Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles
Date: 2005-06-02T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Erasmus; Desiderius; -1536; Theologians -- Correspondence

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Title: Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles

Author: Desiderius Erasmus

Editor: P. S. Allen

Release date: June 1, 2005 [eBook #8400]
Most recently updated: February 23, 2015

Language: English, Latin

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8400

Credits: Produced by David Starner, Thomas Berger, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTIONS FROM ERASMUS: PRINCIPALLY FROM HIS EPISTLES ***

Produced by David Starner, Thomas Berger, and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team.

SELECTIONS FROM ERASMUS

Principally From His Epistles

By

P. S. ALLEN

* * * * *

PREFACE

The selections in this volume are taken mainly from the Letters of Erasmus. Latin was to him a living language; and the easy straightforwardness with which he addresses himself to what he has to say, whether in narrating the events of every-day life or in developing more serious themes, makes his works suitable reading for beginners. To the rapidity with which he invariably wrote is due a certain laxity, principally in the use of moods and tenses; and his spelling is that of the Renaissance. These matters I have brought to some extent into conformity with classical usage; and in a few other ways also I have taken necessary liberties with the text.

In the choice of passages I have been guided for the most part by a desire to illustrate through them English life at a period of exceptional interest in our history. There has never been wanting a succession of persons who concerned themselves to chronicle the deeds of kings and the fortunes of war; but history only becomes intelligible when we can place these exalted events in their right setting by understanding what men both small and great were doing and thinking in their private lives. To Erasmus we owe much intimate knowledge of the age in which he lived; and of none of his contemporaries has he given us more vivid pictures than of the great Englishmen, Henry VIII, Colet, More, and many others, whom he delighted to claim as friends.

With this purpose in view I have thought it best to confine the historical commentary within a narrow compass in the scenes which are not drawn from England; and to leave unillustrated many distinguished names, due appreciation of which would have overloaded the notes and confused the reader.

The vocabulary is intended to include all words not to be found in Dr. Lewis's Elementary Latin Dictionary, with the exception of (1) those which with the necessary modification have become English, (2) classical words used for modern counterparts without possibility of confusion, e. g. templum for church; (3) diminutives—a mode of expression which both Erasmus and modern writers use very freely—as to the origin of which there can be no doubt.

Mr. Kenneth Forbes of St. John's College has kindly gone through the whole of the text with me, and has given me the benefit of his long experience as a teacher. I am also obliged to him for most valuable assistance in the preparation of the notes.

LONGWALL, COTTAGE, OXFORD. June 1908.

In a second edition I have been able to incorporate a few of the corrections and suggestions made by reviewers and friends. My thanks are especially due to the Warden of Wadham and to Mr. Hugo Sharpley, head master of Richmond Grammar School, Yorks.

23 MERTON STREET, OXFORD. June 1, 1918.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

LIFE OF ERASMUS

I. AN ORDINATION EXAMINATION

II. A DOMESTIC AFFRAY (55 : 47)

III. A WINTER JOURNEY (88 : 82)

IV. AN ENGLISH COUNTRY-HOUSE (103 : 98)

V. A VISIT TO COURT (I. p. 6 : i. p. 201)

VI. ERASMUS AT OXFORD (115 : 104)

VII. AN OXFORD DINNER PARTY (116 : 105)

VIII. LEARNING IN ENGLAND (118 : 110)

IX. A JOURNEY TO PARIS (119 : 122)

X. ERASMUS RENDERS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO COLET (181 : 180)

XI. A VISIT TO LAMBETH (I. pp. 4-5 : i. p.393)

XII. A LETTER TO ALDUS (207 : 204)

XIII. AN INTERVIEW WITH GRIMANI ( :i. p. 461)

XIV. A CONVERSATION AT CAMBRIDGE (237 : 231)

XV. AN ENCOUNTER WITH CANOSSA

XVI. ERASMUS' APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA (296 : 290)

XVII. ERASMUS' RECEPTION AT BASEL (305 : 298)

XVIII. BISHOP FISHER (457 : 446)

XIX. A JOURNEY FROM BASEL TO LOUVAIN (867 : )

XX. ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES (965 : )

XXI. AN EXPLOSION AT BASEL

XXII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. I

XXIII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. II

XXIV. THE LIVES OF VITRARIUS AND COLET

XXV. COLET AND HIS KINSMAN

XXVI. THOMAS MORE ( :585B)

XXVII. A DISHONEST LONDONER

XXVIII. THE CONDITION OF ENGLISH HOUSES

XXIX. FISHER'S STUDY AT ROCHESTER

NOTES

VOCABULARY

LIST OF PLACE-NAMES

(Of the figures in brackets, the first give the references to my Opus Epistolarum Erasmi, the second to the late Mr. F. M. Nichols' Epistles of Erasmus.)

* * * * *

LIFE OF ERASMUS

Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on October 27, probably in 1466. His father belonged to Gouda, a little town near Rotterdam, and after some schooling there and an interval during which he was a chorister in Utrecht Cathedral, Erasmus was sent to Deventer, to the principal school in the town, which was attached to St. Lebuin's Church. The renewed interest in classical learning which had begun in Italy in the fourteenth century had as yet been scarcely felt in Northern Europe, and education was still dominated by the requirements of Philosophy and Theology, which were regarded as the highest branches of knowledge. A very high degree of subtlety in thought and argument had been reached, and in order that the youthful student might be fitted to enter this arena, it was necessary that he should be trained from the outset in its requirements. In the schools, in consequence, little attention was paid to the form in which thought was expressed, provided that the thought was correct: in marked contrast to the classical ideal, which emphasized the importance of expression, in just appreciation of the fact that thought expressed in obscure or inadequate words, fails to reach the human mind. The mediaeval position had been the outcome of a reaction against the spirit of later classical times, which had sacrificed matter to form. And now the pendulum was swinging back again in a new attempt to adjust the rival claims.

The education which Erasmus received at Deventer was still in thraldom to the mediaeval ideal. Greek was practically unknown, and in Latin all that was required of the student was a sufficient mastery of the rudiments of grammar to enable him to express somehow the distinctions and refinements of thought for which he was being trained. Niceties of scholarship and amplitude of vocabulary were unnecessary to him and were disregarded. From a material point of view also education was hampered. Printing was only just beginning, and there were few, if any, schoolbooks to be had. Lectures and lessons still justified their name 'readings'; for the boys sat in class crowded round their master, diligently copying down the words that fell from his lips, whether he were dictating a chapter in grammar, with its rules of accidence and syntax, or at a later stage a passage from a Latin author with his own or the traditional comments. Their canon of the classics was widely different from ours; instead of the simplified Caesar or Ovid that is now set before the schoolboy, Terence occupied a principal position, being of the first importance to an age when the learned still spoke Latin. Portions of the historians were read, for their worldly wisdom rather than for their history; Pliny the Elder for his natural science, and Boethius for his mathematics; and for poetry Cato's moral distiches and Baptista of Mantua, 'the Christian Vergil.'

In this atmosphere Erasmus's early years were spent; but from some of his masters he caught the breath of the new life that came from Italy, and this he never lost. By 1485, shortly after he had left Deventer, both his parents were dead, and a few years later he was persuaded to enter the monastery of Steyn, near Gouda, a house of Augustinian canons. The life there was uncongenial to him; for though he had leisure to read as much as he liked, his temperament was not suited to the precision and regularity of religious observance. An opportunity for escape presented itself, when the Bishop of Cambray, a powerful ecclesiastic, was inquiring for a Latin secretary. Erasmus, who had already become very facile with his pen, obtained the post and for a year or more discharged its duties.

At length in 1495 he persuaded the Bishop to fulfil a desire which he had long cherished, and send him with a stipend to a University. He went to Paris and began reading for a Doctor's degree in Theology. But the course was too cramping, and he therefore used his opportunity to educate himself more widely; eking out the Bishop's grant by taking pupils. It was a hard life, and his health was delicate; but he did not flinch from his task, doing just enough paid work—and no more—to keep himself alive and to buy books. In 1499 one of his pupils, a young Englishman, Lord Mountjoy, brought him to England for a visit, and in the autumn sent him for a month or two to Oxford. There he fell in with Colet, a man of strong character and intellect, who was giving a new impulse to the study of the Bible by historical treatment. Colet's enthusiasm encouraged Erasmus in the direction to which he was already inclined; and when he returned to Paris in 1500, it was with the determination to apply his whole energy to classical learning, and especially to the study of Theology, which in the new world opening before him was still to be the queen of sciences. For the next four years he was working hard, teaching himself Greek and reading whatever he could find, at Paris or, when the plague drove him thence, at Orleans or Louvain. By 1504 his period of preparation was over, and the fruitful season succeeded. His first venture in Theology was to print in 1505 some annotations on the New Testament by Lorenzo Valla, an Italian humanist of the fifteenth century with whose critical temperament he was much in sympathy.

Shortly afterwards a visit to England brought him what he had long desired—an opportunity of going to Italy. He set out in June 1506, as supervisor of the studies of two boys, the sons of Henry VII's physician. After taking the degree of D.D. at Turin in September he settled down at Bologna with his charges and worked at a book which he had had in hand for some years, and of which he had already published a specimen in 1500. To this book, the Adagia, he owed the great fame which he obtained throughout Europe, before any of the works on which his reputation now rests had been published. Its scheme was a collection of proverbial sayings and allusions, which he illustrated and explained in such a way as to make them useful to those who desired to study the classics and to write elegant Latin. In these days of lexicons and dictionaries the value of the Adagia has passed away; but to an age which placed a high value on Latinity and which had little apparatus to use, the book was a great acquisition. It was welcomed with enthusiasm when Aldus published it at Venice in 1508: and throughout his life Erasmus brought out edition after edition, amplifying and enlarging a book which the public was always ready to buy.

From Venice Erasmus went on to Rome, where he had a flattering reception, and, though a northerner, was recognized as an equal by the humanists of Italy. He was pressed to stay, but the death of Henry VII brought him an invitation to return to England, in the names of Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his old patron Mountjoy, who was loud in his praises of the 'divine' young king.

As he rode hastily northwards, his active brain fell to composing a satire on the life he saw around him. He was a quick observer, and his personal charm had won him admission to the halls of the great; whilst bitter experience had shown him the life of the poor and needy. His satire, The Praise of Folly, cuts with no gentle hand into the deceits to which human frailty is prone and lays bare their nakedness. High and low, rich and poor, suffer alike, as Folly makes merry over them. There was much in the life of the age which called for censure, as there had been in the past and was to be in the future. On untrained lips censure easily degenerates into abuse and loses its sting: Erasmus with his gifts of humour and expression caught the public ear and set men thinking.

In England, where he spent the next years, 1509-14, Erasmus began the great work of his life, an edition of the New Testament and of the Letters of Jerome. His time was spent between Cambridge and London, and his friends did what they could for his support. Warham presented him with a living—Aldington in Kent—and then as Erasmus could not reside and discharge the duties of a parish priest, allowed him to resign and draw a pension from the living—in violation of his own strict regulation. Mountjoy gave him another pension, and Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, sent him to Cambridge and gave him rooms in Queens' College. For a time he held the Professorship of Divinity founded in Cambridge, as in Oxford, by the Lady Margaret Tudor, mother of Henry VII. But teaching was not his gift. Others might inspire students from the teacher's chair: his talent could only enlighten the teacher through his books.

At length the time came to publish. By fortunate accident, if not by design, he came into relations with John Froben of Basel, who with the three sons of his late partner, John Amorbach, was printing works of sound learning with all his energy—especially the Fathers. In July 1514 Erasmus set forth, and after a triumphal progress through Germany, fêted and welcomed everywhere, he settled at Basel to see Jerome and the New Testament through the press. By 1516 they were complete, and Erasmus had achieved—almost by an afterthought, for his first project had been a series of annotations like Valla's—the work which has made his name great.

Mark Pattison says of Erasmus that he propounded the problem of critical scholarship, but himself did nothing to solve it. By critical scholarship is meant the examination of the grounds on which learning rests. In youth we are uncritical, and accept as Caesar or Livy the books from which we read those authors; but with growing experience we learn that a copy is not always a true representation of its original; and with this, even though there is little perception of the changes and chances through which manuscripts have passed, the first lesson of criticism has been learnt.

The problem may be stated thus—In no single case does an autograph manuscript of a classical author survive: for our knowledge of the works of the past we are dependent on manuscripts written at a later date. Only rarely is there less than 300 years' interval between an author's death and the earliest manuscript now extant of his works; in a great many cases 1,000 years have elapsed, and in the extreme—Sophocles and Aristophanes—1,400. The question therefore arises, How far do our manuscripts represent what was originally written? and it is the work of scholars to compare together existing manuscripts, to estimate their relative value, and where they differ, to determine, if possible, what the author actually wrote.

The manuscripts of the New Testament which scholars have examined and collated are now numbered by hundreds. Erasmus was content for his first edition with two lent to him by Colet from the library of St. Paul's Cathedral, and a few of little value which he found at Basel. And though for subsequent editions he compared one or two more, the work never reached a high standard of scholarship. He had done enough, however, for his age. Before Erasmus men were accustomed to read the New Testament in Latin; after 1516 no competent scholar could be content with anything but the Greek. But though the priority actually belongs to Erasmus, it must be stated that the Greek version had already been printed in January 1514 in a Polyglott Bible published under the orders of Cardinal Ximenes at Alcala in Spain. For definite reasons, however, this great edition was not put into circulation till 1520.

By this time Erasmus had attained his highest point. As years went on his activity continued unabated, his fame grew and his material circumstances reached a level at which he was far above want and could gratify his generous impulses freely. But a cloud arose which overshadowed him; and when it broke—long after Erasmus's death—it overwhelmed Europe. The causes which raised it up were not new. For centuries earnest and religious men—Erasmus himself among the number—had been protesting against evil in the Church. In December 1517 Martin Luther, a friar at Wittenberg, created a stir by denouncing a number of the doctrines and practices of the Church; and when the Pope excommunicated him, proceeded publicly to burn the Papal Bull with every mark of contempt. From this he was driven on by opposition and threatened persecution, which he faced with indomitable courage, to a position of complete hostility to Rome; endeavouring to shatter its immemorial institutions and asserting the right of the individual to approach God through the mediation of Christ only instead of through that of priests: the individual, as an inevitable consequence, claiming the right of private judgement in matters religious instead of bowing to dogma based on the authority of the Church from ages past.

These conclusions Erasmus abhorred. He was all for reform, but a violent severance with the past seemed to him a monstrous remedy. He always exercised, though he did not always claim, the right of thinking for himself; but he would never have dreamed of allowing the same freedom to the ignorant or the unlearned. The aim of his life was to increase knowledge, in the assurance that from that reform would surely come; but to force on reform by an appeal to passion, to settle religious difficulties by an appeal to emotion was to him madness.

The ideals of Erasmus and Luther were irreconcilable: and bitterness soon arose between them. From both sides Erasmus was assailed with unmeasured virulence. The strict Catholics called him a heretic, the Lutherans a coward. But throughout these stormy years he never wavered. At the end he was still pursuing the ideal which he had sought at the outset of his public career—reform guided by knowledge. He lived to see some of the disasters which he had dreaded as the result of encouragement given to lawless passion—the Peasants' Revolt in 1525, and the Anabaptist horrors at Munster ten years later. If he could have foreseen the course of the next century, he would not have lacked instances with which to enforce his moral.

After 1516 Erasmus returned to England, and then after a few weeks settled in the Netherlands, first at the court of Brussels, where he had been appointed Councillor to the young Archduke Charles; and then at the University of Louvain. He was incessantly at work, a new edition of the New Testament being projected within a few weeks of the publication of the first. This appeared in 1519, after Erasmus had journeyed to Basel in the summer of 1518 to help with the printing. In the autumn of 1521 he determined to remove to Basel altogether, to escape the attacks of the Louvain theologians and to be near his printers. For the next few years he was at Froben's right hand, editing the Fathers in one great series of volumes after another, and unsparing of his health.

It was during this period that one of the best known of his works, the Colloquia, attained maturity. These were composed first in Paris for a pupil, as polite forms of address at meeting and parting. In their final shape they are a series of lively dialogues in which characters, often thinly disguised, discuss the burning questions of the day with lightness and humour. In all subsequent times they have been a favourite book for school reading; and some of Shakespeare's lines are an echo of Erasmus.

In 1529 religious dissensions drove him from Basel and he took refuge at Freiburg in the Breisgau, which was still untouched by the Reformation. There he worked on, in the intervals of severe illness; his courage never failed him and he was comforted by the affection of his friends. In 1535 he returned again to Basel, to be at hand in the printing of a work on preaching, the Ecclesiastes, to which he had given his recent efforts; and there death, which for twelve years had not seemed far away, overtook him on July 12, 1536.

* * * * *

I. AN ORDINATION EXAMINATION

Non ab re fuerit hoc loco referre quid acciderit Davidi quondam episcopo Traiectensi, Ducis Philippi cognomento Boni filio. Vir erat apprime doctus reique theologicae peritus, quod in nobilibus et illius praesertim dicionis episcopis profana dicione onustis 5 perrarum est. Audierat inter tam multos qui sacris initiabantur, paucissimos esse qui literas scirent. Visum est rem propius cognoscere. In aula in quam admittebantur examinandi iussit sibi poni cathedram. Ipse singulis proposuit quaestiones pro gradus quem 10 petebant dignitate; hypodiaconis futuris leviores, diaconis aliquanto difficiliores, presbyteris theologicas. Quaeris eventum? Submovit omnes exceptis tribus. Qui his rebus praeesse solent existimarunt ingens Ecclesiae dedecus fore, si pro trecentis tres tantum initiarentur. 15 Episcopus, ut erat fervido ingenio, respondit maius fore dedecus Ecclesiae, si in eam pro hominibus admitterentur asini et omnibus asinis stolidiores. Instabant ii quibus hinc aliquid emolumenti metitur, ut moderaretur sententiam, reputans hoc seculum non 20 gignere Paulos aut Hieronymos, sed tales recipiendos quales ea ferret aetas. Perstitit episcopus, negans se requirere Paulos ac Hieronymos, sed asinos pro hominibus non admissurum. Hic confugiendum erat ad extremam machinam. Admota est. Quaenam? 'Si qua 25 coepisti' inquiunt 'visum est pertendere, salaria nobis augeas oportet; alioqui sine his asinis non est unde vivamus.' Hoc ariete deiectus est erectus ille Praesulis animus.

II. A DOMESTIC AFFRAY

ERASMUS CHRISTIANO S. D.

Salve, mel Atticum. Heri nihil scripsi, et consulto quidem; nam eram stomachosior. Ne roga in quem, in te inquam. 'Quid commerueram?' Verebar mihi insidias strui per te hominem argutissimum. Suspectam habebam illam tuam pyxidem, ne quid simile 5 nobis afferret, quale ferunt Pandorae pyxidem Epimetheo; quam ubi recluseram, mihi ipsi succensebam qui fuissem suspiciosulus. 'Cur igitur ne hodie quidem scripsisti?' inquies. Eramus occupatissimi. 'Quid tandem negotii?' In spectaculo sedimus, sane iucundo. 10 'Comoedia' inquis 'fuit, an Tragoedia?' Utrumvis, verum nemo personatus agebat, unicus duntaxat actus, chorus sine tibiis, fabula nec togata nec palliata, sed planipedia, humi acta, sine saltatu, e cenaculo spectata, epitasis turbulentissima, exitus perturbatissimus. 15 'Quam, malum,' inquies 'mihi fabulam fingis?' Immo rem, Christiane, refero.

Spectavimus hodie matremfamilias cum famula domestica fortiter depugnantem. Sonuerat diu tuba ante congressum, convicia fortiter utrinque regeruntur. Hic 20 aequo Marte discessum est, triumphavit nemo. Haec in hortis, nos e cenaculo taciti spectabamus, non sine risu. Sed audi catastrophen. A pugna conscendit cubiculum meum puella, concinnatura lectos. Inter confabulandum laudo fortitudinem illius, quod voce 25 conviciisque nihil cesserit dominae; ceterum optasse me ut quantum lingua valebat, tantundem valuisset et manibus. Nam hera, virago robusta ut vel athleta videri posset, subinde caput humilioris puellae pugnis contundebat. 'Usque adeone' inquam 'nullos habes ungues, 30 ut ista impune feras?' Respondit illa subridens sibi quidem non tam animum deesse quam vires. 'An tu putas' inquam 'bellorum exitus a viribus tantum pendere? Consilium ubique valet plurimum.' Roganti quid haberem consilii, 'Ubi te rursus adorietur,' inquam 35 'protinus caliendrum detrahe' (nam mulierculae Parisiorum mire sibi placent nigris quibusdam caliendris): 'eo detracto mox in capillos invola.'

Haec ut a me ioco dicebantur, itidem accipi putabam. Atqui sub cenae tempus accurrit anhelus hospes; 40 is erat Caroli regis caduceator, vulgato cognomine dictus Gentil Gerson. 'Adeste,' inquit 'domini mei, videbitis cruentum spectaculum.' Accurrimus, offendimus matremfamilias ac puellam humi colluctantes. Vix a nobis diremptae sunt. Quam cruenta fuisset 45 pugna res ipsa declarabat. Iacebant per humum sparsa, hic caliendrum, illic flammeum. Glomeribus pilorum plenum erat solum; tam crudelis fuerat laniena. Ubi accubuimus in cena, narrat nobis magno stomacho materfamilias quam fortiter se gessisset puella, 'Ubi 50 pararem' inquit 'illam castigare, hoc est pugnis contundere, illa mihi protinus caliendrum detraxit e capite.' Agnovi me non surdae cecinisse fabulam. 'Id detractum' inquit 'mihi venefica vibrabat in oculos.' Id non admonueram. 'Tum' inquit 'tantum capillorum 55 evulsit quantum hic videtis.' Coelum ac terram testata est se nunquam expertam esse puellam tam pusillam ac perinde malam. Nos excusare casus humanos et ancipitem bellorum exitum, tractare de componenda in posterum concordia. Ego interim mihi gratulabar 60 dominae non subolere rem meo consilio gestam; alioqui sensissem et ipse illi non deesse linguam.

Habes nostra ludicra; nunc ad seria. Duplicem mecum contentionem acceperas, scribendi et munera mittendi. Altera te plane victum declaras, ut qui 65 alienis manibus mecum dimicare coeperis; an infitiaberis impudens? Non arbitror, si quid frontis est. Alteram ipse ne suscepi quidem, sed ultro manus dedi. Literis longe vinceris, immo ne pugnas quidem, nisi ut Patroclus Achillis armis. Muneribus nolo tecum inire 70 certamen. An poeta cum negotiatore? Quid simile? Verum heus tu, ad aequiorem concertationem provoco. Experire utrum tu me prius mittendo an ego te scribendo defatigem. Hoc demum sit bellum dignum poeta, dignum institore. Tu si quid audes, accingere; 75 ac bene vale. Parisiis. Anno M.CCCC.XCVII.

III. A WINTER JOURNEY

GUILHELMO MONTIOIO COMITI ANGLO ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS S.D.

Pervenimus tandem et quidem incolumes, tametsi invitis (ut apparet) et superis et inferis. O durum iter! Quem ego posthac Herculem, quem Ulyssem non contemnam? Pugnabat Iuno semper poeticis viris infesta; rursum Aeolum sollicitarat; nec ventis modo 5 in nos saeviebat, omnibus armis in nos dimicabat, frigore acerrimo, nive, grandine, pluvia, imbre, nebulis, omnibus denique iniuriis. Hisque nunc singulis nunc universis nos oppugnabat. Prima nocte post diutinam pluviam subitum atque acre obortum gelu viam 10 asperrimam effecerat; accessit nivis vis immodica; deinde grando, tum et pluvia, quae simul atque terram arboremve contigit, protinus in glaciem concreta est. Vidisses passim terram glacie incrustatam, neque id aequali superficie, sed colliculis acutissimis passim 15 exstantibus. Vidisses arbores glacie vestitas adeoque pressas, ut aliae summo cacumine imum solum contingerent, aliae ramis lacerae, aliae medio trunco discissae starent, aliae funditus evulsae iacerent. Iurabant nobis e rusticis homines natu grandes, se simile nihil unquam 20 in vita vidisse antea. Equis interim eundum erat nunc per profundos nivium cumulos, nunc per sentes glacie incrustatos, nunc per sulcos bis asperos, quos primum gelu duraverat, deinde et glacies acuerat, nunc per crustam quae summas obduxerat nives; quod 25 quidem mollius erat quam ut equum sustineret, durius quam ut ungulas non scinderet.

Quid inter haec animi Erasmo tuo fuisse credis? Insidebat attonito equo eques attonitus; qui quoties aures erigebat, ego animum deiciebam, quoties ille in 30 genua procumbebat, mihi pectus saliebat. Iam Bellerophon ille poeticus suo terrebat exemplo; iam meam ipse temeritatem exsecrabar, qui mutae beluae vitam et una literas meas commiserim. Sed audi quiddam, quod tu credas ex veris Luciani narrationibus petitum, 35 ni mihi ipsi Batto teste accidisset. Cum arx iam ferme in prospectu esset, offendimus omnia undique glacie incrustata, quae ut dixi in nivem inciderat. Et erat tanta ventorum vis, ut eo die unus atque alter collapsi perierint. Flabant autem a tergo. Itaque per declive 40 montium me demittebam, per summam glaciem velificans, atque interim hastili cursum moderans. Id erat clavi vice. Novum navigandi genus. Toto fere itinere obvius fit nemo, sequitur nemo, adeo non solum saeva sed etiam monstruosa erat tempestas. Quarto vix 45 demum die solem aspeximus. Hoc unum ex tantis malis commodi excerpsimus, quod latronum incursus timuimus minus: timuimus tamen, ut homines pecuniosos decebat.

Habes iter meum, adolescens generosissime idemque 50 candidissime; quod ut durissimum fuit, ita reliqua fuere secundissima. Vivi pervenimus ad Annam Principem Verianam. Quid ego tibi de huius mulieris comitate, benignitate, liberalitate memorem? Scio rhetorum amplificationes suspectas haberi solere, praesertim iis 55 qui eius artificii rudes non sint. At hic me nihil allevare, immo re vinci artem nostram, mihi credas velim. Nihil unquam produxit rerum natura aut pudentius aut prudentius aut candidius aut benignius. Quid de meo Batto iactitem, cuius pectore nihil habuit 60 hic orbis simplicius, nihil amantius?

Haec scribebam in patriam concessurus; deinde adamatam Lutetiam repetam et has ipsas literas fortasse praecurram. Ceterum de nostro convictu nihil certi scribere licet. Tamen consilium ex tempore capietur. 65 Hoc unum tibi persuade, neminem vivere qui te magis ex animo amet quam tuus Erasmus. Battus quoque meus, omnium et amorum et odiorum meorum socius, te pari caritate prosequitur. Cura, mi Guilhelme, ut quam optime valeas. 70

Ex arce Tornenhensi pridie nonas Februarias.

IV. AN ENGLISH COUNTRY-HOUSE

ERASMUS FAUSTO ANDRELINO POETAE LAUREATO

Nos in Anglia nonnihil promovimus. Erasmus ille, quem nosti, iam bonus propemodum venator est, eques non pessimus, aulicus non imperitus, salutat paulo blandius, arridet comius, et invita Minerva haec omnia. Tu quoque, si sapis, huc advolabis. Quid ita te iuvat 5 hominem tam nasutum inter merdas Gallicas consenescere? Sed retinet te tua podagra; ut ea te salvo pereat male. Quanquam si Britanniae dotes satis pernosses, Fauste, ne tu alatis pedibus huc accurreres; et si podagra tua non sineret, Daedalum te fieri optares. 10

Nam ut e plurimis unum quiddam attingam, sunt hic nymphae divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis camenis facile anteponas. Est praeterea mos nunquam satis laudatus. Sive quo venis, omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedis aliquo, osculis dimitteris; 15 redis, redduntur suavia; venitur ad te, propinantur suavia; disceditur abs te, dividuntur basia; occurritur alicubi, basiatur affatim; denique quocunque te moves, suaviorum plena sunt omnia. Quae si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint mollicula, quam fragrantia, 20 profecto cuperes non decennium solum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia peregrinari. Cetera coram iocabimur; nam videbo te, spero, propediem.

Vale, ex Anglia. Anno M.CCCC.LXXXXIX.

V. A VISIT TO COURT

Edidimus olim carmen de laudibus regis Henrici septimi et illius liberorum, nec non ipsius Britanniae. Is erat labor tridui, et tamen labor, quod iam annos aliquot nec legeram nec scripseram ullum carmen. Id partim pudor a nobis extorsit, partim dolor. Pertraxerat me 5 Thomas Morus, qui tum me in praedio Montioii agentem inviserat, ut animi causa in proximum vicum exspatiaremur. Nam illic educabantur omnes liberi regii, uno Arcturo excepto, qui tum erat natu maximus. Ubi ventum erat in aulam, convenit tota pompa, non solum 10 domus illius verum etiam Montioiicae. Stabat in medio Henricus annos natus novem, iam tum indolem quandam regiam prae se ferens, hoc est animi celsitudinem cum singulari quadam humanitate coniunctam. A dextris erat Margareta, undecim ferme annos nata, 15 quae post nupsit Iacobo Scotorum regi. A sinistris Maria lusitans, annos nata quatuor. Nam Edmondus adhuc infans in ulnis gestabatur. Morus cum Arnoldo sodali salutato puero Henrico, quo rege nunc floret Britannia, nescio quid scriptorum obtulit. Ego, quoniam 20 huiusmodi nihil exspectabam, nihil habens quod exhiberem, pollicitus sum aliquo pacto meum erga ipsum studium aliquando declaraturum. Interim subirascebar Moro quod non praemonuisset, et eo magis quod puer epistolio inter prandendum ad me misso 25 meum calamum provocaret. Abii domum, ac vel invitis Musis, cum quibus iam longum fuerat divortium, carmen intra triduum absolvi. Sic et ultus sum dolorem meum et pudorem sarsi.

VI. ERASMUS AT OXFORD

ERASMUS GULIELMO MONTIOIO COMITI GENEROSO S.D.

Si tu tuaque generosissima coniunx, socer humanissimus reliquaque familia valetis, est cur maximopere gaudeamus. Nos hic quidem valemus perbelle, et indies bellius. Dici non potest quam mihi dulcescat Anglia tua, idque partim consuetudine, quae omnia dura lenire 5 solet, partim Coleti Charnocique Prioris humanitate, quorum moribus nihil fingi potest suavius, mellitius, amabilius; cum his duobus amicis ego vel in extrema Scythia vivere non recusem. Idem quod scripsit Horatius, et vulgus interdum videre verum, res ipsa me 10 docuit; cuius hoc tritum nosti, quarum rerum durissimi soleant esse aditus, eas felicius evenire. Quid nostro illo ingressu fuit, ut ita dicam, inauspicatius? at nunc secundiora indies omnia. Evomui taedium omne quo me quondam nauseantem videbas. Quod reliquum est, 15 te oro, meum decus, ut quando tum cum meus me animus deficiebat, tuo sustinuisti, nunc cum meus mihi non deest, tuus ne destituat.

Quod ad diem praefinitum non veneris, expostulare tecum nec libet, nec iuro me posse puto. Quid te retardarit 20 equidem nescio. Hoc unum scio, quicquid fuit, legitimum quiddam et iustum fuisse, quare venire non potueris; nam voluisse nihil dubito. Neque enim ullam video causam cur istud fingere volueris. Et ea est generosissimae mentis tuae ingenua simplicitas, ut 25 maxima etiam de causa mentiri nec scias si velis, nec velis si scias. Non est meum te vel hortari vel dehortari, immo dehortari potius. Quod tuae te res hortantur, id sequere. Nos ita te desideramus ut interim te tuis commodis inservire velimus. Si brevi venturus es 30 gaudemus; sin qua res te retinet, modo incommodi nihil sit, ut hactenus fecimus, aequo te animo exspectabimus.

Pecunias meas anulo tuo diligenter obsignatas mitte. Priori iam sum multis nominibus obaeratus; ministrat ille quidem tum benigne tum prompte. Verum quando 35 ille humanissimi hominis officio functus est, par est nos invicem gratorum hominum munere fungi, et quam ille libenter dedit, tam nos libenter reddere. Ut rara supellectile, ita bonis amicis parcius utendum esse censeo. Si quid istic novatum est, facito me per literas 40 certiorem. Bene vale.

Oxoniae.

VII. AN OXFORD DINNER PARTY

ERASMUS DOMINO IOANNI SIXTINO S.D.

Quam vellem nuper, ut exspectaram, ita nostro illi convivio interfuisses; vero inquam convivio, non symposio. Mihi quidem omnino nullum unquam fuit suavius, lautius, mellitius. Deerat nihil. Belli homunculi, tempus lectum, locus lectus, apparatus non neglectus. 5 Iis lautitiis ut vel Epicurum ipsum, iis sermonibus conditum erat ut vel Pythagoram delectare posset. Homunculi non belli solum verum etiam bellissimi, et eiusmodi qui Academiam possent facere, non modo convivium. Quinam, inquies? Accipe, quo magis te 10 doleas abfuisse. Primum Richardus prior, ille Charitum antistes; tum Theologus is, qui eodem die Latinam habuerat contionem, vir tum modestus tum eruditus; deinde Philippus ille tuus, homo lepidissimae festivitatis Praesidebat Coletus veteris illius theologiae vindex 15 atque assertor. Accumbebat dextra Prior, homo (ita me deus amet) non minus mirabili mixtura ex omnium literarum generibus omnibus, quam ex summa humanitate summaque item integritate conflatus. Ad laevam recentior ille Theologus, cui nos quidem laevum 20 latus clausimus, ne poeta convivio deesset. Ex adverso Philippus, ne non adesset iurisperitus. Accumbit deinceps mixtum et sine nomine vulgus.

His ordinibus ita digestis statim bellum oritur inter pocula, non tamen ex poculis neque poculentum. Cum 25 variis de rebus parum conveniebat, tum de hac pugna erat acerrima. Dicebat Coletus Caym ea primum culpa Deum offendisse, quod tanquam conditoris benignitate diffisus suaeque nimium confisus industriae terram primus proscidisset, cum Abel sponte nascentibus contentus 30 oves pavisset. Contra, nos pro se quisque niti, Theologus ille syllogismis, ego rhetoriis. Ne Hercules quidem contra duos, aiunt Graeci. At ille unus vincebat omnes; visus est sacro quodam furore debacchari ac nescio quid homine sublimius augustiusque prae se 35 ferre. Aliud sonabat vox, aliud tuebantur oculi, alius vultus, alius aspectus, maiorque videri, afflatus est numine quando.

Tandem cum et longius processisset disputatio, et esset quam ut convivio conveniret gravior atque severior, 40 tum ego meis, hoc est poetae, partibus functurus, ut et eam contentionem discuterem et festiviore fabella prandium exhilararem, 'Res' inquam 'perantiqua est et ex vetustissimis auctoribus repetenda; de qua quid ipse in literis reppererim exponam, si prius detis 45 fidem vos id quod sum narraturus pro fabula non habituros.' Ubi promiserant, 'Incidimus' inquam 'olim in vetustissimum codicem, cuius et titulum et auctorem aetas aboleverat tineaeque bonis literis semper infestae deroserant. In eo unica tantum pagina nec 50 erat carie vitiata nec a tineis aut soricibus arrosa, Musis credo quae sua sunt tutantibus. In ea me hac ipsa de re, de qua decernitis, legere memini aut veram aut, si vera non est, certe veri simillimam narrationem; quam si vultis recensebo.' 55

Iubentibus illis 'Erat' inquam 'Caym ille homo quemadmodum industrius, ita famelicus et avidus. Is a parentibus persaepe audierat in viridario illo unde fuissent depulsi, segetes sua sponte provenire laetissimas spicis amplissimis, granis praegrandibus, culmis 60 adeo proceris ut alnum nostratem aequarent; eis nec lolium nec spinam ullam aut carduum internasci. Haec cum ille probe meminisset videretque eam tellurem quam tum vexabat aratro, vix malignam minutamque frugem producere, dolum addidit industriae. Angelum 65 illum paradisi custodem adiit, eumque veteratoriis technis adortus magnis promissis corrupit, ut sibi ex felicioribus illis segetibus vel paucula grana clam largiretur. Dicebat Deum iam olim huius rei securum ac neglegentem esse; tum si maxime rescisset, facile 70 impune futurum, cum res esset nullius momenti, modo de pomis illis nihil attingeretur, de quibus solis fuisset interminatus Deus.

'"Eia" inquit "ne ianitor sis nimium diligens. Quid si ingrata etiam est illi nimia tua sedulitas? Quid si 75 falli etiam cupit, magisque illum hominum callida industria quam iners otium delectabit? An vero tu tibi isto munere magnopere places? Ex angelo carnificem te fecit, ut miseros nos et perditos crudelis arceres a patria; te foribus cum rhomphaea alligavit, cui muneri 80 nos canes nuper coepimus addicere. Nos quidem sumus miserrimi, at tu mihi videris conditione non paulo afflictiore. Nos quidem paradiso caremus, quia pomum nimium dulce gustavimus. Tu ut inde nos arceas, pariter et coelo cares et paradiso; hoc miserior, 85 quod nobis quidem huc atque illuc, quo fert animi libido, vagari liberum est. Habet et haec nostra regio, si nescis, quibus exsilium nostrum consolemur, nemora comis virentibus, mille arborum genera et quibus vixdum invenimus vocabula, fonticulos passim ex clivis, 90 ex rupibus scaturientes; flumina limpidissimis aquis ripas herbidas lambentia, montes aerios, valles opacas, ditissima maria. Nec dubito quin in intimis illis suis visceribus claudat tellus aliquid bonarum mercium; quas ut eruam, scrutabor omnes eius venas, aut si mihi 95 defuerit aetas, nepotes certe mei facient. Sunt et hic aurea mala, sunt fici pinguissimi, sunt frugum omniiuga genera. Multa adeo passim sponte nascuntur ut paradisum istum non magnopere desideremus, si liceat hic aeternum vivere. Infestamur morbis; et huic rei 100 inveniet remedium humana industria. Video herbas mirum quiddam spirantes. Quid si et hic inveniatur aliqua quae vitam faciat immortalem? Nam scientia ista non video quid ad rem pertineat. Quid mihi cum his quae nihil ad me attinent? Quanquam in hac parte 105 non cessabo, quando nihil est quod non expugnet pertinax industria. Ita nos pro uno hortulo mundum latissimum accepimus, tu utrinque exclusus nec paradiso frueris neque coelo neque terra, perpetuo his affixus foribus, rhomphaeam semper versans, quid nisi 110 ut cum vento pugnes? Eia age, si sapis, tibi simul et nobis consule. Da quod sine tuo detrimento largiri potes, et accipe nostra vicissim quae tibi facimus communia. Miser fave miseris, exclusus exclusis, damnatis damnatior." 115

'Persuasit pessimam causam vir pessimus, orator optimus. Paucula grana furtim accepta diligenter obruit, enata sunt non sine fenore, id fenus rursum terrae gremio commissum, iterumque atque iterum, aliud atque aliud. Nec saepius aestas recurrit, quam 120 ille iam ingentem spatiosumque agrorum tractum hac semente occupavit. Quae res ubi evidentior esse coepisset quam ut superos latere posset, vehementer iratus Deus "Quantum intellego" inquit "iuvat hunc furem labor et sudor. Eum ego illi magnifice cumulabo." 125 Simulque cum dicto confertissimum undique agmen immittit in segetem, formicarum, curculionum, bufonum, erucarum, murium, locustarum, scrofarum, avium aliarumque id genus pestium, quae segetem partim adhuc humo conditam, partim herbescentem, partim 130 iam flavam, partim horreo compositam depascerentur. Accessit ingens ex coelo calamitas, grandinis et venti vis tanta ut quernis roboribus aequales culmi illi stipulae aridae in morem defringerentur. Angelus ille custos mutatus atque, quod hominibus faveret, humano corpori 135 inclusus. Caym, cum Deum incensis frugibus placare studeret, nec fumus subvolaret, certam illius iram intellegens desperat.'

Habes fabulam, Sixtine, inter pocula dictam atque inibi inter pocula natam, atque adeo ex ipsis, si libet, 140 poculis, quam volui ad te perscribere; primum ne nihil scriberem, cum meas esse partes agnoscerem ut scriberem, quippe qui tuas literas posterior accepissem, deinde ne tu eius convivii tam lauti prorsus expers esses. Bene vale. Oxoniae. 145

VIII. LEARNING IN ENGLAND

ERASMUS ROBERTO PISCATORI AGENTI IN ITALIA ANGLO S.D.

Subverabar nonnihil ad te scribere, Roberte carissime, non quod metuerem ne quid de tuo in nos amore tanta temporum locorumque disiunctio detrivisset; sed quod in ea sis regione, ubi vel parietes sint tum eruditiores tum disertiores quam nostrates sunt homines; 5 ut quod hic pulchre expolitum, elegans, venustum habetur, istic non rude, non sordidum, non insulsum videri non possit. Quare tua te exspectat prorsus Anglia non modo iureconsultissimum, verum etiam Latine Graeceque pariter loquacem. Me quoque iampridem istic 10 videres, nisi Comes Montioius iam ad iter accinctum in Angliam suam abduxisset. Quo enim ego iuvenem tam humanum, tam benignum, tam amabilem non sequar? Sequar, ita me deus amet, vel ad inferos usque. Amplissime tu quidem mihi eum praedicaras graphiceque 15 prorsus descripseras; at vincit cotidie, mihi crede, et tuam praedicationem et meam de se existimationem.

Sed quid Anglia nostra te delectat, inquis? Si quid mihi est apud te fidei, mi Roberte, hanc mihi fidem habeas velim, nihil adhuc aeque placuisse. Coelum 20 tum amoenissimum tum saluberrimum hic offendi; tantum autem humanitatis atque eruditionis, non illius protritae ac trivialis, sed reconditae, exactae, antiquae, Latinae Graecaeque, ut iam Italiam nisi visendi gratia haud multum desiderem. Coletum meum cum audio, 25 Platonem ipsum mihi videor audire. In Grocino quis illum absolutum disciplinarum orbem non miretur? Linacri iudicio quid acutius, quid altius, quid emunctius? Thomae Mori ingenio quid unquam finxit natura vel mollius vel dulcius vel felicius? Iam quid ego 30 reliquum catalogum recenseam? Mirum est dictu quam hic passim, quam dense veterum literarum seges efflorescat; quo magis debes reditum maturare. Comes ita te amat, ita meminit, ut de nullo loquatur saepius, de nullo libentius. Vale. 35

Londini tumultuarie. Nonis Decembr. (1499).

IX. A JOURNEY TO PARIS

ERASMUS BATTO S.P.D.

Multis nominibus tibi gratias agere debeo, mi Batte, qui vigilias meas, hoc est opes, miseris, cum mature, quod non soles, tum optima fide, ut consuesti facere; denique per tabellionem non modo diligentem verum etiam facundum, ita ut mihi non illius labori modo 5 verum etiam orationi fuerit referenda merces. Verum artem arte lusimus et iuxta vetus proverbium contra Cretensem Cretizavimus.

Anglica fata Parisios usque nos sunt persecuta. En tibi alteram narro tragoediam priore etiam atrociorem! 10 Pridie Calendas Februarias Ambianos pervenimus, bone deus, quam duro itinere! Iuno, opinor, aliqua rursus Aeolum in nos excitarat. Ego cum iam de via ita essem affectus ut morbum etiam metuerem, coepi de equis conducendis cogitare, non paulo praestare 15 ratus corpusculo quam nummulis parcere. Et hic sunt ad perniciem secunda omnia. Dum diversorium solitum peto, obiter forte aedes praetereo quasdam equis locandis inscriptas. Ingredior, advocatur locator, homo effigie et habitu ita adamussim 20 Mercurium referens ut mihi primo quoque congressu furis suspicionem dederit. Convenit de mercede. Conductis duobus equis iter sub vesperum ingredimur, comitante iuvene quodam, quem generum esse suum aiebat, qui iumenta domum referret. Postridie 25 ad viculum quendam, cui divo Iuliano nomen est, perventum est et quidem multa adhuc luce, locum latrocinio destinatum. Ego ut pergeremus hortabar. Ille latronis discipulus causari, equos non esse supra vires defatigandos, satius esse illic pernoctare ac 30 postridie id dispendii anticipata luce sarcire. Non repugnabam magnopere, nihil etiamdum sceleris suspicans. Iam propemodum cenaveramus, cum ministra iuvenem illum una nobiscum accumbentem a convivio sevocat, alteri equo nescio quid mali esse 35 dictitans. Discedit adolescens sed eo vultu ut aliud nuntiatum intellegeres. Ego continuo puellam revocans, 'Heus' inquam 'filia, uter equorum male habet, meusne an huius?' Nam aderat Anglus itineris mei comes. 'Et quid tandem est mali?' Illa conscientiam 40 constanter dissimulare non valens subrisit, et figmentum confessa venisse notum quendam aiebat, qui iuvenem ad colloquium evocasset.

Nec ita multo post locator ipse, qui iugulos nostros victimae destinarat, cenaculum ingreditur. Nos admirari, 45 rogare quidnam accidisset, quod tam inexspectatus atque improvisus adesset. Ait se rem adferre flebilem, filiam suam, eius iuvenis uxorem, ita ab equo calcibus percussam ut iam animam propemodum ageret; tumultuario itinere sese accurrisse, ut eum 50 domum revocaret. Mihi iam tum commentum obolere coepit. Utriusque vultum et gestus curiosius observo. In locatore ilico inconstantiam quandam animadverto, in iuvene stuporem qui e regione accumbebat; ac mecum protinus Ciceronianum illud, Nisi fingeres, 55 non sic ageres. Iam mihi nihil agendum putabam, nisi ut ab homine absolverer, quippe qui nihil usquam viderem quod non latrocinium saperet. Augebant anteacta suspicionem, quod cum Ambianis de mercede convenisset, ille data opera me rogavit quasnam esset 60 pecunias accepturus. Subito aderant, nec scio unde emersissent, qui sermonibus adiuvabant fabulam. Mihi laudabant locatorem, gratulabantur de tali comite, me vicissim locatori commendabant. Rogabat semel atque iterum locator ecquem haberem postulatum, 65 id est nomisma rarius. Nego mihi esse. Deprompsi scutatum unum atque alterum, qui tametsi satis probarentur, tamen blandius efflagitabat ut e multis quos habere me putabat, unum aliquem bellissimum darem. Est enim hoc huius sceleratissimae artis 70 caput, explorare quantum quisque viator secum portet. Ostendebam quos tum habebam, e quibus ille bellissimum sibi retinuit.

Accedebant ad maleficii coniecturam quaedam a iuvene in itinere dicta ac facta; quae consilio soceri 75 de composito praeparata videri possent. E duobus equis alter erat ignavissimus, ut in fuga nihil futurum esset praesidii. Is cui ego insidebam, in collo vulnus ingens habebat adhuc unguentis oblitum. Non ita procul aberamus ab urbe, rogat iuvenis sibi liceat 80 a tergo meo in lumbos equi conscendere, iumentum assuetum ferendis duobus, ne quid metuerem equo. 'Sero' inquit 'exivimus, hoc celerius perveniemus.' Passus sum; oritur sermo variis de rebus. Sic loquitur de socero quasi non optime de illo sentiret. Est et 85 hoc unum e latronum mysteriis. Interea crumena mea defluit in tergum, inerant autem octo ferme coronati aurei. Is reponit ad umbilicum. Rursum defluentem reponit, admonens ut crumena semper sit in oculis. Ego ridens 'Quorsum' inquam 'attinet 90 servare vacuam?' Obscura iam nocte nemus quoddam emensi tandem in vicum quendam emersimus. Iuvenis circumspectans fingit se nescire ubinam locorum esset, ducit nos in aedes nescio quas. Iubeo ut iuvenis ipse se curet suo more, nos utrique ieiuni cubitum imus. 95 Anglus hoc religioni dabat, ego valetudini; nam graviter e stomacho laborabam. Accedit mulier, nobis ut putabat altum dormientibus, multa cum ignoto illo, ut simulabat, iuvene familiarissime collocuta est. Tandem iuvene submonente reliquus sermo sibilis peractus 100 est, ut exaudire non possem.

Ante lucem extrudo eos ad iter. Toto itinere tracto iuvenem sane comiter. Ubi perventum est ad oppidum cui nomen Claro monti, paro ingredi, non illic acturus noctem sed aurum commutaturus, ne quid ea res esset 105 in mora in vico pernoctantibus. Dissuadet iuvenis, affirmans sibi satis esse monetae argenteae. Itaque ad laevam oppido relicto pergimus. Iam vico proximi cum essemus, forte praecesserat Anglus una cum iuvene, ego sequor, 110
sicut meus est mos, nescio quid meditans nugarum et totus in illis.

Interim imprudente me descenderat Anglus. Iuvenis adduxerat equum ad fores, ubi nunquam fuerat diversorium. Ubi sensi, demiror quid cogitet. Ille circumspectans 115 negat se illic intra quatuordecim fuisse annos. Rogat quod mihi placeat diversorium. 'Quid si huc' inquit 'divertamus?' et ostendit domum destinatam. Non abnuo, memor quod illic olim sat commode acceptus fuissem, sed ignarus hospitem esse 120 mutatum. Datur ex more cubiculum. Apponitur vinum, sed male respondens palato. Atqui vix eramus ingressi, cum video ignoto illi iuveni in culina vinum in vitro appositum, eo colore ut mihi gratularer. Hao igitur spe frustratus descendo, expostulo cum hospite; 125 mutatur vinum. Haec iam tum mirabar magis quam habebam suspecta.

Quare (ut ad intermissum narrationis ordinem redeam) iam certa suspicione latrocinii id agere coepi quo me cultro subducerem. 'Quid igitur' inquam 130 'tibi in animo est?' 'Ego' inquit 'fortasse vos Parisios deportabo, verum huic genero plane domum est recurrendum.' 'Immo' inquam 'commodius dabo consilium. Quando casus tam acerbus vobis accidit, ut tu filiam, hic uxorem prope perdiderit, illud vestra 135 causa faciam. Habes a me scutatum sole insignem, restant passuum quatuordecim milia; diminue de ratione mercedis quantum de itinere superest, ac redite. Nos reliquum iter aut pedibus conficiemus aut equos mutabimus.' Caput quatiebat homo, deinde 140 descendit, iuvene relicto mira latrocinii peritia ut quid nobis esset sententiae per hunc expiscaretur. Hic ego accito adolescente 'Heus,' inquam 'quaeso, verum dicas, quidnam de uxore tua, cedo?' Confessus est rem commenticiam, verum socero necessarium esse 145 iter Parisios, ut creditum repeteret. 'Ne quid' inquit 'illius oratione commoveare. Quin vos cras summo diluculo equos conscendite, nos utrique consequemur.'

'Atqui non temere est' inquam 'quod nos tanto itinere tam repente assequitur, et quidem noctu, tum 150 die tam sacro.' Erat enim postridie Virginis matris purgatio. 'Et quorsum' inquam 'attinet tot concinnare mendacia?' Iussit me adolescens bono esse animo, se omnia ex mea facturos esse sententia. 'Quod si quid ille gravetur,' inquit 'ego non deseram 155 te, donec mihi rumpatur cor'; atque haec vultu illo stupido. Ita adsimulabat sese, tanquam furtim mihi contra socerum studeret; deinde descendit et ille, quid nisi ut praeceptori suo rem renuntiaret.

Interea solitudinem nactus Anglum rogo quid tandem 160 ipsi videretur. Is praeter latrocinium paratum nihil se videre respondit. 'At quid' inquam 'consilii?' Iam nox erat profunda. Venit interea cauponaria lectos instratura; rogo ubinam essemus cubituri, lectum ostendit. 'Et ubi reliqui duo?' 'In altero' 165 inquit 'hoc lecto'; qui communi cubiculo continebatur. Tum ego 'Est mihi' inquam 'quiddam nugarum transigendum cum hoc meo comite; sine nos in hoc cubiculo cubitare solos, dabitur merces utroque pro lecto.' Ibi venefica mulier et quid ageretur haud 170 ignara primum suadere coepit ut una potius cubaremus; eos esse viros probos, nec causam esse quo minus illos in cubiculo dormire vellemus. Si quid inter nos haberemus communicandum, id sermone nostrate licere fieri; sin pecuniae nostrae timeremus, illis servandam 175 committeremus, ovem (ut aiunt) lupo. Et ut malefica dignum erat, manifestaria vanitate reliqua cubicula iam hospitibus occupata ementiebatur, quando praeter nos nemo in iis aedibus erat hospes. Quid multa? Argumentis victa obstinate sese id facturam 180 negabat. Iubeo fores igitur aperiat ac nos aliquo eiciat. Ne id quidem se facturam affirmat, descenditque irata ac submurmurans et homicidae illi rem omnem renuntiat, me de gradibus subauscultante.

In Anglo nihil erat neque animi neque consilii neque 185 linguae; nam Gallice prorsus nesciebat. Mihi primum illud visum est esse consultissimum, obice ferreo occludere cubiculi ostium, obiecto et ingenti scamno querno. Verum id consilium mox displicuit reputanti nos in tam vastis aedibus solos obiici pluribus; et iam multa 190 nox erat, nec usquam vociferatio potuisset exaudiri, nisi qua parte cubiculum spectabat viam publicam: at illic obstabat templum monasterii cuiusdam. Interea dum circumspicio melius aliquod consilium, nec satis occurrit, puella pulsat fores. Ego clanculum submoto 195 scamno rogo quid velit. Respondit nescio quid se adferre, sed voce alacri. Aperio fores, blandior et adludo puellae, quo metum dissimulem. Sedemus interim tanquam duae victimae mactatorem exspectantes. Convenit tamen inter nos ut otiose sobrieque fabularemur 200 ad ignem absque potatione, donec indusiati caligatique vicissim dormiremus ac vigilaremus. Paulo post ingreditur bonus ille vir, tanquam omnium rerum ignarus; observo hominem oculis diligenter. Quo fixius contemplor, eo certius latronem video; qui cum 205 tandem se una cum suo tirone lecto composuisset, consequimur et nos, nec ea nocte quicquam sensimus, nisi quod experrectus Anglus gladium, quem ad pulvinum locaverat, longe amotum in extremum usque cubiculi angulum repperit. Nam duobus nobis unicus 210 duntaxat erat ensis ac chirotheca loricata; haec erat nostra panoplia.

Ego multo ante diluculum consurgo, fenestras ac fores cubiculi aperio. Iam lucescere clamo, strepo, familiares expergefacio. Dum finem non facio, ibi 215 latro voce quam diceres esse non somnolenti, 'Quid paras?' inquit. 'Vixdum est hora noctis undecima.' Ego contra clamo coelum esse densissimis obductum nebulis, mox clarum diem emicaturum. Quid multis? Adfertur lucerna. Interea ut observarem quid ageretur 220 in inferioribus aedibus, decurro; obambulans ac circumspectans offendo latronum equos stantes ephippiis impositis, quomodo necesse erat eos totam stetisse noctem, cum praeter modo excitatam puellam nemo non esset in stratis. Tandem surgunt et nostri 225 carnifices. Ibi res quaepiam incommoda, ut videbatur, nobis saluti fuit. Nihil enim latronem illum exciverat, nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimos esse existimaret; at haec una res illi fidem facere potuit nos tenui pecunia esse. Minusculum erat argenteae pecuniae 230 quam ut cauponi pro cena atque equis omnium satisfacere possem. Aut igitur ille aureum mutaret iussi, aut locator meo nomine quinque duodenarios (tantum enim deerat) redderet, apud divum Dionysium a me recepturus. Cauponaria neque sibi lances domi, neque 235 qui mutaret aurum esse iurabat. Latro ille ait se ea quidem lege facturum, si sibi aureum pignoris loco tradidissem; hortabatur impendio id ut facerem cauponaria, mulier ut scelesta, ita et impudens et stulta: inde multa ac longa inter nos rixa. Poscebam mihi 240 fores aperiret, me ipsum mutandi auri causa monasterii Priorem, quod e regione est, aditurum; illa negabat.

Rixatum est ad lucem usque. Tandem iussi sumus aurum quod mutatum vellemus proferre; protuli. Ibi alii nummo pondus deerat, alius adulterina materia 245 dicebatur, alius parum solidus; hoc nimirum consilio, ut si quid reconditi esset auri, id proferre cogeremur. Ego cum sancte adiurassem mihi praeter eos nullos esse aureos, 'At comitem' inquit 'quin tu suos proferre iubes? Video enim illum belle esse nummatum'; 250 idque iam blandius coepit poscere. Ego vero vultu et voce, ita ut solent et vera et ex animo loquentes, nihil comiti praeter syngrapham esse deiero. Profertur denique libripens, prodit et caupo; ibi libratum est sesquihoram, nec aureus erat cui non aliquid scrupulorum 255 deesset. In aliis deerat ponderi, in aliis causabantur materiam. Animadverti tandem et lancibus subesse fraudem et ponderi. Et forte fortuna id quod erat gravius manu corripio, caupone tum imprudente. Reliquum erat ut altero ponderaret, et repente utraque 260 lance aureus praeponderabat. In utramcunque lancem translatus erat, eam inclinabat. Erat enim nummus pervetustus, cui supererat ultra legitimum pondus; ut in his decrescunt omnia.

Iam iugulis nostris utcunque consultum erat, nihilque 265 agebatur nisi ut lucelli aliquid per calumniam abraderent. Tum latro ille spe propemodum frustratus sua, vel quod parum magnifice nos nummatos intellegeret, vel quod se iam in certam suspicionem nobis venisse videret meque nonnihil etiam minitantem, 270 denique quod iam multus esset dies, cauponem sibi nimis quam familiarem a nobis sevocat. Aureum inter sese mutant, pro cena et equis retinent quantum libuit. Accepi viginti tres denarios, equidem laetus: tum metu, quantum mea fert simplicitas, dissimulato, 275 'Quin' inquam 'iam equos conscendimus?' Stabat etiamdum otiosus locator ille. 'Quid tibi' inquam 'in animo est? Cur non hinc fugimus? An ire ne nunc quidem paratus es?' 'Non sum,' inquit 'nisi universam summam reddideris.' 'Et quantum 280 tandem poscis?' inquam. Poscit impudentissime quantum libitum erat, et quantum poscere conveniebat impudentissimum latronem. 'Duc igitur' inquam 'ita ut recepisti me Parisios, atque illic ratione inita quod tuum erit accipies.' At ille 'Quid' inquit 'mihi 285 Parisiis des, qui hic etiam mecum pugnas?' Sapiebat, non passus est se e suo latrocinio extrahi; nam a me quidem ista fingebantur, quippe cui nihil minus fuerit in animo quam cum carnificibus illis itineri me committere. Paulisper rixatus, cum ille nihil se commoveret, 290 ad sacrum me ire fingo; verum recta transmisso flumine Parisios peto, nec prius latronis sicam timere desivimus, quam Dionysius nos moenibus suis exciperet. Postridie Calendas Februarias Lutetiam pervenimus, itinere vexati, exhausti pecuniis. 295

X. ERASMUS RENDERS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO COLET

ERASMUS IOANNI COLETO SUO S.P.D.

Si vel amicitia nostra, doctissime Colete, vulgaribus causis coiisset, vel tui mores quicquam unquam vulgi sapuisse visi essent, vererer equidem nonnihil, ne ea tam longa tamque diuturna locorum ac temporum seiunctione, si non interisset, certe refrixisset. Nunc 5 quoniam te mihi doctrinae cuiusdam singularis admiratio amorque pietatis, me tibi spes fortasse nonnulla vel opinio potius harum rerum conciliavit, non puto metuendum esse, quod vulgo videmus accidere, ne ideo desierim esse in animo quod absim ab oculis. 10 Quod autem compluribus iam annis nihil a Coleto redditur literarum, vel occupationes tuas, vel quod certum non scires ubi locorum agerem, denique quidvis potius in causa fuisse mihi persuaserim quam oblivionem amiculi. Sed ut de silentio nec debeo nec 15 velim expostulare tecum, ita maiorem in modum te oro obsecroque ut posthac tantillum otii suffureris studiis negotiisque tuis, quo me nonnunquam literis tuis compelles. Miror nihil dum tuarum commentationum in Paulum atque in Evangelia prodiisse in 20 lucem. Equidem non ignoro tuam modestiam; verum ista quoque tibi aliquando vincenda et publicae utilitatis respectu excutienda. De Doctoris titulo ac Decanatus honore neque non aliis quibusdam ornamentis quae tuis virtutibus ultro delata esse audio, non tam 25 tibi gratulor, quem certo scio nihil inde sibi praeter laborem vindicaturum, quam iis quibus tu ista gesturus es, quam ipsis honoribus, qui tum demum hoc nomine digni videntur, cum inciderint in promerentem neque tamen ambientem. 30

Dici non queat, optime Colete, quam velis equisque properem ad sacras literas, quam omnia mihi fastidio sint quae illinc aut avocant aut etiam remorantur. Sed fortunae iniquitas, quae me perpetuo eodem aspicit vultu, fuit in causa quo minus me quiverim ab his 35 tricis expedire. Hoc itaque animo me in Galliam recepi, ut eas si nequeam absolvere, certe quocunque modo abiiciam. Deinde liber ac toto pectore divinas literas aggrediar, in his reliquam omnem aetatem insumpturus. Quanquam ante triennium ausus sum 40 nescio quid in epistolam Pauli ad Romanos, absolvique uno quasi impetu quatuor volumina; progressurus, ni me quaedam avocassent: quorum illud praecipuum, quod passim Graeca desiderarem. Itaque iam triennium ferme literae Graecae me totum possident, 45 neque mihi videor operam omnino lusisse. Coeperam et Hebraicas attingere, verum peregrinitate sermonis deterritus, simul quod nec aetas nec ingenium hominis pluribus rebus pariter sufficit, destiti. Origenis operum bonam partem evolvi; quo praeceptore mihi 50 videor non nullum fecisse operae pretium. Aperit enim quasi fontes quosdam et rationes indicat artis theologicae.

Mitto ad te munusculum literarium, Lucubratiunculas aliquot meas; in quibus est et concertatio 55 illa De reformidatione Christi, qua quondam in Anglia sumus conflictati; quanquam adeo mutata ut vix agnoscas. Praeterea, quae tu responderas quaeque ipse rettuleram, non quibant inveniri. Enchiridion non ad ostentationem ingenii aut eloquentiae conscripsi, verum 60 ad hoc solum, ut mederer errori vulgo religionem constituentium in caerimoniis et observationibus rerum corporalium, ea quae ad pietatem pertinent, mire neglegentium. Conatus autem sum velut artificium quoddam pietatis tradere, more eorum qui de disciplinis 65 certas rationes conscripsere; reliqua omnia paene alieno scripsi stomacho: quod laboris datum est animo Batti mei et affectibus Annae Principis Verianae. A Panegyrico sic abhorrebam, ut non meminerim quicquam fecisse me magis reluctante animo. Videbam enim 70 genus hoc citra adulationem tractari non posse. Ego tamen novo sum usus artificio, ut et in adulando sim liberrimus et in libertate adulantissimus.

Si quid tuarum lucubrationum voles excudi formulis, exemplar tantum mittito; reliquum a me curabitur, 75 ut emendatissime excudatur. Et scripsi nuper, et meministi opinor, de centum Adagiorum libris nostro sumptu in Angliam transmissis, idque ante triennium. Scripserat mihi Grocinus se summa fide summaque diligentia curaturum ut ex animi mei sententia distraherentur. 80 Neque dubito quin promissa praestiterit, ut est vir omnium quos alit Britannia integerrimus optimusque. Dignaberis igitur et ipse hac in re operam tuam mihi commodare, admonendo atque exstimulando eos per quos putabis negotium oportere confici. 85 Neque enim dubitandum quin tanto spatio divenditi sint libri, et necesse est pecuniam ad aliquos pervenisse; quae mihi in praesenti sic usui futura est ut nunquam aeque. Quavis enim ratione mihi est elaborandum ut menses aliquot totus mihi vivam, quo me 90 aliquando ab iis extricem quae in literis profanis institui; id quod hac hieme sperabam futurum, nisi me tam multae spes elusissent. Neque admodum magna pecunia redimi poterit haec libertas, nimirum paucorum mensium. 95

Quare te obsecro ut me ad sacra studia vehementer anhelantem, quoad potes, adiuves, atque ab iis literis, quae mihi iam dulces esse desierunt, asseras. Non mihi rogandus est Comes meus, Guilielmus Montioius; tamen neque ab re neque absurde facturus videatur, si 100 sua benignitate nonnihil adiuverit me, vel quod sic semper favit studiis meis, vel quod argumentum est ipso auctore susceptum ipsiusque inscriptum nomini, nempe Adagiorum. Poenitet enim prioris editionis, vel quod typographorum culpa sic est mendosa, ut 105 studio depravata videatur; vel quod instigantibus quibusdam praecipitavi opus, quod mihi nunc demum ieiunum atque inops videri coepit, posteaquam Graecos evolvi auctores. Decretum est igitur altera editione et meam et chalcographorum culpam sarcire, simulque 110 studiosis utilissimo argumento consulere. Quanquam autem interim rem tracto fortassis humiliorem, tamen dum in Graecorum hortis versor, multa obiter decerpo, in posterum usui futura etiam sacris in literis. Nam hoc unum expertus video, nullis in literis nos esse 115 aliquid sine Graecitate. Aliud enim est coniicere, aliud iudicare, aliud tuis, aliud alienis oculis credere. En quo crevit epistola: verum sic loquacem amor, non vitium, facit. Vale, doctissime atque optime Colete.

Sixtino nostro quid acciderit cupio cognoscere; tum 120 quid rerum agat dominus Prior Richardus Charnocus, animus tuus. Quo certius ad me perferantur ea quae scripturus missurusve es, iubebis reddi magistro Christophoro Fischero tui amantissimo, omniumque literatorum fautori summo, in cuius familia diversor. 125

Lutetiae. ANNO M.D.IIII.

XI. A VISIT TO LAMBETH

Annis aliquot ante quam Italiam adii, exercendae Graecitatis causa, quando non erat praeceptorum copia, verteram Hecubam Euripidis, tum agens Lovanii. Ad id audendum provocarat F. Philelphus, qui primam eius fabulae scenam vertit in oratione quadam funebri, 5 parum ut tum mihi visum est feliciter. Porro cum stimulos adderet tum hospes meus Ioannes Paludanus, eius Academiae rhetor, vir si quis alius exacto iudicio, perrexi quo coeperam. Deinde ubi literis ac montibus, quod aiunt, aureis amicorum pellectus redieram in 10 Angliam, addidi praefationem et carmen iambicum plus quam extemporarium, cum forte vacaret membrana, atque auctoribus eruditis amicis sed praecipue Guilhelmo Grocino, qui tum inter multos Britanniae doctos primam laudem tenebat, obtuli libellum dicatum 15 reverendissimo praesuli Guilhelmo archiepiscopo Cantuariensi, totius Angliae primati et eius regni Cancellario, hoc est iudici summo. Hoc erat tum notitiae nostrae felix auspicium. Is cum me paucis salutasset ante prandium, hominem minime multiloquum 20 aut ambitiosum, rursus a prandio paucis confabulatus, ut est et ipse moribus minime molestis, dimisit cum honorario munere, quod suo more solus soli dedit, ne vel pudore vel invidia gravaret accipientem: id actum est Lambethae. Dum ab hoc redimus cymba vecti, 25 quemadmodum illic mos est, inter navigandum rogat me Grocinus quantum accepissem muneris; dico summam immensam, ludens. Cum ille rideret, quaero causam risus, et an non crederet Praesulis animum esse talem, qui tantum dare vellet; aut fortunam esse talem 30 ut tantam benignitatem ferre non posset; aut opus non esse dignum aliquo magnifico munere. Tandem edito muneris modo, cum ludens rogarem cur tantillum dedisset, urgenti respondit, nihil horum esse, sed obstitisse suspicionem, ne forte idem operis alibi dedicassem alteri. 35 Eam vocem admiratus, cum rogarem unde nam ea suspicio venisset homini in mentem, ridens 'Quia sic' inquit 'soletis vos'; significans id solere fieri a nostrae farinae hominibus. Hic aculeus cum inhaereret animo meo rudi talium dicterioram, simulatque me Lutetiam 40 receperam, inde petiturus Italiam, librum Badio tradidi formulis excudendum, adiecta Iphigenia Aulidensi, quam fusius ac liberius verteram agens in Anglia; et cum unam duntaxat obtulissem Praesuli, utramque dicavi eidem. Sic ultus sum Grocini dictum, cum 45 interim non haberem in animo revisere Britanniam, nec de repetendo Archiepiscopo cogitarem: tanta tum erat in tam tenui fortuna superbia.

XII. A LETTER TO ALDUS

ALDO MANUTIO ROMANO ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS S.P.D.

Illud apud me saepenumero optavi, doctissime Manuti, ut quantum lucis attulisses utrique literaturae, non solum arte tua formulisque longe nitidissimis, verum etiam ingenio doctrinaque neutiquam triviali, tantundem emolumenti illa tibi vicissim rettulisset. 5 Nam quantum ad famam attinet, dubium non est quin in omnem usque posteritatem Aldus Manutius volitaturus sit per omnium ora, quicunque literarum sacris sunt initiati. Erit autem memoria tua, quemadmodum nunc est fama, non illustris modo sed favorabilis 10 quoque et amanda; propterea quod (ut audio) restituendis propagandisque bonis auctoribus das operam, summa quidem cura, at non pari lucro, planeque Herculis exemplo laboribus exerceris, pulcherrimis quidem illis et immortalem gloriam allaturis aliquando, 15 verum aliis interim frugiferis magis quam tibi. Audio Platonem Graecanicis abs te formulis excudi, quem docti plerique iam vehementer exspectant. Quos auctores medicinae impresseris cupio cognoscere. Atque utinam Paulum Aeginetam nobis dones. Demiror 20 quid obstiterit quo minus Novum Testamentum iampridem evulgaris, opus (ni me fallit coniectura) etiam vulgo placiturum, maxime nostro, id est Theologorum, ordini.

Mitto ad te duas Tragoedias a me versas magna quidem 25 audacia, ceterum satisne feliciter ipse iudicabis. Tomas Linacer, Gulielmus Grocinus, Gulielmus Latimerus, Cutbertus Tunstallus, tui quoque amici, non tantum mei, magnopere probarunt; quos ipse nosti doctiores esse quam ut iudicio fallantur, sinceriores quam ut 30 amico velint adulari, nisi si quid amore nostri caecutiunt; nequo damnant conatum meum Itali quibus adhuc ostendi. Badius impressit sibi sat feliciter, ut scribit; nam ex animi sententia divendidit exemplaria iam omnia. Verum non satis consultum est famae 35 meae, usque adeo mendis scatent omnia; atque offert quidem ille operam suam ut superiorem editionem posteriore resarciat. Sed vereor ne iuxta Sophocleum adagium malum malo sarciat. Existimarim lucubrationes meas immortalitate donatas, si tuis excusae formulis 40 in lucem exierint, maxime minutioribus illis omnium nitidissimis. Ita fiet ut volumen sit perpusillum, et exiguo sumptu res conficiatur. Quod si tibi videbitur commodum negotium suscipere, ego exemplar emendatum quod mitto per hunc iuvenem gratis suppeditabo, 45 nisi paucula volumina mittere volueris amicis donanda.

Neque ego vererer rem meo sumptu meoque periculo moliri, nisi mihi esset intra paucos menses Italia relinquenda. 50 Quare pervelim rem quamprimum absolvi. Est autem vix decem dierum negotium. Quod si modis omnibus postulas ut centum aut ducenta volumina ad me recipiam, tametsi non solet mihi admodum propitius esse Mercurius et incommodissimum erit sarcinam transportari, tamen ne id quidem gravabor, modo tu 55 aequum praescribas pretium. Vale, doctissime Alde, et Erasmum in eorum numero ponito qui tibi ex animo bene cupiunt.

Si quid est in officina tua non usitatorum auctorum, gratum facies si indicabis; nam docti illi Britanni hoc 60 mihi negotii dederunt uti pervestigarem. Si de imprimendis Tragoediis res animo tuo non sedet omnino, reddes exemplar huic ipsi qui attulit ad me referendum. Bononiae. v. Cal. Novembr.

Aldo Manutio Romano, viro undecunque doctissimo. 65
Venetiis.

XIII. AN INTERVIEW WITH GRIMANI

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS AUGUSTINO EUGUBINO, CANCELLARIO REGULARIUM SANCTI AUGUSTINI, ORDINIS SANCTI SALVATORIS S.

Et animum istum et fortunam gratulor, Augustine doctissime, non tibi modo sed et sacrarum literarum studiosis. Quos oportet omnes, si grati esse volunt, bene precari manibus incomparabilis viri Dominici Grymani, qui pulcherrimum hoc propositum et animo 5 concepit et constanter perfecit, ut bibliothecam optimis quibusque libris diversarum linguarum instructam non mediocribus impendiis pararit, suique monumentum reliquerit: qui non video quo speciosiore titulo memoriam suae gentis posteritati valuerit commendare. 10 Cum agerem Romae, semel atque iterum ab illo ad colloquium invitatus, ut tum abhorrebam a cultu magnatum, tandem illius palatium adii, pudore magis quam ex animo. Nec in area nec in vestibulo ulla hominis musca apparebat. Erat tum tempus 15 pomeridianum. Equum tradidi famulo et ascendi solus. Venio ad primum atrium, neminem video: ad secundum ac tertium, tantundem: nullum ostium occlusum repperi. Mecum demirans solitudinem, ad extremum venio: illic unum tantum reperio, Graeculum 20 ut opinor medicum, tonso capite, custodem ostii patentis. Rogo quid ageret Cardinalis. Ait intus cum aliquot generosis confabulari. Cum nihil adderem, rogat quid vellem. 'Salutare,' inquam, 'si commodum esset. Nunc quia non vacat, alias 25 revisam.' Dum abiturus paulisper per fenestram loci situm prospicio, redit ad me Graecus, percontans num quid velim renuntiari Cardinali. 'Nihil' inquam 'opus interpellare illius colloquium, sed brevi rediturus sum.' Tandem sciscitanti nomen edo. Eo audito, 30 me non sentiente se proripuit intro, moxque egressus iubet ne quo abeam, ac protinus accersor. Venientem excipit non ut cardinalis—et talis cardinalis—extremae sortis homunculum, sed ut collegam. Posita est sella, collocuti sumus plus quam duas horas, nec interim 35 licuit manum admovere pileo. Prodigiosam in tanto rerum fastigio comitatem!

Inter plurima quae de studiis eruditissime disseruit, satis indicans iam tum sibi fuisse in animo quod nunc de bibliotheca factum accipio, incipit hortari me ne 40 Romam ingeniorum altricem relinquerem. Invitat ad domus suae contubernium et fortunarum omnium communionem, illud addens, coelum Romanum ut humidum et calidum meo corpusculo convenire, praecipueque eam urbis partem in qua palatium habebat, 45 olim a pontifice quodam exstructum, qui locum eum ut omnium saluberrimum delegisset.

Post multos sermones ultro citroque habitos, accersit nepotem suum iam tum archiepiscopum, adolescentem divina quadam indole praeditum. Conantem 50 assurgere vetuit, 'Decet' inquiens 'discipulum coram praeceptore stare.' Tandem ostendit bibliothecam libris multarum linguarum refertam. Quem virum si mihi contigisset temporius nosse, nunquam Urbem eram relicturus; quam longe supra meritum meum 55 repperi faventem. Sed iam abire statueram, eoque res processerat ut mihi vix integrum esset ibi manere. Cum dixissem me accitum ab Angliae rege, desiit urgere: tamen hoc iterum atque iterum oravit, ne suspicarer ea quae promitteret non ex animo proficisci, 60 neve ipsum ex vulgarium aulicorum moribus aestimarem. Aegre me dimisit a colloquio, sed cum abire gestientem diutius remorari nollet, illud extremis verbis a me stipulatus est, ut ipsum adhuc semel inviserem, priusquam Urbe excederem. Non redii infelix, ne 65 hominis facundia victus mutarem sententiam. Nunquam mihi mens aeque fuit laeva. Sed quid agas cum urgent fata?

XIV. A CONVERSATION AT CAMBRIDGE

Venit in mentem quiddam quod ridebis, scio. Cum inter magistros aliquot proponerem de hypodidascalo, quidam non infimae opinionis subridens, 'Quis' inquit 'sustineat in ea schola vitam agere inter pueros, qui possit ubivis quomodocunque vivere?' Respondi modestius, 5 hoc munus mihi videri vel in primis honestum, bonis moribus ac literis instituere iuventutem, neque Christum eam aetatem contempsisse, et in nullam rectius collocari beneficium, et nusquam exspectari fructum uberiorem, utpote cum illa sit seges ac silva 10 reipublicae. Addidi, si qui sint homines vere pii, eos in hac esse sententia ut putent sese nullo officio magis demereri Deum quam si pueros trahant ad Christum. Atque is corrugato naso subsannans, 'Si quis' inquit 'velit omnino servire Christo, ingrediatur monasterium 15 ac religionem.' Respondi Paulum in caritatis officiis ponere veram religionem; caritatem autem in hoc esse, ut proximis quam maxime prosimus. Reiecit hoc tanquam imperite dictum. 'Ecce,' inquit, 'nos reliquimus omnia; in hoc est perfectio.' 'Non reliquit' inquam 20 'omnia qui, cum possit plurimis prodesse labore suo, detrectat officium quod humilius habeatur.' Atque ita, ne lis oreretur, hominem dimisi. Vale.

Cantabrigiae postridie Simonis et Iudae.

XV. AN ENCOUNTER WITH CANOSSA

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS GERMANO BRIXIO S.

Decrevisti, ut video, Canossae nomen immortalitati consecrare. Ante complures annos novi hominem in Anglia, sed ignotum notus. Rumor erat tum illuc venisse legatum Pontificium Cardinalem, sed cultu profano. Invitarat me Andreas Ammonius ad 5 prandium. Veni nihil suspicans insidiarum; amabam enim hominem familiariter. Apud eum repperi quendam veste oblonga, sed capillis in reticulum collectis, unico tantum famulo. Multa fabulatus sum cum Andrea, nihil omnino suspicans de Canossa. Admirabar 10 tamen hominis militarem ferociam, itaque Graece percontatus sum Andream quisnam adesset. Is respondit, 'Negotiator quidam egregius.' Atque ego contra, 'Talis quidem videtur,' et persuasus esse negotiatorem plane neglexi hominem. Accubitum 15 est. Canossa praesedit, ego proximus. Toto convivio cum Andrea familiariter ex more fabulas miscui, non dissimulans negotiatoris contemptum. Tandem percontatus sum Andream num verus esset rumor venisse legatum qui iussu Leonis decimi dissidium inter 20 Galliarum et Angliae reges componeret; annuebat. 'Summus' inquam 'Pontifex non eget meis consiliis; si tamen hic me adhibuisset, aliud suasissem.' 'Quid?' inquit Ammonius. 'Non expediebat' inquam 'fieri mentionem pacis.' 'Quamobrem?' 'Quoniam pax' 25 inquam 'subito coiri non potest. Atque interea dum monarchae tractant de conditionibus, milites ad odorem pacis peiora moliuntur quam in bello. Per indutias autem subito cohibentur militum manus. Indutias autem praescriberem trium annorum, quo liceret 30 commode de duraturi foederis legibus dispicere.' Approbavit Andreas et 'Hoc,' inquit, 'opinor, agit hic legatus.'

His ita dissertis redii ad id quod Ammonius non responderat liquido. 'Estne' inquam 'cardinalis?' 35 'Unde' inquit 'tibi istuc in mentem venit?' 'Quoniam' inquam 'hoc narrant Itali.' 'Et illi' inquit 'unde norunt?' 'Hic' inquam 'te novi. Si post annos aliquot te videam in Brabantia, quaeras unde te agnoscerem?' Subriserunt inter sese, me ne tantulum 40 quidem etiam suspicante. Mox urgebam num revera esset cardinalis. Tergiversatus est Ammonius. Tandem 'Est' inquit 'animo cardinalitio.' Hic ego suaviter arridens 'Istuc aliquid est,' inquam 'gerere animum cardinalitium.' 45

Haec aliaque multa Canossa audivit tacitus. Tandem dixit nescio quid Italice. Mox admiscuit voces Latinas, sed sic ut posses negotiatorem ingeniosum agnoscere. Cum nihil responderem, ad me versus dixit: 'Demiror te in hac barbara natione velle vivere, 50 nisi forte hic mavis esse solus quam Romae primus.' Hanc argutiam demiratus in negotiatore, respondi me vivere in ea regione quae plurimos haberet insigniter doctos, inter quos mihi satis esset ultimum tenere locum, cum Romae nullo in numero futurus essem. 55 Haec aliaque dixi, nonnihil iratus negotiatori. Puto mihi tunc genium aliquem bonum adfuisse; alioqui in summum discrimen me pertraxerat Ammonius, qui non ignorabat quanta libertate soleam apud amicos effutire quicquid in buccam venerit. 60

Surreximus. Andreas et ego diutius ambulavimus in horto qui aedes dirimit, ac post diutinam confabulationem officii causa produxit ad ostium terrestre (nam ea pars domus in qua pransi fueramus, spectat flumen Thamisin); malebam enim redire pedibus 65 quam cymba. Post aliquot dies cum redissemus in colloquium, aperit Andreas fabulae scenam, ac mecum sedulo agit ut Canossam comiter in Italiam, plurima testificans quam ille de me magnifice tum loqueretur tum sentiret. Sed surdo canebat fabulam. At interim 70 parum amice factum est ab Ammonio, qui non ignorabat linguae meae loquacitatem. Poteram aliquid vel in Pontificem vel in legatum effutire, quod mihi post fraudi fuisset.

XVI. ERASMUS' APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA

REVERENDO PATRI SERVATIO ERASMUS S.P.

Humanissime pater, literae tuae per plurimorum iactatae manus tandem ad me quoque pervenerunt iam Angliam egressum; quae mihi sane voluptatem incredibilem attulerunt, quod veterem illum tuum in me animum adhuc spirant. Paucis autem respondeo, 5 utpote ex itinere iam scribens, et ad ea potissimum quae tu scribis ad rem maxime pertinere. Tam varia est hominum sententia, et suus cuique avium cantus, ut omnibus satisfieri non possit. Ego certe hoc sum animo, ut quod sit factu optimum sequi velim; testis 10 est mihi Deus. Nam si quid olim iuveniliter sensi, id partim aetas, partim rerum correxit usus. Nunquam mihi fuit consilium vel vitae genus vel cultum mutare, non quod probarem, sed ne cui scandalo essem. Scis enim me ad id vitae genus tutorum pertinacia et aliorum 15 improbis hortatibus adactum esse magis quam inductum; tum Cornelii Woerdeni conviciis et pudore quodam puerili fuisse retentum, cum intellegerem mihi hoc vitae genus haudquaquam aptum esse; nam non omnibus congruunt omnia. Ieiuniorum semper impatiens 20 fui, idque peculiari quadam corporis ratione. Semel excitatus e somno nunquam potui redormiscere nisi post horas aliquot. Ad literas tantum rapiebatur animus, quarum istic nullus usus, adeo ut non dubitem quin si in liberum aliquod vitae genus incidissem, 25 non solum inter felices verum etiam inter bonos potuissem numerari.

Itaque cum intellegerem me nequaquam esse idoneum isti generi vitae, et coactum non sponte suscepisse, tamen quia receptum est publica nostri seculi opinione 30 piaculum esse a semel suscepto vitae genere desciscere, decreveram et hanc infelicitatis meae partem fortiter perpeti. Scis enim me multis in rebus infortunatum esse. At hoc unum ceteris omnibus gravius semper duxi, quod in huiusmodi vitae genus detrusus essem, a 35 quo cum animo tum corpore essem alienissimus: animo, quod a caerimoniis abhorrerem et libertatis amans essem; corpore, quod etiamsi maxime placuisset vitae institutum, corporis natura non ferebat eiusmodi labores. At obiiciet mihi aliquis annum probationis 40 (ut vocant) et aetatem maturam. Ridiculum. Quasi quis postulet ut puer anno decimo septimo, maxime in literis educatus, norit se ipsum, quod magnum est etiam in sene, aut anno uno id discere potuerit quod multi cani nondum intellegunt. Quanquam ipse nunquam 45 probavi, et gustatum iam multo minus, sed iis quas dixi rationibus sum irretitus; tametsi fateor eum qui vere sit bonus, in quovis vitae genere bene victurum. Neque diffiteor me ad magna vitia fuisse propensum, non tamen usque adeo corrupta natura quin si commodus 50 accessisset gubernator et vere Christianus, potuissem ad bonam duci frugem.

Hoc igitur interim spectavi, in quo vitae genere minime malus essem, atque id sane me assecutum puto. Vixi interim inter sobrios, vixi in studiis literarum, 55 quae me a multis vitiis avocaverunt. Licuit consuetudinem habere cum viris vere Christum sapientibus, quorum colloquio factus sum melior. Nihil enim iam iacto de libris meis, quos fortasse vos contemnitis. At multi fatentur se redditos eorum lectione non solum 60 eruditiores verum etiam meliores. Pecuniae studium nunquam me attigit. Famae gloria nec tantillum tangor. Voluptatibus, etsi quondam fui inclinatus, nunquam servivi. Crapulam et ebrietatem semper horrui fugique. Quoties autem cogitabam de repetendo 65 vestro contubernio, succurrebat invidia multorum, contemptus omnium, colloquia quam frigida, quam inepta, quam non sapientia Christum, convivia quam laica; denique tota vitae ratio, cui si detraxeris caerimonias, non video quid relinquas expetendum. Postremo 70 succurrebat corporis imbecillitas, quae iam aetate et morbis ac laboribus aucta est; quae facit ut nec vobis satisfacturus essem et me ipsum occiderem. Iam annis aliquot obnoxius sum calculo, gravi sane malo et capitali. Iam annis aliquot nihil bibo nisi vinum, neque 75 quodvis vinum, idque cogente morbo. Non fero quemvis cibum, nec coelum quidem quodlibet. Nam morbus hic facile recurrens maximam postulat vitae moderationem; et novi coelum Hollandicum, novi victus vestri rationem, ut de moribus nihil dicam. Itaque si redissem, 80 nihil aliud fuissem assecutus nisi quod vobis molestiam attulissem et mihi mortem.

Sed tu forsitan bonam felicitatis partem existimes inter confratres emori. At fallit et imponit ista persuasio non solum tibi verum etiam propemodum 85 universis. In loco, in cultu, in victu, in caerimoniolis quibusdam Christum et pietatem collocamus. Actum putamus de illo qui vestem albam commutarit in nigram, aut qui cucullum pileo verterit, qui locum subinde mutet. Ausim illud dicere, magnam Christianae 90 pietatis perniciem ex istis quas vocant religionibus exortam esse, tametsi pio fortassis studio primum inductae sunt. Deinde paulatim creverunt et in sex milia discriminum sese sparserunt. Accessit summorum pontificum auctoritas nimium ad multa facilis 95 et indulgens. Quid enim laxis istis religionibus conspurcatius aut magis impium? Quanto magis est e Christi sententia totum orbem Christianum unam domum et velut unum habere monasterium, omnes concanonicos et confratres putare; baptismi sacramentum 100 summam religionem ducere, neque spectare ubi vivas sed quam bene vivas. Vis me sedem stabilem figere, quod ipsa etiam suadet senectus. At laudatur Solonis, Pythagorae Platonisque peregrinatio. Vagabantur et Apostoli, praecipue Paulus. Divus Hieronymus 105 etiam monachus nunc Romae est, nunc in Syria, nunc in Antiochia, nunc alibi atque alibi; et canus etiam sacras persequitur literas.

At non sum cum hoc conferendus, fateor; sed tamen nunquam mutavi locum, nisi vel peste cogente, 110 vel studii causa vel valetudinis, et ubicunque vixi (dicam enim de me ipso fortassis arrogantius, sed tamen vere), probatus sum a probatissimis et laudatus a laudatissimis. Nec ulla est regio, nec Hispania, nec Italia, nec Germania, nec Gallia, nec Anglia, nec Scotia, 115 quae me ad suum non invitet hospitium. Et si non probor ab omnibus (quod nec studeo), certe primis omnium placeo. Romae nullus erat Cardinalis qui me non tanquam fratrem acciperet, cum ipse nihil tale ambirem; praecipue vero Cardinalis Grimanus, et hic 120 ipse qui nunc Pontifex Maximus est, ut ne dicam de episcopis, archidiaconis et viris eruditis. Atque hic honos non tribuebatur opibus, quas etiam nunc non habeo nec desidero; non ambitioni, a qua semper fui alienissimus; sed literis duntaxat, quas nostrates 125 rident, Itali adorant. In Anglia nullus est episcopus qui non gaudeat a me salutari, qui non cupiat me convivam, qui nolit domesticum. Rex ipse paulo ante patris obitum, cum essem in Italia, scripsit ad me suapte manu literas amantissimas, nunc quoque saepe 130 sic de me loquitur ut nemo honorificentius, nemo amantius; et quoties eum saluto, blandissime complectitur et oculis amicissimis obtuetur, ut intellegas eum non minus bene de me sentire quam loqui. Et saepe mandavit suo eleemosynario ut mihi de sacerdotio 135 prospiceret. Regina conata est me sibi praeceptorem adsciscere. Nemo est qui nesciat me si vel paucos menses velim in aula regis vivere, quantum libeat sacerdotiorum mihi accumulaturum; sed ego huic otio meo et studiorum laboribus omnia posthabeo. Cantuariensis 140 Archiepiscopus, totius Angliae primas et regni huius Cancellarius, vir doctus et probus, me sic amplectitur ut, si pater esset aut frater, non posset amantius. Et ut intellegas hoc eum ex animo facere, dedit mihi sacerdotium centum ferme nobilium, quod postea volente 145 me in pensionem centum coronatorum mutavit, ex mea resignatione; ad haec dedit dono supra quadringentos nobiles his pauculis annis, idque nihil unquam petenti. Dedit uno die nobiles centum et quinquaginta. Ab aliis episcopis supra centum nobiles 150 accepi gratuita liberalitate oblatos. Dominus Montioius, huius regni baro, quondam meus discipulus, dat annue mihi pensionem centum coronatorum. Rex et Episcopus Lincolniensis, qui nunc per regem omnia potest, magnifice multa promittunt. Sunt hic duae 155 universitates, Oxonia et Cantabrigia, quarum utraque ambit habere me; nam Cantabrigiae menses complures docui Graecas et sacras literas, sed gratis, et ita facere semper decretum est. Sunt hic collegia, in quibus tantum est religionis, tanta vitae modestia, ut nullam 160 religionem non sis prae hac contempturus, si videas. Est Londini dominus Ioannes Coletus, divi Pauli Decanus, vir qui summam doctrinam cum admirabili pietate copulavit, magnae apud omnes auctoritatis. Is me sic amat, id quod sciunt omnes, ut cum nemine 165 vivat libentius quam mecum; ut omittam alios innumeros, ne sim bis molestus et iactantia et loquacitate.

Iam ut de operibus meis dicam aliquid, Enchiridion opinor te legisse, quo non pauci fatentur sese ad pietatis studium inflammatos; nihil mihi arrogo, sed gratulor 170 Christo, si quid boni per me contigit illius dono. Adagiorum opus ab Aldo impressum an videris nescio. Est quidem profanum, sed ad omnem doctrinam utilissimum; mihi certe inaestimabilibus constitit laboribus ac vigiliis. Edidi opus De rerum verborumque copia, 175 quod inscripsi Coleto meo, opus utilissimum contionaturis; at ista contemnunt ii qui omnes bonas contemnunt literas. His duobus annis praeter alia multa castigavi divi Hieronymi Epistolas; adulterina et subditicia obelis iugulavi, obscura scholiis illustravi. Ex Graecorum 180 et antiquorum codicum collatione castigavi totum Novum Testamentum, et supra mille loca annotavi non sine fructu theologorum. Commentarios in Epistolas Pauli incepi, quos absolvam, ubi haec edidero. Nam mihi decretum est in sacris immori literis. In 185 hisce rebus colloco otium meum et negotium. In his magni viri dicunt me valere quod alii non valeant; in vestro vitae genere nihil valiturus sum. Cum multis doctis et gravibus viris habui consuetudinem, et hic et in Italia et in Gallia, sed neminem adhuc repperi 190 qui mihi consuluerit ut ad vos me recipiam, aut qui hoc iudicaverit melius. Quin et ipse felicis memoriae dominus Nicolaus Wernerus, qui te praecessit, semper hoc mihi solitus erat dissuadere, suadens ut alicui episcopo me potius adiungerem, addens se nosse et 195 animum meum et suorum fraterculorum mores; nam iis utebatur verbis lingua vernacula. Et in hoc vitae genere in quo sum, video quae fugiam, sed quid potius sequar non video.

Nunc restat ut de ornatu quoque tibi satisfaciam. 200 Semper antehac usus sum cultu canonicorum, et ab Episcopo Traiectino, cum essem Lovanii, impetravi ut sine scrupulo uterer scapulari lineo pro veste linea integra, et capitio nigro pro pallio nigro, iuxta morem Lutetiorum. Cum autem adirem Italiam videremque 205 toto itinere canonicos nigra veste uti cum scapulari, ne quid offenderem novitate cultus, veste nigra illic uti coepi cum scapulari. Postea pestis orta est Bononiae, et illic qui curant peste laborantes linteum album ex humero pendens ex more gestant; hi congressus 210 hominum fugitant. Itaque cum die quodam doctum amicum viserem, quidam nebulones eductis gladiis parabant me invadere, et fecissent, ni matrona quaedam admonuisset ecclesiasticum me esse. Altero item die cum Thesaurarii filios adirem, undique cum fustibus 215 in me concurrerunt, et pessimis clamoribus adorti sunt. Itaque a bonis viris admonitus occultavi scapulare, et impetravi veniam a Pontifice Iulio secundo ut ornatu religionis uterer aut non uterer, ut mihi visum esset, modo haberem vestem sacerdotalem; et si quid ante 220 peccatum esset ea in re, iis literis id totum condonavit. In Italia ergo perseveravi in veste sacerdotali, ne mutatio esset alicui scandalo. Postquam autem in Angliam redii, decrevi meo solito uti ornatu, et domum accersito amico quodam primae laudis et in vita et in 225 doctrina, ostendi cultum quo uti statuissem. Rogavi an in Anglia conveniret. Probavit, atque ita in publicum prodii. Statim admonitus sum ab aliis amicis eum cultum in Anglia ferri non posse, ut celarem potius. Celavi; et quoniam non potest ita celari quin 230 aliquando deprehensus scandalum pariat, reposui in scrinium et vetere summi Pontificis auctoritate sum usus usque adhuc. Excommunicant Pontificiae leges eum qui religionis habitum abiecerit, quo liberius inter seculares versetur. Ego coactus deposui in Italia, 235 ne occiderer; deinde coactus deposui in Anglia, quia tolerari non poterat, cum ipse multo maluerim uti. At nunc denuo recipere plus gigneret scandali quam mutatio ipsa gignebat.

Habes universam vitae meae rationem, habes meum 240 consilium. Cupio et hoc vitae genus mutare, si quod videro melius. Sed in Hollandia quid agam non video. Scio non conventurum cum coelo neque cum victu; omnium oculos in me excitabo. Redibo senex et canus, qui iuvenis exivi, redibo valetudinarius; 245 exponar contemptui etiam infimorum, solitus et a maximis honorari. Studia mea compotationibus permutabo. Nam quod polliceris officium tuum in quaerenda sede, ubi cum maximo, ut scribis, vivam emolumento; quid sit, non possum coniectare, nisi forte collocabis me 250 apud monachas aliquas, ut serviam mulieribus, qui nec archiepiscopis nec regibus unquam servire volui. Emolumentum nihil moror; neque enim studeo ditescere, modo tantum sit fortunae ut valetudini et otio literarum suppetat, et vivam nulli gravis. Atque 255 utinam liceat hisce de rebus coram inter nos commentari; nam literis nec satis commode nec satis tuto licet. Tuae enim quanquam per certissimos missae sic tamen aberrarant, ut nisi ipse casu me in arcem hanc contulissem, nunquam fuerim visurus; et accepi iam a 260 compluribus ante inspectas. Quare ne quid scripseris arcani, ni certo cognoveris ubi locorum sim et nuntium nactus sis fidissimum. Peto nunc Germaniam, id est Basileam, editurus lucubrationes meas, hac hieme fortassis futurus Romae. In reditu dabo operam ut 265 pariter colloquamur alicubi. Sed nunc aestas ferme praeteriit et longum est iter. Literas tuas tertio a Pascha die scriptas accepi Nonis Iuliis. Rogo ut salutem meam tuis piis votis Christo commendare ne neglegas. Cui si certo scirem rectius fore consultum, 270 si ad vestrum redierim contubernium, hac die ad iter accingerer. Bene vale, quondam sodalis suavissime, nunc pater observande.

Ex arce Hammensi iuxta Calecium postridie Nonas
Iulias Anno 1514. 275

XVII. ERASMUS' RECEPTION AT BASEL

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS IACOBO WIMPHELINGO, GERMANUS GERMANO, THEOLOGUS THEOLOGO, LITERARUM SCIENTISSIMO LITERARUM SITIENTISSIMUS S.D.

Iam quod scire cupis quomodo reliquum iter successerit, paucis accipe. Ad oppidum Selestadiense, tuam patriam, feliciter perveni. Ibi continuo primores reipublicae haud scio cuius indicio de meo adventu facti certiores, per publicum nuntium tres exquisitissimi 5 vini misere cantharos xenii nomine. Invitarunt ad prandium in diem posterum; verum excusavi, properans ad hoc negotium in quo nunc sum. Ioannes Sapidus, tuus in literis alumnus, qui te moribus quoque mire refert quique te non secus ac patrem et 10 amat et suspicit, Basileam usque nos est prosecutus. Illic admonueram hominem ne me proderet: delectari me paucis amiculis sed exquisitis ac delectis. Primum itaque non aderant alii quam ii quos maxime volebam, Beatus Rhenanus, cuius ego prudenti modestia et 15 acerrimo in literis iudicio vehementer delector, nec est quicquam huius cotidiana consuetudine mihi iucundius: item Gerardus Listrius, medicae rei non vulgariter peritus, ad haec Latinae, Graecae et Hebraicae literaturae pulchre gnarus, denique iuvenis ad me 20 amandum natus: ad haec Bruno Amorbachius singulari doctrina, trilinguis et hic. Ioanni Frobenio reddidi literas ab Erasmo missas, addens esse mihi cum eo familiaritatem arctissimam: ab eodem de edendis illius lucubrationibus negotii summam mihi commissam: 25 quicquid egissem, id perinde ut ab Erasmo gestum ratum fore: denique me illi adeo similem ut qui me videret Erasmum videret. Is postea risit intellecta fraude. Socer Frobenii, resolutis omnibus quae debebantur in diversorio, nos una cum equis ac sarcinis 30 in suas aedes traduxit. Post biduum huius academiae doctores per theologicae professionis decanum et alterum quendam in posterum diem nos ad cenam vocarunt. Aderant omnes omnium facultatum, ut vocant, doctores. Erant me cotidianis officiis oneraturi, ni iam 35 accinctus ad laborem institutum rogassem uti me mihi relinquerent.

Audio passim apud Germanos esse viros eleganter eruditos, quo mihi magis ac magis arridet et adlubescit mihi mea Germania; quam piget ac pudet tam sero 40 cognitam fuisse. Proinde facile possum adduci ut hic hiemem usque ad Idus Martias. Deinde confectis quae volo in Italia negotiis ad Idus Maias vos revisam. Atque id faciam lubentius, si velut de eodem quod aiunt oleo eademque opera universas 45 lucubrationes meas hibernis his mensibus liceat emittere. Adagiorum opus iam excudi coeptum est. Superest Novum Testamentum a me versum et e regione Graecum una cum nostris in illud annotamentis. Tum epistolae divi Hieronymi a nobis 50 recognitae et a supposititiis ac nothis repurgatae, necnon et scholiis nostris illustratae. Praeterea Senecae oratoris omnia scripta non sine maximis sudoribus a nobis emaculata. Fortassis et scholiorum nonnihil adiciemus, si dabitur otium. Sunt et alia minutula, 55 de quibus minus solliciti sumus. Quae si suscipiet hic chalcographus, abdemus nos testudinum ritu, non ad somnum sed ut toti versemur in hoc negotio. Ex Italia reduces, uti spero, dies aliquot salutandis et cognoscendis Germaniae proceribus sumemus. Nam 60 hos vere proceres existimo non qui funes aureos collo circumferunt quique parietes et vestibula pictis maiorum imaginibus ornant, sed qui veris ac suis bonis, hoc est eruditione, moribus, eloquentia, patriam suam ac suos non solum illustrant sed etiam adiuvant. 65

XVIII. BISHOP FISHER

ERASMUS REUCHLINO SUO S.D.

Nullo sermone consequi queam quo studio, qua veneratione, tuum nomen prosequatur magnus ille literarum ac pietatis antistes, Episcopus Roffensis; adeo ut cum antehac plurimi fecerit Erasmum, nunc admiratione Reuchlini paene contemnat: quae res 5 adeo me nulla urit invidia, ut vehementer etiam gaudeam proque mea virili currentem, quod aiunt, exstimulem. Nullas ad me dat literas (scribit autem crebrius) in quibus non faciat honorificentissimam tui mentionem. Decreverat posito cultu episcopali, hoc 10 est linea veste qua semper utuntur in Anglia nisi cum venantur, traicere, hac praecipue causa impulsus quo tecum colloqui liceret; tanta habet hominem discendi tuique sitis. Atque hac lege nos ad navim properantes decem apud sese dies detinuit, ut una traiceremus. 15 Verum incidit postea cur mutaret consilium; at, si rem distulit, animi propositum non mutavit. In extremo digressu sollicite me rogavit qua re posset tibi gratum facere. Respondi tuam fortunam non esse eiusmodi ut magnopere egeres pecunia, verum si 20 mitteret annulum aut vestem aut aliud eiusmodi quod ceu sui monumentum posses amplecti, id fore gratissimum. Respondit se nihil laborare quanti constaret, modo tibi gratum esset. Collaudavi hominis animum; suspicor eum brevi ad te venturum. Interim fac 25 scribas mihi quid tibi potissimum mitti cupias; nullis ille parsurus est sumptibus. Sensi illum avidissimum calamorum Niloticorum, cuiusmodi mihi tres donasti; proinde si tibi sunt aliquot, nullum munus gratius mittere possis. Non gravaberis eum crebris appellare 30 literis, et item Coletum. Uterque tui studiosissimus est, uterque talis est, ut etiam si nulla speraretur utilitas, tamen ob egregias quibus praediti sunt virtutes et animum in te propensum, digni essent amore mutuo. Nunc ambo summam apud suos obtinent auctoritatem; 35 Coletus etiam regiae maiestati intimus est et ad privatissimum colloquium quoties vult admittitur.

Leo summus pontifex ad meam epistolam quam excusam legisti diligenter respondit; nec minus amanter quam diligenter adiecit alterum Breve, quo me sua 40 sponte Regi Anglorum commendavit haudquaquam more vulgari; atque id nominatim adiecit, se id sua sponte facere nec a me neo a quoquam ut id faceret rogatum. Responderat uterque Cardinalis; verum hae literae in Germaniam missae sunt ad Richardum 45 Paceum, hominem egregie doctum, qui nunc apud Helvetios oratorem gerit. Quin et Pontificis Brevia mihi non ante sunt reddita quam in Angliam redii; quae si tempore fuissent reddita, fortasse et Hieronymum Leoni dedicassem. Mihi vixdum in Brabantiam 50 reverso illustrissimus princeps meus Carolus praebendam donavit satis et honorificam et copiosam.

Revisi Britanniam salutaturus Maecenates meos et amicos veteres; repperi multo nostri quam reliqueram amantiores. Archiepiscopus cum semper amaret 55 unice, nunc tantum adiunxit veteri in me studio ut ante parum amasse videri possit. Omnia sua mihi detulit; recusavi pecuniam. Abeunti donavit equum et calicem eum operculo elegantissimum inauratum, pollicitus apud mensarios pecuniam quantam iussero se 60 depositurum. Novum Testamentum plurimos amicos mihi conciliavit ubique, tametsi nonnulli strenue reclamarint, praesertim initio; sed hi in absentem tantum et ferme tales ut nec legerint opus meum et, si legerint, non intellecturi. 65

Scribe ad nos frequenter, doctissime Reuchline.
Quicquid Antuerpiam miseris ad Petrum Aegidium,
scribam publicum, id mihi certo reddetur. Bene vale,
Germaniae decus.

Si Philippum iuvenem ad Roffensem miseris tuis 70 commendatum literis, mihi crede, tractabitur humanissime et ad amplissimam fortunam provehetur; nec usquam continget plus otii ad optimas literas. Fortassis ille sitit Italiam. At his temporibus Italiam habet Anglia et, ni plane fallor, quiddam Italia 75 praestantius. Rursum vale.

Calecii VI Kalendas Septembres.

XIX. A JOURNEY FROM BASEL TO LOUVAIN

ERASMUS RHENANO SUO S.D.

Accipe, mi Beate, totam itineris mei tragico-comoediam. Mollis etiamnum ac languidulus, ut scis, Basileam relinquebam, ut qui nondum cum coelo redissem in gratiam, cum tamdiu domi delituissem, idque perpetuis laboribus distentus. Navigatio fuit 5 non inamoena, nisi quod circa meridiem solis aestus erat submolestus. Brisaci pransi sumus, sed ita ut nunquam insuavius. Nidor enecabat, tum nidore graviores muscae. Desedimus plus semihoram ad mensam otiosi, donec adornarent scilicet illi suas 10 epulas. Tandem nihil appositum est quod edi posset; sordidae pultes, offae, salsamenta non semel recocta, merae nauseae. Gallinarium non adii. Qui hunc renuntiavit teneri febri, bellum quiddam adiecit; Minoritam illum theologum, quicum mihi fuerat 15 concertatio, sacros calices oppignerasse suo iure. O Scoticam subtilitatem! Sub noctem eiecti sumus in vicum quendam frigidum; cuius nomen nec libuit scire nec, si sciam, velim edere. Illic paene exstinctus sum. In hypocausto non magno cenavimus plus 20 opinor sexaginta, promiscua hominum colluvies, idque ad horam ferme decimam: o qui fetor, qui clamor, praesertim ubi iam incaluerant vino! Et tamen ad illorum clepsydras erat desidendum.

Mane multa adhuc nocte e stratis exturbamur 25 clamore nautarum. Ego et incenatus et insomnis navim ingredior. Argentinam appulimus ante prandium ad horam ferme nonam; illic commodius accepti sumus, praesertim Schurerio suppeditante vinum. Aderat aliqua sodalitatis pars, mox universi salutatum 30 veniunt, sed nemo officiosius Gerbelio. Gebuilerius et Rudalphingius me immunem esse voluerunt; quod iam illis novum non est. Illinc equis Spiram usque contendimus; neque usquam militis umbram vidimus, cum rumor atrocia sparsisset. Anglus equus plane 35 defecit vixque Spiram attigit; sic eum tractaverat sceleratus iste faber, ut illi ambae aures ferro candenti inurerentur. Spirae furtim subduxi me e diversorio, et ad Maternum meum vicinum me recipio. Illic Decanus, vir doctus et humanus, suaviter et comiter 40 nos biduum accepit. Hic forte fortuna Hermanum Buschium repperimus.

Illinc curru vectus sum Wormaciam, atque hinc rursus Maguntiam. Forte in eundem currum inciderat quidam Caesaris secretarius, Ulrichus cognomento 45 Farnbul. Is incredibili studio tum itinere toto me observavit, tum Maguntiae non passus ingredi diversorium ad aedes canonici cuiusdam pertraxit: abeuntem ad navem deduxit. Navigatio non fuit inamoena, ob coeli commoditatem, nisi quod longior erat, nautarum 50 studio. Ad haec offendebat equorum paedor. Comitati sunt me primum diem officii gratia Ioannes Longicampianus qui pridem Lovanii professus est: et huius amicus iureconsultus quidam. Aderat et Wesphalus quidam dominus Ioannes, canonicus apud Sanctum 55 Victorem extra Maguntiam, homo commodissimus ac festivissimus.

Ubi Popardiam appulimus, nosque, dum exploratur navis, in ripa deambulabamus, nescio quis agnitum me telonae prodidit. Telones est Christophorus, ni 60 fallor, Cinicampius, vulgato verbo Eschenfelder. Incredibile dictu quam gestierit homo prae gaudio. Pertrahit in aedes suas. In mensula inter syngraphas telonicas iacebant Erasmi libelli. Beatum se clamitat, advocat liberos, advocat uxorem, advocat amicos 65 omnes. Interim nautis vociferantibus mittit duos vini cantharos, rursum vociferantibus mittit alteros, pollicitus ubi redierint se illis vectigal remissurum, qui talem virum sibi advexerint. Hinc officii gratia comitatus est nos Confluentiam usque dominus Ioannes 70 Flaminius, virginibus sacris illic praefectus, vir angelicae puritatis, iudicii sobrii sanique, doctrinae non vulgaris. Confluentiae dominus Matthias, officialis episcopi, nos domum suam rapit, homo iuvenis sed moribus compositis; Latini sermonis exacte peritus, 75 tum iureconsultissimus. Illic cenatum est hilariter.

Apud Bonnam nos reliquit ille canonicus, vitans urbem Coloniensem; quam et ipse vitare cupiebam, sed minister cum equis eo praecesserat, neque quisquam erat in navi certus, cui de ministro revocando 80 negotium committere potuissem: et nautis diffidebam. Mane itaque ante sextam Agrippinam appulimus die Dominico, coelo iam pestilenti. Diversorium ingressus mando hospitii ministris de conducenda biga, et cibum ad decimam parari iubeo. Audio 85 sacrum, prandium differtur. De biga non successit. Tentatur de equo conducendo; nam mei erant inutiles. Nihil succedit. Sensi id quod erat. Agebatur ut illic haererem. Ego protinus iubeo meos adornari equos, imponi alteram manticam, alteram hospiti committo, et 90 claudo meo equo ad Comitem Novae aquilae percurro: est autem iter horarum quinque. Is agebat Bedburii.

Apud hunc suavissime quinque dies sum commoratus tanta tranquillitate et otio, ut bonam recognitionis partem apud eum peregerim; nam eam Novi Testamenti 95 partem mecum abduxeram. Utinam hominem nosses, mi Beate. Iuvenis est, sed rara et plusquam senili prudentia, pauciloquus, sed quod de Menelao praedicat Homerus, argute loquitur, imo cordate, citra ostentationem doctus non in uno studiorum genere 100 tantum, totus candidus et amico amicus. Iam firmus eram ac robustulus, iam mihi pulchre placebam, ac fore sperabam ut validus Episcopum inviserem Leodiensem et alacrem me redderem amicis Brabanticis. Quae convivia, quas gratulationes, quas confabulationes 105 mihi promittebam. Decreveram, si vernasset autumnus, Angliam adire, et quod rex iam toties offert, accipere. Sed o fallaces mortalium spes! o subitas et inopinatas rerum humanarum vices! E tantis felicitatum somniis in extremum exitium praecipitatus 110 sum.

Iam in posterum diem erat conducta biga. Comes nolens mihi ante noctem valedicere, praedicavit se ante abitum mane visurum me. Ea nocte saeva quaedam venti tempestas coorta est, quae et ante 115 diem proximum praecesserat. Ego nihilo secius surgo post noctis medium, annotaturus quaedam Comiti; cumque iam esset hora septima, nec prodiret Comes, iubeo illum excitari. Venit et, ut est modestissimo pudore praeditus, rogat num esset sententia discedere 120 coelo tam incommodo; se mihi timere. Ibi, mi Beate, Iupiter nescio quis aut malus genius, non dimidium mentis, ut ait Hesiodus, sed totam mentem ademit; nam dimidium mentis ademerat, cum Coloniae me committerem. Atque utinam aut ille acrius amicum 125 commonuisset, aut ego verecundis sed amicissimis monitis obsequentior fuissem. Rapit me fati vis. Quid enim aliud dicam?

Conscendo bigam non tectam, flante vento
quantus altis montibus 130
Frangit trementes ilices.

Auster erat, neque quicquam praeter meras pestes spirabat. Ego mihi vestibus probe tectus videbar, sed ille violentia sua nihil non penetrabat. Successit sub noctem pluviola, vento suo pestilentior. Venio, 135 Aquisgranum lassulus ob quassationem bigae, quae mihi in via saxis constrata tam erat gravis, ut equo quamlibet claudo maluerim insidere. Hic per canonicum quendam, cui me Comes commendarat, rapior e diversorio ad aedes cantoris. Ibi ex more convivium 140 agitabant aliquot canonici. Mihi prandium tenuissimum acuerat stomachum; sed apud hos tum nihil erat praeter carpas, easque frigidas. Expleo me. Cum in multam noctem (nam serius accubuerant) cena proferretur fabulis, ego petita venia cubitum abeo, quod 145 proxima nocte minimum dormieram.

Postridie pertrahor ad aedes Vicepraepositi; nam ad illum redibat periodus. Ibi cum praeter anguillam nihil esset piscium,—nimirum tempestas fuerat in culpa, cum ipse sit alioqui splendidus convivator—, 150 expleo me pisce durato ventis, quem a baculo quo contunditur, Germani stockfisch vocant: nam eo alioqui satis delector; sed comperi partem huius adhuc crudam fuisse. A prandio, quoniam coelum erat pestilentissimum, in diversorium me confero. Iubeo 155 excitari foculum. Confabulatur mecum canonicus ille, vir humanissimus, ferme sesquihoram. Deinde pactus cum auriga de manticis, rursus invitor ad cenam. Excuso, non proficio. Apparatus tum erat praelautus, sed mihi frustra. Ubi confovissem stomachum sorbitiuncula, 160 domum me confero; dormiebam enim apud cantorem. Egredior; ibi corpus inane mire ad nocturnum coelum inhorruit. Nox gravis fuit.

Postridie mane rursus hausta cervisiola tepida cum paucis micis panis, equum conscendo morbidum et 165 claudum; quo fuit incommodior equitatio. Iam sic affectus eram, ut magis conveniret lecto confoveri quam equo insidere. Sed ea regio non parum habet rusticitatis, commoditatis aut elegantiae minimum, et illic mihi ne valere quidem satis esset commodum, 170 nedum aegrotare: quo magis libebat effugere. Latronum periculum (nam ibi summum erat) aut certe metum extudit morbi molestia. Confectis eo cursu quatuor passuum milibus perventum est ad Mosae traiectum. Illic sorbitiuncula utcunque confoto 175 stomacho, rursus inscensis equis Tongros adeo. Id oppidum abest tribus milibus passuum. Haec postrema equitatio mihi longe gravissima fuit. Incommodus incessus equi mire torquebat renes. Tolerabilius ambulabam pedibus, sed metuebam sudorem, et periculum 180 erat ne nox in agris nos occupasset; itaque incredibili totius corporis cruciatu Tongros pervenio.

Iam ob inediam ac laborem inediae additum omnes corporis nervi defecerant; adeo ut nec firmus esset status aut incessus. Lingua—nam ea valebat—dissimulabam 185 morbi magnitudinem. Hic cervisiaria sorbitiuncula foto stomacho cubitum eo. Mane iubeo conduci bigam tectam. Mihi visum est ob silices equo insidere, donec ad terrenam viam esset ventum. Conscendo maiorem equum, quod is commodius iret 190 per saxa et pedibus certioribus. Vix conscenderam, contactus coelo frigido sentio oboriri glaucoma, posco pallium. Sed mox syncopis successit. Vel manu contacta poteram excitari. Ibi meus Ioannes cum ceteris astantibus passi sunt in equo sedentem mea 195 sponte expergisci. Experrectus bigam ascendo.

Iam eramus vicini oppidi divi Trudonis. Rursus inscendo equum, ne biga vectus viderer aegrotus. Rursus coelo vespertino offensus nauseo, sed citra syncopim. Offero duplum precium bigario, ut me 200 postridie vehat usque ad Tenas. Id oppidum abest a Tongris sex milibus passuum. Accipit conditionem. Hic hospes mihi notus narrat quam graviter tulerit Episcopus Leodiensis, quod se insalutato discessissem Basileam petens. Confoto stomacho sorbitiuncula eo 205 cubitum. Hic forte quadrigam nactus, quae Lovanium peteret (aberat autem sex milibus passuum), in eam me conicio. Incredibili molestia vectus sum, ac paene intolerabili, sed tamen eo die ad horam septimam pervenimus Lovanium. 210

Non erat sententia petere meum cubiculum, vel quod suspicabar illic frigere omnia, vel quod nolebam committere ut, si pestis rumor ex me fuisset ortus, collegii commodis aliquo pacto officerem. Ad Theodoricum typographum diverto, amicum sincerum. 215 Ea nocte eruperat inscio me maximum ulcus, iamque dolor conquieverat. Postridie accerso chirurgum. Apponit malagmata. Iam novum ulcus accesserat in tergo, quod minister fecerat Tongris, dum ob renum dolorem ungens me oleo rosaceo, digito calloso durius 220 fricat costam quandam. Id post exulceratum est. Abiens chirurgus clam dicit Theodorico et famulo pestem esse; missurum quidem malagmata se, non venturum autem ipsum ad me. Accerso medicos, negant quicquam esse morbi: rursum alios consulo, 225 idem affirmant. Accerso Hebraeum, is optabat tale corpus suum quale meum esset.

Cum non redirit uno atque altero die chirurgus, rogo Theodoricum quid sit in causa. Excusat ille nescio quid. At ego rem suspicans 'Quid?' inquam, 230 'Num iudicat esse pestem?' 'Hoc ipsum' inquit 'constanter affirmat; tres esse carbunculos.' Risi satis, nec ullam pestis imaginationem demitto in animum. Post dies aliquot venit chirurgi pater, inspicit, idem iudicat, et in os asseverat germanam 235 esse pestem? Nec sic quidem mihi persuaderi potuit. Accerso clam alterum chirurgum magni nominis. Inspicit; is vero, ut erat homo rusticior, 'Non vererer' inquit, 'tecum cubare'; idem sentiebat Hebraeus. Accerso medicum quendam, cui plurimum tribuunt 240 Lovanii; nam hic bonos esse medicos admodum est rarum. Rogo numquid mali portenderet corpus; negat. Narro de ulceribus, addens argumenta, quibus colligerem non esse pestem. Ulcera non erant nova neque sponte nata. Nulla febris, nullus insignis capitis 245 dolor nisi ob iactionem, nulla somnolentia, palatum perpetuo sanissimum.

Cetera sat fortiter audierat. At simul atque ulcerum mentio facta est, sensi hominem pertimescere. Do medico coronatum aureum, pollicitus est se post 250 prandium ad me rediturum. Is territus ex oratione mittit ministrum. Reicio; et iratus medicis Christo medico me commendo. Stomachus intra triduum restitutus est, hausto pullo gallinaceo contuso, et cyatho vini Belnensis. Hic protinus ad studii quoque 255 laborem reversus, absolvo quod deerat in Novo Testamento.

Apud Theodoricum curatus fere quatuor hebdomadis, in cubiculum meum remigravi. Semel duntaxat ad proximum templum exii sacri gratia, nondum 260 sat firmis viribus. Si pestis fuit, pestem eam labore et incommoditate animique robore depuli: quando saepenumero magna morbi pars est morbi imaginatio. Ab adventu protinus edixeram ne quis me adiret, nisi nominatim accitus, ne vel ego cuiquam essem 265 terrori vel mihi quisquam officio suo molestus: tamen irrupit Dorpius omnium primus; mox Atensis, Marcus Laurinus et Paschasius Berselius, qui cotidie aderant, mihi bonam morbi partem ademerunt mellitissima consuetudine sua. 270

Mi Beate, quis crederet hoc corpusculum exile, delicatum, atque etiam aetate iam imbecillius, post tot itinerum labores, post tot studiorum sudores, tot etiam morbis suffecturum? Scis enim quam graviter paulo ante laborarim Basileae, idque non semel. 275 Nonnulla suspicio tangebat animum meum, eum annum mihi fore fatalem; adeo malo malum succedebat, semperque gravius. Ego vero tum etiam cum maxime morbus urgebat, sic eram affectus ut nec vitae desiderio cruciarer nec mortis metu trepidarem. 280 In uno Christo tota spes erat, a quo nihil aliud precabar, nisi ut daret quod mihi saluberrimum esse iudicaret. Iuvenis olim, ut memini, ad nomen etiam mortis solebam inhorrescere. Hoc certe profeci accessione aetatis, mortem leviter metuo, neque metior 285 hominis felicitatem longaevitate. Annum excessi quinquagesimum, ad quem cum ex tam multis tam pauci perveniant, iure queri non possum me parum diu vixisse: deinde si quid hoc ad rem pertinet, iam nunc paratum est monimentum, quo posteris tester 290 me vixisse. Et fortassis a rogo, quemadmodum poetae loquuntur, ut consilescet livor, ita magis elucescet gloria: quanquam non convenit ut Christianum pectus tangat humana gloria: utinam ea contingat gloria ut Christo probemur. 295

Bene vale, Beate carissime. Cetera cognosces ex literis ad Capitonem. Lovanii. Anno M.D.XVIII.

XX. ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES

CLARISSIMO BARONI GULIELMO MONTIOIO ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS S.D.

Unice Maecenas, antehac gratulatus sum Angliae tuae, quae tot haberet viros egregia probitate parique doctrina praeditos: nunc propemodum invidere incipio, quae sic efflorescat omni genere studiorum, ut omnibus regionibus laudem praeripiat ac paene tenebras offundat. 5 Quanquam ista laus haud ita nova est vestrae insulae, in qua constat et olim eximios viros exstitisse. Declarant id vel academiae vestrae, quae vetustate nobilitateque cum vetustissimis ac celeberrimis certant. Deamo Richardum episcopum Wintoniensem, qui magnificentissimum 10 collegium suo sumptu proprie dicavit bonis literis. Magis autem exosculor egregium ac prorsus heroicum animum Thomae Cardinalis Eboracensis, cuius prudentia schola Oxoniensis non solum omni linguarum ac studiorum genere, veram et 15 moribus qui deceant optima studia, condecorabitur. Nam Cantabrigiensis academia iampridem omnibus floret ornamentis, praeside Ioanne episcopo Roffensi, qui nulla in parte non egregium agit praesulem.

Ceterum huius laudis praecipua portio regio pectori, 20 velut horum consiliorum fonti, debetur. Cum tot regnis ac regibus altissima pax est atque, ut augurari libet, aeterna. Pelluntur nocentes, vigent bonae leges, evehuntur optimae literae. Rex ipse hisce rebus omnibus non solum auctor est ac dux, verum etiam 25 exemplum, primus ipse praestans quod praescribit. Nulli mortalium magis ex animo bene volo quam tibi; et tamen parum abest quin invideam tuae celsitudini, quaetantis bonis fruatur sine me quondam commodorum et incommodorum socio. Quodque gravius est, interim 30 dum tu tot nominibus felix es, mihi cum taeterrimis quibusdam non hominibus sed portentis conflictandum; in quo mehercle lubens experirer quid posset eloquentia, ni me Christianus pudor, ceu Pallas quaepiam Homerica, iam capulo manum admoventem capillos vellicans 35 revocaret. Bene vale.

Antuuerpiae, Anno M.D.XIX. Calendis Maiis.

XXI. AN EXPLOSION AT BASEL

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS NICOLAO VARIO MARVILLANO S.

Multa quidem nova cotidie nobis gignit hic Africa nostra, Nicolae carissime; sed quaedam eius sunt genoris, ut nec tibi gratum arbitrer futurum legere nec mihi tutum scribere. Quod nuper accidit accipe. Ad duodecimum Calendas Octobris, evocatus amoenitate 5 coeli, secesseram in hortum, quem Ioannes Frobenius satis amplum et elegantem meo commercatus est hortatu. Nam ibi soleo pomeridianis aliquot horis vel somnum obrepentem arcere vel assiduitatis taedium fallere, si quando invitat aeris temperies. Post 10 deambulatiunculam conscenderam domunculam hortensem, iamque coeperam aliquid ex Chrysostomo vertere, cum interim vitreas fenestras ferit fulmen, sed tacitum ac lene. Primum suspicabar oculorum esse errorem. Cum rursus semel atque iterum effulsisset, demiror ac 15 prospicio si se vertisset coelum, contractisque nubibus pluviam ac tempestatem minaretur. Ubi nihil video periculi, ad librum redeo. Mox auditur sonitus, sed obtusior. Ad eum modum poetae narrant Iovem ludere, si quando est hilarior; siquidem longe aliud 20 fulminis genus erat quo gigantum moles disiecit ac Salmonea et Ixionem demisit in Tartara. Paulo post emicat plus fulgoris, et audio fragorem horribilem, cuiusmodi fere crepitus audiri solet, si quando fulminis ictus impegit se vehementius in aliquid solidum. 25

Etenim cum agerem Florentiae eo tempore quo Iulius Pontifex, terrenus Iuppiter, tonabat ac fulminabat adversus Bononiam, magnam diei partem et tonabat vehementer et fulminabat, magnaque vis imbrium ruebat. Cum horribilis fragor insonuisset, territus 30 subduxi me et ad ceteros redii. 'Aut me plane fallit' inquam 'animus, aut post hunc crepitum audietis aliquid parum laeti nuntii.' Et ecce non ita multo post, venit chirurgus nuntians in collegio virginum tres ictas; quarum una mox exanimata est, altera 35 propemodum exstincta, tertia sic afflicta ut negaret esse spem vitae.

Ad similem itaque sonitum surrexi et prospicio quae sit coeli facies. Ad laevam erat serenitas, ad dexteram conspicio novam nubis speciem, velut e terra sese 40 proferentis in sublime, colore propemodum cinericio, cuius cacumen velut inflexum sese demittebat. Dixisses scopulum quempiam esse vertice nutantem in mare. Quo contemplor attentius, hoc minus videbatur nubi similis. Dum ad hoc spectaculum stupeo, accurrit famulorum 45 unus quem domi reliqueram, anhelus, admonens ut subito me domum recipiam; civitatem armatam in tumultu esse. Nam is mos est huic reipublicae, ut sicubi fuerit exortum incendium, confestim armati procurrant ad tuendas portas ac moenia. Nec satis 50 tutum est armatis occurrere; ferrum enim addit ferociam animis, praesertim ubi nihil est periculi. Hortus autem in quo studebam erat pone moenia. Recurro domum, multis obviis armatis. Aliquanto post rem totam didicimus, quae sic habebat. 55

Paucis ante diebus in unam turrim earum quibus moenia ex intervallis muniuntur, delata fuerant aliquot vasa pulveris bombardici. Ea cum magistratus iussisset reponi in summa camera turris, nescio quorum incuria reposita sunt in imam turrim. Quod si 60 vis pulveris in summo fuisset, tectum modo sustulisset in aera, reliquis innocuis. Ac miro casu per rimas illas speculatorias fulmen illapsum attigit pulverem, moxque vasa omnia corripuit incendium. Primum impetus incendii tentavit an esset oneri ferendo possetque 65 totam molem in altum tollere. Idque testantur qui viderunt turrim iuxta partes imas hiantem semel atque iterum, sed rursus in se coeuntem. Ubi vis ignis sensit molem esse graviorem quam ut totam posset subvehere, eo conatu relicto totam turrim in 70 quatuor partes immani crepitu dissecuit, sed tanta aequalitate ut amussi geometrica factum videri posset, ac per aera aliam alio sparsit. Ipse pulvis accensus in altum se recepit, qui flamma consumpta cinericiae nubis praebebat speciem. Vidisses immania fragmenta 75 turris, avium ritu, volitare per aera; quaedam ad ducentos passus deferri, qua dabatur liberum aeris spatium; alia civium domos longo tractu demoliri.

Non procul a turri magistratus curarat exstruendas aediculas quasdam. Hae lateris unius impetum excepere. 80 Tantus autem erat fragor tamque subitus, ut qui erant in propinquo putarent rupto coelo mundum in chaos abiturum. Nec ridiculum putabatur quod vulgo dici solet: Quid si coelum ruat? In agris multi sunt ruina oppressi, multi sic membris vel truncati vel 85 afflicti ut miserandum spectaculum praeberent obviis: e quibus aiunt exstinctos numero duodecim, misere vexatos quatuordecim. Sunt qui credant hoc ostento quiddam portendi in futurum; ego nihil aliud arbitror significari quam incogitantiam eorum qui casum 90 eum non usque adeo rarum non praecaverint. Nec mirum si pulvis ille levissimus disiecit saxeum aedificium: etiam si turrim eam undique ducentorum pedum cinxisset paries, ignis ille subitus ac vehemens disiectis obstaculis omnibus erupisset in suum locum. 95 Quid autem vento mollius? Et tamen inclusus terrae cavis Boreas nonne montes totos concutit, terram hiatu diducit, et interdum campos spatiosos in collem erigit?

Quis hoc machinarum genus excogitavit? Olim artes 100 ad humanae vitae usum repertas diis attribuit antiquitas, veluti medicinam Apollini, agricolationem Cereri, vitis culturam Baccho, furandi artificium Mercurio. Huius inventi laudem non puto cuiquam deberi, nisi vehementer ingenioso cuipiam, nec minus scelerato 105 cacodaemoni. Si quid tale comminisci potuisset Salmoneus ille, potuisset vel ipsi Iovi medium unguem ostendere. Et tamen hic nunc Christianorum atque adeo puerorum lusus est. In tantum apud nos decrescit humanitas, accrescit immanitas. 110

Olim Corybantes tympanorum et tibiarum strepitu homines compellebant in rabiem. Habet enim ille sonitus miram vim ad commovendos animos. At horribilius sonant nostra tympana, nunc anapaestis, nunc pyrrhichiis perstrepentia. At his nunc pro tubis 115 Christiani utimur in bello, quasi illic non satis sit esse fortem, sed oporteat furere. Quid autem dixi de bello? Utimur in nuptiis, utimur diebus festis, utimur in templis. Ad furiosum illum sonitum procurrunt in publicum virgines, saltat nova nupta, ornatur festi 120 diei celebritas, qui tum est maxime laetus, si toto die per urbem obambulat plusquam Corybanticus tumultus. At ego arbitror apud inferos non alio organo celebrari dies festos, si modo sunt illic ulli. Plato putat magni referre quo genere musices uteretur civitas, 125 quid dicturus si hanc musicam audisset inter Christianos? Iam hoc musicae genus quod simul et flatile est et pulsatile, in templis sollemne, quibusdam non placet, nisi bellicam tubam longe superat. Nec id satis; sacrificus vocem ad tonitrui fragorem effingit, 130 nec alii magis placent aliquot Germaniae principibus. Adeo nostris ingeniis nihil est dulce quod non sapiat bellum. Sed desino iocari. Bene vale. Datum Basileae sexto Calendas Octobris. Anno M.D.XXVI.

XXII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. I

Nunc fieri videmus ut ex iis qui in diatribis theologicis diutius exercitati sunt, quam plurimi prodeant ad disputandum arguti, ad contionandum accommodi perquam pauci. Hic mihi succurrit vir omnium memoria seculorum dignus, Guilhelmus Waramus, 5 archiepiscopus Cantuariensis, totius Angliae primas, non ille quidem titulo sed re theologus. Erat enim iuris utriusque doctor, legationibus aliquot feliciter obeundis inclaruit et Henrico regi eius nominis septimo, summae prudentiae principi, gratus carusque 10 factus est. His gradibus evectus est ad Cantuariensis ecclesiae fastigium, cuius in ea insula prima est dignitas. Huic oneri per se gravissimo additum est aliud gravius. Coactus est suscipere cancellarii munus, quod quidem apud Anglos plane regium est; atque 15 huic uni honoris gratia, quoties in publicum procedit, regia corona sceptro regio imposita gestatur. Nam hic est velut oculus, os ac dextra regis, supremusque totius regni Britannici iudex. Hanc provinciam annis compluribus tanta dexteritate gessit, ut diceres illum 20 ei negotio natum, nulla alia teneri cura. Sed idem in his quae spectabant ad religionem et ecclesiasticas functiones tam erat vigilans et attentus ut diceres eum nulla externa cura distringi. Sufficiebat illi tempus ad religiose persoluendum sollemne precum pensum, 25 ad sacrificandum fere cotidie, ad audiendum praeterea duo aut tria sacra, ad cognoscendas causas, ad excipiendas legationes, ad consulendum regi si quid in aula gravius exstitisset, ad visendas ecclesias sicubi natum esset aliquid quod moderatorem postularet, ad excipiendos 30 convivas saepe ducentos: denique lectioni suum dabatur otium.

Ad tam varias curas uni sufficiebat et animus et tempus, cuius nullam portionem dabat venatui, nullam aleae, nullam inanibus fabulis, nullam luxui aut 35 voluptatibus. Pro his omnibus oblectamentis erat illi vel amoena quaepiam lectio vel cum erudito viro colloquium. Quanquam interdum episcopos, duces et comites habebat convivas, semper tamen prandium intra spatium horae finiebatur. In splendido apparatu 40 quem illa dignitas postulabat, dictu incredibile quam ipse nihil deliciarum attigerit. Raro gustabat vinum, plerumque iam tum septuagenarius bibebat pertenuem cervisiam, quam illi biriam vocant, eamque ipsam perparce. Porro cum quam minimum ciborum 45 sumeret, tamen comitate vultus ac sermonum festivitate omne convivium exhilarabat. Vidisses eandem pransi et impransi sobrietatem. A cenis in totum abstinebat, aut si contigerant familiares amici, quorum de numero nos eramus, accumbebat quidem, sed ita ut 50 paene nihil attingeret ciborum. Si tales non dabantur, quod temporis cenae dandum erat, id vel precibus vel lectioni impendebat. Atque ut ipse leporibus scatebat mire gratis, sed citra morsum atque ineptiam, ita liberioribus iocis amicorum delectabatur. A scurrilitate 55 et obtrectatione tam abhorrebat quam quisquam ab angui. Sic ille vir eximius sibi faciebat dies abunde longos, quorum brevitatem multi causantur. Et tamen isti qui subinde queruntur ad seria negotia sibi deesse otium, bonam diei partem, interdum et 60 noctis, perdunt in rebus non necessariis.

Verum ut eo redeam, cuius gratia interieci hunc sermonem, erat illi iuxta morem horum temporum necessum praeter familiam, quam alere cogebatur numerosissimam, aulae regiae, totius regni negotiis 65 etiam profanis dare operam; nec ibi moribus hodie receptum est ut summi praesules contionentur: tamen quod in hoc officii genere diminutum erat, abunde pensabat gemina vigilantia, partim prospiciens ne quis inutilis ad Dominici gregis curam adhiberetur, partim 70 multos sua liberalitate fovens in literarum studiis, quos sperabat ad bonam frugem evasuros. In hos erat tam exposita liberalitas, ut moriens nihil reliquerit praesentis pecuniae, sed aeris alieni nonnihil; tametsi non deerat unde id dissolvi posset. Haec 75 nequaquam loquor ad gratiam. Amavi vivum nec minus amo mortuum; quod enim in illo amabam non periit. Si supputem quicquid ille dare mihi paratus erat, immensa fuit eius in me liberalitas; si ad calculum vocemus quod accepi, sane modicum est. 80 Unicum modo sacerdotium in me contulit, immo non dedit sed obtrusit constanter recusanti, quod esset eius generis ut grex pastorem requireret, quem ego linguae ignarus praestare non poteram. Id cum vertisset in pensionem, sentiretque me et eam pecuniolam gravatim 85 accipere, quod e populo cui nihil prodessem colligeretur, sic me consolatus est vir egregie pius: 'Quid' inquit 'magni faceres, si uni agresti popello praedicares? Nunc libris tuis omnes doces pastores fructu longe uberiore; et indignum videtur si ad te paulum redit 90 stipis ecclesiasticae? Istam sollicitudinem in me recipio. Providebo ne quid illi desit ecclesiae.' Idque fecit; nam submoto cui resignaram sacerdotium (is erat illi a suffragiis, homo variis distractus negotiis) alium praefecit iuvenem rei theologicae peritum, probatis 95 et integris moribus.

Reverendissimum dominum Ioannem Fischerum, Roffensem episcopum, quod cum aliis omnibus officiis praesule dignis, tum praecipue studio docendi populum verum praestaret episcopum, sic amabat, sic venerabatur, 100 quasi ille fuisset metropolitanus, ipse ei suffraganeus. Hoc testimonium defuncto patrono citra adulationis suspicionem praebere licet. Nec ille meis eget laudibus, nec ego ullum adulationis praemium ab eo exspecto. Sed haec ea gratia commemoravi ut 105 ostenderem exemplar, quod secuti huius aetatis antistites facile possint pensare detrimentum officii, quod variis distenti negotiis ad contionandum non habeant vacuum tempus: tum quibus rationibus sibi possint dies reddere longiores, ut ad varias curas et tempus et 110 animus et valetudo sufficiat.

XXIII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. II

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS PIO LECTORI S.D.

Cum haec adornaretur editio, incomparabilis heros Guilhelmus Waramus, archiepiscopus Cantuariensis ac totius Angliae primas, terras reliquit et in coeleste contubernium emigravit: vir ex omni virtutum et ornamentorum genere concinnatus, sive spectes in 5 tanto rerum fastigio comitatem etiam infimis obviam, sive in tanta rerum affluentia spontaneam victus sobrietatem, sive in tantis negotiorum undis perpetuam animi tranquillitatem (id quod divinae cuiusdam mentis esse videtur), sive sincerum erga pietatem et 10 religionem affectum, quam semper summo studio, nullo supercilio, tum docuit tum praestitit. Nemo vidit illum nihil agentem. Quis autem non facile condonasset tali viro, si quando animum negotiis externis delassatum iocis aut lusibus relaxasset? At 15 illi pro venatu, pro aucupio, pro alea, pro chartis, pro morionibus proque ceteris avocamentis vulgaribus erat aut frugifera lectio aut cum erudito viro colloquium. Iam vero benignitatem cum in omnes tum praecipue in studiosos quid referam? De me nihil dicam, qui 20 non ita multum ab illo accepi, idque obtrusum verius quam datum: nisi quod in acceptis numero quicquid ille obtulit; obtulit autem frequenter vera fronte fortunarum omnium communionem. Sed in alios quam non fuerit illius parca liberalitas vel illa vox 25 arguit quam paulo ante mortem emisit. Nuntiantibus enim famulis in thesauro vix esse triginta aureos signatae pecuniae, gratulabundus dixit 'Bene habet. Sic mori semper fuit in votis. Sat est viatici mox hinc emigraturo'. O mentem summo episcopo dignam! 30 Ex tanta fortuna minimum impendit sibi. Mensa erat et pro more regionis et pro dignitate tanti praesulis splendida, sed in mediis deliciis ipse vulgaribus libentius utebatur atque hoc ipsum parcissime. Cena tam erat frugalis ut prope nulla esset. Vinum perquam 35 raro gustabat verius quam bibebat, contentus tenuissima cervisia quam illi vulgo biriam appellant. Eadem in cultu frugalitas. Nunquam holosericis utebatur nisi rem divinam peragens; adeo ut cum sub Caroli Caesaris et Regis Angliae conventum, qui fuit 40 ante annos, ni fallor, undecim Calecii, edicto Cardinalis Eboracensis non episcopi tantum sed et inferioris gradus homines cogerentur magnis impendiis ornare sese byssinis ac damascenis, solus omnium ille contempto edicto pilum in cultu suo non mutaverit. 45 Quid esse possit illo pectore incorruptius? Nunc felix illa anima, sicut Ecclesiae praeclarum lumen fuit, ita coelesti Hierosolymae sidus illustre addit. Frequenter apud suos hanc vocem solebat emittere: 'Utinam mihi contingat priusquam hinc emigrem, semel videre 50 complectique meum Erasmum. Nunquam sinam illum a me divelli.' Votum erat mutuum, sed neutri contigit quod optavit. Utinam illud concedat Christi misericordia, ut nos invicem brevi complectamur illic ubi nulla est futura distractio, neque quisquam erit qui 55 vel illum mihi vel me illi invideat.

Bene vale, quisquis es qui haec legis.

Friburgi Brisgoiae Anno M.D.XXXIII.

XXIV. THE LlVES OF VITRARIUS AND COLET

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS IODOCO IONAE ERPHORDIENSI S.D.

Quod tam impense rogas, vir optime, ut tibi Ioannis Coleti vitam paucis velut in brevi tabella depingam, hoc faciam lubentius, quod suspicor te tibi quaerere egregium aliquod pietatis exemplar, ad quod tuum institutum attemperes. Equidem, mi Iona carissime, 5 ut fatear me cum multis habuisse consuetudinem quorum integritas mihi valde probaretur, tamen nullum adhuc vidi in cuius moribus nescio quid adhuc Christianae puritatis non desiderarem, quoties ad horum duorum sinceritatem conferrem aliquem; quorum alterum 10 mihi nosse contigit apud oppidum Artesiae, quod vulgo dicitur sancti Audomari, cum huc me pestis, hac sane in parte mihi felix, Lutetia propulisset; alterum in Britannia, quo me Montioii mei caritas pertraxerat. Lucrum facies, cuius scio te avidissimum; pro uno duos 15 dabo.

Prior dictus est Ioannes Vitrarius, ordinis Franciscani—nam in hoc vitae genus adolescens inciderat; meo iudicio nulla ex parte posthabendus Coleto, nisi quod ob servitutem instituti minus multis prodesse 20 poterat. Annos natus erat ferme quadraginta quatuor cum hominem nosse coeperam; ac statim adamare me coepit, hominem sui multum dissimilem. Erat auctoritatis maximae apud optimos quosque, multis magnatibus gratissimus, corpore procero et eleganti, natura 25 felici, animo sic excelso ut nihil esset illo humanius. Scoticas argutias puer imbiberat, quas nec prorsus improbabat, quod quaedam scite dicerentur licet sordidis verbis, nec rursus magni faciebat. Ceterum, ubi contigisset Ambrosium, Cyprianum, Hieronymum degustare, 30 mirum quam prae his illa fastidiebat. Nullius ingenium magis admirabatur in sacris literis quam Origenis: cumque cavillarer me mirari, quod hominis haeretici scriptis delectaretur, ille mira alacritate 'Fieri non potuit' inquit 'quin hoc pectus inhabitarit Spiritus sanctus, unde 35 tot libri tam eruditi tanto ardore scripti prodierunt'.

Quanquam autem illud vitae institutum, in quod per inscitiam aetatis fuerat vel delapsus vel pertractus, nequaquam probabat, subinde dictitans apud me fatuorum esse vitam potius quam religiosorum ad nolae 40 signum dormire, expergisci, redormiscere, loqui, tacere, ire, redire, cibum capere, desinere pastu, denique nihil non facere ad praescriptum humanum potius quam ad Christi regulam: nihil iniquius esse quam inter tam inaequales aequalitatem, maxime quod illic saepenumero 45 coelestia ingenia ac melioribus rebus nata, caerimoniis et constitutiunculis humanis aut etiam livore sepelirentur: tamen nec cuiquam unquam fuit auctor mutandae vitae, nec ipse quicquam huiusmodi molitus est, paratus omnia ferre potius quam ulli mortalium offendiculo 50 esse, Pauli sui exemplum in hoc quoque referens. Nihil autem erat tam iniquum quod ille pacis servandae studio non summa cum alacritate perpeteretur.

Libros divinos, praesertim epistolas Pauli, sic edidicerat, ut nemo melius teneret ungues digitosque suos 55 quam ille Pauli sui sermones. Dedisses initium ex quacunque parte, ille mox totam epistolam absque ullo lapsu fuisset prosecutus. Ambrosii pleraque tenebat memoriter. Vixque credibile est quantum item ex aliis orthodoxis veteribus memoria complecteretur. Praestitit hoc illi 60 partim memoria natura felix, partim assidua meditatio.

Rogatus a me in familiari colloquio, quibus modis praepararet animum suum iturus ad contionandum, respondit se solitum in manus sumere Paulum, et in eius lectione tam diu commorari, donec sentiret incalescere 65 pectus. Illic haerebat, addens igneas ad Deum preces, donec admoneretur esse tempus incipiendi. Non dividebat fere contiones suas; id quod vulgus ita facit, quasi secus facere non liceat; unde fit ut frequenter sit frigidissima distinctio. Quanquam omnis 70 illa distinctionum cura frigus addit orationi, et artificii significationem praebens fidem elevat dicentis. At hic perpetuo quodam sermonis fluxu connectebat sacram Epistolam cum Evangelica lectione, ut auditor domum rediret et eruditior et inflammatior ad studium pietatis. 75 Neque gesticulationibus ineptiebat nec vociferationibus tumultuabatur, sed totus apud se sic promebat verba, ut sentires ex ardenti ac simplici sed sobrio pectore proficisci: nec usquam immorabatur ad taedium usque, neque iactabat sese variis citationibus nominum, quemadmodum 80 nunc e Scoto, Thoma, Durando, nunc ex iuris utriusque libris, nunc e philosophis, nunc e poetis centones frigidos consarcinant, quo populo nihil nescire videantur. Totus sermo quem promebat erat sacrae scripturae plenus, nec aliud ructare poterat. Amabat 85 quod loquebatur.

Nonnunquam septies contionabatur uno die, nec unquam illi deerat sermonis eruditi copia, quoties de Christo loquendum erat. Quanquam tota illius vita nihil erat nisi sacra contio. Erat alacer minimeque 90 tetricus in convivio: sed sic ut nullam unquam praeberet speciem levitatis aut ineptiae, luxus aut intemperantiae multo minus. Miscebat sermones eruditos, plerumque sacros, et ad pietatem facientes. Talia erant colloquia, si quis illum adibat; aut si quem ille visebat, 95 aut si quo faciebat iter, habebat potentes amicos, qui illi in itinere mulum aliquoties aut equum subiciebant, quo commodius liceret confabulari; ibi promebat vir optimus exhilarato spiritu quae nullis gemmis poterant aestimari. Neminem ab se tristem dimittebat, 100 immo neminem non dimittebat meliorem et ad pietatis amorem animatiorem.

Nihil erat in quo sentire posses illum ulli suo commodo servire; non ventri, non ambitioni, non avaritiae, non voluptati, non odio, non livori, non ullis malis affectibus 105 erat obnoxius. Quicquid acciderat, agebat gratias Deo: nec aliud erat gaudium quam si quos inflammasset ad studium Evangelicae pietatis. Nec irritus fuit illius conatus. Complures tum viros tum feminas lucri fecerat Christo: qui quantum differrent ab hoc 110 Christianorum vulgo, mors arguebat. Vidisses enim huius discipulos summa cum alacritate spiritus mori, et sub mortem vere cygneam canere cantionem, ea promentes quae pectus afflatum sacro numine testarentur: cum ceteri peractis caerimoniis et adhibitis sollemnibus 115 illis protestationibus fidentes, diffidentes exhalarent animam. Testis est huius rei medicus eximius eius oppidi Ghisbertus ac pertinax verae pietatis cultor, qui plurimis utriusque scholae morientibus adfuit.

Pertraxerat aliquot et e sui gregis sodalibus, sed 120 pauciores—(quemadmodum et Christus apud suos non potuit multas virtutes facere)—; nam illis fere placent qui sua doctrina plurimum commeatus convehunt in culinam, potius quam qui plurimas animas asserunt Christo. Cum autem ab omnibus vitiis abhorrebat animus 125 ille purissimus ac vere templum Christo dicatum, tum maxime a libidine, adeo ut odore talium gravissime offenderetur, tantum aberat ut turpiloquium ferre posset. In vitia vulgi nunquam odiose debacchabatur, neque quicquam adferebat e secretis confessionibus: sed ita 130 depingebat honestatis imaginem, ut se quisque tacitus agnosceret. In consiliis dandis mira prudentia, mira integritas, mira dexteritas. Secretas confessiones non admodum volens audiebat, sed tamen in hoc quoque serviebat caritati: anxias ac subinde repetitas 135 confessiones palam detestabatur.

Superstitioni ac caerimoniis minimum tribuebat, vescebatur cibis quibuslibet sobrie et cum gratiarum actione. Vestitus erat nihil ab aliis differens. Solebat nonnunquam et valetudinis causa suscipere iter aliquod, 140 si quando senserat corpus humore degravari. Quodam igitur die, cum persolveret pensum precum matutinarum cum suo sodali, sensissetque stomachum fortassis ob pridianam inediam nauseantem, ingressus domum proximam, sumpsit cibi nonnihil, ac repetito itinere 145 pergebat precari. Ibi cum sodalis illius putaret omnia repetenda ab initio, quod primae horae precibus nondum dictis sumpsisset cibum, ille alacer negavit quicquam esse admissum, immo Deo nonnihil fore lucri. 'Antehac' inquit 'languidi et segnes precabamur; nunc 150 alacribus animis illi dicemus hymnos spirituales; et eiusmodi sacrificiis ille delectatur, quae ab hilari datore offeruntur.'

Ego cum id temporis diversarer apud Antonium a Bergis abbatem Bertinicum, nec nisi post meridiem 155 illic pranderetur, neque meus stomachus ferret tam diutinam inediam (erat autem tempus quadragesimae), praesertim cum totus essem in studiis, solebam ante prandium sorbitiuncula tepida fulcire stomachum, quo duraret in horam prandii. Hac de re cum illum 160 consulerem num liceret, ille circumspecto sodali, quem tum habebat laicum, ne quid offenderetur: 'Immo,' inquit 'peccares nisi faceres, et ob cibulum omitteres ista tua sacra studia, tuoque corpusculo faceres iniuriam.'

Cum Alexander Pontifex ex uno Iubilaeo fecisset 165 duos, quo quaestus esset uberior, eiusque dispensationem Episcopus Tornacensis praesente pecunia suo periculo redemisset, summo studio adnitebantur commissarii, ne sortem perderet Episcopus, immo ut lucrum non poenitendum accederet. Hic in primis ad fabulae 170 partes vocabantur ii qui in contionibus populo essent gratiosi. Noster sentiens id in scrinia conferri, quo sublevabantur ante pauperes, non improbabat quod offerebat Pontifex, nec probabat tamen. Ceterum illud improbabat, quod tenues fraudarentur solito subsidio: 175 damnabat stultam eorum fiduciam qui nummo in scrinium coniecto putarent sese liberos a peccatis.

Tandem obtulerunt commissarii centum florenos ad structuram templi (nam id tum aedificabatur in eius monasterio), ut si nollet commendare venias pontificias, 180 saltem ea taceret quae officerent. Ibi vir velut afflatu sacro percitus, 'Abite' inquit, 'hinc, Simoniaci, cum vestra pecunia. An eum me putatis qui ob pecuniam sim suppressurus Evangelicam veritatem? Ea si vestro quaestui obstat, mihi maior esse debet cura animarum 185 quam vestri compendii.' Cessere tum vigori pectoris Evangelici homines male sibi conscii, sed interim praeter exspectationem summo diluculo affixa est excommunicatio; quae tamen a cive quodam detracta est priusquam multis innotesceret. 190

Ille nihil his minis territus, summa cum animi tranquillitate docebat populum et Christo sacrificabat: nec ullum metum prae se ferebat talis anathematis, quod ob Christum praedicatum intentaretur. Mox citatus est ad Episcopum Morinensem. Paruit Episcopo suo, 195 venit uno sodali comitatus, nihil ipse de se sollicitus: sed tamen inscio illo cives equitum praesidia collocarant in itinere, ne per insidias interceptus in antrum aliquod coniiceretur. Quid enim non audet auri sacra fames? Episcopus obiecit articulos aliquot, quos ex 200 illius collegerant contionibus: ille magno animo respondit et Episcopo satisfecit. Aliquanto post denuo vocatus est, obiecti sunt plures: ubi et ad hos responderat, rogabat cur non aclessent accusatores, ut suo quoque periculo accusarent: se iam bis venisse honoris 205 illius gratia quod episcopus esset, ceterum non venturum tertio, si simili modo vocaretur: esse sibi domi melius negotium. Ita suo ingenio relictus est, sive quia deerat ansa nocendi, sive quia timebant populi tumultum, in quo probitas illius habebat optimum quemque 210 addictissimum: etiamsi ille tale nihil ambiebat.

Iamdudum rogabis, scio, quis huius viri fuerit exitus. Non solum displicuit commissariis, sed etiam suis fratribus aliquot, non quod non probarent vitam, sed quod ea melior esset quam ipsis expediebat. Totus 215 inhiabat in lucrum animarum, ceterum ad instruendam culinam aut exstruendos parietes, ad illectandos dotatos adolescentes segnior erat quam illi vellent: etiamsi hoc quoque non neglegebat vir optimus, duntaxat si quid ad sublevandam necessitatem pertineret, verum non 220 ut plerique praepostere curabat ista. Immo quendam etiam thynnum alienarat: is erat aulicus ac prorsus aulicis moribus, uxorem pro derelicta habens, quam habebat et claro genere natam et aliquot liberorum matrem. Hic cum omnibus tentatis, quo uxorem 225 marito reconciliaret, nihil ageret, nec durus ille vel affinium respectu vel liberorum communium affectu vel sua ipsius conscientia flecteretur, reliquit hominem ceu deploratum. Is paulo post ex more petasonem aut armum suillum misit. Ceterum Ioannes (nam tum 230 Guardianum agebat) mandarat ianitori ne quid reciperet nisi se vocato. Cum adesset munus, vocatus est: ibi famulis qui deferebant heri nomine, 'Referte' inquit 'onus vestrum unde attulistis: nos non recipimus munera diaboli.' 235

Itaque tametsi non ignorabant illius vitam ac doctrinam esse seminarium egregium Evangelicae pietatis, tamen quoniam non perinde conducebat proventui culinae, iussus est deponere Guardiani munus: quo nihil ille fecit lubentius, et suffectus est illi quidam, 240 quem ego novi, aliunde ascitus, homo non dicam qualis aut quam alteri dissimilis; in summa is mihi visus est cui nemo prudens cauletum suum vellet committere: sive hunc obtruserunt qui cupiebant abesse, sive is visus est ad rem magis idoneus. Porro cum ex eius 245 convictu subolesceret unus atque alter, qui simili spiritu raperetur ad studium consulendi pietati Christianae potius quam ad augendum penus, relegarunt hominem Curtracum in monasteriolum virginum. Ibi quantum licuit, sui similis docens, consolans, adhortans, 250 diem suum feliciter obiit, relictis aliquot libellis, quos e sacris auctoribus decerpserat Gallice; quos non dubito tales esse qualis erat hominis vita et oratio. Et tamen audio nunc a nonnullis damnari, qui putant esse ingens periculum si populus aliquid legat praeter 255 ineptas fabulas historiarum. Vivit adhuc illius doctrinae scintilla in multorum pectoribus. Sic contemptim habitus est a suis vir ille singularis, qui si Paulo apostolo collega contigisset, nihil addubito quin illum suo Barnabae aut Timotheo fuerit antepositurus. 260

Habes vere gemmeum Vitrarium nostrum, ignotum mundo, celebrem et clarum in regno Christi. Nunc Coletum huic simillimum accipe. Alterum alteri depinxeram, et uterque alterius videndi desiderio flagrabat, atque hac gratia Vitrarius in Angliam 265 traiecerat; ac mihi post narrabat Coletus apud se fuisse Minoritam quendam, cuius colloquio prudenti pioque mirum in modum fuisset delectatus, sed adhibitum alterum quendam eiusdem ordinis Stoicum, qui visus indigne ferre Christianum colloquium interruperit. 270 Ac fortasse Coletus hoc nomine plus laudis meretur, quod nec indulgentia fortunae nec impetu naturae, longe alio trahentis, potuerit ab Evangelicae vitae studio depelli. Natus est enim e claris et opulentis parentibus, idque Londini. Siquidem pater bis in 275 urbe sua praefecturam summam gessit, quam illi Maioritatem appellant. Mater quae adhuc superest, insigni probitate mulier, marito suo undecim filios peperit ac totidem filias. Quorum omnium natu maximus erat Coletus, ac proinde solus heres futurus 280 iuxta leges Britannicas, etiamsi illi fuissent superstites: sed ex omnibus ille superfuit solus, cum illum nosse coepissem. Accesserat his fortunae commodis corpus elegans ac procerum.

Adolescens apud suos quicquid est scholasticae 285 philosophiae, diligenter perdidicit, ac titulum assecutus est, qui septem liberalium artium scientiam profitetur. Quarum nulla erat in qua ille non esset gnaviter ac feliciter exercitatus: nam et libros Ciceronis avidissime devorarat, et Platonis Plotinique libros 290 non oscitanter excusserat, nec ullam mathematices partem intactam reliquit. Post tanquam avidus bonarum rerum negotiator, adiit Galliam, mox Italiam. Ibi se totum evolvendis sacris auctoribus dedit, sed prius per omnia literarum genera magno studio peregrinatus, 295 priscis illis potissimum delectabatur, Dionysio, Origene, Cypriano, Ambrosio, Hieronymo. Neque tamen non legit Scotum ac Thomam aliosque huius farinae, si quando locus postulabat. In utriusque iuris libris erat non indiligenter versatus. Denique nullus 300 erat liber, historiam aut constitutiones continens maiorum, quem ille non evolverat. Habet gens Britannica qui hoc praestiterunt apud suos quod Dantes ac Petrarcha apud Italos. Et horum evolvendis scriptis linguam expolivit, iam tum se praeparans ad 305 praeconium sermonis Evangelici.

Reversus ex Italia, mox relictis parentum aedibus Oxoniae maluit agere. Illic publice et gratis Paulinas epistolas omnes enarravit. Hic hominem nosse coepi, nam eodem tum me deus nescio quis adegerat; natus 310 tum erat annos ferme triginta, me minor duobus aut tribus mensibus. In Theologica professione nullum omnino gradum nec assecutus erat nec ambierat: tamen nullus erat illic doctor vel Theologiae vel Iuris, nullus abbas aut alioqui dignitate praeditus, quin 315 illum audiret, etiam allatis codicibus: sive hoc laudis debetur Coleti auctoritati, sive illorum studio, quos non puduerit senes a iuvene, doctores a non doctore discere: tametsi post ultro delatus est doctoris titulus, quem ille recepit magis ut illis gereret morem quam 320 quod ambiret.

Ab his sacris laboribus, Regis Henrici, eius nominis septimi, favore Londinum est revocatus, ac Decanus apud divum Paulum factus, ut illius praeesset collegio cuius literas sic adamabat. Est autem dignitas eius 325 nominis apud Anglos prima, tametsi sunt aliae proventu magis opimo. Hic vir optimus tanquam ad opus vocatus, non ad dignitatem, collegii sui collapsam disciplinam sarsit, et, quod erat illic novum, singulis diebus festis in suo templo contionari instituit, praeter 330 contiones extraordinarias, quas nunc in regia, nunc aliis atque aliis locis habebat. Porro in suo templo non sumebat sibi carptim argumentum ex Evangelio aut ex epistolis Apostolicis, sed unum aliquod argumentum proponebat, quod diversis contionibus ad finem 335 usque prosequebatur: puta Evangelium Matthaei, symbolum fidei, precationem Dominicam. Et habebat auditorium frequens, in quo plerosque primores suae civitatis et aulae regiae.

Mensam Decani, quae antea sub hospitalitatis titulo 340 luxui servierat, contraxit ad frugalitatem. Nam cum et ante annos aliquot in totum abstinuisset a cena, caruit vespertinis convivis. Porro cum serius pranderet, etiam tum minus habuit multos: sed hoc pauciores, quod et frugalis esset apparatus, tametsi 345 nitidus, et brevis accubitus, denique sermones qui non delectarent nisi doctos ac bonos. Consecrata mensa mox puer aliquis clara voce distincte pronuntiabat caput aliquod ex epistolis Pauli aut proverbiis Salomonis. Ex eo delectum locum ipse fere repetebat, ac 350 sermonis occasionem sumebat, sciscitans ab eruditis aut ingeniosis etiam idiotis, quid hoc aut illud dictum sibi vellet. Atque ita sermonem temperabat, ut quanquam et pius et gravis, tamen nihil haberet taedii aut supercilii. Rursus sub convivii finem, cum iam utcunque 355 satisfactum esset non voluptati sed necessitati, aliud argumentum iniecit: atque ita convivas dimisit et animo et corpore refectos, ut meliores discederent quam venerant, et stomachum minime cibis onustum referrent. 360

Impense delectabatur amicorum colloquiis, quae saepe differebat in multam noctem: sed omnis illius sermo aut de literis erat aut de Christo. Si grati confabulonis non erat copia (nec enim quibuslibet delectabatur), puer aliquis e sacris libris aliquid 365 pronuntiabat. Me nonnunquam et peregrinationis comitem ascivit, nihil erat illic eo festivius: sed semper libellus erat itineris comes, nec alii sermones quam de Christo. Impatiens erat omnium sordium, adeo ut nec sermonem ferret soloecum ac barbarie 370 spurcum. Quicquid erat domesticae supellectilis, quicquid apparatus in cibis, quicquid in vestibus, quicquid in libris, nitidum esse volebat, de magnificentia non laborabat. Non nisi pullis vestibus utebatur, cum illic vulgo sacerdotes ac theologi vestiantur purpura. 375 Summa vestis semper erat lanea ac simplex; si frigus hoc postulabat, interulis pelliciis se muniebat.

Quicquid e sacerdotiis redibat, id in usus domesticos oeconomo suo dispensandum reliquit: quod erat patrimonii (erat autem amplissimum) ipse in pios usus 380 distribuebat. Nam patre defuncto, cum ingentem pecuniae vim accepisset ex hereditate, ne servata gigneret in eo aliquid morbi, novam scholam exstruxit in coemeterio Sancti Pauli, puero Iesu sacram, opere magnifico. Adiecit aedes magnificas, in quibus agerent 385 duo ludi magistri, quibus amplum salarium designavit, quo gratuito docerent, sed sic uti schola non capiat nisi certum numerum. Eam distinxit in partes quatuor. Primus ingressus habet ceu catechumenos. Nullus autem admittitur nisi qui iam norit et legere 390 et scribere. Secunda pars habet eos quos hypodidascalus instituit. Tertia quos superior erudit. Alteram ab altera dirimit velum quoddam quod adducitur ac diducitur cum libet. Supra cathedram praeceptoris sedet puer Iesus singulari opere, docentis gestu, quem 400 totus grex adiens scholam ac relinquens hymno salutat. Et imminet Patris facies dicentis 'Ipsum audite': nam haec verba me auctore ascripsit. In postremo sacellum est, in quo licet rem divinam facere. Tota schola nullos habet angulos aut secessus, adeo ut nec cenaculum 405 sit ullum aut cubiculum. Pueris singulis suus est locus in gradibus paulatim ascendentibus, distinctis spatiis. Quaeque classis habet sedecim, et qui in sua classe praecellit, sellulam habet ceteris paululo eminentiorem. Nec quosvis admittunt temere, sed delectus 405 fit indolis et ingeniorum.

Vidit illud vir perspicacissimus, in hoc esse praecipuam reipublicae spem, si prima aetas bonis rationibus institueretur. Ea res cum constet immensa pecunia, tamen nullum in huius consortium admisit. Quidam 410 legarat in eam structuram centum libras monetae Britannicae: ubi sensit Coletus hac gratia sibi nescio quid iuris vindicare laicos, permissu episcopi sui eam pecuniam contulit in sacras vestes templi. Reditibus totique negotio praefecit non sacerdotes, non episcopum 415 aut capitulum, ut vocant, non magnates: sed cives aliquot coniugatos, probatae famae. Roganti causam ait nihil quidem esse certi in rebus humanis, sed tamen in his se minimum invenire corruptelae.

Atque ut hoc opus nemo non probavit, ita multi 420 demirabantur cur magnificentissimas aedes exstrueret intra pomeria monasterii Carthusiensium, quod non procul abest a regia quae dicitur Richemonda. Aiebat se parare sedem illam suae senectuti, cum iam impar laboribus aut morbo fractus cogeretur se submovere 425 ab hominum consortio. Illic erat animus philosophari cum duobus aut tribus amiculis eximiis, inter quos me solitus est numerare; sed mors antevertit. Nam cum ante paucos annos correptus esset sudore pestilenti, qui morbus peculiariter infestat Britanniam, 430 et ab eodem tertio repetitus, utcunque tamen revixit; sed ex morbi reliquiis contracta est viscerum tabes, qua periit. Sepultus est ad australe chori latus in suo templo humili sepulchro, quod in eum usum iam ante annos aliquot delegerat, inscriptione addita 'IOAN. COL.' 435

Finem faciam, mi Iona, si pauca commemoraro primum de ipsius natura, deinde de opinionibus paradoxis, postremo de procellis quibus explorata est hominis ingenua pietas. Cuius minimam portionem debebat naturae suae; siquidem animo praeditus erat 440 insigniter excelso et omnis iniuriae impatientissimo, ad luxum ac somnum mire propensus, ad iocos ac facetias supra modum proclivis. Haec ipse mihi fassus est, nec omnino tutus a morbo philargyriae. Adversus haec ita pugnavit philosophia sacrisque studiis, vigiliis, 445 ieiuniis, ac precibus, ut totum vitae cursum ab huius seculi inquinamentis purum peregerit. Opes in pios usus dissipavit. Adversus animi celsitudinem ratione pugnavit, adeo ut a puero quoque moneri se pateretur. Somnum ac luxum abstinentia cenae perpetua, iugi 450 sobrietate, indefessis laboribus studiorum sanctisque colloquiis profligavit: et tamen si quando sese obtulisset occasio vel iocandi apud facetos vel colloquendi cum feminis vel accumbendi in opiparis conviviis, vidisses aliqua naturae vestigia. Et ob id fere a laicorum 455 consuetudine abstinuit, sed praecipue a conviviis: ad quae si quando cogebatur, me aut mei similem adhibebat, quo Latinis fabulis declinaret profana colloquia. Atque interim sumpto ex uno tantum genere cibi pusillo, uno aut altero cerevisiae haustu contentus 460 erat, a vino temperans, quo tamen delectabatur eleganti, sed temperatissime utens. Ita se sibi semper habens suspectum, cavebat ab omnibus quibus esse posset offendiculo cuiquam; nec enim ignorabat omnium oculos in se coniectos. 465

Nunquam vidi ingenium felicius, atque ob id similibus ingeniis unice delectabatur: sed ad haec se malebat demittere quae praepararent ad immortalitatem vitae futurae. Nulla in re non philosophabatur, si quando se laxabat fabulis amoenioribus. In pueris ac puellis 470 delectabat naturae puritas ac simplicitas, ad cuius imitationem suos vocat Christus, angelis eos solitus comparare.

Iam ut alteram exsolvam partem, opinionibus a vulgo multum dissidebat, sed mira prudentia hac in 475 re sese attemperabat aliis, ne quos offenderet, aut ne quid labis in famam contraheret; non ignarus quam iniqua sint hominum iudicia, quamque prona in malum credulitas, quantoque facilius sit maledicis linguis contaminare famam hominis quam benedicis sarcire. 480 Inter amicos ac doctos liberrime profitebatur quid sentiret. Scotistas, quibus hominum vulgus ceu peculiare tribuit acumen, aiebat sibi videri stupidos et hebetes et quidvis potius quam ingeniosos; nam argutari circa alienas sententias ac verba, nunc hoc 485 arrodere, nunc illud, et omnia minutatim dissecare, ingenii esse sterilis et inopis. Thomae tamen, nescio qua de causa, iniquior erat quam Scoto. Etenim cum hunc apud illum aliquando laudarem ut inter recentiores non aspernandum, quod et sacras literas et 490 auctores veteres videretur evolvisse (cuius rei suspicionem mihi fecerat Catena quae vocatur Aurea) et aliquid haberet in scriptis affectuum, semel atque iterum dissimulavit obticescens. Verum ubi rursus in alio colloquio inculcarem eadem vehementius, 495 obtuitus est me, velut observans serione haec dicerem necne; cum animadverteret me ex animo loqui, tanquam afflatus spiritu quodam, 'Quid tu' inquit, 'mihi praedicas istum, qui nisi habuisset multum arrogantiae, non tanta temeritate tantoque supercilio 500 definisset omnia? et nisi habuisset aliquid spiritus mundani, non ita totam Christi doctrinam sua profana philosophia contaminasset.' Admiratus sum hominis impetum, coepique diligentius eius viri scripta evolvere. Quid verbis opus est? omnino decessit aliquid meae 505 de illo existimationi.

Cum nemo magis faveret Christianae pietati, tamen erga monasteria, quae nunc falso nomine pleraque sic vocantur, minimum habebat affectus; eisque aut nihil aut quam minimum largiebatur, ac ne moriens quidem 510 aliquid illis decidit: non quod invisos haberet ordines, sed quod homines suae professioni non respondebant. Nam ipsi in votis erat se prorsus ab hoc mundo extricare, sicubi repperisset sodalitium vere coniuratum in vitam Evangelicam. Atque id negotii mihi delegarat 515 Italiam adituro, narrans sese apud Italos comperisse quosdam monachos vere prudentes ac pios. Nec enim ille iudicabat esse religionem quam vulgus iudicat, cum sit aliquoties ingenii penuria. Laudabat et Germanos aliquot, apud quos residerent etiamnum priscae religionis 520 vestigia. Dictitare solebat se nusquam reperire minus corruptos mores quam inter coniugatos, quod hos affectus naturae, cura liberorum ac res familiaris ita veluti cancellis quibusdam distringerent, ut non possent in omne flagitii genus prolabi. 525

Nulli mortalium generi erat infensior quam episcopis qui pro pastoribus lupos agerent; nec ullos magis exsecrabatur, quod cultu sacro, caerimoniis, benedictionibus ac veniolis sese venditarent populo, cum toto pectore servirent mundo, hoc est gloriae et 530 quaestui. E Dionysio ceterisque priscis theologis quaedam hauserat, quibus non ita favebat, ut usquam contenderet adversus decreta ecclesiastica, sed tamen ut minus esset iniquus iis qui non probarent sic passim in templis adorari imagines pictas, ligneas, 535 saxeas, aereas, aureas, argenteas: item iis qui dubitarent an sacerdos insigniter ac palam improbus conficeret aliquid sacramentali functione; haudquaquam favens istorum errori, sed indignans iis qui vita palam et undique contaminata praeberent causam 540 huiusmodi suspicionis.

Collegia quae multo magnificoque sumptu sunt apud Anglos instituta, dicebat officere bonis studiis, nec aliud esse quam invitabula otiosorum: neque scholis publicis perinde multum tribuebat, quod ambitio 545 profitendi et quaestus omnia vitians corrumperet sinceritatem omnium disciplinarum.

Ut confessionem secretam vehementer probabat, negans se ulla ex re capere tantundem consolationis ac boni spiritus, ita anxiam ac subinde repetitam vehementer 550 damnabat. Cum apud Anglos mos sit ut sacerdotes fere cotidie faciant rem divinam, ille tamen contentus erat diebus Dominicis ac festis sacrificare, aut certe pauculis diebus extra hos: sive quod sacris studiis, quibus se parabat ad contionandum, et ecclesiae 555 suae negotiis distineretur; sive quod comperiret se maiore cum affectu sacrificare si id ex intervallo faceret. Haudquaquam tamen improbabat illorum institutum, quibus placeret cotidie adire mensam Dominicam.

Cum esset ipse doctissimus, tamen anxiam hanc et 560 laboriosam sapientiam non probabat, quae ex omnium disciplinarum cognitione et ex omnium auctorum lectione velut ansis omnibus absolvitur: dictitans ita deteri nativam illam ingenii sanitatem et sinceritatem, hominesque reddi minus sanos et ad Christianam 565 innocentiam puramque ac simplicem caritatem minus idoneos. Plurimum tribuebat epistolis apostolicis, sed ita suspiciebat admirabilem illam Christi maiestatem, ut ad hanc quodammodo sordescerent apostolorum scripta. Omnia fere Christi dicta miro ingenio revocarat ad 570 terniones, unde et librum instituerat scribere. Quod sacerdotes etiam occupati cotidie tam prolixas preces exhaurire cogerentur, etiam domi atque in itinere, vehementer admirabatur; cultum autem ecclesiasticum magnifice fieri valde probabat. 575

Innumera sunt hodie in publicis scholis receptissima a quibus ille plurimum dissentiebat, de quibus inter amiculos solebat aliquando conferre; apud alios dissimulabat, ne geminum caperet incommodum, ut et nihil proficeret nisi in peius, et existimationis suae 580 iacturam faceret. Nullus erat liber tam haereticus quem ille non attente evolveret, dicens se plus aliquotiens ex illis capere fructus quam ex horum libris qui sic omnia definiunt, ut frequenter adulentur coryphaeis, nonnunquam et sibi ipsis. Recte loquendi 585 copiam non ferebat peti e praeceptionibus grammaticorum, quas asseverabat officere ad bene dicendum, nec id contingere nisi evolvendis optimis auctoribus; sed huius opinionis ipse poenas dedit. Cum enim esset et natura et eruditione facundus, ac dicenti mira 590 suppeteret orationis ubertas, tamen scribens subinde labebatur in his quae solent notare critici. Atque hac, ni fallor, gratia a libris scribendis abstinebat, atque utinam non abstinuisset: nam huius viri cogitationes quacunque etiam lingua proditas optarim. 595

Iam ne quid defuisse putetur absolutae Coleti pietati, tempestates quibus agitatus est accipe. Nunquam illi bene convenerat cum suo Episcopo, de cuius moribus ne quid dicam, superstitiosus atque invictus erat Scotista, et hoc nomine sibi semideus videbatur: quo 600 quidem ex genere cum aliquot noverim quos nolim improbos appellare, nullum tamen adhuc vidi quem mea quidem sententia possis vere pureque dicere Christianum. Nec admodum gratus erat plerisque sui collegii, quod tenacior esset disciplinae regularis, ac 605 subinde quiritabantur se pro monachis haberi; quanquam hoc collegium olim fuit, et in vetustis syngraphis vocatur orientale monasterium.

Sed cum iam odium senis Episcopi—erat enim non minor annis octoginta—atrocius esset quam ut premi 610 posset, ascitis duobus episcopis aeque cordatis nec minus virulentis, incipit Coleto negotium facessere, non alio telo quam quo solent isti, si quando cui exitium moliuntur. Defert eum apud archiepiscopum Cantuariensem, articulis aliquot notatis, quos ex illius 615 contionibus decerpserat. Quorum unus erat quod docuisset non adorandas imagines: alter quod sustulisset a Paulo laudatam hospitalitatem, qui enarrans illud ex Evangelio, 'Pasce, pasce, pasce oves meas,' cum in prioribus duobus cum reliquis interpretibus consentiret, 620 pasce exemplis vitae, pasce sermone doctrinae, in tertio dissensisset, negans convenire ut apostoli, qui tum erant pauperes, iuberentur oves suas pascere subsidio temporali, et huius loco aliud quiddam substituisset: tertius, quod cum in contione dixisset 625 quosdam de charta contionari (id quod multi frigide faciunt in Anglia), oblique taxasset Episcopum, qui ob senium id solitus sit facere. Archiepiscopus, cui Coleti dotes erant egregie cognitae, patrocinium innocentis suscepit, e iudice factus patronus, cum ipse Coletus ad 630 haec aliaque stultiora respondere dedignaretur.

Non conquievit tamen senis odium. Tentavit aulam regiam in Coletum concitare, atque in primis Regem ipsum, iam aliud telum nactus, quod publice dixisset in contione pacem iniquam praeferendam bello aequissimo. 635 Id enim temporis adornabatur bellum in Gallos, et huius fabulae non minimam partem Minoritae duo agebant; quorum alter fax belli mitram meruit, alter bonis lateribus vociferabatur in contionibus in poetas: sic enim designabat Coletum, eum is a poeticis numeris 640 esset alienissimus, alioqui non imperitus musices. Hic Rex, egregius iuvenis, dedit evidens specimen ingenii sui regno dignissimi, privatim hortans Coletum, pergeret sua doctrina libere succurrere moribus eius seculi corruptissimis, neque subduceret lucem suam 645 temporibus tenebricosissimis: se non ignorare quid in illum stimularet episcopos illos, neque nescire quantum ipse fructus attulisset genti Britannicae sua vita sacraque doctrina. Addebat sese sic cohibiturum illorum conatus, ut aliis liqueret non impune fore si 650 qui Coletum impeterent. Hic Coletus egit quidem gratias pro animo regio, ceterum quod obtulit deprecatus est, negans se velle ut cuiquam peius esset sua causa; se potius cessurum munus quod gerebat.

Sed aliquanto post data est illis ansa ut sperarent 655 iam posse confici Coletum. A Pascha parabatur expeditio in Gallos. In die Parasceves Coletus apud Regem et aulicos mire contionatus est de victoria Christi, adhortans Christianos omnes ut sub Regis sui vexillo militarent ac vincerent. Etenim qui odio, qui 660 ambitione mali pugnarent cum malis seque vicissim trucidarent, non sub Christi sed sub diaboli signis militare: simulque ostendit quam res esset ardua Christianam obire mortem, quam pauci bellum susciperent non odio aut cupiditate vitiati: quam vix 665 consisteret eundem habere fraternam caritatem, sine qua nemo visurus esset Deum, et ferrum in fratris viscera demergere. Addidit, ut Christum Principem suum imitarentur potius quam Iulios et Alexandros. Multaque alia tum declamavit in hanc sententiam sic 670 ut Rex nonnihil metueret ne haec contio adimeret animos militibus quos educebat. Huc velut ad bubonem omnes convolant mali, sperantes fore ut Regis animus iam in illum posset exacerbari. Accersitus est Coletus iussu Regis. Venit, pransus est in 675 monasterio Franciscanorum quod adhaeret regiae Grienwikensi. Rex ubi sensit, descendit in hortum monasterii, et Coleto prodeunte dimisit suos omnes. Ubi solus esset cum solo, iussit ut tecto capite familiariter colloqueretur, atque ita exorsus est iuvenis 680 humanissimus: 'Ne quid temere suspiceris, Decane. Non huc accersivi te, quo turbem tuos sanctissimos labores, quibus unice faveo, sed ut exonerem conscientiam meam scrupulis aliquot, tuoque cormilio rectius satisfaciam officio meo.' Verum ne totum 685 colloquium repetam (quod fere sesquihoram productum est), interim in aula ferociebat Bricotus, existimans periclitari Coletum, cum per omnia conveniret illi cum Rege; nisi quod Rex optabat, ut quod Coletus vere dixisset, diceret aliquando explanatius ob rudes 690 milites, qui secus interpretarentur quam ipse dixisset, videlicet Christianis nullum esse bellum iustum. Coletus pro sua prudentia proque singulari animi moderatione non solum animo regio satisfecit, verum etiam auxit gratiam pristinam. Ubi reditum est in 695 regiam, Rex dimissurus Coletum allato poculo praebibit, et complexus hominem humanissime omniaque pollicitus quae sint ab amantissimo Rege exspectanda, dimisit. Iam aulica turba circumstans exspectabat exitum eius colloquii. Ibi Rex omnibus audientibus 700 'Suus' inquit 'cuique doctor esto, et suo quisque faveat. Hic est doctor meus'. Ita discesserunt quidam lupi, quod aiunt, hiantes, et praecipue Bricotus; nec ab eo die quisquam est ausus impetere Coletum. 705

Habes, Iodoce, duos quos aetas nostra tulit, mea sententia vere sincereque Christianos, non tam depictos quam delineatos, quantum passa est epistolaris angustia. Tuum erit ex utroque decerpere quod tibi videbitur ad veram pietatem maxime conducere. Iam si quaeres 710 utrum alteri praeferam, mihi videntur pari laude digni, cum dissimili fuerint conditione. Siquidem ut magnum erat Coletum in ea fortuna constanter secutum esse, non quo vocabat natura, sed quo Christus; ita speciosior est laus Vitrarii, quod in eo genere vitae 715 tantum obtinuerit ac praestiterit spiritus Evangelici: perinde quasi piscis in palude vivens nihil trahat de sapore palustri. Sed in Coleto quaedam erant quae testarentur illum hominem esse; in Vitrario nihil unquam vidi quod ullo pacto saperet affectum humanum. 720 Quod si me audies, Iona, non dubitabis hos duos divorum ascribere catalogo; etiamsi nullus unquam Pontifex eos referat in canonem.

Felices animae, quibus ego multum debeo, vestris precibus adiuvate luctantem adhuc in huius vitae malis 725 Erasmum, ut in vestrum contubernium remigrem, nusquam postea divellendus.

Vale, mi Iona. Bene habet si tuo desiderio feci satis; nam argumento scio nequaquam esse satisfactum.

Ex rure Andrelaco. Id. Iun. Anno M.D.XXI.

XXV. COLET AND HIS KINSMAN

Solebam illi canere fabulam de Ioanne Coleto, viro perenni hominum memoria digno. Pessime illi conveniebat cum patruo, viro admodum sene ac praefractis moribus. Lis erat non de lana caprina, nec de asini, quod aiunt, umbra, sed de magna summa pecuniarum, 5 ob quantam vel filius bellum indiceret patri. Coletus pransurus apud reverendissimum praesulem Guilhelmum archiepiscopum Cantuariensem iunxit me sibi in cymba. Interea legebat ex Enchiridio meo remedium iracundiae, nec tamen indicabat cur ea 10 legeret. Accubitus ordo forte sic dabat ut Coletus sederet e regione patrui, vultu subtristi, nec loquens nec prandens. Archiepiscopi vero rara quaedam est hac in re dexteritas, ut curet ne quis parum hilaris sit in convivio, sermones ad omnium affectus attemperans. 15 Per eum itaque iniectus est sermo de collatione aetatum. Hinc orta est inter mutos confabulatio. Denique patruus senum more gloriari coepit, quod tantus natu tantopere polleret viribus. A prandio nescio quid seorsum agitatum est inter illos. Ubi Coletus mecum 30 repetierat cymbam, 'Video,' inquit, 'Erasme, te felicem esse.' Ego admirabar cur hominem infelicissimum diceret felicem. Ibi denarravit quam atroci animo fuerit in patruum, adeo ut propemodum statuisset omnibus Christianae modestiae repagulis refractis et 35 cognationis affectu contempto manifestum bellum suscipere cum patruo: eaque gratia cepisse meum Enchiridion in manus, ut iracundiae remedium quaereret, et profuisse. Mox ex ea qualicunque confabulatione quae orta est in prandio, utrinque diluta est 40 amarulentia, sic ut mox Archiepiscopo sequestro facile res omnis inter eos composita sit.

XXVI. THOMAS MORE

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS CLARISSIMO EQUITI ULRICHO HUTTENO S.D.

Quod Thomae Mori ingenium sic deamas ac paene dixerim deperis, nimirum scriptis illius inflammatus, quibus, ut vere scribis, nihil esse potest neque doctius neque festivius, istuc, mihi crede, clarissime Huttene, tibi cum multis commune est, cum Moro mutuum 5 etiam. Nam is vicissim adeo scriptorum tuorum genio delectatur, ut ipse tibi propemodum invideam. Haec videlicet est illa Platonis omnium maxime amabilis sapientia, quae longe flagrantiores amores excitat inter mortales quam ullae quamlibet admirabiles corporum 10 formae. Non cernitur illa quidem oculis corporeis, sed et animo sui sunt oculi; per hos fit aliquoties ut ardentissima caritate conglutinentur, inter quos nec colloquium nec mutuus conspectus intercessit. Et quemadmodum vulgo fit ut incertis de causis alia 15 forma alios rapiat, ita videtur et ingeniorum esse tacita quaedam cognatio, quae facit ut certis ingeniis impense delectemur, ceteris non item.

Ceterum quod a me flagitas, ut tibi totum Morum velut in tabula depingam, utinam tam absolute praestare 20 queam quam tu vehementer cupis; nam mihi quoque non iniucundum fuerit interim in amici multo omnium suavissimi contemplatione versari. Sed primum non cuiusvis est omnes Mori dotes perspexisse. Deinde haud scio an ille laturus sit a quolibet artifice depingi sese. 25 Nec enim arbitror levioris esse operae Morum effingere quam Alexandrum magnum aut Achillem, nec illi quam hic noster immortalitate digniores erant. Tale argumentum prorsus Apellis cuiuspiam manum desiderat: at vereor ne ipse Fulvii Rutubaeque similior 30 sim quam Apellis. Experiar tamen tibi totius hominis simulacrum delineare verius quam exprimere, quantum ex diutina domesticaque consuetudine vel animadvertere licuit vel meminisse. Quod si quando fiet ut vos aliqua legatio committat, tum demum intelleges 35 quam non probum artificem ad hoc negotii delegeris, vereorque plane ne me aut invidentiae incuses aut caecutientiae, qui ex tam multis bonis tam pauca vel viderim lippus vel commemorare voluerim invidus.

Atque ut ab ea parte exordiar qua tibi Morus est 40 ignotissimus, statura modoque corporis est infra proceritatem, supra tamen notabilem humilitatem. Verum omnium membrorum tanta est symmetria, ut nihil hic omnino desideres. Cute corporis candida facies magis ad candorem vergit quam ad pallorem; quanquam 45 a rubore procul abest, nisi quod tenuis admodum rubor ubique sublucet. Capilli subnigro flavore, sive mavis, sufflavo nigrore, barba rarior. Oculi subcaesii, maculis quibusdam interspersi; quae species ingenium arguere solet felicissimum, apud Britannos etiam amabilis 50 habetur, cum nostri nigrore magis capiantur. Negant ullum oculorum genus minus infestari vitiis. Vultus ingenio respondet, gratam et amicam festivitatem semper prae se ferens, ac nonnihil ad ridentis habitum compositus; atque ut ingenue dicam, appositior ad 55 iucunditatem quam ad gravitatem aut dignitatem, etiamsi longissime abest ab ineptia scurrilitateque. Dexter humerus paulo videtur eminentior laevo, praesertim cum incedit; id quod illi non accidit natura sed assuetudine, qualia permulta nobis solent adhaerere. 60 In reliquo corpore nihil est quod offendat. Manus tantum subrusticae sunt; ita duntaxat, si ad reliquam corporis speciem conferantur. Ipse omnium quae ad corporis cultum attinent semper a puero neglegentissimus fuit, adeo ut nec illa magnopere curare sit solitus 65 quae sola viris esse curanda docet Ovidius. Formae venustas quae fuerit adolescenti nunc etiam licet e culmo conicere: quanquam ipse novi hominem non maiorem annis viginti tribus; nam nunc vix excessit quadragesimum. 70

Valetudo prospera magis quam robusta, sed tamen quae quantislibet laboribus sufficiat honesto cive dignis, nullis aut certe paucissimis morbis obnoxia: spes est vivacem fore, quando patrem habet admodum natu grandem, sed mire virenti vegetaque senectute. Neminem 75 adhuc vidi minus morosum in delectu ciborum. Ad iuvenilem usque aetatem aquae potu delectatus est; id illi patrium fuit. Verum hac in re ne cui molestus esset, fallebat convivas e stanneo poculo cervisiam bibens, eamque aquae proximam, frequenter 80 aquam meram. Vinum, quoniam illic mos est ad idem poculum vicissim invitare sese, summo ore nonnunquam libabat, ne prorsus abhorrere videretur, simul ut ipse communibus rebus assuesceret. Carnibus bubulis, salsamentis, pane secundario ac vehementer fermentato 85 libentius vescebatur quam his cibis quos vulgus habet in deliciis; alioqui neutiquam abhorrens ab omnibus quae voluptatem innoxiam adferunt etiam corpori. Lactariorum et eorum foetuum qui nascuntur in arboribus semper fuit appetentior; esum ovorum in deliciis 90 habet. Vox neque grandis est nec admodum exilis, sed quae facile penetret aures, nihil habens canorum ac molle, sed plane loquentis est: nam ad musicam vocalem a natura non videtur esse compositus, etiam si delectatur omni musices genere. Lingua mire explanata 95 articulataque, nihil habens nec praeceps nec haesitans. Cultu simplici delectatur, nec sericis purpurave aut catenis aureis utitur, nisi cum integrum non est ponere. Dictu mirum quam neglegens sit caerimoniarum, quibus hominum vulgus aestimat morum civilitatem. 100 Has ut a nemine exigit, ita aliis non anxie praestat nec in congressibus nec in conviviis; licet harum non sit ignarus, si lubeat uti. Sed muliebre putat viroque indignum eiusmodi ineptiis bonam temporis partem absumere. 105

Ab aula principumque familiaritate olim fuit alienior, quod illi semper peculiariter invisa fuerit tyrannis, quemadmodum aequalitas gratissima. Vix autem reperies ullam aulam tam modestam quae non multum habeat strepitus atque ambitionis, multum fuci, 110 multum luxus, quaeque prorsus absit ab omni specie tyrannidis. Quin nec in Henrici octavi aulam pertrahi potuit nisi multo negotio, cum hoc principe nec optari quicquam possit civilius ac modestius. Natura libertatis atque otii est avidior; sed quemadmodum otio 115 cum datur lubens utitur, ita quoties poscit res, nemo vigilantior aut patientior. Ad amicitiam natus factusque videtur, cuius et sincerissimus est cultor et longe tenacissimus est. Nec ille metuit multorum amicitiam ab Hesiodo parum laudatam. Nulli non patet ad 120 necessitudinis foedus. Nequaquam morosus in deligendo, commodissimus in alendo, constantissimus in retinendo. Si forte incidit in quempiam cuius vitiis mederi non possit, hunc per occasionem dimittit, dissuens amicitiam, non abrumpens. Quos sinceros 125 reperit, et ad ingenium suum appositos, horum consuetudine fabulisque sic delectatur, ut his in rebus praecipuam vitae voluptatem ponere videatur. Nam a pila, alea, chartis, ceterisque lusibus quibus procerum vulgus temporis taedium solet fallere, prorsus abhorret. 130 Porro ut propriarum rerum est neglegentior, ita nemo diligentior in curandis amicorum negotiis. Quid multis? Si quis absolutum verae amicitiae requirat exemplar, a nemine rectius petierit quam a Moro.

In convictu tam rara comitas ac morum suavitas, ut 135 nemo tam tristi sit ingenio quem non exhilaret: nulla res tam atrox cuius taedium non discutiat. Iam inde a puero sic iocis est delectatus, ut ad hos natus videri possit, sed in his nec ad scurrilitatem usque progressus est, nec mordacitatem unquam amavit. Adolescens 140 comoediolas et scripsit et egit. Si quod dictum erat salsius etiam in ipsum tortum, tamen amabat; usque adeo gaudet salibus argutis et ingenium redolantibus: unde et epigrammatis lusit iuvenis, et Luciano cum primis est delectatus, quin et mihi ut Morias Encomium 145 scriberem, hoc est ut camelus saltarem, fuit auctor.

Nihil autem in rebus humanis obvium est unde ille non venetur voluptatem, etiam in rebus maxime seriis. Si cum eruditis et cordatis res est, delectatur ingenio; si cum indoctis ac stultis, fruitur illorum stultitia. 150 Nec offenditur morionibus, mira dexteritate ad omnium affectus sese accommodans. Cum mulieribus fere atque etiam cum uxore non nisi lusus iocosque tractat. Diceres alterum quendam esse Democritum, aut potius Pythagoricum illum philosophum, qui vacuus animo 155 per mercatum obambulans contemplatur tumultus vendentium atque ementium. Nemo minus ducitur vulgi iudicio, sed rursus nemo minus abest a sensu communi.

Praecipua illi voluptas est spectare formas, ingenia 160 et affectus diversorum animantium. Proinde nullum fere genus est avium quod domi non alat, et si quod aliud animal vulgo rarum, veluti simia, vulpes, viverra, mustela, et his consimilia. Ad haec si quid exoticum aut alioqui spectandum occurrit, avidissime mercari 165 solet; atque his rebus undique domum habet instructam, ut nusquam non sit obvium quod oculos ingredientium demoretur; ac toties sibi renovat voluptatem, quoties alios conspicit oblectari.

Bonas literas a primis statim annis hauserat. Iuvenis 170 ad Graecas literas atque philosophiae studium sese applicuit, adeo non opitulante patre viro alioqui prudenti proboque, ut ea conantem omni subsidio destitueret, ac paene pro abdicato haberet, quod a patriis studiis desciscere videretur: nam is Britannicarum 175 legum peritiam profitetur. Quae professio, ut est a veris literis alienissima, ita apud Britannos cum primis habentur magni clarique, qui in hoc genere sibi pararunt auctoritatem. Nec temere apud illos alia via ad rem ac gloriam parandam magis idonea; siquidem 180 pleramque nobilitatem illius insulae peperit hoc studiorum genus. In eo negant quenquam absolvi posse, nisi plurimos annos insudarit. Ab hoc igitur cum non iniuria abhorreret adolescentis ingenium melioribus rebus natum, tamen post degustatas scholasticas disciplinas 185 sic in hoc versatus est ut neque consulerent quenquam libentius litigatores, neque quaestum uberiorem faceret quisquam eorum qui nihil aliud agebant. Tanta erat vis ac celeritas ingenii.

Quin et evolvendis orthodoxorum voluminibus non 190 segnem operam impendit. Augustini libros De civitate Dei publice professus est adhuc paene adolescens auditorio frequenti, nec puduit nec poenituit sacerdotes ac senes a iuvene profano sacra discere. Interim et ad pietatis studium totum animum appulit, vigiliis, 195 ieiuniis, precationibus aliisque consimilibus progymnasmatis sacerdotium meditans. Qua quidem in re non paulo plus ille sapiebat, quam plerique isti, qui temere ad tam arduam professionem ingerunt sese, nullo prius sui periculo facto. 200

Tamen virginem duxit admodum puellam, claro genere natam, rudem adhuc, utpote ruri inter parentes ac sorores semper habitam, quo magis illi liceret illam ad suos mores fingere. Hanc et literis instituendam curavit et omni musices genere doctam reddidit, planeque 205 talem paene finxerat; quicum libuisset universam aetatem exigere, ni mors praematura puellam sustulisset e medio, sed enixam liberos aliquot, quorum adhuc supersunt puellae tres, Margareta, Aloysia, Cecilia, puer unus Ioannes. Neque diu caelebs vivere sustinuit, 210 licet alio vocantibus amicorum consiliis. Paucis mensibus a funere uxoris viduam duxit, magis curandae familiae quam voluptati, quippe nec bellam admodum nec puellam, ut ipse iocari solet, sed acrem ac vigilantem matrem familias; quicum tamen perinde 215 comiter suaviterque vivit, ac si puella foret forma quantumlibet amabili. Vix ullus maritus a sua tantum obsequii impetrat imperio atque severitudine, quantum hic blanditiis iocisque. Quid enim non impetret, posteaquam effecit ut mulier iam ad senium 220 vergens, ad hoc animi minime mollis, postremo ad rem attentissima, cithara, testudine, monochordo, tibiis canere disceret, et in hisce rebus cotidie praescriptum operae pensum exigenti marito redderet?

Consimili comitate totam familiam moderatur, in 225 qua nulla tragoedia, nulla rixa. Si quid exstiterit, protinus aut medetur aut componit; neque quenquam unquam dimisit ut inimicum aut ut inimicus. Quin huius domus fatalis quaedam videtur felicitas, in qua nemo vixit qui non provectus sit ad meliorem fortunam, 230 nullus unquam ullam famae labem contraxit. Quin vix ullos reperias quibus sic convenerit cum matre, ut huic cum noverca; nam pater iam alteram induxit; utramque non minus adamavit ac matrem. Porro erga parentes ac liberos sororesque sic affectus 235 est, ut nec amet moleste nec usquam desit officio pietatis.

Animus est a sordido lucro alienissimus. Liberis suis semovit e facultatibus quod illis satis esse putat; quod superest largiter effundit. Cum advocationibus 240 adhuc aleretur, nulli non dedit amicum verumque consilium, magis illorum commodis prospiciens quam suis; plerisque solitus persuadere uti litem componerent, minus enim hic fore dispendii. Id si minus impetrabat, tum rationem indicabat qua possent quam 245 minimo dispendio litigare, quando quibusdam hic animus est, ut litibus etiam delectentur. In urbe Londoniensi, in qua natus est, annos aliquot iudicem egit in causis civilibus. Id munus ut minimum habet oneris (nam non sedetur nisi die Iovis usque ad prandium), 250 ita cum primis honorificum habetur. Nemo plures causas absolvit, nemo se gessit integrius; remissa plerisque pecunia quam ex praescripto debent qui litigant. Siquidem ante litis contestationem actor deponit tres drachmas, totidem reus, nec amplius quicquam 255 fas est exigere. His moribus effecit ut civitati suae longe carissimus esset.

Decreverat autem hac fortuna esse contentus, quae et satis haberet auctoritatis, nec tamen esset gravibus obnoxia periculis. Semel atque iterum extrusus est in 260 legationem; in qua cum se cordatissime gessisset, non conquievit serenissimus rex Henricus eius nominis octavus, donec hominem in aulam suam pertraheret. Cur enim non dicam pertraheret? Nullus unquam vehementius ambiit in aulam admitti quam 265 hic studuit effugere. Verum cum esset optimo regi in animo familiam suam eruditis, gravibus, cordatis et integris viris differtam reddere, cum alios permultos, tum Morum in primis accivit; quem sic in intimis habet, ut a se nunquam patiatur discedere. Sive seriis 270 utendum est, nihil illo consultius; sive visum est regi fabulis amoenioribus laxare animum, nullus comes festivior. Saepe res arduae iudicem gravem et cordatum postulant; has sic Morus discutit, ut utraque pars habeat gratiam. Nec tamen ab eo quisquam 275 impetravit ut munus a quoquam acciperet. Felices res publicas, si Mori similes magistratus ubique praeficeret princeps! Nec interim ullum accessit supercilium.

Inter tantas negotiorum moles et veterum amiculorum meminit et ad literas adamatas subinde redit. 280 Quicquid dignitate valet, quicquid apud amplissimum regem gratia pollet, id omne iuvandae reipublicae, iuvandis amicis impendit. Semper quidem adfuit animus de cunctis bene merendi cupidissimus, mireque pronus ad misericordiam: eum nunc magis exserit, 285 quando potest plus prodesse. Alios pecunia sublevat, alios auctoritate tuetur, alios commendatione provehit: quos alioqui iuvare non potest, his consilio succurrit: nullum unquam a se tristem dimisit. Diceres Morum esse publicum omnium inopum patronum. 290 Ingens lucrum sibi putat accessisse, si quem oppressum sublevavit, si perplexum et impeditum explicuit, si alienatum redegit in gratiam. Nemo lubentius collocat beneficium, nemo minus exprobrat. Iam cum tot nominibus sit felicissimus, et felicitatis comes fere 295 soleat esse iactantia, nullum adhuc mortalium mihi videre contigit qui longius abesset ab hoc vitio.

Sed ad studiorum commemorationem redeo, quae me Moro mihique Morum potissimum conciliarunt. Primam aetatem carmine potissimum exercuit. Mox 300 diu luctatus est, ut prosam orationem redderet molliorem, per omne scripti genus stilum exercens; qui cuiusmodi sit, quid attinet commemorare? tibi praesertim qui libros eius semper habeas in manibus. Declamationibus praecipue delectatus est, et in his, 305 materiis paradoxis, quod in his acrior sit ingeniorum exercitatio. Unde adolescens etiamnum dialogum moliebatur, in quo Platonis communitatem ad uxores usque defendit. Luciani Tyrannicidae respondit, quo in argumento me voluit antagonistam habere; quo 310 certius periculum faceret ecquid profecisset in hoc genere. Utopiam hoc consilio edidit, ut indicaret quibus rebus fiat ut minus commode habeant respublicae; sed Britannicam potissimum effinxit, quam habet penitus perspectam cognitamque. Secundum librum prius 315 scripserat per otium; mox per occasionem primum adiecit ex tempore. Atque hinc nonnulla dictionis inaequalitas.

Vix alium reperias qui felicius dicat ex tempore; adeo felici ingenio felix lingua subservit. Ingenium 320 praesens et ubique praevolans, memoria parata; quae cum omnia habeat velut in numerato, prompte et incontanter suggerit quicquid tempus aut res postulat. In disputationibus nihil fingi potest acutius, adeo ut summis etiam theologis saepe negotium facessat, in 325 ipsorum harena versans. Ioannes Coletus, vir acris exactique iudicii, in familiaribus colloquiis subinde dicere solet Britanniae non nisi unicum esse ingenium; cum haec insula tot egregiis ingeniis floreat.

Verae pietatis non indiligens cultor est, etiam si ab 330 omni superstitione alienissimus. Habet suas horas, quibus Deo litet precibus, non ex more, sed e pectore depromptis. Cum amicis sic fabulatur de vita futuri seculi, ut agnoscas illum ex animo loqui neque sine optima spe. Ac talis Morus est etiam in aula. Et 335 postea sunt qui putent Christianos non inveniri nisi in monasteriis.

Tales viros cordatissimus rex in familiam suam atque adeo in cubiculum non solum admittit verum etiam invitat; nec invitat modo verum etiam pertrahit. 340 Hos habet arbitros ac testes perpetuos vitae suae, hos habet in consiliis, hos habet itinerum comites. Ab his stipari gaudet potius quam luxu perditis iuvenibus aut mulierculis, aut etiam torquatis Midis aut insinceris officiis; quorum alius ad voluptates 345 ineptas avocet, alius ad tyrannidem inflammet, alius ad expilandum populum novas technas suggerat. In hac aula si vixisses, Huttene, sat scio rursum aliam aulam describeres, et aulas odisse desineres. Quanquam tu quoque cum eo principe vivis ut integriorem nec 350 optare possis; neque desunt qui rebus optimis faveant. Sed quid ista paucitas ad tantum examen insignium virorum, Montioii, Linacri, Pacaei, Coleti, Stocschleii, Latimeri, Mori, Tunstalli, Clerici atque aliorum his adsimilium? quorum quemcunque nominaveris, mundum 355 omnium virtutum ac disciplinarum semel dixeris. Mihi vero spes est haudquaquam vulgaris fore ut Albertus, unicum his temporibus nostrae Germaniae ornamentum, et plures sui similes in suam allegat familiam, et ceteris principibus gravi sit exemplo, ut 360 idem et ipsi suae quisque domi facere studeant.

Habes imaginem ad optimum exemplar a pessimo artifice non optime delineatam. Ea tibi minus placebit, si continget Morum nosse propius. Sed illud tamen interim cavi, ne mihi possis impingere, quod 365 tibi minus paruerim, neve semper opprobres nimium breves epistolas. Etiamsi haec nec mihi scribenti visa est longior, nec tibi legenti, sat scio, prolixa videbitur: id faciet Mori nostri suavitas. Bene vale.

Antuerpiae decimo Calendas Augusti Anno M.D.XIX. 370

XXVII. A DISHONEST LONDONER

Hoc nuper cuidam accidit apud Britannos, medico mihi ut patria communi, ita et amicitia coniunctissimo. Civem quendam Londoniensem, virum egregie nummatum et habitum adprime probum, arte curaque sua liberarat, non sine suo ipsius periculo; nam is pestilentissima 5 febre tenebatur. Et ut fit in periculis, medico montes aureos fuerat pollicitus, si non gravaretur sibi in tanto vitae discrimine dexter adesse, obtestatus et amicitiam quae illi cum eo intercedebat. Quid multis? Persuasit et iuveni et Germano. Adfuit, 10 nihil non fecit; revixit ille. Ubi verecunde de pecunia medicus admonuerat, elusit nugator, negans de mercede quicquam addubitandum, ceterum arcae nummariae clavem penes uxorem esse: 'et nosti' inquit 'mulierum ingenium. Nolo sentiat tantam pecuniae summam a 15 me datam.' Deinde post dies aliquot hominem obvium forte factum, iam nitidum et nulla morbi vestigia prae se ferentem, appellavit et nondum datae mercedis admonuit. Ille constanter asseverare pecuniam suo iussu ab uxore numeratam esse. Medicus negare factum. 20 Hic vide quam ansam bonus ille vir arripuerit. Cum forte medicus eum Latine numero singulari appellasset, ibi velut atroci lacessitus iniuria, 'Vah,' inquit 'homo Germanus tuissas Anglum?' Moxque velut impos animi, prae iracundia caput movens diraque minitans, 25 subduxit sese. Atque ad eum modum honestus ille civis elusit, dignus profecto quem sua pestis repetat.

Risimus quidem fabulam, nec tamen sine dolore propter indigne frustratum amicum, nec sine tam insignis ingratitudinis admiratione. Referunt gratiam 30 leones in periculis adiuti; meminerunt officii dracones. Homo homini, amicus amico sic merito, pro mercede quae nulla satis digna rependi poterat, ludibrium reponit. Atque haec in facti detestationem diximus, non in gentis odium. Nec enim par est ex hoc uno nebulone 35 Britannos omnes aestimari.

XXVIII. THE CONDITION OF ENGLISH HOUSES

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS FRANCISCO CARDINALIS EBORACENSIS MEDICO S.

Frequenter et admirari et dolere soleo, qui fiat ut Britannia tot iam annis assidua pestilentia vexetur, praesertim sudore letali, quod malum paene videtur habere peculiare. Legimus civitatem a diutina pestilentia liberatam, consilio philosophi mutatis aedificiis. 5 Aut me fallit animus, aut simili ratione liberari possit Anglia. Primum quam coeli partem spectent fenestrae ostiave nihil habent pensi: deinde sic fere constructa sunt conclavia, ut nequaquam sint perflabilia, quod inprimis admonet Galenus. Tum magnam parietis 10 partem habent vitreis tessellis pellucidam, quae sic admittunt lumen ut ventos excludant, et tamen per rimulas admittunt auram illam colatam, aliquanto pestilentiorem, ibi diu quiescentem. Tum sola fere strata sunt argilla, tum scirpis palustribus, qui subinde sic 15 renovantur, ut fundamentum maneat aliquoties annos viginti, sub se fovens sputa, vomitus, proiectam cervisiam et piscium reliquias, aliasque sordes non nominandas. Hinc mutato coelo vapor quidam exhalatur, mea sententia minime salubris humano corpori. 20

Adde quod Anglia non solum undique circumfusa est mari, verum etiam multis in locis palustris est salsisque fluminibus intersecta; ne quid dicam interim de salsamentis, quibus vulgus mirum in modum delectatur. Confiderem insulam fore multo salubriorem si 25 scirporum usus tolleretur; tum si sic exstruerentur cubicula, ut duobus aut tribus lateribus paterent coelo; fenestris omnibus vitreis ita confectis, ut totae possent aperiri, totae claudi, et sic claudi ut non pateret per hiantes rimas aditus ventis noxiis. Siquidem ut aliquando 30 salutiferum est admittere coelum, ita nonnunquam salutiferum est excludere. Ridet vulgus si quis offenditur coelo nubiloso. Ego et ante annos triginta, si fueram ingressus cubiculum in quo mensibus aliquot nemo versatus esset, ilico incipiebam febricitare. Conferret 35 huc, si vulgo parcior victus persuaderi posset ac salsamentorum moderatior usus; tum si publica cura demandaretur aedilibus, ut viae mundiores essent a caeno, curarentur et ea quae civitati vicina essent.

Ridebis, scio, otium meum, qui his de rebus sollicitus 40 sim. Faveo regioni quae mihi tam diu praebuit hospitium; et in qua libens finiam quod superest aevi, si liceat. Non dubito quin tu haec pro tua prudentia rectius noris; libuit tamen admonere, ut si meum iudicium cum tuo consentiat, haec viris principibus persuadeas. Haec 45 enim olim regum cura consuevit esse. Scripsissem perlibenter reverendissimo domino Cardinali; sed nec otium erat nec argumentum, nec ignoro quibus ille negotiis distringatur. Bene vale, vir humanissime; cui debeo plurimum. 50

XXIX. FISHER'S STUDY AT ROCHESTER

ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS IOANNI EPISCOPO ROFFENSI S.D.

Reverende Praesul, maerens ac dolens hoc verbum legi in epistola tua, 'Utinam vivum me reperiat liber,' &c. Auxit famulus dolorem, qui nuntiavit affligi te adversa valetudine. Nihil indulges isti corpusculo. Suspicor magnam tuae valetudinis partem nasci ex 5 loco. Nunc enim medicum agam, si pateris. Mare vicinum et lutum subinde maris decessu nudatum coelum exasperat. Et habes bibliothecam undique parietibus vitreis, qui per rimas transmittunt auram subtilem et, ut medici loquuntur, colatam, pestilentem 10 raris et imbecillis corpusculis. Nec me fugit quam assiduus sis in bibliotheca, quae tibi Paradisi loco est. Ego si in tali loco commorer tres horas, aegrotem. Magis conveniret cubiculum pavimento ligneo et parietibus undique ligno contabulatis. Spirant 15 enim lateres et calx noxium quiddam. Scio pie viventibus mortem non esse formidabilem, sed totius ecclesiae refert talem episcopum esse superstitem in tanta bonorum inopia.

Basileae. pridie nonas Septemb. Anno M.D.XXIIII. 20

* * * * *

NOTES

I

[An incident related in the Ecclesiastes (see p.15[*]). Erasmus was ordained in 1492 by this Bishop of Utrecht, who was a son of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy; and perhaps heard this story at the time.]

[* At the end of LIFE OF ERASMUS. Transcriptor.]

1. FUERIT] Either (1) fut. perf. indic., for which erit might equally well stand; or (2) perf. subj. of qualified statement. Cf. crediderim, 'I am inclined to believe.'

5. PROFANA DICIONE ONUSTIS] At the time when Erasmus was ordained the diocese of Utrecht had been torn for more than twenty years with civil war; in the course of which the Bishop had at one time been a prisoner.

19. II QUIBUS, &c.] The officials to whom fees were payable by successful candidates.

21. HIERONYMOS] Jerome (died 420) was one of the Latin Fathers of the Church.

II

[A letter to a young merchant, Christian Northoff of Lubeck, who had come to Paris to study. Erasmus was teaching him; and one of the modes of instruction was a daily interchange of Latin letters between master and pupil. The scene here depicted, of course with some licence of exaggeration, is laid in the boarding-house where Erasmus was lodging; the mistress of which was a woman of violent temper.]

TIT. S.D.] salutem dicit, the common form of greeting at the head of letters; often occurring as S.P.D., salutem plurimam dicit.

1. MEL ATTICUM] An endearing mode of address.

2. Ne with the imperative is ante-classical (Plaut. and Ter.), and poetical.

5. PYXIDEM] One of the munera of l. 64.

6. Pandora was the first woman created, according to Greek mythology. She brought down from heaven a box, which she was forbidden to open; but in curiosity she raised the lid, and at once all the evils to which mankind is subject flew out and spread over the earth. Epimetheus was her husband.

13. TOGATA … PALLIATA] The classical distinction between two kinds of Roman drama, according as the scene was laid in Roman or in Greek surroundings. In the former the toga was worn by the principal characters; in the latter the Greek pallium.

14. PLANIPEDIA] Acted by a planipes, a kind of pantomime; so-called because he used neither the soccus of comedy nor the cothurnus of tragedy in his performances.

15. EPITASIS] A Greek technical term, for the crisis of a play.

23. CATASTROPHEN] Also a Greek technical term; the point at which a play turns, leading to the conclusion.

26. OPTASSE] Dependent on a verb of statement understood from laudo. A common idiom.

41. CAROLI REGIS] Charles VIII, King of France, 1483-98.

42. GENTIL GERSON] Evidently gentil garçon, 'fine gentleman.'

47. FLAMMEUM] sc. velum. A flame-coloured veil, properly worn by brides.

53. SURDAE CECINISSE] A proverbial phrase of labouring without result; 'to waste one's breath.' 'Ortum videtur a ridiculo casu, quo saepe fit ut hospes incidat in surdum, quem percontetur multa, ridentibus iis qui surdum noverunt.' Erasmus, Adagia.

66. ALIENIS MANIBUS] by getting a friend to write his Latin letter for him.

67. FRONTIS] 'Frons habita est antiquitus pudori sacra, et facies item. Inde frontem aut faciem proverbio perfricuisse dicuntur, qui pudorem omnem dedidicerunt, velut absterso manu a vultu pudore.' Erasmus, Adagia.

70. Patroclus was the friend of Achilles. When Achilles refused to fight against Troy, Patroclus borrowed his arms, and was killed in the battle.

71. QUID SIMILE?] sc. inter nos.

III

[This letter describes a journey made in the exceptionally cold winter of 1498-9, when Erasmus paid a visit to his friend, James Batt. Batt was then at the castle of Tournehem, near Calais, acting as tutor to a young nobleman, the son of Anne of Borsselen, Lady of Veere, near Middelburg; to whose patronage he was generously trying to introduce Erasmus.]

TIT. GUILHELMO] This form of the name William represents the German Wilhelm; Gulielmus is more akin to the Italian Guglielmo; Guielmus, which also occurs, to the French Guillaume.

5. AEOLUM] The king of the winds, whom Juno had persuaded to oppose the Trojan fleet under Aeneas as it sailed from Troy to Italy. See Verg. Aen. 1. 50 seq.

14. VIDISSES] sc. si adfuisses.

31. Bellerophon, after having vanquished the Chimaera on Pegasus, wished to fly with his winged steed to heaven. But Pegasus threw him off and ascended alone, to become a constellation in the sky.

35-6. CREDAS … ACCIDISSET] The slight irregularity of tense is easily intelligible.

35. Lucian, fl. 160 A.D., was a Syrian citizen of the Roman Empire. His writings, which are mostly satirical, are in Greek. One of them is entitled Vera Historia.

57. ALLEVARE] 'to exaggerate,' opp. to elevare,'to disparage.' Allevare can also mean 'to understate', but the sequence of thought is not so natural.

62. SCRIBEBAM] The epistolary imperfect, representing the time of the action when the words would be read by the recipient of the letter.

PATRIAM] Holland.

64. CONVICTU] Evidently it had been proposed that Erasmus should come and live with Lord Mountjoy in Paris as his tutor.

IV

[An extract from a letter to an Italian friend domiciled in France. Erasmus was probably writing from Bedwell in Hertfordshire, where Sir William Say, Lord Mountjoy's father-in-law, had a country-house. For the practice which Erasmus playfully describes in the second paragraph, see an additional note on p. 157.[*]]

[* See ADDITIONAL NOTES, first note, at the end of this text.
Transcriptor.]

4. INVITA MINERVA] 'refragante ingenio, repugnante natura, non favente coelo.' Erasmus, Adagia. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom.

6. MERDAS] It has been well pointed out that the use of so coarse a word is foreign to Erasmus, whose writings, though often free, are marked by a delicacy unusual in his age; and that he is therefore probably alluding to the compositions of his correspondent, who knew no such restrictions, e.g. in his Querela Parrhisiensis pavimenti.

7. UT … PEREAT] A wish.

9. ALATIS] Like Mercury, the messenger of the gods, who for his journeys attached winged sandals to his feet.

10. Daedalus was a mythical artificer who constructed the labyrinth for Minos, king of Crete; but being detained there against his will, he made wings for himself and his son Icarus and flew away to Sicily.

21. Solon (c. 638-558), the Athenian lawgiver, is said to have bound the people with an oath to observe his laws until he returned; and then to have absented himself from Athens for ten years.

23. PROPEDIEM] Erasmus was expecting to return to Paris in the summer of 1499. His visit to Oxford was only undertaken to fill an interval during which he was detained in England.

V

[This incident occurred in the autumn of 1499. Erasmus was staying on an estate belonging to Lord Mountjoy at Greenwich, and was visited one day by Thomas More with a friend Arnold from London. In the course of a walk they came to Eltham Palace ('a castle situated between two parks,' as it is described by two ambassadors in 1514), the splendid banqueting hall of which is still standing, and there paid their respects to the royal children with their tutor, John Skelton, the poet. Arthur, Prince of Wales, was then absent with his father: but the young Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIII, received the friends gracefully. They stayed to dine in the hall, but apparently not at the 'high table'. The narrative is found in a Catalogue of Erasmus' writings composed in 1523.]

7. ANIMI CAUSA] Relaxation to the mind rather than exercise for the body was the object of the walk.

12. NOVEM] Henry was little more than 8, having been born on 2 June 1491; Margaret was born on 29 Nov. 1489 and was therefore not yet 11. The other ages given are correct. Inaccuracy in such trifling matters need not surprise us, seeing that Erasmus was writing more than twenty years after the visit.

16. IACOBO] James IV of Scotland, who was killed at Flodden, 9 Sept. 1513.

17. Mary afterwards became Queen of France by her marriage with Louis XII in 1514.

26. vel here intensifies the word that follows. It is often so used with superlatives.

VI

[A letter written to Lord Mountjoy, who had intended to join Erasmus in Oxford, but had been prevented by a summons to attend in Westminster Hall on 21 Nov. 1499, for the trial of the Earl of Warwick in connexion with the rising of Perkin Warbeck.]

6. John Colet (c. 1466-1519) was now lecturing in Oxford. For his influence on Erasmus see X; and Mr. Seebohm's Oxford Reformers.

Richard Charnock was Prior of St. Mary's College in Oxford; the Augustinian house, in which Erasmus was living. It is now practically demolished.

9. HORATIUS] Ep. 2. 1. 63:

Interdum vulgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat.

11. CUIUS] sc. vulgi.

12, 3. nostro illo ingressu] Erasmus' arrival at Oxford; which for some reason seems to have been discouraging.

35. TUM … TUM] A post-Augustan construction, for which Cicero uses cum … tum.

VII

[A letter written to describe a dinner-party in a College hall in Oxford; possibly at Magdalen, to which Colet, who was presiding, is thought to have belonged. With the exception of Charnock, the other guests mentioned have not been identified. The letter is to be dated in Nov. 1499; Sixtin, to whom it is addressed, was a Dutchman resident in Oxford. The manuscript in which Erasmus pretended to have found this story of Cain is, of course, fictitious.]

TIT. DOMINO] The title of a Bachelor of Arts.

2. CONVIVIO] 'Bene maiores nostri accubitionem epularem amicorum, quia vitae coniunctionem haberet, convivium nominarunt, melius quam Graeci qui hoc idem compotationem (symposium) vocant.' Cic. Sen. 13, 45.

6. Epicurus (342-270) was a Greek philosopher, who is traditionally but wrongly regarded as having taught that pleasure is the end of life.

7. CONDITUM] condi[*]tum, not condi[*]tum.

[* i.e. long 'i', not short. Transcriptor.]

Pythagoras (sixth cent. B.C.) was one of the greatest Greek philosophers.

20, 1. LAEVUM LATUS CLAUSIMUS] The left side was regarded as more exposed to attack than the right, which had the sword-arm. It was therefore a compliment to place oneself to the left of a friend, as though to protect him in case of need. Here nothing more is meant than that Erasmus sat on the Theologian's left.

25. POCULENTUM] connected with the wine-cups.

36. ALIUD] sc. quam solebat.

37. MAIORQUE] cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 49-51, of the Sibyl:

maiorque videri, Nec mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando Iam propiore dei.'

53. LEGERE] When the narrator is an eyewitness, the present infinitive is usual, even of past time.

80. RHOMPHAEA] a sword; the Septuagint word.

97. OMNIIUGA] This word is not classical; but multiiugus, 'manifold' (literally, of many yoked together, cf. biiugus, quadriiugus), is common.

110. QUID] 'for what purpose?'

129. ID GENUS] An adjectival accusative, equivalent to genitive of quality; cf. virile secus.

133. CULMI] The stalks of Cain's fine crops.

VIII

[A letter to an English friend, Robert Fisher, who had been a pupil of
Erasmus in Paris in 1497 and had then gone to study law in Italy.]

4. IN EA…REGIONE] Italy was at this time regarded as being, and in fact was, more advanced than the rest of Europe in classical learning and refinement. In consequence to visit Italy was the ambition of every scholar.

SIS] In classical Latin when two reasons are given, of which one is denied and the other affirmed, the verb in the affirmation is usually in the indicative.

26. Wm. Grocin (c. 1416-1519) was one of the first to teach Greek in Oxford. He was now resident in London.

28. Thos. Linacre (c. 1460-1524) was an Oxford scholar who had recently returned from Italy and was now in London. He afterwards became one of the first physicians of his age.

IX

[A letter describing Erasmus' journey to Paris on his return from England in 1500. On 27 Jan. he was at Dover, whence he crossed to Boulogne. He went then to Tournehem Castle and after spending two nights with Batt set out for Paris. He reached Amiens in the afternoon of 31 Jan., started on with horses the same evening and slept at an unnamed village. On 1 Feb. he passed to the west of Clermont and slept at St. Julien (?), reaching St. Denis and Paris on 2 Feb.]

2. VIGILIAS] Writings, composed doubtless by the 'midnight oil'; in which Erasmus rightly considered his wealth to lie.

7. LUSIMUS] 'met.'

8. CRETIZAVIMUS] 'We behaved like a Cretan.' Cf. the English saying 'to give tit for tat'. Erasmus means that he gave the messenger full measure of conversation in return.

9. ANGLICA FATA] when preparing to leave England Erasmus had £20 in his pocket. But a law of Edward III, re-enacted by Henry VII, forbade the exportation of silver and gold; and in consequence all but £2 was taken from him in the Dover custom-house. This very real calamity he had of course related to Batt at Tournehem.

13. AEOLUM] Cf. III. 5 n.

21. Mercury was the god of traders and thieves. Cf. Ovid. Fasti 5. 673 seq.

QUOQUE] quo[*]que, not quo[*]que.

[* i.e. long 'o', not short. Transcriptor.]

26. DIVO IULIANO] There is no village of St. Julien which satisfies the required conditions. Juilly (Iuliacum) between Dammartin and Meaux is perhaps intended.

44. IUGULOS] iugulum, neuter, is the common form.

45. VICTIMAE] Predicative Dative of purpose.

51. obolere is only used intransitively in post-Augustan Latin.

55. MECUM] sc. reputo.

CICERONIANUM] Brut. 80. 278.

60. QUASNAM] Money of what country or of what coinage. The common difficulty of travellers was then increased by the variety of coinages in circulation within the same country. A further trouble was that through use or 'clipping' one coin might differ from another of the same value; and 'light' coins were always liable to be weighed and refused.

65. POSTULATUM] A particular kind of florin. Mr. Shilleto suggests that the name is connected with pistolet (or pistole), a French coin of this period.

67. SCUTATUM] A crown, Fr. écu; in l. 136 one of these is specified.

74. ACCEDEBANT] At this point the narrative reverts to 31 Jan. It is resumed again at l. 128.

88. CORONATI AUREI] gold crowns.

91. VACUAM] A ruse to pretend that the purse was hardly worth keeping.

96. RELIGIONI] 31 Jan. 1500 was a Friday; a day commonly observed by fasting.

100. SIBILIS] 'in whispers.'

107-8. AD LAEVAM] sc. manum.

111. SICUT MEUS, &c.] Hor. Sat. l. 9. 1, 2.

118. HUC] Apparently not the house mentioned in l. 114.

119, 20. QUOD … ACCEPTUS FUISSEM] me acceptum fuisse would be more usual.

144. CEDO] ce[*]do, not ce[*]do.

[* i.e. short 'e', not long. Transcriptor.]

151. VIRGINIA MATRIS PURGATIO] The Feast of the Purification; 2 Feb.

179, 80. QUID MULTA?] sc. dicam.

186. GALLICE] sc. loqui.

201. DONEC] lit. 'until'; here marks the final action to be taken, when any suspicions on the part of their companions had been allayed.

INDUSIATI] Strictly 'wearing an under-garment' (indusium); so here 'partially dressed'.

217. HORA NOCTIS UNDECIMA] About 5 a.m.; according to the Roman reckoning, in which the day began at sunrise.

219. QUID MULTIS?] sc. verbis opus est.

228. EXISTIMARET] An example of 'contamination', i.e. the combination, through confusion of thought, of two constructions, either of which would be correct. The idea in the robber's mind here could be expressed equally well by 'nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimi essemus', the subjunctive indicating not a fact but only his opinion; or by 'nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimos esse existimabat', where the opinion is definitely stated. By 'contamination' with essemus, existimabat is put into the subjunctive. Cf. Cic. Off. l. 13 'Rediit paulo post, quod se oblitum nescio quid diceret'.

230. MINUSCULUM] 'Just too small a sum.'

233. DUODENARIOS] Coins worth 12 pence; douzains.

234. divum Dionysium] St. Denis, 4-1/2 miles from Paris: which seems to have been regarded as practically the end of the journey.

235. LANCES] Cf. l. 60 n.

258. PONDERI] The weight used in the scales; not as in l. 256.

264. IN HIS] 'in these modern coins.'

268. INTELLEGERET] Cf. l. 228 n.

272. NIMIS QUAM] quam strengthens nimis, as freq. in Plautus.

291. AD SACRUM] To mass, in the monastery opposite.

X

[A letter written from Paris in the winter of 1504, after Erasmus had returned from two years' sojourn in the Netherlands. The influence exerted upon him by Colet in Oxford five years before is clearly shown.]

14. PERSUASERIM] Cf. I. 1 n.

19. NIHIL DUM] 'nothing as yet.' Cf. nondum.

TUARUM COMMENTATIONUM] Colet had been lecturing on the Epistles of St.
Paul, at the time of Erasmus' visit to Oxford. Cf. XXIV. 308, 9.

23. The precise date of Colet's D.D. is not known. He was now administering the Deanery of St. Paul's, though he did not actually receive it until May 1505.

31. VELIS EQUISQUE] 'id est summa vi summoque studio.' Erasmus, Adagia.

41. AD ROMANOS] Cf. XVI. 183, 4. Never completed.

49. Origen (fl. 230 A.D.) was one of the Greek Fathers of the Church. Erasmus was engaged on an edition of his works at the time of his death in 1536.

50. evolvere, to unroll, is the classical word for opening and reading a book; belonging to the days when books were rolls (volumina) of papyrus.

54. LUCUBRATIUNCULAS] Erasmus published a volume with this title in 1503 or 1504. Its contents are sufficiently indicated here. One of them was the Enchiridion Militis Christiani, which was a manual of practical Christianity; its title, which may mean either 'dagger' or 'handbook', being perhaps intentionally ambiguous.

68. Erasmus had recently published a Panegyric, which he had delivered at Brussels on 6 Jan. 1504 in the presence of Philip, Archduke of Austria, and son of the Emperor Maximilian, congratulating the Archduke on the success of his recent journey to Spain; to the thrones of which he was, through his wife, the heir apparent.

103. INSCRIPTUM] The Adagia were dedicated to Mountjoy.

106. STUDIO] 'intentionally.'

124. Christopher Fisher was an English lawyer in the service of the Papal Court: who was at this time resident in Paris.

XI

[This incident occurred in January 1506, when Erasmus was paying his second visit to England. It is narrated in 1523, in the catalogue of Erasmus' writings, from which V is taken.]

3. LOVANII] During the years 1502-4.

4. PHILELPHUS] Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) an Italian humanist. Erasmus was incited to attempt the translation by Filelfo's example, not by any direct communication.

6. tum reverts back to the tum in l. 3, after the digression.

7. PALUDANUS] John Desmarais (?), Public Orator of Louvain University.

9, 10. MONTIBUS … AUREIS] 'Proverbialis hyperbole de iis qui immensa promittunt spesque amplissimas ostentant,' Erasmus. Adagia.

17. CANTUARIENSI] Warham. See XXII and XXIII.

25. REDIMUS] From Lambeth to London.

38, 9. NOSTRAE FAIRINAE] 'nostri gregis, nostrae conditionis.' Erasmus, Adagia. Farina is lit. 'meal': so 'substance'; so 'quality '.

41. BADIO] Josse Bade, a Paris printer.

42. The Iphigenia in Aulis is another play by Euripides.

44. UNAM] sc. fabulam.

XII

[A letter written in 1507 to the famous printer Aldus (1449-1515) proposing a new edition of the translations from Euripides mentioned in XI. Aldus assented and the book appeared in Dec. 1507.]

2. UTRIQUE] Greek and Latin.

7. VOLITATURUS] Cf. Ennius in Cic. Tusc. 1. 15. 34:

Nemo me lacrimis decoret nec funera fletu
Faxit. Cur? Volito vivu' per ora virum.

20. Paul of Aegina was a Greek writer on medicine, whose works were much esteemed in the sixteenth century.

27. William Latimer (c. 1460-1545) was an Oxford scholar of great fame in his own day. He had recently been studying in Italy.

28. Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559) was a scholar and lawyer, who after discharging important embassies was made Bishop of London in 1522, and Bishop of Durham in 1530. He also had been studying in Italy shortly before this time.

33. Badius' edition had been published in Sept. 1506.

38, 9. Cf. Soph. Ajax 362, 3:

[Greek: Euphaema phonei mae kakon kako didous
Akos, pleon to paema taes ataes tithei.]

41. MINUTIORIBUS ILLIS] The famous 'italic' type, first cast for Aldus, and said to have been modelled on the handwriting of Politian, the Italian humanist.

54. MERCURIUS] Cf. IX. 21 n.

XIII

[An extract from a letter written in 1531 to an inmate of a Venetian monastery, St. Antonio in Castello. It describes an interview which Erasmus had with Cardinal Grimani in 1509, just before leaving Rome to return to England. Grimani, who was one of the most influential cardinals at that time, resided in a palace built by Paul II—now the Palazzo di Venezia—near the Church of St. Mark. On his death in 1523 he left his valuable library to the monastery above-mentioned: whence it has passed into the Library of St. Mark's at Venice.]

12. UT TUM ABHORREBAM] This clause is explanatory of tandem.

15. MUSCA] A figurative expression, meaning 'the slightest sign'. Cf. 'as big as a bee's knee', of something small.

55. ERAM RELICTURUS] = reliquissem. An idiomatic use with the future participle. Cf. Livy 1. 40 'Gravior ultor caedis, si superesset, rex futurus erat'.

XIV

[An extract from a letter dated 29 Oct. 1511 to Colet, who was then engaged on the foundation of St. Paul's School, and had asked Erasmus to make inquiries at Cambridge for a suitable under-master.]

2. MAGISTROS] sc. artium.

19. NOS RELIQUIMUS] Matt. 19. 27.

XV

[An extract from a letter written to a French scholar in 1532 from Freiburg. It describes Erasmus' meeting with Cardinal Canossa, who had been sent to London by the Pope in June 1514 to endeavour for peace between England and France. Andrew Ammonius, who arranged the meeting, was an Italian who held the important post of Latin Secretary to Henry VIII, and was endowed with a Canonry in St. Stephen's Palace at Westminster, on the site of the present Houses of Parliament. He was an intimate friend of Erasmus, and as Canon had an official residence in St. Stephen's, on the banks of the Thames.]

1. IMMORTALITATI] By dedicating a book to him.

5. CULTU PROFANO] In the dress of a layman; instead of in his proper ecclesiastical garb.

14. PERSUASUS] An ante-classical use.

16. praesedit] 'took precedence of me in sitting down'.

37. ITALI] There were many Italian merchants and agents resident in London at this time.

58. PERTRAXERAT] Cf. XIII. 55 n.

62. DIRIMIT] Cuts the house off from neighbouring buildings, i.e. surrounds it.

63. OFFICII CAUSA] As a polite attention.

65. REDIRE] to London.

67. APERIT … FABULAE SCENAM] Draws the curtain, i.e. discloses the facts.

70. SURDO] Cf. II. 53 n.

XVI

[When Erasmus became famous, a friend of his early days at Steyn, Servatius Rogerus, who had now risen to be Prior, wrote to him reproaching him for having abandoned the dress of his order and urging him to return to the monastery. The letter reached Erasmus in July 1514, when he was on his way to Basel and was staying a few days at Hammes Castle, an important military post in the English dominion near Calais, of which his old patron, Lord Mountjoy, was lieutenant. In reply Erasmus wrote an 'apologia pro vita sua', giving an account of himself and stating his reasons for the belief that he could make better use of his talents if he remained free. It is an important and confidential document; and Erasmus therefore never published it. But copies of it were being circulated in manuscript many years before his death.]

17. Cornelius, of Woerden, to the north of Gouda, was a school-friend of Erasmus. He had entered the monastery of Steyn and persuaded Erasmus to follow his example.

24. QUARUM ISTIC NULLUS USUS] This must not be taken to mean that good learning was unknown to the monastery; for Erasmus read a great deal in the classics at Steyn; but that a monastery was not a suitable home for a scholar.

40. ANNUM PROBATIONIS] The constitutions of the Augustinian Order provided that a novice could not make his profession as a Canon until he had completed his sixteenth year and had passed at least a year and a day in probation.

74. CALCULO] Stone in the bladder.

84. CONFRATRES] Brother belonging to the same order.

100. CONCANONICOS] fellow-canons. The word is appropriate here as Steyn was a house of Augustinian canons.

104. SOLONIS] Cf. IV. 21 n.

Pythagoras (cf. VII. 7 n.) travelled in Egypt and the East in search of knowledge, and ultimately settled in Magna Graecia. By birth he was a native of Samos.

Plato (c. 429-347) after the death of Socrates in 399 travelled in Egypt,
Sicily, and Magna Graecia.

120. HIC IPSE] Leo X, who was Pope 1513-21.

135. ELEEMOSYNARIO] almoner. Wolsey (c. 1475-1530) now held this post, and was also Bishop of Lincoln.

136. REGINA] Catharine of Aragon.

145. SACERDOTIUM] The living of Aldington in Kent was given to Erasmus by Warham in March 1512. It was worth £33 6_s_. 8_d_. yearly; but after a few months Erasmus was allowed to resign, an annual pension of £20 being charged on the living and paid to him.

175. Erasmus' De Copia, first published in July 1512, was a treatise designed to assist the beginner in Latin composition by supplying him with variety of words and abundance of phrases.

178. CASTIGAVI] 'I have produced a critical edition of.'

180. OBELIS] The critical marks [Symbols: obelus, obelus] used to denote suspected passages in texts.

IUGULAVI] 'I have disposed of', lit. 'have cut their throats'.

201. CULTU CANONICORUM] The proper dress of an Augustinian canon consisted of a 'tunica candida cum linea toga sub nigro pallio. Tegumentum a scapulis impositum cervicem totumque contegit caput'.

215. THESAURARII FILIOS] Matthias and Mark Lauweryn, sons of the Archduke Philip's Treasurer; who were studying at Bologna in 1507. Mark afterwards became an intimate friend of Erasmus.

218. Julius II was Pope, 1503-13.

228. admonitus sum is followed here first by a statement and then by a piece of advice.

251. APUD MONACHAS ALIQUAS] Convents of nuns require a resident priest to conduct their services. These posts, the work of which was light, were usually given to monks advanced in years. Servatius himself in later life retired in this way to a convent of Augustinian nuns near Leiden.

253. NIHIL MOROR] The technical formula of dismissal, either of persons receiving an audience, or of an accused person when the charge against him is withdrawn. Then, by transference, 'I do not detain to make inquiries about,' 'I do not care about.'

268. PASCHA] Easter, 16 April 1514. In calculating dates the Romans reckoned inclusively, so that the tertius dies is Tuesday.

XVII

[An extract from a letter written in September 1514. On his way to Basel Erasmus passed through Strasburg, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm, especially by the Literary Society, of which James Wimpfeling, a native of Schlettstadt, was head. After his departure the Society, through Wimpfeling, wrote him a formal letter of welcome into Germany, to which this letter is the reply.]

6. CANTHAROS] casks.

8. John Sapidus (a Latinized form of Witz) was headmaster of the Latin school at Schlettstadt, which was one of the most important in South Germany.

15. Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547) became a most faithful friend to Erasmus, working as his coadjutor in many of his publications.

44, 5. DE EODEM … OLEO] A proverbial phrase for an uninterrupted effort. For the combination cf. oleum et operam perdere, to lose time (literally, light) and trouble.

46. liceat represents a slight change of mental attitude as to the condition being fulfilled.

62. CIRCUMFERUNT, &c.] The subjunctive would be more usual.

XVIII

[A letter written in 1516 at the close of a visit to England, when Erasmus was preparing to settle in the Netherlands. Reuchlin, to whom it is addressed, was the first Hebrew scholar in Europe at this time. The testimony in the final paragraph to the progress of learning in England is valuable, inasmuch as it is not written to an Englishman.]

3. ROFFENSIS] John Fisher (c. 1459-1535) had been a constant patron to Erasmus. He had been confessor to the Lady Margaret Tudor, mother of Henry VII; and through his influence she had used her wealth to endow learning, founding Professorships of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, and two colleges—Christ's in 1506 and St. John's which was opened in 1516—at Cambridge. Fisher became Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge in 1504, and was President of Queens' College, Cambridge, 1505-8.

7. PRO MEA VIRILI] sc. parte.

12. VENANTUR] It was evidently considered quite decorous for a bishop to hunt. Warham's abstinence from the chase, which is commended in XXII and XXIII, was clearly exceptional.

28. CALAMORUM NILOTICORUM] pens made from the reeds that grow on the banks of the Nile. Reed-pens from Cyprus were also in demand at this time.

30. POSSIS] Si … sunt is not the protasis.

38. AD MEAM EPISTOLAM] in which Erasmus asked permission to dedicate his edition of Jerome to the Pope. It was dated 21 May 1515 from London; and Leo's reply 10 July 1515 from Rome.

44. UTERQUE CARDINALIS] Grimani and another, to whom Erasmus had written on the same subject.

46. Pace (c. 1482-1536), a scholar and diplomatist, who succeeded Colet as Dean of St. Paul's in 1519, and was now ambassador (oratorem gerere).

49. ET HIERONYMUM] as well as the New Testament. Jerome was dedicated to Warham.

51. CAROLUS] The young prince Charles, who afterwards succeeded his grandfather Ferdinand as king of Spain in 1517, and his grandfather Maximilian as the Emperor Charles V in 1519. He was now governing the Netherlands.

PRAEBENDAM] A canonry at Courtray.

55. ARCHIEPISCOPUS] Warham.

57. OMNIA SUA] Cf. XXIII. 24.

70. PHILIPPUM] Probably Melanchthon (1497-1560), who was Reuchlin's great-nephew. Erasmus evidently wished that he should be sent to St. John's.

XIX

[This letter, written to a familiar friend at Basel, describes Erasmus' journey down the Rhine to the Netherlands in September 1518; after a few months' residence in Basel, during which a beginning had been made with the second edition of the New Testament.]

5. DISTENTUS] from distineo.

10. ILLI] sc. caupones.

13. Gallinarius was the parish-priest of Breisach and an old friend of Erasmus.

15. MINORITAM] A name for a Franciscan; formed from the humble style adopted by the Order, 'Fratres Minores.'

17. SCOTICAM] worthy of Scotus; cf. XXIV. 27 n.

22. HORAM … DECIMAM] Erasmus is here using the modern, and not the Roman reckoning; for which cf. IX. 217 n.

23. AD ILLORUM CLEPSYDRAS] sc. usque ad multam noctem: not being allowed to rise from table, to go to bed.

30. SODALITATIS] The Literary Society over which Wimpfeling presided. Cf. XVII introduction.

35. ANGLUS EQUUS] A horse given him by an English friend.

39. Maternus Hatten was precentor of the cathedral at Spires.

45. CAESARIS] The Emperor Maximilian.

53. PROFESSUS EST] taught, was professor.

71. PRAEFECTUS] Cf. XVI. 251 n.

73. OFFICIALIS] legal adviser, chancellor.

83. DIE DOMINICO] Sunday: Ital. Domani, Fr. Dimanche.

91. COMITEM NOVAE AQUILAE] Hermann, Count of Neuenahr (Germ. Aar, a poetical name for an eagle).

99. HOMERUS] Il. 3. 214.

107. TOTIES OFFERT] Cf. XVI. 135-6.

123. HESIODUS] I have not been able to find this phrase in Hesiod. Erasmus is perhaps unconsciously contaminating Sc. 149 with Hom. Od. 17. 322-3.

130. QUANTUS, &c.] Hor. Epod. 10. 7, 8.

148. PERIODUS] 'a round'; apparently the canons dined with one another in turn.

193. VEL MANU CONTACTA] 'with a mere touch of my hand.'

211. CUBICULUM] Erasmus had a room in the Collège du Lis at Louvain.

226. HEBRAEUM] A Jewish physician.

268. LAURINUS] Cf. XVI. 215 n.

291. POETAE] Cf. Hor. C. 3. 24. 31-2.

XX

[A letter to Erasmus' old friend and patron.]

10. WINTONIENSEM] Richard Foxe (c. 1448-1528), a powerful statesman and ecclesiastic. He founded Corpus Christi College at Oxford in 1516 to be the home of the Renaissance.

13. EBORACENSIS] In 1518 Wolsey, who was now Archbishop of York and Cardinal, founded six public Lectureships in Oxford, Theology, Humanity, Rhetoric and Canon Law being among the subjects on which lectures were provided.

14. SCHOLA] the University.

18. ROFFENSI] Cf. XVIII. 3 n.

28. TUAE CELSITUDINI] as we should say, 'your Lordship.'

32. CONFLICTANDUM] in repelling attacks made on his edition of the New Testament.

34. HOMERICA] Cf. Il. 1. 194 seq.

XXI

[An account of an explosion of gunpowder which took place in Basel in
Sept. 1526. The correspondent to whom the letter is addressed was
Principal of Busleiden's Collegium trilingue at Louvain.]

1. AFRICA] An allusion to the proverb, 'Semper Africa novi aliquid apportat.' Erasmus' Africa here is the city of Basel, where religious innovations were already beginning.

21. GIGANTUM MOLES] When they tried to scale the heights of heaven by piling Mt. Pelion on Mt. Ossa.

22. Salmoneus was a presumptuous Thessalian who invented thunder and lightning of his own, and was killed by Jupiter as a punishment.

Ixion was the king of the Lapithae who was bound upon an ever-revolving wheel as punishment for having affronted Juno.

26. FLORENTIAE] When the bellicose Pope Julius II was attacking Bologna in the autumn of 1506, Erasmus took refuge at Florence.

28. TONABAT] Impersonal.

58. PULVERIS BOMBARDICI] 'gunpowder.'

62, 3. RIMAS … SPECULATORIAS] 'loopholes.'

65. ESSET ONERI FERENDO] Dative of Purpose; cf. solvendo esse, to be solvent.

80. LATERIS] sc. turris.

107. MEDIUM UNGUEM] The middle finger was regarded as 'the finger of scorn'.

111. CORYBANTES] The priests of Cybele, the mother of the gods, whose worship was conducted with a great noise of musical instruments.

114. NOSTRA TYMPANA] This playful protest indicates that there was a growing fashion of celebrating festive occasions with a din of drums and trumpets. It doubtless embodies also the dislike of the scholar for anything that disturbed his quiet.

ANAPAESTIS] The rataplan and rat-tat of the drum are compared to the metric feet, the anapaest ([Symbols: arsis, arsis, thesis] and the pyrrhic ([Symbols: arsis, arsis]).

121. CELEBRITAS] abstract for concrete.

130. TONITRUI] This form occurs in the Vulgate; but in classical Latin the singular follows the fourth declension.

XXII

[This and the following extract are to some extent coincident, but each contributes something to the picture of Warham which the other has not. Both were written in 1533, shortly after Warham's death, XXII in the first book of the Ecclesiastes (see p. 15[*]), which was begun some time before it was published; XXIII as a new preface for an edition of Jerome which was being printed in Paris.

[* At the end of LIFE OF ERASMUS. Transcriptor.]

William Warham (c. 1450-1532) was an eminent lawyer before he received ecclesiastical preferment. He was Master of the Rolls 1494-1502, Bishop of London 1501, Archbishop of Canterbury 1503, Lord Chancellor of England 1504-15, and Chancellor of Oxford University from 1506 until his death. In the severance of the English Church from Rome he was an unwilling agent to Henry VIII.]

8. IURIS UTRIUSQUE] The two branches of law, civil and canon (or church).

34. VENATUI] Cf. XVIII. 12 n.

48. A CENIS] See p. 157. [ADDITIONAL NOTES at the end of this text. Transcriptor.]

66. IBI] in England.

79, 80. FUIT … EST] The subjunctive would be grammatically regular, but in both cases the indicative is used to express a fact independent of any condition.

82. ESSET] The subjunctive expresses the ground of the refusal.

84. PRAESTARE] Cf. l. 100 and oratorem gerere, XVIII. 47.

93. CUI RESIGNARAM] John Thornton, Suffragan Bishop of Dover, who was appointed to succeed Erasmus on 31 July 1512. Cf. XVI. 145 n.

94. a suffragiis] A suffragan. This form was common in late Latin for the designation of an office; cf. ab epistolis, a secretary; a libellis, a notary; a cubiculis, a poculis.

95. IUVENEM] Richard Masters, appointed in Nov. 1514. He was afterwards involved in the affair of the 'Holy Maid of Kent' and was deprived in 1534.

101. METROPOLITANUS] The title of an archbishop as head of an ecclesiastical province. All the bishops in his province are suffragans to him.

XXIII

5. CONCINNATUS] i.e. compositus.

16. CHARTIS] 'playing-cards.' An Act of 1463 forbade the importation of them into England; Foxe's statutes for C.C.C. Oxford (XX. 10 n.), dated 1517, prohibit the use 'chartarum pictarum (cardas nuncupant)'.

24. COMMUNIONEM] Cf. XVIII. 57-8.

32. PRO MORE REGIONIS] The following extracts from Erasmus' writings show the reputation of the English at this time in the matter of entertainment: 'Angli ostentatores': 'miramur si quis videat frugalem Anglum': 'asscribo Anglis lautas mensas et formam.'

33. VULGARIBUS] sc. cibis.

38. HOLOSERICIS] sc. vestibus. Similarly byssinis ac damascenis, l. 44.

40. CONVENTUM] This took place in July 1520, shortly after Henry's meeting with Francis I at Ardres, known as the 'Field of the Cloth of Gold '.

41. UNDECIM] Erasmus' memory for dates was uncertain.

42. EBORACENSIS] Wolsey.

XXIV

[A letter written in 1521 from Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, to Jodocus Jonas, a member of the University of Erfurt, and afterwards one of the followers of Luther. Jonas had asked for a sketch of the life of Colet, who had died on 16 Sept. 1519; and Erasmus in reply sent this letter, to convey some impression of the man to whom he felt himself to owe so much. With it he coupled a slighter sketch of another friend, also dead, in whose character he traced much the same features as he had admired in Colet. Very little is known of Vitrarius beyond the information contained in this letter; without which our knowledge of Colet and also of Henry VIII—the 'divine young king', as he was often called in these early years—would not be so full as it is.]

2. PAUCIS] sc. verbis.

17. ORDINIS FRANCISCANI] The order of friars founded by St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226).

18. ADOLESCENS INCIDERAT] Here and in l. 38 Erasmus is clearly thinking of the circumstances under which he himself had embraced the monastic life (see p. 8[*]). His strong bias against monasticism, which is very evident throughout this piece, often makes him unjust in his representations of it.

[* At the beginning of LIFE OF ERASMUS. Transcriptor.]

27. SCOTICAS ARGUTIAS] An unflattering allusion to the philosophy of John Duns Scotus (the Scot), who was one of the leaders of mediaeval thought; fl. 1300.

30. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (died 397) was—with Jerome, Leo, and Gregory—one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. Cyprian (died 257) was also one of the Latin Fathers.

50. OFFENDICULO] Cf. 1 Cor. 8. 9.

55. UNGUES] Cf. Juv. 7. 232.

56. DEDISSES] A conditional clause; the condition being expressed by placing the verb first, without si. Cf. Verg, Aen. 6. 31 'Partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes'; or in English such forms as 'Give him an inch, he will take an ell'.

68. DIVIDEBAT] Mr. Lupton, who has edited this letter, gives an example of this chilling method of division and subdivision, from a sermon on the Son of the Widow of Nain. 'Death is first divided into (1) the natural, (2) the sinful, (3) the spiritual, (4) the eternal. Of these 1 is further classified as (a) general, (b) dreadful, (c) fearful, (d) terrible. 2 is next compared to 1 in respect of four common instruments of natural death, that is to say, (e) the sword, (f) fire, (g) missiles, (h) water; and so on, to the end. This is no exaggerated specimen.'

81. Thomas of Aquino (1225-1274) was, like Duns Scotus, one of the leading mediaeval philosophers.

Durandus (c. 1230-1296) was a French writer on canon law and liturgical questions.

IURIS UTRIUSQUE] Cf. XXII. 8 n.

83. CENTONES] cento is lit. a patchwork, such as a quilt. The term was then applied to a kind of composition which came into fashion in later classical times and was very popular in the Middle Ages. It was made by stringing together detached lines and parts of lines from an author into a complete whole with a definite subject. Such centos were often made from Vergil and on Christian themes; but the term is probably used here for collections of texts from the Bible or the Fathers.

118. Ghisbertus was town-physician of St. Omer and a friend of Erasmus.

119. UTRIUSQUE SCHOLAE] 'of each party, or class.'

122. VIRTUTES] The Vulgate word, which in the English Bible is regularly translated 'mighty works'.

143. SODALI] As a safeguard against scandal the Franciscan rule prescribed that no brother should go outside the monastery without another brother as companion.

152. HILARI DATORE] Cf. 2 Cor. 9. 7.

154. Antony of Bergen, Abbot of St. Bertin's at St. Omer, was brother of the Bishop of Cambray, Henry of Bergen, to whom Erasmus had been secretary on leaving Steyn. This incident occurred in 1502, the only year in which Erasmus was at St. Bertin's in Lent.

157. QUADRAGESIMAE] Lent, the first day of which was roughly the fortieth before Easter. Cf. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays; where the calculation is again only approximate.

163. OMITTERES] Si must be understood from nisi faceres.

165. IUBILAEO] The faithful were encouraged to make pilgrimage to Rome in years of Jubilee, those that did so receiving the Jubilee Indulgence. The offerings made in return for these became so fruitful a source of revenue that successive Popes were tempted to reduce the interval at which Jubilees recurred from a hundred years to fifty, then to thirty-three, and finally Paul II (1464-1471) to twenty-five. Erasmus' statement may be an incorrect attribution to Alexander VI (1493-1503) of the action of Paul II in halving the period of fifty years; or it may be an allusion to the custom of celebrating the Jubilee outside Rome in the second year. In any case the Jubilee of 1500 is referred to here. The practice also grew up of selling the Jubilee Indulgence away from Rome; and bishops used to purchase the rights in their own dioceses for a fixed sum, afterwards reimbursing themselves by collecting what they could through their own agents.

169. SORTEM] principal; the sum given by the bishop for the right to sell indulgences.

182. SIMONIACI] Cf. Acts 8. 18 seq. The sin of selling spiritual privileges was called simony.

188. AFFIXA EST] to the doors of the principal church, or to some equally public place.

195. EPISCOPUM MORINENSEM] The Bishop of Terouenne, whose title, Morinensis, was derived from the coincidence of his diocese with the territory of the Morini in classical times.

199. AURI SACRA FAMES] Cf. Verg. Aen. 3. 56, 7.

201. COLLEGERANT] sc. accusatores.

222. THYNNUM] a tunny-fish caught in their nets, i.e. a rich person from whom gifts might be extracted.

231. GUARDIANUM] Warden; the regular title of the head of a Franciscan community.

244. HUNC] The new warden; qui cupiebant being his former companions.

246. SUBOLESCERET] 'grew up'; i.e. came to be.

249. VIRGINUM] Cf. XVI. 251 n.

261. GEMMEUM] Probably an allusion to the resemblance between Vitrarius and Vitrum. The vernacular form of his name is not known. Mr. Lupton conjectures Vitrier; or perhaps it was Vitré.

269. STOICUM] used to denote a morose fellow. The Stoics were a school of Greek philosophers, founded by Zeno in the third century B.C. They practised great austerity of life.

275. PATER] Sir Henry Colet, Kt., was Lord Mayor of London in 1486 and again in 1495.

285. SCHOLASTICAE] of the 'schoolmen', Scotus, Aquinas, &c., who taught philosophy in the mediaeval universities.

287. SEPTEM ARTIUM] A course of education introduced in the sixth century. It was divided into the trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

290. Plotinus (died 262 A.D.) was the Founder of Neo-Platonism; which he taught in Rome.

296. DIONYSIO] The reference here is to some philosophical writings, which in the Middle Ages were regarded as the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, who is mentioned in Acts 17. 34 as a pupil of St. Paul. They are now attributed to an unknown writer in the fifth century A.D.

303. Dante (1265-1321) and Petrarch (1304-1374) are evidently mentioned here as masters of Italian poetry, not for their work as forerunners of the Renaissance. Mr. Lupton conjectures with probability that Gower (c. 1325-1408) and Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) are the English poets intended.

309. ENARRAVIT] 'lectured on'.

316. CODICIBUS] manuscripts or printed copies of the Epistles to refer to.

319. DOCTORIS TITULUS] Cf. X. 23 n.

324. COLLEGIO] Chapter.

337. SYMBOLUM FIDEI] the Creed.

366. Erasmus describes a visit with Colet to Canterbury in the Peregrinatio religionis ergo, one of the Colloquia.

383. St. Paul's School was founded in 1510-1.

389. PRIMUS INGRESSUS] The portion of the room first entered.

CATECHUMENOS] A Greek word denoting candidates for admission to the Christian religion, who were undergoing instruction before baptism: here, pupils just entered.

399. REM DIVINAM] Divine service, with the mass; cf. ll. 551 seq.

437. PARADOXIS] 'unusual.'

438. PROCELLIS] Cf. ll. 597 seq.

449. PUERO] Probably here 'a servant'.

459, 60. SUMPTO … PUSILLO] This substantival use of a neuter adjective is confined in classical Latin to the nominative and accusative cases.

474. ALTERAM … PARTEM] sc. epistolae; i.e. the sketch of Colet.

489. HUNC] The person intended here must be not Scotus but Aquinas, who is the author of the Catena Aurea, a continuous commentary on the Gospels. This violation of the ordinary rule that hic refers to the nearer of two persons mentioned is necessitated by the appropriation of ille to Colet.

493. AFFECTUUM] Mr. Lupton translates 'unction'.

511. DECIDIT] 'settled,' 'left.'

516. APUD ITALOS] Mr. Seebohm, Oxford Reformers, 3rd ed. p. 22, conjectures that these Italian monks may have been Savonarola and his companions.

519. GERMANOS] Mr. Lupton conjectures that the Order of the Brethren of the Common Life, founded at Deventer by Gerard Groot in 1384, may be here intended. If this is correct, there is significance in the use of residerent, marking Colet's opinion, instead of resident; which would make the statement Erasmus' own: for Erasmus had been for two years at a school kept by the Brethren in Hertogenbosch and had not a high opinion of them.

542. COLLEGIA] Colet's censure of the colleges in the English universities must apply to the older institutions founded before the Renaissance. Erasmus is probably recalling here some utterance of the days before the foundation of Christ's (1506) and St. John's (1516) at Cambridge, and Corpus Christi (1516) at Oxford.

544. SCHOLIS PUBLICIS] Mr. Lupton rightly interprets this of the 'schools' at the universities, in which public lectures were given; and shows that as the lecturer had to hire the 'school' for his lecture, the competition for fees would necessarily be keen. Cf. also l. 576. The term is also used at this period for a school maintained publicly by a town.

548. UT CONFESSIONEM] Cf. ll. 133 seq.

563. ANSIS OMNIBUS] Like a vessel made with handles on all sides, i.e. more than are necessary: 'at all points.'

570, 1. AD TERNIONES] into groups of three, in a Breviloquium dictorum Christi. Mr. Lupton instances the three words to Mary Magdalene in John 20. 15-7. Cf. also l. 619.

574. CULTUM ECCLESIASTICUM] public celebration of Divine Service.

598. EPISCOPO] Rich. Fitzjames, Bp. of London, 1506-22.

605. COLLEGII] The canons and other ecclesiastical officers together constituted St. Paul's a 'collegiate church'.

606. QUIRITABANTUR] 'lamented.' The verb is commonly active; but the deponent form is cited by a grammarian from Varro.

608. ORIENTATE MONASTERIUM] Mr. Lupton shows that St. Paul's was in old times a monastery; and suggests that Erasmus, whose information probably came from Colet, was thinking of a king of the East Saxons, who took the religious habit there. The name Eastminster seems, however, to have been applied not to St. Paul's, but to an abbey near the Tower.

615. CANTUARIENSEM] Warham: see XXII and XXIII.

619. ILLUD EX EVANGELIO] John 21. 15-7.

635. PACEM] Cf. Cic. Fam. 6. 6. 5.

636. ID … TEMPORIS] This attack on Colet may be dated in Lent of either 1512 or 1513; for in each year preparations were being made for a war with France. It is not clear what interval of time is meant by Erasmus to have elapsed between this and the attack mentioned in ll. 655 seq. about Easter 1513.

637. MINORITAE DUO] Edmund Birkhead, Bishop of St. Asaph 15 April 1513—died April 1518)—cf. l. 687—and Henry Standish who succeeded him in the see.

639. IN POETAS] because Colet allowed classical Latin poetry to be read in his new school. The Church had always discouraged the study of the poets of antiquity, on the ground of the immoral character of many of their writings.

656. PASCHA] Easter, 27 March 1513. This incident can only be placed in 1513: because the expedition of 1512 started in the summer.

657. PARASCEVES] Good Friday: Gk. [Greek: Paraskeuae], the day of preparation before the sabbath of the Passover.

666. CONSISTERET] consistere means 'to take a stand with a person', 'to agree.' This impersonal use is not classical.

669. IULIOS] As Mr. Lupton points out, there can hardly fail to be an allusion here, not only to Julius Caesar, but also to the warlike Pope Julius II (1503-1513); whom Erasmus had seen entering Bologna as a conqueror in 1506 (cf. XXI. 26 n.). Similarly the name Alexander suggests not only 'the great Emathian conqueror', but Pope Alexander VI (l. 165 n.).

672. VELUT AD BUBONEM] sc. aves. Owls are frequently teased by flocks of small birds.

696. PRAEBIBIT] A compliment in days when poisoned cups were not unknown.

703. LUPI … HIANTES] 'Dicebatur si quis re multum sperata multumque appetita frustratus discederet. Aiunt enim lupum praedae inhiantem rictu late diducto accurrere: qua si frustretur, obambulare hiantem.' Erasmus, Adagia.

715. IN EO GENERE] As a friar.

723. IN CANONEM] into the catalogue of martyrs and saints, i.e. to canonize.

XXV

[An anecdote of Colet related in a letter written in 1523 to give a sketch of a friend lately dead. The date of the incident is uncertain; but Erasmus' description of himself in l. 22 as 'hominem infelicissimum' points rather to the year 1506, when he was still struggling and had not as yet obtained the leisure he desired for his studies.]

4. DE LANA CAPRINA] Cf. Hor. Ep. 1. 18. 15, 6:

Alter rixatur de lana saepe caprina,
Propugnat nugis armatus.

'a (tali) eventu natum apparet, contentiose decertantibus duobus utrum lanas haberet caper an setas.' Erasmus, Adagia.

DE ASINI … UMBRA] 'de re nihili.' Erasmus, Adagia.

7. GUILHELMUM] Warham; see XXII and XXIII.

9. ENOHIRIDIO] Cf. X. 54 n.

XXVI

[A sketch of Thomas More, sent in reply to a request from Ulrich von
Hutten, the celebrated German knight; written in 1519.

Thomas More (1477 or 1478-1535) was the son of Sir John More (c. 1453-1530), knight, and afterwards Judge of the King's Bench. He was a friend of Erasmus' earliest months in England (see V). Henry VII attached him to his court and sent him on many embassies, and he afterwards filled numerous offices; being Under-sheriff of London, Privy Councillor, Treasurer of the Exchequer, Speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1529 Lord Chancellor in succession to Wolsey. This office he resigned in 1532, feeling himself in opposition to Henry's ecclesiastical policy; and this opposition cost him his life.

He married in 1505 Jane Colt; and shortly after her death, probably in 1511, Alice Middleton.]

29. Apelles was a Greek painter of the fourth century B.C. Alexander the Great thought so highly of him that he would allow no one else to paint his portrait.

30. FULVII RUTUBAEQUE] The names of gladiators (cf. Hor. Sat. 2. 7. 96); who are taken here as types of the unskilled.

35. LEGATIO] i.e. if either More or Hutten should be sent on an embassy, which would bring them together.

66. OVIDIUS] A. A. l. 509 seqq.

67, 8. E CULMO] 'e culmo perspicitur spica demessa: etiam in sene apparet cuiusmodi fuerit iuvenis.' Erasmus, Adagia.

81. MOS] The custom of the loving-cup.

120. HESIODO] Op. 713:

[Greek: Maede poluxeinon maed' axeinon kaleesthai.]

141. 'Though he was young of years, yet would he at Christmastide suddenly sometimes step in among the players, and, never studying for the matter, make a part of his own there presently among them, which made the lookers-on more sport than all the players beside.' Life of More, by W. Roper, his son-in-law.

145. MORIAS ENCOMIUM] The Praise of Folly; see p. 11. [in the middle of LIFE OF ERASMUS, paragraph starting with 'As he rode hastily'. Transcriptor.]

146. CAMELUS SALTAREM] 'Ubi quis indecore quippiam facere conatur, camelum saltare dicebant: veluti si quis natura severus ac tetricus affectet elegans ac festivus videri, naturae genioque suo vim faciens.' Erasmus, Adagia.

154. Democritus of Abdera (c. 460-361), 'the laughing philosopher,' who is famed for having maintained his cheerfulness in spite of being blind.

182. ABSOLVI] to be finished, fully trained.

191. Augustine (died 430), Bishop of Hippo, was one of the Latin Fathers of the Church.

192. PROFESSUS EST] 'lectured on.'

209. PUELLAE TRES] tres is a correction, made in 1521, when this letter was printed a second time, for quatuor, which was doubtless a mistake. The names of the children are not added till 1529, in a third edition. Margaret (1505-1544) married about 1520 William Roper, who wrote a Life of More. She was her father's favourite and friend, the ties between them being very close. She corresponded in Latin with Erasmus; and one of her letters to him is extant.

The other children, born in 1506, 1507, and 1509, were less distinguished. The name of Aloysia is usually given as Elizabeth. Erasmus perhaps made a confusion with the name of More's second wife.

218. SEVERITUDINE] ante- and post-classical for severitate.

222. REM] 'household business.'

233. PATER IAM ALTERAM] This passage implies that Sir John More was already married to his third wife; and in the edition of 1521 Erasmus speaks of a 'tertia noverca'. Only three wives are mentioned in the Dict. of National Biography. Erasmus is perhaps in error.

240. ADVOCATIONIBUS] 'his practice as a barrister.'

250. DIE IOVIS] Thursday; Fr. Jeudi.

255. DRACHMAS] shillings.

261. LEGATIONEM] On one of these, in 1515, he wrote the Utopia (l. 312).

276, 7. FELICES RES PUBLICAS] An exclamatory accusative.

294. EXPROBRAT] sc. beneficium; i.e. casts up against a man a benefit conferred.

308. COMMUNITATEM] 'communism.'

310. ANTAGONISTAM] Erasmus accepted this challenge; and both wrote declamations in reply to Lucian.

312. The Utopia (i.e. Nowhere, Gk. [Greek: ou topos], sometimes called Nusquama) is a description, written in Latin, of an ideal commonwealth; in which More develops a number of very novel political ideas. The first book, which was written last, deals with the condition of England in his day; the description of Utopia occupying the second.

322. IN NUMERATO] 'in readiness.'

344. TORQUATIS] an epithet regularly used by Erasmus for the inhabitants of courts with their chains of office (torques) round their necks; cf. XVII. 61-2.

Midas was a king of Phrygia renowned for his riches.

345. OFFICIIS] officials. This concrete use is late Latin.

348, 9. ALIAM AULAM] Hutten had written a satire entitled Aula. He was now living in the household of Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz.

353. STOCSCHLEII] John Stokesley (c. 1475-1539), ecclesiastic and diplomatist. He was now chaplain to the king, and in 1530 was made Bishop of London in succession to Tunstall.

354. CLERICI] John Clerk (died 1541), ecclesiastic and diplomatist. He was now chaplain to Wolsey; and subsequently became Dean of Windsor and in 1523 Bp. of Bath and Wells.

XXVII

[An extract from the Adagia, no. 796. The Dutch physician referred to is perhaps a Dr. Bont whom Erasmus knew at Cambridge in 1511 and who died there of the plague in 1513.]

9, 10. QUID MULTIS] Cf. IX. 219 n.

10. GERMANO] Their standards of honesty were then high, and they were in consequence apt to be imposed upon. England on the contrary was already 'perfide Albion'; as Erasmus writes in a letter of 1521, 'Britannia vulgo male audit, quoties de fide agitur'.

24. tuissare: to address as 'thou'. Cf. Fr. tutoyer, Germ. dutzen.

33. QUAE NULLA] a condensed expression equivalent to quae, quamvis maxima, non tamen.

XXVIII

[A letter written to John Francis, physician to Wolsey, and one of the promoters of the College of Physicians in 1518. The date of the letter is uncertain.]

3. SUDORE LETALI] The sweating-sickness. Ammonius (see XV introd.) fell a victim to it in 1517.

8. HABENT] sc. Angli.

10. Claudius Galenus (130-200) was a Greek physician, who practised at Rome in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

13. COLATAM] a medical technical term (cf. XXIX. 10); lit. 'filtered'. So here 'fine draughts' of air coming in round the small window panes. Erasmus' idea seems to have been that when the winds were blowing, the air would be fresh and the windows should be opened; but that when the air was still, it was likely to be unwholesome and should be kept out.

24. SALSAMENTIS] Much of the leprosy which was prevalent at the time has been ascribed to the consumption of salt fish.

35. CONFERRET] 'It would be useful'; cf. conducere.

40. OTIUM MEUM] 'at my spending my time in this way.'

XXIX

[This extract from a letter written to Fisher in 1524 contributes something to the description of English houses given in XXVIII. Erasmus had sent one of his servants to England, earlier in the summer, with letters announcing that he was composing a book against Luther—as his friends had frequently urged him to do.]

6. MARE] Erasmus had visited Fisher at Rochester in 1516 and clearly had vivid recollections of the mud-flats of the Medway.

9. PARIETIBUS VITREIS] i.e. with continuous windows, as in the stern galleries of old sailing ships.

* * * * *

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

P. 23. IV. 13. EST PRAETEREA MOS] The reality of this practice in England may be illustrated from Erasmus' Christiani matrimonii Institutio, 1526, where he describes unseemly wedding festivities. 'Mox a prandio lascivae saltationes usque ad cenam, in quibus tenera puella non potest cuiquam recusare, sed patet domus civitati. Cogitur ibi misera virgo cum ebriis, cum scelerosis … iungere dextram, apud Britannos etiam oscula'. The Lady of Créqui, between Amiens and Montdidier, welcoming Wolsey's gentleman, George Cavendish, in July 1527, said: 'Forasmuch as ye be an Englishman, whose custom is in your country to kiss all ladies and gentlewomen without offence, and although it be not so here in this realm, yet will I be so bold to kiss you, and so shall all my maidens'. So, too, Cavendish writes of Wolsey's meeting with the Countess of Shrewsbury at Sheffield Park, after his fall: 'Whom my lord kissed bareheaded, and all her gentlewomen.'

P. 85, XXII. 48, A CENIS] Cf. XXIII. 34-5, XXIV. 342. It was a recognized form of abstinence, to take no food after the midday prandium. In the colloquy Ichthyophagia, first printed in Feb. 1526, Erasmus states that in England supper was prohibited by custom on alternate days in Lent and on Fridays throughout the year (cf. IX. 96). Of the Emperor Ferdinand, when he visited Nuremberg in 1540, an observer wrote, 'Sobrius rex cena abstinuit'; and Busbecq records that it was his master's practice to work in the afternoon, 'donec cenae tempus sit—cenae, dico, non suae sed consiliariorum; nam ipse perpetuo cena abstinet, neque amplius quam semel die cibum sumit, et quidem parce'.

* * * * *

VOCABULARY

ABBAS, an abbot.
ACCUBITUS, a reclining (at meals).
ADAMUSSIM, precisely (AMUSSIS, a carpenter's rule).
ADLUBESCO, to be pleasing to.
AGRICOLATIO, agriculture.
AMARULENTUS, bitter.
ANATHEMA, curse of excommunication.
ANNOTAMENTUM, a note.
ANNOTO, to jot down.
ANTISTES, a prelate; a master.
ARCHIDIACONUS, an archdeacon.
ARCHIEPISCOPUS, an archbishop.
ATTEMPERO, to fit, adjust.
AVOCAMENTUM, a diversion, relaxation.

BENEDICUS, speaking friendly words.
BREVE, a Papal letter, Brief.
BYSSINUS, made of linen.

CAECUTIENTIA, blindness.
CANONICUS, a canon, of a cathedral, secular; of a monastery, regular.
CANTOR, a precentor.
CAPITULUM, a chapter (of a cathedral).
CARBUNCULUS, a carbuncle.
CARPA, a carp.
CAULETUM, a cabbage-garden.
CAUPONARIA, a female inn-keeper.
CEREVISIA, CERVISIA, beer.
CERVISIARIUS, made of beer.
CHALCOGRAPHUS, a printer.
CHIROTHECA, a gauntlet.
CHIRURGUS, a surgeon.
CINERICIUS, similar to ashes.
COLLAUDO, to praise highly.
COLLUCTOR, to contend with.
COLO, to strain, filter.
COMES, a count, an earl.
COMMISSARIUS, an agent.
CONCINNO, to arrange.
CONFABULO, a companion.
CONFOVEO, to warm, cherish.
CONSARCINO, to stitch together.
CONSILESCO, to keep silence.
CONSPURCATUS, polluted.
CONTIONOR, to preach.
CUCULLUS, a cowl.

DAMASCENUS, made of damask.
DECANUS, a dean.
DELINEARE, to sketch out.
DERODO, to gnaw away.
DIACONUS, a deacon.
DIATRIBA, a school.
DICTERIUM, a witticism.
DISSUO, to unstitch, sever.

ECCLESIA, a church.
ELUCESCO, to shine forth.
EMACULATUS, clear from faults, corrected.
EPISCOPUS, a bishop.
ESUS, an eating.
EXCUDO, to print.
EXOTICUS, foreign.

FEBRICITO, to be ill of a fever. FERMENTO, to leaven. FLATILIS, produced by blowing. FLAVOR, yellowness. FORMULAE, type.

GLAUCOMA, a mist before the eyes.
GRAECANICUS, of Greek origin, Greek.
GRAECITAS, the Greek language.

HAERETICUS, a heretic.
HEBDOMADA, a week.
HOLOSERICUS, made entirely of silk.
HORTENSIS, belonging to a garden.
HYPOCAUSTUM, a room heated from below with a stove.
HYPODIACONUS, a subdeacon.
HYPODIDASCALUS, an under-master.

IACTIO, a throwing.
ILLECTO, to entice, attract.
IMPOS, without control over.
INCENATUS, without having supped.
INCONTANTER, without hesitating.
INQUINAMENTUM, a defilement.
INTERULA, an inner garment.
INVITABULUM, a place that invites.

LACTARIUM, milk food.
LIBRIPENS, a man in charge of scales.
LOCATOR, a jobmaster.
LONGAEVITAS, long life.
LUSITO, to play, sport.

MACTATOR, a slaughterer.
MAGNAS, a great man, magnate.
MALAGMA, a poultice.
MONACHUS, a monk.
MONOCHORDON, a musical instrument with one string.
MORDACITAS, biting sarcasm.
MORIONES, jesters.
MULTILOQUUS, talkative.

NOLA, a bell.
NUBILOSUS, cloudy, foggy.

OBOLEO, to give forth a smell, betray oneself by smell.
OECONOMUS, a steward.
OPIPARUS, sumptuous.

PANOPLIA, an equipment. PELLICIUS, made of skins or furs. PETASO, pestle or shoulder of pork. PHILARGYRIA, love of money. PONTIFEX, a pope. PRAESUL, a dignitary of the Church. PRESBYTER, a priest. PRIDIANUS, of the day before. PROGYMNASMA, an exercise. PROSUS, straightforward (of style), i.e. prose. PROTRITUS, common. PULSATILIS, produced by beating.

REDORMISCO, to fall asleep again.
RHETORIA, a trick of rhetoric.
ROSACEUS, made from roses.

SACERDOTIUM, a benefice, living.
SACRIFICOR, to celebrate the mass.
SACRIFICUS, a priest.
SCHOLIUM, a note.
SCRUPULUS, a scruple, fraction of an ounce.
SESQUIHORA, an hour and a half.
SOLOECUS, faulty, uncouth.
SORBITIUNCULA, a posset.
SUBCAESIUS, greyish.
SUBDITICIUS, spurious.
SUBMURMURO, to murmur softly.
SUBNIGER, blackish.
SUBSANNO, to sneer.
SUFFLAVUS, yellowish.
SUFFUROR, to steal away.
SUPPOSITITIUS, put in the place of another, not genuine.
SYNCOPIS, a fainting fit.
SYNGRAPHA, a promissory note, document.

TABELLIO, a messenger.
TELONES, a customs officer.
TELONICUS, belonging to a customs officer.
TEMPORALIS, connected with the things of this life.
TESSELLA, a pane.
TURPILOQUIUM, immodest speech.
TYPOGRAPHUS, a printer.

VICE-PRAEPOSITUS, a vice-provost.
VIVERRA, a ferret.

XENIUM, a present.

* * * * *

LIST OF PLACE NAMES

AGRIPPINA, Cologne.
AMBIANI, Amiens.
ANDRELACUM, Anderlecht.
ANTUUERPIA, Antwerp.
AQUISGRANUM, Aachen.
ARGENTINA, ARGENTORATUM, Strasburg.
ARTESIA, Artois.

BASILEA, Basel.
BEDBURIUM, Bedburg.
BELNA, Beaune.
BONONIA, Bologna.
BONNA, Bonn.
BRISACUM, Breisach.

CALECIUM, Calais.
CANTABRIGIA, Cambridge.
CANTUARIA, Canterbury.
CLARUS MONS, Clermont.
COLONIA (AGRIPPINA), Cologne.
CONFLUENTIA, Coblenz.
CURTRACUM, Courtray.

DIVUS TRUDO, St. Trond.

EBORACUM, York.

FRIBURGUM BRISGOIAE, Freiburg-in-the-Breisgau.

GRIENWIKUM, Greenwich.

HELVETIA, Switzerland.
HIEROSOLYMA, Jerusalem.

LEODIUM, Liège.
LONDINUM, LONDONIUM, London.
LOVANIUM, Louvain.
LUTETIA (PARISIORUM), Paris.

MAGUNTIA, Mainz.
MOSAE TRAIECTUM, Maastricht.

OXONIA, Oxford.

PARISII, Paris.
POPARDIA, Boppard.

ROFFA, Rochester.

ROTERODAMUM, Rotterdam.

SANCTUM AUDOMARUM, St. Omer.
SELESTADIUM, Schlettstadt.
SPIRA, Speyer.

TENAE, Tirlemont.
TONGRI, Tongres.
TORNACUM, Tournay.
TRAIECTUM, Utrecht.

VENETIAE, Venice.

WORMACIA, Worms.

End of Project Gutenberg's Selections from Erasmus, by Erasmus Roterodamus

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Table of Contents

- SELECTIONS FROM ERASMUS

- LIFE OF ERASMUS

- II. A DOMESTIC AFFRAY

- III. A WINTER JOURNEY

- IV. AN ENGLISH COUNTRY-HOUSE
- V. A VISIT TO COURT
- VI. ERASMUS AT OXFORD
- VII. AN OXFORD DINNER PARTY
- VIII. LEARNING IN ENGLAND
- IX. A JOURNEY TO PARIS

- X. ERASMUS RENDERS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO COLET

- XI. A VISIT TO LAMBETH
- XII. A LETTER TO ALDUS
- XIII. AN INTERVIEW WITH GRIMANI
- XIV. A CONVERSATION AT CAMBRIDGE
- XV. AN ENCOUNTER WITH CANOSSA
- XVI. ERASMUS' APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA
- XVII. ERASMUS' RECEPTION AT BASEL
- XVIII. BISHOP FISHER
- XIX. A JOURNEY FROM BASEL TO LOUVAIN
- XX. ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES
- XXI. AN EXPLOSION AT BASEL
- XXII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. I

- XXIII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. II

- ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS IODOCO IONAE ERPHORDIENSI S.D.

- XXV. COLET AND HIS KINSMAN
- XXVI. THOMAS MORE
- XXVII. A DISHONEST LONDONER
- XXVIII. THE CONDITION OF ENGLISH HOUSES
- XXIX. FISHER'S STUDY AT ROCHESTER
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
- IX
- X
- XI
- XII
- XIII
- XIV
- XV
- XVI
- XVII
- XVIII
- XIX
- XX
- XXI
- XXII
- XXIII
- XXIV
- XXV
- XXVI
- XXVII
- XXVIII
- XXIX
- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE