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diff --git a/22900-8.txt b/22900-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d2b4cb --- /dev/null +++ b/22900-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10679 @@ +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 + + + + + +ERASMUS AND THE AGE OF REFORMATION + + +JOHAN HUIZINGA + +_with a selection from the letters of Erasmus_ + + +HARPER TORCHBOOKS / The Cloister Library + +HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS + +NEW YORK, EVANSTON, AND LONDON + +[Illustration: WOODCUT BY HANS HOLBEIN. 1535] + + + +ERASMUS AND THE AGE OF REFORMATION + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + +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. + +Reprinted by arrangement with Phaidon Press, Ltd., London + +Originally published under the title: "Erasmus of Rotterdam" + +First HARPER TORCHBOOK edition published 1957 + +Library of Congress catalogue card number 57-10119 + + + + +CONTENTS + +_Preface by G. N. Clark_ xi + +CHAP. + + I CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH, 1466-88 1 + + II IN THE MONASTERY, 1488-95 10 + + III THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, 1495-9 20 + + IV FIRST STAY IN ENGLAND, 1499-1500 29 + + V ERASMUS AS A HUMANIST 39 + + VI THEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS, 1501 47 + + VII YEARS OF TROUBLE--LOUVAIN, PARIS, ENGLAND, 1502-6 55 + + VIII IN ITALY, 1506-9 62 + + IX THE PRAISE OF FOLLY 69 + + X THIRD STAY IN ENGLAND, 1509-14 79 + + XI A LIGHT OF THEOLOGY, 1514-16 87 + + XII ERASMUS'S MIND 100 + + XIII ERASMUS'S MIND (_continued_) 109 + + XIV ERASMUS'S CHARACTER 117 + + XV AT LOUVAIN, 1517-18 130 + + XVI FIRST YEARS OF THE REFORMATION 139 + + XVII ERASMUS AT BASLE, 1521-9 151 + +XVIII CONTROVERSY WITH LUTHER AND GROWING CONSERVATISM, 1524-6 161 + + XIX AT WAR WITH HUMANISTS AND REFORMERS, 1528-9 170 + + XX LAST YEARS 179 + + XXI CONCLUSION 188 + +SELECTED LETTERS OF ERASMUS 195 + +_List of Illustrations_ 257 + +_Index of Names_ 263 + + + + +PREFACE + +_by G.N. Clark, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford_ + + +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 +_motifs_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _The Waning of the Middle +Ages_. 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +G. N. CLARK + +Oriel College, Oxford + +April 1952 + + + + +ERASMUS + +_and the Age of Reformation_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH + +1466-88 + + 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 + _Devotio moderna_: 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 + + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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', _devotio moderna_. 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, +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. + +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. + +But of them all, the greatest was that immortal work of Thomas à Kempis, +Canon of Saint Agnietenberg, near Zwolle, the _Imitatio Christi_. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Adagia_, published by Josse Badius at +Paris in 1506, it is an indication that Erasmus, then forty years of +age, had found himself. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +IN THE MONASTERY + +1488-95 + + 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-- + _Antibarbari_--He gets leave to study at Paris: 1495 + + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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.' + +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. + +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. + +Sentimental friendships were as much in vogue in secular circles during +the fifteenth century as towards the end of the 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 _devotio moderna_, 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 _devotio moderna_ was +prevalent there. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Elegantiae_ passed with him +for the pioneer of _bonae literae_; 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 _devotio moderna_ 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: 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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: I. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 51] + +[Illustration: II. VIEW OF ROTTERDAM, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY] + + Nec si quot placidis ignea noctibus + Scintillant tacito sydera culmine, + Nec si quot tepidum flante Favonio + Ver suffundit humo rosas, + Tot sint ora mihi... + +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. + +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 +_Antibarbari_, which he commenced at Steyn, according to Dr. Allen. In +the version in which eventually the first book of the _Antibarbari_ +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. + +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,[1] 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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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?' + +Real leisure Erasmus was never to find during his life. All his reading, +all his writing, he did hastily, _tumultuarie_, as he calls it +repeatedly. Yet he must nevertheless have worked with intensest +concentration and an incredible power of assimilation. 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. + +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 +_Antibarbari_, 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 provinces (the +_disciplinae liberales_ are meant) but the capital, that is Latinity +itself? + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Allen No. 16.12 cf. IV p. xx, and _vide_ LB. IV 756, where surveying +the years of his youth he also writes 'Pingere dum meditor tenueis sine +corpore formas'. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS + +1495-9 + + 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 + + +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. + +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 +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 _devotio moderna_ 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. + +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 this--to experience the dismal and depressing influences of +his youth anew in a more stringent form? + +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. + +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 _Colloquia_ 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. + +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 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. + +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: _Magistri nostri_. 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 _Magister noster_ +for fifteen years. + +It is not a far cry from caricatures like these to the _Sorbonistres_ +and the _Barbouillamenta Scoti_ of Rabelais. 'It is said', thus Erasmus +concludes his _boutade_, '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 _bonae literae_ has to +be unlearned first; if you have 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.' + +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. + +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. + +Gaguin was an all-round man and his Latin text-book of the history of +France, _De origine et gestis Francorum Compendium_, was just being +printed. It was the first specimen of humanistic 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.[2] 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. + +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 _Antibarbari_ 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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 _Ne bos quidem pereat_ 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. + +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. + +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), _Familiarium colloquiorum +formulae_, the nucleus of the world-famous _Colloquia_. For Robert +Fisher he wrote the first draft of _De conscribendis epistolis_, the +great dissertation on the art of letter-writing (Latin letters), +probably also the paraphrase of Valla's _Elegantiae_, a treatise on pure +Latin, which had been a beacon-light of culture to Erasmus in his youth. +_De copia verborum ac rerum_ 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: _De ratione studii_, a manual for +arranging courses of study, lay in the same line. + +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. + +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, 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.' + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FIRST STAY IN ENGLAND + +1499-1500 + + 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 _Adagia_--Years of trouble + and penury + + +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. + +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.[3] + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: III. JOHN COLET, DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S] + +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. + +Colet had a deeply serious nature, always warring against 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. + +[Illustration: IV. SIR THOMAS MORE, 1527] + +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', _Disputatiuncula de tedio, pavore, +tristicia Jesu_, etc., being an elaboration of these letters. + +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, _Naturam +expellas furca, tamen usque recurret_.' + +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 _Colloquies_: 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 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."' + +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. + +But still, though Erasmus went on conducting himself as a 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. + +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. + +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 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.' + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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 _bel esprit_, 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 _Adagia_; and he the fame, +which began with this work. + +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 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. + +'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.' + +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 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. + +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 _homo +poeticus_ or _rhetoricus_. 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.' + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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.' + +Did you smile your delicate smile, O author of the _Colloquies_, while +writing this? So much the worse for you. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Allen No. 103.17. Cf. _Chr. Matrim. inst._ LB. V. 678 and _Cent +nouvelles_ 2.63, 'ung baiser, dont les dames et demoiselles du dit pays +d'Angleterre sont assez libérales de l'accorder'. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ERASMUS AS A HUMANIST + + Significance of the _Adagia_ and similar works of later + years--Erasmus as a divulger of classical culture-- + Latin--Estrangement from Holland--Erasmus as a + Netherlander + + +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 _Adagiorum Collectanea_. 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. + +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. + +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 about to publish the _Adagia_, for +divulging the mysteries of their craft. But he desired that the book of +antiquity should be open to all. + +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 _Adagia_, of the _Colloquia_, 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. + +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 +_Adagia_ 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, _Parabolae_. It was a partial +realization of what he had conceived to supplement the _Adagia_-- +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 _Apophthegmata_. In addition to these +collections, we find manuals of a more grammatical nature, also piled up +treasury-like: 'On the stock of expressions', _De copia verborum et +rerum_, 'On letter-writing', _De conscribendis epistolis_, 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 _Colloquia_ and that almost countless multitude of +letters which have flowed from Erasmus's pen. + +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 _Adagia_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +And yet, were not Erasmus and his fellow-workers as leaders of +civilization on a wrong track? Was it true reality they were aiming at? +Was their proud Latinity not a fatal error? There is one of the crucial +points of history. + +A present-day reader who should take up the _Adagia_ or the +_Apophthegmata_ 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. + +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? + +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 _milieu_ as the Parisian +student world, such models of sports and games in Latin as the +_Colloquiorum formulae_ offered. But can Erasmus have seriously thought +that the next generation would play at marbles in Latin? + +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. + +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 _Colloquia_ 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Auris Batava_ in the _Adagia_, 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 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.' + +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.' + +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. + +But it is a different matter when Erasmus speaks of _patria_, the +fatherland, or of _nostras_, 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 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 _de facto_ +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, _patria_ 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 _bonae literae_, 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'.[4] 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.' + +[Illustration: V. Doodles by Erasmus in the margin of one of his +manuscripts.] + +[Illustration: VI. A manuscript page of Erasmus] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Allen No. 1026.4, cf. 914, intr. p. 473. Later Erasmus was made to +believe that Longolius was a Hollander, cf. LBE. 1507 A. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS + +1501 + + At Tournehem: 1501--The restoration of theology now the aim of + his life--He learns Greek--John Vitrier--_Enchiridion Militis + Christiani_ + + +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. + +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. + +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.' + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +At Saint Omer, Erasmus became acquainted with a man whose image he was +afterwards to place beside that of Colet as 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 _Enchiridion militis +Christiani_. + +Erasmus himself afterwards confessed that the _Enchiridion_ 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.[5] +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. + +This is the outward genesis of the _Enchiridion_. 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. + +In point of form the _Enchiridion_ is a manual for an illiterate 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, +_Enchiridion_, the Greek word that even in antiquity meant both a +poniard and a manual:[6] 'The poniard of the militant Christian'.[7] 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. + +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 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.' + +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 +_Enchiridion_ prepared many minds to give up much that he still wanted +to keep. + +The note of the _Enchiridion_ 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 _Praise of Folly_ and in the +_Colloquies_. 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 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!' + +In the _Enchiridion_ 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 _bonae literae_, 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? + +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 _Lucubrationes_ in which the +_Enchiridion_ was first published. 'I did not write the _Enchiridion_ 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 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'. + +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 _Imitatio Christi_ by Thomas +à Kempis. + +The _Enchiridion_, collected with some other pieces into a volume of +_Lucubrationes_, did not meet with such a great and speedy success as +had been bestowed upon the _Adagia_. 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 _index expurgatorius_ of his work found only a few +passages in the _Enchiridion_ 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 _Enchiridion_. 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 _Enchiridion_ +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] 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. + +[6] In 1500 (A. 123.21) Erasmus speaks of the _Enchiridion_ of the +Father Augustine, cf. 135, 138; in 1501, A. 152.33, he calls the +_Officia_ of Cicero a 'pugiunculus'--a dagger. So the appellation had +been in his mind for some time. + +[7] _Miles_ with Erasmus has no longer the meaning of 'knight' which it +had in medieval Latin. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +YEARS OF TROUBLE--LOUVAIN, PARIS, ENGLAND + +1502-6 + + Death of Batt: 1502--First stay at Louvain: 1502-4--Translations + from the Greek--At Paris again--Valla's _Annotationes_ on the + New Testament--Second stay in England: 1505-6--More patrons and + friends--Departure for Italy: 1506--_Carmen Alpestre_ + + +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 _Antibarbari_. 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. + +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 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. + +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 _Declamationes_ 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. + +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, 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 _divinae literae_, 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 _Adagia_ which, +at one time, he sent to England at his own expense? The liberty of a few +months may be bought for little money. + +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. + +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 _Annotationes_ 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. + +It was probably the falling in with Valla's _Annotationes_ 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 _Annotationes_ for Erasmus, as a sort of advertisement +of what he himself one day hoped to achieve. It was a feat of courage. +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 _homo grammaticus_, who after having +harassed all the _disciplinae_, did not scruple to assail holy +literature with his petulant pen'. It was another programme much more +explicit and defiant than the _Enchiridion_ had been. + +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 _Adagia_, 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. + +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. + +Translations from Greek into Latin were for him an easy and speedy means +to obtain favour and support: a dialogue by Lucian, followed by others, +for Foxe; the _Hecuba_ and the _Iphigenia_ of Euripides for Warham. He +now also thought of publishing his letters. + +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.'[8] + +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.' + +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. + +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 _Epigrammata_, a new but still unaltered edition of the +_Adagia_. + +In August the journey was continued. As he rode on horseback along the +Alpine roads the most important poem Erasmus 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 _Carmen +equestre vel potius alpestre_, about the inconveniences of old age, +dedicated to his friend William Cop. + +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] A. 189, Philip le Beau, who had unexpectedly come to England because +of a storm, which obliged Mountjoy to do court-service. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN ITALY + +1506-9 + + 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 + + +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.' + +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. + +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 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. + +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 +_Adagia_, which now, by the addition of the Greek ones, increased from +eight hundred to some thousands of items. + +[Illustration: VII. Title-page of the _Adagia_, printed by Aldus +Manutius in 1508] + +[Illustration: VIII. VIEW OF VENICE, 1493] + +[Illustration: IX. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ALDUS MANUTIUS. On the reverse the +Aldine emblem] + +[Illustration: X. A page from the _Praise of Folly_ with a drawing by +Holbein of Erasmus at his desk.] + +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 _Adagia_. + +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 _Adagia_ 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 _Adagia_. +These were no inconsiderable additions: Plato in the original, +Plutarch's _Lives_ and _Moralia_, 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 _Colloquies_. + +When in September 1508, the edition of the _Adagia_ 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. + +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 _[oe]uvre_ 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. + +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! + +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 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. + +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. + +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, 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,[9] but the whole remains vague and dim. It is the +incubation period of the _Praise of Folly_ that is thus obscured from +view. + +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.[10] 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 health. 'The Archbishop of Canterbury', Mountjoy was +able to apprise Erasmus, 'is not only continually engrossed in your +_Adagia_ 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. + +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. + +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 _Praise of Folly_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] LBE. No. 1175 _c._ 1375, visit to Grimani. + +[10] A. 206, where from Allen's introduction one can form an opinion +about the prince's share in the composition. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE PRAISE OF FOLLY + + _Moriae Encomium, The Praise of Folly_: 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 _Moria_ to be taken as a gay + jest--Confusion of fools and lunatics--Erasmus treats his + _Moria_ slightingly--Its value + + +While he rode over the mountain passes,[11] 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 _Moros_, 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, _Moriae Encomium_, the _Praise of Folly_. 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 _Declamatio_, such +as he had translated from the Greek of Libanius. As to the spirit, a +revival of Lucian, whose _Gallus_, 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 _Adagia_ were still at his 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. + +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. + +As to form and imagery the _Moria_ 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. + +'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 _Laus_ is contained. Folly here is worldly wisdom, resignation and +lenient judgement. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _circulus +vitiosus_, as in the old saw: A Cretan said, all Cretans are liars. + +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? + +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 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? + +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? + +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? + +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? + +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. It is the soul of eloquence, of medicine and poetry; it is +the honey and the sweetness of all human customs. + +Again a series of valuable social qualities is slyly incorporated with +folly: benevolence, kindness, inclination to approve and to admire. + +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? + +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. + +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 were too religious to investigate with impious +curiosity the secrets of nature, the size, motions, influence of the +stars, the hidden cause of things. + +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. + +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. + +In the chapters[12] 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. + +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. + +For contemporary readers the importance of the _Laus Stultitiae_ 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. + +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. + +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.' + +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 _Moria_ Erasmus is all 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 _Moriae Encomium_ 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).' + +How could one take the _Moria_ too seriously, when even More's _Utopia_, +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 _Laus_ 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. + +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 _Laus_, 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 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. + + * * * * * + +In later years he always spoke slightingly of his _Moria_. 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 _Moria_ 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 +_Moria_ 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. + +Erasmus made no further ventures in the genre of the _Praise of Folly_. +One might consider the treatise _Lingua_, which he published in 1525, as +an attempt to make a companion-piece to the _Moria_. The book is called +_Of the Use and Abuse of the Tongue_. In the opening pages there is +something that reminds us of the style of the _Laus_, but it lacks all +the charm both of form and of thought. + +Should one pity Erasmus because, of all his publications, collected in +ten folio volumes, only the _Praise of Folly_ has remained a really +popular book? It is, apart from the _Colloquies_, 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 _Praise of Folly_ 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. +_Moriae Encomium_ alone was to be immortal. For only when humour +illuminated that mind did it become truly profound. In the _Praise of +Folly_ Erasmus gave something that no one else could have given to the +world. + +[Illustration: XI. The last page of the _Praise of Folly_, with +Holbein's drawing of Folly descending from the pulpit] + +[Illustration: XII. THE PRINTING PRESS OF JOSSE BADIUS] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] 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. + +[12] Erasmus did not divide the book into chapters. It was done by an +editor as late as 1765. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THIRD STAY IN ENGLAND + +1509-14 + + 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--_Julius Exclusus_--Epistle + against war + + +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 _Praise of +Folly_, 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. + +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 _Adagia_, though the Aldine might still be +had there at a moderate price. The _Laus_, which had just appeared 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. + +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. + +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', _simul et in +media copia et in summa inopia_. That is to say, he was engaged in +preparing for Badius's press the _De copia verborum ac rerum_, 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?' + +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? 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +of the classics. At the time when Erasmus took the _Moria_ to Gourmont, +at Paris, he had charged Badius with a new edition, still to be revised, +of the _Adagia_. Why the _Moria_ was published by another, we cannot +tell; perhaps Badius did not like it at first. From the _Adagia_ 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. + +Badius, meanwhile, had much more work of Erasmus in hand, or on +approval: the _Copia_, which, shortly afterwards, was published by him; +the _Moria_, 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 _Adagia_ 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.' + +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 _Adagia_, 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 _Adagia_ with the preface entrusted to him by +Erasmus to hand over to Badius, not 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 +_Adagia_ being reprinted. + +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 _Copia_ 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. + +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.' + +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. + +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, _io triumphe!_ we are the conquerors of the world!' + +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. + +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 _Julius exclusus_, 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 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 +_Julius_ was published at Basle, not by Froben, Erasmus's ordinary +publisher, but by Cratander, probably in the year 1518. + +Erasmus's need of protesting against warfare had not been satisfied by +writing the _Julius_. 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.' + +This was the first of Erasmus's anti-war writings. He expanded it into +the adage _Dulce bellum inexpertis_, which was inserted into the +_Adagia_ edition of 1515, published by Froben and afterwards also +printed separately. Hereafter we shall follow up this line of Erasmus's +ideas as a whole. + +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. + +[Illustration: XIII. JOHANNES FROBEN, 1522-3 + +Reproduced by gracious permission of H.M. The Queen] + +[Illustration: XIV. THE PRINTER'S EMBLEM OF JOHANNES FROBEN] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A LIGHT OF THEOLOGY + +1514-16 + + 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: + _Institutio Principis Christiani_, 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 + + +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. + +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 already been in the hands of more than one prying person, +before it reached him by mere chance. + +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 _Carmen Alpestre_. + +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 _Enchiridion_, the +_Adagia_? (He did not mention the _Moria_.) 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. + +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 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.' + +Underlying the immediate motives of his high theological aspirations, +this refusal was doubtless actuated by his ancient, inveterate, +psychological incentives of disgust and shame.[13] + + * * * * * + +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: '_My_ Germany, which to my regret and shame I +got to know so late'. + +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 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!' + +Some translations of the lesser works of Plutarch were published by +Froben in August. The _Adagia_ 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 _Parabolae sive similia_ 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. + +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. + +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 _Annotationes_ had directed his attention to textual +criticism of the Vulgate, Erasmus had, probably during his second stay +in England from 1505 to 1506, 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 _Novum Instrumentum_ appeared, containing the +purified Greek text with notes, together with a Latin translation in +which Erasmus had altered too great deviations from the Vulgate. + +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. + +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 without knowing what I shall reap'. This, +however, only refers to his career, not to his life-work. + +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 +_Institutio Principis Christiani_, 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, _il Principe_ +by Machiavelli. + +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 _Utopia_ 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 _Utopia_ 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. + +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 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. + +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.[14] So much mystery did Erasmus use when his vital interests +were at stake. + +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 church benefices in spite of any +disqualifications arising from illegitimacy of birth. + +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. + +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 +_Praise of Folly_, 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 _Epistolae obscurorum virorum_ 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. + + * * * * * + +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 absolution took place, ridding Erasmus for +good of the nightmare which had oppressed him since his youth. At last +he was free! + +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. + +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.' + +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 brilliant position which he had always coveted and +never had been able or willing to grasp. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Epistolae obscurorum +virorum_. + +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. + +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, _De +conscribendis epistolis_, 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.' + +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, 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. + +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. + +Meanwhile, with the growth of Erasmus's fame, his earlier writings, too, +had risen in the public estimation. The great success of the +_Enchiridion militis christiani_ had begun about 1515, when the times +were much riper for it than eleven years before. 'The _Moria_ 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: _Erasmiani_. 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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] For a full translation of this important letter see pp. 212-18. + +[14] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ERASMUS'S MIND + + 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 + + +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. + +What was there in the mind of the great Rotterdamer which promised so +much to the world? + +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, 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. + +Through his treatises, his letters, his _Colloquies_ 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. + +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.' + +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. + +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 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 _magistri +nostri_. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: XV. THE HANDS OF ERASMUS] + +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 a form, and from Antiquity he only chooses those elements +which in ethical tendency are in conformity with his Christian ideal. + +[Illustration: XVI. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 57] + +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. + +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 _Antibarbari_. 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 _bonae literae_, 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 _bonae literae_ 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 Socrates, Virgil, and +Horace, or Plutarch's _Moralia_, 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 _De Senectute_. + +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 _Utopia_ 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 _Antibarbari_, in the numerous +descriptions of meals with Colet, and the numerous _Convivia_ of the +_Colloquies_. Especially in the _Convivium religiosum_ 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 _Convivium religiosum_ 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'. + +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. + +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 _Colloquium Senile_ 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. + +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. + +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 _apologiae_ 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 _Adagia_ has created no +new ones of his own. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Colloquies_, 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, 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. + +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! + +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 _Utopia_, 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. + +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! + +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 _Colloquies_ 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ERASMUS'S MIND-CONTINUED + + 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 + + +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. + +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.' + +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 _at the sources_ themselves.' + +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 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. + +'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 _Renascentia_, 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.' + +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 _Noctes atticae_ or Poliziano's +Miscellanies.... We are in the presence of holy things; here it is no +question of eloquence, these 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. + +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. + +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.' + +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. + +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 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 _or that the text might be corrupt_. +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. + +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. + +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 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 _Renascentia_. +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. + + * * * * * + +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 _à propos_. 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. + +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 _Moriae Encomium_ and the +_Colloquia_. 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 hundreds, the _Moria_ and _Colloquies_ went out to +thousands. And their importance is heightened in that Erasmus has +nowhere else expressed himself so spontaneously. + +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 _Abbatis et +eruditae colloquium_ is a Molière character. It should be noticed how +well Erasmus always sustains his characters and his scenes, because he +_sees_ 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'. + +As Holbein illustrated the _Moria_, we should wish to possess the +_Colloquia_ 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. + +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 _Convivium +religiosum_: it is nothing but an object lesson, a graphic +representation of the forms of reality. + +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. In _De copia verborum ac rerum_ 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 _Ratio verae +theologiae_, in _De pronuntiatione_, in _Lingua_, in _Ecclesiastes_. The +collections of _Adagia_, _Parabolae_, and _Apophthegmata_ 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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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.' + +'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.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ERASMUS'S CHARACTER + + 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 + + +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? + +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. + +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 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. + +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.[15] 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. + +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 +_Colloquies_. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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! + +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. + +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 clear to everybody. In the same way his personal +experience in the monastery passes into his disapproval, on principle, +of monastic life. + +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. + +Does he not ascribe weaknesses to himself? Certainly. He is, in spite of +his self-coddling, ever dissatisfied with himself and his work. +_Putidulus_, 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. + +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 +_Moria_: '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'. + +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. + +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'. + +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. _His_ part, _his_ position, _his_ 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. + +Yet this man who has so many friends is nevertheless solitary at heart. +And in the depth of that heart he desires to be alone. He is of a most +retiring disposition; he is _a recluse_. '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. + +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: +'_Fastidiosule!_ 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 _subrustica verecundia_, his +somewhat rustic _gaucherie_. 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. + +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 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.' + +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. + +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'. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 +_me_?' 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. + +This unhappy feeling takes the special form of his having been charged +by unlucky stars with Herculean labour, without profit or pleasure to +himself:[16] 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'. + +That immoderate love of liberty had indeed been as fate to 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'. + +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 _Moria_. 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. + +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 _tumultuarie_, 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. + +'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. + +In that recklessness and precipitation with which Erasmus labours there +is again one of the unsolved contradictions of his being. He _is_ +precipitate and careless; he _wants_ 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. + +The way in which Erasmus always tries to shirk definite statements +irritates us. How carefully he always tries to represent the +_Colloquies_, 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 _Adagia_, princes +above all, he warns the readers not to regard his words as aimed at +particular persons. + +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. + +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 _Colloquies_. 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. + +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 _Colloquia_.' 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?' + +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 _my_ sake, concede me at least +that you will not allow yourself, out of fear for another, to be tempted +to renounce me; rather be silent about me.' + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] Cf. the letter to Beatus Rhenanus, pp. 227-8. + +[16] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AT LOUVAIN + +1517-18 + + 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 + + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _Moria_; 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. + +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. + +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 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, _bonae literae_. Had he +not himself, by his editions of the New Testament and of Jerome, and +even earlier by the now famous _Enchiridion_, 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. _We_ have +lived through the first shock.' + +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. + +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. + +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 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 +_Apologia_. 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: XVII. VIEW OF BASLE, 1548] + +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. + +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 _Enchiridion_ and the _Institutio Principis Christiani_ +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. + +[Illustration: XVIII. Title-page of the New Testament printed by Froben +in 1520] + +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 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 +_Collegium Trilingue_, 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 _Apologia_. 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 _Apologia_, 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'. + +Alack! Germany had other causes of disturbance: it is 1520 and the three +great polemics of Luther were setting the world on fire. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _Moria_ +had made. That real and supposed hatred troubled Erasmus. He sees his +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'. + +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? + +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 _bonae literae_.' '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 in the hatred of _bonae literae_. 'This is the +source and hot-bed of all this tragedy; incurable hatred of linguistic +study and the _bonae literae_.' 'Luther provokes those enemies, whom it +is impossible to conquer, though their cause is a bad one. And meanwhile +envy harasses the _bonae literae_, 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.' + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +FIRST YEARS OF THE REFORMATION + + Beginning of the relations between Erasmus and Luther-- + Archbishop Albert of Mayence, 1517--Progress of the + Reformation--Luther tries to bring about a _rapprochement_ 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 + + +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 +_justitia_ correctly, had paid too little attention to original sin: he +might profit by reading Augustine. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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! + +'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 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. + +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. + +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? + +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 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.' + +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. + +The attempt, on the part of Luther, to effect a _rapprochement_ 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 allied the noble illusion that it might yet be +possible to preserve the peace by moderation, insight, and kindliness. + +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 _bonae +literae_, 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. + +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? + +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.' + +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 +_bonae literae_ 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[17], 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 +composing them and call him the standard bearer of the party! That +seemed to them a fitting pretext to suppress the _bonae literae_. '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.' + +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.' + +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! + +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. + +But in the increasing noise of the battle his voice already sounded less +powerfully than before. A letter to Cardinal 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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.' + +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. + +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 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 _Axiomata concerning Luther's cause_. Against his intention +they were printed at once. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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!' + +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. + +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.' + +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 behalf of +the Gospel and the true Christian faith.... O Erasmus, be on this side, +that God may be proud of you.' + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, where, it +seemed, he could sooner or later be pressed into the service of the +anti-Lutheran policy. + +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. + +[Illustration: XIX. THE HOUSE AT ANDERLECHT WHERE ERASMUS LIVED FROM MAY +TO NOVEMBER 1521] + +[Illustration: XX. ERASMUS'S STUDY AT ANDERLECHT] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] Translation on pp. 229 ff. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ERASMUS AT BASLE + +1521-9 + + 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 + _Colloquia_--Controversies with Stunica, Beda, etc.--Quarrel + with Hutten--Eppendorff + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_Institutio Principis Christiani_ 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. + +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.' + +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: _Querela pacis_, +the complaint of peace, the adage _Dulce bellum inexpertis_, war is +sweet to those who have not known it, _Oratio de pace et discordia_, 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 _Colloquies_ 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 Venice,[18] and to have remarked to him angrily that he should stop +writing on the concerns of princes: 'You do not understand those +things!' + +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. + +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 _Adagia_ 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 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 _Scarabeus aquilam +quaerit_ he represents the prince under the image of the Eagle as the +great cruel robber and persecutor. In another, _Aut regem aut fatuum +nasci oportere_, and in _Dulce bellum inexpertis_ 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. + +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 +_Utopia_. '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. + +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 _Adagia_, 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 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. + +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 +_Colloquies_ prove. + +What was said about the _Moria_ may be repeated here: if in the +literature of the world only the _Colloquies_ and the _Moria_ 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 _Moria_ and the _Colloquies_. With +these his sparkling wit has charmed the world. If only we had space here +to assign to the Erasmus of the _Colloquies_ his just and lofty place in +that brilliant constellation of sixteenth-century followers of +Democritus: Rabelais, Ariosto, Montaigne, Cervantes, and Ben Jonson! + +When Erasmus gave the _Colloquies_ their definite form at Basle, they +had already had a long and curious genesis. At first they had been no +more than _Familiarium colloquiorum formulae_, 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 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 _Convivium profanum_. 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. + +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 _Formulae_, and at last in 1526 the title was +changed to _Familiarium colloquiorum opus_. 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. + +Erasmus's mind had lost nothing of its acuteness and freshness when, so +many years after the _Moria_, he again set foot in the field of satire. +As to form, the _Colloquies_ are less confessedly satirical than the +_Moria_. With its telling subject, the _Praise of Folly_, the latter at +once introduces itself as a satire: whereas, at first sight, the +_Colloquies_ might seem to be mere innocent genre-pieces. But as to the +contents, they are more satirical, at least more directly so. The +_Moria_, as a satire, is philosophical and general; the _Colloquia_ are +up to date and special. At the same time they combine more the positive +and negative elements. In the _Moria_ Erasmus's own ideal dwells +unexpressed behind the representation; in the _Colloquia_ 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 _Enchiridion militis Christiani_. +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 _Colloquia_. 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 +_Enchiridion_: the exposition of simple, general Christian conduct; +untrammelled and natural ethics. That is his message of redemption. It +came to many out of _Exomologesis_, _De esu carnium_, _Lingua_, +_Institutio christiani matrimonii_, _Vidua christiana_, _Ecclesiastes_. +But, to far larger numbers, the message was contained in the +_Colloquies_. + +The _Colloquia_ gave rise to much more hatred and contest than the +_Moria_, 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 _The Funeral_ +(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 _Colloquies_ 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 risk of being pilloried in the _Colloquia_. It was no +wonder that this work, especially with its scourging mockery of the +monastic orders, became the object of controversy. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 _rapprochement_, +probably as Erasmus became more conservative, and a kindly attitude on +the part of Stunica. + +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. + +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 +_Colloquia_. Egmondanus and Vincent Dirks did not forgive Erasmus for +having acridly censured their station and their personalities. + +More courteous than the aforementioned polemics was the fight with a +high-born Italian, Alberto Pio, prince of Carpi; 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. + +In this way the matter accumulated for the volume of Erasmus's works +which contains, according to his own arrangement, all his _Apologiae_: +not 'excuses', but 'vindications'. 'Miserable man that I am; they just +fill a volume,' exclaimed Erasmus. + +Two of his polemics merit a somewhat closer examination: that with +Ulrich von Hutten and that with Luther. + +[Illustration: XXI. MARTIN LUTHER AS A MONK] + +[Illustration: XXII. ULRICH VON HUTTEN] + +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. + +Hutten, however, was avenged upon Erasmus living. One of his adherents, +Henry of Eppendorff, inherited Hutten's 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] Melanchthon, _Opera, Corpus Reformatorum_, XII 266, where he refers +to _Querela pacis_, which, however, was not written before 1517; _vide_ +A. 603 and I p. 37.10. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +CONTROVERSY WITH LUTHER AND GROWING CONSERVATISM + +1524-6 + + Erasmus persuaded to write against Luther--_De Libero Arbitrio_: + 1524--Luther's answer: _De Servo Arbitrio_--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--_Institutio + Christiani Matrimonii_: 1526--He feels surrounded by enemies + + +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 _geste_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +Erasmus thought he could refuse no longer. He tried some dialogues in +the style of the _Colloquies_, 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'. + +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. + +_De libero arbitrio diatribe_ (_A Disquisition upon Free Will_) 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 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. + +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 _De servo arbitrio_ (_On the Will not +free_). 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 _De Servo +Arbitrio_ means a recrudescence of faith and a straining of religious +conceptions. + +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 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 +_live_ 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. + +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. + +'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.' + +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 _under_ 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, 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. + +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,[19] '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.' + +The _Hyperaspistes_, a voluminous treatise in which Erasmus again +addressed Luther, was nothing but an epilogue, which need not be +discussed here at length. + +Erasmus had thus, at last, openly taken sides. For, apart from the +dogmatical point at issue itself, the most important part about _De +libero arbitrio_ 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 _Hyperaspistes_ 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.' + +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! + +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 _De +interdicto esu carnium_ (_On the Prohibition of eating Meat_). This was +one of the last occasions on which he directly opposed the established +order. + +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 +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. + +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 _Exomologesis_ (_On the Way to confess_). 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'. + +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 _Apologia_, whether he is attacked for the +_Colloquia_, for the _Moria_, Jerome, the _Paraphrases_ or anything +else. At last he recapitulates his views to some extent in _De amabili +Ecclesiae concordia_ (_On the Amiable Concord of the Church_), of 1533, +which, however, ranks hardly any more among his reformatory endeavours. + +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 +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. + +From the period at Basle dates one of the purest and most beneficent +moral treatises of Erasmus's, the _Institutio Christiani matrimonii_ +(_On Christian Marriage_) of 1526, written for Catherine of Aragon, +Queen of England, quite in the spirit of the _Enchiridion_, save for a +certain diffuseness betraying old age. Later follows _De vidua +Christiana_, _The Christian Widow_, for Mary of Hungary, which is as +impeccable but less interesting. + +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 _Colloquies_ +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 _Colloquies_ were later, when +Erasmus's works were expurgated, placed on the index in the lump, with +the _Moria_ and a few other works. The rest is _caute legenda_, to be +read with caution. Much was rejected of the Annotations to the New +Testament, of the _Paraphrases_ and the _Apologiae_, very little of the +_Enchiridion_, of the _Ratio verae theologiae_, and even of the +_Exomologesis_. But this was after the fight against the living Erasmus +had long been over. + +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 +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] _Luther's religiöse Psyche_, Hochland XV, 1917, p. 21. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +AT WAR WITH HUMANISTS AND REFORMERS + +1528-9 + + Erasmus turns against the excesses of humanism: its paganism and + pedantic classicism--_Ciceronianus_: 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 + + +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 +_Ciceronianus_ or _On the Best Diction_, 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. + +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'. + +In spite of the great expectations he cherished of classical studies for +pure Christianity, he saw one danger: 'that under 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 _bonae +literae_. He considered it his special task to assist in bringing it +about that those _bonae literae_ 'which with the Italians have thus far +been almost pagan, shall get used to speaking of Christ'. + +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. + +In a letter of 13 October 1527, to a professor at Toledo, we find the +_ébauche_ of the _Ciceronianus_. 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 _bonae literae_ speak of Christ, as though nothing can be +elegant but what is pagan. To their ears _Jupiter optimus maximus_ +sounds more pleasant than _Jesus Christus redemptor mundi_, and _patres +conscripti_ more agreeable than _sancti apostoli_.... 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 are the tumults of the so-called new Gospel, to which he next +proceeds in this letter. + +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 _Moria_ and _Colloquia_, ennobled by an +almost passionate sincerity of Christian disposition and a natural sense +of measure. The _Ciceronianus_ 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. + +Erasmus in drawing Nosoponus had evidently, in the main, alluded to one +who could no longer reply: Christopher Longolius, who had died in 1522. + +The core of the _Ciceronianus_ 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: +_corchorum inter olera_, '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. + +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 _Logos_ by _Sermo_ instead of by _Verbum_? +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 Saints? And was his warning against the partiality for classic +proverbs and turns applicable to anything more than to the _Adagia_? + +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. + +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'. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: XXIII. ERASMUS'S RESIDENCE AT FREIBURG, 1529-31] + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +His reception at Freiburg convinced him that, in spite of all, he was +still the celebrated and admired prince of letters. The 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. + +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 _Colloquies_ +three more times, the _Adages_ and the New Testament once more. +Occasional writings of a moral or politico-theological nature kept +flowing from his pen. + +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,' 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. + +'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.' + +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.' + +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 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. + +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. + +Some remarkable evidence regarding Erasmus's altered attitude towards +the old and the new Church is shown by what follows. + +The reproach he had formerly so often flung at the advocates of +conservatism that they hated the _bonae literae_, 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!' + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +LAST YEARS + + Religious and political contrasts grow sharper--The coming + strife in Germany still suspended--Erasmus finishes his + _Ecclesiastes_--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--_De Puritate + Ecclesiae_--The end: 12 July 1536 + + +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'. + +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 age, like +those with which the concord of 1516 had inspired him. A month later the +Turks appeared before Vienna. + +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?' + +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. + +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. + +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 Mars had been favourable to +them, we should now have been done for.' + +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. + +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. + +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: +_Ecclesiastes_ or, _On the Way to preach_. 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 +_Enchiridion_ of the Christian soldier and the _Institutio_ 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 +gradually grew into the most voluminous of Erasmus's original writings: +a forest of a work, _operis sylvam_, 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 _Enchiridion_ had been in its day? + +_Ecclesiastes_ 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.' + +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 +_Institution of the Christian Religion_, by Calvin. + + * * * * * + +Even before Erasmus had quite completed the _Ecclesiastes_, 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. 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 _Carmen +heroïcum_ 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 _Ecclesiastes_ +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! + + * * * * * + +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 _Ecclesiastes_ was at last going to press and still required careful +supervision and the final touches during the process; the _Adagia_ 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 _Zum Luft_. 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, 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. + +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. + +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'. + +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. + +[Illustration: XXIV. CARDINAL JEROME ALEANDER] + +In October 1534, Pope Clement VII was succeeded by Paul III, who at once +zealously took up the Council-question. 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.' + +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. + +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 instigate _him_ to hunt for deaneries and cardinals' +hats! He had subsistence enough to last him. He wanted to die +independent. + +Yet his pen did not rest. The _Ecclesiastes_ had been printed and +published and _Origenes_ 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.[20] 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. + +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 not forgotten, and he remembered especially girls +about to marry and youths of promise. The details of this charity he +left to Amerbach. + +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.' + +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? + +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.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] See Erasmus's letter, p. 224. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CONCLUSION + + 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 + + +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? + +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? + +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 _stultitia_ which he had praised as a necessary +constituent of life. Erasmus is the man who is too sensible and moderate +for the heroic. + +What a surprising difference there is between the _accent_ of Erasmus +and that of Luther, Calvin, and Saint Teresa! What a difference, also, +between his accent, that is, the accent of humanism, and that of +Albrecht Dürer, of Michelangelo, or of Shakespeare. + +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. + +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 _Enchiridion +militis Christiani_ 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. + +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? + +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. + +He was too much concerned about what people thought, and he could not +hold his tongue. His mind was _too_ 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 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +[Illustration: XXV. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 65] + + * * * * * + +Our final opinion about Erasmus has been concerned with negative +qualities, so far. What was his positive importance? + +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. + +[Illustration: XXVI. ERASMUS DICTATING TO HIS SECRETARY, 1530] + +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. + +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. + +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 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.' + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 the great +religious conflict, though they might be doomed to end in failure, +emanated from the Erasmian spirit. + +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 +_Astragalismus_ (_The Game of Knucklebones_), 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. + +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 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? + +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. + +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. + + + + +SELECTION FROM THE LETTERS OF ERASMUS + + +_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'._ + +_The notes have been compiled from P. S. and H. M. Allen's_ Opus +epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, _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. TO SERVATIUS ROGER[21] + +[Steyn, _c._ 1487] + +To his friend Servatius, greetings: + +... 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'.[22] + +It is certain then, my Servatius, that there is something which troubles +you, which is destroying your former good health. But what 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. + + +II. TO NICHOLAS WERNER[23] + +Paris, 13 September [1496] + +To the religious Father Nicholas Werner, greetings: + +... 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,[24] 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 _scudi_. 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 _scudi_, if I would teach him for a year; he +offered a benefice in a few months' time; he offered to lend me 300 +_scudi_, 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 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. + +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. + + +III. TO ROBERT FISHER[25] + +London, 5 December [1499] + +To Robert Fisher, Englishman, abiding in Italy, greetings: + +... 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. + +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 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?[26] What could be keener or nobler or nicer than Linacre's[27] +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. + + +IV. TO JAMES BATT[28] + +Orléans [_c._ 12 December] 1500 + +... If you care sincerely what becomes of your Erasmus, do you act thus: +plead my shyness before my Lady[29] 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 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), and to restore the +Greek.[30] 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. + + +V. TO ANTONY OF BERGEN[31] + +[Paris?] [16 March? 1501] + +To the most illustrious prelate Antony, Abbot of St. Bertin, greetings: + +... 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 _literal_ sense) can be understood by persons ignorant of +Greek. Who could understand the sentence in the Psalm [Ps. 50.4 (51.3)] +_Et peccatum meum contra me est semper_,[32] unless he has read the +Greek? This runs as follows: [Greek: kai hê hamartia mou enôpion mou +esti diapantos]. 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, _contra_, when +the word [Greek: enôpion] refers not to _conflict_ but to _position_, as +if you were to say _opposite_, i.e., _in sight_: 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)], _Bene +patientes erunt ut annuncient_, everyone will be misled by the deceptive +form, unless he has learned from the Greek that, just as according to +Latin usage we say _bene facere_ of those who _do good to_ someone, so +the Greeks call [Greek: eupathountas] (_bene patientes_) those who +_suffer good to be done them_. 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[33] +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. + +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, 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,[34] a real Greek, no, twice a Greek, always hungry,[35] who +charges an immoderate fee for his lessons. Farewell. + + +VI. TO WILLIAM WARHAM[36] + +London, 24 January [1506] + +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: + +... 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[37] (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 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 +_Hecuba_ and the _Iphigeneia in Aulis_, 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. + +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[38] failed to satisfy himself); one man[39] has essayed Hesiod, +and that without much success; another[40] 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 +orations.[41] (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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Farewell, and enrol Erasmus in the number of those who are +wholeheartedly devoted to Your Fathership. + +[Illustration: XXVII. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 53 + +On the reverse his device and motto] + +[Illustration: XXVIII. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF ABOUT 57] + + +VII. TO ALDUS MANUTIUS[42] + +Bologna, 28 October [1507] + +To Aldus Manutius of Rome, many greetings: + +... 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 _fame_ 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[43] 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.[44] I wonder what has prevented +you from publishing the New Testament[45] long since--a work which would +delight even the common people (if I conjecture aright) but particularly +my own class, the theologians. + +I send you two tragedies[46] 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, +_gratis_, except that you may wish to send me a few volumes as gifts for +my friends. + +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. + +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 _Tragedies_, will you return +the copy to the bearer to bring back to me? + + +VIII. TO THOMAS MORE[47] + +[Paris?] 9 June [1511] + +To his friend Thomas More, greetings: + +... 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 +_something_, and that time seemed ill suited to serious meditation, I +determined to amuse myself with the _Praise of Folly_. 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 _moria_ [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 +_jeu d'esprit_ 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[48] 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. + +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 former times; seeing +that so many centuries ago Homer made his trifle _The Battle of Frogs +and Mice_, Virgil his _Gnat_ and _Dish of Herbs_ and Ovid his _Nut_; +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. + +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. + +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 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 _moria_. + + +IX. TO JOHN COLET[49] + +Cambridge, 29 October [1511] + +To his friend Colet, greetings: + +... 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 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. + + +X. TO SERVATIUS ROGER + +Hammes Castle [near Calais], + +8 July 1514 + +To the Reverend Father Servatius, many greetings: + +... 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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,[50] the Cardinal of Bologna,[51] +Cardinal Grimani, the Cardinal of Nantes,[52] and the present Pope,[53] +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[54] 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. 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. + +Now to say something of my works--I think you have read the +_Enchiridion_,[55] 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 _Adagia_,[56] 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 _De rerum verborumque copia_,[57] 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 _Letters_ +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 _Epistles_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. 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. + + +XI. TO WOLFGANG FABRICIUS CAPITO[58] + +Antwerp, 26 February 1516/17 + +To the distinguished theologian Wolfgang Fabricius Capito of Hagenau, +skilled in the three languages, greetings: + +... 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,[59] in England +by King Henry VIII, himself no mean scholar, here by King Charles, a +young man admirably gifted, in France by King 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[60] +in Rome, Ambrose Leo of Nola[61] at Venice, William Cop[62] and John +Ruell[63] in France, and Thomas Linacre in England. Roman law is being +revived in Paris by William Budaeus[64] and in Germany by Ulrich +Zasius,[65] mathematics at Basle by Henry Glareanus.[66] + +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 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_ should +dare to teach a great man like St. Jerome: as if I had changed what St. +Jerome wrote, instead of restoring it! + +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 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. + + +XII. TO THOMAS MORE + +Louvain, 5 March 1518 + +To his friend More, greeting: + +... 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.[67] 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. + +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 _Therapeutice_,[68] through some +conspiracy of the Parisians against me. Inquire courteously of Lupset on +the Appendix[69] to my _Copia_ and send it. + +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. + +I send Pace's pamphlet, the _Conclusions on Papal Indulgences_,[70] and +the _Proposal for Undertaking a War against the Turks_,[71] 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[72] 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.... + +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 _Utopia_ at Paris printed, but with many +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. + + +XIII. TO BEATUS RHENANUS[73] + +Louvain [_c._ 15 October] 1518 + +To his friend Rhenanus, greetings: + +... 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 _heceitas_[74] 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. + +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 nine +o'clock; there we had a more comfortable reception, particularly as +Schürer produced some wine. Some of the Society[75] 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. + +From Speyer I travelled by carriage to Worms, and from there again to +Mainz. There was an Imperial secretary, Ulrich Varnbüler,[76] 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. + +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 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. + +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[77]--a five-hour journey. He was staying at Bedburg. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Stockfisch_, 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + +XIV. TO MARTIN LUTHER + +Louvain, 30 May 1519 + +Best greetings, most beloved brother in Christ. Your letter was most +welcome to me, displaying a shrewd wit and breathing a Christian spirit. + +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 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, _felt_ 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. + +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 +_their_ 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. + +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 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. + +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;[78] I am +delighted with them, and hope that they will do much good. At Antwerp we +have the Prior of the Monastery,[79] 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. + +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. + + +XV. TO ULRICH HUTTEN[80] + +Antwerp, 23 July 1519 + +To the illustrious knight Ulrich Hutten, greetings: + +... 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 Horace's +gladiators[81] 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. + +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.[82] + +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 father +of great age[83]--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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Praise of Folly_, +that is for making the camel dance. + +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. + +He takes an especial pleasure in watching the appearance, characters and +behaviour of various creatures; accordingly there is almost no 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. + +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. + +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. + +He also devoted much strenuous attention to studying the ecclesiastical +writers. He lectured publicly to a crowded audience on Augustine's _City +of God_ 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. + +Still, he married a girl,[84] 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[85] 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,[86] 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;[87] 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? + +[Illustration: XXIX. SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS FAMILY, 1527] + +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. + +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 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.[88] 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 +_Tyrannicide_; 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 +_Utopia_ 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. + +One could hardly find a better _ex tempore_ 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. + +[Illustration: XXX. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 54] + +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 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. + + +XVI. TO WILLIBALD PIRCKHEIMER[89] + +Basle, 14 March 1525 + +To the illustrious Willibald Pirckheimer, greetings: + +... 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,[90] 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. + +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 Albrecht +Dürer,[91] 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[92] +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,[93] 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.[94] 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. + + +XVII. TO MARTIN LUTHER + +Basle, 11 April 1526 + +To Martin Luther, greetings: + +... Your letter has been delivered too late;[95] but had it arrived in +the best of time, it would not have moved me one whit. I am not so +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[96] or on +Cochleus?[97] They attack you personally and provoke you with insults, +while my _Diatribe_[98] 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[99] 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 _Diatribe_ was not even intended to stir up those matters +which the world itself knows of. + +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 _this_ 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 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. + + +XVIII. TO THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS[100] + +Basle, _c._ March 1527 + +To the most skilled physician Theophrastus of Einsiedeln, etc., +greetings: + +... 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[101] I do not quite understand, nevertheless it +appears to be convincing. + +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. + +You have resurrected Froben[102], 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! + +I fear you may not be able to read this letter dashed off immediately +[after receiving yours]. Farewell. + +Erasmus of Rotterdam, by his own hand. + + +XIX. TO MARTIN BUCER[103] + +Basle, 11 November 1527 + +Best greetings: + +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[104] 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. + +The person who informed me about 'languages'[105] 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 +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. + +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. + +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 conduct, and not be even on speaking terms +with liars, perjurors, drunkards and fornicators. As it is I hear and +almost _see_, 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. + +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 _their_ 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! + +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 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. + +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. + +Erasmus of Rotterdam, by my own hand. + +[Illustration: XXXI. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 60] + + +XX. TO ALFONSO VALDES[106] + +Basle, 1 August 1528 + +To the most illustrious Alfonso Valdes, Secretary to His Imperial +Majesty, greetings: + +... 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 make _Terminus_,[107] the seal on my ring, an occasion for slander, +protesting that the addition of the device _Concedo nulli_ [I yield to +none] shows intolerable arrogance. What is this but some fatal malady, +consisting in misrepresenting everything? Momus[108] 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 _them_ 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 _Concedo nulli_. 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. + +[Illustration: XXXII. ERASMUS'S DEVICE] + +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 _Terminus_: if one takes this as the last +word, that will make an iambic dimeter acatalectic, _Concedo nulli +Terminus_; if one begins with this word, it will be a trochaic dimeter +acatalectic, _Terminus concedo nulli_. 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. + +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 _they_ have not learned the theory of 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.'[109] Livy tells this story in the first book of his +_History_, 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.'[110] This omen was welcomed +with universal rejoicing, for they believed that it portended an eternal +empire. The _youth_ is useful for war, and _Terminus_ is fixed. + +Here they will exclaim perchance, 'What have _you_ 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,[111] 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 _Terminus_ 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 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, [Greek: Ora telos +makrou biou], that is, 'Consider the end of a long life,' in Latin _Mors +ultima linea rerum_. 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. + +There is my defence on _Terminus_, or better say on hair-splitting. And +if only they would at last set a _term_ 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. + + +XXI. TO CHARLES BLOUNT[112] + +Freiburg im Breisgau, 1 March 1531 + +To the noble youth Charles Mountjoy, greetings: + +... 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,[113] 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, and this is +usually the most precious treasure of the monasteries. The original +manuscript was one of marvellous antiquity, painted[114] 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,[115] what acclamation should greet this large addition to +Livy's _History_? + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + +XXII. TO BARTHOLOMEW LATOMUS[116] + +Basle, 24 August 1535 + +To Bartholomew Latomus, greetings: + +... 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 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.... + +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. + +Many French nobles have fled here for fear of the winter storm, after +having been recalled.[117] 'The lion shall roar, who shall not fear?' +says the Prophet.[118] 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[119] 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.[120] 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. + +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 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. + +I do not think that France is entirely free of this plague; but they are +silent there for fear of the cudgel.... + +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.[121] 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] 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. + +[22] Juvenal, ix. 18-20. + +[23] N. Werner (d. 5 September 1504), later Prior of Steyn. + +[24] Probably James Stuart, brother of James IV of Scotland, Archbishop +of St. Andrews, 1497, aged about twenty-one at this time. + +[25] Relative of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Took his doctor's +degree in Italy, returned to England 1507. + +[26] William Grocyn (_c._ 1446-1519), Fellow of New College, one of the +first to teach Greek in Oxford. + +[27] Thomas Linacre (_c._ 1460-1524), Fellow of All Souls College, +Oxford, 1484. Translator of Galen. Helped to found the College of +Physicians, 1518. + +[28] James Batt (1464?-1502), secretary to the council of the town of +Bergen. + +[29] Anne of Burgundy, the Lady of Veere (1469?-1518), patroness of +Erasmus until 1501-2, when she remarried. + +[30] i.e. to replace Greek words either corrupted or omitted. Erasmus is +here referring probably to the text of the _Letters_ 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'. + +[31] 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. + +[32] 'And my sin is ever before me,' where _contra_ could be rendered as +either 'before' or 'against'; the ambiguity is resolved by referring to +the Greek, where [Greek: enôpion] = face to face with. + +[33] Apparently a loose statement of the _Constitutions_ 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. + +[34] Probably George Hermonymus of Sparta. + +[35] Cf. Juvenal, iii.78. (_Graeculus esuriens_.) + +[36] 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 _Hecuba_ in +_Euripidis_ ... _Hecuba et Iphigenia; Latinae factae Erasmo Roterodamo +interprete_, Paris, J. Badius, September 1506. + +[37] [Greek: en tô pithô tên kerameian], i.e., to run before one can +walk, to make a winejar being the most advanced job in pottery. + +[38] Politian translated parts of Iliad, 2-5 into Latin hexameters, +dedicating the work to Lorenzo dei Medici. Published by A. Mai, +Spicilegium Romanum, ii. + +[39] Nicholas de Valle translated the _Works and Days_ (_Georgica_), +Bonninus Mombritius the _Theogonia_. + +[40] Martin Phileticus. + +[41] No. 3; his Funeral Orations were printed _c._ 1481 at Milan. + +[42] Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) founded the Aldine Press at Venice, +1494. + +[43] Published by Aldus, 1513. + +[44] Published by Aldus, 1528. + +[45] Published by Aldus, 1518, although projected in 1499. + +[46] _Euripidis ... Hecuba et Iphigenia_ [in Aulide]; _Latinae factae +Erasmo Roterodamo interprete_, Paris, J. Badius, 13 September 1506. +Reprinted by Aldus at Venice, December 1507 (and by Froben at Basle in +1518 and 1524). + +[47] Thomas More (1478-1535). This letter is the preface to the _Moriae +Encomium_, published by Gilles Gourmont at Paris without date, reprinted +by Schürer at Strasbourg, August 1511. + +[48] The Greek 'laughing philosopher'. + +[49] John Colet (1466?-1519), Dean of St. Paul's 1504, had founded St. +Paul's School in the previous year (1510). + +[50] Raffaele Riario (1461-1521), Leo X's most formidable rival in the +election of 1513. + +[51] Francesco Alidosi of Imola, d. 1511. + +[52] Robert Guibé(_c._ 1456-1513), Cardinal of St. Anastasia and Bishop +of Nantes (1507). + +[53] Leo X. + +[54] Wolsey. + +[55] _Enchiridion militis Christiani_, printed in _Lucubratiunculae_, +1503. + +[56] A new and enlarged edition under the title _Adagiorum Chiliades_, +printed by Aldus in 1508. + +[57] _De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo_, Paris, +Badius, 1512. + +[58] The Hebrew scholar, who adhered to the Reformation, 1523. + +[59] F. Ximenes (1436-1517), confessor of Queen Isabella, Archbishop of +Toledo, 1495, founded Alcalá University, 1500; he promoted the Polyglot +Bible. + +[60] (1428-1524), taught medicine at Ferrara and made translations from +Aristotle, Dio Cassius, Galen and Hippocrates. + +[61] (d. 1525) Professor of Medicine at Naples, and from 1507 at Venice; +physician to Aldus's household, where he met Erasmus. + +[62] (1466-1532), physician, astronomer and humanist; learned Greek with +Erasmus in Paris. He was physician to the Court of Francis I. + +[63] (1479-1537), Dean of the Medical Faculty at Paris, 1508-9, and +Physician to Francis I. + +[64] (1467/8-1540), the Parisian humanist, whose _Annotationes in xxiv +Pandectarum libros_ were published by Badius in 1508. + +[65] Ulrich Zäsi or Zasius (1461-1535) Lector Ordinarius in Laws at +Freiburg from 1506 until his death. + +[66] Henry Loriti of canton Glarus, usually known as Glareanus +(1488-1563), had an academy at Basle where he took in thirty boarders. + +[67] Published at Basle, March 1519. + +[68] A translation of Galen's _Methodus medendi_, not printed until June +1519. Lupset supervised the printing. + +[69] This may be the _De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis_, +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. + +[70] Luther's _Theses_, posted 31 October 1517 and printed shortly +afterwards at Wittenberg. + +[71] The proposals for a crusade drawn up at Rome, 16 November 1517. + +[72] The _Julius Exclusus_, 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). + +[73] 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. + +[74] Haecceity, 'thisness', 'individuality', t.t. of Scotistic +philosophy, cf. quiddity, 'essence'. + +[75] 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. + +[76] A portrait drawing of Varnbüler by Albrecht Dürer is in the +Albertina, Vienna; Dürer made also a woodcut from it. + +[77] 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. + +[78] _Operationes in Psalmos_. Wittenberg, 1519. + +[79] James Probst or Proost (Præpositus) of Ypres (1486-1562). + +[80] Ulrich Hutten (1488-1523), the German knight and humanist. + +[81] Satires 2, vii. 96 (where however the gladiators are the subject, +and not the artists, of a crude charcoal sketch). + +[82] 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. + +[83] John More (1453?-1530), at this time a Judge of Common Pleas, +promoted to the King's Bench in 1523. + +[84] Jane Colt (_c._ 1487-1511). + +[85] More's second daughter was Elizabeth; Alice was the name of his +stepdaughter. + +[86] Alice Middleton. + +[87] 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. + +[88] More was elected Under-Sheriff, 1510. + +[89] W. Pirckheimer (1470-1530), humanist. After studying law and Greek +in Italy he settled at Nuremberg. Some of his works were illustrated by +Dürer. + +[90] Alexander Stewart (_c._ 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. + +[91] Dürer made three portraits of him, two drawings (now in Berlin and +in Brunswick) and an engraving. + +[92] The Greek sculptor, _c._ 350 B.C. 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. + +[93] A drawing of Erasmus was made by Dürer in 1520 (now in the Louvre), +and an engraving in 1526. + +[94] Erasmus had his portrait painted by Holbein several times in 1523-4 +and 1530-1. A number of originals and copies are still extant. + +[95] Luther's letter, in which he evidently attempted to mitigate +Erasmus's indignation against his _De Servo Arbitrio_ (The Will not +free), which was a reply to Erasmus's _De Libero Arbitrio_ (On free +Will), 1524. Luther's letter came 'too late' because Erasmus had already +composed the _Hyperaspistes Diatribe adversus Servum Arbitrium Martini +Lutheri_, Basle, Froben, 1526. + +[96] John Fisher (1459?-1535). + +[97] John Dobeneck of Wendelstein. + +[98] i.e., the _De Libero Arbitrio_. + +[99] Reading _reticeo_ for _retices_. + +[100] 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 _physicus et ordinarius +Basiliensis_ in 1527. + +[101] Paracelsus had diagnosed the stone, from which Erasmus suffered, +as being due to crystallization of salt in the kidneys. + +[102] Froben died before the year was out. + +[103] Martin Butzer (_c._ 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. + +[104] Henry of Eppendorff, a former friend who followed Hutten on his +quarrel with Erasmus. + +[105] Erasmus stated in the _Responsio_ of 1 August 1530, that in the +Reformed schools little was taught beyond _dogmata et linguae_ 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. + +[106] 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. + +[107] On this gem see Edgar Wind, 'Aenigma Termini,' in _Journ. of the +Warburg Institute_, I (1937-8), p. 66. + +[108] Greek god of ridicule. + +[109] Livy, I, 55, 3. Livy refers to the clearing of the Tarpeian rock +by Tarquinius Superbus (534-510 B.C.), 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. + +[110] Livy, 5, 54, 7. + +[111] See p. 66. + +[112] Preface to _T. Livii ... historiæ_, Basle, Froben, 1531. Charles +Blount (b. 1518), eldest son of William Blount, Lord Mountjoy. + +[113] _c._ 1495-1541, Professor of Greek at Basle, 1529. He found the +MS. containing Livy, Bks. 41-5, in 1527. + +[114] Not 'illuminated.' Erasmus refers elsewhere (Allen 919. 55) to a +codex as _non scripto sed picto_. + +[115] 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. + +[116] (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. + +[117] By the Edict of Courcy. + +[118] Amos iii. 8. + +[119] Richard Reynolds of the Bridgettine Syon College at Isleworth. + +[120] More had been executed 6 July 1535. + +[121] 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, _Met._ +IX., 42. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +I. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. By Quentin Metsys. 1517. Rome, Galleria Corsini. +_Facing p. 14_ + +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. + +II. VIEW OF ROTTERDAM at the beginning of the sixteenth century. +Contemporary engraving, hand-coloured. _Facing p. 15_ + +III. PORTRAIT BUST OF JOHN COLET, Dean of St. Paul's (1467-1519). By +Pietro Torrigiano. St. Paul's School, Hammersmith, London. _Facing p. +30_ + +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 +(_Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes_, XIII, 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. + +IV. PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS MORE (1477-1535). Dated 1527. By Hans +Holbein. New York, Frick Collection. _Facing p. 31_ + +See also Holbein's drawing of Thomas More with his family, Pl. XXIX. + +V. Pen and ink sketches by Erasmus. 1514. Basle, University Library (MS +A. IX. 56). _Facing p. 46_ + +These doodles of grotesque heads and other scribbles are found in +Erasmus's manuscript copy of the _Scholia to the Letters of St. Jerome_, +preserved in the Library of Basle University and published by Emil Major +(_Handzeichnungen des Erasmus von Rotterdam_, Basle, 1933). Erasmus +worked on this manuscript shortly after his arrival in Basle in August +1514. His edition of the _Letters of Jerome_ was published by Froben in +1516 (see p. 90). + +VI. A Manuscript Page of Erasmus. Basle, University Library. _Facing p. +47_ + +See note on Pl. V. + +VII. Title-page of the _Adagia_, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1508. +_Facing p. 62_ + +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). + +VIII. VIEW OF VENICE, 1493. Woodcut. _After p. 62_ + +From Schedel's _Weltchronik_, Nuremberg, 1493. + +IX. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ALDUS MANUTIUS. By an unknown Venetian medallist. +Venice, Museo Correr. _After p. 62_ + +On the reverse, the emblem adopted by Aldus in 1495 from an antique +coin, an anchor entwined by a dolphin. The Greek inscription, [Greek: +Speude bradeos] (Hasten slowly), is also of antique origin. Cf. Hill, +_Corpus of Italian Medals_, 1930, No. 536. + +X. A page from the printed copy of the _Praise of Folly_ with a drawing +by Hans Holbein. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). _Facing +p. 63_ + +This copy of the _Laus Stultitiae_, 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. + +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!"' + +XI. A page from the printed copy of the _Praise of Folly_ with a drawing +by Hans Holbein. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). _Facing +p. 78_ + +See note on Pl. X. 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. + +XII. THE PRINTING PRESS OF JOSSE BADIUS. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, +1520-1. _Facing p. 79_ + +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. + +XIII. PORTRAIT OF JOHANNES FROBEN (1460-1527). By Hans Holbein. About +1522-3. Hampton Court, H.M. The Queen. _Facing p. 86_ + +On this portrait of Erasmus's printer, publisher and friend, see Paul +Ganz, _The Paintings of Hans Holbein_, 1950, Cat. No. 33. + +XIV. DESIGN FOR THE PRINTER'S EMBLEM OF JOHANNES FROBEN. Tempera on +canvas, heightened with gold. By Hans Holbein. 1523. Basle, Öffentliche +Kunstsammlung (Print Room). _Facing p. 87_ + +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.' + +XV. THE HANDS OF ERASMUS. Drawing by Hans Holbein. 1523. Paris, Louvre. +_Facing p. 102_ + +These studies were used by Holbein for his portraits of Erasmus now at +Longford Castle (Pl. XVI) and in the Louvre (Pl. XXVIII). + +XVI. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 57. Dated 1523. By Hans Holbein. +Longford Castle, Earl of Radnor. _Facing p. 103_ + +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. + +XVII. VIEW OF BASLE. Woodcut. _Facing p. 134_ + +From the _Chronik_ by Johann Stumpf, 1548. + +XVIII. Title-page of the New Testament, printed by Froben in 1520. +Designed by Hans Holbein. _Facing p. 135_ + +XIX. THE ERASMUS HOUSE AT ANDERLECHT NEAR BRUSSELS. _Facing p. 150_ + +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. + +XX. The Room used by Erasmus as study during his stay at Anderlecht. +_Facing p. 151_ + +XXI. PORTRAIT OF MARTIN LUTHER AS A MONK. Engraving by Lucas Cranach. +1520. _Facing p. 158_ + +XXII. PORTRAIT OF ULRICH VON HUTTEN (1488-1523). Anonymous German +woodcut. _Facing p. 159_ + +XXIII. THE HOUSE 'ZUM WALFISCH' AT FREIBURG-IM-BREISGAU. _Facing p. 174_ + +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. + +XXIV. PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL HIERONYMUS ALEANDER. Drawing. Arras, Library. +_Facing p. 175_ + +One of the 280 portrait drawings collected in the codex known as the +_Recueil d'Arras_. + +XXV. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. By Hans Holbein. 1531-2. Basle, Öffentliche +Kunstsammlung (Print Room). _Facing p. 190_ + +'Holbein may have painted this little roundel on the occasion of a visit +to Erasmus at Freiburg' (P. Ganz, op. cit.). + +XXVI. ERASMUS DICTATING TO HIS SECRETARY. Woodcut, 1530. _Facing p. 191_ + +The woodcut shows the aged Erasmus dictating to his amanuensis Gilbertus +Cognatus in a room of the University of Freiburg. From _Effigies +Desiderii Erasmi Roterdami ... & Gilberti Cognati Nozereni_, Basle, Joh. +Oporinus, 1533. + +XXVII. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ERASMUS. By Quentin Metsys. 1519. London, +British Museum. _Facing p. 206_ + +The reverse shows Erasmus's device, Terminus, and the motto _Concedo +nulli_, 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'. + +XXVIII. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. After 1523. By Hans Holbein. Paris, Louvre. +_Facing p. 207_ + +XXIX. THOMAS MORE AND HIS FAMILY. Pen and ink sketch by Hans Holbein, +1527. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). _Facing p. 238_ + +'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). + +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). + +Compare also Erasmus's pen portrait of Sir Thomas More in his letter to +Hutten, pp. 231-9. + +XXX. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. Charcoal drawing by Albrecht Dürer, dated +1520. Paris, Louvre. _Facing p. 239_ + +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!' + +XXXI. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. Engraving by Albrecht Dürer, dated 1526. +_Facing p. 246_ + +In his _Diary of a Journey to the Netherlands_, 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. XXX). 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. + +XXXII. TERMINUS. Erasmus's device. Pen and ink drawing by Hans Holbein. +Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). _Facing p. 247_ + +_Frontispiece_: DECORATIVE PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS WITH HIS DEVICE, +TERMINUS. Engraving by Hans Holbein, 1535. + + +ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS + +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 _Ephéméride illustrée de la Vie d'Erasme_, 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. iv), the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle (Pl. +X-XI, XIV, XXV, XXIX, XXXII), the Library of Basle University (Pl. +V-VI), and the Warburg Institute, University of London (Pl. iii). The +photographs for Pl. II, VII, XVIII-XX and XXVI are by M. Mauhin, +Anderlecht, those for Plates VIII and XVII by Dr. F. Stoedtner, +Düsseldorf, and that for Plate IX by Fiorentini, Venice. + + + + +INDEX OF NAMES + + +Adrian of Utrecht, Dean, later Pope, 55, 131, 162 + +Agricola, Rudolf, 7 + +Albert of Brandenburg, archbishop of Mayence, 140, 145 + +Aldus Manutius, 63, 64, 81, 207 + +Aleander, Hieronymus, 64, 124, 147, 149, 171, 184, 187 + +Alidosi, Francesco, 214n. + +Amerbach, Bonifacius, 176, 186, 223n. + +Amerbach, Johannes, 83, 90 + +Ammonius, Andrew, 37, 58, 67, 79, 80, 81, 83, 86, 90, 93, 94, 119, 123, + 134 + +Andrelinus, Faustus, 21, 25, 26, 29, 47 + +Anna of Borselen, Lady of Veere, 27, 28, 35, 37, 38, 55, 62, 200-1 + +Asolani, Andrea, 64 + +Ath, Jean Briard of, 131, 133, 134, 135, 137, 229 + +Aurelius (Cornelius Gerard of Gouda), 11, 13, 14, 33, 44 + + +Badius, Josse, 57, 60, 79, 81, 82, 83, 90, 133, 208, 219n. + +Balbi, Girolamo, 20 + +Barbaro, Ermolao, 21 + +Batt, James, 18, 19, 27, 28, 37, 38, 47, 48, 49, 55, 200 + +Beatus Rhenanus, 39, 64, 83, 96, 119, 156, 177, 184, 186, 187, 223 + +Becar, John, 181 + +Beda (Noel Bedier), 120, 125, 157, 158 + +Bembo, 173 + +Ber, Louis, 186, 253 + +Berckman, Francis, 82, 83 + +Bergen, Anthony of, 85, 202 + +Berquin, Louis de, 158 + +Berselius, Paschasius, 229 + +Blount, Charles, 249 + +Blount, William, Lord Mountjoy, 27-8, 30, 35, 36, 37, 58, 59n., 67, 68, + 79, 86, 87, 95, 184, 199, 215, 251 + +Boerio, Giovanni Battista, 60 + +Bombasius, Paul, 63 + +Bouts, Dirck, 3 + +Boys, Hector, 25 + +Brie, Germain de, 96 + +Bucer (Butzer), Martin, 177, 243 + +Budaeus, William, 94, 95, 96, 97, 119, 123, 124, 125, 126, 132, 153, + 173, 219, 221 + +Busch, Hermann, 224 + +Busleiden, Francis of, archbishop of Besançon, 55, 135 + +Busleiden, Jerome, 135 + + +Cajetanus, 141 + +Calvin, 165, 167, 182 + +Caminade, Augustine, 37, 47, 48, 155 + +Canossa, Count, 86 + +Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius, 96, 132, 140, 165, 166, 171, 218, 243 + +Catherine of Aragon, 168 + +Charles V, 92, 95, 99, 145-6, 218 + +Charnock, prior, 31 + +Cinicampius, _see_ Eschenfelder + +Clement VII, 184 + +Clyfton, tutor, 63 + +Cochleus, 241 + +Colet, John, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 56, 57, 58, 80, 81, 91, 92, 96, + 104, 109, 141, 144, 154, 181, 200, 211, 215 + +Cop, William, 49, 61, 94, 219 + +Cornelius, _see_ Aurelius + +Cratander, 85 + +David of Burgundy, bishop of Utrecht, 16 + +Decanus, 224 + +Denk, Hans, 178 + +Dirks, Vincent, 137, 149, 157, 158 + +Dobeneck, John, _see_ Cochleus + +Dorp, Martin van, 77, 94, 126, 131, 133, 134 + +Dürer, Albrecht, 148-9, 240, 224n. + + +Eck, Johannes, 98, 141 + +Egmond, Nicholas of (Egmondanus), 119, 133, 137, 148, 149, 158, 161 + +Egnatius, Baptista, 64 + +Episcopius, Nicholas, 186 + +Eppendorff, Henry of, 124, 159, 160, 243 + +Eschenfelder, Christopher, 186, 224 + +Étienne, _see_ Stephanus + + +Faber, _see_ Lefèvre + +Farel, Guillaume, 166, 167 + +Ferdinand, archduke, 175 + +Ficino, Marsilio, 21 + +Filelfo, Francesco, 205 + +Fisher, John, bishop of Rochester, 58, 80, 92, 119, 181, 182, 214n. + +Fisher, Robert, 26, 27, 34, 199 + +Flaminius, John, 225 + +Foxe, Richard, 58, 59 + +Francis I, 94, 99, 144, 145, 218-19 + +Frederick of Saxony, 139, 143, 147 + +Froben, Johannes, 83, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 134, 143, 156, 170, 182, 221, + 223n., 243 + +Froben, Johannes Erasmius, 156, 183, 186 + +Fugger, Anthony, 176 + + +Gaguin, Robert, 21, 24, 25, 26, 125 + +Gallinarius, 223 + +Gebwiler, 224 + +George of Saxony, 162 + +Gerard, Cornelius, _see_ Aurelius + +Gerard, Erasmus's father, 6 + +Gerbel, 224 + +Gigli, Silvestro, bishop of Worcester, 93 + +Gilles, Peter, 66, 86, 92, 94, 107, 119, 133, 184 + +Glareanus, Henri (Loriti), 96, 219, 251 + +Gourmont, Gilles, 79, 80, 82, 209n. + +Grey, Thomas, 23, 26 + +Grimani, Domenico, 66, 67n., 68, 214 + +Grocyn, William, 34, 58, 200, 208 + +Groote, Geert 3 + +Grunnius, Lambertus, 93 + +Grynaeus, Simon, 249 + +Guibé, Robert, bishop of Nantes, 215n. + + +Hegius, Alexander, 7 + +Henry of Bergen, bishop of Cambray, 16, 17, 25, 27, 35, 38, 47, 55 + +Henry VII, 58, 67, 251 + +Henry VIII, 30, 37, 67, 84, 99, 144, 145, 146, 162, 182, 218, 251 + +Hermans, William, 11, 13, 16, 18, 26, 28, 38, 44, 47, 49 + +Hermonymus, George, 204n. + +Holbein, Hans, 114, 121, 151, 232n., 236n. + +Hollonius, Lambert, 156 + +Hoogstraten, Jacob, 145 + +Hutten, Ulrich von, 96, 118, 119, 125, 128-9, 140, 148, 159, 231 + + +James IV, 66, 84 + +John of Trazegnies, 50n. + +Julius II, 58, 62, 84, 93, 152, 217 + + +Karlstadt, Andreas, 141 + +Lachner, 221 + +Lang, John, 141, 142, 144 + +Langenfeld, John, 224 + +Lascaris, Johannes, 64 + +Lasco, Johannes a, 186 + +Latimer, William, 58, 208 + +Latomus, Bartholomew, 251 + +Latomus, James, 133, 135, 149 + +Laurin, Mark, 229 + +Lee, Edward, 119, 122, 128, 133, 134, 135, 145, 157 + +Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jacques, 21, 119, 120, 132, 133 + +Leo, Ambrose, 219 + +Leo X, 66, 93, 94, 134, 140, 144, 146, 215, 218 + +Leonicenus, Nicholas, 219 + +Linacre, Thomas, 34, 58, 200, 208, 219, 221 + +Longolius, Christopher, 172, 173 + +Loriti, _see_ Glareanus + +Loyola, Ignatius of, 189 + +Lupset, 221n., 222 + +Luther, Martin, 54, 96, 120, 128, 131, 135, 138, 139-50, 159, 161-5, + 177, 178, 179, 209, 229, 240, 244 + +Lypsius, Martin, 125, 134 + +Lyra, Nicholas of, 57 + + +Maertensz, Dirck, 66, 90, 92, 134, 156 + +Manutius, _see_ Aldus + +Mary of Hungary, 168, 187 + +Maternus, 224 + +Matthias, 225 + +Maximilian, emperor, 84, 99, 141, 147, 176, 218, 219 + +Medici, Giovanni de', _see_ Leo X + +Melanchthon, 145, 152, 165, 178, 180, 231 + +Metsys, Quentin, 92, 240n. + +More, Thomas, 29, 30, 34, 35, 58, 69, 70, 92, 107, 119, 126, 127, 141, + 146, 148, 153, 154, 182, 183, 200, 209, 221, 231-9, 252 + +Mountjoy, _see_ Blount + +Musurus, Marcus, 64 + +Mutianus, 165 + + +Neuenahr, Hermann Count of, 225, 226 + +Northoff, brothers, 26, 27 + + +Obrecht, Johannes, 62 + +Oecolampadius, 157, 166, 167, 168, 174, 175, 180 + +Osiander, 244 + + +Pace, Richard, 159, 222 + +Paludanus, Johannes, 131 + +Paracelsus, Theophrastus, 242 + +Paul III, 184, 185, 253 + +Peter Gerard, Erasmus's brother, 5-10 + +Phileticus, Martin, 205n. + +Philip le Beau, 56, 59n. + +Philippi, John, 58 + +Pico della Mirandola, 21 + +Pio, Alberto, 77, 158, 167 + +Pirckheimer, Willibald, 95, 165, 184, 239 + +Platter, Thomas, 182 + +Politian, 205 + +Poncher, Étienne, 94, 96 + +Probst (Proost), James, 231n. + + +Reuchlin, 90, 94, 128, 145 + +Reynolds, Richard, 252n. + +Riario, Raffaele, 67, 214n. + +Roger, _see_ Gerard + +Rombout, 8 + +Rudolfingen, 224 + +Ruell, John, 219 + + +Sadolet, 93, 94, 164, 173, 177 + +Sapidus, Johannes, 98 + +Sasboud, 15 + +Sauvage, John le, 92 + +Scaliger, 173 + +Schürer, M., 90, 209n., 223n., 224 + +Servatius Roger, 11, 12, 58, 59, 60, 62, 87, 93, 119, 197, 212 + +Sixtin, John, 31 + +Sluter, 3 + +Spalatinus, George, 139 + +Stadion, Christopher of, bishop of Augsburg, 182 + +Standonck, John, 21, 22, 38 + +Stephanus, Henricus, 223n. + +Stewart, Alexander, archbishop of St. Andrews, 66, 67, 84 + +Stewart, James, 198n. + +Stunica, _see_ Zuñiga + +Suderman, 226, 227 + +Synthen, Johannes, 7 + + +Talesius, Quirin, 184, 193 + +Tapper, Ruurd, 137 + +Theodoric, 228 + +Thomas à Kempis, 4, 54 + +Tunstall, Cuthbert, 58, 96, 97, 132, 162, 208 + + +Urswick, 221 + +Utenheim, Christopher of, bishop of Basle, 166, 173 + +Utenhove, Charles, 184, 193 + +Valdes, Alfonso, 246 + +Valla, Lorenzo, 27, 57, 58, 90 + +Varnbüler, Ulrich, 224 + +Veere, _see_ Anna of Borselen + +Vianen, William of, 137 + +Vincent, Augustine, 26 + +Vitrier, Jean, 50, 181 + +Vives, 161, 164 + +Voecht, Jacobus, 38 + + +Warham, William, archbishop of Canterbury, 58, 59, 68, 81, 92, 95, 184, + 204, 215 + +Watson, John, 98 + +Werner, Nicholas, 198, 216 + +William of Orange, 193 + +Wimpfeling, Jacob, 80, 166 + +Winckel, Peter, 8 + +Woerden, Cornelius of, 212 + +Wolsey, Cardinal, 31, 95, 137, 145, 215n. + + +Ximenes, F., archbishop of Toledo, 95, 130, 158, 218n. + + +Zasius, Ulrich, 96, 153, 165, 187, 219 + +Zuñiga, Diego Lopez, 158 + +Zwingli, Ulrich, 96, 177, 179, 180, 244 + + + + + + +End 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