his need +of friendship. Boniface Amerbach is his heir. Hieronymus +Froben and Nicholas Episcopius, the managers of the business, +are his executors. To each of the good friends left to him he +bequeathed one of the trinkets which spoke of his fame with +princes and the great ones of the earth, in the first place to +Louis Ber and Beatus Rhenanus. The poor and the sick were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +not forgotten, and he remembered especially girls about to +marry and youths of promise. The details of this charity he +left to Amerbach.</p> + +<p>In March 1536, he still thinks of leaving for Burgundy. +Money matters occupy him and he speaks of the necessity of +making new friends, for the old ones leave him: the Bishop of +Cracow, Zasius at Freiburg. According to Beatus Rhenanus, +the Brabant plan stood foremost at the end of Erasmus's life. +The Regent, Mary of Hungary, did not cease to urge him to +return to the Netherlands. Erasmus's own last utterance leaves +us in doubt whether he had made up his mind. 'Though I am +living here with the most sincere friends, such as I did not +possess at Freiburg, I should yet, on account of the differences +of doctrine, prefer to end my life elsewhere. If only Brabant +were nearer.'</p> + +<p>This he writes on 28 June 1536. He had felt so poorly for +some days that he had not even been able to read. In the letter +we again trace the delusion that Aleander persecutes him, sets +on opponents against him, and even lays snares for his friends. +Did his mind at last give way too?</p> + +<p>On 12 July the end came. The friends around his couch +heard him groan incessantly: 'O Jesu, misericordia; Domine +libera me; Domine miserere mei!' And at last in Dutch: +'Lieve God.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> See Erasmus's letter, p. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="chapter_xxi" id="chapter_xxi"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>CONCLUSION</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Conclusion—Erasmus and the spirit of the sixteenth century—His weak +points—A thorough idealist and yet a moderate mind—The enlightener of +a century—He anticipates tendencies of two centuries later—His influence +affects both Protestantism and Catholic reform—The Erasmian spirit in the +Netherlands</p></div> + + +<p>Looking back on the life of Erasmus the question still arises: +why has he remained so great? For ostensibly his endeavours +ended in failure. He withdraws in alarm from that tremendous +struggle which he rightly calls a tragedy; the sixteenth century, +bold and vehement, thunders past him, disdaining his ideal of +moderation and tolerance. Latin literary erudition, which to +him was the epitome of all true culture, has gone out as such. +Erasmus, so far as regards the greater part of his writings, is +among the great ones who are no longer read. He has become +a name. But why does that name still sound so clear and +articulate? Why does he keep regarding us, as if he still knew +a little more than he has ever been willing to utter?</p> + +<p>What has he been to his age, and what was he to be for later +generations? Has he been rightly called a precursor of the +modern spirit?</p> + +<p>Regarded as a child of the sixteenth century, he does seem +to differ from the general tenor of his times. Among those +vehemently passionate, drastically energetic and violent +natures of the great ones of his day, Erasmus stands as the man +of too few prejudices, with a little too much delicacy of taste, +with a deficiency, though not, indeed, in every department, of +that <i>stultitia</i> which he had praised as a necessary constituent +of life. Erasmus is the man who is too sensible and moderate +for the heroic.</p> + +<p>What a surprising difference there is between the <i>accent</i> of +Erasmus and that of Luther, Calvin, and Saint Teresa! What a +difference, also, between his accent, that is, the accent of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +humanism, and that of Albrecht Dürer, of Michelangelo, or of +Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>Erasmus seems, at times, the man who was not strong +enough for his age. In that robust sixteenth century it seems as +if the oaken strength of Luther was necessary, the steely edge +of Calvin, the white heat of Loyola; not the velvet softness +of Erasmus. Not only were their force and their fervour +necessary, but also their depth, their unsparing, undaunted +consistency, sincerity and outspokenness.</p> + +<p>They cannot bear that smile which makes Luther speak of +the guileful being looking out of Erasmus's features. His +piety is too even for them, too limp. Loyola has testified +that the reading of the <i>Enchiridion militis Christiani</i> relaxed +his fervour and made his devotion grow cold. He saw that +warrior of Christ differently, in the glowing colours of the +Spanish-Christian, medieval ideal of chivalry.</p> + +<p>Erasmus had never passed through those depths of self-reprobation +and that consciousness of sin which Luther had +traversed with toil; he saw no devil to fight with, and tears +were not familiar to him. Was he altogether unaware of the +deepest mystery? Or did it rest in him too deep for utterance?</p> + +<p>Let us not suppose too quickly that we are more nearly allied +to Luther or Loyola because their figures appeal to us more. If +at present our admiration goes out again to the ardently pious, +and to spiritual extremes, it is partly because our unstable time +requires strong stimuli. To appreciate Erasmus we should begin +by giving up our admiration of the extravagant, and for many +this requires a certain effort at present. It is extremely easy +to break the staff over Erasmus. His faults lie on the surface, +and though he wished to hide many things, he never hid his +weaknesses.</p> + +<p>He was too much concerned about what people thought, +and he could not hold his tongue. His mind was <i>too</i> rich and +facile, always suggesting a superfluity of arguments, cases, +examples, quotations. He could never let things slide. All his +life he grudged himself leisure to rest and collect himself, to see +how unimportant after all was the commotion round about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +him, if only he went his own way courageously. Rest and +independence he desired most ardently of all things; there +was no more restless and dependent creature. Judge him as one +of a too delicate constitution who ventures out in a storm. His +will-power was great enough. He worked night and day, +amidst the most violent bodily suffering, with a great ideal +steadfastly before him, never satisfied with his own achievements. +He was not self-sufficient.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As an intellectual type Erasmus was one of a rather small +group: the absolute idealists who, at the same time, are +thoroughly moderate. They can not bear the world's imperfections; +they feel constrained to oppose. But extremes are +uncongenial to them; they shrink back from action, because +they know it pulls down as much as it erects, and so they withdraw +themselves, and keep calling that everything should be +different; but when the crisis comes, they reluctantly side with +tradition and conservatism. Here too is a fragment of Erasmus's +life-tragedy: he was the man who saw the new and coming +things more clearly than anyone else—who must needs +quarrel with the old and yet could not accept the new. He +tried to remain in the fold of the old Church, after having +damaged it seriously, and renounced the Reformation, and to +a certain extent even Humanism, after having furthered both +with all his strength.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxv.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxv.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXV. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 65</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Our final opinion about Erasmus has been concerned with +negative qualities, so far. What was his positive importance?</p> + +<p>Two facts make it difficult for the modern mind to understand +Erasmus's positive importance: first that his influence +was extensive rather than intensive, and therefore less historically +discernible at definite points, and second, that his influence +has ceased. He has done his work and will speak to the +world no more. Like Saint Jerome, his revered model, and +Voltaire, with whom he has been occasionally compared, 'he +has his reward'. But like them he has been the enlightener of +an age from whom a broad stream of culture emanated.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxvi.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxvi-th.png" width="375" height="286" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXVI. ERASMUS DICTATING TO HIS SECRETARY, 1530<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<p>As historic investigation of the French Revolution is becoming +more and more aware that the true history of France +during that period should be looked for in those groups which +as 'Centre' or 'Marais' seemed for a long time but a drove of +supernumeraries, and understands that it should occasionally +protect its eyes a little from the lightning flashes of the Gironde +and Mountain thunderstorm; so the history of the Reformation +period should pay attention—and it has done so for a long +time—to the broad central sphere permeated by the Erasmian +spirit. One of his opponents said: 'Luther has drawn a large +part of the Church to himself, Zwingli and Oecolampadius +also some part, but Erasmus the largest'. Erasmus's public was +numerous and of high culture. He was the only one of the +Humanists who really wrote for all the world, that is to say, +for all educated people. He accustomed a whole world to +another and more fluent mode of expression: he shifted the +interest, he influenced by his perfect clarity of exposition, +even through the medium of Latin, the style of the vernacular +languages, apart from the numberless translations of his works. +For his contemporaries Erasmus put on many new stops, one +might say, of the great organ of human expression, as +Rousseau was to do two centuries later.</p> + +<p>He might well think with some complacency of the influence +he had exerted on the world. 'From all parts of the +world'—he writes towards the close of his life—'I am daily +thanked by many, because they have been kindled by my +works, whatever may be their merit, into zeal for a good +disposition and sacred literature; and they who have never seen +Erasmus, yet know and love him from his books.' He was glad +that his translations from the Greek had become superfluous; +he had everywhere led many to take up Greek and Holy +Scripture, 'which otherwise they would never have read'. He +had been an introducer and an initiator. He might leave the +stage after having said his say.</p> + +<p>His word signified something beyond a classical sense and +biblical disposition. It was at the same time the first enunciation +of the creed of education and perfectibility, of warm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +social feeling and of faith in human nature, of peaceful kindliness +and toleration. 'Christ dwells everywhere; piety is +practised under every garment, if only a kindly disposition is +not wanting.'</p> + +<p>In all these ideas and convictions Erasmus really heralds a +later age. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries those +thoughts remained an undercurrent: in the eighteenth +Erasmus's message of deliverance bore fruit. In this respect he +has most certainly been a precursor and preparer of the +modern mind: of Rousseau, Herder, Pestalozzi and of the +English and American thinkers. It is only part of the modern +mind which is represented by all this. To a number of its +developments Erasmus was wholly a stranger, to the evolution +of natural science, of the newer philosophy, of political +economy. But in so far as people still believe in the ideal that +moral education and general tolerance may make humanity +happier, humanity owes much to Erasmus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>This does not imply that Erasmus's mind did not directly +and fruitfully influence his own times. Although Catholics +regarded him in the heat of the struggle as the corrupter of +the Church, and Protestants as the betrayer of the Gospel, yet +his word of moderation and kindliness did not pass by unheard +or unheeded on either side. Eventually neither camp +finally rejected Erasmus. Rome did not brand him as an arch-heretic, +but only warned the faithful to read him with caution. +Protestant history has been studious to reckon him as one of +the Reformers. Both obeyed in this the pronouncement of a +public opinion which was above parties and which continued +to admire and revere Erasmus.</p> + +<p>To the reconstruction of the Catholic Church and the +erection of the evangelical churches not only the names of +Luther and Loyola are linked. The moderate, the intellectual, +the conciliating have also had their share of the work; figures +like Melanchthon here, Sadolet there, both nearly allied to +Erasmus and sympathetically disposed towards him. The frequently +repeated attempts to arrive at some compromise in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +the great religious conflict, though they might be doomed to +end in failure, emanated from the Erasmian spirit.</p> + +<p>Nowhere did that spirit take root so easily as in the country +that gave Erasmus birth. A curious detail shows us that it was +not the exclusive privilege of either great party. Of his two +most favoured pupils of later years, both Netherlanders, whom +as the actors of the colloquy <i>Astragalismus</i> (<i>The Game of +Knucklebones</i>), he has immortalized together, the one, Quirin +Talesius, died for his attachment to the Spanish cause and the +Catholic faith: he was hanged in 1572 by the citizens of +Haarlem, where he was a burgomaster. The other, Charles +Utenhove, was sedulous on the side of the revolt and the +Reformed religion. At Ghent, in concert with the Prince of +Orange, he turned against the narrow-minded Protestant +terrorism of the zealots.</p> + +<p>A Dutch historian recently tried to trace back the opposition +of the Dutch against the king of Spain to the influence of +Erasmus's political thought in his arraignment of bad princes—wrongly +as I think. Erasmus's political diatribes were far too +academic and too general for that. The desire of resistance and +revolt arose from quite other causes. The 'Gueux' were not +Erasmus's progeny. But there is much that is Erasmian in the +spirit of their great leader, William of Orange, whose vision +ranged so widely beyond the limitations of religious hatred. +Thoroughly permeated by the Erasmian spirit, too, was that +class of municipal magistrates who were soon to take the lead +and to set the fashion in the established Republic. History is +wont, as always with an aristocracy, to take their faults very +seriously. After all, perhaps no other aristocracy, unless it be +that of Venice, has ruled a state so long, so well and with so +little violence. If in the seventeenth century the institutions of +Holland, in the eyes of foreigners, were the admired models of +prosperity, charity and social discipline, and patterns of gentleness +and wisdom, however defective they may seem to +us—then the honour of all this is due to the municipal aristocracy. +If in the Dutch patriciate of that time those aspirations +lived and were translated into action, it was Erasmus's spirit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +social responsibility which inspired them. The history of +Holland is far less bloody and cruel than that of any of the surrounding +countries. Not for naught did Erasmus praise as +truly Dutch those qualities which we might also call truly +Erasmian: gentleness, kindliness, moderation, a generally +diffused moderate erudition. Not romantic virtues, if you like; +but are they the less salutary?</p> + +<p>One more instance. In the Republic of the Seven Provinces +the atrocious executions of witches and wizards ceased more +than a century before they did in all other countries. This was +not owing to the merit of the Reformed pastors. They shared +the popular belief which demanded persecution. It was the +magistrates whose enlightenment even as early as the beginning +of the seventeenth century no longer tolerated these +things. Again, we are entitled to say, though Erasmus was not +one of those who combated this practice: the spirit which +breathes from this is that of Erasmus.</p> + +<p>Cultured humanity has cause to hold Erasmus's memory in +esteem, if for no other reason than that he was the fervently +sincere preacher of that general kindliness which the world still +so urgently needs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="letters" id="letters"></a>SELECTION FROM THE LETTERS OF ERASMUS</h2> + + +<p><i>This selection from the vast correspondence of Erasmus is intended to exhibit +him at a few points in his strenuous and rather comfortless life, always +overworked, often ill, and perpetually hurried—many of his letters have the +postscript 'In haste' or 'I had no time to read this over'—but holding always +tenaciously to his aim of steering a middle course; in religion between the +corruption and fossilization of the old and the uncompromising violence of +the new: in learning between neo-paganism on the one hand and the indolent +refusal, under the pretext of piety, to apply critical methods to sacred texts +on the other. The first letter has been included because it may provide a clue +to his later reluctance to trust his feelings when self-committal to any cause +seemed to be required of him, a reluctance not unnaturally interpreted by his +enemies as an arrogant refusal to 'yield to any'.</i></p> + +<p><i>The notes have been compiled from P. S. and H. M. Allen's</i> Opus +epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, <i>Oxford, 1906-47, by the kind +permission of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, and references are to the +numbers of the letters in that edition</i>.</p> + + +<h3>I. TO SERVATIUS ROGER<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></h3> + +<p>[Steyn, <i>c.</i> 1487]</p> + +<p>To his friend Servatius, greetings:</p> + +<p>... You say there is something which you take very hard, which +torments you wretchedly, which in short makes life a misery to you. +Your looks and your carriage betray this, even if you were silent. +Where is your wonted and beloved cheerful countenance gone, your +former beauty, your lively glance? Whence come these sorrowful +downcast eyes, whence this perpetual silence, so unlike you, whence +the look of a sick man in your expression? Assuredly as the poet says, +'the sick body betrays the torments of the lurking soul, likewise its +joys: it is to the mind that the face owes its looks, well or ill'.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>It is certain then, my Servatius, that there is something which +troubles you, which is destroying your former good health. But what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +am I to do now? Must I comfort you or scold you? Why do you hide +your pain from me as if we did not know each other by this time? +You are so deep that you do not believe your closest friend, or trust +even the most trustworthy; or do you not know that the hidden fire +burns stronger?... And for the rest, my Servatius, what is it makes +you draw in and hide yourself like a snail? I suspect what the matter +is: you have not yet convinced yourself that I love you very much. +So I entreat you by the things sweetest to you in life, by our great +love, if you have any care for your safety, if you want me to live +unharmed, not to be at such pains to hide your feelings, but whatever +it is, entrust it to my safe ears. I will assist you in whatever way I can +with help or counsel. But if I cannot provide either, still it will be +sweet to rejoice with you, to weep with you, to live and die with +you. Farewell, my Servatius, and look after your health.</p> + + +<h3>II. TO NICHOLAS WERNER<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></h3> + +<p>Paris, 13 September [1496]</p> + +<p>To the religious Father Nicholas Werner, greetings:</p> + +<p>... If you are all well there, things are as I wish and hope; I myself am +very well, the gods be thanked. I have now made clear by my actions—if +it was not clear to anyone before this—how much theology is +coming to mean to me. A somewhat arrogant claim; but it ill becomes +Erasmus to hide anything from his most loving Father. Lately I had +fallen in with certain Englishmen, of noble birth, and all of them +wealthy. Very recently I was approached by a young priest,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> very +rich, who said he had refused a bishopric offered him, as he knew that +he was not well educated; nevertheless he is to be recalled by the King +to take a bishopric within a year, although, apart from any bishopric +even, he has a yearly income of more than 2000 <i>scudi</i>. As soon as he +heard of my learning he proceeded in unbelievably affectionate +fashion to devote himself to me, to frequent and revere me—he +lived for a while in my house. He offered 100 <i>scudi</i>, if I would teach +him for a year; he offered a benefice in a few months' time; he offered +to lend me 300 <i>scudi</i>, if I should need them to procure the office, until +I could pay them back out of the benefice. By this service I could have +laid all the English in this city under an obligation to me—they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +all of the first families—and through them all England, had I so +wished. But I cared nothing for the splendid income and the far more +splendid prospects; I cared nothing for their entreaties and the tears +which accompanied them. I am telling the truth, exaggerating not at +all; the English realize that the money of all England means nothing +to me. This refusal, which I still maintain, was not made without due +consideration; not for any reward will I let myself be drawn away +from theological studies. I did not come here to teach or to pile up +gold, but to learn. Indeed I shall seek a Doctorate in Theology, if the +gods so will it.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Cambrai is marvellously fond of me: he makes +liberal promises; the remittances are not so liberal, to tell the truth. I +wish you good health, excellent Father. I beg and entreat you to commend +me in your prayers to God: I shall do likewise for you. From my +library in Paris.</p> + + +<h3>III. TO ROBERT FISHER<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></h3> + +<p>London, 5 December [1499]</p> + +<p>To Robert Fisher, Englishman, abiding in Italy, greetings:</p> + +<p>... I hesitated not a little to write to you, beloved Robert, not that I +feared lest so great a sunderance in time and place had worn away +anything of your affection towards me, but because you are in a +country where even the house-walls are more learned and more +eloquent than are our men here, so that what is here reckoned +polished, fine and delectable cannot there appear anything but crude, +mean and insipid. Wherefore your England assuredly expects you to +return not merely very learned in the law but also equally eloquent +in both the Greek and the Latin tongues. You would have seen me +also there long since, had not my friend Mountjoy carried me off to +his country when I was already packed for the journey into Italy. +Whither indeed shall I not follow a youth so polite, so kindly, so +lovable? I swear I would follow him even into Hades. You indeed +had most handsomely commended him and, in a word, precisely +delineated him; but believe me, he every day surpasses both your +commendation and my opinion of him.</p> + +<p>But you ask how England pleases me. If you have any confidence +in me, dear Robert, I would have you believe me when I say that I +have never yet liked anything so well. I have found here a climate as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +delightful as it is wholesome; and moreover so much humane learning, +not of the outworn, commonplace sort, but the profound, +accurate, ancient Greek and Latin learning, that I now scarcely miss +Italy, but for the sight of it. When I listen to my friend Colet, I seem +to hear Plato himself. Who would not marvel at the perfection of +encyclopaedic learning in Grocyn?<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> What could be keener or nobler +or nicer than Linacre's<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> judgement? What has Nature ever fashioned +gentler or sweeter or happier than the character of Thomas More? +But why should I catalogue the rest? It is marvellous how thick upon +the ground the harvest of ancient literature is here everywhere +flowering forth: all the more should you hasten your return hither. +Your friend's affection and remembrance of you is so strong that he +speaks of none so often or so gladly. Farewell. Written in haste in +London on the 5th of December.</p> + + +<h3>IV. TO JAMES BATT<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h3> + +<p>Orléans [<i>c.</i> 12 December] 1500</p> + +<p>... If you care sincerely what becomes of your Erasmus, do you +act thus: plead my shyness before my Lady<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> in pleasant phrases, as if +I had not been able to bring myself to reveal my poverty to her in +person. But you must write that I am now in a state of extreme +poverty, owing to the great expense of this flight to Orléans, as I had +to leave people from whom I was making some money. Tell her that +Italy is by far the most suitable place in which to take the Degree of +Doctor, and that it is impossible for a fastidious man to go to Italy +without a large sum of money; particularly because I am not even +at liberty to live meanly, on account of my reputation, such as it is, +for learning. You will explain how much greater fame I am likely to +bring my Lady by my learning than are the other theologians maintained +by her. They compose commonplace harangues: I write works +destined to live for ever. Their ignorant triflings are heard by one or +two persons in church: my books will be read by Latins, Greeks, by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +every race all over the world. Tell her that this kind of unlearned +theologian is to be found in hordes everywhere, whereas a man like +myself is hardly to be found once in many centuries; unless indeed +you are so superstitious that you scruple to employ a few harmless +lies to help a friend. Then you must point out that she will not be a +whit the poorer if, with a few gold pieces, she helps to restore the +corrupt text of St. Jerome and the true Theology, when so much of +her wealth is being shamelessly dissipated. After dilating on this with +your customary ingenuity and writing at length on my character, my +expectations, my affection for my Lady and my shyness, you must +then add that I have written to say that I need 200 francs in all, and +request her to grant me next year's payment now; I am not inventing +this, my dear Batt; to go to Italy with 100 francs, no, less than +100 francs, seems to me a hazardous enterprise, unless I want to enslave +myself to someone once more; may I die before I do this. Then how +little difference it will make to her whether she gives me the money +this year or next, and how much it means to me! Next urge her to +look out for a benefice for me, so that on my return I may have some +place where I can pursue learning in peace. Do not stop at this, but +devise on your own the most convenient method of indicating to her +that she should promise me, before all the other candidates, at least a +reasonable, if not a splendid, benefice which I can change as soon as a +better one appears. I am well aware that there are many candidates +for benefices; but you must say that I am the one man, whom, compared +with the rest, etc., etc. You know your old way of lying profusely +about Erasmus.... You will add at the end that I have made +the same complaint in my letter which Jerome makes more than once +in his letters, that study is tearing my eyes out, that things look as if +I shall have to follow his example and begin to study with my ears +and tongue only; and persuade her, in the most amusing words at +your command, to send me some sapphire or other gem wherewith +to fortify my eyesight. I would have told you myself which gems +have this virtue, but I have not Pliny at hand; get the information out +of your doctor.... Let me tell you what else I want you to attempt +still further—to extract a grant from the Abbot. You know him—invent +some modest and persuasive argument for making this request. +Tell him that I have a great design in hand—to constitute in its +entirety the text of Jerome, which has been corrupted, mutilated, and +thrown into disorder through the ignorance of the theologians (I +have detected many false and spurious pieces among his writings),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +and to restore the Greek.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> I shall reveal [in him] an ingenuity and a +knowledge of antiquities which no one, I venture to claim, has yet +realized. Explain that for this undertaking many books are needed, +also Greek works, so that I may receive a grant. Here you will not +be lying, Batt; I am wholly engaged on this work. Farewell, my best +and dearest Batt, and put all of Batt into this business. I mean Batt the +friend, not Batt the slowcoach.</p> + + +<h3>V. TO ANTONY OF BERGEN<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></h3> + +<p>[Paris?] [16 March? 1501]</p> + +<p>To the most illustrious prelate Antony, Abbot of St. Bertin, greetings:</p> + +<p>... I have accidentally happened upon some Greek books, and am +busy day and night secretly copying them out. I shall be asked why I +am so delighted with Cato the Censor's example that I want to turn +Greek at my age. Indeed, most excellent Father, if in my boyhood I +had been of this mind, or rather if time had not been wanting, I +should be the happiest of men. As things are, I think it better to learn, +even if a little late, than not to know things which it is of the first +importance to have at one's command. I have already tasted of Greek +literature in the past, but merely (as the saying goes) sipped at it; +however, having lately gone a little deeper into it, I perceive—as one +has often read in the best authorities—that Latin learning, rich as it is, +is defective and incomplete without Greek; for we have but a few +small streams and muddy puddles, while they have pure springs and +rivers rolling gold. I see that it is utter madness even to touch the +branch of theology which deals chiefly with the mysteries unless one +is also provided with the equipment of Greek, as the translators of the +Scriptures, owing to their conscientious scruples, render Greek forms +in such a fashion that not even the primary sense (what our theologians +call the <i>literal</i> sense) can be understood by persons ignorant of +Greek. Who could understand the sentence in the Psalm [Ps. 50.4<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +(51.3)] <i>Et peccatum meum contra me est semper</i>,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> unless he has read the +Greek? This runs as follows: +και 'η 'αμαρτια +μου ενωπιον μου +εστι διαπαντος. +At this point some theologian will spin a long story of +how the flesh is perpetually in conflict with the spirit, having been +misled by the double meaning of the preposition, that is, <i>contra</i>, when +the word ενωπιον +refers not to <i>conflict</i> but to <i>position</i>, as if you were to +say <i>opposite</i>, i.e., <i>in sight</i>: so that the Prophet's meaning was that his +fault was so hateful to him that the memory of it never left him, but +floated always before his mind as if it were present. Further in a +passage elsewhere [Ps. 91 (92. 14)], <i>Bene patientes erunt ut annuncient</i>, +everyone will be misled by the deceptive form, unless he has learned +from the Greek that, just as according to Latin usage we say <i>bene +facere</i> of those who <i>do good to</i> someone, so the Greeks call +ευπαθουντας +(<i>bene patientes</i>) those who <i>suffer good to be done them</i>. So that the sense +is, 'They will be well treated and will be helped by my benefactions, +so that they will make mention of my beneficence towards them'. +But why do I pick out a few trifling examples from so many important +ones, when I have on my side the venerable authority of the papal +Curia? There is a Curial Decree<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> still extant in the Decretals, ordaining +that persons should be appointed in the chief academies (as they were +then) capable of giving accurate instruction in Hebrew, Greek, and +Latin literature, since, as they believed, the Scriptures could not be +understood, far less discussed, without this knowledge. This most +sound and most holy decree we so far neglect that we are perfectly +satisfied with the most elementary knowledge of the Latin language, +being apparently convinced that everything can be extracted from +Duns Scotus, as it were from a cornucopia.</p> + +<p>For myself I do not fight with men of this sort; each man to his +taste, as far as I am concerned; let the old man marry the old woman. +It is my delight to set foot on the path into which Jerome and the +splendid host of so many ancients summon me; so help me God, I +would sooner be mad with them than as sane as you like with the +mob of modern theologians. Besides I am attempting an arduous and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +so to say, Phaethontean task—to do my best to restore the works of +Jerome, which have been partly corrupted by those half-learned +persons, and are partly—owing to the lack of knowledge of antiquities +and of Greek literature—forgotten or mangled or mutilated or at least +full of mistakes and monstrosities; not merely to restore them but to +elucidate them with commentaries, so that each reader will acknowledge +to himself that the great Jerome, considered by the ecclesiastical +world as the most perfect in both branches of learning, the sacred and +the profane, can indeed be read by all, but can only be understood by +the most learned. As I am working hard on this design and see that +I must in the first place acquire Greek, I have decided to study for +some months under a Greek teacher,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> a real Greek, no, twice a +Greek, always hungry,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> who charges an immoderate fee for his +lessons. Farewell.</p> + + +<h3>VI. TO WILLIAM WARHAM<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></h3> + +<p>London, 24 January [1506]</p> + +<p>To the Reverend Father in Christ, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, +Primate of England, many greetings from Erasmus of +Rotterdam, Canon of the Order of St. Augustine:</p> + +<p>... Having made up my mind, most illustrious prelate, to translate the +Greek authors and by so doing to revive or, if you will, promote as +far as I could theological studies—and God immortal, how miserably +they have been corrupted by sophistical nonsensicalities!—I did not +wish to give the impression that I was attempting forthwith to learn +the potter's art on a winejar<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> (as the Greek adage goes) and rushing +in with unwashen feet, as they say, on so vast an undertaking; so I +decided to begin by testing how far I had profited by my studies in +both languages, and that in a material difficult indeed, but not sacred; +so that the difficulty of the undertaking might be useful for practice +and at the same time if I made any mistakes these mistakes should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +involve only the risk of my talent and leave the Holy Scriptures undamaged. +And so I endeavoured to render in Latin two tragedies of +Euripides, the <i>Hecuba</i> and the <i>Iphigeneia in Aulis</i>, in the hope that +perchance some god might favour so bold a venture with fair breezes. +Then, seeing that a specimen of the work begun found favour with +persons excellently well versed in both tongues (assuredly England by +now possesses several of these, if I may acknowledge the truth without +envy, men deserving of the admiration even of all Italy in any branch +of learning), I brought the work to a finish, with the good help of +the Muses, within a few short months. At what a cost in exertion, +those will best feel who enter the same lists.</p> + +<p>Why so? Because the mere task of putting real Greek into real +Latin is such that it requires an extraordinary artist, and not only a +man with a rich store of scholarship in both languages at his fingertips, +but one exceedingly alert and observant; so that for several +centuries now none has appeared whose efforts in this field were +unanimously approved by scholars. It is surely easy then to conjecture +what a heavy task it has proved to render verse in verse, particularly +verse so varied and unfamiliar, and to do this from a writer not +merely so remote in time, and withal a tragedian, but also marvellously +concise, taut and unadorned, in whom there is nothing +otiose, nothing which it would not be a crime to alter or remove; and +besides, one who treats rhetorical topics so frequently and so acutely +that he appears to be everywhere declaiming. Add to all this the +choruses, which through I know not what striving after effect are so +obscure that they need not so much a translator as an Oedipus or +priest of Apollo to interpret them. In addition there is the corrupt +state of the manuscripts, the dearth of copies, the absence of any +translators to whom one can have recourse. So I am not so much +surprised that even in this most prolific age none of the Italians has +ventured to attempt the task of translating any tragedy or comedy, +whereas many have set their hand to Homer (among these even +Politian<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> failed to satisfy himself); one man<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> has essayed Hesiod, and +that without much success; another<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> has attempted Theocritus, +but with even far more unfortunate results: and finally Francesco +Filelfo has translated the first scene of the Hecuba in one of his funeral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +orations.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> (I first learned this after I had begun my version), but in +such a way that, great as he is, his work gave me courage enough to +proceed, overprecise as I am in other respects.</p> + +<p>Then for me the lure of this poet's more than honeyed eloquence, +which even his enemies allow him, proved stronger than the deterrent +of these great examples and the many difficulties of the work, so +that I have been bold to attack a task never before attempted, in the +hope that, even if I failed, my honest readers would consider even this +poor effort of mine not altogether unpraiseworthy, and the more +grudging would at least be lenient to an inexperienced translator of a +work so difficult: in particular because I have deliberately added no +light burden to my other difficulties through my conscientiousness as +a translator, in attempting so far as possible to reproduce the shape +and as it were contours of the Greek verse, by striving to render line +for line and almost word for word, and everywhere seeking with the +utmost fidelity to convey to Latin ears the force and value of the +sentence: whether it be that I do not altogether approve of the freedom +in translation which Cicero allows others and practised himself +(I would almost say to an immoderate degree), or that as an inexperienced +translator I preferred to err on the side of seeming over-scrupulous +rather than over-free—hesitating on the sandy shore +instead of wrecking my ship and swimming in the midst of the +billows; and I preferred to run the risk of letting scholars complain of +lack of brilliance and poetic beauty in my work rather than of lack +of fidelity to the original. Finally I did not want to set myself up as a +paraphraser, thus securing myself that retreat which many use to cloak +their ignorance, wrapping themselves like the cuttle-fish in darkness +of their own making to avoid detection. Now, if readers do not find +here the grandiloquence of Latin tragedy, 'the bombast and the words +half a yard long,' as Horace calls it, they must not blame me if in +performing my function of translator I have preferred to reproduce +the concise simplicity and elegance of my original, and not the +bombast to which he is a stranger, and which I do not greatly admire +at any time.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, I am encouraged to hope with all certainty that these +labours of mine will be most excellently protected against the calumnies +of the unjust, as their publication will be most welcome to the +honest and just, if you, most excellent Father, have voted them your +approval. For me it was not difficult to select you from the great host<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +of illustrious and distinguished men to be the recipient of this product +of my vigils, as the one man I have observed to be—aside from the +brilliance of your fortune—so endowed, adorned and showered with +learning, eloquence, good sense, piety, modesty, integrity, and lastly +with an extraordinary liberality towards those who cultivate good +letters, that the word Primate suits none better than yourself, who +hold the first place not solely by reason of your official dignity, but +far more because of all your virtues, while at the same time you are +the principal ornament of the Court and the sole head of the ecclesiastical +hierarchy. If I have the fortune to win for this my work the +commendation of a man so highly commended I shall assuredly not +repent of the exertions I have so far expended, and will be forward to +promote theological studies with even more zeal for the future.</p> + +<p>Farewell, and enrol Erasmus in the number of those who are wholeheartedly +devoted to Your Fathership.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxvii-1.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxvii-1.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXVII. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 53</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxvii-2.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxvii-2.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">On the reverse his device and motto</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxviii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxviii.png" width="40%" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXVIII. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF ABOUT 57</p> + + +<h3>VII. TO ALDUS MANUTIUS<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></h3> + +<p>Bologna, 28 October [1507]</p> + + +<p>To Aldus Manutius of Rome, many greetings:</p> + +<p>... I have often wished, most learned Manutius, that the light you +have cast on Greek and Latin literature, not by your printing alone +and your splendid types, but by your brilliance and your uncommon +learning, could have been matched by the profit you in your turn +drew from them. So far as <i>fame</i> is concerned, the name of Aldus +Manutius will without doubt be on the lips of all devotees of sacred +literature unto all posterity; and your memory will be—as your fame +now is—not merely illustrious but loved and cherished as well, +because you are engaged, as I hear, in reviving and disseminating the +good authors—with extreme diligence but not at a commensurate +profit—undergoing truly Herculean labours, labours splendid indeed +and destined to bring you immortal glory, but meanwhile more +profitable to others than to yourself. I hear that you are printing Plato<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +in Greek types; very many scholars eagerly await the book. I should +like to know what medical authors you have printed; I wish you +would give us Paul of Aegina.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> I wonder what has prevented you from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +publishing the New Testament<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> long since—a work which would +delight even the common people (if I conjecture aright) but particularly +my own class, the theologians.</p> + +<p>I send you two tragedies<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> which I have been bold enough to translate, +whether with success you yourself shall judge. Thomas Linacre, +William Grocyn, William Latimer, Cuthbert Tunstall, friends of +yours as well as of mine, thought highly of them; you know yourself +that they are too learned to be deceived in their judgement, and too +sincere to want to flatter a friend—unless their affection for me has +somewhat blinded them; the Italians to whom I have so far shown my +attempt do not condemn it. It has been printed by Badius, successfully +as far as he is concerned, so he writes, for he has now sold all the +copies to his satisfaction. But my reputation has not been enhanced +thereby, so full is it all of mistakes, and in fact he offers his services to +repair the first edition by printing a second. But I am afraid of his +mending ill with ill, as the Sophoclean saying goes. I should consider +my labours to have been immortalized if they could come out printed +in your types, particularly the smaller types, the most beautiful of all. +This will result in the volume being very small and the business being +concluded at little expense. If you think it convenient to undertake +the affair, I will supply you with a corrected copy, which I send by +the bearer, <i>gratis</i>, except that you may wish to send me a few volumes +as gifts for my friends.</p> + +<p>I should not have hesitated to attempt the publication at my own +risk and expense, were it not that I have to leave Italy within a few +months: so I should much like to have the business concluded as soon +as possible; in fact it is hardly ten days' work. If you insist on my +taking a hundred or two hundred volumes, though the god of gain +does not usually favour me and it will be most inconvenient to transport +the package, I shall not refuse, if only you fix a horse as the price. +Farewell, most learned Aldus, and reckon Erasmus as one of your +well-wishers.</p> + +<p>If you have any rare authors in your press, I shall be obliged if you +will indicate this—my learned British friends have asked me to search +for them. If you decide not to print the <i>Tragedies</i>, will you return the +copy to the bearer to bring back to me?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<h3>VIII. TO THOMAS MORE<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></h3> + +<p>[Paris?] 9 June [1511]</p> + +<p>To his friend Thomas More, greetings:</p> + +<p>... In days gone by, on my journey back from Italy into England, in +order not to waste all the time that must needs be spent on horseback +in dull and unlettered gossiping, I preferred at times either to turn +over in my mind some topic of our common studies or to give myself +over to the pleasing recollection of the friends, as learned as they +are beloved, whom I had left behind me in England. You were among +the very first of these to spring to mind, my dear More; indeed I used +to enjoy the memory of you in absence even as I was wont to delight +in your present company, than which I swear I never in my life met +anything sweeter. Therefore, since I thought that I must at all hazards +do <i>something</i>, and that time seemed ill suited to serious meditation, +I determined to amuse myself with the <i>Praise of Folly</i>. You will ask +what goddess put this into my mind. In the first place it was your +family name of More, which comes as near to the word <i>moria</i> [folly] +as you yourself are far from the reality—everyone agrees that you are +far removed from it. Next I suspected that you above all would +approve this <i>jeu d'esprit</i> of mine, in that you yourself do greatly +delight in jests of this kind, that is, jests learned (if I mistake not) and +at no time insipid, and altogether like to play in some sort the Democritus<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +in the life of society. Although you indeed, owing to your +incredibly sweet and easy-going character, are both able and glad to be +all things to all men, even as your singularly penetrating intellect +causes you to dissent widely from the opinions of the herd. So you +will not only gladly accept this little declamation as a memento of +your comrade, but will also take it under your protection, inasmuch +as it is dedicated to you and is now no longer mine but yours.</p> + +<p>And indeed there will perhaps be no lack of brawlers to represent +that trifles are more frivolous than becomes a theologian, or more +mordant than suits with Christian modesty, and they will be crying +out that I am reviving the Old Comedy or Lucian and assailing everything +with biting satire. But I would have those who are offended +by the levity and sportiveness of my theme reflect that it was not I +that began this, but that the same was practised by great writers in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +former times; seeing that so many centuries ago Homer made his +trifle <i>The Battle of Frogs and Mice</i>, Virgil his <i>Gnat</i> +and <i>Dish of Herbs</i> +and Ovid his <i>Nut</i>; seeing that Busiris was praised by Polycrates and +his critic Isocrates, Injustice by Glaucon, Thersites and the Quartan +Fever by Favorinus, Baldness by Synesius, the Fly and the Art of +Being a Parasite by Lucian; and that Seneca devised the Apotheosis of +the Emperor Claudius, Plutarch the Dialogue of Gryllus and Ulysses, +Lucian and Apuleius the Ass, and someone unknown the Testament +of Grunnius Corocotta the Piglet, mentioned even by St. Jerome.</p> + +<p>So, if they will, let my detractors imagine that I have played an +occasional game of draughts for a pastime or, if they prefer, taken a +ride on a hobby-horse. How unfair it is truly, when we grant every +calling in life its amusements, not to allow the profession of learning +any amusement at all, particularly if triflings bring serious thoughts +in their train and frivolous matters are so treated that a reader not +altogether devoid of perception wins more profit from these than +from the glittering and portentous arguments of certain persons—as +when for instance one man eulogizes rhetoric or philosophy in a painfully +stitched-together oration, another rehearses the praises of some +prince, another urges us to begin a war with the Turks, another foretells +the future, and another proposes a new method of splitting hairs. +Just as there is nothing so trifling as to treat serious matters triflingly, +so there is nothing so delightful as to treat trifling matters in such +fashion that it appears that you have been doing anything but trifle. +As to me, the judgement is in other hands—and yet, unless I am altogether +misled by self-love, I have sung the praise of Folly and that not +altogether foolishly.</p> + +<p>And now to reply to the charge of mordacity. It has ever been the +privilege of wits to satirize the life of society with impunity, provided +that licence does not degenerate into frenzy. Wherefore the more do +I marvel at the fastidiousness of men's ears in these times, who by now +can scarce endure anything but solemn appellations. Further, we see +some men so perversely religious that they will suffer the most +hideous revilings against Christ sooner than let prince or pope be +sullied by the lightest jest, particularly if this concerns monetary gain. +But if a man censures men's lives without reproving anyone at all by +name, pray do you think this man a satirist, and not rather a teacher +and admonisher? Else on how many counts do I censure myself? +Moreover he who leaves no class of men unmentioned is clearly foe +to no man but to all vices. Therefore anyone who rises up and cries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +out that he is insulted will be revealing a bad conscience, or at all +events fear. St. Jerome wrote satire in this kind far more free and +biting, not always abstaining from the mention of names, whereas I +myself, apart from not mentioning anyone by name, have moreover +so tempered my pen that the sagacious reader will easily understand +that my aim has been to give pleasure, not pain; for I have at no point +followed Juvenal's example in 'stirring up the murky bilge of crime', +and I have sought to survey the laughable, not the disgusting. If there +is anyone whom even this cannot appease, at least let him remember +that it is a fine thing to be reviled by Folly; in bringing her upon the +stage I had to suit the words to the character. But why need I say all +this to you, an advocate so remarkable that you can defend excellently +even causes far from excellent? Farewell, most eloquent More, +and be diligent in defending your <i>moria</i>.</p> + + +<h3>IX. TO JOHN COLET<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></h3> + +<p>Cambridge, 29 October [1511]</p> + +<p>To his friend Colet, greetings:</p> + +<p>... Something came into my mind which I know will make you +laugh. In the presence of several Masters [of Arts] I was putting +forward a view on the Assistant Teacher, when one of them, a man +of some repute, smiled and said: 'Who could bear to spend his life in +that school among boys, when he could live anywhere in any way he +liked?' I answered mildly that it seemed to me a very honourable task +to train young people in manners and literature, that Christ himself +did not despise the young, that no age had a better right to help, and +that from no quarter was a richer return to be expected, seeing that +young people were the harvest-field and raw material of the nation. +I added that all truly religious people felt that they could not better +serve God in any other duty than the bringing of children to Christ. +He wrinkled his nose and said with a scornful gesture: 'If any man +wishes to serve Christ altogether, let him go into a monastery and +enter a religious order.' I answered that St. Paul said that true religion +consisted in the offices of charity—charity consisting in doing our +best to help our neighbours. This he rejected as an ignorant remark. +'Look,' said he, 'we have forsaken everything: in this is perfection.' +'That man has not forsaken everything,' said I, 'who, when he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +help very many by his labours, refuses to undertake a duty because it +is regarded as humble.' And with that, to prevent a quarrel arising, I +let the man go. There you have the dialogue. You see the Scotist +philosophy! Once again, farewell.</p> + + +<h3>X. TO SERVATIUS ROGER</h3> + +<p>Hammes Castle [near Calais],</p> + +<p>8 July 1514</p> + +<p>To the Reverend Father Servatius, many greetings:</p> + +<p>... Most humane father, your letter has at last reached me, after passing +through many hands, when I had already left England, and it has +afforded me unbelievable delight, as it still breathes your old affection +for me. However, I shall answer briefly, as I am writing just after the +journey, and shall reply in particular on those matters which are, as +you write, strictly to the point. Men's thoughts are so varied, 'to each +his own bird-song', that it is impossible to satisfy everyone. My own +feelings are that I want to follow what is best to do, God is my witness. +Those feelings which I had in my youth have been corrected partly +by age, partly by experience of the world. I have never intended to +change my mode of life or my habit—not that I liked them, but to +avoid scandal. You are aware that I was not so much led as driven +to this mode of life by the obstinate determination of my guardians and +the wrongful urgings of others, and that afterwards, when I realized +that this kind of life was quite unsuited to me (for not all things suit +all men), I was held back by Cornelius of Woerden's reproaches and +by a certain boyish sense of shame. I was never able to endure fasting, +through some peculiarity of my constitution. Once roused from sleep +I could never fall asleep again for several hours. I was so drawn towards +literature, which is not practised in the monastery, that I do not +doubt that if I had chanced on some free mode of life I could have +been numbered not merely among the happy but even among the +good.</p> + +<p>So, when I realized that I was by no means fit for this mode of life, +that I had taken it up under compulsion and not of my own free will, +nevertheless, as public opinion in these days regards it as a crime to +break away from a mode of life once taken up, I had resolved to +endure with fortitude this part of my unhappiness also—you know +that I am in many things unfortunate. But I have always regarded this +one thing as harder than all the rest, that I had been forced into a mode +of life for which I was totally unfit both in body and in mind: in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +mind, because I abhorred ritual and loved liberty; in body, because +even had I been perfectly satisfied with the life, my constitution could +not endure such labours. One may object that I had a year of probation, +as it is called, and that I was of ripe age. Ridiculous! As if anyone +could expect a boy of sixteen, particularly one with a literary training, +to know himself (an achievement even for an old man), or to +have succeeded in learning in a single year what many do not yet +understand in their grey hairs. Though I myself never liked the life, +still less after I had tried it, but was trapped in the way I have mentioned; +although I confess that the truly good man will live a good +life in any calling. And I do not deny that I was prone to grievous +vices, but not of so utterly corrupt a nature that I could not have come +to some good, had I found a kindly guide, a true Christian, not one +given to Jewish scruples.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I looked about to find in what kind of life I could be +least bad, and I believe indeed that I have attained this. I have spent +my life meantime among sober men, in literary studies, which have +kept me off many vices. I have been able to associate with true +followers of Christ, whose conversation has made me a better man. I +do not now boast of my books, which you at Steyn perhaps despise.</p> + +<p>But many confess that they have become not merely more knowledgeable, +but even better men through reading them. Passion for +money has never affected me. I am quite untouched by the thirst for +fame. I have never been a slave to pleasures, although I was formerly +inclined to them. Over-indulgence and drunkenness I have ever +loathed and avoided. But whenever I thought of returning to your +society, I remembered the jealousy of many, the contempt of all, the +conversations how dull, how foolish, how un-Christlike, the feasts +how unclerical! In short the whole way of life, from which if you +remove the ritual, I do not see what remains that one could desire. +Lastly I remembered my frail constitution, now weakened by age, +disease and hard work, as a result of which I should fail to satisfy you +and kill myself. For several years now I have been subject to the stone, +a severe and deadly illness, and for several years I have drunk nothing +but wine, and not all kinds of wine at that, owing to my disease; I +cannot endure all kinds of food nor indeed all climates. The illness is +very liable to recur and demands a very careful regimen; and I know +the climate in Holland and your style of living, not to mention your +ways. So, had I come back to you, all I would have achieved would +have been to bring trouble on you and death on myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>But perhaps you think it a great part of happiness to die amid one's +fellow-brethren? This belief deceives and imposes not on you alone +but on nearly everyone. We make Christian piety depend on place, +dress, style of living and on certain little rituals. We think a man lost +who changes his white dress for black, or his cowl for a cap, or occasionally +moves from place to place. I should dare to say that Christian +piety has suffered great damage from these so-called religious practices, +although it may be that their first introduction was due to pious +zeal. They then gradually increased and divided into thousands of +distinctions; this was helped by a papal authority which was too lax +and easy-going in many cases. What more defiled or more impious +than these lax rituals? And if you turn to those that are commended, +no, to the most highly commended, apart from some dreary Jewish +rituals, I know not what image of Christ one finds in them. It is these +on which they preen themselves, these by which they judge and +condemn others. How much more in conformity with the spirit of +Christ to consider the whole Christian world one home and as it +were one monastery, to regard all men as one's fellow-monks and +fellow-brethren, to hold the sacrament of Baptism as the supreme rite, +and not to consider where one lives but how well one lives! You want +me to settle on a permanent abode, a course which my very age also +suggests. But the travellings of Solon, Pythagoras and Plato are +praised; and the Apostles, too, were wanderers, in particular Paul. +St. Jerome also was a monk now in Rome, now in Syria, now in +Antioch, now here, now there, and even in his old age pursued +literary studies.</p> + +<p>But I am not to be compared with St. Jerome—I agree; yet I have +never moved unless forced by the plague or for reasons of study or +health, and wherever I have lived (I shall say this of myself, arrogantly +perhaps, but truthfully) I have been commended by the most +highly commended and praised by the most praised. There is no land, +neither Spain nor Italy nor Germany nor France nor England nor +Scotland, which does not summon me to partake of its hospitality. +And if I am not liked by all (which is not my aim), at all events I am +liked in the highest places of all. At Rome there was no cardinal who +did not welcome me like a brother; in particular the Cardinal of St. +George,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> the Cardinal of Bologna,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Cardinal Grimani, the Cardinal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +of Nantes,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and the present Pope,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> not to mention bishops, archdeacons +and men of learning. And this honour was not a tribute to +wealth, which even now I neither possess nor desire; nor to ambition, +a failing to which I have ever been a stranger; but solely to learning, +which our countrymen ridicule, while the Italians worship it. In +England there is no bishop who is not glad to be greeted by me, who +does not desire my company, who does not want me in his home. The +King himself, a little before his father's death, when I was in Italy, +wrote a most affectionate letter to me with his own hand, and now too +speaks often of me in the most honourable and affectionate terms; and +whenever I greet him he welcomes me most courteously and looks at +me in a most friendly fashion, making it plain that his feelings for me +are as friendly as his speeches. And he has often commissioned his +Almoner<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> to find a benefice for me. The Queen sought to take me as +her tutor. Everyone knows that, if I were prepared to live even a few +months at Court, he would heap on me as many benefices as I cared +for; but I put my leisure and my learned labours before everything. +The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of all England and +Chancellor of the Realm, a good and learned man, could not treat me +with more affection were I his father or brother. And that you may +understand that he is sincere in this, he gave me a living of nearly +100 nobles, which afterwards at my wish he changed into a pension +of 100 crowns on my resignation; in addition he has given me more +than 400 nobles during the last few years, although I never asked for +anything. He gave me 150 nobles in one day. I received more than +100 nobles from other bishops in freely offered gifts. Mountjoy, a +baron of the realm, formerly my pupil, gives me annually a pension +of 100 crowns. The King and the Bishop of Lincoln, who has great +influence through the King, make many splendid promises. There are +two universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge, and both of +them want me; at Cambridge I taught Greek and sacred literature for +several months, for nothing, and have resolved always to do this. +There are colleges here so religious, and of such modesty in living, +that you would spurn any other religious life, could you see them. In +London there is John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, who has combined +great learning with a marvellous piety, a man greatly respected by all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +He is so fond of me, as all know, that he prefers my company above +all others'; I do not mention many others, lest I doubly vex you with +my loquacity as well as my boasting.</p> + +<p>Now to say something of my works—I think you have read the +<i>Enchiridion</i>,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> through which not a few confess themselves inspired to +the study of piety; I make no claim for myself, but give thanks to +Christ for any good which has come to pass through me by His +giving. I do not know whether you have seen the <i>Adagia</i>,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> printed by +Aldus. It is not a theological work, but most useful for every branch +of learning; at least it cost me countless labours and sleepless nights. +I have published a work <i>De rerum verborumque copia</i>,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> dedicated to my +friend Colet, very useful for those who desire to speak in public; but +all these are despised by those who despise all good learning. During +the last two years, apart from much else, I have emended the <i>Letters</i> +of St. Jerome, obelizing what was false and spurious and explaining +the obscure passages with notes. I have corrected the whole of the +New Testament from collations of the Greek and ancient manuscripts, +and have annotated more than a thousand passages, not without +some benefit to theologians. I have begun commentaries on the +<i>Epistles</i> of St. Paul, which I shall complete when I have published +these. For I have resolved to live and die in the study of the Scriptures. +I make these my work and my leisure. Men of consequence say +that I can do what others cannot in this field; in your mode of life I +shall be able to do nothing. Although I have been intimate with so +many grave and learned men, here and in Italy and France, I have not +yet found anyone who advised me to return to you or thought this +the better course. Nay, even Nicholas Werner of blessed memory, +your predecessor, would always dissuade me from this, advising me +to attach myself rather to some bishop; he would add that he knew +my mind and his little brothers' ways: those were the words he used, +in the vernacular. In the life I live now I see what I should avoid, but +do not see what would be a better course.</p> + +<p>It now remains to satisfy you on the question of my dress. I have +always up to now worn the canon's dress, and when I was at Louvain +I obtained permission from the Bishop of Utrecht to wear a linen +scapular instead of a complete linen garment, and a black capuce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +instead of a black cloak, after the Parisian custom. But on my journey +to Italy, seeing the monks all along the way wearing a black garment +with a scapular, I there took to wearing black, with a scapular, to +avoid giving offence by any unusual dress. Afterwards the plague +broke out at Bologna, and there those who nurse the sick of the plague +customarily wear a white linen cloth depending from the shoulder—these +avoid contact with people. Consequently when one day I went +to call on a learned friend some rascals drew their swords and were +preparing to set about me, and would have done so, had not a certain +matron warned them that I was an ecclesiastic. Again the next day, +when I was on my way to visit the Treasurer's sons, they rushed at me +with bludgeons from all directions and attacked me with horrible +cries. So on the advice of good men I concealed my scapular, and +obtained a dispensation from Pope Julius II allowing me to wear the +religious dress or not, as seemed good, provided that I wore clerical +garb; and in this document he condoned any previous offences in the +matter. In Italy I continued to wear clerical garb, lest the change cause +offence to anyone. On my return to England I decided to wear my +usual dress, and I invited to my lodging a friend of excellent repute +for his learning and mode of life and showed him the dress I had +decided to wear; I asked him whether this was suitable in England. He +approved, so I appeared in public in this dress. I was at once warned +by other friends that this dress could not be tolerated in England, +that I had better conceal it. I did so; and as it cannot be concealed +without causing scandal if it is eventually discovered, I stored it away +in a box, and up to now have taken advantage of the Papal dispensation +received formerly. Ecclesiastical law excommunicates anyone +who casts off the religious habit so as to move more freely in secular +society. I put it off under compulsion in Italy, to escape being killed; +and likewise under compulsion in England, because it was not tolerated +there, although myself I should much prefer to have worn it. +To adopt it again now would cause more scandal than did the change +itself.</p> + +<p>There you have an account of my whole life, there you have my +plans. I should like to change even this present mode of life, if I see a +better. But I do not see what I am to do in Holland. I know that the +climate and way of living will not agree with me; I shall have everyone +looking at me. I shall return a white-haired old man, having gone +away as a youth—I shall return a valetudinarian; I shall be exposed to +the contempt of the lowest, used as I am to the respect of the highest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +I shall exchange my studies for drinking-parties. As to your promising +me your help in finding me a place where I can live with an excellent +income, as you write, I cannot conjecture what this can be, unless +perhaps you intend to place me among some community of nuns, to +serve women—I who have never been willing to serve kings nor +archbishops. I want no pay; I have no desire for riches, if only I have +money enough to provide for my health and my literary leisure, to +enable me to live without burdening anyone. I wish we could discuss +these things together face to face; it cannot be done in a letter conveniently +or safely. Your letter, although it was sent by most reliable +persons, went so far astray that if I had not accidentally come to this +castle I should never have seen it; and many people had looked at it +before I received it. So do not mention anything secret unless you +know for certain where I am and have a very trustworthy messenger. +I am now on my way to Germany, that is, Basle, to have my works +published, and this winter I shall perhaps be in Rome. On my return +journey I shall see to it that we meet and talk somewhere. But now the +summer is nearly over and it is a long journey. Farewell, once my +sweetest comrade, now my esteemed father.</p> + + +<h3>XI. TO WOLFGANG FABRICIUS CAPITO<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></h3> + +<p>Antwerp, 26 February 1516/17</p> + +<p>To the distinguished theologian Wolfgang Fabricius Capito of +Hagenau, skilled in the three languages, greetings:</p> + +<p>... Now that I see that the mightiest princes of the earth, King Francis +of France, Charles the Catholic King, King Henry of England and the +Emperor Maximilian have drastically cut down all warlike preparations +and concluded a firm and, I hope, unbreakable treaty of peace, +I feel entitled to hope with confidence that not only the moral virtues +and Christian piety but also the true learning, purified of corruption, +and the fine disciplines will revive and blossom forth; particularly as +this aim is being prosecuted with equal zeal in different parts of the +world, in Rome by Pope Leo, in Spain by the Cardinal of Toledo,<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> +in England by King Henry VIII, himself no mean scholar, here by +King Charles, a young man admirably gifted, in France by King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +Francis, a man as it were born for this task, who besides offers splendid +rewards to attract and entice men distinguished for virtue and learning +from all parts, in Germany by many excellent princes and bishops +and above all by the Emperor Maximilian, who, wearied in his old age +of all these wars, has resolved to find rest in the arts of peace: a resolve +at once more becoming to himself at his age and more fortunate for +Christendom. It is to these men's piety then that we owe it that all +over the world, as if on a given signal, splendid talents are stirring and +awakening and conspiring together to revive the best learning. For +what else is this but a conspiracy, when all these great scholars from +different lands share out the work among themselves and set about +this noble task, not merely with enthusiasm but with a fair measure of +success, so that we have an almost certain prospect of seeing all +disciplines emerge once more into the light of day in a far purer and +more genuine form? In the first place polite letters, for long reduced +almost to extinction, are being taken up and cultivated by the Scots, +the Danes and the Irish. As for medicine, how many champions has +she found! Nicholas Leonicenus<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> in Rome, Ambrose Leo of Nola<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> at +Venice, William Cop<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> and John Ruell<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> in France, and Thomas +Linacre in England. Roman law is being revived in Paris by William +Budaeus<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> and in Germany by Ulrich Zasius,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> mathematics at Basle by +Henry Glareanus.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>In theology there was more to do, for up till now its professors +have almost always been men with an ingrained loathing for good +learning, men who conceal their ignorance the more successfully as +they do this on what they call a religious pretext, so that the ignorant +herd is persuaded by them to believe it a violation of religion if anyone +proceeds to attack their barbarism; for they prefer to wail for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +help to the uneducated mob and incite it to stone-throwing if they see +any danger of their ignorance on any point coming to light. But I am +confident that here, too, all will go well as soon as the knowledge of +the three languages [Greek, Latin and Hebrew] becomes accepted +publicly in the schools, as it has begun to be.... The humblest share +in this work has fallen on me, as is fitting; I know not whether I have +contributed anything of value; at all events I have infuriated those +who do not want the world to come to its senses, so that it seems as if +my poor efforts also have not been ineffective: although I have not +undertaken the work in the belief that, I could teach anything magnificent, +but I wanted to open a road for others, destined to attempt +greater things, that they might with greater ease ascend the shining +heights without running into so many rough and quaggy places. Yet +this humble diligence of mine is not disdained by the honest and +learned, and none complain of it but a few so stupid that they are +hissed off the stage by even ordinary persons of any intelligence. Here +not long ago someone complained tearfully before the people, in a +sermon of course, that it was all over with the Scriptures and the +theologians who had hitherto upheld the Christian faith on their +shoulders, now that men had arisen to emend the Holy Gospel and +the very words of Our Lord: just as if I was rebuking Matthew or +Luke instead of those whose ignorance or negligence had corrupted +what they wrote correctly. In England one or two persons complain +loudly that it is a shameful thing that <i>I</i> should dare to teach a great +man like St. Jerome: as if I had changed what St. Jerome wrote, +instead of restoring it!</p> + +<p>Yet those who snarl out suchlike dirges, which any laundryman +with a little sense would scoff at, think themselves great theologians ... +Not that I want the kind of theology which is customary in the +schools nowadays consigned to oblivion; I wish it to be rendered more +trustworthy and more correct by the accession of the old, true learning. +It will not weaken the authority of the Scriptures or theologians +if certain passages hitherto considered corrupt are henceforth read in +an emended form, or if passages are more correctly understood on +which up till now the mass of theologians have entertained delusions: +no, it will give greater weight to their authority, the more genuine +their understanding of the Scriptures. I have sustained the shock of the +first meeting, which Terence calls the sharpest.... One doubt still +troubles me; I fear that under cover of the rebirth of ancient learning +paganism may seek to rear its head, as even among Christians there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +are those who acknowledge Christ in name only, but in their hearts +are Gentiles; or that with the renascence of Hebrew studies Judaism +may seek to use this opportunity of revival; and there can be nothing +more contrary or more hostile to the teaching of Christ than this +plague. This is the nature of human affairs—nothing good has ever so +flourished but some evil has attempted to use it as a pretext for insinuating +itself. I could wish that those dreary quibblings could be +either done away with or at least cease to be the sole activity of theologians, +and that the simplicity and purity of Christ could penetrate +deeply into the minds of men; and this I think can best be brought to +pass if with the help provided by the three languages we exercise our +minds in the actual sources. But I pray that we may avoid this evil +without falling into another perhaps graver error. Recently several +pamphlets have been published reeking of unadulterated Judaism.</p> + + +<h3>XII. TO THOMAS MORE</h3> + +<p>Louvain, 5 March 1518</p> + +<p>To his friend More, greeting:</p> + +<p>... First of all I ask you to entrust to the bearer, my servant John, any +letters of mine or yours which you consider fit for publication with +the alteration of some passages; I am simply compelled to publish my +letters whether I like it or not. Send off the lad so that he returns here +as quickly as possible. If you discover that Urswick is ill-disposed +towards me perhaps he should not be troubled; otherwise, help me +in the matter of a horse—I shall need one just now when I am about +to go to Basle or Venice, chiefly for the purpose of bringing out the +New Testament.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> Such is my fate, dear More. I shall enact this part +of my play also. Afterwards, I almost feel inclined to sing 'for myself +and the Muses'; my age and my health, which grows daily worse, +almost require this. Over here scoundrels in disguise are so all-powerful, +and no one here makes money but innkeepers, advocates, and +begging friars. It is unendurable when many speak ill and none do good.</p> + +<p>At Basle they make the elegant preface added by Budaeus the +excuse for the delay over your Utopia. They have now received it +and have started on the work. Then Froben's father-in-law Lachner +died. But Froben's press will be sweating over our studies none the +less. I have not yet had a chance of seeing Linacre's <i>Therapeutice</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> +through some conspiracy of the Parisians against me. Inquire courteously +of Lupset on the Appendix<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> to my <i>Copia</i> and send it.</p> + +<p>The Pope and the princes are up to some new tricks on the pretext +of the savagery of the war against the Turks. Wretched Turks! May +we Christians not be too cruel! Even wives are affected. All married +men between the ages of twenty-six and fifty will be compelled to +take up arms. Meanwhile the Pope forbids the wives of men absent +at the war to indulge in pleasure at home; they are to eschew elegant +apparel, must not wear silk, gold or any jewellery, must not touch +rouge or drink wine, and must fast every other day, that God may +favour their husbands engaged in this cruel war. If there are men tied +at home by necessary business, their wives must none the less observe +the same rules as they would have had to observe if their husbands +had gone to the war. They are to sleep in the same room but in +different beds; and not a kiss is to be given meanwhile until this +terrible war reaches a successful conclusion under Christ's favour. I +know that these enactments will irritate wives who do not sufficiently +ponder the importance of the business; though I know that +your wife, sensible as she is, and obedient in regard to a matter of +Christian observance, will even be glad to obey.</p> + +<p>I send Pace's pamphlet, the <i>Conclusions on Papal Indulgences</i>,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> and the +<i>Proposal for Undertaking a War against the Turks</i>,<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> as I suspect that they +have not yet reached England. They write from Cologne that some +pamphlet about an argument between Julius and Peter at the gates of +Paradise<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> has now been printed; they do not add the author's name. +The German presses will not cease from their mad pranks until their +rashness is restrained by some law; this does me much harm, who am +endeavouring to help the world....</p> + +<p>I beg you to let my servant sleep one or two nights with yours, to +prevent his chancing on an infected house, and to afford him anything +he may need, although I have supplied him with travelling money +myself. I have at last seen the <i>Utopia</i> at Paris printed, but with many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +misprints. It is now in the press at Basle; I had threatened to break +with them unless they took more trouble with that business than with +mine. Farewell, most sincere of friends.</p> + + +<h3>XIII. TO BEATUS RHENANUS<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></h3> + +<p>Louvain [<i>c.</i> 15 October] 1518</p> + +<p>To his friend Rhenanus, greetings:</p> + +<p>... Let me describe to you, my dear Beatus, the whole tragi-comedy of +my journey. I was still weak and listless, as you know, when I left +Basle, not having come to terms with the climate, after skulking at +home so long, and occupied in uninterrupted labors at that. The +river voyage was not unpleasant, but that around midday the heat of +the sun was somewhat trying. We had a meal at Breisach, the most +unpleasant meal I have ever had. The smell of food nearly finished +me, and then the flies, worse than the smell. We sat at table doing +nothing for more than half an hour, waiting for them to produce +their banquet, if you please. In the end nothing fit to eat was served; +filthy porridge with lumps in it and salt fish reheated not for the first +time, enough to make one sick. I did not call on Gallinarius. The man +who brought word that he was suffering from a slight fever also told +me a pretty story; that Minorite theologian with whom I had disputed +about <i>heceitas</i><a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> had taken it on himself to pawn the church +chalices. Scotist ingenuity! Just before nightfall we were put out at a +dull village; I did not feel like discovering its name, and if I knew I +should not care to tell you it. I nearly perished there. We had supper +in a small room like a sweating-chamber, more than sixty of us, I +should say, an indiscriminate collection of rapscallions, and this went +on till nearly ten o'clock; oh, the stench, and the noise, particularly +after they had become intoxicated! Yet we had to remain sitting to +suit their clocks.</p> + +<p>In the morning while it was still quite dark we were driven from +bed by the shouting of the sailors. I went on board without having +either supped or slept. We reached Strasbourg before lunch, at about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +nine o'clock; there we had a more comfortable reception, particularly +as Schürer produced some wine. Some of the Society<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> were +there, and afterwards they all came to greet me, Gerbel outdoing all +the rest in politeness. Gebwiler and Rudolfingen did not want me to +pay, no new thing with them. Thence we proceeded on horseback as +far as Speyer; we saw no sign of soldiers anywhere, although there +had been alarming rumours. The English horse completely collapsed +and hardly got to Speyer; that criminal smith had handled him so +badly that he ought to have both his ears branded with red-hot iron. +At Speyer I slipped away from the inn and took myself to my +neighbour Maternus. There Decanus, a learned and cultivated man, +entertained me courteously and agreeably for two days. Here I +accidentally found Hermann Busch.</p> + +<p>From Speyer I travelled by carriage to Worms, and from there +again to Mainz. There was an Imperial secretary, Ulrich Varnbüler,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> +travelling by chance in the same carriage. He devoted himself to me +with incredible assiduity over the whole journey, and at Mainz would +not allow me to go into the inn but took me to the house of a canon; +on my departure he accompanied me to the boat. The voyage was +not unpleasant as the weather was fine, excepting that the crew took +care to make it somewhat long; in addition to this the stench of the +horses incommoded me. For the first day John Langenfeld, who +formerly taught at Louvain, and a lawyer friend of his came with me +as a mark of politeness. There was also a Westphalian, John, a canon +at St. Victor's outside Mainz, a most agreeable and entertaining man.</p> + +<p>After arriving at Boppard, as I was taking a walk along the bank +while a boat was being procured, someone recognized me and betrayed +me to the customs officer, 'That is the man.' The customs +officer's name is, if I mistake not, Christopher Cinicampius, in the +common speech Eschenfelder. You would not believe how the man +jumped for joy. He dragged me into his house. Books by Erasmus +were lying on a small table amongst the customs agreements. He +exclaimed at his good fortune and called in his wife and children and +all his friends. Meanwhile he sent out to the sailors who were calling +for me two tankards of wine, and another two when they called out +again, promising that when he came back he would remit the toll to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +the man who had brought him a man like myself. From Boppard +John Flaminius, chaplain to the nuns there, a man of angelic purity, +of sane and sober judgement and no common learning, accompanied +me as far as Coblenz. At Coblenz Matthias, Chancellor to the Bishop, +swept us off to his house—he is a young man but of staid manners, +and has an accurate knowledge of Latin, besides being a skilled lawyer. +There we supped merrily.</p> + +<p>At Bonn the canon left us, to avoid Cologne: I wanted to avoid +Cologne myself, but the servant had preceded me thither with the +horses, and there was no reliable person in the boat whom I could +have charged with the business of calling back my servant; I did not +trust the sailors. So we docked at Cologne before six o'clock in the +morning on a Sunday, the weather being by now pestilential. I went +into an inn and gave orders to the ostlers to hire me a carriage and +pair, ordering a meal to be made ready by ten o'clock. I attended +Divine Service, the lunch was delayed. I had no luck with the carriage +and pair. I tried to hire a horse; my own were useless. Everything +failed. I realized what was up; they were trying to make me stop there. +I immediately ordered my horses to be harnessed, and one bag to be +loaded; the other bag I entrusted to the innkeeper, and on my lame +horse rode quickly to the Count of Neuenahr's<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a>—a five-hour journey. +He was staying at Bedburg.</p> + +<p>With the Count I stayed five days very pleasantly, in such peace +and quiet that while staying with him I completed a good part of the +revision—I had taken that part of the New Testament with me. +Would that you knew him, my dear Beatus! He is a young man but +of rare good sense, more than you would find in an old man; he speaks +little, but as Homer says of Menelaus, he speaks 'in clear tones,' and +intelligently too; he is learned without pretentiousness in more than +one branch of study, wholly sincere and a good friend. By now I was +strong and lusty, and well pleased with myself, and was hoping to be +in a good state when I visited the Bishop of Liége and to return hale +and hearty to my friends in Brabant. What dinner-parties, what +felicitations, what discussions I promised myself! But ah, deceptive +human hopes! ah, the sudden and unexpected vicissitudes of human +affairs! From these high dreams of happiness I was hurled to the +depths of misfortune.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> + +<p>I had hired a carriage and pair for the next day. My companion, not +wanting to say goodbye before night, announced that he would see +me in the morning before my departure. That night a wild hurricane +sprang up, which had passed before the next morning. Nevertheless +I rose after midnight, to make some notes for the Count: when it was +already seven o'clock and the Count did not emerge, I asked for him +to be waked. He came, and in his customary shy and modest way +asked me whether I meant to leave in such bad weather, saying he +was afraid for me. At that point, my dear Beatus, some god or bad +angel deprived me, not of the half of my senses, as Hesiod says, but of +the whole: for he had deprived me of half my senses when I risked +going to Cologne. I wish that either my friend had warned me more +sharply or that I had paid more attention to his most affectionate remonstrances! +I was seized by the power of fate: what else am I to say? +I climbed into an uncovered carriage, the wind blowing 'strong as +when in the high mountains it shivers the trembling holm-oaks.' It +was a south wind and blowing like the very pest. I thought I was well +protected by my wrappings, but it went through everything with its +violence. Towards nightfall a light rain came on, more noxious than +the wind that preceded it: I arrived at Aachen exhausted from the +shaking of the carriage, which was so trying to me on the stone-paved +road that I should have preferred sitting on my horse, lame as he was. +Here I was carried off from the inn by a canon, to whom the Count +had recommended me, to Suderman's house. There several canons +were holding their usual drinking-party. My appetite had been +sharpened by a very light lunch; but at the time they had nothing by +them but carp, and cold carp at that. I ate to repletion. The drinking +went on well into the night. I excused myself and went to bed, as I +had had very little sleep the night before.</p> + +<p>On the following day I was taken to the Vice-Provost's house; it +was his turn to offer hospitality. As there was no fish there apart from +eel (this was certainly the fault of the storm, as he is a magnificent +host otherwise) I lunched off a fish dried in the open air, which the +Germans call <i>Stockfisch</i>, from the rod used to beat it—it is a fish which +I enjoy at other times: but I discovered that part of this one had not +been properly cured. After lunch, as the weather was appalling, I took +myself off to the inn and ordered a fire to be lit. The canon whom I +mentioned, a most cultured man, stayed talking with me for about an +hour and a half. Meanwhile I began to feel very uncomfortable inside; +as this continued, I sent him away and went to the privy. As this gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +my stomach no relief I inserted my finger into my mouth, and the +uncured fish came up, but that was all. I lay down afterwards, not so +much sleeping as resting, without any pain in my head or body; then, +having struck a bargain with the coachman over the bags, I received +an invitation to the evening compotation. I excused myself, without +success. I knew that my stomach would not stand anything but a few +sups of warmed liquor.... On this occasion there was a magnificent +spread, but it was wasted on me. After comforting my stomach with +a sup of wine, I went home; I was sleeping at Suderman's house. As +soon as I went out of doors my empty body shivered fearfully in the +night air.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the next day, after taking a little warmed ale +and a few morsels of bread, I mounted my horse, who was lame and +ailing, which made riding more uncomfortable. By now I was in such +a state that I would have been better keeping warm in bed than +mounted on horseback. But that district is the most countrified, +roughest, barren and unattractive imaginable, the inhabitants are so +idle; so that I preferred to run away. The danger of brigands—it was +very great in those parts—or at least my fear of them, was driven out +of my mind by the discomfort of my illness.... After covering four +miles on this ride I reached Maastricht. There after a drink to soothe +my stomach I remounted and came to Tongres, about three miles +away. This last ride was by far the most painful to me. The awkward +gait of the horse gave me excruciating pains in the kidneys. It would +have been easier to walk, but I was afraid of sweating, and there was a +danger of the night catching us still out in the country. So I reached +Tongres with my whole body in a state of unbelievable agony. By +now, owing to lack of food and the exertion in addition, all my +muscles had given way, so that I could not stand or walk steadily. I +concealed the severity of my illness by my tongue—that was still +working. Here I took a sup of ale to soothe my stomach and retired +to bed.</p> + +<p>In the morning I ordered them to hire a carriage. I decided to go +on horseback, on account of the paving stones, until we reached an +unpaved road. I mounted the bigger horse, thinking that he would go +better on the paving and be more sure-footed. I had hardly mounted +when I felt my eyes clouding over as I met the cold air, and asked for +a cloak. But soon after this I fainted; I could be roused by a touch. +Then my servant John and the others standing by let me come to +myself naturally, still sitting on the horse. After coming to myself I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +got into the carriage.... By now we were approaching the town of +St. Trond. I mounted once more, not to appear an invalid, riding in +a carriage. Once again the evening air made me feel sick, but I did not +faint. I offered the coachman double the fare if he would take me the +next day as far as Tirlemont, a town six miles from Tongres. He +accepted the terms. Here a guest whom I knew told me how ill the +Bishop of Liége had taken my leaving for Basle without calling on +him. After soothing my stomach with a drink I went to bed, and had +a very bad night.... Here by chance I found a coach going to +Louvain, six miles away, and threw myself into it. I made the journey +in incredible and almost unendurable discomfort; however we reached +Louvain by seven o'clock on that day.</p> + +<p>I had no intention of going to my own room, whether because I +had a suspicion that all would be cold there, or that I did not want to +run the risk of interfering with the amenities of the College in any +way, if I started a rumour of the plague. I went to Theodoric the +printer's.... During the night a large ulcer broke without my feeling +it, and the pain had died down. The next day I called a surgeon. He +applied poultices. A third ulcer had appeared on my back, caused by +a servant at Tongres when he was anointing me with oil of roses for +the pain in the kidneys and rubbed one of my ribs too hard with a +horny finger.... The surgeon on his way out told Theodoric and his +servant secretly that it was the plague; he would send poultices, but +would not come to see me himself.... When the surgeon failed to +return after a day or two, I asked Theodoric the reason. He made +some excuse. But I, suspecting what the matter was, said 'What, does +he think it is the plague?' 'Precisely,' said he, 'he insists that you have +three plague-sores.' I laughed, and did not allow myself even to +imagine that I had the plague. After some days the surgeon's father +came, examined me, and assured me that it was the true plague. Even +so, I could not be convinced. I secretly sent for another doctor who +had a great reputation. He examined me, and being something of a +clown said, 'I should not be afraid to sleep with you—and make love +to you too, if you were a woman....' [Still another doctor is summoned +but does not return as promised, sending his servant instead.] +I dismissed the man and losing my temper with the doctors, commended +myself to Christ as my doctor.</p> + +<p>My appetite came back within three days.... I then immediately +returned to my studies and completed what was still wanting to my +New Testament.... I had given orders as soon as I arrived that no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +one was to visit me unless summoned by name, lest I should frighten +anyone or suffer inconvenience from anyone's assiduity; but Dorp +forced his way in first of all, then Ath. Mark Laurin and Paschasius +Berselius, who came every day, did much to make me well with their +delightful company.</p> + +<p>My dear Beatus, who would have believed that this meagre delicate +body of mine, weakened now by age also, could have succeeded, after +all the troubles of travel and all my studious exertions, in standing up +to all these physical ills as well? You know how ill I was not long ago +at Basle, more than once. I was beginning to suspect that that year +would be fatal to me: illness followed illness, always more severe. But, +at the very time when this illness was at its height, I felt no torturing +desire to live and no trepidation at the fear of death. My whole hope +was in Christ alone, and I prayed only that he would give me what he +judged most salutary for me. In my youth long ago, as I remember, I +would shiver at the very name of death. This at least I have achieved +as I have grown older, that I do not greatly fear death, and I do not +measure man's happiness by number of days. I have passed my fiftieth +year; as so few out of so many reach this age, I cannot rightly complain +that I have not lived long enough. And then, if this has any +relevance, I have by now already prepared a monument to bear +witness to posterity that I have lived. And perhaps if, as the poets tell, +jealousy falls silent after death, fame will shine out the more brightly: +although it ill becomes a Christian heart to be moved by human +glory; may I have the glory of pleasing Christ! Farewell, my dearest +Beatus. The rest you will learn from my letter to Capito.</p> + + +<h3>XIV. TO MARTIN LUTHER</h3> + +<p>Louvain, 30 May 1519</p> + +<p>Best greetings, most beloved brother in Christ. Your letter was +most welcome to me, displaying a shrewd wit and breathing a +Christian spirit.</p> + +<p>I could never find words to express what commotions your books +have brought about here. They cannot even now eradicate from their +minds the most false suspicion that your works were composed with +my aid, and that I am the standard-bearer of this party, as they call it. +They thought that they had found a handle wherewith to crush good +learning—which they mortally detest as threatening to dim the +majesty of theology, a thing they value far above Christ—and at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +same time to crush me, whom they consider as having some influence +on the revival of studies. The whole affair was conducted with such +clamourings, wild talk, trickery, detraction and cunning that, had I +not been present and witnessed, nay, <i>felt</i> all this, I should never have +taken any man's word for it that theologians could act so madly. You +would have thought it some mortal plague. And yet the poison of +this evil beginning with a few has spread so far abroad that a great +part of this University was running mad with the infection of this not +uncommon disease.</p> + +<p>I declared that you were quite unknown to me, that I had not yet +read your books, and accordingly neither approved nor disapproved +of anything in them. I only warned them not to clamour before the +populace in so hateful a manner without having yet read your books: +this matter was <i>their</i> concern, whose judgement should carry the +greatest weight. Further I begged them to consider also whether it +were expedient to traduce before a mixed multitude views which +were more properly refuted in books or discussed between educated +persons, particularly as the author's way of life was extolled by one +and all. I failed miserably; up to this day they continue to rave in their +insinuating, nay, slanderous disputations. How often have we agreed +to make peace! How often have they stirred up new commotions +from some rashly conceived shred of suspicion! And these men think +themselves theologians! Theologians are not liked in Court circles here; +this too they put down to me. The bishops all favour me greatly. +These men put no trust in books, their hope of victory is based on +cunning alone. I disdain them, relying on my knowledge that I am +in the right. They are becoming a little milder towards yourself. They +fear my pen, because of their bad conscience; and I would indeed +paint them in their true colours, as they deserve, did not Christ's +teaching and example summon me elsewhere. Wild beasts can be +tamed by kindness, which makes these men wild.</p> + +<p>There are persons in England, and they in the highest positions, who +think very well of your writings. Here, too, there are people, among +them the Bishop of Liége, who favour your followers. As for me, I +keep myself as far as possible neutral, the better to assist the new +flowering of good learning; and it seems to me that more can be done +by unassuming courteousness than by violence. It was thus that Christ +brought the world under His sway, and thus that Paul made away +with the Jewish Law, by interpreting all things allegorically. It is +wiser to cry out against those who abuse the Popes' authority than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +against the Popes themselves: and I think that we should act in the +same way with the Kings. As for the schools, we should not so much +reject them as recall them to more reasonable studies. Where things +are too generally accepted to be suddenly eradicated from men's +minds, we must argue with repeated and efficacious proofs and not +make positive assertions. The poisonous contentions of certain +persons are better ignored than refuted. We must everywhere take +care never to speak or act arrogantly or in a party spirit: this I believe +is pleasing to the spirit of Christ. Meanwhile we must preserve our +minds from being seduced by anger, hatred or ambition; these feelings +are apt to lie in wait for us in the midst of our strivings after piety.</p> + +<p>I am not advising you to do this, but only to continue doing what +you are doing. I have looked into your Commentaries on the Psalms;<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> +I am delighted with them, and hope that they will do much good. At +Antwerp we have the Prior of the Monastery,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> a Christian without +spot, who loves you exceedingly, an old pupil of yours as he says. He +is almost alone of them all in preaching Christ: the others preach +human trivialities or their own gain.</p> + +<p>I have written to Melanchthon. The Lord Jesus impart you His +spirit each day more bountifully, to His own glory and the good of +all. I had not your letter at hand when writing this.</p> + + +<h3>XV. TO ULRICH HUTTEN<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></h3> + +<p>Antwerp, 23 July 1519</p> + +<p>To the illustrious knight Ulrich Hutten, greetings:</p> + +<p>... As to your demand for a complete portrait, as it were, of More, +would that I could execute it with a perfection to match the intensity +of your desire! It will be a pleasure, for me as well, to dwell for a +space on the contemplation of by far the sweetest friend of all. But in +the first place, it is not given to every man to explore all More's gifts. +And then I wonder whether he will tolerate being depicted by an +indifferent artist; for I think it no less a task to portray More than it +would be to portray Alexander the Great or Achilles, and they were +no more deserving of immortality than he is. Such a subject requires +in short the pencil of an Apelles; but I fear that I am more like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +Horace's gladiators<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> than Apelles. Nevertheless, I shall try to sketch +you an image rather than a full portrait of the whole man, so far as +my observation or recollection from long association with him in his +home has made this possible. If ever you meet him on some embassy +you will then for the first time understand how unskilled an artist you +have chosen for this commission; and I am downright afraid of your +accusing me of jealousy or blindness, that out of so many excellences so +few have been perceived by my poor sight or recorded by my jealousy.</p> + +<p>But to begin with that side of More of which you know nothing, +in height and stature he is not tall, nor again noticeably short, but +there is such symmetry in all his limbs as leaves nothing to be desired +here. He has a fair skin, his complexion glowing rather than pale, +though far from ruddy, but for a very faint rosiness shining through. +His hair is of a darkish blond, or if you will, a lightish brown, his +beard scanty, his eyes bluish grey, with flecks here and there: this +usually denotes a happy nature and is also thought attractive by the +English, whereas we are more taken by dark eyes. It is said that no +type of eyes is less subject to defects. His expression corresponds to his +character, always showing a pleasant and friendly gaiety, and rather +set in a smiling look; and, to speak honestly, better suited to merriment +than to seriousness and solemnity, though far removed from +silliness or buffoonery. His right shoulder seems a little higher than +the left, particularly when he is walking: this is not natural to him but +due to force of habit, like many of the little habits which we pick up. +There is nothing to strike one in the rest of his body; only his hands +are somewhat clumsy, but only when compared with the rest of his +appearance. He has always from a boy been very careless of everything +to do with personal adornment, to the point of not greatly +caring for those things which according to Ovid's teaching should be +the sole care of men. One can tell even now, from his appearance in +maturity, how handsome he must have been as a young man: although +when I first came to know him he was not more than three and +twenty years old, for he is now barely forty.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p>His health is not so much robust as satisfactory, but equal to all +tasks becoming an honourable citizen, subject to no, or at least very +few, diseases: there is every prospect of his living long, as he has a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +father of great age<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a>—but a wondrously fresh and green old age. I +have never yet seen anyone less fastidious in his choice of food. Until +he grew up he liked water to drink; in this he took after his father. +But so as to avoid irritating anyone over this, he would deceive his +comrades by drinking from a pewter pot ale that was very nearly all +water, often pure water. Wine—the custom in England is to invite +each other to drink from the same goblet—he would often sip with +his lips, not to give the appearance of disliking it, and at the same time +to accustom himself to common ways. He preferred beef, salt fish, +and bread of the second quality, well risen, to the foods commonly +regarded as delicacies: otherwise he was by no means averse to all +sources of innocent pleasure, even to the appetite. He has always had +a great liking for milk foods and fruit: he enjoys eating eggs. His +voice is neither strong nor at all weak, but easily audible, by no means +soft or melodious, but the voice of a clear speaker; for he seems to +have no natural gift for vocal music, although he delights in every +kind of music. His speech is wonderfully clear and distinct, with no +trace of haste or hesitation.</p> + +<p>He likes to dress simply and does not wear silk or purple or gold +chains, excepting where it would not be decent not to wear them. +It is strange how careless he is of the formalities by which the vulgar +judge good manners. He neither insists on these from any, nor does +he anxiously force them on others whether at meetings or at entertainments, +although he knows them well enough, should he choose +to indulge in them; but he considers it effeminate and not becoming +masculine dignity to waste a good part of one's time in suchlike +inanities.</p> + +<p>Formerly he disliked Court life and the company of princes, for the +reason that he has always had a peculiar loathing for tyranny, just as +he has always loved equality. (Now you will hardly find any court so +modest that has not about it much noisy ostentation, dissimulation +and luxury, while yet being quite free of any kind of tyranny.) Indeed +it was only with great difficulty that he could be dragged into the +Court of Henry VIII, although nothing more courteous and unassuming +than this prince could be desired. He is by nature somewhat +greedy of independence and leisure; but while he gladly takes advantage +of leisure when it comes his way, none is more careful or patient +whenever business demands it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>He seems born and created for friendship, which he cultivates most +sincerely and fosters most steadfastly. He is not one to be afraid of the +'abundance of friends' which Hesiod does not approve; he is ready to +enter into friendly relations with any. He is in no way fastidious in +choosing friends, accommodating in maintaining them, constant in +keeping them. If he chances on anyone whose defects he cannot +mend, he dismisses him when the opportunity offers, not breaking +but gradually dissolving the friendship. Whenever he finds any sincere +and suited to his disposition he so delights in their company and +conversation that he appears to make this his chief pleasure in life. +He loathes ball-games, cards and gambling, and the other games with +which the ordinary run of men of rank are used to kill time. Furthermore, +while he is somewhat careless of his own affairs, there is none +more diligent in looking after his friends' affairs. Need I continue? +Should anyone want a finished example of true friendship he could +not do better than seek it in More.</p> + +<p>In social intercourse he is of so rare a courtesy and charm of manners +that there is no man so melancholy that he does not gladden, no subject +so forbidding that he does not dispel the tedium of it. From his +boyhood he has loved joking, so that he might seem born for this, but +in his jokes he has never descended to buffoonery, and has never +loved the biting jest. As a youth he both composed and acted in little +comedies. Any witty remark he would still enjoy, even were it +directed against himself, such is his delight in clever sallies of ingenious +flavour. As a result he wrote epigrams as a young man, and delighted +particularly in Lucian; indeed he was responsible for my writing the +<i>Praise of Folly</i>, that is for making the camel dance.</p> + +<p>In human relations he looks for pleasure in everything he comes +across, even in the gravest matters. If he has to do with intelligent and +educated men, he takes pleasure in their brilliance; if with the +ignorant and foolish, he enjoys their folly. He is not put out by perfect +fools, and suits himself with marvellous dexterity to all men's +feelings. For women generally, even for his wife, he has nothing but +jests and merriment. You could say he was a second Democritus, or +better, that Pythagorean philosopher who saunters through the +market-place with a tranquil mind gazing on the uproar of buyers and +sellers. None is less guided by the opinion of the herd, but again none +is less remote from the common feelings of humanity.</p> + +<p>He takes an especial pleasure in watching the appearance, characters +and behaviour of various creatures; accordingly there is almost no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +kind of bird which he does not keep at his home, and various other +animals not commonly found, such as apes, foxes, ferrets, weasels and +their like. Added to this, he eagerly buys anything foreign or otherwise +worth looking at which comes his way, and he has the whole +house stocked with these objects, so that wherever the visitor looks +there is something to detain him; and his own pleasure is renewed +whenever he sees others enjoying these sights.</p> + +<p>When he was of an age for it, he was not averse to love-affairs with +young women, but kept them honourable, preferring the love that +was offered to that which he must chase after, and was more drawn by +spiritual than by physical intercourse.</p> + +<p>He had devoured classical literature from his earliest years. As a lad +he applied himself to the study of Greek literature and philosophy; +his father, so far from helping him (although he is otherwise a good +and sensible man), deprived him of all support in this endeavour; and +he was almost regarded as disowned, because he seemed to be deserting +his father's studies—the father's profession is English jurisprudence. +This profession is quite unconnected with true learning, but in +Britain those who have made themselves authorities in it are particularly +highly regarded, and this is there considered the most suitable +road to fame, since most of the nobility of that island owe their origin +to this branch of study. It is said that none can become perfect in it +without many years of hard work. So, although the young man's +mind born for better things not unreasonably revolted from it, nevertheless, +after sampling the scholastic disciplines he worked at the law +with such success that none was more gladly consulted by litigants, +and he made a better living at it than any of those who did nothing +else, so quick and powerful was his intellect.</p> + +<p>He also devoted much strenuous attention to studying the ecclesiastical +writers. He lectured publicly to a crowded audience on Augustine's +<i>City of God</i> while still little more than a lad; and priests and +elderly men were neither sorry nor ashamed to learn sacred matters +from a youthful layman. For a time he gave his whole mind to the +study of piety, practising himself for the priesthood in watchings, +fastings and prayer, and other like preliminary exercises; in which +matter he was far more sensible than most of those who rashly hurl +themselves into this arduous calling without having previously made +any trial of themselves. The only obstacle to his devoting himself to +this mode of life was his inability to shake off his longing for a wife. He +therefore chose to be a chaste husband rather than an unchaste priest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>Still, he married a girl,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> as yet very young, of good family, but still +untrained—she had always lived in the country with her parents and +sisters—so that he could better fashion her to his own ways. He had +her taught literature and made her skilled in all kinds of music; and he +had really almost made her such as he would have cared to spend all +his life with, had not an untimely death carried her off while still a girl, +but after she had borne him several children: of whom there survive +three girls, Margaret, Alice<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> and Cecily, and one boy, John. He +would not endure to live long a widower, although his friends counselled +otherwise. Within a few months of his wife's death he married +a widow,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> more for the care of the household than for his pleasure, as +she was not precisely beautiful nor, as he jokingly says himself, a girl, +but a keen and watchful housewife;<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> with whom he yet lives as +pleasantly and agreeably as if she were a most charming young girl. +Hardly any husband gets so much obedience from his wife by stern +orders as he does by jests and cajolery. How could he fail to do so, +after having induced a woman on the verge of old age, also by no +means a docile character, and lastly most attentive to her business, to +learn to play the cithern, the lute, the monochord and the recorders, +and perform a daily prescribed exercise in this at her husband's wish?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxix.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxix-th.png" width="350" height="240" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXIX. SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS FAMILY, 1527</p> + +<p>He rules his whole household as agreeably, no quarrels or disturbances +arise there. If any quarrel does arise he at once heals or settles +the difference; and he has never let anyone leave his house in anger. +His house seems blest indeed with a lucky fate, for none has lived there +without rising to better fortune, and none has ever acquired a stain on +his reputation there. One would be hard put to it to find any agree as +well with their mothers as he with his stepmother—his father had +already given him two, and he loved both of them as truly as he loved +his mother. Recently his father gave him a third stepmother: More +swears his Bible oath he has never seen a better. Moreover, he is so +disposed towards his parents and children as to be neither tiresomely +affectionate nor ever failing in any family duty.</p> + +<p>He has a mind altogether opposed to sordid gain. He has put aside +from his fortune for his children an amount which he considers sufficient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +for them; the rest he gives away lavishly. While he still made his +living at the Bar he gave sincere and friendly counsel to all, considering +his clients' interests rather than his own; he would persuade most +of them to settle their differences—this would be cheaper. If he failed +to achieve this, he would then show them a method of going to law +at the least possible expense—some people here are so minded that +they actually enjoy litigation. In the City of London, where he was +born, he acted for some years as a judge in civil causes.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> This office is +not at all onerous—the court sits only on Thursday mornings—but is +regarded as one of the most honourable. None dealt with so many +cases as he, nor behaved with such integrity; he usually remitted the +charge customarily due from litigants (as before the formal entering +of the suit the plaintiff pays into court three shillings, the defendant +likewise, and it is incorrect to demand more). By this behaviour he +won the deep affection of the City.</p> + +<p>He had made up his mind to rest content with this position, which +was sufficiently influential and yet not exposed to grave dangers. +Twice he was forced into embassies; as he acted in these with great +sagacity. King Henry VIII would not rest until he could drag More +to Court. Why not call it 'drag'? No man ever worked so assiduously +to gain admission to the Court as he studied to escape it. But +when the King decided to fill his household with men of weight, +learning, sagacity and integrity, More was one of the first among +many summoned by him: he regards More so much as one of his +intimate circle that he never lets him depart from him. If serious +matters are to be discussed, there is none more skilled than he; or if +the King decides to relax in pleasant gossiping, there is no merrier +companion. Often difficult affairs require a weighty and sagacious +arbitrator; More solves these matters with such success that both +parties are grateful. Yet no one has ever succeeded in persuading him +to accept a present from anyone. How happy the states would be if +the ruler everywhere put magistrates like More in office! Meanwhile +he has acquired no trace of haughtiness.</p> + +<p>Amid all these official burdens he does not forget his old friends and +from time to time returns to his beloved literature. All the authority +of his office, all his influence with the King, is devoted to the service +of the State and of his friends. His mind, eager to serve all and +wondrously prone to pity, has ever been present to help: he will now +be better able to help others, as he has greater power. Some he assists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +with money, some he protects with his authority, others he advances +by introductions; those whom he cannot help otherwise he aids with +counsel, and he has never sent anyone away disappointed. You might +call More the common advocate of all those in need. He regards himself +as greatly enriched when he assists the oppressed, extricates the +perplexed and involved, or reconciles the estranged. None confers a +benefit so gladly, none is so slow to upbraid. And although he is +fortunate on so many counts, and good fortune is often associated +with boastfulness, it has never yet been my lot to meet any man so far +removed from this vice.</p> + +<p>But I must return to recounting his studies—it was these which +chiefly brought More and myself together. In his youth he chiefly +practised verse composition, afterwards he worked hard and long to +polish his prose, practising his style in all kinds of composition. What +that style is like, I need not describe—particularly not to you, who +always have his books in your hands. He especially delighted in composing +declamations, and in these liked paradoxical themes, for the +reason that this offers keener practice to the wits. This caused him, +while still a youth, to compose a dialogue in which he defended +Plato's Communism, even to the community of wives. He wrote a +rejoinder to Lucian's <i>Tyrannicide</i>; in this theme he desired to have me +as his antagonist, to make a surer trial of his progress in this branch of +letters. His <i>Utopia</i> was published with the aim of showing the causes +of the bad condition of states; but was chiefly a portrait of the British +State, which he has thoroughly studied and explored. He had written +the second book first in his leisure hours, and added the first book on +the spur of the moment later, when the occasion offered. Some of the +unevenness of the style is due to this.</p> + +<p>One could hardly find a better <i>ex tempore</i> speaker: a happy talent +has complete command of a happy turn of speech. He has a present +wit, always flying ahead, and a ready memory; and having all this +ready to hand, he can promptly and unhesitatingly produce whatever +the subject or occasion requires. In arguments he is unimaginably +acute, so that he often puzzles the best theologians on their own +ground. John Colet, a man of keen and exact judgement, often observes +in intimate conversation that Britain has only one genius: +although this island is rich in so many fine talents.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 275px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxx.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxx-th.png" width="275" height="390" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXX. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 54</p> + +<p>He diligently cultivates true piety, while being remote from all +superstitious observance. He has set hours in which he offers to God +not the customary prayers but prayers from the heart. With his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +friends he talks of the life of the world to come so that one sees that +he speaks sincerely and not without firm hope. Such is More even in +the Court. And then there are those who think that Christians are to +be found only in monasteries!... There you have a portrait not very +well drawn by a very bad artist from a most excellent model. You +will like it less if you happen to come to know More better. But for +the time being I have prevented your being able to cast in my teeth +my failure to obey you, and always accusing me of writing too short +letters. Still, this did not seem long to me as I was writing it, and +I know that you will not find it long drawn out as you read it: our +friend More's charm will see to that. Farewell.</p> + + + +<h3>XVI. TO WILLIBALD PIRCKHEIMER<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></h3> + +<p>Basle, 14 March 1525</p> + +<p>To the illustrious Willibald Pirckheimer, greetings:</p> + +<p>... I received safely the very pretty ring which you desired me to have +as a memento of you. I know that gems are prized as bringing safety +when one has a fall. But they say too, that if the fall was likely to be +fatal, the evil is diverted on to the gem, so that it is seen to be broken +after the accident. Once in Britain I fell with my horse from a fairly +high bank: no damage was found to me or my horse, yet the gem I +was wearing was whole. It was a present from Alexander, Archbishop +of St. Andrews,<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> whom I think you know from my writings. When +I left him at Siena, he drew it off his finger and handing it to me said: +'Take this as a pledge of our friendship that will never die.' And I +kept my pledged faith with him even after his death, celebrating my +friend's memory in my writings. There is no part of life into which +magical superstition has not insinuated itself: if gems have some great +virtue, I could have wished in these days for a ring with an efficacious +remedy against 'slander's tooth.' As to the belief about falls, I shall +follow your advice—I shall prefer to believe rather than risk myself.</p> + +<p>Portraits are less precious than jewels—I have received from you a +medallic and a painted portrait—but at least they bring my Willibald +more vividly before me. Alexander the Great would only allow himself +to be painted by Apelles's hand. You have found your Apelles in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +Albrecht Dürer,<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> an artist of the first rank and no less to be admired +for his remarkable good sense. If only you had likewise found some +Lysippus<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> to cast the medal! I have the medal of you on the righthand +wall of my bedroom, the painting on the left; whether writing +or walking up and down, I have Willibald before my eyes, so that if +I wanted to forget you I could not. Though I have a more retentive +memory for friends than for anything else. Certainly Willibald could +not be forgotten by me, even were there no memento, no portraits, +no letters to refresh my memory of him. There is another very +pleasant thing—the portraits often occasion a talk about you when my +friends come to visit me. If only our letters travelled safely, how little +we should miss of each other! You have a medal of me. I should not +object to having my portrait painted by Dürer,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> that great artist; but +how this can be done I do not see. Once at Brussels he sketched me, +but after a start had been made the work was interrupted by callers +from the Court. Though I have long been a sad model for painters, +and am likely to become a sadder one still as the days go on.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> I read +with pleasure what you write, as witty as it is wise, on the agitations of +certain persons who are destroying the evangelical movement, to +which they imagine themselves to be doing splendid service: and I +have much to tell you in my turn about this. But this will be another +time, when I have more leisure. Farewell.</p> + + +<h3>XVII. TO MARTIN LUTHER</h3> + +<p>Basle, 11 April 1526</p> + +<p>To Martin Luther, greetings:</p> + +<p>... Your letter has been delivered too late;<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> but had it arrived in the +best of time, it would not have moved me one whit. I am not so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +simple as to be appeased by one or two pleasantries or soothed by +flattery after receiving so many more than mortal wounds. Your +nature is by now known to all the world, but you have so tempered +your pen that never have you written against anyone so frenziedly, +nay, what is more abominable, so maliciously. Now it occurs to you +that you are a weak sinner, whereas at other times you insist almost on +being taken for God. You are a man, as you write, of violent temperament, +and you take pleasure in this remarkable argument. Why then +did you not pour forth this marvellous piece of invective on the +Bishop of Rochester<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> or on Cochleus?<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> They attack you personally +and provoke you with insults, while my <i>Diatribe</i><a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> was a courteous +disputation. And what has all this to do with the subject—all this +facetious abuse, these slanderous lies, charging me with atheism, +Epicureanism, scepticism in articles of the Christian profession, +blasphemy, and what not—besides many other points on which I<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> +am silent? I take these charges the less hardly, because in all this there +is nothing to make my conscience disturb me. If I did not think as a +Christian of God and the Holy Scriptures, I could not wish my life +prolonged even until tomorrow. If you had conducted your case with +your usual vehemence, without frenzied abuse, you would have provoked +fewer men against you: as things are, you have been pleased to +fill more than a third part of the volume with such abuse, giving free +rein to your feelings. How far you have given way to me the facts +themselves show—so many palpable crimes do you fasten on me; +while my <i>Diatribe</i> was not even intended to stir up those matters +which the world itself knows of.</p> + +<p>You imagine, I suppose, that Erasmus has no supporters. More than +you think. But it does not matter what happens to us two, least +of all to myself who must shortly go hence, even if the whole world +were applauding us: it is <i>this</i> that distresses me, and all the best spirits +with me, that with that arrogant, impudent, seditious temperament +of yours you are shattering the whole globe in ruinous discord, exposing +good men and lovers of good learning to certain frenzied +Pharisees, arming for revolt the wicked and the revolutionary, and in +short so carrying on the cause of the Gospel as to throw all things +sacred and profane into chaos; as if you were eager to prevent this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +storm from turning at last to a happy issue; I have ever striven towards +such an opportunity. What you owe me, and in what coin you have +repaid me—I do not go into that. All that is a private matter; it is the +public disaster which distresses me, and the irremediable confusion of +everything, for which we have to thank only your uncontrolled +nature, that will not be guided by the wise counsel of friends, but +easily turns to any excess at the prompting of certain inconstant +swindlers. I know not whom you have saved from the power of +darkness; but you should have drawn the sword of your pen against +those ungrateful wretches and not against a temperate disputation. I +would have wished you a better mind, were you not so delighted +with your own. Wish me what you will, only not your mind, unless +God has changed it for you.</p> + + +<h3>XVIII. TO THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></h3> + +<p>Basle, <i>c.</i> March 1527</p> + +<p>To the most skilled physician Theophrastus of Einsiedeln, etc., greetings:</p> + +<p>... It is not incongruous to wish continued spiritual health to the +medical man through whom God gives us physical health. I wonder +how you know me so thoroughly, having seen me once only. I +recognize how very true are your dark sayings, not by the art of +medicine, which I have never learned, but from my own wretched +sensations. I have felt pains in the region of the liver in the past, and +could not divine the source of the trouble. I have seen the fat from the +kidneys in my water many years ago. Your third point<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> I do not +quite understand, nevertheless it appears to be convincing.</p> + +<p>As I told you, I have no time for the next few days to be doctored, +or to be ill, or to die, so overwhelmed am I with scholarly work. But +if there is anything which can alleviate the trouble without weakening +the body, I beg you to inform me. If you will be so good as to +explain at greater length your very concise and more than laconic +notes, and prescribe other remedies which I can take until I am free, +I cannot promise you a fee to match your art or the trouble you have +taken, but I do at least promise you a grateful heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> + +<p>You have resurrected Froben<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a>, that is, my other half: if you restore +me also, you will have restored both of us by treating each of us +singly. May we have the good fortune to keep you in Basle!</p> + +<p>I fear you may not be able to read this letter dashed off immediately +[after receiving yours]. Farewell.</p> + +<p>Erasmus of Rotterdam, by his own hand.</p> + + +<h3>XIX. TO MARTIN BUCER<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></h3> + +<p>Basle, 11 November 1527</p> + +<p>Best greetings:</p> + +<p>You plead the cause of Capito with some rhetorical skill; but I see +that, eloquent advocate as you are otherwise, you are not sufficiently +well equipped to undertake his defence. Were I to advance my battle-line +of conjectures and proofs, you would realize that you had to +devise a different speech. But I have had too much of squabbling, and +do not easily bestir myself against men whom I once sincerely loved. +What the Knight of Eppendorff<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> ventures or does not venture to do +is his concern; only that he returns too frequently to this game. I shall +not involve Capito in the drama unless he involves himself again; let +him not think me such a fool as not to know what is in question. But +I have written myself on these matters. Furthermore, as to your +pleading your own cause and that of your church, I think it better not +to give any answer, because this matter would require a very lengthy +oration, even if it were not a matter of controversy. This is merely a +brief answer on scattered points.</p> + +<p>The person who informed me about 'languages'<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> is one whose +trustworthiness not even you would have esteemed lightly; and he +thinks no ill of you. Indeed I have never disliked you as far as concerns +private feelings. There are persons living in your town who were +chattering here about 'all the disciplines having been invented by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +godforsaken wretches'. Certainly persons of this description, whatever +name must be given them, are in the ascendancy everywhere, all +studies are neglected and come to a standstill. At Nuremberg the City +Treasury has hired lecturers, but there is no one to attend their lectures.</p> + +<p>You assemble a number of conjectures as to why I have not joined +your church. But you must know that the first and most important +of all the reasons which withheld me from associating myself with +it was my conscience: if my conscience could have been persuaded +that this movement proceeded from God, I should have been now +long since a soldier in your camp. The second reason is that I see +many in your group who are strangers to all Evangelical soundness. +I make no mention of rumours and suspicions, I speak of things +learned from experience, nay, learned to my own injury; things experienced +not merely from the mob, but from men who appear to be +of some worth, not to mention the leading men. It is not for me to +judge of what I know not: the world is wide. I know some as excellent +men before they became devotees of your faith, what they are now like +I do not know: at all events I have learned that several of them have +become worse and none better, so far as human judgement can discern.</p> + +<p>The third thing which deterred me is the intense discord between +the leaders of the movement. Not to mention the Prophets and the +Anabaptists, what embittered pamphlets Zwingli, Luther and +Osiander write against each other! I have never approved the ferocity +of the leaders, but it is provoked by the behaviour of certain persons; +when they ought to have made the Gospel acceptable by holy and +forbearing conduct, if you really had what you boast of. Not to speak +of the others, of what use was it for Luther to indulge in buffoonery +in that fashion against the King of England, when he had undertaken +a task so arduous with the general approval? Was he not reflecting as +to the role he was sustaining? Did he not realize that the whole world +had its eyes turned on him alone? And this is the chief of this movement; +I am not particularly angry with him for treating me so scurrilously: +but his betrayal of the cause of the Gospel, his letting loose +princes, bishops, pseudo-monks and pseudo-theologians against good +men, his having made doubly hard our slavery, which is already intolerable—that +is what tortures my mind. And I seem to see a cruel +and bloody century ahead, if the provoked section gets its breath +again, which it is certainly now doing. You will say that there is no +crowd without an admixture of wicked men. Certainly it was the +duty of the principal men to exercise special care in matters of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +conduct, and not be even on speaking terms with liars, perjurors, +drunkards and fornicators. As it is I hear and almost <i>see</i>, that things +are far otherwise. If the husband had found his wife more amenable, +the teacher his pupil more obedient, the magistrate the citizen more +tractable, the employer his workman more trustworthy, the buyer +the seller less deceitful, it would have been great recommendation +for the Gospels. As things are, the behaviour of certain persons has had +the effect of cooling the zeal of those who at first, owing to their +love of piety and abhorrence of Pharisaism, looked with favour on +this movement; and the princes, seeing a disorderly host springing +up in its wake made up of vagabonds, fugitives, bankrupts, naked, +wretched and for the most part even wicked men, are cursing, even +those who in the beginning had been hopeful.</p> + +<p>It is not without deep sorrow that I speak of all this, not only +because I foresee that a business wrongly handled will go from bad to +worse, but also because at last I shall myself have to suffer for it. +Certain rascals say that my writings are to blame for the fact that the +scholastic theologians and monks are in several places becoming less +esteemed than they would like, that ceremonies are neglected, and +that the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff is disregarded; when it is +quite dear from what source this evil has sprung. They were stretching +too tight the rope which is now breaking. They almost set the Pope's +authority above Christ's, they measured all piety by ceremonies, and +tightened the hold of the confession to an enormous extent, while the +monks lorded it without fear of punishment, by now meditating open +tyranny. As a result 'the stretched string snapped', as the proverb has +it; it could not be otherwise. But I sorely fear that the same will +happen one day to the princes, if they too continue to stretch <i>their</i> +rope too tightly. Again, the other side having commenced the action +of their drama as they did, no different ending was possible. May we +not live to see worse horrors!</p> + +<p>However it was the duty of the leaders of this movement, if Christ +was their goal, to refrain not only from vice, but even from every +appearance of evil; and to offer not the slightest stumbling block to +the Gospel, studiously avoiding even practices which, although +allowed, are yet not expedient. Above all they should have guarded +against all sedition. If they had handled the matter with sincerity and +moderation, they would have won the support of the princes and +bishops: for they have not all been given up for lost. And they should +not have heedlessly wrecked anything without having something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +better ready to put in its place. As it is, those who have abandoned the +Hours do not pray at all. Many who have put off pharisaical clothing +are worse in other matters than they were before. Those who disdain +the episcopal regulations do not even obey the commandments of +God. Those who disregard the careful choice of foods indulge in +greed and gluttony. It is a long-drawn-out tragedy, which every day +we partly hear ourselves and partly learn of from others. I never +approved of the abolition of the Mass, even though I have always disliked +these mean and money-grabbing mass-priests. There were other +things also which could have been altered without causing riots. As +things are, certain persons are not satisfied with any of the accepted +practices; as if a new world could be built of a sudden. There will always +be things which the pious must endure. If anyone thinks that Mass +ought to be abolished because many misuse it, then the Sermon should +be abolished also, which is almost the only custom accepted by your +party. I feel the same about the invocation of the saints and about images.</p> + +<p>Your letter demanded a lengthy reply, but even this letter is very +long, with all that I have to do. I am told that you have a splendid +gift for preaching the Word of the Gospel, and that you conduct +yourself more courteously than do many. So I could wish that with +your good sense you would strive to the end that this movement, +however it began, may through firmness and moderation in doctrine +and integrity of conduct be brought to a conclusion worthy of the +Gospel. To this end I shall help you to the best of my ability. As it is, +although the host of monks and certain theologians assail me with all +their artifices, nothing will induce me wittingly to cast away my soul. +You will have the good sense not to circulate this letter, lest it cause +any disturbance. We would have more discussions if we could meet. +Farewell. I had no time to read this over.</p> + +<p>Erasmus of Rotterdam, by my own hand.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxxi.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxxi-th.png" width="300" height="390" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXXI. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 60</p> + + +<h3>XX. TO ALFONSO VALDES<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></h3> + +<p>Basle, 1 August 1528</p> + +<p>To the most illustrious Alfonso Valdes, Secretary to His Imperial +Majesty, greetings:</p> + +<p>... I have learned very plainly from other men's letters what you indicate +very discreetly, as is your way—that there are some who seek to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +make <i>Terminus</i>,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> the seal on my ring, an occasion for slander, protesting +that the addition of the device <i>Concedo nulli</i> [I yield to none] +shows intolerable arrogance. What is this but some fatal malady, +consisting in misrepresenting everything? Momus<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> is ridiculed for criticizing +Venus's slipper; but these men outdo Momus himself, finding +something to carp at in a ring. I would have called <i>them</i> Momuses, +but Momus carps at nothing but what he has first carefully inspected. +These fault-finders, or rather false accusers, criticize with their eyes +shut what they neither see nor understand: so violent is the disease. +And meanwhile they think themselves pillars of the Church, whereas +all they do is to expose their stupidity combined with a malice no less +extreme, when they are already more notorious than they should be. +They are dreaming if they think it is Erasmus who says <i>Concedo +nulli</i>. But if they read my writings they would see that there is none +so humble that I rank myself above him, being more liable to yield to +all than to none.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a href="images/plate-xxxii.png"> +<img src="images/plate-xxxii-th.png" width="300" height="465" alt="" title=""/> +</a></div> +<p class="center">Plate XXXII. ERASMUS'S DEVICE</p> + +<p>Now those who know me intimately from close association will +attribute any vice to me sooner than arrogance, and will acknowledge +that I am closer to the Socratic utterance, 'This alone I know, that I +know nothing,' than to this, 'I yield to none.' But if they imagine that +I have so insolent a mind as to put myself before all others, do they +also think me such a fool as to profess this in a device? If they had any +Christian feeling they would understand those words either as not +mine or as bearing another meaning. They see there a sculptured +figure, in its lower part a stone, in its upper part a youth with flying +hair. Does this look like Erasmus in any respect? If this is not enough, +they see written on the stone itself <i>Terminus</i>: if one takes this as the +last word, that will make an iambic dimeter acatalectic, <i>Concedo +nulli Terminus</i>; if one begins with this word, it will be a trochaic +dimeter acatalectic, <i>Terminus concedo nulli</i>. What if I had painted +a lion and added as a device 'Flee, unless you prefer to be torn to +pieces'? Would they attribute these words to me instead of the lion? +But what they are doing now is just as foolish; for if I mistake not, I +am more like a lion than a stone.</p> + +<p>They will argue, 'We did not notice that it was verse, and we know +nothing about Terminus.' Is it then to be a crime henceforward +to have written verse, because <i>they</i> have not learned the theory of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +metre? At least, as they knew that in devices of this kind one actually +aims at a certain degree of obscurity in order to exercise the guessing +powers of those who look at them, if they did not know of Terminus—although +they could have learned of him from the books of +Augustine or Ambrose—they should have inquired of experts in this +kind of matter. In former times field boundaries were marked +with some sign. This was a stone projecting above the earth, which +the laws of the ancients ordered never to be moved; here belongs the +Platonic utterance, 'Remove not what thou hast not planted.' The +law was reinforced by a religious awe, the better to deter the ignorant +multitude from daring to remove the stone, by making it believe that +to violate the stone was to violate a god in it, whom the Romans call +Terminus, and to him there was also dedicated a shrine and a festival, +the Terminalia. This god Terminus, as the Roman historian has it, was +alone in refusing to yield to Jupiter because 'while the birds allowed +the deconsecration of all the other sanctuaries, in the shrine of +Terminus alone they were unpropitious.'<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> Livy tells this story in the +first book of his <i>History</i>, and again in Book 5 he narrates how 'when +after the taking of auguries the Capitol was being cleared, Juventas +[Youth] and Terminus would not allow themselves to be moved.'<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> +This omen was welcomed with universal rejoicing, for they believed +that it portended an eternal empire. The <i>youth</i> is useful for war, and +<i>Terminus</i> is fixed.</p> + +<p>Here they will exclaim perchance, 'What have <i>you</i> to do with a +mythical god?' He came to me, I did not adopt him. When I was +called to Rome, and Alexander, titular Archbishop of St. Andrews,<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> +was summoned home from Siena by his father King James of +Scotland, as a grateful and affectionate pupil he gave me several rings +for a memento of our time together. Among these was one which +had <i>Terminus</i> engraved on the jewel; an Italian interested in antiquities +had pointed this out, which I had not known before. I seized +on the omen and interpreted it as a warning that the term of my +existence was not far off—at that time I was in about my fortieth year. +To keep this thought in my mind I began to seal my letters with this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +sign. I added the verse, as I said before. And so from a heathen god I +made myself a device, exhorting me to correct my life. For Death is +truly a boundary which knows no yielding to any. But in the medal +there is added in Greek, +Ωρα τελος +μακρου βιου, +that is, 'Consider the +end of a long life,' in Latin <i>Mors ultima linea rerum</i>. They will say, +'You could have carved on it a dead man's skull.' Perhaps I should +have accepted that, if it had come my way: but this pleased me, +because it came to me by chance, and then because it had a double +charm for me; from the allusion to an ancient and famous story, and +from its obscurity, a quality specially belonging to devices.</p> + +<p>There is my defence on <i>Terminus</i>, or better say on hair-splitting. +And if only they would at last set a <i>term</i> to their misrepresentations! +I will gladly come to an agreement with them to change my +device, if they will change their malady. Indeed by so doing they +would be doing more for their own authority, which they complain +is being undermined by the lovers of good learning. I myself am +assuredly so far from desiring to injure their reputation that I am +deeply pained at their delivering themselves over to the ridicule of the +whole world by these stupid tricks, and not blushing to find themselves +confuted with mockery on every occasion. The Lord keep you safe in +body and soul, my beloved friend in Christ.</p> + + +<h3>XXI. TO CHARLES BLOUNT<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></h3> + +<p>Freiburg im Breisgau, 1 March 1531</p> + +<p>To the noble youth Charles Mountjoy, greetings:</p> + +<p>... I have determined to dedicate to you Livy, the prince of Latin +history; already many times printed, but never before in such a +magnificent or accurate edition: and if this is not enough, augmented +by five books recently discovered; these were found by some good +genius in the library of the monastery at Lorsch by Simon Grynaeus,<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> +a man at once learned without arrogance in all branches of literature +and at the same time born for the advancement of liberal studies. Now +this monastery was built opposite Worms, or Berbethomagium, by +Charlemagne seven hundred years and more ago, and equipped with +great store of books; for this was formerly the special care of princes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +and this is usually the most precious treasure of the monasteries. The +original manuscript was one of marvellous antiquity, painted<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> in the +antique fashion with the letters in a continuous series, so that it has +proved very difficult to separate word from word, unless one is +knowledgeable, careful and trained for this very task. This caused +much trouble in preparing a copy to be handed to the printer's men +for their use; a careful and faithful watch was kept to prevent any +departure from the original in making the copy. So if the poor fragment +which came to us recently from Mainz was justly welcomed by +scholars with great rejoicing,<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> what acclamation should greet this large +addition to Livy's <i>History</i>?</p> + +<p>Would to God that this author could be restored to us complete and +entire. There are rumours flying round that give some hope of this: +men boast of unpublished Liviana existing, now in Denmark, now in +Poland, now in Germany. At least now that fortune has given us these +remnants against all men's expectations, I do not see why we should +despair of the possibility of finding still more. And here, in my +opinion at least, the princes would be acting worthily if they offered +rewards and attracted scholars to the search for such a treasure, or +prevailed upon them to publish—if there are perchance any who are +suppressing and hiding away to the great detriment of studies something +in a fit state to be of public utility. For it seems perfectly absurd +that men will dig through the bowels of the earth almost down to +Hades at vast peril and expense in order to find a little gold or silver: +and yet will utterly disregard treasures of this kind, as far above those +others in value as the soul excels the body, and not consider them +worth searching for. This is the spirit of Midases, not of princes; and +as I know that your character is utterly at variance with this spirit, I +doubt not that you will most eagerly welcome this great gain. Now, +there are chiefly two considerations which remove all possible doubt +as to this half-decade's being genuinely by Livy: in the first place that +of the diction itself, which in all features recalls its author: secondly +that of the arguments or epitomes of Floras, which correspond exactly +with these books.</p> + +<p>And so, knowing that there is no kind of reading more fitting for +men of note than that of the historians, of whom Livy is easily the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +chief (I speak of the Roman historians), particularly as we have +nothing of Sallust beyond two fragments, and bearing in mind what +an insatiable glutton, so to speak, your father has always been for +history (and I doubt not that you resemble him in this also): I thought +I should not be acting incongruously in publishing these five books +with a special dedication to you. Although in this point I should not +wish you to resemble your father too closely. He is in the way of +poring over his books every day from dinner until midnight, which +is wearisome to his wife and attendants and a cause of much grumbling +among the servants; so far he has been able to do this without +loss of health; still, I do not think it wise for you to take the +same risk, which may not turn out as successfully. Certainly when +your father was studying along with the present king while still a +young man, they read chiefly history, with the strong approval of +his father Henry VII, a king of remarkable judgement and good sense.</p> + +<p>Joined to this edition is the Chronology of Henry Glareanus, a man +of exquisite and many-sided learning, whose indefatigable industry +refines, adorns and enriches with the liberal disciplines not the renowned +Gymnasium at Freiburg alone, but this whole region as well. +The Chronology shows the order of events, the details of the wars, +and the names of persons, in which up till now there has reigned +astonishing confusion, brought about through the fault of the scribes +and dabblers in learning. Yet this was the sole guiding light of history! +Without this Pole star our navigation on the ocean of history is +completely blind: and without this thread to help him, the reader +becomes involved in an inextricable maze, learned though he be, in +these labyrinths of events. If you consider your letter well repaid by +this gift, it will now be your turn to write me a letter. Farewell.</p> + + +<h3>XXII. TO BARTHOLOMEW LATOMUS<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></h3> + +<p>Basle, 24 August 1535</p> + +<p>To Bartholomew Latomus, greetings:</p> + +<p>... In apologizing for your silence you are wasting your time, +believe me; I am not in the habit of judging tried friends by this +common courtesy. It would be impudent of me to charge you with +an omission which you have an equal right to accuse me of in turn.... +The heads of the colleges are not doing anything new. They are afraid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +of their own revenues suffering, this being the sole aim of most of +them. You would scarcely believe to what machinations they stooped +at Louvain in their efforts to prevent a trilingual college being established. +I worked strenuously in the matter, and have made myself +accordingly very unpopular. There was an attempt to set up a chair +of languages at Tournai, but the University of Louvain and the +Franciscans at Tournai did not rest until the project was abandoned. +The house erected for this purpose overlooked the Franciscans' +garden—that was the cause of the trouble....</p> + +<p>I have had a long life, counting in years; but were I to calculate the +time spent in wrestling with fever, the stone and the gout, I have not +lived long. But we must patiently bear whatever the Lord has sent +upon us, Whose will no one can resist, and Who alone knows what is +good for us.... The glory [of an immortal name] moves me not at +all, I am not anxious over the applause of posterity. My one concern +and desire is to depart hence with Christ's favour.</p> + +<p>Many French nobles have fled here for fear of the winter storm, +after having been recalled.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> 'The lion shall roar, who shall not fear?' +says the Prophet.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> A like terror has seized the English, from an unlike +cause. Certain monks have been beheaded and among them a monk +of the Order of St. Bridget<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> was dragged along the ground, then +hanged, and finally drawn and quartered. There is a firm and probable +rumour here that the news of the Bishop of Rochester having +been co-opted by Paul III as a cardinal caused the King to hasten his +being dragged out of prison and beheaded—his method of conferring +the scarlet hat. It is all too true that Thomas More has been long in +prison and his fortune confiscated. It was being said that he too had +been executed, but I have no certain news as yet.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> Would that he had +never embroiled himself in this perilous business and had left the +theological cause to the theologians. The other friends who from time +to time honoured me with letters and gifts now send nothing and +write nothing from fear, and accept nothing from anyone, as if under +every stone there slept a scorpion.</p> + +<p>It seems that the Pope is seriously thinking of a Council here. But +I do not see how it is to meet in the midst of such dissension between +princes and lands. The whole of Lower Germany is astonishingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +infected with Anabaptists: in Upper Germany they pretend not to +notice them. They are pouring in here in droves; some are on their +way to Italy. The Emperor is besieging Goletta; in my opinion there +is more danger from the Anabaptists.</p> + +<p>I do not think that France is entirely free of this plague; but they are +silent there for fear of the cudgel....</p> + +<p>Now I must tell you something about my position which will +amuse you. I had written to Paul III at the instance of Louis Ber, +the distinguished theologian. Before unsealing the letter he spoke of +me with great respect. And as he had to make several scholars cardinals +for the coming Council, the name of Erasmus was proposed among +others. But obstacles were mentioned, my health, not strong enough +for the duties, and my low income; for they say there is a decree which +excludes from this office those whose annual income is less than +3,000 ducats. Now they are busy heaping benefices on me, so that I +can acquire the proper income from these and receive the red hat. +The proverbial cat in court-dress. I have a friend in Rome who is +particularly active in the business; in vain have I warned him more +than once by letter that I want no cures or pensions, that I am a man +who lives from day to day, and every day expecting death, often +longing for it, so horrible sometimes are the pains. It is hardly safe +for me to put a foot outside my bedroom, and even the merest +trifle upsets me.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> With my peculiar, emaciated body I can only +stand warm air. And in this condition they want to push me forward +as a candidate for benefices and cardinals' hats! But meanwhile I am +gratified by the Supreme Pontiff's delusions about me and his +feelings towards me. But I am being more wordy than I intended. I +should easily forgive your somewhat lengthy letter, if you were to +repeat that fault often.... Farewell.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Servatius Roger (d. 1540), whom Erasmus came to know as a young monk +soon after his entry into Steyn, became eighth Prior of Steyn; it was as Prior +that he wrote to Erasmus in 1514 to urge him to return to the monastery, +see pp. 11, 87 f., 212 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Juvenal, ix. 18-20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> N. Werner (d. 5 September 1504), later Prior of Steyn.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Probably James Stuart, brother of James IV of Scotland, Archbishop of St. +Andrews, 1497, aged about twenty-one at this time.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Relative of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Took his doctor's degree in +Italy, returned to England 1507.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> William Grocyn (<i>c.</i> 1446-1519), Fellow of New College, one of the first +to teach Greek in Oxford.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Thomas Linacre (<i>c.</i> 1460-1524), Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, +1484. Translator of Galen. Helped to found the College of Physicians, 1518.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> James Batt (1464?-1502), secretary to the council of the town of Bergen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Anne of Burgundy, the Lady of Veere (1469?-1518), patroness +of Erasmus until 1501-2, when she remarried.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> i.e. to replace Greek words either corrupted or omitted. +Erasmus is here referring probably to the text of the <i>Letters</i> of +Jerome; he uses the same expression in his letter of 21 May 1515 to Leo +X (Allen 335, v. 268 ff.): 'I have purified the text of the Letters ... +and carefully restored the Greek, which was either missing altogether or +inserted incorrectly'.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Brother of Henry of Bergen (Bishop of Cambrai) and by this time Abbot +of St. Bertin at St. Omer, where he was forcibly installed by his brother the +bishop in 1493.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> 'And my sin is ever before me,' where <i>contra</i> could +be rendered as either 'before' or 'against'; the ambiguity is resolved +by referring to the Greek, where ενωπον += face to face with.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Apparently a loose statement of the <i>Constitutions</i> of +Clement V, promulgated after the Council of Vienne, 1311-12, Bk. 5, tit. +1, cap. 1, in which for the better conversion of infidels it was +ordained that two teachers for each of the three languages, Hebrew, +Arabic, and Chaldaean be appointed in each of the four Universities, +Paris, Oxford, Bologna and Salamanca. Greek was included in the original +list, but afterwards omitted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Probably George Hermonymus of Sparta.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Cf. Juvenal, iii.78. (<i>Graeculus esuriens</i>.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> William Warham (1450?-1532) became Archbishop of Canterbury +in 1503, Lord Chancellor of England, 1504-15, Chancellor of Oxford +University from 1506. This letter forms the preface to <i>Hecuba</i> in +<i>Euripidis</i> ... <i>Hecuba et Iphigenia; Latinae factae Erasmo +Roterodamo interprete</i>, Paris, J. Badius, September 1506.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> +εν τω πιθω την +κεραμειαν, +i.e., to run before one +can walk, to make a winejar being the most advanced job in pottery.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Politian translated parts of Iliad, 2-5 into Latin +hexameters, dedicating the work to Lorenzo dei Medici. Published by A. +Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Nicholas de Valle translated the <i>Works and Days</i> +(<i>Georgica</i>), Bonninus Mombritius the <i>Theogonia</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Martin Phileticus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> No. 3; his Funeral Orations were printed <i>c.</i> 1481 at Milan.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) founded the Aldine Press at +Venice, 1494.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Published by Aldus, 1513.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Published by Aldus, 1528.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Published by Aldus, 1518, although projected in 1499.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Euripidis ... Hecuba et Iphigenia</i> [in Aulide]; +<i>Latinae factae Erasmo Roterodamo interprete</i>, Paris, J. Badius, 13 +September 1506. Reprinted by Aldus at Venice, December 1507 (and by +Froben at Basle in 1518 and 1524).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Thomas More (1478-1535). This letter is the preface to the <i>Moriae +Encomium</i>, published by Gilles Gourmont at Paris without date, reprinted by +Schürer at Strasbourg, August 1511.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> The Greek 'laughing philosopher'.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> John Colet (1466?-1519), Dean of St. Paul's 1504, had founded St. Paul's +School in the previous year (1510).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Raffaele Riario (1461-1521), Leo X's most formidable rival in the election +of 1513.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Francesco Alidosi of Imola, d. 1511.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Robert Guibé(<i>c.</i> 1456-1513), Cardinal of St. Anastasia and Bishop of +Nantes (1507).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Leo X.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Wolsey.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Enchiridion militis Christiani</i>, printed in +<i>Lucubratiunculae</i>, 1503.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> A new and enlarged edition under the title <i>Adagiorum +Chiliades</i>, printed by Aldus in 1508.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo</i>, +Paris, Badius, 1512.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> The Hebrew scholar, who adhered to the Reformation, 1523.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> F. Ximenes (1436-1517), confessor of Queen Isabella, Archbishop of +Toledo, 1495, founded Alcalá University, 1500; he promoted the Polyglot +Bible.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> (1428-1524), taught medicine at Ferrara and made translations from +Aristotle, Dio Cassius, Galen and Hippocrates.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> (d. 1525) Professor of Medicine at Naples, and from 1507 at Venice; +physician to Aldus's household, where he met Erasmus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> (1466-1532), physician, astronomer and humanist; learned Greek with +Erasmus in Paris. He was physician to the Court of Francis I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> (1479-1537), Dean of the Medical Faculty at Paris, 1508-9, and Physician +to Francis I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> (1467/8-1540), the Parisian humanist, whose <i>Annotationes +in xxiv Pandectarum libros</i> were published by Badius in 1508.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Ulrich Zäsi or Zasius (1461-1535) Lector Ordinarius in Laws at Freiburg +from 1506 until his death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Henry Loriti of canton Glarus, usually known as Glareanus (1488-1563), +had an academy at Basle where he took in thirty boarders.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Published at Basle, March 1519.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> A translation of Galen's <i>Methodus medendi</i>, not +printed until June 1519. Lupset supervised the printing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> This may be the <i>De pueris statim ac liberaliter +instituendis</i>, composed in Italy. More writes to Erasmus in 1516 +(Allen 502) that he has received part of the MS. from Lupset, but it was +not published until 1529.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Luther's <i>Theses</i>, posted 31 October 1517 and printed +shortly afterwards at Wittenberg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> The proposals for a crusade drawn up at Rome, 16 November +1517.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> The <i>Julius Exclusus</i>, an attack on Pope Julius II, +who died 1513. Erasmus never directly denied his authorship, and More +speaks of a copy in Erasmus's hand (Allen 502).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Beat Bild (1485-1547), whose family came from Rheinau near Schlettstadt, +became M.A., Paris, in 1505. He worked as a corrector at Henry +Stephanus's press in Paris, with Schürer in Strasbourg, and from 1511 for fifteen +years with Amerbach and Froben in Basle, where he edited and superintended +the publication of numerous books.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Haecceity, 'thisness', 'individuality', t.t. of Scotistic +philosophy, cf. quiddity, 'essence'.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> I.e. the Literary Society of Strasbourg. A letter survives, addressed to +Erasmus in the name of this Society, dated 1 September 1514, in which occur +all the names mentioned here, with the exception of Gerbel's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> A portrait drawing of Varnbüler by Albrecht Dürer is in the Albertina, +Vienna; Dürer made also a woodcut from it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Hermann, Count of Neuenahr (1492-1530), a pupil of Caesarius, with +whom he visited Italy in 1508-9. In 1517 he lectured in Cologne on Greek and +Hebrew, and became later Chancellor of the University. Among his works is a +letter in defence of Erasmus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Operationes in Psalmos</i>. Wittenberg, 1519.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> James Probst or Proost (Præpositus) of Ypres (1486-1562).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Ulrich Hutten (1488-1523), the German knight and humanist.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Satires 2, vii. 96 (where however the gladiators are the +subject, and not the artists, of a crude charcoal sketch).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Sir Thomas More's portrait at the age of fifty was painted by Hans Holbein; +it is now in the Frick Collection, New York. Two portrait drawings of him +by Holbein are in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. See also p. 236, note 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> John More (1453?-1530), at this time a Judge of Common Pleas, promoted +to the King's Bench in 1523.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Jane Colt (<i>c.</i> 1487-1511).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> More's second daughter was Elizabeth; Alice was the name of +his stepdaughter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Alice Middleton.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> A group portrait of Sir Thomas More with his entire family was painted +by Hans Holbein about 1527-8 at More's house in Chelsea. It was commissioned +from the artist at the recommendation of Erasmus. The original has been lost; +see Plate XXIX and p. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> More was elected Under-Sheriff, 1510.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> W. Pirckheimer (1470-1530), humanist. After studying law and Greek in +Italy he settled at Nuremberg. Some of his works were illustrated by Dürer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Alexander Stewart (<i>c.</i> 1493-1513), natural son of +James IV of Scotland, fell at Flodden. Erasmus was his tutor in Italy in +1508-9. For details of this ring see p. 247 f.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Dürer made three portraits of him, two drawings (now in Berlin and in +Brunswick) and an engraving.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> The Greek sculptor, <i>c.</i> 350 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> In a letter to Pirckheimer +dated 8 January +1523-4 (Allen 1408, 29 n.) Erasmus appears dissatisfied with the reverse of the +medal cast by Metsys in 1519. Extant examples all show a reverse revised in +accordance with his suggestions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> A drawing of Erasmus was made by Dürer in 1520 (now in the Louvre), +and an engraving in 1526.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Erasmus had his portrait painted by Holbein several times in 1523-4 and +1530-1. A number of originals and copies are still extant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Luther's letter, in which he evidently attempted to mitigate Erasmus's +indignation against his <i>De Servo Arbitrio</i> (The Will not free), which was a reply +to Erasmus's <i>De Libero Arbitrio</i> (On free Will), 1524. Luther's letter came 'too +late' because Erasmus had already composed the <i>Hyperaspistes Diatribe adversus +Servum Arbitrium Martini Lutheri</i>, Basle, Froben, 1526.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> John Fisher (1459?-1535).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> John Dobeneck of Wendelstein.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> i.e., the <i>De Libero Arbitrio</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Reading <i>reticeo</i> for <i>retices</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> Theophrastus Bombast of Einsiedeln (also known as Theophrastus of +Hohenheim, whence his ancestors came), 1493-1541. The name Paracelsus may +be a translation of Hohenheim, or may signify a claim to be greater than +Celsus, the Roman physician. Appointed <i>physicus et ordinarius Basiliensis</i> in 1527.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Paracelsus had diagnosed the stone, from which Erasmus suffered, as being +due to crystallization of salt in the kidneys.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Froben died before the year was out.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Martin Butzer (<i>c.</i> 1491-1551), later Bucer, a Dominican, who obtained +dispensation from his vows in 1521 and adhered to the Reformation. At this +time he was a member of the Strasbourg party, and this letter is probably an +answer to a request for an interview for Bucer and other Strasbourg delegates on +their way through Basle to Berne. He eventually became Regius Professor of +Divinity at Cambridge under Edward VI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Henry of Eppendorff, a former friend who followed Hutten on his quarrel +with Erasmus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> Erasmus stated in the <i>Responsio</i> of 1 August 1530, that in the Reformed +schools little was taught beyond <i>dogmata et linguae</i> and it may be some such +criticism, based on what he had heard from a reliable source (perhaps Pirckheimer +at Nuremberg), to which Bucer had taken exception in his letter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Alfonso Valdes (1490?-1532), a devoted admirer of Erasmus, was from +1522 onwards one of Charles V's secretaries. He wrote two dialogues in +defence of the Emperor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> On this gem see Edgar Wind, 'Aenigma Termini,' in <i>Journ. of the Warburg +Institute</i>, I (1937-8), p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Greek god of ridicule.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Livy, I, 55, 3. Livy refers to the clearing of the Tarpeian +rock by Tarquinius Superbus (534-510 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>), involving the +deconsecration of existing shrines, as a preliminary to the building of +the temple of Juppiter Capitolinus. The auguries allowed the evacuation +of the other gods, Terminus and Juventas alone refusing to depart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Livy, 5, 54, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> See p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Preface to <i>T. Livii ... historiæ</i>, Basle, Froben, +1531. Charles Blount (b. 1518), eldest son of William Blount, Lord +Mountjoy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> <i>c.</i> 1495-1541, Professor of Greek at Basle, 1529. He +found the MS. containing Livy, Bks. 41-5, in 1527.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Not 'illuminated.' Erasmus refers elsewhere (Allen 919. 55) +to a codex as <i>non scripto sed picto</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> The MS., now lost, containing Bks. 33, 17-49 and 40, 37-59, +found in the cathedral library at Mainz, published in Mainz, J. +Schoeffer, November 1518.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> (1498?-1570). Taught Latin and Greek at Freiburg and became +head of a college there; in 1534 became the first Professor of Latin in +the Collège de France. Retired to Coblenz in 1542.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> By the Edict of Courcy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Amos iii. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> Richard Reynolds of the Bridgettine Syon College at Isleworth.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> More had been executed 6 July 1535.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> +Lit. 'not even the peeping of an ass is safe.' This Greek proverb, used of those +who go to law about trifles, refers to the story of a potter whose wares were +smashed by a donkey in the workshop going to look out of the window. In +court the potter, asked of what he complained, replied: 'Of the peeping of an +ass.' See Apuleius, <i>Met.</i> <span class="smcap">IX.</span>, 42.</p></div> + + + + +<h2><a name="illustrations" id="illustrations"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<p><span class="smcap">I</span>. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. By Quentin Metsys. 1517. Rome, Galleria +Corsini. <i>Facing p. 14</i></p> + +<p>One half of a diptych, the pendant being a portrait of Erasmus's friend, +Pierre Gilles (Petrus Aegidius), town clerk of Antwerp. The diptych was sent +to Sir Thomas More in London; the portrait of Gilles is now in the collection +of the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">II</span>. VIEW OF ROTTERDAM at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Contemporary +engraving, hand-coloured. <i>Facing p. 15</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">III</span>. PORTRAIT BUST OF JOHN COLET, Dean of St. Paul's (1467-1519). By +Pietro Torrigiano. St. Paul's School, Hammersmith, London. <i>Facing p. 30</i></p> + +<p>John Colet, a close friend of Erasmus (see pp. 30-1), founded St. Paul's +School. The artist, a Florentine sculptor, was active in London for many years +and is best known for his effigies on some of the royal tombs in Westminster +Abbey. The attribution of this bust is due to F. Grossmann (<i>Journal of the +Warburg and Courtauld Institutes</i>, <span class="smcap">XIII</span>, July 1950), +who identified it as a cast +from Torrigiano's original bust on Colet's tomb (destroyed in the Great Fire +of 1666) and also pointed out that Holbein's drawing of Colet in the Royal +Library at Windsor Castle (No. 12199) was made from the lost monument +after Colet's death.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">IV</span>. PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS MORE (1477-1535). Dated 1527. By Hans +Holbein. New York, Frick Collection. <i>Facing p. 31</i></p> + +<p>See also Holbein's drawing of Thomas More with his family, Pl. <span class="smcap">XXIX</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">V</span>. Pen and ink sketches by Erasmus. 1514. Basle, University Library (MS +A. <span class="smcap">IX</span>. 56). <i>Facing p. 46</i></p> + +<p>These doodles of grotesque heads and other scribbles are found in Erasmus's +manuscript copy of the <i>Scholia to the Letters of St. Jerome</i>, preserved in the +Library of Basle University and published by Emil Major (<i>Handzeichnungen +des Erasmus von Rotterdam</i>, Basle, 1933). Erasmus worked on this manuscript +shortly after his arrival in Basle in August 1514. His edition of the <i>Letters of +Jerome</i> was published by Froben in 1516 (see p. 90).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">VI</span>. A Manuscript Page of Erasmus. Basle, University Library. <i>Facing p. 47</i></p> + +<p>See note on Pl. <span class="smcap">V.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">VII</span>. Title-page of the <i>Adagia</i>, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1508. <i>Facing p. 62</i></p> + +<p>The printing of this edition was supervised by Erasmus during his visit to +Venice (see pp. 64-5). On this title-page is the emblem of the Aldine Press, +which is found again on the reverse of Aldus's portrait medal (Pl. IX).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">VIII</span>. VIEW OF VENICE, 1493. Woodcut. <i>After p. 62</i></p> + +<p>From Schedel's <i>Weltchronik</i>, Nuremberg, 1493.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">IX</span>. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ALDUS MANUTIUS. By an unknown Venetian +medallist. Venice, Museo Correr. <i>After p. 62</i></p> + +<p>On the reverse, the emblem adopted by Aldus in 1495 from an antique coin, +an anchor entwined by a dolphin. The Greek inscription, +σπευδε +βραδεος +(Hasten slowly), is also of antique origin. Cf. Hill, <i>Corpus of Italian Medals</i>, +1930, No. 536.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">X</span>. A page from the printed copy of the <i>Praise of Folly</i> with a drawing by Hans +Holbein. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). <i>Facing p. 63</i></p> + +<p>This copy of the <i>Laus Stultitiae</i>, which Holbein decorated with marginal +drawings in 1515, belonged at that time to Oswald Myconius, a friend of +Froben's. Apparently not all the drawings in the book are by Hans Holbein.</p> + +<p>The drawing shows Erasmus working at his desk, fol. S.3 recto. Above +this thumbnail sketch there is a Latin note in the handwriting of Myconius: +'When Erasmus came here and saw this portrait, he exclaimed, "Heigh-ho, +if Erasmus still looked like that, he would quickly find himself a wife!"'</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XI</span>. A page from the printed copy of the <i>Praise of Folly</i> with a drawing by +Hans Holbein. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). <i>Facing p. 78</i></p> + +<p>See note on Pl. <span class="smcap">X</span>. This is the last page of the book, fol. X.4 recto; the +drawing shows Folly descending from the pulpit at the close of her discourse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XII</span>. THE PRINTING PRESS OF JOSSE BADIUS. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, +1520-1. <i>Facing p. 79</i></p> + +<p>Josse Badius of Brabant had established in Paris the Ascensian Press (named +after his native place, Assche); he printed many books by Erasmus. See pp. 60, +79-83.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XIII</span>. PORTRAIT OF JOHANNES FROBEN (1460-1527). By Hans Holbein. +About 1522-3. Hampton Court, H.M. The Queen. <i>Facing p. 86</i></p> + +<p>On this portrait of Erasmus's printer, publisher and friend, see Paul Ganz, +<i>The Paintings of Hans Holbein</i>, 1950, Cat. No. 33.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XIV</span>. DESIGN FOR THE PRINTER'S EMBLEM OF JOHANNES FROBEN. +Tempera on canvas, heightened with gold. By Hans Holbein. 1523. Basle, +Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). <i>Facing p. 87</i></p> + +<p>The emblem shows the wand of Mercury, and two serpents with a dove, +an allusion to the Gospel of St. Matthew, x. 16: 'Be ye therefore wise as +serpents and harmless as doves.'</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XV</span>. THE HANDS OF ERASMUS. Drawing by Hans Holbein. 1523. Paris, +Louvre. <i>Facing p. 102</i></p> + +<p>These studies were used by Holbein for his portraits of Erasmus now at +Longford Castle (Pl. <span class="smcap">XVI</span>) and in the Louvre (Pl. <span class="smcap">XXVIII</span>).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XVI</span>. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 57. Dated 1523. By Hans +Holbein. Longford Castle, Earl of Radnor. <i>Facing p. 103</i></p> + +<p>The Greek inscription, 'The Labours of Hercules', alludes to Erasmus's own +view of his life (see p. 125). On this portrait see P. Ganz, op. cit., Cat. No. 34.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XVII</span>. VIEW OF BASLE. Woodcut. <i>Facing p. 134</i></p> + +<p>From the <i>Chronik</i> by Johann Stumpf, 1548.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XVIII</span>. Title-page of the New Testament, printed by Froben in 1520. Designed +by Hans Holbein. <i>Facing p. 135</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XIX</span>. THE ERASMUS HOUSE AT ANDERLECHT NEAR BRUSSELS. <i>Facing p. 150</i></p> + +<p>From May to November 1521 Erasmus stayed here as the guest of his friend, +the canon Pierre Wichmann. The house was built in 1515 under the sign of +the Swan. It is now a museum in which are preserved numerous relics of +Erasmus and his age.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XX</span>. The Room used by Erasmus as study during his stay at +Anderlecht. <i>Facing p. 151</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXI</span>. PORTRAIT OF MARTIN LUTHER AS A MONK. Engraving by Lucas +Cranach. 1520. <i>Facing p. 158</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXII</span>. PORTRAIT OF ULRICH VON HUTTEN (1488-1523). Anonymous +German woodcut. <i>Facing p. 159</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXIII</span>. THE HOUSE 'ZUM WALFISCH' AT FREIBURG-IM-BREISGAU. +<i>Facing p. 174</i></p> + +<p>When Erasmus arrived in Freiburg in 1529, he was invited by the Town +Council to live in this house, which had been built for the Emperor Maximilian. +See p. 176.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXIV</span>. PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL HIERONYMUS ALEANDER. Drawing. +Arras, Library. <i>Facing p. 175</i></p> + +<p>One of the 280 portrait drawings collected in the codex known as the <i>Recueil +d'Arras</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXV</span>. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. By Hans Holbein. 1531-2. Basle, Öffentliche +Kunstsammlung (Print Room). <i>Facing p. 190</i></p> + +<p>'Holbein may have painted this little roundel on the occasion of a visit to +Erasmus at Freiburg' (P. Ganz, op. cit.).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXVI</span>. ERASMUS DICTATING TO HIS SECRETARY. Woodcut, 1530. +<i>Facing p. 191</i></p> + +<p>The woodcut shows the aged Erasmus dictating to his amanuensis Gilbertus +Cognatus in a room of the University of Freiburg. From <i>Effigies Desiderii +Erasmi Roterdami ... & Gilberti Cognati Nozereni</i>, Basle, Joh. Oporinus, 1533.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXVII</span>. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ERASMUS. By Quentin Metsys. 1519. +London, British Museum. <i>Facing p. 206</i></p> + +<p>The reverse shows Erasmus's device, Terminus, and the motto <i>Concedo +nulli</i>, both of which were also engraved on his sealing ring. For Erasmus's +own interpretation see his letter, pp. 246-8. The Greek inscription means, +'His writings will give you a better picture of him'.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXVIII</span>. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. After 1523. By Hans Holbein. Paris, +Louvre. <i>Facing p. 207</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXIX</span>. THOMAS MORE AND HIS FAMILY. Pen and ink sketch by Hans +Holbein, 1527. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). <i>Facing p. 238</i></p> + +<p>'The portrait, probably commissioned on the occasion of the scholar's +fiftieth birthday, shows him surrounded by his large family. It is the first +example of an intimate group portrait not of devotional or ceremonial +character painted this side of the Alps. At that time Thomas More was living +in his country house at Chelsea with his second wife, Alice, his father, his only +son and his son's fiancée, three married daughters, eleven grandchildren and a +relative, Margaret Giggs. The artist, who had been recommended to him by +his friend Erasmus, was also enjoying his hospitality.' (P. Ganz, op. cit., Cat. +No. 175).</p> + +<p>The original painting is lost; a copy by Richard Locky, dated 1530, is at +Nostell Priory. The drawing was sent by More to Erasmus at Basle so as to +introduce his family, for which purpose the names and ages were inscribed. +In two letters to Sir Thomas and his daughter, dated 5 and 6 September 1530, +Erasmus sent his enthusiastic thanks: 'I cannot put into words the deep pleasure +I felt when the painter Holbein gave me the picture of your whole family, +which is so completely successful that I should scarcely be able to see you better +if I were with you.' (Allen, vol. 8, Nos. 2211-2).</p> + +<p>Compare also Erasmus's pen portrait of Sir Thomas More in his letter to +Hutten, pp. 231-9.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXX</span>. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. Charcoal drawing by Albrecht Dürer, dated +1520. Paris, Louvre. <i>Facing p. 239</i></p> + +<p>Drawn at Antwerp, during Dürer's journey to the Netherlands. When he +received the false news of the murder of Luther at Whitsuntide 1521, Dürer +wrote in his diary: 'O Erasmus of Rotterdam, where art thou? Listen, thou +Knight of Christ, ride out with the Lord Christ, defend the truth and earn for +thyself the martyr's crown!'</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXXI</span>. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. Engraving by Albrecht Dürer, dated +1526. <i>Facing p. 246</i></p> + +<p>In his <i>Diary of a Journey to the Netherlands</i>, Dürer noted in late +August 1520: 'I have taken Erasmus of Rotterdam's portrait once more', +but he does not say when he took his first portrait. The earlier work is +assumed to have been done one month before, and to be identical with the +drawing in the Louvre (Pl. <span class="smcap">XXX</span>). This drawing is mentioned by +Erasmus himself in a letter to Pirckheimer of 1525 (p. 240); in an +earlier letter to the same friend (1522) he says that Dürer had started +to paint him in 1520. The second portrait drawing is lost; hence it +cannot be proved that this second portrait was made in metal point—as +is usually assumed—and not in charcoal, or that the engraving here +reproduced was based on it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">XXXII</span>. TERMINUS. Erasmus's device. Pen and ink drawing by Hans Holbein. +Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). <i>Facing p. 247</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Frontispiece</i>: DECORATIVE PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS WITH HIS DEVICE, +TERMINUS. Engraving by Hans Holbein, 1535.</p> + + +<h3>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS</h3> + +<p>For help in the collection of illustrations we are specially indebted to M. +Daniel van Damme, Curator of the Erasmus Museum at Anderlecht and +author of the <i>Ephéméride illustrée de la Vie d'Erasme</i>, published in 1936 on the +occasion of the fourth centenary of Erasmus's death. For photographs and +permission to reproduce we have to thank also the Frick Collection, New York +(Pl. <span class="smcap">iv</span>), the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle (Pl. +<span class="smcap">X</span>-<span class="smcap">XI</span>, <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, <span class="smcap">XXV</span>, +<span class="smcap">XXIX</span>, <span class="smcap">XXXII</span>), the Library of Basle University (Pl. +<span class="smcap">V</span>-<span class="smcap">VI</span>), and the Warburg +Institute, University of London (Pl. <span class="smcap">iii</span>). The photographs for Pl. +<span class="smcap">II</span>, <span class="smcap">VII</span>, +<span class="smcap">XVIII</span>-<span class="smcap">XX</span> and <span class="smcap">XXVI</span> are by M. Mauhin, Anderlecht, those for +Plates <span class="smcap">VIII</span> +and <span class="smcap">XVII</span> by Dr. F. Stoedtner, Düsseldorf, and that for Plate <span class="smcap">IX</span> +by Fiorentini, +Venice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="index" id="index"></a>INDEX OF NAMES</h2> + + +<p>Adrian of Utrecht, Dean, later Pope, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></p> + +<p>Agricola, Rudolf, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p> + +<p>Albert of Brandenburg, archbishop of Mayence, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-aldus" id="index-aldus"></a>Aldus Manutius, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></p> + +<p>Aleander, Hieronymus, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></p> + +<p>Alidosi, Francesco, <a href="#Footnote_50_50">214n.</a></p> + +<p>Amerbach, Bonifacius, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Footnote_73_73">223n.</a></p> + +<p>Amerbach, Johannes, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></p> + +<p>Ammonius, Andrew, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p> + +<p>Andrelinus, Faustus, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-anna" id="index-anna"></a>Anna of Borselen, Lady of Veere, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, +<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200-1</a></p> + +<p>Asolani, Andrea, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p> + +<p>Ath, Jean Briard of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-aurelius" id="index-aurelius"></a>Aurelius (Cornelius Gerard of Gouda), <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p> + + +<p>Badius, Josse, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Footnote_64_64">219n.</a></p> + +<p>Balbi, Girolamo, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></p> + +<p>Barbaro, Ermolao, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></p> + +<p>Batt, James, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></p> + +<p>Beatus Rhenanus, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></p> + +<p>Becar, John, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></p> + +<p>Beda (Noel Bedier), <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></p> + +<p>Bembo, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></p> + +<p>Ber, Louis, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></p> + +<p>Berckman, Francis, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></p> + +<p>Bergen, Anthony of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></p> + +<p>Berquin, Louis de, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></p> + +<p>Berselius, Paschasius, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></p> + +<p>Blount, Charles, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-blount" id="index-blount"></a>Blount, William, Lord Mountjoy, <a href="#Page_27">27-8</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Footnote_8_8">59n.</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></p> + +<p>Boerio, Giovanni Battista, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></p> + +<p>Bombasius, Paul, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></p> + +<p>Bouts, Dirck, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></p> + +<p>Boys, Hector, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></p> + +<p>Brie, Germain de, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></p> + +<p>Bucer (Butzer), Martin, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p> + +<p>Budaeus, William, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></p> + +<p>Busch, Hermann, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Busleiden, Francis of, archbishop of Besançon, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></p> + +<p>Busleiden, Jerome, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></p> + + +<p>Cajetanus, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></p> + +<p>Calvin, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></p> + +<p>Caminade, Augustine, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></p> + +<p>Canossa, Count, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></p> + +<p>Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p> + +<p>Catherine of Aragon, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></p> + +<p>Charles V, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145-6</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></p> + +<p>Charnock, prior, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></p> + +<p>Cinicampius, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-eschenfelder">Eschenfelder</a></p> + +<p>Clement VII, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></p> + +<p>Clyfton, tutor, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-cochleus" id="index-cochleus"></a>Cochleus, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></p> + +<p>Colet, John, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></p> + +<p>Cop, William, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p> + +<p>Cornelius, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-aurelius">Aurelius</a></p> + +<p>Cratander, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> + +<p>David of Burgundy, bishop of Utrecht, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></p> + +<p>Decanus, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Denk, Hans, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></p> + +<p>Dirks, Vincent, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></p> + +<p>Dobeneck, John, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-cochleus">Cochleus</a></p> + +<p>Dorp, Martin van, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p> + +<p>Dürer, Albrecht, <a href="#Page_148">148-9</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Footnote_76_76">224n.</a></p> + + +<p>Eck, Johannes, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></p> + +<p>Egmond, Nicholas of (Egmondanus), <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></p> + +<p>Egnatius, Baptista, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p> + +<p>Episcopius, Nicholas, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></p> + +<p>Eppendorff, Henry of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-eschenfelder" id="index-eschenfelder"></a>Eschenfelder, Christopher, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Étienne, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-stephanus">Stephanus</a></p> + + +<p>Faber, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-lefevre">Lefèvre</a></p> + +<p>Farel, Guillaume, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></p> + +<p>Ferdinand, archduke, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></p> + +<p>Ficino, Marsilio, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></p> + +<p>Filelfo, Francesco, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></p> + +<p>Fisher, John, bishop of Rochester, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Footnote_50_50">214n.</a></p> + +<p>Fisher, Robert, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></p> + +<p>Flaminius, John, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></p> + +<p>Foxe, Richard, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></p> + +<p>Francis I, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218-19</a></p> + +<p>Frederick of Saxony, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></p> + +<p>Froben, Johannes, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Footnote_73_73">223n.</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p> + +<p>Froben, Johannes Erasmius, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></p> + +<p>Fugger, Anthony, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></p> + + +<p>Gaguin, Robert, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></p> + +<p>Gallinarius, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></p> + +<p>Gebwiler, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>George of Saxony, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></p> + +<p>Gerard, Cornelius, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-aurelius">Aurelius</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-gerard" id="index-gerard"></a>Gerard, Erasmus's father, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></p> + +<p>Gerbel, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Gigli, Silvestro, bishop of Worcester, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></p> + +<p>Gilles, Peter, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-glareanus" id="index-glareanus"></a>Glareanus, Henri (Loriti), <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></p> + +<p>Gourmont, Gilles, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Footnote_47_47">209n.</a></p> + +<p>Grey, Thomas, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></p> + +<p>Grimani, Domenico, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Footnote_9_9">67n.</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></p> + +<p>Grocyn, William, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></p> + +<p>Groote, Geert <a href="#Page_3">3</a></p> + +<p>Grunnius, Lambertus, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></p> + +<p>Grynaeus, Simon, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></p> + +<p>Guibé, Robert, bishop of Nantes, <a href="#Footnote_52_52">215n.</a></p> + + +<p>Hegius, Alexander, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p> + +<p>Henry of Bergen, bishop of Cambray, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></p> + +<p>Henry VII, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></p> + +<p>Henry VIII, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></p> + +<p>Hermans, William, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></p> + +<p>Hermonymus, George, <a href="#Footnote_34_34">204n.</a></p> + +<p>Holbein, Hans, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Footnote_82_82">232n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87_87">236n.</a></p> + +<p>Hollonius, Lambert, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></p> + +<p>Hoogstraten, Jacob, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></p> + +<p>Hutten, Ulrich von, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128-9</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></p> + + +<p>James IV, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></p> + +<p>John of Trazegnies, <a href="#Footnote_5_5">50n.</a></p> + +<p>Julius II, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></p> + + +<p>Karlstadt, Andreas, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>Lachner, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></p> + +<p>Lang, John, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></p> + +<p>Langenfeld, John, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Lascaris, Johannes, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p> + +<p>Lasco, Johannes a, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></p> + +<p>Latimer, William, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></p> + +<p>Latomus, Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></p> + +<p>Latomus, James, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></p> + +<p>Laurin, Mark, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></p> + +<p>Lee, Edward, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-lefevre" id="index-lefevre"></a>Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jacques, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></p> + +<p>Leo, Ambrose, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-leo-x" id="index-leo-x"></a>Leo X, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></p> + +<p>Leonicenus, Nicholas, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p> + +<p>Linacre, Thomas, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></p> + +<p>Longolius, Christopher, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></p> + +<p>Loriti, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-glareanus">Glareanus</a></p> + +<p>Loyola, Ignatius of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></p> + +<p>Lupset, <a href="#Footnote_68_68">221n.</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></p> + +<p>Luther, Martin, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139-50</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161-5</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></p> + +<p>Lypsius, Martin, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p> + +<p>Lyra, Nicholas of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></p> + + +<p>Maertensz, Dirck, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></p> + +<p>Manutius, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-aldus">Aldus</a></p> + +<p>Mary of Hungary, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></p> + +<p>Maternus, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Matthias, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></p> + +<p>Maximilian, emperor, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p> + +<p>Medici, Giovanni de', <i>see</i> <a href="#index-leo-x">Leo X</a></p> + +<p>Melanchthon, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></p> + +<p>Metsys, Quentin, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Footnote_92_92">240n.</a></p> + +<p>More, Thomas, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231-9</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></p> + +<p>Mountjoy, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-blount">Blount</a></p> + +<p>Musurus, Marcus, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p> + +<p>Mutianus, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></p> + + +<p>Neuenahr, Hermann Count of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></p> + +<p>Northoff, brothers, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></p> + + +<p>Obrecht, Johannes, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></p> + +<p>Oecolampadius, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></p> + +<p>Osiander, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></p> + + +<p>Pace, Richard, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></p> + +<p>Paludanus, Johannes, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></p> + +<p>Paracelsus, Theophrastus, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></p> + +<p>Paul III, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></p> + +<p>Peter Gerard, Erasmus's brother, <a href="#Page_5">5-10</a></p> + +<p>Phileticus, Martin, <a href="#Footnote_40_40">205n.</a></p> + +<p>Philip le Beau, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Footnote_8_8">59n.</a></p> + +<p>Philippi, John, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></p> + +<p>Pico della Mirandola, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></p> + +<p>Pio, Alberto, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></p> + +<p>Pirckheimer, Willibald, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></p> + +<p>Platter, Thomas, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></p> + +<p>Politian, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></p> + +<p>Poncher, Étienne, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></p> + +<p>Probst (Proost), James, <a href="#Footnote_79_79">231n.</a></p> + + +<p>Reuchlin, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></p> + +<p>Reynolds, Richard, <a href="#Footnote_119_119">252n.</a></p> + +<p>Riario, Raffaele, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Footnote_50_50">214n.</a></p> + +<p>Roger, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-gerard">Gerard</a></p> + +<p>Rombout, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></p> + +<p>Rudolfingen, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Ruell, John, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p> + + +<p>Sadolet, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></p> + +<p>Sapidus, Johannes, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></p> + +<p>Sasboud, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sauvage, John le, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></p> + +<p>Scaliger, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></p> + +<p>Schürer, M., <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Footnote_47_47">209n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_73_73">223n.</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Servatius Roger, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></p> + +<p>Sixtin, John, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></p> + +<p>Sluter, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></p> + +<p>Spalatinus, George, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></p> + +<p>Stadion, Christopher of, bishop of Augsburg, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></p> + +<p>Standonck, John, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-stephanus" id="index-stephanus"></a>Stephanus, Henricus, <a href="#Footnote_73_73">223n.</a></p> + +<p>Stewart, Alexander, archbishop of St. Andrews, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></p> + +<p>Stewart, James, <a href="#Footnote_24_24">198n.</a></p> + +<p>Stunica, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-zuniga">Zuñiga</a></p> + +<p>Suderman, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></p> + +<p>Synthen, Johannes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p> + + +<p>Talesius, Quirin, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></p> + +<p>Tapper, Ruurd, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></p> + +<p>Theodoric, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></p> + +<p>Thomas à Kempis, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></p> + +<p>Tunstall, Cuthbert, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></p> + + +<p>Urswick, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></p> + +<p>Utenheim, Christopher of, bishop of Basle, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></p> + +<p>Utenhove, Charles, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></p> + +<p>Valdes, Alfonso, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></p> + +<p>Valla, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></p> + +<p>Varnbüler, Ulrich, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p> + +<p>Veere, <i>see</i> <a href="#index-anna">Anna of Borselen</a></p> + +<p>Vianen, William of, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></p> + +<p>Vincent, Augustine, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></p> + +<p>Vitrier, Jean, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></p> + +<p>Vives, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></p> + +<p>Voecht, Jacobus, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></p> + + +<p>Warham, William, archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></p> + +<p>Watson, John, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></p> + +<p>Werner, Nicholas, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></p> + +<p>William of Orange, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></p> + +<p>Wimpfeling, Jacob, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></p> + +<p>Winckel, Peter, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></p> + +<p>Woerden, Cornelius of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></p> + +<p>Wolsey, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Footnote_54_54">215n.</a></p> + + +<p>Ximenes, F., archbishop of Toledo, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Footnote_59_59">218n.</a></p> + + +<p>Zasius, Ulrich, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p> + +<p><a name="index-zuniga" id="index-zuniga"></a>Zuñiga, Diego Lopez, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></p> + +<p>Zwingli, Ulrich, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, by +Johan Huizinga + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ERASMUS AND 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