ma
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
GIFT OF
Mrs. Helen Ranney
[\J Z W t^ /
LIFE AND LETTERS
OF
ERASMUS
LECTURES DELIVERED AT OXFORD 1893-4
BY
J. A. FROUDE
tit
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCKIBNER'S SONS
1894
\All rii/hls reserved]
LIFE AND LETTERS OF ERASMUS.
LECTURE I.
The subject of these lectures was born at Rotter-
dam in 1467. Charles the Bold had just become
Duke of Burgundy. Louis XL was King of France.
Philip de Commines will have told you about Charles
and Louis. If not De Commines, you will have read
about them in " Quentin Durward." Edward IV. had
fought his way to the throne of England. Caxton
was just setting up his printing-press, and Columbus
was making adventurous voyages anywhere between
Iceland and the tropics, observing the stars and med-
itating on the shape of the globe. The country in
which Erasmus came into the world was the rival of
Italy in commerce and art and learning. Antwerp
was the mart of Western Europe. The towns in the
Low Countries — Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Amster-
dam — were great manufacturing centres, inhabited
by a dense population of industrious burghers and ar-
tisans, subjects of the Duchy of Burgundy, but tena-
cious of their liberties, and fierce in asserting them ;
governed by their own laws aud their own representa-
tives — a free people in the modern sense. If the
mind of a man inherits its qualities from the stock to
which he belongs, there was no likelier spot in Europe
to be the birthplace of a vigorous independent thinker.
The father of Erasmus was named Gerrard, pro-
2 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
nouneed, I suppose, Gierard, from gieren " to desire"
or " long passionately." In the son the word was
Latinized into Desiderius, and Graecized afterwards
according to the affectation of the time into Erasmus,
just as Reuchlin became Capnio, and Swartzerde was
turned into Melanchthon ; affectionate nicknames
which hardened into permanence. Legend says that
Erasmus was what is called a love-child. The father
was a man of some station, well educated — with a
singularly interesting and even fascinating character.
He fell in love, it is said, with a certain Margaret,
daughter of a physician at Sieben Bergen. Margaret
was equally in love with him. For some unknown
reason the relations, either his or hers, opposed their
marriage. They were imprudent, and the usual con-
sequences seemed likely to follow. At this dangerous
time business of some kind required Gerrard's pres-
ence at Rome. He went expecting to return immedi-
ately, when the marriage was to be completed, to save
the legitimacy of the expected child. He was de-
tained. Communications were irregular. The rela-
tions sent a story after him that Margaret was dead.
He believed it, and in despair became a priest. His
marriage was made thus impossible, and he discovered
the trick when it was too late for remedy. Thus the
child was born out of wedlock.
So ran the story. It grew up out of tradition when
Erasmus had become famous, and his enemies liked to
throw a slur upon his parentage. It is perhaps a lie
altogether ; perhaps only partly a lie. The difficulty
is that Erasmus says distinctly that he was a second
child, and had a brother three years older than him-
self. There is no suggestion of any previous marriage
with another person. The connection of his father
and mother must therefore have been of long continu-
Lecture I. 3
ance. Erasmus's own letters are the only trustworthy-
authority for his early life. From them we learn that
the two children were brought up like other people's
children under the joint care of their father and
mother, and that the younger was his mother's special
favourite, a bright clever little fellow, with flaxen hair,
grey-blue eyes, and sharp clean-cut features; very
pretty, it is said, and with a sweet-toned voice which
seemed to say that Nature meant him for a musician.
The mother thought so, and proposed to make a little
angel of him, and train him as a chorister. But he
had no real gift that way, and no taste for it. In his
later years he came even to hate the droning of eccle-
siastical music.
The chorister plan failing, he was entered when
nine years old as a day boy at a school at Deventer ;
his mother removing there from Rotterdam to take
care of him. The school had a reputation. The mas-
ter was a friend of his father : among his schoolfel-
lows were several who were afterwards distinguished,
especially Adrian of Utrecht, tutor to Charles V.,
Cardinal Regent of Spain, and eventually pope. The
little boy soon showed talent, had an extraordinary
memory, learnt Horace and Terence by heart, and
composed verses of his own. He showed a passionate
fondness for books ; devoured all that he could get
hold of ; got up mimic debates ; challenged other bo}'S
to dispute with him on points of language or literature
in approved university stylo. lie says that he was ill-
taught, that his master was illiterate, and did not un-
derstand him. He once composed what he considered
an excellent Latin letter to the man, for which he ex-
pected to be complimented. The master only told
him to mind his handwriting, and attend to his punc-
tuation. There was free use of the rod besides, and
4 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Erasmus never pardoned his tyrant as Horace par-
doned his plagosus Orbilius. One can easily under-
stand that a quick forward lad, conscious of superior
abilities, may have been troublesome and insubordi-
nate. There is a story of a pear-tree in a convent
garden which the boys now and then visited at night,
with Erasmus for a ringleader, when the rod may
have been legitimately called into use. But he says
distinctly that he was once severely flogged for a fault
of which the master knew that he was innocent, merely
from a general theory that a flogging would be good
for him.
He could never have been the model good boy of
story-books, who learnt his lessons and never did
wrong. It is noticeable, however, that, in spite of
this, it was early recognized that he was no common
lad. He was pointed out to visitors as a boy of ex-
ceptional promise. When he was eleven years old,
the famous Rudolph Agricola 1 came to Deventer to
inspect the school. Erasmus was brought up to him :
the great man patted his flaxen poll, and said, " This
little fellow will come to something by-and-by."
Erasmus hated the master, and perhaps with some
reason. We have only Erasmus's own story, how-
ever, and one would like to hear the other. It is quite
certain that the man retained the confidence of Eras-
mus's father in spite of the boy's complaints.
Shortly after the visit of Agricola the mother died.
Her husband was unable to survive her loss. Eras-
mus and his elder brother Peter were now orphans,
and were left under the guardianship of three of his
father's friends, a banker in the town, a burgher un-
named who soon died of the plague, and the master of
another school at Goude. The banker was busy with
1 Others say it was Zinthius.
Lecture I. 5
his own affairs, and gave the schoolmaster the whole
charge. There was some property, in ready money,
bills, and land — not much, Erasmus says, hut enough
to launch his brother and himself respectably in the
world.
What followed was related afterwards by himself
in a letter to Grunnius, a high official at the Apos-
tolic Court, and intended of course for the Pope him-
self. 1 Erasmus never told wilful lies. He detested
lies as heartily as Achilles, but he never forgave an
injury, and a fool to him was as much a criminal as
a knave. The guardians, he says, made away with
this property. He suggests fraud ; but as he adds
that it is a common fault of guardians to neglect their
wards' interests, he means no more than that they
were guilty of culpable negligence. The banker had
left all to the schoolmaster. The schoolmaster had
been careless ; money, land, and bills were wasted
almost to nothing, and to crown their own delin-
quency and get their charge off their hands, they
agreed that the two boys should be sent into a monas-
tery, and so, as the phrase went, be provided for. It
was against the Canons. They were still little more
than children, and the monastic vow, according to
Church law, was not to be taken by anyone under
age. But practice and connivance had set Church
law aside. Inconvenient members were disposed of
in this way by their families. The kidnapping of
boys and girls who had either money, or rank, or
talent, was a common method of recruiting among
the religious orders in the 15th century. It is al-
luded to and sharply condemned by a statute of
Henry IV., passed by the English Parliament. Eras-
mus appeals in the letter I speak of to the Papal
1 Erasnii EpistoUe. Appendix cccexlii.
6 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Secretary's personal knowledge. The Pharisees, he
says, compass sea and land to sweep in proselytes.
They hang about Princes' Courts and rich men's
houses. They haunt schools and colleges, playing on
the credulity of children or their friends, and entan-
gling them in meshes from which, when they are once
caught, there is no escape. He does not mince his
words. " The world," he says, " is full of these trick-
sters. When they hear of a lad of promise with
wealthy parents, they lay traps for him unknown to
his relations. In reality they are no better than so
many thieves, but they colour their arts under the
name of piety. They talk to the child himself of
the workings of the Holy Spirit, of vocations which
parents must not interfere with, of the wiles of the
devil ; as if the devil was never to be found inside a
monastery. This truth comes out at last, but only
when the case is past mending. The ears of all
mankind are tingling with the cries of these wretched
captives."
I do not condemn the religious orders as such (he
continues). I do not approve of those who make the
plunge, and then fly back to liberty as a license for
loose living, and desert improperly what they under-
took foolishly. But dispositions vary ; all things do
not suit all characters, and no worse misfortune can
befall a lad of intellect than to be buried under con-
ditions from which he can never after extricate him-
self. The world thought well of my schoolmaster
guardian, because he was neither a liar, nor a scamp,
nor a gambler ; but he was coarse, avaricious, and
ignorant ; he knew nothing beyond the confused les-
sons which he taught to his classes. He imagined
that in forcing a youth to become a monk he would
be offering a sacrifice acceptable to God. He used to
boast of the many victims which he devoted annually
to Dominic and Francis and Benedict.
Lecture I. 7
Erasmus, from his earliest years, had a passion for
learning. He had no help from anyone. He tells
us that he was carried away as if by some secret spon-
taneous impulse. He was checked, threatened, repri-
manded. He was refused access to books. But they
could not be wholly kept from him, and he devoured
all that he could get. He wrote verses, essays, any-
thing that came to hand. From the first (he says)
he was far too precipitate, flying at the first subject
which offered. Haste made him careless : and this
fault always clung to him. In later life he was never
able to endure the bore of correcting his books. As
Plato said, he made such haste at starting that he
came late to the goal. But such was his disposition.
He was always at work : writing prose, writing verse
— verse in preference, which came easier. He com-
posed whole heroic poems. He addressed a Sapphic
Ode to the Archangel Michael. To send such a
youth as that into a monastery was a sentence of
death. Into a monastery, however, the guardians
had determined that go he shoidd, and his brother
Peter along with him. When they had done with
grammar, were beginning logic, and were old enough
to stand alone, the time had come for the first steps
to be taken. If they were left longer at large it was
thought that they might get a taste for the world and
refuse the fate intended for them. They were, there-
fore, placed as a commencement in a house of Colla-
tionary Fathers. Except from this account of Eras-
mus, I never heard of these people, nor can I learn
any more about them. Erasmus says that they were
a community who had nests all over Christendom, and
made their living by netting proselytes for the regu-
lar orders. Their business was to catch in some way
superior lads, threaten them, frighten them, beat
8 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
them, crush their spirits, tame them, as the process
was called, and break them in for the cloister. They
were generally very successful. They did their work
so well that the Franciscans and Dominicans admitted
that without the Collationaries' help their orders
would die out. In no institutions were students
worse taught or learnt grosser manners. In one of
these Erasmus and Peter wasted two years of their
youth. Erasmus knew more than his teachers of the
special subjects in which they tried to instruct him,
and found them models of conceit and ignorance. A
member of the fraternity, less a fool than the rest and
recognizing the boy's abilities, advised him to become
a Collationary himself, and he says it was a pity that
he did not, for he could have then remained with
them or have left them at his pleasure. The Colla-
tionaries took no irrevocable vows. If wise men and
not fools had the ordering of the world, he bitterly
observes, no in-evocable vows would be taken any-
where except in baptism.
Well, this Collationary, Erasmus says, did contrive
to get an influence over him, kissed him, caressed
him, flattered him, urged him, if he would not remain
with themselves, to consent to his friends' wishes.
lie pleaded his youth ; he said that till he was older
he could not decide on so grave a matter, and must
take time to think about it. Collationaries sometimes
employed incantations and exorcisms when they found
boys hesitating and frightened. His new friend
spared him such methods of conversion, and let him
alone for the exhortations to work. The effect passed
off. When the two years were out, Erasmus and Pe-
ter 1 returned home. Peter in a year or two would be
1 This brother is called Anthony in the letter to Grunnius, Erasmus
calling himself Florence. Peter, according to Dupin, was the brother's
real name.
Lecture I. 9
of age, when the guardians would have to produce
their accounts. Erasmus says that they could not
face the exposure, and resolved to wait no longer.
Into the cloister the boys should go, and no more talk
about it. The banker left all to the schoolmaster.
The schoolmaster professed to think that he would
please God Almighty by presenting him with a pair
of lambs.
I must again remind you that all this was written
for the Pope. It was not the calumny of an apostate
addressed to a revolted or revolting world. It was
an appeal to the Father of Christendom to interpose
with his authority and end an intolerable abuse.
Erasmus was now fifteen ; Peter, as I have said,
being three years older. When their intended fate
was communicated to them they consulted what they
should do. Peter hated the prospect as heartily as
Erasmus, but he was a cowardly lad and was afraid of
disobeying his guardians. Erasmus had better spirit.
He had not spent two years with the Collationaries
for nothing. Peter, as the elder, would have to speak
first. Erasmus told him it would be madness to snve
way ; at worst the guardians could but beat them, and
what signified a beating ? He bade his brother pluck
up his courage ; they would scrape the wreck of their
fortunes together and go to Paris to the university ;
never fear they would find friends ; there would be
plenty of the students in worse case than they.
One can fancy the two boys : Peter a big heavy fel-
low, dull and torpid ; Erasmus, short, slight, and agile,
with eyes flashing and heart rebelling against injus-
tice. Peter himself caught fire so far as such damp
material would kindle. He promised to stand out if
Erasmus would undertake the speaking. Erasmus
agreed on condition that his brother would swear to
10 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
stand by him, and would not leave him to bear the
brunt of the storm by himself.
The moment came ; the guardian sent for them ;
and after a long preface about his conscience and his
concern for their welfare, said that he had been fortu-
nate enough to find them a home in a house of reli-
gion. Like enough the poor man meant it. If he was
not a rogue, he had at least mismanaged his wards'
property ; and a monastery, as times went, and in
most men's minds, was a very proper place for a pair
of orphan boys. Monks, if they had talents, could
rise out of monasteries, and often did rise to the high
places in the Church. Erasmus on his side, however,
concluded at once that the guardian was a rascal and
a hypocrite. He answered politely, but not perhaps
concealing his feeling, for himself and Peter, that they
were obliged to the guardian for his care and kindness,
but they were too young to take irrevocable vows.
Neither of them had ever been inside a monastery.
They did not know what they would be entering on or
undertaking. They wished to be permitted to study
for a few more years ; they would then see their way
more clearly.
It is likely that Erasmus may have dropped out
other expressions which he does not record. School-
masters do not like to be contradicted by lads whom
they have recently flogged, and the justice of what
Erasmus said may not have made it more palatable.
Erasmus says that the guardian flew into a rage, shook
his fist at him, called him a young reprobate, a lad
without a soul, foretold his eternal perdition, and de-
clared that he would throw up his trust. Their prop-
erty was gone. He would not be answerable further
for them. They must now look out for themselves.
The exasperated gentleman lashed Erasmus with
Lecture I. 11
his tongue so furiously that the poor lad burst into
tears. But he held out stoutly, and so they parted.
The schoolmaster reported to the banker, and they de-
cided to make one more attempt. Violence would n't
answer ; so they must try flattery. Men are very like
one another at all times when you can get a clear sight
of them, and the story which Erasmus tells is very hu-
man and natural. The next meeting was in the bank-
er's garden. The boys were told to sit down. They
were given wine and cake. The banker was affection-
ate. He drew a delightful picture of a life devoted
to religion ; earthly distinctions likely enough to come
of it, with Paradise certain beyond. The great man
even condescended to entreaty. The foolish Peter
blubbered and gave in, and Erasmus was left to fight
his battle by himself. With Peter, Erasmus says in
his scornful way, the monastic life answered well.
Peter's mind was dull and his limbs were strong. He
was cunning and greedy, a thief, a stout man at his
cuj)s, and a fair performer with loose women. 1 Angry
at his desertion, he accuses Peter of treachery like Is-
cariot's, and says it was a pity he did not follow Iscar-
iot's example a little further, and hang himself. In
the end the wretched being ran away from the monas-
tery, took to abandoned courses, and died miserably.
Erasmus, whose tastes were all for learning, cared
nothing for the monks' enjoyments and continued
obstinate. His habits were simple. His constitution
was delicate. To break his spirit he was hardly
treated at home. No one spoke to him. His food
was cut down. He fell ill, but was still determined,
and the blockhead of a guardian then set a parcel of
friars upon him, with relations, male and female, per-
1 " Illi puk-hre cessit res. Erat eniin nt ing-enio tardus ita corpore ro-
bustus ; attentus ad rem, vafer et eallidus, i>ecimiariun furax ; stre-
nuus conipotor nee seortator ignavus."
12 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
suading, threatening, beseeching — all to melt the will
of a single boy. Some of the friars, he says, were
such born fools that but for their dress he would have
expected to see them with caps and bells. Others
were seeming saints, with long, grave faces and airs
of piety. He allows that perhaps they meant well,
but it mattered little, he said, to a perishing soul
whether it was murdered by folly or by perversity.
Every imaginable weapon was made use of to batter
down his resistance. One holy man described to him
the sweet peace of the cloister, where all was beautiful
down to the quartan agues. The brighter side was
put forward in exaggerated figures. The bad was
passed over as if it had no existence. Another fellow
put before him in tragic colours the perils of the
world, as if there were no monks who lived in the
world and for the world. He described the world as
a stormy ocean ; the monastery as a seaworthy ship
floating securely in the tempest, while those outside
were buffeting with the waves and perishing, unless
some friendly hand would throw them a spar or a
rope. A third described the perils of hell, as if no
road led to hell out of a religious house. All went to
heaven who died in a monastery. If a monk's own
merits were not enough, he was saved by the merits of
the order, and the Franciscans kept a stock of stories
ready of the established sort — how a tired traveller
seated himself on a serpent which he mistook for the
root of a tree ; how the serpent rose up and devoured
him, and how the world, serpent-like, devours those
who rest upon it. How another traveller called once
at a religious house ; how the brethren besought him
to remain and become one of them ; how he would not
and went his way, and how a lion met him and ate
him up. Tale followed tale, absurd as old nurses'
Lecture I. 13
ghost stories. A monk in special favour was allowed
to converse regularly with Christ at stated hours.
Catherine of Sienna (mind, I am reading to you
Erasmus's words to the Pope) — Catherine of Sienna
had Christ for a lover. She and Christ used to walk
up and down a room side by side, and repeated their
Hours together. 1 The argument of arguments was
the stock of good works accumulated by the fraternity
and availing for all, as if there were not fraternities
which had more need of Christ's mercy than the chil-
dren of this world.
In short, no artifice was left untried to vanquish a
sick child deserted by his treacherous brother. He
was watched like a besieged city. The rival orders in
the town had their emissaries clutching at him on
account of his reputed talents, each wishing to secure
a proselyte who they hoped would be an ornament to
their community.
To cut short a long story. The persecuted Erasmus
wandered about forlorn and neglected. One day,
apparently by accident, though really in consequence
of a preconcerted plot, he was led to call at a convent
near Deventer. He found there an old acquaintance
named Cantelius, whom he had known from child-
hood. A friend's face was pleasant to him. He sus-
pected nothing. Cantelius was the last person whom
he could have supposed likely to entangle him. Can-
telius was a stupid, ignorant fellow, who had taken
the vows from idleness and love of good living. He
had a fine voice, sang well, and had wandered about
the world as a musician. In the end he had come
home, and, finding his relations unwilling to support
him, he had taken to the cloister. There he found all
1 " Cui puellse tanla fiiit emu Cliiisto Spoiiso, vel Amasio potius,
familiaritas, at ultra citraque deambularent in cubiculo nonnunquam
ct preees horarias simul absolvureiit."
14 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
that he wanted. You could do as you liked — plenty
to eat and drink, and no tight lacing. The brethren
were all good friends and never quarrelled, and he
strongly advised Erasmus to follow his example. If
he wished for books there was the library and a quiet
place for reading. The schoolmaster had instructed
him how to bait his hook, and he did his work well.
Erasmus liked Cantelius. He heard from him the
real truth. There were no airs of affected piety ; and
harassed, lonely, and desolate, he was half persuaded
to accept a fate where freedom and books were pro-
mised him. Half persuaded, but not entirely. He
still hesitated, but the chorus of priests and connec-
tions grew louder with the hopes of success. Again
they put before him the desperate condition of his
fortune and the hopelessness of his prospects. At
last, as an experiment, he agreed to try a few months
as a boarder at a house of Augustinian canons, the
special attraction being a fine collection of classics.
Nothing was said to him about vows or observances.
He was to do as he pleased, and to leave if he did not
wish to remain. His home was intolerable to him,
and the temptation of books was irresistible. He
went. The brethren showed their fairest side to him.
They were all smiles, sang with him, joked with him,
and capped verses. He was not required to fast.
Pie was not disturbed for Nocturns. He could study
as freely and as long as he chose. No one spoke a
harsh word to him, and so the months ran on till the
time came when he must either take the novice's dress
or else leave.
He had not yet given in. Once more he addressed
himself to his guardians, demanded his liberty, and
such of his inheritance as was left. They produced
accounts which made him out to be a beggar. He
Lecture I. 15
still detested monkdora as heartily as ever, but lie was
desperate and friendless, and at length, and after a
hard struggle, he agreed to go on a step further and
try the noviciate. The ceremony was undergone, and
seemed at first to make no great difference. He was
still treated with exceptional indulgence. He passed
his time in the library devouring books. But even
the volumes themselves made him discontented. He
was conscious of high talents. He had ambition, and
was burning to distinguish himself, and the road to
eminence as a monk was not such as a youth of free
and true intelligence could care to rise by. The
chantings and the chapel-goings wearied him. The
officials might be good-natured, but they were illiter-
ate blockheads. Intellect was not encouraged in such
places. Lads of intellect were troublesome and to be
kept down. The thing wanted was a robust body,
and tough fellows with strong stomachs found highest
favour. How, he asked, was a youth born for the
Muses and the Graces to pass his life in a society like
this? His health was always delicate. Fasting dis-
agreed with him. If he tried it he suffered tortures
from dyspepsia. Sturdy ruffians could laugh at such
inconveniences. " They were like vultures," he said ;
" stuff them full one day, they could hold out over the
next." Bodies organised more delicately must eat
little and eat regularly. He was a bad sleeper. If
he was roused once in the night he could not go off
again. He could not endure salt fish. The smell of
it made him sick. Had the fathers been men of ordi-
nary sense or humanity, they would have seen how
matters stood with him. They would have told him
that it was useless to go on ; that he was not fit for
monastic life, or monastic life for him, and that he
had better choose another profession before it was too
16 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
late. Christ was to be found elsewhere as well as in
religions houses. Piety did not depend on dress,
lie must not remain. This, Erasmus says, is the
advice which ought to have been given to him. But
the fish was in the net, and in the net they meant to
keep him. One said his sufferings were a device of
Satan to draw him from Christ. Let him defy Satan,
and all would be well. He was mistaken in thinking
his condition singular. They had all experienced the
same sensation when they began. Let him persevere ;
he would soon find himself in Paradise. Another
warned him how he displeased St. Augustine. St.
Augustine was a dangerous person to provoke. Muti-
nous brothers had been struck by plague or by light-
ning, or had been bitten by snakes. For a novice to
desert after having made a beginning was the worst
crime that he could commit. He had put his hand to
the plough ; it was too late for looking back. If he
threw the dress off he would be the talk of the neigh-
bourhood ; he would be branded as an apostate ; the
monks would curse him ; the world would despise him.
The poor lad could not face the thought of public dis-
grace. He felt he would sooner die than be held up
to scorn. Guardians and friends sang the same song,
and at last he was forced to yield. He was but seven-
teen, and the stream was too strong to struggle with
further. He loathed what he was doing. The words
were forced into his mouth and choked him as he
spoke his assent. The halter was about his neck.
He was like a handcuffed prisoner in the clutches of
the police. The vow was twisted out of him as if he
was on the rack, and the fatal declaration was uttered.
This is Erasmus's own account of his profession,
exactly as he related it to the Pope. It was the expe-
rience of thousands besides himself, whose cries in their
Lecture I. 17
dungeons, lie said, were ringing over Europe. He had
made himself into an Augustinian monk, and the ink
spot was rubbed into his skin which even a papal wash-
ing would not wholly obliterate. For a time he was
allowed to comfort himself in the library, but it was
found necessary to teach him the lesson of holy obedi-
ence, and the books were taken away. He found that
he might get drunk as often and as openly as he pleased,
but study was a forbidden indulgence.
A poor wretch once under the yoke had little means
of making his condition known. He might cry out, but
no one would attend. The bishops had no authority
inside the convent walls. The generals of the orders
lived in Italy. From the generals there was no appeal
except to the Pope, and the shrieks of a discontented
youth in Holland could not reach the Vatican. There
was no help in the civil power. The civil power before
the Reformation was the humble servant of the Church.
If a monk ran away or rebelled, the civil power simply
arrested him and sent him back with fetters to his mas-
ters. Erasmus was too finely strung to have drifted
away like the rest of his companions in the convent to
brutality and vice. But to have spent his life in a
community where brutal pleasures were the only re-
source and the only occupation would probably have
broken his heart, and the world would have heard no
more of him.
But even in a monastery in the fifteenth century hu-
man pity and human sense were not entirely extinct.
Though monks could not repudiate their vows, they
could obtain a dispensation from the Pope for non-resi-
dence if they had friends at court who would find the
money. Popes as vicars of Christ coidd do anything.
The prior of the convent at last noticed his condition.
It seemed shocking that a youth with so fine a talent
18 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
should be smothered in sitch a vile dung-heap. Possibly,
one may hope, the prior felt some natural remorse.
He advised Erasmus to throw himself on the protection
of the Bishop of Cambray, and for fear the poor monk
might not be listened to by so great a person, he prob-
ably communicated with the Bishop himself. The
Bishop was a man of sense. He could not interfere
directly, but he had the Pope's ear. He was able to
represent at the Vatican that he wanted a secretary,*
and that there was a youth in a monastery in Holland
of fine talents who would exactly suit him. Dispensa-
tions from the vow altogether were given only on rare
and extreme occasions. Dispensations for temporary ab-
sence from the convent on adequate cause shown were
easily obtained when applied for by persons of conse-
quence.
Erasmus was thus set loose from the den into which
he had fallen, and was given back to liberty and hope.
Long after, when he had become famous, the Augustin-
ians tried to ref asten the yoke upon him. It was then
that he told his story to the Pope, appealed for final
protection, and found it. For the present his freedom
was conditional. The Bishop was kind, but pedantic
and narrow. Erasmus had his troubles in the palace,
as Gil Bias had with the Spanish Primate. A secretary
or companion to a Church dignitary was but a higher
kind of valet, and a mercurial genius like Erasmus
had doubtless a good deal to bear. But his high patron
was essentially good to him, and occasionally when he
could spare his services sent him to improve himself at
Louvain.
You will ask if all monasteries were like that in which
Erasmus suffered ; you will hear more of this as we go
on. Erasmus will tell you that a great many of them
were no better than lupanaria. If you desire partic-
Lecture I. 19
ulars you will find particulars more than enough in Car-
dinal Morton's account of the Abbey of St. Albans at
the end of the fifteenth century. Sir T. More fixes a
hundred years before his time as the period at which
monastic degradation began. There is no period in
English history when you do not find corruption and
irregularity, but in the fifteenth century the degrada-
tion had become universal.
It is said now that the stories told about the monks
were calumnies invented by kings and politicians to
justify spoliation. Let those who incline to think so
remember that they are not entitled to calumniate with-
out proof the actions of men otherwise honourable, and
study the preamble to the English Act of Dissolution.
LECTURE II.
In the rescue of Erasmus from the monastic purga-
tory the Bishop of Cambray had shown sense and
feeling'. His action may not have been entirely disin-
terested. No love was lost between the secular pre-
lates and the monastic orders. The prelates naturally
wished to rule in their own dioceses. The friars were
exempt from their jurisdiction, took possession of the
pulpits, heard confessions, dispossessed the secular
clergy of half their functions. The Bishop may have
felt some human satisfaction in recovering a youth of
promise out of the clutches of proud and insolent men
who defied his authority, and had the youth been a
docile subject he might have been glad to keep Eras-
mus at his side.
But Erasmus was a restless soul, ambitious of fame,
conscious of brilliant capacities. He was grateful for
his deliverance, but the position of dependent on a
great Church dignitary could not long satisfy so as-
piring a spirit. The Bishop was kind, but dry, cold,
and, as appeared afterwards, inclined to suspicion.
Restraint of any kind was intolerable to Erasmus ; he
wished to see what the world was which religious men
denounced as something so terrible, and of which he
was as yet only on the confines. He was hungry for
knowledge ; he had not been satisfied with an occa-
sional residence at Lou vain ; he pined for further
instruction, and more intellectual society. From his
boyhood he had set his heart on Paris and the univer-
sity there, and to Paris he was allowed to go.
Lecture II. 21
It is uncertain how long he remained with the
Bishop ; several years are unaccounted for, with no
light on them except from tradition. He may have
been twenty when he left the convent. In 1492 he
was ordained priest at Utrecht ; but he still craved
after Paris, and society, and learning-. The Bishop
consented, not, doubtless, without paternal warnings
against temptations within and without. He made
him an allowance rather too moderate in Erasmus's
opinion ; other old men besides bishops are apt to
doubt the prudence of sending the young ones into
the world with too much money in their pockets.
Thus furnished, Erasmus was launched on to the
Parisian ocean. lie still wore his monastic dress : it
was a condition of the dispensation which released
him from residence ; but he was allowed to hide the
more obvious emblems of his calamity under more
ordinary garments.
At the University of Paris the students lived ap-
parently as they now do at Edinburgh and Glasgow,
in lodgings of their own, and were trusted much to
their own prudence. A priest of twenty-five coidd
not be kept in leading strings. Erasmus's fame had
gone before him ; his poems had been collected and
circulated in private by admiring friends, and he
found himself admitted into the best intellectual soci-
ety. His acquaintance seems from the first to have
been more secular than ecclesiastical: like seeks like.
He was witty, and he sought companions among the
wits of the period ; an intimate favourite, if not the
most intimate, was Faustus Anderlin, the poet-laure-
ate, brilliant, indolent, but infinitely amusing. Such
a circle was not what the Bishop would have preferred
for him, but he was to find his own place and to make
his own way. He was free for the first time in his
22 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
life, like a fish in the water, and now in his proper
element. He was in no danger from vulgar dissipa-
tion ; he had no tastes that way ; but he had an infi-
nite capacity for enjoyment, and he got as much of it
as his means allowed. Amusement never betrayed
him into idleness. His craving for knowledge, his
determination to distinguish himself, remained, then
and always, his overruling passion. But it is clear
also that his habits were expensive ; he liked easy
living, he saw no use in voluntary and unnecessary
hardships. He went to plays, he went to parties, and
go where he would the sparkle of his genius made
him welcome. Naturally his patron's economical al-
lowance was soon found inadequate. To eke out his
income he took pupils, and his reputation for talent
provided him with as many as he wanted. What he
learnt himself he taught to others. Greek was then
a rare acquisition, and was frowned on by the author-
ities ; but the disapproval of authorities sends young
ardent students hunting after the forbidden. Eras-
mus learnt for himself the elements of Greek, and
instructed his pupils in it. Young and old came
about him to be helped over the threshold of the new
intellectual world. Booksellers gave him small sums
for his writings ; men of the highest genius — such
men as Shakespeare, Cervantes, Tasso — were not
above accepting presents from wealthy admirers. The
purses of the richer students were freely opened to
their popular teachers. Ecclesiastics were going out
of fashion ; Erasmus laughed at monks and monk-
dom, and was applauded and encouraged.
We do not know much of his early Paris adven-
tures, but we can catch glimpses of his life and habits
from occasional letters. His correspondents seem
quickly to have seen their value, and preserved them
as treasures or curiosities.
Lecture II. 23
Here is a picture of a students' lodging-house in
Paris four hundred years ago. Human nature changes
little, and landladies and chambermaids were much
the same as we now know them.
One day (he says 2 ) I saw the mistress of the house
quarrelling with the servant girl in the garden. The
trumpet sounded, the tongues clashed ; the battle of
words swayed to and fro — I looking on from a win-
dow in the salon. The girl came afterwards to my
room to make the bed. I praised her courage for
standing up so bravely. I said I wished her hands
had been as effective as her tongue, for the mistress
was an athlete, and had punched the girl's head with
her fists. " Have you no nails ? " said I. She
laughed. " I would fight her gladly enough," said
she, " if I was only strong enough." " Victory is not
always to the strong," said I ; " canning may do some-
thing." " What cunning?" says she. "Tear off her
false curls," answer I ; " and when the curls are gone
seize hold of her hair." I was only joking, and
thought no more about the matter. But see what
came of it. While we were at supper in runs our
host, breathless and panting. "Masters, masters,"
he cries, " come and see a bloody piece of work." We
fly. We find maid and mistress struggling on the
ground. We tear them apart. Ringlets lay on one
side, caps on the other, handfuls of hair lying littered
about the floor. After we had returned to the table,
in came the landlady in a fury to tell her story. " I
was going to beat the creature," she said, " when she
flew at rue and pulled my wig off. Then she scratched
at my eyes. Then, as you see, she tore my hair.
Never was a girl so small and such a spitfire." We
consoled her as well as we could. We talked of the
chances of mortal things, and the uncertainties of
war. We contrived at last to make up the quarrel.
I congratulated myself that I was not suspected, and
so escaped the lash of her tongue.
1 Erasmus Clnistiano, Ep. xix.
24 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Very unbecoming' in a student in priest's orders
aspiring- to fame and eminence. Well, here is a letter
more in character, though this too may be thought
over-lively for the future editor of the New Testa-
ment. Laurentius Valla was just then the idol of the
clever young men at Paris. He was a scholar and a
rationalist. He had ventured to touch with a profane
hand ecclesiastical legends and the scholastic philos-
ophy. He had stirred the Scotists in their sleep, and
had provoked them to answer him at least with curses.
Intellect and daring were on Valla's side. Prudence
and orthodoxy shook their heads at him. A young
friend of Erasmus had shaken his among the rest,
and Erasmus gave him a good-natured touch of his
whip.
Is it to be peace or war between us ? Will you
dare to speak as you do of such a man as Valla —
Valla, who has been well called Suadce medidla.
And you to call him a chattering magpie. Oh ! if he
was alive he would make you skip for it. He is in his
grave now, and you think that dead men do not bite,
and that you can say what you please. Not quite. 1
will stand as his champion, and this cartel is my chal-
lenge. Apologise or look to your weapons. Expect
no mercy. I care nothing for attacks on myself, but
I will stand up for my friend ; and you will have
others besides me to deal with. I have no love for
strife : the worst peace is better than war. But eat
your words you shall and must. I insist. Instead of
chattering pie, you shall speak of Valla as the Attic
Muse. And, moreover, you shall let me see certain
other writings of your own which you keep guard over
like the dragon of the Hesperides. See them I must
and will. It is no jest. I am not to be trifled with. 1
These letters give us, as I said, certain glimpses of
the young Erasmus, smart and bright, animated, full
1 Erasmus to Cornelius Aurotinus, Ep. i.
Lecture II. 25
of hope and spirit. Such sensitive natures are always
in extremes. His enemies accused him of irregulari-
ties in his Paris life. Even his friend the Bishop, as
we shall see, was uneasy at rumours which reached
him. Erasmus admits himself that he was not im-
maculate, though vicious he never was. His constitu-
tion was generally delicate. He was overtaken by a
severe illness. Always, even to the last, he shuddered
at the thought of death; and, as men will do, he
looked back with remorse at certain features of his
conduct which were not satisfactory to him. His ce-
lebrity had been growing, and his ambition along with
it. He had formed projects of going to Italy, and
making acquaintance with the famous Italian scholars.
Poverty was an objection. Illness threatened to be
another and more fatal one. Here is a desponding
letter to an English friend at Paris.
All I ask for is leisure to live wholly to God, to re-
pent of the sins of my foolish youth, to study Holy
Scripture, and to read or write something of real
value. I could do nothing of this in a convent.
Never was a tenderer plant. I could not bear fasts
and vigils when I was at my best. Even here, where
I am so well cared for, I fall sick ; and how would it
be with me if I was in the cloister ? I had meant to
go this year to Italy and study theology. My plan
had been to take a degree at Bologna, go to Rome for
the jubilee, and then come back and settle myself into
some regular course of work. It cannot be. I am
too weak to endure long journeys in hot weather. I
should want money too. Life in Italy is expensive.
The degree would be expensive, and his Lordship of
Cambray is not lavish in his presents. He is more
kind than generous, and promises more than he per-
forms. Perhaps I ought not to expect so much,
though he is liberal enough to some others that I
know. I must just do the best that I can. 1
1 To Arnoldus, Ep. Hi.
26 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Erasmus, one fancies, ought to have been more
grateful to a man who had rescued him from drown-
ing. But it will go hard with most of us if we are
held accountable for our impatient moods. We know
too little of the relations between patron and client to
be fair judges. Men of genius are apt to take what
they can get as a mere instalment of the debts which
society owes to them. Erasmus, if he was thinking
of Rome and Bologna, must by this time have made a
reputation for himself which he might fancy the
Bishop ought to have recognized with more liberal
assistance. The Bishop might have considered, on
the other hand, that his protege had been living in a
society which a priest would have done better to avoid,
and in a style for which he at least was not called on
to furnish means.
The illness, however, passed off, and the sun shone
again. Erasmus's pupil-room was always well at-
tended, and those who came to him to learn became
attached friends. We find among them men of high
station in society : two distinguished young English-
men, Lord Mountjoy's eldest son, who was to have so
large an influence on his later life, and one of the
Greys, younger son of the Marquis of Dorset and
uncle of the Lady Jane that was to be. These two he
liked well, as he had good reason to like them. Be-
sides these, either as a pupil or an acquaintance, was
an elderly Lord of Vere, a Flemish grandee — Eras-
mus calls him Prince — to whom he claims to have
done important service. The chief interest in the
Lord of Vere was a gifted and beautiful wife, whom
Erasmus says lie ill-treated and occasionally beat.
" Sene.v ille " is the phrase which he uses in writing of
the Lord of Vere. In a letter to young Grey he uses
the same words for another old man, known to Grey,
Lecture II. 27
who had been also a pupil, and may possibly be the
same person. His vivid description of this gentleman
is valuable as a specimen of Erasmus's style.
No poet (he says) ever invented such a portent as
this spiteful little wretch ; setting- up, too, for religion
and pleading conscience to cover his villainies. I had
loved him as a brother ; but when he found that he
was under more obligations to me than he could repay,
he told lies about me worse than ever dropped from
the mouth of Cerberus. Sphinx, Tisiphone, Chimaera,
Gorgon were angels compared to this monster, and
his person is the image of his mind. Imagine a pair
of sullen eyes under shaggy eyebrows, a forehead of
stone, a cheek which never knew a blush, a nose thick
with bristles and swollen with a polypus, hanging-
jaws, livid lips, a voice like the barking of a dog, his
whole face branded, like a felon's, with the stamp of
deformity to warn off approach as we tie hay to the
horns of a shrewd cow. To think that I should have
taught classics to such a creature as this — should
have wasted so much time and pains on him, when I
was but sowing dragon's teeth which have sprung up
and hurt me. 1
Though it be doubtful who the person was thus de-
scribed, or how far the portrait was a just one, such a
letter lets in considerable light on Erasmus himself.
His language when he was angry was as vigorous as
Voltaire's, whom intellectually he not a little resem-
bled. It is characteristic, too, that the next letter is
strewed with passages of wise and judicious advice to
Grey about his own reading, telling him to be careful
what he studied, to read only the best books, to avoid
loose literature us poison, to stick to Virgil, Lucan,
Cicero, Lactantius, Jerome, Sallust, and Livy.
Erasmus despised the Lord of Vere, and disliked
1 To Thomas Grey, Ep. xx., abridged.
28 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
him always. But this did not prevent him from ac-
cepting an invitation to visit him and his wife at his
castle at Tournehem in Flanders. It was in the win-
ter of 1490. He was now thirty. He was going into
Holland to see whether it might be possible to recover
some part of the wreckage of his property. He was
to stay at the castle on the way and make acquaintance
with the lady there, the fascinating Anna Bersala,
whose function was to be a patroness of genius.
He had a friend named Jacob Battus, who was in
some way connected with the Vere family. This Bat-
tus became afterwards a faithful and useful follower
of Erasmus, and managed his money affairs for him
as soon as he had got any money to manage. Battus
was to be his companion on this northern expedition.
They were to ride — the time of year February.
Erasmus tells his adventures in a letter to Mountjoy,
dated " Ex Arce Tournehemsi " : —
Here I am (he said), arrived safe, spite of gods
and devils, after a desperate journey. I shall think
less in future of Hercules and Ulysses. Juno, who
hates poets, called in ^Eolus to help her, and Mollis
beat down upon us with hail, and snow, and rain, and
wind, and fog — now one — now all together. After
the storm came a frost ; snow and water froze into
lumps and sheets of ice. The road became rough.
The mud hardened into ridges. The trees were
coated with ice. Some were split, others lost their
branches from the weight of the water which had
frozen upon them. We rode forward as we could,
our horses crunching through the crust at every step,
and cutting their fetlocks as if with glass. Your
friend Erasmus sate bewildered on a steed as aston-
ished as himself. I cursed my folly for entrusting
my life and my learning to a dumb beast. Just when
the castle came in sight we found ourselves on a
frozen slope. The wind had risen again and was
Lecture II. 29
blowing furiously. I got off and slid down the hill,
guiding myself with a spiked staff which acted as
rudder. All the way we had not fallen in with a
single traveller, so wild was the weather, and for
three days we had not seen the sun. One comfort
there was in it, that we were in no fear of robbers,
and as we had money with us we had been in no
small uneasiness about them. We reached the castle
at last, and of the lady's graciousness I cannot say
enough. Were I to say all that I thought about her
you would call me extravagant. No description which
I could give would approach the reality. 1
Fine ladies have had an attraction for men of
genius from Athanasius's time or Gregory VII.'s.
Anna Bersala became for a time Erasmus's tutelary
spirit. The husband was at the castle, and apparently
not a courteous host ; but for the lady herself he was
running over with enthusiasm.
Never (he continues to Mountjoy) did Nature pro-
duce a creature more modest, kind, or good-hu-
moured. Her goodness to us was as much beyond
our deserts as the old man's malignity was below it.
She, for whom I had done nothing, loaded me with
good offices, while from him, who was under so many
obligations to me, I met with nothing but imperti-
nence. I detest such ungrateful persons, and am
sorry that I served this one so long.
Very sorry, also, am I that I should have come so
late to be known to yourself. Fortune did its worst
to keep us apart till friendship drew us together. I
write this from the castle on my way to my own
country. I shall soon be in my beloved Paris again.
Meanwhile believe that you have no heartier friend
than Erasmus.
So pleased he was with Tournehem and its lady
that his spirits were evidently at their best there,
1 Ep. vi., abridged.
30 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
spite of the weather and the surly host. He writes
the next day to a certain Falco who was to have
travelled with him, but had been left behind. Eras-
mus gives Falco a Mephistophelian lecture very char-
acteristic of his mocking humour. 1
Vain is wisdom if a man is not wise for himself.
Admire learning as much as you will, but fill your
pockets as well. Always have a good opinion of your-
self. Nothing more improves the appearance. Care
above all things for your own skin. Let all else
stand second to your own advantage. Choose your
friends for the service which they do for you. Do
not seek to be over-learned. Study moderately, and
love ardently. Be liberal of your words and careful
of j r our money. No time for more. I must hasten
to take leave of my princess.
Two days were spent in this winter paradise. The
lady offered him a present, which perhaps for the
moment he declined ; but he left his friend Battus
behind him like another Gehazi to profit by her liber-
ality, while he himself went on to Holland, where he
tried in vain to recover his stolen inheritance. Evi-
dently at this time he was in distress for supplies.
Impecuniousness was his normal condition. His
habits, his necessities, real or imagined, the indul-
gences which were required for his weak health de-
manded ampler funds than were doled out from Cam-
bray or came in from pupils. Beyond this he had no
income to depend on. Scanty driblets came in from
booksellers' work. Some of his pupils paid him
liberally, especially Mountjoy and Grey. With their
help he kept a horse and a servant, and was clothed,
and lodged, and fed on a tolerable scale. But his
notions of a competence were always as of something
1 Up. yii.
Lecture II 31
more than he had. Books for one thing were indis-
pensable, and the days had not come of cheap edi-
tions.
The visit to Holland was a failure. He recovered
nothing there. Perhaps he saw his patron the Bishop,
and probably the Bishop's brother, the Abbot of St.
Bertin, who was always good to him. But nothing
came of the journey to relieve his embarrassments
save the acquaintance with the Lady of Vere ; and
we find him again soon after in Paris, anxious and
uncomfortable. It was not in him to sleep on the
poor scholar's straw pallet, and be content with the
crust and water-jug. Of all the virtues, economy was
the least possible to Erasmus, and he was, doubtless,
often in uncertainty what was to become of him. He
had elastic spirits, happily for himself. He was not
one of those who whimper to the universe because
Nature had given him a plain bun to eat instead of a
spiced one. But after his disappointment in the Low
Countries he sank into despondency. Like Rousseau,
he fancied himself surrounded with enemies and be-
trayed by pretending friends. One of them, a cer-
tain William Gauden, with whom he had been a boon
companion, had written a letter to him which had
been especially irritating, and his answer shows him
at the nadir of his affairs, entirely wretched. 1
Why do you add by your reproaches to the burden
of my sorrows ? What may I expect from my ene-
mies when I am thus treated by an old friend like
you ? What right have you to find fault with me ?
Someone, you say, has told you that I have spoken
lightly of you. Why do you believe such stories ?
Why not have asked me frankly what I meant ? I
have remonstrated with you for wasting your time
1 Erasmus Gulielrao Gaudcno suo, Ep. xv., abridged.
32 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
and producing nothing worthy of your talents. I
have urged you to exert yourself, to leave trifles to
poorer minds, and take up with some occupation on a
level with your abilities. If this is to have injured
you, I confess my fault. If it be to have shown more
anxiety for your reputation than you have felt your-
self, surely anger was never more displaced. It is
true that I may have spoken more freely to you than
was warranted by the degree of our acquaintance. If
you think this, you should impute the cause to the
wine, in which, as you may remember, we indulged
too frequently, the state of my health having made
me at that time relax my rules.
But you will say, What is all this about ? what do
you want ? who is doing you any harm ? I cannot
explain in a letter. Ulysses never had such a load
laid upon him as I have. You say many things are
reported of me which you do not like to hear. I can
keep my own innocency. I cannot help what men
may say about me. I am alive. Indeed, I hardly
know whether I am alive, for I am in utter wretched-
ness, worn out with sorrow, persecuted by enemies,
deserted by my friends, and made Fortune's football.
Yet I have committed no fault. You may hardly be-
lieve it ; you may think I am the old Erasmus with
the old loose extravagant ways. If you could see me
you would know better, you could form a picture of
me for yourself. I am no fool now, no diner out, no
fond lover but a sad afflicted being who hates him-
self, who hates to live, and yet is not allowed to die ;
in short, a miserable wretch, but not through any
fault of my own. May God change my state for the
better or make an end of me. Never loved I man
more than I have loved you. If others hate me, it is
no wonder. But how could I fear to lose you whom
I loved so dearly, and by whom I supposed that I
was loved in return ?
O William, my idol — -would that I could say my
constant consolation ! Even if I had sinned against
our friendship by any scandalous action, you shoidd
Lecture II 33
rather have pitied and wept for me than been angry.
Now, when I have done you no wrong' at all, you re-
proach me, you abuse me, as if I had not enemies
enough without you who were aiming at my destruc-
tion. You have seen me in my lighter humours, you
know how devoted I was in a certain quarter. I am
cold as snow now. Those vulgar fires are all extinct.
My heart is yours, and only yours. Absence has only
endeared you to me. You never envied me in my
prosperity ; why turn your back on me in my misfor-
tunes ? It is the way, I know, with ordinary men ;
but you, I thought, were not an ordinary man. You
used to call me your Pylades or Theseus ; I was rather
your Orestes or Peirithous. But a truce to com-
plaints. This only I beseech you, dear William, by
our ancient friendship, and by my afflicted fortunes,
if you cannot pity me, at least do not hate me. Do
not exasperate the wound by bitter words about it.
Grant as much to a friend who has never injured you
as to an enemy whom you had conquered in the field.
The worse my case, the better yours. Commend me
to your father, who has been so good to me, and to
Jacob Battus, &c.
This letter suggests many speculations. Much of
it is unintelligible for want of knowledge of the
things and persons alluded to. Parts of it seem to
justify the Bishop of Cambray's suspicions that his
young friend was leading a relaxed life in Paris. One
must not take too literally the passionate expressions
of a sensitive, emotional, and evidently at the time
distracted man of genius. But it does make clear
what we might have guessed without it, that the great
Erasmus was no dry pedant or professional scholar
and theologian, but a very human creature, who bled
if you pricked him, loving, hating, enjoying, suffering,
and occupied with many things besides Greek gram-
mar and the classics. With his poetry, his delicate
34 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
wit, and his grey eyes, lie was as fascinating to one
sex as to the other. He may have had his love affairs
— very wrong in him, as he was a priest, but not the
less common, not the less natural. In another letter,
written at the same time, there is an allusion to a cer-
tain Antonia, with whom he had been in some kind
of passionate, if innocent, relation. His habits were
confessedly not strict. He was fond of pleasure, and
went in search of it, perhaps, into society which a se-
vere moralist might disapprove. But original writers,
men who do not borrow the thoughts of other authors,
but have drawn their knowledge fresh from life, must
have seen and known what they describe. Even the
great Saint Epiphanius, the arch-denouncer of heresy,
learnt the dangers of the Gnostic love feasts by per-
sonal experience of the temptation. Those who have
written works which endure and take hold upon
mankind have themselves struggled in the cataracts.
True enough, many drown in these adventures, and
Erasmus, if he had been left just then in Paris, might
easily have been one of them. Happily, at that mo-
ment, his friend and pupil Mount joy, who probably
knew his circumstances, and wished to extricate him,
invited Erasmus to accompany him to London and
try his fortune in a new scene at an English univer-
sity. The adventure was less rash than it might
seem. Mount joy, as will be seen, had distinguished
friends in England, eager to welcome a distinguished
scholar. Nowadays, unfortunately, a foreign teacher,
however eminent, can look for only a poor reception
at an English school or college. We had always a
reputation for coolness to strangers ; we were, and we
are, a proud and insular-minded race, and our preju-
dices were stiffened by the Reformation. But before
that great convulsion, educated men in Europe were
Lecture II. 35
more like citizens of a common country than they
have ever been since. Among the educated there
was no sharp division of language to separate mind
from mind. Theologians, statesmen, lawyers, physi-
cians, men of letters spoke Latin and used Latin as
their common tongue. Erasmus, in his letters, and
in his conversation on all serious subjects, used no-
thing else. Though he had lived in every country
in Europe during his wandering existence — Flan-
ders, France, Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland ;
though for the common purposes of life he must, at
least, have spoken French and German patois, he yet
always described himself as unable to use any lan-
guage but Latin. The vernacular idioms were only
beginning to shape themselves into intellectual instru-
ments, and Latin was the universal tongue in which
men of intelligence exchanged their thoughts. Lan-
guage would, therefore, be no difficulty. And in
England also, as everywhere else in Europe, there
was a growing thirst for knowledge : the long night
of narrow ecclesiasticism was drawing to an end ; the
old stars of learning, the scholastic divines, had ceased
to interest ; the saints and their biographies were fad-
ing into dreams ; the shell was bursting ; the dawn
was drawing on of a new age, when, as Newman said
of our own time, the minds of men were demanding
something deeper and truer than had satisfied preced-
ing centuries. The movement was most active in the
young. Erasmus was the voice of the coining era,
and Mountj oy could hold out a promise to him of
meeting kindred spirits like his own who would re-
ceive him with enthusiasm.
The intellect of Erasmus was not the intellect of a
philosopher. It was like Voltaire's or Lueian's, lucid,
clear, sparkling, above all things witty ; and wit,
36 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
which is the rarest of qualities, is the surest of appre-
ciation. He was a classical scholar when classical
scholars were few and in eager demand. The classics
were then the novelty, the recovering and returning
voice of life and truth when theology had grown dry
and threadbare — " Literse humaniores," as they have
ever since been called, the very name and the compar-
ative degree indicating the opening of the conflict
between human culture and mediaeval scholasticism.
To England, therefore, Erasmus went, conducted
by the young Lord Mountjoy, turning his back upon
his enemies, real or imagined, in Paris, and his finan-
cial confusions, which were not imaginary. It must
have been a welcome change to him, the turning over
a fresh page of life.
The editors of his letters have been unable, after
all the pains that they have taken with them, to fix
accurately the dates at which they were written. He
was himself careless of such things, especially in his
earlier years, when he could not foresee the interest
which would one day attach to them. As they are
now arranged, they assign him movements contradic-
tory and often impossible. One day he is represented
as at Tournehem, the next in Paris, the next in Lon-
don or Oxford; then in Paris once more, and then
back aoain in London. Sometimes a whole decade
of years is dropped out or added, and with the most
patient efforts the confusion can be but partially
disentangled. Something, however, can be done to
arrange them, at least with an approach to correct-
ness. Special dates can be fixed from independent
sources when events are alluded to as having hap-
pened, or happening, the dates of which we know. I
shall do the best that I can with it ; and to start with,
it may be taken as certain that Erasmus was in Lon-
don at the beginning of December, 1497.
LECTURE III.
In introducing Erasmus to England at the close of
the fifteenth century, I must say a few words on the
condition of the country which he was about to visit.
Henry VII., as you know, was on the throne. Of
him I shall say but little. Historians make too much
of kings. They fill their pages with reflections on
their policy, or with anecdotes about their personal
character and actions, chiefly lies. Voltaire says there
is an indescribable pleasure in speaking evil of dead
kings, because one cannot speak evil of them while
they are alive for fear of one's ears. Henry VII. was
not a sovereign on whom it is either just or possible
to pass summary sentence. Rhadamanthus himself
would have had to pause. Nor does it much matter
what we think of him. The thing of moment to our-
selves is the state of England, and the social and
moral character of the English people, when they had
the first of the Tudors to rule over them.
The long and desperate war of succession had ended
on Bosworth field. In that furious struggle half the
English peerage had been destroyed, and along with
them had disappeared the whole fabric of the old aristo-
cratically governed England. The heads of the noble
families had ruled hitherto in their various districts
as feudal princes. The Wars of the Roses accom-
plished in this country what the Wars of the League
accomplished in France.
The remnant of the dukes, and earls, and barons
38 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
had to subside into the position of subjects, and take
their places in reality as well as name as the king's
lieges. The nation had enough of fighting, and had
to set its house in order. A glance at Henry VII. 's
statutes shows that violence during the long disorders
had taken the place of law. The strong had oppressed
the weak. Tenants had been driven from their farms.
Courts of Justice had been overborne. The highways
were infested with armed ruffians. Traders had learnt
dishonesty : sold articles which were not what they
pretended to be, and used false weights and measures.
With the accession of the Tudors, honest men in all
ranks of society seem to have set themselves wisely to
work to repair the mischief.
With the diminution and changed position of the
peerage, the middle classes had come to the front,
showing superior equality. Commoners, canon law-
yers who had capacity were called into the Council of
State. A serious tone prevailed in the houses of the
gentry. Erasmus speaks with astonishment of the
conversations which he heard at the tables of leading
laymen, in contrast with the ribaldry of the monastic
refectories. Archbishop Morton, Cardinal and Chan-
cellor, obtained a commission from the Pope to visit,
and, if possible, reform the corruptions of the religious
houses. One curious evidence can still be seen of the
energy of the time in the number and beauty of the
churches built and repaired all over the kingdom,
which show the earnestness with which the English
nation set itself to reconstruct society after the shock
which it had s:one through. Morton was still Primate
when Erasmus first came over. W^arham, who suc-
ceeded him both as Archbishop and Chancellor, was
Master of the Rolls.
So then we are in London in December, 1497.
Lecture HI. 39
Erasmus had then been some weeks in England.
Mount joy had introduced him to Thomas More, then
a lad of twenty ; to Colet, afterwards the famous
Dean of St. Paul's, who was born in the same year
with Erasmus himself ; to Grocyn, who was teaching
the rudiments of Greek at Oxford, no grammars or
dictionaries yet within reach, under much opposition
and obloquy from old-fashioned conservatism. Pie had
introduced his friend also to various other persons, to
Mountjoy's own family among them. Obviously, the
young stranger had been kindly received, while Eras-
mus himself was charmed with everybody and every-
thing. He found the country beautiful, the climate
(though it was midwinter) delightful, and the society
the most delightful of all.
The air (he writes) is soft and delicious. The men
are sensible and intelligent. Many of them are even
learned, and not superficially either. They know their
classics, and so accurately that I have lost little in not
going to Italy. When Colet speaks I might be listen-
ing to Plato. Linacre [Henry VIIL's famous physi-
cian afterwards] is as deep and acute a thinker as I
have ever met with. Grocyn is a mine of knowledge,
and Nature never formed a sweeter and happier dispo-
sition than that of Thomas More. The number of
young men who are studying ancient literature here is
astonishing. 1
*»•
Mountj oy had kept his word. The men whom Eras-
mus mentions grew to be the most eminent of their
time. What he saw was as instructive as it was sur-
prising. His letters being dated only by the years,
and that often incorrectly, it is impossible to follow his
movements, and there seems to have been no hurry in
introducing him at Oxford ; but Colet and Grocyn
1 To Robert Fisher, Ep. xiv.
40 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
were both lecturing before the University, and in the
spring of 1498 he was taken down there, perhaps to
stay if arrangements could be made for him, at any
rate to see and be seen. Depending entirely as we do
on irregular fragments of information, we have to be
content with occasional pictures which accident has
preserved.
Here is a picture of a scene at Oxford which he
drew for a friend at Paris. 1 He was the guest of
Richard Charnock, Prior of St. Mary's College, which
stood on the site of what is now called Frewin Hall.
Charnock had invited a party to meet him. He de-
scribes the scene for us : —
Would that you could have been present at our
symposium. The guests were well selected, time and
place suitable. Epicurus and Pythagoras would have
been equally delighted. You will ask how our party
was composed. Listen, and be sorry that you were
not one of us. First there was the Prior, Richard
Charnock, and a modest learned divine who had the
same day preached a Latin sermon. Next him was
your clever acquaintance, Philip. Colet was in the
chair, on his right the Prior, on his left a young theo-
logian, to whom I sate next, with Philip opposite, and
there were several others besides. [One wonders
whether Wolsey was perhaps one of them.] We
talked over our wine, but not about our wine. We
discoursed on many subjects. Among the rest we
talked about Cain. Colet said that Cain's fault had
been want of trust in his Creator : Cain had trusted
to his own strength, and had gone to work upon the
soil, while Abel fed his sheep, and was content with
what the earth gave him of its own accord. We dis-
agreed. The theologian was syllogistic, I was rheto-
rical ; but Colet beat us all down. He spoke with a
sacred fury. He was sublime and as if inspired.
1 Joamii Sixtino, Ep. xliv., abridged.
Lecture III. 41
The conversation became too serious at last for a
social gathering, so I took on myself the part of a
poet, and entertained the company with a story, which
I asked them to believe to be true. I said I had
found it in an ancient moth-eaten manuscript, of
which only a page or two were legible. These pages,
however, happily referred to the subject of which we
were speaking.
Cain was industrious, but he was also avaricious.
He had heard his parents say that splendid wheat
crops grew in the garden from which they had been
expelled. The stalks and ears reached to their
shoulders, and there was not a tare among them, or
thorn, or thistle. Cain turned it over in his mind.
He contrasted this wheat of Paradise with the scanty
crop which was all that he could raise with his plough.
He addressed himself to the angel at the gate, and
begged for a few grains from the crop in the garden.
God, he said, does not look nicely into such things,
and if He noticed it He would not be angry. He had
only forbidden the eating of certain apples. You
should not be too hard a sentry. You may even dis-
please God by over-scruple ; on such an occasion as
this He might very likely wish to be deceived. He
would sooner see His creatures careful and industrious
than slothful and negligent. This is no pleasant office
of yours. From having been an angel you have been
set as a watchman at a gate, to keep us poor lost crea-
tures out of our old home. You are used, in fact, as
we use our dogs. We are miserable enough, but I
think you are even worse off than we are. We have
been turned out of Paradise because wc had too much
inclination for a pleasant fruit that grew there ; but
you have been turned out of Heaven to keep us from
going near it, and you are not in Paradise yourself
either. We can go where we please over the rest of
the world, and a charming world it is. Thousands of
trees grow in it whose names we have not had time to
learn ; we have beautiful shady groves, cascades foam-
ing down among glens and rocks, limpid rivers glid-
42 Life and Letters, of Erasmus.
ing between grassy banks, lofty mountains, deep val-
leys, and seas teeming with living things. Earth, too,
doubtless holds treasures in her entrails, which I and
those who come after me will find a way to extract,
and we have golden apples, figs, fruits of all varieties.
If we might live in it for ever we should not much
miss Paradise. We are sick sometimes and in pain,
but with experience we shall discover remedies. I
have myself found herbs already with rare virtues,
and it may be that we shall learn in the end how to
baffle death itself. I for one will never rest from
searching. There is no difficulty which may not be
conquered by obstinate determination. We have lost
a single garden, and in exchange we have the wide
earth to enjoy. You can enjoy neither Heaven nor
Paradise, nor earth either. You have to stay fixed at
these gates, waving your sword like a weathercock.
If you are wise you will take our side. Give us what
will cost you nothing, and accept in return what shall
be common property to you and to us. We are miser-
able, but so are you ; we are shut out from Eden, so
are you ; we are damned, you are worse damned.
The wickedest of mortals and the most ingenious of
orators gained his abominable purpose. The angel
gave Cain the wheat grains. He sowed them, and
received them back with increase. He sowed again
and gained more, and so from harvest to harvest.
God looked down at last, and was wroth. The young
thief, he said, desires to toil and sweat. He shall not
be disappointed of his wish. An army of ants and
caterpillars was let loose over his cornfields, with mag-
gots, and lice, and locusts, to consume and devour.
Great storms of rain came out of the sky, and wind
that snapped the stalks, though they were strong as
branches of oak. The angel was transformed into a
man because he had been a friend of man. Cain tried
to appease God by offering the fruits of the soil to
Him upon an altar, but the smoke refused to ascend.
He recognised the anger of God, and fell into despair.
Lecture III 43
The story of the symposium at St. Mary's College
goes no further, but the rest of the party, it is likely,
did not think the less of the singular stranger that
had come among them. The legend which he told
appears on the face of it to have been extempore.
Erasmus could not have foreseen the conversation
which led to it, and the improvising power is a new
feature in his character. I have met with nothing of
the same kind in his other writings, nor can it have
been a faculty which he cared to exercise. As it
stands it was a remarkable exhibition of high poetical
genius, and explains the fascination which his talk is
universally allowed to have possessed. Colet, More,
Grocyn, Charnock, Linacre remained ever after his
most devoted friends.
It is uncertain how long Erasmus remained at
Oxford on this occasion. He perhaps went and came.
Certainly he neither sought nor accepted any perma-
nent situation there. His time appears to have been
at his own disposal. He was sociable and curious.
He had come to make acquaintance with England
and the English people, perhaps at the expense of
Mount joy, and he did not neglect his opportunities.
A letter to Colet, written from Oxford, belongs to
this period. Colet was lecturing just then before the
University on St. Paul's Epistles. His lecture-room
was crowded with old and young. It seems that he
had conveyed to Erasmus his high appreciation of his
genius, and a desire to improve his acquaintance with
him. Erasmus answers that it was pleasant laudari
a laudato. He valued the good opinion of Colet
above the applause of the Roman Forum. But he
felt obliged to say that Colet thought better of him
than he deserved. He would not allow a friend to be
imposed on by false wares, and he proceeds to give
an honest account of himself.
44 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
You will find me (he said) a man of small fortune
or of none, and with no ambition to acquire one . . .
but a man, too, who craves for friendship, with a
slight knowledge of literature, and burning for more
— a man who reverences goodness in others, but with
none to boast of of his own ; simple, frank, open,
without pretence and without concealment ; of mod-
erate ability, but what he has good of its kind ; not
given to much speech — in short, one from whom you
must look for nothing but goodwill. . . . This Eng-
land of yours has many charms for me, most of all
because it contains so many men of high intelligence,
of whom I count yourself to be the chief. You are a
man who, if he was not virtuous, would be admired
for his genius, and if he had no genius would be ven-
erated for his piety. 1
There is another note, 2 written also from Oxford,
to Mountjoy, who had been anxious to know how he
was getting on there.
I do better every day (he says). I am delighted
with Colet and Charnock. Everything is so much
brighter than I looked for. Nothing could be less
auspicious than my arrival in England. I have
thrown off the lassitude with which you used to find
me oppressed. I am now happier every day. You
promised to join me here. Doubtless some good
reason has kept you away. Send me some money
under cover, and sealed with your ring. I am in
debt to the Prior, who has been so kind and liberal
that I must not encroach on his generosity.
So far we see Erasmus on his serious side in this
English visit ; amiable he was always, but he was a
versatile mortal, given to levity when he could ven-
ture upon it. He had seen other aspects of English
1 Ep. xli.
2 Ep. xlii., abridged.
Lecture III. 45
life besides what he found at Oxford, as at Oxford he
had found acquaintances who invited him to their
country houses. A letter to Faustus Anderlin at
Paris gives a description of some of these experiences.
Erasmus was an airy being, and enjoyed other things
besides learning and learned society. He writes to
Anderlin : 1 —
Your friend Erasmus gets on well in England. He
can make a show in the hunting field. He is a fair
horseman, and understands how to make his way. He
can make a tolerable bow, and can smile graciously
whether he means it or not. If you are a wise man
you will cross the Channel yourself. A witty gentle-
man like you ought not to waste his life among those
French mercies. If you knew the charms of this
country your ankles would be winged, or if the gout
was in your feet you would wish yourself Daedalus.
To mention but a single attraction, the English
girls are divinely pretty. Soft, pleasant, gentle, and
charming as the Muses. They have one custom which
cannot be too much admired. When you go any-
where on a visit the girls all kiss you. They kiss you
when you arrive. They kiss you when you go away ;
and they kiss you again when you return. Go where
you will, it is all kisses ; and, my dear Faustus, if you
had once tasted how soft and fragrant those lips are,
you would wish to spend your life here.
On this first visit of Erasmus to England there is
no mention of Cambridge. His acquaintance lay
chiefly among members of our own University. There
was evidently, however, much curiosity to see him,
and if he was treated as pleasantly as appears in his
letter to Faustus he must have had a good time.
From the Mountjoy family he met with special kind-
ness. The Mountjoys had a country house near El-
i Ep. lxv.
46 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
thain, where there was a royal palace to which the
princes and princesses were occasionally sent for
change of air. Erasmus on one occasion 1 was a guest
of Lord Mount joy. Young Thomas More had been
invited to meet him, and More one day carried him to
the palace and introduced him to the royal party.
Neither King nor Queen was there, nor the Prince of
Wales, Arthur. But he saw the young Henry, then
a boy of nine, with whose regal bearing, at once lofty
and gentle, he was greatly struck. On Henry's right
hand was his sister Margaret, afterwards Queen of
Scotland ; Mary, a little one of three, who was to be
Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk ; and Ecl-
mond, the youngest, who was a child in arms.
Erasmus says that More presented Henry with
some complimentary effusion which had been prepared
for the occasion. He had himself come unprovided,
not having been informed of the honour intended for
him. They stayed to dine at the palace. In the
course of dinner Henry, who had heard the fame of
his visitor's brilliancy, sent him a note, challenging
him, as he calls it, to give them an exhibition of it.
He could not venture to improvise in so high a
presence. He sate silent, but on his return home
composed a laudatory poem on Henry VII., Queen
Elizabeth, and their children, which was forwarded
and well received.
Nothing further came of this introduction at the
time. But Henry never forgot Erasmus. Long af-
ter, he alluded to the visit to Eltham when inviting
him back to England. The old king never seems to
have noticed him at all, or to have thought of him
merely as a vagrant man of genius, not necessary to
be encouraged. Old men do not usually appreciate
1 Apparently on a second visit to England in 1501.
Lecture III. 47
brilliant young poets with new ideas. Nothing was
then known about Erasmus which could induce a pru-
dent, careful father to consent to place him about his
children, if that had been the object.
Erasmus, perhaps, found himself in high quarters
regarded as a brilliant adventurer, and did not like it.
He had met with much kindness and much generosity,
but he certainly saw no prospect of making a position
in England answering to his merits and expectations.
Freedom was the breath of his life : if not the freedom
of a master, then the freedom of a beggar. He was a
wild bird, and would not sing in a cage. He was too
proud to flatter his way to promotion in bishops' pala-
ces or in the courts of princes. Even in the universi-
ties he would never have consented to begin in an in-
ferior position, while as yet he had done nothing with
his talents to entitle him to a post of distinction. His
letters to Anderlin show that he was a creature of
whom official dignitaries might reasonably be shy.
We don't know exactly how it was, but after a stay of
some months Erasmus concluded that he could do bet-
ter for himself at Paris, where he was known and had
a position. There is no kind of person more difficult
to provide for than a man of genius. He will not
work in harness ; he will not undertake work which
he does not like. His silent theory .about himself is
that he must be left to do as he pleases, and to be pro-
vided somehow with a sufficient income to live in in-
dependent comfort. To this it had to come with
Erasmus eventually. Ruling powers saw his value at
last, and took him on his own terms. Meanwhile his
Paris difficulties were provided for. They were
chiefly financial, and his English friends had made
him handsome presents of money. His mind was
fixed upon the work which lie intended to do. He
48 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
found that lie could do it better in his old quarters,
and Mountjoy, with much regret, consented to part
with him. Neither then nor at any time has official
England encouraged novelties. Even Colet, who was
trying with his lectures to improve theology, was
having a hard fight for it.
Theology (Erasmus wrote to Colet before his de-
parture) is the mother of sciences. But nowadays
the good and the wise keep clear of it, and leave the
field to the dull and sordid, who think themselves
omniscient. You have taken arms against these peo-
ple. You are trying to bring back the Christianity
of the Apostles, and clear away the thorns and briars
with which it is overgrown ; a noble undertaking.
You will find the task a hard one, but you will suc-
ceed, and will not regard the clamours of fools. You
will not stand alone. The crowded rooms where you
have been lecturing will have shown you how many
are on your side.
Colet sarcastically answered that one of the wisest
of the Bench of Bishops had censured his lectures as
useless and mischievous.
The hardest part of the fighting had to be done by
Erasmus himself. He .hated mediaeval theology as
heartily as Colet. But England, at least for the
moment, was not the place for him. He went, and at
his departure he met with a misadventure which his
friends feared would disgust him with England for
ever. In money which they had contributed among
them he was to take back what would amount in
modern currency to two hundred pounds. An Eng-
lish statute forbade the exportation of specie, either
gold or silver. Property transported abroad must go
in the shape of English goods for the encouragement
of English industries, More, who had mistaken the
Lecture III. 49
law, informed him that the prohibition extended only
to English coin. He had changed his pounds into
French currency, and supposed himself safe. It was
seized and confiscated at the Dover custom-house, and
Erasmus was sent on to Paris absolutely penniless.
It was useless to appeal to the king, for the king-
meant Empson and Dudley. In the eyes of the un-
lucky sufferer it was pure robbery, and so he spoke
and wrote about it in his letters. Mount joy and
Colet feared that he would revenge himself in a lam-
poon, which would close England against him for
ever. He was wise enough to confine himself to pri-
vate sarcasms. " Why," he said, " should I quarrel
with England ? England has done me no harm, and
I should be mad to attack the king." His friend
Battus wrote at ouce to relieve Mountjoy's alarms.
We are delighted (he said) to have our Erasmus
back among us ; not that we grudged him to you, but
that we loved him ourselves so dearly. I am sorry
for his misfortune, which indeed I feared might befall
him ; but in any condition, my dear Lord, we rejoice
to have recovered what was part of our souls, torn
and battered though it be. I do not mean that I
would not sooner have heard that he had obtained a
settled position in England than that he should have
come back insulted and plundered. Great God ! that
even learning and the Muses cannot be safe from
those harpies' clutches. Complaints, however, are
idle. We must bear what cannot be helped, and we
shall not cry out when he himself holds up so bravely.
He says that, in spite of all, he does not regret his
visit to England ; that, if he has lost his money, he
has gained friends who are worth more to him than
all the gold of Croesus. You should hear him talk of
Charnock, and Colet, and More. Would that I knew
them. You, too, he warmly praises, and is only sorry
to have caused you so much expense and trouble. He
charges me to write and tell you this.
50 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
The misadventure at Dover took wind, and was
much talked about. Erasmus saw that something 1 was
expected from him on the subject. He determined to
show that he was not occupied with his private mis-
fortunes, and instead of writing a diatribe on English
custom-houses, he put together with a few weeks'
labour a work which was to be the beginning of his
world-wide fame. He called it " Adagia," a compi-
lation from his commonplace books, a collection of
popular sayings, quotations, epigrams, proverbs, anec-
dotes, anything amusing which came to hand, with his
own reflections attached to them. Light literature
was not common in those days. The " Adagia " was
a splendid success. Copies were sold in thousands,
and helped a little to fill the emptied purse again.
Light good-humoured wit is sure of an audience none
the less for the crack of the lash, now heard for the
first time, over the devoted heads of ecclesiastics and
ecclesiasticism. It was mild compared with what was
to follow, but the skins of the unreverend hierarchy
were tender, and quivered at the touch.
A few specimens are all which I have time for
here.
A Greek proverb says Androclides is a great man
in times of confusion. This applies to theologians
who make reputations by setting Christians quarrel-
ling, and would rather be notorious by doing harm
than live quietly and not be noticed.
Talking of the Ccena Pontificalis, he says it ex-
plains the phrase " Vinum Theologicum."
Priests (he observes) are said in Scripture to de-
vour the sins of the people, and they find sins so hard
of digestion that they must have the best wine to
wash them down.
Lecture III. 51
The mendicant friars who went about begging and
carrying the sacrament he compares to Lucian s /x?/rpa-
yvprai, with their drums and fifes and the mysteries of
Cybele, the greatest rascals in Lucian's world. Lu-
cian's spirit can be traced all through the " Adagia,"
so like was the Europe of the fifteenth century to the
Europe of the second. The clergy felt the presence
of their natural enemy. The divines at Paris
screamed. The divines at Cologne affected contempt.
They said the Proverbs of Solomon were enough
without the Proverbs of Erasmus. But rage or sneer
as they would, they had to feel that there was a new
man among them with whom they would have to
reckon. From all the best, from Erasmus's English
friends especially, the " Adagia " had an enthusiastic
welcome. Warham, who was soon to be Archbishop
of Canterbury, was so delighted with it that he took
his copy with him wherever he went, and now, though
he had met the author of the " Adagia " in England,
perceived his real value for the first time. He sent
him money ; he offered him a benefice if he would
return, and was profuse in his praises and admiration.
Erasmus was still shy of patronage : he feared
becoming involved and losing his freedom. He re-
gretted afterwards the opportunities which he had
thrown away.
It is a great thing for a young man (he observed
towards the end of his career) to secure powerful
friends at starting. The wise way is to accept fa-
vours and show proper gratitude. I sinned in this
way in my own youth. Had I then responded as I
should have done to the advances of great persons
who took notice of me, I should have grown perhaps
to be something considerable. I was too fond of my
liberty. I could not bear restraint. I chose com-
52 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
panions whom I should have done better to avoid, and
was thus involved in a long struggle with poverty.
But he was never ungrateful to Warnam. He
acknowledged that without Warham's help he would
have gone under.
Happy was I (he said) to find such a Maecenas.
Whether he is ashamed of me now or not, I know not.
I fear I made him but an ill return. All who have
gathered good from my writings must thank Arch-
bishop Warhani for it.
The problem of how to live was now more intricate
than ever. He was becoming a great man and was
making a figure, and his patron at Cambray did not
show that he was pleased with him by any increase of
liberality. Warham and Mountjoy did what they
could, but Mountjoy's father was not rich. Erasmus
declined Warham' s offer of a benefice till he had seen
whether anything better might turn up. He did not
mean to bury himself in an English parsonage, nor did
he think it right to hold a sinecure. Meanwhile, he
could not keep his expenses within the limits to which
poor scholars have generally to confine themselves.
A certain style of easy living was essential to his
existence. He recpiired good, well-warmed rooms,
good horses to ride, good servants to wait upon him,
and good wine to drink ; and to supply all this he had
no regidar income at all except scanty fees from pupils.
The loss at Dover was most serious to him, though
he made light of it. The " Adagia " had been success-
ful — more successful by far than he expected : —
The book is a sort of abortion (he said, in sending
a copy to Anderlin), but I shall be grateful to you
if you will say a good word for it for our friendship's
sake. I am not so vain as to believe it worth much ;
but a poor article needs help, all the more when you
Lecture III. 53
want to make money out of it. I will try to improve
it in the next edition.
The " Adagia " did not want Anderlin's help. Edi-
tion followed edition, and money did come of it, though
far short of what its author needed.
His ambition was alight again. Once more he was
hankering after Rome and a degree at Bologna. The
ways and means must be provided somehow, and we
find him now in confidential communication on the sub-
ject with his friend Battus. Battus was frecpiently at
Tournehem Castle — held some office or other there,
at any rate was on intimate terms there. The Lady
Anna Bersala was rich ; she was open-handed to dis-
tressed men of gifts, and proud especially of her ac-
quaintance with Erasmus. Her fortune apparently,
oi\ a large part of it, was at her own disposition. Here
was a possible resource.
Erasmus tells Battus that he has been ill, robbed of
his money, and worn out by hard work over the " Ada-
gia." For the moment he can only live by borrow-
ing, and he hopes Battus will be able to manage better
for him. The coniino- summer he wished to devote to
writimr Dialogues. In the winter, if means could be
found, he proposed to go to Italy. The only sources
from which he could hope to be supplied were the Lady
Anna and the Bishop of Cambray, and he desired Bat-
tus, not as if he was asking a favour, but asking only
what he had a right to demand, to ascertain how much
either of them was prepared to give him.
The judicious Battus thought it unwise to apply to
the Bishop. The Lady not unnaturally concluded,
like Warham, that a Church benefice would be the most
proper provision for her friend : a benefice could doubt-
less be found for him in her husband's principality ;
meanwhile he could take up his residence at the castle,
where he could live without expense.
54 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Erasmus certainly did not underrate his own deserv-
ings, and lie wanted more than an invitation to Tour-
nehem.
I am glad (he writes in reply) that the Lady is so
well disposed towards me.
" Varium et mutabile semper
Foemiiia."
— but the Lady Anna is not an ordinary woman.
Her sending for me in this way will give you an oppor-
tunity of applying for some money for me. I could
not even go to her on foot provided as I am at present ;
still less if I take a horse and two servants with me.
Nor can I start off at the first whistle as if I was a
fool. I must put my affairs in order in Paris, collect
my MSS., and arrange them. You, meanwhile, must
forward to me some decent viaticum. I am too poor to
travel at my own cost, nor is it reasonable to expect me
to give up my position here for nothing. I must have
a better horse too. I don't want a Bucephalus, but I
require a beast which I shall not be ashamed to ride.
You must arrange this with the lady. If she will not
pay the expenses of the journey, of course I need not
expect a salary from her. Be careful and wide-awake.
I also shall not sleep where I am. You know what to
say to the Lady for me. Adieu, and show yourself a
man.
The letters which passed about this business are
only dated by the year, and they leave much unex-
plained as to the position which the Lady Anna de-
signed for Erasmus. One thing only is clear, that
she had money and he had none, and he felt that a
person like himself had a right to be taken care of.
Begging for largesses from a marchioness seems not
a very worthy occupation. But if Erasmus was to
do his work he had first to live, and to beg was better
than to sell his soul for promotion in the Church,
which appeared to be the only alternative.
LECTURE IV.
We left Erasmus made famous by the "Adagia,"
and longing for Italy ; but in sore straits for money
and not knowing how he was to get there. He was to
have gone to Tournehem on a long visit to the Lady
of Vere. But the scheme broke down. The lady's
views were interfered with. She seems to have fallen
into some trouble of her own, and Erasmus, instead
of being a guest in the castle, we find flying off again
to his own Netherlands. He was two months at Ant-
werp and in other towns, perhaps examining libraries.
He describes himself * " running and lapping like the
dogs in Egypt." His relations wished him to return
and settle among them, 2 but he disliked their heavy-
headed revels, their dirt, and their ignorance. At
one moment he would go back to England and study
theology with Colet. He would do this and do that.
The wind might blow him where it would. At last
he says that he fled from Zealand as if from hell —
why Zealand was so particularly hot just then being-
left unexplained. Italy was his point if he could but
get there. If the Lady of Vere could not or woidd
not help him, there was his first patron, the Bishop of
Cambray. But the Bishop was in no good humour
with his vagrant protvcjL
I went to see him (he writes) ; as usual he finds
the best of reasons for giving me nothing. As to the
1 Ep. xxxv.
2 Ep. lix.
56 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Lady, I could neither speak to her -without danger
nor avoid her without creating suspicion. You know
the affairs of , who is in prison. In that
quarter I had no prospects, and as nothing is more
silly than to hang on in idle expectation, I have
returned to Paris, and here I am with Battus hard
at work, he at Latin and I at Greek. My anchor
is down for a month or two, and I shall then be off
where the winds shall drive me. I had supposed that
the Bishop would be glad to see me, but when I
called on him he was cold as an icicle, and it is ill
depending on such tidal favour (favour that ebbs and
flows). 1 I encountered the Lady by accident on the
road. She gave me her hand with a gracious smile.
She is as well disposed towards me as ever she was,
but I can look for no substantial help from her. The
watch-dogs are on the lookout, and are as savage as
wolves. Erasmus must feed himself and wear his
own feathers.
Curiosity is set guessing. It is not impossible that
the lady's husband may have discovered the terms in
which Erasmus spoke and wrote about him. The
Marquis, however, died soon after, and with him died
the manly resolution with which this letter ended.
Erasmus discovered that other scholars were partak-
ing largely of the Lady's bounty. She was now free.
He thought that she ought to have remembered her
invitation and promises, and was disposed to resent
her neglect of him. Battus was dispatched again to
Tournehem.
She 2 has provided splendidly for William, and she
has let me go away empty, when he was hastening to
his cups, and I to my books. You know what
women's minds are; and if the fine promises made to
1 "iEstuariis admiratoribus," Ep. xxxv.
2 Ep. xxxvi., abridged.
Lecture IV. 57
me are to be forgotten, I am glad that William lias
been more fortunate. But I do wish that you could
persuade her to keep her engagements, and either
give me some money or else some preferment, as she
said she would. I am especially anxious now, because
I wish to leave France and go back among my own
people. It will be better for my reputation, and per-
haps will be better for my health. My relations in
Holland say that I stay at Paris because I can lead a
libertine life there, while in Paris they say I remain
there because I am not allowed to reside in my own
country. I wrote to D at length with a copy of
the " Adagia," and I sent a lad with other copies to
England.
If the Lady or if Mountjoy will furnish the means,
I shall get my Doctor's degree in Italy. If not, I
must go without the degree. Either way I shall soon
be among you, as I am sick of France. I am poor as
a rat, but, as you know, I must and I will be free.
I hear the Lady goes with her sister to Rome, and
proposes that I should accompany them. I cannot
tell how it will be.
Free, that was it. He had but to put on harness
again, take service with some great man, or take
some office in the Church of which he would have had
to do the duty, and patrons enough would have been
found willing to promote him. If this could not be,
economy was possible, and bread and water, such as
other penniless students had to be content with.
But when all is said, Erasmus would not have been
Erasmus if he had gone into bondage, and hardship
would probably have killed him. He had no vices.
It was not for any unworthy purpose, it was not that
he might be idle and enjoy himself, that he begged so
shamelessly of great people.
If every hour that he lived had been ten, he
worked hard enough to occupy them all. He spent
58 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
his time in the great libraries, devouring all the
books that he could find. Pie toiled harder than ever
at his Greek in competition with his friends in Eng-
land. He studied the Greek poets and philosophers ;
he studied the Greek Christian Fathers ; he trans-
lated Greek plays, translated Plutarch, translated
Lucian — all under enormous difficulties, for printed
books were scarce, and MSS. jealously guarded.
Beyond all, mixing as he did in every kind of
society, living as he did among learned professors,
learned theologians, Parisian poets and actors, fash-
ionable ladies, bishops, men and women of all ranks
and characters, he was studying the great book of
mankind, without acquaintance with which all other
knowledge is dry and unprofitable. He was observ-
ing his own fellow-mortals — observing what men
were doing, thinking, saying, making of themselves.
Now and then, perhaps — not often — (minds like
his, which are busy with realities, do not worry them-
selves with abstruse speculations) — he may have
stopped to ask himself what after all the extraordi-
nary ant-heap meant, what he and his brother-insects
were, whence they came, and what was his own busi-
ness. Pedants, when they find such a man as this
driven to shifts to keep his head above water, are free
with their moral censures. But Erasmus starving in
a garret might have been as dull and fusionless as
they.
Often his impatience ran away with him. Though
the Bishop was hard-hearted and the Lady would not
open her purse strings, the unfortunate mendicant
was forced to write flattering letters to both of them,
and to the Bishop's brother, the Abbot of St. Bertin.
It was an odious task : he writhed under the ignomini-
ous necessity.
Lecture IV. 59
May I die (he says to Battus 1 ) if I ever wrote any-
thing so much against the grain. You would under-
stand and pardon my ill-humour if you knew how
hard it is to bring one's mind to the production of a
great book, and when one is on fire with one's subject
to be dragged back into these contemptible triviali-
ties. My Lady requires to be complimented for her
munificence. You say it will not be enough if I
make pretty allusions in the work which I am to pub-
lish ; I must write six hundred private letters besides.
The money was promised to me a year ago, but you
still give me nothing but hopes, and you are as sick
as I am of the whole business.
She neglects her own affairs, and you suffer for it.
She trifles and plays with N or M , and you
are racked for it. You tell me she cannot give me
anything at present, for she has not got it. If she
had not this excuse she would find another. These
great folks are never at a loss for reasons. What
would it have been to her in the midst of such a
wasteful expenditure to have given me a couple of
hundred livres ? She can supply those hooded whore-
masters the monks, vile rascals as they are, and she
can find nothing to make leisure for a man who can
write books which will be read in ages to come. 2 No
doubt she has had her troubles, but she brought them
on herself. She should have married some strong,
vigorous husband, not a wretched homunculus. She
will be in trouble again unless she is more careful of
her ways. I love her. I am bound to love her, for
she has been very good to me. But, I beseech you,
what are two hundred livres to her? She will not
miss them seven hours after. I must have the money.
If I cannot have it now from her, I must borrow from
a Paris banker. You say that you have written to
her about it again and again, hinting, suggesting,
i E P . lii.
2 "Habet quo cucullatos scortatores et tuipissimos nebulones alat,
non habet quo ejus sustineat otiura qui posait etiam posteritate dignos
libroa couscribere."
GO Life and Letters of Erasmus.
entreating — and all in vain. You should have gone
more roundly to work. You should have been
peremptory, and then all would have gone well.
Modesty is out of place when you have a friend to
serve.
On reflection, Erasmus had to allow that the Lady
might not be able to help him just then — that she
might perhaps need help herself. But he was an irri-
table, careless mortal — negligent, and therefore al-
ways falling into misfortunes. The money which he
made by his books went into wrong hands. The
Dover accident was but one of many. He was robbed
(or so he thought) by his publishers, robbed by his
servants, robbed at country inns. He had been called
out of Paris by business : his ill-luck still pursued
him.
I have had an unfortunate journey. The bag fell
off my saddle and was not to be found. It contained
a shirt, a night-cap, my prayer-book, and ten gold
crowns. The man in whose charge I left my other
money in Paris has spent it. X , to whose wife
I advanced a loan, has run off to Louvain, and the
woman after him. The publisher who received the
payments for my books in my absence has not ac-
counted for a sow. Augustine 1 is still absent. He
has made nothing but confusion. He has stopped
back advances which were on the way to me, and
writes me a threatening letter, as if he was afraid that
I should get hold of them. The capital has melted
away more than you would believe. I had to sell my
horse for five crowns.
Was ever scholar so hard bestead ? The sorrows of
Erasmus might make a fresh chapter in the " Calam-
ities of Men of Genius." Obviously he had money
enough if he had known how to take care of it. His
1 A sort of secretary, and alternately an angel and a villain.
Lecture IV. 61
friends might well hesitate before they filled a purse
which had no bottom to it.
Yet, if he was down one moment, he was up the
next. He revived among the wits of Paris like An-
tseus when he touched his mother earth. " I continue
intimate with Anderlin," he says, " and I have found
another new poet that I like. The travelling about
has not improved my health, but I stick steadily to
work. My Italian expedition must be postponed to
the end of the summer."
Italy was always dancing before his imagination,
and an unexpected chance seemed to offer. The old
Lord Mountjoy died ; Erasmus's pupil succeeded to
the title and the estates. He, too, purposed making
a torn* across the Alps. He had spoken before of a
wish for Erasmus's company should he make the
journey. The time seemed to have come, but the
invitation was not renewed.
I suppose he will go (Erasmus said *) if his mother
will let him, but he has written nothing of taking me
with him. I was cheated with that hope once before.
P means to visit the Lady. I don't fancy
him. He is a scab of a fellow, theology incarnate.
As to you, finish what you have begun. I am
ashamed to say how anxious I am. My money wastes
daily, and my only trust is in my Battus. If your
heart does not fail you, you can get what I want.
Modesty forbids me to ask too much from one who
has already been so generous to me. But do you
hold out your hand, and I will hold out mine. 2
I must repeat what I said before : we must not
judge these beggings of Erasmus as we should judge
of such entreaties now. Allowance must be made for
the times. A rich patron was then the natural sup-
1 To Battus, Ep. liii., abridged.
2 Ep. liii.
62 Life and Letters, of Erasmus.
port of a struggling author, and perhaps better books
were produced under that system than the public are
likely to get under free trade and in an open market.
We shall not see another Hamlet just now, or another
Don Quixote. But make what deductions we please
on that score, modesty was not one of Erasmus's
faults, nor gratitude on an exaggerated scale. Still
dreaming of Italy, and unrepelled by his last repulse,
he tried again with the Bishop of Cambray. Battus
had told him that he must put on more submissive-
ness. He wrote to the Bishop's vicar-general describ-
ing himself as a poor homuncio — an insignificant
insect, unworthy to approach such a lofty dignitary.
He asked for nothing. He begged the vicar only to
remember him to his father and patron, for whom he
protested that he had the same boundless affection
which he had felt for him on his first delivery from
slavery. By the same messenger he wrote to the
Bishop himself in an agony of grief, because he had
heard that the Bishop suspected him of ingratitude.
Faults he might have many, but not that one. He
loved his old patron with his heart and soul. 1
The hard-hearted Bishop was still unmoved, or
worse than unmoved, for he sent someone to make
private inquiries how Erasmus was going on in Paris.
Naturally he felt himself responsible for the strange
creature who was so much talked about.
Erasmus himself was no longer there ; the plague
had broken out. He was always easily alarmed, and
he had fled to Orleans rather disconsolate. Augus-
tine, who was so lately almost a thief, had been taken
back into favour and wrote him comforting letters —
how Faustus Anderlin had spoken of him as a shrine
of learning ; Erasmus mildly deprecating such praises
i Ep. liv.
Lecture IV. 63
as no better than irony, and wishing to hear no more
of them.
A letter 1 from Orleans to Battus describes his occu-
pations there. Battus was at Tournehem, and had
wished Erasmus to join him.
I cannot go to you. The winter journey would be
too much for me, and I am busy with work which I
cannot give over. I want books, and must be in reach
of Paris for them. But here I must stay till you send
me money. I am writing a Commentary on Jerome ;
I am working on Plato ; I am comparing Greek MSS.
I am determined to master this Greek, and then to
devote myself arcanis Uteris, which I burn to handle. 2
My health, thank God, is good enough, and in the
coming year I shall strain every nerve to produce a
book on theology. Let me have but three years of
life, and I will make an end of envy and malice. If
the Lady has made me a present, let me have it, with
the money from England. If not, I must have the
English money at any rate, to take me to Paris. No
rock can be nakeder than I am at present. F
offers me a share of his fortune, but I must not bea
burden to him, and the fortune besides is more in
expectation than possession. Tell me what I am to
look for from the Lady, how I stand with the Bishop,
how with the Abbot of St. Bertin now that he has
seen his brother, who does not love me ; what is said
about the " Adagia ; " whether there are news from
England. Like Cicero, I want to hear everything
about everything.
Again, a little later, also to Battus : 3 —
I must remain where I am. I have no money, and
do not wish to borrow. I have been so battered this
year that I am afraid of travelling far in winter, and
1 Ep. lxxiii., abridged.
2 II,! means the early Christian Fathers. His "burning" was to
place before the world the original Christianity of the Apostles.
8 JSj). lxxiv., abridged.
64 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
if I show in Paris again so soon, evil tongues will be
busy with my reputation. The Abbot of St. Bertin
writes to me in terms which show that he likes me
best at a distance. In the Bishop I have been un-
lucky enough to find an Anti-Mcecenas, who not only
will not help me, but grudges me my success. He has
actually dispatched J. S from Louvain to hunt
out all particulars of my private life in Paris, and re-
port them to himself. I understand he has promised
a large reward for information, and he says he won-
ders how I can show my face in Paris after being cast
off by himself. If he was foolish enough to think
such things, he was doubly foolish to betray himself
to a needy student like J. S . I suppose he
thinks that I have neglected him, and that he has
something to complain of. I have half a mind to do
something outrageous in Paris, just to provoke him.
Let me have such money of mine as is in your hands,
and lend me a little besides. You may count on being
repaid. The Lady will surely not be so cruel as to for-
get my birthday. Alas, for the blunder which caused
me so much loss in England ; but of that more here-
after, and I may have my revenge yet. I am sorry
that I sent you so many copies of the " Adagia."
They sell freely here, and at a good price.
Personal embarrassments did not prevent Erasmus
from doing honourable actions when opportunity came
in his way. His reputation was high, and he used it
to his infinite credit. An instance occurred while he
was at Orleans. Heresy-hunting had begun in the
Low Countries. A Dominican monk had hunted out
some poor free-thinking wretch, and denounced him
in the Church Courts. The victim was saved from
the stake by a defect of evidence, but he was sen-
tenced to imprisonment for life, his wife for three
months, and his daughter was forced into a convent.
Erasmus heard of it. He knew the Dominican, knew
him for a false, avaricious, insolent priest. He sent
Lecture IV. 65
Battus to remonstrate with the judges. He persuaded
the Abbot of St. Bertiu to interfere. The sentence
was reversed, and the unfortunate heretic had his
pardon.
Again, busy as he was, Erasmus always found time
to give wise advice to anyone who consulted him.
Never were truer words than those which he wrote
from Orleans to a student at Liibeck, and never more
to the purpose than in this present age of our own. 1
Read first the best books on the subject winch you
have in hand. Why learn what you will have to un-
learn ? Why overload your mind with too much food,
or with poisonous food? The important thing for
you is not how much you know, but the cmality of
what you know. Divide your day, and give to each
part of it a special occupation. Listen to your lec-
turer ; commit what he tells you to memory ; write it
down if you will, but recollect it and make it your
own. Never work at night; it dulls the brain and
hurts the health. Remember above all things that
nothing passes away so rapidly as youth.
Admirable advice ! though he might have added a
provision that the lecturer knew what he was talking
about.
A few words will not be out of place about the
work which Erasmus was himself busy over, and of
which the "Adagia" had been but a preliminary
specimen. If we are to believe the account of his
intellectual history which he gives in his later writ-
ings, the Christian religion appeared to him to have
been superseded by a system which differed only in
name from the paganism of the old world. The saints
had taken the place of the gods. Their biographies
were as full of lies and as ehildish and absurd as the
old theogonies. The Gospels were out of sight. In-
1 Ep. Lxxix.
66 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
stead of praying to Christ, the faithful were taught
to pray to miracle-working images and relics. The
Virgin, multiplied into a thousand personalities — our
Lady of Loretto, our Lady of Saragossa, our Lady of
Walsingham, and as many more as there were shrines
devoted to her — was at once Queen of Heaven and a
local goddess. Pious pilgrimages and indulgences
had taken the place of moral duty. The service of
God was the repeating of masses by priests, who sold
them for so much a dozen. In the exuberance of
their power the clergy seemed to exult in showing
contempt of God and man by the licentiousness of
their lives and the insolence of their dominion. They
ruled with their self-made laws over soul and body.
Their pope might be an Alexander VI. ; their cardi-
nals were princes, with revenues piled up out of accu-
mulated benefices; their bishops were magnificent
nobles ; and one and all, from his Holiness at Rome
to the lowest acolyte, were amenable to no justice save
that of their own courts. This extraordinary system
rested on the belief in the supernatural powers which
they pretended to have received in the laying on of
hands. As successors of the Apostles they held the
keys of heaven and hell ; their excommunications were
registered by the Almighty ; their absolutions could
open the gates of Paradise. The spiritual food pro-
vided in school or parish church was some prepos-
terous legend or childish superstition, varied with the
unintelligible speculations of scholastic theology. An
army of friars, released from residence by dispensa-
tion, were spread over Europe, taking the churches
out of the hands of the secular priests, teaching what
they pleased, and watching through the confessional
the secret thoughts of man and woman. These friars
thrust themselves into private families, working on
Lecture IV. 67
the weakness of wife or daughter, dreaded and de-
tested by husbands and fathers ; and Erasmus, as well
as the loudest of the Protestant reformers, declared
that they abused the women's confidence for the vilest
purposes. Complaint was useless. Resistance was
heresy, and. a charge of heresy, unless a friendly hand
interposed, meant submission or death. Unhappy
men, unconscious of offence, were visited by a bolt ont
of the blue in the shape of a summons before a Church
court, where their accusers were their judges.
Rebellion was in the air. Erasmus was never for
rebellion, but he knew how far he might go and how
much he might safely say with the certainty of finding
support behind him. He had studied the New Testa-
ment. He had studied the early Fathers. He could
point the contrast between past and present. The
New Testament to the mass of Christians was an un-
known book. He could print and publish the Gospels
and the Epistles. He could add remarks and com-
mentaries, and, if he was moderately cautious, neither
monk nor bishop could charge him with heresy. He
could mock superstition into contempt. He could
ridicule as he pleased the theology and philosophy
which had been sublimated into nonsense. With the
New Testament he meant to publish the works of
Jerome, because no one of the Fathers gave so lively,
so vivid a picture of the fourth century, and Jerome,
though a monk and a panegyrist of monkdom, had
seen clearly that, if it was a road to sanctity, it was a
road also to the other place. These were the " arcana
UteroB " which he was burning, as he said, to go to
work upon, and through all these years of trial he was
preparing for his vast undertaking.
The monks recognised their enemy. They were
children of darkness, and they dreaded daylight like
G8 Life and Letters, of Erasmus.
bats and owls. The revival of learning, the growing
study of the classical poetry and history and philoso-
phy, they knew instinctively would be fatal to them.
They fought against it as if it were for life or death,
and, by identifying knowledge with heresy, they made
orthodoxy synonymous with ignorance. Erasmus
sharpened his weapons for the fray ; you trace his
indignation through his letters.
Obedience (he says) is so taught as to hide that
there is any obedience due to God. Kings are to
obey the Pope. Priests are to obey their bishops.
Monks are to obey their abbots. Oaths are exacted
that want of submission may be punished as perjury.
It may happen, it often does happen, that an abbot is
a fool or a drunkard. He issues an order to the
brotherhood in the name of holy obedience. And
what will such order be ? An order to observe chas-
tity ? An order to be sober ? An order to tell no lies ?
Not one of these things. It will be that a brother is
not to learn Greek ; he is not to seek to instruct him-
self. He may be a sot. He may go with prostitutes.
He may be full of hatred and malice. He may never
look inside the Scriptures. No matter. He has not
broken any oath. He is an excellent member of the
community. While if he disobeys such a command
as this from an insolent superior there is stake or dun-
geon for him instantly.
Scholastic theology had to be deposed from its
place before rational teaching could get a hearing.
Erasmus found that he must study it more closely
than he had hitherto cared to do, and he set himself
resolutely to work on his " Duns Scotus " and his
"Angelical Doctor." He describes the effect upon
him to his pupil Grey : 1 —
I am buried so deep in " Scotus " that Stentor
could not wake me. " Wake me ! " you say. " Why,
1 Ep. lxxxv., abridged.
Lecture IV. G9
you must be awake, or you could not be writing a let-
ter." Hush ! you do not understand the theological
slumber. You can write letters in it. You can de-
bauch yourself and get drunk in it. I used to think
that the story of Epimenides was a fable. I know
better now. Epimenides lived to extreme old age.
His skin, when he died, was found inscribed with cu-
rious characters. It is said to be preserved in Paris
in the Sorbonne, that sacred shrine of Scotist divinity,
and to be as great a treasure there as the Sibyl's book
at Rome. Epimenides was a Scotist theologian, or
perhaps he was Scotus himself. He composed myste-
ries which, as he was not a prophet, he could not him-
self understand. The Soi-bonne doctors consult the
skin when their syllogisms fail them. No one, how-
ever, may venture to look in it till he is a master of
fifteen years' standing. If younger men try they
become blind as moles.
Epimenides went out walking one day. He missed
his way and wandered into a cave, which struck him
as a quiet plaoe for thinking. Even doctors of divin-
ity do now and then wander. He sat down, he
gnawed his nails, he turned over in his mind his in-
stances, his quiddities and his quoddities. He dropped
asleep, and so remained for forty-seven years. Happy
Epimenides that ho woke at last ! Some divines never
wake at all, and fancy themselves most alive when
their slumber is deepest. When he came to himself
ho was in a changed world. The mouth of the cave
was overhung with moss. Landscape, town, streets,
houses, inhabitants, dress, language, all were altered ;
so fast mortal things pass on. He had been dreaming
.ill the while, dreaming Scotist theology, and nothing
else. Scotus was Epimenides redivwus, and now you
may fancy your friend Erasmus sitting among his
accursed volumes, yawning, knitting his brows, eyes
staring into vacancy. 1 They say Scotist theology can-
1 "Quid si videres Erasmum inter sacros LUosSootistaSKexip'draseden*
tem, si cerneres frontem contractam, oculoa stupentes, Milium Bollici-
tum ? " etc. — Ep, Ixxxv.
70 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
not be understood by disciples of the Muses and the
Graces. You must first forget what you have learnt
elsewhere. You must vomit up the nectar which you
have drunk on Helicon. I do my best. I speak bad
Latin. I never use a neat expression. I never risk
a jest. I am getting on. They will take Erasmus
for one of themselves by-and-by. You ask what all
this means. It means that when you sec me next you
will find nothing left of your old acquaintance. Do
not mistake me. Theology itself 1 reverence and
always have reverenced. I am speaking merely of
the theologastrics of our own time, whose brains are
the rottenest, intellects the dullest, doctrines the
thorniest, manners the brutalest, life the foulest,
speech the spitefulest, hearts the blackest that I have
ever encountered in the world. 1
Erasmus was doubtless right in saying that he was
getting on ; he was preparing to assail the Philistine
champion ; yet he had no better arms than the sling
and the stone, and, while he was working himself into
these divine furies, he was in absolute pecuniary low
water. His books were selling faster than ever, but
small profit came to him — none at all, if we believe
his own account of his situation : " had but three
crowns left, and those under weight." He had sent
to England to borrow or beg from Mountjoy. He
confessed that he was ashamed of himself, but there
was no help for it.
Mountjoy (he writes to Battus 2 ) may give me some-
thing. You must extract more for me from the
Lady, or from somebody else. Thirty gold crowns I
must have. It is not for nothing. I can stay no
longer in Orleans. If I remain there will be a catas-
1 " Quorum cerebellis nihil putidius, lingua nihil barbarius, ingenio
nihil stupidius, doctrina nihil spinosius, nioribus nihil asperius, vita ni-
hil fucatius, oratione nihil virulentius, pectore nihil nigrius."
- Ep. lxxxi., abridged.
Lecture IV. 71
troplie, and I and all my knowledge will come to
wreck. I beseech, I adjure you. If any spark still
burns of your old affection for me, do what you can.
The Lady promises every day, but nothing comes.
The Bishop is displeased with me. The Abbot tells
me to hope. But nobody gives except N , whom,
wretched being, I have so drained that he has no-
thing left to bestow. The plague has taken away my
pupils, the sole resource I had for earning anything.
What is to become of me if my health breaks down ?
What work can I do without books ? What will lit-
erature ever do for me at all, unless I can obtain some
secure position where I shall not be the butt of every
blockhead ? I do not write all this to vex you with
my complaints, but I want to wake you if you are
asleep, and stir you to exert yourself. Augustine reads
the " Adagia " to large audiences. Everything is
right that way. If you can dispose of any copies for
me at St. Omer you will find them in my baggage.
Poets and philosophers have been often driven hard
by the pinch of necessity. But poets and philosophers
must eat like other men. They cannot feed on air
like the chameleon. Evidently there was no hope
from the Bishop : the " Adagia " must have finished
matters in that quarter. His brother the Abbot was
better inclined, though he hardly ventured to show it.
Battus had told Erasmus that if he wanted to recover
favour in those quarters he must flatter them. He did
what he could. He addressed long letters to them
both, pouring out streams of gratitude for their past
kindness, and of admiration for their extraordinary
qualities. He complimented the Bishop 1 on his ma-
jestic bearing on public occasions, and on the charm
and grace of his private conversation. lie told the
Abbot, playing skilfully on the rivalry between the
secular and regular orders, that he was a match for
the shrewdest of the tyrants in purple (that is, the
1 Ep. xci.
72 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Bishops), while he coiild be kind and condescending
to little persons like his client Erasmus. To show the
Abbot how good he was, and how reverend towards
the Church's mysteries, he sent him a long story of
certain goblins and magicians who had been playing
pranks at Orleans, with a comical affectation of seri-
ousness. The story will perhaps interest you as an
illustration of the times. The words are Erasmus's
own, slightly compressed : —
A man in this town has been practising magic with
his wife and daughter. He kept the adorable body of
Christ (my flesh creeps as I write) in a box under his
bed. He had bought it from a Mass priest for a less
price than the Jews paid for Christ Himself. One
night he brought the Mystery out of the straw. The
girl, a virgin (only a virgin could venture), pointed
at it with a naked sword. A head was produced, with
three faces, representing the Triple Monad. The ma-
gician opened his book, adored the triad, and then
prayed to the devil till Satan appeared in person, gave
him some money and promised more. The magician
said it was not enough for his long service. The
devil answered that to find a treasure they must have
the help of a scholar, and bade him apply to the prior
of a monastery in the town . The prior was a bachelor of
divinity, and of note as a preacher. Why the devil
chose such a man is hard to say, unless he thought the
Mendicants were all rascals. However, to the prior
the magician went and told him he had some wonder-
ful MSS. which he could not read, and that he wanted
the prior's assistance. He produced them. One was
an Old Testament in French ; another a book of nec-
romancy, which the prior rashly glanced at and said
it was a work of evil. The magician swore the prior
to secrecy, and then said he had more, and that if a
learned man would read them for him they might both
be enormously rich.
The prior pretended to be caught, and wormed out the
Lecture IV. 73
whole secret, even to the possession of the Holy Thing.
He said he must see it. The magician took him to his
house and showed him all. The prior went straight
to the vicar-general, a good sensible man, and a friend
of my own. The vicar called in the police. The ma-
gician and the women were arrested. The house was
searched, the body of Christ was found and reverently
carried away. All that day and all the next night the
priests and monks prayed and chanted. Next morn-
ing a special service in the cathedral. The streets
were carpeted. Bells rang in all the steeples. The
clergy walked in procession, carrying their relics, and
the Mystery was borne in solemn pomp to the Church
of St. Cross. The prior told the story from the pulpit
to a vast crowd, taking however so much credit to him-
self that the vicar-general had to rebuke him. Two
divines and two lawyers were brought from Paris to
examine the prisoners. The vicar told me the man
confessed to horrors, which were perhaps not true, as
they were drawn out of him on the rack. He said the
devil also misused his wife at nights. The daughter
said the devil also visited her. The tales of Medea
and Thyestes become credible when such frightful
things are possible in Christendom. No Chaldeans,
no enchanters, no Pythonesses, no Thessalian witches
produced the equal of this tragedy of Orleans — a por-
tent not born of Night, the mother of the Furies, but
of avarice, the mother of all evil : impiety, superstition,
sacrilege, all in one. What wonder that we have wars,
and famine, and pestilence, that vice has grown so com-
mon that it ceases to be called vice, when we have
• rimes among us Avorse than those which caused the
Deluge ! As Horace says : our sins forbid Jove to lay
aside his thunderbolts.
Eere ends my Iliad, most kind father. Grief and
the pleasure of writing to you have made my pen run
too long.
This lecture has run too long also ; but Erasmus
was a many-sided man, and it is well to look ai him
all round.
LECTURE V.
Neither flattery, nor eloquence, nor tales of magic
and sacrilege melted the hearts of the Bishop of Cam-
bray and the Abbot of St. Bertin. Both seem to have
been inexorable. But Erasmus's heart was still bent
on Italy. Modesty, or some such vice, prevented Bat-
tus from urging the Lady of Vere as vehemently as
Erasmus desired. The lady, he was convinced, needed
only to be judiciously pressed. There was no husband
any longer to interfere with her liberality. Her son,
the young Adolph, was a child, and she was absolute
mistress of the revenues of the principality.
Go yourself to the Lady (Erasmus again writes to
his friend x ). Take Adolf with you to present my
petition that he may touch his mother's heart, and do
not let him ask too little. . . . Insist upon my deli-
cacy. Say that my pride forbids my representing my
necessities directly to herself. Tell her that I am in
extreme distress, that this banishment to Orleans has
taken away my only means of earning money for myself;
that a Doctor's degree can only be obtained to advan-
tage in Italy, and that a person so weak in health as I
am cannot travel there with an empty purse. Tell her
that I cannot degrade my profession as a man of
learning by reducing my scale of living below its pres-
ent level, and that Erasmus will do more credit to her
liberality than the theologians whom she has taken into
her favour. They can only preach sermons : I am
writing books which will live for ever. They address
1 Ep. xciv., abridged.
Lecture V. 75
single congregations : I shall be read by all the world.
Theologians there will always be in abundance : the
like of me comes but once in centuries.
This sounds like vanity, but it is n't. Horace says : —
" Exegi momimonttmi sere perenuius."
Shakespeare says : " The pyramids shall not outlive
this powerful rhyme." Erasmus was right, though
one could wish that he had not said it so emphatically ;
but perhaps it was only his humour. He goes on to
Battus in the same strain : — ■
Do not be shy. Do not mind telling a lie or two in
a friend's interest. Show her that she will be none the
poorer if a few of her crowns go to restore the corrupt
text of Jerome, to revive true theology, and give back
to the world the works of other Fathers which have
been left to perish. Enlarge on this with your utmost
force. Insist on my character and my expectations, my
love for the Lady, my diffidence, &c, &c. Then say that
1 have written to you that I absolutely must have 200
livres with a year's salary from the situation which
she promised me. It is no more than truth. I cannot
go to Italy with only a hundred, unless I put my head
under the yoke again — go as companion to some rich
man, and this I will rather die than do. To her it can
matter nothing whether she gives it now or gives it a
year hence. To me it matters everything. Suggest,
besides, that some preferment ought to be waiting to
receive me on my return, that I may have-decent means
of maintaining myself. Advise her, as of yourself, to
promise me the first that shall fall vacant. It may not
be the best in her gift, but it will be something, and I
can change it afterwards when a better falls in.
Doubtless (the letter continues) she will have many
applicants, but you can say that I am one of a thousand,
and am not to be weighed in a balance with others.
You will not mind a few good sound lies for Erasmus.
See that Adolf presses her too, and dictate to him
what he shall say that will be most moving. See also
7<> Life and Letters of Erasmus.
that whatever is promised shall be promised with Adolf's
knowledge, so that, if anything happens to the mother,
I may recover from the son. Add, besides, that I am
losing my eyesight from overwork, as Jerome did : that
yon have this from me and know it to be true. Tell her
that a sapphire or some other gem is good for bad eyes,
and persuade her to send me one. I would myself
have suggested that to her, but I have no Pliny at hand
to refer to. Your own doctor, however, will confirm
the fact. All will go well if you only do your part.
Seize opportunity by the locks, and do not be afraid
that if you can bring the Lady to do all this for me
you will have exhausted your own claim, and can after-
wards ask nothing for yourself. I know that you are
dependent on her generosity, but consider that the two
things cannot be had together. The Lady's purse will
not be emptied by my small demands upon it. You
can ask any day. I may never have another oppor-
tunity. Perhaps you think I ought to be satisfied if
I am kept out of reach of starvation. I think, on the
contrary, that I shall have to abandon literature alto-
gether if I cannot obtain means from one quarter or
another to go on with it properly.
No man can write as he should without freedom from
sordid cares, and I at this moment am little better than
a beggar, with scarce a livre left. I low many ignorant
asses roll in money ! Is it a great thing to keep Eras-
mus from dying of hunger ?
What, after all, have I received from the Lady except
promises ? You may say I lost my money in England.
So I did. But it was no more my fault than it was
yours. I did not go to England lightly. I did not
leave it lightly. Accidents may befall any of us.
You tell me that I ought to dedicate some complimen-
tary work to the Lady. Trust me, I am working hard
enough. I spare nothing, not even my health. To
please my friends, I compose for one ; I read for an-
other ; I correct for a third ; while I compose, read,
and correct for myself too. I toil over Greek texts,
the toughest job of the whole, and yet I am to produce
Lecture V. 77
something more for the Lady, as if I had no more to do
than yourself, or as if my wits were of adamant. Try
yourself to write a book, and then complain of me for
being dilatory. Your jokes, my sweet James, are fool-
ish and not to the point. They have more of Momus
in them than of wit. I have set my heart, I tell you,
on compassing the whole round of literature. What I
have done so far is mere trifling. I have long seen that
the majority of men are fools. My writings will not fly
away, and I prefer solid fame which comes late, to noto-
riety which grows quickly and fades so soon. How
often have I not seen it so ! Therefore, I beseech you,
let me manage this business my own way. If you
will take care of my material fortunes, do not fear that
I shall spare myself my own exertions. One should not
ask small favours from great people. Again, do your
part prudently and all will be well. But I must not
be cheated. If you despair of success tell me so plainly,
and I will try elsewhere. You might do something,
perhaps, if you saw a chance, with the Abbot of St.
Bertin. You know the nature of the man. Invent
a plausible excuse. Tell him that I really have a great
work on hand — say I am restoring the text of Jerome,
which careless theologians have corrupted — that I am
clearing up points about Jerome which have been mis-
understood — that I want books and must have help
to get them. You will be telling no lies in this, for it
is what T am really occupied with. If you can get a large
sum out of the Lady send my servant with it. If she
gives but ten or twelve crowns, or nothing at all, you
can dispatch them by another hand. Any way, I must
have a few crowns from you. I starve for books.
Leisure I have none, and I am out of health besides.
Many a fine writer besides Erasmus has had to
petition humbly for great men's superfluities. In
these days of liberty we rejoice that all that is over,
and that the gifted author deals directly with the
reading public. I suppose we shall see fine results in
time. I do not know that, so far as literature is con-
78 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
cerned, they have been brilliant as yet. Erasmus
might ;it any time have sold himself and his talents to
the Church, and become as rich as Wolsey. He pre-
ferred literature and a patroness, and the result was
that he became one of the Immortals. The Lady
Anna waited perhaps to be entreated rather too long,
but what might be honourably accepted might, under
the circumstances of Erasmus, be legitimately asked
for. Without Maecenas we might have had no Odes
or Satires from Horace ; without the Duke of Lerma
we should have had no Don Quixote ; without the
Duke of Weimar we might have had no Faust ; with-
out the Lady of Vere there would have been no New
Testament, no " Moria," no " Colloquies." The patron-
age system may not be the best, but it is better than
leaving genius to be smothered or debased by misery.
And when genius is taught that life depends on pleas-
ing the readers at the shilling bookstalls, it may be
smothered that way too, for all that I can see to the
contrary.
Even then, however, a certain price had to be paid
in the way of compliment and flattery. Battus had
told Erasmus that the Lady of Vere expected it, and
since he had to do it, he did it handsomely. He wrote
to her, and this is what the letter contained : * — ■
TO THE PRINCESS OF VERE.
Three Annas are mentioned by ancient writers :
Dido's sister Anna, who became a goddess, the aged
Anna the mother of Samuel, and Anna who was the
mother of the Virgin. If my skill does not fail me,
another shall be added to the list. Those three were
illustrious ladies, but where in all Europe will be
found a lady more illustrious than yourself? They
1 Ep. xcii., abridged.
Lecture V. 79
were pious, but so are you. They were tried by af-
fliction : would that this had not been your fate as
well ! [Much more of these comparisons, and then :]
Your kindness enables me to live and devote myself
to literature. I grieve for your sufferings, but suffer-
ings endured as you endure them lend splendour to
virtue. Destiny has connected your fate with mine.
Fortune's malice cannot reach to yourself on the
height where you stand, but me she persecutes as if
in my person she would persecute learning itself. To
whom then can I lay open my calamities better than
to her who can and will relieve them. This is the
anniversary of the day on which my small substance
on which I depended for the continuation of my
studies was shipwrecked in England ; and from that
day to this misfortune in one form or another
has never ceased to pursue me. When the British
Charybdis had vomited me back to France, I was
overtaken by a tempest. Then on the road I fell
among thieves, and had their daggers at my throat.
Then I was hunted out of Paris by the plague, and I
had other things to trouble me besides.
It is unworthy of me (a man of letters and a phil-
osopher) to be so cast down as I am, when you, who
were born to rank and luxury, endure your trials so
patiently. But let Fortune thunder as she will, I
will not be crushed, and leave my work undone, while
I have my Princess for a Cynosure to shine upon me.
Malice cannot rob me of the learning which I have
gained. A little money will enable me to make use
of it, and this you can supply out of your abundance.
My muse I shall owe to you, and she shall henceforth
be dedicated to your service. Thee, dear Nutricia,
dear nurse of my soul, I would not change for Augus-
tus and Maecenas, and future ages will marvel that in
this far corner of the world, when learning lay pros-
trate from neglect and ignorance, a woman rose, who
by her benevolence restored learning from dust to
life. When Erasmus was mocked by promises which
were not observed to him, when he had been robbed
80 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
and flung' out to buffet with the waves of fortune, you,
Lady, did not suffer him to drown in penury. Con-
tinue the work which you have begun. My writings,
your own children, reach out their suppliant hands to
you. By your own fortune, whose smiles you despise,
and whose frowns you defy ; by those writings' for-
tune, malignant always, against which you alone can
support them ; by that admirable Queen, the Ancient
Wisdom, which the Prophet places at God's right
hand, not, as she now lies, in rags and squalor, but in
golden raiment which I have toiled to cleanse and to
restore, they beseech you not to desert them. If I am
to continue this work I must visit Italy. I must show
myself there to establish my personal consequence. I
must acquire the absurd title of Doctor. It will not
make me a hair the better, but, as times go, no man
now can be counted learned, despite of all which
Christ has said, unless he is styled Magister. If the
world is to believe in me, I must put on the lion's
skin. I have to fight with monsters, and I must wear
the dress of Hercules. Help me, therefore, gracious
Lady. Battus will tell you how. It goes against my
habits, against my nature, against my modesty, to sue
for favours. But necessity compels me and I have
brazened my forehead to address you. From the time
when I was a child I have been a devoted worshipper
of St. Anne. I composed a hymn to her when I was
young, and the hymn I now send to you, another
Anne. I send to you, besides, a collection of prayers
to the Holy Virgin. They are not spells to charm
the moon out of the sky, but they will bring down
out of Heaven her who brought forth the Sun of
Righteousness. She is easy of approach. She will
hear the supplication of another virgin, for as a vir-
gin I hold you — a maiden, not a widow. You were
married when a girl, to please your parents. That
marriage brought no pleasure to you, it was but a
discipline of patience ; yet, though you are still in
your prime, you cannot be tempted out of your reso-
lution of continency. I reckon you not as one of the
Lecture V. 81
choir of maidens, who, the Scripture says, cannot be
numbered ; I place you not among the concubines of
Solomon ; I place you among St. Jerome's Queens,
&c. &c.
Enough of this. The complimentary work had to
be done, and done it was, not entirely without dignity,
though it is rather melancholy reading. Nowadays,
the enlightened public has to be flattered with equal
sincerity or insincerity. The appeal was, of course,
successful. Enough was given to set Erasmus free
from squalid care, and get him the lion's skin that he
was so anxious about. His biographers mention the
Lady of Vere, but none as yet with the prominence
which confers the immortal fame which Erasmus
promised her. If Erasmus becomes popular again,
the defect will perhaps be mended, and the fourth
Anna will be duly canonized.
It is noticeable that during this sad time Erasmus
studied and translated the greater part of Lucian's
Dialogues. I wish more of us read Lucian now. He
was the greatest man by far outside the Christian
Church in the second century. He had human blood
in him. The celestial ichor which ran in the veins of
Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus belongs to ghosts
rather than to living sons of Adam, and you will learn
full as much from Lucian's Dialogues of what men
and women were like in the Roman Empire when the
Christian faith was taking root as you will learn from
Justin Martyr or Irenaeus or Tertullian. One of
these dialogues seems particularly to have struck
Erasmus, ricpi twv eVi /uo-0w o-wovtwv. Young men of
talent in Lucian's time were tempted by the promise
of an easy life to hire themselves out as companions
to wealthy Roman nobles to write their letters, correct
their verses, amu.^e their guests, and write poems in
82 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
their honour. Lueian traces one of these unfortu-
nates through his splendid degradation, till he is sup-
planted by a new favourite and flung aside like a
worn-out dress. Too late to return to any honest em-
ployment, he sinks from shame to shame, till he falls
to the level of the groom of the chamber and the
housekeeper, and finally is left in charge of my Lady's
pug-dog.
To such a fate, doubtless, many a promising youth
was drifting in the fifteenth century as well as in the
second. A high education creates tastes for refine-
ment, and does not provide the means of satisfying
them. Erasmus had evidently felt the temptation.
He perhaps actually tried such a situation when liv-
ing with the Bishop of Cambray. Something like it
had been offered him at Tournehem Castle, and Lu-
cian had possibly saved him from accepting it.
A far more honourable relic remains of his con-
nection with the Vere family in the " Encheiridion
Militis Christiani," a Christian knight's manual,
which he began at Tournehem, and finished after-
wards at the Lady's request.
The occasion of it was this. It was like one of
Goethe's " Gelegenheits-Gedichte," poems rising out
of special incidents, which Goethe says are always a
man's best. Erasmus came to write it in this way —
the account is his own.
Battus and he, he says, had gone to Tournehem at
the invitation of the Lord of the castle, who had been
his pupil. "The Lord of Vere had a wife of remark-
able piety. He himself was a pleasant man to live
with, but the worst of profligates, and given to asso-
ciating with abandoned women. He despised all re-
ligious teachers except me, and his lady, in alarm for
his soul, asked me to write something which might
Lecture V. 83
brinsf him to a sense of his condition. He was not to
know that it had been suggested by herself, for he
was a rough soldier, and at times would even strike
her. So I did what she desired." And the world
was thus made the richer by the finest of Erasmus's
minor compositions.
The money difficulties being got rid of, at least for
a time, the Italian journey in search of the lion's skin
could now come off. For some reason it was still
delayed for two or three years. In the interval it is
certain that Erasmus went back to England. The
letters are lost which gave detailed pictures of this
second visit ; but the date of his introduction to the
royal princes at Eltham is fixed by his mention of
their ages. Pie was with Grocyn at Lambeth just
after Warham was made Archbishop of Canterbury,
so that he was undoubtedly in England in 1501 or
1502. He was a volatile, restless gentleman, and to
follow him through his movements at this time is like
chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. There is proof that he
was lecturing on Greek at Cambridge in 1506,
though again we have no particulars of what he did
there, or of how long he stayed. The Italian journey
must be placed between these two English visits, for
it is equally certain that he was at Bologna in 1504,
and saw Julius there.
Mountjoy and Grey had after all offered to take
him with them to Italy, but with money in his pocket
he preferred to be free. Colet had sent him as pupils
the two sons of a Doctor Baptista, who was a court
physician to Henry VII. The boys were to make the
Italian tour in charge of another tutor. The Baptis-
tas were rich. By attaching himself to their party,
Erasmus could diminish his expenses. lie agreed to
accompany them as an independent friend. " I did
84 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
not take charge of them," he said. " I declined to
be responsible for their behaviour, but I was to act as
general guide and overlooker.*'
The plan did not answer. The party consisted of
Erasmus, the two Baptista lads, their English tutor,
and a courier, who was to see them safe to Boloa'na.
The tutor and courier quarrelled and fought. " At
first," says Erasmus, " I thought only one of them
was in fault, but they made friends again over a bot-
tle, and I then disliked them both equally. Men who
fall out without a cause, and then are reconciled with
as little reason, do not suit me. I determined to
have no more to say to them, and I amused myself in
the passage of the Alps with composing a poem on
old age."
From which it appears that Erasmus had no taste
for what we call the sublime and beautiful. Like
Socrates, he had no interest in scenery, and cared
only for men and human things. The party sepa-
rated ; Erasmus went on by himself, preceded by his
reputation, which secured him a gracious reception.
He received the coveted lion's skin, and, as he fore-
told, was not a hair the better for it ; but great men
invited him to their houses as they had done in Eng-
land ; he was introduced to bishops and cardinals,
and even to the great Julius II. himself, who was
exchanging his Pope's robes for the steel cap and
jacket. Julius was no sooner on the throne than he
had large schemes for the unification of Italy, hum-
bling the Venetians, and driving out the foreigner.
You have seen his portrait in the National Gallery —
a grand old man, sitting in his chair and looking like
a slumbering volcano. He had heard of Erasmus as
an accomplished writer. He asked him to set out his
projects in some flourishing pamphlet, and Erasmus
Lecture V. 85
might have made his fortune if he had complied.
He did write something, but not what his Holiness
wanted. Erasmus disliked wars and disliked warlike
popes, and threw away his chance, and preferred to
be a spectator. The great Pope cared little whether
an insignificant Dutch scribbler liked him or did n't
like him. He took the field with his army, drove the
French out of Lombardy, defeated the Venetians, an-
nexed Bologna to the Papal Territory, and celebrated
his victory by a triumphal entry into the city which
recalled the memories of Caesar and Pompey. Eras-
mus himself witnessed the extraordinary scene, and
made his reflections on it, which he preserved for
future use. He travelled afterwards on his own
account, went to Sienna and lectured there, and had
among his pupils a youth whom he described as of
extraordinary promise, the young Archbishop of St.
Andrews, a lad of twenty, natural son of James IV.,
who was killed a few years later fighting at his fa-
ther's side at Flodden. You must exert your imagi-
nation to realize what popes and archbishops were
like in those days.
At Rome he met with more than kindness. Italian
art was at its highest point of glory. It was the
Rome of Pcrugino and Raphael and Michael Angelo.
In the College of Cardinals there was the ease and
grace of intellectual cultivation exactly calculated to
charm and delight Erasmus. The cardinals them-
selves saw his value, and wished to keep him among
them. The Cardinal of St. George became an inti-
mate friend, and remained afterwards the most
trusted of his correspondents. Strange alternation of
fortune ! — one year begging for a few crowns, the
next courted and sued to by the splendid princes of
the Church. He had but to consent to stay at Rome
86 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
and his rise to the highest dignities would have been
certain and rapid. The temptation was strong.
Long after, when the pinch of poverty came again
with its attendant humiliations, he admitted that he
looked back wistfully to the Roman libraries and pal-
aces, and glorious art, and magnificent and refined
society. All that might be his if he would consent to
become a red-hatted lackey of the Holy See. Yet,
strong as the inclination might be to yield, his love of
freedom was stronger — freedom and the high pur-
pose of his life, which must be abandoned for ever if
he once consented to put on the golden chain. He
might stoop to beg for alms from bishops and great
ladies : he could not, woidd not stoop to prostitute
his talents.
Thus he left Rome as he had come, carrying only
with him the respect and regard of the Cardinal of
St. George and the more famous Cardinal who was to
succeed Julius as Leo X. He went back to Paris
poor as ever, or nearly so, for the lady's supplies were
spent ; but he set himself stubbornly to work again.
On his return he heard the pleasant news that his
friend Colet had been made Dean of St. Paul's. He
wrote to congratulate him; promotion coming, as it
ought to do, on the deserving who had not sought for
it. He hopes that Colet has not forgotten his little
friend, and would spare an hour to let him know of
his welfare. He then describes his own condition and
occupation. 1
I am rushing full speed into sacred literature, and
look at nothing which keeps me back from it. For-
tune wears her old face and is still a difficulty. I
hope now that I have returned to France to put my
affairs on a slightly better footing. This done, I shall
1 Ep. cii., abridged.
Lecture V. 87
sit down to Holy Scripture with my whole heart, and
devote the rest of ray life to it. Three years ago I
wrote something- on the Epistle to the Romans. I
finished four sheets at a burst, and I should have gone
on had I been able. Want of knowledge of Greek
kept me back, but for all these three years I have
been working entirely at Greek, and have not been
playing with it. I have begun Hebrew too, but make
small progress owing to the difficulty of the construc-
tion. I am not so young as I was, besides.
I have also read a great part of Origen, who opens
out new fountains of thought and furnishes a com-
plete key to theology. I send you a small composi-
tion of my own on a subject over which we argued
when I was in England. It is so changed you would
not know it again. I did not write to show off my
knowledge. It is directed against the notion that
religion consists of ceremonies and a worse than Jew-
ish ritual. I wrote to you about the hundred copies
of the " Adagia " which I sent over to England three
years back. Grocyn undertook to sell them for me,
and has probably done so. In this case they must
have brought in money, which must be in somebody's
hands. I was never in worse straits than I am now.
One way or another I must get enough to secure lei-
sure for myself and my work. A little will do. Help
me as far as you can. Mountjoy too may contribute
something, though I do not like to ask him. Mount-
joy was always interested in me, and to him I owe
my first conception of the " Adagia."
It must have been shortly after writing this letter
that Erasmus went for a third time to England —
about the close of the year 1505 — and resided and
lectured for some months at Cambridge. He perhaps
found that his finances prospered better where he had
so many wealthy acquaintances. It is certain, too,
that during this visit he again saw young Prince
Henry, and had become personally known to him.
88 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
This can be proved by a letter addressed by Henry to
him in answer to a letter of Erasmus on the death of
his uncle Philip, King- of Castile. Philip, the father
of Charles V., had married Joanna, sister of Cathe-
rine of Aragon. He had assumed the title of King of
Castile on the death of his mother-in-law Isabella.
He had died suddenly in 1506, and Erasmus was on
terms of sufficient intimacy with the Prince of Wales
to write a letter of condolence on the occasion.
Henry was then fifteen. Here is his answer. 1 It
refers, as you will see, to Philip's death as having
recently happened. At the head of the letter stands,
" Jesus est spes inea," and it proceeds thus : —
Your letter charms me, most eloquent Erasmus.
The writing shows by the care which you have taken
that it is no hasty composition, while I can see from
its clearness and simplicity that it has not been arti-
ficially laboured. Clever men when they wish to be
concise are often affected and unintelligible. It is
not for me to commend a style which all the world
praises, nor if I tried could I say as much as your
merit deserves. I will therefore leave all that. It is
better not to praise at all than to praise inadequately.
I had heard before your letter reached me that the
King of Castile was dead. Would that the news had
proved false. I have never been more grieved since
I lost my mother, and, to confess the truth, that part
of your letter pleased me less than the grace of the
language deserved. Time has partially alleviated the
pain of the wound. What the Gods decree mortals
must learn to bear. When you have news more
agreeable to communicate, do not fail to let me hear
from you.
This letter, though perhaps slightly ironical, proves
that Erasmus had more acquaintance with Henry
1 Ep. ecccli., second series.
Lecture V. 89
than can be explained by their meeting at Eltham
when the Prince was a child. Erasmus could not
have ventured to write to him without fuller justifica-
tion. It may serve as evidence, therefore, that Eras-
mus had again had opportunities of making himself
known to the Prince, and was regarded by him as a
person of consideration.
Still it is equally clear that he had as yet gained
no footing in England beyond the humble position of
a Cambridge lecturer.
It is said that Wolsey did not like him ; very prob-
ably the old king looked on him as an adventurer,
and did not like him also. Nothing had come in his
way save an offer of a benefice from Warham, which
he honourably declined because he coidd not preach
to his parishioners in English, and some sort of a
tedious professorship at Cambridge, where he had to
teach the elements of Greek to schoolboys. He had
higher ambitions, which, it seemed, were not to be
realized for him in England, and his thoughts turned
once more to his friends the cardinals at Rome. At
Rome he might have to submit to harness, and the
sacrifice would be a bitter one. But the harness
woidd be better gilded than at Cambridge. There
were the libraries ; there was appreciation from the
ruling powers, which would leave him leisure for his
work ; and he might edit his Fathers, perhaps his
New Testament, under the patronage of popes like
Julius or Leo X.
This is only conjecture. The certainty is that two
years before Henry VII. died Erasmus left England
again, and once more joined his friend Cardinal Ra-
phael at the Holy City. There he appears to have
decided finally to remain, when his future was once
more changed by two letters which reached him while
Cardinal Raphael's guest.
90 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
One was from his friend Mountjoy, to announce the
accession of Henry VIII., and the desire of the new
king to attach Erasmus to his own Court, a desire
which Henry had himself confirmed under his own
hand. Nothing could be more brilliant than the
prospect which Mountjoy announced to him. 1 The
resolution to recall him seems to have been one of the
first acts of the new reign. We remember Solon say-
ing that no one should be counted happy before his
death. You will observe that the King here described
was Henry VIII.
What, my dear Erasmus, may you not look for
from a prince, whose great qualities no one knows
better than yourself, and who not only is no stranger
to you, but esteems you so highly ! He has written
to you, as you will perceive, under his own hand, an
honour which falls but to few. Could you but see
how nobly he is bearing himself, how wise he is, his
love for all that is good and right, and specially his
love for men of learning, you would need no wings to
fly into the light of this new risen and salutary star.
Oh, Erasmus, could you but witness the universal joy,
could you but see how proud our people are of their
new sovereign, you would weep for pleasure. Heaven
smiles, earth triumphs, and flows with milk and honey
and nectar. This king of ours is no seeker after gold,
or gems, or mines of silver. He desires only the fame
of virtue and eternal life. I was lately in his pres-
ence. He said that he regretted that he was still so
ignorant ; I told him that the nation did not want
him to be himself learned, the nation wanted him
only to encourage learning. He replied that without
knowledge life would not be worth our having.
I received your letter from Rome, and I read it with
mingled grief and pleasure : pleasure, because you
opened to me all your cares and anxieties ; grief, be-
cause it showed me that Fortune wears her old face to
you, and that you still suffer from her buffets. Be-
1 Ep. x.
Lecture V. 91
lieve me, an end has come now to all your distresses.
Yon have only to accept the invitation of a prince who
offers you wealth, honour, and distinction.
" Accipe divitias et vatum maxinms esto." You say
you owe much to myself. Mine is the obligation, my
debt to you is more than I can ever pay.
I have the copy of your " Adagia," with the graceful
compliment to myself. All here praise the book.
Archbishop Warham is so charmed with it that I can-
not get it out of his hands. He undertakes, if you
will come to us, that some benefice shall be found for
you. He sends you five pounds for the expenses of
your journey, and I add as much more. Come quickly,
therefore, and do not torture us with expectation.
Never suppose that I do not prize your letters, or that
I can be offended with anything which you may say or
do. I am sorry that you have been unwell in Italy.
I did not wish you to go there, but I regret that I was
not your companion when I see how much the Romans
make of you.
So far Mountjoy — Lord Mountjoy now, for his
father was dead, and he had succeeded to the estate
and title. The young king wrote as follows : 1 —
I am sorry, as your constant friend and admirer, to
learn from the Archbishop of Canterbury that you
have ill-wishers who have done you injury, and that
you have been in some danger from them. Our ac-
quaintance began when I was a boy. The regard which
I then learnt to feel for you has been increased by
the honourable mention which you have made of me
in your writings, and by the use to which you have
applied your talents in the advancement of Christian
truth. So far you have borne your burden alone ;
give me the pleasure of assisting and protecting you
as far as my power extends. It has been and is my
earnest wish to restore Christ's religion to its primitive
purity, and to employ whatever talents and means I
have in extinguishing heresy and giving free course to
1 Ep. ccccl., second series, abridged.
92 Life, and Letters of Erasmus.
the Word of God. We live iu evil times, and the
world grows worse instead of better. I am the more
sorry therefore for the ill-treatment which you have
met with, and which is a misfortune to Christianity it-
self. Your welfare is precious to us all. If you are
taken away nothing can then stop the spread of heresy
and impiety. I propose therefore that you abandon
the thought of settling elsewhere. Come to England,
and assure yourself of a hearty welcome. You shall
name your own terms ; they shall be as liberal and
honourable as you please. I recollect that you once
said that when you were tired of wandering you would
make this country the home of your old age. I be-
seech you by all that is holy and good, carry out this
purpose of yours. We have not now to learn the value
either of your acquirements or your advice. We shall
regard your presence among us as the most precious
possession that we have. Nowhere in the world will
you find safer shelter from anxiety or persecution ;
and you and we together, with our joint counsels and
resources, will build again the Gospel of Christ. You
will not be without friends ; you have many already
here. Our highest nobles know and appreciate you ;
I will myself introduce you among them. You re-
quire your leisure for yourself. We shall ask nothing
of you save to make our Realm your home. You
shall do as you like, your time shall be your own.
Everything shall be provided for you which will
ensure your comfort or assist your studies. Come to
us, therefore, my dear Erasmus, and let your presence
be your answer to my invitation.
The situation which the young Henry intended for
Erasmus when he wrote this letter was evidently some
office close about his own person. The passage about
advice pointed to the Privy Council. At any rate, he
was to be associated with the King in the most inter-
esting and important duties. No wonder that so in-
vited he needed no wings, as Mountjoy said, to fly to
a court where honour and leisure seemed to be wait-
ing for him.
LECTURE VI.
The young Henry VIII. had invited Erasmus to
England in terms which entitled him to think that a
considerable position awaited him there. He was to
be the King's adviser in an intended Church reform.
He was to name his own terms. He was to have his
leisure for himself and his work. He was no longer
an adventurer. He had a world-wide reputation. He
was a favourite of the Roman Cardinals. He was
known to be preparing an edition of the New Testa-
ment with a fresh translation. He had been at work
over the Greek MSS. for many years. The work was
approaching completion, and if he had remained at
Rome it would have appeared under the patronage of
the Holy See. He might fairly have concluded (and
he did conclude) that he would find rank and fortune
in England (going there as he did at the earnest and
warm entreaty of the King himself) equivalent to his
present station in the world of letters. Doubtless this
had been the intention. But the King's hands were
full of other business. He had a rebellious Ireland
on hand. He had a corrupt administration to reform,
as well as the Church. He had corrupt ministers to
punish. He had a war with France coming on upon
hi in, undertaken for the defence of the Pope. You
will find the objects of the war concisely and correctly
stated in the preamble to the Subsidy Act, where
Parliament provided the means. The French war
does not concern us here further than it explains how
94 Life and Letters of Erasmus,
Henry, after having- secured Erasmus's presence In
his realm, was obliged to hand over the charge of him
to Warham, who was now Primate and Chancellor.
A Church benefice was the natural resource. Cardi-
nals drew their revenues from benefices piled one
upon another, with small thought of the duties attach-
ing to them. If Erasmus had remained at Eome, he
must have done like the rest. But his passion was to
expose and correct the abuses which had crept over
the Church administration. He had not come to
England for an ecclesiastical sinecure. Warham had
already offered him a benefice, and he had declined,
because he coidd not preach in English. Again War-
ham pressed a living on him, the best that he had in
his gift, Aldington in Kent, worth sixty pounds a
year, or six hundred of our money. He accepted it at
last, finding, I suppose, that nothing else could be
done for him ; but again, either the same scruple, or
an unwillingness to be buried in the country far away
from books, made him repent of his resolution almost
as soon as he had resigned himself to his fate. He
relinquished Aldington in six months, and Warham
sacrificed the parish to his friendship. Instead of the
living of Aldington the Archbishop settled a pension
on him equivalent to the value of it, which was
charged, according to the fashion of the time, on the
tithes. Aldington had to content itself with an ill-
paid curate, under whom, curiously enough, it pro-
duced in the next generation the famous Nun of Kent,
whose imposture was to threaten Henry's throne.
The pension, however, was made sure to Erasmus for
the rest of his life. Warham saw it paid till he died,
and it was continued afterwards by Cranmer. An
assured income of sixty pounds, at a time when a
country squire was counted rich who had forty, might
Lecture VI. 95
have been thought enough to keep the wolf from
a scholar's door. Lord Mountjoy, who felt himself
responsible for Erasmus's return, promised as much
more, and afterwards kept his word. Thus, so far as
money went, he had nothing to complain of.
Evidently, however, he was not satisfied. It was
not what he had looked for. He had expected, per-
haps, to be admitted formally into the Privy Council.
He had expected — one knows not what he had ex-
pected ; but he began to look back on Rome again
with a sense that he had made a mistake in leaving it.
His feelings are frankly expressed in a letter to the
Cardinal Grymanus. He says : : —
I had many friends in England. Large promises
were held out to me, and the King himself seemed to
be my special friend. England was my adopted
country. I had meant always that it should be the
home of my old age. I was invited over. I was
pressed to go. I was promised rivers of gold, and,
though I am generally careless of money, I had looked
to find a stream of it running fuller than Pactolus. I
rather flew than went. Do I repent ? Well, I will
be perfectly frank. When I think of Rome, and all
its charms and all its advantages, yes, I do repent.
Rome is the centre of the world. In Rome is liberty.
In Rome are the splendid libraries. In Rome one
meets and converses with men of learning*. In Rome
are the magnificent monuments of the past. On
Rome are fastened the eyes of mankind, and in Rome
are the cardinals, yourself the foremost among them,
who were so wonderfully good to me. My position in
England was not amiss, but it was not what I had
been led to expect, and was not what had been prom-
ised to me. The cause, perhaps, lay in the misfor-
tunes of the time. The King was kind, no one could
be more so ; but he was carried away by a sudden
storm of war. He was young, high-minded, and
1 Ep. clxvii., abridged.
9G Life and Letters of Erasmus.
strongly influenced by religion. He went into it en-
thusiastically, to defend the Holy See against French
aggression. Mountjoy, who, except the Bishop of
Cambray, was my earliest patron, became so much
absorbed in military matters that, although he was
willing as ever to help me, he was not then able ; and,
moreover, though one of the old nobility, and liberally
disposed towards men of learning, he is not rich ac-
cording to the standard of the English peerage. The
Archbishop of Canterbury did all for me that was
possible. He is one of the best of men and an honour
to the realm — wise, judicious, learned above all his
contemporaries, and so modest that he is unconscious
of his superiority. Under a quiet manner he is witty,
energetic, and laborious. He is experienced in busi-
ness. He has played a distinguished part in foreign
embassies. Besides being Primate, he is Lord Chan-
cellor, the highest judicial office in the realm ; yet,
with all his greatness, he has been father and mother
to me, and has partly made up to me what I sacrificed
in leaving Rome ; but . . . but —
In short, the Erasmus who was shortly to be the
world-famous enemy of monks and obscurantists, the
sun of a darkened world, was no longer the obscure
student who had come to England thirteen years be-
fore in search of patronage and employment. He felt
himself the equal of the best of those who were play-
ing their parts in the Royal circle, and he had looked
to be treated accordingly. He was disappointed.
There was no Pactolus overflowing its banks for him.
He was provided with a moderate income. He was
left free to do as he pleased and go where he pleased,
and that was all.
Liberty, however, then and always was the most
precious of all possessions to him, and no one could
make a better use of it. He had two friends in Eng-
land between whom and himself there grew up a more
Lecture VI. 97
than affectionate intimacy. With Dean Colet he
travelled about the country, helped him to found the
St. Paul's School where the late Master of Balliol was
bred, went on pilgrimages, went to the shrine of our
Lady of Walsinghain, visited Becket's tomb at Can-
terbury, saw the saint's dirty shoes which were offered
to the pious to kiss, and gathered the materials for
the excellent pictures of England and English life
which are scattered through his Colloquies. With
Thomas More, who was soon to be knighted, he re-
sided when in London, at the new house which More
had built at Chelsea. And he has left portraits in
words of these two remarkable men as exquisite as
Holbein's drawings of them.
I shall detain you a little over these portraits.
Our own great countrymen are as interesting to us as
Erasmus himself, and the age and the men, and what
they did and said, stand as fresh before us in Eras-
mus's story as if we saw and heard them ourselves.
I keep to Erasmus's own words, with a few com-
pressions and omissions : * —
Colet was born in London, 1466, a few months
before Erasmus himself. His father was twice Lord
Mayor. He was the eldest of twenty-two children, of
whom he was the only survivor, tall in stature, and
well-looking in face. In youth he studied scholas-
tic theology, then read Cicero, and Plato, and Ploti-
nus, aud made himself a first-rate mathematician.
He went abroad, travelled in France and Italy, kept
up his Scotus and Aquinas, but worked besides at the
Early Christian Fathers, while Dante and Petrarch
polished his language. Returning to England, he
left London, settled at Oxford, and lectured on St.
Paid. It was then that my acquaintance with him
began, he being then thirty, I two or three months his
1 Ep. ccccxxxv.
98 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
junior. He had no theological degree, but the whole
University, doctors and all, went to hear him. Henry
VII. took note of him, and made him Dean of St.
Paul's. His first step was to restore discipline in the
Chapter, which had all gone to wreck. He preached
every saint's day to great crowds. He cut down the
household expenses, and abolished suppers and even-
ing parties. At dinner a boy reads a chapter from
Scripture. Colet takes a passage from it, and dis-
courses to the universal delight. Conversation is his
chief pleasure, and he will keep it up till midnight if
he finds a companion. Me he has often taken with
him in his walks, and talks all the time of Christ.
He hates coarse language ; furniture, dress, food,
books, all clean and tidy, but scrupulously plain, and
he wears grey woollen when priests generally go in
purple. With the large fortune which he inherited
from his father he founded and endowed a school at
St. Paul's entirely at his own cost — masters, houses,
salaries, every thing.
There is an entrance examination ; no boy admitted
who cannot read and write. The scholars are in four
classes, a compartment in the schoolroom for each.
Above the head-master's chair is a picture of the
child Christ in the act of teaching ; the Father in the
air above, with a scroll saying " Hear ye Him."
These words were introduced at my suggestion. The
boys salute and sing a hymn on entering and leaving.
Dormitory and dining-room are open and undivided,
and each boy has his own place.
The foundation has been extremely costly, but he
did it all himself, and in selecting trustees (I beg you
to observe this) he chose neither bishops nor priests,
nor members of his own Cathedral Chapter. He ap-
pointed a committee of married laymen of honest rep-
utation, and being asked his reason, he said all human
arrangements were uncertain, but he had observed
generally that such persons were more conscientious
and honest than priests.
He was a man of genuine piety. He was not born
Lecture VI. 99
with it. He was naturally hot, impetuous, and resent-
ful — indolent, fond of pleasure and of women's so-
ciety — disposed to make a joke of everything. He
told me that he had fought against his faults with
study, fasting, and prayer, and thus his whole life
was, in fact, unpolluted with the world's defilements.
His money he gave all to pious uses, worked inces-
santly, talked always on serious subjects to conquer
his disposition to levity ; not but what you could see
traces of the old Adam when wit was flying at feast
or festival. He avoided large parties for this reason.
He dined on a single dish, with a draught or two of
light ale. He liked good wine, but abstained on prin-
ciple. I never knew a man of sunnier nature. No
one ever more enjoyed cultivated society ; but here,
too, he denied himself, and was always thinking of the
life to come.
His opinions were peculiar, and he was reserved in
expressing them for fear of exciting suspicion. He
knew how unfairly men judge each other, how credu-
lous they are of evil, how much easier it is for a lying
tongue to stain a reputation than for a friend to clear
it. But among his friends he spoke his mind freely.
He thought the Scotists, who are considered so clever,
were stupid blockheads. He regarded their word-
splitting, their catching at objections, their minute
sub-dividings, as signs of a starved intellect. He
hated Thomas Aquinas even more than Scotus. I
once praised the " Catena Aurea " to him. He was
silent. I repeated my words. He glanced at me to
see if I was serious, and when he saw that I meant it
he became really angry. Aquinas (he said) would
not have laid down the law so boldly on all things in
heaven and earth if he had not been an arrogant fool,
and he would not have contaminated Christianity with
his preposterous philosophy if he had not been a
worldling at heart.
He had a bad opinion of the monasteries falsely so
called. He gave them little and left them nothing.
He said that morality was always purer among mar-
100 lAfe and Letters of Erasmus.
ried laymen, and yet, though himself absolutely chaste,
he was not very hard on priests and monks who only
sinned with women. He did not make light of im-
purity, but he thought it less criminal than spite and
malice, and envy and vanity and ignorance. The
loose sort were at least made human and modest by
their very faults, and he regarded avarice and arro-
gance as blacker sins in a priest than a hundred con-
cubines.
He had a particular dislike of bishops. He said
they were more like wolves than shepherds. They
sold the sacraments, sold their ceremonies and absolu-
tions. They were slaves of vanity and avarice. He
did not much blame those who doubted whether a
wicked priest could convey sacramental grace, and
was indignant that there were so many of them as to
force the question to be raised.
He disapproved of the great educational institutions
in England. He thought they encouraged idleness.
As little did he like the public schools. Education
was spoilt, he said, when the lessons learnt were
turned to worldly account and made the means of get-
ting on. He was himself learned, but he had no re-
spect for a mass of information gathered out of a
multitude of books. Such laborious wisdom he said
was fatal to sound knowledge and right feeling. He
approved of a fine ritual at church, but he saw no
reason why priests should be always muttering pray-
ers at home or on their walks. He admitted pri-
vately that many things were generally taught which
he did not believe, but he would not create scandal
by blurting out his objections. No book could be so
heretical but he would read it, and read it carefully.
He learnt more from such books than he learnt from
dogmatism and interested orthodoxy.
Such was the famous Colet, seen in undress among
his friends. A dean who hated bishops was not likely
to be on good terms with his own ; and Erasmus adds
a story which introduces suddenly the Court, and the
Lecture VI. 101
Court intrigues ; shows us what Colet thought of the
war with France which I spoke of just now, and how
Fitzjames, the old Bishop of London, tried to bring
him into disgrace with Henry.
I will say no harm of the Bishop of London (says
Erasmus), except that he was a superstitious and
malignant Scotist. I have known other bishops like
him. I must not call them wicked, but I would not
call them Christians either. Colet's discipline was
not popular with the Chapter of Eastminster. 1 They
complained to the old Bishop, who was past eighty.
The Bishop consulted two other bishops, and they
resolved to crush this troublesome Dean. Besides
cutting short the Chapter's suppers, he had said in a
sermon that it was wrong to worship images. He had
denied that the injunction in the Gospel to feed the
sheep was addressed specially to Peter. Finally, he
had objected to the English practice of reading ser-
mons, thereby reflecting on his own Diocesan, who
always read his.
They laid their complaint before the Primate, who
took Colet's side ; so they next applied to the King.
War with France was impending, and the King was
busy with his preparations. The Bishop and a couple
of friars came to him with a story that Colet had been
preaching against it. The King knew Colet and
valued him. Colet's real offence, he well understood,
was his constant exposure of the corruptions and dis-
orders of the Church. He sent for Colet, took no
notice of the Peace Sermon, but bade him care no-
thing for the Bishop's malice, and go on with his
work. lie would bring the right reverend prelates
to their bearings. Colet offered to resign his Dean-
ery sooner than be an occasion of trouble. Henry
would not hear of it, and a Sunday or two after the
1 St. Paul's was called East Minster, corresponding to Westminster.
102 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Dean preached before the Court, when the campaign
in France was just about to begin. He went boldly
at the dangerous subject. He preached on the vic-
tory of Christ, spoke of fighting as a savage business,
intimated that it was not charity to plunge a sword
into another man's bowels — that it would be better
to imitate Christ than to imitate popes like Alex-
ander or Julius.
The war was undertaken at Julius's instigation.
The King himself, only twenty-one, in the enthusiasm
of what was considered a crusade for the Catholic
faith, was himself disturbed, afraid such a sermon
would cool his army's spirits. The bishops flew on
the preacher like so many sparrows on an owl. Colet
was again sent for to Greenwich. It was supposed
that his hour was come. The King received him
in the garden, and dismissing his attendants, said
quietly : " Mr. Dean, I do not mean to interfere with
your good work. I approve heartily of all that you
are doing, but you have raised scruples in me and I
must talk with you."
The conversation lasted an hour and a half. The
Bishop of London was puffing about the Court, think-
ing his enemy was done for. The King only wanted
to know whether in Colet's opinion no war could be
justifiable. Colet did not say as much as this, and
the King was satisfied. They returned together to
the palace. Henry sent for a cup of wine, pledged
him and embraced him. The courtiers crowded round
to hear the issue. The King said, "Let every man
choose his own Doctor. Dean Colet shall be mine."
The wolves gaped, especially the Bishop, and from
this time no one attacked Colet any more.
The sermon on the victory of Christ did not pre-
vent the war. The nation was enthusiastic for it.
Lecture VI. 103
The English armies were brilliantly successful.
Flodden Field was a single incident in the campaign,
and all causes seem just when they are triumphant.
But these things do not concern us here, and I have
touched the subject only for the sake of Colet.
Now for the companion picture of Sir Thomas
More, which is given in a letter from Erasmus to
Ulrich von Hutten. 1 You may have heard of Von
Hutten — he who threatened to carry Luther off by
force from Worms if the safe-conduct was not to be
observed, and to make the Pope's Legate smart for it.
Von Hutten, or a group of anonymous friends of his,
were just producing the " Epistolae obscurorum Viro-
rum " as a caricature on the monks, which set all Eu-
rope laughing. The satire was as gross as Rabelais',
but extremely witty, so witty that the world insisted
that Erasmus must have written it, and when it was
found not to be his, reported that he was convulsed
with laughter over the inimitable humour. Erasmus
said himself that, though he was not particular, the
coarseness disgusted him, and he disowned not only
all share in the work, but all interest in it. It had
not that effect on his friend at Chelsea. Sir T. More,
ardent Catholic as he was, loathed the monks as a
disgrace to the Church, and frankly confessed him-
self delighted with this remarkable production. Von
Hutten was anxious to know more of this English
admirer of the " Epistolse," and wrote to Erasmus
for an account of More.
The task (Erasmus says) is not an easy one, for
not everyone understands More, who is as difficult a
subject as Alexander or Achilles. He is of middle
height, well shaped, complexion pale, without a touch
of colour in it save when the skin flushes. The hair
1 Ep. ccecxlvii., abridged.
104 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
is black, shot with yellow, or yellow shot with black ;
heard scanty, eyes grey, with dark spots — ari eye
supposed in England to indicate genius, and to he
never found except in remarkable men. The expres-
sion is pleasant and cordial, easily passing into a
smile, for he has the quickest sense of the ridiculous
of any man I ever met. The right shoulder is rather
higher than the left, the result of a trick in walking,
not from a physical defect. The rest is in keeping.
The only sign of rusticity is in the hands, which are
slightly coarse. From childhood he has been careless
of appearance, but he has still the charm which I re-
member when I first knew him. His health is good,
though not robust, and he is likely to be long-lived.
His father, though in extreme old age, is still vigor-
ous. He is careless in what he eats. I never saw a
man more so. Like his father, he is a water-drinker.
His food is beef, fresh or salt, bread, milk, fruit, and
especially eggs. His voice is low and unmusical,
though he loves music ; but it is clear and penetrat-
ing. He articulates slowly and distinctly, and never
hesitates.
He dresses plainly ; no silks, or velvets, or gold
chains. He has no concern for ceremony, expects
none from others, and shows little himself. He holds
forms and courtesies unworthy of a man of sense, and
for that reason has hitherto kept clear of the Court.
All Courts are full of intrigue. There is less of it in
England than elsewhere, for there are no affectations
in the King; but More loves freedom, and likes to
have his time to himself. He is a true friend. When
he finds a man to be of the wrong sort, he lets him
drop, but he enjoys nothing so much as the society of
those who suit him and whose character he approves.
Gambling of all kinds, balls, dice, and such like, he
detests. None of that sort are to be found about him.
In short, he is the best type of companion.
His talk is charming, full of fun, but never scurri-
lous or malicious. He used to act plays when young ;
wit delights him, though at his own expense ; he
Lecture VI. 105
writes smart epigrams ; he set me on my " Encomium
Moriae" (of which I shall speak presently). It was
like setting a camel to dance, but he can make fun of
anything. He is wise with the wise, and jests with
fools — with women specially, and his wife among
them. He is fond of animals of all kinds, and likes
to watch their habits. All the birds in Chelsea come
to him to be fed. He has a menagerie of tame
beasts, a monkey, a fox, a ferret, and a weasel. He
buys any singular thing which is brought to him.
His house is a magazine of curiosities, which he de-
lights in showing off.
He had his love affairs when young, but none that
compromised him ; he was entertained by the girls
running after him. He studied hard also at that time
at Greek and philosophy. His father wanted him to
work at English law, but he didn't like it. The law
in England is the high road to fame and fortune, and
many peerages have risen out of that profession. But
they say it requires years of labour. More had no
taste that way, Nature having designed him for better
things. Nevertheless, after drinking deep in litera-
ture he did make himself a lawyer, and an excellent
one. No opinion is sought more eagerly than his or
more highly paid for. He worked at divinity besides,
and lectured to large audiences on Augustine's " De
Civitate Dei." Priests and old men were not ashamed
to learn from him. His original wish was to be a
priest himself. He prepared for it with fast, and
prayer, and vigil, unlike most, who rush into ordina-
tion without preparation of any kind. He gave it up
because he fell in love, and he thought a chaste hus-
band was better than a profligate clerk. The wife
that he chose was a very young lady, well connected
but wholly uneducated, who had been brought up in
the country with her parents. Thus he was able to
shape her character after his own pattern. He taught
her books. He taught her music, and formed her into
a companion for his life. Unhappily she was taken
from him by death before her time. She bore him
106 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
several children : three daughters, Margaret, Cecilia,
and Louisa, who are still with him, and one son, John.
A few months after he had buried her he married a
widow to take care of them. This lady, he often said
with a laugh, was neither young nor pretty ; but she
was a good manager, and he lived as pleasantly with
her as if she had been the loveliest of maidens. He
rules her with jokes and caresses better than most
husbands do with sternness and authority, and though
she has a sharp tongue and is a thrifty housekeeper,
he has made her learn harp, cithern, and guitar, and
practise before him every day.
He controls his family with the same easy hand:
no tragedies, no quarrels. If a dispute begins it is
promptly settled. He has never made an enemy nor
become an enemy. His whole house breathes happi-
ness, and no one enters it who is not the better for the
visit. The father also made a second marriage, and
More was as dutiful to his stepmother as he was to his
own mother. She died, and the old man took a third
wife, and More swore he had never known a better
woman. He troubles neither his parents nor his
children with excess of attention, but lie neglects no
duty to either. He is indifferent to money. He sets
apart so much of his income as will make a future
provision for his family ; the rest he spends or gives
away. It is large, and arises from his profession as
an advocate, but he always advises his clients for the
best, and recommends them to settle their disputes
out of Court. For a time he was a judge in civil
causes. The work was not severe, but the position
was honourable. No judge finished off more causes
or was more upright, and he often remitted the fees.
He was exceedingly liked in the city. He was satis-
fied, and had no higher ambition. Eventually he was
forced upon a foreign mission, and conducted himself
so well that the King would not afterwards part with
him, and dragged him into the circle of the Court.
"Dragged" is the word, for no one ever struggled
harder to gain admission there than More struggled
Lecture VI. 107
to escape. But the King was bent on surrounding
himself with the most capable men in his dominions.
He insisted that More should make one of them, and
now he values him so highly, both as a companion
and as a Privy Councillor, that he will scarcely let
him out of his sight.
More has been never known to accept a present.
Happy the commonwealth where the magistrates are
of such material ! Elevation has not elated him or
made him forget his humble friends, and he returns
whenever he can to his beloved books. He is always
kind, always generous. Some he helps with money,
some with influence. When he can give nothing else
he gives advice. He is Patron-General to all poor
devils.
The history of his connection with me was this. In
his early life he was a versifier, and he came to me to
improve his style. Since that time he has written a
good deal. He has written a dialogue defending
Plato's community of wives. He has answered Lu-
cian's " Tyrannicida." He wanted me to take the
other side, that he might the better test his skill.
His "Utopia" was written to indicate the dangers
which threatened the English commonwealth. The
second part was written first. The other was added
afterwards. You can trace a difference in the style.
He has a fine intellect and an excellent memory ; in-
formation all arranged and pigeon-holed to be ready
for use. He is so ready in argument that he can
puzzle the best divines on their own subjects. Colet,
a good judge on such points, says More has more
genius than any man in England. He is religious,
but without superstition. He has his hours for prayer,
but he uses no forms, and prays out of his heart. He
will talk with his friends about a life to come, and you
can see that he means it and has real hopes. Such is
More, and More is an English courtier, and people
fancy that no Christians are to be found outside mon-
asteries. The King not only admits such men into
his Court, but he invites them — forces them — that
108 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
they may be in a position to watch all that he does,
and share his duties and his pleasures. He prefers
the companionship of men like More to that of silly
youths or girls, or the rich, or the dishonest, who
might tempt him to foolish indulgences or injurious
courses. If you were here in England, my dear
Huttcn, you would leave off abusing Courts. A gal-
axy of distinguished men now surrounds the English
throne.
The subject of this beautiful picture had built
himself, as I said before, a house on the Thames at
Chelsea. It was of moderate and unpretentious
dimensions, with a garden leading down to the river,
not far from where Carlyle's statue now stands, or
sits. The life there, as Erasmus elsewhere says, was
like the life in Plato's Academy, and there Erasmus
was a permanent guest whenever he was in London.
No two men ever suited each other better, their intel-
lectual differences only serving to give interest to their
conversations, while both had that peculiar humour
which means at bottom the power of seeing things as
they really are, undisguised by conventional wrap-
pings. More's mind was free and noble. Erasmus
told Hutten that he was without superstition. Else-
where, however, he allows that there was a vein of it,
and that vein, as the sky blackened with the storm of
the Reformation, swelled and turned him into a perse-
cutor. Men who have been themselves reformers are
the least tolerant when the movement takes forms
which they dislike. Erasmus's inclination was to
scepticism. He owns surprise that More was entirely
satisfied with the evidence for a future life. Both,
however, were united in a conviction of the serious-
ness of mortal existence. Both abhorred the hypoc-
risy of the monks, the simony and worldliness of the
Church, and knew that without a root and branch
Lecture VI 109
alteration of things a catastrophe was not far off.
Each went his way — More to reaction and Tower /
Hill ; Erasmus to aid in precipitating the convulsion,
then to regret what he had done, and to have a near
escape of ending as a cardinal. Never, however, while
they both lived, was their affection for one another
clouded or weakened.
Pity that we know so little of their talks together
on all things, human and divine, as they strolled by
the side of the then Silver River. A Chelsea tradi-
tion, perhaps authentic, preserves a trace of what may
have passed between them on the great central ques-
tion which was about to divide the Christian world.
Erasmus was leaving Chelsea on some riding ex-
pedition. More provided him with a horse, which for
some cause was not returned at the time when it was
looked for. Instead of the horse came a letter, with
the following lines : —
Quod milri dixisti
De corpore Christi
Crede quod edas et edis ;
Sic tibi rescribo
De tuo paifrido
Crede quod habeas et habes.
The controversy on the Eucharist had not yet risen
into contradictory definitions ; but doubt on the great
mystery was in the air, and the friends had argued
about it. More believed in the Real Presence ; Eras-
mus believed in it too, though with latent misgivings.
But More, without knowing it, had blundered into the
Lutheran heresy, and had held that the change in the
elements depended on the faith of the recipient.
LECTUEE VII.
Erasmus continued to linger in England after he
had discovered that the expectations which he had
formed from the King's invitation were likely to be
disappointed. He may have thought that the dis-
appointment was due only to the war, and that with
the return of peace his English prospects might
brighten again. Julius II., besides, had set the Con-
tinent in a flame. Henry's army was on the frontier
of the Netherlands, besieging towns in the glow of a
successful campaign, and Paris might have been an
unpleasant residence just then to a man who had
become half an Englishman and was anxious to be-
come a whole one. He was busy, too, printing his
" Jerome " — printing it at his own expense, and
money was again not plentiful with him. His New
Testament was approaching completion, but it kept
him hard at work, with clerks and secretaries whom
he had to find in wages. His patron, Mountjoy, was
with the King. The campaign was costly, and the
pension which Mountjoy had promised could not yet
be paid. Thus Erasmus had remained on in England,
waiting for the turn of events, and finally, wishing to
do something, he was induced by Fisher, Bishop of
Rochester, and then Chancellor of the University, to
go back to Cambridge and lecture for a time to classes
there, not with any intention of a permanent resi-
dence, but to employ his time, and perhaps avail him-
self of the college libraries.
Of his earlier Cambridge experiences, in 1506, we
Lecture VII Ill
know nothing beyond the fact that he was some
months resident and teaching Greek there. On this
last occasion we have again his own letters to guide
us, which give us a tolerably distinct view of his
position. It is almost a matter of course that we
should find him in his old straits for money.
A letter to Colet, written a few days after his ar-
rival, describes his journey and the condition in which
he found himself. Cambridge did not seem to have
been conscious how great a man she was entertaining. 1
If you can be amused at my misfortunes, I can make
you laugh. After my accident in London 2 my ser-
vant's horse fell lame, and I could find no one to attend
to it. Next day heavy rain till dinner-time. In the
afternoon thunder, lightning, and hail. My own horse
fell on his head, and my companion, after consulting
the stars, informed me that Jupiter was angry. On
the whole, I am well satisfied with what I find here.
I have a prospect of Christian poverty. Far from
making any money, I shall have to spend all that I
can get from my Maecenas. 3 We have a doctor at the
University who has invented a Prophylactic of the
Fifth Essence, with which he promises to make old
men young, and bring dead men back to life, so that I
may hope if I swallow some of it to recover my own
youth. If this prove true, I came to Cambridge on a
happy day. But I see no chance of fees. . Nothing
can be extracted from the naked. I am not myself a
bad fellow, but I was surely born under an evil star.
Adieu, my dear Protector. When I have started my
professional work, I will let you know how I go on,
and give you more amusement. Perhaps I may even —
so audacious I grow — attack your Lectures on St.
Paul.
War was now raging by sea and land. The Empire,
1 Ep. cxvii.
2 I don't know what that wag,
8 Archbishop Warhain.
112 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Spain and England combined with the Pope against
Louis XII., Scotland declaring for Louis and threat-
ening the English Border. Ammonias, an Italian
agent of the Pope in London, was to accompany the
English army abroad and attend the campaign. He
was a friend of Erasmus, and had lent him money.
To him also Erasmus wrote on reaching Cambridge •} —
I have no news for you except that my journey was
detestable, and that this place does not agree with me.
I have pleaded sickness so far as an excuse for postpon-
ing my lectures. Beer does not suit me either, and
the wine is horrible. If you can send me a barrel of
Greek wine, the best which can be had, Erasmus will
bless you ; only take care it is not sweet. Have no
uneasiness about your loan ; it will be paid before the
date of the bill. Meanwhile I am being killecl with
thirst. Imagine the rest. Farewell.
v O J
It is epiite clear that Erasmus did not mean to re-
main long at Cambridge. Ammonias goes to France,
sees the fighting, and sends Erasmus a flourishing
account of it. Erasmas answers : 2 —
The plague is in London, so I remain where I am,
but I shall get away on the first opportunity. The
thirty nobles which are due to me at Michaelmas have
not yet arrived. My "Jerome" engages all my
thoughts. I am printing it at my own cost, and the
expense is heavy. You give a splendid picture of your
doings in the campaign. The snorting of the horses,
the galloping, the shouts of the men, the blare of the
trumpets, the gasping of the sick, and the groans, of
the dying. I have it all before me. You will have
something to talk of for the rest of your life. But re-
member my advice to you. Fight yourself where the
1 Ep. exviii. — The dates assigned to the letters from Cambridge to
Ammonius are hopeless. They are represented as written in 1510 and
1511. There are continual references in them to the war of 1513.
2 Ep. cxix.
Lecture VII. 113
danger is least. Keep your valour for your pen. Re-
member me to the Abbot of St. Bertin when you are
at St. Omer.
The Cambridge letters generally are in the same
tone. They show little interest in the University, or
in Erasmus's occupations there, or in the eminent per-
sons whom he must have met. We have no intellect-
ual symposia such as had delighted him in Oxford, no
more Colets or Grocyns, though one can fancy that he
must at least have encountered Cranmer there, and
possibly Latimer. He writes chiefly about his discom-
forts and on his chances of getting away for a week or
two to visit Colet or More. The Greek wine was duly
sent and paid for with a set of ardently grateful verses.
The cask was soon emptied, and the thirsty soul had,
he said, but the scent of it left to console him. Mount-
joy had promised him the use of his house in London.
He rode up and presented himself, but Mountjoy was
at the war, and his " Cerberus," as Erasmus called the
porter, refused to admit him in his master's absence.
He went back to the University. There were highway-
men on the road, and though he escaped plunder, he
did not escape a fright. A fresh supply of Greek
wine was provided. The carriers found out its qual-
ity, drank half of it, and filled up the barrel with wa-
ter. His only happiness was in his work. He lived,
he said, as a cockle in his shell. Cambridge was a
solitude. The plague had spread there, and the stu-
dents had mostly gone down. Even if they had been
in residence, he would have seen but little of them, for
his lecture-room was thinly attended. The cost of liv-
ing was intolerable. In the first five months of his stay
he had spent sixty nobles and had received but one.
When January came, and the cold weather with it, he
had an attack of stone, brought on by the beer and the
114 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
water in the wine, and he poured ont his lamentations
to Warham with more eloquence than the Archbishop
thought the occasion called for.
The stone was the favourite subject for English wit.
Warham trusted that, as it was the Feast of the Puri-
fication, the enemy would soon be cleared out.
What business have you (was the Archbishop's
light reply J ) with such a superfluous load as stones in
your small body, or what do you propose to build su-
per hanc petram ? Stones are heavy carriage, as I
know to my cost when I want them for building pur-
poses. I presume you do not contemplate building a
palace, so have them carted away, and I send you ten
angels to help you to rid yourself of the burden. Gold
is a good medicine. Use it freely, and recover your
health. I would give you a great deal more to set you
up again. You have work to do and more books to
edit, so get well and do it, and do not cheat us of our
hopes.
No wonder Erasmus loved Warham. He was proud
besides to have so great a man for his patron, and he
made the most of it to impress his friends in the Neth-
erlands that he was living with creditable people in
England. He tells the Abbot of St. Bertin that he
has become half an Englishman, that the first men in
the country had taken him under their protection, that
he had found a Maecenas in the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, a Maecenas, too, with fine qualities of his own —
learned, witty, gracious — so gracious that no one ever
left his presence with a heavy heart, so little proud
that he was himself the only person unconscious of his
merits. 2
But if Warham's ten angels had been ten legions of
angels, as the Archbishop said he wished they had
1 Ep. cxxxiv.
2 Ep. exxxv.
Lecture VII 115
been, they would not have comforted the sensitive
Erasmus for his captivity among the fogs and dons of
Cambridge. He pined for Italy and Italian wine and
sunshine, and cursed his folly for having left Rome.
Never can I forget your goodness to me (he writes
to a member of the Sacred College 2 ). Would that I
could find some water of Lethe to wash Rome out of
my memory. The remembrance of it tortures me.
That sky, those parks, those walks and libraries, that
charming companionship with men who are the lights
of the world, that wealth in possession, and those hopes
which gleamed before me. Alas ! why did I leave
them ? The Archbishop of Canterbury is my only
comfort. He is father and mother to me, and he is a
good friend to Rome besides, as all the realm is. Pray
God it so continue.
The Cambridge purgatory lasted for many months,
and the pains of it did not abate. His impatience bub-
bled over in restlessness. Ammonius is advanced to
some high dignity. Erasmus writes to congratulate
him, and to relate his own condition. 2
I was badly confined on the Conception of the Virgin
Mary, and brought forth stones ; consider them among
the pebbles of my felicity. You ask me how you are
to conduct yourself in your new elevation. I will tell
you. " Sus Minervam " — the pig will teach Pallas and
will drop philosophy. Make your forehead of brass,
and be ashamed of nothing. Thrust rivals out of the
way with your elbow. Love no one. Hate no one.
Think first and always of your own advantage. Give
nothing save when you know that you will receive it
back with interest, and agree in words to everything
which is said to you. To all this you will of course
have an answer. Well, then, to be more particular.
The P^nglish are a jealous race, as I need not tell you.
Take advantage of this infirmity of theirs. Sit on two
1 Cardinali Nanetensi, Ep. cxxxvi.
2 Ep. cxlii.
116 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
chairs. Bribe suitors to pay court to you. Tell your
employers that you must leave them. Show them let-
ters intimating - that you are invited elsewhere and are
promised some distinguished post. Draw back out of
society, that yon may be missed and asked after.
An evident bitterness runs through these Cambridge
letters. He regretted Rome. The Lady of Vere and
her son had made some fresh proposals to him. He
was sorry that he had rejected them, and hoped that it
was not too late. He had been led, he said, to form
extravagant expectations in England. He had looked
for mountains of gold, and it had been all illusion. He
was now poor as Ulysses, and, like Ulysses, he said he
was lonsriner for a sio-ht of the smoke from his own
chimney. 1 The Lord of Vere might provide for him.
He even thought that his own sovereign, the Emperor
Maximilian, might provide for him. At any rate, he
considered himself ill off where he was.
Not (he writes to the Abbot of St. Bertin 2 ) that I
dislike England, or complain of my English patrons.
I have many friends here among the bishops and lead-
ing men. The Archbishop of Canterbury is a father
to me. He gave me a benefice. I resigned it, and he
gave me a pension in exchange, with further additions
from himself. Other great people have been good to
me too, and I might have more if I chose to ask for it.
But this war has turned the nation's head. All articles
have gone up in price, and the bad wine gives me the
stone. At best, too, an island is a place of banish-
ment, and the war isolates us still worse. Letters can
hardly pass in or out. I often wonder how human
beings, especially Christian human beings, can be so
mad as to go fighting with one another. Beasts do not
fight, or only the most savage kinds of them, and they
only fight for food with the weapons which Nature has
given them. Men fight for ambition, for anger, for
1 Ep. cxliii.
2 Ep. cxliv., abridged.
Lecture VII 117
lust, or other folty, and the justest war can hardly ap-
prove itself to any reasonable person. Who make up
armies? Cutthroats, adulterers, gamblers, ravishers,
mercenaries. And we are to receive this scum of
mankind into our towns ! We are to make ourselves
their slaves while they commit horrid crimes, and those
suffer most who have had least concern in the quar-
rel. The people build cities, the princes destroy
them, and even victory brings more ill than good.
We must not lightly blame our princes ; but is the
world to be convulsed because the rulers fall out ? I
would give all that I possess in England to see Chris-
tendom at peace. You have influence with the Arch-
duke and the Emperor Maximilian and the politicians.
I wish you would exert it.
The war was to cease in due time. Pope Julius had
brought it on : with Julius's death in 1513 it ended.
Leo X. succeeded, and brought peace with him. Henry
married his sister Mary to King Louis, and all quar-
rels were made up. Meanwhile Erasmus lingered on,
in financial difficulties as usual, and Colet, who did not
quite approve of the carelessness which caused them,
offered to relieve him, on condition that he would beg
for help in a humble manner. The satire was not un-
deserved, and it stung. 1
In your offer of money (Erasmus answers) I recog-
nise the old Colet ; but there is one phrase in your
letter which hurts me, though you use it but in jest.
You say you will give si humiliter mendicavero. You
think me proud, perhaps, and would put me to shame.
" Si humiliter mendicavero et si inverecimde petain,"
How can humility go with impudence ? A friend is
not a friend who waits for the word Rogo. What, I
beseech you, can be more undignified or more con-
temptible than the position in which I am placed in
England of being a public beggar ? I have received so
much from the Archbishop that it would be wicked in
1 Ep. el., abridged.
118 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
me to take further advantage of him. I begged boldly
enough of N , and I received a point-blank refusal.
Even Linacre, though he knew that I had but six
angels left, that I was in bad health, and with winter
coming on, admonished me to spare Mountjoy and the
Archbishop, to reduce my expenses, and put up with
being poor. Truly admirable advice. I concealed my
condition as long as I could. I cannot conceal it
longer, unless I am to be left to die. But, indeed, I am
not so lost to shame as to beg, least of all to beg from
you, who I know are ill-provided just now. I have no
right to ask you for anything; but if you choose to
have it so, I will accept what you may please to give.
The postscript of this letter contains the only glimpses
which we have of Erasmus's intercourse with the Cam-
bridge dignitaries. It is curious and characteristic.
Here (he adds) is something to amuse you. I was
talking to some of the masters about the junior teach-
ers. One of them, a great man in his way, exclaimed,
" Who would spend his life in instructing boys if he
could earn a living in any other way ? " I said that
instructing the young was an honest occupation. Christ
had not despised children, and no labour was so sure of
return. A man of piety woidd feel that he could not
employ his time better than in bringing little ones to
Christ. My gentleman turned up his nose, and said
that if we were to give ourselves to Christ we had bet-
ter join a regular order and go into a monastery. " St.
Paid," I replied, " considers that religion means works
of charity, and charity means helping others." He
would not have this at all. Religion meant the nos
reliquimus omnia. That was the only counsel of per-
f ection. I told him that a man had not left everything
who refused to undertake a useful calling because he
thought it beneath him. And so our conversation
ended. Such is the wisdom of the Scotists.
With this, too, may end the squalid period of Eras-
mus's life, for squalid it had been, notwithstanding the
Lecture VII. 119
fame which he had won, and the occasional gleams of
sunshine which had floated over it. Hitherto the world
had known him chiefly through the " Adagia," a few
poems, and light, graceful treatises like " The Knight's
Manual," and had recognised in him a brilliant va-
grant and probably dangerous man of letters. The
vagrant's gown had a silver lining. Through all these
struggling years he had been patiently labouring at
his New Testament, and he was now to blaze before
Europe as a new star. I must say a few words on
what the appearance of that book meant.
The Christian religion as taught and practised in
Western Europe consisted of the Mass and the Con-
fessional, of elaborate ceremonials, rituals, proces-
sions, pilgrimages, prayers to the Virgin and the
saints, with dispensations and indulgences for laws
broken or duties left undone. Of the Gospels and
Epistles so much only was known to the laity as was
read in the Church services, and that intoned as if to
be purposely unintelligible to the understanding. Of
the rest of the Bible nothing was known at all, be-
cause nothing was supposed to be necessary, and lec-
tures like Colet's at Oxford were considered super-
fluous and dangerous. Copies of the Scripture were
rare, shut up in convent libraries, and studied only by
professional theologians ; while conventional interpre-
tations were attached to the text which corrupted or
distorted its meaning. Erasmus had undertaken to
give the book to the whole world to read for itself —
the original Greek of the Epistles and Gospels, with
a new Latin translation — to wake up the intelligence,
to show that the words had a real sense, and were not
mere sounds like the dronings of a barrel-organ.
It was finished at last, text and translation printed,
and the living facts of Christianity, the persons of
120 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Christ and the Apostles, their history, their lives, their
teaching were revealed to an astonished world. For
the first time the laity were able to see, side by side,
the Christianity which converted the world, and the
Christianity of the Church with a Borgia pope, card-
inal princes, ecclesiastical courts, and a mythology of
lies. The effect was to be a spiritual earthquake.
Erasmus had not been left to work without encour-
agement. He had found friends, even at Rome itself,
among the members of the Sacred College, who were
weary of imposture and had half held out their hands
to him. The Cardinal de Medici, who had succeeded
Julius as Leo X., and aspired to shine as the patron
of enlightenment, had approved Erasmus's under-
taking, and was ready to give it his public sanction.
Nor had Erasmus either flattered pojjes or flattered
anyone to gain their good word. He might flatter
when he wanted money out of a bishop or a fine lady :
he was never false to intellectual truth. To his edi-
tion of the New Testament he had attached remarks
appropriate to the time, and sent them floating with
it through the world, which must have made the hair
of orthodox divines stand on end,
" Like quills upon the fretful porcupine."
Each gospel, each epistle had its preface ; while notes
were attached to special passages to point their force
upon the established usages. These notes increased
in point and number as edition followed edition, and
were accompanied with paraphrases to bring out the
meanings with livelier intensity. A single candle
shone far in the universal darkness. That a pope
should have been found to allow the lia-htinp; of it is
the most startling feature in Reformation history.
I shall read you some of these notes, and ask you to
attend to them. Erasmus opens with a complaint of
Lecture VII 121
the neglect of Scripture, of a priesthood who thought
more of offertory plates than of parchments, and more
of gold than of books ; of the degradation of spiritual
life, and of the vain observances and scandalous prac-
tices of the orders specially called religious. From
his criticisms on particular passages I will take spe-
cimens here and there, to show you how he directed the
language of evangelists and apostles on the abuses of
his own age.
Matthew xix. 12 — " Eunuchs, which have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."
This text was a special favourite with the religious
orders. Erasmus observes : —
Men are threatened or tempted into vows of celi-
bacy. They can have license to go with harlots, but
they must not marry wives. They may keep concu-
bines and remain priests. If they take wives they are
thrown to the flames. Parents who design their chil-
dren for a celibate priesthood should emasculate them
in their infancy, instead of forcing them, reluctant or
ignorant, into a furnace of licentiousness.
Matthew xxiii., on the Scribes and Pharisees : —
You may find a bishop here and there who teaches
the Gospel, though life and teaching have small agree-
ment. But what shall we say of those who destroy
the Gospel itself, make laws at their will, tyrannise
over the laity, and measure right and wrong with rides
constructed by themselves? Of those who entangle
their flocks in the meshes of crafty canons, who sit
not in the seat of the Gospel, but in the seat of Caia-
phas and Simon Magus — prelates of evil, who bring
disgrace and discredit on their worthier brethren ?
Again, in the same chapter, verse 27, on whited
sepulchres : —
What would Jerome say could he see the Virgin's
milk exhibited for money, with as much honour paid
122 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
to it as to the consecrated body of Christ ; the mirac-
ulous oil ; the portions of the true cross, enough if
they were collected to freight a large ship ? Here we
have the hood of St. Francis, there Our Lady's petti-
coat or St. Anne's comb, or St. Thomas of Canter-
bury's shoes ; not presented as innocent aids to reli-
gion, but as the substance of religion itself ■ — and all
through the avarice of priests and the hypocrisy of
monks playing on the credulity of the people. Even
bishops play their parts in these fantastic shows, and
approve and dwell on them in their rescripts.
Again, Matthew xxiv. 23, on " Lo, here is Christ,
or there": —
I (Erasmus says) saw with my own eyes Pope
Julius II. at Bologna, and afterwards at Rome,
marching at the head of a triumphal procession as if
he were Pompey or Caesar. St. Peter subdued the
world with faith, not with arms or soldiers or military
engines. St. Peter's successors would win as many
victories as St. Peter won if they had Peter's spirit.
Ignatius Loyola once looked into Erasmus's New
Testament, read a little, and could not go on. He
said it checked his devotional emotions. Very likely
it did.
Again, Corinthians xiv. 19, on unknown tongues : —
St. Paul says he would rather speak five words with
a reasonable meaning in them than ten thousand in an
unknown tongue. They chant nowadays in our
churches in what is an unknown tongue and nothing-
else, while you will not hear a sermon once in six
months telling people to amend their lives. 1 Modern
church music is so constructed that the congregation
cannot hear one distinct word. The choristers them-
selves do not understand what they are singing, yet
according to priests and monks it constitutes the whole
1 Was Erasmus writing prophetically of our own Auglo-Catholic re-
vivalists ?
Lecture VII. 123
of religion. Why will they not listen to St. Paul?
In college or monastery it is still the same : music,
nothing; but music. There was no music in St. Paul's
time. Words were then pronounced plainly. Words
nowadays mean nothing. They are mere sounds
striking upon the ear, and men are to leave their work
and go to church to listen to worse noises than were
ever heard in Greek or Roman theatre. Money must
be raised to buy organs and train boys to squeal, and
to learn no other thing that is good for them. The
laity are burdened to support miserable, poisonous
corybantes, when poor, starving creatures might be
fed at the cost of them.
They have so much of it in England that the monks
attend to nothing else. A set of creatures who ought
to be lamenting their sins fancy they can please God
by gurgling in their throats. Boys are kept in the
English Benedictine colleges solely and simply to sing
morning hymns to the Virgin. If they want music
let them sing Psalms like rational beings, and not too
many of those.
Again, Ephesians v. 4, on filthiness and foolish
talking : —
Monks and priests have a detestable trick of bur-
lesquing Scripture. When they wish to be specially
malicious, they take the Magnificat or the Te Deum
and introduce infamous words into them, making
themselves as hateful when they would be witty as
when they are serious.
1 Timothy i. G, on vain disputations : —
Theologians are never tired of discussing the modes
of sin, whether it be a privation in the soul or a spot
on the soul. Why is it not enough simply to hate
sin? Again, we have been disputing for ages whether
the grace by which God loves us and the grace by
which we love God are one and the same grace. We
dispute how the Father differs from the Son, and both
from the Holy Ghost, whether it be a difference of
124 Life and Letters of Erasynus.
fact or a difference of relation, and how three can be
one when neither of the three is the other. We dis-
pute how the material fire which is to torture wicked
souls can act on a substance which is not material.
Entire lives are wasted on these speculations, and
men quarrel and curse and come to blows about them.
Then there are endless questionings about baptism,
about synaxis, about penance, when no answer is possi-
ble, and the answer, if we could find one, would be
useless to us. 1 Again, about God's power and the
Pope's power. Can God order men to do ill ? Can
He order them, for instance, to hate Himself, or to
abstain from doing good or from loving Him ? Can
God produce an infinite in all dimensions? Could
He have made the world better than it is ? Can He
make a man incapable of sin ? Can He reveal to any
man whether he will be saved or damned ? Can He
understand anything which has no relation to Him-
self ? Can He create a universal which has no partic-
ulars ? Can He be comprehended under a predicate ?
Can the creating power be communicated to a crea-
ture ? Can He make a thing done not to have been
done ? Can He make a harlot into a virgin ? Can
the three Persons assume the same nature at the same
time ? Is the proposition that God is a beetle or a
pumpkin as probable antecedently as the proposition
that God is man? Did God assume individual hu-
manity or personal humanity? Are the Divine per-
sons numerically three, or in what sense three? Or,
again, of the Pope — can a Pope annul a decree of an
Apostle? Can he make a decree which contradicts
the Gospel ? Can he add a new article to the Creed ?
Has he greater power than Peter, or the same power ?
Can he command angels ? Can he abolish purgatory ?
Is the Pope man, or is he quasi-God, or has he both
natures, like Christ? It is not recorded that Christ
delivered a soul out of purgatory. Is the Pope more
merciful than Christ ? Can the Pope be mistaken ?
Hundreds of such questions are debated by distin-
1 Synaxis was an explanation of the Real Presence.
Lecture VII 125
giiished theologians, and the objects of them are bet-
ter unknown than known. It is all vanity. Com-
pared with Christ, the best of men are but worms.
Do they imagine they will please Pope Leo? The
schoolmen have been arguing for generations whether
the proposition that Christ exists from eternity is
correctly stated ; whether He is compounded of two
natures or consists of two natures ; whether He is
conjlatus, or commixtus, or cong hit hiatus, or coaug-
mentatus, or -gcmhuitus., or copulatus. The present
opinion is that neither of these participles is right,
and we are to have a new word, unitus, which still is
to explain nothing. If they are asked if the human
nature is united to the Divine, they say it is a pious
opinion. If asked whether the Divine Nature is
united to the human, they hesitate and will not affirm,
And all this stuff, of which we know nothing and are
not required to know anything, they treat as the cita-
del of our faith.
They say that " person " does not signify relation
of origin, but duplex negation of communicability in
genere, that is, it connotes something positive, and in
a noun of the first instance, not the second. They
say the persons of the Divine Nature exist recipro-
cally by circumincession, and circumincession is when
a thing subsists really in something else which is
really distinct, by the mutual assistance of presential-
ity in the same essence. They define the personal or
hypostatic union as the relation of a real disquipara-
tion in one extreme, with no correspondent at the
other. The union of the Word in Christ is a relation
introduced from without, and this relation is not that
of an effect to a cause, but of a sustentificate to a
sustentificans.
Over speculations like these theologians professing
to teach Christianity have been squandering their
lives. One of them, an acquaintance of my own, told
me that nine years of study would not enable me to
understand the preface of Scotus to Peter Lombard.
Another told me that to understand a single proposi-
126 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
tion of Scotus I must know the whole of his " Meta-
physics."
So much on scholastic theology. We turn next to
practice. 1 Timothy iii. 2, on " the husband of one
wife " : —
Because (says Erasmus) in an age when priests
were few and widely scattered St. Paul directed that
no one should be made a bishop who had been
married a second time, bishops, priests, and deacons
are now forbidden to marry at all. Other qualifica-
tions are laid down by St. Paul as required for a
bishop's office, a long list of them. But not one at
present is held essential, except this one of abstinence
from marriage. Homicide, parricide, incest, piracy,
sodomy, sacrilege, these can be got over, but marriage
is fatal. There are priests now in vast numbers,
enormous herds of them, seculars and regulars, and it
is notorious that very few of them are chaste. The
great proportion fall into lust and incest, and open
profligacy. It would surely be better if those who
cannot contain should be allowed lawful wives of
their own, and so escape this foul and miserable pol-
lution. In the world we live in the celibates are
many and the chaste are few. A man is not chaste
who abstains only because the law commands him,
and such of our modern clergy as keep themselves
out of mischief do it more from fear of the law than
from conscience. They dread losing their benefices
or missing their promotions.
Such are extracts from the reflections upon the
doctrine and discipline of the Catholic Church which
were launched upon the world in the notes to the
New Testament by Erasmus, some on the first publi-
cation, some added as edition followed edition. They
were not thrown out as satires, or in controversial
tracts or pamphlets. They were deliberate accusa-
tions attached to the sacred text, where the religion
Lecture VII 127
which was taught by Christ and the Apostles and the
degenerate superstition which had taken its place
could be contrasted side by side. Nothing was
spared ; ritual and ceremony, dogmatic theology,
philosophy, and personal character were tried by
what all were compelled verbally to acknowledge to
be the standard whose awful countenance was now
practically revealed for the first time for many cen-
turies. Bishops, seculars, monks were dragged out to
judgment, and hung as on a public gibbet, in the
light of the pages of the most sacred of all books,
published with the leave and approbation of the Holy
Father himself.
Never was volume more passionately devoured. A
hundred thousand copies were soon sold in France
alone. The fire spread, as it spread behind Sam-
son's foxes in the Philistines' corn. The clergy's
skins were tender from long impunity. They shrieked
from pulpit and platform, and made Europe ring
with their clamour. The louder they cried the more
clearly Europe perceived the justice of their chastise-
ment. The words of the Bible have been so long
familiar to us that we can hardly realise what the
effect must have been when the Gospel was brought
out fresh and visible before the astonished eyes of
mankind.
The book was not actually published till Erasmus
had left England, but the fame of it had anticipated
its appearance. The ruling powers of the Netherlands
had determined at last to reclaim their most brilliant
citizen, and to make a formal provision for him.
England this time had seen the last of Erasmus. He
was never to return to it again, or at least not for a
protracted stay. His chief distress was at parting
from his friends. Before he sailed he spent a fort-
128 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
night with Bishop Fisher at Rochester. Sir Thomas
More came down there to see the last of him, and the
meeting and parting of these three is doubly affecting
when one thinks of what Erasmus was to become and
to do, and of the fate which was waiting More and
Fisher in a storm which Erasmus was to do so much
to raise.
Little could either they or their guest have dreamt
of what was to be. Doubtless they believed that,
with a liberal Pope Leo, there was an era before
them of moderate reform. One would give much for
a record of their talk. The spiritual world was not
then draped in solemn inanities. Bishops wore no
wigs, not even aprons or gaiters, and warm blood ran
in the veins of the future martyrs and the scholar of
Rotterdam. They could jest at the ridiculous. The
condition of the Church was a comedy as well as a
tragedy, a thing for laughter and a thing for tears —
the laughter, it is likely, predominating. Out of this
Rochester visit grew the wittiest of all Erasmus's
writings, the " Encomium Morise," or " Praise of
Folly," with a play upon More's name. It was com-
posed at More's instigation, first sketched at Chelsea,
then talked over at Rochester, cast finally into form
on a ride from Calais to Brussels, where it was writ-
ten down with a week's labour.
Of the " Praise of Folly " I shall speak to you in
the next lecture.
LECTURE VIII.
I am going - to speak to you this evening about the
" Encomium MoriaB," if not the most remarkable, yet
the most effective of all Erasmus's writings. It ori-
ginated, as I told you, in his conversations with More
at Chelsea. It was put into form and words at inter-
vals after Erasmus's return to the Continent, and the
title is a humorous play on More's own name. It
was brought out almost simultaneously with the edi-
tion of the New Testament.
Folly, Mbria, speaks in her own name and declares
herself the frankest of beings. The jester of the age
was often the wisest man ; the so-called wise men
were often the stupidest of blockheads : and the play
of wit goes on from one aspect to the other, the ape
showing behind the purple and the ass under the
lion's skin. Moria tells us that she is no child
of Orcus or Saturn, or such antiquated dignitaries.
Plutus begat her, not out of his own brain as Jupiter
begat Pallas, but out of a charming creature called
Youth. She was brought up in the Fortunate Islands
by two seductive nymphs, Drink and Ignorance. Her
companions were Self-love, Indolence, and Pleasure,
and she herself was the moving principle of human
existence. Neither man nor woman would ever think
of marrying without Folly. Folly was the sunshine
of ordinary life. From Folly sprang solemn-faced
philosophers. From Folly came their successors, the
monks, and kings, and priests, and popes. No god-
130 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
(less bad so many worshippers as she, or was ever
adored with more ardent devotion. Pious mortals of-
fered candles to the Virgo Deipara in daylight, when
she could see without candles. But they did not try
to imitate the virgin. They kept their imitation for
her rival, Folly. The whole world was Folly's tem-
ple, and she needed no images, for each one of her
worshippers was an image of her himself.
Erasmus himself now assumes Folly's person, and
proceeds to comment in character on the aspect of
things around him, showing occasionally his own
features behind the mask. After various observa-
tions he comes to his favourite subject, the scholastic
divines.
It might be wiser for me to avoid Camarina and
say nothing of theologians. They are a proud, sus-
ceptible race. They will smother me under six hun-
dred dogmas. They will call me heretic, and bring
thunderbolts out of their arsenals, where they keep
whole magazines of them for their enemies. Still
they are Folly's servants, though they disown their
mistress. They live in the third heaven, adoring
their own persons and disdaining the poor crawlers
upon earth. They are surrounded with a body-
guard of definitions, conclusions, corollaries, proposi-
tions explicit and propositions implicit. Vulcan's
chains will not bind them. They cut the links with
a distinction as with the stroke of an axe. They will
tell you how the world was created. They will show
you the crack where Sin crept in and corrupted
mankind. They will explain to you how Christ was
formed in the Virgin's womb ; how accident subsists
in synaxis without domicile in 'place. The most ordi-
nary of them can do this. Those more fully initiated
explain further whether there is an instans in Divine
generation ; whether in Christ there is more than a
single filiation ; whether " the Father hates the Son "
Lecture VIII. 131
is a possible proposition ; whether God can become
the substance of a woman, of an ass, of a pumpkin,
or of the devil, and whether, if so, a pumpkin coidd
preach a sermon, or work miracles, or be crucified.
And they can discover a thousand other things
to you besides these. They will make you under-
stand notions, and instants, formalities, and quiddi-
ties, things which no eyes ever saw, unless they were
eyes which could see in the dark what had no exist-
ence. Like the Stoics, they have their paradoxes —
whether it is a smaller crime to kill a thousand men
than to mend a beggar's shoe on a Sunday ; whether
it is better that the whole world should perish than
that a woman should tell one small lie. Then there
are Realists, Nominalists, Thomists, Albertists, Occa-
mists, Scotists — all so learned that an apostle would
have no chance with them in argument. They will
tell you that, although St. Paul could define what
Faith is, yet he could not define it adequately as they
can. An apostle might affirm the synaxis ; but if an
apostle was asked about the terminus ad quern and
the terminus a quo of Transubstantiation, or how one
body could be in two places at once, or how Christ's
body in heaven differed from Christ's body on the
cross or in the sacrament, neither Paul nor Peter
could explain half as well as the Scotists. Doubtless
Peter and the other apostles knew the Mother of Jesus,
but they did not know as well as a modern divine how
she escaped the taint of Adam's sin. Peter received
the keys of knowledge and power, but Peter did not
comprehend how he could have the key of knowledge
and yet be without knowledge. Apostles baptized,
but they could not lay out properly the formal ma-
terial efficient and final causes of Baptism, or distin-
guish between the delible and the indelible effects of
it upon character. They prayed to God ; they did
not know that to pray to a figure drawn with char-
coal on a wall would be equally efficacious. They
abhorred sin, but not one of them coidd tell what sin
was unless the Scotists helped him. The head of
132 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Jupiter was not so full of conundrums when he called
for Vulcan with his axe to deliver him.
The object of "Moria" was evidently to turn the
whole existing scheme of theology into ridicule. As
little would Erasmus spare the theologians them-
selves, and, once off upon his humour, he poured in
arrow upon arrow.
Our theologians (he says) require to be addressed
as Magister JVbster. You must not say Noster J\I<hj-
ister, and you must be careful to write the words in
capital letters. They call themselves Religiosi et
Monachi, yet most of them have no religion at all ;
and it is accounted unlucky to meet a priest in the
road.
They call it a sign of holiness to be unable to read.
They bray out the Psalms in the churches like so
many jackasses. They do not understand a word of
them, but they fancy the sound is soothing to the ears
of the saints. The mendicant friars howl for alms
along the street. They pretend to resemble the
Apostles, and they are lilthy, ignorant, impudent
vagabonds. They have their rules, forsooth. Yes,
rules — how many knots, for instance, there may be
in a shoe-string, how their petticoats should be cut or
coloured, how much cloth should be used in their
hoods, and how many hours they may sleep. But for
all else — for conduct and character, they quarrel
with each other and curse each other. They pretend
to poverty, but they steal into honest men's houses
and pollute them, and, wasps as they are, no one dares
refuse them admittance for fear of their stings. They
hold the secrets of every family through the confes-
sional, and when they are drunk, or wish to amuse
their company, they let them out to the world. If
any wretched man dares to imitate them they pay him
off from the pulpits, and they never stop their bark-
ing till you fling them a piece of meat.
Immortal gods, never were such stage-players as
Lecture VIII. 133
these friars. They gesticulate. They vary their
voices. They fill the air with their noise. To be a
friar mendicant is a professional mystery, and brother
instructs brother. I heard one of them once — A
fool f No, a learned man — explaining the Trinity.
He was an original, and took a line of his own. He
went on the parts of speech. He showed how noun
agreed with verb and adjective with substantive, and
made out a grammatical triad as mathematicians
draw triangles. Another old man — he was over
eighty — might have been Scotus come to life again.
He discovered the properties of Christ in the letters
of the word Jesus. The three inflexions exhibited
the triple nature — Jesus, Jesum, Jesu. That is
summits, medius, ultimus. I felt as if I was turning
to stone. They lift their theologic brows. They
talk of their doctors solemn, doctors subtle and most
subtle, doctors seraphic, doctors cherubic, doctors
holy, doctors irrefragable. They have their syllo-
gisms, their majors and minors, inferences, corollar-
ies, suppositions ; and, for a fifth act of the play,
they tell some absurd story and interpret it allegori-
cally, tropologically, anagogically, and make it into a
chimera more extravagant than poet ever invented.
They open their sermons quietly, and begin in a tone
so low that they can scarcely hear themselves. Then
suddenly they raise their voices and shout, when
there is nothing to shout about. They are directed to
be entertaining, so they crack jokes as if they were
asses playing the fiddle. They practise all the tricks
of the platform, and use them badly, and yet they
are admired — wonderfully admired — by women who
are on bad terms with their husbands.
Leaving the friars prostrate, " Moria " sets on other
victims, and gives a turn to princes and courtiers ;
but apparently she finds less to laugh at in the laity,
and goes back to give another toss with the horn to
the Church and the Church's special representatives
— popes, cardinals, bishops. Their splendour and
134 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
worldliness are mocked at, and contrasted with the
simplicity of the Galilean fishermen. Priestly and
monastic absurdity of ignorance comes next.
I was lately (says Moria) at a theological discus-
sion. I am often present, indeed, on such occasions.
Someone asked what authority there was in Scripture
for burning heretics. A sour-looking old man said
that St. Paul had specially ordered it, and being
asked where, answered in a voice of thunder, " Hau-et-
icum hominem, post unam et secundam correptionein
devita." The audience stared, wondering what he
meant. He explained that de vita meant de vita tol-
lere — to put away out of life. We all laughed, and
a friend of the old man covered the blunder by pro-
ducing " Maleficos non patieris vivere." Every heretic
is malefieus, he said, and therefore must not be suf-
fered to live. No one present seemed to know that
the Hebrew word translated malefieus means a witch.
Simultaneously with " Moria " another production
appeared, which divided public attention with it.
Julius II., with his wars and his intrigues, had
brought all Europe into war. In this preliminary
witch dance the partners were combined on lines
widely different from those on which they afterwards
arranged themselves. Spain, England, and the Em-
pire were allies of the Papacy. France, the special
object of the Pope's fury, stood almost alone, in a po-
sition almost of open revolt against the authority of
the Roman Church. Julius fought his battles as a
temporal sovereign, but he used his spiritual thunder-
bolts to reinforce his cannon, and the Western
Church was on the eve of a schism. The French
Church stood by its sovereign. Julius excommuni-
cated Louis, and placed France under an interdict.
Louis called a Provincial Council, which claimed the
right, asserted afterwards in England under Henry
Lecture VIII. 135
VIII., to ecclesiastical as well as political indepen-
dence. The Pope excommunicated the cardinals and
prelates who took part in it, declared the King de-
posed, forbade his subjects to obey him, and fulmi-
nated in the old style of Gregory VII. and Innocent
III. Henry VIII. and the English nation plunged
into the quarrel as the allies of the Holy See. Henry
VIII. stood out as the champion of Catholic unity,
while France was challenging the sovereign rights of
the Papacy, and insisting on ecclesiastical indepen-
dence. Had the struggle gone forward, Louis would
have led the revolt, and the course of European his-
tory would have been all different. The death of
Julius postponed the inevitable convulsion. Leo X.
succeeded to the papal throne. Interdicts and excom-
munications were taken off, and there was general
peace. But the hurricane left the sea still agitated.
The waves still heaved of the passions which had been
stirred, and the name of the intriguing, fighting, inso-
lent Julius was abhorred by the French nation. In
1513, after the peace had been concluded, there ap-
peared in Paris a dramatic dialogue, so popular that
it was brought upon the stage. Julius, attended by
a familiar spirit, appears at the gate of Paradise
demanding to be admitted. St. Peter questions,
challenges, cross-questions, and the Pope replies in
character, audacious as a Titan attempting to scale
the home of tire gods.
The Dialogue was anonymous. Who could have
written it ? Some gave it to Faustus Anderlin ; but
Anderlin was indolent and easy-going, not at all
likely to have kindled himself into such a flame of
scorn. Anderlin, too, would have claimed the author-
ship. He had nothing to fear, and would only have
added to his popularity. Opinion rapidly settled on
136 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Erasmus. Erasmus hated wars, hated popes espe-
cially who used the sword of the flesh as well as of
the spirit for worldly ambition. Erasmus had looked
on with disgust and scorn at the triumphal procession
on the annexation of Bologna, and his friends in the
Sacred College were no friends to Julius. The writer,
whoever he was, knew France well, knew Rome well,
and was acquainted with the inmost workings of the
ecclesiastical mystery. The Dialogue became the
talk of Europe. Erasmus must be the man. No
other writer could use a pen so finely pointed or so
dipped in gall. " Aut Erasmus, ant diabolus."
I le denied the authorship himself ; he says dis-
tinctly that he never published anything to which he
did not set his name. And, again, he must have
known that such a production must be fatal to any
hopes of promotion or support at Rome. Leo X.
might have been privately amused, but could not
decently have patronised a man who had turned the
Papacy itself into contempt. As long as the author-
ship was unproved, however, Erasmus could not be
made responsible for it, and other great writers be-
sides Erasmus have held themselves entitled to hide
behind a blank title-page. Even in his denials there
was latent mockery. He says, if it had been his, it
would have been in better Latin ; but the Latin is as
good as his own. Cardinal Campegio, who believed
him guilty, wrote to remonstrate. Erasmus calmly
told him that he had heard persons attribute the
authorship to Campegio himself. Sir Thomas More
accepted the denial as sufficient to his own mind, but
admitted that it was not conclusive. " If Erasmus did
write it, well, what then ? " * was More's final word
about it. I have made a translation of " Julius," and
1 See Appendix to this Lecture.
Lecture VIII. 137
I mean to read it to you. Some of you will doubtless
be taking this part of European history into the
schools. You may have questions to answer about
tins remarkable successor of St. Peter, and nowhere
else will you find so lively an account of him and his
doings. It will be better worth your listening to than
any lecture of mine.
But to return to the " Encomium Moria?." Through
the printing-press it flew over Western Christendom,
through France, through Spain, through England and
Germany, and, like an explosion of spiritual dyna-
mite, it left monks and clergy in wreck and confusion,
the objects of universal laughter. The "Epistoke
obscurorum Virorum " had been coarse and obscene, a
book to be read in private if read at all, and not to
be talked about. " Moria " was delicate and witty,
running through the heart like a polished rapier and
killing dead in the politest manner in the world.
Princes and secular politicians took no offence ; they
were rather entertained, and delighted to see the pun-
ishment of an insolent order which had so long defied
them. Leo X. read "Moria," and only observed,
"Here is our old friend again." "Moria" and the
New Testament were the voice and protest of the
Christian laity against the parody of a Church which
pretended to be their spiritual master. The clergy at
first were stunned. When they collected themselves,
they began in the usual way to cry Antichrist and
heresy, and clamour for sword and faggot. But it
was no heresy to denounce profligacy or gross super-
stitions ; and scholastic theology, though universally
accepted by the regular orders and the universities,
was not yet guaranteed and guarded from question
by an (Ecumenical Council. Most fools and many
women, however, were on the clergy's side, and a
138 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
party which lias the fools at its back has usually a
majority of numbers. Bishops fulminated. Univer-
sities, Cambridge and Oxford among them, forbade
students to read Erasmus's writings or booksellers to
sell them. Erasmus himself was safe from prosecu-
tion while he was protected by the Pope and the civil
governments, and hard as he had struck he had said
nothing for which the Church Courts could openly
punish him. His admirers were less prudent or less
skilful, and were sent to stake or prison if they com-
mitted themselves. As the wrath and resentment
took form, it concentrated itself on the new learn-
ing. " See what comes of Greek," the clergy cried.
" Did n't we always say so ? We will have no Greek,
we will stick to our Scotus and Aquinas." And so
the battle began between ignorance and intelligence,
between the friends of darkness and the friends of
light, which raged on till Luther spoke at Witten-
berg, and the contest on languages was lost in larger
issues.
In England, where Erasmus was personally known,
the outcry was the loudest, especially at the universi-
ties. Erasmus had been at Oxford and had been at
Cambridge. It was assumed that he had left poison
behind him. Oxford divided itself into two bodies,
calling themselves Greeks and Trojans, the Trojans
enormously preponderating.
John Mill called English Conservatives the stupid
party. Well, stupidity in its place is not always a
bad thing. I have a high respect for Conservatism.
Conservatism, at least, represents ideas which have
proved themselves capable of being practically worked.
The ideas of progress may be beautiful to look at and
to talk about, but whether they will work or not no
one knows till they are tried. Out of every hundred
Lecture VIII. 139
new ideas ninety-nine are generally nonsense. The
odd one will be the egg which contains the whole
future in it ; but until the exceptional egg proves its
vitality by breaking its shell, the wisest cannot fore-
see how it will develop.
The monks, as I observed to you the other day,
said that Erasmus laid the egg and Luther hatched
it. Yes, said Erasmus, but the egg I laid was a hen,
and Luther hatched a game-cock. No wise man will
lightly change the old for the new. The misfortune
is that the world waits too long over the iucubation,
and the new creature often changes its nature in
struggling to get born.
Oxford stayed thus too long incubating. Light
had come into the world, and the dawn was spread-
ing. To other eyes, if not to the eyes of Oxford dig-
nitaries, it had become clear that it was no use to
draw curtains and close shutters.
I shall now read to you two letters written on this
occasion by Sir Thomas More. They are worth whole
volumes of general history. You can understand the
actions of men in past times only when you under-
stand their tempers and passions. The English Court
was at Abingdon on progress. As Oxford was so
near, the news of what was going on there reached
the King's ears, and Sir T. More, at Henry's direc-
tion, addressed thus the governing body of the Uni-
versity : x —
I heard lately that either in some fools' frolic, or
from your dislike of the study of Greek, a clique had
been formed among you calling themselves Trojans;
that one of you, who had more years than wisdom,
had styled himself Priam, another Hector, another
Paris, and so forth ; and that the object was to throw
1 Jortin, vol. ii. appendix viii.
140 Life and Letters of Erasmus. \
ridicule on the Greek language and literature. Gre-
cians are to be mocked and jeered at by Trojans,
whose laughter betrays their ignorance. An ancient
adage says : " Sero sapiunt Phryges." This action of
yours is foolish in itself, and gives an unpleasing im-
pression of your general intelligence. I was sorry to
hear that men of learning were making so poor a use
of their leisure, but I had concluded that in a large
number there would always be some blockheads, and
that it was only a passing absurdity.
I have been informed, however, on coming to this
town of Abingdon, that folly has grown into madness,
and that one of these Trojans, who thinks himself a
genius, has been preaching a course of sermons dur-
ing Lent, denouncing not Greek classics only, but
Latin classics too, and all liberal education. A fool's
speech comes out of a fool's head. He did not, I un-
derstand, preach on a text from Scripture. He took
some absurd English proverb, and at this most sacred
season of the year, in the presence of a vast assembly,
in the church of God, and within sight of the body of
Christ, he turned a Lent sermon into a bacchanalian
farce.
What must have been the feeling of his hearers
when they saw their preacher grinning like an ape,
and instead of receiving the word of God from him
received only an onslaught upon learning ?
If the worthy man had been a hermit, had he come
out of a desert to preach that the road to life was
through vigils and fasting and prayer, that all else
was useless, and that learning was a snare, his sim-
plicity might be forgiven and something might be
alleged in his favour. But for a scholar in gown and
hood, in the midst of an academy which exists only
for the sake of learning, so to rail at it is malicious
impudence. What right has he to denounce Latin,
of which he knows little ; Science, of which he knows
less ; and Greek, of which he knows nothing? He
had better have confined himself to the seven deadly
sins, with which perhaps he has closer acquaintance.
Lecture VIII. 141
Of course we know that a man can be saved
without secular learning. Children learn from their
mothers the essential truths of Christianity. But
students are sent to Oxford to receive general in-
struction. They do not go there merely to learn
theology. Some go to learn law, some to learn human
nature from poets, and orators, and historians —
forms of knowledge even useful to preachers, if their
congregations are not to think them fools. Others
again go to universities to study natural science, and
philosophy, and art; and this wonderful gentleman
is to condemn the whole of it under one general sen-
tence. He says that nothing is of importance except
theology. How can he know theology if he is igno-
rant of Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin ? He thinks,
I presume, that it can all be found in the scholastic
conundrums. Those I admit can be learned with no
particular effort. But theology, that august Queen
of Heaven, demands an ampler scope. The know-
ledge of God can be gathered only out of Scripture —
Scripture and the early Catholic Fathers. That was
where for a thousand years the searchers after truth
looked for it and found it, before these modern para-
doxes were heard of ; and if he fancies that Scripture
and the Fathers can be understood without a know-
ledge of the languages in which the Fathers wrote, he
will not find many to agree with him.
He will pretend perhaps that he was not censuring
learning in itself : he was censuring only an excessive
devotion to it. I do not see so great a disposition to
sin in this direction that it needs to be checked in a
sermon. He calls those who study Greek heretics.
The teachers of Greek, he says, are full-grown devils,
the learners of Greek are little devils, and he was aim-
ing at a certain person whom I think the devil would
be sorry to see in a pulpit. He did not name him,
but everyone knew to whom he alluded. 1 It is not for
me, Domini lllustrissimi, to defend Greek. You
know yourselves that it needs no defence. The finest
1 Of course, Erasmus.
142 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
writings on all subjects, theology included, arc in
Greek. The Romans had no philosophers save Cicero
and Seneca. The New Testament was written in
Greek. Your Wisdoms will acknowledge that not all
Greek scholars are fools, and you will not allow the
study of it to be put down by sermons or private
cabals.
Make these gentlemen understand that, unless they
promptly cease from such factious doings, we outside
will have a word to say about it. Every man who has
been educated at your University has as much interest
in its welfare as you who are now at its head. Your
Primate and Chancellor will not permit these studies
to be meddled with, or allow fools and sluggards to
ridicule them from the pulpit. The Cardinal of York
will not endure it. The King's Majesty our Sovereign
has himself more learning than any English monarch
ever possessed before him. Think you that he, pru-
dent and pious as he is, will look on passively when
worthless blockheads are interrupting the course of
sound instruction in the oldest university in the Realm
— a university which has produced men who have
done honour to their country and the Church ? With
its colleges and its endowments, there is nowhere in
the world a place of education so richly furnished as
Oxford ; and the object of these foundations is to sup-
port students in the acquirement of knowledge. Your
Wisdoms, therefore, will find means to silence these
foolish contentions. Useful learning, of whatever
kind it be, shall be protected from ridicule, and shall
receive proper honour and esteem.
Be you diligent in so doing. Improve the quality
of your own lectures, and so deserve the thanks of
your Prince, of your Primate, and the Cardinal.
I have written thus out of the regard I feel for
you. My own services you know that you can com-
mand if you need them. God keep you all in safety,
and increase you daily in learning and godliness of
life.
Lecture VIII. 143
The heads of Houses were sleeping over a volcano,
and required a sterner wakening than a letter from
Sir Thomas More. Yet the rebuke is noteworthy,
especially from the quarter from which it came. In
a score of years their Duns Scotus was torn to pieces
in the Quadrangles, the sacred leaves left to flutter in
the November winds, they themselves erasing with
trembling hands the Pope's name from their Service-
books, and Sir Thomas More laying down his own
life to stem a revolution which might have been pre-
vented had they listened in time to him and to Eras-
mus. This letter does not mention Erasmus by name,
though there is an evident allusion to him. The next
which I shall read is a passionate and indignant de-
fence of Erasmus himself, against some vain young
English divine, who had written to More to remon-
strate against his continued intimacy with the author
of " Moria." x I do not know who this forward young
person was. There were perhaps many Englishmen
in the universities and out of them capable of similar
folly. More's letter is very long, and I must abridge
and condense it. The satire throughout is extremely
fine.
You adjure me to beware of Erasmus. Gratitude
for your concern for my soul obliges me to thank you
for your alarms. It is my duty also to point out to you
that you are yourself walking among precipices. Your
fortress, from whose battlements you look so scornfully
on Erasmus, may be less secure than you imagine.
I am in danger, forsooth, because I consider Eras-
mus (as a good Greek scholar) to have given a better
rendering of passages in the New Testament than I
find in the received translation. Where is the dan-
ger ? May not I find pleasure in a work which the
learned and pious admire, and which the Pope him-
1 Jortin, vol. ii. appendix xii.
144 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
self lias twice approved? Erasmus determines no-
thing. He gives the facts and leaves the reader to
judge. I am not such a fool as to mistake the false
for the true, and the danger is more to you than to
me. Erasmus has published volumes more full of
wisdom than any which Europe has seen for ages.
You have turned to poison what to others has brought
only health. I read with real sorrow your intemperate
railing at such a man. You defame his character.
You call him a vagabond and a pseudo-theologian.
You say he is a heretic, a schismatic, a forerunner of
Antichrist.
Before you were a priest you had candour and char-
ity ; now that you have become a monk some devil
has possession of you. You say you do not give him
these names yourself. You pretend that he is so
described by Almighty God. Are you not ashamed
to bring in God when you are doing the devil's work
in slandering your neighbour ? God has revealed it,
you pretend, to someone that you know. I am not to
be frightened by an idiot's dreams. Your " someone
that you know " declares that Erasmus confessed his
unbelief to him in private, and you say that your
" someone " is a man of eminence and virtue. If it be
the man I suppose, his acquaintance say he is more
honoured than honourable. lie has told you, forsooth,
that Erasmus has more than once secretly admitted to
hi in that he was an unbeliever. A likely story !
Erasmus, when he was in England, lived with Colet,
the Bishop of Rochester, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, Mountjoy, Tnnstall, Pace, and Grocyn. Did
either of these ever hear him say that he was an infi-
del ? They loved him, and loved him better the more
they knew him. You answer that he would not be-
tray himself to such men as they are. He chose, I
ju-esume, less reputable confidants like your friend.
Plow is " someone " to prove his accusation ? You say
it was in secret. There were no witnesses. When
and where was the conversation held ? Why has your
friend concealed it till Erasmus has left England?
Lecture VIII. 145
Be it true or false, this gentleman is equally a traitor.
But what Erasmus has done for Holy Scripture speaks
for him. The best of mankind have been called her-
etics.
To proceed. You charge Erasmus with having said
that Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and other Fathers
made occasional mistakes. Since the Fathers admit
it themselves, why do you blame Erasmus? "When
Augustine translates one way and Jerome another,
they cannot both be right ; when Augustine accepts
the story of the Septuagint and the seventy cells, and
Jerome treats it as a fable, one or other must be
wrong. Augustine says angels have material bodies.
This you deny yourself. Augustine says infants
dying unbaptized go to eternal torments. No one
now believes this.
You complain of the study of Greek and Hebrew.
You say it leads to the neglect of Latin. "Was not
the New Testament written in Greek? Did not the
early Fathers write in Greek? Is truth only to be
found in Gothic Latin ? You will have no novelties ;
you say the " old is better " ; of course it is ; the wis-
dom of the Fathers is better than the babbling of you
moderns. You pretend that the Gospels can be un-
derstood without Greek ; that there is no need of
a new translation ; we have the Vulgate and others
besides, you say, and a new version was superfluous.
I beseech you, where are these others ? I have never
met a man who has seen any but the Vulgate. Pro-
duce them. And for the Vulgate itself, it is non-
sense to talk of the many ages for which it has been
approved by the Church. It was the best or the first
which the Church could get. When once in use it
could not easily be changed, but to use it is not to ap-
prove it as perfect. You talk of the Septuagint trans-
lation, which you say suffices for all Scriptural truth.
Do you imagine that the Seventy wrote in Latin ? or
wrote a Latin version of the New Testament ? The
Seventy wrote in Greek, and were all dead two hun-
dred years before Christ was born.
146 Life and Letter?, of Erasmus.
You go next to " Moria." Solomon says, of the
number of fools there is no end. Moria contains
more wisdom and less folly than many books that I
know, including - your own. I shall not defend it. It
needs no defence. I notice only one point in your
attack. You say that in " Moria " Erasmus makes
himself Moscus. Who was Moscus ? Perhaps you
mean Monms.
As to the " Dialogue of Julius," who wrote it, and
whether it be good or bad, I have never cared to in-
quire. Opinions differ ; I know that it was brought
on the stage in Paris. The MS. passed through the
hands of Faustus Anderlin, who was a friend of Eras-
mus, and Erasmus may have seen it before it was
printed ; but when you appeal to the style, there were
plenty of clever men in Paris who could have imi-
tated Erasmus's manner. But suppose he did write
"Julius" — suppose that in his indignation at the
broils and wars which that Pope had caused he went
further than he could have afterwards wished, you
will have small thanks from those who smarted under
the satire by identifying it now with Erasmus. Proof
you have none. But if books are bad, why read
them? Time was when monks called the world So-
dom, and read nothing, not even a letter from a
friend. Now it appears they read everything — her-
esy, schism, anything that offers, to find material for
evil speaking. What good have they from their
prayers when they learn to lie and slander ? I knew
you once an innocent and affectionate youth — why
are you now charged with spite and malice? You
complain of Erasmus's satire and you yourself worry
him like a dog. Take all the hard things he has said
of anyone. It is a handful of dust to the pyramid
of invective which you have piled over a man who
was once kind to you. Is a boy like you to fall foul
of what the Vicar of Christ approves ? Is the head
of the Christian Church, speaking from the citadel of
the faith, to give a book his sanction, and is it to be
befouled by the dirty tongue of an obscure little
Lecture VIII. 147
monk ? Erasmus, forsooth, does not know Scripture !
He has studied Scripture for more years than you
have been alive. You yourself quote Scripture like a
rogue in a play. Nothing' is easier, nothing is viler.
I heard a fellow the other day telling a story of a
priest soliciting another man's wife, the woman refus-
ing, the husband entering and chastising him, all told
in Scripture language. Very ridiculous, no doubt.
To use Scripture as you use it to slander your neigh-
bour is a great deal worse. Erasmus is the dearest
friend that I have.
He sneers, you exclaim, at the religious orders.
Why be so sensitive ? When he ridicules your cere-
monies he ridicules only the superstitious use of them.
Do not your orders quarrel and abuse each other, and
fight over the cut and colour of their petticoats, and
set up their crests as if they were seated on the sun's
rays ? Yet the same men who think the devil will
have them if they change the shape of their frocks,
are not afraid to intrigue and lie. They shudder if
they have left out a verse in a Psalm, and they tell
each other dirty stories longer than their prayers.
They strain at a gnat; they swallow an entire ele-
phant. They live in the third heaven, as if they
were saints in council. They fancy themselves the
holiest of men and commit the most abominable
crimes. I knew a man belonging to a strict order
— not a novice; he was prior of the house. He
had cone from wickedness to wickedness. He had
planned murder and sacrilege, and he hired a party
of cutthroats. The deed was done. The men were
caught. I saw them. They told me themselves that
before they went to work the prior took them to his
cell and made them pray on their knees to the Virgin
I lure. This completed, they did their business with
a clear conscience.
I am not holding good men answerable for others'
sins. Wholesome plants and poisonous plants may
grow on the same stem. The worship of the Virgin
may do good to some people. With others it is made
148 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
an encouragement to crime. This is what Erasmus
denounces, and if you blame him you must blame
Jerome, who says worse of monies than Erasmus says.
Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies.
Erasmus has written truth, and you curse and insult
him. You say, like the Pharisee, " God, I thank
Thee that I am not as this publican." Erasmus needs
no eulogium from me. His work speaks for him, and
the world's honour. You say he has been vicious.
What leisure has he had for vice ? You call him a
vagabond because he has moved from place to place
to carry on his work. A saint, I suppose, must re-
main fixed like a sponge or an oyster. You forget
your own mendicants. They wander wide enough,
and you think them the holiest of mankind. Jerome
travelled far, the Apostles travelled far.
Look into your own heart. You, forsooth, are
never angry, never puffed up, never seek your own
glory. My friend, the more conscious you are of
your own faults, the more likely you are to be a pro-
fitable servant. This I pray you may be your care,
and mine, and Erasmus's also. When we have done
our best it will be nothing, and we shall do our best
when we least detract from others' merits. Your ad-
mirers pretend that they have been induced by your
heavenly arguments to abandon their friendship for
Erasmus. How they have been affected I cannot say.
For myself, I am not so dazzled but that I can still
see that white is white.
You hint at the end that you are not yourself im-
placable : if Erasmus will correct his errors you will
again take his hand. Doubtless he will bow to so
great a man, and will correct them when you point
them out. So far you have only exposed your own.
In what you call errors he has substituted pure Latin
for bad, cleared obscurities, corrected mistakes, and
has pointed out blunders of copyists. To please so
great a man as you he may perhaps undo all this, for-
feit the respect of the wise, and console himself with
the sense of your forgiveness.
Lecture VIII. 149
But a truce to satire. You say that the Mots you
indicate are trifles. Well, you cannot regard heresy
and schism and preeursing Antichrist as trifles.
I presume, therefore, that these charges are with-
drawn. I will let the rest drop, and our tragedy may
end as a comedy. Farewell ! If the cloister is good
for your soul make the best of it, but spare us for the
future these effervescences of genius.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE VIII.
JULIUS II. EXCLUSUS. A DIALOGUE.
Brought on the Stage at Paris, 1514.
Persons. — Julius II. ; Familiar Spirit ; St. Peter.
Scene. — Gate of Heaven.
Julius. What the devil is this ? The gates not opened !
Something is wrong with the lock.
Spirit. You have brought the wrong key perhaps. The key of
your money-box will not open the door here. You should have
brought both keys. This is the key of power, not of knowledge.
Julius. I never had any but this, and I don't see the use of
another. Hey there, porter ! I say, are you asleep or drunk ?
Peter. Well that the gates are adamant, or this fellow would
have broken in. He must be some giant, or conqueror. Heaven,
what a stench ! Who are you ? What do you want here ?
Julius. Open the gates, I say. Why is there no one to receive
me?
Peter. Here is fine talk. Who are you, I say ?
Julius. You know this key, I suppose, and the triple crown,
and the pallium ?
Peter. I see a key, but not the key which Christ gave to me a
long time since. The crown ? I don't recognise the crown. No
heathen king ever wore such a thing, certainly none who ex-
pected to be let in here. The pallium is strange too. And see,
150 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
there are marks on all three of that rogue and impostor Simon
Magus, that 1 turned out of office.
Julius. Enough of this. I am Julius the Legurian, P. M., as
you can see by the letters if you can read.
PeU r. P. M. ! What is that ? Pcstis Maxima ?
Julius. Pontifex Maximus, you rascal.
Peter. If you are three times Maximus, if you are Mercury
Trismegistus, you can't come in unless you are Optimus too.
Julius. Impertinence ! You, who have been no more than
Sanctus all these ages — and I Sanctissimus, Sanctissimus Dom-
inus, Sauctitas, Holiness itself, with Bulls to show it.
Peter. Is there no difference between being Holy and being
culled Holy ? Ask your flatterers who called you these fine
names to give you admittance. Let me look at you a little closer.
Hum ! Signs of impiety in plenty, and none of the other thing.
Who arc these fellows behind you ? Faugh ! They smell of stews,
drink-shops, and gunpowder. Have you brought goblins out of
Tartarus to make war with heaven? Yourself, too, are not
precisely like an apostle. Priest's cassock and bloody armour
below it, eyes savage, mouth insolent, forehead brazen, body
scarred with sins all over, breath loaded with wine, health
broken with debauchery. Ay, threaten as you will, I will tell
you what you are for all your bold looks. You are Julius the
Emperor come back from hell.
Julius. Ma desi !
Peter. What docs he say ?
Spirit. They are words which he uses to make the cardinals
fly after lie has dined.
Peter. You seem to understand him ; who are you ?
Spirit. 1 am the genius of this man.
Peter. No good one, I fear.
Julius. Will you make an end of your talking and open the
gates ? We will break them down else. You see these followers
of mine.
Peter. I see a lot of precious rogues, but they won't break in
here.
Julius. Make an end, I say, or I will fling a thunderbolt at
you. 1 will excommunicate you. I have done as much to kings
before this. Here are the Bulls ready.
Peter. Thunderbolts! Bulls! I beseech you, we had no
thunderbolts or Bulls from Christ.
Julius. You shall feel them if you don't behave yourself.
Lecture VIII. 151
Peter. Do your worst. Curses won't serve your turn here.
Excommunicate me ! By what right, I would know ?
Julius. The best of rights. You are only a priest, perhaps
not that — you cannot consecrate. Open, I say.
Peter. You must show your merits first ; no admission without
merits.
Julius. What do you mean by merits ?
Peter. Have you taught true doctrine ?
Julius. Not I. I have been too busy fighting. There are
monks to look after doctrine, if that is of any consequence.
Peter. Have you gained souls to Christ by pious example ?
Julius. I have sent a good many to Tartarus.
Peter. Have you worked any miracles ?
Julius. Pshaw ! miracles are out of date.
Peter. Have you been diligent in your prayers ?
Spirit. You waste your breath. This is mockery.
Peter. These are the qualities which make a respectable pope.
If he has others better, let him produce them.
Julius. The invincible Julius ought not to answer a beggarly
fisherman. However, you shall know who and what I am.
First, I am a Ligurian, and not a Jew like you. My mother was
the sister of the great Pope Sextus IV. The Pope made me a
rich man out of Church property. I became a cardinal. I had
my misfortunes. I had the French pox. I was banished, hunted
out of my country ; but I knew all along that I should come to
be pope myself in the end. You were frightened at a girl's
voice. A gipsy girl heartened me, and told me I should wear a
crown and be king of kings and lord of lords. It came true,
partly with French help, partly with money which I borrowed at
interest, partly with promises. Croesus could not have produced
all the money that was wanted. The bankers will tell you about
that. But I succeeded. I rose to the top, and I have done
more for the Church and Christ than any pope before me.
Peter. What did you do ?
Julius. I raised the revenue. I invented new offices and sold
them. I invented a way to sell bishoprics without simony.
When a man is made a bishop he resigns the offices which he
holds already. He cannot resign what he has not got, so I made
him buy something first, and in this way each promotion brought
me in six or seven thousand ducats, besides the Bulls. I re-
coined the currency and made a great sum that way. Nothing
can be done without money. Then I annexed Bologna to the
L52 Life mid Letters of Erasmus.
IIolv See. I heal (lie Venetians. I jockeyed the Duke of
Ferrara. 1 defeated a schismatical council by a sham council of
my own. 1 drove the French out of Italy, and I would have
driven out the Spaniards, too, if the Fates had not brought me
here. 1 have set all the princes of Europe by the ears. I have
torn up treaties, kept great armies in the field. I have covered
Rome with palaces, and I have left five millions in the Treasury
behind me. 1 would have done more if my Jew doctor could
have kept me alive, and I would give something if an enchanter
could put me back so that I could finish my work. And here
are you keeping the door shut against one who has deserved so
well of Christ and the Church. And I have done it all myself,
too. f owe nothing to my birth, for I don't know who my father
was ; nothing to learning, for I have none ; nothing to youth, for
I was old when I began ; nothing to popularity, for I was hated
all round. Spite of fortune, spite of gods and men, I achieved
all that I have told you in a few years, and I left work enough
cut out for my successors to last ten years longer. This is the
modest truth, and my friends at Home call me more a god than
a man.
Peter, [nvincible warrior! All this is quite new to me.
Pardon my simplicity, who are these fair curly-haired boys that
j ..a have with you ?
Julius. Boys I took into training to improve their minds.
Peter. And those dark ones with the scars?
Julius. Those are my soldiers and generals who were killed
fio'ht'mc for me. They all deserve heaven. I promised it them
under hand and seal if they lost their lives in my service, no
matter how wicked they might be.
Peter. Doubtless they are the same parties who came a while
ago with these Bulls of yours, and tried to force their way in.
Julius. And you did not admit them ?
Peter. Not I. My orders are not to admit men who come with
Bulls, but to admit those who have clothed the naked, fed the
hungry, given the thirsty drink, visited the sick and those in
prison. Men have cast out devils and worked miracles in Christ's
name and yet have been shut out. Do you think we open for
Bulls signed "Julius"?
Julius. If I had but known.
Peter. What would you have done ? Declared war?
Julius. I would have excommunicated you.
Peter. Nonsense. Proceed with your story. Why do you
wear arms ?
Lecture VIII. 153
Julius. Don't you know the Pope has two swords ?
Peter. When I was in your place I had no sword but the sword
of the Spirit.
Julius. Yes, you had. Recollect Malchus.
Peter. I do recollect, but I was theu defending my Master,
not myself. I was not then pope. I had not received the keys,
nor the Holy Spirit either. Even so, my Master ordered me to
sheathe my sword, to show that such weapons did not become
Christian priests. Why do you call yourself Ligurian ? Does it
matter to Christ's Vicar from what family he comes ?
Julius. I wish to do credit to my country.
Peter. You know your country, it seems, though you don't
know your father. I thought you were going to speak of your
heavenly country, the New Jerusalem. But, to go on. You say
you are sister's son to Sextus — Sextns's nephew.
Julius. I call myself his nephew. Some people have said I
was his son.
Peter. Is that true ?
Julius. It is disrespectful to the Pope's dignity to say so.
Peter. The popes would consult better for their dignity by
giving no occasion for such stories. But you have told us how
you yourself became Supreme Pontiff. Is that the road gene-
rally followed ?
Julius. There has been no other for several generations. It
may be different in future. I myself issued a prohibition against
further elections like my own. But others must look to these
things now.
Peter. No one could have given a more complete description.
I am surprised that such an office is so sought after. When I
was pope the difficulty was to find men who would be priests or
deacons.
Julius. Naturally, when bishops and priests had nothing for
their reward but fasts, and vigils, and doctrines, and now and
then death. Bishops nowadays are kings and lords, and such
positions are worth struggling for.
Peter. Tell me, had Bologna fallen from the faith that you
annexed it to the Holy See ?
Julius. God forbid ! Not a heretic in the whole place.
Peter. Bentivoglio perhaps was a bad ruler and the State was
in disorder ?
Julius. On the contrary, it was flourishing in the highest de-
gree. That was why I wanted to have it.
154 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Peter. I understand. Bentivoglio was a usurper, and had no
right to be there.
Julius. Not at all. Be had succeeded to the Government by
forma] arrangement.
Peter. Then the people did not like him ?
Julius. They loved him, clung- to him. They hated me.
Peter. Why did you take Bologna then ?
Julius. Because I wanted the revenue for my own treasury,
and because Bologna was otherwise convenient for me. So I
used my thunderbolts, the French helped me, and now Bologna
is mine, and every farthing of the taxes goes to Rome for the
Church's use. If you had only seeu my triumphal entry. The
Church was militant with a witness.
Peter. So you turned our petition to God, that His Kingdom
may come, into real fact. . . . Well, and what had the Venetians
done to yon ?
Julius. They told scandalous stories about me.
/ '. ter. True or false ?
Julius. No matter which. To speak ill of the Pope is sacri-
lege. Then they appointed their own bishops and priests.
They allowed no appeals to Rome and refused to buy our dis-
pensations. They kept back part of your patrimony.
Peter. My patrimony ! What patrimony do you mean ? I
left all to follow Christ.
Julius. They occupied certain towns which the Holy See
claimed.
Peter. This was the injury, then! Well, was there impiety
or immorality in Venice?
Julius. Not the least, but I wanted a few thousand ducats of
them to pay my regiments.
Peter. And how about the Duke of Ferrara?
Julius. The Duke was an ungrateful wretch. He accused me
of simony, called me a paederast, and also claimed certain mon-
eys of me. Moreover, I wanted the Duchy of Ferrara for a son
of my own, who could be depended on to be true to the Church,
and who had just poniarded the Cardinal of Pavia.
Peter. What ! What ! Popes with wives and children ?
Julius. Wives ! No, not wives ; but why not children?
Peter. You spoke of a schisniatical council. Explain.
Julius. It is a long story, but the fact was this. Certain per-
sons had been complaining that the Court of Rome was a nest
of abominations. They charged me myself with simony. They
Lecture VIII. 155
said I was a sot, a whoremaster, a son of this world, a scandal
to the Christian faith. Thiugs had become so had that a coun-
cil must he held to mend them ; and, in fact, they alleged that
I had sworn at my instalment to call a council in two years, and
that I had been elected on that condition.
Peter. Was it so ?
Julius. Why, yes it was ; but I absolved myself, and now
mark what followed. Nine of my cardinals revolt. They re-
quire me to keep my word. I refuse. They appeal to the Em-
peror, and backed by the Emperor and the French king they
call a council themselves, thus rending the seamless vesture of
Christ.
Peter. But were you guilty of the crimes of which they ac-
cused you ?
Julius. That is nothing to the purpose. I was Poiitifex Max-
imus, and if I was fouler than Lerna itself, so long as I hold the
keys I am Christ's Vicar, and must be treated as such.
Peter. What, if you are a notorious scoundrel ?
Julius. As notorious as you please. He who is in God's place
on earth is quasi-God himself, and is not to be challenged by
any little bit of a manikin.
Peter. But we cannot respect a man whom we know to be
worthless.
Julius. Thought is free, but speak reverently of the Pope you
must. The Pope may not be censured even by a general council.
Peter. He who represents Christ ought to try to be like Christ.
But, tell me, is there no way of removing a wicked pope ?
Julius. Absurd ! Who can remove the highest authority of
all?
Peter. That the Pope is the highest is a reason why he should
be removed if he causes scandal. Bad princes can be removed.
The Church is in a bad way if it must put up with a head who is
ruining it.
Julius. A Pope can only be corrected by a general council,
but no general council can be held without the Pope's consent ;
otherwise it is a synod, and not a council. Let the council sit, it
can determine nothing unless the Pope agrees ; and, again, a sin-
gle pope having absolute power is superior to the council. Thus
he cannot be deposed for any crime whatsoever.
Peter. What, not for murder ?
Julius. No, not if it be parricide.
Peter. Not for fornication ?
L56 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Julius. No! Eor incest.
Peter. Nol for simony ?
Julius. N'ot for six hundred acts of simony.
Peter. Not for poisoning ?
Julius. No, nor for sacrilege.
/',/</•. Not for blasphemy ?
Julius. No, I say.
/',/,/■. Not for all these crimes collected in a single person?
Julius. Add six hundred more to them, there is no power
which can depose the Pope of Home.
Peter. A novel privilege for my successors — to be the wick-
edest of men, yet be safe from punishment. So much the uu-
liappier the Church which cannot shake such a monster off its
shoulders.
Julius. Some say there is one cause for which a Pope can be
deposed.
Peter. When he has done a good action, I suppose, since he is
not to be punished for his bad actions.
Julius. If he can be convicted publicly of heresy. But this
is impossible, too. For he can cancel any canon which he does
not like, and should such a charge be preferred in a council be
can always recant. There are a thousand loopholes.
Peter. In the name of the papal majesty, who made these fine
laws ?
Julius. Who? Why, the source of all law, the Pope himself,
and the power that makes a law can repeal it.
Peter. Fortunate Pope, who can cheat Christ with his laws.
Quite true, the remedy in such a case is not in a council. The
people ought to rise with paving stones and dash such a wretch's
brains out. But, tell me, why do popes hate general councils?
Julius. Why do kings hate senates and parliaments ? Coun-
cils are apt to throw the majesty of popes into the shade. There
will be able men upon them, men with a conscience who will
speak their minds, men who envy us and would like our power
to be cut down. Scarce a council ever met which did not leave
the Pope weaker than it found him. You experienced it your-
self when James pulled you up, and there are some who think
to this day that the primacy was in James and not in you.
Peter. Then you think the first object to be considered is not
the welfare of the Church, but the supremacy of the Pope ?
Julius. Everyone for himself. The Pope's interest is my
interest.
Lecture VIII. 157
Peter. If Christ had thought of His interest there would have
been no Church for you to he supreme over. Why should
Christ's Vicar be so unlike Him ? But tell me how you broke
up the schismatic council that you spoke of.
Julius. You shall hear. I first worked on Maximilian, and
persuaded him to withdraw his support from France. I then
forced the cardinals to deny their own oaths before witnesses.
Peter. Was that right '?
Julius. Why not right, if the Pope wills it ? An oath is not
an oath if the Pope chooses. He can absolve when he pleases.
It was a little impudent, but it was the most convenient way.
Then, as I did not want to seem to be evading the council,
I contrived that I shoidd be myself invited to preside over it. I
appealed to a council myself. I merely said that the time
and place which had been chosen were unsuitable, and I invited
the bishops to meet at Rome. I meant none to attend but my
own friends who would support me. I instructed them what to
do, and I created a batch of new cardinals who I knew were
devoted to me.
Spirit. That is, the greatest rascals.
Julius. I did not want a crowd of abbots and bishops. There
might have been honest men among them, so I bade them spare
expense and send up one or two only from each province. Even
so it seemed there would be too many ; so, as they were prepar-
ing to start, I sent them word that the council was prorogued,
and that they need not come. Then I reverted to my original
day, with Rome for the meeting-place. None would be there
save those whom I had prepared, and if any should by chance be
among them who would not go along with me, I had no fear
that, protected as I was, they would venture extremities. This
being settled, I appealed against the French rival council. I set
out briefs in which I called my council sacrosanct, and their
schismatic one a synagogue of Satan.
Peter. Were the opposition cardinals bad men ?
Julius. I know no harm of their morals. The Cardinal of
Rouen, who was the head of the business, was a sanctimonious
fellow, always crying for Church reform. He did reform cer-
tain things in his own province. Any way, death relieved me of
him, and glad I was of it. Another of them, the Cardinal of St.
Cross, a Spaniard, was also a good sort of man, but he was rigid,
austere, and given to theology, a class of man always unfriendly
to the popes.
158 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Peter. Being a theologian, I presume lie could defend the
course which he was pursuing.
Julius. Of course he could, and did. He said the Church had
aevei been so disordered, and a council must be held ; that I
had myself sworn at my admission that there should he a council
in two years ; that I could not be released from my oath without
the cardinals' consent ; that I had been again and again re-
minded of my promise ; that the princes had remonstrated with
me ; that all the world maintained that there would be no coun-
cil while Julius lived ; that if I persisted, the College of Car-
dinals might call a council, or even the Emperor, the French
king, and the other princes might call it.
Peter. Did they propose violent measures against yourself ?
Julius. Indeed, they were far too respectful to me, more so
than I wished. They only entreated me to remember my oath,
preside over their council, aud help them to put the Church in
order. This moderation of theirs brought much odium on me.
They were learned men besides, men who fasted and prayed
and lived within compass, with a reputation for holiness. This
also was much against me.
Peter. What pretext did you give for calling your council in
opposition to theirs ?
Julius. The best possible. I said I meant to begin the re-
form with the head of the Church — that is, with myself ; then
to go to the princes, and then to the lower orders.
Peter. That is amusing. Well, what next ? What decision
did the synagogue of Satan arrive at ?
Julius. Decisions which were horrible, not fit to be mentioned.
Peter. So bad as that ?
Julius. Impious, sacrilegious, worse thau heretical. If I had
not fought tooth and nail the Church would have been ruined.
Peter. Explain more literally.
Julius. I cannot speak of it without a shudder. They wanted
to reduce me, the cardinals, the Court of Rome to the level of
the Apostles. Bishops were to cut down their expenses and
have fewer servants aud horses. Cardinals were not to absorb
bishops' sees and abbeys. No bishop to have more sees than
one, and to be content with incomes which would not support
a parish priest. Popes and bishops were to be only appointed
for merit. Wicked popes were to be deposed. Bishops given
to drink or fornication were to be suspended, felonious priests
to forfeit their benefices and lose life or limb, with much more
Lecture VIII. 159
to the same purpose. Our wealth and power was to be taken
from us, and we were to he made into saints.
Peter. And what said your sacrosanct council at Rome to all
this?
Julius. I told it what it was to say. Our first meeting was
formal. We had two masses, of the Holy Cross and the Holy
Ghost, to show that we were acting under Divine inspiration,
and then there was a speech in honour of myself. At the next
session I cursed the schismatic cardinals. At the third I laid
France under an interdict to exasperate the people against the
King. The Acts were then drafted into Bulls and sent round
Europe.
Peter. And that was all ?
Julius. It was all I wanted. I had won. I deprived the
cardinals who remained obstinate, and gave their hats to others.
I delivered them to Satan. If I coidd have caught them I
would have delivered them to the flames.
Peter. But according to you the acts of the schismatic council
were better than yours. Your sacrosanct council only cursed.
So it seems that Satan came nearer to Christ than the spirit
which was in you.
Julius. Mind your words. My Bulls strike everyone who
supports the schismatics.
Peter. You precious rascal ! How did it all end ?
Julius. I left things in the state I tell you. Fate will decide
the rest.
Peter. So there is a schism still ?
Julius. Yes, and a bad one.
Peter. And you, who were Christ's Vicar, preferred a schism
to a genuine council ?
Julius. Better three hundred schisms than be called myself to
account.
Peter. Are you so much afraid ? Which side will win ?
Julius. Our side has most money. France is exhausted, and
England lias mountains of gold which have not yet been touched.
I can only prophesy one thing. If France gets the best, which
I don't like to think, there will be a shift of names. My sacro-
sanct council will be Satan's synod, and I not Pope, but a
shadow. They will have had the Holy Spirit, and I the devil.
But I left so much treasure behind me that I don't think it will
come to this.
Peter. I don't understand about the French. The king of
1G0 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
France is eaUed Most Christian. You say tho French helped
your flection, helped you to take Bologna, and beat the invin-
cible Venetians. How came your alliance to be broken?
Julius. It is a long story. I did n't change ; I did what I
meant to do all along. 1 never liked the French ; they are bar-
barians, and no Italian likes barbarians. I used the French as
long as I wanted them. I dissembled, lied, and put up with
much. But things fell at last into the position I desired. I
could then show my colours and drive them out.
Peter. What do you mean by barbarians? Are the French
Christians ?
Julius. Oh, Christians, yes, if that matters.
Peter. Peasants, I presume — illiterate Christians?
Julius. They are literate enough, and richer than we like.
Peter. "Why do you call them barbarians, then ? Explain.
Spirit. I will explain for him. The Italians are a conglomer-
ate of all the barbarous nations in the world — a mere heap of
dirt ; yet they are absurd enough to call everyone a barbarian
not born in Italy.
Peter. Perhaps so. But Christ died for all men, and does not
respect persons. How can Christ's Vicar reject those whom
Christ accepts ?
Julius. I accept everyone who will pay me taxes — Indian,
African, Arab, or Greek — if they only admit my supremacy ;
those who will not I cast off, Greeks especially, who are obsti-
nate schismatics.
/ '< ter. So Rome is to be the general treasury of the world ?
Julius. May we not reap their carnal things when we sow our
spiritual things ?
Peter. What spiritual things? You tell me only of worldly
things. I suppose you draw souls to Christ with your doc-
trines ?
Julius. We keep preachers if they are wanted. We don't
interfere as long as they say nothing against the Pope's
supremacy.
Peter. What else can you do ?
Julius. What else ? How do kings levy revenues ? They
persuade the people that they owe their fortunes to them, and
then they ask, and the people give. So we make the people
believe that they owe to us their knowledge of God, though we
sleep all our lives. Besides, we sell them indulgences in small
matters at a cheap rate, dispensations for not much more, and
for blessings we charge nothing.
Lecture VIII. 161
Peter. This is all Greek to me. But why do you hate the
barbarians, and move heaven and earth to get rid of them ?
Julius. Because barbarians are superstitious, and the French
worst of all.
Peter. Do the French worship other gods besides Christ ?
Julias. No ; but they have precise notions of what is due to
Christ. They use hard words about certain things which we
have left off.
Peter. Magical words, I presume ?
Julius. No, not magical. They talk of simony and blas-
phemy, sodomy, poisoning, witchcraft, in language expressing
abomination of such actions.
Peter. I do not wish to be personal, but can it be that such
crimes are to be found among yourselves, professing Christians ?
Julius. The barbarians have vices of their own. They cen-
sure ours and forget theirs. We tolerate ours and abominate
theirs. Poverty, for instance, we look on as so wicked that
anything is justifiable to escape from it, while the barbarians
scarcely approve of wealth if innocently come by. We abhor
drunkenness, though, for my own part, if time and place suit, I
have not much objection to it. The Germans make light of
drunkenness, and laugh at it. Barbarians forbid usury ; we
regard it as a necessary institution. They think looseness with
women polluting and disgusting ; we — well, we do not think
so at all. They are shocked at simony ; we never mention it.
They stick to old laws and customs ; we go for novelty and
progress. While our views of life are so different, we don't like
to have the barbarians too close to us. They have sharp eyes.
They write letters about us to our friends. They say Rome
is no See of Christ, but a sink of the devil. They ask whether,
having acquired the Papacy as I did, I am a proper Pope at all.
Thus my name is brought into discredit, while, if their spies had
not been among us, it would never have been heard of, and
I should have remained Christ's vicegerent and a god upon
earth. Thus the Church suffers : we sell fewer dispensations,
and get a worse price for them, and we receive less money for
bishoprics and abbeys and colleges ; worst of all, people are no
longer frightened at our thunderbolts. Once let them think
that a wicked Pope cannot hurt them, we shall be starved out.
So we mean to keep the barbarian at a distance. He will then
respect us as he used to do, and we can communicate with him
through Briefs and Bulls.
162 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
PeU r. Bcspect which rests on ignorance will not perhaps last.
In our time all the world was welcome to know what we were
doing. How comes it that the princes are so ready to take up
arms lor you, while to us they were the worst enemy that we
had ?
Julius. The princes are not so particularly Christian — on the
contrary, they hold us in sovereign contempt. But the weaker
sort among their subjects are still afraid of being excommuni-
cated, and the princes are obliged to consider their opinions.
Then we are rich, and this commands a certain deference ; and
there is a superstitious impression that it is unlucky to quarrel
with priests. We have ceremonials which impose upon the vul-
gar. We give the princes grand titles, call one Catholic, another
Serene Highness, another Augustus, and all of them our Beloved
Sous. They in turn call us Holy Father, and now and then kiss
our foot. We send them consecrated roses, cups, and swords,
and Bulls confirming their rights to their crowns. They make
us presents of soldiers, money, and now and then a boy or
two. So it goes on — as the Proverb says, "Mule scratches
mule."
Peter. I still do not understand why the princes broke their
treaties and went to war on your account.
Julius. Listen then, and you will see how clever I am. First
I studied the humour of each nation, which agreed with which,
and which was hostile to which. There was an old grievance
between the French and the Venetians. The French wanted to
increase their territory. The Venetians held towns which the
French claimed ; again, the Venetians held positions which the
Emperor wanted : so I easily brought France and the Empire
into line against the Venetians. The French were too success-
ful, so I next stirred up Spain to check them. The Spaniards
were afraid for their possessions in Naples, and were jealous of
the French advance in Italy. I did not love the Venetians, but
I made use of them in the same way while they were sore at
their defeats. I had first brought the Emperor Maximilian into
alliance with the French. When the French were growing too
strong, I worked on his old animosities and divided him from
them. The English have an hereditary hatred of France, and
also an old feud with the Scots, who are a fierce race, eager for
war and plunder. The English king had just died. The peo-
ple had broken loose and were ready for mischief. His succes-
sor, luckily for us, was a restless, ambitious young prince, whose
Lecture VIII. 163
dream as a child had been the recovery of the French provinces.
All these cards I played in the interest of the Church, and thus
easily brought on a general war. I gratified the Emperor, the
Spaniards, and the English with the honest title of the Church's
Protectors, to encourage them to work the more destruction
among Christian nations. The Spanish king was at that mo-
ment at war with the Turks. He dropped it, left his proper
business on my account, and threw his whole strength on France.
Nowhere in the world is the Pope less regarded than in Eng-
land. Read the story of their St. Thomas of Canterbury and
their old Constitutions, and you will be in no doubt of that.
They don't like parting with their money either ; but they let
me swallow them at a mouthful. Their clergy, generally so
stingy, opened their purses. The princes paid no heed to the
precedent which they were sanctioning when they let a Roman
bishop depose a sovereign whom he hated. Indeed, the young
king of England took up my quarrel more hotly than I desired,
though of course it was well that he should err on the right side.
I need not follow the story further. I, by my own cleverness,
contrived a combination against a Christian State, which no
one of my predecessors had been even able to form against
the Turks.
Peter. You have lit a fire which may spread over the world.
Julius. Let it spread, so the Holy See keeps its supremacy
and its possessions. I contrived, however, to throw the burden
of the war from the Italians to the barbarians. Let them fight
as they will, while we look on and make our profit of their mad-
ness.
Peter. Does this befit your position as Holy Father and Vicar
of Christ ?
Julius. Why did the French make a schism ?
Peter. We must bear with things which we shall make worse
by trying to mend them. But, if you had allowed their council,
there would have been no schism.
Julius. God forbid ! Better six hundred wars than a council.
Suppose I had been deposed for simony ! Suppose the council
had looked into my life and published an account of it !
Peter. Even if you had been rightly Pope, you would have
done better to resign than to have caused such a torrent of
misery in defending your dignity. Fine dignity bought or stolen
by a rascal ! The French have been rightly punished for help-
iug your election.
104 Life, and Letters of Erasmus.
Julius. By my triple crown and by my victories, I will make
you know who Julius is if yon provoke me further.
Peter. Poor worldly madman — or not even worldly : Gentile
and worse than Gentile — will you boast of your treaty-breaking
and your accursed wars ? These are Satan's arts, not a pope's.
A Vicar of Christ should be like Christ. Christ has sovereign
power, but He has sovereign goodness, sovereign wisdom, sov-
ereign simplicity. Power with you is joined with madness and
vanity. If Satan needed a vicar, he could find none fitter than
you. What sign have you ever shown of an apostle ?
Julius. Is it not apostolic to increase Christ's Church?
Peter. The Church is a community of Christians with Christ's
Spirit in them. You have been a subverter of the Church.
Julius. The Church consists of cathedrals, and priests, and the
Court of Rome, and myself at the head of it.
Peter. Christ is our Head, and we are His ministers. Are
there two Heads ? How have you increased the Church ?
Julius. I found it poor : I have made it splendid.
Peter. Splendid with what ? With faith ?
Julius. Nonsense.
Peter. With doctrine ?
Julius. A fig for doctrine.
Peter. With contempt of the world ?
Julius. These are words. I have made it splendid with fact.
Peter. How ?
Julius. I have filled Rome with palaces, trains of mules and
horses, troops of servants, armies and officers.
Spirit. With scarlet women and the like.
Julius. With purple and gold, with revenues so vast that kings
are poor beside the Roman Pontiff. Glory, luxury, hoards of
treasure, these are splendours, and these all I have created.
Peter. Pray, inform me. The Church had nothing of all this
when it was founded by Christ. Whence came all this splen-
dour, as you call it ?
Julius. No matter whence. We have it and we enjoy it.
They say Constantine made a present to Pope Sylvester of the
empire of the world. I don't believe it. None but a fool would
have given away an empire. But it stops the mouths of people
who ask questions.
Peter. At any rate, this is the worldly side. How about the
other ?
Julius. You are thinking of the old affair, when you starved
Lecture VIII. 165
as Pope, with a handful of poor hunted hishops about you. Time
has changed all that, and much for the better. You had only
the name of Pope. Look now at our gorgeous churches, our
priests by thousands ; bishops like kings, with retinues and pal-
aces ; cardinals in their purple gloriously attended, horses and
mules decked with gold and jewels, and shod with gold and sil-
ver. Beyond all, myself, Supreme Pontiff, borne on soldiers'
shoulders in a golden chair, and waving my hand majestically to
adoring crowds. Hearken to the roar of the cannon, the bugle
notes, the boom of the drums. Observe the military engines,
the shouting populace, torches blazing in street and square, and
the kings of the earth scarce admitted to kiss my Holiness's foot.
Behold the Roman Bishop placing the crown on the head of the
Emperor, who seems to be made king of kings, yet is but the
shadow of a name. Look at all this, and tell me it is not mag-
nificent !
Peter. I look at a very worldly tyrant, an enemy of Christ and
a disgrace to the Church.
Julius. You would not say so had you seen me carried in state
at Bologua and at Rome after the war with Venice, or when I
beat the French at Ravenna. Those were spectacles. Car-
riages and horses, troops under arms, generals prancing and
galloping, lovely boys, torches flaming, dishes steaming, pomp
of bishops, glory of cardinals, trophies, spoils, shouts that i*ent
the heavens, trumpets blaring, cannon thundering, money scat-
tered among the mob, and I carried aloft, the head and author
of it all ! Scipio and Csesar were nothing by the side of me.
Peter. Enough, enough, most valorous boaster. Those hea-
thens were human compared to you — you, who triumphed
because so many thousand Christians had been slain for your
ambition ; you, a Holy Father in Christ, who never did good to
any single soul in word or deed — precious Father, worthy vicar
of Him who spent himself that He might save all ; you, who
have spread desolation through the world for the sake of your
own single pestilent self !
Julius. Mere envy ! You perceive what a poor wretch of a
bishop you were compared to me.
Peter. Insolent wretch ! Dare you compare your glory with
mine? — and mine was Christ's, and not my own. Christ gave
to me the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, trusted His sheep to
my feeding and sealed my faith with His approval. Fraud,
usury, and cunning made you Pope, if Pope you are to be called.
166 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
I gained thousands of souls to Christ : you have destroyed as
main thousands. I brought heathen Rome to acknowledge
Christ: you have made it heathen again. I healed the sick,
cast out devils, restored the dead to life, and brought a blessing
with me where I went. What blessings have you and your
triumphs brought? I used my power for the good of all: you
have used yours to crush and vex mankind.
Julius. You have not told the whole. You have left out of
your list poverty, vigils, toils, prisons, chains, blows, and the
cross to end with.
Peter. You do well to remind me. I glory in those sufferings
more than in miracles. It was in them that Christ bade us
rejoice, and called us blessed. Paul did not talk of the cities
which he had stormed, the legions which he had slaughtered,
the princes whom he had entangled in war : he talked of ship-
wrecks, bonds, disgraces, stripes. These were his apostolic
triumphs, these were the glories of a Christian general. When
he boasted, it was of the souls whom he had recovered from
Satan, not of his piles of ducats. For us even the wicked had
good words, while you every tongue of man has been taught to
curse.
Julius. All this is news to me.
Peter. Very likely. With your treaties and your protocols,
your armies and your victories, you had no time to read the
Gospels. The discipline of Christ will not work on a mind ab-
sorbed in this world. Our Master did not come from heaven to
teach an easy philosophy. To be a Christian is no idle profes-
sion. To be a Christian is to be careless of pleasure, to tread
riches under foot as dirt, and count life as nothing. And be-
cause the ride is hard, men turn to empty forms and ceremonies,
and create a spurious body of Christ for a spurious head.
Julius. Do you mean to say I am to give up money, dominion,
revenues, pleasures, life ? Will you leave me to misery ?
Peter. Yes, if you count Christ as miserable. He who was
Lord of all became the scorn of all, endured poverty, endured
labour, fasting, and hunger, and ended with a death of shame.
Julius. Very admirable, no doubt. But He will not find many
imitators in these times of ours.
Peter. To admire is to imitate. Christ takes nothing good
from any man. He takes what is falsely called good, to give
him instead eternal truth, as soon as he is purged from the taint
of the world. Being Himself heavenly, He will have His
Lecture VIII. 167
Church like Him, estranged from the world's corruption, and
those who are sunk in pollution can not resemble One who is
sitting in heaven. Once for all, fling away your imagined
wealth, and receive instead what is far better.
Julius. What, I beseech you ?
Peter. The gift of prophecy, the gift of knowledge, the gift of
miracles, Christ Himself. The more a man is afflicted iu the
world the greater his joy in Christ, the poorer in the world
the richer in Christ, the more cast down in the world the more
exalted in Christ. Christ will have His followers pure, and most
of all His ministers, the bishops. The higher in rank they are
the more like Christ they are bouud to be, aud the less entangled
in earthly pleasures. Yet you, the bishop next to Christ, who
make yourself equal with Christ, think only of money, and arms,
and treaties, to say nothing of vicious pleasures, and you abuse
His name to support your own vanities. You claim the honour
due to Christ, while you are Christ's enemy. You bless others,
you are yourself accursed. You pretend to have the keys of
heaven, and you are yourself shut out from it. You consecrate,
being yourself execrable ; you excommunicate, when with the
saints you have no communion ; you pretend to be a Christian,
you are not superior to a Turk, you think like a Turk, you are
as licentious as a Turk. If there is any difference, you are the
worse.
Julius. All I wanted was to secure for the Church as much
good as possible — goods of fortune, goods of body, and goods of
sold, according to Aristotle's division. I kept the order. I
began witli the first, and would have gone on to the other two
if death had not overtaken me before my time.
Peter. Before your time ? Why you are in your seventies.
Julius. The world will not respect us, and the Church will
go to pieces if we are poor and can't defend ourselves. Money
is power. They may hate us while we are rich, but they can't
despise us.
Peter. If the world saw the gifts of Christ in you, saw you
holy, learned, charitable, virtuous, it would think more, not less,
of you for being poor. If Christians had no care for riches, or
pleasure, or empire, if they were not afraid of death, then the
Church would flourish again. It withers now because Christians
have ceased to exist except in name. Did you never reflect, you
who were supreme shepherd, how the Church began in this world,
how it grew, how it strengthened itself ? — not by war, not by
1G8 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
horses, not by gold ingots ; but by suffering, by the blood of
martyrs, my own among the rest, by imprisonments and stripes.
You think you have added to the Church's greatness by troops
of officials, or raised its character when you have polluted it with
sumptuous expenditure, or defended its interests when you have
se1 all nations fighting that priests may divide the spoil. You
call the Church flourishing when it is drunk with luxury, and
tranquil when it can enjoy its wealth and its pleasant vices with
none to reprove, and when you have taught the princes to call
killing and plundering by the fine name of defense of the Church.
Julius. I have heard this sort of thing before.
Peter. Did you ever hear it in your preachers' sermons ?
Julius. I never heard anything in their sermons but my own
praises. They exulted in what I did. They called me the Jove
who shook the world with my thunder. They said I was a real
god, the saviour of mankind, and such like.
Peter. No wonder none was found to speak the truth to you.
Salt you were without savour, and a fool besides.
Julius. Then you won't open the gates ?
Peter. Sooner to anyone than to such as you. We are not of
your communion in this place. You have an army of sturdy
rogues behind you, you have money, and you are a famous archi-
tect. Go build a paradise of your owu, and fortify it, lest the
devils break in on you.
Julius. I will do better than that. I will wait a few months
till I have a larger force, and then if you don't give in I will
take your place by storm. They are making fine havoc just now.
I shall soon have sixty thousand ghosts behind me.
Peter. Oh, wretched man ! Oh, miserable Church ! You,
Spirit, I must speak with you ; I can say no more to this mon-
ster. Are the bishops generally like this one ?
Spirit. A good part of them. But he is the top, far and away.
Peter. Was it you who tempted him to commit all these crimes ?
Spirit. Not I. He went too fast. I must have had wings to
keep abreast of him.
Peter. I am not surprised that so few apply here now for
admission, when the Church has such rulers. Yet there must
be good in the world, too, when such a sink of iniquity can be
honoured, merely because he bears the name of Pope.
Spirit. That is the real truth — But my master beckons to
me and lifts his stick. Adieu !
LECTURE IX.
Erasmus was not allowed to leave England without
an effort in the highest quarters to detain him.
When he waited on the King to take leave, Henry
offered him a house, with a pension of 600 florins, if
he would stay. The Cardinal of York, the second
king, as Erasmus called Wolsey, was gracious and
warm. Erasmus neither accepted nor declined. For
the present he was in correspondence with the Court
of Brussels, and thither it was necessary for him to
go. The King's liberality was in promises. The
Bishop of Durham presented him with six angels (an-
gel equals ten shillings), Warham and Fisher with as
much more. It was rumoured in Holland that he
was returning with a fortune. This was the whole
of it. Lord Mountjoy had been made Governor of
Hammes Castle, in the Calais Pale. Erasmus was to
be his guest there for a few days after crossing the
Channel. He sailed (we have here a welcome fixed
date) from Dover, July 8, 1514, with a calm sea and
a fair wind, fortune otherwise being foul as usual.
The Custom-house officers did not seize his money
this time, but they detained his luggage with his
MSS. Probably he spoke English ill, and could not
explain himself. He made the air ring with his
clamours, called them robbers, assured himself that
they had stolen the labours of his life to sell his
papers back to him at their own price. In a few
hours or days he and his possessions were safe in
170 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Hammes Castle, where another unpleasant surprise
was waiting for him. He was still a monk at large
from his convent under the temporary dispensation
which the Bishop of Cambray had obtained for him
nearly thirty years before. He was then an insignifi-
cant boj\ He was now a dangerous spiritual force.
To reduce Erasmus under a rule which he had de-
serted and ridiculed would be a triumph worth hav-
ing in the contest which was now raging. A letter
reached him at Hammes from Father Servatius, the
prior of the convent from which he had been rescued,
putting various questions prescribed by the rules of
the order, as to how he had been employed in his
absence, how he had lived, what sins he had com-
mitted, and inviting him to return. Erasmus replied
with a courteous but peremptory refusal. 1
Hammes Castle, July, 1514.
Your letter, after following me about England, has
just reached my hands. I have nothing to reproach
myself with. Age and experience have corrected my
early follies. I left my profession not because I had
any fault to find with it, but because I would not be
a scandal to the order. You know that I was forced
into it by interested guardians. My constitution was
too weak to bear your ride. I had a passion for liter-
ature. I knew that I could be happy and useful as a
man of letters. But to break the vow was held a
crime, and I endeavored to bear my misery. My
profession was a mistake. You will say that there
was the year of probation, and that I might have
known my own mind. What can a boy of seventeen
brought up on books know of his mind? I was re-
leased. I was left to my own will to choose such
form of life as would suit me, and I was lucky enough
to find friends who saved me from falling into mis-
chief.
1 Ep. viii., second series, abridged.
Lecture IX. 171
I say nothing of my writings. Yon, perhaps, de-
spise them ; though there are persons who believe
them to be not without merit. But I have not sought
money, and have little sought fame. Pleasiu-es have
tempted me, but I have not been their slave, and
grossness I have always abhorred. What should I
gain by rejoining you? I should be an object of
malice, envy, and contemptuous tittle-tattle. Your
festivals have no flavour of Christ, and your way of
life does not edify me. My health is still weak. I
should be useless to you, and to myself it would be
death. I can drink nothing but wine. I have to be
nice in what I eat. Too well I know your climate
and the character of your food, to say nothing of your
manners. I should die of it, I know. You may say
I cannot die better than among my brethren. I am
not so sure of that. Your religion is in your dress.
You think it sin to change from a white frock to a
black, or from a hood to a cap. Your religious
orders, as you call them, have done the Church small
service. They divided among themselves ; indul-
gences followed, and dispensations, and nothing is
worse than relaxed religion. There is no religion
left in it save forms, which please the monks' vanity,
and make them fancy themselves superior to the rest
of mankind. You ask me if I do not wish for a quiet
home, where I can rest in my old age. Solon and
Pythagoras travelled. Plato travelled, and the Apos-
tles, specially St. Paul. I do not compare myself to
them. But when I have moved about it has been for
my health or for my work. I have been invited to
Spain, Italy, Germany, France, England, and Scot-
land by the most distinguished people there. I am
well liked at Rome. The cardinals and the present
Pope treated me like a brother. I am not rich, and I
do not wish to be rich ; but I have learning, which
they value in Italy, though you Netherlander care
little for it. The English bishops are proud of my
acquaintance. The King writes me affectionate let-
ters ; the Queen would have had me for a tutor, and
172 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
have kept me at Court if I would have consented.
The Archbishop of Canterbury could not have been
kinder had he been my father. He gave me a bene-
fice, and changed it at my desire for a pension. One
day he gave me 150 crowns. Other bishops gave me
large sums, and Lord Mount joy a second pension.
The King and the Bishop of Lincoln (Wolsey) both
wish to keep me in England. Oxford and Cambridge
are ready to receive me, and there is more piety and
temperance in the colleges there than in any houses
of religion. Dean Colet has no friend whom he
values as he values me.
As to my writings, good judges say that I write
better than any other man living. Were I with you
I could do nothing at all. The climate would dis-
agree with me. I left you a vigorous youth. I am
now a grey-headed invalid. The basest of the base
would despise me, and I am accustomed to the respect
of the greatest. You undertake to make me comfort-
able. I know not what you mean. Am I to be an
upper servant in a sisterhood, I who have never served
either king or prelate ? I want no money. I need
no stipend. I have enough for health and leisure.
I propose now to go to Bale to print some books.
The winter I shall perhaps spend at Rome. On my
return, I shall perhaps pay you a visit.
The prior had been polite, and had not hinted at
compulsion. But Erasmus knew the persons that he
had to deal with. The monks were exasperated, and
were formidable. He had no longer the protection of
the Bishop of Cambray ; and by law and custom the
order might call on the civil power to arrest a brother
absent without leave, or who had broken the implied
conditions of non-residence. He made haste to secure
himself, and it was on this occasion that he wrote the
account of himself under the name of Florence of
which I have already read a part to you in my de-
scription of his early years. The remainder is equally
Lecture IX. 173
interesting, as well as the result which came of it.
It was addressed, as you may remember, to the Pro-
thonotary at Rome, and was meant for the Pope's
eye. Erasmus's special danger was in his having aban-
doned the dress of his order. Monks who had dis-
pensations for absence were required by the canons to
wear publicly some distinctive part of their costume.
Julius II. had allowed Erasmus to wear this or to drop
it as he pleased. Perhaps it was held that his licence
had expired with the Pope's life, and he was now
answerable for a breach of the law. He threw him-
self on the protection of Julius's successor. J
To continue this story, then, where I left it.
TO LAMBERT GRUNNIUS. 2
Florence 3 went to Paris to follow up his studies.
He wore his scapulary over his frock, and his life
was twice in danger through it. The physicians who
attended the plague patients were ordered to avoid the
public streets, and to wear a white scarf that people
might know them and keep out of their way. Florence
was unaware of the rule. One day he was seen with his
scapulary in an open thoroughfare. It was mistaken
for the doctor's scarf. He was mobbed, and would
have been killed had not a woman called out that he
was a priest.
Another day he was hunted by a crowd, and, being
unable to speak French, he could neither understand
them nor explain. Someone told him that the people
were excited by his scapulary, and that he would lose
his life if he continued to appear in it.
After this he wore it under his cloak, to the great
indignation of those who thought religion lay in dress.
A Franciscan Or a Dominican who conceals his pro-
fession is held an abandoned villain. The Dominican's
frock, it is held, will save a dead man from hell if it is
thrown over his body.
1 See pages 5-16.
2 Ep. ccecxlii., second series, abridged.
3 The name under which Erasmus describes himself.
174 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Nevertheless, the papal decretals permit the laying
asiile of the monastic dress for adequate reason.
Augustine says [Erasmus had been an Augustinian]
nothing about clothes, and only insists on morals.
Florence knew this, but to be on the safe side he ob-
tained a dispensation releasing him from the scapulary
provided he wore some other mark of his order on some
part of his person. He was told when he went to Eng-
land that he must not show his scapulary in public
under any condition. Forms which are required in
one country may be forbidden in another. Florence
moved in high society, and had to conform to usage.
To change backwards and forwards created scandal ; so
at friends' advice, and trusting to the Pope's licence,
he adopted the costume of a secular priest. The mon-
astic vow itself he regarded as slavery. The New
Testament knows nothing of monastic vows. Christ
says the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath ; and when such institutions do more harm
than good there ought to be easier means of escaping
from them than are now provided. The Pharisees of
the Church will break the Sabbath for an ox or an ass,
but will not relax an inch of their rule to save a perish-
ing soul.
There are monasteries where there is no discipline,
and which are worse than brothels — ut prce his lupa-
naria shit et magis sobria et magis pudica. There
are others where religion is nothing but ritual ; and
these are worse than the first, for the Spirit of God is
not in them, and they are inflated with self-righteous-
ness. There are those, again, where the brethren are
so sick of the imposture that they keej) it up only to
deceive the vulgar. The houses are rare indeed where
the ride is seriously observed, and even in these few,
if you look to the bottom, you will find small sincerity.
But there is craft, and plenty of it — craft enough to
impose on mature men, not to say innocent boys ; and
this is called profession. Suppose a house where all
is ;is it ought to be, you have no security that it will
continue so. A good superior may be followed by a
Lecture IX. 175
fool or a tyrant, or an infected brother may introduce
a moral plague. True, in extreme cases a monk may
change his house, or even may change his order, but
leave is rarely given. There is always a suspicion of
something wrong, and on the least complaint such a
person is sent back. And besides, how can he know
that the house to which he goes is better than the
house which he is leaving ? The change is but a throw
of the dice. He may find himself worse off than he was.
Young men are fooled and cheated into joining these
orders. Once in the toils, they are broken in and
trained into Pharisees. They may repent, but the su-
periors will not let them go, lest they should betray the
orgies which they have witnessed. They crush them
down with scourge and penance, the secular arm, chan-
ceries and dungeons. Nor is this the worst. Cardinal
Matteo 1 said at a public dinner before a large audi-
ence, naming place and persons, that the Dominicans
had buried a young man alive whose father demanded
his son's release. A Polish noble who had fallen asleep
in a church saw two Franciscans buried alive ; yet these
wretches called themselves the representatives of Ben-
edict and Basil and Jerome. A monk may be drunk
every day. He may go with loose women secretly
or openly. He may waste the Church's money on
vicious pleasures. He may be a quack or a charla-
tan, and all the while be an excellent brother and fit to
be made an abbot ; while one who for the best of rea-
sons lays aside his frock is howled at as an apostate. 2
Surely the true apostate is he who goes into sensuality,
pomp, vanity, the lusts of the flesh, the sins which he
renounced at his baptism. All of us would think him
a worse man than the other if the commonness of such
characters did not hide their deformity. Monks of
abandoned lives notoriously swarm over Christendom.
1 " MaUkct'.us Cardinalis Sedimensis," 1 an intimate personal acquaint-
ance of Erasmus.
2 "Qui in sacra veste indulget quotidiana3 temulentiaj, qui guhu ser-
vit et ventri, qui scortatm' clam et palam, nihil enini addam obsccenius,
qui luxu profundit Ecclesia; pecuniam, probus est monachus et vocatur
ad abbatiam," etc.
17G Life and Letter* of Erasmus.
Those are the true apostates, and on them the hated
name ought to fall though they may still wear the
cowl.
Is it not wicked, then, my friend, to entangle young
men by false representations in such an abominable
net ? Monks whose lives are openly infamous draw
boys after them into destruction. The convent at best
is but a miserable bondage, and if there be outward
decency (as among so many there must be s6me unde-
praved), a knot which cannot be loosed may be still
fatal to soul and body.
It is pretended that novices are not admitted till ma-
ture age. Maturity suffices for marriage, why not for
the monastic profession? Yet men have joined at
thirty, and have been aghast at what they found. They
had been taken in by specious words. The orders
talk of purity as if they were themselves pure ; of obe-
dience, as if while obeying man they were not disobey-
ing God ; of irrevocable vows, when no vows ought to
be irrevocable. They quote their Scotus to prove that
a monk's vow cannot be recalled because it is made to
God. These orders depend for their existence upon
the Pope ; yet let the Pope for cause shown set a monk
at liberty, they defy him, they deny his authority, they
accuse him of a crime. As long as he does what they
please, he is Vicar of Christ and cannot err ; when he
thwarts them, they say he is but an ordinary man.
I do not condemn the regular orders as such. If
there are persons for whom the rule is salutary, the
vow may stand. But the more sacred the profession,
the more caution must be observed in the admission to
it. There must be no influencing, or violence or terror.
It ought not to bind when a frightened lad has had the
halter forced upon him. Shame on a law which says that
a vow taken when the down is on the cheek is of perpet-
ual obligation ! Florence was goaded into it. They
made him wear the dress, but they never had his con-
sent. His oath was but an oath sworn to so many pi-
rates. The Pope will surely disown these villains and
protect their victims. What is the charge which they
Lecture IX. 177
bring - against Florence ? That he does not wear the
scapnlary ontside. Who knows that he does not wear
it inside ? If he does not wear it at all, who knows
his reasons ? The Pope gave him leave. If the Pope
is absolute in other things, why not in this ? What is
their obedience worth when they will hear neither God
nor man ? They call themselves dead to the world,
while unspeakable enormities are daily brought home
to them.
It is hateful to taunt a man with a misfortune which
the malice of others has caused. If a niule has bro-
ken a man's leg", who is brute enough to insult him for
being lame ? If he has lost an eye in a battle, do we
ridicule his blindness ? Do we sneer at a shipwrecked
mariner who is reduced to beggary ? or at a leper or
an epileptic who has inherited his disorder from his
parents? Men deserving to be called men pity and
relieve the helpless ; and is a wretched being who has
fled from an order into which he was thrust to be re-
viled as an apostate? If to leave them was a fault,
the guilt is with his accusers. We do not blame a
man for flying from a pirates' nest, and those who rob
another of his liberty are pirates to him. Or, to use a
milder comparison, if a cobbler makes an ill-fitting
boot for a customer, and the customer refuses to wear
it, the cobbler will be a fool if he quarrels with him.
The customer will say the boot may be a good boot in
itself, but is not a good boot for him. An institution
may be useful for one person and may be deadly to
another.
To make an end, my dear friend. If I have made
out a case for Florence, I entreat you to see his release
dispatched to him with all possible speed. Spare no
expense ; I will be responsible. In the open space at
the bottom I have noted a few points in cipher, to be
particularly attended to in the diploma. I send the key
in another letter. You must hold the paper to the fire.
Before I come to the answer of the Prothonotary, I
have a few observations to make on this letter itself.
178 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
First, that Florence was undoubtedly Erasmus himself,
and was so understood to be by the Roman authorities.
The story of Florence corresponds exactly with what
we know from the other sources to have been Eras-
mus's own story. Erasmus says at the beginning that
Florence was intimately known to him, and that he had
himself been an eye-witness of much that he was re-
lating.
There is really no doubt about the matter, and I
have made confident use of this letter as autobio-
graphical, in common with Bayle, Jortin, and other
biographers.
But the letter is of larger importance as an evi-
dence of the condition of the religious houses at the
time when Erasmus was writing. Whether Florence
was or was not Erasmus himself, the account which
he gives of monastic profligacy he gives deliberately
as his own, and he speaks of it as something too well
known to the Pope to need further proof. He quotes
Cardinal Matteo as publicly accusing the Dominicans
of murder, mentioning name and place. It is boldly
said now that the charges against the religious houses
in England were invented as an excuse for their dis-
solution ; and in accepting this version of the suppres-
sion in our authoritative histories we not only accept
the innocence of the monks, but we degrade and dis-
grace the English Privy Council and the English
Parliament. What business have we to pass such
summary sentence? Erasmus was not tempting the
cupidity of kings, or appealing to the passions of
mobs. He was addressing the Prothonotary of the
Apostolic See. His letter was to be read in conclave
to pope and cardinals. If he had lied or had exag-
gerated, if every word which he wrote had not been
known to be the truth, he woxdd have ruined himself
Lecture IX. 179
and his cause. You are students of history ; you
know that you have no right to set evidence aside, to
adapt it to your own prepossessions. Neither Thomas
Cromwell nor Cromwell's visitors, nor the Act of Par-
liament which speaks of the manifest sin in the reli-
gious houses, spoke so harshly of them as Erasmus did
to Leo X. and to the heads of the Church of Rome in
this letter.
The answer of the Prothonotary is equally instruc-
tive. Leo respected Erasmus, recognised his value,
admired his talents, and did not choose that he should
be dragged back into a nest of infuriated rattlesnakes.
Never in my life (writes Lambert Grunnius in
reply 1 ) have I undertaken a commission more will-
ingly than this with which you have now entrusted
me. I have settled it in a form which I hope will
be satisfactory to you. Unfortunate Florence ! The
cruelty of his fate has moved me even more than my
affection for yourself. I read your letter aloud to
the Pope from end to end ; several cardinals and
other great persons were present. The Holy Father
was charmed with your style, and was more indignant
than one could have believed to be possible. Those
abominable scoundrels ! The greater the respect of
the Pope for genuine piety, the more displeased is he
at the dishonour done to the Christian religion by the
multiplication of miserable and wicked monks. He
says that Christ is pleased with sacrifice when it is
freely offered, but He will have no workhouses of
slaves. He directs that your diploma shall be made
out free of costs. I have given three ducats to the
clerks and notaries to be quick with their work. You
know what those fellows are — you must fling a sop
or two to Cerberus. Farewell ! Salute Florence for
me. He is now our common friend.
Free now, and with no more to fear from vengeful
monks, Erasmus went first on business to Antwerp,
1 Ep. ccccxliii., second series.
180 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
and then hastened to present himself at Brussels.
He called on the Chancellor of the Empire, and was
received with humorous politeness. He was drawn
to the front of the hrilliant circle which formed the
Court of the young Archduke Charles. "This fel-
low," the Chancellor said, introducing Erasmus to
them, "does not know his value. Are you aware,"
he said to him before all the world, " that the Arch-
duke wishes to make a bishop of you? He has
chosen you a diocese, not a bad one, in Sicily ; and,
finding it was not among the sees reserved to the
Crown, he has written to beg the Pope to let you
have it." Erasmus had not the least intention of
being made into a bishop. He was glad, he said, to
find the Chancellor and the Prince so well disposed
to him. More signal evidence could not have been
given either by Pope or Archduke that they did not
mean to be beaten by the reactionary party in the
Church than the proposal to promote Erasmus to
episcopal rank in the face of so furious a clamour.
He implied, however, that he would be more than sat-
isfied by a less onerous promotion ; and, in fact, a
considerable additional pension was promised him
under the single condition that he should reside in
the Archduke's dominions. Charles wished to take
him into Spain in his own suite. But this, too, would
not answer for the work which he had to do. Lou-
vain was thought of for him, and it was not at first
to his taste. Writing to his friend Ammonius, he
says : —
At Louvain I should be the maid-of-all-work to the
University. It would be "Amend this poem," "Cor-
rect this epistle," " Edit this or that edict." Not a
soul in the place would do me any good. I should
have the theologians on my back ; and I regret to say
Lecture IX. 181
I do not love those gentry. One of them has begun
at me already, and I have the wolf by the ears. I
cannot crush him, and I cannot let him go. He flat-
ters me to my face. He abuses me behind my back.
He professes friendship. He is my enemy at heart.
He belongs to a class of men who can make us neither
better nor wiser, but can worry our lives out.
The edition of Jerome was being printed at Bale
by the famous Froben. Erasmus had to go there to
superintend the work, which was to be dedicated to
the Pope. He intended, if he conld, to go on after-
wards to Rome, and thank Leo in person for the
service which had been rendered to him. In the
midst of his printing he was making time to write an
"Educational Institute" for Prince Charles. Most
of all he was taken up with the battle of the lan-
guages, and the attacks, too successful, by the monas-
tic enemies of Greek on his friend Reuchlin, which
were echoing over Germany. Rome, which had pro-
tected Erasmus, might protect Reuchlin. " Proximus
ardet Ucalegon." If Reuchlin was overwhelmed, Eras-
mus might be the next victim himself. Anxiously he
wrote to the cardinals : —
What a disgrace will it be (he said) if a man so
learned, so accomplished as Reuchlin, who has made
the world richer by his presence in it, is to be sacri-
ficed in the autumn of his life, when he has deserved
only praise and honour. What a stir is raised about
him, and all for nothing. I can only say^ that if a
man will examine Jerome in the same spirit which
they are showing about Reuchlin, the theologians will
find plenty in him which they will not like the taste
of. All the country is indignant. We look to you at
Rome to save him.
I have mentioned Reuchlin before, but you will
wish for a word or two more about him.
182 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
lie \v;is among- the first of the distinguished schol-
ars who introduced the study of Hebrew and Greek
into Germany, and was thus, in fact, the father of
modern Bible criticism. He was born at Baden in
1455, and was twelve years older than Erasmus. He
came early under the notice of the Emperor Maxi-
milian, who assisted and encouraged him. The jeal-
ousy of Hebrew among the clergy extended to the
Hebrew race. A Jew-baiting cry was easily raised,
and the orthodox German Church began to demand
through the mouth of a convert (Pfeffercorn) that
all Hebrew books except the Bible should be burned.
Reuchlin induced Maximilian to suspend so absurd
a proposal. The Dominicans, who hated Reuchlin
already, turned upon him, denounced a passage in one
of his writings as heretical to the Inquisition, and the
Inquisition, as it could not burn the Talmud, was
willing to take Reuchlin in exchange. Young Ger-
many, led by Ulrich von Hutten, swore that if Reuch-
lin was burnt, the Church should smoke for it. The
Emperor could not afford to quarrel with the Inquisi-
tion. Reuchlin was suspended from his office and
imprisoned, while the question what was to be done
with him was referred to the Pope. The Pope de-
layed his answer till the next year, when Reuchlin
was forgotten in the storm of the Reformation.
Meanwhile he was in imminent danger of the stake,
and it is to Erasmus's credit that he was willing to
run risks in Reuchlin's defence which he was after-
wards not the least inclined to run for Luther.
In supporting Reuchlin (he wrote to Cardinal
Raphael *) you will earn the gratitude of every man
of letters in Germany. It is to him really that Ger-
many owes such knowledge as it has of Greek and
1 J£p. clxviii.
Lecture IX. 183
Hebrew. He is a learned, accomplished man, re-
spected by the Emperor, honoured among his own
people, and blameless in life and character. All
Europe is crying shame that so excellent a person
should be harrassed by a detestable prosecution, and
all for a matter as absurd as the ass's shadow of
the proverb. The princes are at peace again. Why
should men of education and knowledge be still stab-
bing each other with poisoned pens? Julius II.
rescued another friend of ours from a prosecution of
the same kind, and silenced his accusers. Anyone
who will give us Reuchlin back safe and sound will
deserve all our blessings.
The Roman visit had to be abandoned. The inces-
sant reprints of his books, the attacks upon his New
Testament, and the corrections and additions found
necessary obliged Erasmus to remain on the spot.
He had to make Louvain his head-quarters, within
easy reach of Brussels, and for several years his time
was divided between Louvain and Froben's printing
establishment at Bale.
From Louvain he writes in 1517 to his friend Pirk-
heimer, while the Reuchlin controversy was still rag-
ing : * —
I live here at great expense, but I must remain for
a few months longer to finish the work which I have
in hand, and see what comes of the Chancellor's pro-
mises. I am busy with a new edition of my New
Testament. The first was done too hastily. I am
making a fresh book of it. I am delighted that you
have stood up for Reuchlin. Poor Reuchlin ! What
a fight he is having, and with what enemies! The
Pope himself is afraid to provoke the monks. Alex-
ander VI. used to say that it was less dangerous to
provoke the most powerful prince in Europe than
offend the meanest of the mendicant friars. Those
wretches in the disguise of poverty are the tyrants of
1 Ep. cclxxiv., abridged.
184 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
the Christian world, and a precious leader they have
in their assaults on Reuchlin — a fool with a forehead
of brass, and himself more than half a Jew. The
devil himself, the eternal enemy of Christ, could
devise no fitter instrument to disturb the peace of
Christendom in the name of religion than such a child
of hell disguised as an angel of light. It is a shame
to Europe. Here is a man who deserves immortal
honour reduced to crossing swords with a monster
whose name would pollute my papers. I believe the
creature was only baptized that he might the better
poison people's minds — a veritable Satan, Diabolus,
slanderer, going among foolish women and canting
about heresy and the need of defending the faith.
What is to happen if such an impure beast as this
is allowed to rage against men of learning and repu-
tation, and to force them on their defence? Believe
me, it will not end here. Mischief will come of it.
A small spark will kindle a large fire. The bishops
ought to stir themselves. The Emperor should look
to it. Such a viper ought not to be tolerated.
Reuchlin's friends were not idle. The " Epistola3
obscurorum Virorum " made Pfeffercorn the jest of
Europe. Other satires followed. The air was thick
with libels on the monks. The " Epistola3 " were
anonymous. The monks insisted that Erasmus must
have written them. Only Erasmus, the Antichrist,
the heretic, the schismatic, was capable of so horrible
an enormity. Erasmus, safe under the protection of
the Emperor and the Holy See, left them to snarl,
and finished his "Jerome," which he proceeded to lay
at the feet of Leo, with a request to be allowed to
dedicate his labours to him. He knew how to flatter,
and he was really under deep obligations to Leo.
The greatest princes (he said) might tremble at
writing to the Pope, who was as far above other men
as other men were above the beasts of the field. But
the kindness of Leo X. gave him courage.
Lecture IX. 185
Men of letters praised God for such a pastor. The
Medici were the immortal patrons of culture and
knowledge. Leo was the greatest of them all — the
perfect man of Plato — gold tried in the fire — born
to triumph over all difficulties. When Leo was raised
to the throne the iron age became golden. War
ceased in all lands. Princes laid down their swords.
The wounds of Christendom were healed, and not a
scar remained. Leo was Hercules, Ulysses, Marius,
Alexander, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Literature
was bound to celebrate his praises. Erasmus desired
to do his part to keep such virtues perennially bloom-
ing. Too weak in himself for such a glorious task,
he might hope to achieve it by connecting Leo with a
name already immortal — the name of Jerome, the
greatest of Latin theologians. Jerome alone of the
whole of them deserved to be called a theologian ; all
others were dwarfed at his side, and only Greece had
produced his equal. As he was the worthiest of the
Latin Fathers, so his writings had been left in the
worst condition ; no intelligible meaning was to be
had out of them.
Erasmus had compared the MSS., corrected texts,
exposed and expelled interpolated passages. St. Jer-
ome had been born again. The credit was not all
due to Erasmus. Reuchlin had opened the way.
But, such as it was, the work was completed, and was
humbly offered to Leo's acceptance. 1
Leo graciously complied. He had sanctioned the
New Testament. He now allowed his name to ap-
pear on the title-page of the " Jerome " as Erasmus's
avowed patron. He even wrote to Henry VIII., rec-
ommending Erasmus for an English bishopric. The
author of " Moria," who had mocked and insulted
the religious orders, appeared before the world with
the Pope's name beside his own, in the sunlight of pon-
1 Ep. clxxiii.
180 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
tifical favour. What wonder if Erasmus now believed
that a peaceful Reformation was at hand, when such
open favours had been shown to himself ; that Pope
and princes and the wisdom of the laity were about to
make an end of ecclesiastical abuses, clear out the
monks, silence the jargon of scholasticism, and restore
the Church of the Apostles with Scripture for its
foundation ! You can trace his expectations in a
letter to Fabricius Capito, a celebrated preacher at
Bale. 1
I am now (he says) fifty-one years old, and may be
expected to feel that I have lasted long enough. I am
not enamoured of life, but it is worth while to con-
tinue a little longer with such a prospect of a golden
age. We have a Leo X. for Pope; a French king-
content to make peace for the sake of religion when
he had means to continue the war ; a Maximilian for
ernperor, old and eager for peace ; Henry VIII. , king
of England, also on the side of peace ; the Arch-
duke Charles " divinae cujusdam indolis adolescens."
Learning is springing up all round out of the soil ;
languages, physics, mathematics, each department
thriving. Even theology is showing signs of improv-
ment. Theology, so far, has been cultivated only by
avowed enemies of knowledge. The pretence has
been to protect the minds of the laity from disturb-
ance. All looks brighter now. Three languages are
publicly taught in the schools. The most learned and
least malicious of the theologians themselves lend their
hand to the work. I myself, insignificant I, have
contributed something. I have at least stirred the
bile of those who would not have the world grow
wiser, and only fools now snarl at me. One of them
said in a sermon lately, in a lamentable voice, that all
was now over with the Christian faith. There were
persons who were talking of mending religion, and
even mending the Lord's Prayer. An Englishman
1 Ep. eevii., abridged.
Lecture IX. 187
clamours that I profess to be wiser than Jerome, and
have altered his text, when all I have done has been
to restore his text.
But the clouds are passing away. My share in the
work must be near finished. But you are young and
strong ; you have the first pulpit in Bale ; your name
is without spot — no one dares to reflect upon Fabri-
cius ; you are prudent, too, and know when to be
silent ; you have yourself experienced the disorder,
and understand the treatment of it. I do not want
the popular theology to be abolished. I want it en-
riched and enlarged from earlier sources. When the
theologians know more of Holy Scripture they will
find their consequence undiminished, perhaps in-
creased. All promises well, so far as I see. My
chief fear is that with the revival of Greek literature
there may be a revival of paganism. There are
Christians who are Christians only in name, and are
Gentiles at heart; and, again, the study of Hebrew
may lead to Judaism, which would be worse still. I
wish there could be an end of scholastic subtleties, or,
if not an end, that they could be thrust into a second
place, and Christ be taught plainly and simply. The
reading of the Bible and the early Fathers will have
this effect. Doctrines are taught now which have no
affinity with Christ and only darken our eyes.
Eeform was in the air — reform, or some more
dangerous change. What Erasmus wished, what Leo
and the Cardinals wished, what Warham and More
and Colet and Fisher wished in England, is toler-
ably clear. They saw popular Christianity degraded
into a superstition ; the clergy loose and ignorant ;
practical religion a blind idolatry ; the laity the
victims of the mendicant friars, who enslaved them
through the confessional ; theology, a body of dog-
matic propositions developed into an unintelligible
scholasticism, without practical bearing upon life.
188 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Wise men desired to see superstition corrected, the
Scriptures made the rule of faith and practice, the
friars brought to their bearings and perhaps sup-
pressed, the clergy generally disciplined and educated.
They had no wish to touch the Church or diminish its
splendour. The Church was, or might be, a magnifi-
cent instrument of human cultivation, and might
grow with the expansion of knowledge.
Something of this kind was, or seemed then to be,
possible. But the devil is not expelled by rose-water.
A few months after this letter was written the sky
was black with thunderclouds, and a storm had opened
which raged for two long centuries. Mankind are
not relieved so easily of the consequences of their own
follies.
LECTURE X.
Fortune appeared to have changed her face to
Erasmus after the publication of the New Testament
and the " Encomium Moriae." Relieved of his mo-
nastic vow, favoured by his own government, and
applauded by the general voice of Europe, with suffi-
cient money besides and with the full command of his
own time, he had conquered a position for himself in
which he might now pursue calmly the great objects
of his life, and achieve the intellectual regeneration
of the Church under the segis of Pope Leo himself.
The great powers of Europe contended for the pos-
session of him. Henry VIII. and Wolsey made
fresh efforts to recover him to England. The Pacto-
lus which he had looked for six years before and had
not found was now ready to flow : a fine house in Lon-
don with a handsome income was placed at his dispo-
sition if he chose to accept it. Francis I., among his
first acts on succeeding to the crown, invited Erasmus
back to Paris. Leo was eager to receive him again
at Rome. Minor magnates in Church and State
would have secured if they could so splendid an orna-
ment to their courts, while at Brussels he was wel-
comed so warmly by the young Archduke Charles
and his brother Ferdinand that, if he desired prefer-
ment, it seemed that he had but to ask and to have.
In October 1516 he writes from Brussels to Peter
Giles, who had been his pupil, in paternal good-hu-
mour, advising him to be regular at his work, to keep a
journal, to remember that life was short, to study Plato
190 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
and Seneca, love his wife, and disregard the world's
opinion — advice which indicates at least the compos-
ure of mind of the adviser. For himself he says : —
What others sweat and toil for has come to me in
my sleep. The Catholic King- [Charles, now king of
Spain] had almost made a bishop of me, not in parti-
bus infidelium,) but in Sicily. There had been a mis-
take, however, and I am glad of it. It appeared that
the nomination belonged to the Pope, and the King
could do no more than write to him to confirm the
appointment. This happened while I was at work in
libraries at Antwerp. The Chancellor sent for me
hither, and I obeyed more readily than I would have
done had I known the cause of my summons. I was
received with congratulations from those who were in
the secret. I laughed, and told them they were los-
ing their labours. I would not change my freedom
for the best bishopric in the world.
Erasmus, however, was a thin-skinned mortal. It
was the nature of him to heat the water wherever he
was. Pope, kings, and bishops might throw their
shield over him, but he had provoked the implacable
enmity of the religious orders. In addition to his
own offences, he had rushed to the front in defence of
Reuchlin. They were wise in their generation. They
had recognised that Erasmus was more dangerous to
them than a thousand Reuehlins. If they could crush
Erasmus they would make short work of Reuchlin
and Yon Hutten and young Germany ; and the reli-
gious orders were terribly powerful. They were
amenable to no authority but the Pope's, and the
Popes themselves were afraid of provoking them.
Sir Thomas More had been sent across to the Low
Countries to represent England at the settlement of
the peace. He had not liked his occupation. Priests
who had neither wives nor children he thought were
Lecture X. 191
the fittest persons for ambassadors. Their expenses
were paid by their Governments, and if they did well
they could be rewarded with bishoprics. Laymen had
no such prospects. He himself had to maintain a
double establishment ; and though he was the most
generous of masters, he had never been able to per-
suade his people at home to be economical in his
absence. He had been able, however, to discover
while at Cambray that a conspiracy had been formed
among the monks at Louvain to make a general
attack upon Erasmus's work, and make it impossible
for his own or any other Government any longer to
encourage him.
They mean (More wrote to him) to have an exami-
nation of your writings, with the worst intentions
towards you. Be cautious, therefore, and correct any
faults that you are conscious of. You will ask who
the parties are. I fear to tell you, lest you be fright-
ened by such antagonists. The object is to expose
your mistakes. They have divided your works among
them ; each is to take a special part. You see your
danger, so collect your forces. The resolution was
taken at a supper party, where they had drunk more
wine than was good for them.
Erasmus, like More, was at first rather amused
than alarmed.
I hear (he writes to Ammonius) that those fellows
at Louvain want to have my writings examined in the
School of Theology there. They will have work cut
out for them for two years, and the examiners must
learn some Greek and Latin, of which at present they
know nothing. I think it will go off in wind. The
best people there are for me, and some, indeed, of the
most distinguished of the theologians themselves.
The storm proved more angry and more dangerous
than either More or Erasmus expected.
L92 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
You will hardly believe (Erasmus writes a little
later to Ammonius) how near I escaped being burnt,
the divines at Louvain were in such a rage at me.
They petitioned the King and the Pope to throw me
over. 1 went to Louvain myself and scattered the
smoke. The great people and the literati broke up
the conspiracy at home, but I still wait for the decree
of the Roman oracle. If I do not get a final decision
in my favour there is an end of Erasmus, and nothing
will remain but to write his epitaph. I had sooner
have made two journeys to Rome than be tortured by
this delay.
There was nothing to be afraid of from Rome.
Leo decided all the points, whatever they were that
were put before him, in Erasmus's favour, and the
Louvain theologians were left to their own pens and
their own voices, which, it must be allowed, they knew
how to use. Erasmus found them abundant material.
The edition of the New Testament was followed by
paraphrases on the various books, giving life and
meaning to a narrative which had been trampled into
barrenness by mechanical repetition or conventional
interpretation. The Paraphrases were received with
enthusiasm, and were read in churches by the more
enlightened clergy. Thanks, praises, congratulations
rained upon their author ; but, as admiration swelled
on one side, fury was as loud upon the other. He
had deliberately stirred a nest of hornets, and he
smarted under the inevitable sting. His letters are
full of complaints against the blockheads who railed
at him in their sermons. Hypocrites he calls them,
who slandered better men than themselves, as if their
occupation was calumny and lies. Silence them he
could not, for they commanded the pulpits, and they
flitted and buzzed about him like bats and mosqui-
toes. In Louvain, where he was, his enemies swarmed
Lecture X. 193
the thickest. He might crush this venomous insect or
that ; but they were swarming in clouds, and he was
dealing with a foe which was as the air, invulnerable.
He knew his danger when he provoked it. He had
attacked the monks, and the monks were ubiquitous,
so that it would be useless to fly. There was no spot
on the Continent where he could escape from their
resentment. In England he had pined for Rome, or,
if not for Rome, for a sight of the smoke from the
chimneys of his own land. He had left England
meaning never to see it again. He now looked back
upon it with passionate regret.
Oh, splendid England ! (he writes from Louvain to
his friend Dr. Pace x ) — Oh, splendid England, home
and citadel of virtue and learning ! How do I con-
gratulate you on having such a prince to rule you,
and your prince on subjects which throw such lustre
on his reign ! No land in all the world is like Eng-
land. In no country woidd I love better to spend my
days. Intellect and honesty thrive in England under
the Prince's favour. In England there is no masked
sanctimoniousness, and the empty babble of educated
ignorance is driven out or put to silence. In this
place I am torn by envenomed teeth. Preachers go
about screaming lies about me among idiots as foolish
as themselves.
Again, to Bishop Fisher : 2 —
The war is carried on cliarta de?itata; each side
bites in earnest with purpose to hurt, and the hooded
sycophants are at the bottom of it, who call them-
selves the only champions of Gospel truth.
He thought, of flight.
What shall I do? Whither shall I go? To Ven-
ice ? To Bale ? Not to Germany ; the hot rooms
1 Ep. cc-xli.
2 Ep. cxxxiii., second series.
191 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
and stoves forbid Germany. The banditti forbid it,
the plague forbids it. Distance and summer heats
arc against Italy. I am overwhelmed with invita-
tions. The Archbishop of Mentz wishes for me, the
Bishops of Maestricht, Liege, Bayeux wish for me.
The King of England invites me back, and his
Achates the Cardinal of York. I have so many
adorers that I can scarce reply to their letters. I
have written, as you advise me, to our Imperial Chan-
cellor, and it is he who must decide for me.
He was still sanguine that better times were com-
ing. He adds : —
You will soon see a new age among us. The Para-
phrases are universally praised, and it is something to
have written a book o# which that can be said. They
will have done at last with stoning Erasmus, and will
take to kissing him.
Not the least of his troubles came from the vio-
lence of his own and Reuchlin's friends in Germany.
The " Epistolae obscurorum Virorum " was but one
of many anonymous publications poured out by Von
Hutten and the young passionate champions of light
in defence of Reuchlin, and heaping ridicule on his
prosecutors. Erasmus being the special object of the
monks' hatred, they were all attributed to his own
pen or his own instigation. He had to publish a de-
fence of himself, which he detested doing. He tried,
but tried in vain, to convince these hot-spirited youths
that they were hurting their own cause by offending
the civil power and the bishops, who would be their
best protectors if they would keep their invectives
within the limits of legitimate satire. He was stum-
bling over the roots of the trees which he had himself
planted, and he did not like it at all.
The " Epistolae " (he writes 1 in August, 1517) do
1 To Csesarius, Ep. clx., second series.
Lecture X. 195
not please me. I might have been amused by the
wit, but the example is pernicious. I love a jest, but
I have no taste for ribaldry, and if play the fool they
must they have no right to bring my name into the
business and ruin the work of my life. They are not
only ill friends to themselves, but they bring disgrace
on the cause of learning. It is now said in Cologne
that I wrote the libel on Pope Julius. I am amazed
that such a production should be attributed to me. If
it had been mine it would at least have been in better
Latin. I might mock a little in " Moria," but I drew
no blood and never hurt any man's good name. I
satirised manners, not individuals. Do, if you can,
keep such stuff out of the press. Everyone who
knows me knows how I disliked the book and how
unworthy I thought it.
Pfeffercorn, the conceited Jew who had led the
attack on Reuchlin, had been the tool of stronger
heads behind him. But he had stood forward in the
front. His name alone was a butt for the satire of
coarser wits. Erasmus had to notice the man, but
felt disgraced in touching him.
It is right (he again writes to Csesarius) for the de-
fenders of learning to support Reuchliu, but there was
no need for them to point their lances at that pestilent
trumpeter of the Furies, that vicar of Satan, with the
theologians in masks behind him. He is a fellow
made of malevolence. To denounce him is not to con-
quer him, for he has no shame, and he counts the at-
tacks upon him as a distinction. Pie pretends to de-
fend the Gospel, and he is destroying Christianity. If
his body be examined, may I be hanged if a Jew is not
found inside him, or six hundred Jews. He is a bad
Jew and a worse Christian. Conflicts with so vile a
monster are better avoided. Conquerors or conquered,
those who meddle with him will be spattered with mud.
I would rather see the whole Old Testament abolished,
10t> Life and Letters of Erasmus.
so we preserved the New, than have the peace of the
world broken for the hooks of the Jews. 1
One has heard of Satan rebuking sin ; Erasmus com-
plaining of his friends' strong language was something
in the same position. Two months later he writes on
the same subject to Pirkheimer : 2 —
No mortal hates these quarrels more than I do. I
hate even my own " Apology," which I was forced into
writing. I am ashamed that men of reputation should
be driven into crossing swords with such a monster, or
dirting paper with the name of him. No wise man
doubts that Reuchlin has been abominably used, but I
would rather hold my tongue than bandy words with
swarms of wasps who carry poison in their tongues.
Innocence needs no defence. It was enough for
Reuchlin to have all good men on his side. I wonder
that the magistrates and bishops permit such a venom-
ous wretch to rage as he does, and that no Hercules
is found to drag this new Cacus into gaol. That is the
way in which such ruffians ought to be dealt with.
Erasmus might deny his responsibility for " Julius "
or the "Epistoke;" but he had published "Moria"
under his own name, and on " Moria " the monks fast-
ened next — very much, it is curious to observe, to the
surprise of Erasmus and even of Sir Thomas More, to
whom " Moria " seemed no more than an innocent piece
of satire. The monks knew better ; they would have
abandoned their cause if they had allowed a stab so
terribly effective to pass unresented. The challenge
was taken up by a Carmelite professor at Louvain
named Egmondanus — Egmond, I suppose — who for
many years was to be a thorn in Erasmus's side.
1 "Malim ego incolumi Novo Testamento vel totum Vetus aboleri
quani Christianorum paeem ob Judaeorum libros reseindi . " — Ep. ecii.,
second scries, abridged.
2 Ep. cciii., second series.
Lecture X. 197
I am not surprised (More writes to his friend x )
that this little black Carmelite hates you, but I could
hardly have believed that he would attack " Moria,"
when he is himself Moria incarnate. Insolent ass,
to be ashamed of his own mistress. He may hide him-
self in the lion's skin, but he will not be able to hide
his ears.
I could not have dreamt (writes Erasmus himself)
that " Moria " would have provoked so much anger. I
abhor quarrels, and would have suppressed the thing
could I have foreseen the effect it would produce. But
why should monks and theologians think themselves
so much injured ? Do they recognise their portraits ?
The Pope read " Moria " and laughed ; as he finished
it, all he said was, " Here is our old friend Erasmus."
And yet the Popes are handled there as freely as any-
one else. I am no evil speaker. Had I seriously
wished to describe monks and theologians as they really
are " Moria " would seem a mild performance by the
side of what I should then have written. They say it
is being read in schools. I had not heard of this.
There is nothing in it, however, which can injure
young people. Why you should fear that it may lead
to a disregard of religion is a mystery to me. Will
religion vanish if I ridicule superstition ? Would that
what is now called religion deserved to be so called !
Would that priests and congregations followed the
teaching of Christ as faithfully as they now show their
neglect of it ! Religious houses are spread over Chris-
tendom. I do not condemn what is called a religious
life in itself; but ask yourself what trace of piety
is now to be found in such houses beyond forms and
ceremonies, how worse than worldly almost all of
them are. I have blackened no individual's name.
I have mocked only at open and notorious vice.
So matters were standing with Erasmus himself and
with Europe generally in the momentous year 1517.
His writings were flying over Catholic Christendom
1 Ep. cxlviii., second serie9.
198 Life and Letter's of Erasmus.
and were devoured by everyone who could read. The
laity, waking from the ignorance of ages, were opening
their eyes to the absurdities and corruptions of irre-
sponsible ecclesiasticism. The fatal independence of
the clergy, which had been won by popes like Gregory
VII. and bishops like our St. Thomas of Canterbury,
had produced its inevitable effect. Popes and clergy
share the infirmities of ordinary mortals, and no hu-
man being or body of human beings can be raised
above the authority of law and opinion without devel-
oping into insolence, presumption and profligacy.
Some vast change, as Erasmus saw, was immediately
imminent. He expected, and he was entitled to ex-
pect by the favour which had been shown to himself,
that it would take the shape of an orderly reform, car-
ried out by the heads of the Church themselves and
the princes who were then on the various thrones of
Europe. Every sign seemed favourable to such an
issue. The invectives of Orthodoxy against Erasmus
had produced no effect on the Pontiff who bore the
sword of St. Peter. Henry VIII. was, according to
Sir Thomas More, the most deeply read and the most
nobly intentioned of all the English kings. Francis
I. had shown his own disposition by entreating Eras-
mus to live with him in Paris. The Emperor Maxi-
milian was old, but generous and wise. His grandson
Charles had shown so far symptoms of brilliant prom-
ise. The smaller German princes waited for nothing
but a sign from their leaders to put their own hands
to the work. Reactionary ecclesiasticism had no
friends anywhere, save in the sense of the sacredness
of religion and reluctance to meddle with a system
which had been sanctified by the customs of ages — a
reluctance which would have yielded immediately be-
fore a movement of which the Pope was to be the head.
Lecture X. 199
Europe was at last at peace. The princes were all
friends. It was an opportunity which might seem
created specially by Providence, and to this forfeited
chance Goethe alluded sadly when he said that the in-
tellectual progress of mankind had been thrown back
for centuries when the passions of the multitude were
called up to decide questions which ought- to have been
left to the thinkers.
No time is worse wasted than in speculations over
what we suppose might have been. Erasmus's hopes
for a peaceful change depended on the Pope's assist-
ance or leadership. The Roman Court was the centre
and heart from which ecclesiastical corruption flowed
over Europe, and he seems really to have persuaded
himself that an elegant and accomplished Leo X.
would consent to a genuine reform which must begin
with himself and his surroundings. Providence or
destiny is a stern schoolmistress, and the evil spirits
of folly and iniquity do not yield so easily to the en-
lightened efforts of Goethe's thinkers.
Suddeuly, as a bolt out of the blue, there came a
flash of lightning, which scattered these fair imagin-
ings and set the world on fire. A figure now steps
out upon* the scene which has made a deeper mark on
the history of mankind than any one individual man
has ever left, except Mahomet.
The subject of these lectures is Erasmus, and not
Luther. I may presume that you are generally famil-
iar with Luther's history, and a few words about it
will be enough on this occasion.
Martin Luther was the son of a miner in Saxony.
Bred up piously and wisely, he had a natural enthusi-
asm of his own. The Christian religion taught him
that the highest duty of man was the service of God,
and to this he determined to devote himself. Many
200 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
young men Lave experienced similar emotions ; they
cool down with most of us as we come into practical
contact with the world and its occupations. With
Luther they did not cool down, they took the form of
ardent resolution, and against his father's wishes, who
knew better than he did that he was striking on a
wrong career, he made his profession as a monk in an
Auo-ustinian convent. He was not content with the
usual exercises of the rule. He prayed perpetually.
He slept on the stones, fasted, watched, welcomed all
the hardships which Erasmus most abhorred. In the
library he found a copy of the New Testament lying
dusty on the shelves. He studied it, digested it, dis-
covered the extraordinary contrast between the Chris-
tianity which was taught in the Gospels and Epistles
and the Christianity of the monasteries. He was per-
plexed, filled with doubts and misery, and knew not
what to do or where to turn. He increased his auster-
ities, supposing that he might be tempted by the
devil. In the convent he became marked for the in-
tensity of his earnestness, and was supposed to be ma-
turing for a saint. The house to which he belonged
had business at the Court of Rome. Luther was
selected as one of the brethren who were sent thither
to represent the fraternity. Erasmus went to Italy as
a companion to rich young Englishmen, with horses
and luxuries. Luther went too, but Luther walked
there barefoot and penniless, passed on through the
houses of his order from one to another. But both
witnessed the same scenes and experienced the same
sensations at the sight of Julius II. calling himself
the successor of St. Peter. Luther, too, saw the car-
dinals, the hinges of Christendom, with their palaces
and retinues and mistresses. He saw Papal Rome
in all its magnificence of art, and wealth, and power.
Lecture X. 201
He and Erasmus were alike conscious of the mon-
strous absurdity. But Erasmus, while he wondered,
could also admire and enjoy. He found human life
cultivated into intellectual grace. He found the ex-
traordinary cardinals, Leo X. being then one of
them, open-minded, liberal, learned, sceptical, and
scornful as himself of the follies of the established
creed, and refined even in their personal vices. He
did not admire the vices, but he admired the men.
Humanity, as represented in the circle which sur-
rounded the Papacy, appeared to him infinitely supe-
rior to the barbarism and superstition of Western
Christendom. He wanted Western Christendom to
be educated and renovated, and he thought enlight-
ened popes and prelates to be competent instruments
for the work.
The impression formed upon Luther by the culture
and magnificence was totally different. To him it
seemed an impious parody. He had kissed the ground
when he came in sight of Rome, expecting to find it
the nursery of godliness. Of godliness he saw not a
trace, or a trace of wish for such a thing. Erasmus
despised superstition. If it be superstitious to believe
that man is placed in this world to learn God's will
and do it, that life has no other meaning, and that
splendour and luxury rather hinder than help in the
pursuit of duty, then Luther was as superstitious as
the most ignorant hermit that ever macerated his body
in a desert. He was no rebel against established au-
thorities, he wrote no " Moria," no satires upon mendi-
cant friars or scholastic divines. He went home be-
wildered, but resolved that he woidd do his own small
bit of work faithfully, whatever it might be. The su-
perior of his convent saw that for such a mind active
occupation must be provided if it was not to prey upon
202 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
itself, anil Luther was removed under a dispensation
to the new University of Wittenberg-. There he
taught classes. There he preached on Sundays and
saints' days at the great town church, and soon drew
crowds to hear him, who were astonished at his strange
earnestness, his strange eyes which were like a lion's,
and the strange things which he said.
He had no notion of making a disturbance in the
world. He took no prominent part in the Reuchlin
conflict. He had read voluminously, but learning in
and for itself did not particularly interest him. His
whole soul was turned on the will of God and what
God had made known about Himself, and thus his
course lay altogether apart from Erasmus and the
prophets of the Renaissance. Erasmus had never
heard of him. If he had heard he would not have
cared to make further inquiry. Yet here, unrecog-
nised and unthought of beyond the walls of Witten-
berg, was the man who was to revolutionise the Chris-
tian Church.
The Pope was rich, but the gardens of Aladdin
would have scarcely supplied the means for the splen-
did expenditure of Leo X. Four sources contributed
the streams which supplied the papal treasury : the
ordinary revenues of the States of the Church; the
profits from the Roman Law Courts, to which causes
were brought by appeal from every part of Europe ;
the annats, or first year's income from every priest, or
bishop, or abbot presented to a benefice ; and, lastly,
the sale of pardons, dispensations, and indulgences,
permissions to do things which would be wrong with-
out them, or remissions of penalties prescribed by the
canons for offences — indulgences which were ex-
tended by popular credulity to actual pardons for
sins committed, and were issued whenever the Pope
Lecture X. 203
wanted money. Sorrowing relations, uneasy for the
fate of a soul in purgatory, could buy out their friend
at a fixed scale of charges. The results were cal-
culated beforehand. Averages could be taken from
repeated experience. Sometimes a capitalist con-
tracted on speculation for the anticipated sum. Some-
times the issue was disposed of by recognised officials
resident in the various countries. The price was high
or low, according to the papal necessities, or according
to the magnitude of the sins to which it would reach ;
but as no one could be held so innocent as to have no
sins to be pardoned at all, every pious Christian was
on all such occasions expected to provide himself with
a Bull.
St. Peter's Church at Rome had been commenced,
but waited its completion. Pope Leo wished to dis-
tinguish his reign by perfecting the magnificent struc-
ture. For this, and for other purposes, he required
a subsidy unusually large, and an indulgence extrava-
gantly wide was the natural expedient.
There was nothing in such a measure to suggest
remark. Custom had made such things too familiar.
The Pope possessed in his treasury the accumulated
superfluous merits of all the saints from the beginning
of the Christian Church. They were his to dispose
of as he pleased to unfortunates who had none of their
own. The Pope was God's vicegerent. The king-
dom of God was the greatest of all kingdoms, and it
was fit and right that its capital should be magnifi-
cent. The splendour of sovereigns can be maintained
only by the contributions of their subjects, and indul-
gences were sanctified by usage as the mode in which
such contribtitions could best be offered. The Pope
did not exact taxes like secular sovereigns. He gave
something in return. The " something " might not
204 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
admit of precise definition. But Christ had given to
the Christian priesthood the power of absolution.
The Pope was supreme priest, Pontifex Maximus,
and possessed that power, whatever it might be, in
supreme degree. What Christ could do the Pope
could do ; and at any rate the grant of indulgences
was a time-honoured custom in the Church. They
might or they might not be of real benefit to the soul,
but they were evidence of the Pope's goodwill, and at
least could do no possible harm. Leo X. put out a
profuse issue of these spiritual bank-notes, which the
faithful were expected to purchase at their nominal
value, either for themselves or for their relations who
were in purgatory. The contract for Saxony was
taken by the Archbishop of Mentz, a brilliant youth
of twenty-eight who had been lately made cardinal,
and who had a heavy bill against him still unpaid in
the papal treasury as the price of his red hat.
The collector appointed by the Archbishop was a
Dominican monk named Tetzel, who went about with
bells and fifes, and a suite behind him like a proces-
sion of the priests and priestesses of Cybele. His
method of disposing of his wares was admitted to have
been injudicious. The sale of pardons for sins, how-
ever sanctioned by practice, was a form of trade which
ought to have been covered by some respectable cere-
monial. Tetzel travelled from town to town, adver-
tising his patent medicines from the pulpit like a
modern auctioneer, and telling his audience that as
the money clinked in the box the souls of sinners flew
up to heaven, no matter how mortal their offences.
His progress brought him near to Wittenberg, and it
was too much for Luther's patience. He entreated
the Elector of Saxony to interfere. The Elector was
as disgusted as himself, but did not see his way to
Lecture X. 205
interrupting the officials of the Holy See. Luther
acted alone, and nailed up his world-famous challenge
on the Wittenberg Church door — a challenge to
Tetzel or any monk or priest to prove that a piece of
paper signed by the Pope could put away sin.
To a question so presented the unclerical mind
could return but one answer. From Wittenberg, from
Saxony, from all Northern Europe — for the news
spread like an electric stroke — there rose a " No ! "
which shook the Church to its foundations. The re-
ligious orders raved " heresy " from their pulpits.
Luther replied first with moderation, then fiercely and
scornfully. Pamphlet followed pamphlet, and it was
soon open war, with the laity of Europe for an audi-
ence, cheering on the audacious rebel. The vibration
of the shock reached Erasmus, and was received by
him with very mixed feelings. At first he admitted
that he felt a secret pleasure. If Luther could suc-
ceed in putting down the system of indulgences there
would be one imposture the less, and he was not sorry
that the Church should be made to face the danger of
postponing longer the inevitable reforms. But he
was in the midst of his own battle. He did not wish
to be burdened with further responsibilities. Least
of all could he wish that his quarrel with the monks
shoidd be complicated with an attack upon the Pope,
who was his own chief support. Nor had he any par-
ticular sympathy with Luther's way of looking at
things. He hated tyranny. He had an intellectual
contempt for lies and ignorance, backed up by bigotry
and superstition. He was ready and willing to fight
angry monks and scholastics. But he had none of
the passionate horror of falsehood in sacred things
which inspired the new movement. He had no pas-
sionate emotions of any kind, and rather dreaded than
206 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
welcomed the effervescence of religious enthusiasm.
The faults of the Church, as ho saw them, were
oblivion and absolute neglect of ordinary morality,
the tendency to substitute for obedience to the Ten
Commandments an extravagant superstition chiefly
built upon Action, and a doctrinal system, hardening
and stiffening with each generation, which was made
the essence of religion, defined by ecclesiastical law,
guarded by ecclesiastical courts, and enforced by steel
and .fire. His dream was a return to early Chris-
tianity as it was before councils had laid the minds
of men in chains; a Christianity of practice, not of
opinion, where the Church itself might consent to
leave the intellect free to think as it pleased on the
inscrutable mysteries ; and where, as the Church would
no longer insist on particular forms of belief, man-
kind would cease to hate and slaughter each other
because they differed on points of metaphysics. In
Luther he saw the same disposition to dogmatic asser-
tion at the opposite pole of thought ; an intolerance of
denial as dangerous as the churchman's intolerance of
affirmation. What could Luther, what could any
man know of the real essence of the Divine Will and
Nature ? Canons of orthodoxy were but reflections of
human passion and perversity. If Luther's spirit
spread, dogma would be met with dogma, each calling
itself the truth ; reason could never end disputes which
did not originate in reason, but originated in bigotry
or a too eager imagination. From argument there
would be a quick resort to the sword, and the whole
world would be full of fury and madness. How well
Erasmus judged two centuries of religious wars were
to tell. The wheel has come round at last. The
battle for liberty of opinion has been fought out to
the bitter end. Common-sense has been taught at
Lecture X. 207
last that persecution for opinions must cease. After
the exhaustion of the struggle the world has come
round to the Erasmian view, and one asks why all that
misery was necessary before the voice of moderation
could be heard. I suppose because reason has so
little to do with the direction of human conduct. I
called Erasmus's views of reform a dream. It was a
dream of the ivory gate. Reason is no match for
superstition. One passion can only be encountered
by another passion, and bigotry by the enthusiasm of
faith.
But what was Erasmus to do in the new element
which had sprung out so suddenly ? Turn against
Luther he would not, for he knew that Luther's de-
nunciation of the indulgences had been as right as it
was brave. Declare for him he would not. He could
not commit himself to a movement which he could not
control, and which for all he could see might become
an unguided insurrection. Like all men of his tem-
perament, he disbelieved in popular convulsions, and
remained convinced that no good could be done
except through the established authorities. He de-
termined therefore to stand aside, stick to his own
work, and watch how things went. He held aloof.
He purposely abstained from reading Luther's books
that he might be able to deny that he had been in
communication with him. Not wishing to write to
Luther himself, yet not wishing to seem to be without
sympathy for him, he wrote in the summer of 1518, a
few months after the scene at Wittenberg, to the rec-
tor of the school at Erfurt where Luther had been
bred. He says : —
That frigid, quarrelsome old lady, Theology, had
swollen herself to such a point of vanity that it was
necessary to bring her back to the fountain, but I
208 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
would rather have her mended than ended. I would
at least have her permitted to endure till a better
theology has been invented. Luther has said many
things excellently well. I could wish, however, that
he would be less rude in his manner. He would have
stronger support behind him, and might do real good.
But, at any rate, unless we stand by him when he is
right, no one hereafter will dare to speak the truth.
I can give no opinion about his positive doctrines ;
but one good thing he has done, and has been a
public benefactor by doing it — he has forced the
controversialists to examine the early Fathers for
themselves.
The atmosphere at Louvain grew more squally than
ever after Luther's business began. It gave the
monks a stick to beat Erasmus with, and they used
it to such purpose that he doubted whether he would
be able to keep his footing there, and whether he
might not be forced to fly for refuge to England
agrain. Even there he could not be certain of his
reception.
The monks said the conflagration was his doing.
In a sense it is true that it was his doing. " Moria "
and the New Testament had been dangerous fire-
works, and every Greek scholar and every friend of
learning: was on Luther's side. The reactionaries in
Germany and England too could point to their pre-
dictions : had not they always said how these novel-
ties would end ?
To see how the wind lay on the English side, and
to prepare the way should flight from Louvain be
necessary, he wrote a long and remarkable letter to
Wolsey.
Considering how much we hear from Erasmus about
England, there is less mention of Wolsey in the corre-
spondence generally than might have been expected.
Lecture X. 209
At first, perhaps, the great Cardinal took no notice of
Erasmus ; and then, finding- that he was become a
person of consequence, paid him some kind of atten-
tion. But there was never any kind of intimacy be-
tween them. Oil and water woidd sooner mix than
the great pluralist Cardinal, symbol of all that was
worst in ecclesiastical ascendency, half statesman, half
charlatan, and the keen sarcastic Erasmus, to whom
the charlatan side would be too painfully evident.
But Wolsey was now omnipotent in England. Eras-
mus might need his help, or at least his sanction to a
return thither. The letter was sent with a due dose
of flattery and incense, to assure Wolsey that he had
no connection with the German movement. 1
Stories, he says, had reached his Eminence's ears
that he, Erasmus, was responsible for the German
outburst. He wishes Wolsey to understand that it
was not true. Luther, he heard, was a person of
blameless life ; this Luther's worst enemies acknow-
ledged ; but he had never seen him, he had never
read his books. As to the opinions contained in
them, he was not vain enough to pass a judgment on
a man so remarkable. He had thought it imprudent
on Luther's part to reflect on pardons and indul-
gences, forming as they did the chief part of the
monks' revenues, but he had expressed no opinion on
what Luther had published, favourable or unfavour-
able. He was not rash enough to praise what he had
not studied, nor unprincipled enough to condemn.
As to the rest (he went on) Germany has young
men of high promise, who are fighting against the
Obscurantists and use the first weapon which comes
to hand. I should blame their violence if I did not
know how intolerably they have been provoked. The
1 JEp. cccxvii., abridged.
210 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
enemies of learning denounce and slander them, and
shriek and scream if they get a scratch in return.
They are to cry heresy, and appeal to earth and
heaven, and to the princes and the mob, and we are
not to utter a disrespectful word. Von Hutten and
his friends are young, they are not without wit, and
they are naturally exasperated at the attacks on them.
I have admonished them to be more cautious. I have
advised them to keep their pens off popes, and car-
dinals, and bishops, who are their only protectors.
What can I do more ? I can control my own style :
I cannot govern theirs. Everything is laid at my
door. Each new work that appears must be mine,
whether I wrote it or not. My works are widely read,
and expressions used by me may find their way into
the writings of others, even of my enemies. There is
mockery in " Moria " — but only innocent mockery.
No word has come from me to offend modesty or
encourage sedition or impiety. I have the thanks of
everyone, except of divines and monks, who do not
like to have their eyes opened. I am saying perhaps
more than I need. I have said so much only because
I learn that certain persons are trying to prejudice
your Eminence's mind against me. I trust you will
not listen to such calumnies. Erasmus will always be
found on the side of the Roman See, and especially of
its present occupant.
LECTURE XI.
The Court of Rome, which had survived the in-
famies of Alexander VI., might naturally disdain the
rumours of spiritual disturbances in a remote province
of Germany. The roots of the papal power had
struck so deep into the spiritual and secular organisa-
tion of Europe, that it might believe itself safe from
any wind that could blow. If the crimes of the Bor-
gias had not disenchanted mankind of their belief
that the popes were representatives of the Almighty,
the spell was not likely to be broken by a clamour
over indulgences. It was but a quarrel of noisy
monks. When Luther's theses were submitted to
Leo X., the infallible voice observed merely that a
drunken German wrote them : " When he has slept
off his wine he will know better." Erasmus, encour-
aged by the Pope's encouragement of art and learn-
ing, and especially by Leo's patronage of himself, had
believed that they were on the eve of a general Re-
formation, undertaken by the Church itself. Though
he had not liked Luther's tone or manners, he had
been delighted with the stir in Saxony, as giving the
Holy See the impulse to begin the work which he
supposed alone to be needed. It was a fond imagina-
tion. Pope Leo is credited by tradition with having
called the Church system a profitable fable. Fabu-
lous or true, it was the foundation on which had been
erected his own splendid dominion, and he was not
likely to allow his right to his own revenues to be
successfully challenged.
212 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Roused at last into recognising that Luther's action
had set tongues busy asking questions which could
not he answered, he struck at first on the notable idea
of a fresh crusade against the Crescent, and the re-
covery of Constantinople. It would divert attention,
create a fresh tide of emotional piety, and lend new
lustre to his own throne. How far this scheme was
intended to be proceeded with it is impossible to say,
but it went far enough to show Erasmus the folly of
his own expectations, and in all his letters none are
more scornfully bitter than those in which he de-
nounced the sinister influences of Leo's advisers.
He would as soon, he said, turn Mahometan himself
as be a Christian after the type in favour at the Vati-
can. He writes to Sir T. More, March 5, 1518 : 1 —
The Pope and the princes are at a new game.
They pretend that there is to be a grand war against
the Turk. The poor Turk ! I hope we shall not be
too savage with him. What will the women say ?
The whole male sex between twenty-six and fifty are
to take up arms, and as the Pope will not let the
ladies enjoy themselves while their husbands are in
the field, they are to wear no silk or jewels, drink no
wine, and fast every other day. Husbands who can-
not go on the campaign are to be under the same
rule. No kissing to be allowed till the war is over.
Many wives will not like this. Yours I am sure will
approve. But oh, immortal gods ! what has come
over these rulers of ours ? Are popes and kings so
lost to shame that they treat their subjects as cattle to
be bought and sold ?
Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. Leo X.
trying to occupy the mind of Europe with fighting
or converting Turks while Luther was setting Ger-
many on fire was a feat not very dissimilar.
1 Ep, eclxv., second series, abridged.
Lecture XL 213
At greater length Erasmus poured out his disap-
pointment and indignation to his friend Abbot Vol-
zius, who became afterwards a Calvinist. 1
We are not, I presume, to kill all the Turks. The
survivors are to be made Christians, and we are to
send them our Occams and our Scoti as missionaries.
I wonder what the Turks will think when they hear
about instances and causes formative, about quiddities
and relativities, and see our own theologians cursing
and spitting at each other, the preaching friars crying
up their St. Thomas, the Minorites their Doctor Ser-
aphicus, the Nominalists and Realists wrangling about
the nature of the Second Person of the Trinity as if
Christ was a malignant demon ready to destroy you
if you made a mistake about His nature. While our
lives and manners remain as depraved as they now
are the Turks will see in us but so many rapacious
and licentious vermin. How are we to make the
Turks believe in Christ till we show that we believe
in Him ourselves ? Reduce the Articles of Faith to
the feivest and the simplest — " Quce pertinent ad
fidem quam paucissimis articulis dbsolvantur."
Show them that Christ's yoke is easy, that we are
shepherds and not robbers, and do not mean to op-
press them. Send them messengers such as these
instead of making war, and then we may effect some
good. But, oh! what an age we live in. When
were morals more corrupt ? — ritual and ceremony
walking hand in hand with vice, and wretched mor-
tals caring only to fill their purses. Christ cannot be
taught even among Christians. The cry is only for
pardons, dispensations, and indulgences, and the
trade goes on in the name of popes and princes, and
even of Christ Himself. Ask a question of the scho-
lastic divines and the casuists, and you are told of
qualifications, or equivocations, and such like. Not
one of them will say to you, Do this and leave that.
They ought to show their faith in their works, and
convert Turks by the beauty of their lives.
1 Ep. cccxxix., abridged.
214 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
And dogmas were to be heaped on dogmas, and
Christendom was to be turned into a bloody circus of
quarrelling doctrinaires, murdering each other in the
name of God, while the Turks, far away from conver-
sion, wore to hang over Europe, threatening Western
Christianity with the same fate which had over-
whelmed the Churches of Asia. Why would not
men be reasonable ? Luther's voice swelled louder.
Erasmus vainly implored him to be moderate. Eras-
mus had no spell to command the winds not to blow.
Leo's eyes were opened at last. He found his indul-
gences would no longer sell in the market. His rev-
enues were seriously threatened. The troublesome
monk must be silenced. He required the Elector of
Saxony to arrest Luther. The Elector declined, till
the objections to the indulgences had been answered.
Indulgences and pardons were but one of a thousand
forms in which the flock of Christ had been fleeced.
Each grievance found a voice, and the movement be-
gan perilously to shape itself into a revolt of the
laity against the clergy. Luther dared to say that
the clergy were but as other men, that their apostolic
succession was a dream, and the claim to supernatu-
ral powers on which the whole pretension of the
Church to its sovereign authority rested was an illu-
sion and imposture. Something had to be done, but
what ? Nuncios were sent and then legates — not to
answer Luther, for no answer was possible, but to
threaten him, to bribe him, any way to silence him.
Luther had not meant to raise such a tempest. He
had merely protested against a scandal. If the Pope
would have stopped the sale of the indulgences and
condemned the grossness of Tetzel and his doings,
Luther, much as he disliked the teaching and practice
of the Church in general, would have said no more,
Lecture XL 215
and his own share in the revolt would have ended.
It was not for him to call to account Pope and
bishops, and remodel the world. But, as Erasmus
said, the whole business was mismanaged. Aleander,
Miltitz, Cardinal Cajetan, who were despatched suc-
cessively from Rome to quiet matters, were insolent
churchmen, impatient and indignant that the majesty
of the Papacy shoidd be defied by a miserable monk.
Fire and faggot were the fitting and proper remedy.
A troublesome Elector of Saxony, himself half a
heretic at heart, refusing to indulge them, they alter-
nately flattered and cursed, entreated and imprecated.
A Papal Bidl came out formally approving the indul-
gences, condemning Luther's action, which Erasmus
says every right-minded man in Germany approved,
ordering his books to be burnt, and commanding his
arrest and punishment. It might have answered a
century before, but times change, and men along with
them. Free Germany only asked the louder who and
what the Pope was that he should claim to punish a
German citizen who had only thrown into words what
every honest man believed.
Erasmus, moving between Louvain and Bale, was
noting anxiously the spread of the conflagration, more
and more uncertain what part to take, and breaking
out, as men will do when they see things going as they
do not like, into lamentations on the wickedness of the
world.
Princes, he well knew, disliked and feared popular
movements. Rebellion against the Pope might turn
easily into rebellion against themselves. Possibly
enough they might combine to put the whole thing
down ; and then, as he sadly recognised, tl^e forcible
suppression of Luther would give the victory to his
own enemies, and he and all that he had done or tried
21G Life and Letters of Erasmus.
to Jo would be crushed along" with this new insurgent.
Or it might be that the princes might try and fail, and
there would be revolution and civil war. In that case
ought he not, must he not declare himself on Luther's
side ? lie had told Wolsey that his place would be
always with the Pope, but the Pope had not then gone
to extremities.
As it was, the blame of what had happened was thrown
upon him, and not altogether without justice. At that
very moment he was doing Luther's work. His New
Testament and his " Moria " were circulating in hun-
dreds of thousands of copies, bringing the monks and
theologians into scorn. Naturally enough his oppo-
nents saw their own predictions confirmed. Here is
what comes of your Greek and Hebrew. Did n't we
say it would be so? He could not clear himself.
Would it not be safer, better, more honourable to fall
into rank with the general movement ? And yet the
whole form of Luther's action was distasteful to him.
He had no passion. He distrusted enthusiasm. He
abhorred violence. To declare for Luther after Luther
had been condemned at Rome was to quarrel for ever
with the Vatican ; and victory, if Luther succeeded,
seemed to be leading to fresh dogmas as unwelcome to
him as scholasticism. His position was infinitely uneasy.
He was railed at in lecture-rooms, insulted in the pulpits,
cursed and libelled in the press, and, except by now
and then turning round and biting some specially
snarling cur, he could do nothing to defend himself.
Erasmus said he disliked fighting monsters, for
whether he won or lost he was always covered with
venom. He writes to Marcus Laurinus : 1 —
When you find a man raging against my New Tes-
tament ask him if he has read it. If he says Yes, ask
1 Canon of Bruges. Ep. ecclvi., abridged.
Lecture XL 217
him to what he objects. Not one of them can tell
you. Is not this Christian ? Is it not " monastic " to
slander a man without knowing where he is in fault ?
Heresy is held a deadly crime, so if you offend one of
these gentlemen they all rush on you together, one
grunting out " heretic," the rest grunting in chorus, and
crying for stones to hurl at you. Verily, they have
whetted their teeth like serpents. The poison of asps
is under their lips. They have no tongue to bless with,
but tongue enough for lies and slander. Nothing-
pleases them like blackening another man's good name.
Such creatures are not to be forgotten. They must be
embalmed in writing that posterity may know the mal-
ice which can conceal itself under zeal for religion.
Possibly, if I try, I may be able to preserve the por-
traits of some of these gentry myself.
The monks and divines had no cause to love Eras-
mus. No wonder they returned the compliments
which he had paid them. It was blow for blow and
sting for sting, and he need not have cried out so
loudly. Happily for him he was not chained to Lou-
vain. Half his time was spent at Bale with his prin-
ter, where the noises reached him less. But more
than ever he looked wistfully towards England.
His English friend, Dr. Pace, who had been abroad
on a diplomatic mission, had spent a few days at Bale
with him. The sight of an English face revived his
longings.
TO PAULUS BOMBASIUS. 1
July 26, 1518.
Pace is recalled. The King and Cardinal cannot
do without him. I have myself avoided princes'
courts, as I looked on life in such places as splendid
misery ; but if I had my life to begin again I would
prefer to spend it at the English Court. The King
1 Professor at Bologna. Ep. ccclxxvii.
218 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
is the heartiest man living" (cordatissimus*) and de-
lights in good hooks. The Queen is miraculously
learned for a woman, and is equally pious and excel-
lent. Both of them like to he surrounded by the most
accomplished of their subjects. Linacre is Court phy-
sician, and what he is I need not say. Thomas More
is in the Privy Council. Mountjoy is in the Queen's
household. Colet is Court preacher. Stokesly, a
master of Greek, Hebrew, Latin and scholastic theol-
ogy, is a Privy Councillor also. The Palace is full
of such men, a very museum of knowledge.
Again, to Wolsey : —
Fool that I was to have rejected the King's and
your kind offers. Had I accepted the hand which was
held out to me I might have been living happily in a
cultivated circle of friends, instead of struggling with
ungrateful and insolent calumniators. Bodily tor-
ments are bad enough, but these mental torments are
worse. They come one knows not whence — perhaps
from the stars, perhaps from the devil. What a
thing it is to cultivate literature. Better far grow
cabbages in a garden. Bishops have thanked me for
my work, the Pope has thanked me ; but these tyrants
the mendicant friars never leave me alone with their
railing.
Erasmus was ill this summer at Bale (1518) with
cough and dysentery. The worse he was the more he
pined for England. He had decided to go there if
his health would let him, whether invited or not.
I would like well to know whether I have anything
to look for with you (he wrote to Cuthbert Tun stall *).
I grow old. I am not as strong as I was. If I could
have the additional hundred marks which the King
offered me some time back I would ask no more.
Here I have nothing to look for. The Chancellor, on
1 Then Master of the Rolls, afterwards Bishop of London and of
Durham.
Lecture XL 219
whom I chiefly depended, is dead in Spain. His
chaplain writes that if he had lived three months
longer he would have provided for me. Cold comfort.
Nowhere in the world is learning worse neglected than
here.
Trouble enough and anxiety enough ! Yet in the
midst of bad health and furious monks — it is the
noblest feature in him — his industry never slackened,
and he drew out of his difficulties the materials which
made his name immortal. He was for ever on the
wing, searching libraries, visiting learned men, con-
sulting with politicians or princes. His correspond-
ence was enormous. His letters on literary subjects
are often treatises in themselves, and go where he
would his eyes were open to all things and persons.
His writings were passing through edition on edition.
He was always adding and correcting ; while new
tracts, new editions of the Fathers show an acuteness
of attention and an extent of reading which to a mod-
ern student seems beyond the reach of any single in-
tellect. Yet he was no stationary scholar confined to
desk or closet. He was out in the world, travelling
from city to city, gathering materials among all places
and all persons, from palace to village alehouse, and
missing nothing which had meaning or amusement in
it. In all literary history there is no more extraordi-
nary figure. Harassed by orthodox theologians, un-
certain of his duties in the revolutionary tempest,
doubtful in what country to find rest or shelter, anx-
ious for his future, anxious for his life (for he knew
how Orthodoxy hated him, and he had no wish to be
a martyr in an ambiguous cause), he was putting
together another work which, like " Moria," was to
make his name immortal. Of his learned productions,
brilliant as they were, Erasmus thought but little.
220 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
He considered them hastily and inaccurately done ; he
even wondered how anyone could read them. But
his letters, his " Moria," and now the " Colloquies,"
which he was composing in his intervals of leisure,
are pictures of his own mind, pictures of men and
things which show the hand of an artist in the highest
sense, never spiteful, never malicious, always delight-
ful and amusing, and finished photographs of the
world in which he lived and moved. The subject
might be mean or high, a carver of genuis will make
a work of art out of the end of a broomstick. The .
journey to Brindisi was a common adventure in a fly-
boat ; Horace has made it live for ever. Erasmus had
the true artist's gift of so handling everything that he
touched, vulgar or sublime, that human interest is
immediately awakened, and in these " Colloquies,"
which are the record of what he himself saw and
heard, we have the human inhabitants of Europe be-
fore us as they then were in all countries except
Spain, and of all degrees and sorts ; bishops and ab-
bots, monks and parish priests, lords and commoners,
French grisettes, soldiers of fortune, treasure-seekers,
quacks, conjurors, tavern-keepers, there they all stand,
the very image and mirror of the time. Miserable as
he often considered himself, Erasmus shows nothing
of it in the " Colloquies." No bitterness, no com-
plainings, no sour austerity or would-be virtuous ear-
nestness but everywhere a genial human sympathy
which will not be too hard upon the wretchedest of
rogues, with the healthy apprehension of all that is
innocent and good. The " Colloquies " were not pub-
lished till four years latter than the time with which
we are now concerned, but they were composed at in-
tervals during a long period — the subjects picked
up as he went along, dressed into shape as he rode,
Lecture XL 221
and written as opportunity served, sometimes two or
three in a single day.
They are a happy evidence that in the midst of his
complaints and misgivings his inner spirit was lively
and brilliant as ever, and that the existence of which
he professed to be weary was less clouded than he
would have his friends believe. The best and bright-
est are his pictures of England. No one who has
ever read them can forget his pilgrimage with Colet
to Becket's tomb at Canterbury, with Colet's scornful
snorts, or his visit with Aldrich, the master of Eton, to
the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. In the whole
collection there is probably nothing which he had not
himself seen and heard, and the " Colloquies," which in
their own day had unbounded popularity, can still be
read with delight in our own. Works of science and
history, famous at their appearance and in front of
advancing knowledge, fall out of date, become insipid,
and are forgotten. A genuine work of art retains its
flavour to the end of time.
Occasionally in his letters we find adventures of
his own which might have served for an additional
chapter in the " Colloquies." I mentioned his illness
at Bale in the summer of 1518. On his recovery in
the autumn he had to return to Louvain. He went
back with a heavy heart, expecting to find his tormen-
tors there. He reached Louvain so ill that he was
confined to his room for six weeks, and the surgeons
thought his disorder had been the plague. The de-
scription of his journey which he gave to Beatus lihen-
anus is a companion picture to the journey to Brin-
disi. 1
Listen to the tragedy of my adventures. I left
Bale relaxed and worn out as one out of favour with
1 Ep. ccclvii., abridged.
222 Life and Letters, of Erasmus.
the gods. The river part of niy journey was well
enough, save for the heat of the sun. We dined at
Breisach. Dinner abominable. Foul smells and flies
in swarms. We were kept waiting half an hour
while the precious banquet was preparing. There was
nothing that I could eat, every dish filthy and stink-
ing. At night we were turned out of the boat into a
village — the name I forget, and I would not write
it if I remembered. It nearly made an end of me.
There were sixty of us to sup together in the tavern,
a medley of human animals in one small heated room.
It was ten o'clock, and, oh! the dirt and the noise,
especially after the wine had begun to circulate. The
cries of the boatmen woke us in the morning. I
hurry on board unsupped and unslept. At nine we
reached Strasburg, when things mended a little.
Scherer, a friend, supplied us with wine, and other
accpiaintances called to see me. From Strasburg we
went on to Speyer. We had been told that part of
the army would be there, but we saw nothing of
them. My English horse had broken down, a wretch
of a blacksmith having burnt his foot with a hot shoe.
I escaped the inn at Speyer and was entertained by
my friend the Dean. Two pleasant days with him,
thence in a carriage to Worms and so on to Mentz,
where I was again lodged by a Cathedral canon. So
far things had gone tolerably with me. The smell of
the horses was disagreeable and the pace was slow,
but that was the worst. At a village further on I
call on my friend Christopher, the wine-merchant, to
his great delight. On his table I saw the works of
Erasmus. He invited a party to meet me, sent the
boatmen a pitcher of wine and promised to let them
off the customs duty as a reward for having brought
him so great a man. Thence to Bonn, thence to Co-
logne, which we reached early on Sunday morning. 1
Imagine a wine-merchant reading my books and
given to the study of the Muses. Christ said the
publicans and the harlots would go into the kingdom
1 Ep. ccexxxix.
Lecture XL 223
of heaven before the Pharisees. Priests and monks
live for their bellies, and vintners take to literature.
But, alas, the red wine which he sent to the boatmen
took the taste of the bargeman's wife, a red-faced sot
of a woman. She drank it to the last drop, and then
flew to arms and almost murdered a servant wench
with oyster-shells. Then she rushed on deck, tackled
her husband, and tried to pitch him overboard. There
is vinal energy for you.
At the hotel at Cologne I ordered breakfast at ten
o'clock, with a carriage and pair to be ready immedi-
ately after. I went to church, came back to find no
breakfast, and a carriage not to be had. My horse
being disabled, I tried to hire another. I was told
this could not be done either. I saw what it meant.
I was to be kept at Cologne, and I did not choose to
be kept; so I ordered my poor nag to be saddled,
lame as he was, with another for my servant, and I
started on a five hours' journey for the Count of New
Eagle. I had five pleasant days with the Count,
whom I found a young man of sense. I had meant,
if the autumn was fine, to go on to England and close
with the King's repeated offers to me. From this
dream I was precipitated into a gulf of perdition. A
carriage had been ordered for me for the next morn-
ing. The Count would not take leave of me over-
night, meaning to see me before I started. The night
was wild. I rose before dawn to finish off some work.
At seven, the Count not appearing, I sent to call him.
He came, and protested that I must not leave his
house in such weather. I must have lost half my
mind when I went to Cologne. My evil genius now
carried off the other half. Go I would, in an open
carriage, with wind enough to tear up oak-trees. It
came from the south and charged with pestilence.
Towai'ds evening wind changed to rain. I reached
Aix shaken to pieces by the bad roads. I should
have done better on my lame horse. At Aix a canon
to whom the Count had recommended me carried me
off to the house of the Px'ecentor to sup. Other
224 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Cathedral dignitaries were also of the party. My
light breakfast had sharpened my appetite, and there
was nothing- to eat bnt cold carp. I filled myself as
I could, and went early to Led under plea that I had
not slept the night before. Next day I was taken to
the Vice-Provost, whose table usually was well pro-
vided, but on this occasion, owing to the weather, he
had nothing to offer but eels. These I could not
touch, and I had to fall back on salt cod, called
" bacalao," from the sticks they beat it with. It was
almost raw. Breakfast over, I returned to the inn
and ordered a fire. The canon stayed an hour and a
half talking. My stomach then went into a crisis. A
finger in my mouth brought on vomiting. Up came
the raw cod, and I lay down exhausted. The pain
passed off. I settled with the driver about my lug-
gage, and was then called to the table d'hote supper.
I tried to excuse myself. I knew by experience that
I ought to touch nothing but warm sops. However,
they had made their preparations for me, so attend I
must. After the soup I retreated to the Precentor's
to sleep. Another wild night. Breakfast in the
morning, a mouthful of bread and a cup of warm
beer, and then to my lame beast. I ought to have
been in bed, but I ""disliked Aix and its ways, and
longed to be off. I had been suffering from piles,
and the riding increased the inflammation. After a
few miles we came to the bridge over the Meuse,
where I had some broth, and thence on to Tongres.
The pain then grew horrible. I would have walked,
but I was afraid of perspiring or being out after
nightfall. I reached Tongres very ill all over. I
slept, however, a little ; had some warm beer again
in the morning, and ordered a close carriage. The
road turned out to be paved with flint. I coidd not
bear the jolting, and mounted one of the horses. A
sudden chill, and I fainted, and was put back into
the carriage. After a while I recovered a little, and
again tried to ride. In the evening I was sick, and
told the driver I would pay him double if he would
Lecture XL 225
bring me early to my next stage. A miserable night
— suffering dreadful. In the morning I found there
was a carriage with four horses going straight through
to Louvain. I engaged it and arrived the next night
in an agony of pain. Fearing that my own rooms
would be cold, I drove to the house of my kind friend
Theodoric, the printer. An ulcer broke in the night,
and I was easier. I send for a surgeon. He finds
another on my back ; glands swollen and boils form-
ing all over me. He tells Theodoric's servant that
I have the plague, and that he will not come near
me again. Theodoric brings the message. I don't
believe it. I send for a Jew doctor, who wishes his
body was as sound as mine. The surgeon persists
that it is the plague, and so does his father. I call
in the best physician in the town, who says that he
would have no objection to sleep with me. The He-
brew holds to his opinion. Another fellow makes a
long face at the ulcers. I give him a gold crown, and
tell him to come again the next day, which he refuses
to do. I send doctors to the devil, commend myself
to Christ, and am well in three days. Who could be-
lieve that this frail body of mine could have borne
such a shaking? When I was young I was greatly
afraid of dying. I fear it less as I grow older. Hap-
piness does not depend on age. I am now fifty, a
term of life which many do not reach, and I cannot
complain that I have not lived long enough.
You will tell me, perhaps, that all this is not his-
tory. Well, if history consists of the record of the
fragments of actions preserved by tradition, attributed
to wooden figures called men and women, interpreted
successively by philosophic writers according to their
own notions of probability, and arranged to teach con-
stitutional lessons, certainly it is not history. But if
by history we mean as much as we can learn of the
character and doings of past generations of real hu-
man creatures who would bleed if we pricked them,
226 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
then a letter like this, bringing as it does such a crowd
of figures before us in the working dress of common
life, is very historical indeed. Boatmen, bargemen,
drunken bargemen's wives, literary wine-merchants,
taverns and tavern dinners, canons and precentors
eager to recognise the great man and poison him with
cold carp and bacalao, carriages, horses, bad roads,
sixteenth-century surgeons — there, in a few pages,
we have it all alive before us, whether philosophy can
make anything out of it or not.
Unfortunate Erasmus ! No sooner was he quit of
his bodily tortures than his old enemies opened fire
again upon him. He sent Colet a short account of
his calamities on his journey, with a glimpse of the
condition of his mind : —
You often call Erasmus unlucky. What would
you call him if you saw him now ? Who would credit
me with strength to survive such a tossing, to say no-
thing of sycophant divines who bite at my back when
to my face they dare not ? The [new edition of the]
New Testament will be out soon. The Comments on
the Apostolic Epistles are in the press. The Para-
phrases will follow. The Archbishop of Mentz, still
a young man, has disgraced himself by accepting a
cardinal's hat and becoming a Pope's monk. Oh, my
dear Colet, what a fate for a human soul ! We make
tyrants out of priests and gods out of men. Princes,
popes, Turks combine to make the world miserable.
Christ grows obsolete, and is going the way of Moses.
Faster and faster copies of the New Testament
spread over Europe, and with it the wrath of the
orthodox. The Pope had refused their request for an
official examination of Erasmus's work. Eager indi-
viduals rushed in with their separate complaints, and
over France, England, and Germany monks and
priests were denouncing the errors which they ima-
Lecture XL 227
srined themselves to have discovered. For the first
time it had to be explained to them that the Bible
was a book, and had a meaning like other books.
Pious, ignorant men had regarded the text of the
Vulgate as sacred, and probably inspired. Read it
intelligently they could not, but they had made the
language into an idol, and they were filled with horri-
fied amazement when they found in page after page
that Erasmus had anticipated modern criticism, cor-
recting the text, introducing various readings, and
retranslating passages from the Greek into a new
version. He had altered a word in the Lord's Prayer.
Horror of horrors! he had changed the translation
of the mystic Ao'yos from Verbum into Sermo, to make
people understand what Adyos meant. The wildest
stories were set flying. Erasmus was accused of hav-
ing called the Gospel an old woman's fable. He had
merely rendered a-vWakovvra into confabulantes. A
preacher at Louvain, cursing Luther as a heretic and
Antichrist, charged Erasmus and literature with the
guilt of having produced him, and said that the desire
for knowledge had been the origin of all the misery
in the world, as if it had not been notorious, as Eras-
mus observes, that Luther had been educated entirely
on the schoolmen, and knew nothing of literature.
His old enemy, Egmond, declared that the publication
of Erasmus's New Testament was the coming of Anti-
christ. Erasmus asked him what he had found there
to offend him. He answered that he had never looked
into the book, and never would. An English divine
(Erasmus himself tells the story) was one day preach-
ing: before the King. He used the occasion to de-
nounce the new studies, and Greek especially. Dr.
Pace, who was present, looked at Henry. Henry
smiled, and after the sermon sent for the preacher
228 Life and Letters of LJrasmus.
and sent for Sir T. More to discuss the question
between them. The preacher had trusted to pulpit
irresponsibility. He fell on his knees, and pleaded
that the Spirit had moved him. The King said it
must have been a foolish spirit. The preacher had
denounced Erasmus by name. Henry asked him if
he had read any of Erasmus's writings. He said he
had read something called " Moria." Pace observed
that he was not surprised ; his argument smelt of it.
The man said that perhaps Greek might be innocent
after all, as it was derived from Hebrew. The King
sent him about his business, and ordered that he
should never preach before the Court again.
A bishop, who was one of Queen Catherine's con-
fessors, had abused Erasmus to her with similar non-
sense. The Queen one day asked a friend of Erasmus
whether Jerome was not a learned man, and whether
he was not in heaven. " Yes, certainly," was the an-
swer. " Why then," said she, " does Erasmus correct
Jerome? Is he wiser than Jerome ? "
" Such stuff," said Erasmus, commenting on these
stories, " is taught seriously by pillars of the Church
and champions of the Christian religion. I shall
argue no more. I am a veteran and have earned my
discharge, and must leave the fighting to younger men."
There was to be no discharge for Erasmus while the
breath was in him. More unwelcome than the attacks
of monks or bishops was a letter which next reached
him. He had avoided Luther's books. He had
wished to be able to say that he did not know Luther,
and had held no communication with him. Luther,
on the other hand, naturally thought that Erasmus,
who had so far led the campaign, ought to stand his
friend, and ventured to appeal to him. 1 He wrote
1 Ep. cccxcix.
Lecture XL 229
naturally, simply, even humbly. Erasmus's splendid
qualities had filled him, he said, with admiration, and
the anger which Erasmus had provoked was a sign
that God was with him. He apologised for venturing
to address so great a man. His life had been spent
among sophists, and he knew not how to speak to a
scholar. " But I trust," he said, " that you will let
me look on you as a brother. My fate is a hard one.
I, a poor ignorant creature, fit only to be buried in a
corner out of sight of sun and sky, have been forced
forward into controversy against my natural will."
Never had any request been addressed to Erasmus
more entirely inconvenient to him. He had enough
to do to fight his own battles. To take up Luther's
was to forfeit the Pope's protection, which had hith-
erto been his best defence. The Pope let him say all
that he wished himself. Why lose an advantage so
infinitely precious to him? Luther resented his hesi-
tation, and Protestant tradition has execrated Eras-
mus's cowardice. His conduct was not perhaps
heroic, but heroism is not always wisdom. The
Luther who was now wishing to be his brother was
not the Luther of history, the liberator of Germany,
the regenerator of the Christian faith. To Erasmus he
was merely an honest, and perhaps imprudent monk,
who had broken out single-handed into a noisy revolt.
Doubtless the indulgences were preposterous, and the
Church of Rome was an Augean stable which wanted
all the waters of the Tiber through it ; but the first
beginners of revolutions are not those who usually
bring them to a successful conclusion. Walter the
Pennyless goes before Godfrey of Bouillon. The
generous and the rash rush forward prematurely with-
out measuring the difficulties of the enterprise, and
attack often in the wrong place. The real enemy in
230 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
the mind of Erasmus was not the Pope and his indul-
gences, absurd as they might be ; but the gloomy mass
of lies and ignorance which lay spread over Europe,
and the tyranny of a priesthood believed to possess
supernatural powers. If cultivated popes and bishops
like Leo and Archbishop Warham, and hundreds
more whom Erasmus knew, would lend a hand to help
education and spread the knowledge of the New Tes-
tament, there might be better hopes for mankind in
using their assistance than in plunging into a furious
battle with popular superstition and the Roman hie-
rarchy combined.
Erasmus may have been wrong. Times come when
rough measures alone will answer, and Erasmian edu-
cation might have made slight impression on the
Scarlet Lady of Babylon. But Erasmus was not
bound to know it, and I think it rather to his credit
that he met Luther's advances as favourably as he
did.
I knew various persons of high reputation a few
years ago who thought at bottom very much as Bishop
Colenso thought, who nevertheless turned and rent
him to clear their own reputations, which they did
not succeed in doing. Erasmus was no saint. He
thought Luther an upright, good man, if not a wise
one, and he was too intellectually honest to conceal
his real convictions. How he behaved under his
temptation we shall see in the next lecture.
LECTURE XII.
The moderate reformer always resents the intrusion
of the advanced Radical into work which he has been
himself conducting with caution and success. He sees
his own operations discredited, his supporters alienated,
his enemies apparently entitled to appeal to the fulfil-
ment of their prophecies, the leadership snatched out of
his hands and passed on to more thorough going rivals.
He is not to be hastily blamed if he is in a hurry
to disconnect himself from hot spirits whom he cannot
govern and whose objects extend beyond what he him-
self desires or approves. If Erasmus had publicly
washed his hands of Luther and advised his suppres-
sion, he would have done no more than any ordinary
party leader would have done in the same position.
His real action was absolutely different. Aleander,
the Papal Nuncio, had brought the Bull condemning
Luther to the Elector of Saxony, had called on the
Elector in the Pope's name to order Luther's works
to be burnt, to seize Luther himself, and either execute
the papal sentence or send his heretical subject as a
prisoner to Rome. It was no easy matter for a sub-
ordinate prince of the German empire to fly in the face
of the spiritual ruler of Christendom. The Elector
knew Erasmus only by reputation, but to Erasmus he
turned for advice, and went to Cologne to see Erasmus
personally, and consult with him as to what should be
done. Erasmus told the Elector that Luther had com-
mitted two unpardonable crimes — he had touched the
232 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Pope on the crown and the monks in the belly ; but
however that might be, a German subject ought not
to be given up to destruction till his faults had been
proved against him. Luther had always professed
himself willing to argue the question of the indul-
gences, and to submit if they were shown to be legiti-
mate. He had been so far a quiet peaceful man, with
an unblemished reputation, which was more than
could be said of many of his accusers. The Pope's
Bull had offended every reasonable man, and, in fact,
he advised the Elector to refuse till the cause had
been publicly heard. The advice was the more cred-
itable to Erasmus, because he knew that if it came to
a struggle he would be himself in danger. He was
not inclined to be a martyr, and in extremity meant
to imitate St. Peter. So at least he said, but perhaps
he would have been better than his word. He wrote
to the President of Holland, strongly deprecating the
Pope's action. " I am surprised," he said, " that the
Pope should have sent Commissioners on the business
so violent and ignorant. Cardinal Cajetan is arrogant
and overbearing ; Miltitz is little better ; and Alean-
der is a maniac " — worse indeed than a maniac, in
Erasmus's secret opinion. 1 Aleander had been bred
in the Court of Alexander VI. The Court of Rome
had determined one way or another to rid themselves
of the troublesome Saxon monk. If he could not be
disposed of in the regular fashion, there were other
methods. " They will now probably take Luther off
by poison," Erasmus wrote, " as certain of his defen-
ders have been removed in Paris. This possibly is
among the instructions : that when the enemies of the
Holy See cannot be got rid of otherwise, they may be
1 To Nicholas Everard, President of Holland. Ep. eccxvii., second
series, abridged.
Lecture XII 233
taken off by poison with his Holiness's blessing.
Everyone is an enemy of the Faith with these harpies
if he will not submit to them in everything. Aleander
is an old hand at such business. He asked me to dine
with him at Cologne. He was so urgent that I thought
it prudent to decline." 2 " The apostolic rod no longer
sufficing," he says elsewhere, " they will first try pris-
ons, chains, stake, and gallows, cannon and armies, and
if these won't do they will fall back on the cup."
In the middle of the crisis the old Emperor Maxi-
milian died. The imperial crown fell vacant. The
Elector of Saxony had but to consent to be chosen to
be unanimously elected. The situation seemed less
dangerous, and Erasmus was able to answer Luther's
letter to him. He calls him " his dearest brother in
Christ." He thanked Luther for desiring his friend-
ship, and spoke of the storm which he had caused. 2
Had I not seen it with my own eyes (he wrote) I
could not have believed that the theologians would
have gone so mad. It is like the plague. All Lou-
vain is infected. I have told them that I do not know
you personally ; that I neither approve nor disapprove
your writings, for I have not read them, but that they
ought to read them before they spoke so loudly. I
suggested, too, that the subjects on which you have
written were not of a sort to be declaimed on from
pulpits, and that, as your character was admitted to
be spotless, denouncing and cursing were not precisely
in place. It was of no use. They are mad as ever.
They do not argue because they cannot, and they
trust entirely to evil speaking. I am myself the chief
object of animosity. The bishops generally are on my
side and against them, and this makes them savage.
1 " Fortassis hoe in mandatis est, at qnoniam alitor vinci non possunt
hostes Sedis Romanse veneno tollantur cum benedictione Pontificis. Hac
arte valet Aleander. Is ine (.■(•Ionia 1 inipensissinierogavit ad i»randium.
Ego quo magis ille instabat hoc pertinacius excusavi." Ibid.
2 Ep. ccecxxvii., abridged.
234 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
I can only despise them. Wild beasts are tamed by
gentleness ; they are only made more ferocious by it.
For yourself, you have good friends in England,
even among the greatest persons there. You have
friends here too — one in particular. As to me, my
business is with literature. I confine myself to it as
far as I can, and keep aloof from other quarrels ; but,
generally, I think courtesy to opponents is more effec-
tive than violence. Paul abolished the Jewish law by
making it into an allegory ; and it might be wiser of
you to denounce those who misuse the Pope's author-
ity than to censure the Pope himself. So also with
kings and princes. Old institutions cannot be rooted
up in an instant. Quiet argument may do more than
wholesale condemnation. Avoid all appearance of se-
dition. Keep cool. Do not get angry. Do not hate
anybody. Do not be excited over the noise which you
have made. I have looked into your " Commentary
on the Psalms," and am much pleased with it. The
prior of a monastery at Antwerp is devoted to you,
and says he was once your pupil. He preaches Christ
and Christ only. Christ give you His spirit, for His
own glory and the world's good.
On the whole I think this letter extremely honour-
able to Erasmus. It says no more and no less than
he really felt, and it was one of those many instances
where truth serves a man better than the subtlest sub-
terfuge ; for the letter was immediately printed by
Luther's friends, and perhaps with Luther's own con-
sent, to force Erasmus to commit himself.
I suppose these hasty gentlemen thought that he
must make the plunge sooner or later, and that they
were helping him over for his own good. It did not
answer. Erasmus had said no more to Luther than
what he had said about him to everyone else. He
could not have extricated himself out of his difficulty
more simply or more sensibly.
Lecture XII. 235
He was himself beset with other correspondents be-
sides Luther. His answers are always full, consistent
and pointed.
A Bohemian student had written to invite him to
Prague. He could not go to Prague, but was pleased
to hear that he was appreciated there. He was a harm-
less person, he said ; he had never hurt anybody, and
was surprised at the outcry against him. He had
perceived that theology had grown thorny and frigid ;
the early Fathers were neglected, and he had merely
tried to recall men to the original fountain of the
faith. The signs in the sky were ugly and portended
a schism.
So many cardinals, bishops, princes in the world,
and not one ready to take up reform in a Christian
spirit. Were St. Paul Pope, he would part with some
of his wealth — yes, and some of his authority too,
if he could restore peace to the Church.
Cardinal Campegio told Erasmus he was suspected
of having stirred the fire with anonymous books and
pamphlets. He protested that he had stirred no fire,
and had published nothing to which he had not set
his name.
His mind was still turning to his English friends.
In May 1519, he writes a remarkable letter, from
Antwerp, to Sir Henry Guildford, the King's master
of the horse. 1
The world is waking out of a long deep sleep. The
old ignorance is still defended with tooth and claw, but
we have kings and nobles now on our side. Strange
vicissitude of things. Time was when learning was
only found in the religious orders. The religious
orders nowadays care only for money and sensual-
ity, while learning has passed to secular princes and
1 Ep. ccccxvii., abridged.
236 Life and Letters of J?rasmu$.
peers and courtiers. Where in school or monastery
will you find so many distinguished and accomplished
men as form your English Court ? Shame on us all !
The tables of priests and divines run with wine and
echo with drunken noise and scurrilous jest, while in
princes' halls is heard only grave and modest conver-
sation on points of morals or knowledge. Your king
leads the rest by his example. In ordinary accom-
plishments he is above most and inferior to none.
Where will you find a man so acute, so copious, so
soundly judging, or so dignified in word and manner ?
Time was when I held off from royal courts. To such
a court as yours I would transfer myself and all that
belongs to me if age and health allowed. Who will
say now that learning makes kings effeminate?
Where is a finer soldier than your Henry VIII.,
where a sounder legislator ? Who is keener in coun-
cil, who a stricter administrator, who more careful in
choosing his ministers, or more anxious for the peace
of the world ? That king of yours may bring back
the golden age, though I shall not live to enjoy it, as
my tale draws to an end.
On the same day Erasmus writes to Henry him-
self : 1 —
The heart of a king is in the hands of God. When
God means well to any nation he gives it a king who
deserves a throne. Perhaps after so many storms He
now looks on us with favour, having inspired the pres-
ent reigning monarchs with a desire for peace and the
restoration of piety. To you is due the highest praise.
No prince is better prepared for war, and none more
wishes to avoid it, knowing, as you do, how deadly a
scourge is war to the mass of mankind, while you have
so well used your respite that you have cleared the
roads of robbers — so long the scourge and reproach
of England ; you have suppressed vagabonds ; you
have strengthened your laws, repealed the bad ones,
and supplied defects. You have encouraged learning.
1 E]p. ccccxviii., abridged.
Lecture XII. 237
You have improved discipline among the monks and
clergy. You have recognised that a pure and noble
race of men is a finer ornament to your realm than
warlike trophies or splendid edifices. You make your-
self the pattern of what you prescribe for others. The
king's command goes far, but the king's example goes
further. Who better keeps the law than you keep it ?
Who less seeks unworthy objects ? Who is truer to
his word ? Who is juster and fairer in all that he
does ? In what household, in what college or univer-
sity will you find more wisdom and integrity than in
the Court of England ? The poet's golden age, if such
age ever was, comes back under your Highness. What
friend of England does not now congratulate her?
What enemy does not envy her good fortune ? By
their monarchs' character realms are ennobled or de-
praved. Future ages will tell how England throve,
how virtue flourished in the reign of Henry VIII.,
how the nation was born again, how piety revived,
how learning grew to a height which Italy may envy,
and how the prince who reigned over it was a rule and
pattern for all time to come. Once I avoided kings
and courts. Now I would gladly migrate to England
if my infirmities allowed. I am but a graft upon her
— not a native ; yet, when I remember the years
which I spent there, the friends I found there, the
fortune, small though it be, which I owe to her, I re-
joice in England's felicity as if she were my natural
mother. . . . For yourself, the intelligence of your
country will preserve the memory of your virtues,
and scholars will tell how a king once reigned there
who in his own person revived the virtues of the an-
cient heroes. 1
I seriously believe that this will be the final verdict
of English history on Henry VIII. What Erasmus
says of him is no more after all than what Reginald
1 " Grasca pariter ac Latina facundia grata tuis erga se meritis sem-
per loquetur apud Britannos fnisse quendam Henricum Octavum qui
unus tot heroura dotes ac decora suis retulerit."
238 Life an <l Letters of Erasmus.
Pole said of the promise of his youth ; and Pole's
opinion only changed when Henry turned against the
Pope. I have compressed the flow of Erasmus's elo-
quence, and have omitted some parts of it. One of
these omissions contains what is, perhaps, the most
curious passage in the whole letter. Going through
the catalogue of Henry's literary excellences, Erasmus
mentions with special praise a position which Henry
had lately defended against an eminent divine :
" Utrum laicus obligaretur ad vocalem orationem ? "
— "Whether a layman was obliged to say his prayers
in words? It is not said which side Henry took in
the discussion ; but the raising of such a question at
all throws an interesting light on the condition of
theological opinion.
The vacancy of the imperial throne for a time para-
lysed authority in Germany. Erasmus describes
Brussels in the following month as in a state of
panic ; doctors of theology stirring tragedies, mining
and plotting, with open war close ahead against the
new learning.
Would (he said) that we had such a prince here
as they have in England. The King of England is
well read, has a keen intelligence, supports literature
openly, and shuts the mouths of the enemy. The Car-
dinal of York is equally decided, and so is Campegio, 1
who is one of the best and most learned men living.
The English Court contains at present more persons
of real knowledge and ability than any university in
Europe. The German princes are doing almost as
well. It is only here in Flanders that we hang be-
hind. The Archduke Ferdinand is an admirable
youth. He delights in me and my writings, and the
"Institution of a Christian Prince" is seldom out of
his hands. They wanted me to be his tutor, and he
1 Campegio held an English bishopric — Salisbury.
Lecture XII. 239
seemed to wish it himself. My health and my dislike
of courts stand in the way. It would perhaps kill me,
and I should he of no use to anyone, while as long as
I keep alive I can at least use my pen.
The fate of Europe seemed to turn on the choice of
Maximilian's successor. The new emperor, whoever
he might be, would have to declare for Luther or de-
clare for the Pope. According to law and custom,
the civil magistrate was bound to maintain truth as
well as execute justice. Truth in spiritual matters
had been hitherto what Popes decreed. Rome and
the Empire had quarrelled in earlier times over the
limits of jurisdiction ; and whether Popes might de-
pose sovereigns was an open question. But neither
Frederic II. nor Henry IV. had pretended to a voice
in doctrine. Popes and Councils had managed doc-
trine. The Pope in issuing indulgences had followed
recognised usage, and Luther was a rebel. But he
was a rebel so backed by secular opinion that a mis-
take in dealing with him might throw Germany into
civil war. How Maximilian would have acted was
uncertain. He had died while he was hesitating, and
a new occupant was to be found for the crown. Seven
electors chose the Emperor of Germany, three Arch-
bishops — Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, and four
princes — the Dukes of Saxony and Brandenburg, the
Count Palatine, and the King of Bohemia. The
strongest candidates were Francis I. of France, and
Maximilian's grandson, Charles. A French sovereign
was distasteful to the Germans. Charles, though a
youth of promise, was but nineteen years old, the
exact age of the century. He was already King of
Spain and the Indies, King of Naples and Sicily, and
Archduke of Flanders. There was a natural fear
that, if Charles wa,s chosen, a prince already so pow-
240 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
crful might be dangerous to German liberty. With
the Lutheran question in the very front, and with
Frederick of Saxony as Luther's protector, the elec-
toral body, bishops and princes, unanimously offered
the succession to one of whose disposition, at least on
that point, no doubt could be entertained. But the
Elector of Saxony had other things to think of be-
sides Luther. The Pope's crusade against the Turks,
instead of terrifying the Sultan, was like to bring the
Crescent into Germany. The Elector of Saxony con-
sidered that an Emperor with large resources of his
own was essential to the safety of Europe against the
foreign enemy. He set aside his ambition, if he had
any. He proposed Charles, and Charles by his influ-
ence was chosen. What would Charles do ? He was
in Spain at the moment of the election, suppressing
the revolt of the Comunidades. He would hurry
back, of course, and Luther's affair would be the first
problem to be dealt with. The Elector perhaps ex-
pected that Charles would be guided by the advice of
the prince to whom he owed the throne. Erasmus at
one time heard that Charles was inclined to Luther's
side, but felt no confidence either way, and, perhaps,
distrusted Charles's Spanish blood. Writing imme-
diately that the matter was decided to George Spala-
tin, he says : —
I think the Elector of Saxony deserves more praise
for refusing the crown than some deserved who sought
it. He is fittest to wear a crown who best knows the
weight of it. Let us pray God that all may go well.
These Provinces were delighted at first that the choice
had fallen on their own sovereign ; but as with all hu-
man things, there is some alloy with the satisfaction.
Erasmus himself had misgivings.
In September he writes to the Archbishop of
Lecture XII. 241
Mentz, one of the electors, whom he had so abused
for accepting a cardinal's hat, but whom, nevertheless,
he trusted and liked : —
Everyone hopes that the new emperor will equal
his grandfather. In late centuries the imperial crown
has brought more glitter than power with it. Now,
happily, there will be strength as well as name.
Hitherto the title of emperor has been but a pretence
of sovereignty. Charles will make the emperor into
a real ruler. He is young, and Christendom may
expect a happy future under him. If he chooses, he
may awe into submission the barbarous enemies of
Christ's Church. God grant it may so prove !
It was an odd world. Cardinal Albert was anions:
the most guilty in the Tetzel business, yet Erasmus
writes to him as if he believed him to be on the Re-
forming side, and recommends to him specially Ulrich
von Hutten as an ornament to the Church.
So far as regarded his own prospects, Erasmus was
soon relieved of anxiety. Among Charles's first acts
was to name him an Imperial Councillor. It was an
office like our own Right Honourable, which had no
salary with it, and was only a feather ; but it was a
sign of goodwill, and as such was welcome. He
needed comfort. His dear friend Colet had just died
in England. How dear may be seen in the confes-
sions of their sins, which he and Colet had mutually
made to each other. Acquaintances hide their faults
from one another, and like to appear at their best.
Real friends show themselves completely as they are,
and few men ever were more frank in the acknowledg-
ment of their mutual defects than Colet and Erasmus.
Erasmus wished to write his life, but perhaps he could
not have improved the admirable sketch which he has
left.
242 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
He had other troubles, too, just then, o£ the sort that
never ended. The orthodox theologians, rallying from
their first confusion, were falling systematically on
his New Testament. Hochstrat, the Hebrew scholar,
attacked him on one side ; the Carmelite Egmond on
another ; Edward Lee, who became Archbishop of
York afterwards, and was the most violent of all, on
a third. He had been careless, and made various
small slips, of no consequence in themselves, which
critics delight to use to wound and injure the person
criticised. He ought to have despised such attacks,
but his skin was thin, and his letters are full of com-
plaints. It is a pity. The world has much to occupy
it, and can spare but moderate sympathy for the per-
sonal wrongs even of great men.
Most of these lamenting letters, however, contain
passages of high general interest.
TO THE BISHOP OF EOCHESTEE. 1
October 17, 1519.
The Elector of Saxony has written to me twice.
He tells me that in supporting Luther he is support-
ing rather a principle than a person. He will not
permit innocent men to be borne down in his domin-
ions by malicious persons who rather seek themselves
than Christ. The other electors unanimously offered
him the crown the day before Charles was chosen,
nor would Charles have been chosen at all without
the strong support which the Elector of Saxony gave
him. On his own refusal they urged him to say who
in his opinion was the fittest candidate. He said
emphatically, the King of Spain. They offered him
30,000 florins as a gift. When he would not have
it, they begged that at least 10,000 florins might be
distributed among his household. He said his house-
hold might do as they pleased, but not one of them
should remain in his service who accepted a farthing.
1 Ep. cccclxxiv.
Lecture XII 243
I heard this from the Bishop of Liege, who was pres-
ent. We expect our new emperor home from Spain
immediately.
Almost at the same date we have another lonsr and
interesting letter to Cardinal Albert. 1 Erasmus had
introduced Ulrich von Hutten to him. The Cardinal
had sent him a large silver cup by Von Hutten's
hands. It was called the cup of love, as binding to-
gether indissolubly those who drank out of it together.
Among the promotions which Charles or his advisers
had lately made in Spain, the See of Toledo, the rich-
est in the world, had been given, with much displeas-
ure among the Spaniards, to a young Flemish car-
dinal of the house of Croy.
Wishing (says Erasmus) to try the powers of your
present, I experimented with it on the Cardinal of
Croy, who came lately to see me. I drank out of it
to him, and he drank to me. The Cardinal is a for-
tunate youth, and deserves his luck. I am sorry your
cup did not reach me sooner. The Louvain Doctors
and I had lately made a truce on condition that we
should each keep in order our respective followers.
It was arranged at a dinner. Nothing can be done
here without eating. I would have produced it had
it arrived in time ; they should all have drunk out of
it, and then, perhaps, our peace would have stood.
Now, owing to an ill-interpreted letter of mine, the
agreement is broken, and the storm is raging worse
than ever. It is the malice of Satan, who will not let
Christians live in harmony. The matter is this. I
premise that I had nothing to do with either Keuch-
lin's business, or Luther's either. I cared nothing
for Cabala or Talmud, and I disliked the quarrel
with Ilochstrat. Luther is unknown to me. I have
glanced at his books, but have had no time to read
them. If he has written well, it is no thanks to me ;
if ill, I am not responsible. I observe only that the
1 Ep. cccclxxvii., abridged.
244 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
best men are those who are least offended by Luther.
They may not approve entirely, but they may read
him, as they read Cyprian or Jerome, and pardon
much for the sake of the rest. Still I am sorry that
Luther's books have been published. I tried to pre-
vent it, as I thought they would cause disturbance.
He wrote me a very Christian letter. I replied by
advising him to avoid saying anything seditious, not
to attack the Pope or fly in a passion with anybody,
but to teach the Gospel calmly and coolly. I added
that he had good friends at Louvain, hoping that he
might be the more willing to listen to us. This has
got abroad, and has been taken to mean that I have
declared myself on Luther's side, when up to that
time I was the only person who had given him any
sound advice at all. I am neither Luther's accuser,
nor his patron, nor his judge ; I can give no opinion
about him, least of all an unfavourable one.
His enemies admit that he is a person of good char-
acter. Suppose I defended him on this ground. The
laws allow advocates to criminals on trial. Even sup-
pose I said that all this storm about him is merely a
covert attack on literature, where would be the harm
as long as I did not personally adopt his views ? It
would be my duty, as a Christian, to save him, if he is
innocent, from being crushed by faction, and, if he
is mistaken, to recover him from his errors. A spirit
which shows splendid sparks of Christian doctrine
ought not to be borne down and extinguished. I
would correct him that he might preach the better to
Christ's glory. But certain divines that I know will
neither set him right nor point out where he is wrong.
They only howl and raise the mob upon him. They
shout out " heresy, heretic, heresiarch, schismatic, An-
tichrist," and not a word besides ; and their language
is the more odious because most of them have never
looked into his writings. He has been condemned on
some points from a mere mistake of his meaning.
For instance, they make him say that it is unneces-
sary for the penitent to confess sins which he does not
Lecture XII 245
himself know to be sins ; he need not confess to sins
which the priests are pleased to call such. This has
been interpreted to mean that no sin need be con-
fessed which is not notorious, and there has been a
marvellous outcry about it.
Confession had been one of the Church's strongest
and most envenomed weapons ; secrets of families,
secrets concerning the opinions of other people had
been extorted by it, and men had found themselves
accused before the Inquisition they knew not why.
Propositions (says Erasmus) taken out of Luther's
writings have been condemned as heretical which are
found in Bernard or Augustine, and from them are
received as orthodox and edifying. I warned these
Doctors at the beginning to be careful what they were
about. I advised them not to clamour to the multi-
tude, but to confine themselves to writing and argu-
ment, and above all to censure nothing publicly till
they were sure that they had considered and under-
stood it. I said it was indecorous for grave theolo-
gians to storm and rage at a person whose private life
was admitted to be innocent. I said that topics like
secret confession ought not to be declaimed upon be-
fore mixed audiences, where there would be many
persons present who felt so strongly about it. I sup-
posed I was speaking sense to them, but it only
made them more furious. They insisted that I had
prompted Luther, and that his work had been con-
ceived and brought forth at Louvain. They stirred
such a tragedy as I have never witnessed the like of.
The business of theologians is to teach the truth.
These people have nothing in their mouths but vio-
lence and punishment. Augustine would not have
the worst felon put to death till an effort had been
made to mend him. The Louvain theologians may
call themselves meek, but they are thirsting for hu-
man blood, and demand that Luther shall be arrested
and executed. If they wish to deserve to be called
24C> Life and Letters of Erasmus.
divines, let them convert Jews, let them mend the
morals of Christendom, which are worse than Turk-
ish. How can it be right to drag a man to the scaf-
fold who has done no more than what the theological
schools themselves have always permitted? He has
proposed certain subjects for discussion. He is will-
ing to be convinced. He offers to submit to Rome
or to leave his cause to be judged by the Universities.
Is this a reason for handing him over to the execu-
tioners? I am not surprised that he will not trust
himself to the judgment of men who would rather
find him guilty than innocent. How have all these
disturbances risen ? The world is choked with opin-
ions which are but human after all, with institutions
and scholastic dogmas, and the despotism of the men-
dicant friars, who are but satellites of the Holy See,
yet have become so numerous and so powerful as to
be formidable to secular princes, and to the Popes
themselves. As long as the Pope says what they say,
these friars call him more than God. If he contra-
dicts them, he is no more than a dream. I do not
accuse them all, but I do say that too many are like
this. They tyrannise over the conscience of the laity
for their own purposes. They brazen their fronts.
They forget Christ, and preach preposterous doctrines
of their own invention. They defend indulgences in
a tone which plain men cannot and will not endure.
Thus it has been that the Gospel of Christ has
faded out ; in a little while the last spark of Chris-
tianity would have been extinguished, and we should
have been enslaved in a worse than Jewish ceremo-
nial. There are good men even among theologians
who see these things and deplore them. Nay, there
are monks who will admit the truth in private conver-
sation, and it was this I conceive which moved Luther
at last to rise and speak out. What unworthy motive
could Luther have had ? He wants no promotion. He
wants no money. I am not complaining of the fact
that the Pope has censured him. I do complain of
the manner and the occasion on which the censure was
Lecture XII 247
issued. He was imprudent enough to question the
value of indulgences in which others pretended to
believe. He challenged, perhaps too uncompromis-
ingly, the authority of the Roman Pontiff in the face
of an extravagant exercise of it. He ventured to re-
ject the opinion of St. Thomas, which the Dominicans
place above the Gospel, and he condemned the abuse
of the confessional by the monks to ensnare the con-
sciences of men and women. Pious souls have af-
fected to be excruciated, while all the time no word is
heard of evangelical doctrine in the schools of theol-
ogy. The sacred writers are set aside as antiquated.
No word of Christ is heard in the pulpits. The talk
is all of the powers of the Pope and the latest devel-
opment of theological dogma.
If Luther has been intemperate, this is the expla-
nation of it. The bishops are called Christ's vicars.
The chief bishop is the Pope, and our prayer for the
Pope should be that he seek the glory of Christ, whose
minister he professes to be. But those are no friends
to the Pope who lavish higher titles on him than he
claims, or than it is good for the flock of Christ that
he should possess. They pretend that they are stand-
ing up in this stormy way for the Pope's honour.
They are alarmed really for their own tyranny, which
the Pope's power supports. The present Pontiff is, I
believe, a good man, but in such a whirl of confusion
he cannot know everything, and the safest advisers
for him would be those who think most of Christ
and least of themselves. It is plain there are persons
about him who exasperate him against Luther, and
against everyone who does not take their side. I
coidd point them out, were not the truth sometimes
dangerous, and I might be accused of slander. I
know many of them personally. Others have shown
what they are in their writings. I wish I could make
your Eminence understand them as well as I do. I
feel myself the more free to speak because, as I said,
I have no connection either with Reuchlin or with
Luther. Luther's enemies are the same persons who
248 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
led the attack on literature and opposed the study of
the early Christian writers. They were wise in their
generation. They knew that the spread of knowledge
would be fatal to their dominion. Before Luther had
written a word the Dominicans and Carmelites were
busy at their work. Most of them were more wicked
than ignorant, and when Luther's books came out they
used them as a handle to associate me with him.
Confess they must that there is not an author, an-
cient or modern, whose writings do not contain posi-
tions which, if challenged, would be found heretical.
Why are they silent about these and fly so furiously
at Luther only? He has written, rather imprudently
than irreverently, things which they do not like. He
is disrespectful to St. Thomas. He has spoilt the
trade in indulgences. He speaks ill of the mendicant
friars. He places the Gospel above scholastic dog-
matism, and despises argumentative hair-splitting.
Doubtless intolerable heresies. Behind the monks are
crafty influential men who have the Pope's ear and
urge him into dangerous courses.
In earlier times a person charged with heresy was
heard in his defence ; he was acquitted if his answers
were satisfactory ; if he persisted the worst which he
had to fear was exclusion from Communion. Now
heresy is the darkest of crimes, and the cry is raised
on the least occasion. Nothing then was heresy, ex-
cept to deny the truth of the Gospel, or the Articles
of the Creed, or positive decrees of Councils. Now to
dissent from St. Thomas is heresy. To reject any
inference which a sophister of yesterday pretends to
have drawn out of St. Thomas is heresy. Whatever
the monks do not like is heresy. To know Greek is
heresy. To speak grammatically is heresy. To dis-
sent from them in the least degree in word or act is
heresy.
Of course it is an offence to corrupt the truth, but
everything need not be made an article of faith. The
champions of orthodoxy should have no taint on them
of ambition, or malice, or revenge. The world knows
Lecture XII 249
these friars. When their passions are up the best of
men are not safe from them. They threaten the
bishops. They threaten the Pope himself. Savona-
rola's fate can tell what the Dominicans are, or this
late wickedness at Berne. 1 I do not wish to revive
old stories, but I must and will point out what will
happen if these people are allowed their way. It has
nothing to do with Luther. The danger is real and
must be exposed.
As to Luther himself, his writings are before the
Universities. The decision, be it what it may, can-
not affect me. I have always been cautious. I have
written nothing which can be laid hold of against
established order. I have started no false opinions.
I have formed no party. I would rather die than
cause a disturbance in the State. But the less your
Eminence listens to such advisers as the monks, the
better it will be for your peace.
Cardinal Albert was the most powerful churchman
in Germany. He was a personal friend of Leo X.,
and resembled him in his splendid tastes and general
liberalism. Neither he nor the Pope had any objec-
tion to satires on the monks, and the sarcasms of
Erasmus they had found amusing and had probably
thought useful. For himself, Erasmus had nothing
to fear in such high quarters as long as he dissociated
himself from Luther. But Luther had struck at the
Pope himself ; Cardinal Albert was personally inter-
ested in the indulgences ; and that Erasmus should
have come forward at such a moment with a manly
protest against injustice to Luther is specially credita-
ble to the little man. To have addressed so great a
prelate at all in such a tone was to risk the loss of the
1 Bernense facinus, occasioned by a dispute on the Immaculate
Conception. The Franciscans asserted that Our Lady was born with-
out original sin ; the Dominicans denied it and invented a monstrous
apparition to decide the question. The fraud was discovered and five
of them were hanged.
250 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
high protection which alone so far had enabled him to
hold his ground, and to risk it in a cause with which
he had imperfect sympathy, and for a man whom he
thought headstrong - and unwise.
Popular opinion in Germany had at first been all
on Luther's side. As the plot thickened, and as the
Pope's action had widened the quarrel, many became
alarmed at the magnitude of the issues which were
opening, and right-minded people were doubtful how
to act.
Erasmus's influence on the educated classes was
enormous ; his letters show how many of them wrote
to him for guidance, and those letters were thought of
such high importance that they were collected and
printed, with or without his consent. They furnished
the best evidence of his general consistency and up-
rightness. One advantage he and Luther both had.
Printed books were scarce, and printing was costly.
Publishers and compositors were all on the side of the
Reformers. Anything of Luther's, anything of Eras-
mus's was multiplied into*thousands of copies, spread
everywhere, and read by everyone, while the orthodox
could scarcely get their works into type.
Until it had been seen what part the young Em-
peror would take, and what part the German Diet
would take, Erasmus uniformly protested against the
violence of the Church party, and against the violence
equally of Luther's passionate supporters. Philip
Melanchthon, in the ardency of hero-worship and en-
thusiasm for the new light which had risen, was
among those who went to Erasmus for advice. Eras-
mus warns him against rushing unnecessarily into a
fray which promised to be desperate.
If you will take my counsel (he wrote, April 22,
1519) you will leave the enemy alone. They are
Lecture XII. 251
wretches and deserve to be torn in pieces; but we
shall play into their hands by striking* back at them.
We should show ourselves their superiors in modera-
tion as well as in argument. Everyone here at Lou-
vain speaks well of Luther personally. There are
differences about his doctrines. I can give no opinion,
for I have not yet read his books. He seems to have
said some things well. I wish his manner had been
as happy as his matter. I have written about him to
the Elector of Saxony.
The leader of the intellect of Germany might have
been expected to have marked closely the appearance
of a new star which was drawing all men's eyes to it,
and to have noted every word which Luther uttered.
Yet Erasmus purposely abstained from reading Lu-
ther's writings. He knew that he would be pressed
on both sides for his opinion, and it was obviously
convenient to him to say that he had done no more
than glance at them. But there was more than this.
Doubtless he wrote as he had spoken to the Elector,
advising him not to surrender Luther ; but he was
himself further from sharing Luther's opinions than
he cared to explain. High-minded and gifted men
naturally find the same enemies in fools and rogues.
But they fall themselves under two types, the believ-
ing and enthusiastic, the sceptical and moderate.
They need not oppose each other. They may be
made of the same celestial material ; but one blazes
like a comet, perplexing nations with the fear or
reality of change ; the other light is fixed and steady,
if less immediately dazzling, and may shine on when
the comet has burnt out.
Erasmus could not attach himself to Luther, yet he
was uncertain of the part which he ought to take, and
the violence of the orthodox was increasingly intoler-
able to him. The year 1519 was waning out. The
252 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Diet which was to decide Luther's fate was still de-
layed by the Emperor's absence in Spain. In No-
vember Erasmus writes to a friend : —
I thought I knew something of mankind, having
had so much experience of them ; but I have discov-
ered such brutes (belluas) among Christians as I
could not have believed to exist. Your account of
the disorder in Germany is most vivid. It is due
partly to the natural fierceness of the race, partly to
the division into so many separate States, and partly
to the tendency of the people to serve as mercenaries.
As to the quarrels of religion, the misfortune would
be less if those who object to the existing order of
things were in agreement. But we are all at issue
one with another. Strange as it may seem, there are
even men among us who think, like Epicurus, that the
soul dies with the body. Mankind are great fools,
and will believe anything.
LECTURE XIII.
Among the higher clergy there were many who had
welcomed and encouraged the revival of learning, but
were perplexed and alarmed — alarmed partly for them-
selves — at the storm which had since broken out.
They were the more anxious that Erasmus should not
commit himself. The publication of Erasmus's letters,
many of them so bitter against the monks and the
scholastics, had added to their fears, and one of these
moderate persons, Louis Marlianus, a bishop, 1 had
written to him in distress.
Erasmus answers at length, and you can trace how
his mind was working : —
March 25, 1520.
You caution me against entangling myself with
Luther. I have taken your advice, and have done my
utmost to keep things quiet. Luther's party have urged
me to join him, and Luther's enemies have done their
best to drive me to it by their furious attacks on me in
their sermons. Neither have succeeded. Christ I
know: Luther I know not. The Roman Church I
know, and death will not part me from it till the
Church departs from Christ. I abhor sedition.
Would that Luther and the Germans abhorred it
equally. It is strange to see how the two factions goad
each other on, as if they were in collusion. Luther has
hurt himself more than he has hurt his opponents by
his last effusions, while the attacks on him are so ab-
surd that many think the Pope wrong in spite of them-
selves. I approve of those who stand by the Pope, but
1 Bishop of Tuy, in Gallicia. Ep. cli., abridged.
254 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
I could wish them to be wiser then they are. They
would devour Luther off hand. They may eat him
boiled or roast for all that I care, but they mistake in
linking him and me together, and they can finish him
more easily without me than with me. I am surprised
at Aleander ; we were once friends. He was in-
structed to conciliate, when he was sent over, the Pope
wishing not to push matters to extremity. He would
have done better to act with me. He would have
found me with him, and not against him, on the Pope's
prerogative.
They pretend that Luther has borrowed from me.
No lie can be more impudent. He may have borrowed
from me as heretics borrow from Evangelists and Apos-
tles, but not a syllable else. I beseech you, protect me
from such calumnies. Let my letters be examined. I
may have written unguardedly, but that is all. In-
quire into my conversation. You will find that I have
said nothing except that Luther ought "to be answered
and not crushed.
Even now I would prefer that things should be
quietly considered and not embittered by platform rail-
ing. I would have the Church purified of evil, lest
the good in it suffer by connection with what is inde-
fensible ; but in avoiding the Scylla of Luther I would
have us also avoid Charybdis. If this be sin, then I
own my guilt. I have sought to save the dignity of the
Roman Pontiff, the honour of Catholic theology, and
the welfare of Christendom. I have not defended
Luther even in jest. In common with all reasonable
men I have blamed the noisy bellowing of persons
whom I will not name, whose real object is to prevent
the spread of knowledge and to recover their own in-
fluence. Their numbers are not great, but their power
is enormous. But be assured of this, if any move-
ment is in progress injurious to the Christian religion,
or dangerous to the public peace or to the supremacy of
the Holy See, it does not proceed from Erasmus. Time
will show it. I have not deviated in what I have
written one hair's breadth from the Church's teach-
Lecture XIII. 255
ing. We must bear almost anything rather than throw
the world into confusion. There are seasons when we
must even conceal the truth. The actual facts of things
are not to be blurted out at all times and places, and
in all companies. But every wise man knows that doc-
trines and usages have been introduced into the Church
which have no real sanction, partly by custom, partly
through obsequious canonists, partly by scholastic
definitions, partly by the tricks and arts of secular
sovereigns. Such excrescences must be removed,
though the medicine must be administered cautiously,
lest it make the disorder worse and the patient die.
Plato says that men in general cannot appreciate rea-
soning, and may be deceived for their good. I know
not whether this be right or wrong. For myself I
prefer to be silent and introduce no novelties into reli-
gion. Many great persons have entreated me to support
Luther. I have answered always that I will support
him when he is on the Catholic side. They have asked
me to draw up a formula of faith. I reply that I know
of none save the creed of the Catholic Church, and I
advise everyone who consults me to submit to the Pope.
I was the first to oppose the publication of Luther's
books. I recommended Luther himself to publish
nothing revolutionary. I feared always that revolu-
tion would be the end, and I would have done more
had I not been afraid that I might he found fighting
against the Spirit of God.
I caution everyone against reading libellous or
anonymous books, books meant only to irritate ; but
I can advise only. I cannot compel. The world is
full of poetasters and orators, and printing-presses are
at work everywhere. I cannot stop them, and their
extravagances ought not to be charged to me. I do
not mean Ulrich von Hutten in particular, though I
am sorry for him too, that with such a genius he
makes no better use of his gifts. He is himself his
worst enemy.
This letter is entirely honest. It shows you pre-
cisely how Erasmus was placed, how he thought, and
256 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
how he acted. I presume you know generally what
was going on ; but I must say a few words to keep the
position plain before you.
The world was changing, and the Church party
would not understand it. In the first great fight be-
tween the clergy and the laity, in the twelfth century,
the clergy had won. They asserted, and they made
the world believe them, that they were a supernatural
order trusted with the keys of heaven and hell. The
future fate of every soul depended on their absolution.
They only could bind and loose. They only could
bring: down Christ from heaven into the sacrament.
They were a peculiar priesthood, amenable to no laws
but their own, while the laity were amenable to theirs,
and as long as this belief subsisted they were shielded
by an enchanted atmosphere. By them kings reigned ;
all power was derived from God, and they were God's
earthly representatives, and in the confidence of this
assumed authority they had raised a superstructure
of intolerable and irresponsible tyranny. They were
men, and they might commit crimes, but they could
not be punished by any secular law. They were
tempted like others to vicious pleasures, but vice did
not impair either their rights or their powers. Im-
punity had produced its natural effect, and in the
centuries succeeding they had fallen into the condition
which the letters of Erasmus describe.
The patience of the world was worn out. Luther's
first blow was at indulgences. He followed it after-
wards by striking at the heart of the imposition in
treating the priesthood merely as a point of order in
the Church, the supernatural power a dream and an
illusion, and the Papacy an anti-Christian usurpation.
Luther's words expressed the secret convictions of the
laity of Northern Europe. Pardons, excommunica-
Lecture XIII. 257
tions, dispensations, absolutions, the hated confessional,
the worse hated ecclesiastical courts, the entire system
of spiritual domination rocked under the blow. From
Norway to the Rhine, from Vienna to the Irish Chan-
nel, GerAan, Frank, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, the
vigorous and manly part of them cried with a common
voice, " The clergy are but as other men. It is an im-
posture, we will bear it no longer." No wonder the
monks raged. It was no time for Erasmus and his
arguments. The fire must be put out, or they were
gone. They were still, as Erasmus said, terribly pow-
erful. They had on their side the reverence for
things long established, the dread of touching the
Sacred Ark, the consciences of the timid, and the pas-
sions of the fanatical, the alarm of princes and politi-
cians at the shaking of beliefs which had been the
cement of human society. To all this they were pre-
pared to appeal to crush out the flame at its rising, to
fio'ht with it for life or death — for life or death it
was to them ; to burn, to kill, to set nation against
nation, family against family, brother against brother,
subjects against sovereigns, and sovereigns against Sub-
jects, anything to keep inviolate the ark of their own
supremacy. With what fatal success a century of
bloodshed was to tell.
They were not fighting, however, against an imagi-
nary danger. Two years had not gone since Luther
set up his theses, and half Germany was already at
his side. Indulgences were no longer the only ques-
tion. Every long-endured grievance of injured lay-
men against the ecclesiastical despotism sprang into
light. Luther's cause was theirs. In defending Lu-
ther they were defending their own purses against
priestly extortion. Erasmus saw deeper than most
whither the movement was leading. He understood
258 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
how deep, notwithstanding, the roots lay of the old
thing, and what a straggle was impending. He hated
war, civil war worst of all, and to civil war it might
be coming. He could not join Luther. He dared
not oppose him, lest haply, as he confessed, " he might
be found fighting against the Spirit of God."
Blacker and blacker the sky grew. Leo had first
ridiculed Luther, then grew frightened, wrote to the
Elector of Saxony to silence him, seize him, send him
prisoner to Rome. He had sent cardinal legates to
threaten, to persuade, to bribe ; but all ineffectually.
In weak haste he issued the Bull defending the indul-
gences, condemning Luther's writings, and ordering
every priest in Germany to preach against them.
The monks' tongues were set wagging. Erasmus
had been deafened with their clamours, but still to no
purpose. The young Emperor was detained in Spain.
The Elector of Saxony refused to surrender his sub-
ject till he had been legally condemned. Luther had
been first humble, had asked only that the indulgences
should be suspended, and had promised to submit if
they were found to be legal. Finding that the point
was not to be argued, and that for him there was to
be no answer to his theses but stake or scaffold, he
went on with impetuous young Germany behind him to
pour out tract after tract, exposing the papal encroach-
ments. Leo, driven forward, as Erasmus said, by
headstrong advisers, put out his spiritual censures,
with a formal requisition to the secular powers to see
them executed. The issue of a Bull would force on a
crisis. The Diet was summoned to meet at Worms
in the following January. Erasmus sate at Louvain
observing the gathering of the storm. His chief hope
was in the Elector of Saxony, who had sent him a
gold medal in acknowledgment of his services.
Lecture XIII. 259
"Writing his thanks to George Spalatin, July 6,
1520, he says : —
May Christ direct Luther's actions to God's glory,
and confound those who are seeking their own inter-
ests. In Luther's enemies I perceive more of the
spirit of this world than of the Spirit of God. I wish
Luther himself would be quiet for a while. He in-
jures learning, and does himself no good, while morals
and manners grow worse and worse. What he says
may be true, but there are times and seasons. Truth
need not always be proclaimed on the house-top.
Erasmus, like all men of real genius, had a light
elastic nature. He knew very well that to lose heart
was the worst of losses, and a small thing made his
spirits rebound. He had been ill again, and in the
midst of it had been obliged to go to Bruges, where
good news reached him from England.
I was nearly dead (he writes to Conrad Goclenius, 1
August 12, 1520). I could eat nothing. I tried doc-
tor after doctor. Potions, draughts, clysters, powders,
ointments, baths, plaisters, and what not. I had no
leisure to be sick. Business called me to Bruges. I
pack my bag, mount my horse. Servant asks me
where I am going. " Going," said I, " going where
there is better air than at Louvain." Scarcely had I
been here for two days when my stomach does its duty
again. Fever gone to the devil, and I young again,
and able to digest anything. The world mends too.
Lucky you, young man, to have been born in such an
age as this. The louder the frogs croak the more the
youths of Germany attach themselves to me. Good
news from England too. More is made a knight and
raised to office by the king.
His enemy, Edward Lee, is at work once more on
his New Testament, and Pirkheimer has written to
him about it.
l Ep. dxx.
260 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
You think (lie answers, 1 September 5, from Bruges)
that Lee has been bribed to do this dirty work by the
monks and divines. Doubtless those birds of darkness
are rejoicing ; but Lee is only like himself. As a boy
he was always the same, a cross, envious, malignant
creature. Lee must always be first, craving for ad-
miration, and obstinate in his own opinion. Such as
he was he is now, only that his vices grow with his age.
God mend him. As to me, all I have sought has been
to open my contemporaries' eyes and bring them back
from ritual to true Christianity. But I fear it will go
the other way, and the enemy are like to get the better
of us. Men, thought to be lights and the salt of the
earth, hold it right to lie away their neighbours' char-
acters from their pulpits. They don't believe what
they are saying. They only want to gain great
people's favour. They hate knowledge as they hate a
dog or a snake. Of Luther I say only what I would
say to himself. I regret that a man who promised to
be a splendid instrument in the hands of God should
be so exasperated by the howls at him.
A few days later Erasmus is back at Louvain, and
writes to Gerard of Nimegen : 2 —
I fear what may happen to that wretched Luther.
He has displeased the princes and has infuriated the
Pope. Why could he not be advised by me and keep
that tongue of his quiet a little ? There would have
been less passion, and he would have done far more
good. His destruction would not in itself be of much
moment, but if his enemies succeed in crushing him
there will be no bearing them. They will never rest
till they have made an end of learning. Hochstrat
and Eck [a Dominican enemy of Luther] were to
have finished him. The University of Paris was to
have pronounced judgment. A furious Bull has been
prepared at Rome, but I am afraid there will be only
more confusion. The Pope's Council are leading their
1 Ep. flxxvii., abridged.
2 Ep. dcxxviii., abridged.
Lecture XIII. 261
master along a road which they may call the road of
piety, but is assuredly a dangerous one. A dirty
fountain boiled over! That at first was all. The
idiot monks were frightened at the spread of know-
ledge. They want to reign without rivals in their own
darkness. I might have had a bishopric if I would
have written against Luther. I refused, and stood
neutral. But the end I fear will be that evangelical
truth will be overthrown. We are to be driven, not
taught, or taught doctrines alike against Scripture and
against reason.
Evidently Erasmus thought that Luther's end was
now close, and that his best hope was to save himself
and his work from the general wreck. Again, a day
or two after, he writes to a friend at Rome : l —
No one has been more distressed at this Luther busi-
ness than I have been. Would that I could have
stopped it at the outset. Would that now I could
bring about a composition. But it has been ill man-
aged from the first. It rose from the avarice of a
party of monks, and has grown step by step to the
present fury. The Pope's dignity must of course be
supported, but I wish he knew how that dignity suffers
from officious fools who imagine they are defending
him. Their stupid screams have more recommended
Luther to the multitude than any other thing. I told
them they must answer him, and no one has done it.
There have been a few replies, but too mild to satisfy
his accusers, who have only been more furious.
Some of them hate me worse than they hate him,
because I have tried to bring them back to primitive
Christianity. The Pope's Bull requires all preachers
to denounce Luther. Many of them said more against
me than against him. One doctor thundered at me in
Antwerp. A suffragan of the Bishop of Tournay at
Bruges, with a pair of eyes bleared with the wine he
had been drinking, stormed for a whole hour at both
of us, producing nothing which we had written, but
1 Francis Chisiyat, Sept. 13. Eji. clxxx., abridged.
*2&2 Life ami Letters of Erasmus.
calling - us beasts, blockheads, asses, geese, and such
like. In a second sermon he charged me with flat
heresy. A magistrate present bade him point out the
heretical passages. The scoundrel dared to answer
that he had not read my books. He had tried the
Paraphrases, but found the Latin too much for him.
Luther's revilers are of the same sort. They call
themselves champions of the Holy See. If the Pope
could hear them he would shut their mouths in dis-
gust. Oh, that I could have spoken to the Pope
about it ! I could have shown him a better course for
himself and the world than that which he has chosen.
Curses and threats may beat the fire down for the
moment, but it will burst out worse than ever. The
Bull has lost Luther no friends, and gained none for
the Pope. It makes men more cautious, but Luther's
party grows stronger daily. Have no fear for me. I
am no leader of a revolution. I have had applications
enough, more than you would believe, and if I had
listened things would not be where they are. But far
from me is any such action. I have preached peace
all my life, and shall not change my ways at the end
of it.
I am now bringing out St. Augustine's works, cor-
rected and annotated. This done, I shall make it
known somehow that I disapprove of rebellion. The
Holy See needs no support from such a worm as I am,
but I shall declare that I mean to stand by it.
Erasmus imagined that if he had been consulted he
could have guided matters more wisely. If he was to
guide the world, the world must have been willing to
follow him, and men in the fury of religious passion
will never follow Laodiceans like Erasmus. The
worse for them, perhaps ; but such is the nature of
things. Leo X. was his best hope. He respected the
Pope and liked him. The Pope had more than once
stood his friend in difficulties. He could not volun-
teer to advise, but he could explain his own feelings,
Lecture XIII. 263
and clear himself of responsibility for Luther's defi-
ant attitude.
TO LEO X. 1
Louvain, September 19, 1520.
I trust your Holiness will not listen to the calum-
nies against me and Reuchlin. We are charged with
being in confederacy with Luther. I have always
protested against this. Neither of us has anything to
do with Luther. I do not know him. I have not
read his writings ; I have barely glanced at a few
pages. I gather from what I have seen that Luther
rejects the modern hairsplitting and superfluous sub-
tleties in the explanation of Scripture and inclines to
the mysticism of the early Fathers. I supported him
so far as I thought him right, but I was the first to
scent clanger. I warned Froben, the printer, against
publishing his works. I wrote to Luther's friends. I
bade them caution Luther himself against disturbing
the peace of the Church. I did tell him in a letter,
which your Holiness has seen, that he had friends in
Louvain, but that he must moderate his style if he
wished to keep them. I thought the knowledge might
have a useful influence on hini. This was two years
ago, before the quarrel was so much embittered. But
if anyone can prove that even in table-talk I have de-
fended his opinions, then let me, if men so please, be
called a Lutheran. I have not written against him as
I have been asked to do, first, because to reply to him
I must first have studied what he has said attentively,
and for this I have no leisure ; and next, because
it would be a work beyond my powers or knowledge
— the Universities had taken up the subject, and
it was not for me to anticipate their verdict ; and
thirdly, I confess, because I hesitated to attack an
eminent man when I had not been ordered to inter-
fere. I trust, therefore, that I may rely on your
Holiness's protection. I dare not oppose even my
own Diocesan : I am not so mad as to fly in the face
1 Ep. dxiix., abridged.
2G4 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
of the Vicar of Christ. I did not defend Luther
when I might have lawfully done so. When I said
I disapproved of the character of the attacks on him
I was thinking less of the man himself than of the
ovei'bearing attitude of the theologians. Their as-
saults on him were carried on with malicious acerbity
and dangerous appeals to popular passion, and the
effect was only to give importance to his writings and
provoke the world to read them. If they had first
answered and confuted him they might then have
burnt his books, and himself too if he had deserved it.
But the minds of a free, generous nation cannot be
driven. It would have been better for the theologians
themselves if they had taken my advice and attended
to it.
The letter ended with a hope that Erasmus might
be able to go to Rome in the winter and see the Pope
himself. But the stream was running too hot. The
Diet was coming on. The Church party were deter-
mined that Luther should appear before it with the
papal sentence already passed upon him. His books
were publicly burnt. He himself was condemned,
and the secular power was formally called in to sup-
port the Pope's authority. By law and custom the
secular princes were bound to execute a Pope's decree
against a pronounced heretic. An imperial safe-con-
duct had not saved John Huss or Jerome of Prague,
and to stand by a rebellious monk was a novelty
before which the boldest of them might hesitate.
Luther himself did not expect that the laity would
save him. He fully expected to be sacrificed, count-
ing that in his death he would bring a step nearer the
time of Germany's deliverance. He had made up his
mind to the worst, and he determined while he was
still free to strike one more blow, which all the world
should hear of. The Vatican officials had burnt his
Lecture XIII. 265
own books : lie himself replied with burning the
Pope's Bull, with a copy of the Papal Decretals, and
so defied Leo to do his worst.
So matters stood in the autumn of 1520. The
young Emperor returned from Spain. The Diet was
to meet at Worms in January, and Erasmus re-
mained motionless at Louvain. The Pope, it seems,
had not encouraged his wish to go to Rome. The
Louvain divines were triumphing in their anticipated
victory. They were confident in the Emperor. They
were confident in the result of the Diet. Their
enemies would now be delivered into their hand,
Erasmus and his Greek as well as Luther and his
theses. They were impatient to distinguish them-
selves by a stroke of their own before the Diet began,
and involve Erasmus in Luther's fall.
Erasmus tells the story in an appeal to the Modera-
tor of the University of Louvain.
TO GODSCHALK. 1
October 18, 1520.
Your oath of office binds you not only to do no
wrong yourself, but to see that wrong is not done to
others. Nicolas Eginond may denounce Luther at
your or the Pope's bidding. It is no business of
mine. But it is business of mine when without any
bidding he tells lies of me, and it is your duty to re-
strain his tongue. On St. Denys's Day, at sermon in
St. Peter's Church, I myself sitting underneath him,
he turned on me and called me Luther's ally. It is
false. I had seen gifts in Luther which, if rightly
used, might make him an ornament to Christ's
Church; and when infamous libels were spread about
him I said I would sooner see him corrected than
destroyed. If this is to be his ally, I am his ally
still, and so is the Pope, and so are you if you are a
1 Ep. dxxxix., abridged.
206 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Christian. But this Carmelite tells the people that I
defend Luther on the points on which he is condemned,
and he appeals to my letter to the Archbishop of
Mentz. Is it to defend a man to show that his mean-
ing has been misrepresented ? He said I had not
written against Luther. True, I have not. I may
not censure what I have not read, specially when it is
a matter of life or death, and I am not so foolish as
to volunteer into a dispute when I may lawfully look
on. What right has Egmond to single out me ? He
continued : " Luther has fallen into his terrible here-
sies by studying the new learning. Stand, I warn
you, in the old paths, avoid novelties, keep to the
ancient Vulgate." This was meant for me and my
New Testament. I am accused of making a new
gospel.
I had to listen to all this. His face blazed with
fervour. He would never have stopped had he not
seen that half his hearers were laughing, and the other
half muttering or hissing. The Sunday after he
preached the same sermon at Antwerp, and added
that such fellows as I should be sent to the stake
unless they repented. He was like a drunken orator
spouting from a waggon. An ally of Luther? I have
never been an ally of Luther. There are good and
learned men who maintain that Luther has written
nothing for which there is not sound authority ; and I
neither approve nor ever will approve of crushing a
man before he has been confuted by reason and Scrip-
ture, and allowed an opportunity of recanting. If
this be to favour him, many a wise man is on his side.
Even the Pope's Bull, smacking though it does of
those tyrannical mendicants, gives him time to repent.
The clergy are told to preach against him, but they need
not call him Antichrist or a monster of wickedness.
I advised that he should be read and answered, and
that there should be no appealing to the mob. You
know how things have gone. There are thousands
of Rabbins who are gods in their own eyes. Not
one of them has attempted a real reply. Men of
Lecture XIII. 267
noble natures may be led, but cannot be forced.
Tyrants drive, asses are driven. By burning Luther's
books you may rid him off your bookshelves, but you
will not rid him out of the minds of mankind.
My Carmelite rails about novelties and the old
ways, improvements all to be suspected. He was
alluding of course to the learned languages and my
New Testament. The Pope himself has ordered that
Greek shall be studied at Rome. He has expressly
sanctioned my New Testament. If the Carmelites
make so light of the Pope's judgment when it does
not please them, why should we think conclusive the
Pope's condemnation of Luther ? He calls everything
new to which he is not accustomed. Hilary, Cyprian,
Jerome, Augustine, all are new, and nothing is old
but the scholastic formulas and glosses. He is rash
in saying Luther borrowed from me. Luther took his
errors, if errors they are, from the Apostles and the
Fathers, and it is unfair to denounce an innocent man
from the pulpit to an ignorant mob.
Everyone was not as violent as the theologians of
Louvain. A conference of moderate persons was held
at Cologne, at the instance of the Imperial Council,
to consider what should be done. Erasmus was in-
vited to attend.
TO CONRAD PEUTINGER, COUNCILLOR OF THE EM-
PIRE. 1
November 9, 1520.
We have been consulting how this tornado can be
quieted. If not wisely handled it may wreck the
Christian religion itself. Fearful consequences have
come of lighter causes, and for myself I think, like
Cicero, that a bad peace is better than the justest
war. The quarrel has gone deeper than I like. It is
not yet past cure, but the wound must be so healed
that it shall not break out again. Strong measures
are wanted. The Pope's authority as Christ's Vicar
1 Ep. dxlii., coudeused.
208 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
must be upheld, but in upholding it Gospel truth must
not be sacrificed. Leo, I believe, thinks on this as we
do. The question is not what Luther deserves, but
what is best for the peace of the world. The persons
who are to prosecute, the remedies which are to be
applied, must be carefully chosen. Some are for vio-
lence, not to defend the Pope, but to keep out light,
and in destroying Luther to destroy knowledge along
with him. The true cause of all this passion is hatred
of learning, and it is on this account that many per-
sons now support Luther who would otherwise leave
him. The contagion, we think, has spread far, and
the German nation will be dangerous if provoked to
active resistance. Force never answers in such cases,
and other means must be found. The reports of the
state of morals at Rome have caused vast numbers of
men to dislike and even abhor it. On both sides
there has been want of discretion. If every word had
been true which Luther has said he has so said it as
to grudge truth the victory. If his opponents' case
had been the best possible they would have spoilt it
by their wrongheadedness. Luther was advised to
be more moderate. He wrote more passionately every
day. His prosecutors were cautioned too, but they
continued so savage that they might have seemed in
collusion with him. They are of the sort that fatten
on the world's misfortunes and delight in confusion.
No good can come till private interests are laid aside.
Human devices will come to nought. It is not for me
to judge the Pope's sentence. Some regret the tone
of the Bull, but impute it to his advisers, not to him-
self. The fear is that, if Luther's books are burnt
and Luther executed, things will only grow worse. If
he is removed others will take his place, and there will
first be war and then a schism. Luther's conduct and
the causes which led to it ought to be referred to a
small committee of good learned men who will be
above suspicion. The Pope need not be bound to
bow to their authority. It is rather thought that this
is the course which he would himself prefer as promis-
Lecture XIII. 269
ing best for peace. Our hopes are in the approaching
Diet.
The Emperor's Council were evidently in extreme
perplexity. The Pope and the Sacred College were
equally at a loss. In better ages they would have
burnt Luther at the stake and cleared away the whole
business. But these time-honoured methods had
grown dangerous. The Vatican thunder and light-
ning had passed unheeded. The great novelty of the
situation — how great we can now hardly realise —
was that for the first time for many centuries a spirit-
ual question, hitherto exclusively reserved to Church
courts and councils, was to be referred to a Diet where
lay barons and representatives would sit as judges and
an Emperor would preside. This alone taught Rome
caution. Cardinal Campegio, an old, prudent, accom-
plished man of the world, was despatched to see what
could be done, and mend the blunders of Aleander
and Cajetan. Campegio naturally applied to Eras-
mus for help. Erasmus replied in another extremely
valuable letter. After regretting that he had been
unable to go to Rome and speak in person to the Pope,
he gave his own explanation of what had happened,
and he attributed the whole convulsion to the religions
orders, and especially to the Carmelites and Domini-
cans.
TO CAMPEGIO. 1
December 6, 1520.
Jerome, who was himself a monk, was the most
effective painter of monastic vices, and sketches with
satiric salt the lives of the brothers and sisters. The
scene is shifted, the actors are changed, but the play
is the same. When the Reuchlin storm was over
came these writings of Luther, and they snatched at
them to finish Reuchlin, Erasmus and learning all
1 Ep. dxlvii., abridged.
270 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
together. Tliey cried that learning was producing
heresies, schisms and Antichrist, and they published my
private letters to the Archbishop of Mentz and to Lu-
ther. As to Luther himself, I perceived that the bet-
ter a man was the less he was Luther's enemy. The
world was sick of teaching which gave it nothing but
glosses and formulas, and was thirsting after the water
of life from the Gospels and Epistles. I approved of
what seemed good in his work. I told him in a letter
that if he would moderate his language he might be a
shining light, and that the Pope, I did not doubt,
would be his friend. What was there in this to cry
out against ? I gave him the truest and kindest advice.
I had never seen him — I have not seen him at all. I
had read little that he had written, nor had matters
taken their present form. A few persons only were
clamouring at him in alarm for their own pockets.
They called on me to pronounce against him. The
same persons had said before that I was nothing but a
grammarian. How was a grammarian to decide a
point of heresy ? I said I could not do it till I had
examined his authorities. He had taken his opinions
from the early Fathers, and if he had quoted them by
name he could hardly have been censured. I said I had
no leisure for it, nor could I indeed properly meddle
when great persons were busy in replying to him.
They accused me of encouraging him by telling him
that he had friends in England. I told him so to in-
duce him to listen to advice. Not a creature hitherto
has given him any friendly counsel at all. No one
has yet answered him or pointed out his faults. They
have merely howled out heresy and Antichrisf.
I have myself simply protested against his being
condemned before he has been heard in his defence.
The penalty for hei'esy used to be only excommunica-
tion. No crime now is more cruelly punished. But
how, while there are persons calling themselves
bishops, and professing to be guardians of the truth,
whose moral character is abominable, can it be right
to persecute a man of unblemished life, in whose writ-
Lecture XIII. 271
ings distinguished and excellent persons have found
so much to admire ? The object has been simply to
destroy him and his books out of mind and memory,
and it can only be done when he is proved wrong by
argument and Scripture before a respectable com-
mission that can be trusted. Doubtless, the Pope's
authority is vast; but the vaster it is, the less it
ought to be influenced by private affections. The
opinions of pious, learned men should receive atten-
tion, and the Pope has no worse enemies than his
foolish defenders. He can crush any man if he
pleases, but empires based only on terror do not last,
and the weightier the Pope's judgment and the graver
the charge, the greater caution should be used.
Every sensible man, secular or spiritual, even among
the Dominicans themselves, thinks as I do about this.
Those who wish Luther condemned disapprove of the
methods now pursued against him, and what I am here
saying is more for the good of the Pope and theology
than in the interest of Luther. If the decrees of the
Holy See and of the doctors of the Church are to
carry weight they must come from men of irreproach-
able character, whose judgment we can feel sure will
not be influenced by worldly motives.
If we want truth, every man ought to be free to say
what he thinks without fear. If the advocates of one
side are to be rewarded with mitres, and the advocates
on the other with rope or stake, truth will not be
heard. Out of the many universities in Europe, two
have condemned certain propositions of Luther; but
even these two did not agree. Then came the terrible
Bull, with the Pope's name upon it. Luther's books
were to be burnt, and he himself was denounced to
the world as a heretic. Nothing coidd have been
more invidious or unwise. The Bull itself was unlike
Leo X., and those who were sent to publish it only
made matters worse. It is dangerous, however, for
secular princes to oppose the Papacy, and I am not
likely to be braver than princes, especially when I can
do nothing. The corruptions of the Roman Court
'll'l Life and Letters of Erasmus.
may require reform extensive and immediate, but I
and the like of me tire not called on to take a work
like that upon ourselves. I would rather see things
left as they are than to see a revolution which may
lead to one knows not what. Others may be martyrs
if they like. I aspire to no such honour. Some hate
me for being a Lutheran ; some for not being a
Lutheran. You may assure yourself that Erasmus has
been, and always will be, a faithful subject of the
Roman See. But I think, and many think with me,
that there would be better chance of a settlement if
there was less ferocity, if the management was placed
in the hands of men of weight and learning, if the
Pope would follow his own disposition and would not
let himself be influenced by others.
This letter has been often quoted, among others, to
prove that Erasmus was a mean creature, and had not
the courage of his convictions. I do not know that a
readiness to be a martyr is a very sublime quality, or
that those who needlessly rush on their own destruc-
tion show any particular wisdom. Such supreme sac-
rifice may at times become a duty, but only when a
man has no better use for his life. It is not a duty of
which he need go in search. I am tempted to make
a general observation. Princes, statesmen, thinkers
who have played a great part in the direction of
human affairs, have been men of superior character,
men in whose presence ordinary persons are conscious
of inferiority. Their biographers — the writers of
history generally — are of commoner metal. They re-
sent, perhaps unconsciously, the sense that they stand
on a lower level, and revenge their humiliation when
they come to describe great men by attributing to
them the motives which influence themselves. Unable
to conceive, or unwilling to admit, that men of lofty
character may have had other objects than are familiar
Lecture XIII. 273
to their personal experience, they delight to show that
the great were not great after all, but were very poor
creatures, inferior, when the truth is known about
them, to the relator of their actions ; and they have
thus reduced history to the dung-heap of humiliating
nonsense which a large part of it has unfortunately
become.
I do not wish to say more. You will take my ob-
servation for what it is worth.
LECTURE XIV.
Erasmus, I consider, may be pardoned for not
wishing to be burnt at the stake in a cause with which
he had imperfect sympathy. Burning at the stake is
not pleasant in itself, and there is no occasion to go in
search of it. The Papacy was the only visible centre
of spiritual authority. Revolution meant anarchy
and consequences which none could foresee. As long
as there was a hope that the Pope might take a rea-
sonable course, a sensible person might still wish to
make the best of him ; and if Campegio and his mas-
ter had been able to follow Erasmus's advice, I do not
know that mankind would have been the worse for it.
Erasmus was in sufficient danger as he stood. The
monks hated him full as much as they hated Luther,
and would make short work with him if they could
have their way. The Diet was close approaching.
They were marshalling their forces and strengthening
their positions. The Louvain doctors insisted that if
Erasmus did not agree with Luther he should write
against him. Erasmus knew that he was refusing at
his peril, but he told them that he had no intention of
making enemies of the whole German nation, and he
would not do it. He describes what passed in a
humorous letter to Francis Cranvelt, Councillor of
Bruges : 1 —
December 18, 1520.
" If you will not write," said the Carmelite Egmond
to me, " then admit that we Louvainers have had the
1 Ep. dl., abridged.
Lecture XIV. 275
best of the argument." I said the Louvainers would
have plenty of people to tell them that. For myself
I could not give an opinion till I had seen what they
had said. A victory did not amount to much which
was won by Bulls and hot coals. He almost spat
upon me. The monks now try to finish me with their
sermons, the divines partly conniving, partly instigat-
ing. Just like them. They say nothing to my face,
but slander and lie behind my back. Egmond bids
his congregation pray for the conversion of Luther
and Erasmus.
Erasmus again cpmplained to the Rector of the
University, and a curious scene came off shortly after
in the Rector's presence, of which he sends an account
to Sir Thomas More : 1 —
We met, the Rector in the chair ; I on his right, my
Carmelite on his left, the Rector between us, lest from
words we might pass to fists and nails. The Rector
stated my complaint. Egmond denied that he had
injured me in his sermons, and demanded when and
how. I said it was an injury to tell lies about a man
in public. He was red in the face already, though it
was in the forenoon. He turned purple. " Why do
you slander us in your books ? " said he. " I mention
no names," answer I. " Nor I yours in my sermons,"
says he. " My books are not Scripture," say I ; " I
may write what I think, and I have said much less in
them than I might have said. You have spoken a
direct lie in telling the people that I support Luther,
which I never have in the sense which you wished
them to understand." He railed like a madman.
" You — you," he said, " are the cause of all the
ti'ouble. You are a knave, a double-faced villain."
His words came from him as if he was vomiting them.
I grew angry. I had a word on my tongue. It was not
" Raca," and had more to do with smell than sound ;
but I checked myself to spare the Rector's feelings.
1 Ep. dliv., abridged.
276 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
" I could retort if I liked," said I. " He calls me
knave : I might call him fox. He calls me ' double ' :
I might call him ' quadruple.' But let us argue, and
not scold like women. Imagine," said I. " I won't
imagine " said lie ; " you poets imagine, and every
word is a lie." "Grant, then," said I. "I won't
grant," said he. "Let us assume, then," said I.,
" But it is not so," said he. The Rector could hardly
make him listen.
" Granted," said I, " that I have written things
which I had better not have written, it was no busi-
ness of yours to abuse your position as a preacher to
revenge what you think your wrongs. You might have
remonstrated privateby, or you might have brought an
action." " Ah," says he, " would n't you like to have
the chance ? " " Of what ? " said I ; " of preaching ? "
" Yes, preaching," says he. " Well, I did preach
once,"said I, " and I think I could do it as well as
you ; but I prefer writing books. However, I should
not object to your preaching if you woidd teach mor-
ality."
" What good have you ever done ? " says he. " Writ-
ten books," say I. " Bad books," says he. " I have
restored the text of Scripture," say I. " Falsified it,"
says he. " The Pope approves," say I. " I have not
seen the Pope's letter to that effect," answered he, with
a sneer. " You shall see it if you like," say I. " I will
see nothing belonging to you," says he. He w r ent on to
speak of the kindness which the Louvain professors had
wished to show me. I said I was obliged, but I had
-not needed their help, and had not met with any.
" Your evil offices I have experienced," I said, " and
for the rest you have asked me to dinners which I do
not like." I reminded him of a Wednesday dinner at
the College, where he ate fish enough for four prize-
fighters. I asked him if we had not pledged each
other, made peace, and agreed to an amnesty. He
said it was not so. The Rector, to smooth matters,
said he had not understood that peace was made in
direct terms. I inquired how often we must drink
Lecture XIV. 277
together to constitute a "pax theologica." "You
mock," says he; "you would make out that we are a
set of drunkards." I asked when I had accused him of
being drunk. " You said I was uvidus after dinner,"
said he. " I did not say so," said I ; " I mentioned only
what others told me, viz., that you had used bad lan-
guage, and your brethren excused you on the ground
that you were uvidus.''''
A great deal more of this, and then : —
Egmond went on to say that he would go on de-
nouncing Luther till he had made an end of him. I
.said he might denounce Luther till he burst if it gave
him any satisfaction ; I complained of his denouncing
me. But he only made the people laugh at him. I
told him it was useless to burn Luther's books unless
you could burn them out of people's memories."
" Yes, indeed," he said, " and it is all due to you."
We only quarrelled. The Rector interposed at last.
He said it was unworthy of us to wrangle. How was
the dispute to be made up ?
"What am I to do," said I, "since it seems drink-
ing together is not enough ? " " You have injured
our good name," Egmond answered ; " undo your
work." " How am I to undo it ? " ask I. " Write,"
says he, " that there are good and honest divines at
Louvain." " I never denied it," said I ; " I blamed
particular persons, and if you will prove me wrong I
will withdraw what I said."
" You charge us with slandering you behind your
back," says he ; "I will tell you what you are to your
face."
"I fear from your manners that you will spit in
my face," say I.
The Rector brought us back to Luther.
" You have written in support of Luther," says
Egmond ; " now write against him."
"I have not supported Luther," said I. "I have
no leisure, and it would be unfair to strike a fallen
man."
278 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
" Then write," says he, " that we have beaten
him."
" It is for those who win the victory to shout for
triumph," said I. Besides, I was not sure they had
beaten him. The arguments had not been published.
" Did I not tell you," said he, turning to the Rec-
tor, " that we should make nothing of this man ? I
shall continue to hold him a Lutheran till he consents
to write against Luther."
" Then you are yourself a Lutheran," said I, "for
you have written nothing against him."
We parted without an adieu. He boasted after-
wards at a drinking- party how he had stood up to
Erasmus.
The Rector tells the story with much amusement,
and wonder at my forbearance.
So passed the winter, Erasmus fighting beasts at
Ephesus. They were rash in attempting to drive
him to write, for he knew that he had but to declare
himself on the revolutionary side to assure Luther an
undisputed victory ; and he felt it naturally hard
" When not to be deserved reproach of being."
Campegio, after receiving his letter, came to Lou-
vain to consult with him. Aleander himself, who
was to prosecute Luther before the Diet, came.
Many eminent men begged Erasmus to give Luther
open help while the Diet was assembling — one espe-
cially, vir prmpotens, whom he calls N , perhaps
the Elector of Saxe, perhaps the Landgrave of Hesse.
This also he could not do, as he explains to N
at length : 1 —
Louvain, January 28, 1521.
The world is splitting into factions. I have spoken
with Campegio and also with Aleander. They were
both gracious and gave hopes of a peaceful settle-
1 Ep. dlxiii., abridged.
Lecture XIV. 279
ment, but my chief confidence is in the Pope's own
disposition. You tell me that a few words of mine
will carry more weight than papal thunderbolts. You
could urge nothing more calculated to keep me silent.
Who am I that I should contradict the Catholic
Church? If I was sure that the Holy See was wrong
I would say so on a proper occasion, but it is no duty
of mine to decide. My work has been to restore a
buried literature, and recall divines from their hair-
splittings to a knowledge of the New Testament. I
have never been a dogmatist. I think the Church
has defined many points which might have been left
open without hurt to the faith. The matter now in
hand can be arranged if the Pope, the princes, and
your Highness will refer it to a small u umber of
learned good men.
But the busybodies who shout and rage and flatter
the Holy See must be kept at a distance. None have
more recommended Luther to the German people
than those who have cursed him loudest, and the
other side who rail and curse at the Pope must be
kept out also.
I know not how Popes came by their authority. I
suppose it was as the bishops came by theirs. Each
Presbytery chose one of its members as president to
prevent divisions. Bishops similarly found it expedi-
ent to have a chief bishop, to check rivalries and
defend the Church against the secular powers. I
know the charges brought against the Court of Rome,
but all reports need not be true, nor, if true, need the
popes be responsible for all that is done at Rome.
Many wrong things escape their eye, and many are
done against their will. St. Peter himself, if he now
ruled, would have to connive at much. But however
this be, more will be effected by moderate remon-
strance than by reviling and passion. I can be no
party to violence. If offences must come tluy shall
not come through me. If Luther's books are in your
people's hands let them do as I do, take the good in
them and leave the bad. I will say nothing of Luther
280 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
himself. But this I insist on, that the worst part of
what has happened is due to the Dominican and Car-
melite theologians, and if the Pope knew what they
were about he would not he particularly obliged to
them. Luther's style is not mine, but it is folly to
call him ass, goose, blockhead, heretic, Antichrist,
pest of humanity. His books are only read the more
eagerly, and the Pope's Bull has failed to frighten
people away from him. Divines, monkish buffoons,
now and then a bishop or two, sing to the same note.
The Papacy is defended by packs of barking curs.
The world's eyes are opening, and unless they change
x their note they will effect nothing. You suggest that
I. should join Luther. I will join him readily if I see
him on the side of the Catholic Church. I do not
accuse him of having broken with it. It is not for
me to pronounce. To his own Master he stands or
falls. But if the worst comes and the Church is di-
vided, I shall stand on the Rock of Peter till peace
returns. Farewell.
The talk about the Rock of Peter sounds conven-
tional and insincere, but Erasmus obviously meant it.
The disease in the Church, as Erasmus saw it, lay in
the propensity to dogmatic definitions. Each defini-
tion of doctrine beyond the Apostles' Creed had led to
dissension and hatred, and he dreaded any fresh addi-
tion to the already too numerous formulas from what-
ever side it might come. Luther's mind, at white
heat, was flowing into antagonistic doctrinal asser-
tions. These would be met by counter-assertions, and
the war of words would turn to a war of sword and
canYton. The hope of Erasmus was that Poj)e and
Council, if not further irritated, might be content to
leave opinion free on subjects which no one coidd un-
derstand — be content that Christians should live to-
gether, to use the words of our own prayer in the
Liturgy, " in unity of spirit " (not of definitions), " in
Lecture XIV. 281
the bond of peace " (not of strife), " in righteousness
of life," the object of all religions, and that they
should set themselves to reform the scandals in their
own practice, which were crying to Heaven for reform.
Such a turn of things, even at that late hour, might
be hoped for without insincerity, as offering the best
prospect for Christendom. But it is dangerous for a
man to throw himself
" Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites. ' '
The Lutherans abused Erasmus for a coward. They
insisted that he thought as they did, but dared not
confess it. The Lou vain doctors were of the same
opinion, and struck at him from the opposite camp.
TO NICHOLAS BEKALD. 1
Louvain, February 16, 1521.
The Dominicans pelt me daily in their sermons. I
bear it for the sake of the Faith, and am a martyr like
Stephen. Stephen, however, was stoned but once, and
was then at rest. I am battered unceasingly with
stones which are poisoned. They care not for the dis-
grace to themselves so long as they can injure me.
Luther has discredited me and my cause. All know
that the Church has been tyrannical and corrupt, and
many have been busy thinking how it can be reformed.
But medicines wrongly applied make the patient
worse, and when attempts are made and fail the symp-
. toms only grow more dangerous. Would that Luther
had held his peace, or had gone to work more dis-
creetly. I care nothing for the fate which may over-
take him, but I do care for the cause of Christ, and I
see churchmen in such a temper that, if they triumph,
farewell to Gospel truth.
You know generally the story of the Diet of Worms.
It was a gathering of all that was greatest in Ger-
1 Ep. dlxvi.
282 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
many, the young Emperor presiding. Princes, barons,
representatives of the free towns and states, bishops,
abbots, cardinals, a legate from the Holy See, with his
suite of divines and canon lawyers, all collected to con-
sider what was to be done with a single poor Saxon
monk. The Pope had prepared for the occasion by
issuing in Passion Week his famous Bull In Coena
Domini against the enemies of the Church, and had
included Luther by name in it. Yet you observe, as
a sign of the changing times, that Luther was not
brought before the Diet as a prisoner. He was invited
to appear by a letter from the Emperor, promising
that he should be heard in his defence, and under the
protection of a safe-conduct. Plis friends, remember-
ing that Sigismund's safe-conduct had not saved Huss
at Constance, advised Luther not to attend. You will
recollect his famous answer, that he would go to
Worms if there were as many devils there as there
were tiles on the housetops. You will remember how
he stood alone before that stern assembly, how his
books were produced, how he was required to retract
them, how he said he would retract them all if he was
proved wrong by Holy Scripture. To the mere sen-
tence of the Pope he would not submit. " Ich kann
nicht anders," he said : " I can do no other." He was
condemned. He was placed under the ban of Empire,
ordered to return home and wait till his safe-conduct
was expired, when sentence would be executed on him.
The Church party would have again treated the safe-
conduct as a farce, have seized and burnt him on the
spot. But though he was cast by a majority of votes,
the Lords and Commons of Germany did not choose
that there shoidd be a second treachery of Constance.
The Emperor refused to commence his reign by a
breach of promise, and other questions were stirring
Lecture XIV. 283
in the Diet which forced the churchmen to be careful.
The loud growl was rising — the voice of the German
laity demanding redress of their grievances against ec-
clesiastical tyranny, soon to rise into a roar and break
the fabric of the Church to pieces. In the face of
such a demonstration the Emperor could not dare, if
he had wished, to listen to the counsels of his spiritual
advisers.
It seemed, at any rate, but a question of a few days.
Luther was outlawed. His own prince could no
longer lawfully protect him after his safe-conduct had
expired. There was no asylum in Christian Europe
where the Pope's writ would not run, or where an ex-
communicated fugitive could seek protection. Protes-
tant nations there were as yet none, and Luther's
speedy destruction seemed still inevitable. You know
what happened. How Luther, on his way home to
Wittenberg, was seized in a forest by a company of
the Elector's horse, disguised as banditti. How he
was spirited away to the Castle of Wartburg, and lay
concealed there till war broke out between France and
the Empire, when Charles could no longer afford to
affront or exasperate his German subjects. It is not
impossible that the plot was arranged privately be-
tween the Elector and the Emperor, to save Charles
from making himself hated, as he would have been
had Luther been burnt.
Meanwhile the secret was well kept. Erasmus
thought that all was over with him. Luther's friends,
Melanchthon and Jonas, had stood gallantly by him
at Worms. Erasmus considered that the best which
they could now do was to separate themselves from a
lost cause.
284 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
TO JODOCUS JONAS. 1
I
Louvain, May 18, 1521.
In pleading for moderation at Worms you acted as
I should have clone had I been there. I am sorry that
things have turned so badly. What is religion, save
peace in the Holy Ghost ? The corruption of the
Church, the degeneracy of the Holy See are univer-
sally admitted. Reform has been loudly asked for,
and I doubt whether in the whole history of Christian-
ity the heads of the Church have been so grossly
worldly as at the present moment. It was on this ac-
count that Luther's popularity at the outset was so ex-
traordinary. We believe what we wish. A man was
supposed to have risen up, with no objects of his own
to gain, to set his hand to the work. I had hopes my-
self, though from the first I was alarmed at Luther's
tone. What could have induced him to rail as he did
at popes and doctors and mendicant friars ? If all he
said was true, what could he expect? Things were
bad enough in themselves without making them worse.
Did he wish to set the world on fire ? This was not
Christ's way, or the Apostles' way, or Augustine's.
He should have looked forward. It is foolish to un-
dertake what you cannot carry through, and doubly
foolish when failure may be disastrous. Why did he
refuse to submit to the Pope and the Emperor ? He
was ill advised, they say. But why did he let himself
be ill advised ? He had many friends well disposed
towards him, partly because they thought he was doing
good, partly because they had a common enemy. It
was unfair to drag our names into the controversy.
Why have I and Reuchlin been mentioned so often ?
They have taken passages which I wrote before Lu-
ther's movement was dreamt of, and have translated
them into German, where I seem to say what Luther
says. Likely enough I have insisted that vows should
not be hastily taken, that men had better stay at home
1 Ep. dlxxii., abridged.
Lecture XIV. 285
and take care of their families, instead of running off
to Compostella or Jerusalem. But this is not to say-
there should be no vows and no confessional. It is
not my fault if my writings are misused. So were
Paul's, if we are to believe Peter. Had I known what
was coming, I might have written differently on some
points. But I have done my best, and at all events
have not encouraged rebellion. There was a hope at
Cologne that the Pope would graciously forgive and
Luther would graciously obey, the princes generally
approving. But out comes the " Babylonish Captiv-
ity," and the burning of the Decretals, and the wound
becomes past cure. Luther has wilfully provoked his
fate.
" The Lutheran drama is over," Erasmus writes to
another correspondent a week later (May 24) ;
" would that it had never been brought on the stage."
And again, in June, to Archbishop Warham : —
Luther has made a prodigious stir. Would that he
had held his tongue, or had written in a better tone.
I fear that in shunning Scylla we shall now fall into
Charybdis. There is some slight hope from Pope
Leo ; but if the enemies of light are to have their way,
we may write on the tomb of a ruined world, " Christ
did not rise again."
Again, July 5, 1 with confidential frankness to Dr.
Pace : —
Luther has given himself away; and the theolo-
gians, I fear, will make an ill use of their victory.
The Louvainers hate me, and will find a ready instru-
ment in Aleander, who is violent enough in himself,
and needs no prompting. lie lays the whole blame
on me. I am responsible even for the " Babylonish
Captivity." The Germans were always trying to drag
me in ; but what help could I have given Luther?
There would have been two lives for one. That would
1 Kp. dlxxxiii., abridged,
286 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
have been all. I was not called on to venture mine.
We have not all strength for martyrdom, and I fear
if trouble comes I shall do like Peter. The Pope
and the Emperor must decide. If they decide wisely,
I shall go with them of my own will. If unwisely, I
shall take the safe side. There will be no dishonesty
in this when one can do no good. Now that Luther
has gone to ashes, the preaching friars and the divines
congratulate each other, not, however, with much sin-
cerity. We must look to the princes to see that the
innocent and deserving are not made responsible for
Luther's sins.
By the middle of the summer confused rumours
were spreading that Luther had not gone to ashes,
that he had been carried off, and some said murdered.
The real truth was not guessed at.
" An idle tale " has reached us (he wrote, 1 July 5)
that Luther has been waylaid and killed. All means
were used at Worms to recover him. Threats, prom-
ises, entreaties, but nothing could be done with him.
He was reconducted to Wittenberg by the Imperial
herald, with twenty days allowed of respite. Then all
was to end. The Emperor is incensed against him,
partly by others, partly through personal resentment.
Luther's books were burnt at Worms, and a fierce edict
has been issued at Louvain, insisting that the Emperor
shall be obeyed.
Erasmus was not, as he said, called on to be a
martyr, but he was a little over-eager to wash his
hands of Luther. There was no denying that his
writings generally, especially his New Testament, had
given the first impulse. It was he who had made the
Scripture, to which Luther appealed, first accessible
to the laity, garnished with notes and commentaries
as stinging as Luther's own. The Louvain Carmelites
1 Ep. dlxxxiv,
Lecture XIV. 287
owed liim a long debt, and they thought their time
was come to pay it. He had gone to Bruges to escape
them.
TO PETER BARBIEIUS. 1
Bruges, August 13, 1521.
The Louvain friars will not be reconciled to me,
and they catch at anything, true or false, to bring me
into odium. True, my tongue runs away with me. I
jest too much, and measure other men by myself.
Why should an edition of the New Testament infuri-
ate them so ? I settled at Louvain, as you know, at
the Emperor's order. We set up our college for the
three languages [Greek, Latin, and Hebrew]. The
Carmelites did not like it, and would have stopped us
had not Cardinal Adrian interfered. 2 I did my best
with the New Testament, but it provoked endless
quarrels. Edward Lee pretended to have discovered
300 errors. They appointed a commission, which
professed to have found bushels of them. Every
dinner-table ram* with the blunders of Erasmus. I
required particulars, and could not have them. At
length a truce was patched up. They were to admit
that my work had merit. I was to stop the wits who
were mocking at Louvain theology. Then out came
Luther's business. It grew hot. I was accused on
one side from the pulpits of being in a conspiracy
with Luther, on the other I was entreated to join him.
I saw the peril of neutrality, but I cannot and will not
be a rebel. Luther's friends quote, " I came not to
send peace on earth, but a sword." Of course the
Church requires reform, but violence is not the way to
it. Both parties behaved like maniacs. You may ask
me why I have not written against Luther. Because
I had no leisure, because I was not qualified, because
I would sooner face the lances of the Switzers than
the pens of enraged theologians. There are plenty to
do it besides me — bishops, cardinals, kings, with
1 Ep. dlxxxvii., abridged.
2 Charles V-'s tutor, and afterwards Popo.
288 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
stakes and edicts as many as they please. Besides, it
is not true that I have done nothing. Luther's friends
(who were once mine also) do not think so. They
have deserted me and call me a Pelagian. But if
severity is to be the course, someone else, and not I,
must use the rod. God will provide a Nebuchad-
nezzar to scourge us if we need scourging.
It would be well for us if we thought less of our
dogmas and more about the Gospel ; but whatever is
done ought to be done quietly, with no appeals to
passion. The opinions of the leading men should be
given in writing and under seal. The point is to learn
the cause of all these disturbances, and stop the stream
at the fountain. The princes must begin, and then I
will try what I can do. My position at present is
odious. In Flanders I am abused as a Lutheran. In
Germany I am cried out against as an anti- Lutheran.
I would forfeit life, fame, and all to find a means to
compose the strife.
Once more to Archbishop Warham, August 24 : * —
The condition of things is extremely dangerous. I
have to steer my own course, so as not to desert the
truth of Christ through fear of man, and to avoid un-
necessary risks. Luther has been sent into the world
by the Genius of discord. Every corner of it has
been disturbed by him. All admit that the corrup-
tions of the Church required a drastic medicine. But
drugs wrongly given make the sick man worse. I
said this to the King of Denmark lately. He laughed,
and answered that small doses would be of no use.
The whole system needed purging. For myself I am
a man of peace, and hate quarrels. Luther's move-
ment was not connected with learning, but it has
brought learning into ill-repute, and the lean and
barren dogmatists, who used to be my enemies, have
now fastened on Luther, like the Greeks on Hector.
I suppose I must write something about him. I will
read his books, and see what can be done.
1 Ep. dxc.
Lecture XIV. 289
There was joy at Some and among the Roman
satellites over the sentence at Worms. For some
months the Church was triumphant. Wise men and
fools alike believed that all was over with Luther.
The Emperor, the Archduke of Austria, half the Ger-
man princes, France, Spain, even England, appeared
to have agreed that the spiritual insurrection must be
put down with fire. It was not blind bigotry. It was
a conviction shared, as you will do well to observe, by
such a man as Sir Thomas More, who was as little in-
clined as Erasmus himself to allow the old creed to be
supplanted by a new. You cannot understand the
sixteenth century till you recognise the immense dif-
ference then present in the minds of men between a
change of doctrine and a reformation of the Church's
manners and morals.
Luther was not dead, as Erasmus and the rest of
the world believed. He had been spirited away by
the Elector of Saxony, probably enough with the
Emperor's connivance. The public execution of such
a man would have shocked the sense of all the laity
in Europe. But the meteor which had blazed across
the firmament was supposed to have burnt out, and
the best hope of honest men was that the Emperor
would now himself take up the work, and insist on a
. reform of the Church by the Church itself. Unfor-
tunately other forces, besides religion, were disturbing
the peace of Christendom. The Pope was the spirit-
ual head of the world, but he was also an Italian
prince, with schemes and ambitions like other mortals.
The traditions of Charles VIII. and of Julius II.
were still smouldering. The Italians resented the
Spanish occupation of Naples and Sicily. The French
wanted Lombardy and Piedmont. Behind all was
Solyman, ravaging the Mediterranean with his fleet,
290 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
advancing on Hungary, and threatening to place the
Crescent on the spire of St. Stephen's at Venice. A
crusade against heresy required peace. Church courts
and inquisitions were abhorred by the secular mind,
and councils could not sit while armies were on the
move. The young Emperor Charles and the young
Francis I. showed both of them that they meant to
try which was stronger before other questions could
be attended to; and Providence, or accident, or the
ambitions and passions of mankind, were preparing
thus a respite for spiritual freedom till it could take
root and be too strong to be destroyed.
The politics of Europe do not concern us here. We
must continue to look through the eyes of Erasmus at
events as they rose, with the future course of things
concealed from him. This is the way to understand
history. We know what happened, and we judge the
actors on the stage by the light of it. They did not
know. They had to play their parts in the present,
and so we misjudge them always. The experience of
every one of us whose lives reach a normal period
might have taught us better. Let any man of seventy
look back over what he has witnessed in his own time.
Let him remember what was hoped for from political
changes or wars, or from each step in his personal
life, and compare what has really resulted from those
things with what he once expected ; how, when good
has come, it has not been the good which he looked
for ; how difficulties have shown themselves which no
one foresaw ; how his calculations have been mocked
by incidents which the wisest never dreamt of ; and
he will plead to be judged, if his conduct comes under
historical review, by his intentions and not by the
event.
This is a lesson which historians ought never to
Lecture XIV. 291
forget, and they seem to me rarely to remember it.
To understand the past we must look at it always,
when we can, through the eyes of contemporaries.
After the supposed collapse of Luther, Erasmus had
to gather himself together to consider what he should
himself do, and advise his own party to do. He had
gone to Bruges again to escape Louvain and its doc-
tors. From Bruges he went to Anderlac for the rest
of the summer, and among his letters from Anderlac
is one to a literary youth, who wished to throw him-
self into the war of creeds.
TO JOHN SCHUDELIN. 1
Anderlac, September 4, 1521.
Stick to your teaching work. Do not be crossing
swords with the champions of the old ignorance. Try
rather to sow better seed in the minds of the young.
If princes are blind, if the heads of the Church prefer
the rewards of this world to the rewards promised by
Christ, if divines and monks choose to stick to their
synagogues, if the world generally chooses to preserve
the forms to which men are accustomed, well, then,
we must put new wine in old bottles. The seed will
grow in the end, and the opposition is more from ig-
norance than ill-will. Teach your boys carefully, edit
the writings of the Fathers, and irreligious religion
and unlearned learning will pass away in due time.
Erasmus could be calm for others. It was very
hard for him to be calm for himself. The Louvainers
got hold of more of his letters, and published them
with alterations in the text. He had written " Lu-
therus " ; they changed it into " Lutherus Noster,"
to make him out Luther's friend. They reprinted
his " Colloquies," imitated his style, and made him
say the contradictory of what he had really said. He
1 Ep. dxcii.
292 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
had denounced extorted confessions, he had laughed
at pilgrimages and ridiculed indulgences. His new
editors reproduced his real language, but they at-
tached paragraphs in his name where he was repre-
sented as declaring that he had once thought all that,
but had perceived his error. He had written that
"the best confession was confession to God " ; his edi-
tor changed it into " the best confession is confession
to a priest."
"Wonderful Atlases of a tottering faith," he
might well call such people. " Once," he says, " it
was held a crime to publish anything in another man's
name ; now it is the special game of divines, and they
are proud of it."
At Anderlac he was safe at any rate from the
sound of their tongues while he watched the gather-
ing of the war storm. He hated war, but under the
circumstances even war might have its value. Per-
secution, at least, would be impossible as long as it
lasted.
But oh, what a world ! (he wrote). Christendom
split in two and committed to a deadly struggle ; two
young princes, each fierce and ardent, each bent on
the destruction of the other. Immortal God ! Where
is the Pope ? When anything is to be got for the
Church he can command angels and devils, but he can
do nothing to prevent his children from cutting each
other's throats. Where are the eloquent preachers ?
Have they lost their tongues, or can they only use
them to flatter ? Luther is done with — I trust well
done with ; and for my own part I return to my
studies.
Luther was not done with. Luther had risen from
the dead, or, rather, the truth came out, while Eras-
mus was still at Anderlac, that he had never died at
Lecture XIV. 293
all, that he was alive under the Elector's protection,
and would soon be heard of again under the shelter
of the war. Violence had failed after all. There
was nothing now for it but for Erasmus to step for-
ward and put Luther down by argument. Statesmen,
bishops, privy councillors, even friends like Lord
Mountjoy in England, wrote to him that he must
do it. Erasmus must speak. Germany would listen
to Erasmus when it would listen to no one else. He
did not choose to be at once used and abused.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE PRINCE OF NASSAU. 1
Anderlac, November 19, 1521.
I have no more to do with Luther than with any
other Christian. I would sooner have him mended
than ended ; but if he has been sowing poison, the
hand that sowed it must gather it up again. They
may boil or roast Luther if they like. It will be but
one individual the less ; but mankind must be consid-
ered too. The papal party have acted like fools.
The whole affair has been mismanaged by a parcel of
stupid monks. The Pope's Bull directed them to
preach against Luther, that is, to answer him out of
Scripture. They have not answered him. They have
only cursed him and lied about him. A Jacobite at
Antwerp accused him of having said that Christ worked
His miracles by magic. A Carmelite said at the French
Court that Luther was Antichrist, and Erasmus his
precursor. A Minorite raged at us from a pulpit for
an hour, only to call us geese, asses, beasts, and block-
heads. The magistrates at Antwerp told him to leave
Luther and preach the Gospel. Another Minorite,
named Matthias, said that if the people wanted the
Gospel they must take it from their pastor, though he
had slept the night before with a harlot. The Em-
peror must take order for the peace of Christendom
and silence both parties. Would that all were well
1 Ep. cccxiv., second series, abridged.
294 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
ended. No one would believe how widely Lntlier lias
moved men. His books are everywhere and in every
language. I hear there is to be some frightful edict.
I hope it may prosper, but things will not go as many
seem to expect. I care nothing what is done to Lu-
ther, but I care for peace, and, as you know, when
peace is broken the worst men come to the front. I
had rather be a Turk than under some of these friars.
If the Pope and princes are wise, they will not place
good men at the mercy of such as they are.
LECTURE XV.
Europe was at pause, waiting for the outbreak of
the war. Luther was known to be alive, but had not
yet shown himself. The cry was still that Erasmus
must write. Erasmus must tell Germany how to act.
Even his English friends, who had stood by him so
heartily in his fight with the monks, were urging him to
clear himself of complicity with the rebellion against
Rome. Lord Mountjoy, his oldest patron and sup-
porter, had written to him, and Mountjoy spoke for
More, and Fisher and Warham. Erasmus began to
feel that he might be obliged to comply.
TO LORD MOUNTJOY. 1
Andeklac.
You, too, tell me I am suspected of favouring Lu-
ther, and that I must prove my innocence by writing
against him. I had nothing to do with Luther. I
objected only to the outcry against him. All allow
that Church discipline had gone to pieces, that the
laity were oppressed, and their consciences entangled
in trickery. Men both good and learned thought Lu-
ther might help to mend something of this. I looked
for no more. I never thought of quarrelling with the
ruling powers. If the course they take is for Christ's
honour, I obey gladly. If they decide ill, we must en-
dure what is not directly impious. When we can do
no good, we have a right to be silent. A worm like
me must not dispute with our lawful rulers. If they
ask my advice, I will give it. Such an uproar is not
1 Ep. devi., abridged.
29G Life and Letters of Erasmus.
for nothing, and they may wish to cleanse the wound
before they close it. If they do not, I shall hold my
peace, and pray Christ to enlighten them. You say I
can settle it all. Would that I could. It is easy to
call Luther a fungus : it is not easy to answer him. I
might try, if I was sure that those at the head of
things would use my victory to honest purpose. I do
not see what business it is of mine. However, I will
think of it.
" I will think of it " — so he had said before. But
the more he thought the less he saw his way. He
was afraid, as he had admitted, that he might be
fighting against the Spirit of God. He explains his
difficulties in an elaborate letter to the Archbishop of
Palermo. 1 In the eyes of Erasmus the disorders of
Christendom had risen from the dogmas which the
Church and the priests had forced upon the people.
Piety was held to be the acceptance of these dogmas,
impiety to be doubt or disagreement. Hence had
come the inevitable consequences : religion was con-
founded with ritual or creed, and morals were forgot-
ten or went to ruin. Erasmus enters at length into
the history of heresy and the early disputes on the
Trinity, which he deprecated and condemned. It is
very dangerous, he says, to define subjects above
human comprehension. There was an excuse for the
early Fathers, as they could not help themselves.
But nothing was to be said in defence of the curious
and blasphemous questions now raised, on which men
might be left to think for themselves without hurt to
their souls. " May not a man," he asks, " be a Chris-
tian who cannot explain philosophically how the nativ-
ity of the Son differs from the procession of the Holy
Spirit? If I believe in the Trinity in Unity, I want
1 January 5, 1522. ( Ep. dcxiii.
Lecture XV. 297
no arguments. If I do not believe, I shall not be con-
vinced by reason. The sum of religion is peace, which
can only be when definitions are as few as possible,
and opinion is left free on many subjects. 1 Our pres-
ent problems are said to be waiting for the next
(Ecumenical Council. Better let them wait till the
veil is removed and we see God face to face."
The whole of Erasmus's thought is in these words,
and they explain his difference with Luther, who was
constructing a new Protestant theology, which might
be as intolerant and dangerous as the Catholic. We
can well understand why, if this was his view of
things, he was so unwilling to publish it to the world.
His uncertainty irritated him, and irritation in Eras-
mus always ran over into mockery. When things
were at the worst with him, he wrote a characteristic
letter of advice to a friend who had been attached to
the Emperor's Court.
Be careful to keep sober at meals. This will ensure
your espect. Assume no airs either in speech or dress.
The Court soon finds out what men are. When you
argue do not dispute like the schoolmen, and do not
argue at all with casual persons, or on any subject
which turns up. You will then be better liked and
escape annoyance. Cultivate men in power. Be
polite to all, and never abject. Respect your own
position — an affectation of holiness will not be amiss.
Never speak your mind openly about what goes on
round you. Never blurt out your thoughts hastily.
Be fair to everyone, and if you must take a side, take
the side which is most in favour. Keep clear of
Lutheranism and stand up for knowledge and learn-
1 " Ea vix constare potorit nisi de quam potest paucissimis dofinianms
et in multis liberum rclinqiiaimis strain cuiqiii' judicium, propterea qinxl
ingens sit rerum pliirimaruni iiltscuiit.is el hocmorbl fere innatum sit
hominmn inpeniis ut cedere nesciant simul atqne res in oontentionexn
vocata e3t," etc.
298 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
ing. Egnioncl and Co. hate both worse than they
hate Luther. This will make you popular with the
young. The present tempest will not last long.
Louvain, as a residence, has become intolerable.
He has gone thither at the Emperor's command. The
divinity and the climate alike disagreed with him, and
on leaving Anderlac he was allowed to remove alto-
gether to Bale, where he could print his books with
his friend Froben. The bitter humour of the last
letter continued to cling to him. Another friend
had been summoned into the Imperial circle. He
writes : 1 —
You tell me that you are going into court life, and
that you do not like it. I trust it may be for your
good. Up to the time when I was fifty I saw some-
thing of princes' courts, so you may profit by my expe-
rience. Trust no one who pretends to be your friend,
let him smile, promise, embrace, swear as many oaths
as he will. Do not believe that anyone is really at-
tached to you, and do not be hasty in giving your
own confidence. Be civil to all. Politeness costs
nothing. Salute, give the road, and do not forget to
give men their titles. Praise warmly, promise freely.
Choose the part which you mean to play, and never
betray your real feelings. Fit your features to your
words, and your words to your features. This is the
philosophy of court life, for which none are qualified
till they have put away shame and trained themselves
to lie. Watch how parties are divided and join
neither. If man or woman falls out of favour, keep
you to the sunny side of the ship. Observe the
prince's likes and dislikes. Smile when he speaks,
and if you can say nothing, look admiringly. Praise
him to others. Your words will get round. A small
offering to him now and then will do no harm, only it
must not be too valuable, as if you were fishing for a
1 Ep. dx., second series.
Lecture XV. 299
return. If there be game in sight, trust neither to
God nor man, but look out for yourself. Court winds
are changeable. Watch your chances, and let no
good thing slip out of your hands. Keep with the
winning party, but give no mortal offence to the other
till you are sure of your ground. When you ask a
favour, do as loose women do with their lovers, ask
for what the prince can give without loss to himself
— benefices, provostships, and such like. This will
do to begin with. As I see you benefit by my advice,
I will initiate you in the deeper mysteries.
At all times, I suppose, court atmosphere is apt to
breed a halo round the sun. We have to pay for the
luxury of a monarchy, and this was why Erasmus
always, for himself, kept clear of those high regions.
The scorn, however, may be set down to a specially
uncomfortable state of mind. Must he write? If
there was no escape, what was he to write? The
names of Luther and Erasmus were about to be
coupled closer than ever by their joint service to
mankind. Erasmus had edited the Greek New Tes-
tament and made a fresh translation. Luther, in the
Castle of Wartburg, was translating it into vernacu-
lar German, with the Old Testament to follow. To-
gether, these two men had made accessible the rock,
stronger than the rock of Peter, on which the faith of
mankind was to be rebuilt. Less than ever could
Erasmus tell how to act. At this moment Leo X.
died, and the Emperor's tutor, Erasmus's old school-
fellow, Cardinal Adrian, was called to be the
Church's sovereign. The rule of the Conclave was to
choose only Italian Popes. That it was broken at
the present crisis was due to the resolution of Charles
V. to clear out the abominations of the Roman Court.
But there was no likelihood of finding in Adrian any
disposition to compromise with heresy. Erasmus, at
300 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
their last meeting, had found him sour and cold, a
severe, stern, and strictly orthodox old man, not even
disposed to continue to himself the favour which he
had always found from Leo. Erasmus had now left
Louvain and its doctors, and was living at Bale with
his publisher Froben. From Bale, as soon as he was
settled there, he wrote to Pirkheimer, still in a bitter
tone : —
I have been ill, but am better. I watch earnestly
how the Lutheran tragedy is to end. Some spirit is
in it, but whether God's Spirit or the other one I
know not. I never helped Luther, unless it be to
help a man to exhort him to mend his ways ; yet I
am called a heretic by both parties. My ill friends,
who dislike me on other grounds, persuade the Em-
peror that I am the cause of all that is wrong, be-
cause I do not write against Luther. The Lutherans
call me a Pelagian because I believe in free will. A
pleasant situation, is it not?
In the pause we find Erasmus studying his old
friend Lucian over again. Lucian had more to say to
him which fitted to the time than even the Christian
Fathers. The enormous fabric of false legends and
forged miracles with which the monks had cajoled or
frightened their flocks had brought back to him the
curious dialogue called ^iXo^euS^s, in which Lucian
had moralised over the fondness of mankind for lies
— lies related, as Lucian says, so circumstantially and
by such grave authorities, with evidence of eye-wit-
nesses, place, and time all accurately given, that the
strongest mind could hardly resist conviction unless
fortified with the certainty that such things could not
be. Erasmus turns to the familiar page, and finds
the same phenomena repeated after twelve hundred
years.
Lecture XV. 301
This dialogue (he says 1 ) teaches us the folly of
superstition, which creeps in under the name of reli-
gion. When lies are told us Lucian bids us not dis-
turb ourselves, however complete the authority which
may be produced for them. Even Augustine, an hon-
est man and a lover of truth, can repeat a tale as
authentic which Lucian had ridiculed under other
names so many years before Augustine was born.
What wonder, therefore, that fools can be found to
listen to the legends of the saints or to stories about
hell, such as frighten cowards or old women. There is
not a martyr, there is not a virgin, whose biographies
have not been disfigured by these monstrous absurdi-
ties. Augustine says that lies when exposed always
injure truths One might fancy they were invented
by knaves or unbelievers to destroy the credibility of
Christianity itself.
In the same mood is a letter to Pirkheimer, 2 evi-
dently intended for the Emperor's eyes. Adrian is
now Pope.
The Pope's satellites daily draw the meshes tighter
of the old tyranny. Instead of relaxing the bonds,
they tie the knots harder. The friends of liberty who
call themselves Lutherans are possessed by some
spirit, of what kind I know not, while both sorts have
a finger in the management of things, which neither
of them should touch if I could have my way. Con-
science has run wild ; abandoned profligates quote
Luther's books as an excuse for licentiousness, while
the quiet and the good are between the shrine and the
stone. On one side they see reason and good sense,
on the other the princes and the mob ; and what the
issue is to be I know not. I have small belief in sub-
mission extorted by Bulls and Imperial edicts. They
may chain the tongues of men : they cannot touch theil
minds. Would that God would move the princes to
1 Ep. cccclxxv., second series, abridged.
2 Ep. dcxviii., abridged.
302 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
set other respects aside, consider only Christ's glory,
and look to the sources of the disorders which con-
vulse the commonwealth. Some effort must and will
be made for Christian liberty. New customs, new
rules have been introduced into the Church, which
have acquired the force of law. The schoolmen will
have their dogmas received as articles of faith." The
spiritual pedlars who trade under the Pope's shadow
have become insolent and grasping. They cannot be
torn out all at once by force. Violent remedies are
mischievous and dangerous. But what can be done ?
On one side we have Bulls, edicts, and menaces; on
the other revolutionary pamphlets which set the world
in flames. If the princes' hands are full of other
business, can they find no reasonable men whom they
can trust to consider these things ? It does not con-
cern me. My time is nearly out. But I wish for the
salvation of Christianity. If there was any right
belief in Christ as the Eternal Head of the Church !
But now one man is thinking what he can get, another
is afraid of losing what he has, a third sees trouble
coming and shrinks into his hole, and so the confla-
gration spreads. I myself am denounced as a Lu-
theran. The Nuncio (Aleander) is poisoned against
me, and if the late Pope had not died I was to have
been censured at Borne ; and meanwhile the Lutherans
abuse me, and the Emperor is half persuaded that I
am to blame for everything that has gone wrong. I
had thought of writing something, not as an attack on
Luther, but to urge peace and moderation. Both
sides, however, are so embittered that I had better not
attempt it. If the Lutherans would but have fallen
out with me two years ago they would have saved me
a load of odium. Learned theologians whom I have
consulted as to my remarks on the ninth of Romans
tell me my fault is that I have attached the faintest
possible power to man's free-will !
There were more hopes from Adrian than Erasmus
had allowed himself to feel. He learnt from distin-
Lecture XV. 303
guished correspondents that the new Pope and the
Emperor did mean after all to set their hands to the
reform of the Roman Curia. He learnt too, to his
relief, that he was himself less out of favour than
he had feared in those high quarters, bitter as was
the offence which he had given by not providing the
answer to Luther. At the bottom Charles V. thought
much as Erasmus did about dogmas and dogmatism.
The Emperor had resented Luther's defiance of au-
thority, but when Luther was known to be alive he
had taken no steps to find or arrest him. The ap-
proaching war with France obliged him to keep on
good terms with his German subjects, especially with
the most powerful of them, Luther's own sovereign,
the Elector of Saxony, and if fire and sword were to
be used for heresy a more convenient season must
be waited for. The Bishop of Palencia, who had de-
fended Erasmus to the Emperor, wrote him a letter
which restored his spirits. With Charles and Adrian
working together at Roman reform all might yet go
well. He thanked the Bishop for his support. 1 He
hoped that " the wisdom of the new Pope and the al-
most divine mind of Caesar might find a way to extir-
pate the disease. The roots, however," he said, " must
be cut out effectually, or they would shoot again."
One of these roots was the tyranny and avarice of
the Roman Court. The Pope and the Emperor to-
gether might set all right without a revolution. lie
himself, though he was nobody, was willing to contri-
bute his part.
They call me a Lutheran (he writes the same day
to another friend 2 ). Had I but held out a little
finger to Luther, Germany would have seen what
i Bale April 21, 1522. Ep. dcm.
2 Luclovico Coronello, Ej). dcxxii.
\,
304 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
I could do. But I would rather die ten times over
than make a schism. I have acted honestly through-
out. Germany knows it now, and I will make all men
know it.
Again, to the President of the Senate at Mech-
lin : x — 9~
July 14, 1502.
Egmond may hate me, but I have kept many per-
sons from joining Luther, and my announcement that
I mean to stand by the Pope has been an obstacle in
Luther's way. Had I joined him there would have
been princes enough to protect me ; nor is the love of
the people for Luther as dead as some fancy. Here
at Bale we have a hundred thousand men who detest
Rome, and are Luther's friends. I have been hardly
dealt with. I have lost the confidence of Germany.
The reactionaries abuse the victory for which they owe
after all to me, and call me a heretic. The Emperor,
however, the Archbishop of Palermo, the Bishop of Pa-
lencia, the Chancellor of the Empire, the Cardinals of
Sedan and Mentz know their obligations to me, and
are grateful. The Cardinal of Sedan offers me a
handsome income if I will reside at Rome. Is it not
preposterous that, hated as I am by the Lutherans and
possessing the confidence of the greatest men in Chris-
tendom, I should be torn to pieces by a wretched little
Carmelite? There are thousands in the world who
have no ill-will towards Erasmus. I can make noise
enough if I please.
Encouraged by the knowledge that he was in bet-
ter favour, Erasmus had written at length to the
Pope, giving his own views of what should be done.
The Pope sent no answer, and the Dominicans at
Rome reported that the letter had been ill received.
The more moderate of the German princes, however,
began to consult him, in a tone which showed that his
1 Ep. dcxxix., abridged.
Lecture XV. 305
pretensions to influence were not an idle boast.
Among the rest Duke George of Saxony, who had no
love for Luther, but less for monks and bishops, had
written to Erasmus to urge him to exert himself. He
replies : —
TO DUKE GEORGE. 1
No wonder you are displeased at the aspect of
things. None can deny that Luther had an excellent
cause. Christ had almost disappeared, and when
Luther began he had the world at his back. He was
imprudent afterwards, but his disciples were more in
fault than he. The fury is now so great that I fear
the victors will exact terms which none who love
Christ will endure, and which will destroy the Chris-
tian faith. You are a wise prince, and I will speak
my mind freely. Christendom was being asphyxiated
with formulas and human inventions. Nothing was
heard of but dispensations, indulgences, and the
powers of the Pope. The administration was carried
on by men who, like Demas, loved the life that now
is. Men needed waking. The Gospel light had to be
rekindled. Would that more wisdom had been shown
when the moment came. Stupid monks and sottish
divines filled the air with outcries, and made bad
worse. Nothing was in danger but the indulgences ;
but they replied in language disgraceful to Christian
men. They would not admit that Luther was right,
and only cursed.
Seeing how the stream was running, I kept out of
it, merely showing that I did not wholly go with Lu-
ther. They wanted me to answer. I had thought
from the first that the best answer would be silence.
The wisest men, cardinals and others, agreed with me.
The Pope's furious Bull only made the flame burn
hotter. The Emperor followed with an equally savage
edict. Edicts cannot alter minds. We may approve
the Emperor's piety, but those who advised that mea-
sure were not his best councillors. The King of Eng-
1 Ep. dexxxv., abridged.
306 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
laud's book 1 was justly admired by you. It was, no
doubt, his own composition. He lias fine talents, and
lie studied style as a boy. A few years since he wrote
a tract, " An Laicus obligaretur ad vocalem Oratio-
nem?" He has studied theology, and often speaks
about it. Your Highness sends me two books of Lu-
ther's, which you wish me to answer. I cannot read
the language in which they are written. It might be
useful to admonish prelates of their duties. There
are always bishops who love their dignities so well
that they forget all else. But the mischief has grown
from worldly men, who have despotised in the name of
Christ, and, instead of being respected as fathers, are
abhorred as tyrants.
It was rumoured that Charles meant to try force
after all. Erasmus warned the Duke of the inevitable
consequences.
The Carmelites will hear of nothing but severity.
Let them try it if they will. The abhorrence of the
monks and of the Roman See has gained Luther so
much favour with people, princes, and nobles, that if
violence is used 200,000 men need only a leader to
rise and defend him. They have an honest pretext.
They have their own wrongs to avenge, and like
enough may have an eye to churchmen's lands and
goods.
Adrian VI. now comes upon the scene. Adrian's
life had lain apart from Rome. He had been the
Emperor's tutor. He had been Regent in Spain
during Charles's minority, and with Rome itself he
had personally been little connected. He had accepted
the Papacy with an honest intention of examining into
the charges of simony, corruption, and profligacy in
the Roman Court with which the world was ringing.
He had himself seen little of it. He, perhaps, be-
1 Henry VIII. 's answer to Luther, which brought him from a grate-
ful Pope the title of Defender of the Faith.
Lecture XV. 307
lieved, as we believe now, that the stories which had
reached hiin were invented or exasperated. No imaei-
nation could invent, no malice could exaggerate, what
the Papal Court had really become under Alexander,
and Julius, and Leo X. A second Hercules would
be required to drive sewers under the mass of corrup-
tion and personal profligacy which surrounded the
throne of St. Peter. The general government, the
courts of law, the household administration, the public
treasury were all equally infected ; legal justice and
spiritual privileges, promotions, dispensations, pardons,
indulgences, licences, all sold without attempt at dis-
guise ; the very revenue of the Holy See depending
upon simony ; while all officials, from the highest car-
dinal to the lowest clerk on the rota, who throve upon
the system were combined to thwart inquiry and pre-
vent alteration.
Adrian might well quail at the task which was laid
upon him. Erasmus, on learning his accession, had,
as we have seen, volunteered a letter to him, which
had not been answered. Erasmus and he had been
schoolfellows at De venter, and acquaintances after-
wards at Lou vain, where Adrian had not been un-
friendly to him. But life and temperament divided
them. Adrian, a strict official person, could not have
wholly liked what he heard of his old acquaintance.
He may have appreciated his learning, but Erasmus
had described him, in a slight communication which
had passed between them, as having been cold and
bitter. To Adrian he may well have seemed a dan-
gerous person — a renegade monk who had thrown
up his profession, as Luther had done ; who had wan-
dered about the world with no fixed occupation, show-
ing brilliant talents, but light, careless, given too
much to mockery at things which he, at least, pre-
308 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
tended to consider sacred. Orthodox Catholics
throughout Europe accused Erasmus of having set
the convulsion going with his " Moria," his New
Testament, and the satires which the monks insisted
on ascribing to him. Yet he in some way had im-
mense influence. He had a reputation, which detrac-
tion could not take from him, of being the most
learned and the clearest-sighted of living men. He
had kept aloof from Luther when his support would
have ensured Luther victory at Worms. To him
Adrian found himself obliged to apply after all for
assistance, and after looking round him at Rome, and
finding what he had to deal with, he wrote to invite
Erasmus to help him in his difficulties.
ADRIAN VI. TO ERASMUS. 1
December 1, 1522.
God may be trusted to stand by His Spouse. The
Prophet says, " I beheld the wicked man exalted
above the cedars of Lebanon. I went by, and lo he
was not. I sought him, but his place could nowhere
be found." The same fate doubtless awaits Luther
and those who go after him, unless they repent. They
are carnal and despise authority, and they would make
others like themselves. Put out your strength there-
fore. Rise up in the cause of the Lord, and use in
His service the gifts which the Lord has bestowed on
you.
It lies with you, God helping, to recover those who
have been seduced by Luther from the right road, and
to hold up those who still stand. Remember the
words of St. James : " He that recalls a sinner from
the error of his ways shall save him from death, and
cover the multitude of his sins." I need not tell you
with what joy I shall receive back these heretics with-
out need to smite them with the rod of the Imperial
1 Ep. dcxxxix., abridged .
Lecture XV. 309
law. You know how far are such rough methods from
my own nature. I am still as you knew me when we
were students together. Come to me to Rome. You
will find here the books which you will need. You
will have myself and other learned men to consult
with, and if you will do what I ask you shall have no
cause for regret.
This letter found Erasmus at Bale. It meant,
" Crush Luther for me, and you have a bishopric or a
red hat." Erasmus was not to be tempted. He re-
plies : —
ERASMUS TO ADRIAN VI. 1
December 22, 1522.
This is no ordinary storm. Earth and air are con-
vulsed — arms, opinions, authorities, factions, hatreds,
jarring one against the other. If your Holiness would
hear from me what I think you should do to make a
real cure, I will tell you in a secret letter. If you
approve my advice you can adopt it. If not, let it
remain private between you and me. We common
men see and hear things which escape the ears of the
great. But, above all, let no private animosities or
private interests influence your judgment. We little
dreamt when we jested together in our early years
what times were coming. With the Faith itself in
peril, we must beware of personal affections. I am
sorry to be a prophet of evil, but I see worse perils
approaching than I like to think of, or than anyone
seems to look for.
The messenger sped back to Rome. In a month he
had returned to Bfile with another anxious note 2 from
Adrian.
January 23, 1523.
Open your mind to me. Speak freely. How are
these foul disorders to be cured while there is still
1 Ep. dexxxix.. abridged.
- Ep. dexlviii., abridged.
310 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
time? I am not alarmed for myself. I am not
alarmed for the Holy See, frightful as the perils
which menace it. I am distressed for the myriads of
sonls who are going to perdition. Be swift and silent.
Come to me if you can, and come quickly. You shall
not be sorry for it.
ERASMUS TO ADRIAN VI. 1
BIle, February, 1523.
Your Holiness requires my advice, and you wish to
see me. I would go to you with pleasure if my health
allowed. But the road over the Alps is long. The
lodgings on the way are dirty and inconvenient. The
smell from the stoves is intolerable. The wine is sour
and disagrees with me. For all that I would like
well to speak with your Holiness, if it can be made
possible. Meanwhile you shall have my honest heart
in writing. Your eyes and mine will alone see my
letter. If you like it — well. If not, let it be re-
garded as unwritten. As to writing against Luther,
I have not learning enough. You think my words
will have authority. Alas, my popularity, such as I
had, is turned to hatred. Once I was Prince of Let-
ters, Star of Germany, Sun of Studies, High Priest of
Learning, Champion of a Purer Theology. The note
is altered now. One party says I agree with Luther
because I do not oppose him. The other finds faidt
with me because I do oppose him. I did what I
could. I advised him to be moderate, and I only
made his friends my enemies. At Rome and in Bra-
bant I am called heretic, heresiarch, schismatic. I
entirely disagree with Luther. They quote this and
that to show we are alike. I could find a hundred
passages where St. Paul seems to teach the doctrines
which they condemn in Luther. I did not anticipate
what a time was coming. I did, I admit, help to
bring it on, but I was always willing to submit what I
1 Ep. dcxlix., abridged. The dates imply that these letters were
sent by special courier, from the rapidity with which they were ex-
changed.
Lecture XV. 311
wrote to the Church. I asked my friends to point out
anything which they thought wrong. They found
nothing. They encouraged me to persevere ; and now
they find a scorpion under every stone, and would
drive me to rebellion, as they drove Arius and Ter-
tullian.
Those counsel you best who advise gentle measures.
The monks — Atlases, as they call themselves, of a
tottering Church — estrange those who would be its
supporters. Alas, that I in my old age should have
fallen into such a mess, like a mouse into a pitch-pot.
Your Holiness wishes to set things right, and you say
to me, " Come to Rome. Write a book against Lu-
ther. Declare war against his party." Come to
Rome? Tell a crab to fly. The crab will say, " Give
me wings." I say, " Give me back my youth and
strength." I beseech you let the poor sheep speak to
his shepherd. What good can I do at Rome? It
was said in Germany that I was sent for ; that I was
hurrying to you for a share in the spoils. If I write
anything at Rome, it will be thought that I am bribed.
If I write temperately, I shall seem trifling. If I
copy Luther's style, I shall stir a hornets' nest.
But you ask me what you are to do. Well, some
think there is no remedy but force. That is not my
opinion ; for I think there would be frightful blood-
shed. The question is not what heresy deserves, but
how to deal with it wisely. Things have gone too far
for cautery. Wickliff and his followers were put down
by the English kings ; but they were only crushed, not
extinguished ; and besides, England is one country
under a single sovereign. Germany is an aggregate
of separate principalities, and I do not see how force
is to be applied in Germany. However that be, if you
mean to try prisons, lashes, confiscations, stake, and scaf-
fold, you need no help from me. You yourself, I know,
are for mild measures ; but you have no one about
you who cares for anything but himself; and if divines
only think of their authority, monks of their luxuries,
princes of their politics, and all take the bit between
312 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
their teeth, what can we expect ? For myself I should
say, discover the roots of the disease. Clean out those
to begin with. Punish no one. Let what has taken
place be regarded as a chastisement sent by Providence,
and grant a universal amnesty. If God forgives so
many sins, God's vicar may forgive. The magistrates
may prevent revolutionary violence. If possible,
there should be a check on the printing presses.
Then let the world know and see that you mean in
earnest to reform the abuses which are justly cried
out against, and if your Holiness desires to know what
the roots are to which I refer, send persons whom you
can trust to every part of Latin Christendom. Let
them consult the wisest men that they can find in the
different countries, and you will soon know.
It has been often observed that the policy of the
papacy is little affected by the personal character of
the Popes. Had Adrian been able to act for himself,
he would perhaps have taken Erasmus's advice ; but
without a single honest official to help him he could
do nothing. He inquired into such roots as could be
seen at Rome ; he found that if he abolished indul-
gences, reformed the law courts, and gave up simony
and extortion, he would sacrifice two-thirds of his rev-
enues. He wrote no more to Erasmus ; he perhaps
resented his refusal to help him in the way that he had
asked. He silenced the barking of the Carmelite Lou-
vainers, but nothing further passed between them.
Adrian soon died — helped out of life, perhaps, by the
hopelessness of his task. He was succeeded by an Ital-
ian of the old school, bred in the Court of Alexander
VI. and Julius II., who became known to the world as
Clement VII., and the papacy went on upon its pre-
destined and fatal road.
Meanwhile the German population burst through
control, and all was confusion. The Emperor could
Lecture XV. 313
not move a single man-at-arms without the consent of
the Diet and the free towns, and the majority of the
princes either took the Lutheran side or refused to
lend the Emperor a hand. Bishops were suspended
from office, and their lands sequestered. Church
courts, with their summoners and apparitors, were
swept away. Religious houses were dissolved, their
property seized to the State, and monks and nuns,
many of them too happy to be free, were sent out
with trifling pensions to work for their living and to
marry. The images were removed from the churches ;
the saints' shrines were burnt, and the relics which
had worked so many miracles for others could work
none to protect themselves. The overthrow of idola-
try was so universal and so spontaneous that it
was found necessary to restore order of some kind.
Luther only had sufficient influence to control the
storm. The Elector of Saxony recalled him from
Wartburg, as he was no longer in personal danger, to
take command in reorganising the Church. The
Germans were essentially an orderly people. They
had destroyed the nests of what they regarded as ver-
min. They had deprived unjust persons of tyrannical
authority, but they did not want anarclry and atheism.
Luther had brought back with him his translation of
the Bible, to be immediately completed and printed.
A communion service something like our own was
substituted for the mass, bishops only and episcopal or-
dination being dispensed with as an occasion of super-
stition. A catechism of doctrine was introduced for
schools, and as a guide for Church ministers ; and the
Lutheran religion became by spontaneous impulse the
established creed of two-thirds of the German nation.
The Emperor, for the time, was powerless ; but Eras-
mus knew that however smoothly the stream might run
314 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
for the moment, there would be rocks enough ahead.
His dread from the first had been of civil war, and
civil war embittered with the malignity which only
religion could inspire. Though the majority had been
for the change, there were still multitudes in every
State who clung to their old creed and resented its
overthrow. The danger in the mind of Erasmus was
infinitely enhanced by the construction of a new the-
ology. The Church had burdened the consciences of
men with too many dogmas already. Were wretched
mortals to be further bound to particular opinions on
free will, on predestination, on original sin? Each
new definition was a symbol of war, an emblem of
division, an impulse to quarrel. Dogmas which did
not touch moral conduct were a gratuitous trial of
faith. From the nature of the case dogmatic proposi-
tions did not admit of proof ; and the appeal was
immediately to passion. The Catholic Church had
been brought to its present state by these exaggerated
refinements. If out of the present controversies there
was to rise a new body of doctrine, a rival symbolum
jidei, as a criterion of Christianity, there was nothing
to be looked for but an age of hatred and fury.
To Erasmus religion was a rule of life, a perpetual
reminder to mankind of their responsibility to their
Maker, a spiritual authority under which individuals
could learn their duties to God and to their neighbour.
Definitions on mysterious subjects which could not be
understood were the growth of intellectual vanity.
The hope of his life had been to see the dogmatic
system slackened, the articles essential to be believed
reduced to the Apostles' Creed, the declaration that
God was a reality, and the future judgment a fact and
a certainty. On all else he wished to see opinion free.
The name of heresy was a terror, but so long as the
Lecture XV. 315
Church abstained from deciding there could be no
heresy. Men would tolerate each other's differences
and live in peace together. The new movement would
provoke antagonistic decrees, multiply occasions of
quarrel, and lead once more to the confusion of piety
of life with the holding this or that form of belief.
While Luther was under the ban of the empire,
excommunicated by the Pope, under sentence of death,
with the Elector unable to defend him save by con-
cealing his existence, Erasmus had refused to set upon
a fallen man. Luther brought back to life, and the
leader of a powerful schism, actually busy in creating
and organising an opposition Church, was another per-
son altogether. Christendom was about to split into
factions. Each nation might perhaps become a sepa-
rate burning crater, and while the metal was still hot
and malleable Erasmus felt that speak he must. He
wrote privately to the German princes. From all save
those who had definitely taken Luther's side came the
same answer — that he must himself take an open
part. Luther had at first desired nothing beyond a
reform of scandal and immorality, and it was still pos-
sible for reasonable men of both parties to combine on
a practical principle. It was represented to Erasmus
that by continuing silent he was allowing things to
crystallise into a form which woidd make reconcilia-
tion impossible. Clement VII. wrote to entreat him
to do what he could. Cardinal Campegio was sent
again to Germany to restore peace, if peace could be
had. Campegio found Erasmus specially provoked
by a fresh and violent attack upon himself from the
Lutheran side. The sting was poisoned by the hand
from which it came. Ulrich von Ilutten had been the
most brilliant and the wittiest of the band who had
followed Erasmus and lieuchlin into the land of light.
316 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
He had attached himself afterwards passionately to
Luther, had sworn at Worms that if Luther's life was
touched he would have the Legate's in return. He
could not understand the hesitation of Erasmus. He
despised it as cowardice, and tried to gall him by
satire into taking what Hutten considered his proper
place. During Luther's eclipse at Wartburg, Hut-
ten had led the party of revolution and iconoclasm.
He had always been to the front when a sisterhood
had to be scattered or a reluctant abbot expelled
from his nest, while Hutten's own character, unless
fame had done him injustice, was not as pure as it
might be.
Erasmus was obliged to demolish Hutten's invec-
tives, and effectually he did it in a pamphlet which he
called " Spongia " (Wipe it up and say no more
about it). " Spongia " was called cruelty to an old
friend. Erasmus appealed to the conscience of those
who knew Hutten's character. Hutten himself died
shortly after, and the bright, witty, wayward, not wise
career was burnt out and ended.
Erasmus gives a brief account of all this to a friend,
and then adds : —
If we curse the Church of Rome, and the Church of
Rome curses us, what is to be looked for but a bloody
civil war ? I had tried to bring about peace, and the
evangelicals called me Balaam. My crime was that I
showed the princes how I thought this quarrel could
be ended with least injury to Gospel liberty. The new
Pope professes willingness to reform what is wrong.
He has sent Cardinal Campegio as legate to Germany.
Campegio is one of the most just and reasonable of
men. Yet they cry out at him as if they would make
the confusion worse confounded. It will be their own
fault if the princes become angry by-and-by, and make
many of them smart for it, and then they will wish
Lecture XV. 317
that they had listened more patiently to rne. Some of
them have grown past bearing. They profess the
Gospel, and they will obey neither prince nor bishop
— not Luther himself, unless what he says approves
itself to them. Am I to be treated as a criminal if I
desire to see reforms carried out decently under con-
stituted authority, instead of leaving them to violence
and mob law ? They speak of me as if they were try-
ing to put a fire out, and I was interfering with them.
They would cure the diseases of a thousand years'
standing with medicines which will be fatal to the
whole body. The Apostles were patient with the
Jews who were reluctant to part with their law. Can
these New Gospellers have no patience with men who
cling to doctrines sanctioned by ages and taught by
popes and councils and saints, and cannot gulp down
the new wine ? Suppose them right. Suppose all
that they say is true. Let them do Christ's work in
Christ's spirit, and then I may try if I can help them.
The Pope, the princes, his own personal friends, all
were urging Erasmus to step into the arena. His own
clear perception of the certain consequences of
Luther's action, his hatred of fanatics, and his consti-
tutional dread of enthusiasm, alike invited him to
write before it was too late, not to support or defend
the Church while it was still unreformed, but to pro-
test against the final crystallising of a new scheme of
doctrine to entangle weak consciences and make recon-
ciliation for ever impossible.
My design (he said) was to compose three collo-
quies; Thrasymachus to represent Luther, Eubulus
the Catholic Church, with Philalethes for arbiter. In
the first they were to discuss whether if Luther had
been right in substance he had been wise in the man-
ner in which he had put the truth forward. In the
second they would examine his particular doctrines.
The third would suggest how the wound could be
318 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
healed so that it should not break out again. The
two advocates would argue calmly, without personal
reflections, and nothing would be alleged which was
not notoriously true. Extreme partisans clamoured
for severity. My plan was to leave each party to
keep their own opinions. Severity would be easiest,
but toleration seemed to me most expedient. When
a single limb only is injured, cautery or the knife may
be successful. When the disease has spread over the
whole body, and gone into the veins and nerves, the
poison can only be drawn out of the system by degrees.
I undertook the task at the request of Alexander
Glapio and several others. Glapio had written often
to me about it, and was speaking for the Emperor.
Mount joy also had pressed me. I was busy at the
moment with other things, and the plan is rather con-
ceived than begun. I dislike work of this kind. I
hate disputing, and prefer harmless play. Moreover,
to execute it properly is work for a Hercules, and I
am but a pigmy. I cannot say how it -will be. Each
party is now so incensed that it will conquer or perish.
The defeat of Luther will destroy evangelical truth
and Christian liberty, while Luther's enemies will not
be crushed without a deperate fight. I would have
the strife so ended that each side shall yield the victory
to Christ. The princes know my opinion. They may
adopt it or not as they please. But I would have no
sentence given either way. If my book was published
it would be seen whether I was right. No one ought
to be offended with what I have written hitherto. The
evangelicals, however, will allow no dissent from
Luther, and will stone a man who thinks for himself.
I had been working for peace. I had hoped that both
parties would have used my help. The Emperor had
been consulted, and had approved. Unhappily, each
side was so obstinate in its own conviction that I found
my " Eirenicon " would only make me hated all round,
so I hesitated to go on with it. I can but pray now
that God, who alone can, may allay this tempest.
LECTURE XVI.
The worst enemy that Erasmus had, the Carmelite
Eginond himself, could not accuse him of interested
motives. Rank and wealth had long been within his
reach had he cared to sell his services either to prince
or pope. He had refused to part with his liberty,
and we have seen the straits to which he was some-
times driven to recruit his finances. He had now
pensions from the Emperor, from Archbishop War-
ham, and Lord Mountjoy, amounting together to 400
gold florins a year. It ought to have been more than
enough. Luther's income was perhaps a tenth of
that, and Luther counted himself rich. But Erasmus
was not Luther. His habits had always been expen-
sive, and supplies still occasionally fell short. Friends
made up the deficiency. Presents of money were
made to him, more often presents of plate, of which
he had at times a cupboard full ; but he gave away to
poor scholars as much as he received. His books had
a vast circulation ; he had just published his " Collo-
quies." Twenty-four thousand copies were sold im-
mediately, and he was supposed to have received large
sums for them. But the book trade was not then as
it is now, and then, and for two centuries later, works
which went deepest into the minds of mankind brought
small reward to their authors. Shakespeare never
cared to see his plays through the press. Milton had
five pounds for "Paradise Lost." Even Voltaire and
Goethe, with all Europe for a public, were poorly paid
in money.
320 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
I am thought (Erasmus said) to receive a harvest
from Frobeu ; he has made more reputation than
profit out of me. I have not been persuaded to take
as much as he offered me, and he will himself admit
that what I have accepted has been but very little.
Nor would I have accepted what I did unless it had
been forced upon me, and unless he had proved to me
that it came from his firm and not from himself.
Thus, the 400 florins were all on which Erasmus
had to depend. They came, as I said, from the Em-
peror, Lord Mount joy, and Archbishop Warham. All
three, with More and Fisher and the Pope, the moder-
ate party everywhere, were alike earnest with him to
answer Luther in some way or other. The " Eireni-
con " would not do ; some fuller expression of opinion
was wanted of him, and in the position in which he
stood it was peculiarly difficult for him to refuse. He
consented at last, and perhaps with less reluctance
than might have been expected from his past hesita-
tion. The subject which he chose was the freedom of
the will. He is supposed to have selected what was
apparently a point of obscure metaphysics, on which
he could maintain his own view without provoking a
too violent conflict. I do not think myself that this
was his reason. What he most disliked, what he
most feared from Luther, was the construction of
a new dogmatic theology, of which the denial of
the freedom of the human will was the corner-stone.
It was one of those problems which he particularly
desired to see left alone, because it is insoluble
by argument. Shallow men, says a wise philosopher,
all fancy that they are free to do as they please.
All deep thinkers know that their wills are condi-
tioned by nature and circumstance, and that we learn
to live and act as we learn everything else. All
Lecture XVI. 321
trades, all arts, from the cobbling of a shoe to the
painting of a picture, must be learned before they can
be practised. The cobbler does not tell the apprentice,
when for the first time he puts a piece of leather in
his hand, that his will is free, that he can make a shoe
out of it if he pleases, and that he will be wicked if
he makes it badly. The schoolmaster does not tell a
boy he is wicked if he brings up a bad Latin exercise.
Cobbler and schoolmaster show their pupil how things
ought to be done, correct his faults, bear patiently
with many shortcomings, and are content with gradual
improvement. It is practically the same with human
life. The child has many falls, bodily and spiritual,
before he learns to walk. He is naturally wilful,
selfish, ignorant, violent, or timid. Education means
the curing- of all that. You do not call the child
wicked because he is not perfect all at once. The
will, if you can get at it, may do something, but it
cannot do everything. In this sense we are obliged to
act on the principle that the will is not by itself suffi-
cient to direct and control conduct. Guidance is
wanted, and help and instruction ; and when all is
done we must still make allowances for an imperfect
result. Perfection, or even excellence, is rare in any
art or occupation. First-rate artists are rare. Saints
and heroes are rare. Special gifts are needed, which
are the privilege of the few. To tell an ordinary man
that if he will use his free will he can paint a first-
rate picture, or become a Socrates or a St. Paul, is to
tell him what is not true.
So looked at, the subject presents no difficulty.
"We have but to assume that right moral action is
learnt by teaching and practice; like everything else,
and there is no more perplexity in one than in the
other. Some persons are more gifted than others,
322 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
some have happier dispositions, some are better edu-
cated, some are placed in more favourable circumstan-
ces. The pains which we take in training children ;
the allowances which we make and are compelled to
make, for inherited vicious tendencies, for the environ-
ment of vice and ignorance in which so many are
brought up, prove that in practice we act, and must
act, on this hypothesis.
Catholic theologians, however, step in on the other
side with an absolute rule of right, to which they in-
sist that everyone, young and old, wise and ignorant,
is bound to conform, and is able to conform. Each
act of child or man, they say, is a choice between
two courses, one right, the other wrong ; that the
Maker of us expects everyone to do right, holds him
guilty and liable to punishment if he falls short, and
gives him originally a free will which enables him, if
he pleases, to do what he is required to do. It does not
avail him that after he has fallen he recovers himself,
profits by knowledge and experience, and improves as
he grows older. Even so he will always fall short of
the best, while his failures, even the errors of his youth,
are all recorded against him. His Maker gives him
free will. He uses it to choose the evil and refuse the
good. He has a conscience which might have guided
him right if he had attended to it. He prefers his
own pleasure, and falls into sin. Such is the theolo-
gical doctrine of free will ; but the boldest theologian
is obliged to acknowledge that in no single instance
since man was created has it availed for the purpose.
All have sinned, all have fallen short, is the cry from
the beginning. Theologians have accounted for it,
not by doubting their hypothesis, but by assuming a
taint in the nature derived from our first ancestors.
The natural man, they say, is born with a preponder-
Lecture XVI. 323
ance towards evil. It does not excuse his faults that
lie cauuot help theni : the sin remains, entailing future
vengeance. But he is not left without a remedy.
Extraordinary means have been provided, by which
the past can be pardoned and strength obtained for
the more effectual resistance of temptation. The
Catholic Church finds it in the sacraments. The
child is regenerated in baptism. His regenerate na-
ture is mysteriously supported by the Eucharist. He
is then made able to keep the Commandments. He
does keep them. He may become a saint so pre-
eminently holy that he can become meritorious beyond
his own needs. The mass of mankind will continue
to fall short ; but they may confess, they may repent,
and a priest may absolve them in virtue of those
supererogatory merits. Hence came the doctrine that
over and above what the saints needed for their own
salvation they had left behind a store of good works
in the Church's treasure-house, of which the Church
had the distribution ; and out of this had grown by
the natural laws of corruption the extraordinary system
of masses, pardons, and indulgences which had out-
raged the conscience of Europe, and against which
Luther had risen up to protest. Luther answered
that human nature remained after sacraments as be-
fore, equally unable to keep God's law. He retained
the theological conception of sin. He admitted that
absolute and complete obedience was required by the
law ; that failure to obey incurred Divine wrath.
Yet, in Luther's view, man, baptized or unbaptized,
was equally incapable of such complete obedience.
Merit there could be none, even among the saints.
The best were still imperfect, unable by their own
works even to save themselves, and the stock of good
works accumulated and distributed by the Church was
324 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
a fiction and a fraud. The only hope of salvation lay
in the acknowledgment by everyone of his lost condi-
tion, and a casting himself by faith on the merits of
Christ, not on the merits of the saints or priestly abso-
lutions. Inequality of character and conduct were
facts of experience, and could be explained only by
the pleasure and purpose of God. It was not true
that man of himself by his free will could please his
Maker. His free will was bound under sin, and the
difference between man and man meant only that to
some grace was given sufficient for inadequate obedi-
ence ; to others it was refused. Some were vessels
made to honour, some to dishonour, predestinated by a
purpose which was certain, though none could under-
stand it ; and thus was arising that body of Protest-
ant dogma with which we are all familiar: partly
negative, that the priesthood is an illusion and the
sacraments merely symbols ; partly positive, the dog-
mas of the bondage of the will, of election, reproba-
tion, predestination, the universal sinfulness, the inef-
ficacy of good works, justification by faith as the
canon of a standing or falling Church.
I cannot go into all this. Luther's theory of the
will is the same as that which philosophers like
Spinoza and Schopenhauer arrive at by another road.
It contradicts superficial experience, as the astronomic
explanation of the movements of the stars appears to
contradict the evidence of our senses ; but is perhaps
the most consistent at bottom with the actual facts
which we observe.
But religion addresses the vulgar, and must speak
in language commonly intelligible. The conclusions
of Protestant theology may be held, and have been
held, by powerful and intensely devotional thinkers,
and the same may be said of Catholic theology. Cath-
Lecture XVI. 325
olic mysteries, however, among the vulgar degenerate
into idolatry; while predestination, the bondage of
the will, the denial of human merit, justification by
faith only, serve in ordinary minds occupied with
worldly interests as an excuse for the neglect of duty.
What use could there be, men asked, in strusrsrline to
obey the law when the law could not be obeyed, and
the salvation of the soul was to be secured, if secured
at all, independently of efforts of our own ? Mankind
are always willing to find a substitute for moral obe-
dience, whether in sacrifices and rituals or in doctrinal
formulas. At a time when thinkers like Erasmus or
statesmen like Charles V. or Granvelle were trying to
restore peace to Christendom by relaxing the doctrinal
bonds, by leaving men to think for themselves on mat-
ters not affecting moral conduct, and setting heartily
to work to reform corrupted manners, they were nat-
urally irritated and dismayed when they saw a rival
system of doctrine crystallising into shape and split-
ting Christendom into new lines of cleavage. Eras-
mus, More, Fisher, Warham, Charles V., George of
Saxony, and many besides them who had been eager
and active in urging practical reform, fell off, indig-
nant at this new move of Luther's. Like enough it
was inevitable. Like enough the Romish Church
would have proved too strong for reason and modera-
tion, and coidd be encountered only by a spiritual
force as aggressive as its own. I am here only trying
to explain to you how a man like Sir T. More, a
bishop like Fisher of Rochester, came, as they said, to
hate Luther and burn Lutherans; how Henry VIII.
came to write against Luther; how Erasmus con-
sented at last to take pen in hand to strike at the
heart of Luther's system, and produce his boob " De
Libero Arbitrio." It has been supposed that, having
326 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
been worried into compliance with a demand that he
should write something, he chose an abstruse meta-
physical subject, on which temper would be least
aroused. I should rather say that he aimed his lance
at the heart of Luther's doctrinal system, which, if
once fixed in men's minds, would lead to interminable
wars.
The book produced no effect further than as it was
a public intimation that Erasmus did not agree with
Luther. It was unsatisfactory, for the condition of
public opinion would not allow him to tell the real
truth. The subject was too deep for the multitude.
His friends at Rome had looked for something which
could be turned to their own purposes. Luther scorn-
fully advised him to remain a spectator in a game for
which he lacked courage to play a manly part. To
the " De Libero Arbitrio " Luther replied with an
equally contemptuous " De Servo Arbitrio," to the
delight of his followers, though it was an odd matter
to be delighted about. Erasmus answered with " Hy-
peraspistes," which charmed Sir Thomas More ; but
attack and defence alike are wearying, like all contro-
versies, to later readers.
The mud volcanoes of the day burst into furious
eruption. Erasmus refused to be provoked. It was
then that he spoke of the innocent hen's egg which he
had laid, and the cock which Luther had hatched.
But at any rate he had done what his moderate
friends required of him, and, having done it, we find
him working more strenuously than ever to bring
about a peace, corresponding with the Emperor, the
Chancellor, the King of France, the German princes,
Catholic bishops, and reforming divines, working, too,
all the time with superhuman industry at his special
work of editing the Fathers. He had not broken
Lecture XVI. 327
with the reformers, nor even with Luther himself, ex-
cept so far as Luther insisted. His letters on public
affairs become more interesting than ever : —
TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON. 1
Bale, December 10, 1524.
The Pope's advocates have been the 7 Pope's worst
friends, and the extravagant Lutherans have most
hurt Luther. I woidd have held aloof had it been
possible. I am no judge of other men's consciences
or master of other men's beliefs. There are actors
enough on the stage, and none can say how all will
end. I do not object generally to the evangelical doc-
trines, but there is much in Luther's teaching which I
dislike. He runs everything which he touches into
extravagance. True, Christendom is corrupt and
needs the rod, but it would be better, in my opinion,
if we could have the Pope and the princes on our side.
Campegio was gentle enough, but could do nothing.
Clement was not opposed to reform, but when I urged
that we should meet him half-way nobody listened.
The violent party carries all before it. They tear the
hoods off monks who might as well have been left in
their cells. Priests are married, and images are torn
down. I would have had religion purified without
destroying authority. Licence need not be given to
sin. Practices grown corrupt by long usage might be
gradually corrected without throwing everything into
confusion. Luther sees certain things to be wrong,
and in flying blindly at them causes more harm than
he cures. Order human things as you will, there will
still be faults enough, and there are remedies worse
than the disease. Is it so great a thing to have re-
moved images and changed the canon of the mass?
What good is done by telling foolish lads that the
Pope is Antichrist, that confession carries the plague,
that they cannot do right if tiny try, that good works
and merits are a vain imagination, that free will is an
1 Ep. decxiv., abridged.
328 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
illusion, that all things hold together by necessity,
and that man can do nothing of himself? Such
things are said. You will tell me that Luther does
not say them — that only idiots say them. Yes, but
Luther encourages men who say them, and if I had a
contract to make I would rather deal with a Papist
than with some evangelicals that I have known. It is
not always safe to remove the Camarinas of this world,
and Plato says you cannot guide the multitude with-
out deceiving them. Christians must not lie, but they
need not tell the whole truth. Would that Luther
had tried as hard to improve popes and princes as to
expose their faults. He speaks bitterly of me. He
may say what he pleases. Carlstadt has been here.
He has published a book in German maintaining that
the Eucharist is only a sign. All Berne has been in
an uproar, and the printer imprisoned.
You are anxious that Luther shall answer me with
modei-ation. Unless he writes in his own style, the
world will say we are in connivance. Do not fear
that I shall oppose evangelical truth. I left many
faults in him unnoticed lest I should injure the Gos-
pel. I hope mankind will be the better for the acrid
medicines with which he has dosed them. Perhaps
we needed a surgeon who would use knife and cautery.
Carlstadt and he are going so fast that Luther him-
self may come to regret popes and bishops. His
genius is vehement. We recognise in him the Pelidw
stomachwn cedere nescii. The devil is a clever fel-
low. Success like Luther's might spoil the most
modest of men.
Erasmus persuaded himself that there was still hope
both from Rome and the princes. Clement sent him
two hundred florins and a complimentary diploma in
return for his book. George of Saxony had com-
plained that he had not done enough, and must go to
work more thoroughly. Erasmus answers : —
Lecture XVI. 329
TO DUKE GEORGE. 1
Bale, December 12, 1524.
When Luther first spoke the whole world ap-
plauded, and your Highness among the rest. Divines
who are now his bitterest opponents were then on his
side. Cardinals, even monks, encouraged him. He
had taken up an excellent cause. He was attacking
practices which every honest man condemned, and
contending with a set of harpies, under whose tyranny
Christendom was groaning. Who could then dream
how far the movement would go ? Had Daniel fore-
told it to me, I woidd not have believed him. Luther
himself never expected to produce such an effect.
After his Theses had come out I persuaded him to go
no further. I doubted if he had learning; enouoh. I
was afraid of riots. I urged the printers to set in
type no more books of his. He wrote to me. I cau-
tioned him to be moderate. The Emperor was then
well inclined to him. He had no enemies save a few
monks and papal commissioners, whose trade he had
spoilt. These people, fools that they were, kindled a
fire, and it was then said to be all my fault — I ought
to have silenced Luther ! I thought no one could be
less fit. My old enemies took up the cry, and told
the Emperor that I was the person to do it. They
only wanted to throw me among the wolves. What
could 1 have done ? They required me to revoke what
I had said at first in Luther's favour. A pretty con-
dition! I was to lie against my own soul, make my-
self the hangman of a set of prostitute wretches, and
draw the hatred on myself of all Luther's supporters.
I have or had some popularity in Europe. I should
have lost it all, and have been left naked to be torn in
pieces by the wild beasts. You say the Emperor and
the Pope will stand up for me. How can the Em-
peror and the Pope help me when they can hardly
help themselves? To call on me to put myself for-
1 Ep. dccxviii., abridged.
330 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
ward is to saddle an ox or overload a broken-down
horse. I am to sacrifice myself for the Catholic
Faith ! It is not for everyone to uphold the Ark.
Even Jerome, when he attacks heresy, becomes almost
a heretic. I do it ! Are there no bishops, no college
dignitaries, no hosts of divines? Surely among so
many there were fitter persons than I. Some really
tried. Great persons declared war. The Pope put
out a Bull, the Emperor put out an edict, and there
were prisons, faggots, and burnings. Yet all was in
vain. The mischief only grew. What could a pigmy
like Erasmus do against a champion who had beaten
so many giants? There were men of intellect on
Luther's side to whom I had looked up with respect.
I wondered what they found in him to impress them ;
but so it was. I thought I must be growing blind. I
did see, however, that the world was besotted with
ritual. Scandalous monks were ensnaring and stran-
gling consciences. Theology had become sophistry.
Dogmatism had grown to madness, and, besides, there
were the unspeakable priests, and bishops, and Roman
officials. Perhaps I thought that such disorders re-
quired the surgeon, and that God was using Luther as
he used Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. Luther could
not have succeeded so signally if God had not been
with him, especially when he had such a crew of ad-
mirers behind him. I considered that it was a case
for compromise and agreement. Had I been at
Worms, I believe I could have brought it to that.
The Emperor was not unwilling. Adrian, Clement,
Campegio have not been unwilling. The difficulty
lay elsewhere. Luther's patrons were stubborn
and would not yield a step. The Catholic divines
breathed only fire and fury. If that was to be the
way, there was no need of me. I conceived, moreover,
that if it was fit and right to burn a man for contra-
dicting articles decreed by the Church, there was no
law to burn him for holding mistaken opinions on
other subjects, as long as he defended them quietly
Lecture XVI. 331
and was otherwise of blameless life. The Paris
divines do not think on the papal power as the Italian
divines think, but they do not burn each other.
Thouiists and Scotists differ, but they can work in
the same schools. Stakes and prisons are vulgar
remedies. Two poor creatures have been burnt at
Brussels, and the whole city has turned Lutheran. If
the infection had touched only a few it might be
stamped out, but it has gone so far that kings may
catch it. I do not say let it alone, but do not make it
worse by bad treatment. Fear will alter nothing, and
spasmodic severity exasperates. If you put the
fire out by force, it will burst up again. I trust, I
hope that Luther will make a few concessions and that
Pope and princes may still consent to peace.
May Christ's dove come among us, or else Minerva's
owl. Luther has administered an acrid dose to a
diseased body. God grant it prove salutary. Your
Highness would not have written as you have done if
you knew all that I coidd tell you. The Pope, the
Emperor, his brother Ferdinand, the King of England
wrote to me in a far different tone. Your freedom
does not offend me. It rises only out of your zeal for
the Faith. I risked the loss of my best friends by
refusing to join Luther, but I did not break off my
connection with them because they did join him, and
Adrian and Campegio, and the King of England, and
the Cardinal of York all say that I did right. I vex
Luther more by continuing my intimacy with them
than I could do with the most violent abuse.
The eager Catholics were disappointed, of course,
with Erasmus's "Free Will." The mountain had
brought forth a mouse. If that was all that he could
do, he might as well have held his peace. The Prince
of Carpi wrote to him as Duke George bad done, tell-
ing him he was still under suspicion of favouring
Luther. He answers : —
332 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
TO ALBERTUS PIUS, PRINCE OF CARPI. 1
October 10, 1525.
When the Lutheran drama opened, and all the
world applauded, I advised my friends to stand aloof.
I thought it would end in bloodshed, and had I taken
a part made enemies of the Swiss and Germans, who
had stood by me in the fight for learning. Certain
theologians left no stone unturned to drive me to join
a party which they expected would be condemned.
The Lutherans alternately courted me and menaced
me. For all this, I do not move a finger's breadth
from the teaching of the Roman Church. You would
think more of this if you knew the Germans, and
what a tempest I coidd raise if I chose to lead the
fray. Instead of leading, I have stood naked and
unarmed between the javelins of two angry foes. It
is said that Luther has borrowed much from me. He
denies it himself and says I do not understand
theology. But suppose it is so. Has he borrowed
nothing from Augustine and St. Paul ? You ask me
why I did not speak out at once. Because I regarded
Luther as a good man, raised up by Providence to
correct the depravity of the age. Whence have all
these troubles risen? From the audacious and open
immorality of the priesthood, from the arrogance of
the theologians and the tyranny of the monks. These
began the battle by attacking learning. I did not wish
to expel the old studies. I wished only to give Greek
and Hebrew a place among them which I thoughkwould
minister to the glory of Christ. The monks turned the
question on points of faith where they thought they
would have stronger ground. You remember Reuch-
lin. The conflict was ratnmr between the Muses and
their enemies, when up sprang Luther, and the object
thenceforward was to entangle the friends of litera-
ture in the Lutheran business so as to destroy both
them and him together. So thinars have gone on ever
1 Ep. ccexxxiii., second series.
Lecture XVI. 333
since, the clamour growing louder and the spirit of
the contest worse. This is the naked fact. If what I
hear is true, I must call on your highness to check
the slanders spread about me. If I am mistaken, you
will pardon my complaints.
The English friends of Erasmus were more eager
than even the German princes that he should strike
again at Luther, and strike in earnest. Beyond all
others, Sir Thomas More, who wished him to silence
for ever the charge of having been Luther's confeder-
ate. More had understood and valued the tract upon
" Free Will." But it was not enough. He must
enlarge his reply and make a final end of Luther. He
must do it. No excuse would serve him for deserting;
the cause of God.
SIR T. MORE TO ERASMUS. 1
Greenwich, December 18, 1525.
Do it (More said), you have nothing to fear. Had
the Lutherans meant to try conclusions with you in
earnest, they would have done it when your first part
appeared. You have drawn a picture there of a beast
and the enemy of souls. You have dragged up the
smoky demon of Tartarus like another Cerberus out
of hell, and have shown him in visible form. You
cannot increase your danger by following up your
argument. Go on, therefore. Luther himself is not
so cowardly as to hope, or so wicked as to wish, that
you should be silent. I cannot say how foolish and
inflated I think his letter to you. He knows well
how the wretched glosses with which he has darkened
Scripture turn to ice at your touch. They were cold
enough already. If for some inexplicable reason you
cannot make a public rejoinder, at least set down your
private thoughts in writing and send tin: MS. to me.
The Bishop of London and I will take charge of it.
1 Ep. cccxxxiv., second series, abridged.
334 Life an d Letters of Erasmus.
Alas, Erasmus could uot do it. His private
thought, which indeed he had spoken freely enough,
was that, in the negative part of his teaching, Luther
was right, and he would not be found fighting against
God. He poured out his sorrows and his perplexities
in a letter to the Dominican Faber, who, like More,
had been urging him to write more fully.
TO FABER. 1
You see how fiercely Luther strikes at me, moderate
though I was. What would he have said had I pro-
voked him in earnest? He means his book to live
with my crimes embalmed in it. Ten editions of his
reply have been published already. The great men
in the Church are afraid to touch him, and you want
poor me to do it again, me who am too weak to make
myself feared, and too little of a saint in my life not
to dread what may be said of me. Luther pretends
to wish to be friendly, yet he calls me another Lucian,
says that I do not believe in God, or believe, like Epi-
curus, that God has no care for man. He accuses me
of laughing at the Bible and of being an enemy to
Christianity, and yet expects me to thank him for his
gentle handling. Faction spares none, and calumny
sticks and cannot be washed off. The grosser the
charge the more credit it receives. I wrote my book
to please the princes and to show that I was not a Lu-
theran, but when I pointed out how the mischief was
to be met which the monks and theologians were doing,
no one listened. I wrote to Pope Adrian. I suppose
my letter did not please him, for he took no notice of
it, and now you see what has come. In France they
are at work with gibbet and dungeon. It won't an-
swer. The other side cry " Liberty ! " and have the
printers with them, while the Church has only monks,
Epicurean priests, and rabid Divines. The nobles
favour the movement with an eye to the churchmen's
lands and offices. The princes like to fish in troubled
1 Ep. dccexliii., abridged.
Lecture XVI. 335
waters and plunder the wrecks which drive ashore.
Go on with your stakes and prisons and you will have
universal chaos. As yet we are only at the beginning.
The Pope has ordered the Italians to be quiet. He is
wise. They will look on and chuckle while we cut
each other's throats. Why cannot we be wise too ?
We are all embarked in the same ship. If the ship
sinks, we shall sink with it, and the mischief is spread
too widely to be cured by ordinary remedies. The
princes, you say, want my opinion. They shall have
it if they wish, but it must be kept secret. Ferocious
writing- ought to be checked on both sides. One is as
bad as the other. Preachers and orators should be
silenced, and quiet men put in their places who will
leave alone dogmas and teach piety and morals. The
Catholics are now persecuting innocent men and are
driving into Luther's camp those whom they should
most wish to attract. Rage if you will against rebel-
lion, but do not hurt those who have done no harm.
Do not close the schools, but see that they have fit
masters. The Lutherans are strong in the towns.
Bid them tolerate their opponents. Leave each man
to his own conscience and put down riots. Let
Catholics meanwhile reform the abuses which have
provoked the revolt, and leave the rest to a general
council. Stir no more hornets' nests, unless you wish
to ruin Erasmus.
One more curious letter, without date or address,
belongs to the present period, and was probably meant
for the Emperor's eye.
TO 1
The two parties are dragging at the opposite ends
of a rope. When it breaks they will both fall on their
backs. The reformers turn the images out of the
churches, which originally were useful and ornamental.
They might have been content to forbid the worship
of images and to have removed only the superflu-
1 Ep. clxii., second series, abridged.
336 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
ous. They will have no more priests. It would be
better to have priests of learning and piety, and
to provide that orders are not hastily entered into.
There would be fewer of them, but better three good
than three hundred bad. They do not like so much
ritual. True, but it would be enough to abolish the
absurd. Debauched priests who do nothing but mum-
ble masses are generally hated. Do away with these,
hirelings, and allow but one celebration a day in the
churches. Indulgences, with which the monks so
long fooled the world with the connivance of the theo-
logians, are now exploded. Well, then, let those
who have no faith in saints' merits pray to Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, imitate Christ in their lives,
and leave those alone who do believe in saints. If
the saints do not hear them, Christ may hear them.
Confession is an ancient custom. Let those who deny
that it is a sacrament observe it till the Church decides
otherwise. No great harm can come of confession
so long as men confess only their own mortal sins.
Let men think as they please of purgatory, without
quarrelling with others who do not think as they
do. Theologians may argue about free will in the
Sorbonne. Laymen need not puzzle themselves with
conundrums. Whether works justify or faith justifies
matters little, since all allow that faith will not save
without works. In Baptism let the old rule be kept.
Parents may perhaps be left to decide whether it shall
be administei'ed in infancy or delayed to maturity.
Anabaptists must not be tolerated. The Apostles
bade their people obey the magistrates, though the
magistrates were heathens. Anabaptists will not
obey even Christian princes. Community of goods
is a chimera. Charity is a duty, but property must
be upheld. As to the Eucharist, let the old opinion
stand till a council has proved a new revelation.
The Eucharist is only adored so far as Christ is
supposed to be present there as God. The human
nature is not adored, but the Divine Nature, which
is Omnipresent. The thing to be corrected is the
Lecture XVI. 337
abuse of the administration. In primitive times the
Eucharist was not carried about by priests on horse-
back, or exhibited to be made a jest of. In Eng-
land at this present time there is neither house nor
tavern, I had almost said brothel, where the sacrifice
is not offered and money paid for it. 1 For the rest,
let there be moderation in all things, and then we
may hope for peace. The experiment has been tried
with good success in the Duchy of Cleves. It will
succeed everywhere if the clergy will only consent.
This advice was probably meant, as I said, for
Charles V., who had often pressed for Erasmus's opin-
ion. It corresponded entirely with Charles's own pri-
vate views. Unfortunately, his hands were tied by
the necessity of pleasing Spaniards, Italians, bigots of
all kinds throughout his dominions. Least of all
could he afford to offend his own subjects when the
French had invaded Lombardy and were threatening
Naples, with the Pope in secret alliance with them.
The Emperor's own sentiments were clearly expressed
to Erasmus in a letter from Gattinarius, the Imperial
secretary. 2 Erasmus had told him that he would die
happy if he could see the storm composed. Gattina-
rius answered that if the Pope and the other princes
were as well disposed as his master, Erasmus would
not wish in vain. As things were, he still did not
despair that the schism might be healed, and the
vicious practices in the Church which had led to it
might be looked into and reformed.
1 " Nunc in Alalia nulla est domiis, nulla caupona, pene dixeram lu-
panar, ulii mm sacrificetur."
2 February 10, 1527. Ep. dcecl.
LECTURE XVII.
Wilder and wilder grew the world, as if the bags
of iEolus had been untied. I can but touch the out-
side of the political history. Francis I. had gone
careering into Lombardy, and had got himself taken
prisoner at Pavia, all lost but honour. France, Eng-
land, and the Pope, fearing that Charles would restore
the throne of the Caesars, or perhaps make himself
Pope also — for that was thought a possibility —
made a frightened league together : Henry VIII. to
be the special protector of the Apostolic See, the Pope
in turn to do him a small service, relieve him of his
old Spanish wife, and let him marry a younger woman
to raise up children to succeed him. The King's
request was not in itself unreasonable. Henry had
married his brother's widow under a dispensation of
doubtful legality. The legitimacy of the Princess
Mary had been challenged, and if he died without a
son there would be a disputed succession and a fresh
War of the Roses. Catherine was past child-bearing.
It was just one of those situations in which the dis-
pensing powers of the Pope might be usefully exerted,
and Clement, so far as he was himself concerned,
would have made no objection at all. The Emperor,
too, it is likely, in the distracted state of Europe,
would have hesitated in raising obstacles to a natural
demand, and flinging a fresh poisoned ingredient into
the witches' caldron ; but Catherine's consent was
needed if there was to be an amicable separation, and
Lecture XVII. 339
Catherine would not give it, and Charles, like a gen-
tleman as he was, found himself obliged, against his
own interest, to support his aunt.
The divorce of Catherine was at first but a small
matter, though it grew to be a large one. Political
events went their way, and, if Charles wished to reform
the Church of Eome, were opening the road for him.
Clement, as an Italian prince, became the ally of
France, and at war with Charles.
Charles's army, a motley of Catholic Spaniards and
Lutheran landknechts, stormed Rome, caged the Pope
in St. Angelo, sacked convents, outraged nuns, and
carried cardinals in mock procession round the sacred
city, naked on the backs of asses. Castilian and Ger-
man had plundered churches side by side, carried off
the consecrated plate equally careless of sacrilege,
while the unfortunate head of Christendom looked on
helpless from the battlements of his prison. It seemed
as if Charles had but to stretch out his hand, place
the papal crown in commission, if he did not take it
himself, and reform with sovereign power the abuses
which he had acknowledged and deplored. So, and
only so, he could have restored peace to Germany and
saved the unity of Christendom, in which the rents
were each day growing wider, for behind Luther had
come Carlstadt and Zwingle, going where Luther
could not follow, denying the sacraments, denying the
Real Presence in the Eucharist, breaking into Anabap-
tism and social anarchy ; while behind Zwingle, again,
was rising the keen, clear, powerful Calvin, carrying
the Swiss and French reformers along with him.
Erasmus was still at Bale observing the gathering
whirlwinds, his own worst fears far exceeded by the
reality, determined for his own part to throw no fresh
fuel on the flames, and to hold himself clear from con-
340 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
nection with all extreme factions — Lutheran, Zwin-
glian, or Catholic. Charles, it seems, continued to
consult him indirectly, through secretaries or other
correspondents, as to what the nature of Church au-
thority really was, evidently as if he was considering
in what way it could best be dealt with. To one of
such inquiries Erasmus answers : 1 —
I have always observed my allegiance to the Church,
but I distinguish between the Church's decrees ; some
are canons of councils, some are papal rescripts, some
decisions of particular bishops, some like plebiscites,
some temporary and liable to recall. When the pres-
ent storm began I thought it would be enough to
change a few constitutions. But corruption under the
name of religion has gone so far as almost to extin-
guish the Christian faith. Neither party will yield.
Many cry for coercion ; such a method might succeed
for a time, but if it succeeded permanently there
would still be numerous and uneasy consciences. I
do not say I am neutral ; I mean that I am not bound
to either side. The question is not of opinions, but of
morals and character, and these are worst among the
loudest of the Church's champions. Church author-
ity, however, may be preserved with a few altera-
tions. I would give the cup to the laity. I would
not have priests marry or monks abandon their vows
without their bishop's conseut. Boys and girls, how-
ever, who have been tempted into religious houses
ought to be set free, as having been taken in by fraud.
It would be well if priests and monks could be chaste ;
but the age is corrupt, and of two evils we must
choose the least. The licence of which you complain
has found no encouragement from me ; I have checked
it always when I could. You are afraid of Paganism ;
my fear is of Judaism, which I see everywhere. Any-
way, you may assure the Emperor that from me he
has nothing to fear.
Ep. dcccxlviii., abridged.
Lecture XVII. 341
The capture of Rome might have been expected to
have pleased Erasmus, as giving the Emperor a free
hand. The world thought that the breach between
the Empire and the Papacy was now final and irrep-
arable. Erasmus was keener-sighted than his con-
temporaries. His hope had been to see Charles and
Clement work together as friends and equals. He
was afraid that the Emperor would now use and main-
tain the Pope for his own political objects, and would
be led away with secular ambition, in which the Pope
would be his creature. His anxiety appears in a let-
ter to Warham.
TO ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. 1
Revolution is in the air. I fear bloodshed, for the
roots have gone deep. No one who has not seen Ger-
many can believe in what condition we are. I cannot
leave the Church and join the reformers. But the
people are all on their side, in consequence of the
raging of the monks, who are working their own ruin.
At Rome all is confusion. Letters cannot enter. It
is supposed that the Pope and the Emperor will be
reconciled, and that the Pope will take the Emperor's
side. In that case there will be no peace. The Pope
ought to be indifferent.
In these later anxious years we have lost sight of
the old brilliant witty Erasmus. The times had grown
serious, and his humour when it showed was bitter,
but the bright nature was still there, and now and
then a gleam breaks out among the clouds. The let-
ter to "Warham was sent by the hand of a disciple,
Nicholas Caun, who was paying England a visit.
Erasmus gave him an introduction to the Archbishop,
and a few hints to Cann himself.
1 Ep. dccclxx.
342 Life, and Letters of Erasmus.
TO NICHOLAS CANN. 1
May 17, 1527.
You will enjoy your visit. You will meet many of
the English nobles and men of learning. They will
be infinitely kind to you, but be careful not to pre-
sume upon it : when they condescend, be you modest.
Great men do not always mean what their faces pro-
mise, so treat them reverendly, as if they were gods.
They are generous and will offer you presents, but
recollect the proverb, Not everything everywhere and
from everyone. Accept gratefully what real friends
give you. To mere acquaintances excuse yourself
lightly ; more art is needed in refusing graciously
than in receiving. An awkward rejection often makes
enemies. Imitate the polypus and you have no diffi-
culties. Put out your head, give your right hand, and
yield the wall ; smile on as many as you please, but
trust only those you know, and be specially careful to
find no fault with English things or customs. They
are proud of their country, as well they may be.
So much for the character of our ancestors, which
has altered less than one might have expected. Eras-
mus had other things to make him anxious, and was
soon absorbed again in the German confusions. He
seems to have been specially confidential with Duke
George of Saxony.
TO DUKE GEORGE. 2
September 2, 1521.
Luther amazes me. If the spirit which is in him
be an evil one, no more fatal monster was ever born.
If it be a good spirit, much of the fruit of the Gospel
is wanting in him. If a mixed one, how can two
spirits so strong exist in the same person? Intoler-
able corruptions have crept into Christian life which
custom makes appear like virtues, and there are other
1 Ep. dccclxviii.
2 Ep. dcccxci., abridged.
Lecture XVII. 343
changes besides which wise men would gladly see if
they can be had without a convulsion. This I know
to be the opinion of the Emperor. But nothing will
satisfy Luther, and his party is so divided, and their
gospel is generating so much licence, that it may fall
to pieces, even if the Pope and the Emperor combine.
The hope is that the Princes may have influence
enough to keep the Lutherans within bounds, or a
worse fire may break out on the other side through
those wretched monks and divines.
The folly of the monks and theologians made the
real danger. On the same day he writes to another
correspondent : 1 —
Frightful storms spring from small beginnings.
The Lutheran cyclone rose out of a trifle. The
Dominicans paraded their indulgences too ostenta-
tiously. Luther objected. The Dominicans set up a
clamour. I tried to stop them, but could not do it,
and you see the result. The Pope should have left
matters alone. No one dreads the monks more than
the Pope does, and none treat the Pope with more
contempt than the monks do when it suits their
purpose.
Invariably Erasmus speaks of the monks as the
cause of all that had happened. His especial bitter-
ness was due, perhaps, to his early experience ; and
undoubtedly they returned his hatred. They had
been forbidden to abuse him in their pulpits. They
were working underground to prevent the circulation
of his books and induce the Church to censure them.
Luther's writings, being chiefly in German, were un-
read save where German was spoken. The writings
of Erasmus had spread over Europe. His contro-
versy with Luther had not earned his pardon. He
was a subject of the Spanish crown ; a party favour-
1 Ep. dcccxciv.
344 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
able to liim had begun to grow in the Peninsula,
which roused the regulars there to fury. The sacred
soil of Spain should at least be kept free from heresy.
Juan Maldonado writes to him from Burgos : 1 —
September 1, 1527.
The theologians here are working with the monks,
and will be counted the only wise ones. They impose
on noble ladies with their pretence of holiness. They
tell them that they cannot have their sins pardoned
unless they go on their knees to some sophisticated
friar — only friars, they say, can distinguish the
qualities of sins. Not a man, from the meanest pot-
boy to the Emperor, will they count a Christian un-
less he takes a monk for a director, and many a pretty
tale is told by poor women of the shameless doings of
these philosophasters. They hate you, but do not you
be disturbed. You have torn the masks from their
faces, and shown them to the world as they are. I
need not say what curses they have imprecated on
you. They are now appealing to the bishops and
magistrates to prohibit the sale of your books. The
hooded masters know well enough the difference be-
tween your teaching and their hypocrisy. They know
that if your writings are read there will be an end of
them. But their abuse does not hurt you. We love
you the better for it. A Spanish translation of the
" Colloquies " is in the hands of every man and
woman.
The Emperor was now himself in Spain. The
Spanish authorities appealed to him to support them.
He had so long corresponded with Erasmus on the
gi-eat questions of the day, had seemed so entirely to
agree with him, had so peremptorily silenced the
attacks upon him in the Low Countries, that Eras-
mus looked confidently for a continuance of his coun-
tenance ; but it was not without reason that Erasmus
1 Ep. eccxxxviii., second series, abridged.
Lecture XVII. 345
had been alarmed at the possible consequences of the
capture of Kome in a change of attitude on Charles's
part. The Emperor did, indeed, order the Spanish
monks to hold their tongues ; but there were symptoms
which Erasmus's friends did not like, and the monks
were dangerous.
Your enemies (wrote another of these friends) are
now mute, and dare not crow even on their own
dunghills. But they mutter still in private, and I
fear the beast with 700 heads may win in the end.
You, though long may you live, must die at last ;
but a religious order never dies. It has good men
in it as well as bad, but good and bad alike stand by
their profession, and the worse part drags the better
after it.
A religious order never dies. Charles V. could
not just then afford to quarrel with the leaders of
the Church in Spain. It was necessary for him to
pacify the suspicions which had risen out of the im-
prisonment of the Pope, and though he refused to
allow Erasmus's writings to be suppressed, he could
not resist a demand that those writings should be ex-
amined by the Inquisition. Erasmus had appealed
to him. He replied in a curious letter, half an
apology, though in terms of the utmost personal
esteem.
CHARLES V. TO ERASMUS. 1
Bukgos, December 13, 1527.
Dear and Honoured Sir, — Two tilings make your
letter welcome to me. The receipt of any communi-
cation from a person whom 1 regard with so much
affection is itself a pleasure, and your news that the
Lutheran fever is abating gratifies me exceedingly.
The whole Church of Christ is your debtor as much
as I am. You have done for it what emperors, popes,
1 Ep. dooccxv., abridged.
34G Life and Letters of Erasmus.
princes, and academies have tried in vain to do. I
congratulate you from my heart. You must now
complete the work which you have begun so success-
fully, and you may rely on all possible support from
me. I am sorry to find you complain of the treat-
ment which your writings meet with here. You
appear to distrust our goodwill, and to fear that the
Erasmus whose Christian character it so well known
to the world may be unfairly dealt with. It is true
that we have allowed your works to be examined, but
in this you have no reason for alarm. Human errors
may be discovered in them, but the worst that can be-
fall you will be an affectionate admonition. You will
then be able to correct or explain, and Christ's little
ones will not be offended. You will establish your
immortal reputation, and shut the mouths of your
detractors ; or it may be that no faults at all will be
detected, and your honour will bo. yet more effectually
vindicated. Take courage, therefore. Be assured
that I shall never cease to respect and esteem you. I
do my best for the commonwealth. My work must
speak for me now and hereafter. Remember me in
your prayers.
This letter, gracious though it was, did not satisfy
Erasmus. He knew that in all which he had written
about the corruption of the Church the Emperor
agreed with him. But his mind had misgiven him
from the moment when he heard of the capture of
Rome. Two alternatives, in fact, then lay before
Charles : either to sequester the Pope and put him-
self at the head of Reform — the course which some,
at least, of the secular statesmen of Spain and Italy
urgently recommended, or to make up his quarrel with
Clement, with a show of generosity, and support his
failing authority. To take up reform would mean a
quarrel with the Church, which was still dangerously
powerful in every part of his personal dominions.
Lecture XVII. 347
France and England were already arming in the
Pope's defence. The Pope would throw himself into
their arms, divorce Catherine — a small matter, but
one which touched Charles's honour. The Turks had
taken Rhodes, had overrun Hungary, killed the Em-
peror's brother-in-law, and were threatening Vienna.
He would have to face a desperate war, with no allies
but the Germans, who were rushing into a spiritual
revolution which would then be beyond control. He
could not do it. He must detach the Pope from
Francis and Henry, secure the support of the Church,
and leave reform till the sky brightened again. Ana-
baptism had spread over Germany. It was now pass-
ing into his own Netherlands, carrying anarchy and
insurrection along with it. He must rally all the
forces of Conservatism,- recover the confidence of the
leading Churchmen, and deserve it by showing the
agitators that they had nothing to hope from him.
He made peace with Clement, a condition of it being
that Henry VIII. should have no divorce without
his own consent. In return he issued an edict for
the suppression of spiritual rebellion severe enough
even to content the monks themselves, whose business
it was to be to see the edict executed. Erasmus was
dismayed. He had long satisfied himself that fire
and sword would never answer, and never believed
the Emperor would try it. He was not alarmed for
himself ; he was alarmed for Christendom. A letter
to Duke George shows what he was feeling : —
TO DUKE GEORGE. 1
The Emperor and his brother are for trying sever-
ity, and encouraging those who mistake their own
passions for devotion to the Gospel. Severity will do
no good. The innocent will suiter. The threatened
1 Ep. dccec.\i\.
348 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
confiscation will be an excuse for plunder; all will
be in danger who have anything to lose. Beggars
and rogues will fatten, and there will be universal
confusion. Knife and cautery are bad instruments
when the whole frame is sick. If the princes could
but combine and restrain both parties with modera-
tion and authority there might still be hope for
peace.
An extremely interesting letter follows to the Elec-
tor Herman, Archbishop of Cologne, who afterwards
joined the Lutherans, and was deposed for it : 1 —
March 18, 1528.
Is there not misery enough in the world already,
that the jealousies and passions of sovereigns must be
making it worse ? The disorder grows daily, and
unless some god appears ex machina and ends the
tragedy, chaos lies straight ahead. I am not hopeless.
The Lord, in whose hands are the hearts of kings,
may yet show these two princes (Charles and Fran-
cis) that a conquest over themselves is more glorious
than a victory in the field. Gentleness is a stronger
bond than force, and moral authority goes further
than Imperial edicts. Peace may not be possible, but
there might be a truce for a term of years, and a
breathing-time. I fear now a Cadmean victory, as
fatal to the victors as to the vanquished, and all that
I can do is to pray. Often, very often, I have ivrged
the Emperor to peace. He says in his last letter to
me : " I have done the best I can ; now and hereafter
my work must speak for me." This does not sound
like peace. A great war means infinite horror and
wretchedness, and the wild opinions now spread-
ing, which steal our peace of mind, are worse than
war. The factions in Germany are more fatal than
even the quarrels of kings, and I know not how it is,
none hurt a good cause worse than those who think
they are defending it. The rival parties drag at the
1 Ep. dccccxlv., abridged.
Lecture XVII. 349
two ends of a rope ; when the rope breaks both go to
the ground. What is the use of all these question-
ings and definings and dogmatisings ? Let schoolmen
argue if they so please. It is enough for common
people if they are taught how to rule their own con-
duct. The mass has been made a trade for illiterate
and sordid priests, and a contrivance to quiet the con-
sciences of reprobates. So the cry is raised, " Abolish
the mass, put it away, make an end of it." Is there
no middle course? Cannot the mass be purified?
Saint-worship has been carried so far that Christ has
been forgotten. Therefore, respect for saints is idol-
atry, and orders founded in their names must be dis-
solved. Why so violent a remedy? Too much has
been made of rituals and vestments, but we might
save, if we would, the useful part of such things. Con-
fession has been abused, but it could be regulated more
strictly. We might have fewer priests and fewer
monks, and those we keep might be better of their
kind. If the bishops will only be moderate, things
may end well after all. But we must not hurt the
corn in clearing out the tares. We must forget our-
selves, and think first of Christ's glory, cease our
recriminations, and regard all these calamities as a
call to each of us to amend his own life.
And to Duke George again : l —
March 24, 1528.
Far be it from me to accuse the Emperor and Fer-
dinand of cruelty. Both of them have stood my firm
friends when my enemies wanted to destroy me. But
I had rather the plague could be stayed by quiet reme-
dies than by the deaths of thousands of human crea-
tures, and in this I do but say what Augustine said.
and Jerome, and other champions of the faith. I am
not pleading for heretics. I speak in the interests of
the princes themselves and of Catholic truth. The poi-
son has gone dee]). If the sword is to be the cure, good
and bad will fall alike by it, and none can tell what
1 Ep. dcocoliii., abridged.
350 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
the end will be. Charity and humanity recommend
milder courses. It is not what heretics deserve, but
what is most expedient for Christendom. The Donat-
ists were worse than heretics, yet Augustine did not
wish them killed. I blame neither Charles nor Ferdi-
nand. The heretics challenged them, and have earned
what they may get, but I wish this war would end, as
I have told the Emperor again and again ; and as to
heresy, it is better to cure a sick man than to kill
him. To say that severity will fail to cure heresy is
not to defend it, but to point out how it could be dealt
with better.
One more, to the Bishop of Augsburg : 1 —
August 26, 1528.
The state of the Church distracts me. My own con-
science is easy ; I was alone in saying from the first
that the disorder must be encountered in its germs ; I
was too true a prophet ; the play, which opened with
universal hand-clapping, is ending as I foresaw that it
must. The kings are fighting among themselves for
objects of their own. The monks, instead of looking
for a reign of Christ, want only to reign themselves.
The theologians curse Luther, and in cursing him
curse the truth delivered by Christ and the Apostles,
and, idiots that they are, alienate with their foul
speeches many who would have returned to the Church,
or but for them would have never left it.
No fact is plainer than that this tempest has been
sent from heaven by God's anger, as the frogs and lo-
custs and the rest were sent on the Egyptians ; but no
one remembers his own faults, and each blames the
other. It is easy to see who sowed the seed and who
ripened the crop. The Dominicans accuse me. They
will find no heresy in work of mine. I am not so
thought of by greater men then they.
The Emperor wants me in Spain, Ferdinand wants
me at Vienna, the Regent Margaret invites me to Bra-
bant, the King of England to London. Each offers
1 Ep. deccclxxi., abridged.
Lecture XVII. 351
me an ample salaiy, and this they can give. Alas !
they cannot give me back my youth and strength.
Would they could !
Yet more important is a letter written at the same
time to an unnamed English bishop, 1 who had com-
plained of passages in the " Colloquies " reflecting on
the monks and the confessional. Erasmus goes at
length into the whole question.
What I have said (he writes) is not to discourage
confession, but to check the abuse of it. Confessions
are notoriously betrayed. The aim of the monks is
not to benefit men's souls but to gather harvests out
of their purses, learn their secrets, rule in their houses ;
and everyone who knows the facts will understand
why these confessors need to be controlled. I have not
condemned ceremonies. I have only insisted on the
proper use of them. Christ did the same, so why
find fault with me ? I have complained of the extrav-
agant importance attached to fasting. I have just
heard that two poor creatures are to be murdered in
France because they have eaten meat in Lent. I have
said there are too many holidays ; others have said sO
besides me. More sins are committed on holidays
than on any other day in the week. I have spoken
of miracles. The Christian religion nowadays does not
require miracles, and there are none ; but you know
what lying stories are set about by crafty knaves.
After giving various instances of monastic knavery,
he jroes on : —
tv
To rascals like these the Pope and the princes are
now entrusting power to suppress heresy, and they
abuse it to revenge their own wrongs. The monastic
profession may be honourable in itself. G enui ne
monks we can respect; but where are they'.' What
monastic character have those we see except the dress
and the tonsure? It would l>c wrong to say that
1 Ej>. di i
352 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
there are no exceptions. Bat I beseech you — you
who are a pure good man — go round the religious
houses in your own diocese ; how much will you find
of Christian piety ? The mendicant orders are the
worst ; and are they to be allowed to tyrannise over
us? I do not say this to injure any individual. I
say it of those who disgrace their calling. They are
hated, and they know why ; but they will not mend
their lives, and think to bear down opposition with
insolence and force. Augustine says that there were
nowhere better men than in monasteries, and nowhere
worse. What would he say now — if he was to see so
many of these houses both of men and women public
brothels ? [Quid nunc Augustinus diceret si videret
multa monasteria qure nihil differunt a publicis lup-
anaribus? Quid de monacharum multis collegiis in
quibus nihil minus reperias quam castitatem ?]
I speak of these places as they exist now among
ourselves. Immortal Gods ! how small is the number
where you will find Christianity of any kind ! The
malice and ignorance of these creatures will breed a
revolution worse than Luther's unless the princes and
bishops see to them. The Dominicans and Francis-
cans have been lighting their fagots in France. These
are but the first droppings of the storm, the preludes
of what we are to expect from monastic despotism,
and if their hands are not held, the rage of the people
will burst out in a tornado. The mendicants are at
the bottom of the mischief, and there will be no peace
till they are made to know their places. It will be
for their own security. The most respectable, if not
the largest part of these communities, desire it them-
selves. To abolish them is a rude remedy. It has
been done in some places, but they ought to be brought
back to their original purpose as schools of piety, and
it will be a good day for the monks when they are re-
formed. They must not be allowed to live longer in
idleness. Their exemptions must be cancelled, and they
must be placed under the bishops ; and as to their
images, the people must be taught that they are no
Lecture XVII. 353
more than signs. It would be better if there were
none at all, and if prayer was only addressed to Christ.
But iu all things let there be moderation. The storm
has come upon us by the will of God, who is plaguing
us as he plagued the Egyptians. Let us confess our
sins and pray for mercy.
If the Emperor meant to try persecution, the reli-
gious orders, and especially the mendicant orders,
woidd necessarily be the most active in it, through the
immense powers of the confessional. Erasmus was in
terror at the prospect, and persisted, wherever his
voice could reach, in exposing their real character.
Had he been a Lutheran writing to Lutherans, his
evidence might be suspected, but he addresses his
protests to bishops, statesmen, cardinals, princes, to
whose personal experience he appeals. It was danger-
ous to tell the truth. It would have been doubly
dangerous — entirely fatal to him — to lie or exagge-
rate. He mentions, on his own personal knowledge,
several specially disgusting features of monastic life.
Part of a monk's duties was to read aloud in the re-
fectory some edifying story. It would be begun and
ended in the usual way ; in the intervals the reader
would introduce licentious anecdotes of adventures in
brothels. Others would baptize and hear confessions
when they were drunk. He tells a case where a father,
who was far gone this way, fell asleep in the box
when hearing a confession. The penitent, finding he
was not attended to, broke off and went away ;
another penitent came, and the father again slept ;
the second sinner, less patient than the other, roused
him, and asked him if he was listening. The father
confounded the two. " Yes, yes,'' h<' said, "you told
me you had broken open your neighbour's desk.
Very good. Go on." The man said he had broken
open no desk and went off in a rage.
354 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Erasmus gives extraordinary instances of the igno-
rance of the clergy. One was connected with himself,
and is described in a letter to Martin Lipsius. 1
September 5, 1528.
Not long ago a physician of my acquaintance hap-
pened to say something in my favour in a public assem-
bly. A Dominican prior present, reputed learned, said
my work was worthless, full of obscenities, and unfit
to be read by decent people. The physician asked for
an example. The Dominican said that in my treatise
on marriage I had accused the bishops of unnatural
crimes, and had charged them besides with keeping
four or five concubines. The book was produced, and
he pointed out a passage where I say that as the rule
now stands a priest cannot be a married man, but
may keep mistresses and yet be putus or TeAeios and
hold four or five episcopas. Putus, which means
pure, he had taken to be the masculine of puta (a
whore), and to mean a cinmdus. Episcopas, St.
Paul's word for bishops' sees, he had construed into
bishops' wives.
Exposed to the attacks of such enemies as these,
and threatened by the Spanish Inquisition, Erasmus
had a bad time of it — cursed on one side by the
Lutherans, who charged him with sinning against
light ; cursed by the theologians of the old school as
the cause of all the disturbance ; and both sides, and
especially the Catholics, clamouring to him to speak a
decisive word. His books were selling faster than
ever, and the injury to the Church, if injury they
were doing, was continually growing. An orthodox
champion urged him to clear himself from the suspi-
cion of favouring a falling cause. He answers : 2 — •
The confusion spreads, and may grow to worse
than you think. Luther's first protest was hardly
1 Ep. dcccclxxrx.
2 Ep. cccxlv., second series.
Lecture XVII. 355
more than a jest. The monks shrieked. Bulls and
edicts followed. What have they effected? It may
be that parts of my writings need correction ; but
there is a time for everything. You think Luther
prostrate. Would that he was ! He has been pierced
often enough, but he lives yet — lives in the minds of
men to whom he is commended by the wickedness of
the monks. You and your friends think that when
you have finished Luther you will settle accounts
with Erasmus. You have not finished Luther, and
while Luther lives you will hide like nails in your
shells. I encountered him at the request of the Pope
and the Emperor in his strongest position. I was
victorious ; but I was wounded in the fight, and you
took the opportunity to fall on me from behind.
All this was hard to bear ; Erasmus was growing
old (past sixty), suffering besides from gout and
stone, and heavy laden with his editions of the fathers,
which, in spite of his troubles, he still steadily laboured
at. He was thin-skinned as ever, and writhed under
the darts which were flung at him. The Emperor
remained j)ersonally kind, and the threatened inquiry
into his works in Spain was silenced. But the public
attitude of Charles was ambiguous and menacing.
The edicts were being enforced in the Low Countries
against Anabaptists. Peasant wars had broken out.
Anabaptism meant anarchy and social ruin, and must
be suppressed at all hazards. Both the Pope and
Charles, however, seemed to have determined on a
general policy of repression, and the victory of the
Church party would mean the victory of darkness and
superstition, against which lie had been fighting all
his life. His energy never slackened, his letters to
contemporary scholars on learned subjects through
this anxious time were as elaborate as if he thought
of nothing save the rendering of Greek texts. But
35G Life and Letters of Erasmus.
the aspect of things grew blacker and blacker, and he
sickened at the thought of what was coming.
TO LEWIS BER. 1
April 1, 1529.
God knows what the end will be. Like enough He
is punishing us for our sins. Sad indeed has been the
fall, specially among those who were pillars of the
Church. Head the Gospels, read the constitutions of
the early popes. Read what Gerson says of the priests
and monks in one of his works, and see how we have
degenerated. But never will I be tempted or exas-
perated into deserting the true communion. I have
at times been provoked into a desire of revenge. But
the prick goes no deeper than the skin. The ill-will
of some wretched fellow-creature shall not tempt me
to lay hands on the mother who washed me at the
font, fed me with the word of God, and quickened me
with the sacraments. I will not lose my immortal
soul to avenge a worldly wrong. I resist the weak-
ness, though I cannot choose but feel my injuries. I
understand now how Arius and Tertullian and Wick-
liff were driven into schism by malicious clergy and
wicked monks. I will not forsake the Church myself,
I would forfeit life and reputation sooner ; but how
unprovoked was the conspiracy to ruin me ! My
crime was my effort to promote learning. That was
the whole of it. For the rest I have been rather their
friend than their enemy. I advised divines to leave
scholastic subtleties and study Scripture and the fa-
thers. I bade monks remember their profession, for-
sake the world, and live for God. Was this to hate
the divines and the monks ? Doubtless I have wished
that popes and cardinals and bishops were more like
the Apostles, but never in thought have I desired those
offices abolished. There may be arguments about the
Real Presence, but I will never believe that Christ
would have allowed His Church to remain so long in
such an error (if error it be) as to worship a wafer
1 Ep. mxxxv., abridged.
Lecture XVII. 357
for God. The Lutheran notion that any Christian
may consecrate or absolve or ordain I think pure in-
sanity. But if monks fancy that by screaming and
shrieking- they can recover their old tyranny, or that
popes and prelates can put the fire out with a high
hand, they are greatly mistaken. It may be smothered
for a moment, but surely it will break out again. A
disease can only be cured by removing the causes of
it. We need not give up our belief in the Church
because men are wicked. But if fresh shoots are not
to sprout, the evil must be torn out by the roots.
And again, to the same correspondent : —
See what the world is coming to — rapine, murder,
plague, famine, rebellion ; no one trying to mend his
own life; God scourging us, and we taking no heed,
and hardening our hearts against Him. What can be
before us but the deluge ?
Anabaptism was a new and ugly phenomenon.
Like the modern Socialists, the Anabaptists threatened
to destroy society and remake it on a new pattern, and
Luther and even Erasmus excluded these poor
wretches from toleration. Yet Erasmus would have
had a pitying word for the devil himself.
This sect (he says) is peculiarly obnoxious because
they teach community of goods, and will not obey
magistrates. They have no el m relies. They do not
aim at power, and do not resist when arrested. They
are said to be moral in their conduct, if anything can
be moral with so corrupt a faith.
Erasmus was against burning even Anabaptists, and
eaeli poor victim that he heard of gave him a pang.
The Sorbonne was just then active in Paris: Francis
wanting to establish a reputation for orthodoxy.
They had found an unhappy wretch of this persuasion
preaching repentance. Erasmus observes that it was
358 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
no such terrible crime, mankind being supposed to
require repentance ; but they seized and roasted him
for all that.
The accident of date introduces another letter, writ-
ten simultaneously with those which I have just
quoted. It has no reference to his alarms at the state
of Europe, but it relates to a subject which may have
an interest for you in itself, and I may close this lec-
ture with it.
You will all have heard of Henry VIII.'s hook
against Luther ; a question rose at the time, and has
continued ever since, whether Henry wrote it himself.
Here is what Erasmus says on the subject. 1 Coch-
lseus, who was going fiercely into the divorce question,
was among the doubters. Erasmus writes to him : —
April 1, 1539.
The German Catholics refuse to believe that a king
can write a book. I will not say the King of England
had no help. The most learned men now and then
are helped by friends. But I am quite sure the work
is essentially his own. His father was a man of
strong sense. His mother was brilliant, witty, and
pious. The King himself studied hard in his youth.
He was quick, prompt, skilful in all that he under-
took, and never took up anything which he did not go
through with. He made himself a fine shot, a good
rider, a fair musician besides, and was well grounded
in mathematics. His intellectual pursuits he has al-
ways kept up. He spends his leisure in reading and
conversation. He argues so pleasantly that you for-
get you are speaking with a Prince. He has studied
the schoolmen, Aquinas, Scotus, and the rest. Mount-
joy, who saw that I was suspicious about the book,
showed me one day a number of the King's letters to
himself and to others. They were obviously his own,
corrected and altered in his own hand. I had no
answer to make.
1 Ep. mxxxviii., abridged.
LECTURE XVIII.
Age and ill-health had tamed Erasmus's wandering
propensities. He had now for several years been
stationary at Bale, by the side of his friend Froben's
printing establishment, where his work was carried
on. Bale was a self-governed city with popular in-
stitutions, and had so far remained Catholic. The
reformers, however, had been annually increasing.
They found themselves at length with a clear major-
ity, and he was to witness an ecclesiastical revolution
immediately under his own eyes. The scene as Eras-
mus described it to Pirkheimer is curious in itself, and
was a specimen of what had been going on in most of
the free cities of Germany. He expected disorder;
there was none. The Catholic members of the Senate
were expelled to prevent opposition, and the people
went to work methodically to abolish the mass and
establish Lutheranism.
TO PIRKHEIMER. 1
Smiths and carpenters were sent to remove the
images from the churches. The roods and the unfor-
tunate saints were cruelly handled. Strange that none
of them worked a miracle to avenge their dignity,
when before they had worked so many at the slightest
invitation. Not a statue was left in church, niche,
or monastery. The paintings on (lie walls were white-
washed. Everything combustible was burnt. What
would not burn was broken to pieces. Nothing was
Spared, however precious or beautiful ; and mass was
prohibited even in private houses.
1 Ep. mxlviii.
360 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
And in another letter : l —
The affair was less violent than we feared it might
be. No houses were broken into, and no one was hurt.
They would have hanged my neighbour, the Consul, if
they had caught him, but he slipped off in the night ;
not like St. Paul in a basket, but down the river
in a boat. His crime had been that he had so long
obstructed the Gospel. As it was, no blood was shed ;
but there was a cruel assault on altars, images, and
pictures. We are told that St. Francis used to resent
light remarks about his five wounds, and several other
saints are said to have shown displeasure on similar
occasions. It was strange that at Bale not a saint
stirred a finger. I am not so much surprised at the
patience of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Erasmus had seen the storm coming and had pre-
pared for it. He had perceived that a reformed Bale
could no longer be a home for him — go he must, if
the Catholic world was not to reproach him with being
an accomplice. He had feared that if he tried to
escape, the revolutionary party might keep him by
force. He procured a safe-conduct, and an invitation
from the Archduke Ferdinand. His books, plate, and
property he despatched privately to Freyburg, within
the Austrian frontier. The magistrates, he thought,
would hesitate to interfere with him when protected
with a pass in the Archduke's hand.
Money (he tells Pirkheimer), with plate, jewels,
and anything which would tempt robbers, had been
sent on first, and afterward two wa^o-on loads of
books and furniture. I called on (Ecolampadius ; we
had some talk, and did not quarrel. He wanted me
to remain at Bale. I said I was sorry to leave it, but
if I stayed I should seem to approve of what had
been done ; and my baggage, besides, had been all
despatched to Freyburg. He said he hoped I should
1 Ep. nilxix.
Lecture XVHL 361
return ; we shook hands and parted. In fact, I had
no choice. I could not stay in a place where I should
be at the mercy of the rabble, and where I could not
expect the protection of the magistrates. I had some
difficulty in getting on board my boat. I wanted to
start from a private landing-place. The Senate said
that Bale was free for everyone to come and go.
There was no need of secrecy, and it could not be
allowed. I submitted, and embarked with a few
friends at the bridge. At Freyburg- 1 found the offi-
cials most hospitable, even before they had received
the Archduke's letter. They have allotted me as a
residence the unfinished palace which was begun by
Maximilian.
At Freyburg Erasmus was personally safe, but the
ill-look of public affairs more and more disturbed him.
" War is coming," he wrote. " The Emperor thun-
ders from Italy, and revolution rushes forward among
the Germans. I have wished nvyself at Cracow."'
He had a personal sorrow, too, in the loss of a distin-
guished young French friend, Louis Berquin, who
was seized and burnt by the Church authorities at
Paris for speaking his mind too freely.
All error is not heresy (he says, writing about it to
Utenhovius x ), and a man who is honestly mistaken,
and has merely adopted a wrong opinion, is not to be
confounded with ill-dispositioned rebels and disturbers
of public peace. It is a new thing to burn a man for
a mistake, and I wonder how the practice began. If
the piety of the French kept pace with (heir supersti-
tion, one might approve of this new-born zeal of theirs.
It is matched on the other side: in some German
States the Pope is Antichrist, the bishops are hob-
goblins, the priests swine, the princes tyrants, the
monasteries Satan's conventicles; and the power is in
the hands of Gospel mobs, who are readier to light
than reason. Happy Berquin if he lias died with a
1 Ep. mix., alu-id^ed.
362 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
good conscience, for good and bad are now sent the
same road — hanged, burnt, or dismembered. Decent
magistrates will crucify you as readily as the sav-
agest despot. Human courts of justice are not worth
much nowadays, and those are fortunate who stand
acquitted at the great tribunal.
Another letter : —
TO jEMILIUS AB iEMILIO. 1
May 29, 1529.
All grows wilder and wilder. Men talk of heresy
and orthdoxy, of Antichrists and Catholics, but none
speak of Christ. The world is in labour. Good may
come if Christ directs the birth. There is no help
else. Paganism comes to life again ; Pharisees fight
against the Gospel ; in such a monstrous tempest we
need skilful pilots. Christ has been sleeping so far.
I trust the prayers of the faithful will wake Him. He
may then command sea and waves, and they will obey
Him. The monks have howled. The theologians
have made articles of belief. We have had prisons,
informations, bulls, and burnings ; and what has come
of them? Outcries enough; but no crying to Christ.
Christ will not wake till we call to Him in sincerity of
heart. Then He will arise and bid the sea be still,
and there will be a great calm.
&'
The confusion in Germany and the straitened state
of Charles's finances had made the payment of Eras-
mus's Imperial pension somewhat irregular ; and be-
yond this he had still no settled income save what he
received from Warham and Mountjoy. He had been
always careless in his expenses, and failing health had
not promoted economy. Lavish presents from great
people, lay and ecclesiastic, plate, jewels, and money,
had spared him so far from anxiety, even when
Charles's treasurer forgot him. But the move from
i
Ep. ml., abridged.
Lecture XVIII. 363
Bale to Freyburg and the starting a new establish-
ment had proved a costly business, and he might have
been in difficulties again but for the generosity of the
Fuggers, the great banking firm at Augsburg. The
head of the house, however, came to his assistance
with unbounded liberality ; and Freyburg otherwise
suited him well. It was within the Austrian bound-
ary, and under Ferdinand's immediate authority. The
only danger woidd be if the European war rolled that
way, or the Turks took Vienna, either of which was
possible. The country might then be overrun with
vagabond soldiers, who were Erasmus's special horror
and the curse of the age. He could not execrate too
loudly the madness of the two monarchs for whose
rivalry the world was too narrow. Francis had ac-
cepted a dispensation from the Pope from the oath
which he had sworn at the Treaty of Madrid. Charles
insisted on his bond ; and at a time when Europe most
needed the ruling hand of secular authority the Turks
were left to fasten themselves on Hungary, the free
cities of Germany to revolt from the Church, and
frantic theologians, Catholic, Lutheran, Zwinglian,
and Calvinist, to tear and rend each other.
It was a mad world.
TO BOTZEMUS. 1
Fbeybi bo, August 13, 1520.
In such times as ours it is better to call on the Lord
than to trust in princes and armies. We must pray
to Him to shorten these days. Alas! Christianity
has sunk so low that scarce a man knows now what
calling on the Lord means. One looks to cardinals
and bishops, another to kings, another to the black
battalions of monks and divines. What do they want?
What do they expect from protectors, who care
1 E}>. mlxxii., abridged.
304 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
nothing for Catholic piety, and care only to recover
their old power and enjoyments ? We were drunk or
asleep, and God has sent these stern schoolmasters to
wake us up. The rope has been overstrained. It
might have stood if they had slackened it a little, but
they would rather have it break than save it by con-
cession. The Pope is head of the Church, and as such
deserves to be honoured. He stretched his authority
too far, and so the first strand of the rope parted.
Pardons and indulgences were tolerable within limits.
Monks and commissaries filled the world with them
to line their own pockets. In every Church were the
red boxes and the crosses and the papal arms, and
the people were forced to buy. So the second strand
went. Then there was the invocation of saints. The
images in churches at first served for ornaments and
examples. By-and-by the walls were covered with
scandalous pictures. The cult ran to idolatry; so
parted a third. The singing of hymns was an ancient
and pious custom, but when music was introduced
fitter for weddings and bancpiets than for God's ser-
vice, and the sacred words were lost in affected into-
nations, so that no word in the Liturgy was spoken
plainly, away went another. What is more solemn
than the mass ? But when stupid vagabond priests
learn up two or three masses and repeat them over and
over as a cobbler makes shoes ; when notorious pro-
fligates officiate at the Lord's table, and the sacredest
of mysteries is sold for money — well, this strand is
almost gone too. Secret confession may be useful ;
but when it is employed to extort money out of the
terrors of fools, when an institution designed as medi-
cine for the soul is made an instrument of priestly vil-
lany, this part of the cord will not last much longer
either.
Priests who are loose in their lives and yet demand
to be honoured as superior beings have brought their
order into contempt. Careless of purity, careless what
they do or how they live, the monks have trusted to
their wealth and numbers to crush those whom they
Lecture XVIII. 365
can no longer deceive. They pretended that their
clothes would work miracles, that they could bring-
good luck into houses and keep the devil out. How
is it at present ? They used to be thought gods.
They are now scarcely thought honest men.
I do not say that practices good in themselves
should be condemned because they are abused. But
I do say that we have ourselves given the occasion.
We have no right to be surprised or angry, and we
ought to consider quietly how best to meet the storm.
As things go now there will be no improvement, let
the dice fall which way they will. The Gospellers go
for anarchy ; the Catholics, instead of repenting of
their sins, pile superstition on superstition ; while Lu-
ther's disciples, if such they be, neglect prayers, neg-
lect the fasts of the Church, and eat more on fast days
than on common days. Papal constitutions, clerical
privileges, are scorned and trampled on ; and our won-
derful champions of the Church do more than anyone
to bring the Holy See into contempt. There are ru-
mours of peace. God grant they prove true. If the
Emperor, the Pope, and the Kings of France and
England can compose their differences and agree on
some common course of action, evangelical religion
may be restored. But we must deserve our blessings
if we are to enjoy them. When princes go mad, the
fault is often in ourselves.
As to me, my worst enemies used to be the Domini-
cans and Carmelites. Now I am best hated by the
Franciscans, and especially by the observant branch
of them. They have long railed at me inside their
walls. Lately one of them stormed ;it me for an hour
in St Peter's Church, and in sudi terms that many of
the people went out before the sermon was finished.
Cavajal Salamanca has brought out a book worthy of
a child of St. Francis ; when it appeared it was nailed
to a gibbet.
Cardinal Newman said that Protestant tradition on
the state of the Church before fche Reformation is
3G6 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
built on wholesale, unscrupulous lying. Erasmus was
as true to the Holy See as Cardinal Newman himself.
I do not know whether he is included among these
unscrupulous liars. It is an easy way to get rid of an
unpleasant witness.
The rumours of peace proved true. Where states-
men had failed, the ladies were successful. The
Queen Regent of the Netherlands and the Queen of
France met at Cambray and arranged preliminaries.
A conference followed, where England was again rep-
resented by Sir T. More ; and the war which had so
horrified Erasmus came for a time to an end. It had
begun in defence of the Pope against the Emperor.
Partners had changed in the course of it, and before
it was over the Emperor and the Pope had become
close allies, and the future position of England towards
both of them was depending on the decision which
was to be given on the divorce of Catherine of Ara-
gon. " The peace is made, " Henry said to her when
the business at Cambray was concluded. " It depends
on you whether it is to last. "
A few words to exjnain Henry's meaning.
Germany being divided and distracted, the military
power in Europe was partitioned between the Em-
peror and the Kings of France and England. The
resources of Charles and Francis I. were so nearly
balanced that the accession of England to either party
turned the scale. France was the hereditary enemy
of England ; Spain and Burgundy England's heredi-
tary ally ; and, if the old alliance could be re-estab-
lished, France was unlikely to break the peace again.
The only obstacle was the proposed divorce of Queen
Catherine. I need not enter here into the rights and
wrongs of that much-agitated question ; but it is quite
certain that the Emperor, the Pope, every responsible
Lecture XVIII. 367
statesman in Europe, except perhaps the King of
France, desired to see it honourably and amicably ar-
ranged. Marriages contracted by princes for political
purposes are under other conditions than voluntary
contracts between private persons. The marriage of
Henry and Catherine had been arranged for a politi-
cal jmrpose ; it had failed in the primary object of
providing a male heir to the crown, and in the absence
of a male heir it was notorious that a fresh war of
succession would follow on the King's death. Cath-
erine was past the age when she could hope for an-
other child. As she was Prince Arthur's widow, her
marriage with Henry had been made possible only by
a papal dispensation, and it was uncertain whether the
dispensation itself had been lawfully granted. The
dissolution of such a marriage when the interest of a
great nation was at stake would have been simple and
unobjectionable. No decision needed to be made on
the validity of the marriage, and Catherine could re-
tain her title and establishment, and thus would lose
nothing. She had but to retire into what was called
lax religion and to take a formal vow of celibacy.
The King could then be easily enabled to marry again.
This was the solution of the difficulty which the Pope
himself desired and urged, having admitted that
Henry's demand was a just one. Charles, though not
pleased with the slight upon his family, would have
sacrificed his pride to preserve the English alliance
and the peace of Europe. The only difficulty lay
with Catherine. Consent she would not, and the Em-
peror, as her natural protector, insisted that her mar-
riage should not be judicially declared null against
her will. The question was hanging in abeyance at
the time of the Peace of Cambray, and no mention
was made of it among the articles considered. Cardi-
368 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
nal Campegio, Erasmus's friend, was on his way to
England as legate with a commission to settle the
dispute, and Clement had secretly promised Henry
that Campegio should give judgment in his favour.
But promises went for little with a Pope who had
powers to hind and to loose ; and Charles, on the
other hand, had extorted another secret promise from
him that till Catherine agreed no judgment should be
given at all. Henry was a dangerous person to trifle
with. Another question now naturally rose — whether
a Pope who refused deliberately to do what he ac-
knowledged to be right, who was sacrificing the inter-
ests of England at the bidding of another sovereign,
could be allowed to retain any authority at all in Eng-
land ; whether England was not competent to settle
her own problems in her own way. All turned on
Catherine, and that was the meaning of Henry's
words to her. If she would consent, Charles and
Henry would remain friends, and they two with the
Pope could restore order to Europe. Singular that
so much should have hung on the will of a single wo-
man ! Erasmus was unable to believe that interests
so enormous could be interfered with by so slight an
obstacle. When he heard that the business was
trusted to Campegio he ceased to feel even uneasi-
ness, so confident was he of a satisfactory result.
Little did he foresee, sharp-sighted though he was,
that out of this small cloud would grow a storm
which would cost the lives of the dearest friends that
he had.
On the conclusion of the peace Charles went to
Italy to be crowned by the Pope. Sir T. More, as I
said, had represented England at Cambray. Erasmus
wrote him a letter full of congratulations, full of ad-
miration of Henry and the services which the King of
Lecture XVIII. 369
England has rendered and would again render to
Christendom. Erasmus's chief anxiety was for Ferdi-
nand, who was being ground between the Turks and
the German Protestants.
TO SIR T. MORE. 1
Fkeybukg, September 5, 1520.
Would that Ferdinand's affairs were in as good con-
dition as his kiudness deserves. He had been my best
friend. Two years back he wanted me to go and live
with him at Vienna. Fortune deals cruelly with him
n6w. He applied for help to the Diet of Speyer, and
they offered him so little that he would not take it.
The Emperor is in Italy, staying longer than I like
with the Pope. This colloguing between popes ami
princes bodes no good to Christianity. . . . The
theologians say I ran away from Bale because I was
afraid. If I went back they would say I was joining
the rebels. Everyone, even my opponents, wanted me
to stay, and my going was entirely against my will.
Bale had been a nest for me so many years, and there
was a risk in moving with such health as I now suffer
from. But I preferred to venture my life rather than
appear by remaining to approve of what had been
done. With common prudence the revolution might
have been prevented. But a couple of monks set the
fire blazing — one by a sermon in the cathedral, and
the other by a similar performance in his convent.
George of Saxony talks of encountering Luther. I
might as well encounter Thraso. I advised him to let
Luther alone. My health is good, and the summer
has been charming, but I fear for the autumn. This
place is half surrounded by mountains, and scarce a
day passes without rain.
Erasmus's expectations from the peace were disap-
pointed. The Emperor's hands were now free. The
Church party were clamouring to him to lose no more
1 J:'p. mlwiv., abridged.
370 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
time and to interfere with a high hand in Germany,
and the Emperor seemed inclined to gratify them.
The Lutheran States were arming for defence, and
war seemed only to have ceased with France to be
followed by a furious conflict in Germany.
Septembers, 1529.
I fear (Erasmus writes to Mount joy x ) that the Gos-
pel will lead to a desperate struggle. Germany is pre-
paring for it, and the theologians are inflaming the
wound. I could wish them a better mind. I myself
seem doomed like Hercules to be fighting monsters
all my life, and weary I am of it. Never since the
world began was such an age ; everywhere smoke and
steam. I trust Cardinal Campegio has dispersed that
small cloud you wot of. 2
Campegio, as you know, did not disperse that small
cloud, and the news from England became so inter-
esting as to make Erasmus forget for a moment the
sins of the theologians. Wolsey was dismissed from
the chancellorship. The seals were given to Sir
Thomas More, and Parliament was summoned to begin
the movement which was to sever England from the
Roman communion. Campegio had argued, implored,
entreated ; Catherine had remained inexorable. The
Emperor, relying, perhaps, on the assurances of the
ambassador that the English nation would stand by
the Queen, forbade the Pope to keep his promise to
Henry; and the question rose whether a supreme
judge of Christendom, who was allowing himself to be
controlled by an earthly monarch in a cause of politi-
cal importance, could be permitted to retain a power
which he could no longer use impartially. At all
events, respect for such a pope was no longer to delay
the reform in England of the abuses which had thrown
1 Ep. mlxxvii. 2 The divorce.
Lecture XVIII. 371
Germany into revolution. In England there was the
same simony, the same papal exactions, the same
pluralism, fortified by purchased dispensations from
Rome. Wolsey held three bishoprics and the wealthi-
est of the English abbeys. In England there were
the same convocations, passing laws, without consent
of Parliament, to bind the laity; the same Church
courts to enforce such laws, the same arbitrary im-
prisonments, the same complicated plunder in the
name of religion, the same sales of pardons and indul-
gences, the same ruinous appeals to Rome in every
cause which could be construed as spiritual, the same
extortions supported by excommunication, which, if
disobeyed, passed into a charge of heresy; the same
exemption from the control of the common law, which
the clergy claimed in virtue of their order ; the same
unblushing disregard of the common duties of moral-
ity, encouraged by impunity for vice.
The endurance of the laity had been long exhausted,
and the quarrel with the Pope gave an opportunity
for Parliament to take in hand a reform for which
the whole nation clamoured. The German Diet had
drawn up a list of wrongs, their Centum Grani-
mina against the clergy, and had demanded redress.
Erasmus, Sir T. More, Charles V. himself, every
open-minded layman in Europe, knew reform to be
necessary. The fall of Wolsey, who had been the
embodiment of the detested system, was a signal for
the fall also of the temporal power of the olergy.
Lord Darcy, the most Catholic noble in England,
the special friend of Charles V., the future lemlrr of
the Pilgrimage of Grace, took the lead in drawing u)>
Wolsey's attainder, and the famous Parliament of
1529 began its work of legal revolution amidst the
sh licks of the hierarchy.
372 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Henry VIII., with the help of his people, was doing
precisely what Erasmus had himself urged on Adrian
and Clement as necessary and inevitable ; and it was
no little joy to Erasmus to see his friend More elected
to preside over such a work in the House of Lords.
Unfortunately, his own best friends in England were
divided. The Duke of Norfolk succeeded Wolsey as
Prime Minister, Sir Thomas More was Chancellor,
and both were strong for moderate reform. Fisher,
Warham, Tunstall, the bishops generally, felt in-
stinctively that far-reaching changes lay behind these,
beginnings, and resisted to the utmost of their power.
The opposition to Church reform combined by de-
grees with the opposition to the divorce. Catherine's
cause became identified with the Church. Other ele-
ments of discontent soon swelled her party, and Cath-
erine herself became a secret centre of political dis-
affection. A vast conspiracy sprung up, organised by
Erasmus's old antagonists the monks and theologians,
and, as the quarrel with the Church developed into a
quarrel with the Pope, it took definite and dangerous
shape. Henry was to be excommunicated and de-
posed ; the peers of the old faction of the White Rose
were to take the field again. Every monastery in
England became a nest of mutiny, and every friar a
preacher of sedition.
The King knew what was going on, but did not
choose to be frightened by it. Parliament pro-
ceeded with its work session after session. Conspir-
acy went on simultaneously — Catherine acquiescent
and at last encouraging. A Spanish army was to be
landed with the Pope's blessing in the eastern coun-
ties. The peers and gentry were to take arms. The
monasteries were to find the money. Sir T. More fell
back to the Catholic side in his hatred of Lutheranism,
Lecture XVIII. 373
and the danger grew like the prophet's gourd. Henry
armed the English Commons, built a fleet, and passed
the statutes which still remain as the charter of the
spiritual liberties of the English laity.
Events moved fast. In six years the authority of
Rome was abolished. The Crown of England was de-
clared independent of all foreign power, supreme in
all causes, ecclesiastical and civil, within its own do-
minions. Warham died of grief ; More and Fisher
fell on the scaffold ; the monasteries were peremptorily
abolished and the rebellion crushed.
Erasmus lived to see all this beginning. He hoped
as it proceeded that each step would be the last ; that
the Pope would be wise in time ; that England, which
he had loved so well, might be spared the convulsions
which he saw hanging over Germany. On the divorce
case itself he thought that Henry was justified in de-
manding a separation ; or at any rate that the will of
a single woman ought not to stand in the way of the
interests of Europe. England, however, was far away.
In England he could neither act nor advise. His own
immediate concern was with the coming crisis in
Germany.
Charles, having consulted with the Pope, seemed to
have resolved on decisive action. He summoned the
Diet to meet at Augsburg to take into consideration
the condition of the country. Both sides had armed,
and were prepared to fight if the Diet failed. Among
the Germans the Lutheran party were the strongest ;
but behind the Catholics was the Spanish army, if
Charles pleased to use it. Erasmus regretted that he
had been unable to be present at Worms. I [e perhaps
felt that he ought to make a stronger effort to attend
at Augsburg, but he found an excuse in failing health.
374 Life, unci Letters of Erasmus.
TO CUTHBERT TUNSTALL. 1
January 31, 1530.
So far the battle has been fought with books and
pamphlets. We are coming now to guns and halberts.
If I cared less for my soul than my body I would
rather be with the Lutherans ; but I will not forsake
the one Church with death now close on me in the
shape of a stone in my bladder. Were Augustine to
preach here now as he preached in Africa, he would
be as ill-spoken of as Erasmus. I could find 600 pas-
sages in Augustine, and quite as many in St. Paul,
which would now be called heretical. I am but a sheep ;
but a sheep may bleat when the Gospel is being de-
stroyed. Theologians, schoolmen, and monks fancy that
in what they are doing they strengthen the Church.
They are mistaken. Fire is not quenched by fire. The
tyranny of the Court of Rome and a set of scandalous
friars set the pile alight, and they are pouring on oil to
put it out. As to More, I am pleased to hear of his pro-
motion. I do not congratulate him personally, but I
congratulate Britain and, indirectly, myself. It is
hoped that the Emperor's authority will end the Ger-
man schism. I trust, at any rate, that there will be no
bloodshed, that the victory will be to Christ's honour,
and that we shall not have papal officials and monks
in power again. The clergy are thinking only of re-
venge, and not the least of amending their lives.
The excitement grew as the Augsburg Diet drew
near. The extreme faction was in power at Rome ;
Erasmus's friends there were in the shade ; and he
himself, as he heard to his alarm and sorrow, was out
of favour in the highest quarter. He could not under-
stand why. He thought himself peculiarly meritorious
in having held aloof from Luther, and now the Pope
was listening to people who told him that Erasmus
1 Ep. nixcii., abridged.
Lecture XVIII. 375
was at the bottom of all that had gone wrong. He
wrote at great length to the Papal Secretary to coin-
plain.
TO SADOLET. 1
March 7, 1530.
Do you think (he said) that I could ever have con-
nected myself with a miserable mob ? I have been a
better friend to the Church than those who are for
stamping the fire out by force. I name no one.
Some of them are friends of my own, but they have
done no good that I can see. The result so far is to
add to the niunber of their enemies and to drive the
Germans into a league. God grant I prove a false
prophet ; but if you see the Catholic Church brought
to wreck in Germany, remember that Erasmus fore-
told it. The first mistake was to neglect Luther's
protest against indulgences ; the next, when things
grew serious, to appeal to popidar clamour and leave
the defence to monks — men orhi fere i?ivisos, hated
of all the world. Luther's books were burnt when
they ought to have been read and studied by earnest
and serious persons. There was too much haste to
persecute ; we tolerate Jews and Bohemians, we might
have borne with Luther. Time cures disorders which
nothing else will cure. I said all this, but no one at-
tended to me. I was called the friend of schismatics.
Then came Aleander with the Pope's bull. He
thought wonders of himself — burnt more books, filled
the air with smoke, and went about with the Emperor
threatening right and left. He would have laid hold
on me if the Emperor had not protected me. Another
eminent person declared war on me at Rome — said I
had no learning and no judgment. When I com-
plained, it appeared he had read nothing that I had
written. I have still hopes. These trials may be for
our good in the end and turn to the glory of the
Church. Other countries arc in the same condition
as Germany, only the disorder has not yet broken
i Ej>. inxciv., abridged
376 Life and Letters, of Erasmus.
out. The fever is fed by the ferocity of an interested
faction.
The battle was now raging round the Real Presence.
Luther on this point had remained orthodox, but it
was challenged by the Swiss reformers, and every
tongue was busy with it. Again we listen to Eras-
mus : —
TO THE BISHOP OF HILDESHEIM. 1
Fekyburg, March 15, 1530.
Innumerable questions are asked — how the ele-
ments are transubstantiated ; how accidents can sub-
sist without a subject ; how the colour, smell, taste,
quality, which are in the bread and wine before it is
consecrated can remain when the substance is changed ;
at what moment the miracle takes place, and what has
happened when the bread and wine corrupts ; how
the same body can be in many places at once, &c.
Such problems may be discussed among the learned.
For the vulgar it is enough to believe that the real
body and blood of our Lord are actually present. It
is a mystery to be approached reverentially. Men
should not be allowed to march up and down the aisles
or chatter at the doors during the ceremony. You stay
out a play till the Valete et plaudite ; can you not
wait for the completion of a miracle. In earlier times
there was but one celebration in a day. Now, partly
from superstition, partly from avarice, the saying of
masses has become a trade, like shoemaking or brick-
laying — a mere means of making a livelihood. And
again, some attention should be paid to the priest's
character ; dress and office are not enough, the life
must answer to the function. Nowadays, when the
celebration is over, the man who has offered the sacri-
fice adjourns to drinking parties and loose talk, or to
cards or dice, or goes hunting, or lounges in idleness.
While he is at the altar angels wait upon him ; when
he leaves it he seeks the refuse of mankind. It is not
1 Ep. raxcv.
Lecture XVIII. 377
decent. Priests should not by their loose living teach
heretics to despise the ineffable mystery.
Two young Franciscans in Spain had been denoun-
cing Erasmus again. An enthusiastic friend named
Mexia had been fighting his battles for him. Eras-
mus often complained of his loneliness, of his un-
happy condition between the points of the two angry
factions, of the inattention which was paid by both to
his advice and warnings. If the letter which he
wrote to Mexia to thank him for his exertions is a
faithful picture of his actual position, he ought to have
been better satisfied ; for whether they took his advice
or not, the great people of the world seem to have
been particularly anxious to hear his opinions.
TO MEXIA. 1
Freyburg, March 30, 1530.
Great lords, bishops, abbots, learned men of whom
I have never heard, write daily to me, to say nothing
of kings and princes and high prelates who are known
to all mankind. With their communications come
magnificent presents. To the Emperor Charles I owe
the best part of my fortune, and his loving letters are
more precious than his gifts. His brother Ferdinand
writes equally often to me and with equal warmth.
The French king invites me to Paris. The King of
England writes to me often also. The Bishops of
Durham and Lincoln send me gems of epistles, so do
other bishops and archbishops and princes and dukes.
Antony Fugger sent me a hundred gold florins when
he heard that I was leaving Bale, and promised me as
much more annually if I would settle at Augsburg.
Only a few days since the Bishop of Augsburg brought
me two hundred florins and two princely drinking
cups.
I have a room full of letters from men of Learning,
1 Ep. mciii., abridged.
378 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
nobles, princes, and cardinals. I have a chest full of
gold and silver plate, cups, clocks, and rings which
have been presented to me, and I had many more
which I have given away to other students. Of the
givers, some are sages ; some are saints, like the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London and
Rochester. I have not sought their liberality ; I have
always said that I had enough ; yet if I had no pen-
sion from the Emperor these alone would suffice for
my support. Some call me, as you say, a sower of
heresies, and deny that I have been of service to liter-
ature. If this be so, how came I by the favours of so
many distinguished men? Compare the world as it
was thirty years ago with the world as it is now, and
then ask what it owes to Erasmus. Then, not a prince
would spend a farthing on his son's education ; now
every one of them has a paid tutor in his family. The
elder theologians were against me always, but the
younger are on my side. Even among the monks,
some who began with cursing are now taking my
part ; and finally here is yourself championing me
against those impertinent Franciscans. But, my dear
friend, do not make the monks your enemies. They
are Dodona's cauldrons ; if you stir one you stir all.
I am sorry the Observants have so degenerated. Those
two loquacious lads would not have ventured so far
without encouragement from their elders. The prob-
lem before us is how to heal this fatal schism with-
out rivers of blood ; and these youths are spreading
the fire. Such as they are past mending. Let them
alone. I have still confidence in the Emperor ; he
has authority ; he is pious and wise ; he has even
genius of a certain kind, and an Imperial objection to
cruelty.
LECTURE XIX.
We have arrived at the famous Diet which met at
Augsburg in the summer of 1530. The Emperor was
present in person, with his brother Ferdinand, the
German princes, the deputies from the free cities, the
legate Campegio fresh from failure in England, with
his train of ecclesiastical warriors to defend the cause
of Holy Church. Luther being under the ban of the
empire could not be received. The confession of the
reformed faith was drawn and presented by Philip
Melanchthon, and was accepted by more than half the
Diet as representing their belief. What would the
Emperor do? Had there been no English problem,
no Catherine to perplex his action, it is likely that he
would have insisted, as he afterwards did at Trent, on
a practical reform of the Court of Rome and the eccle-
siastical system, and have allowed the Confession of
Augsburg to stand as an interim till the dirty sewers
had been cleared out. But his hands were tied. The
Church party required him to put the Lutherans
down with fire and sword. The Pope had not for-
given the storm of Rome and his own imprisonment.
If Charles refused, the Pope it was too probable would
declare for the divorce and so try to recover the alle-
giance of England. Even had there been no Catherine,
however, his situation was infinitely difficult. As
emperor he was head of Germany, but he had neither
revenue nor army sa\e what he could raise in his own
hereditary dominions; and these by his coronation
380 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
oath lie was bound not to employ without the Diet's
consent inside the limits of the empire. He hated the
very thought of a religious civil war, yet he was re-
sponsible for order. The reforming States had set
aside the old laws, altered the religious services, abol-
ished bishops and bishops' courts, suppressed the
monasteries, seized and confiscated the inviolable
property of the Church. When the Church appealed
to him for protection, how was he to refuse ?
He was received immediately on his arrival at Augs-
burg with a silent intimation of what lay before him.
He was sitting at dinner with his brother Ferdinand
when he was informed that a company of players
wished to perform before him. They were admitted.
The action was in dumb show. A man in a doctor's
dress brought in a bundle of sticks, some straight, some
crooked, laid them on the hearth, and retired. On
his back was written " Reuchlin." Another followed
who tried to arrange the sticks side by side, could not
do it, grew impatient, and retired also. He was
called Erasmus. An Augustinian monk came next
with a burning chafing-dish, flung the crooked sticks
into the fire, and blew into it to make it blaze. This
was Luther. A fourth came robed as an emperor ; he,
seeing the fire spreading, tried to put it out with his
sword, and made it flame the faster. He, too, went off,
and then appeared a figure in pontifical robe and with
triple crown, who started at the sight of the fire,
looked about, saw two cans in the room, one full of
water the other of oil, snatched the oil by mistake,
poured it on, and raised such a blaze that he fled in
terror. This was Leo X.
Erasmus was not present at the Diet ; perhaps he
could not be ; but the Emperor knew what he thought ;
and the mummers had given a sufficiently just repre-
Lecture XIX. 381
sentation of his attitude. Erasmus wished the sticks
to lie side by side. He was for toleration and conces-
sion, the Church rides for uniformity to be relaxed,
the demands of the laity to be satisfied as far as might
be without a schism, the clergy to be allowed to many,
the Church land question to be settled by a compro-
mise ; while, as to doctrine, the ancient Articles of
Faith, on which all parties were agreed, were a suffi-
cient basis for communion. On the new questions
over which the world was quarrelling — the Real Pres-
ence, the priesthood, justification, predestination, free
will, grace, merits, and the rest of it, men might be
allowed to think as they pleased without ceasing to
be Christians or splitting into separate communities.
Time and moderation would settle these problems, as
they settled all others ; the worst possible course would
be for one party to thrust its own opinions by force
down the throat of the other.
A few wise men, the Emperor among them, thought
as Erasmus did. Alas, it required two centuries of
fighting, and another century of jealousy and suspicion,
before mankind generally could be brought to accept
what seems now so obvious a truth. Erasmus watched
the Diet from his sick bed, and wrote his thoughts
about it to his friends.
TO PHILIP MELANCHTIION. 1
Eta > i.i bg, July 7, 1530.
You may hold ten Diets, but only God can ravel
out these complications. I can do nothing. Anyone
who proposes ;i reasonable composition is called a
Lutheran, and that is all which he gains. 1 have been
ill these three months — suffering, sick-, and misera-
ble. Medicine made me worse, hirst I had a violent,
pain ; then came a hard swelling down my right side
1 Ep. mew ii.
382 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
to the groin, gathering at last at the pit of my stomach,
as if a snake had my navel in his teeth and was coiled
round the umbilicus. Shooting pangs continued so
that I could neither eat nor sleep, nor write nor dic-
tate. The surgeon nearly blistered me to death ; at
length the tumour was cut open, sleep returned, and
I was relieved. Now I crawl about feebly, but am
not out of the doctor's hands.
TO RINCKIUS. 1
I hear that three points have been proposed at the
Diet : the Germans to help in driving back the Turks ;
the religious quarrel to be made up peaceably ; and
the injuries to the Catholics to be examined into and
redressed. I cannot guess what will come of it, and
unless the reformed States hold together there will be
fighting yet. Some think terms will be made. The
Lutheran demands are moderate, and the Pope is
ready to make concessions. Campegio is for mild
measures, and has thrice written to me from Augs-
burg. The Bishop of Augsburg is also for yielding
something, and is of course reviled as a heretic, though
one of the best of men. Melanchthon writes that he
does not despair. Many think I ought to be there;
but the Emperor has not sent for me, and if he does
I am too ill to go. Some say the Emperor will merely
ask for money, refer the doctrines to the next general
council, and put off the priests and bishops and monks
and abbots who have been plundered with bona verba.
You will have seen the Lutheran libels against myself
and recognized the author. Who would have thought
the drunken scamp had so much venom in him ! This
sort of thing sets me against the whole party. They
will not allow that man has a free will, and yet they
hate those who do not agree with them. Some tell
me not to read these things ; others about the Em-
peror say I ought to answer, and sharply. I know
not how it will be. I am ill and old and worn out,
and want to be at rest.
1 Ep. mexxiv., abridged.
Lecture XIX. 383
MELANCHTHON TO ERASMUS. 1
August 1, 1530.
You would not believe there was such fury in man
as is shown by the papal advocates. They see the
Emperor and his brother are for moderation, and they
want to force them into violence. You, I understand,
warn him against listening to them, and I hope your
words will weigh with him. Continue your good work,
and deserve the thanks of posterity ; you cannot use
your influence to better purpose. We have given in
our own views without condemning others. We are
told our concessions are too late ; but we wish to show
that we desire peace if we can have it on fair condi-
tions. Great changes are plainly imminent. God
grant our rulers may be so guided that the Church is
not wrecked in the process. Again I beseech you, for
Christ's sake, do not let the Emperor declare war
against quiet citizens who are willing to accept fair
conditions.
The Bishop of Augsburg exerted himself for peace,
and was, of course, execrated by the Church party.
Erasmus advised him to pay no heed to the bite of
reptiles. But, on the whole, the news from Augsburg
was not encouraging. Clement, if he was ever mod-
erate, was now urging extremities, and Charles could
not break with him. It became clear that he meant
to insist on submission, and the reforming leaders let
him see that they were in earnest on their side. They
drew together in a bond fur mutual defence, protesting
(hence the name Protestant) that they would have no
lies forced on them at the sword's point. Erasmus
tried his eloquence on Campegio : 2 —
August IS, 1680.
If the Emperor is only putting <>n a brag, well and
good ; if he means war in earnest, I am sorry t«> he a
* Ep. mcxxv. 2 Ep. nixcxi\.
384 Life a nd Letters of Erasmus.
bird of ill omen, but I am in consternation at the
thought of it. The spirit of revolt has gone far. I
myself admit the Emperor's supremacy in Germany,
but others do not, save under conditions where they
rather command than obey. His own dominions are
exhausted. Friesland is now disturbed, and they say
the Duke has turned Lutheran. The free cities are
Lutheran, and the chain reaches from Denmark to
Switzerland. If the Emperor becomes the servant of
the Pope he will not find many to go along with him,
and we are looking daily for an invasion of Turks
whom we can barely resist when united. I know that
the Emperor is personally for peace ; yet it seems his
fate to be always fighting. The fire is breaking out
again in Italy, as if the world was to be drowned in
blood ; and as if the whole Church might be ruined in
the process. The people generally regard the dispute
as if it affected merely the interests of Popes, bishops,
and abbots. The question is nqt what the sectarians
deserve, but what course with them is expedient for
Europe. Toleration may be a misfortune, yet a less
misfortune than war. For myself, I would gladly be
beyond the Alps. The Emperor has those about him
who bear me no good will.
Again, to another great person : 1 —
September 1, 1530.
Unless I am far mistaken, there will be blood shed
in Germany. The Lutherans have given in their Arti-
cles. The Emperor will do as the Pope wishes, and
forbid all change in what has been once decreed. He
does indeed promise reform, but the property taken
from the bishops and priests is to be restored. It is
possible, if the Pope is moderate, that things may not
turn out as I fear. But just now the Pope is busy
making new cardinals for his body-guard, ahd I doubt
if that will much advantage him. There were cardi-
nals enough already, swallowing bishoprics and abbeys.
1 Ep. mcxxvii.
Lecture XIX. 385
Alas ! however, when the Emperor shows a wish to
be moderate, the Evangelicals cry the louder for
war. They spatter him and the Catholic princes with
libels. They threaten retaliation if the professors of
the Gospel are persecuted. A scandalous caricature
of the Emperor has been published with seven heads.
Again : 1 —
September 6, 1530.
You would think they were celebrating- the mysteries
of Bona Dea at the Diet. No one knows what is do-
ing there. If the Emperor gives way the others will
cry that they have beaten him, and there will be no
bearing them, while the monks will be equally intol-
erable if they have the Emperor on their side.
And once more to Campegio : 2 —
September 7, 1530.
Peace was rather a wish than a hope. Now there
is nothing left but to pray Christ to wake and still
the waves. God may yet prevent the Emperor from
making war on Christians. The Turks are in the
field, and will be too many for us if we fight among
ourselves. Once let a civil war begin and none can
guess what will come of it. I would have been present
at the Diet could I have been of use there, though I
have good friends who would stab me in the back were
I engaged with an enemy. If trouble comes I shall
be the first victim ; but I will bear anything before I
forsake the Church. I never made a party or gath-
ered disciples about me, and I have deserved better
tivatnient than I have met with. I can acknowledge
this to you, in whom I have always found a kind
friend and patron. The past cannot be recalled, but
you may do something in future to save me from
scandalous accusations.
And, the same day, to the Bishop of Trent: 3 —
I am at the lust act of the play, and have now only
to say, Valete etplaudite. I can leave the stage with
1 Ep. mexxvi. - /',<• aw oexvii. Ep. mexxxix.
386 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
a quiet mind if the Emperor and the princes and
bishops can still this storm without spilling blood.
The worst side often wins in the field, and to kill
one's fellow-creatures needs no great genius; but to
calm a tempest by prudence and judgment is a worthy
achievement indeed.
It was not without reason that Erasmus was heavy
at heart. He was worried by the attacks of the Lu-
therans. The Catholics meant to be revenged on
him when their time came. He had prophesied that
he would be the first victim, and the prophecy seemed
likely to be fulfilled. While the Diet was still sit-
ting an edict was announced, commanding the restora-
tion of the Catholic services through Germany, the
restoration of the Church property, and the reversal
of all that had been done. The Dominican Eck,
Luther's first and most violent antagonist, wrote, in
the glow of triumph, an exulting and insolent letter
to Erasmus, telling him that he ought to be ashamed
of himself, but offering to be again his friend if he
would recant his sins. Eck's impertinence was too
intolerable. If the Protestant League meant to fight,
there would be a bloody struggle before the edict
could be executed, and Erasmus feared that he might
be in the centre of the storm. He thought of flying
to France, and would have gone had not a letter from
the Emperor recommended, and almost commanded,
him to remain at Freyburg.
Others (he writes to the Abbot of Barbara 2 ) give
me the same advice, and I reluctantly obey. Winter
is coming on. The plague is raging, and it is uncer-
tain how long the Diet will last. The Zwinglians
were refused a hearing. The Lutherans presented
their Articles, which were briefly replied to. The
1 Ep. mcxlvii., abridged.
Lecture XIX. 387
Diet being unable to decide, representatives of both
sides were chosen to arrange a concordat. The num-
bers being too large, a small committee was selected
of the most distinguished men to try what they could
do. They might have succeeded, but the Lutheran
princes refused to restore the Church lands or to
force their clergy to abandon their wives. The Em-
peror then said that the cities which had adopted the
new opinions must conform within six months, and he
used two expressions which offended the princes of
the religion. He called the Lutherans a sect, and he
added that their arguments had been refuted out of
Scripture. This they fiercely denied. They said, in
the Emperor's presence, that they not only believed,
but I- new their doctrine to be both Scriptural and
Apostolic.
The Emperor was angry ; the princes withdrew.
The edict came out immediately after.
The Emperor's award (Erasmus writes) will lead
to war. He is powerful — we know that. But the
people everywhere are for the new doctrines, and will
rise at the first signal. There might still be hope if
the Pope trusted in Christ. Alas ! he trusts more in
his cardinals and the Emperor's armies, and in those
wicked monks whose depravity has caused the whole
disturbance.
He evidently thought that the Lutherans had been
too exacting. Knowing Chai'les's real inclinations,
he believed that, if they had shown more forbearance,
his own scheme for a reconciliation might have been
gradually allowed. Why that could not be, why pro-
posals so sensible and reasonable were nevertheless
entirely impossible, may be explained by Luther him-
self, who, it is to be remembered, was always opposed
to armed resistance : —
Concord of faith is one thing, and eonoord of
388 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
charity is another. In charity we have not been
wanting-. We have been ready to do and suffer any-
thing except renounce our faith. We have not
thirsted for the blood of our opponents. We stood
by them in the peasant wars against rebels and fana-
tics. We did more to protect them than they did for
themselves ; and the anarchists hate us worse than
they hate the Papists. Yet the Papists wish to kill
us because we will not place human tradition on a
level with God's Word. God judge between us and
them ! It is vain for Erasmus to argue for concord
in faith on the principle that each party shall make
concessions. In the first place, our enemies will con-
cede nothing. They defend every point of their posi-
tion, and insist now on doctrines which they con-
demned themselves before the movement began. But,
once for all, we can allow nothing which contradicts
Scripture. Charity may yield, for charity aims at
correcting faults which may be amended, and wrestles
only with flesh and blood. Faith wrestles with spirits
of evil, desperately wicked, of whose conversion there
is no hope. There can be no peace between the
truth of God and the doctrine of devils. It is said
the Papists profess Christ's Gospel, and deny that
their doctrine is of the devil. Yes, they jrrofess;
but the tree is known by its fruits. They cry, " The
Church, the Church ! " and by the Church they mean
a body presumed to have divine authority, while the
members of it lead impious and wicked lives. Eras-
mus must think as they do of the Church, for he says
he will submit to what the Church shall decide. If
the Church is what they say, where is the use of
Scripture? Why do we risk our lives for what we
believe to be Truth when we may be all saved com-
pendiously in a single ship by receiving what the
Papists teach? What will you do with pious souls
who take Scripture as the Word of God, and cannot
believe what contradicts Scripture? Will you say,
" We want peace, and therefore you must submit to
the Pope " ? or, " The Pope has not decided on this
Lecture XIX. 389
point or that, and therefore opinion is free " ? A man
who fears God, who seeks life eternal, and fears
eternal death, cannot rest on undecided or dubious
doctrines. In my work on " The Bondage of the
Will" I condemned the scepticism of Erasmian
theology. Christians require certainty, definite dog-
mas, a sure Word of God which they can trust to live
and die by. For such certainty Erasmus cares not.
The Papists do not teach it. They cannot teach what
they cannot understand. Therefore we can have no
agreement with them. No Church can stand without
the anchor of faith, and faith stands on the Word of
God. The Papists and Erasmus may consult. It
will avail nothing. Human devices will not serve.
The pious soul listens for the voice of the Bride-
groom, their Shepherd and their Master. Contro-
versies may rise where the meaning of Scripture is
uncertain. I speak not of those. I speak of doctrines
and practices which are outside Scripture or against
Scripture, yet are insisted on by our adversaries.
They are not heresies, which are perversions of Scrip-
ture. They are profane, and therefore of the devil.
Erasmus should leave theology alone, and give his
mind to other subjects. Theology demands serious-
ness and sincerity of heart, and love for God's Word.
We have suffered enough under the Papacy, driven
about with shifting winds of doctrine, believing in
lies, coming at last to adore the monk's hood and to
be worse idolaters than the heathen. Those who pre-
tend that the Church may decree Articles of Faith
not found in Scripture make tin; Church a synagogue
of Satan, and set up a devil's harlot for the Virgin
Bride of Christ. If God gives me strength, I trust
to deal more fully with all this: but while the devil's
kingdom stands it is idle to look for concord in
doctrine.
Compromise with such a spirit was obviously im-
possible. "Certainty," no doubt, is the pearl of price
for which a man will sell all that he lias. Those who
390 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
have it have it, and, as Cardinal Newman tells ns, can-
not doubt that they have it. Unfortunately, of two
honest disputants each is often equally without doubt.
Cardinal Newman finds his " certainty " where Lu-
ther finds a synagogue of Satan. Newman finds
heresy where Luther has his sure Word of Christ.
Between such opposites the only argument which will
convince is a broken head ; and the reformers needed
swords tempered in a hotter furnace than Erasmian
toleration if they were to hold their own in the fight
now approaching. You can tolerate what will tolerate
you. Popery demanded submission at the sword's
point, and could only be encountered with the sword.
Reason is no match for convictions which do not rise
out of reason ; and Rome would have trampled oppo-
sition under its foot if it had not been met with a
conviction passionate as its own.
Erasmus could but remain on his solitary watch-
tower, a spectator of a struggle which he was power-
less to influence. Happily for him, the circumstances
of the time postponed for his own lifetime the inevi-
table collision, and permitted him to hope till his
death. The Protestant League closed their ranks :
rather death than submission to a lie. The armies of
the Crescent hung over Vienna. The Turkish fleet
swept the Mediterranean. France, though nominally
at peace, was on the watch to revenge Pavia ; and
Henry of England, in his present humour, might lend
France a hand if the Emperor became the armed
champion of the Pope. The Emperor's resolution
failed. Clement might pray; bishops and monks
might clamour ; but he himself had no heart for a
war of religion, and as soon as it became clear that
the Lutherans were really in earnest, the necessities
of his position gave him an excuse for disappointing
Lecture XIX. 391
orthodox eagerness. Stake and faggot must wait for
more favourable times.
Erasmus was not so destitute of religious conviction
as Luther thought him. But to Erasmus religion
meant purity and justice and mercy, with the keeping
of the moral commandments, and to him these Graces
were not the privilege of any peculiar creed. So long-
as men believed in duty and responsibility to their
Maker, he supposed that they might be. left to think
for themselves on theological mysteries without ceas-
ing to be human, and it shocked him to see half the
world preparing to destroy one another on points
which no one could understand, and on which both
sides were probably wrong. When the Diet rose the
worst seemed inevitable.
TO KRETZER. 1
Freyrueg, March 11, 1531.
I fear this fine city is in danger. The Emperor is
exasperated and Ferdinand is in no better humour.
They say there will be a truce with the Turks, and
there will be plenty of persons who will then pour oil
on the fire. You know what I mean. The Duke of
Bavaria covets a wider frontier, and will plead zeal
for the Catholic faith: and there are cardinals willing
to help him. They know that the whole storm has
risen from the pride and self-indulgence of the eccle-
siastical order, yet they go on spending, feasting,
gambling night after night. The people see it all,
yet the clergy think that the revolt can be crushed by
force. The only remedy is for the heads of the
Church to mend their ways, but this is the last thing
in their thoughts. They regard the revolution as a
mere outbreak of licence, and they look to human
means to protect themselves. Their pride, their
tyranny, their luxury, their profligacy daily grow
1 Ep. melxiii., abridged.
392 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
worse. It is not for me to condemn the Pope, but
the news which I hear from Italy fills me with sor-
row. He dreams that he can put down opposition by
getting - the Emperor to help him and by making more
cardinals. It is to defy God Almighty. The world
cannot overcome the world. They blow their trum-
pets, and say they are making war on heresy. The
war will be only for their own revenues and power
and idle pleasures. Between one faction and the
other the whole country will be laid waste, and the
Church and Germany be alike ruined. God grant I
prove mistaken, but I have been a true prophet so
far.
TO EGNATIUS. 1
March 13, 1531.
No one had more friends than I before the battle
of the dogmas. I tried to keep out of the fray, but
into the arena I had to go, though nothing was more
abhorrent to my nature. Had I but a single set of
enemies to contend with, I might bear it. But I am
no sooner engaged with one faction than the other
whose cause I am defending stabs me in the back. I
need to be Geryon with the hundred hands, or one of
Plato's men with two faces, four arms, and four legs.
You remember the fight between the scholars and the
Rabbins who would mix sea and land rather than ad-
mit that there was anything which they did not know.
I was in the thick of it, when out came this war of
opinions by which the world is still convulsed, and
almost all those who were then with me went over to
the new sect. I could not go with them and I found
myself deserted. They were patient with me for a
time. They thought I was hiding my real views and
would be with them in the end. At last I had to
enter the lists against their leader, and those who had
been my sworn allies became my bitterest foes. I
was in no better case with my old opponents, who
tried to persuade the world that the religious revolt
1 Ep. mclxv., abridged.
Lecture XIX. 393
could not be ended till learning was put down, and
specially Erasmus. Thus I was shot at from all
sides, and was only saved by the Emperor. Even
this fate, however, is better than either to give a
name to a new schism or to flatter tyrants parading
themselves in the name of Christ. These last have
found blood so sweet that they leave no stone un-
turned to bring on a civil war, which now seems
impending. Had I been attended to at first, the
quarrel might have been composed, and now we are
to be trampled down by contending armies.
In times of excitement news vary from hour to
hour. The day after he had written this desponding
letter he heard reports which gave him hope again,
and his fine natural spirits revived.
• TO DUKE GEORGE. 1
March 15, 1531.
The Gospellers libel me as usual, but I should care
little if I could see the Church as I would have it.
Italy seems quiet. France, they say, is now really
friendly with the Emperor. There is no danger from
Spain. And I hear the English divorce case is to be
rationally and peacefully settled. I know how well
disposed the King is. Also a truce is to be made
with the Turk, which is like to be of infinite benefit.
If this German fever would but abate we might ex-
pect a golden age.
It was a broken gleam of sunshine. The English
divorce was not settled; a truce was not made with
the Turk; and a fortnight later all w:is again
black as midnight.
TO ALBERT DALBON. 2
4pri7 I, L581.
I do not like the look <>f things, God knows what
is coming. They say lli«- Turk is putting three
1 Ep. mcLrix. .. mob - ill., abridge d.
394 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
armies in the field — one for Austria, one for Poland,
the other to land in Naples with a blessing from the
Pope. This is bad enough, and a civil war in Ger-
many will be worse. You may tell me a desperate
disease requires desperate remedies. I love not rem-
edies worse than the disease itself. When fighting
begins the worst sufferers are the innocent. Spain is
full of concealed Jews and Germany is full of rob-
bers. These will supply the ranks of the regiments.
Religion will be the plea, and the lava stream will
first deluge Germany and then the rest of Europe.
No emperor was ever stronger than our present
ruler. He, it appears, will do what the Pope orders.
This will be well enough if Christ's vicar will be like
his master, but I fear the Pope in his eagerness for
revenge will fare as the horse fared who took the
man on his back to drive off the stag. We must be
a wicked race when with such princes we are still
so miserable. Why do we not repent and mend?
They make laws against drink and extravagance, laws
for priests to keep their tonsures open, wear longer
clothes, and sleep without companions, but only God
can cleanse the fountain of such things. May God
teach the heads of the Church to prefer His glory to
their own pleasures, teach princes to seek wisdom
from on high, and monks and priests to despise the
world and study holy Scripture.
It is interesting to observe that in the midst of his
anxieties Erasmus was not neglecting his proper work.
Harassed by theological mosquitoes, alarmed, and
justly so, by the thunder-cloud which was hanging over
Germany, we find by the dates of his letters that he
was corresponding at length and elaborately with the
learned men of his time on technical points of scholar-
ship, Bible criticism or the teaching of the early Fa-
thers. This, too, when he was past sixty, and with
health shattered by gout and stone. Pie might com-
plain, and complain he did loudly enough, but he had
Lecture XIX. 395
a tough elastic spirit underneath it all, and complaint
did not mean weakness. It is well to mention these
things if I am to make you respect him, as I hope
you will. But I must leave them on one side. "We
have to do here with the relations of Erasmus to the
great events of his time.
The reformed States had been allowed six months
to comply with the Augsburg edict. They had not
complied, and did not mean to comply, and Charles
seemed to be getting ready to force them. Erasmus
writes : —
TO LEONARDI. 1
April 6, 1531.
All these preparations are made in the interest of
the priests, yet the priests may find themselves worse
off than they are now. The Emperor and his brother
mean well, yet they are about to let loose a scum of
ruffians over Germany — most of them half Luther-
ans at heart or men of no religion at all. It is said
the princes will keep them in order. Will they ?
Look at Rome, look at Vienna, which suffered worse
from its Q-arrison than from the Turks. Our two
sovereigns are good and pious, but they are young,
and the greater their piety the worse they may be led
astray. The Emperor will do as Clement tells him.
If Clement tells him what Christ will approve, well
and good; but — I will not add the rest; and
what is to become of sick old creatures like me '
From a movable I am become a fixture. I am one of
those animals they call adhesive. 1 cannot fly. T must
sit still and wait for my fate. Fugger invites me to
Augsburg, but I should only change one dangerous
place for another.
TO CARDINAL AUGUSTINE. 2
April 12, 1681.
I have done my best to stop these ( rerman troubles.
I have sacrificed my popularity ;in<l broken my
1 .Eyi.nn-lxwi. i p. mi lxwiii.
39G Life and Letters of Erasmus.
health, and small thanks I have met with from those
whose part I have taken. The Lutherans had some
right to be angry with me, but I did not look to be
so venomously libelled by the Catholics. I had ill
friends at Rome who tried to set the Pope against
me. Happily, they did not succeed. If the Pope
knew all he would see that Erasmus had been his
truest adviser. Tell the Pope from me that I have
encountered trials for Christ's sake which I would not
have faced to be created Pope myself. I have made
enemies of all the men of learning who were once
warmly attached to me, and old friends are the most
dangerous of foes, because they know our secrets.
Again : —
TO ANDOMAE. 1
April 10, 1531.
I am sick of Germany. If I do not know where I
should go, I know where I should not go. I have
thought of Flanders. Queen Mary, who is to suc-
ceed Margaret as Regent, is a good friend to
me ; but if I go there the Catholics will fall upon
me, and as they would have the Pope and the Em-
peror with them, she could not protect me. I
trust things are better where you are. The factions
here will leave no one alone. Where the Evangeli-
cals are in power they do as they please, and the
rest must submit ; we are already Lutherans, Zwing-
lians, and Anabaptists ; the next thing will be we shall
turn Turks.
The Evangelicals were not all so savage with Eras-
mus or so obstinate as Luther ; some of them -still
looked to him as the wisest guide to follow and as the
best able to help them. Julius Pflug, a young influ-
ential Protestant, writes to him from Leipzig : 2 —
May 12, 1531.
To you alone all friends of peace are looking.
You, by God's grace, have influence ,• you, and only
1 Ep. mclxxxv. 2 Ep. mclxxxvi.
Lecture XIX. 397
you, can convince the princes that if the controversies
are to be ended, human laws and institutions must
change with the times, and the Church must relax
such rules as are not of divine obligation. Do you
move the Emperor and his brother, and Melanchthon's
party will then submit to much which they do not
like. A little yielding on both sides, and peace may
be preserved.
Erasmus answers at length : 1 —
August 20, 1531.
Never was so wild an age as ours ; one would think
six hundred Furies had broken loose from lull.
Laity and clergy are all mad together. 1 have not the
power you think. I can work no miracles. I do not
know what the Pope intends. As burning heretics at
the stake has failed, the priests now wish to try
the sword. It is not for me to say if they are right.
The Turks perhaps will not leave them leisure for the
experiment. The better way would be to restore the
Gospel as a rule of life, and then choose a hundred
and fifty learned men from all parts of Christendom
to settle the points in dispute. Opinions on special
subjects need not be made Articles of Faith. Some
laws of the Church may require to be changed, and
clergy should be appointed fitter for their duties. At
present the revenues of the Church go to support a
parcel of satraps, and the people are left to the new
teachers, who would abolish the whole Church organ-
isation. Had Adrian lived and reigned ten years,
Rome might perhaps have been purified, lie sought
my advice. I gave it, but received no answer. I
suppose it did not please him. Melanchthon is ;i man
of gentle nature. Even his enemies speak well of
him? II.; tried your plan at Augsburg, and had my
health allowed I would have been there to support
him. You know what ••nine of it. Excellenl eminent
men were denounced as heretics merely tor having
spokeu to him. Suppose that he and I were to
1 Ep. rncxev., abridged.
398 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
compose a scheme of agreement, neither side would
accept it — leaders or followers. Remember Monk
John in the theatre. John, being country-bred, had
never seen a theatre. Two prize-fighters were show-
ing off on the boards. John rushed in to part them,
and was of course killed.
The Pope, after all, had to wait for his revenge.
The Turks were guardian angels to the infant Gos-
pel. If they were not to take Vienna, Charles and
Ferdinand required the help of Germany ; and not a
man nor a florin would the Diet vote unless religion
was let alone. The English cloud grew blacker.
Catherine was still obstinate. The Pope censured
the King. The King replied with Acts of Parliament
and fitted out his fleet. The Catholic nobles and the
monks and abbots prepared to rebel, entreated the
Pope to excommunicate the King, and entreated
Charles to send across an army from Ostend. The
Pope declined to thunder unless Charles would prom-
ise to execute the sentence ; and Charles knew per-
fectly well that if he stirred a finger, France and
England would both be in the field against him, and
civil war would break out in Germany.
The Edicts of Augsburg slept. It was impossible
to enforce them, and men began to talk of a General
Council as the only remedy. Erasmus could breathe
more freely again. Charles and Ferdinand, who had
been cold while the war fever was on them, were
again polite and complimentary. The Pope grew
civil. Cardinals remembered their old friendship and
became once more gracious and affectionate. Concili-
ation was to be the order of the day, and the help of
Erasmus might be needed after all.
LECTURE XX.
This will be my last lecture, for the life of Eras-
mus was drawing to an end. He did not feel it. His
health was shattered. He was sixty-five years old,
but his indomitable spirit was rising with the apparent
improvement of the prospect. The Emperor was gra-
cious again ; Clement was propitious. Ferdinand of-
fered him some high post in the Church, and directed
the Cardinal of Trent to make a formal proposal to
him. He was, of course, pleased, though obliged to
refuse.
May 19, 1532.
I am much gratified (he writes in acknowledgment
to the Cardinal 2 ), and I regret that I am not able to
thank the Prince in person. You bid me ask some
favour of him, which you undertake that he mil grant.
Would that King Christ had sent me such a message.
Of Him I should have much to ask — especially a
mind more worthy of His service. From the King of
the Romans I can desire nothing beyond what his
goodness already supplies. I am fit for nothing but
study. High office would be a fresh burden on the
back of a broken-down old horse. Wealth at the end
of life is but fresh luggage when the journey is over.
Neither Pope nor Emperor can delay the advance of
years or make bad health into good. Both call them-
selves my friends, but they cannot stop the barking
curs. Would they could !
Cardinal Cajetan also wrote that the Pope wished
to show Erasmus some mark of esteem. Tins was
1 Ep. mccxxi., abridK«'l.
400 Lfe and Letters of Erasmus.
well enough now when his help was again needed. He
was pleased, but did not choose to appear too effusively
grateful. He thought Clement might have done more
to stop the "barking curs," considering the service
which Erasmus had done the Church by refusing to
join Luther.
July 23, 1532.
Had I a grain of heresy in me (he said *), I should
have been driven wild long ago by those snarling
wretches, and have gone into the heretic camp. As it
is, I never made a sect ; anyone who came to me I
handed back to the Church ; I have no need of honours
and benefices — ephemeral little mortal that I am ! —
but I will gladly do what I can to please the Pope,
and will welcome any token of approbation from him.
Conciliation was now to be the order of the day,
but Erasmus had no intention of forwarding- an ar-
rangement which was to give back their power to the
monks. There coidd be no peace till those dogs were
muzzled. The monks had been at the bottom of the
whole mischief.
The champions of the Franciscans (he writes to
Charles Utenhove 2 ) must be more hateful to St.
Francis than to any other mortal. St. Francis came
lately to me in a dream and thanked me for chastising
them. He was not dressed as they now paint him.
His frock was brown, the wool undyed as it came from
the sheep ; the hood was not peaked, but hung behind
to cover the head in bad weather. The cord was a
piece of rope from a farmyard ; the frock itself did
not reach his ankles. He had no fine shoes. His
feet were bare. Of the five wounds I saw not a trace.
He gave me his hand on departing, called me his
brave soldier, and said I should soon be with him. I
would complain less of the dress of these people if they
copied their founder's virtues, the seraph's six wings
1 Ep. mccxxvii. 2 Ep. mccxxx.
Lecture XX. 401
as they call them — obedience, poverty, chastity,
humility, simplicity, charity. If they possessed these,
honest men as well as silly women would then welcome
them as angels of peace. They ought to be preaching
the Gospel; you find them instead haunting princes'
courts and rich men's houses. Their morals — but
of this I say nothing ; silence is more emphatic than
speech. Would that silence was not necessary ! They
go about begging with forged testimonials, which serve
for a passport, and now they have made the notable
discovery that a rich man, alarmed for his sins, may
buy a share in the merits of the order if he is buried
in the Franciscan habit. They demand admission at
private houses, to come and go as they please, invited
or uninvited, and the owner dares not refuse. What
slavery is this ? A man with young sons and daugh-
ters and a wife not past her prime must take a stranger
into his family whether he likes it or not — Spaniard,
Italian, French, English, Irish, Scotch, German, or
Indian — and the secrets of his household are exposed
to all the world. Wise men know that in such a mul-
titude not all are pure. Monks are often sent on their
travels because they have misconducted themselves;
and, even supposing them sober and chaste, they are
made of the same flesh as other men. I have heard
many stories of what has happened in such circum-
stances. They pretend that they have no other means
of living. Why should they live at all ? What is
the use of these mendicant vagabonds ? Not many of
them teach the Gospel, and, if they must needs travel,
they have houses of their own order to go to.
There would be no more mendicant monks if Eras-
mus could have his way, and when priests took the
law into their own hands and married wives lie did
not find particular fault with them. A humorous let-
ter to one of these is interesting for an anecdote which
it contains of Sir Thomas More. 1
1 Ep. nice w.wii.
402 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
October 31, 1532.
Do not repent of having married a widow. If you
buy a horse, you buy one already broken in. Sir T.
More often said to me that if he was to marry a hun-
dred wives he would never take a maid. He has an
old one now who has lived a little too long.
Sir Thomas More was just then much in Erasmus's
mind. As the prospect seemed to be clearing in Ger-
many, the English cloud was growing darker. He
had been proud of his friend's elevation to the Chan-
cellorship, and delighted to see him engaged in the
practical reforming work with which Parliament had
been busy. But events were running now in a direc-
tion little pleasing to an earnest Catholic. The Act
of Appeals broke up the spiritual constitution. An
English court was about to settle the divorce question
at home. Clement himself would have made terms,
but the Imperial party at the Vatican compelled lum
to issue censure upon censure, which Henry continued
to defy. More could no longer take a part in mea-
sures which he disapproved. He made his health an
excuse, and resigned the Great Seal. He had been
willing enough to use the knife in paring down the as-
sumptions of the clergy, but, like Erasmus, he did not
wish to break with the papacy or make a schism in the
Church. Like Erasmus, also, he disliked the new
doctrines, and disliked still more the persons by whom
they were advocated — men, ignorant and uneducated,
who were railing at the beliefs of fifteen hundred
years. Moderate reformers always hate those who go
beyond them. More confessed that he detested the
Lutheran demagogues, and he had distinguished his
Chancellorship by the severity with which he had
punished them. Their friends in Germany heard of
it, and there was an outcry which Erasmus, not very
successfully, undertook to answer.
Lecture XX. 403
TO JOHN FABER. 1
1533.
Report says that More has been dismissed from of-
fice, and that a number of persons have been released
by his successor whom More had imprisoned for her-
esy. The story has flashed over Europe like light-
ning. I was sure it was false. I know how unwill-
ingly the King- parts with a servant whom he has once
trusted, even for a real faidt. More's retirement was
by his own wish. The Chancellorship is a great of-
fice, next to the Crown. The Chancellor is the King's
right eye and the King's right hand. More was ap-
pointed because the King loved and respected him.
The Cardinal of York, when he found he could not
himself return to office, admitted that More was the
fittest man to succeed him ; and this is the more
noticeable because the Cardinal when in power had
not been just to More, and had more feared than liked
him. All were pleased when he accepted the Great
Seal; and he lays it down to the universal regret.
Who succeeds him I know not. As to what is said of
the release of prisoners, I am certain that a man so
merciful would have punished no one who after warn-
ing was ready to recant his heresies. Is it meant that
tire highest judge in the realm is not to imprison any-
one? More detests the seditious doctrines with which
the world is now convulsed. lie makes no secret of
it. He is- profoundly religious, and if he inclines
either way it is towards superstition. Yet during his
tenure of office not one person has been punished cap-
itally for his opinions [a large mistake of Erasmus].
But is the King's deputy to show favour to seditious
novelties against the judgment of the bishops and the
King? Had he been so disposed, ha i i he not abhorred
the new doctrines, he must have Concealed his sympa-
thies or resigned his offiee. Who does not know that
behind the shield of religion crowds of rascals are
ready to break into crime unless restrained 1>\ the
magistrate? Yet men are angry because the Chief
1 Ep. ccexxvi., second series abrid
40-i Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Judge of England lias only done what the senates of
the reformed free cities have been obliged to do, if the
pseudo-Gospellers were not to break into their tills.
The English Chancellor, forsooth, was to sit still while
a, torrent of villainy overflowed the realm! The
meaning of all this clamour is that England is to be a
city of refuge for scoundrels ; and the King will not
have it so.
A generous defence, and partly sound. The laws
of a great kingdom cannot be set aside in a moment
to relieve the consciences of individuals. But it is not
true that no ( heretics were sent to the stake during
More's term of office, and those who suffered under
him were not the rogues whom Erasmus describes.
More himself repudiates the suspicion of leniency as
an insult.
My epitaph shall record (he says) that I have been
an enemy to heretics. I say it deliberately. I do so
detest that class of men that unless they repent I am
the worst enemy they have. Every day I see increas-
ing reason to fear what mischief they may produce in
the world.
Before two years were over Erasmus had himself
to regret that More had not left theology alone.
More, too, had to pay for excess of zeal. But it is to
be remembered that he was in the centre of a hurri-
cane, blown up, as he thought, by vanity and igno-
rance. He had to act according to his light, and it is
not for us historians in our easy-chairs to talk glibly
of bigotry and superstition. Before we censure, we
must try to understand. On his resignation of the
Great Seal, More wrote an interesting letter to Eras-
mus. 1
Chelsea, June 14, 1533.
By the grace of God and the King I am at last free,
though I am not as well off as I could wish. Some
1 Ep. mcexxiii., abridged.
Lecture XX. 405
disease, I know not what, hangs heavily about my
heart. It is not pain ; it is distress and alarm at what
lies before us. Doctors told me I must rest, and be
careful of my diet. I found I must either resign or
do my duty badly and risk my life. If life went, my
office would go along with it ; so I thought it best
to save one of them at any rate, and the King was
pleased to release me. I am good for nothing when I
am ill. We are not all Erasmuses. Here arc you, in
a condition which would break the spirit of a vigorous
youth, still bringing out book on book, for the in-
struction and admiration of the world. What matter
the attacks upon you? No great writer ever escaped
malignity. But the stone which these slanderers have
been rolling so many years is like the stone of Sisy-
phus, and will recoil on their own heads, and you will
stand out more grandly than ever. You allow frankly
that if you could have foreseen these pestilent heresies
you would have been less outspoken on certain points.
Doubtless the Fathers, had they expected such times
as ours, would have been more cautious in their utter-
ances. They had their own disorders to attend to,
and did not think of the future. Thus it has been
with them as with you, and heretics can quote passages
from the Fathers which seem to make for their view ;
but so they can quote Apostles and Evangelists and
even Christ Himself. The bishops and the King try
to check these new doctrines, but they spread wonder-
fully. The teachers of them retreat into the Low
Countries, as into a safe harbour, and send over their
works written in English. Our people read them
partly in thoughtlessness, partly from a malicious dis-
position. Tiny enjoy them, not because they think
them true, but because they wish them to lie true.
Such persons are past mending; but I try to help
those who do not go wrong from bad will, and are Led
astray by clever rogues.
Death meanwhile had carried off Warham. He
was expected to leave Erasmus a legacy, hut lie died
406 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
so poor that there was scarce enough left to bury him.
In Warham Erasmus had lost the dearest of his
English friends. There was a doubt also whether he
might not lose his pension, but for this there was no
occasion ; it continued to be paid while he lived.
Who would succeed Warham was an anxious question
to him.
Freyburg, May 14, 1533.
I cannot guess (he writes to a correspondent) 1 who
the new archbishop is. I hope it is William Knight.
I am sorry things look so threatening over there.
The Pope orders the King to live with his wife till
the cause is decided at Rome. At the rate at which
it proceeds it never will be decided while the parties
are alive. It has already lasted eight years ; 2 and
now that two hundred doctors have proved by Scrip-
ture and argument that the marriage with Catherine
cannot stand either by human law or divine, the King
may fairly plead his conscience ; while, on the other
hand, if the Pope pronounces against the marriage,
he will offend the Emperor and compromise the Holy
See, which granted the original dispensation. Causes
which bring so much money to Rome and the princes
under the power of the Holy Father are not apt to
be finished, and perhaps there is something besides
that touches the King which he does not care to ex-
pose to the world. 3
Cranmer, as we all know, was the new primate,
once adored as a Protestant saint and martyr, now as
passionately reviled. We are not concerned with
Cranmer here, but before this letter of Erasmus was
written the King and the English Parliament had
1 Ep. ccclxxii., second series.
2 Jam octo sunt anni quod agitur hoc necjolium. The date is impor-
tant as it takes us back to 1525, long before Anne Boleyn had been
heard of in connection with the King.
3 " Et fortassis aliud quiddara est quod urit Regis animum, quod ef-
f em non vult."
Lecture XX. 407
taken care that the suit should not linger any longer
at Rome. The Act of Appeals had been passed.
Cranmer had held his court at Dunstable and had
given final sentence. On the birth of Elizabeth an
Act of Succession became necessary, declaring the
marriage with Catherine to have been illegal from the
first, and requiring all subjects to acknowledge Eliza-
beth as lawful heir to the Crown. Catholic Europe
shrieked. The doctors at Louvain, who insisted that
Erasmus was at the bottom of all that went wrong,
accused him here, too, of having encouraged Henry in
shaking off the Pope's authority. His friend Damian
a Goes wrote to him for leave to contradict these
charges. His answer contains the fullest account of
his views on the divorce itself. 1
Freyburg, July 25, 153 >.
You ask me, my dear Damian, what you are to
answer to those who accuse me. Answer that their
teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp
sword. No mortal ever heard me speak against the
divorce or for it. I have said it was unfortunate that
a prince otherwise so happy should have been entan-
gled in such a labyrinth, and should have been es-
tranged from the Emperor when their friendship was
of such importance to the world. But I should have
been mad to volunteer an opinion on a subject where
learned prelates and legates could not see their
way to a decision. I love the King, who has been al-
ways good to me. I love the Queen, too, as nil good
men do, and as the King, I think, also does. The
Emperor is my sovereign. I am sworn of his coun-
cil, and if I forgot my duty to him I should be tin-
most ungrateful of mankind. How, then, could I
thrust myself unasked into a dispute so invidious 7
Had I been consulted, 1 should have endeavoured not
to answer; bu,t neither the Emperor nor Ferdinand
1 Ep. mccliii., abridged.
408 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
ever did consult me. Two years ago two gentlemen
from the Imperial Court came to me and asked me
what I thought. I said I had not given my mind to
the subject and could therefore say nothing ; the most
learned men disagreed ; I could tell them, if they
liked, what I wished ; but to say what human or
divine law would permit or forbid in such a matter
required more knowledge than I possessed. They
assured me that they had come of their own accord,
and had no commission from the Emperor; and except
these, no mortal has ever questioned me on the sub-
ject. The fools you speak of have told an impudent
lie. It is true that many years ago I dedicated the
twenty-second Psalm to the new lady's father at his
own request. He is one of the most accomplished
peers in England, and is a man of wisdom and judg-
ment. But this is nothing to the divorce, which I
hear he has neither advised nor approves.
English affairs concern us here only indirectly, but
the long connection of Erasmus with Sir T. More re-
quires a few words about them. The King's marriage
with Anne Boleyn was a signal for an Irish rebellion
in the Pope's name. The English Catholic armed, -
and waited only for the landing of arms and men from
Holland to rise also, perhaps with Catherine and her
daughter at their head. The clergy, monks and reg-
ular, were the most active in promoting insurrection,
and Bishop Fisher, unhappily for himself, had gone
into the worst kind of treason (there is no doubt of
it now since the publication of Chapuys's despatches),
urging the introduction of an invading Catholic force
as the only means of saving England for the Church.
The Catholic preparations were well known to Henry,
if not the names of the actual leaders. English kings
had no armies at their personal command. They de-
pended on the allegiance of their subjects, and they
had to be wary what they did.
Lecture XX. 409
But the King- could not sit still to let the storm
break on him. In passing the Act of Succession,
Parliament had empowered him to require his sub-
jects to swear to observe it. The oath was generally
taken without resistance. Sir T. More and Bishop
Fisher refused, and were committed to the Tower.
The conspiracy darkened and deepened. The Pope
gave his own sentence, declaring the marriage with
Catherine valid, and excommunicating the King if he
refused to take her back. The King and Parliament
replied with the famous Act of Supremacy, declaring
that the Pope of Rome had no power or right in Eng-
land at all. To refuse to acknowledge the supremacy
of the Crown was to admit the superior right of the
Pope, and was declared high treason. Thus the two
parties stood face to face — the party of national inde-
pendence and the party for a foreign ruler. The
Supremacy Act was the test of loyalty. In the dan-
gerous situation of the country every subject might be
legitimately required to say on which side he stood.
So matters went on in England during these years.
We must return to Erasmus. Over all the disturbed
part of Europe the cry was now rising for a general
free council — a council where the laity should have a
voice. The confusion had become intolerable. All
reasonable men, and even the wild and violent, de-
clared themselves ready to submit to a council really
free. Henry himself was ready to refer his own ac-
tions to such a council. But the question w;is li<>\\- it
was to be got together. The Pope, if it was Left to
him, would call only his own creatures t<> meet b e-
where in the Papal States, and make another Council
of the Lateran of it. I'm- the Emperor to call a coun-
cil would itself be an ecclesiastical revolution. To the
Pope even a council of bishops meeting anywhere
410 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
was sufficiently unwelcome ; a council where laymen
were present would probably turn the Tiber into the
Vatican, and make a clean sweep of cardinals and
Curia. Letters on the subject from all sorts and con-
ditions of men poured in upon Erasmus. Here is one
from an earnest moderate Catholic, expressing, per-
haps, the thoughts of millions : —
GEORGE WICELIUS TO ERASMUS. 1
March 30, 1533.
I can think of nothing but the council. Our miser-
ies will never end till the cause of them is removed.
War will settle nothing, and will leave an incurable
ulcer. Germany is rent in two ; Christianity itself is
in peril. Oh, ears of Rome ! oh, heart of Rome !
deaf and dead to the one thing needful, and buried
in the pleasures of the world ! Have not Catholics
waited long enough? Will you do nothing for the
poor flock of Christ ? Will not our cries move you
at last ? Our hope is that the Emperor will lay
demands before the Court of Rome which it will be
ashamed to refuse, and persuade or weary it into com-
pliance. What Luther's party will do I know not.
Some think they will never agree to any equitable
settlement. I think they will agree if they are ap-
proached in a friendly spirit, and if the council, when
it meets, is wise and moderate. Some are tired of the
struggle already. Some I have heard say in plain
words they wish their scheme of doctrine had never
been formulated, so many are the inconveniences
which have risen from it. Luther himself will be
less violent when he hears how other learned men
think of him. His haughty crest will droop and his
horns drop off when he is no longer on his own dung-
hill, and has to defend his theories of yesterday
against the sages of Christendom. But you, Erasmus,
you of all men must be there. You plead age and
1 Ep. ccclxxi., second series, abridged.
Lecture XX. 411
illness. Were I emperor I would take no excuses
from you. I would have Old Appius carried thither
in men's arms. It is not Hannibal who is now at the
gate ; it is the devil, who is trying to destroy the
Christian faith. You can prove — you can answer —
you can explain as no other living man can do. You
can silence the rival fanatics. We will not listen to
Luther ; we will not listen to the sophists of the
schools. We will listen to Erasmus, and to those
who think like Erasmus — to those who love Chris-
tianity better than they love a faction.
As a council seemed approaching, and a council
which Erasmus might guide, the louder clamoured
the Ultra-Catholics. Clement himself wavered, dread-
ing the thought of it — now flattering the Emperor,
now defying him under the supposed shelter of France :
weak, wavering, passionate, determined at any rate that
there should be no Erasmian reforms in the Church
of Rome ; while monks and priests fired off their
vicious letters at Erasmus himself.
December 24, 1533.
I have so many letters daily (he writes to Mexia 2 )
that I can scarcely read, much less answer them.
Silence is the highest wisdom. Hercules himself
could not do battle with so many ants, wasps, frogs,
magpies, cranes, gulls, and geese. If they had neither
stings nor beaks nor claws, the very noise they make
would drive him mad. How often have 1 answered
them! yet they still sing the old song. Erasmus
laughs at the saints, despises the sacraments, denies
the faith, is against clerical celibacy, monks' vows,
and human institutions. Erasmus paved the way for
Luther. So they gabble; and it is all lies. These
dead-to-the-world creatures are such a set of spitfires
that it would be safer to be lighting cardinals and
kings.
1 Ep. iiic-i K\ .
412 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
It soon became evident that there would be no coun-
cil as long as Clement lived. He had lost England
to please the Emperor, and the Emperor was refusing
or neglecting to burn heretics to please him. He
turned spitefully on everyone who had advised a coun-
cil. Erasmus fell again out of his favour further
than ever. The " dead-to-the- world " gentry received
a hint that they might attack Erasmus again when
they pleased. A Franciscan monk high in favour at
Rome, named Nicholas Herborn, published a volume
of sermons in which Erasmus was included among; the
heretic leaders, and a friend at Rome, the Provost of
the Curia, sent him word of it. He was ill again, not
with podagra, as he said in his humorous way, but
with penagra, and wanted no aggravation of his suf-
ferings. " Herborn's book," he said in reply, " has
neither eloquence nor learning. There is only venom
in it. He says Luther has drawn away one part of
the church, Zwinglius and GEcolampadius another,
and Erasmus the largest of all. He thinks it would
have been better if Erasmus had never been born."
Happily for his peace, Clement died soon after,
and with the succession of Paul III. better prospects
seemed to open. Paul, while cardinal, had been
urgent for reform, had entreated the Emperor to give
way about Catherine, and had been strongly in favour
of a council. His first act on his accession had been
to make advances to Henry VIII. He spoke of call-
ing a council immediately. He sent the Cardinal of
St. Angelo to Germany to feel his way towards a
reconciliation. In Clement's time Erasmus had been
denounced, as he complained, in every church and at
every dinner as only fit for a Phalaris's bull. The
Cardinal of St. Angelo now sent him profuse compli-
ments along with a handsome present.
Lecture XX. 413
January 9, 1535.
The Cardinal (he wrote 1 ) has given me a magnifi-
cent gold cup as a sign of his good will. I produced
it for my friends Glareanus and Khenanus, who were
dining with me. Rhenanus insisted that I should
take my medicine as well as my wine out of it — that,
in fact, I should never drink from anything else.
Erasmus describes his cup as a work worthy of
Praxiteles. The Cardinal had added besides that
Paul, at his election, had given him hopes of a peace-
ful solution of the German quarrel and particularly
desired Erasmus's assistance.
This was cheering news for his old age. He might
yet hope to see peace before he died, and be of use in
bringing it about. Paul himself soon after confirmed
the Cardinal's message under his own hands, and
wrote himself to Erasmus. 2 He told him that he
trusted to distinguish his reign by bringing St. Peter's
boat back into harbour; that Erasmus must give him
his help at the council, and so nobly end his long life,
silence his detractors, and gain immortal honour.
Erasmus at this time had been seriously ill. The
physicians ordered him change of air. He was too
weak to ride, and was carried back from Freyburg in
a woman's litter to Bfde, where the climate suited
him. He meant only to sta) r there till he had recov-
ered strength. He was never to leave it again, lie.
became better at first, the Pope's letter no doubt help-
ing his convalescence. Paul was perhaps in earnest in
what lie had said; but events are too strong even for
popes. The first misfortune was the rising of the Ana
baptists at Minister, where, as Erasmus said, the devil
had broken loose in earnest. The Anabaptists, who
had aspired to regenerate the world on an impossible
1 Ep. mcclxxvi. - Ep. mcolzzz. Maj 31, i-"'- ; .">.
414 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
creed of love and equality — a creed which they were
to propagate only by meekness and non-resistance —
had been bitten by the madness of revolution, and
had spread like a stream of fire over Western Ger-
many and the Low Countries. They were stamped
out with a ferocity like their own; but their rising
intensified the passion of the Catholics, who regarded
them as the natural offspring of Luther and Luther-
anism, and were thus more opposed than ever to any
kind of agreement. Francis took to burning heretics
in Paris, rehearsing a prelude to St. Bartholomew,
swinging the poor wretches in chains above the flames
while he and the Court looked on. Darker news of
another kind came from England. The country was
on the eve of rebellion : half-a-dozen powerful nobles
were ready to rise in the northern and eastern coun-
ties ; the religious houses volunteering to pay the
expense of an invading Catholic army. The Act of
Supremacy was put into force to distinguish the loyal
from the disloyal, and those who had given cause for
suspicion were called on to take the oath of allegiance.
The regular clergy we know, from the letters of Cha-
puys, were at heart disloyal to a man. Most of them
took the oath with their lips ; others, bolder, refused.
Four centuries of immunity from the law had led
them to regard themselves as sacred persons whom
the secular arm could not reach. They were made to
feel that their privileges could no longer protect them,
and they suffered as traitors. " Cruel ! " — we say —
" inhuman ! monstrous ! such saintly men ! " Yes,
but civil war is cruel too. Many a home would have
been laid in ashes, and many a hearth been desolate,
if the Spaniards and the Catholic landknechts, whom
these men were trying to bring upon our shores, had
been let loose on the towns and villages of England.
Lecture XX. 415
We ought to think of this, and what it was that
Henry's peremptory resolution saved us from. Paul,
as was said, made overtures to him. Henry was in
no hurry to respond. He said he had no wish to
separate from Christendom if he and his realm were
justly treated. Clement VII. had injured him. If
Paul wished for a reconciliation, he had the remedy
in his own hands. He might show it by his acts.
There had been words enough.
The remedy, if there was one, lay in a free council.
Henry wished for it. All wished for it who were not
maddened by fanaticism, or, like the Roman Curia,
terrified at the name of reform. Paul, however,
seemed still in earnest, and began creating new cardi-
nals as a preparation for the meeting. Among them
he proposed to include Erasmus. Stronger proof of
his sincerity it would have been impossible for Paul to
give. Within a few months the Roman bigots would
have consigned Erasmus to Phalaris's bull. Now, in
his old age, the Pope desired to make him a prince
of the Church. The only objection was his want of
private fortune, and this could be easily remedied.
Unhappily for Paul — unhappily for the prospects
which then seemed really brightening — he added a
name to the list of promotions to the Sacred College
less wisely chosen — that of Fisher, Bishop of Roches-
ter. He protested that he knew Fisher only as a holy
and learned man, a reformer of the old school, a no-
torious friend of Erasmus. He said that he required
the assistance of some distinguished Englishmen a1 the
council; and that he had made the appointment be-
lieving that he could have selected no one more agree-
able to the King and the nation. It is hard to accept
such an interpretation. The [mperial ambassador in
England was in close and constant correspondence
416 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
with Rome. Fisher had been named in his let-
ters again and again as the leading spirit of the in-
tended insurrection, as the most constant opponent of
Henry's actions in everything that had been done. He
had been imprisoned for many months in the Tower
for having refused the succession oath. He had been
sentenced for misprision of treason as having been con-
cerned in the conspiracy of the Nun of Kent. It is im-
possible that the motive could have been as innocent as
the Pope pretended. Perhaps it was no more than a
pettish resentment at Henry's refusal of his overtures.
But if it was a mistake, it was a fatal one. It was
accepted in England as an act of defiance — a deliber-
ate encouragement of the rebellion which Fisher had
been so actively concerned in preparing. He was re-
quired to acknowledge the supremacy of the Crown.
Sir Thomas More, as his dearest friend, was involved
in the same fate and pressed with the same demand.
They refused. Stern times required stern measures.
They were both executed — both victims to the Pope's
cunning or the Pope's folly.
This is not the place to discuss Henry's conduct in
the matter. Erasmus was busy contemplating his own
offered promotion, not without some natural pleasure ;
not, perhaps, without an intention of accepting it if
his health would allow. The news from England was
a terrible interruption of his meditations. Fisher had
been among the warmest of his English friends. Sir
Thomas More had been more than a friend — the most
affectionate of his companions, the most constant of his
defenders, the partner of his inmost thoughts. The
fatal story first reached him as a rumour. " The
King of England " (he writes to Dainian a Goes) 1
" has been savagely punishing some of the monks. He
1 Ep. incclxxxiY.
Lecture XX. 417
has imprisoned the Bishop of Rochester and Sir
Thomas More. News from Brabant report that they
have been put to death. I trust it is but an idle
tale."
If true, it was of ill omen for the council. Eras-
mus speaks of the rumour again in a letter to Latomus,
as still unconfirmed, but, highly as he thought of
Henry, as not necessarily incredible.
Bale, August 14, 1 •">.;:>.
My life has been long (he said *) if measured by
years. Take from it the time lost in struggling
against gout and stone, it has not been very much after
all. You talk of the great name which I shall leave
behind me, and which posterity is never to let die.
Very kind and friendly on your part ; but I care no-
thing for fame and nothing for posterity. I desire
only to go home and to find favour with Christ. The
French who fled hither from last winter's persecution
have been allowed to return to Paris. The prophet
says the lion roars and the people tremble. The
other side are trembling now in England. Certain
monks have been put to death as traitors. There is ;i
constant report here, and probably enough a true <>ii'\
that the King, when he heard that the Bishop of
Rochester had been made a cardinal by Paul III., had
him out of prison and cut his head off — a fine red
hat for a bishop. More is said to have been executed
too. This is not certain; but I wish he had not im-
plicated himself in a dangerous business, and had left
theology to the divines.
The Pope seems in earnest about a council, but I
do not see how a council is to meet as the world now
stands. Lower Germany swarms with Anabaptists;
Minister, as you know, is taken ; but there has been a
dangerous riot in Amsterdam. At Lewis Bere's sug-
gestion, I wrote to the Pope. ITis Holiness spoke of
me in high terms, and mentioned me for a cardinalate,
1 Bp. mcclxxxvi.
418 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
Health and fortune were the difficulties. It seems no
one can be a cardinal who has not a private income of
3,000 ducats, but, alas ! I can scarce put my head out
of my room or draw a breath of air which has not been
warmed artificially — and am I to be thinking of red
hats ? However, I am glad that the Pope wishes me
well. 1
Erasmus's health was now manifestly failing ; the
literary pirates chose the opportunity to prey upon
him when he could not defend himself. His writing's
commanded an immense sale, and they were publishing
his private letters, fragments of his early writings, and
anything they could get hold of.
TO THE BISHOP OF CRACOW. 1
Bale, August 31, 1535.
Whatever I may write, however carelessly, finds its
way into type, and I cannot prevent it. Thus I am
kept continually at work revising and correcting.
They have even got hold of old exercises of mine at
school, and publish them for what they can make by it.
I was dangerously ill in the spring. I was ordered
change of air, and was carried back to Bale in a chair
in which for several years I had driven about in
Freyburg. The Bale people had prepared a set of
rooms which they thought would please me. The city
which I left seven years back in revolution is now
cpiiet and orderly. I have still ill-wishers here, but
at my age, and with my experience, I am in no more
danger at Bale than elsewhere. I do not mean to stay
long. I shall return to Freyburg when a house which
I have bought there is ready for me. By-and-by,
perhaps, I may go into Burgundy, the wine of that
country being necessary for my health. The carriers
spoil what they bring here by opening the casks and
1 Ep. mcclxxxvii., abridged.
Lecture XX. 419
diluting what they leave with water. But, indeed, 1
cannot hope to be ever well again, either here or
anywhere. I was delicate as a child. I had too thin
a skin, and suffered from wind and weather. In my
stronger days I did not mind my infirmities, but now
that I am but skin and bone I feel them all again. I
am worse or better according to the weather. My
comfort is that the end cannot be far off. You are
taken care of, and are not allowed to overwork your-
self. I am kept for ever in the mill, do what I may
to escape from it. Bonfires are blazing for the Em-
peror's victories in Africa. lie is said to have stormed
the Goletta. Miinster is taken and the insurgents
punished. The Anabaptists are crowding in hither
from Holland. I am glad that the Emperor is doing
well, wherever he may be ; but I wish he had stayed
in Germany and saved us from these creatures. These
Anabaptists are no joke. They go to work sword in
hand, seize towns, drive their creed down people's
throats, set up new kings and queens, and make their
own laws. Last winter there were troubles in Paris.
Bills were posted threatening the King for persecuting
what they called the Word of God. Four-and-twenty
of the authors of these writings were executed. Many
of the nobles fled. The King has recalled them, and
promised them liberty of conscience if they will leave
politics alone. Some say he was advised to be moder-
ate by the King of England, some by the Pope. You
will learn from a letter which I enclose the fate of Sir
Thomas More and the Bishop of Kochester. They
were the wisest and most saintly men that England
had. In the death of More I feel as if I had died
myself, but such are the tides of human things. AVc
had but one soul between us. The Pope has created
a few cardinals for the Synod, and proposed to make
me one of them. Objections were made to my small
fortune, my age and infirmities. Now they oner me
other dignities, which I shall not accept. A poor, half-
dead wretch such as I ain cannot be tempted into grand
idle company merely that I may end my life as a rich
•120 Life and Letters of Erasmus.
man. I am pleased by the Pope's letter to me, but
the ox is not fit for the saddle. 1
This was written on August 31, 1535, and it is
the last which I shall have to read to you. Others
followed, but of no particular moment, and in the
autumn and winter his health gradually sank. No-
thing happened to cheer his spirits. The red hat he
might have had if he wished, but he did not wish.
The Pope had no more thoughts of the council. His
whole mind was bent on punishing the insolence of
Henry of England. Kings and Popes had ceased to
interest Erasmus. He lived long enough to hear of
the fate of Anne Boleyn. He may have smiled if he
knew that she was no sooner gone than the Emperor
and Francis were both competing to secure Henry's
vacant hand for one of their kinswomen. But popes
and kings and Anne Boleyn were not important to a
man like Erasmus, with the great change ever in sight
of him. In early life death had seemed an ugly ob-
ject to him. When his time came he received it with
tranquillity. He died quietly at Bale on July 12,
1536, and was buried in state in the cathedral.
I have left myself no time for concluding reflections,
and I do not know that any reflections are necessary.
I have endeavoured to put before you the character
and thoughts of an extraordinary man at the most
exciting period of modern history. It is a period of
which the story is still disfigured by passion and preju-
dice. I believe that you will best see what it really
was if you will look at it through the eyes of Erasmus.
1 In another letter he says on the same subject: "Some of my
friends at Rome wish to provide the income required for the red hat,
and promote me whether I will or no. They mean it seriously.
The Pope, six of the cardinals, and the Portuguese Ambassador are
moving for me. I have written to say that I will not be provided for
by benefice or pension,"
INDEX.
Act of Appeals, 402, 407.
Act of Dissolution of Monasteries, 19.
Act of Succession (after birth of Eliza-
beth), 107, 409.
Act of Supremacy : a test of loyalty, 409,
414.
" Adagia" (Erasmus's work): specimens
of its satire and wit, 50 ; its reception
by the clergy, 51.
Adolf, son of the Lady of Vere, 74 sq.
Adrian of Utrecht (afterwards Pope
Adrian VI.) : a schoolfellow of Eras-
mus, 3 ; Charles V.'s tutor: made a
cardinal, 287; elected Pope, 209 ; de-
sires to reform the Roman Curia, 303 ;
the mass of corruption that needed
cleansing, 307; his position towards
Erasmus, 308 ; pressing invitations to
Erasmus to come to Rome : the hitter's
replies and counsel as to the treatment
of Luther's movement, 309 sqq. ; death
of Adrian, 312.
Agricola, Rudolph : foretold Erasmus's
fame, 4.
Albert, Cardinal. See Mentz, Archbish-
op of.
Aldington (Kent) : Erasmus appointed
to the benefice, and the sequel, 94.
Aldrich (master of Eton), a friend of
Erasmus, 221.
Aleander (Papal Nuncio to Saxony), 215,
231 «/</., 254, 269".
Ammonius (Papal agent in London), a
friend of Erasmus, 112; the hitter's
advice to him on his elevation to dig-
nity, 115.
Amsterdam in the fifteenth century, 1 ;
Anabaptist riota there, 417.
Anabaptists: Erasmus's opinion of them,
spreading over Germany, 317;
Charles V.'s edicts against, 365 ; ac-
count of their tenets, 357 ; one burnt
heretic In Paris, 368; the rising
at Hunster, and its punishment, 413 ;
their growth in the Low Countries,
117 ; Erasmus's account of their meth-
ods, 119.
Anderlac, Erasmus at, 291.
Anderliu, r'austus (poet - laureate) : a
friend ot Erasmus at Paris, 21 ; oi
pected by i to have been tin- author
oi "Julius II. Exclusus," 136.
"Angelical Doctor," the,
tntonia, a friend oi Erasmus, 34.
Antwerp in the fifteenth century, '
Appeals, Act of, 402, 407.
Aquinas, Thomas : Dean Colet's opinion
of him, 99.
"Arcana' liters," what Erasmus meant
by, 67.
Arnoldus, a friend of Erasmus, 25.
Augsburg, Bishop of : Letter of Erasmus
to, 350; liberality towards the latter,
377; his efforts tor peace between
Catholics and Lutherans, 383 .«■/.
Augsburg, Confession of : drawn up by
Philip Melanchthon, 379.
Augsburg, Diet of : summoned by Charles
V. to consider 1 1 it- condition oi the
country, 373 ; description of the meel
ing, 379 sqq. ; issues an edict command-
ing the restoration of Catholic worship,
38(3 ; some incidents of the discussion,
380; failure of an attempt to arrange
a concordat, 3, v 7 ; impossibility of en
forcing the edicts, 398.
Augustine (an associate of Erasmus), 71.
Augustine, Cardinal : letter of Erasmus
to, on the libels uttered by Catholics
against him, 395.
Atigustinian Canons: Erasmus's life
with, 14 ; their method of getting him
into their order, 16; temporary suc-
cess, 10 ; failure to get him back after
he left them, is, i;ii tqq.
Aurotinus, Cornelius, a friend of Eras-
mus, 24.
Authors of hooks: their remuneration
in Erasmus's days, 319.
" Babylonish Captivity " (Luther's
work), 286.
" Bacalao," meaning of, 224.
Bale: Erasmus's description of a jour-
ney thence to Lou vain, 221 ."/</■ ; Eras-
ettledat, with Froben,3O0 ; rapid
spread oi the Beformatlon doctrine •
there, 369 ; greal deal ruction ol li
and wall painting* In churches, 369;
Erasmus Leaves the city, 360 ; his rear
for making t he change, 800 ; his
return to, U8; his death and burial
there, BO.
Baptism : Erasmus's \ lew as to the time
for administering 11
Baptiata, Doctor : Erasmus's travelling
companion to his sons, 83.
Barbara, Abbot ol : tottej ol
to,
Barbirius, Peter, 287.
422
Index.
Battus, Jacob, a faithful follower of
Erasmus, 2S sq. ; letter to Mouutjoy
about Erasmus, 49.
Bavaria, Duke of, 391.
Beeket's tomb at Canterbury, 97, 221.
Berakl, Nicholas, 281.
Bere, Lewis, 417.
Berne : a "pious fraud " practised there,
249.
Berquin, Louis (a friend of Erasmus) :
burnt at Paris, 3G1.
Bersala, Anna. See Vere, the Lady of.
Bible, the : neglect of its study in Eras-
mus's time, 119 sq. ; Luther's transla-
tion into vernacular German, 299.
Bishops and monastic orders, contests
between, 20.
Bishops : Erasmus's denunciation of
their tyranny and evil lives, 121.
Boleyn, Anne : her marriage with Henry
VI II., 408.
Bologna : Erasmus there (1504), 84 ; an-
nexed to Papal territory, 85.
Bombasius, Paulus (Professor at Bo-
logna), 217.
Book-trade, the, in Erasmus's time, 319.
Bruges iu the fifteenth century, 1 ; Eras-
mus there, 259.
Brussels in the fifteenth century, 1 ;
Erasmus's visit to, 180.
Burgundy, Duchy of, iu the fifteenth
century, 1.
Burlesquing Scripture : a trick of the
monks, 123.
Cain, Erasmus's imaginary legend of, 40.
Cajetan, Cardinal, 215, 232, 269, 399.
Calvin : his rise as a Reformer, 339.
Cainbray, Bishop of : obtains Erasmus's
release from the Augustinians, 18 ;
treatment of him, 18 sqq. ; sends him
to study at Paris, 20; dissatisfaction
with him, 55 ; makes inquiries into his
manner of life, 02 sq. ; Erasmus Mat-
ters him, 71.
Cambray : the Queens' conference at,
3G6 : the Peace of, 3G7 sq.
Cambridge : Erasmus's lectures on Greek
there in 150C, 83, 87 ; he returns there
at Bishop Fisher's instigation, 110;
his dislike for the place, 112 sqq. ; his
opinions on the junior teachers there,
118 ; the authorities forbid the reading
or the sale of Erasmus's writings, 13S.
Campegio, Cardinal : believed that Eras-
mus was the author of "Julius II. Ex-
clusus," 13G ; told him that he was
suspected of abetting Luther's move-
ment by anonymous writings, 235 ;
consults with him about Luther's case,
2G9 ; Erasmus's reply, 269 ; another
consultation before the Diet of Worms,
274 ; Campegio's second mission to
Germany, 315 ; sent as legate to settle
Henry VIII. 's divorce case, 340, 3G8 ;
at the Diet of Augsburg, 379.
Cantelius, a companion of Erasmus iu his
youth, 13.
Capito, Fabricius, a preacher at Ba"le,186.
Capnio (= Reuchlin), 2.
Carlstadt : his book, in German, on the
Eucharist, 328 ; his advance from a
denial of the sacraments to Anabaptism
and social anarchy, 339.
Carpi, Prince of ; dissatisfied with Eras-
mus's book against Luther, 331 ; Eras-
mus's reply, 332.
Catechism, the Lutheran, 313.
" Catena Aurea," the, 99.
Catherine of Aragon, Queen : anecdote
of, 228 ; story of her marriage to Henry
VIII., 367; the steps taken to get her
assent to a divorce, 367 ; Erasmus's
opinion of the case, 373, 406, 407.
Catherine of Sienna : her interviews with
Christ, 13.
Catholics, English : made preparations
to rebel against Henry VIII., 408.
Cavajal (Franciscan) : a work of his con-
demned at Salamanca, 365.
Celibacy, clerical, Erasmus's denuncia-
tion of, 121, 126.
Centum Gravamina: the list of charges
against the clergy drawn up by the
German Diet, 371.
Ceremonies, use and abuse of, 351.
"Certainty" the pearl of price: New-
man's and Luther's opposite views,
389.
Chapuys, Eustace (Imperial ambassador
to England) : proof of clerical disloy-
alty given in his despatches, 408,
414.
Charles, Archduke (afterwards King of
Spain, etc. ; later Emperor Charles
V.) : offers Erasmus a bishopric, 180.
See Charles V.
Charles V., Emperor: elected in succes-
sion to Maximilian, 240 ; Erasmus's
opinion thereon, 240 ; the election ex-
cites the fears of the Pope, France, and
England, 33S ; the league formed
against him, and what came of it, 313
sq. ; Charles captures Rome and im-
prisons the Pope, 339 ; Erasmus's re-
ply to the Emperor's request for his
counsel, 340 ; Erasmus's fear that the
Pope would become Charles's creature,
341 ; the Emperor's difficult position
with regard to the Church in Spain,
345; he assents to the demand that
Erasmus's writings should be exam-
ined by the Inquisition, 345 ; letter in
reply to Erasmus's appeal to him, 345 ;
summary of Charles's position after
the capture of Rome, 346 ; makes peace
with Clement, 347 ; opposed to the di-
vorce of Henry VIII., 347 ; his edicts
against Anabaptists, 355 ; policy of re-
pression of the Reformers, 355 ; strait-
ened finances, 3G2 ; position in regard
to Henry VIII. 's divorce, 368, 371 ;
goes to Italy to be crowned by the
Pope, 368 ; at the Diet of Augsburg,
379 ; the pantomime produced before
him, 380 ; a caricature of him pub-
lished, 385; his position after Augs-
burg, 390 sq.
Index.
423
Charnock, Richard (Prior of St. Mary's
College, Oxford), 40.
Chelsea : Erasmus with Sir T. More at,
97.
" Christiau Knight's Manual, The "
(work by Erasmus), 82, 119.
Christian religion : Erasmus's opinion of
its condition in his day, 05 iqq. ; what
its practice consisted of at that time,
119.
Christiamis, a friend of Erasmus, 23.
Christopher, a literary wine-mercliaut,
222.
Church courts, and their practices, in
England, 371.
Clement VII., Pope, successor of Adrian
VI., 312; asks the: aid of Erasmus
against Luther, 315 ; rewards Erasmus
for the "De Libero Arbitrio," 328 j
urges Charles V. to extreme action
against the Lutherans, 383 ; desirous
of making terms with Henry VI 1 1. ,
402 ; wavering about the proposed
council, 409, 111 ; bis death, 412.
Clergy : how they received Erasmus's
New Testament, 127; depraved private
lives, 230 ; the powers they claimed
for the priesthood since the twelfth
century, 250 sq. ; ludicrous instance
of ignorance, 354 ; immunities from
common law in England, 371 ; made a
trade of saying musses, 370 ; Erasmus's
position towards those who married,
401.
" Cuena Pontifiealis," Erasmus's inter-
pretation of, 50.
Colet, Dean : Erasmus introduced to, 39 ;
the latter's esteem for him, 40, 43 ;
Colet's theological lectures censured
by a bishop, 48; made Dean of St.
Paul's : Erasmus's letter of congratu-
lation, 80; Colet helped by Erasmus
to found St. Paul's School, 97 ; tin- lat-
ter's sketch of his life and character,
97 sq. ; Colet's low opinion of the
morality of priests and monks, 98 sq. ;
opinions on education, 100; attach of
the bishops on him, and the result, 101
sqq. ; his opinion of Sir Thomas Afore,
107 ; reproves Erasmus for his care-
lessness in regard to money, 117 ; his
death, 241.
Collationary Fathers : Erasmus and his
brother placed under their care, 7; his
account of their system and per .mil
character, 7 ; their arguments to get
him into their order, 12 sq.
"Colloquies," the (Erasmus's work),
220; Spanish translation widely reel
in Spain, -U 1.
Columbus, Christopher, 1.
"Commentary on the Psalms," Lu-
ther's : met with Eraamn ' I ;i| ;
2:11.
Comunidades (Spain |, revolt of the, 240.
Confession of Augsburg, the, 879.
Confession of sins to priests ; Ei ismus's
opinion thereon, 246 .«/., 247,336; the
secrets of the confessional notorioui ly
betrayed, 351 ; anecdote of a sleepy
confessor, 353; confession abused by
priestly villany to extort money, 304 ;
and especially by mendicant "inn-,
401.
Coronellus, Ludovicus, a friend of Eras-
mus, 303.
Council, General : general demand for,
409; the Pope's objections, and their
reasons, 4<>!i sq.
Courtier's life, a : Erasmus's letter of
counsel to friends at the Emperor's
Court, 297 sq.
Cracow, Bishop of, letter of Erasmus
to, 418.
Cranmer, Archbishop: continued War-
ham's pension to Erasmus, 94: pro-
nounced the decree divorcing Henry
VIII. and Catherine, 107.
Crauvelt, Francis, Councillor of Bruges,
274.
Cromwell, Thomas, 179.
Croy, Cardinal of, 243.
Curia, the Roman : Pope Adrian's desire
to reform it, 303 ; a mass of corruption
and personal prolligacy, 307.
Dalbon, Abbot, letter of Erasmus to, on
the wTong-headedneaB of the Catholic
authorities, 393.
Darcy, Lord (afterwards leader of the
Pilgrimage of Grace): drew up the
attain. lei- of Wolsey, 371.
Denmark, King of. 288.
Denmark, spread ol LutheraniHm in, 384.
Deventer, Erasmus at school at, 3.
Diet, the German : their list of wrongs
(the Centum Gravamina) against tho
clergy, 371.
Dissolution of Monasteries, Ait of, 19.
Dorset, Maniuis of (uncle of Lady Juno
Grey), 20.
Dunstable: Henry VIII. 's divorce de-
creed there, 407.
Eastminsteb, an old name of St. Paul's,
101.
Eck, a Dominican enemy of Luther, '
writes an insolent lettei to Erasmus,
380.
Edmond, Prince, to.
Education, the meaning of, 321.
"Educational Institute," an: ■ work
written by Erasmus for Prince Clin lis,
181.
Educational Institutions of England:
Colet's opinion of, Urn.
Egmond, S tchol icka
the writings ol I !l . Din I H
Erasmus' di criptiouoia 01 ns « hlch
occurred between him and Egmond,
27:. tqq.
Egnatlus: letter of Erasmus to, on his
lion before and aft. 1 the " battle
of the dogmas,"
Eirenicon: Erasmus's ketch of he
bad planned, 31
Kllliain. I 16.
" Kiiilieiiidi. hi Milite. Clin ti.mi," a
424
Index.
work by Erasmus, 82 ; his account of
how lie came to write it, 82.
"Encomium Moriie." See Erasmus:
His Writings.
England : its condition at the close of
the fifteenth century, 37 ; Erasmus's
reception there, 39 ; his delight with
the country, 45 ; the exportation of
specie forbidden, 48 ; Erasmus's visits
in 1501 and 150G, 83, 87 ; his disappoint-
ment with his treatment, 115 ; his
continued affection for the country,
193 ; his final departure from it, 127,
169 ; considers the people justly proud
of their country, 342 ; the steps which
led to the abolition of the authority
of Rome, 370 sqq. ; its state after the
decree of Henry VIII. 's divorce, 408.
Epigram of Erasmus on Sir T. More's
belief in the Real Presence, 326.
Epimeuides, the story of, applied by
Erasmus, 09 sq.
Epiphanius, St. : had personal experi-
ence of the Gnostic love feasts, 34.
" Epistolse obscurorum Virorum " (Von
Hutten's work), 103 ; Erasmus's opin-
ion of the book, 194.
Erasmus: origin of his names (" Desi-
derius" and " Erasmus "), 2 ; story of
his father and mother and his birth,
2 ; some details of his school life, 3 ;
Erasmus and his brother left orphans,
4 ; their guardians propose to send
them into a monastery, 5 ; Erasmus's
early passion for learning, 7 ; his ac-
count of the lives of the Oollationary
Fathers, with whom the boys were
placed, 7 ; their guardians endeavour
to make monks of them, 10 ; Peter
yields, but Erasmus holds out, 11 ;
persistent efforts to induce him to
yield, 12 ; as a compromise he becomes
a boarder in a house of Augustinian
Canons, 14 ; his life with them, 14 ; he
becomes a novice, 15 ; the manner of
life of these monks, 16 sq. ; how he
was induced to take the final vows,
10 ; disgust at his position, 10 ; the
Bishop of Cambray obtains his nom-
inally temporary release, 18.
Erasmus : Youth : his desire to see more
of the world, 20 ; ordained priest, 21 ;
the Bishop of Cambray makes him an
allowance for study in Paris, 21 ; stu-
dent life at the University, 21 ; he
acquires, and teaches, Greek, 22 ;
glimpses of his life and habits given
in his letters, 23 sq. ; admiration for
Laurentius Valla, 24 ; accused of ir-
regularities of life, 25 ; desires to take
a degree at Bologna, 25 ; distinguished
men among his pupils : Lord Mount-
joy, Mr. Thomas Grey, 20 ; sketch of
the character of the Lord of Vere, 20 ;
visit to his castle (Tourneheni) and
introduction to the Lady of Vere, 28 ;
the latter, for a time, his tutelary
spirit, 29; description of her, 29;
specimen of his mocking humor, 30 ;
weak health and pecuniary difficulties,
30 ; period of despondency, 31 ; signs
that his habits were not strictly in
accordance with his profession, 34 ;
invited to England by Mountjoy, 34 ;
Erasmus's knowledge of languages,
35 ; character of his intellect, 35.
Erasmus : First Visit to England (1497) :
introduction by Mountjoy to Thomas
More, Colet, Grocyn, Linacre, 39 ; his
first impressions of the country and
the society, 39 ; at Oxford : descrip-
tion of a symposium there, 40 ; exam-
ple of Erasmus's improvising power,
41 sqq. ; his opinion of Colet, 44 ; ad-
miration of English country life, 45 ;
and of the custom of ladies saluting
guests with a kiss, 45 ; introduced to
Henry VII. 's family at Eltham, 46;
composes a laudatory poeni on the
King and his family, 46 ; disappointed
in his expectations of making a posi-
tion in England, 47 ; opinion on Colet's
attempt to improve theology, 48 ;
leaves England : misadventure with
Custom-house officials at Dover, 48
sq. ; publishes the " Adagia," 50 ;
liberality of Archbishop Warhani to-
ward Erasmus, 51 sq. ; hankering for
Rome and Bologna, 53 ; the Lady of
Vere offers him a benefice in reply to
his appeal to her for pecuniary help,
53.
Erasmus : In the Netherlands and
France : engaged in examining libra-
ries, 55 ; death of the Lord of Vere,
50 ; Erasmus again begging of his
widow, 5G ; his determination to be
free from servitude to anyone, 57 ;
his close study of Greek, and transla-
tions from Greek authors, 5S ; writes
flattering letters to his three chief
patrons, 58 ; his carelessness in money
matters, GO ; relations with the Bishop
of Cambray, 02 ; flies to Orleans from
the plague in Paris, 62 ; his work at
Orleans, 03 ; saves a heretic from pun-
ishment, 04 ; his readiness to advise
those who consulted him, 05 ; object
of the work he was busy over : the de-
struction of the gross abuses which
had overgrown true Christianity, 05
sqq, ; preparing his edition of the New
Testament and of the works of Je-
rome, 07 ; his desire to depose scho-
lastic theology : studies Duns Scotus
and the " Angelical Doctor," 07 ; de-
scription of Scotism, 69 ; Erasmus
seeks pecuniary aid by flattering let-
ters, 71 ; instructions to Battus for
the same purpose, 74 sqq. ; appeal to
the Lady of Vere, 78 ; translation of
Lucian's Dialogues, 81 ; the "Enchei-
ridion Militia Christiani," 82.
Erasmus: Visits to England and to
Italy : date of his second visit to Eng-
land, 83 ; journey to Italy, 83 sq. ;
introduced to Julius II. at Bologna,
84 ; wrote a pamphlet at his request,
Index.
425
85 ; lectures at Sienna : his pupils
there, 85 ; gratifying reception at
Rome, 85 ; his delight with the city :
rejects the efforts made to retain him
there, 86 ; returns to Paris, 86 ; third
visit to England : lectures at Cam-
bridge, 87 ; intimacy with Prince
Henry (afterwards Henry VIII. ), 87
sq. ; friendship with Archbishop War-
ham, S9 ; leaves England and goes
again to Rome : his intention to re-
main there, 89 ; Mountjoy presses liim
to return to England, 90.
Erasmus: Fourth Visit to England:
Henry VIII. invites Erasmus to come
to his Court, 91 ; the King's offers and
Erasmus's expectations, 93 ; Warham
gives him a benefice, but changes it to
a pension, 91 ; Erasmus's income at
this time : Mountjoy's liberality, 9-1 ;
disappointed in his expectations, Eras-
mus hankers after Rome, 95 ; associa-
tion and journeys with Dean Colet,
97 ; Erasmus helps him in founding
St. Paul's School, 97 ; his portrait of
Colet, 97 J Erasmus charged with be-
ing the author of the "Epistolse 6b-
Bcurorum Virorum," 103; his portrait
of Sir Thomas Morn, 103 sqq. ; Eras-
mus his guest at Chelsea, 1US; com-
parison of their characters, 108 ; Eras-
mus's epigram on More's belief in the
Real Presence, 109; lectures at Cam-
bridge, 110; pecuniary straits, 111;
details of his life, 112 sq. ; an attack
of stone, 113; irksomeness of his life
in England, 115 sqq. ; Colet's condi-
tional offer of pecuniary help, 117;
intercourse with Cambridge digni-
taries, 118; last interviews \\ith
Bishop Fisher and Sir T. More, 128 ;
the King's endeavor to detain him in
England, 169; his final departure,
li'.O; another difficulty with Custom-
house officers, 169.
Erasmus: /// tin' Netherlands: the Au-
gust inians demand his return to his
old convent, 170; his reply, 170 sqq.;
he appeals to 1 he Pope, 17:; ; his letter
to Lambert Grunnius enforcing his
appeal, I13sqq.; denunciation of the
immoral lives and methods of monks,
171; Erasmus obtains his freedom,
179; at Brussels; introduced to Arch-
duke Charles (afterwards Emperoi
Charles V. ), 180 : offered eccli
cal jii-oni' .t i . .m . in; suppoi I Reuchlin
in the battle of the languages, 181 ;
Erasmus at Louvain, 183; rea
his hopes of a peaceful Reformation,
186.
I nius : Period Oj < '•■"'< It : virulent
antagonism ol the religious oi
wards him, 190 ; in works denounced
to Rome, 191 J I • X. decides in fa-
\,,in ol Era urn . 192 ; troublei
from the violence of iii-< own and
■ els in Germany, 194 :
attack of Pfeffercorn's party, I
and of the Carmelite Egmond, 196;
Erasmus's friends at this period, 198.
Erasmus: Luther's Rebellion : Luther's
and Erasmus's methods compared,
201 ; Erasmus's first opinions of the
outbreak, 205 ; his dread that it would
only generate another dangerous form
of intolerance, 206; he keeps quite
aloof from Luther and from his writ-
ings, 207 ; the Louvain monks attrib-
ute the outbreak to Erasmus, 208 ; he
writes to Cardinal Wolsey explaining
his position, 209 sq. ; indignation at
the Pope's method of treating Lu-
ther's movement: letter thereon to
Abbot Volzius, 213; renewed bittel
ness of the clerical parly. 215 sqq. .
Erasmus longs to be bach in England,
217 ; his manner of life at this period,
210 ; amusing description of a journey
from Bale to Louvain, 221 sq. : ab-
surd charges against his New Testa-
ment, 226 sq. .' Luther's appeal to
him, 229; Erasmus's hesitation: its
causes, 229 sqq. ; the reply, 233 ; letter
to Henry VIII., 236; estimate ol that
king's character, 238 ; tic election ol
Maximilian's successor, '-':;s sag.
Erasmus: After Charles VS* Election:
Erasmus's opinion of the new emperor,
240 ; raised to the dignity of Imperial
Councillor, '.Ml : attacked by Hoch-
strat, Egmond, and Edward Lee, 242
his own statement of his position
towards Luther, 2-4-1; and of the
hitter's position towards the Church,
215; Erasmus's protest against injus-
tice to Luther, 246; Philip Blelanch-
thou's appeal to Erasmus, 250; the
reply, 251 ; signs of the working of
Erasmus's mind on the matter, 263;
he foresees what a struggle is impend-
ing, 268; letter to i.eo JL explaining
his position towards Luther, 263;
Erasmus's protest against Egiinuid°>
denunciation of him from the pulj.it ,
266; conference of Imperial Conn
cillors, 207 ; Erasmus's letter to
Campegio, attributing the whole eon
\ ol ion to the religious ordei
Luther should not be < lemned
before he has 1 n heard in his de-
fence, 270 ; account of a curiou
between Krasniiis :o id, 276
sqq. ; Erasmus's aid sought tor by
both Bides before the I >i«-t of Worm-,
278; his view of episcopacy In the
earl] Church, "T: 1 sq. ; he is attacked
by both sides. 281.
I |r i inn A/h r i/" I' <"■'•'
a leiinis il [yielding
Luther asaui 1 towtui
Diet, to Brugi
the Louvain Carmelites,
specimens of the methods of the latter,
I] ; numerous friend ol Era mus
ion. to write against Luther,
203 ; his hesitation to > - i ' i > ■
sq.} the rut 1 1 1 1 \ oi di putatloni upon
420
Index.
Christian dogmas, 29C ; he believed
that Luther was constructing a Pro-
testant theology which might be as
intolerant and dangerous as the Cath-
olic, 297 ; Erasmus's interpretation of
the moral of Lucian's <fiAoi//eu5>;?, 300.
Erasmus : After the. Election, of Adrian
VI.: Erasmus has renewed hopes of
reform, 302 ; letter to Adrian, giving
his views of what should be done, 304 ;
letter to Duke George of Saxony on
Luther's " excellent cause," and dep-
recating the use of force to put him
down, 305; Adrian invites Erasmus to
Rome, 309 ; the reply : Erasmus's
advice to the Pope, 309 ; Hutten's
attack on Erasmus, and the reply, 31G.
Erasmus : After the Election of Clement
I 'II. .• Erasmus's sketch of a projected
" Eirenicon," 317 ; the treatise " De
Libero Arbitrio : " why Erasmus chose
this subject against Luther, 320 sqq. ;
" Hyperaspistes," 320 ; strenuous ef-
forts to bring about a peace, 320 ;
Clement's remuneration for Erasmus's
work, 328 ; discontent of the Catholic
party with the work, 329, 331 ; Eras-
mus's reply to this discontent, 329
sqq. ; Sir T. More and Eaber desire
him to repeat the attack, 333 ; his
reply to the latter, 334 ; his sketch of
the reforms he desired, 335 sq., 340;
how Erasmus regarded the breach be-
tween the Emperor and the Pope,
341 ; the confusions in Germany : the
folly of mouks and theologians the
real danger, 343 ; Erasmus's works
submitted to the examination of the
Inquisition, 345 ; the Emperors' edict
against the Reformers' followers, 347 ;
Erasmus pleads for moderation, 347
sq. ; denounces the abuse of the con-
fessional, 351 ; the vicious lives of
monks, friars, and nuns, 351 sqq. ; the
crass ignorance of the clergy, 354 ;
yet he determines not to forsake the
Church, 350 ; denounces Anabaptists,
but would not have them burnt, 357 ;
his belief that Henry VIII. was really
tlie writer of the work against Luther,
358.
Erasmus : His later Years: iconoclasm
of the Reformers at BSle, 359 ; Eras-
urns removes to Freyburg, 300 ; inter-
view with GDcolampadius, 300 ; de-
nouncea the punishment of heretics,
301 ; irregularity of Erasmus's income,
302 ; liberality of the Fuggers (Augs-
burg bankers) towards him, 3G3 ; his
picture of the overstrained rope (the
condition of modern Church doctrine):
strand by strand giving way, 304 ; his
expectations from the Peace of Cam-
bray, 308 ; opinion about Henry
VIII. 's proposed divorce, 373; Eras-
mus out of favour with the authorities
at Rome, 374 ; letter in self-defence to
the Papal Secretary, 375 ; on the
futility of arguments about the Real
Presence, 37G ; abuses of the Mass by
priests, 37G ; the number and diverse
rank of Erasmus's correspondents,
377 ; the advance of education among
the higher classes, 378.
Erasmus : The Diet of Augsburg : the
representation of Erasmus's character
in the pantomime presented to the
Emperor, 380 ; his great desire for
toleration and concession, 3S1 ; crit-
icisms on the work of the Diet, 382
sqq. ; headstrongness on both sides,
385 ; Erasmus attacked by the Do-
minican Eck, 380 ; some details of the
Diet, 387 ; what religion meant to
Erasmus, 391 ; he foresees that force
will be of no avail against the Lu-
theran movement, 391 ; he complains
that he is "shot at from all sides,"
393 ; his extensive correspondence
with literary men on matters con-
cerned with scholarship, 394 ; his
influence with some of the more mod-
erate Protestants, 390 sq.
Erasmus : His last Days : he receives
offers of high promotion from Prince
Ferdinand and from Clement VII.,
399 sq. ; his denunciation of the de-
generacy of the sons of St. Francis,
400 ; immorality of travelling monks,
401 ; a joke on the marriage of
widows, 402 ; defence of SirT. More's
treatment of heretics, 403 ; death of
Erasmus's dearest English friend,
Warham, 400 ; further expressions of
opinion on Henry VIII. 's proposed di-
vorce, 400, 408 ; Erasmus's reply to the
charge that he had encouraged Henry
VIII. to shake off the Pope's author-
ity, 407 ; Erasmus consulted about
the coming council, 410 ; attack on
him by Nicholas He.rborn (Francis-
can), 412 ; Paul III., successor of
Clement VII.: Erasmus again in fa-
vour at Rome, 412 ; a serious illness,
413 ; his reception of the news of the
execution of More and Fisher, 410 sq. ;
the proposal to make Erasmus a car-
dinal, 419 ; his death and burial at
Bale, 420.
Erasmus: His Writings: the"Adagia:"
the lash applied to ecclesiastics and
ecclesiasticism, 50 sqq. ; reception by
the clergy, 51 ; its success, 52 ; his
object in preparing his edition of the
New Testament, and of the works of
Jerome, 07 ; what he meant by
arcanse literce, 07 ; translation of
Lucian's Dialogues, 81 ; the " En-
cheiridion Militis Christiani:" occa-
sion of writing it, 82 sq. ; the publi-
cation of his New Testament, 119 ;
description of the work, and speci-
mens of his charges of degradation of
religion against the bishops, seculars,
and monks, 121 sqq. ; enormous cir-
culation of the work, 127 ; reception
by the clergy, 127 ; the " Encomium
MoriaB" ("Praise of Folly")— sug-
Index.
427
gested by Sir T. More, 105, 129 ; the
title a play on More's name, 129 ;
description of Folly, 129 ; satire on
theologians and their vain disputa-
tions, 130 ; on the lleliyiosi el Monach i,
132 ; on the evil conduct and character
of mendicant friars, 132 ; on princes
and courtiers, popes, cardinals, and
bishops, 133; on priestly and monastic
absurdity of ignorance, 134 ; great
repute of the work, 137 ; a burst of
clerical wrath, 138 ; an outcry against
the study of Greek, 138 sqq. ; an
" Educational Institute " (written for
Prince Charles), 181 ; production of
the edition of Jerome's works, 184
sq. ; Leo X. accepts the dedication,
185; publication of the Paraphrases
on the New Testament books, 192 ;
his "Apology," 196 ; publication of
the " Colloquies," 220 ; object and
character of the work, 220 sq. ; edi-
tion of St. Augustine's works. 262 j
" Spongia " (Erasmus's reply to
Hutteu's attack on him), 310 ; " De
Libero Arbitrio" (work against Lu-
ther), 320 sqq. ; " Hyperaspish s "
(rejoinder to Luther's " De Servo
Arbitrio "), 320.
Erasmus : Letters of, to —
Adrian VI., Pope, 304, 307, 309 sqq.
^Emilius ab JSnrilio, 302.
Ammonius ( Papal agent in Loudon),
112, 115, 180, 191.
Anderlin, Faustus, 15, 52.
Andomar, 396.
Anonymous. 25, 31, 14, 51, 55, CO, 05,
08, 181, 197, 252, 278, 285 sq., 292,
297, 298, 301, 310, 317, 320, 335, 351,
354, 411(1.
Arnoldus, 25.
Augsburg, bishop of, 350.
Augustine, Cardinal, 395.
Aurotiims, Cornelius, 24.
Barbara, Abbot of, 386.
Barbirius, Peter, 287.
Battus, James, 53, 59, 01,03.5'/., 70, 75.
Ber, Lewis, 356 sq.
Berald, Nicholas, 281.
Bertin, the Ibbol of, 71, 114, 110.
Bombasine, Paulus, 217.
Botzemus, 363.
i BBsarius, 194 sq.
Campegio, Cardinal, 136 7, 209, 383
sq.
Cann, Nicholas, 342.
pito, Fabricius, 1 36.
Carpi, Prince "t, 332.
Chisigat, Francis, 261.
Christianus, 23.
Colet, Dean, 11, W, B6, in, 11.
Coronellu 1, Ludovicu .
Cochl
Cracow, Bishop "f. " 8.
< 'r:m\ ilt , Francis, 271.
Dalbon, Abbot, 393.
Egnattas,
Erfurt, the Rector of the school 'it
(Luther's), 207.
Everard, Nicholas (President of Hol-
land), 232.
Faber (Dominican), 334.
Faber, John, 403.
Falco, 30.
Fisher, Bishop, 193, 242.
Fisher, Robert, 39.
Gauden, William, 31.
George of Saxony, Duke, 305, 329, 342,
347 sq., 393.
Gerard of Nimegen, 260.
Giles, Peter, 189.
Gocleuius, Conrad, 259.
Godsclialk, 265.
Goes, D.iiuian a, 4ii7. 410.
Grey, Mr. Thomas,
Grunnius, Lambert, 5, 173.
Grymanus, Cardinal, 95.
Guildford, Sir Henry, 235.
Henry, Prince (afterwards Henry
Vlil.i, 88, 236.
Herman, Elector (Archbishop), 348.
Hildesheim, Bishop of, 376.
Hutten, tJlrich von, 103.
Jonas, Jodcii us, 2? I
Eretzer, 391.
Latoiuus, 117.
Laurinus, Marcus, 210.
Leonardi, 395.
Leo X., 263.
Lipsius, Martin, 354.
Luther, Martin, 233.
Marliauus, Bishop Louis, 253.
Mechlin, President of Seriate at, 304.
Bfelaachthon, Philip, 260, 327, 381.
Meutz, Archbishop of (Cardinal Al-
bert), 241, 243.
Mexia, 377, 411.
More, Sir Thomas, 212, 275. 369.
Mountjoy, Lord, 28 sq., 44, 295, 370.
Naneteusis, Cardinalis, 1 15.
Nassau, the Secretary of Priuce of,
293.
Pace, Dr., 193, 2*5.
Palencia, Bishop .if, 303.
Palermo, Archbishop of, 296.
Peutinger, Conrad, 207.
Mug, Julius.
Pirkheimer, 183, 196,260, 300 sq., 369.
Raphael, Cardinal, 1
Rhenanus, Beatus, 221.
Rinckius, 382.
Badolel .
Bchudelin, John, 291.
Servatiu ■ lugustinian), 170.
Sixtiuus, Joannes, M).
Bpalatin, George, 240, 269.
Trent, Bishop of, 385, 399.
TunatalL Cuthbert, 21s, 374.
1 tenhoVe, 1 Ihai \i », 361, 100.
Wi. . 1 be 1 tdj of, 78.
. 2l3.
Warham, ArcbbUhoi 341,
Wi
Buchai I opinion of the
dot trine "f the Real Pr«
1 be administration "I
the Bacramenl
Europe In 1407, 1 . the position "f >>•*
428
IikI
ex.
military power after the Peace of Cam-
bray, 300.
Evangelicals: name given to the Re-
formers, 396.
Everard, Nicholas (President of Hol-
land), 232.
Faber (Dominican monk) : urges Eras-
mus to write more fully against
Luther, 334 ; Erasmus's reply, 334.
Faber, John, letter of Erasmus to, in
defence of Sir T. More, 403 sq.
Falco, letter of Erasmus to, 30.
Fasting, extravagant importance at-
tached to, 351.
Ferdinand, Archduke, 1S9, 350 sq., 3C0,
369, 379, 399.
Fisher, Bishop (Rochester) : induces
Erasmus to go to Cambridge, 110 ; op-
poses Church reform in England, 372 ;
Erasmus's high opinion of his charac-
ter, 378 ; Fisher endeavours to procure
a Catholic invasion of England, 408 ;
committed to the Tower, 400 ; made
cardinal by Paul III., 415; refuses to
acknowledge the supremacy of the
Crown, 410; executed, 416.
Fisher, Robert, a friend of Erasmus, 39.
Fitzjames, Bishop (Loudon) : his en-
deavour to put down Dean Colet, 101 ;
what came of it, 102.
Flodden Field, battle of, 103.
Florence, the name under which Eras-
mus described his case to the Pope, 8
«., 173, 17S.
France, Henry VIII. 's war with, 93; in-
stigated by Julius II., 102.
France, Queen of : arranged prelimina-
ries of peace at Cambray, 36G.
Francis of Assisi, Erasmus's dream of,
400.
Francis I. : invited Erasmus to Paris,
1S9 ; taken prisoner at Pavia, 338 ;
gets dispensed by the Pope from his
obligations under the Treaty of Ma-
drid, 3G3 ; watched the burning of
heretics in Paris, 413.
Franciscans : their persistent hatred of
Erasmus, 305 ; denunciations of him
by the friars in Spain, 377 ; his reply,
377.
Free cities, German : spread of Luther-
auism in, 384.
Free will : what is really meant by the
term, 320 ; the absolute rule of right
of Catholic theologians, 322; Luther's
theory, 323 ; Erasmus's opinion, 381.
Frewin Hall, Oxford, 40.
Freyburg : Erasmus removes thither
from BSle, 300.
Friars : their insolence towards bishops,
20 ; how they obtained their influence
among the people, 00 ; their evil con-
duct and character, 132.
Friesland: spread of Lutheranism in, 384.
Frobeu, the famous printer, 181 ; Eras-
mus takes up his abode with him, 300.
Fuggers (bankers at Augsburg) : their
liberality to Erasmus, 303, 377, 395.
(Iattinarius (secretary to Charles V.) :
letter to Erasmus conveying the Em-
peror's views regarding the healing of
the Lutheran schism, 337.
Gauden, William, a friend of Erasmus,
31.
George of Saxony, Duke : opposed
equally to Luther and to monks and
bishops, 305 ; not satisfied with Eras-
mus's book against Luther, 328 ; let-
ter of Erasmus to, 347 ; his desire that
Erasmus should write against Luther
again, 309.
German : Erasmus's ignorance of, 306.
Germany : Luther called upon to organ-
ise the Church, 313 ; its liturgy, min-
isters, and Catechism, 313 ; religious
confusions following on Luther's
movement, 339, 343 ; the reformed
States refuse to comply with the
Augsburg edict, 395.
Gerrard (father of Erasmus): story of
his marriage, 2 sq. ; his death, 4.
Gerrard, Margaret, mother of Erasmus,
2 ; her care for him, 3 ; death, 4.
Gerrard, Peter, brother of Erasmus, 4 ;
consultation with his brother about
joining the Collationary Fathers, 9 ;
Peter joins their body, 11 ; his
wretched life and death, 11.
Ghent in the fifteenth century, 1.
Giles, Peter, a pupil of Erasmus, 189.
Glapio, Alexander, a friend of Erasmus,
318.
Goclenius, Conrad, 259.
Godschalk, Moderator of the University
of Lou vain, 265, 275.
Goes, Daniian a, letter of Erasmus to,
stating his position of neutrality in re-
gard to Henry VIII. 's divorce, 407.
Goude, 4.
Grace : Erasmus's opinion on, 381.
Grnecized German names, 2.
Greek language : a rare acquisition in
the fifteenth century, 22 ; monks' ob-
jection to the study of the language,
68 ; the study of it denounced at Ox-
ford, 138 ; Sir T. More's defence of
classical studies, 139 sqq.
Grey, Mr. Thomas, a pupil of Erasmus,
26 ; pecuniary liberality to his master,
30.
Grocyn, Erasmus introduced to, 39.
Grunnius, Lambert (Prothonotary at
Rome) : Erasmus's appeal to the Pope
through him, 5, 173 sqq. ; his reply,
179.
Grymanus, Cardinal, 95.
Guildford, Sir Henry, 235.
Hammes Castle (Calais Pale), 169.
Henry VII. : state of England under his
rule, 37 sq. ; his family at Eltham, 46.
Henry VIII. : Erasmus introduced to
him when Prince Henry, 46 ; letter to
Erasmus, 88 ; his accession to the
throne, 90 ; desires to attach Erasmus
to his Court, 90 ; autograph letter to
him, 91 ; what the letter meant, 92 ;
Index.
429
his war with France, 93 ; his treat-
ment of the bishops' charges against
Dean Colet, 102 ; interview with the
Dean, 102 ; high opinion of Sir T.
More, 107 ; progress of the French
war, 110; Erasmus's opinion of Hen-
ry's character, 236 sq. ; Henry's an-
swer to Luther, which gained him the
title of Defender of the Faith, 30G ;
the reasons for his seeking a divorce
from Catherine, 338 ; was he really
the writer of his book against Luther?
358 ; end of the war with France, 366 ;
position of the divorce question, 306
sq. ; he determines to have the ques-
tion settled at home, in defiance of the
Pope, 402 ; date of the beginning of
the agitation for a divorce, 406 n. ;
the final sentence of Cranmer's court
at Dunstable, 407 ; Henry's reply to
Paul III.'s overtures for a reconcilia-
tion, 415 ; the execution of Bishop
Fisher and Sir T. More, 416.
Herborn, Nicholas (Franciscan) : antag-
onist of Erasmus, 412.
Heresy, fifteenth century notions of,
248 ; heresy-hunting in the Low Coun-
tries, 64 ; many heretics burnt in
Paris, 414.
Herman, Elector, Archbishop of Co-
logne (afterwards a Lutheran), 348 sq.
Hildesheim, Bishop of : letter of Eras-
mus to, on the Real Presence and
Transubst initiation, 376.
Hochstrat (Hebrew scholar) : an enemy
of Erasmus, 242 ; and of Luther, 260.
Holidays, Church, excessive number of,
351.
Holland, President of, 232.
Horace, Erasmus's youthful liking for, 3.
Hungary : overrun by the Turks, 347.
Hutten, Ulrich von : author of the
"Epistolaeobscurorum Virorum,'' 103,
241, 243, 255 ; his attach on Erasmus,
and the hitter's reply, 316 ; his death,
316.
" Hyperaspistes," Erasmus's rejoinder
to Luther, 326.
Ionoeance, clerical : ludicrous instance
of, 364.
[mages: their removal from churches
by Luther's followers. 313 ; Erasmus's
opinion of their use, 335; great de-
struction of them In Bale, 359.
Immaculate Conception: doctrine dis-
puted between the Franciscans and
the Dominicans, 249 r».
In C&na Domini, the Bull: Luther in-
cluded l>v name In it, 282.
Indulgences, the Papal doctrine of, 203;
the sale of, aa a subsidy for St. Peter's
at Rome, 204 ; Erasmus's view on the
doctrine, 364.
Inquisition, Spanish: Erasmus threat-
e 1 by the, 345, 354.
Invocation of Saint I v " w
on the practice, 364.
Irish rebellion against Henry VIII., 408.
Jerome, Erasmus's edition of, 110, 112 ;
printed at BSle by Froben, 18J ; dedi-
cated, by permission, to Leo X.. 185.
Jonas, Jodocus, a friend of Luther, 283.
Julius II., Pope, S3: description of him,
84 ; instigated the war of Henry VIII.
with France, 102; his death (1513)
ends the war, 117.
"Julius 11. Exclusus" (a satire on the
Pope): its production in Paris, 135;
question of its author, 128; was it
Erasmus? 135 sq., 146; translation of
the Dialogue, 149 sqq. ; Erasmus's
denial of being its author, 195.
Justification by faith only i Erasmus's
view of the theory, 336, 381.
Kidnapping boys and girls for religious
orders, 5.
Kissing, frequency of, as a .salutation by
English women, noted by Erasmus,
45.
Knight, William, 406.
Krctzer, letter of Erasmus to, 391.
Latin, the common tongue of literary
men in Erasmus's time, 35 ; Erasmi
objection to its use in Church service,
122.
Latomus, letter of Erasmus t<>. 417.
Laurinus, Marcus, Canon of Bruges, 216.
"Lax religion," meaning of, 367.
Laymen, English ; their domestic con-
versation compared with that of
monks, 38.
League, Protestant, 386, 390.
Lee, Edward (afterwards Archbishop of
York) : a violent opponent of Eras
. 242,269,287.
Leo X. : successor of Julius II , 11 1 ; ap-
proved Erasmus's work on the Greek
Testament, 120; accepted the dedica-
tion of Erasmus's Jerome, 185; recom-
mended him to Henry VI11. for an
English bishopric, 185; decided In
Erasmus's favour against the Louvain
theologians, 192; the great sale of in-
dulgences for St. Peter's, and what
me of it, 203 tqq. ; Leo is said to
have called the Church system ■ pn
Stable fable, '-'11 ; determines on a
fresh crusade against the Turks. 212 ;
action against Luther, 214 tq. ; issues
a Bull against him, 260 tq.
" Libera Arbltrio. t> "(Erasmus's work
against Luther) : why I nose
this subject. 320.
Linacre, Dr. (afterwards Henry viii.'h
physician 1 1 Erasmus tntroduoed t...
39; Linacre'a a. hire t" him about
mone .lis.
LipsiUB, Mart in. '-'- r <\.
'■ Literal huuianlores i " meaning "f the
tei in, 36.
London i Erasmus's visit In 1 197, 38.
Lotus \n Empire, Spain
and England combined »itli the Pi pe
against, 112; Scotland takes his side,
lij ; the md "I the war, 117.
430
Index.
Louvain : Erasmus at, 18 sq. ; conspir-
acy of monks against him, 192 ; con-
tinuous attacks of preachers on him,
192 ; the Louvain theologians attribute
the origin of Luther's outbreak to
Erasmus, 208 sq. ; their indignation
against Luther aud Erasmus, 243 sqq. ;
attack renewed after the sentence on
Luther, 286.
Low Countries, the, in the fifteenth
century, 1.
Loyola, Ignatius : his dislike of Eras-
mus's New Testament, 122.
Lucian : Erasmus's translation of his
Dialogues, 81 ; the ftepi top tTrt ixiadw
avvovTuiv, 81 ; the ^lAoi/zeuS?;? : Eras-
mus's application of it to his own
times, 300 ; the fondness of mankind
for lies, 300.
Luther, Martin : his early life, 200 ; he-
comes an Augustinian monk, 200 ; his
visit to Rome compared with that
of Erasmus, 200 sq. ; teacher and
preacher at Wittenberg, 202 ; the sale
of indulgences : his challenge to Tet-
zel, 205 ; how Luther followed this
up, 205 sq. ; Erasmus's position in re-
gard to Luther, 205 ; action of Leo X.
against him, 214 sj. ; Luther's letter to
Erasmus, 228 ; the latter's reply, 233 ;
his views on Luther's teaching, 243
sqq. ; Luther's attack upon the sys-
tem of spiritual domination of the
priesthood, 256 ; burn's Leo X.'s Bull
and the Papal Decretals, 265 ; the Diet
of Worms, 281 ; Luther unflinching,
282 ; outlawed, 283 ; concealed by the
Elector in the Castle of Wartburg,
283 ; Erasmus's letters on the result of
the trial, 284 sqq. ; Luther's transla-
tion of the Bible into German begun
at Wartburg, 299 ; rapid growth of the
number of his supporters, 306 ; disso-
lution of religious houses, 313 ; de-
struction of images, saints' shrines,
and relics, 313 ; Luther recalled from
Wartburg by the Elector to reorgan-
ise the Church, 313 ; estimate of his
income, 319 ; his doctrine on the will,
324 ; and on predestination, 324 ; " De
Servo Arbitrio," his reply to Erasmus,
326 ; his works, chiefly in German, had
only a limited circulation, 343 ; Eras-
mus's belief in his persistence, 355 ;
Luther not present at the Diet of
Augsburg, 379 ; his defence of the po-
sition taken up there by his followers,
387 ; his condemnation of " Erasmian
theology," and of Papal "doctrines
and practices which are outside Scrip-
ture or against Scripture," 389.
Madrid Treaty of (Charles V. and Fran-
cis I.), 363.
Magical practices, curious story of, 72,
Maldonado, Juan : on the methods aud
manners of Spanish monks, 344.
Margaret, Princess (afterwards Queen of
Scotland), 46.
Margaret, Queen Regent of the Nether-
lands, 350, 396.
Marlianus, Louis, Bishop of Tuy, in
Gallicia, 253.
Mary, Princess (afterwards Queen of
France aud Duchess of Suffolk), 46,
117.
Mary, Queen, Regent of the Nether-
lands : a good friend to Erasmus, 396.
Mass, the : abuses of it by stupid and
vagabond priests, 304 ; many of the
clergy made a trade of saying masses,
376.
Matteo, Cardinal (Sedunensis) : pub-
licly accused the Dominicans of mur-
der, 175, 178.
Maximilian, Emperor : Erasmus endeav-
ours to obtain assistance from him,
116 ; defends Reuchlin, 182 ; his death,
233 ; how much depended on the choice
of his successor, 238 sq.
Mechlin, President of the Senate at, 304.
Medici, Cardinal de' (afterwards Pope
Leo X.), a friend of Erasmus, 86. See
Leo X.
Melanchthon (= Swartzerde), 2 ; con-
sults Erasmus, 250 ; stood by Luther
at Worms, 283 ; letter of Erasmus to
him, on Luther's tendency to cause
more harm than he cured, 327 sq. ;
Melanchthon drew up the Confession
of Augsburg, 379 ; Erasmus's letter to
him about the Diet, 381 ; his reply to
Erasmus, deprecating the violence and
fury of the papal advocates, 383 ; his
desire for peace, 383.
Mentz, Archbishop of : his share in the
sale of indulgences, 204 ; made a car-
dinal, 226 ; Erasmus appeals to him
for justice to Luther, 243 sqq.
Merit, the doctrine of, 324 ; Erasmus's
opinion on, 381.
Mr]Tpa.yvpTai (Lucian's), mendicant
friars compared to, 51.
Mexia, a friend of Erasmus, 377, 411.
Miltitz, 215, 232.
Miracles : lying stories set about by
crafty knaves, 351.
Monasteries : the manner of life of their
inmates, 16 ; treatment of rebellious
monks, 17, evidences of their degra-
dation in England, 19, 38 ; summary
of the pernicious principles on which
they were based, 6S; monkish habit
of burlesquing Scripture, 123 ; Eras-
mus's account of their depraved lives,
174 ; their continuous endeavours to
prevent the circulation of his works,
343 ; his statement of disgusting de-
tails of their lives, 354.
More, Sir Thomas : on the beginning of
monastic degradation, 19 ; Erasmus
introduced to him, 39 ; More intro-
duces Erasmus to the royal children
at Eltliam, 46 ; More's admiration of
the " Epistola? obscurorum Virorum,"
103 ; Erasmus's description of his
character, 103 sqq. ; his domestic life,
105 ; dislike of Court life, 106 ; writ-
Index.
431
ings and religious principles, 107 sq. ;
his house at Chelsea, 108 ; his belief
in the Real Presence in the Eucharist,
109 ; final parting with Erasmus, lis ;
More's opinion on the authorship of
"Julius II. Exclusus," 136; letter of
rebuke to Oxford for the opposition
to the study of Greek, 139; passion-
ate and indignant defence of Erasmus,
143 ; ambassador to the Low Countries,
190; warns Erasmus of a conspiracy
of monks against him, 191 ; on the
Carmelite Egmond, 197 ; More's con-
viction that spiritual insurrection must
be put down with fire, 289 ; he urges
Erasmus to follow up his attack on
Luther, 333 sq. ; representative of
England at Cambray, 366, 368; ap-
pointed Chancellor in place of Wolsey,
370 ; advocated moderate reform of
the Church, 372 ; his hatred of Lu-
theranism, 372; joke about marrying
widows, 402 ; his position in regard to
Henry VIII. 's proposed Church re-
form, 402 ; detestation for Lutheran
demagogues, 402 ; Erasmus's defence
of him to John Faber, 403 ; More
boasted of his enmity to heretics, 403 ;
his defence of his way of treating
them, 404 sq. ; refuses to take the
oath enjoined by the Act of Succes-
sion, and is committed to the Tower,
409 ; refuses to acknowledge the su-
premacy of the Crown, 416 ; executed,
416.
Morton, Cardinal, 19 : his visitation of
religious houses in England, 38.
Mountjoy, Lord : his son a pupil of
Erasmus, 26 ; his death, 61.
Mountjoy, Lord (son of the above) : a
pupil of Erasmus, 26 ; pecuniar}' lib-
erality to his master, 30 ; invites him
to England, 34 ; introduces him to dis-
tinguished Englishmen, 39 ; succeeds
to the title and estates of his father,
61 ; letter to Erasmus inviting him to
the Court of Henry VIII., 90; con-
ferred a pension on Erasmus, 95 ;
made Governor of Hammes Castle,
169; begs Erasmus to write against
Luther, 293; Erasmus's reply, 295.
Music, modern Church, Erasmus's ob-
jection to, 122, 364.
Nanf.tensis, Cardinalis,a friend of Eras-
mus, 115.
Netherlands, the: Erasmus returns there
after his visit to England, 127.
Netherlands, (/ueen Regent of the; ar-
ranged preliminaries of peace at Cam-
bray, 366.
New Eagle, Count of, 223.
Newman, Cardinal : on Protestant tradi-
tion on the state of t lie Church before
the Reformation, 866 ; his view of
"certainty" the pearl of price.
New l< tl nt: Erasmus's edition
(Greek text and Latin trans]
110, 1 \9sqq. ; Leo. X. approved the un-
dertaking, 120 ; specimens of the notes
iu it: on clerical celibacy, 1U1 j con-
duct of popes and bishops, 121 ; honour
paid to relics, 121 : on tl»- use of an
unknown tongue in Church sen ins,
122; Church music. 122; burlesquing
of Scripture by monks. 123: vain dispu-
tations in theology, 124 ; profligacy of
the clergy. 126; enormous circulation
of the work, 127 ; Sir T. More's opin-
ion of it, 143; Loo X. sanctioned tin-
work. 185; Erasmus's Paraphrases on
the New Testament, 192; Comments
on the Apostolic Epistles, 226 ; speci-
mens of ignorant objections to Eras-
mus's work, 227.
Norfolk, Duke of : succeeded Wolsey as
Henry VIII. 's Prime Minister, 372.
Nun of Kent, the, 94, 416.
Nuns, Convents of : Erasmus denounces
the immoral lives of inmates, I
Obedience : what monks mean 1>
(Ecolampadius : interview with Erasmus
at BSle, 360.
Origen, Erasmus's opinion of, 87.
Orleans, Erasmus's literary work in, 63.
Oxford: Erasmus at (1498), 39; his de-
scription of a symposium there, 10;
clamour against his writings, 138 ; con-
sequent opposition to the study Ol
Greek, 138 ; letter to the University
from Sir T. More on the subject, 139.
Pace, Dr., a friend of Erasmus, 193, 217.
Paintings on church walls : whitewashed
by the Reformers, 359.
Palencia, Bishop of, afriend of Erasmus,
303.
Palermo, Archbishop of : letter of Eras-
mus to, against vain theological dl
putes, 296.
Pantomime, the, acted before Oharle \
at Augsburg, ->^K
Papal authority : its abolition in Eng-
land, 373.
Papa] revenues: the sources of, 202.
Paraphrases of the New Testament,
Erasmus's, 192, 194, 262.
Paris: student life ot Erasmus at, 21 ;
picture of a student's lodging-house,
23.
Parliament, the (English) of 1629: its
i evolution, 871 ■"/•
Patrons of literature ' ■ (.pinion
of, 61.
Paul III. (successor of Clement VII.):
hopeful signs In the first nets of Imh
reign, 412, invites Erasmus to help
liim in the coming council, 413; over-
tures to Henry \ ill.. 06; Paul pro-
j,,. i os a cardinal.
ll."> ; rai her to that
rank, and the result, 116 j Erasmus's
reception ol the proposal to make him
I cardinal. 117 .«/'/.
Peutii mad, Ooun ofl lo T pj the
Empire,
432
Index.
Pfeffercorn, a converted German Jew :
his denunciation of Hebrew books, 182
sq. : Erasmus's opinion of him, 195.
Ptlug, Julius : his appeal to Erasmus to
aid the cause of Church reform, 396 ;
the reply, 397.
Thilip, Kins (of Castile) : correspon-
dence of Erasmus and Prince Henry
(Henry V11I.) on his death, 8S sq.
Pilgrimage of Grace, the, 371.
Plague, the, in England, 112 sq.
Pole, Cardinal Reginald, 238.
Prague, Erasmus invited to, 235.
"Praise of Folly, The." See "Enco-
mium Morise."
Predestination, the Lutheran conception
of, 323*9'. > Erasmus's opinion on, 381.
Priesthood, Erasmus's opinion of, 3S1.
Protestant dogmas, 324.
Protestant League, 380, 390.
Protestants, origin of the name, 383.
Purgatory : Erasmus's advice regarding
the doctrine, 336.
Raphael, Cardinal, a friend of Eras-
mus, 89.
Real Presence, the : Erasmus's epigram
on More's belief in, 109 ; his view of
the Church's belief, 350, 3S1 ; Luther
at first orthodox in this belief, 370 ;
Erasmus's opinion of the doctrine,
376.
Reformation : its beginnings in England,
370 sqq. ; the authority of Rome abol-
ished there, 373.
Reform, Church : what kind Erasmus de-
sired and hoped for, 180 sqq., 336, 340.
Relics : Erasmus's denunciation of the
exaggerated honour paid to them, 122 ;
destruction of them by Luther's fol-
lowers, 313.
Religious houses : speedy dissolution of,
by Lutherans in Germany, 313.
Religious orders, their manner of en-
trapping recruits, 6.
Reucnlin (= Capnio), 2 ; account of his
life and learning, 182 ; denounced to
the Inquisition by the Dominicans,
182 ; defended by Emperor Maximil-
ian, and by Erasmus, 182.
Rhodes: captured by the Turks, 347.
Ritual : Erasmus's protest against the
excess of, 349.
Romans, King of the, 399.
Rome : Erasmus's visits to, 85, 89 ; his
love for the city, 115 ; admiration of
life there, 95 ; invited to reside there,
with a handsome income, 309.
Rotterdam, the birthplace of Erasmus, 1.
Sacraments : the Catholic and the Lu-
theran theories about, 323 ; gross
abuses in their administration, 353.
Sadolet (Secretary to the Pope) : letter
of Erasmus to, condemning the man-
ner in which Luther's protest and at-
tack had been met, 375.
Saint-worship: Erasmus's protest against
its extravagances, 349 ; his satire on
the saints' forbearance under the in-
sults of iconoclasts, 359 sq.
Savonarola, 249.
Saxony, (Frederick) Elector of : his po-
sition in Luther's movement, 204, 215 ;
seeks counsel from Erasmus, 231 ; pro-
cures the election of Charles (King of
Spain) as Emperor, 240 ; calls upon Lu-
ther to organise the German Church,
313.
Scholastic theology, 68 ; specimens of
the vain disputations of, 123 sq.
Scotists : their reply to Laurentius
Valla, 24 ; Dean Colet's opinion of
them, 99.
Scotland : takes the side of Louis XII.
in the French war, 112.
Scotus, Duns : Erasmus's treatment of
his theological system, 68 sq.
Septuagint, the, 145 sq.
Servatius, Father (Augustinian) : seeks
to recall Erasmus to his order, 170.
Shrines of saints : destroyed by Luther's
followers, 313.
Sienna : Erasmus lectures there, 85.
Simony in the Church in England, 371.
Sin : the Catholic and the Lutheran con-
ceptions of, 322 sq.
Sixtinus, Joannes, a friend of Erasmus,
40.
Solyman, Sultan (Turkey), 289.
Sorbonne doctors, the, and their system,
69 ; they procure the burning of an
Anabaptist, 358.
Spain : wide circulation of Erasmus's
works in ; 344 ; intense hatred of the
monks towards him, 344 ; failure of
the attack against him, 355.
Spalatin, George, 240, 259.
Speyer, Diet of, 369.
" Spongia," Erasmus's pamphlet against
Hutten, 310.
St. Albans, Abbey of : its state in the
fifteenth century, 19.
St. Andrews, Archbishop of (natural
son of James II. of Scotland) : a pupil
of Erasmus, 85.
St. Angelo, Cardinal of : liberality to
Erasmus, 412.
St. Augustine : Erasmus's edition of his
works, 2G2 ; the saint's opinion of
monks, 352.
St. Bertin, Abbot of (brother of Bishop
of Cambray), a good friend to Eras-
mus, 31, 58, 04 sq., 71.
St. George, Cardinal of, a friend of Eras-
mus at Rome, 85 sq.
St. Mary's College, Oxford, in 1498, 40.
St. Paul's School, the foundation of, 97 ;
Erasmus's description of it, 98.
St. Peter's, Rome : subsidy for its build-
ing obtained by sale of indulgences,
203.
Stokesly, a learned linguist and theolo-
gian, 218.
Students' life in the University of Paris,
21 sqq.
Study, Erasmus's counsel in regard to,
65.
Index.
433
Subsidy Act (Henry VIII.), 93.
Succession, Act of (after birth of Henry
VIII. 's daughter Elizabeth), 407, 409.
Superstition : persistence of its charac-
teristics, 300.
Supremacy, Act of, 409, 414.
Swartzerde (= Melauchthon), 2.
Switzerland : spread of Lutherauism in.
384.
Synaxis (in scholastic theology) : mean-
ing of the term, 124, 130.
Terence, Erasmus's youthful liking for,
Tetzel (Dominican monk) : his open sale
of indulgences, 204.
Theodoric, a printer at Louvain, 225.
Theological controversies : Erasmus's
protest against. 296.
Tournehem Castle (Lord of Vere's es-
fcate), 28 ; Erasmus's first visit to, 29.
Transubstantiation : Erasmus's opinion
on the doctrine, 376.
Trent, Bishop of : Erasmus's letter to,
pleading for prudence and judgment
in dealing with the Lutherans, 385.
" Trojans,' 7 afaction (at ( >\ ford) opposed
to the study of Greek, V,:*.
Tunstall, Cuthbert (Master of the Rolls,
afterwards bishop), 218; opposed to
Church reform in Ed i ind, 372 ; Eras-
mus's high opinion of his character,
377.
Turks : advance on Vienna, 347, 3G3.
" Tyr.iniiiii.li," Lucian's: SirT. More's
answer to, lu7.
Universities : Oxford and Cambridge
forbid the reading or sale of Erasmu '-
writings, 138; a faction (the " Tro-
jans ") formed at Oxford against the
study of Greek, 138; Sir Thomas
More's letter on tin- subject, 139.
Utenhove, Charles : letter of Erasmus
to, denouncing the degeneracy of the
Franciscans, 400 ; vicious lives of in. a
dicanl friars, loi.
" Utopia " (Sir T. More's), 107.
Valla, Laurentius : character of his
writing--, 24 j Erasmus's admiration
for him, 24.
Vere, tin. Lily of, 20 sr/. ; for a time
Erasmus's tutelary spirit, 29 ; his en-
thusiasm for her, 29, 54 ; liis endeav-
ours to obtain pecuniary help from
uer, 53 , hi mm ucci tnl visit to *
HO ; letter of Erasmus to her, 78 ; her
liberality to him, 81.
Vere, the Lord of : Erasmus's description
of him, 27 ; his death, 50.
Vestments, Erasmus's protest against
the abuse of, 349.
Vienna : threatened by the Turks, 347.
3G3.
" V inum Theologicum : " Erasmus's in-
terpretation of, 50.
Volzius, Abbot (afterwards a Calvinist) :
letter of Erasmus to, 213.
Vows, monastic: Erasmus's arguments
against, 176.
Walsinoham, Our Lady of, 97, 221.
Warham, Archbishop: Chancellor and
Master of the Rolls,
of the " Adagia " and ot i mu , ~>l ;
Erasmus's indebtedness t.i him, 52;
offers Erasmus a benefice in England,
89 ; other tokens of his esteem, 91 ;
offer of a benefice repeated, and what
came ol it. 94; settles a pension on
Erasmus, 94 ; Erasmus's estimate "i
his character, 96 ; jocular letter to
Erasmus about the latter's complaint
Of till- si , III; " gold is ;t go
medicine," ill; opposed to Chun h
reform in Engl ind, 372 ; died ol grief,
I ; Erasmus's high opinion ol Ids
■ uaracter, 378 ; died \<m\ poor, 406.
Wartburg, Castle of: Luther concealed
I here by the Elector, 2S.">.
Wicelius, Geoi mus
to take part in the expected council,
no.
Wickliff and his followers: contrasted
by Erasmus wit li Luther and the Lu-
therans, :ni ; driven into Bchism by
wicked monks ami clergy, 356.
Wittenberg: scene of tin- beginning of
tin- Reformation,
Wolsey, Cardinal, 89, 169, 172; Eras-
mus's letter to him about Luthi
movement, 209 ; dismissed from office
by Henry \iii., 370; number ol his
bishoprics and benefices in England,
,';7i ; his attainder draws up bj Lord
Darcy, 371.
Worms, Diet of,
Zealand, Erasmus In, 55.
Zinthius, 1 n.
Zwingli inner, 339.
Zwlnglians: refo !
burg, 386.
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